Our trip to the Galilee

It has finally gotten cold in Tel Aviv…and by cold I mean 60 instead of 80. It doesn’t sound bad but after six months of summer, temperatures in the 50s and 60s is absolutely freezing.

Last weekend we went north to the Galilee. We set off early in the morning and headed to the Sea of Galilee (aka the Kinneret). When we got there we went canoeing on a little tributary that was created by 2 dams. We canoed around for a few hours admiring the beautiful scenery and watching the wildlife. We saw mules (or donkeys; it’s unclear), we thing they were wild…is there such a thing as wild mules/donkeys? We saw cranes and turtles too. After canoeing we drove to another spot on the Kinneret and chatted about the water situation in Israel. Long story short, there is not enough, there is rarely enough. We ate lunch there and helped a crab get free of a net. His name was Pierre, he was caught in a fisherman’s net. The fisherman we borrowed pliers from didn’t seem to understand why a bunch of silly Americans were trying so hard to set free a silly little crab. We were successful and we watched Pierre scurry sideways home to his family in the sea.

From there we went to Tsfat. Tsfat is considered the 3^rd or 4^th most holy city in Israel. It is the birthplace of Kabalah and Kabalat Shabbat (the first part of the Friday night Shabbat service). By the time we got there everything was closing for Shabbat. It was still neat to walk around a bit. It’s a beautiful city! On first glance it looks like Tsfat has a big beach crowd, but it turns out they were all just coming or going to the mikvah. The mikvah is the ritual bath. Men go there to purify themselves to welcome Shabbat. We talked a bit about the city then headed to our home for the night. I don’t remember what it’s called, but it was a cool place. It was sort of like a kibbutz but not exactly. We made yummy dinner, like always (we are actually quite talented in the kitchen as a group), then we had a short Kabalat Shabbat service. After dinner we had an impromptu karaoke session. We sang Disney songs and Broadway songs and had a great time. After the fun was over and it was time to go to bed, Emma and I got lost looking for our room in the dark. It gets very dark in the middle of nowhere at night. All the trees look the same so we got very confused. We were worried we would have to walk back to Tel Aviv. Eventually we did find our way to our beds and sleep. In the morning we woke to lots and lots of rain.

But we decided to go hiking anyway.

We hiked next to a stream. It was beautiful. It turns out there are actually some places in Israel where it is green. The weather was perfect…it was like New York in September. While we were hiking it started raining again. It didn’t matter too much because we were already a bit wet. While trying to cross the stream, I of course missed a stone and stepped in the stream so I was pretty wet. Then I fell through some branches we were walking over and got stuck in a hole. Thankfully Sara was able to help me pull myself out. Unfortunately, the branches were prickly so now my leg is all scratched up. Like my mom, I am a real klutz. Despite the rain and mud ( I was covered in it by the end), we had a great hike. I think it was my favorite one so far.

All in all it was a great trip.

Pictures to follow

December

I can’t believe it’s already the end of December, my fourth month in Israel. I definitely don’t feel like a visitor anymore. My Hebrew is improving, I have a routine, a schedule, and places I frequent.

December 10 is Human Rights Day. It is the anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration being signed into creation. In cities all over the world there are marches to call attention to human rights issues in those places. Tel Aviv had a big march in the middle of the city. The group that was most represented there was the refugee and asylum seeker population (well really just asylum seekers ‘cause Israel isn’t granting refugee status to anyone). There were probably a thousand asylum seekers marching for their rights through the streets of central Tel Aviv. It was great to see!

Yesterday we met with an Israeli artist who does a lot of political commentary type art. He did a mocu-mentary about a Gaza solution. His latest project is a mosaic. After speaking with him a bit, we helped with his mosaic. It was lots of fun but really hard. I really like art. I think I may forget grad school and become an artist. I want to be a glass blower. Now I just gotta figure out how to go about it. 

I wonder if there is a class I can take

Coexistence in Jerusalem, Thanksgiving in Tel Aviv

Last week was a busy one. Tuesday we went to Jerusalem and met with the director of an inter-religious dialogue center. The organization brings people together from different groups in society and facilitates a dialogue during a year or more. The idea is to get people who would probably never meet or talk to each other, in the same room acknowledging each other’s opinions and points of view. He told us about a dialogue group that was made up of rabbis, imams, and ministers. For many of them, this group was the first time they had met a religious leader of a different religion. The dialogue gave them an opportunity to learn about each other, their communities, and views on religion and politics. At the end of the dialogues, the participants do not necessarily agree with one another, but they are sometimes more open to seeing both sides and acknowledging their neighbors in a less hostile way. Israel is a very fragmented society. As people become frustrated with the peace process at the political level, many are trying to bring it about at the grass roots level.

Thursday I made cheesecake for our Israeli Thanksgiving. It was the first time I made it on my own without my mom’s help…and it was amazing! Like any good Americans, we had a huge Thanksgiving feast. We decided to have it on Friday instead of Thursday since we all volunteer on Thursdays. So we spent all of Friday cleaning and cooking and getting ready. I don’t think our apartment has ever been this clean. Everyone came over Friday afternoon and we feasted like good Americans on Thanksgiving. We started eating at 4 PM and by 7 PM we were all ready for bed. J For my first Thanksgiving away from home it was pretty great. We have created a wonderful family for ourselves here in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. It was great to have everyone together, and we are actually really great cooks!

Saturday I went to the beach. It is still warm enough here to sit on the beach. I don’t know how warm the water is but lounging on the sand with a good book is a great way to spend an afternoon in Tel Aviv. By the way….tomorrow is December and I’m still going to the beach.

This Monday we had our study day and we talked about Jewish memory. One of the passages we read said that “history is knowing what happened in the past. Memory is asking how does what happened in the past impact on who I am today.” The passage also said that Gentiles have history but Jews have memory. Our history is not just a story we learn in school; it’s something we relive and remember. The Exodus story that we tell on Passover is a memory that we relive in some way every year when we hold a Passover seder.

Tomorrow is the first day of Hanukkah. Can’t wait to see how the Israelis do it! We’re having a little shin-dig here for the first night. We’re making latkes!

The Judaen Desert and the Dead Sea

Last weekend we headed out of town on our monthly Tikkun Olam adventure. After leaving town (relatively on time…way to go group!), we went to a mountain of some sort to go rappelling. It was really scary but lots of fun. Afterwards, we headed south to the Dead Sea or Yam haMelach in Hebrew (Sea of Salt). Obviously it was tons of fun…except for all the scraps I got rappelling. We made a big chain and floated together as a group. It was pretty cool. Everyone held on to the feet of the person in front of them and the person in the front paddled. We were the coolest people in the Dead Sea. From the Dead Sea you can see Jordan, so I waved. I’m pretty sure someone waved back.

From the Dead Sea we headed to our camp site covered in salt. We made dinner and sang songs for Shabbat. There was a group in the other tent that was with Jews for Jesus. This prompted an interesting conversation about what we all think we know about Jews for Jesus. During our Shabbat song session, one of the gentlemen came over with fun and pretty flags. We danced with them and made our Shabbat song session that much more amazing.

The next morning we got up really really early and went on a 10 km hike through the Judaen Desert. It was a great hike. It would have been more amazing if I had gotten more than 3 hours of sleep and didn’t wake up sore. But c’est la vie (don’t have a comparable Hebrew expression yet). The scenery was beautiful. It’s amazing that so much open space could fit into such a tiny country. The Judaen desert actually looks a lot like Nevada. The desert is very quite and serene. It’s very easy to forget the troubles of the world, or more specifically the Middle East, when you are walking miles and miles looking at nothing but rocks. And then I fell flat on my butt.

The hike ended in a spring, which was very refreshing. It may be the end of November here but it’s still hot, especially in the desert. Speaking of hot….yesterday was thanksgiving in the states….it was 80 degrees here in Tel Aviv.

When i grow up I wanna go to grad school....

but i have absolutely no idea how to write a personal statement
any thoughts??

The MASA fire dancers make me want to make Aliyah

Monday we cut our study day short and went on a trip after Ulpan. We first went to Abu Ghosh, an Arab village not far from Jerusalem. We spoke with residents about Arab-Israel coexistence and a peaceful solution for Israel and Palestine. It was very interesting to hear an Arab Israeli’s take on the two state solution. It seems that for many people, it’s not about the government and who controls the land, it’s about being able to live on the land your family has been living on for generations. We also met with a Benedictine monk. There is a monastery in Abu Ghosh with 12 monks and nuns living there. Abu Ghosh is a great example of interreligious cooperation and respect. There is also an orthodox Jewish community right near Abu Ghosh. There are a lot of programs that foster peace and understanding between the two communities. The monk also told us about the Pope’s visit to Israel in 2000 and how important it was to the Catholic Church’s relationship with Jews and Israel.

After the talk we got a tour of the monastery’s 900 year old church. It was beautiful! There were frescoes on the walls from Byzantine times.

We also met with women from the community who formed a women’s empowerment group. Together, the women of Abu Ghosh have created a space where they can pursue health education, exercise, and hopefully English classes in the future. This community center has given women an opportunity to spend time together with other women in the village, in a space set aside specifically for women. This is a pretty big deal in a society where many public spaces only welcome men, such as coffee shops and hookah bars.

After Abu Ghosh we went to Jerusalem. Our program is partially sponsored and supported by MASA, an organization that funds and supports programs for Diaspora Jews to come to Israel. Every year they have an opening event. There were some speeches given about being in Israel, and how we are the future of the Jewish people, and lots of Zionist/you should make Aliyah messages. After the oh so uplifting speeches, there were dance performances. In one of them there were fire dancer/fire breather guys, and in another there were people dancing suspended from ropes from the ceiling. It was intense. Afterwards the Idan Richel Project performed…which was the highlight of the whole day. That was the big thing we were all looking forward to. Idan Richel is a really cool Israeli musician. It was a night filled with crazy theatrics and great music!

Tuesday we ditched Ulpan altogether and visited a Druz village. The Druz are a religious group found mostly in the Middle East. They are a very small minority in Israel, and remain that way because they prohibit proselytizing and conversion. They believe in reincarnation, don’t have holy sites like Christians, Muslims and Jews, and are loyal to the country they live in above all else. The views from the village, on a mountain, were breathtaking. After the tour we had a traditional Druz meal. I thought it was going to be in a restaurant, but instead someone opened their home to us and cooked us a traditional meal. The food was amazing!!

The rest of the week was filled with more volunteering and a great pot luck Shabbat dinner.

Lots of boats at the beach today.....great beach day!

ARDC

I had my first full day of work at the ARDC yesterday. The ARDC is the African Refugee Development Center. It is an organization that works to help refugees and asylum seekers get settled in Israel. They provide English classes, help refugees find the resources they need, provide humanitarian assistance where possible, and assist with visas and status in Israel. This last function is what I am going to be working on. The team is called the Asylum Application Assistance team (AAA). People coming to Israel seeking asylum must register for asylum status. They also must obtain some kind of visa, which could be a temporary work visa, or a temporary residence visa, which are just two examples. The laws in Israel regarding asylum seekers are very complicated, confusing, and sparse. Refugees coming from Sudan and Eritrea get group protection because of where they are from. This means they won’t get deported because of the situation in those countries. However, they have to prove they are from Sudan or Eritrea. This is where I come in. I am working for the Identity Team, a part of the AAA team. I will be interviewing refugees and doing research to prove they are who they say they are and do in fact, come from Sudan or Eritrea. Many people fleeing Sudan or Eritrea, or other African countries, do not have identity papers with them.

I have been studying the conflicts that these people are fleeing for the past four years. So now I’m really excited to actually meet people from the places I have been studying and help them in a more direct way. I know a lot about the conflicts going on in many African countries that create refugees, but not a lot about what happens to these people when they leave their countries. This is going to be an amazing opportunity to learn more and do some important work. 

http://www.ardc-israel.org/en/#take_action

http://www.britolam.org/Index.asp?CategoryID=357

http://www.tikunolamisrael.org/

Trip to Mount Carmel

Friday morning we left for our first overnight trip (later than planned of course because the entire country runs on Jew time). Every month we are going to be taking a weekend trip as a group somewhere in Israel. We headed north to the Carmel mountains, not far from Haifa. We started with a visit to a winery. The wine wasn’t that great and the liquor tasted like robetussen. It’s a kosher winery. This means that only people who keep kosher and who keep Shabbat can touch the wine from start to finish. So to ensure that the wine was safe, there were two guys who I think were rabbis who followed us around for the whole tour to make sure we followed the rules. Kinda strange.

After that we went to an Arab village and spoke to a woman who is doing amazing things for women’s rights in her village and coexistence between Muslims and Jews. She was the first woman in her village to ever run for a political position, and has fostered many programs to encourage good relations between the women in her village and the women in a Jewish village nearby. She was very inspiring to listen to.

We spent the night at a really interesting campsite. This guy decided he wanted to live his life completely environmentally sustainable. He built his house out of straw and mud and collects dew for his showers. They recycle all the toilet water to make it clean and use it for the plants. This guy also apparently reformed garbage in Israel. He has been encouraging people to separate their garbage in order to reduce the trash that goes to the dumps. Everything else gets recycled or composted. It’s becoming the thing to do here. We slept under this 400 year old tree whose branches reach all the way to the ground all around, it kind of looked like an umbrella. Underneath were mattresses, pillows, mats, and tables. We cooked outside and ate under the umbrella tree. We also slept under the umbrella tree. I woke up with tons of bug bites.

Saturday we went to Mount Carmel. At the turn of the century Baron Rothschild helped start the first Jewish settlements in Israel and did a lot of other great things. After he died his family built a beautiful garden to commemorate everything he did for Israel. It was very beautiful. Then we hiked down the mountain and ended at the beach. It was a great hike, made even better by my hat that the guide lent me. The views were amazing, and we got to see an ancient ruin that dates back to Roman times, I am always a fan of ancient ruins. We also picked carob from a tree. We ended the day at the beach where tiny little fishes bit my toes.

Our first trip was a fantastic one! 

Adventures at Radical Tattoo (no tattoos just piercings)

                                                   

 So my last blog chronicled many things. Most notably the adventure to get my nose pierced. Here are the pictures....There will be more pictures soon of Tel Aviv and my apartment etc

                                                                    Morgan

                                                                     Hannah

                                                                         Emma

                                                                           Dante

                                                                    Amy

                                                               Me with nose ring

I enjoyed a dance performance with an Art Garfunkel stunt double

First of all today celebrates two important things: one of my very bestest friends was born on this day (Rachel Marcus), and thirty years ago on this day my parents got married (as product of that union, I greatly appreciate it). So happy birthday to Rachel, and happy anniversary to mom and dad.
First of all, I can officially say my mailbox/address here in Tel Aviv works. A few weeks ago I got a postcard and a letter from some friends and yesterday I got a slip saying the post office is holding a package for me. It is a mysterious package because I have no idea what it is, but it shows that my address and mailbox work. We were unsure briefly.
Today started with me practically sprinting to the bust station to go to Jaffa for Ulpan. I know that mom and I are always running late, but I currently live in a place where the entire country is running a little late. It’s an entire country on Jew time!
I learned some Hebrew followed by funky hummus from a place (whose name I forget) which is supposedly the best in Israel. It was pretty great!
Five of us then decided we should go to the mall to get piercings. So that’s what we did. My friend Hannah got a funky earring (not sure what the proper term is), Emma got her eyebrow pierced, Morgan got another earring, Dante got his cartilage pierced, and I got a nose ring.
I know what you’re thinking….CRAZY! But……
1) This is probably the most “rebellious” thing I’ve ever done, but in the grand scheme of things and compared to many other people my age, that’s not too bad.
2) It’s not permanent (unlike a tattoo). I can take it out and it will close up and no one will ever notice. So don’t freak out (I’m mostly talking to my parents). At least I’m not coming home with a tattoo…..
It’s the “cool thing to do” when you come to Israel for a year of service.
It was definitely an entertaining experience. Giggly nerves X5 leads to lots of laughter. Dante held my hand and I was very brave; we all were. The guy who did the piercing laughed at me because I didn’t want to open my eyes even though all he did at first was draw a dot. I have decided that if you don’t look at the needle piercing a hole in your nose, or drawing blood, it isn’t as scary. The place was safe and clean and in a good neighborhood (the big mall in the center of the city).
Afterwards we laughed a bit more, took pictures, and I finally found red raisins. For some reason I have not seen any and I like red better than green when it comes to grapes and raisins. At home my breakfast consists of a bowl of multigrain cheerios, red raisins, coffee, and a piece of fruit. Until today I had managed to find all of those things except the raisins. Now my happy breakfast is complete. Tomorrow will probably be the best morning since I’ve been here.
After my amazing discovery I went to a dance performance with Hannah. It was modern dance and very interesting (maybe even a bit hard to understand). It was great though. The dancers were incredibly talented. Also, if Art Garfunkel has a stunt double, he was sitting next to me. This guy was an exact replica. I wish I could have taken a picture but I thought that would have been rude.
All in all a good day. Guaranteed to be followed by many more. For instance, this weekend we are going on an overnight, camping trip to the north. Yay!!

Volunteer Placements

Orientation month has officially come to a close. Time flies when you’re getting lost in Tel Aviv, and lost in translation. My Hebrew has definitely improved since I got here, but I’m still pretty lost. By June when it’s time to leave I’m sure I’ll be fluent hehe.
After a month of visiting different volunteer sites I chose where I want to work this year. I will be splitting my time between the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC), Brit Olam, and Irony Hey (a high school).
So far I’ve been to Irony Hey and Brit Olam so I’ll tell you a bit about those.
Tel Aviv is divided into North and South. North Tel Aviv is wealthier than the south. The two don’t tend to mingle so the municipality of Tel Aviv decided to integrate the schools partially to give kids from South Tel Aviv more opportunity. So the school I will be working in, Irony Hey, is in the North but there are mostly kids from the south there. I’m going to be tutoring English.
Brit Olam is an organization that helps pregnant refugee women living in Tel Aviv. Most of the refugees living in Israel are from Eritrea and Sudan. In their home countries women have a support system when they have a baby. Many women come to Israel alone so they lose that support system and have to navigate the complicated Israeli bureaucracy and health care systems alone. Brit Olam helps women find doctors and other services they need while they are pregnant and once they give birth. I am going to be helping with the everyday things that the organization takes care of. I will be helping women fill out forms, accompany them to appointments, help at classes, and maybe even go to a delivery.
There will be more to come when I actually start working next week, not just meet the people I will be working with.
I also walked around the Old City in Yafo this evening. It is so beautiful. It definitely kept its ancient feel. It was kind of strange to see old stone walls with palm trees growing next to them. I usually associate old stone walls with old cities in France or England….and there are no palm trees there.
I got my camera finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So there will be pictures very very soon!

Lots of Hebrew, lots of holidays, more orientation, and aimless wanderings of Tel Aviv

As soon as everyone was re-nourished after fasting on Yom Kippur, the sukkah building began. Everyone builds a sukkah, and just about everyone uses the same generic sukkah tablecloth-looking material. I saw a sukkah outside a pizzeria.
Hebrew lessons (Ulpan) are going well. I can now count to 100 and tell time. I am also pretty good at ordering food and telling the taxi where to go. It’s a slow process, but I’m doing pretty well. Hebrew is Tov Me’od (very good). It’s like kindergarten all over again, except they are probably better than we are.
So apparently shipping stuff to Israel is a nightmare; I don’t recommend it. I am now on a first-name basis with the FedEx guy, but I think I’ll have my camera by the end of the week/next holiday and then there will be lots of pretty pictures!
It was 90 degrees outside today. It’s almost October…not a fan.
I got stung by a jellyfish for the first time every the other day. Not as bad as I thought it would be. It’s on my boob.
We discovered something amazing that happens on Fridays. There is a food festival type thingy at the big mall in downtown Tel Aviv every Friday afternoon. Guess where we will be spending most Fridays….Lots of different kinds of food everywhere!
Our orientation month is coming to a close so there will be less aimless wanderings to share and more meaningful experiences.

Hebrew for Beginners/ Yom Kippur

First full week of being in Tel Aviv has come to an end. I spent the week doing a lot of exploring and walking. I think I have walked the entire city.
I also started Hebrew lessons this week (Ulpan), which is much needed. It's really strange to be functionally illiterate in the city where you live. I may be able to read everything but I have no idea what it means and I can't have a conversation with people.
We started visiting volunteer placements this week. We get to visit everything before we make a decision. There are some pretty great options for my year of volunteering.

Yom Kippur just ended too. Normally 20% of the population is observant and 80 is not. On Yom Kippur it flips. The entire country stops for a whole day. All the shops close and there are no cars on the street. We walked around the city last night, and it was like one giant block party. Everyone was out and about and there were kids on bikes everywhere. It was pretty awesome. Everyone walks in the middle of the road 'cause they can. It was pretty great to walk in the middle of the road. It was like that all day today too. I have never seen anything like it. Other than that it's pretty much the same. Everyone fasts, then everyone eats a lot.

Great first week

New Year, New Country

My first of many holidays in Israel has come to an end. I was really excited to experience a year's worth of holidays in a foreign country; especially Israel. They always say next year in Israel and here I am!
I guess technically Rosh Hashana was my second holiday in Israel....we celebrated Shabbat at the Kibbutz. However, Shabbat happens every week, so it doesn't count for the purposes of this post.

In the states most people are aware of the fact that 6,489,000 people (I looked it up) are celebrating the new year. In New York public schools have the day off and in many places it is accepted that people are not going to go to class or work. In a country where religious freedom is a privilege, Jews can celebrate/observe (can't decide which word is appropriate) the holiday without prejudice.

Israel is a whole different can of worms.
The whole country comes to a screeching halt. For someone who has lived in New York her whole life, the prospect of everything stopping and shutting down is a new and strange phenomenon. Almost all stores are closed, no one goes to work, school is closed, and public transportation stops running. For the most part this is true of Christmas in America too, but public transportation in New York NEVER stops.
Wednesday afternoon people began closing up shop and taking off to be with their families for erev Rosh Hashana. The entire state of Israel seems to be closed for business.
I was always told that while we in America celebrate 2 days of Rosh Hashana, in Israel it is only observed for one day. If that is true they have a funny way of showing it. Today, the second day, everything was still closed....maybe even more so than yesterday.

It is very strange to walk down a street that is normally crazy with life and movement, and see absolutely nothing moving. There are people out and about, but mostly just out for leisurely walks or because they are going to family to celebrate the holiday. Tourists who end up in Israel for the High Holidays, who are not religious tourists, must get kinda bored.
And on top of all of this, it's Shabbat. Every Friday evening businesses close and people leave work early for Shabbat, and Saturday most things are closed too. So this week no one went to work all week. It's intense....like a week long siesta.

From what I have been told and what I have seen, most Israelis are not very observant. So it is interesting that the whole city, maybe even the country, observes holidays so....strictly (that really isn't the right word, I just couldn't find a better one). I have also been told that Yom Kippur is even more intense. The air port shuts down for 26 hours, and there are no cars on the road..I guess we will see next week.

I do not mean any of this as a criticism. I am merely fascinated at the way things come to a grinding halt for the Jewish holidays. This happens nowhere else in the world. Seeing this for the first time was fascinating....I can't wait to see what the other holidays are like here.

Home Sweet Home

It's official...I now live in Tel Aviv; in the neighborhood of Kiryat Shalom to be specific.
Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Kibbutz Ketura and headed north to Tel Aviv, our home for the next ten months. We moved into our humungous apartment and spent the day getting settled and getting to know the neighborhood. We live in a low income neighborhood a little east from the beach and Jaffa. It is also a pretty conservative and religious community. We are really close to a lot of essentials, like a bank, grocery, and clinic. It is also really easy to get to public transportation to get to the rest of Tel Aviv. There are still a few quirks to work out in our new home, but I am sure it will feel like home sweet home in no time.
Yesterday was the start of Rosh Hashana. It's weird to be in a place where the whole city, the whole country even, closes down for a Jewish holiday. Stores close, public transportation stops running, it's intense. For those of us who do not have family here, we were invited to have dinner with host families in Tel Aviv. My friend Katie and I went to dinner in North Tel Aviv with a woman named Phyllis. She is very interesting, when she came to Israel in the '70s she basically introduced health food to Israel and wrote the first vegetarian cook book here. We had a great time. Her family was really really kind and fun to be with. It was nice to have a home to go to since I am so far from home.
Today was beach day. Since nothing else was open we trekked to the beach. The beach in Jaffa is about an hour walk from our apartment. I'm gonna get a great exercise walking around Tel Aviv this year. The beach was beautiful. Old Jaffa was in the background and the Mediterranean was very blue. We swam and vegged, and watched a boy dog continually get shut down by his female companion. She wanted nothing to do with him but he refused to give up. It was like watching a doggy soap opera..."These are the dogs of our lives"...we had a really good time watching this dog continue to chase his friend. Poor guy.
At the end of the day we watched the sun set over the Mediterranean....absolutely gorgeous! It was such a nice and relaxing day...perfect way to bring in the new year.

Magic Carpet Ride

Today was our last full day at Kibbutz Ketura. We leave the desert tomorrow for the bustling streets of Tel Aviv, the City that Never Stops. I moved from the City that Never Sleeps to the City that Never Stops.
We talked about our apartments and living in Tel Aviv today. I am going to be living in a humungous apartment with eight other girls and one boy. Yes we all realize that this guy got the short end of the stick. Even I think that is too much estrogen in one place, and I am a contributor. Everyone gets along really well and I think it will be potentially great material for a future sci fi novel.
So our last night in the desert was pretty much amazing!! The Negev and Arava deserts in Israel are very rocky. It’s not like the Sahara or Arabian Nights. However……there is a spot with some incredible sand dunes. There are rocks for miles and miles and miles as far as the eye can see, then there are these rolling hills of soft, amazing sand. It was a giant sand box of the softest sand I have ever seen. It is an unbelievable sight to see, but even better was to feel the sand on our feet. When faced with a sandbox of this magnitude, everyone no matter their age acts like a kid; and that is exactly what we did. We took off our shoes and when crazy. We ran and jumped and rolled down sand dunes. Sooooo much fun! I rolled down a sand dune and now have sand in every crevice of my body imaginable, even some unimaginable. There is sand in my ears.
After romping around the sand dunes we had dinner under the stars. I thought I saw a lot of stars at the Kibbutz…..that was nothing compared with middle of nowhere desert. I could see the Milky Way.

It was a pretty incredible evening. Now I need to attempt to wash all the sand off. I will probably be finding sand for the next month.

I meant to post this the other day but the internet crapped out on me...

I climbed a mountain yesterday.....Well half a mountain. We wanted to see the sunset. It was really beautiful. The sun was bright red against the mountains and you could see everything. It was pretty amazing and surprisingly the colors were better with my sunglasses on than off. So we started our short hike under the impression that it would be a short easy hike. We practically climbed straight up the the mountain....it was really really steep. You're not really afraid of heights until you're on a practically vertical trail up a mountain and it's covered in rubble, and one side is a really really steep drop to the rocky, scary bottom.
Side note: There are a lot of rocks here in the Arava desert.....more rocks than you could possibly imagine. It is really unbelievable. There are rocks and nothing else. So the path on the mountain was covered in little rocks/rubble that made the path slippery cause the rocks were moving under us. Not good.
Side note 2: We are in the Arava desert. Negev means desert in Hebrew so when you say the Negev desert you are actually saying the desert desert. I'm learning Hebrew already.
So I climbed my first mountain of this trip. Yay.
Today we started talking about our volunteering opportunities. There are some really great places for us to work this year. I am really really excited.
In between the learning we've been bonding. Bonding 24/7 for a week in the middle of nowhere

Dude I'm in Israel......again

I first came to Israel on Birthright, and in true American Jewish college student tradition, I absolutely loved it. Three years later I graduated college looking for an adventure. Not ready to start grad school or get a real "grown-up" job, I came back to Israel. I am spending a year in Tel Aviv volunteering with organizations that help refugees and migrant workers, exploring Tel Aviv and Israel as a whole, and studying Judaism and social Justice.
So Tuesday I packed up my over-packed suitcase (the zipper was busted by the time I got to Tel Aviv) and got on the airplane.
Wednesday I arrived in Tel Aviv and went to the apartments in Jaffa. I spent the rest of the day walking around Jaffa with a fellow participant I met on the plane.
Note: To all of those people who told me Israel is in the desert so it would be a dry heat and would not be humid.......sooooooo not true! You disillusioned me. It is crazy humid in Tel Aviv, and hot until October apparently.

Thursday we officially started Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa! We met at the Daniel Center, one of the partners of Tikkun Olam. There were a lot of people there to welcome us and tell us about all of the amazing opportunities that will be available to us. Never gonna be bored in Tel Aviv this year.
Then we got on a bus and headed south. We basically went as far south as possible in Israel. We are in the desert. We are spending the week at a Kibbutz called Kibbutz Ketura. It is really beautiful, but really hot! Max, Arizona has nothing on Southern Israel!

Today (Friday) we learned about what a Kibbutz is. Never really knew what it meant to live on a kibbutz. It's like a small, fully functioning village. There is also an environmental research and educational center, called the Arava Institute. Pretty interesting stuff going on there in terms of sustainable development and renewable energy. The kibbutz also apparently has 5000 date trees and a whole mess of cows. They sell dates and milk products to everyone else to make money to keep the place running. They also farm a special kind of red algae that can be used to make certain medicines and cosmetics.

We had shabbat this evening. It was a lot like Hillel Shabbat, which is pretty cool since I'm a zillion miles away. We lit candles and went to services....I knew most of the songs  :) Then we had really good dinner and now we are all enjoying the wonderful desert night. There are more stars than I have ever seen....ever! Apparently the entire country is filled with Jewish grandmothers who just wanna keep feeding you until you explode. At least the food is good



So I've never written a blog and it might be really bad, but I'm working on it and I'm sure I will have more entertaining anecdotes as the program progresses.