fanofstuff666

At 10 AM today, alarms sounded throughout Israel, bringing the country to an absolute standstill. For two minutes, everyone stood quietly and remembered those who suffered so much during the Holocaust.

The moment was somewhat ruined by the fact that half of us--not including me for once--weren't aware that the alarms didn't indicate an air raid and scrambling for cover.

At 5 PM, we dimmed the lights in the moadon and lit six candles: Six candles for six million dead.



Please, watch the following and remember...we must never, never forget what happened and how lucky the survivors are.



Regular updates will resume on Wednesday.

It's...been quite a week. On Shabbat the abandoned newborn kitten I had been trying to take care of (dumped on my by my roommate who had initially wanted to be its mother and then went on vacation) died. I knew that since it was newborn and the diluted milk I'd been giving it didn't have the right nutrients, the kitten would most likely die, but still...if it had lived one more day, it would have lived.

Sunday, I went to meet my host family (having finally been told about them...that morning) after the ma'ariv, or evening service at the synagogue. They had also invited two former ulpanists who had met at Sde Eliyahu and had gotten married not long after and their children, and some of their own children and grandchildren for a total of twelve people ranging in age from probably a year to fifty or sixty years old. We were each given a Haggadah to read along with, and we began the Seder (sorry for all the Wikipedia links). Contrary to what I believed would happen, there wasn't really much in the way of storytelling concerning the Exodus. There was, however, a lot of prayer and a LOT of singing, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The hostess, a woman I worked with in the laundry, helped me to read along, as my reading is still painfully slow with Hebrew text (I have been practicing, though). The food was also absolutely delicious. However, when I tried to praise the hostess, she told me it had come from the kitchen in the cheder ochel, as had everyone's on the kibbutz. That was a bit of a surprise, considering I expected everyone to cook for their own families at least for the first seder. However, home-cooking is very rare because food from the cheder ochel is free, and getting raw foodstuffs from the colbo costs quite a bit, even if it's cheaper than shopping in any nearby city.

We sang and ate and drank until midnight--four hours of revelry until we had to clean up and say goodbye.

I also posted episode two of Israel: Unscripted.


The next day I got another mild shock--holidays like Pesach and Shovuot operate by nearly the same rules as Shabbat: The only time you can 'light a fire' is to cook. Otherwise, no electricity, no nothing. You sit and read and pray and talk. You also can't go anywhere (which incidentally is what happened today as well). Another thing I learned was that unlike in the Diaspora (anywhere outside Israel), only the first and last seders are observed, as opposed to the first and last two.

Speaking of Pesach, one of my favorite Jewish rappers recently reposted this via Facebook:


Wednesday, tired of having no one left want to go anywhere and itching to explore since apparently all of our trip locations (minus the obvious: Jerusalem, which is still pretty big in itself) are a secret, I went to Tverya (Tiberias) to have a look around. The city is named for the Roman emperor Tiberius and sits on the edge of Yam Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). I took a look around the boardwalk, but for being out there for six hours, I didn't get too much done besides see some ruins and gawp at sculptures. Also, pretty much every single person in uniform, even on the bus, was toting an AK-47. This was actually...pretty awesome, despite reminding me just how much more common bombings and the like are over here.

Here is the footage of my visit:


Also, here is the footage of the water show I was unable to stick around to see, because by that point it was getting very late and I wanted to be sure of actually getting home.


It's a playlist, so...be prepared to sit for a while. And have your mind blown.

Thursday and Friday were back to work. On Thursday, I worked in the laundry and discovered I'd hurt my knee walking around for six hours straight. Not as bad as two months ago when I damaged a tendon in my foot so badly I couldn't walk for a week (going to DC to get my visa and then walking around for six hours straight...only in sneakers). I get told that Friday I get to work in the cheder ochel.

As you may recall, the last time I worked there I ended up being run ragged because only two of us were working, and it was a horribly busy day, and there were extra people. This time it wasn't so bad. My knee felt better on Friday, and most of the first part involved merely setting tables for Shabbat dinner. There weren't as many people for breakfast, and there were more people working there, none of whom lazed about. There was also lunch, the first such time lunch has been instituted on a Friday. This meant more to clean up, but I didn't mind very much.

I spent Shabbat with my father's friend Jessie. We spent quite a bit of time talking about Sde Eliyahu, the surrounding area around her home, and about the West Bank. Gan Ner, where she lives, is a lot closer to the border with the West Bank, not very far from the last Arab village before you hit the barrier. We also had a kickass barbecue, and I met a couple of her children and grandchildren (though some of us had already met). All in all, I had a great Shabbat, and early Saturday evening I returned to Sde Eliyahu.

Tomorrow, the 26th, is my birthday. Since I haven't received notification of work, I intend to spend the entire day exploring Roman ruins in Beit She'an (and if I have time, Tverya again) and hopefully going out to dinner and generally having the time of my life.

Until later, shalom!

I forgot to mention this for two weeks...not everyone grows up near military bases or spends a whole lot of time around planes. Here at Sde Eliyahu, you can hear live weapons being tested nearby as part of the soldiers' training. It sounds like thunder, and if it's been quiet for a few days it will catch you off guard. There are also airplanes and helicopters that fly over fairly often, some...disturbingly low, even for me (considering I worked around biplanes for three years that flew around 150-200 feet on average, and the pilots liked to buzz the field). All of this is absolutely nothing to worry about.

Yesterday I started work in the laundry. For ulpanists, this involves folding the clothes, towels, and bedsheets of around 900 people for eight hours. For me, it's exactly what I've done at home for the last fifteen years minus actually washing the clothes.

That's another thing I still haven't gotten used to: the fact that since I'm not in charge of doing five people's laundry regularly from start to finish. When I turn in underwear in the morning, since it's washed in mesh bags and the basket gets emptied daily, I can usually pick it up in the afternoon. Not so with shirts and pants. These can take up to half a week to get through, which has caused me some nail-biting moments since I only have ten days' worth of clothing and I'm accustomed to washing clothing twice a week, so normally such a small amount of clothing is enough. I've taken to bringing in my shirts once every two days, which doesn't affect the speed anything gets washed but ensures that with the irregular schedule, at least I'll get a couple days' extension on clothing.

One of the students complained several weeks ago about having to number his clothes, saying he felt it was impersonal, that it made him feel like cattle. I think that with 900 people all living in different places and doing different things (soldiers, students, volunteers, kibbutzniks...), it's a very efficient system. Everyone gets a number and every group gets a color, and those working in the laundry know exactly which box it needs to go to so the person can pick it up. In a single-family home with five, six, seven people, you don't need that because there are, at most forty or fifty articles of clothing a week, as opposed to the over 9000 (sorry) articles of clothing that go through the kibbutz laundry daily, not to mention towels and bedding and everything the kitchen uses and needs washed.

Almost everyone's gone for Pesach vacation now, leaving a few stragglers who will leave over the next three or four days and those of us who will be here the whole time. Of course, we're cleaning and re-cleaning everything fastidiously in preparation. All of the public buildings are getting hosed down inside and out, and everything that could possibly have been even associated with leavened bread is being cleaned. This means the fridge in the moadon has been emptied...no more late-night glasses of milk for a while! All of the dishes have been removed, and in the cheder ochel we're eating all of our meals with plastic dishes for the time being because everything else is being removed. After all, we're still eating leavened bread for meals!

And once more, it's time for Shabbat, so I'll be leaving you now. :) Shabbat Shalom, everyone!

One of the things I find fun about foreign language classes populated primarily by English-speakers is how everyone, no matter how many other languages they may be familiar with, will screw up the gender of nouns and, more importantly in Hebrew, the gender of verbs (which German and Latin, the other two languages I've studied, do not have). So we'll be chatting in class and trying to say 'Can you hear me?' to a guy and end up using the feminine form of 'hear'. Many people when responding have used the wrong form of 'you' (otcha (m) versus otach (f)), presumably because the former ends in an a and thus sounds feminine.

We have now covered past and future tense in addition to present tense several times over, and know the difference between 'going to' , 'in' and 'leaving from' (they use different prepositions for each). Of the forty pages in my notebook, I've used over half in three weeks on notes and vocabulary, not to mention the worksheets (with more vocabulary) and several pages' worth of verb conjugations. All in all, I believe we've received perhaps 100-200 new vocabulary words at the very least thus far.

Concerning textbooks: I mentioned we received workbooks, most of them used, and that was it. They're good workbooks, and they do help with reviewing the lessons. Also, we get to keep them, which is awesome to say in the least. Now I don't feel bad about writing in mine. We won't get any other textbooks, though, according to the teacher. However, if you take good notes and review regularly, you probably won't need one. What the class lacks in grammar instruction (noun cases, for instance), it makes up for in speed and thoroughness.

Not much else to report today, actually. We won't be having class for two weeks because Pesach is coming up, which means that I'll be reporting more fully on that and hopefully have time to begin posting the alphabet and the beginnings of my notes. :)

I'll also be filming more backlog for "Israel: Unscripted" so I won't fall horribly behind on posting weekly (again, hopefully).

Until next time, shalom!

Well, it certainly was a busy weekend. Or at least, Sunday was. Saturday was mostly spent sleeping, which was a good thing considering how stressed I'd gotten the night before; enough to induce severe heartburn. Fortunately, I had the medication for it.

The stress was mostly personal, nothing to do with the ulpan or adjusting to living here. The only twang of homesickness in a couple weeks was a dream where I went home for the upcoming Pesach holiday, since we get two entire weeks off. Even in the dream I was worrying about the cost of a ticket, though, and the dream promptly segued into something involving police chasing elf children through a mall and dwarves made of stone. So...the dream may have just been regular weirdness.

Sunday was right back to work. Besides vacations and free weekends, the only day I get off is Saturday. Sunday, depending on which Hebrew class (or kita) you're in, you either go to class or work. I got Mario's Garden again, and I remembered sunscreen this time. Hard to forget, actually, when I'm still peeling from the last sunburn. This time I didn't get assigned to picking onions. I weeded them! :D

Okay, perhaps that sounded a little condescending. I actually enjoy working in the organic garden regardless of what tasks I've been assigned thus far. Weeding the onion sprouts (which will be replanted once they get big enough) is an incredibly delicate task, since you don't want to uproot the sprouts while you're clearing out the weeds. The weeds also didn't have thorns, unlike many of the ones I've dealt with thus far, which was a relief to say the least. The conversation was nice too. When you're working in the cheder ochel or the kitchen, you don't get as much of an opportunity to chat as you do working outside, where the pace is a good deal less frantic--at least thus far. I also got to work a little with Mario, who while very...certain of what he wants done in the garden, is very kind about it.

Afterward, I went into the colbo (mini-mart, supermarket) to do some shopping for blank paper and envelopes. I also found tons and tons of chocolate from Germany (Kinderschokolade~), and Israel (of course) though I only bought one small bar.

I also began filming part of a vlog I was thinking of starting called "Israel: Unscripted". As the title says, I'll be doing it on the fly. I wanted to do it like that so that the experience would be more genuine. Here's the first episode:





Monday (today, actually, but...I spent so long writing this it's now Tuesday) was class. There's definitely a lot of vocabulary to learn; around twenty words a day! We started on adjectives and reviewed the ablative case (to/for, though it wasn't introduced as such and the case names were never mentioned) and forming questions from statements.

I also discussed the previously-mentioned question of budget with the ulpan director. The money is mostly spent on staff, housing, and food as well as lessons (turns out the work only pays for food and housing on the days you work).

Relating to phones: I did forget to mention last time that I had ordered a phone on...I believe it was Monday, from IsraelPhones. The very next day, I had my phone. They answered any questions I had promptly and without being evasive when I was ordering, and all in all it was a very good experience.

One final thought before I go to bed: As someone who spent most of her youth in a middle- to lower-class black neighborhood in the upper South, it was...really, really odd to see black people speak anything but English (especially anything but Ebonics). I'm not trying to be racist, I'm really not. That's just one of the things I wasn't expecting to surprise me. It's always the little things that catch you off-guard.

See you next time, when I'll be drawing up a more detailed list for a first-aid kit (Internet permitting, I may also edit the original packing list). Shalom!

I...really don't know how I keep forgetting they don't serve lunch in the cheder ochel on Fridays. I hear that's going to change soon, but so far that's three weeks in a row I've gone and forgotten about the lack of food after class. Fortunately, there's bread and cold soup in the maodon, or break room.

Anyway, a quick catch-up of the last week: Last Tuesday it was announced that we would have a free weekend early (having Sunday off instead of working or going to class), due to Pesach (Passover) coming up. Not having a phone and not thinking to use the one in the offices until much later (when I was told I had to get a phone card and be billed), I tried emailing my father's friend, Jessie. No response. As it turns out, she went out of town for half a week and...never told me. So come Friday I had nowhere to go. Fortunately, Fredi and Aviva agreed to take me in. I could have stayed at the ulpan, but I didn't want to spend two days alone--almost everyone else had gone to spend the free weekend with relatives.

Now, a quick note on tramping: it is potentially dangerous, especially if you do it alone. The ulpan has some regular vans and cars going to Bet She'an, but at the time I didn't know this. When Aviva found out that most of the time people had to tramp all the way to Bet She'an, she launched into a full-out lecture on how the week before, an armed soldier tramping alone had nearly been kidnapped, and a few days before that someone had been killed.

To get from Bet She'an to Tel Aviv, where Fredi would pick me up and take me back to Yavne, I had to go to the bank and get money for a bus. This ended up being a problem, since I had only a week's worth of Hebrew classes, no matter how intensive. I did manage to get directions, though, and fortunately it was on the same road the ulpan mini-bus had dropped us off at, so I only had to walk a kilometer or so. Of course, since it was Friday, the bank was closed. So I went to one of the two machines next to the main doors. Machines that, I might add, looked identical to me and had no signage I could read indicating otherwise.

'This machine does not accept this card.'

...I cried, I really did. I was frustrated to begin with, since the thief had taken what I'd needed for the bus in the first place and made me go through the stress of trying to find the stupid bank and hope I'd still have time to catch a bus. I was incredibly lucky someone walked by and explained that no, that machine wasn't an ATM. It was a receipt machine for checking stocks and the like. The other machine was an ATM. So I got my money in the end, and the next bus stop was only a few feet beyond the bank.

In order to get from Bet She'an to Tel Aviv, one has to change buses at the main station in Afula. I could read enough Hebrew to find the place where I had to wait for the bus to Tel Aviv. Half an hour later, still nothing. I ended up using a group taxi, or sherut, which was slightly cheaper than the bus (27 NIS instead of 30, and WAY less than cab fare had I taken a taxi on my own). We arrived at the main station in Tel Aviv. There was just one little snag.

It didn't look like a main station. To me, it looked like a row of shops on a random street. I had no idea until Sunday that inside the building and several floors up was the actual station. And it took me forever to find a public phone and the address, all while cab drivers were watching me hungrily, hoping I'd pay for a taxi instead. Fat chance. I had little enough money as it was. Finally, Fredi came and got me. I'd been on the road since noon. It was now closer to 5:30 PM.

That weekend, we went to the old harbor in Tel Aviv, where a market was being held. The weather was remarkably cool, as it's been here in Sde Eliyahu all week. There were many stalls lined up on the docks, selling jewelry, clocks, figurines, and various other trinkets. Fredi shopped for old clocks, Aviva for watches and a wallet for me that I could fit in my pocket, and I just browsed. We had ice coffee at a cafe later, then visited another market in one of the warehouses where people were selling fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, and cookware. Aviva bought me halva with pistachios (pretty much the one in the picture there) to eat later. Absolutely delicious.

Sunday meant it was time to go home. On Sundays, the Egged company has one bus that actually does go directly from Tel Aviv to Bet She'an, which costs 45 NIS. I took it...and ended up missing the main station in Bet She'an because I had no clue what it looked like. By that point, we were halfway to Tiberias. I waited at a bus station in the middle of nowhere (so, Fredericksburg ISN'T the only place where bus stops are completely inaccessible!) until another bus came by. Once in Bet She'an and now very late, I called Jonny, the ulpan director, to come and pick me up, since it was now dark. All in all, the entire round-trip was stressful and exhausting, but I learned a lot about the bus system.

Monday was back to class. Still no textbooks, and it seems unlikely we will ever get any. This in itself is fine by me so long as I get blank notebooks, but when we received our exercise books we were informed that these were used, and we couldn't write in them. Not only this, but we couldn't keep them.

So...what did I pay nearly $5000 for? I get no books, no plane tickets, and according to Jonny, it doesn't go to the kibbutz that houses us, and we work there enough that we earn our keep anyway. What's the money going towards? I'd really, really like to know.


On a less bitter note, thus far I've worked in the vineyards, the organic garden, and in the cheder ochel. This meant mostly weeding, weeding, planting, more weeding, picking onions and dill and fennel--which is awesome when you're picking them early in the morning with the sun barely up and the dew clinging to everything--and cleaning like mad. I worked in the cheder ochel on Tuesday, which is the busiest day of the week for that to begin with, which involved cleaning the dining room and keeping all the food replenished. We had several group of people come in as well, though, so the already-large amount of people had their ranks swelled by almost a hundred more. It was a madhouse, complicated by the fact that only two people out of the four assigned to work were actually doing most of the work.

Now, if you're planning on going to a kibbutz and don't plan on working, I've got to wonder what exactly you're thinking. It's tough work a lot of the time, but it's extremely satisfying and you can actually see the results of your labor. It also helps if you've done similar chores at home, which I have. I've already had experience in weeding, in cleaning, and planting. This made it easier for me in that I knew what to expect, and I required very little instruction: simply point me at the task and I know what to do.

I also suffered a bad sunburn on my arms. Here's a tip for you guys, something I forgot: Just because you start work before dawn doesn't mean you can forget sunscreen. Long sleeves, preferably something light and made of cotton, also work. White clothing is about 15 SPF, so if you burn easily and just have a white T-shirt, you might want to put sunscreen on under the shirt too.

I'm still peeling from that, which is kinda gross. I feel like a snake. One with a tan. My face was fine, though, because I remembered a hat, but my calves were also burned because I was wearing capris.

In other news, things haven't been so good in the south. We discussed the attack on the school bus in class today, and many of my classmates have expressed a serious desire for Israel to launch a full-out war of destruction on the surrounding Arab countries in retaliation. As it is, Israel's hands are tied on that matter because of the UN. In the south, ulpanists are hiding in bunkers. I'm glad I didn't go south.

Though conflict is an inevitable reality here in Israel, so much closer than it was back in the States and looming over us every day, I still don't regret coming here. Right now, we're safe up here. Around me, students and volunteers are starting to prepare for our third party this week (the first being for Rosh Chodesh, the other because several volunteers are moving on) and for Shabbat. Since both my reading and writing skills have improved drastically from nearly nil two weeks ago, I'll see if I can keep up with the prayers this time.

I...will try and post the alphabet next week. Shabbat is coming up in an hour or two and the internet is horribly slow, so it'll take forever to find written examples. I'll also be posting photos of the kibbutz and other places I've been in a separate post.

Shabbat Shalom! See you guys (hopefully) Monday!

So...on Monday, Hebrew lessons began. It was the first time I'd ever taken a language class where the teacher didn't speak English--or at least much of it--from the get-go. The pace is also fast, very fast. I'm relishing the challenge.

There was no real learning of the alphabet. For those of us who don't know it, we have to learn as we go along. There aren't any explanations for why certain vowel indicators--Hebrew doesn't actually have vowels in its alphabet, just indicators to where certain sounds should be--and there seems to be no real formal structure, just vocabulary, vocabulary, making sentences and guessing at how the nouns and verbs are supposed to go, and did I mention the vocabulary? It's an interesting change for me, to be sure, though I miss the structure of American language classes. The speed, though, to me more than makes up for this. I dislike slow classes.

The is one little snag, though...every time I need to think in Hebrew, I think in German instead. It's very irritating, since I didn't come here to learn German (though with so many German-speakers around, I have plenty of opportunity to practice, which is always nice). At least it's not English, I suppose...?

During lunch and work, all of us practice what we've learned, asking each other things like "Who is that?" "What is that?" "Where do you live?" "What (languages) do you speak?"

The class is every other day, but due to time constraints on the teacher's part and Shabbat, two hours are to be moved from Friday to Tuesday, so the schedule follows thusly:
Sunday- work
Monday- seven-hour class
Tuesday- work followed by two-hour class
Wednesday- seven-hour class
Thursday- work
Friday- five-hour class, then Shabbat
Saturday- Shabbat

This Friday we have a dictation test, where we have to write--in the Hebrew alphabet--everything the teacher says. Since I'm dead slow, I have a lot of practicing to do tomorrow.

On a different note, I have HORRIBLE luck when it comes to getting hurt these past few weeks. Last Thursday when we were taking a tour of the kibbutz, I slipped and fell, opening two gashes on my calf and foot. Yesterday, since I start work before sunrise and usually in the shade (the garden, while easier work, has absolutely NO cover), I forgot sunscreen and got sunburned. Then today, a few of us volunteered to help the kids in their art class. This was nice enough: I found a kid who liked DragonBall Z and was able to not feel useless by drawing him several pictures of Vegeta. His father told me it made his day. My roommate Yoma got a gift from some of the little girls that she was working with there: a mirror decorated and then hot-glued to a painted plank of wood. I offered to carry it for her, and the mirror fell off the plank, slicing my thumb right open. Fortunately, I caught the mirror, so it didn't hit the ground and break.

The other students and the volunteers have been really nice to me through all this. One lent me aloe vera for the burns, another gave me disinfectant, and Yoma had Band-Aids. So far, I don't think the thumb needs stitches, but until tomorrow morning I won't be able to tell beyond that.

Working in the organic gardens, despite the lack of cover from the sun, is very nice and relaxing. Before breakfast, we planted sweet potato vine clippings to create new plants, and after breakfast we picked and cleaned onions.

Tomorrow, I work in the kitchen, which is good for my sunburn and my cut (I won't get dirt in it). More on Friday, and I'll start posting the Hebrew lessons sometime next week.

Mmm, Shabbat was a relief after the initial adjustment period. Because I start working in the kerem, or vineyards, at 5:45 AM and I'd been doing that for two days straight (not a schedule I'm used to), those of us working there didn't get off early because work normally ends around noon. We'd been getting off an hour or two earlier because all of us are new workers.

Breakfast tends to be at 8 or 8:30 AM, so you work for several hours before you eat when your work starts that early. After you get off, you shower and eat (not necessarily in that order, but it's, uh, recommended if you want to keep your new friends) and are done for the day.

Anyway, Shabbat comes a little early at Sde Eliyahu. The prayers began before sunset (more on those as I learn more about them, since...I really can't read them) and mostly involved singing with some moments of silent recitation. During one of the prayers, I thought I heard my father's voice singing along, and I must confess that at that moment I began to cry. I was a little overtired, but a lot of it was the realization that I wouldn't be able to see them in person for a very long time. Though I couldn't understand or read along with the prayers, I listened attentively, and when we welcomed in 'the bride' Shabbat, I bowed along with them, first to the entrance, then to the ark where the Torah is kept, and kept up with the melody as best as I could.

The shul, or synagogue, is a small and simple building--as is traditional--with rows of pews in the middle and separated rows facing the center on either side, behind a barrier. The men sit in the middle here (on less orthodox grounds, men and women sit together) and the women on the sides. In the entrance hall is a mosaic (photo coming later, as my camera is still out of batteries) of pomegranates, one of the seven traditional species of Israel--all of which are grown here. The seats are actually cushioned, so unlike a Christian church, at least any I've been in, these pews are very comfortable to sit in.


This is basically what the floor plan of our shul looks like.

After prayers, we went to the cheder ochel for dinner. Shabbat dinner (and lunch on Saturday) is different from the rest of the week. Normally, one gets his or her own food and then sits down. On Shabbat, everyone sits down first. One person in the cheder ochel says Kiddush (lit. 'special', not 'holy') for the entire dining room, then one person at each table says it before pouring out the Shabbat wine from the kiddush cup. Afterwards, food is brought to the table by volunteers--who has to do this is changed every week--and we eat. No one gets up to leave until everyone is finished, which leaves a lot of time for conversation. It seems that a religious kibbutz attracts more Zionists than I expected (really? That was a surprise to me?), and apparently people who hate Obama. I...don't know how that last one happened, I really don't. But I had good conversations with the people around me. I also enjoyed the fact that yes, I can drink alcohol here, and had a couple glasses of wine. Not enough to get drunk, but enough that a couple hours after dinner I was tired enough to go to bed right away and actually sleep soundly--something I'd been having trouble with when I had to get up at 5 AM.

On a random note: since the cheder ochel offers whole tomatoes for meals, I've been eating two or three of those a day...and enjoying plenty of chocolate milk and coffee!

I got up the next morning at 8:30, which means that I've adjusted just right (normally on days off, regardless of when I got to sleep I tend to get up closer to noon). As I said in the last post, no computers, no writing, no drawing, no lights and no hot water, so the day was devoted entirely to sitting around and partying and eating and chatting and praying. Very, very relaxing. Prayers were at 1 PM, briefly, before starting properly around sunset. Then, finally, it was time for a hot shower and bed.

Sunday was back to work in the kerem. By day three, there are still only two of us left from the initial day. Everyone else had been going to Afula or Bet She'an for immigration processing, or had been weeded out (pun intended) of the hard jobs. We work in pairs, one for each side of the row of vines, and often compete with nearby pairs for the heck of it. We also talk quite a bit, about ourselves and what we did, why we came, what we know about life...

We also found not one, but two snakes in the weeds. At the same time. And another group found a hornet's nest, still occupied. We cleared around them and shooed them off without injury. There was also a praying mantis there, nearly white because it spent so much time in the weeds.

Later that day, we were planning on going to Tverya on the Kinneret when I discovered that most of my shekels were missing. I went to Dvora, our house mother, and reported this. It turns out her master keys were stolen--highly unusual--and the thief had helped him- or herself to everyone's cash, cigarettes, and in one odd case, Ritalin. My medications were untouched, as was my passport, American cash, and laptop. Smart thief; s/he couldn't have taken those without anyone in the area getting suspicious. We'll have to file a police report in Bet She'an when we have time later this week and hope we can get at least a little of it back, but the total of nearly a thousand shekels qualifies as low-priority petty theft.

Next time, I'll hide the money better and/or keep it in the safe. Since the master keys were stolen, all of the locks are getting replaced.

More tomorrow on the first day of class, which was actually today, but I need some time to absorb the lessons, this entry is already long, and...it's almost midnight. I have work early tomorrow in the organic gardens--for some reason I'm not working in the kerem anymore. Maybe it's because the younger volunteers that were due to arrive will show up then? I don't know. Either way, see you all later!

Something I've noticed in the last week is that despite the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on the 19th and the bombings in Jerusalem a couple days ago, life goes on here as normal. Up north there is little fear of an attack, but we're told to keep a heightened level of awareness. Be wary of any bags or boxes left unattended, and if you must hitchhike (also called 'tramping'), be careful.

As I suspected, a few days ago I got a sore throat. It was gone within 48 hours, though. And thus far I've managed to avoid getting traveler's diarrhea (despite drinking the water almost from day one).


On Sunday, it turned out that both my roommate and I had turned up a day early. Her name is Yoma, and she is from India. She's very sweet, and made aliyah (citizenship) last week. Like me, she doesn't speak or read any Hebrew, so we'll also be study buddies and in the same class level.

Our room is meant for three, but there are only the two of us in the room. There are three rooms in the girl's hallway (there are that few of us), two toilets, and a shower. The bathrooms are about the size of a small closet, and in one you need to constantly step over the toilet to open the door because the width is less than two feet. Very, very tiny. The boys occupy the other three-quarters of the building. We have a separate building for the ulpan offices, laundry pick-up, and a break room/classroom.


_{This is our room not long after I arrived.}



These are a couple pictures of my sleeping area. I also have an alarm clock on that shelf (thank you SO much, Dad!) since I need to get up at 5 AM.

Final census of the ulpan population: Six females (all showed up) and about eighteen males (not all of them showed up, as far as I know). Nationalities were all over the place: India, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain (one from England, one from Scotland), Italy (both of them named David, and neither can speak English...what are the odds?), France, Canada, and the United States (about a third of them are American). I believe we also have one Portuguese guy. Most of us can speak English, and almost everyone else already knows a little Hebrew. Most of them are here to make aliyah, or already have.

Laundry is taken in by the individual and washed as a group, separated into cotton and synthetics, darks and lights, shirts and pants. Underwear and socks are washed together in a mesh bag. Each person has to sew a number on their clothing, and the color of the thread indicated to which group it goes: ulpan students, soldiers, or general community. Each bag is similarly labeled. The individual needs to pick up his or her own clothing; the underwear at the laundry itself, and the other clothing wherever the program director takes it for re-dispensation.

Meals are eaten in a cafeteria, or chaderochel. Except on Shabbat, everyone gets their own food from a series of carts. The food is kosher, so no meat when there is milk served, and vice versa. All dishes used for serving and eating either meal is kept separate from the other. Milk meals are for lunch and dinner, and meat is served during lunch.

On Wednesday the majority of us were run through blood tests for AIDs and HIV. Then we were tested into our level of Hebrew class--naturally, I ended up in group Aleph, the very lowest class, because I'm an idiot and didn't devote the last half-year to at least learning ALL the letters instead of just a few. Classes will start next week.

Wednesday and Thursday were also devoted to a quick tour of the kibbutz. The extent of the fields is staggering; they reach several kilometers south and west to the Gilboa Mountains bordering the West Bank, and almost all the way to the Jordan River in the east. The kibbutz grows the seven grains of Israel--more on that later--among other foods, and is one of the first and foremost organic farms in the world. Not everything is grown organically, but all of the food eaten here was grown here organically, and everything near the community (the farmland surrounds the housing) to avoid pesticides and the like from poisoning the kibbutzniks.

The lawns within the community are practically sacred. Since the Jews who founded this community came from Germany before WWII, they fought and died for this land, raising it from the swamp. The grass is not to be trampled on, out of respect for these sacrifices. Also, we get yelled at if we do.

There is a thrift store and a small supermarket on the kibbutz grounds. Funny money, bought with real shekels (which seems...a bit unnecessary. Why not just use shekels?), is used to buy things.

On Thursday, students who didn't have to go to Bet She'an or Afula for anything relating to phones or setting up bank accounts went to work. It was raining all day yesterday, and let me tell you: Weeding grapevines in the rain is no fun at all. Today it was somewhat drier, and in the afternoon the sun came out. On both days I had to get up at 5 AM and work until 8:30, when we had breakfast, then we went back to work from 9 AM to noon. The upside to working so early? You get the afternoon free. The downside? You have to get up with or before the sun, which is hell for someone who's a night owl and takes forever to get to sleep.

Shabbat starts in a couple hours, which is why I'm not making this post after the day's activities are over. The use of computers and writing of any sort is forbidden on Shabbat, though we may break this tradition within our own rooms. However, the wi-fi there is absolutely terrible, so...posting now. I'll leave more details on Shabbat after work on Sunday (yes, we work Sunday through Friday).

See you then!

Whew, do I have a long tale for you! I've been keeping records in a physical journal (and will continue to do so for the rest of the trip), which I'm going to transfer in part to here.

Minimal links, because there's a lot of information here and I haven't had a chance to actually look around the entire kibbutz yet.


Checking in for my boarding pass the night before I left was a good idea. I only had to go through the bag check instead of the long lines for check-in, and it took barely twenty minutes (mostly because there was no available station). I got through the TSA checkpoint with an empty water bottle, fortunately, so I could fill it on the other side.

It was cloudy when I left, and would stay so until we started flying over the Balkans, after I'd switched planes. I also couldn't get to sleep during the entire flight, which was a spectacularly bad idea. Not entirely my fault, though.

I had to go through four or five passport and carry-on checks. That was fun. At Ben Gurion Airport, I had trouble finding my suitcase because someone had taken it off the carousel track and just dumped it on the floor.

Traveler's Tip: When picking up luggage, always make sure to stand where the luggage comes out so you see it right away and can move faster. Also, there will be less chance someone will simply pick your bag up and leave. Also, make sure your baggage has your name and contact (and address as well), and perhaps something that will help you identify the bag(s) more easily.

I arrived in Israel at 3 in the afternoon, tired but eager to see what I could. I managed to stay awake until 9 PM or so and somehow slept exactly eight hours. I...really don't know why, considering I'd been up for over a day and a half by that point and there really was no rush. Fredi and Aviva, the couple I was staying with until the ulpan started, showed me around Yavne a little. It's an industrial town, mostly, and used to be quite an important one. Lately, though, its importance has declined.

Later, we went to old Jaffa (Yaffo), just south of Tel Aviv, and looked at the Ottoman fort. No pictures for that, sadly--I forgot my camera that day. There were a lot of art galleries, one of which featured the works of artist Patricia Govezensky. The curator there seemed pleased that I knew of her (thanks, Dad). We also visited the harbor, where people where fishing and where Andromeda Rock stands (yes, that Andromeda), and passed by the embassies of the Vatican and of the Greek Orthodox Church. We also walked up the hill to the Statue of Faith and the Wishing Bridge.

Drivers in Israel appear to be insane. They are incredibly unsafe, veering without signaling, speeding, and cutting in at high speed. For those of you planning on driving or riding with someone, please do be aware of this. Don't distract the driver or allow yourself to be distracted, but remain aware. Also, parking is very limited, and by that I mean VERY limited. Drivers will often park on sidewalks or in no-park zones because there's absolutely nowhere else to go.

Remember this post on what movies to watch? Talking with a lot of the volunteers here, it seems that yes, the movie You Don't Mess With the Zohan is somewhat accurate...especially where using hummus on absolutely everything is concerned. Not that I mind; I love hummus.

This weekend (including today) was also Purim. There were people dressed up in costumes, and hammentaschen absolutely everywhere of all kinds. At the kibbutz, the celebration was yesterday. Today, only a few cities are celebrating (I have yet to find out the reason WHY different cities celebrate on different days).

On the 19th of March, we went to Bet Jemail, where a monastery and a nunnery stand. The nuns mostly make chocolate and handmade glazed pottery, and the monks make olive oil and wine. Many of the olive trees there are between six hundred and eight hundred years old! In the back of the monastery is a small church dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Since Bet Jemail is in the Judean hills (though not as high as Jerusalem), I got a pretty good view of the land spread out below.

Afterwards, we went to Jerusalem. More specifically, to Ein Kerem, where we had lunch and took a quick tour of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, which was built on the ruins of a Byzantine church (discovered when a cannon fell through the courtyard into the church below) commemorating the birthplace of St. John.

That night, Aviva and I went to a concert given by the wonderful Trifonas Nikolaidis.



To be continued...