Long Time, No Talk!

Heyyyy friends! Again, sorry for the long absence. Things have been hectic as usual and with no internet access in my actual apartment, I haven't had the time or patience to make it over to my usual internet hangout to get my blog on...
But I'm here now, being super cool on a Friday night and instead of going out I'm going to sit outside of this other cafe and jack the internet without buying anything just to catch you all up on my life as an Israeli. :)
So.. last time I left off I had just gone on that cool field trip with my kids...
That night our big group of Career Israelis decided to go out and hit up the port where all of the cool clubs are here in Telly.. and like VIPs we made our way into Galina, one of the nicest clubs on the port. I should mention that a few of the guys on our trip are REALLY into clubbing.. so when it comes to this kind of thing, they are champs. They made sure to get us our own table (which is awesome because you have your own leather couches for dancing on, table for your drinks, and all in all enough space to not be grabbed by every guy in the club... woo!), they ordered drinks like professionals, ending with multiple rounds of champagne, you know, just to lock in our level of classiness. All in all, the night was really really fun, with only a few bumps along the way which for the sake of my friends I won't mention here.. and by the time I walked through the door around 4 am I was thoroughly beat and ready to sleep! (Does that kind of rhyme?)


Friday Ashley and I somehow managed to wake up and make our way to Jerusalem in time for Shabbat... we were hosted in the Old City by a few incredibly generous, beautiful, Orthodox families who taught us what it means to truly keep and honor the Sabbath.. we began on Friday night at the Kotel (where else?) and were escorted to a gorgeous home in the Jewish quarter where we enjoyed an amazing (and HUGE) Shabbat dinner, filled with some major Judaic learning.. it was honestly so amazing. We didn't get back to our hostel until 1 am (the curfew of this place) but we didn't want to leave! The family was so inspiring in their love for Judaism and Torah and G-d.. it was really beautiful to see.
Saturday we woke up and (SHOCKER) headed back to the Kotel for some services and then made our way to a second beautiful home where we once again rejoiced in the Sabbath day by eating an unprecedented amount of delicious, kosher food and then enjoyed the tranquility of our self induced food comas... basically, for those of you who haven't figured this out, Jews really REALLY like to eat. I mean think about it, on Shabbat there are many laws about what we can't do in order to honor the day, but there are no laws against eating and that is exactly what we do!
After attempting to take a walk around the Old City in our modest clothes and the hot sun, Ashley and I ended up taking shelter under a shady tree where we befriended three little Orthodox boys who were delighted by speaking Hebrew with us and hearing us answer them in American accents...and just like everyone else in Israel, they just HAD to know for sure if these two blonde, American girls were in fact Jewish. Seriously, if it weren't against the religion we would invest in tattooing "JEWISH GIRLS" across our foreheads. (Well probably not, but you get the point.)
The rest of the day was filled with more learning, more food (duh), and more inspiration from even just the walls that surrounded us in the Old City. After the sun went down and we lit the Havdala candles, Ashley and I were finally free to go back to our more secular way of life here in Tel Aviv. The whole experience left me reeling... everything we did was just so meaningful and special and beautiful, I felt so proud to be Jewish and take part in something so unique, holy, and all around just amazing! :)
This week was relatively standard, minus the shopping expedition that brought me back to Jerusalem on Monday (bad idea, I am an embarassingly compulsive shopper), singing and playing my gweetar at an awards ceremony in Kfar Saba on Tuesday
(and afterwards hanging out in Janine's gorgeous home, as well as a tour of Columbus' influences on Kfar Saba)


and our group expedition to Zichron Yaakov and the surrounding areas on Thursday. Here's a basic run down: We got on the bus around 8 am, arrived close to 10, did a quick tour of the Aliyah museum in the town, and booked it over to the Binyamina winery where we took part in a delightfully EDUCATIONAL wine tasting.

I in particular REALLY enjoyed the experience, which left me woozy and breathlessly man-laughing for no particular reason.. essentially drunk, and all in the name of education! :) We then did a little tour du force of some Roman built aqueducts where we got very wet and slimy,
and then made our way to an authentic Druze home/restaurant where we got to gorge ourselves on Druze food while learning about where the Druze people fit into Israeli society. It was AWESOME and DELISH.

That evening when we got back Aksel and I went for a barefoot beach run, and afterwards we all headed back to the port for some table dancing and champagne drinking.. but unfortunately the line for Galina was CRAZAYYY and we ended up at a lounge a few bars down which was definitley much more relaxed but of course still so much fun... oh PS have any of you ever tried salty bulgarian cheese combined with watermelon?! The BEST taste combination ever. It is my new passion. So good.
So today Ashley and I headed over to Kfar Saba to attend a POOL PARTY we were so graciously invited to where we mingled with gorgeous Israeli men and lounged on rafts in a luxurious, deep blue pool. Yummy.
Tonight for Shabbat we were invited for dinner over to Ashley's family friends' home where we were hosted like the queens we are learning to be (kidding).. but seriously we have been treated to some amazing Shabbat experiences and we are SO thrilled to be wined and dined like this.
Tomorrow I'm thinking the beach? Yeah sounds pretty good.
Heart you all!

יום חיות!

Shalom Chaverim!

Just wanted to post a quick one about my day today! I went with the campers to this place in the North called Monkey Forest, an animal reserve with so many different animals to see and even touch! Here are a few pictures to show the kinds of shenanigans we were up to today!
Me and chamuda sheli Sheni... of course being a professional I don't have favorites... ;)




Some crazy birds... this guy seriously treated them like they were his pet dogs,
and they acted like it!




Yes.. I am touching a snake.. not totally prepared for what was about to happen...




AHHHHH I'M HOLDING A SNAKE. (Don't let the serene smile fool
you..I was less than comfortable!)



The stars of the show were certainly these little monkeys that we were able to get right up close to... chamud, nachon?


Yes, the monkey is on my head. (And so is this gross little worm
thing that they really enjoy eating... ewww!)


All in all an extremely fun day by all accounts... I'm off for a run on the beach.. Layla tov motekim!

Out of the desert and back into the Holy Land...

Well hello people! I apologize for my extended absence last week... the first half of the week wasn't too exciting for me to blog and then I took a little road trip that left me stranded in the desert sans internet all weekend.
I know, you can't wait to hear all about it, right? ;)

Well, lets just cut to the chase by saying Sunday through Wednesday was fairly normal, with lots of lemon popsicles and bus riding along the way. (Have I mentioned that fruity popsicles are beginning to take the place of my coffee addiction? Or maybe just in addition to my coffee addiction.. hard to say).

So Thursday I wake up at (AHHH) the unmentionable hour of 6 am because ((YAYY)) I have a field trip to the North to go hiking with my campers. I don't have a ton to report on about this.. overall it was a pretty nice day, minus the final (vertical) hike where half of the kids sat down, red faced, crying, refusing to move any further due to overheatedness, exhuastion, and thirst, and me (along with the other counselers) trying to coerce them into continuing using the broken Hebrew I was capable of mustering between gasping for air and drinking water. Super fun.
Actually though, jokes aside, I really enjoyed this outing. It was absolutely beautiful to overlook the mountainous, wooded terrain of Northern Israel, and along the way I bonded with another volunteer named Dotan, and our armed and dreadlocked security guard who wanted to know all about what all the Greek letters on my shirt meant.. like every other Israeli he wanted to know if it really is "just like the movies!"


Friday morning I once again awoke at an unfeasible hour because me, along with Ashley, Rebecca, Beth, Suzanne, and Emily all had decided that what we really wanted to do this weekend was to go to Ein Gedi for some hiking, camping, and mind-body-earth connecting. :) So off we went, hopping bus lines like the experts we are most certainly not, and somehow managed to make it into the Negev (Desert) with our backpacks stuffed, frozen water bottles already melting, and a sudden, searing realization of just exactly what it means to be in a Middle Eastern Desert in the middle of the summer. In simpler terms, IT. WAS. EXTREMELY. HOT. Like, FREAKING HOT. Within minutes of walking toward the place we needed to retrieve hiking maps we were already panting, sweating profusely, and wondering how the HELL we were going to make it through the day. (The temperature was somewhere near 50 degrees Celsius, you do the math).


Finally, after a long process of refilling water bottles, loading up on lunch at a nearby (thankfully air conditioned) restaurant, hat and bandanna adjusting, and much ado about who knows what, we began the trek to the trail. (No, not on the trail, TO the trail). We had to sit for a good few minutes when we got there before we actually began hiking. When we finally did, we could only go a few yards at a time without our heart rates increasing ridiculously and sweat pouring down our entire bodies.
This is not to say it wasn't a beautiful hike, it was really spectacular.

After something like 0nly 15 minutes of actual hiking, we came across the famous Ein Gedi pools where we quickly jumped out of our sweaty clothes (swimsuits underneath, come on!) and spent the larger part of the rest of the day frolicking the in the refreshing, fresh water, being splashed by the large group of rowdy French teenagers. Delightful really.

We did make one more attempt to hike, and after about 15 minutes gave up and went back to the water.
Seriously, how the HELL did Moses do it? We amused ourselves by imagining that the entire mana falling from the sky situation must have simply been a delirious dream by the Israelites hallucinating in the desert's insane heat.. I mean for real, forty days and forty nights in that desert and I'd be hearing voices from G-d too! Just sayin'...

Well, when the sun started going down we headed to our campsite where our resident hiking/camping expert Emily determined we would set up our tents. Yes, you can laugh at the mental image of 6 Jewish American girls attempting to set up camp in the middle of the desert. Or you can just laugh at the actual picture of it happening, as shown here:)


Interestingly enough, we ended up sleeping on TOP of our tents, which, after realizing the ridiculous heat level inside, we collapsed and used as makeshift mats. About as comfortable as sleeping on...well the ground..which we were...so I guess that analogy is shot.

You can imagine the sounds emanating from our little village when we discovered that somehow, like the crazy cats that prowl everywhere, bugs of varying colors, shapes, and sizes also manage to live in the desert, and very much like to surprise you when you least expect them. Needless to say, none of us slept very soundly that night.

I awoke around 5:40 the next morning to the most beautiful view of the sun rising behind the mountains... and unfortunately I didn't get a picture because my camera was locked away in one of the tents.

If I learned anything from the experience (and to be honest, I did learn quite a few things) it would be that there are two kinds of people in this world. People who like to camp, and people who think they like to camp until they are actually camping. If you know me, I'm sure I don't need to tell you which category I fit in to.

You know, I know my dry sarcasm makes it look like I am complaining about everything and not enjoying myself, but I hope you all know how much I am! I just tend to enjoy focusing on the humorous parts where nothing seems to go quite right because, well, it's funny! But honestly we had a wonderful time on Friday, heat, bugs, and all. We saw some beautiful nature, bonded with a few Dutch people we met after I offered the lobster colored guy with them some sunscreen, floated in the dead sea, ran screaming out of the dead sea (it has the tendency to burn you in crazy places sometimes), ate a disproportionate number of popsicles and ice cream, and located the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Northern Star while lying on our backs in the darkness.


Good times had by all, I dare say.

Tonight, a group of us went to the movies and saw (dare I say it!?) Eclipse, the third. Twilight movie. I would say that I am erring towards Team Jacob after all of this time of adamantly backing up Edward's controlling and disturbingly obsessive behavior towards Bella. I guess all that time staring at Taylor Lautner sans shirt can do that to a girl.

Alright people, I'm going to head out and get to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a beach day, just me, a towel, a yummy book, and probably about 3 thousand lemon popsicles.

Night!

"Yes, we're American. Yes, we're 20. Yes We're Easy. No, you're not getting any!" -Beth Carliner

Aaaand we're back!
It's Saturday night in Tel Aviv, and you know what that means! Work tomorrow! (You're suprised, right?) Here the work week is Sunday through Thursday. Kind of hard to get used to.. I keep thinking I can sleep in tomorrow and go to the beach again! But nope, 7:45 am it is!

So, last time I left off I was getting ready to go to the water park with the kids the next day. It was a fabulous day, but SO long! I had to be at camp at 7:30 am and didn't get home till close to 6:30 PM! Needless to say I was exhausted, but was I about to rest? Heck no! It was Thursday night, aka party night! And Ashley's co-worker got us free tickets to see Hadag Nachash, a really famous Israeli band. If you've heard the Sticker Song then you'll know that this is that band! I was so excited when I realized I actually knew one of their songs :)

By the time I got into bed that night it was close to 4 (sorry parents) and the next day was (what else?) a beach day! So I headed to the beach with a bunch of the other girls from the program that live in the building with us. We had a great time.. I mean how could we not on a beach like that? The sand is like silk and the water is the perfect temperature... essentially we are living in paradise. So beautiful.

Later that night Emily (one of the girls we live with) and I went for another run along the tayelet. After we got dinner and showered a group of us decided that even though we were too tired to go out to the bars, it might be fun to grab a bottle of wine and head down to the beach to hang out. The beach at night is still full of people.. people eating at cafes, people taking romantic walks barefoot, and of course groups of creepy guys trying to pick up American girls. Unfortunately American girls have made quite a name for themselves here in the 'rael. All of those Taglit Birthright trips where the American girls "intermingle" with Israeli soldiers have really taken their toll on the reputation of the Yankee chicks..
So we had quite the time fending off groups of guys who thought it would be perfectly acceptable to come right up to us, sit down with us, interrupt our conversation, and just be obnoxious in general. Now, let me be totally honest. If any of these guys had interested us in any way I'm sure we would have been MUCH more receptive.. I mean hello we're 20 year old girls, not Mother Teresa. However, on this particular occasion we were more irritated by the constant interruption and lack of respect to our wishes for them to leave than flattered or excited by the prospect of talking to locals. But, (and this is for my parents and grandparents and relatives who I know will have something to say to me about sitting alone in a group of girls on a dark beach) we knew we were in a safe place, close to a restaurant and lots of people, so it was nothing scary, just ANNOYING.

Anyhoo, we managed to have a great time bonding over storytelling and L'Chaiming, all the while lounging comfortably on the slightly damp, silky soft, and of course romantic beach looking out over the calm denim of the Mediterranean.
.

Today was another beach day, and I somehow managed to escape without getting stung by a jellyfish. (Knock on wood). I don't know how long my luck will last... everyone else pretty much has gotten little stings here and there, and come on, it's me, queen of the accident prone!

Tonight the seven of us girls ventured to Yafo for dinner, and indulged in delectable pita with hummus (duh), white wine, and one of the most beautiful views of the sea and the city I've ever seen.


Yafo reminds me of the Old City in Jerusalem. It is full of old secrets and history, and a something new (but actually old) is whispering and beckoning to you around every stone corner. Of course, just like every other tourist infested place in Israel it is full of locals peddling their goods for quadruple their worth, ice cream stops, and postcard stands, but once inside the walls of the Old City you forget about the world around you and lose yourself in the beauty and age of the walls around you.
We went to the wishing bridge, where you find your horoscope and legend says that if you hold it in your hand and make a wish while looking out at the sea, your wish will come true.


And now here I am, back at my regular cafe, still waiting for some sign of the internet making its way into my apartment and debating on whether or not I feel like ordering a coffee.

I hope all is well at home. I miss you all, and of course love you all very very very much. :)
Shavua Tov L'Culam!

םליכההה

As promised, pictures of my Israeli campers. Again, so freaking adorable. I love them!

Today I found my way to Kfar Saba by bus, which, though still confusing, was definitely easier than the taxi-train-taxi situation yesterday. A few minutes after I arrived to work, Jeanine, my Ima in Kfar Saba, came to visit me. We sat and chatted for a little while, and just meeting her made me feel so good and taken care of. I am so happy to have her while I'm in Israel :)

Today was once again really fun for me. Amazingly these kids really like me even though the majority of what I say to them is somewhere along the lines of "Mah? Mah?" or "What? What?" in English. ((sigh)) Ze lo cal. This is not easy. But it's what I want to do, and I'm so excited at the possibility of really improving my Hebrew.

Hmmm...Mah Od? What else?

This evening Ashley and I decided to go for a run along the beach. It felt SO good to run, and it could not have been more beautiful as the sun was setting. We were not the only ones who thought this was a great idea. We were accompanied by what seemed like every single Israeli living in Tel Aviv who decided to run on the boardwalk at the same time as us. We breathlessly called out Slichas (excuse me) as we maneuvered through the crowd, and forty minutes later we arrived back home, red and exhilarated!

Oh yeah. We found another cockroach. I was just stepping out of my luxurious shower when I heard a shrill scream and found Ashley standing on a chair. I quickly ran downstairs and found a guy to come and sweep the disgusting creature off of the balcony. I shiver just imagining if she hadn't seen it. Ugh.

Tomorrow I am going to the pool with the kids! Here's hoping all goes well!

Layla Tov!

היייי

Phewww. Its been quite a whirlwind here since I wrote last. I definitly have lots to fill everyone in on!
Last time I wrote, I had just arrived in good old Yerushalaim, where I could barely contain my mounting excitement at the prospect of exploring the Old City, the Tayelet, and of course, my personal favorite, the Shuk.

Thursday morning Ashley and I woke up, checked out of our luxurious accommodations with my relatives, and made our way two Kiriat Moriah, a hostel/learning center owned by the Jewish Agency in order to finally meet up with our group from the Career Israel program. Amidst the name learning, ice breaking, kindergarten reminiscent activities, we managed to make our way around Jerusalem and learn a few things along the way.

First: A bar may boast free Hookah and popcorn and usher you in like you are a VIP, but if less than half of you decide to actually order anything, it doesn't go over that well. Unlike in the States, where waitresses and waiters are trained that the customer is always right and blah blah blah, here they have no problem getting in your face and screaming at you if you haven't done what they wanted, i.e. spend more money.




Second: Socialized medicine... Ani lo yodaat. So, when I woke up on Friday my foot and expanded to about twice its normal size. My wound was pussy and painful. I realized I probably should go to the doctor. I was thankfully escorted to the doctor's by my American born madricha who had made aliyah about seven years ago, so could thankfully help me out and get me where I needed to go. An hour later, I held in my hands a prescription for antibiotics and antibacterial ointment. Of course I would be the one to fall off of a banana boat and actually get legitimately hurt. Awesome.




Third: We need that security fence. I know it is controversial, but seriously, it wouldn't be there if it wasn't necessary. I mean, it really is a huge basa that it inconveniences people and that it makes life harder on those who live on the other side of the border, but the way that the quality of life has improved for those inside of Israel is unreal. On Sunday we went on a tour of East Jerusalem and got right up near the '67 border between Israel and the West Bank. To actually see the security wall/fence was so crazy, I think it gave us all a bit of a reality check about what life has been like here for people. It is so frustrating to think about people who are against the fence... but it does make sense. On one hand, you have the state of Israel, whose main duty is to protect the well being of its citizens, and so how could there be a question in mind about whether or not the wall should be there? On the other hand, you see the perspective of the loyal, innocent Palestinians who have been separated from their land, their families, their schools, and their lives in general by this huge pain in the tuchus every time they want to cross. So what is the right thing? And who gets to decide? People lose any way you look at it.

























So, now that you've gotten the gist of that, I'll
continue on.


We arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening. Upon pulling up to the apartment complex, we knew we were in for some kind of experience...
The outside of the building looked...used, at best. After lugging our bags up two flights of stairs, Ashley and I opened our door to find a large, bare room with two couchy things that we assumed were our beds, a kitchenette situation, and a bathroom that was usable, but slightly grimy. We hurried out to buy some cleaning supplies and food to make it a bit homey-er, and it was not so bad we thought. Until that night when I recieved a panicked call from Ashley who informed me that she found a huge, black, DIGUSTING COCKROACH. AHHHHH!

We slept with all the lights on that night.

Since then, we have kept every bit of food sealed away in the fridge, not allowing a single crumb to hit the floor. Hopefully our small legged friends will stay the hell out. Eeeck! (We need a guy living with us, we're both terrified of going anywhere near anything resembling an insect).

Yesterday, since neither of us had to work yet,
Ash and I headed for the gorgeous beach right
near our apartment. Upon reaching the water,
we sighed, looked at each other, and understood
completely why everything was worth it. The grime,
the bugs, the cold shower. All for this.









We made some friends (suprise) who taught us to play the tennis like beach game with two paddles and a little ball. So much fun. We ate delicious watermelon, soaked up the sun, and laid our eyes on the most enormous meduzza (jellyfish) EVER.





Today I began my internship at the camp! To put it simply, I. LOVE. IT. The kids are freaking adorable, and even though understanding each other is a huge strain, we LOVE each other. The highlight of my day was hearing them attempt to sing the song Tick-Tock be Ke$ha or whatever her name is. It sounded some thing like this: "I wake up inamorni fili ike P. Diddy dbhbfjefkfbkjbk...." And so on. SO CUTE. My hebrew is going to get GREAT so FAST. Or at least it better, or else I am going to SINK. I taught the girls how to fish tail braid, and learned a lot of words myself! Let's be honest, they can teach me a lot more than I can teach them. Seriously though, I am STOKED about this job. They all were so excited to have me there, and I feel so good and so excited about working with them! I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them ASAP.

AHH so everything is great, minus my lack of internet and hence my internet cafe haunt across the street. Write again soon!

Neshikot! (Kisses!)