Hello to all. Quick update- I am returning July 22. Yup, I'm still gone for another month. Next Sunday we do the army thing. Basically they'll give us army seminars, teach us to put together a gun, the last day we shoot it, one day we're in the field, and I guess we'll have to behave like we're in the army. While we're there we'll be waking up at 5 or 5:30 in the morning, get breaks for meals, a one or two other 15 minute breaks, then lights out at 10:30, I think. In all honestly, I'm not that excited to be going, but in all honesty, I have nothing better to do: they'll feed me and give me somewhere to sleep, whereas if I wasn't going, I'd have to leave the Ulpan the 26th- the day right afte our final test. Its for the experience, I'm sure I'll have an alright time.
As I'm typing this Arthur (a TV show I watched as a kid with the talking animals) is on in the background. I'm very dissappointed they call D.W. Gilly, but watching tv shows for children in Hebrew is suprisingly educational. Someone from the Ulpan once put on a tv program that was for sure meant for 5 year olds, and luckily I understood- they basically were saying "up- down - up - down" as they were going up and down stairs. Interesting show..
A couple weekends ago, David and I took a trip down south to Eilat. The first time I ventured South. We were luckily able to take off two days from the Ulpan, so we left Friday morning, and returned Sunday evening. When I say we left friday morning, I don't mean 8am, 7:30am, etc.... I mean we were awake at 5am to feed the animals in the zoo, which was one of the conditions of us being able to take off time. Driving through the desert was beautiul. It wasn't endless land of sand dunes, but there were mountains, and scattered green, a bunch of date trees that had long cranes going to the top where people were picking them. As you got closer to Eilat the mountains on the east side were almost red. We got to Eilat at noonish, and had time to settle into our hostel- the cheapest place we've stayed in which was surprising since Eilat is purely a tourist city. We decided to invest in some snorkels, and head down to the farthest beach possible where we were told there wouldn't be any people. This was the ebach of a hotel, so by pretending we were guests of the hotel, we didn't have to pay for seats on the beach. This was the farthest beach possible, and we had a nice view of the Egytpian border- in fact we could also see Jordan across the way. So we snorkelled and saw amazing amazing corals, and fish. That night we went walking around Eilat, and through this market that was set up, although neither of us bought anything. We then had a lovely romantic dinner at KFC! As we conntinued walking around all we saw were tourists, shopping opportunities and food.
The next day we went to an aquarium. We saw sharks, exotic fish, turtles, stingrays, and some fish and coral that we had seen the previous day while we were swimming. Unfortunatly I left my camera at the hotel this day because I could have been taking pictures of the view from this tower we were on top of at the aquarium, where you could see all of Eilat, and surounding desert. Also fishies! But yes, no camera equals no pictures of Eilat basically. Sorry mom. After the aquarium we went back to the ebach we'd been at the day before and did even more snorkelling. At one point David thought he saw a barracuda, so we swam away quite fast, just in case. It would have been cool to have some sort of underwater flashlight so that we could have seen in between some of the corals we were looking at. Basically the whole time we were snorkelling though all I could think of was "Finding Nemo" becuase we were seeing all the fish from that movie. That night for dinner we went to this Brazillian place where, when you pay a set price, you get unlimited salads, and they come around with a million different types of meat, and you can eat it all. and by a million I mean 16 different meats. Still a lot. There were these funny drunk guys there who found out that someone at the table enxt to them had a birthday, and so about 5 different points of the night, they burst out singing her happy birthday. One guy even made a speech. It was funny, but then I couldn't get the happy birthday song out of my head.
The weekend after Eilat a number of friends and I stayed in luxury at our friends grandfathers yacht. Thankfully we were able to get a ride down there and didn't have to deal with rushing to catch buses. It is, and probably will remain, the largest yacht I will ever get a chance to be on: 3 floor, 7 rooms (but 16 places to sleep), and a clean kitchen with an OVEN! I thought it was exciting. The only problem is you have so many nosy people walking around the marina looking at all of the nice yachts, so when we would be sitting outside, EVERY body was starring at us. It was nice to just have a relaxing, clean environment to hang out. For dinner we made a huge lasagna, with like 5 layers. We didn't really feel like going to the beach or anything on Saturday since it was nice just to be on a boat, and feel like you were in a home.
Last Tuesday we had our final trip with the Ulpan, up north around the Kineret. Where there have normally been seperate English, Spanish, and Russian speaking, tour guides, this time we only had one tour guide who spoke only in Hebrew. At first we stopped at this lookout point. We looked and were talked to about how the land we were sitting on hasn't always belong to Israel and in those days...etc. Next we went to this reserve of water. There we hiked through a stream that was up to our knees. We then got to climb up a little mountain, still through water, but we weren't on a path, we were stepping from rock to rock to get up. We got to our destination there, where there was a little waterfall, and since it was verry hot out, we all rinsed off in the freezing cold water. It was a really beautiful hike, and there were so many other tourists there. I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted to becuase I would have got my camera wet.
We then went to this stream to do this touristy rafting thing. There were 5 of us in one of those inflatable rafts. There weren't rapids, just a calm stream, except for the one point where there was a little waterfall that dropped up down maybe a foot. At first the ride was pretty annoying because our boat was going all over the place. I knew that if I was sitting in the back I could stear us a lot better due to my canoeing experience. But after a couple minutes I just relaxed and realised I didn't really care since this was just a fun thing. Since we were in water, and had paddles perfect for splashing people, everyones first instinct was to chase after Ilan, the Ulpan manager, to get him wet, but expecting it, he sped up ahead. We were going down stream beside a group of 8 rowdy men, who kept on harrassing 2 girls from the ulpan. Eventually the men tipped over the girls boat, and they started to freak out. One of the girls was freaking out since the water was really cold, and she thought she was going to hit into a rock. Her boat had floated back, so we helped her into ours, and calmed her down. David had to swim back to help the other one get into her boat, and paddle it towards us. When we were finished the rafting we stuffed ourselves with some fresh homemade pizza, and salad.
This weekend, we again went to the yacht, this time 7 of us went. Again, we didn't really do anything, just relaxed, watched some movies, and ate. Eating's a bit part, since it involves making the food, eating it, then cleaning it up. Since everything on the yacht is white, we have to be very careful and clean up after ourselves any time we've touched somehting. For dinner we made quesedillas, guacamole and and Israeli type salad. And of course we ate a lot of sunflower seeds... I eat a lot of sunflower seeds here. A lot. I've been told by Israeli's that it's their version of popcorn: they sit down, and watched a movie, or TV eating seeds. Its highly addictive.
Maybe a week ago, or 2 at this point, I don't remember, guess who showed up at the Ulpan? None other than Anton, the Russian from the Ulpan who was sent to a psych ward. I guess he gets free time (since the first visit, he's come on two other occassions), and of course being in a psych ward, in free time, you would want to leave the facitities. And where else does he have to go but Na'an? Based on what was translated by the Russian girls, we think he might be getting a bit of shock therapy. He didn't remember my name when he saw me, but it wwas obvious he remembered who I was. He's gained wieght, and his eyes aren't looking as hollow as before, so he's for sure doing better. It's strange to try and talk to him though becuase what can you talk to him about? Not about his stay at the Ulpan (he would get embarrassed about his behaviour), not about his life before the Ulpan, not what he's up to n life now (touchy subject talking to someone about the treatment they get in a psych ward), and also not what his future holds, aince he doesn't even know how long they'll keep him. It's good to see him though, and it's good that he's still a sweet guy.
Work is still work. Over the weekend a new goat was born, and some ducks too. Soo cute! I'll take pictures. The goats don't like me though, they always circle me, and get in my way. The donkey doesn't like me either, he always screams in my face in the morning when I go to feed him. [Is it now in Italics on your end too? I can't seem to change it back. Sorry]Anyways, donkey noises are the last thing I want to hear at 7 am, so sometimes I pretend to go at him with the piutch fork, and he stops.
I guess that's all I have for now. Oh, a couple weeks ago we had our oral test, worth 40% of the final test. I got a 37/40. Our classes grades ranged from 35-39/40, so we can all speak Hebrew. Cool.
Yup, now I'm done (it changed back into normal font. I'm confused, but I'm just going to go with it). This could be my last post before I come home. I don't think I'll have access to free internet starting July 3rd until I get back on the 22nd. If anyone needs to reach me, just send me a call. I miss you all, and I am excited to tell you about everything when I get back!!!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
June 1
Okay, the month of May. Not in any particular order:
We went for our forth trip with the Ulpan, once more to Tel Aviv. Very disappointed that we only get 5 trips with the Ulpan, andn two of them are to Tel Aviv.I thought they'd be taking us to see the land, to places where we wouldn't be able to go without tour guides. I think they're being cheap with trips because since the beginning of the program 8 people have left and/or been kicked out, and that may make the program lose money. ANYWAYS, Tel Aviv. We were taken to the diaspora museum,which was a museum that talked about Jews from outside of Israel; different Jewish traditions andcommunities around the world, and our orgin, I guess. It was interesting, but not overly exciting. At the mjuseum, we got to hang out with another Kibbutz Ulpan, from Mishmar Hasharon. They were telling us that at their Kibbutz, the types of jobs they ave mostly revolve around the fishing industry they have there. People catch the fish, skin the fsh, sell the fish, and it sounds awful. When we drove back to our Kibbutz, they shared the bus with us, and when they drove into our Kibbutz they were amazed at how nice it as. Apparently their Kibbutz is not so pretty-ha ha, suckers. They were all very nice though, which is good becuase apparently they will be joining us for the 5 day army thing at the end of the Ulpan. Our final test is on the 25th, and then from the 28th, to the 2nd ofJuly we have the option of doing this boot camp, experience the army type thing. This is one of many examples of how this program is mostly targetted towards new immigrants. But, everyone is doing it, and itshould be a very unique experience, and nothing I will everdo again. I think at some point we get to shoot a gun....scary thought.
After the museum, a bunch of friends and I remained in Tel Aviv to visit a coupleoffriends whoi had left the Ulpan. We walked around a market, in the mall, where we decided to visitour childhood and ride one of those 2 dollar carosels. We then walked along the beach, and sat down for a drink. On our way home looking for a cab, at first we were told it would cost us 200 shekel. Luckily, we were with a friend who's Israeli, so he managed to get our cab ride down to 150 shekel(which is what it should be), and then 50 shekel for him to his town- Israelis know how to bargin.
Last weekend, David and I went for a trip up north,on the eastcoast to Naharia. We were getting a ride to the bus staion from the teacher of his class, and although we had originally planned to go to Haifa, we weretold there wouldn't be anything to do there, and it was recommended to us to go to Naharia, and feeling no attatchment to Haifa, we changed our plans. This was my first experience on the train. Very confusing. The people who work at the station don't have any knowledge of which train goes where, so we boarded the train hesitantly, only to find out that noone really knew where the trains were going either. Luckily, we were ableto get in touch with the friend who was able to tell us we would have to switch trains at a certain point, and so we were okay. Arriving in Naharia, we found ataxi driver,and hetook us to a hotel, since this towndidn't have hostels. Cheap hotel-double bed, and the weird (but typical) israeli bathrooms where you have a toilet, sink, and then a shower, wich isn't closed off, just leads to a drain in the middle of the bathroom. It was a very quiet town, very pretty, andeveryone we walked past spoke Russian.Also thelady who worked at thehotel spoke Russian, and I'm pretty sure I knew more Hebrew than her.Luckily we were just a minute away from the beach.We were right by this touisty type place with all sorts of restaurants, icecream places, playgrounds, andrinks wherepeople were rollerblading. There was some hockey goijng on there which reminded me of home. Friday night, weexplored the beach,ate some food, and then watched some Family guy on TV,which was amazing to see. In our lovely cheap hotel, we encountered a cockroach,which I forced David to kill, even though he doesn't like killing living things. We also got eaten alive by a few mosquitos that snuck into our room.
The next day we swam a bit in the ocean, then went even further north to Rosh HaNikra. It's as far north as you can go- we were able to touch the border to Lebanon. At Rosh HaNikra, there are beautiful white rock cliffs, and grottos. We fell into the trap of paying money to take the gondola down to the grottos(a 1 minute gondola ride), seeing amovie with cheesy effects about the history of the places, and renting bikes togo along the coast. The bike idea sounded neaxt, until we started going. We had to ride along the road with cars trying to pass us. We took the bikes back, and walked along the water. We would have jumped offcliffs, but decided it wasn't safe to leave allof our stuff. Instead, we found a little private area, where there nwere rocks, and we were right on the water, andswimming around. It was beautiful,I have to repeat it because it really was.One day you will see all of my pictures.
Last Tuesday we went again to Tel Aviv with the Ulpan for an event that featured a speech by the Israeli Prime Minister, a bunch of talking/videos, and then a concert ofMoosh Ben Arie, a famous Israeli artist. I'd actually heard of him, and his musicsince I've been here, what were the odds? The event was organized by Masa, the organization that I am doing myprogram through, so thousands of young people from hundreds of prgrams, from (they said) about 100different countries were there. There was a lot of "Move to Israel" talk, but the concert was fun. We all got up and were dancing.
This past weekend, we had Friday off becauseit wasthe hoiliday of Shavuot. Thursday afternoon David,Yaniv, Avraham and I (me andmy Spanish speaking boys who I travelled with over Passover)took a taxi, bus, another bus, andanother taxi to go up North to the Kineret (Sea of Galillee). We sat on a bus for 4 hours in traffic, but got there in one piece. We set up our tents on the beach, on a camp sight on the east side of the lake, right across from Tiberias. Since it was a holiay it was incredibly busy andl9oud, soi we found our own little private corner, so we could have the relaxing time we wanted. Isfraelis don'tknow whatcamping is- they just bring their house to the beach. I guess it's their version of a cottage. I kid you not,people brought fridges, entire stereo sound sytems, spotlights(instead of fire light), computers, chairs, andI even saw a screen set up, that was playing a movie through a projector. It was quite loud atnihgt- people were up drinking until 5or6 in the morning with their music, and assoon as they turned itoff,people woke up with their music to go fishing,and make their noise. We stayed for two night, two days. Hottest 2 daysof mylife. There was no way to avoid the sun. The ground was burning hot, you couldn't stepon the ground without shoes, andalso I couldn't leave my shoes out in the sun since they were black, and they two were burning hot. We swam, we ate, we rested, we walked along the beach, but mostly we just relaxed. Thefirstmorning atbreakfast I had an interesting experience. We were eating spicey soup, and I got some in myeye. Since there was chillispice in thesoup, it burned my eye like crazy. I guess I was touching my eyes after andmanaged to get siunscreen in them. I was tearing for over an hour, splashing waterinto themover and over again,and forcing them open withmy hands to air themout. I felt like I'd been peppersprayed, and I was close to reaching the point oflooking for help with some sort oflifegaurd. Luckily, I cried it all out, and then took abit of a nap since the experience exhausted my eyes. The sun there was so hot,and strong. I hope I can handle the summer heat. Travelling here would be made easier if we could rent a car, so we could get to see the exciting, and beautiful places that are off the beaten path. Renting cars here is apparently cheap, but I've heard you had to be over 23 to rent- or something like,if you are under 23, the insurance is quite quite high.
Those are the exciting points of my may. I'm still in the zoo, although I now work alone becuase myfriend who I wasworking with left. Now it can get boring, since I have no music(my Ipod broke) and I have no one to take breaks with,since the manager of the zoo is never really there. Class is still class- on the 10th we have our oral test, which counts for 40% of the final evaluation. Yesterday in class we were learning phrases relating to how to complain. We've also had lessons on how to thank, how to recomend,and we'll have one on how to appologize, but the complaining one was fun becuase we werejust yelling these phrases out, and it wasalmostlike therapy-just letting it all out.It was a very funny class.
As of right now,I'm notpositive when I'm coming home,since I would like to go travelling after the program with David, and some friends. We're talking about touring around Israel, and maybe taking a boat up to Greece. It all depends on expenses, timing, andplanning, since we are running oput of time to plan.
I miss everybody, and hope all is well, and I wonder if anyone still reads this considering I never really update it.
We went for our forth trip with the Ulpan, once more to Tel Aviv. Very disappointed that we only get 5 trips with the Ulpan, andn two of them are to Tel Aviv.I thought they'd be taking us to see the land, to places where we wouldn't be able to go without tour guides. I think they're being cheap with trips because since the beginning of the program 8 people have left and/or been kicked out, and that may make the program lose money. ANYWAYS, Tel Aviv. We were taken to the diaspora museum,which was a museum that talked about Jews from outside of Israel; different Jewish traditions andcommunities around the world, and our orgin, I guess. It was interesting, but not overly exciting. At the mjuseum, we got to hang out with another Kibbutz Ulpan, from Mishmar Hasharon. They were telling us that at their Kibbutz, the types of jobs they ave mostly revolve around the fishing industry they have there. People catch the fish, skin the fsh, sell the fish, and it sounds awful. When we drove back to our Kibbutz, they shared the bus with us, and when they drove into our Kibbutz they were amazed at how nice it as. Apparently their Kibbutz is not so pretty-ha ha, suckers. They were all very nice though, which is good becuase apparently they will be joining us for the 5 day army thing at the end of the Ulpan. Our final test is on the 25th, and then from the 28th, to the 2nd ofJuly we have the option of doing this boot camp, experience the army type thing. This is one of many examples of how this program is mostly targetted towards new immigrants. But, everyone is doing it, and itshould be a very unique experience, and nothing I will everdo again. I think at some point we get to shoot a gun....scary thought.
After the museum, a bunch of friends and I remained in Tel Aviv to visit a coupleoffriends whoi had left the Ulpan. We walked around a market, in the mall, where we decided to visitour childhood and ride one of those 2 dollar carosels. We then walked along the beach, and sat down for a drink. On our way home looking for a cab, at first we were told it would cost us 200 shekel. Luckily, we were with a friend who's Israeli, so he managed to get our cab ride down to 150 shekel(which is what it should be), and then 50 shekel for him to his town- Israelis know how to bargin.
Last weekend, David and I went for a trip up north,on the eastcoast to Naharia. We were getting a ride to the bus staion from the teacher of his class, and although we had originally planned to go to Haifa, we weretold there wouldn't be anything to do there, and it was recommended to us to go to Naharia, and feeling no attatchment to Haifa, we changed our plans. This was my first experience on the train. Very confusing. The people who work at the station don't have any knowledge of which train goes where, so we boarded the train hesitantly, only to find out that noone really knew where the trains were going either. Luckily, we were ableto get in touch with the friend who was able to tell us we would have to switch trains at a certain point, and so we were okay. Arriving in Naharia, we found ataxi driver,and hetook us to a hotel, since this towndidn't have hostels. Cheap hotel-double bed, and the weird (but typical) israeli bathrooms where you have a toilet, sink, and then a shower, wich isn't closed off, just leads to a drain in the middle of the bathroom. It was a very quiet town, very pretty, andeveryone we walked past spoke Russian.Also thelady who worked at thehotel spoke Russian, and I'm pretty sure I knew more Hebrew than her.Luckily we were just a minute away from the beach.We were right by this touisty type place with all sorts of restaurants, icecream places, playgrounds, andrinks wherepeople were rollerblading. There was some hockey goijng on there which reminded me of home. Friday night, weexplored the beach,ate some food, and then watched some Family guy on TV,which was amazing to see. In our lovely cheap hotel, we encountered a cockroach,which I forced David to kill, even though he doesn't like killing living things. We also got eaten alive by a few mosquitos that snuck into our room.
The next day we swam a bit in the ocean, then went even further north to Rosh HaNikra. It's as far north as you can go- we were able to touch the border to Lebanon. At Rosh HaNikra, there are beautiful white rock cliffs, and grottos. We fell into the trap of paying money to take the gondola down to the grottos(a 1 minute gondola ride), seeing amovie with cheesy effects about the history of the places, and renting bikes togo along the coast. The bike idea sounded neaxt, until we started going. We had to ride along the road with cars trying to pass us. We took the bikes back, and walked along the water. We would have jumped offcliffs, but decided it wasn't safe to leave allof our stuff. Instead, we found a little private area, where there nwere rocks, and we were right on the water, andswimming around. It was beautiful,I have to repeat it because it really was.One day you will see all of my pictures.
Last Tuesday we went again to Tel Aviv with the Ulpan for an event that featured a speech by the Israeli Prime Minister, a bunch of talking/videos, and then a concert ofMoosh Ben Arie, a famous Israeli artist. I'd actually heard of him, and his musicsince I've been here, what were the odds? The event was organized by Masa, the organization that I am doing myprogram through, so thousands of young people from hundreds of prgrams, from (they said) about 100different countries were there. There was a lot of "Move to Israel" talk, but the concert was fun. We all got up and were dancing.
This past weekend, we had Friday off becauseit wasthe hoiliday of Shavuot. Thursday afternoon David,Yaniv, Avraham and I (me andmy Spanish speaking boys who I travelled with over Passover)took a taxi, bus, another bus, andanother taxi to go up North to the Kineret (Sea of Galillee). We sat on a bus for 4 hours in traffic, but got there in one piece. We set up our tents on the beach, on a camp sight on the east side of the lake, right across from Tiberias. Since it was a holiay it was incredibly busy andl9oud, soi we found our own little private corner, so we could have the relaxing time we wanted. Isfraelis don'tknow whatcamping is- they just bring their house to the beach. I guess it's their version of a cottage. I kid you not,people brought fridges, entire stereo sound sytems, spotlights(instead of fire light), computers, chairs, andI even saw a screen set up, that was playing a movie through a projector. It was quite loud atnihgt- people were up drinking until 5or6 in the morning with their music, and assoon as they turned itoff,people woke up with their music to go fishing,and make their noise. We stayed for two night, two days. Hottest 2 daysof mylife. There was no way to avoid the sun. The ground was burning hot, you couldn't stepon the ground without shoes, andalso I couldn't leave my shoes out in the sun since they were black, and they two were burning hot. We swam, we ate, we rested, we walked along the beach, but mostly we just relaxed. Thefirstmorning atbreakfast I had an interesting experience. We were eating spicey soup, and I got some in myeye. Since there was chillispice in thesoup, it burned my eye like crazy. I guess I was touching my eyes after andmanaged to get siunscreen in them. I was tearing for over an hour, splashing waterinto themover and over again,and forcing them open withmy hands to air themout. I felt like I'd been peppersprayed, and I was close to reaching the point oflooking for help with some sort oflifegaurd. Luckily, I cried it all out, and then took abit of a nap since the experience exhausted my eyes. The sun there was so hot,and strong. I hope I can handle the summer heat. Travelling here would be made easier if we could rent a car, so we could get to see the exciting, and beautiful places that are off the beaten path. Renting cars here is apparently cheap, but I've heard you had to be over 23 to rent- or something like,if you are under 23, the insurance is quite quite high.
Those are the exciting points of my may. I'm still in the zoo, although I now work alone becuase myfriend who I wasworking with left. Now it can get boring, since I have no music(my Ipod broke) and I have no one to take breaks with,since the manager of the zoo is never really there. Class is still class- on the 10th we have our oral test, which counts for 40% of the final evaluation. Yesterday in class we were learning phrases relating to how to complain. We've also had lessons on how to thank, how to recomend,and we'll have one on how to appologize, but the complaining one was fun becuase we werejust yelling these phrases out, and it wasalmostlike therapy-just letting it all out.It was a very funny class.
As of right now,I'm notpositive when I'm coming home,since I would like to go travelling after the program with David, and some friends. We're talking about touring around Israel, and maybe taking a boat up to Greece. It all depends on expenses, timing, andplanning, since we are running oput of time to plan.
I miss everybody, and hope all is well, and I wonder if anyone still reads this considering I never really update it.
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