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.
Friday, May 8, 2009
May 8
Brace yourselves, this will be along one, and the space bar ishalf broken. A couple of weekends ago I took my first adventure by myself up North to visit Naomi, a family friend. I first had to take a 10minute taxi ride. Then I took a 30 bus to Tel Aviv. From Tel Aviv I took another bus to Hadera.From Hadera I took yet another bus that led me right into th4e Kibbutz Barkei, my final destination. I left Naan at around 12:30,and arrived at 4:30, but suprisingly I didn't get lost, and only missed one bus.
I was greeted by Naomi, and we had milkshake and cookies. We went for a small walk to see the Kibbutz. The Kibbutz is a lot smaller,and different than Naan. From Barkei you can see highways,and nearby villages. Around Naomi's house she said they had knocked down a lot of trees to build more houses,to let in new members. For dinner we went to the cafeteria, which was only a quarter(at themost) of the size of Naan's, basically the same menu, but a better system. Instead of paying for each dish, like I do here, you just pay for the whole meal. After dinner there was coffee seved, also like there is Friday nights at Naan.
When we went back to her place, we looked at a map of Israel and I was thinking about where I'd like to travel. We then watched some news in Hebrew, which I partially understood, and then we watched the first half of a movie that wason TV.It was about Jewish immigrants coming to Israel after WWII, but there was no plot, little dialouge, bad actors and altogether not the best movie, so we stopped watching.
The next day we went to a second hand shop on the kibbutz where I bought a wrap around skirt, and almost bought a blender, but realized I wouldn't want to take it on my journey back. I was then shown the dairy farm.I saw cows being milked by the milking machines- they were thebiggest cows I've ever seen, and many of their udders were huge, almost touching the floor. We then went and picked some fruit, Ithink in English they're called lowquats(spelling?).Before Israel I had never seen them. They look like apricots, but they don't taste anythinglike them. They also grow at myKibbutz, and they're delicious. It was a pleasure staying with Naomi, and we talked a lot, and I ate a lot of homemade cookies, and had a safe and easy journey back. My taxi driver on part of mytrip back,didn't evengive me a chance to speak Hebrew.As soon as I said I was going to Naan,he could tell I was from the Ulpan,and we talked about football(soccer).He said he used to play professionally for Manchester, and then an Israeli team, and hedidn't charge me extra,like most taxi drivers do on Saturdays.
The next morning was my last day working at my kitchen/toilet cleaning job- and what a last day. It was the messiest I've ever seen then kitchen. Before I started cleaning, I saw a mouse run across the kitchen behind the fridge, I sceamed and according to my friend Chris, I "flew" out of the kitchen onto a raised platform. Luckily thisday I was working with my friend Amy, and she checkedbehind the fridge and toldme the mouse was gone. We had smelled something burning comingfrom the fridge though, and sadly we think the burning was the mouse. When we wentto clean up our building we then had todeal with the pigeon issue. Pigeons have decided that it is in their best interests to try to build nests on the girls floor. First I had infatrated their nest on top of the fridge. Then they were trying on top of the cupboards in the halls, in acupboard in the hall,andon someones douvet that was hanging over the edge- these have been at different points over the past 2 to 3 weeks, and everytime, I sweep away their sticks, and chase them away. They're way to persistent, and I hope they realize it's useless to keep on trying. But they're pigeons, so they're not that smart.
A couple days later there was rememberance day which comemerates all of the Israeli soldiers who have fallen since 1949. At night we went to a ceremony,which talked of the Naan soldierswho have died. There were also interprative dances, and a choir that sang beautifully. There was another ceremony the following morning that took place in Naans graveyard,which was actually a very pretty graveyard copnsidering.
The morning of ceremony was also myfirst day with my new job in the petting zoo. We have to be there at 7 to feed the animlas,then have a breakfast break. At 2 we have to feed them again. Feedingwe do every day we have work, but what we do the rest of the work day changes a bit each time. There are cows,horses, donkeys, goats (1 area with black, another with white, and mountain goat that roams around), parrots, peacocks, ducks, bunnys, ferrets, and other such birds. That day we raked and tried to capture kittens from under the shed that weren't supposed to be there.We weren't successful. A couple days later, our job was to shovel the horse poo, and hay, and take it to the dumpster. I'm still confused why they throw out the poo, when it could probably be used for other purposes. I also don't understand why there is only 1 wheelborrow and 1 pitch fork,when there are always 2 people,and the dumpster is located 100-200 meters away from the zoo. There is a lot of walking back and forth. At one point we were throwing the dry poo at eachother, all in good fun. The job maynotsound like everyones taste, but I actually chose to work their as an alternative to the kitchen (where I'd have to pluck feathers off chickens, and wash dishes, and do the same thing everyday- at least 3 Ulpanists have quit their kitchen jobs)and the garden (the day starts at 5:30 am). I enjoy being outside and not having to worry constantly about myfriends being messy slobs who I have to pick up after.
The next day we didn't have any class or work becuase it was Israeli independance day. Apparently on this day it is custom to have a BBQ,so thats what we did with the whole Ulpan. We had pleanty of sausage, chicken, burgers, pita, hummus, and lemonade provided for us. It was a really hot day, so at the endof the day I was exhausted from both the sun,and all of the food. The celebrating started the night before with a huge meal in the cafeteria- there was more selection, better food, and just in general, a lot more food, andpeople. There were tables set up outside as well. A bit later there were fireworks, not any different than any others I've seen, but fireworks are still always fun.
Last weekend me and my boyfriend David went to Tel Aviv. We arrived at the central bus station,which lived up to it's reputation of being in a sketchy area,where you see people who look like they do a lot of drugs. Don't worry though, it was safe because we got off our bus, then got another one right away. We went to visit my aunt Marla, uncle David,and Marla's friend Judy all there seperately (but we were all together). We walked on the beach, ate sushi, ate icecream, and just hungout. Mom sent uncle David with more clothes for me, and sent gum and oatmeal up with Marla. I missed oatmeal. Marla also gave me somechocolate and wine, and I took somefruit from the fruit bowl in the hall at her hotel. Being in a nice hotel felt strange. It felt like I hadn'tseen civilization in a long time, and it made me realize how Kibbutz life is so incredibly different than city life. It was important for me that David got to meet some of my family.He said he noticed how happy my family makes me, and how I'm always happier after I've spoken to family, or in this case, visited with them.
Last Sunday morning I continued mywork at the zoo, except now I'm working with one of my best friends, Herky. We had to rake basically the whole surface of the zoo. Raking for 3 hours, bending to pick up leaves, and carrying the wheelborrow back and forth is suprisiongly tiring work, which I like better than the lazy life style I'd been living until now.
On tuesday we had another Ulpan excursion, this time to Tel Aviv. Unfortunately thetrip we did was basically the same tripI did with Varda and Shlomo amonth ago. Again,I toured old city of Jaffa, and heard the same stories. It is very beautiful,soI can't complain. We also went to Iztchak Rabin square, where he was shot, Independance hall,where they announced Israels independance(I wasn't caffinated though, so I kind of slept through a lot of it), and then the market,where there was food, clothes, meats, dollarstore type goods, and since it was a Tuesday there was a special market with more artsy type of things.
A couple days ago, Wednesday I believe, they were having children in the zoo so I was told to help out even though I didn't have work that day. It was aninteresting experience. I'm not quite sure what the occasion was but they always seem to have groups of kids and their parents come to the zoo,I guess for parties,orsomething? I'm pretty sure they were all from the Kibbutz. Anyways, atfirst I was at the fire pit. Earlier,dough had been prepared into balls, to be made into a pita like bread. The kids and parents had to roll out the dough, and then put it to bake on thismetaldome thing on top of the fire. I was there to help the kids put iton,and take it off when it was ready, but of course there werepushy parents who were trying to takeover- although Ididn't reallymind since I didn't actually know what to do. Then I went to supervise the bunny cage- again, I didn't really know what responsibilities supervising included,I was just told to go, so Ijust went with the flow. What I learned from this experience is that the bunny cage is not a place for children. They were reaching into their houses topull them out, lifting up the houses to try to lure them out, grabbing them by one ear,or leg, stroking themway to hard, messing up the cage,and really I thought byb the end therewould be at least one dead bunny. Not to long ago at one of these events, a hamster or two were killed. Myjob was trying to tell thekids to be morecareful/stop doing things they shouldn't,and keeping the bunnies from escaping. I also decided Iwould try to catch bunniestogive to the children to pet. Unfortunately, parents saw me trying to get the bunnies, and thought I knew what I was doing, and kept askingme to catch bunnies for their kids. I wasn't very successful: petrified bunnies do not wantto be caught, and I didn't want to scare them anymore.
Today I worked in the morning again. I started feeding the animals by myself because Herky was late.When I was feeding the white goats, 2 of the big ones managed to escape. I didn't know what to do, and I was chasing them around for a bit trying to catch them. It didn't work, I am not yet a professional goat wrangler. However,I know that David had caughtgoats before,so I went to go get him. On the way, Herky arrived, and he said the lookon my face was halarious: a mix between confusion, nerves,and fear. We went back, andnoticed that the goats lookedlike they wanted togo back in-after all, I had just served their breakfast,and they hadn't eaten any. What we did was I stood in the cage with thedoorclosed, and right asHerky herded them to the door,I opened it tolet them in, and closed itright away. Sucess! Ten minutes later,Herky let a bunny outof it's cage, and chased it around, andused the same technique we used with the goats to get it back home.
I'mstill having a great time here, and the change of job was good for me. I miss everyone, andI hope all is well!
I was greeted by Naomi, and we had milkshake and cookies. We went for a small walk to see the Kibbutz. The Kibbutz is a lot smaller,and different than Naan. From Barkei you can see highways,and nearby villages. Around Naomi's house she said they had knocked down a lot of trees to build more houses,to let in new members. For dinner we went to the cafeteria, which was only a quarter(at themost) of the size of Naan's, basically the same menu, but a better system. Instead of paying for each dish, like I do here, you just pay for the whole meal. After dinner there was coffee seved, also like there is Friday nights at Naan.
When we went back to her place, we looked at a map of Israel and I was thinking about where I'd like to travel. We then watched some news in Hebrew, which I partially understood, and then we watched the first half of a movie that wason TV.It was about Jewish immigrants coming to Israel after WWII, but there was no plot, little dialouge, bad actors and altogether not the best movie, so we stopped watching.
The next day we went to a second hand shop on the kibbutz where I bought a wrap around skirt, and almost bought a blender, but realized I wouldn't want to take it on my journey back. I was then shown the dairy farm.I saw cows being milked by the milking machines- they were thebiggest cows I've ever seen, and many of their udders were huge, almost touching the floor. We then went and picked some fruit, Ithink in English they're called lowquats(spelling?).Before Israel I had never seen them. They look like apricots, but they don't taste anythinglike them. They also grow at myKibbutz, and they're delicious. It was a pleasure staying with Naomi, and we talked a lot, and I ate a lot of homemade cookies, and had a safe and easy journey back. My taxi driver on part of mytrip back,didn't evengive me a chance to speak Hebrew.As soon as I said I was going to Naan,he could tell I was from the Ulpan,and we talked about football(soccer).He said he used to play professionally for Manchester, and then an Israeli team, and hedidn't charge me extra,like most taxi drivers do on Saturdays.
The next morning was my last day working at my kitchen/toilet cleaning job- and what a last day. It was the messiest I've ever seen then kitchen. Before I started cleaning, I saw a mouse run across the kitchen behind the fridge, I sceamed and according to my friend Chris, I "flew" out of the kitchen onto a raised platform. Luckily thisday I was working with my friend Amy, and she checkedbehind the fridge and toldme the mouse was gone. We had smelled something burning comingfrom the fridge though, and sadly we think the burning was the mouse. When we wentto clean up our building we then had todeal with the pigeon issue. Pigeons have decided that it is in their best interests to try to build nests on the girls floor. First I had infatrated their nest on top of the fridge. Then they were trying on top of the cupboards in the halls, in acupboard in the hall,andon someones douvet that was hanging over the edge- these have been at different points over the past 2 to 3 weeks, and everytime, I sweep away their sticks, and chase them away. They're way to persistent, and I hope they realize it's useless to keep on trying. But they're pigeons, so they're not that smart.
A couple days later there was rememberance day which comemerates all of the Israeli soldiers who have fallen since 1949. At night we went to a ceremony,which talked of the Naan soldierswho have died. There were also interprative dances, and a choir that sang beautifully. There was another ceremony the following morning that took place in Naans graveyard,which was actually a very pretty graveyard copnsidering.
The morning of ceremony was also myfirst day with my new job in the petting zoo. We have to be there at 7 to feed the animlas,then have a breakfast break. At 2 we have to feed them again. Feedingwe do every day we have work, but what we do the rest of the work day changes a bit each time. There are cows,horses, donkeys, goats (1 area with black, another with white, and mountain goat that roams around), parrots, peacocks, ducks, bunnys, ferrets, and other such birds. That day we raked and tried to capture kittens from under the shed that weren't supposed to be there.We weren't successful. A couple days later, our job was to shovel the horse poo, and hay, and take it to the dumpster. I'm still confused why they throw out the poo, when it could probably be used for other purposes. I also don't understand why there is only 1 wheelborrow and 1 pitch fork,when there are always 2 people,and the dumpster is located 100-200 meters away from the zoo. There is a lot of walking back and forth. At one point we were throwing the dry poo at eachother, all in good fun. The job maynotsound like everyones taste, but I actually chose to work their as an alternative to the kitchen (where I'd have to pluck feathers off chickens, and wash dishes, and do the same thing everyday- at least 3 Ulpanists have quit their kitchen jobs)and the garden (the day starts at 5:30 am). I enjoy being outside and not having to worry constantly about myfriends being messy slobs who I have to pick up after.
The next day we didn't have any class or work becuase it was Israeli independance day. Apparently on this day it is custom to have a BBQ,so thats what we did with the whole Ulpan. We had pleanty of sausage, chicken, burgers, pita, hummus, and lemonade provided for us. It was a really hot day, so at the endof the day I was exhausted from both the sun,and all of the food. The celebrating started the night before with a huge meal in the cafeteria- there was more selection, better food, and just in general, a lot more food, andpeople. There were tables set up outside as well. A bit later there were fireworks, not any different than any others I've seen, but fireworks are still always fun.
Last weekend me and my boyfriend David went to Tel Aviv. We arrived at the central bus station,which lived up to it's reputation of being in a sketchy area,where you see people who look like they do a lot of drugs. Don't worry though, it was safe because we got off our bus, then got another one right away. We went to visit my aunt Marla, uncle David,and Marla's friend Judy all there seperately (but we were all together). We walked on the beach, ate sushi, ate icecream, and just hungout. Mom sent uncle David with more clothes for me, and sent gum and oatmeal up with Marla. I missed oatmeal. Marla also gave me somechocolate and wine, and I took somefruit from the fruit bowl in the hall at her hotel. Being in a nice hotel felt strange. It felt like I hadn'tseen civilization in a long time, and it made me realize how Kibbutz life is so incredibly different than city life. It was important for me that David got to meet some of my family.He said he noticed how happy my family makes me, and how I'm always happier after I've spoken to family, or in this case, visited with them.
Last Sunday morning I continued mywork at the zoo, except now I'm working with one of my best friends, Herky. We had to rake basically the whole surface of the zoo. Raking for 3 hours, bending to pick up leaves, and carrying the wheelborrow back and forth is suprisiongly tiring work, which I like better than the lazy life style I'd been living until now.
On tuesday we had another Ulpan excursion, this time to Tel Aviv. Unfortunately thetrip we did was basically the same tripI did with Varda and Shlomo amonth ago. Again,I toured old city of Jaffa, and heard the same stories. It is very beautiful,soI can't complain. We also went to Iztchak Rabin square, where he was shot, Independance hall,where they announced Israels independance(I wasn't caffinated though, so I kind of slept through a lot of it), and then the market,where there was food, clothes, meats, dollarstore type goods, and since it was a Tuesday there was a special market with more artsy type of things.
A couple days ago, Wednesday I believe, they were having children in the zoo so I was told to help out even though I didn't have work that day. It was aninteresting experience. I'm not quite sure what the occasion was but they always seem to have groups of kids and their parents come to the zoo,I guess for parties,orsomething? I'm pretty sure they were all from the Kibbutz. Anyways, atfirst I was at the fire pit. Earlier,dough had been prepared into balls, to be made into a pita like bread. The kids and parents had to roll out the dough, and then put it to bake on thismetaldome thing on top of the fire. I was there to help the kids put iton,and take it off when it was ready, but of course there werepushy parents who were trying to takeover- although Ididn't reallymind since I didn't actually know what to do. Then I went to supervise the bunny cage- again, I didn't really know what responsibilities supervising included,I was just told to go, so Ijust went with the flow. What I learned from this experience is that the bunny cage is not a place for children. They were reaching into their houses topull them out, lifting up the houses to try to lure them out, grabbing them by one ear,or leg, stroking themway to hard, messing up the cage,and really I thought byb the end therewould be at least one dead bunny. Not to long ago at one of these events, a hamster or two were killed. Myjob was trying to tell thekids to be morecareful/stop doing things they shouldn't,and keeping the bunnies from escaping. I also decided Iwould try to catch bunniestogive to the children to pet. Unfortunately, parents saw me trying to get the bunnies, and thought I knew what I was doing, and kept askingme to catch bunnies for their kids. I wasn't very successful: petrified bunnies do not wantto be caught, and I didn't want to scare them anymore.
Today I worked in the morning again. I started feeding the animals by myself because Herky was late.When I was feeding the white goats, 2 of the big ones managed to escape. I didn't know what to do, and I was chasing them around for a bit trying to catch them. It didn't work, I am not yet a professional goat wrangler. However,I know that David had caughtgoats before,so I went to go get him. On the way, Herky arrived, and he said the lookon my face was halarious: a mix between confusion, nerves,and fear. We went back, andnoticed that the goats lookedlike they wanted togo back in-after all, I had just served their breakfast,and they hadn't eaten any. What we did was I stood in the cage with thedoorclosed, and right asHerky herded them to the door,I opened it tolet them in, and closed itright away. Sucess! Ten minutes later,Herky let a bunny outof it's cage, and chased it around, andused the same technique we used with the goats to get it back home.
I'mstill having a great time here, and the change of job was good for me. I miss everyone, andI hope all is well!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
April 19
There's been too much excitement since my last post. Since we've hit the 2 month mark of the program, people are starting to get even crazier, and there's been a lot of drama, and tensions between Ulpan-ists, but that's more on a personal level, and I won't write about that.
I don't know if you all remember me writing about Anton, the crazy Russian on our Ulpan, but to sum up the story I'm about to tell: he's now in a mental institution (excuse me if I'm not politically correct on that one). I can give some details, but out of respect for Anton, and the fact that this is a public blog, I won't go into the more personal details. A few weekends ago, it was a few peoples birthdays, so we celebrated by having a bonfire. Anton was there, drinking a bit, and looking sadder than usual. He came up to me at one point and said he wasn't feeling well. Afterwards, I heard him talking to his roommate and saying that no body likes him, and that he wasn't happy. People continued going to talk to him to try to calm him down, but he often get in states like that, but there was nothing we could do except talk him down. A little bit later, someone comes and tells us that he had run out in front of a moving car, and got hit. He survived that, so he broke through the fence of the fields, and ran away. He was gone from maybe 11/12-ish at night, until 3 the next afternoon. There were cops searching for him, and helicopters too. We were all very afraid that he was dead, but at the same time, afraid of what laid ahead of him if he wasn't dead. They luckily found him alive, and seemingly uninjured, drinking in a bar not so far away. The whole turn of events didn't come as a surprise to anyone, and looking back, there were signs that he would do something like this for a few days leading up to it. He had already threatened to run away, and hinted at hurting himself, and we did what we could. Someone had already talked to the Ulpan director to say he needed to get out of here because he was obviously extremely depressed. That's all I feel comfortable sharing with this story.
This was how my passover vacation basically started. After that weekend, I had 4 days of only work and no school. My boss, Mazel was acting very strange on those days. The first day I was told I finished too quickly and didn't do a good enough job, and that we didn't need to do any mopping. The next day I'm told I'm working too slowly, that I'm lazy, and that we do in fact need to mop. She drives me crazy because nothing is ever clean enough (because it is not possible for things to be spotless), and she's constantly flip-flopping in her mood.
Wednesday, April 8th, my vacation started. It begun by me waking up feeling sick once more. This time when I went to the doctor they told me I had strep throat, and I was finally given anti-biotics, so now I am finally healthy. Me being sick came at a bad time though, I was very close to not going to Jerusalem for Passover Seder. I did end up going though, to spend the Seder with some family. It was nice- good food, good company- but I was feeling down for a lot of the night because I was feeling sick, and it made me miss my own family. Luckily the next day, I stayed in Jerusalem, and was able to sleep a lot, to get my strength back.
Friday morning I went to meet up with my boyfriend David, and my two other Spanish speaking boys, Avraham, and Yaneev. I met them at a beach, on the Mediterranean Sea for a 3 day music festival called Bombamella- although I only came for the last 2 days. There was a soul reggae tent, techno, a tent that only played club music the whole time, and then tents where various Israeli artists were playing- there was blues, rock, and Israeli pop artists, I guess. There were a lot of people doing strange things for example there were people wearing white toga-like clothes, faces painted white, holding hands, walking along the festival not saying anything, picking up people on the way. They were holding signs that said something about peace, so I'm guessing they just wanted everyone to be peaceful and happy? There was also body painting, a pool of mud people were jumping into, lots of food, and market stores. One of the most interesting things we saw was the Hare Krishna tent, where they sang their Hare Krishna song for an hour at a time, a few times a day, and served people free food. The Hare Krishna song has 8 lines, each with 2 words, only 3 different words are in the song, and the tune barely changes. It was so different, and we were so curious to see if they'd do anything different (they didn't) that we ended up staying a while. We camped out on the beach in tents, along with probably thousands of tents. People didn't go to sleep until the sun went up, and all you could hear all night were drunk people singing passover songs. We met interesting people, got a lot of sun, and listened and danced to a lot of good music.
We came back from Bombamella in the evening, and took time to relax at the kibbutz. On Monday morning, the 13th, we all went to the Dead Sea. Getting there was exciting, since it was a Jewish holiday, and there were a lot of people travelling. I was appointed to wait in line to by our bus tickets to the Dead Sea, and I had to drop my Canadian politeness, and get to the front of the line the Israeli way. I had to yell at a few girls who were trying to go in front of me. I then had to tell off a man who came to the front of the line as I finally got to the front (after 15 minutes), saying he just had to ask a question. I told him we all have questions, we're all trying to get somewhere, and he has to wait his turn. Of course this was all in Hebrew. We got to the Dead Sea, and went floating. After 10 minutes of being out of the water, my skin started burning, and I got a bit of a rash, and I had to run away to shower. Unlike typical tourists however, we forgot to get mud to rub all over ourselves, we had made new friends, and got distracted. The friends we made were religious, but not in the black hat, and clothes kind of way. They weren't offended by me in my bathing suit, or people eating unkosher food, and we were able to have a respectful conversation where I found out a lot about their beliefs. At one point I over heard one of them saying that people who watch too much soccer lose their way, which made me laugh a bit, but I kept that to myself. That night we camped out right on the beach. We played our drums a bit, listened to music, played some cards, and sat waiting for our water to boil for maybe an hour. When we arrived home the next day, I had never been so exhausted in my life from all of the sun, and travelling. It had been about 40 degrees at the hot part of the day, and this is just spring. I will probably melt when summer actually comes.
The next day, I went with a couple friends to spend a bit of time on the beach in Tel Aviv. It seemed like a good idea, but when we got there, it wasn't warm enough to be in our shorts and tank tops, or swim, and when we lay down on our towels, the wind blew large amounts of sand in our eyes and mouths. Luckily we were able to get a ride back from a friend who was with family nearby, which made the little time spent there worth it.
Getting back to class and work just a few days ago from holiday was hard. Being on vacation, and getting a chance to explore was amazing, and relaxing, and an opportunity to get closer with everyone.
I don't know if you all remember me writing about Anton, the crazy Russian on our Ulpan, but to sum up the story I'm about to tell: he's now in a mental institution (excuse me if I'm not politically correct on that one). I can give some details, but out of respect for Anton, and the fact that this is a public blog, I won't go into the more personal details. A few weekends ago, it was a few peoples birthdays, so we celebrated by having a bonfire. Anton was there, drinking a bit, and looking sadder than usual. He came up to me at one point and said he wasn't feeling well. Afterwards, I heard him talking to his roommate and saying that no body likes him, and that he wasn't happy. People continued going to talk to him to try to calm him down, but he often get in states like that, but there was nothing we could do except talk him down. A little bit later, someone comes and tells us that he had run out in front of a moving car, and got hit. He survived that, so he broke through the fence of the fields, and ran away. He was gone from maybe 11/12-ish at night, until 3 the next afternoon. There were cops searching for him, and helicopters too. We were all very afraid that he was dead, but at the same time, afraid of what laid ahead of him if he wasn't dead. They luckily found him alive, and seemingly uninjured, drinking in a bar not so far away. The whole turn of events didn't come as a surprise to anyone, and looking back, there were signs that he would do something like this for a few days leading up to it. He had already threatened to run away, and hinted at hurting himself, and we did what we could. Someone had already talked to the Ulpan director to say he needed to get out of here because he was obviously extremely depressed. That's all I feel comfortable sharing with this story.
This was how my passover vacation basically started. After that weekend, I had 4 days of only work and no school. My boss, Mazel was acting very strange on those days. The first day I was told I finished too quickly and didn't do a good enough job, and that we didn't need to do any mopping. The next day I'm told I'm working too slowly, that I'm lazy, and that we do in fact need to mop. She drives me crazy because nothing is ever clean enough (because it is not possible for things to be spotless), and she's constantly flip-flopping in her mood.
Wednesday, April 8th, my vacation started. It begun by me waking up feeling sick once more. This time when I went to the doctor they told me I had strep throat, and I was finally given anti-biotics, so now I am finally healthy. Me being sick came at a bad time though, I was very close to not going to Jerusalem for Passover Seder. I did end up going though, to spend the Seder with some family. It was nice- good food, good company- but I was feeling down for a lot of the night because I was feeling sick, and it made me miss my own family. Luckily the next day, I stayed in Jerusalem, and was able to sleep a lot, to get my strength back.
Friday morning I went to meet up with my boyfriend David, and my two other Spanish speaking boys, Avraham, and Yaneev. I met them at a beach, on the Mediterranean Sea for a 3 day music festival called Bombamella- although I only came for the last 2 days. There was a soul reggae tent, techno, a tent that only played club music the whole time, and then tents where various Israeli artists were playing- there was blues, rock, and Israeli pop artists, I guess. There were a lot of people doing strange things for example there were people wearing white toga-like clothes, faces painted white, holding hands, walking along the festival not saying anything, picking up people on the way. They were holding signs that said something about peace, so I'm guessing they just wanted everyone to be peaceful and happy? There was also body painting, a pool of mud people were jumping into, lots of food, and market stores. One of the most interesting things we saw was the Hare Krishna tent, where they sang their Hare Krishna song for an hour at a time, a few times a day, and served people free food. The Hare Krishna song has 8 lines, each with 2 words, only 3 different words are in the song, and the tune barely changes. It was so different, and we were so curious to see if they'd do anything different (they didn't) that we ended up staying a while. We camped out on the beach in tents, along with probably thousands of tents. People didn't go to sleep until the sun went up, and all you could hear all night were drunk people singing passover songs. We met interesting people, got a lot of sun, and listened and danced to a lot of good music.
We came back from Bombamella in the evening, and took time to relax at the kibbutz. On Monday morning, the 13th, we all went to the Dead Sea. Getting there was exciting, since it was a Jewish holiday, and there were a lot of people travelling. I was appointed to wait in line to by our bus tickets to the Dead Sea, and I had to drop my Canadian politeness, and get to the front of the line the Israeli way. I had to yell at a few girls who were trying to go in front of me. I then had to tell off a man who came to the front of the line as I finally got to the front (after 15 minutes), saying he just had to ask a question. I told him we all have questions, we're all trying to get somewhere, and he has to wait his turn. Of course this was all in Hebrew. We got to the Dead Sea, and went floating. After 10 minutes of being out of the water, my skin started burning, and I got a bit of a rash, and I had to run away to shower. Unlike typical tourists however, we forgot to get mud to rub all over ourselves, we had made new friends, and got distracted. The friends we made were religious, but not in the black hat, and clothes kind of way. They weren't offended by me in my bathing suit, or people eating unkosher food, and we were able to have a respectful conversation where I found out a lot about their beliefs. At one point I over heard one of them saying that people who watch too much soccer lose their way, which made me laugh a bit, but I kept that to myself. That night we camped out right on the beach. We played our drums a bit, listened to music, played some cards, and sat waiting for our water to boil for maybe an hour. When we arrived home the next day, I had never been so exhausted in my life from all of the sun, and travelling. It had been about 40 degrees at the hot part of the day, and this is just spring. I will probably melt when summer actually comes.
The next day, I went with a couple friends to spend a bit of time on the beach in Tel Aviv. It seemed like a good idea, but when we got there, it wasn't warm enough to be in our shorts and tank tops, or swim, and when we lay down on our towels, the wind blew large amounts of sand in our eyes and mouths. Luckily we were able to get a ride back from a friend who was with family nearby, which made the little time spent there worth it.
Getting back to class and work just a few days ago from holiday was hard. Being on vacation, and getting a chance to explore was amazing, and relaxing, and an opportunity to get closer with everyone.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
March 24
It's been a couple weeks and I've been keeping busy. To start, last Tuesday I aquired a roommate, named Jamie. She's 24, from Minnesota, and it's nice to have some company in my room. She's not new, she's just been in a different room since the begining, and switched to be with me. She got along fine with her last roommate, but they just had different schedules, and her roommate wanted to live alone from the start, where I wanted some company- I guess time will tell if I can handle having a roommate.
A couple weeks ago, we had a couple days off for Purim. One day, 9 friends and I took a taxi to Tel Aviv for the aftrenoon. We started off in the market. It was an open market that old everything from dollarstore type goods, to meats, to grocerys, to movies... everything. It was very busy, you need to stick your elbows out a bit so you don't get pushed around. In tel Aviv we all bought ourselves cotumes for Purim, I got a bee costume. We then had some falafel, and proceeded to mall. I don't understand why, but anytime I go into a city with friends, we ewnd up at malls, which I don't enjoy. I did, however, randomly find a Toronto MapleLeafs sweatshirt meant for a ten year boy, with everything written in Hebrew, so I decided to show some Toronto pride, and buy it. It was crazy being in Tel Aviv for Purim because almost everybody walking down the streets were in costumes. I even saw people with business suits on, with a costume on top.
The next day, we went into Rehovot, and got some sushi. It's not like oging for sushi in Toronto. It took forever to come, and the wasabi, was barely wasabi. I could take half a chunk, and eat it on it's own.
In terms of a Purim celebration, on Friday the 13th, they turned the dining room into a club, I guess. On one side there was a DJ, and loud music, and all of the young people dancing. On the other side was where the older people were dancing. There was free cheese and crackers, as well as an open bar, since Purim is a holiday where you're supposed to get drunk enugh that you don't know good from bad... doens't the saying go something like that? There was a lot of beer spilled on me, it was very sweaty, and there were various levels of drama going on, but all in all it was a very fun night. The day after was Shabbat, also good however, and barely anyone was too be seen, since people were sleeping, and relaxing. However, that night, I cam down with a fever, and my throat was really hurtings me, so I didn't go to work or clss the next day. I had slept from 10pm, to 8, and went to the doctor. They gave me throat lozenges, even though I know it was beyond that, in fact the worst my throat has ever felt (and I've had my fair share of Broncitis, Laryngitis, strep throat, etc.) I then slept more, ate lunch, slept some more, and finally got out of my bed at 6. I've never slept so much in my life.
The next day I pushed myself to wake up for 6am for the day trip with the whole Ulpan. We started off at Atzlit(?) which was an illegal immigrent camp for the Jews when they started arriving into israel around the time that Israel became a state. They were stressing the point that Jews were coming from Europe, from the camps, and ghettos of the Holocaust, and when they came to Israel, expecting to be free, many were put into these camps. In all honesty, I still felt extremly sick, and I was very tired, so I don't remember most of what was being told to us in the tour, and I actually fell asleep for the 10 minute video they showed us.
Next we went on a hike on Mount Carmel. It was quite beautiful, I'll try and post photos in the next couple of days. From the mountain we had a view of the sea, and of other mountains, and caves, and green. In israel, the scenery is all green and brownish-orange. We even got to take our flashlights deeps into a cave, ot explore a bit. It was so loud and busy because there were also groups of high school kids touring around, and I ended up leading a whole bunch of people out of the cave since many people didn't have lunch.
Next we went to a Druze village. Druze is a belief that originated I think in Egypt. It started I think as a fusion of Jewish, and Ilslamic beliefs, but now it is its own thing. Druze people live in villages only of Druze people, and they can only marry inside of the religion, or they are kicked out of the community. Things I remember about the religion it they had 5 profits, and they belive that humans reincarnate, but they remain human, and of the same sex in each reincarnation. Our Druze guide. who was a secular man, says he is one of a small group of Druze people who remembers his former life. Apparently they all have 73 lives, and all of their 73 lives end together. The village was very hilly, it reminded me of the steep hills in San Fransisco, and the houses were some the most beautiful houses I've ever seen. After we got to walk around their small market, where I bought a backgammon, or sheshbesh board. Nothing is priced, you have to ask the price and bargain. And the woman was aying, :this is a spcial price, only for you", but of course they say that to everyone.
For the rest of that week, I still felt sick. When my throat got a bit better, I started noticing a pain in my ear, that tylenol was not healing. I went back to the doctor to complain about my EAR, and they look in my THROAT, give me a look as if I was lying about the pain, and just told me to continue taking the throat lozenges. This was all comign from the nurse, who are Israeli, so of course their natural reactionis to tell you to suck up the pain.. For last week when I was sick, everybody was getting sick. You started to be able to recognize that people were coming somewhere becuase you could tell who each individual cough was coming from. We all were sleeping a lot, watched a lot of movies, and went to pick oranges. One day when we were at our place in the orange fields, under the big trees, we heard and saw a swarm of bees, and ran away. We also spotted some avacados in the trees we were sitting under, so we started throwing sticks 20-30 feet in the air to knock them down.
The past Friday, I went to Jerusalem to visit my relatives, Varda and Shlomo. On the way to Jerusalem, waiting for the bus, I was with someone on the Ulpan Raphael. He speaks Hungarian, and knew no Hebrew or English before coming here, so it was one of the first times I was able to hold conversations with him. While we were waitin for the bus, a crazy man with a kippah sat down right beside us (most chairs were empty, but he sat RIGHT beside us) and started rattling on in Hebrew. The hwole time Raphael and I were trying so hard not to laugh, and jsut nodded and agreed.
In Jerusalem, we visited the Western Wall since I didn't really get much out of the 5 minute visit we had to the wall on my frist tour. I got to put a note into the wall. We also toured around parts of the old city that I didn't see before, including a painting of a street in the old city in the time of the Romans, as well as a recriation of the Menora from the time of the Temple. Unfortuntely, it was a friday evening, so everything was closed, otherwise we would have gone to the market. We then drove past the house that my Grandfather lived in when he lived in Israel. I was then cooked a great dinner, with a bit of everything. All the home cooked meals I'm going to recieve in Israel are going to be a luxury. After dinner, I sat and read for a while, which was the most relaxation I've had since I've arrived.
Next morning, I had the best breakfast: a few pieces of toast, a few kinds of cheeses, jam, olives, and tomatoes. Varda, Shlomo and I then drove to Jaffa, to go on a tour, with their group of 30 friends or so, all over the age of 65. It wasn't so much a walking tour, more like a an informative tour, so I was listening to stories about when Napoleon conquered Jaffa, and such. It was all in Hebrew, so anytime I zoned out, then zoned back in, it was hard to understand. We were walking along the water, and it was a clear sunny day, so it was nice. We then drove over to Tel Aviv- although I think it's Tel Aviv-Jaffa, kind of the same city, and went to the pier/market place. Before we were able to drive over to the pier though, the group was arguing for 20 minutes about where we'd park, and what route we'd take. Of course, everone thought they were right, so it just didn't end. The cities were beautiful, and the stories we were told on the tour were interesting, so in all it was a very nice trip. The whole time I was being spoken to in Hebrew, and probably 90-95% of the time I was talking back in Hebrew. I was impressed with myself, but by the end of the weekend my head was hurting.
Yesterday was also a very nice day, so we bought food for lunch, and went to have a picnic, instead of eating in the dining room. There, people were climbing trees, playing chess, and I played some seshbesh.
Thats all of the evenful things that have happened in the past few weeks. Tomorrow in class we are cooking, so we can learn kitchen words. We'll be making israeli salads, fruit salads, dips, and shaksuhka, which I know involves eggs, but I'm ont sure what else. I hope its successful, and I guess I'll be able to add it to my list of things I can make. A very small list. I'll try to write again sooner than 2 weeks. Hope everybosy is well, and I miss you all.
A couple weeks ago, we had a couple days off for Purim. One day, 9 friends and I took a taxi to Tel Aviv for the aftrenoon. We started off in the market. It was an open market that old everything from dollarstore type goods, to meats, to grocerys, to movies... everything. It was very busy, you need to stick your elbows out a bit so you don't get pushed around. In tel Aviv we all bought ourselves cotumes for Purim, I got a bee costume. We then had some falafel, and proceeded to mall. I don't understand why, but anytime I go into a city with friends, we ewnd up at malls, which I don't enjoy. I did, however, randomly find a Toronto MapleLeafs sweatshirt meant for a ten year boy, with everything written in Hebrew, so I decided to show some Toronto pride, and buy it. It was crazy being in Tel Aviv for Purim because almost everybody walking down the streets were in costumes. I even saw people with business suits on, with a costume on top.
The next day, we went into Rehovot, and got some sushi. It's not like oging for sushi in Toronto. It took forever to come, and the wasabi, was barely wasabi. I could take half a chunk, and eat it on it's own.
In terms of a Purim celebration, on Friday the 13th, they turned the dining room into a club, I guess. On one side there was a DJ, and loud music, and all of the young people dancing. On the other side was where the older people were dancing. There was free cheese and crackers, as well as an open bar, since Purim is a holiday where you're supposed to get drunk enugh that you don't know good from bad... doens't the saying go something like that? There was a lot of beer spilled on me, it was very sweaty, and there were various levels of drama going on, but all in all it was a very fun night. The day after was Shabbat, also good however, and barely anyone was too be seen, since people were sleeping, and relaxing. However, that night, I cam down with a fever, and my throat was really hurtings me, so I didn't go to work or clss the next day. I had slept from 10pm, to 8, and went to the doctor. They gave me throat lozenges, even though I know it was beyond that, in fact the worst my throat has ever felt (and I've had my fair share of Broncitis, Laryngitis, strep throat, etc.) I then slept more, ate lunch, slept some more, and finally got out of my bed at 6. I've never slept so much in my life.
The next day I pushed myself to wake up for 6am for the day trip with the whole Ulpan. We started off at Atzlit(?) which was an illegal immigrent camp for the Jews when they started arriving into israel around the time that Israel became a state. They were stressing the point that Jews were coming from Europe, from the camps, and ghettos of the Holocaust, and when they came to Israel, expecting to be free, many were put into these camps. In all honesty, I still felt extremly sick, and I was very tired, so I don't remember most of what was being told to us in the tour, and I actually fell asleep for the 10 minute video they showed us.
Next we went on a hike on Mount Carmel. It was quite beautiful, I'll try and post photos in the next couple of days. From the mountain we had a view of the sea, and of other mountains, and caves, and green. In israel, the scenery is all green and brownish-orange. We even got to take our flashlights deeps into a cave, ot explore a bit. It was so loud and busy because there were also groups of high school kids touring around, and I ended up leading a whole bunch of people out of the cave since many people didn't have lunch.
Next we went to a Druze village. Druze is a belief that originated I think in Egypt. It started I think as a fusion of Jewish, and Ilslamic beliefs, but now it is its own thing. Druze people live in villages only of Druze people, and they can only marry inside of the religion, or they are kicked out of the community. Things I remember about the religion it they had 5 profits, and they belive that humans reincarnate, but they remain human, and of the same sex in each reincarnation. Our Druze guide. who was a secular man, says he is one of a small group of Druze people who remembers his former life. Apparently they all have 73 lives, and all of their 73 lives end together. The village was very hilly, it reminded me of the steep hills in San Fransisco, and the houses were some the most beautiful houses I've ever seen. After we got to walk around their small market, where I bought a backgammon, or sheshbesh board. Nothing is priced, you have to ask the price and bargain. And the woman was aying, :this is a spcial price, only for you", but of course they say that to everyone.
For the rest of that week, I still felt sick. When my throat got a bit better, I started noticing a pain in my ear, that tylenol was not healing. I went back to the doctor to complain about my EAR, and they look in my THROAT, give me a look as if I was lying about the pain, and just told me to continue taking the throat lozenges. This was all comign from the nurse, who are Israeli, so of course their natural reactionis to tell you to suck up the pain.. For last week when I was sick, everybody was getting sick. You started to be able to recognize that people were coming somewhere becuase you could tell who each individual cough was coming from. We all were sleeping a lot, watched a lot of movies, and went to pick oranges. One day when we were at our place in the orange fields, under the big trees, we heard and saw a swarm of bees, and ran away. We also spotted some avacados in the trees we were sitting under, so we started throwing sticks 20-30 feet in the air to knock them down.
The past Friday, I went to Jerusalem to visit my relatives, Varda and Shlomo. On the way to Jerusalem, waiting for the bus, I was with someone on the Ulpan Raphael. He speaks Hungarian, and knew no Hebrew or English before coming here, so it was one of the first times I was able to hold conversations with him. While we were waitin for the bus, a crazy man with a kippah sat down right beside us (most chairs were empty, but he sat RIGHT beside us) and started rattling on in Hebrew. The hwole time Raphael and I were trying so hard not to laugh, and jsut nodded and agreed.
In Jerusalem, we visited the Western Wall since I didn't really get much out of the 5 minute visit we had to the wall on my frist tour. I got to put a note into the wall. We also toured around parts of the old city that I didn't see before, including a painting of a street in the old city in the time of the Romans, as well as a recriation of the Menora from the time of the Temple. Unfortuntely, it was a friday evening, so everything was closed, otherwise we would have gone to the market. We then drove past the house that my Grandfather lived in when he lived in Israel. I was then cooked a great dinner, with a bit of everything. All the home cooked meals I'm going to recieve in Israel are going to be a luxury. After dinner, I sat and read for a while, which was the most relaxation I've had since I've arrived.
Next morning, I had the best breakfast: a few pieces of toast, a few kinds of cheeses, jam, olives, and tomatoes. Varda, Shlomo and I then drove to Jaffa, to go on a tour, with their group of 30 friends or so, all over the age of 65. It wasn't so much a walking tour, more like a an informative tour, so I was listening to stories about when Napoleon conquered Jaffa, and such. It was all in Hebrew, so anytime I zoned out, then zoned back in, it was hard to understand. We were walking along the water, and it was a clear sunny day, so it was nice. We then drove over to Tel Aviv- although I think it's Tel Aviv-Jaffa, kind of the same city, and went to the pier/market place. Before we were able to drive over to the pier though, the group was arguing for 20 minutes about where we'd park, and what route we'd take. Of course, everone thought they were right, so it just didn't end. The cities were beautiful, and the stories we were told on the tour were interesting, so in all it was a very nice trip. The whole time I was being spoken to in Hebrew, and probably 90-95% of the time I was talking back in Hebrew. I was impressed with myself, but by the end of the weekend my head was hurting.
Yesterday was also a very nice day, so we bought food for lunch, and went to have a picnic, instead of eating in the dining room. There, people were climbing trees, playing chess, and I played some seshbesh.
Thats all of the evenful things that have happened in the past few weeks. Tomorrow in class we are cooking, so we can learn kitchen words. We'll be making israeli salads, fruit salads, dips, and shaksuhka, which I know involves eggs, but I'm ont sure what else. I hope its successful, and I guess I'll be able to add it to my list of things I can make. A very small list. I'll try to write again sooner than 2 weeks. Hope everybosy is well, and I miss you all.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
March 7
Day's here all kind of blend together, so I'm not sure if anything I will type on this post is in any sort of order. During the days I'm still working cleaning the toilets. For one ady I had a friend doing it with me since he didn't ahev a job yet. Herky, frmo New York, jsut came to the Ulpan last friay, a few weeks into the Ulpan, but he's settling in alright. He's rooming with the crazy Russian Anton. I don't think I've written about Anton yet. Basically for the first week he was evry quiet, kept to himself, and avoided being social. We all assumed he didn't know any English and then one night he got drunk, and just went crazy. It turns out he understands english very wello, but he just have a sorted past. He said he was in the navy when he was 14, and was in it for 8 years. We think he may have been addicted to drugs for a while, and now he's here. He's a nice guys, but when he drinks, he goes crazy, and runs around ni his boxers, with his covers on his head yelling random things. He'll probably be kicked out soon since he's never been to class, and he hasn't been assigned a job/done anything sine he's gotten here. Even though he's crazy, we're all such a family here that when he leaves it will be sad.
It's now been about a month sine I've been here, which is really crazy. I think everybody is starting to feel a little too cooped inside. We are close to Rehovot, which is a good sized town, but it costs money to get in and out of there most of the time. Yesterday though no one had class or work in the afternoon so everyone tried to get on the one free bus gonig into Rehovot. The bus maybe fits 20 people at most. Probably 20 people from the ulpan were waiting for the bus, and kibbutz teenagers, and adults, and the kibbutzniks told some of us ulpanists to get off the bus so they could fit. They don't really see us as equal sine we don't live here all year round, which I can understrand. But at the same time we work, we pay to be here, and we put in our share, so it can get kind of obnoxious.
Sometimes fun things will come up. The other night a few friends and I went to a birthady BBQ of a friend of ours on the kibbutz, and they fed us meat, beer and hummus, and this dip that was kind of like hummus but a lot better. Usually most nights/free time in general, we like to hang around in people's rooms and listen to music, and sometimes dance. One night me and my Montreal friend, Blake were left alone in a room with speakers, and we both just started dancing. We were dancing in the halls, where we realized the video cameras probably saw everything. A girl in the Ulpan's sister was in town and she saw us doing this and probably thought we were crazy. There might be some truth to her thinking we're crazy though, since we probably are all a bit crazy as a result of being cooped up on our isolated community.
It is finally warm again, and after 3 weeks of cold, I think I heard we're having a bit of a heat wave. Yesterday after work, me, 3 of my ulpan friends were driven to a beach just 20 minutes away by our kibbutz friend Offer. We got to swim and lay down on the beach and relax. The beach was quite the sight, there were cars parked on it, people driving around on 4 wheelers, and when we first arrived there was a car stuck in the water being pushed out. Offer told us this is common to see at a beach, people like showing off there cars. What was also different about the beach was the fact that it was pretty much all young people, and you didn't see old men with their big bellies hanging over their speedos like you normally see at a beach.
Last night I got to have a nice home cooked shabbat meal with a family on the kibbutz... family of Dina's old friend Avidan. It was very nice. She was born in Canada, and moved to Israel after she did the same Ulpan I did, many years ago. I took it easy after that, and didn't go to the club since I've been a bit sick for a few days. It was nice to have a relaxing night.
It's now been about a month sine I've been here, which is really crazy. I think everybody is starting to feel a little too cooped inside. We are close to Rehovot, which is a good sized town, but it costs money to get in and out of there most of the time. Yesterday though no one had class or work in the afternoon so everyone tried to get on the one free bus gonig into Rehovot. The bus maybe fits 20 people at most. Probably 20 people from the ulpan were waiting for the bus, and kibbutz teenagers, and adults, and the kibbutzniks told some of us ulpanists to get off the bus so they could fit. They don't really see us as equal sine we don't live here all year round, which I can understrand. But at the same time we work, we pay to be here, and we put in our share, so it can get kind of obnoxious.
Sometimes fun things will come up. The other night a few friends and I went to a birthady BBQ of a friend of ours on the kibbutz, and they fed us meat, beer and hummus, and this dip that was kind of like hummus but a lot better. Usually most nights/free time in general, we like to hang around in people's rooms and listen to music, and sometimes dance. One night me and my Montreal friend, Blake were left alone in a room with speakers, and we both just started dancing. We were dancing in the halls, where we realized the video cameras probably saw everything. A girl in the Ulpan's sister was in town and she saw us doing this and probably thought we were crazy. There might be some truth to her thinking we're crazy though, since we probably are all a bit crazy as a result of being cooped up on our isolated community.
It is finally warm again, and after 3 weeks of cold, I think I heard we're having a bit of a heat wave. Yesterday after work, me, 3 of my ulpan friends were driven to a beach just 20 minutes away by our kibbutz friend Offer. We got to swim and lay down on the beach and relax. The beach was quite the sight, there were cars parked on it, people driving around on 4 wheelers, and when we first arrived there was a car stuck in the water being pushed out. Offer told us this is common to see at a beach, people like showing off there cars. What was also different about the beach was the fact that it was pretty much all young people, and you didn't see old men with their big bellies hanging over their speedos like you normally see at a beach.
Last night I got to have a nice home cooked shabbat meal with a family on the kibbutz... family of Dina's old friend Avidan. It was very nice. She was born in Canada, and moved to Israel after she did the same Ulpan I did, many years ago. I took it easy after that, and didn't go to the club since I've been a bit sick for a few days. It was nice to have a relaxing night.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Feb. 20
Again, I apologize for spelling errors; i really can barely read what I'm typing. Also, since I always spread out my posts, they may be all over the place, but I guess that's how time feels here anyways.
Since my last post, I'm still working and studying most days. My hebrew is getting better. I try to speak Hebrew with my Israeli friends, but it's hard to understand what they say to me becuae they have their own slang, and speak very fast. Work can also be confusing too because I have told the woman I work for to speak to me in Hebrew, and she does. This means though that she'll tell me to do something, and I won't end up doing it since I dind't hear her telling me. She doesn't get angry with me, although maybe sometimes she gets impatient. Thats the attitude of the Israelis I've encountered; they're friendly, and personable, but they're stern, and they know what and how they want things done.
On Monday we did a day trip to Jerusalem. It was a cold, but fun day. The drive up was green mountains, and valleys. We started out at Yad Vashem- the Holocoast memorial, museum. Our tour guide walked us through it, telling us about certain stories, and letting us explore on our own also. Many people left crying. It was the type of museum that plays to your emotions, and the exhibits were very symbolic. After we climber Mount Herzel. It was quite pretty, it had a lot of tree, and flowers, as well as memorials. Our tour guide brought his guitar and sang us a few Hebrew songs, it was kind of cheesy, but fun. We then walked around the old city of Jerusalem. I have a bunch of pictures, but I'm not sure how soon I can get them up. We were high up walking along the streets, along parts of the wall. For people who were scared of heights, it wasn't a good time, ubt for me, I got to see the view from above.
We then went to the Western Wall. The girls side of the wall is so small compared to the guys side. There were lots of religious people. I went up and leaned against the wall, since thats what it seemed like everyone else was doing. It was strange to be there, in this place that has such a rich, and interesting history. Some people told me they cried when they went to the wall. When we left the wall we had to walk backwards, so our backs didn't face the wall. On the way in, everything seemed liked it was on rewind with people going backwards.
We then went to see this cheesy 30 minute movie about the history of Jerusalem. It was one of those movies where your seats move, like you're on a roller coaster. It was awful, and they were trying to fit to much history into it, so it wasn't really my favorite thing. However they did have a coffee vending machine, with real(er) coffee then the nescafe stuff I've been drinking.
We were then given a bit of free time to walk down one of the main roads. Most people just went to eat shawerma. I roamed around with friends, and bought myself a small hand drum. It's low quality, but it does what I need it to do. I had the oppertunity to bargin down from the original price he gave me, since it would have been way overpriced. One of the oddest things I saw in Jerusalem was on this street. There were three religious men dancing in the middle of the street to techno music, trying to sell CD's or something. We danced for a few seconds too. One of them black- he had the greatest pay-ot(i don't know how to spell that) I've ever seen.
Since Jerusalem, it's jsut mostly hanging around with friends. It might get boring at some point, but for now everyone here seems to ahving a good time, and getting close. Yesterday I spent close to an hour teaching my friend from France, Stephen, some English. He speaks Hebrew, but since two thirds of the people in the program don't speak Hebrew at all, the common language is mostly English. Also, the people who do "know" Hebrew, like me, still can't really hold a convarsation in Hebrew, so I think he was feeling a bit lonely. We had a good time though. I spoke English very slowly to him, he'd write some notes down. We were laughing a lot though since if he didn't understand what IU was saying in English, I tried looking it up in the Hebrew dictionary, and at that point, he wouldn't necessarily understand. Yaakov from hina is doing quite well in Hebrew and English. He came here knowing pretty much nothing, and now he can at least have simple conversations.
Thats all I can think of for now. This weekend, I think I'm staying in the Kibbutz, but you never know. Things are very spontanious here. Anyways, I hope everyone is safe, and healthy at home, and write me letters!
Elana Cipin
Ulpan, Kibbutz Na'an
Israel
76829
I hope that's the right order...
Since my last post, I'm still working and studying most days. My hebrew is getting better. I try to speak Hebrew with my Israeli friends, but it's hard to understand what they say to me becuae they have their own slang, and speak very fast. Work can also be confusing too because I have told the woman I work for to speak to me in Hebrew, and she does. This means though that she'll tell me to do something, and I won't end up doing it since I dind't hear her telling me. She doesn't get angry with me, although maybe sometimes she gets impatient. Thats the attitude of the Israelis I've encountered; they're friendly, and personable, but they're stern, and they know what and how they want things done.
On Monday we did a day trip to Jerusalem. It was a cold, but fun day. The drive up was green mountains, and valleys. We started out at Yad Vashem- the Holocoast memorial, museum. Our tour guide walked us through it, telling us about certain stories, and letting us explore on our own also. Many people left crying. It was the type of museum that plays to your emotions, and the exhibits were very symbolic. After we climber Mount Herzel. It was quite pretty, it had a lot of tree, and flowers, as well as memorials. Our tour guide brought his guitar and sang us a few Hebrew songs, it was kind of cheesy, but fun. We then walked around the old city of Jerusalem. I have a bunch of pictures, but I'm not sure how soon I can get them up. We were high up walking along the streets, along parts of the wall. For people who were scared of heights, it wasn't a good time, ubt for me, I got to see the view from above.
We then went to the Western Wall. The girls side of the wall is so small compared to the guys side. There were lots of religious people. I went up and leaned against the wall, since thats what it seemed like everyone else was doing. It was strange to be there, in this place that has such a rich, and interesting history. Some people told me they cried when they went to the wall. When we left the wall we had to walk backwards, so our backs didn't face the wall. On the way in, everything seemed liked it was on rewind with people going backwards.
We then went to see this cheesy 30 minute movie about the history of Jerusalem. It was one of those movies where your seats move, like you're on a roller coaster. It was awful, and they were trying to fit to much history into it, so it wasn't really my favorite thing. However they did have a coffee vending machine, with real(er) coffee then the nescafe stuff I've been drinking.
We were then given a bit of free time to walk down one of the main roads. Most people just went to eat shawerma. I roamed around with friends, and bought myself a small hand drum. It's low quality, but it does what I need it to do. I had the oppertunity to bargin down from the original price he gave me, since it would have been way overpriced. One of the oddest things I saw in Jerusalem was on this street. There were three religious men dancing in the middle of the street to techno music, trying to sell CD's or something. We danced for a few seconds too. One of them black- he had the greatest pay-ot(i don't know how to spell that) I've ever seen.
Since Jerusalem, it's jsut mostly hanging around with friends. It might get boring at some point, but for now everyone here seems to ahving a good time, and getting close. Yesterday I spent close to an hour teaching my friend from France, Stephen, some English. He speaks Hebrew, but since two thirds of the people in the program don't speak Hebrew at all, the common language is mostly English. Also, the people who do "know" Hebrew, like me, still can't really hold a convarsation in Hebrew, so I think he was feeling a bit lonely. We had a good time though. I spoke English very slowly to him, he'd write some notes down. We were laughing a lot though since if he didn't understand what IU was saying in English, I tried looking it up in the Hebrew dictionary, and at that point, he wouldn't necessarily understand. Yaakov from hina is doing quite well in Hebrew and English. He came here knowing pretty much nothing, and now he can at least have simple conversations.
Thats all I can think of for now. This weekend, I think I'm staying in the Kibbutz, but you never know. Things are very spontanious here. Anyways, I hope everyone is safe, and healthy at home, and write me letters!
Elana Cipin
Ulpan, Kibbutz Na'an
Israel
76829
I hope that's the right order...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Feb. 11
I started class and work on sunday. In the morning, I worked with Mazel. What we do is clean the Ulpan kitchen, porch, common room and the building that we live in. I literally washed everyone on the programs dish and every surface of the kitchen counter. What I learned from this experience is that we are all extremely messy. Also, I clean our toilets. It's kind of gross in the guy's washroom, but the work is not that ahrd, and I finish at around 11:45. Then that same day I had class from 4:00 until 6:30. The teacher spoke in Heberew the entire time, and I understood most of it. I really didn't think I knew as much Hebrew as I do. My only issue is speaking it, since at USDS they never erally encouraged us to speak. The class is a strange dynamic with some people who can speak, but not read or write. People who can't speak but understand. People who are basically fluent in Hebrew already. It's an interesting way to learn.
At night we had a bonfire, and roasted hotdogs.
Monday we just had class in the morning, and took a tour of the kibbutz grounds. They have some building that has drums, and we were told that furtheer into the program we can ask to use to instruments. After class, me and a few friends went to the nearby town Rehovot. The bus to get there was crazy. They arrive right on time to pick you up, load and elave in a minute, and when we arrived to Rehovot, they were rushing us off. Looking around the town, and on the route there, everything looks so different. There's palm tree's, and I saw camels also. At night, we had another bonfire. I'm guessing we'll have a lot of fires because the weather is cool at night.
Tuesday was a day off because of the elections. Most of Israel shuts down, to go and vote, aor jsut take the day as a vacation. It was cold and rainy though. I just slept in, did homework, and hung around with friends. New people also came, adding a Brazilian, and also Yakov: the first Chineese jew I have met. He speaks almost no English, and neither does the Brazilian, so it's funny to watch them try to understand each other in English. At night we wentto get fries at the pub, and play some pool. Unfortuneatly I'm awful at pool, so I lost. We have made friends with the guy who drives around the kibbutz patrolling at night, so he gave us a ride from the pub to our building since it was absolutely pouring rain. I don't like when it's cold and rainy here, but the Israelis like it because they need the water.
Today there was more class, and again, I'm feeling confident in my udnerstanding of Hebrew. My Hebrew will get better when I'm here though, when my English will probably suffer. The English I speak here is different since I have to speak with people who have english as their second language.
At night we had a bonfire, and roasted hotdogs.
Monday we just had class in the morning, and took a tour of the kibbutz grounds. They have some building that has drums, and we were told that furtheer into the program we can ask to use to instruments. After class, me and a few friends went to the nearby town Rehovot. The bus to get there was crazy. They arrive right on time to pick you up, load and elave in a minute, and when we arrived to Rehovot, they were rushing us off. Looking around the town, and on the route there, everything looks so different. There's palm tree's, and I saw camels also. At night, we had another bonfire. I'm guessing we'll have a lot of fires because the weather is cool at night.
Tuesday was a day off because of the elections. Most of Israel shuts down, to go and vote, aor jsut take the day as a vacation. It was cold and rainy though. I just slept in, did homework, and hung around with friends. New people also came, adding a Brazilian, and also Yakov: the first Chineese jew I have met. He speaks almost no English, and neither does the Brazilian, so it's funny to watch them try to understand each other in English. At night we wentto get fries at the pub, and play some pool. Unfortuneatly I'm awful at pool, so I lost. We have made friends with the guy who drives around the kibbutz patrolling at night, so he gave us a ride from the pub to our building since it was absolutely pouring rain. I don't like when it's cold and rainy here, but the Israelis like it because they need the water.
Today there was more class, and again, I'm feeling confident in my udnerstanding of Hebrew. My Hebrew will get better when I'm here though, when my English will probably suffer. The English I speak here is different since I have to speak with people who have english as their second language.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Winter on the Beach in Tel Aviv-
I went to Tel Aviv for an afternoon/evening with my friends Mate, David, and Gabriel We walked on the beach, then got lost walking around. By dinner time, we were hungry, but all the restaurant were closed because it shabbat. Last night I went with 3 friends to the club on the Kibbutz. People from all over Israel go. IIn one room they had more American style music, and in another room they had live Israeli singers who were singing typical Hebrew songs. My friend from the Kibbutz told me that some of the songs were songs they al know from the army, and some were just theme songs from children shows. My friends and I didn't dance in the middle of the crowd, we were all just off to the side dancing with each other. My Venezuelen friend David was trying to teach me to salsa dance, but I wasn't really good.
Friday, February 6, 2009
First couple of days
To start off, if my spelling is bad, it's because not only am I a terrible speller, but the computre is fuzzy, and it is hard to make out words. I got to Israel on Wednesday with no problems at the airport. The plane ride was very crazy. All of the religious families were pacing, and hanging out in theaisles, there were 20 minute lines for the bathrooms because the religous kids would just run out of nowhere to use the toilet without waiting in line.
For the first couple nights I did have a roomate, a fellow Canadian, but as of an hour ago, she's onw gone. She said the program wasn't for her, even though the program doesn't start until Sunday. She was just very quiet, I guess, and everyone else here is very outgoing. Athough I would usually be happy about the idea of having my own room, I think I'm going to see if there is another room I can go to. Otherwise it will be very lonely.
The weather here is great. Sunny, clear skies, and during the day it has been around 20-25 degrees. At night it does get chilly though, I'm cold when I'm under my covers. We don't actually start the prograsm until sunday. There are 2 levels of Hebrew classes, and I am in the more advanced one. Although it's kind of funny becuase there are a few peolple on the program who can speak Hebrew very well, better than me, but they don't know the alphabet, or how to write. My class is a lot smaller than the lower level class, so it's going to be very intimate. We'll all be very close to the front, and we'll have no choice but to pay attention, or they might get mad. In terms of work, I just found out what my firset job will be. I'll be working with a woman named Mazel (yes, like mazel tov). I don't really know what that entails, but Ilan, the Ulpan coordinater describes her as the mother of the Ulpan. I guess she's kind of like the nanny? What I've seen her do is set up our meals, and take out the trash, and organize the closet with all of the sheets. SO ya, I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing with her.
The schedule is very confusing. There are a couple days where we work in the morning, and then learn in the afternoon/evening. There are also days when we only have class in the morning, with the days ending at 1. There may also be a day where just do our jobs all day. Then friday is a half day, and always ends at lunch because of Shabbt. So out weekends are half day friday, and then saturday.
The people on the Ulpan come from all over. There are around 25 people here so far, but I feel like more people are on their way since the program is supposed to be 35 people. People come from Canada, US, Holland, Hungary, Russia, Chile, Peurto Rico, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, France, Uzbekastan, and Turkmenestan. So the lanuages are English, Russian, and Spanish. The dynamic is very interesting. Most people know very very simple English, so you have to speak slowly, and simply. There is a guy at the Kibbutz who did an Ulpan before us, and he said people usually just go into cliques based on the Language you speak.
Last night we went to the pub on the Kibbutz, and I had fun talking to an Israeli girl my age, I tried speaking my broken Hebrew to her, and she was speaking English very well to me. She likes Briteny Spears and Hannah Montana, and American things like that.
Thats all I have for now. We might go into Tel Aviv today, but we'll see. Theres not really much to do since we're not working or learning. But so far all is well, and I'm having a good time and have made friends.
For the first couple nights I did have a roomate, a fellow Canadian, but as of an hour ago, she's onw gone. She said the program wasn't for her, even though the program doesn't start until Sunday. She was just very quiet, I guess, and everyone else here is very outgoing. Athough I would usually be happy about the idea of having my own room, I think I'm going to see if there is another room I can go to. Otherwise it will be very lonely.
The weather here is great. Sunny, clear skies, and during the day it has been around 20-25 degrees. At night it does get chilly though, I'm cold when I'm under my covers. We don't actually start the prograsm until sunday. There are 2 levels of Hebrew classes, and I am in the more advanced one. Although it's kind of funny becuase there are a few peolple on the program who can speak Hebrew very well, better than me, but they don't know the alphabet, or how to write. My class is a lot smaller than the lower level class, so it's going to be very intimate. We'll all be very close to the front, and we'll have no choice but to pay attention, or they might get mad. In terms of work, I just found out what my firset job will be. I'll be working with a woman named Mazel (yes, like mazel tov). I don't really know what that entails, but Ilan, the Ulpan coordinater describes her as the mother of the Ulpan. I guess she's kind of like the nanny? What I've seen her do is set up our meals, and take out the trash, and organize the closet with all of the sheets. SO ya, I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing with her.
The schedule is very confusing. There are a couple days where we work in the morning, and then learn in the afternoon/evening. There are also days when we only have class in the morning, with the days ending at 1. There may also be a day where just do our jobs all day. Then friday is a half day, and always ends at lunch because of Shabbt. So out weekends are half day friday, and then saturday.
The people on the Ulpan come from all over. There are around 25 people here so far, but I feel like more people are on their way since the program is supposed to be 35 people. People come from Canada, US, Holland, Hungary, Russia, Chile, Peurto Rico, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, France, Uzbekastan, and Turkmenestan. So the lanuages are English, Russian, and Spanish. The dynamic is very interesting. Most people know very very simple English, so you have to speak slowly, and simply. There is a guy at the Kibbutz who did an Ulpan before us, and he said people usually just go into cliques based on the Language you speak.
Last night we went to the pub on the Kibbutz, and I had fun talking to an Israeli girl my age, I tried speaking my broken Hebrew to her, and she was speaking English very well to me. She likes Briteny Spears and Hannah Montana, and American things like that.
Thats all I have for now. We might go into Tel Aviv today, but we'll see. Theres not really much to do since we're not working or learning. But so far all is well, and I'm having a good time and have made friends.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Extended Stay in London
Hello everybody! It's Tuesday, and I'm still in London, even though I was supposed to leave yesterday. Isn't it funny how snow always manages to follow Canadians? Yesterday, my flight to Tel Aviv was supposed to leave in the morning, but we woke up to a snowy London. It was snowing all day, a total of 7 inches, but in London that is the most snow they've had since 1991, and they weren't prepared for that. All trains to the airport were canceled, and 850 flights to/from Heathrow were canceled. So I'm now leaving Wednesday (crossing my fingers, since it might snow again!)
Anyways, here in London I've done all sorts of fun touristy things. First day, Cam and I walked around exploring London. We saw Big Ben, parliment, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly circus and Trafulgar square (huge square with all sorts of large fountains, and where- had it been nicer weather- there would have been lots and lots of pigeons. Of course we also managed to have fish & chips, tea & biscuits, Indian food for dinner and had beer at the local pub just a block away.
Saturday Michael and I explored the National gallery where we saw classical art, which was mostly baby Jesus and Mary. We also saw the Natural History museum where we saw massive and expensive rocks, monkeys, birds, cool things like that. We also went into China Town, and since it was Chineese New Year there was music playing, and we saw people in various dragon costumes dancing. The dragons were kissing eachother a bit, and also climbing up in doorways "eating" (or knocking down) lettuce that was tied on a string. We then ate dragon's beard candy. Made of real dragon, of course.
Sunday we went to the British Museum where we saw interesting Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian, and other exhibits (mummies, carvings, rosetta stone, etc.) Cam and I then went to Camden market, which is I guess considered the market where all of the cool kids go. It was almost like Kensington market, but a whole lot bigger, and more like an actual market. When we were leaving, thats when the snow started. From Michael's flat, we witnessnesed some young hooligans getting arrested by the cops. The teenagers here have absolutely NO respect for the cops. They were yelling, swearing, and pushing them, and when the cop cars drove off, the kids who weren't arrested were smacking, and kicking the cars as they drove off.
Monday, after not being able to get to the airport, it was still snowing, and so we walked around the city. Of course we can handle it, we're Canadians, but no one here knows how to deal with it. There were pleanty of snowmen, and people throwing snowballs at people they didn't know. Even the night before, when it had started snowing, kids were so excited by the dusting of snow on the street, that they were making snow angels in the middle of the road, and scrapping off snow from cars to toss snow in their friends faces... also saw kids throwing snow in the face of a homeless man, which wasn't very nice. We got to explore Carnaby street which was the place to be in the swinging sixties.
With my extra day here we were able to walk along the river, and see the Tower of London, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and and interesting mix of modern buildings, beside old looking buildings.
Basically: I saw a lot. I walked a lot. My feet are sore. I had a great time here. Michael was a great host, Cameron was good company, but I am ready to leave and finally get to Israel. Potentially that will be tomorrow, I'm crossing my fingers! I will try to post pictures soon. I can try to post them on the blog, but if that doesn't work very well, then I may have to post the bulk of them on facebook. So family who doesn't have me on facebook, or doens't have facebook, we'll try to figure out a way around this issue. I miss everyone already.
Love, Elana
Anyways, here in London I've done all sorts of fun touristy things. First day, Cam and I walked around exploring London. We saw Big Ben, parliment, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly circus and Trafulgar square (huge square with all sorts of large fountains, and where- had it been nicer weather- there would have been lots and lots of pigeons. Of course we also managed to have fish & chips, tea & biscuits, Indian food for dinner and had beer at the local pub just a block away.
Saturday Michael and I explored the National gallery where we saw classical art, which was mostly baby Jesus and Mary. We also saw the Natural History museum where we saw massive and expensive rocks, monkeys, birds, cool things like that. We also went into China Town, and since it was Chineese New Year there was music playing, and we saw people in various dragon costumes dancing. The dragons were kissing eachother a bit, and also climbing up in doorways "eating" (or knocking down) lettuce that was tied on a string. We then ate dragon's beard candy. Made of real dragon, of course.
Sunday we went to the British Museum where we saw interesting Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian, and other exhibits (mummies, carvings, rosetta stone, etc.) Cam and I then went to Camden market, which is I guess considered the market where all of the cool kids go. It was almost like Kensington market, but a whole lot bigger, and more like an actual market. When we were leaving, thats when the snow started. From Michael's flat, we witnessnesed some young hooligans getting arrested by the cops. The teenagers here have absolutely NO respect for the cops. They were yelling, swearing, and pushing them, and when the cop cars drove off, the kids who weren't arrested were smacking, and kicking the cars as they drove off.
Monday, after not being able to get to the airport, it was still snowing, and so we walked around the city. Of course we can handle it, we're Canadians, but no one here knows how to deal with it. There were pleanty of snowmen, and people throwing snowballs at people they didn't know. Even the night before, when it had started snowing, kids were so excited by the dusting of snow on the street, that they were making snow angels in the middle of the road, and scrapping off snow from cars to toss snow in their friends faces... also saw kids throwing snow in the face of a homeless man, which wasn't very nice. We got to explore Carnaby street which was the place to be in the swinging sixties.
With my extra day here we were able to walk along the river, and see the Tower of London, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and and interesting mix of modern buildings, beside old looking buildings.
Basically: I saw a lot. I walked a lot. My feet are sore. I had a great time here. Michael was a great host, Cameron was good company, but I am ready to leave and finally get to Israel. Potentially that will be tomorrow, I'm crossing my fingers! I will try to post pictures soon. I can try to post them on the blog, but if that doesn't work very well, then I may have to post the bulk of them on facebook. So family who doesn't have me on facebook, or doens't have facebook, we'll try to figure out a way around this issue. I miss everyone already.
Love, Elana
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Testing
I don't know how to work a blog. Hopefully this shows up.
I'm off to London, England. Plane leaves at 8:40 pm, and arrive 8:25am at Heathrow.
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