Sooo, Saturday night, after a long lazy day of doing nothing, we decided to go on a spontaneous field trip to the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer game against Ramat Gan. I was hesitant to go, not sure i would enjoy it, but the roomies convinced me. I decided if I was doing it, i was doing it right, so I decked out in team colors. In yellow shorts over my leggings and a blue shirt, we ventured on the bus to the stadium. We got in line to buy tickets, but found out we were on the Ramat Gan side. You couldn't even by tickets for Tel Aviv, so we walked around the stadium and waited in the much longer, much bluer and yellower line. Tickets were 80 shekels, although we found out later that girls can get in for the kids price, 40 shekels. There were less than 20 women in the entire stadium so that makes sense. Too bad we didn't know to ask for them. Oh well, next time. We got our tickets, got Maccabi scarves to fit in with the crowd and have a nice souvenir, and waited in line to get in. Security, as in most of Israel, was airport tight, and we got frisked, patted down, and every bag in my purse was opened and dug through. Guess I feel much safer knowing they do that though.
The stadium was loud, and only the Maccabi side was full. Lots of yellow and blue, very little red, just a small section on the side. The Maccabi stands on the other hand, had an entire section devoted to screaming, jumping, shirtless men. Unlike in the States, they weren't selling alcohol, so these guys were running on pure fan mayhem. They did not stop jumping and leading the crowd the entire game. Ramat Gan scored early on a penalty kick, and although they weren't playing that well, Tel Aviv picked up in the second half and won the game 3-1. Even though I hesitated, I'm glad I went. It was an awesome experience, people watching, etc, and I would definitely do it again.
Also that night, some of our WUJS friends were participating in the Nike Night Run - Human Race 10K. It was a global event that weekend, and we hoped to catch the end of the race and cheer them on. Unfortunately it was a bit late, and we didn't know where they end was. So, we decided to go to the start, Rabin Square. We pretended to run our own races, in flip flops and our crazy team spirit, and found a nice man to ask how far the finish line was. He said 10 kilometers. Haha, very funny. Direct walk, he said it was around 2K, so we started the trek. Still wearing our scarves, we literally got stopped by runners on every block asking what we soon found out meant "did we win" and "what was the score". We taught ourselves to say "3 - 1 to Tel Aviv" and made a lot of friends on the way. Lots of sweaty, fit, attractive, runner man friends. I have never had so much fun walking down the street dressed like a maniac.
When we got to Yarkon Park and the finish line, most people were done running and on their way out, but we got to see a few stragglers cross. We also, by incredible chance, ran into Harold, Sarah, Jamie, and Vivian, the 4 WUJS runners. None of them had cell phone so we weren't sure we would. They were rosy cheeked matching their fancy red t-shirts and drinking giant water bottles. Looking good. We walked around a bit, then headed back to where we came from to catch a bus home. I was tired, and all I did was walk about 5K, but it was almost midnight. What a jam packed fun adventure.
To continue the crazy weekend, Sunday I went to work, came home and took a nap, then met the group to take the bus to Jerusalem (take 3) for the Idan Raichel concert. It was a MASA event for all the MASA sponsored groups (high school in Israel, year course, post college programs like ours). They definitely had ulterior motives though, as they began the night with several speakers talking about making Aliyah and being ambassadors and advocates for Israel upon returning home, if we returned home. Don't worry, I will. But anyways, after that an Israeli dance troupe performed a mutli cultural dance number, a show choir type group performed Halleluyah, and they showed videos of 3 MASA program participants before and during their Israeli experiences. Finally, the Idan Raichel Project took the stage. Idan Raichel is an Israeli musician/singer/pianist, with amazing dreadlocks, and the group is made up of singers and musicians from several countries. They sing in several languages, including Hebrew, Spanish, and English. Definition of world music. I only knew a few songs that I had looked up in anticipation of the night, but I really really enjoyed it. First thing I did when I got home was buy a CD on iTunes. Really glad I went, opened my eyes to the genre for sure. If you get a chance, check out "Boee" or "Chalamot Shel Acharim" on youtube.
Guess I gotta go, its Chelsea's bday tomorrow and we are going up on the roof tonight to celebrate for a bit since we have a late day tomorrow. Birthday shout out if you're reading this!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELS! YOM HULEDET SAMEACH! Love from the holy land, and talk to you soon!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Jeru Take 2; A Spiritual Quest B.C.
Shabbat Shalom! This may be another one that requires a cup of coffee, so put down the newspaper and get comfy.
This weekend consisted of surprise after spontaneous surprise. Firstly, I see on facebook on Wednesday Kyler Taustin "Leaving for Israel tonight". What? We quickly exchanged numbers and he called me as soon as they landed. I picked up the phone, asking if he was tired yet, because I had gotten theatre tickets. He laughed, but he and Cole, his brother, met up with the 4 of us and Tomer and his friend that night to go see "Telekinesis", a piece by one of the artists we represent, Ariel. Before the show, all the audience waited in a cafe like space, so Kyler and I got a chance to catch up. It's crazy how long its been since we've talked. Cole bonded with Michal and Chelsea over culinary arts, and we talked theatre and life. I love reunions like this. The show itself was a crazy dance/theatre/movement piece, with thankfully very little text. I can't even really explain it. Let's just say it involved some sexual imagery, balloons, red high heels, and the Single Ladies dance as perfomed by three amazing male dancers.
We didn't have much time to chat after the show, because we had the official WUJS party with the Jerusalem kids at a bar called Alice. Kyler and Cole were toooo tired, so they went home, but the 4 of us hopped a cab to the penthouse bar on the 16th floor. The bar was packed with WUJies, and several of the Israeli friends we've met along the way. Had a few drinks with Ricky, Amy, and Mike, and the gang, and made some new friends along the way. Since the Jerusalem kids were all in Tel Aviv for the party, they had hired a bus to take them back into Jerusalem at 1am. Chelsea and I were planning to trek Jerusalem for the weekend, so we made arrangements to take the bus with them and sleep on someone's couch that night to get an early start in Jeru. Perfect plan, right? Hitch a free ride? Of course it was too perfect. Apparently the only people who knew we were coming were drunky mcdrunk drunk and at 1:00 when we got outside, the bus was driving down the road. Shocked that anything in Israel would actually leave on time we ran around a bit and tried to get a hold of them, but to no avail. Angry, we hiked home instead. Glad we had been lugging our backpacks around to the theatre and bar...
We decided we were going anyways, got a good night's sleep in our own bed, and woke up early. By 9:00 we were on our way to the bus station for Jeru Take 2. We took a bus to Central Station in Jerusalem, planning our day on the way there. We brought our MASA guide to Israel and wrote down all the things that looked interesting. Both of us had gone on birthright and done most of the important tours, so this was more of an exploration day. Turned out quite well actually. We got off the bus, and found central station on the map. After wandering a bit, and not finding any streets we recognized, we asked for the first time of many, "aifo the fuck anachnu". Excuse my french. We walked into the Jerusalem Gate Hotel, where I stayed on birthright actually, and asked them to point us on the map where we were. Turns out we weren't looking at the right station, so we got our bearings and hit the road. We first ventured to an area on the map that looked like a park. We found the Supreme Court, a rose garden, a cemetery, and the Knesset. On Fridays you can only get so close to the Knesset, but we explored a bit, and latched on to an English speaking tour group for a few minutes.
We decided, to continue our spiritual quest that was one day in Jerusalem by finding the Greater Diskin Orphanage. Pappa Sel e-mailed me explaining "When my mother's sister Freda Berlin died, she remembers in her will the Greater Diskin Orphanage in Jerusalem. Each year, Roquel and I have been sending them a contribution." He requested we make a visit if ever in the area so we gave it a go. We saw Diskin street on the map, close to where we were, so we asked the Knesset Guard if he had any idea where the place may be. We had an address, but couldn't find it on the map and there was no answer to the phone number we had. The guard recommended we walk to Diskin street and asked there. We trekked uphill, asked around, and no one had any clue. We decided to get in a cab, ask if it was close, and if not just head towards the old city and give up. He said 3 km, so we went. He dropped us off on Reines street, and we went through the gate of the Beit Diskin Educational and Charitable Institution. It was a beautiful building, and we walked through the grounds to take some pictures. Within a minute or 2 a group of Yeshiva students started yelling at us in Hebrew. Not sure what they were saying, but understanding the tone, we decided taking pictures in t-shirts and shorts probably made us look a bit out of place, so we left. Unfortunately we didn't get to talk to anyone, as nothing seemed open, and we were in trouble, so we left. After looking online later we discovered the building now operates as an ultra religious boarding school. It all makes sense now. Regretting not asking the cab driver to wait for us, we made our way back to a main road through a rather religious neighborhood. We got a lot of awkward looks, and walked pretty quickly. We found a new cab and set out for the next leg of our spiritual quest.
He dropped us off just outside the Jaffa gate. We ventured into the old city and wandered through the shops on David street. We decided on the train that we were going to see the Muslim quarter that day, so we looked around for some scarves so we were dressed appropriately. Mine for my knees, Chelsea her elbows. We found some beautiful pashminas, and the salesman was a nice young guy. He offered us the 40 shekel scarves for 30 shekels. We said how about 2 for 50. He hesitated, said 55, and without us saying a nother word said Ok 50. Amazing. For 25 sheks each. Starving, from there we went to find lunch. We wandered through the old city and bit found a nice looking restaurant close by. They had no menus, so he just told us what they had. We decided on chicken shwarma and chicken kabobs to share. He told us to go get our extras from the salad bar, self serve. And asked if we wanted hummus. Thinking he meant with the shwarma I said yes. That was my first mistake. We ate our salads, he brought us hummus, and pita, and chips (fries) and our chicken, and we stared at the feast in front of us. We ate, as much as we could, then asked for the cheshbon and bags to go. The service was pretty crappy, but eventually he came to us with a calculator. He added up each individual item. Literally, each. individual. item. Despite the fact that we didn't ORDER the fries, or the salads, he just brought them, we were charged. We argued a bit, but there was only so much we could do. We paid the bill, but didn't tip. We brought home as much as we could, so at least we get 2 meals out of the outrageous cost. We also learned a valuable lesson about being American tourists...
On the train we had read about the Via Delorosa walk, where Jesus walked with the cross, and decided it could be an interesting experience. On Fridays, at 3:00, the trek was supposedly led by Monks. As long we we're here, why not follow the monks. We checked with some police men to make sure we were okay to enter the Muslim quarter today, and they said as long as we covered up we were fine. We wrapped ourselves in our new discounted scarves and followed the map. A bit lost in the maze of the old city, we saw a monk running by. He must have been late. We declared "follow that monk" and did our best to run after him. We lost him, but looked up and saw we were exactly where we wanted to be. We followed the trail backwards to the start. We found station 2, and a large crowd gathered outside of a churchy building, but couldn't find 1. We walked down a bit more and ran into a group of people discussing in English the same quandary. We joined forces and attempted to find the beginning of the trail, a Muslim school. We talked with our new friends, and discovered one of them was from Australia, spending 6 months in the Middle East reading the bible and visiting all the places he read. He had just come from 2 months in Syria and 2 months in Jordan. We assured him he was sure to find a few places here in Israel as well. The other men he was with asked where we were from. I said Chicago, he smiled so I asked where he was from. He said the Chicago area as well, Highland Park. I laughed and said Deerfield. He asked me if I knew John Scornavacco, a former DHS principle. Of course I know who he is, and he went on to tell me they graduated from HPHS together. Funny coincidences here in the holy land. We figured out at that point that the churchy building we were at before must have been the school, so we went back and latched on to the procession, now moving. There was someone leading the way, or perhaps a few people, telling the story at each stop into a microphone in about 6 languages. There was a very, very attractive monk next to us carrying a speaker. We followed the procession for a few stops, from the Muslim Quarter into the Christian Quarter, until we veered off the path into the Jewish quarter. We literally went from the "Jesus Trail" to the Kotel in 3 minutes.
We went through the metal detectors into the Kotel, watched a bit, and left our notes in the wall. Its always nice to just watch other people, wondering about their stories and backgrounds. There were lots of families with young kids too, perhaps a Friday afternoon weekly event. From there, we wandered through the Jewish Quarter a bit, just exploring a people watching, admiring the architecture. A nice man stopped us on the street and asked us, in American English if his tie was straight. Not sure how he knew we were American right off the bat, maybe we were emanating tourist, but we helped him out. Turned out to be a yeshiva student from California off to meet his parents. After sending him on his way, we exited the old city though the Zion Gate and began our urban hike to find a way home. Since no busses run on Shabbat, and sundown was approaching, we went with a Sherut. Chelsea had read you could get a sherut from Jeru to TA for 30 shekels from Zion Square. We found it on our map, and started down the ride. The sidewalk ended and we almost got hit by several tour busses, but we made it out of there. It was a loong walk, but eventually we found Zion Square. Unfortunately all we saw there was a taxi and a man shouting for rides to Tel Aviv. We asked him how much and he said 300 shekels, but for us 200. No way. Despite the fact that we said thanks and never mind, a sherut was only 30, he kept trying to convince us. I don't understand why he though he would win. A nice man overheard our battle and stepped in to tell us the sherut station was across the street and one block up. Thank you for saving us. We escaped the taxi man's clutches and found a small parking lot where 2 sheruts were parked. Tov Meod! We got in, payed our 30 sheks, and waited for the van to fill so it could take us home. An hour later, we found ourselves back at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. Beautiful. We had officially taken on Jerusalem in one day. Couldn't have been a better adventure. Next time, we decided, we are going to the Biblical Zoo. Can't even wait. What a great weekend.
Check out my Jeru pix!
We made it home just in time for Shabbat dinner with the group, a serious potluck style buffet on the roof. I had promised Jacob his sister could stay in my room that night, since I was originally gonna be in Tzfat for the whole weekend, but when plans changed to a day trip to Jerusalem, and I was suddenly home, I was stuck. I told her she could have my room still, and I tossed my pillow in an extra bed upstairs in Ellen's room, she was off camping for the weekend. Not too bad a deal. After dinner, we camped out for a game of Risk, in Hebrew, and although I owned all of North AND South America at one point, when we decided to break and go to bed, my troops were thinly spread over half of North America. It's gonna be a quick second half of the game when we pick back up. Can't help but think of the Seinfeld episode either... Should we have trusted the boys with the board all night? Find out next time, same blog time, same blog channel.
This weekend consisted of surprise after spontaneous surprise. Firstly, I see on facebook on Wednesday Kyler Taustin "Leaving for Israel tonight". What? We quickly exchanged numbers and he called me as soon as they landed. I picked up the phone, asking if he was tired yet, because I had gotten theatre tickets. He laughed, but he and Cole, his brother, met up with the 4 of us and Tomer and his friend that night to go see "Telekinesis", a piece by one of the artists we represent, Ariel. Before the show, all the audience waited in a cafe like space, so Kyler and I got a chance to catch up. It's crazy how long its been since we've talked. Cole bonded with Michal and Chelsea over culinary arts, and we talked theatre and life. I love reunions like this. The show itself was a crazy dance/theatre/movement piece, with thankfully very little text. I can't even really explain it. Let's just say it involved some sexual imagery, balloons, red high heels, and the Single Ladies dance as perfomed by three amazing male dancers.
We didn't have much time to chat after the show, because we had the official WUJS party with the Jerusalem kids at a bar called Alice. Kyler and Cole were toooo tired, so they went home, but the 4 of us hopped a cab to the penthouse bar on the 16th floor. The bar was packed with WUJies, and several of the Israeli friends we've met along the way. Had a few drinks with Ricky, Amy, and Mike, and the gang, and made some new friends along the way. Since the Jerusalem kids were all in Tel Aviv for the party, they had hired a bus to take them back into Jerusalem at 1am. Chelsea and I were planning to trek Jerusalem for the weekend, so we made arrangements to take the bus with them and sleep on someone's couch that night to get an early start in Jeru. Perfect plan, right? Hitch a free ride? Of course it was too perfect. Apparently the only people who knew we were coming were drunky mcdrunk drunk and at 1:00 when we got outside, the bus was driving down the road. Shocked that anything in Israel would actually leave on time we ran around a bit and tried to get a hold of them, but to no avail. Angry, we hiked home instead. Glad we had been lugging our backpacks around to the theatre and bar...
We decided we were going anyways, got a good night's sleep in our own bed, and woke up early. By 9:00 we were on our way to the bus station for Jeru Take 2. We took a bus to Central Station in Jerusalem, planning our day on the way there. We brought our MASA guide to Israel and wrote down all the things that looked interesting. Both of us had gone on birthright and done most of the important tours, so this was more of an exploration day. Turned out quite well actually. We got off the bus, and found central station on the map. After wandering a bit, and not finding any streets we recognized, we asked for the first time of many, "aifo the fuck anachnu". Excuse my french. We walked into the Jerusalem Gate Hotel, where I stayed on birthright actually, and asked them to point us on the map where we were. Turns out we weren't looking at the right station, so we got our bearings and hit the road. We first ventured to an area on the map that looked like a park. We found the Supreme Court, a rose garden, a cemetery, and the Knesset. On Fridays you can only get so close to the Knesset, but we explored a bit, and latched on to an English speaking tour group for a few minutes.
He dropped us off just outside the Jaffa gate. We ventured into the old city and wandered through the shops on David street. We decided on the train that we were going to see the Muslim quarter that day, so we looked around for some scarves so we were dressed appropriately. Mine for my knees, Chelsea her elbows. We found some beautiful pashminas, and the salesman was a nice young guy. He offered us the 40 shekel scarves for 30 shekels. We said how about 2 for 50. He hesitated, said 55, and without us saying a nother word said Ok 50. Amazing. For 25 sheks each. Starving, from there we went to find lunch. We wandered through the old city and bit found a nice looking restaurant close by. They had no menus, so he just told us what they had. We decided on chicken shwarma and chicken kabobs to share. He told us to go get our extras from the salad bar, self serve. And asked if we wanted hummus. Thinking he meant with the shwarma I said yes. That was my first mistake. We ate our salads, he brought us hummus, and pita, and chips (fries) and our chicken, and we stared at the feast in front of us. We ate, as much as we could, then asked for the cheshbon and bags to go. The service was pretty crappy, but eventually he came to us with a calculator. He added up each individual item. Literally, each. individual. item. Despite the fact that we didn't ORDER the fries, or the salads, he just brought them, we were charged. We argued a bit, but there was only so much we could do. We paid the bill, but didn't tip. We brought home as much as we could, so at least we get 2 meals out of the outrageous cost. We also learned a valuable lesson about being American tourists...
On the train we had read about the Via Delorosa walk, where Jesus walked with the cross, and decided it could be an interesting experience. On Fridays, at 3:00, the trek was supposedly led by Monks. As long we we're here, why not follow the monks. We checked with some police men to make sure we were okay to enter the Muslim quarter today, and they said as long as we covered up we were fine. We wrapped ourselves in our new discounted scarves and followed the map. A bit lost in the maze of the old city, we saw a monk running by. He must have been late. We declared "follow that monk" and did our best to run after him. We lost him, but looked up and saw we were exactly where we wanted to be. We followed the trail backwards to the start. We found station 2, and a large crowd gathered outside of a churchy building, but couldn't find 1. We walked down a bit more and ran into a group of people discussing in English the same quandary. We joined forces and attempted to find the beginning of the trail, a Muslim school. We talked with our new friends, and discovered one of them was from Australia, spending 6 months in the Middle East reading the bible and visiting all the places he read. He had just come from 2 months in Syria and 2 months in Jordan. We assured him he was sure to find a few places here in Israel as well. The other men he was with asked where we were from. I said Chicago, he smiled so I asked where he was from. He said the Chicago area as well, Highland Park. I laughed and said Deerfield. He asked me if I knew John Scornavacco, a former DHS principle. Of course I know who he is, and he went on to tell me they graduated from HPHS together. Funny coincidences here in the holy land. We figured out at that point that the churchy building we were at before must have been the school, so we went back and latched on to the procession, now moving. There was someone leading the way, or perhaps a few people, telling the story at each stop into a microphone in about 6 languages. There was a very, very attractive monk next to us carrying a speaker. We followed the procession for a few stops, from the Muslim Quarter into the Christian Quarter, until we veered off the path into the Jewish quarter. We literally went from the "Jesus Trail" to the Kotel in 3 minutes.
We went through the metal detectors into the Kotel, watched a bit, and left our notes in the wall. Its always nice to just watch other people, wondering about their stories and backgrounds. There were lots of families with young kids too, perhaps a Friday afternoon weekly event. From there, we wandered through the Jewish Quarter a bit, just exploring a people watching, admiring the architecture. A nice man stopped us on the street and asked us, in American English if his tie was straight. Not sure how he knew we were American right off the bat, maybe we were emanating tourist, but we helped him out. Turned out to be a yeshiva student from California off to meet his parents. After sending him on his way, we exited the old city though the Zion Gate and began our urban hike to find a way home. Since no busses run on Shabbat, and sundown was approaching, we went with a Sherut. Chelsea had read you could get a sherut from Jeru to TA for 30 shekels from Zion Square. We found it on our map, and started down the ride. The sidewalk ended and we almost got hit by several tour busses, but we made it out of there. It was a loong walk, but eventually we found Zion Square. Unfortunately all we saw there was a taxi and a man shouting for rides to Tel Aviv. We asked him how much and he said 300 shekels, but for us 200. No way. Despite the fact that we said thanks and never mind, a sherut was only 30, he kept trying to convince us. I don't understand why he though he would win. A nice man overheard our battle and stepped in to tell us the sherut station was across the street and one block up. Thank you for saving us. We escaped the taxi man's clutches and found a small parking lot where 2 sheruts were parked. Tov Meod! We got in, payed our 30 sheks, and waited for the van to fill so it could take us home. An hour later, we found ourselves back at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. Beautiful. We had officially taken on Jerusalem in one day. Couldn't have been a better adventure. Next time, we decided, we are going to the Biblical Zoo. Can't even wait. What a great weekend.
Check out my Jeru pix!
We made it home just in time for Shabbat dinner with the group, a serious potluck style buffet on the roof. I had promised Jacob his sister could stay in my room that night, since I was originally gonna be in Tzfat for the whole weekend, but when plans changed to a day trip to Jerusalem, and I was suddenly home, I was stuck. I told her she could have my room still, and I tossed my pillow in an extra bed upstairs in Ellen's room, she was off camping for the weekend. Not too bad a deal. After dinner, we camped out for a game of Risk, in Hebrew, and although I owned all of North AND South America at one point, when we decided to break and go to bed, my troops were thinly spread over half of North America. It's gonna be a quick second half of the game when we pick back up. Can't help but think of the Seinfeld episode either... Should we have trusted the boys with the board all night? Find out next time, same blog time, same blog channel.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Why Can't We All Just Get Along!?
Here I am on the first day after a crazy heat wave. Never thought I'd find myself complaining about the heat in October, but it has been in the 90s for the past three days and not fun. Our siyur was especially stuffy and sweaty, so I'm glad we were back in the 70s today. I guess I don't have much right to complain, since I hear people have seen snow already, but still. Hot.
Our siyur this week took us first to Kibbutz Metzer. Just across the road from an Arab villiage, Messer, they share water and many other things. In fact, the two communities have a strong relationship. At the same time, they face a lot of challenging differences, considering they are located right at the Green Line. The towns have a long history of working together and helping each other, despite the political and literal fences between their communities. Dov, from the Kibbutz, and Said, from Messer both spoke to us about their opinions and lives living in this torn country. Said calls himself Arab Muslim Palestinian Israeli - a complicated name. It was interesting to hear about the issues, especially for a Palestinian Israeli regarding Army service, from someone who actually lived it. We had lunch on the kibbutz as well, and then Dov took us for a walk. We walked along the Green Line, dividing Israel from the West Bank, and looked again at the security fence. He showed us the original border markers, and the new road divider, which is less of a border as it is a ceasefire line, and temporary marker. We literally had one foot in Israel and one in Palestine. As I mentioned, though, it was miserably hot and hard to focus.
After that we got back on the bus and went to Atlit, a detainee camp for illegal immigrants seeking refuge in Palestine after the Holocaust. Considering many who stayed there were recent Holocaust survivors, it was surprising how much it resembled a concentration camp with showers and a disinfectant room at the entrance. We watched a movie about a group coming over on a boat, getting caught by the British, and being sent to the camp. Supposedly, it was pretty nice considering, and although men and women were separated and quarters were tight, people were happy and not there for very long. It was simply a holding place to make sure people entering the country were at quota. Again, pretty stuffy to be touring mock ups of the barraks on such a hot day, but we made it through.
We voted in favor of stopping for glida on the way home, and the driver let 25 Americans loose is a McDonalds. My first 3 shekel cone had a hair in it, but I said "slicha, ma ze, ani lo rotzah" and they replaced it with a nice big new one and I pretended it didn't happen.
Today I went to a presentation EVE was putting on in Petah Tikvah and saw several short excerpts from some of the pieces and creators we work with. The first half was tough, pretty text based, but the second part of the show was primarily physical theatre, object theatre, etc in the form of workshops, and I really enjoyed it. Commedia dell'Arte, I know pretty well so even the parts with text I was able to follow, and the mask and physical theatre demonstrations had very little text except in the explanations which I followed pretty well too. One of the pieces was in Spanish/gibberish, which of course I am fluent in, haha. Overall, a nice Hebrew practice and fun day of theatre. I was only really lost during the Q and As at the end. I got a ride there from one of the directors and had a nice long chat about the cultural differences between Israel and elsewhere and the complete lack of formality that exists here. More on that later, but lets just say I have certainly noticed.
By the way, I got a 94% on my Ulpan quiz today. Yay!
Anyways, I'm pretty tired and need to start sleeping more. For some reason, maybe its because I am in ISRAEL and savoring every moment, I find myself cramming a lot into my days and am often tired. Oz achshav, ani tzricha lishon. Bedtime. Lila tov!
Our siyur this week took us first to Kibbutz Metzer. Just across the road from an Arab villiage, Messer, they share water and many other things. In fact, the two communities have a strong relationship. At the same time, they face a lot of challenging differences, considering they are located right at the Green Line. The towns have a long history of working together and helping each other, despite the political and literal fences between their communities. Dov, from the Kibbutz, and Said, from Messer both spoke to us about their opinions and lives living in this torn country. Said calls himself Arab Muslim Palestinian Israeli - a complicated name. It was interesting to hear about the issues, especially for a Palestinian Israeli regarding Army service, from someone who actually lived it. We had lunch on the kibbutz as well, and then Dov took us for a walk. We walked along the Green Line, dividing Israel from the West Bank, and looked again at the security fence. He showed us the original border markers, and the new road divider, which is less of a border as it is a ceasefire line, and temporary marker. We literally had one foot in Israel and one in Palestine. As I mentioned, though, it was miserably hot and hard to focus.
After that we got back on the bus and went to Atlit, a detainee camp for illegal immigrants seeking refuge in Palestine after the Holocaust. Considering many who stayed there were recent Holocaust survivors, it was surprising how much it resembled a concentration camp with showers and a disinfectant room at the entrance. We watched a movie about a group coming over on a boat, getting caught by the British, and being sent to the camp. Supposedly, it was pretty nice considering, and although men and women were separated and quarters were tight, people were happy and not there for very long. It was simply a holding place to make sure people entering the country were at quota. Again, pretty stuffy to be touring mock ups of the barraks on such a hot day, but we made it through.
We voted in favor of stopping for glida on the way home, and the driver let 25 Americans loose is a McDonalds. My first 3 shekel cone had a hair in it, but I said "slicha, ma ze, ani lo rotzah" and they replaced it with a nice big new one and I pretended it didn't happen.
Today I went to a presentation EVE was putting on in Petah Tikvah and saw several short excerpts from some of the pieces and creators we work with. The first half was tough, pretty text based, but the second part of the show was primarily physical theatre, object theatre, etc in the form of workshops, and I really enjoyed it. Commedia dell'Arte, I know pretty well so even the parts with text I was able to follow, and the mask and physical theatre demonstrations had very little text except in the explanations which I followed pretty well too. One of the pieces was in Spanish/gibberish, which of course I am fluent in, haha. Overall, a nice Hebrew practice and fun day of theatre. I was only really lost during the Q and As at the end. I got a ride there from one of the directors and had a nice long chat about the cultural differences between Israel and elsewhere and the complete lack of formality that exists here. More on that later, but lets just say I have certainly noticed.
By the way, I got a 94% on my Ulpan quiz today. Yay!
Anyways, I'm pretty tired and need to start sleeping more. For some reason, maybe its because I am in ISRAEL and savoring every moment, I find myself cramming a lot into my days and am often tired. Oz achshav, ani tzricha lishon. Bedtime. Lila tov!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Hiking and the Hundreth
I'm noticing all of my blog entries are starting to sound like a title from an episodes of Bones...
What a weekend. Despite staying up almost all night Friday, we managed to have a full day Saturday as well. I had e-mailed Tsahi earlier in the week to get ideas for a hike for Chelsea, Jaks and myself, and Saturday was the day. He gave us directions to take a cab to the end of Habarzel street, and to walk around the buildings when we saw the bagel shop. Excellent directions. The cab driver told us an amazing joke about 3 druggies that get out of prison and meet a crocodile on a hike by the river. Awesome. So, we walked around the bagel shop, found a bike path, and after calling Tsahi to confirm, ducked around the bike path and started walking along the Yarkon River on a dirt path. It was a very strange hike I must say, the river to our right, orchards to our left, and skyscrapers in the near distance. Joking that Tsahi would come check on us, Jaks looked at every biker that passed and said "Tsahi?", "Tsahi?" When we sat down, an hour or 2 in for a granola break, Jaks looked up at a biker coming towards us and said, "Tsahi?" Sure enough, it was. He told us we would probably not make the end of the trail, the Yarkon source, before dark, so he led us a different way to make sure we would get to a bus. We ended up going off the trail a bit and climbing up a dirt covered landfill, which had an amazing view. Laughing at the fact that we had just climbed a gigantic pile of garbage, Tsahi pointed out all the cities we could see around us from our trash pile lookout. Unexpectedly great afternoon!
Tsahi lead us to a bus stop in Hod HaSharon, and we called Merav to say hello and get some information about the centennial party we wanted to go to that night. Tsahi said she might know, and she proved very helpful. She helped us figure out how to get to the Port, but unfortunately was unable to join us. So we took an Egged bus into Tel Aviv, then from Arlozarov station a Dan bus to the port. We followed the masses of people to the water, not quite sure what we were going to find. We ended up walking along the promenade, where there was a crowd of people watching a street performer, some guys selling balloons, and tons of people, and we found a nice Suhi restaurant. We went to the bathroom to change out of our hiking clothes and stinky shoes, and came out fresh and ready for a nice sushi dinner. From there, we wandered down the promenade till we found the party. It was the closing celebration of all the Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial events. There was a huge concert in a parking lot, Donna Berger and some other guy who I really liked but never quite got his name. We met up with Michal and bunch of other WUJies and moved up close to the stage to watch. After the performances, a DJ took the stage and the entire parking lot turned into a giant dance floor. There were big balloons being tossed around the crowd and tons of people dancing. This went on for quite a while before they directed everyone to a show on the water. There were giant globes with projected images from around Tel Aviv, and a movie of people projected onto a stream of water, like that show at Disney World. Cool.
Tired from our hike and spontaneous dance party, we headed home and straight to bed. It's nice to sleep in an air conditioned room for a change, instead of having to leave the door open to get the AC from the hallway.
Just got back from Israeli Movie Night with the group. We watched "Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi". Hebrew with English subtitles. Pretty good movie if I do say so myself. Highly recommended. Gotta go finish my Ulpan homework. Pictures coming soon.
What a weekend. Despite staying up almost all night Friday, we managed to have a full day Saturday as well. I had e-mailed Tsahi earlier in the week to get ideas for a hike for Chelsea, Jaks and myself, and Saturday was the day. He gave us directions to take a cab to the end of Habarzel street, and to walk around the buildings when we saw the bagel shop. Excellent directions. The cab driver told us an amazing joke about 3 druggies that get out of prison and meet a crocodile on a hike by the river. Awesome. So, we walked around the bagel shop, found a bike path, and after calling Tsahi to confirm, ducked around the bike path and started walking along the Yarkon River on a dirt path. It was a very strange hike I must say, the river to our right, orchards to our left, and skyscrapers in the near distance. Joking that Tsahi would come check on us, Jaks looked at every biker that passed and said "Tsahi?", "Tsahi?" When we sat down, an hour or 2 in for a granola break, Jaks looked up at a biker coming towards us and said, "Tsahi?" Sure enough, it was. He told us we would probably not make the end of the trail, the Yarkon source, before dark, so he led us a different way to make sure we would get to a bus. We ended up going off the trail a bit and climbing up a dirt covered landfill, which had an amazing view. Laughing at the fact that we had just climbed a gigantic pile of garbage, Tsahi pointed out all the cities we could see around us from our trash pile lookout. Unexpectedly great afternoon!
Tsahi lead us to a bus stop in Hod HaSharon, and we called Merav to say hello and get some information about the centennial party we wanted to go to that night. Tsahi said she might know, and she proved very helpful. She helped us figure out how to get to the Port, but unfortunately was unable to join us. So we took an Egged bus into Tel Aviv, then from Arlozarov station a Dan bus to the port. We followed the masses of people to the water, not quite sure what we were going to find. We ended up walking along the promenade, where there was a crowd of people watching a street performer, some guys selling balloons, and tons of people, and we found a nice Suhi restaurant. We went to the bathroom to change out of our hiking clothes and stinky shoes, and came out fresh and ready for a nice sushi dinner. From there, we wandered down the promenade till we found the party. It was the closing celebration of all the Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial events. There was a huge concert in a parking lot, Donna Berger and some other guy who I really liked but never quite got his name. We met up with Michal and bunch of other WUJies and moved up close to the stage to watch. After the performances, a DJ took the stage and the entire parking lot turned into a giant dance floor. There were big balloons being tossed around the crowd and tons of people dancing. This went on for quite a while before they directed everyone to a show on the water. There were giant globes with projected images from around Tel Aviv, and a movie of people projected onto a stream of water, like that show at Disney World. Cool.
Tired from our hike and spontaneous dance party, we headed home and straight to bed. It's nice to sleep in an air conditioned room for a change, instead of having to leave the door open to get the AC from the hallway.
Just got back from Israeli Movie Night with the group. We watched "Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi". Hebrew with English subtitles. Pretty good movie if I do say so myself. Highly recommended. Gotta go finish my Ulpan homework. Pictures coming soon.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
In With The New...
Hello from Y. L. Peretz 7! We are here, settling in to the new place, stealing internet from wherever we can get it.
So, the move itself was chaos. Not to mention waiting around all morning, but then when I finally gave up and went to work, the movers gave my roommates quite a struggle. One room was obviously a single, and Michal claimed that one no problem. The first bedroom in the apartment had an extra little closet area, so we decided it made the most sense to make that one the double, and that I would take the middle room as a single. The movers apparently declared that due to the arrangement of the doors and where the closet is located, they couldn't get 2 beds in. Great planning for a double bedroom... So, they kicked my roomies out and made decisions, and I can home to one bed, my room in the largest room with a storage closet, and Jaks and Chelsea in the middle room. Fine, no big deal, the closet is communal storage, it just feels like a waste of space that could be valuable to them. Oh well, we'll get over it. I also have no drawers now, but I found space for all my stuff and have my underwear in a box on the shelf, so its all good. We are pretty much over complaining now, and just getting settled. In all fairness, I do have a nice large single room and as guilty as I feel about it, it's very nice. The shower is also fabulous, I just miss the bathtub ledge for keeping things and shaving. Pictures of the new place to come very soon.
Anyways, to celebrate the move, and mostly the end of this limbo state we've been in for the last few weeks, we had our first Shabbat celebration in the new apartment last night. Michal and I went shopping at the Dizengoff grocery store, but not before stopping at the food market. Inside this mall is a huge market of different vendors selling homemade creations of all nationalities and types. We had a gnocchi mixture (potato, tomato, pesto, sweet potato) and spinach lasagna with mushroom sauce, a sweet potato dumpling with teriyaki sauce, and fried cauliflower. Yumm. We got a second round of food to go, which will probably be dinner today. So, after stuffing our faces, we hit the grocery store. Bought materials for this chicken mushroom risotto/rice dish Michal makes and Israeli salad. We also had a plethora of pudding, left behind by the previous tenants of Hertzl that we rediscovered while packing the kitchen, and decided to make a trifle. So we went to buy bananas. All the bananas were green, and we must have looked disappointed, because the guy offered to go in back and look for better ones for us. He came back with an equally green banana, and after saying toda raba and never mind, he pulled us back into the stock room and asked us to pick out our own. Can't say I've ever done that before, but we were able to dig and find some bananas ready for use that evening.
We had Shabbat dinner just the four of us, then met up with the boys across the hall and some of the girls upstairs for dessert and tea. The trifle was a huge success. I slaved away making 3 boxes of pudding (2 chocolate fudge, 1 vanilla) and Jaks worked hard crushing tea biscuits, and it certainly paid off. I had spoken to Amit, the security guard/medic from my birthright trip earlier in the week, and had invited him to join us that evening. When Jaks heard I was inviting a friend, she invited her friend Yoni, her cousin's neighbor whom she had met on Sukkot. A few other people invited people and it turned into a WUJS and Israeli Friends party on the roof. The best part, just wait. Yoni arrived earlier, and joined us for dessert. We went up on the roof to meet everyone, and a bit later Amit arrived. Yoni looks up and goes, "oh, that's my cousin". We just about died. The circumstances that had led to them meeting up on our roof deck had so many minute details, and we just lost it. They, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed. Israel is a small country, yes, but we still found this to be an insane coincidence. Anyways, we drank a few bottles of wine, played Set, Stores, Rummicube, Spoons, game after game and had a really great time. The boys had the hookah out, and just an all around good day. Still shocked by the random cousin reunion, we hung out until about 4am in the apartment, and sent our new friends on their way. I hope we will be seeing more of them, its nice to hang out with Israelis for a change!
So, despite the struggles and difficult move, it has turned out to be very cool all living in the same building and I look forward to more evenings like this and all the adventured yet to come. It's like being in the dorms again. Anyways, all is good, more stories soon. Lehitraot!
So, the move itself was chaos. Not to mention waiting around all morning, but then when I finally gave up and went to work, the movers gave my roommates quite a struggle. One room was obviously a single, and Michal claimed that one no problem. The first bedroom in the apartment had an extra little closet area, so we decided it made the most sense to make that one the double, and that I would take the middle room as a single. The movers apparently declared that due to the arrangement of the doors and where the closet is located, they couldn't get 2 beds in. Great planning for a double bedroom... So, they kicked my roomies out and made decisions, and I can home to one bed, my room in the largest room with a storage closet, and Jaks and Chelsea in the middle room. Fine, no big deal, the closet is communal storage, it just feels like a waste of space that could be valuable to them. Oh well, we'll get over it. I also have no drawers now, but I found space for all my stuff and have my underwear in a box on the shelf, so its all good. We are pretty much over complaining now, and just getting settled. In all fairness, I do have a nice large single room and as guilty as I feel about it, it's very nice. The shower is also fabulous, I just miss the bathtub ledge for keeping things and shaving. Pictures of the new place to come very soon.
Anyways, to celebrate the move, and mostly the end of this limbo state we've been in for the last few weeks, we had our first Shabbat celebration in the new apartment last night. Michal and I went shopping at the Dizengoff grocery store, but not before stopping at the food market. Inside this mall is a huge market of different vendors selling homemade creations of all nationalities and types. We had a gnocchi mixture (potato, tomato, pesto, sweet potato) and spinach lasagna with mushroom sauce, a sweet potato dumpling with teriyaki sauce, and fried cauliflower. Yumm. We got a second round of food to go, which will probably be dinner today. So, after stuffing our faces, we hit the grocery store. Bought materials for this chicken mushroom risotto/rice dish Michal makes and Israeli salad. We also had a plethora of pudding, left behind by the previous tenants of Hertzl that we rediscovered while packing the kitchen, and decided to make a trifle. So we went to buy bananas. All the bananas were green, and we must have looked disappointed, because the guy offered to go in back and look for better ones for us. He came back with an equally green banana, and after saying toda raba and never mind, he pulled us back into the stock room and asked us to pick out our own. Can't say I've ever done that before, but we were able to dig and find some bananas ready for use that evening.
We had Shabbat dinner just the four of us, then met up with the boys across the hall and some of the girls upstairs for dessert and tea. The trifle was a huge success. I slaved away making 3 boxes of pudding (2 chocolate fudge, 1 vanilla) and Jaks worked hard crushing tea biscuits, and it certainly paid off. I had spoken to Amit, the security guard/medic from my birthright trip earlier in the week, and had invited him to join us that evening. When Jaks heard I was inviting a friend, she invited her friend Yoni, her cousin's neighbor whom she had met on Sukkot. A few other people invited people and it turned into a WUJS and Israeli Friends party on the roof. The best part, just wait. Yoni arrived earlier, and joined us for dessert. We went up on the roof to meet everyone, and a bit later Amit arrived. Yoni looks up and goes, "oh, that's my cousin". We just about died. The circumstances that had led to them meeting up on our roof deck had so many minute details, and we just lost it. They, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed. Israel is a small country, yes, but we still found this to be an insane coincidence. Anyways, we drank a few bottles of wine, played Set, Stores, Rummicube, Spoons, game after game and had a really great time. The boys had the hookah out, and just an all around good day. Still shocked by the random cousin reunion, we hung out until about 4am in the apartment, and sent our new friends on their way. I hope we will be seeing more of them, its nice to hang out with Israelis for a change!
So, despite the struggles and difficult move, it has turned out to be very cool all living in the same building and I look forward to more evenings like this and all the adventured yet to come. It's like being in the dorms again. Anyways, all is good, more stories soon. Lehitraot!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Out With The Old...
So, here I am waiting for the movers to come take our stuff. We had to wake up at 7:30 to be ready, and Ricky came by to exchange keys promptly then, but it is now 11:30, and still no movers at our place. Hmmm... We had a nice breakfast of borekas from AM PM (our soon to be former neighbor) and ice coffees from City (our Central Perk, which will now be several blocks further away) and toasted to the move on the balcony (for the last time). Now, we are blasting 80s music and laying on our bare mattresses. Playing the waiting game.
Let me tell you a little more about this move. For those of you that know Emerson, here is a comparison. It's like moving from 100 Beacon to Piano Row. Yes, Beacon (Hertzl) was run down and old and grungy, and yes Piano Row (Peretz) is more modern and nicer looking, its just not the same. The character and homey feeling just doesn't travel to sterile white walls and perfect tile. I know it'll be nice once we are settled, but I'm really gonna miss this place. Those who haven't lived here won't understand, its just the feeling.
Things I am going to miss about Hertzl 89:
-front balcony
-neighbor stalking
-kitchen balcony with ghetto 70s table
-big bedrooms
-2 bathrooms (1 toilet, 1 sink and shower)
-Michal as my roommate : (
-a hanging rack in my closet
-the bathtub
-doing laundry in the bathtub
-AM PM downstairs for last minute stops
-City Coffee on the corner
-Casbah where we got amazing cherry drinks and pancakes and french toast (we can still go, its just a few blocks further now...)
-all the other cute little bars, gelato, and sushi stops on that strip (same thing)
-shouting down the balcony to the boys
-the laundry man who "tore up" my laundry basket
Upon arrival, I will post a new list about upgrades and things I love about the new place. Don't you worry. Until then, I'll just sit here and wait for the movers to come take my stuff away so I can go to work. And then tonight/tomorrow, unpack all my clothes and stuff. And re hang my posters. And arrange the kitchen. And who knows what else. Sorry, now I'm just whining. Let's just get this balagan over with. Talk to you from the new home! Y. L. Peretz, here we come.
Let me tell you a little more about this move. For those of you that know Emerson, here is a comparison. It's like moving from 100 Beacon to Piano Row. Yes, Beacon (Hertzl) was run down and old and grungy, and yes Piano Row (Peretz) is more modern and nicer looking, its just not the same. The character and homey feeling just doesn't travel to sterile white walls and perfect tile. I know it'll be nice once we are settled, but I'm really gonna miss this place. Those who haven't lived here won't understand, its just the feeling.
Things I am going to miss about Hertzl 89:
-front balcony
-neighbor stalking
-kitchen balcony with ghetto 70s table
-big bedrooms
-2 bathrooms (1 toilet, 1 sink and shower)
-Michal as my roommate : (
-a hanging rack in my closet
-the bathtub
-doing laundry in the bathtub
-AM PM downstairs for last minute stops
-City Coffee on the corner
-Casbah where we got amazing cherry drinks and pancakes and french toast (we can still go, its just a few blocks further now...)
-all the other cute little bars, gelato, and sushi stops on that strip (same thing)
-shouting down the balcony to the boys
-the laundry man who "tore up" my laundry basket
Upon arrival, I will post a new list about upgrades and things I love about the new place. Don't you worry. Until then, I'll just sit here and wait for the movers to come take my stuff away so I can go to work. And then tonight/tomorrow, unpack all my clothes and stuff. And re hang my posters. And arrange the kitchen. And who knows what else. Sorry, now I'm just whining. Let's just get this balagan over with. Talk to you from the new home! Y. L. Peretz, here we come.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Laramie Update and the Hike/Grottos
Hello Hello!
I am in the process of packing everything I own in order to move the 7 blocks to the new apartment tomorrow. Taking a well needed break to update you, my loyal followers, on my week. Here goes.
Laramie Project: Very cool. I had read the script in advance, so I made a game of following along in English while I watched the reading in Hebrew. The Israeli performance was cut down slightly int he translation, so I couldn't just follow page by page, but I was able to understand enough of what was going on and recognize enough names that I could follow along rather well. I only got lost once, but I found my way again. Viola was impressed. I was especially drawn to the Russel Henderson and Aaron McKinney sections, the 2 who beat and eventually murdered Matthew Shepard. Neither have done interviews in quite some time, so even the fact that they let these members of the Tectonic Theatre Project see them was huge, let alone the things they had to say. Awesome that, through theatre, their words can reach the world. Overall, it was really great to be part of this worldwide project. Knowing people in Boston and Chicago and all over were seeing this same show with this powerful message is such a moving thought. I took a poster from the event, and as soon as we move, it'll hang in our apartment, and at home to remind me of the sheer power of theatre if nothing else.
The hike: This week's siyur took us to first to Mt. Meron in the Upper Galilee. We woke up super early. We walked to meet the bus, and found it, but the driver wasn't there. Everyone looked at me. Love it. It was about a 2-3 hour drive up north, near Tzfat. Since we left at 7am, I along with most of the group, slept on the bus. How nice. Glad I didn't actually have to drive... When the guide, Nadav, woke us up, he pointed out the mountain out the windows of the bus, and told us this was the mountain we were going to climb. Looking at this giant peak, we all looked around anxiously. He then said, don't worry, we're going to climb it in the bus. When we get to the top, we'll get out and climb down and around. Ok. Much better idea. The hike itself was really nice actually. Firstly, it was relatively shady and the surrounding area and lookout points were beautiful. Nadav pointed out the Lebanon border, telling us you could tell where Israel ends by where the tree line ends. Some of those trees he referred to may even be planted in our names, hehe. Secondly, this was the first optional hike so only people that wanted to be there and enjoyed hiking came, so there was significantly less whining. Jacob taught us an important lesson though: "pee pee tzahov, ze lo tov, pee pee lavan, metsuyan". I'll leave that to you to translate. We hiked about 2 and a half hours, then met the bus to grab our lunches and picnic outside. An awesome morning.
From there, we drove to Rosh HaNikra. I knew it had sounded familiar, but it wasn't until I got there that I recognized I had gone there with my Birthright group. We took a cable car down to the water, watched a movie that sprayed water and blew fans to match the images for effect, and wandered through the grottos. Thinking these caves were formed entirely by water really puts time in perspective. When I get a chance, I'll compare my pictures with the ones from Birthright and see how many of the same shots I took. Should be a good laugh. We also got a chance to peek through the fence at the Labanese border. We were just looking at an Israeli base, not Lebanon itself, but still worth peeking.
By this time it was late afternoon and we headed back to the bus. We took a vote whether or not we should head to the beach nearby, or just go home. I wanted to go to the beach, why not? Most people were tired though, and at a vote of 8 to 7 (thanks to many people who didn't vote...) we went home. Oh well. Took another good nap on the bus ride back, then made mushroom soup (in the kum kum) and grilled cheese upon arrival. Not sure why, considering it was 80 degrees out, but a good comfort food after a long day was kind of nice.
Click View My Gallery on the upper right to see new pix.
Now, in the process of packing. I am glad the movers don't have a bag limit, or weight limit, like the airlines, because I don't feel like trying that hard to compress. Right now I have my big duffel,my suitcase, and a few backpacks. Works for me. Let's just hope it works for them. The tough part is going to be splitting up our dressers. One has a hanging section, 1 drawer, and a few high shelves, but really no space for folded clothes. The other has several drawers and shelves, but no place to hang things. Hmmm. We're going to have to make this up as we go along, or keep things in each others rooms. Michal and I decided we are going to have Shabbat sleepovers too though, which is fun. Really, I just can't wait to get this thing over with and settle back into the new place. Next post may be from Peretz street!
Hope all is well at home. Sad I missed the poker game, but thanks for all the updates from the homefront. It's great to hear from everyone. Love you, miss you, and wish you were here. Later!
I am in the process of packing everything I own in order to move the 7 blocks to the new apartment tomorrow. Taking a well needed break to update you, my loyal followers, on my week. Here goes.
Laramie Project: Very cool. I had read the script in advance, so I made a game of following along in English while I watched the reading in Hebrew. The Israeli performance was cut down slightly int he translation, so I couldn't just follow page by page, but I was able to understand enough of what was going on and recognize enough names that I could follow along rather well. I only got lost once, but I found my way again. Viola was impressed. I was especially drawn to the Russel Henderson and Aaron McKinney sections, the 2 who beat and eventually murdered Matthew Shepard. Neither have done interviews in quite some time, so even the fact that they let these members of the Tectonic Theatre Project see them was huge, let alone the things they had to say. Awesome that, through theatre, their words can reach the world. Overall, it was really great to be part of this worldwide project. Knowing people in Boston and Chicago and all over were seeing this same show with this powerful message is such a moving thought. I took a poster from the event, and as soon as we move, it'll hang in our apartment, and at home to remind me of the sheer power of theatre if nothing else.
The hike: This week's siyur took us to first to Mt. Meron in the Upper Galilee. We woke up super early. We walked to meet the bus, and found it, but the driver wasn't there. Everyone looked at me. Love it. It was about a 2-3 hour drive up north, near Tzfat. Since we left at 7am, I along with most of the group, slept on the bus. How nice. Glad I didn't actually have to drive... When the guide, Nadav, woke us up, he pointed out the mountain out the windows of the bus, and told us this was the mountain we were going to climb. Looking at this giant peak, we all looked around anxiously. He then said, don't worry, we're going to climb it in the bus. When we get to the top, we'll get out and climb down and around. Ok. Much better idea. The hike itself was really nice actually. Firstly, it was relatively shady and the surrounding area and lookout points were beautiful. Nadav pointed out the Lebanon border, telling us you could tell where Israel ends by where the tree line ends. Some of those trees he referred to may even be planted in our names, hehe. Secondly, this was the first optional hike so only people that wanted to be there and enjoyed hiking came, so there was significantly less whining. Jacob taught us an important lesson though: "pee pee tzahov, ze lo tov, pee pee lavan, metsuyan". I'll leave that to you to translate. We hiked about 2 and a half hours, then met the bus to grab our lunches and picnic outside. An awesome morning.
From there, we drove to Rosh HaNikra. I knew it had sounded familiar, but it wasn't until I got there that I recognized I had gone there with my Birthright group. We took a cable car down to the water, watched a movie that sprayed water and blew fans to match the images for effect, and wandered through the grottos. Thinking these caves were formed entirely by water really puts time in perspective. When I get a chance, I'll compare my pictures with the ones from Birthright and see how many of the same shots I took. Should be a good laugh. We also got a chance to peek through the fence at the Labanese border. We were just looking at an Israeli base, not Lebanon itself, but still worth peeking.
By this time it was late afternoon and we headed back to the bus. We took a vote whether or not we should head to the beach nearby, or just go home. I wanted to go to the beach, why not? Most people were tired though, and at a vote of 8 to 7 (thanks to many people who didn't vote...) we went home. Oh well. Took another good nap on the bus ride back, then made mushroom soup (in the kum kum) and grilled cheese upon arrival. Not sure why, considering it was 80 degrees out, but a good comfort food after a long day was kind of nice.
Click View My Gallery on the upper right to see new pix.
Now, in the process of packing. I am glad the movers don't have a bag limit, or weight limit, like the airlines, because I don't feel like trying that hard to compress. Right now I have my big duffel,my suitcase, and a few backpacks. Works for me. Let's just hope it works for them. The tough part is going to be splitting up our dressers. One has a hanging section, 1 drawer, and a few high shelves, but really no space for folded clothes. The other has several drawers and shelves, but no place to hang things. Hmmm. We're going to have to make this up as we go along, or keep things in each others rooms. Michal and I decided we are going to have Shabbat sleepovers too though, which is fun. Really, I just can't wait to get this thing over with and settle back into the new place. Next post may be from Peretz street!
Hope all is well at home. Sad I missed the poker game, but thanks for all the updates from the homefront. It's great to hear from everyone. Love you, miss you, and wish you were here. Later!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Laramie Night!
In the office right now, helping set up the reception for the Laramie Project Ten Years Later: An Epilogue. I read the script, incredibly powerful, and I can't wait to see it take form tonight. In Hebrew, but still, I am excited to be a part of this worldwide project. Anyone at Emerson seeing the Majestic performance or anywhere else that is seeing the show tonight, please comment! I would love to know how it was everywhere else. I'll be sure to write later with an update after the performance.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Apartment Tour/New Video
So, my friend Jacob just got a new internship doing videography for WUJS (our program), and here is his amazing first creation. It includes a video tour of our apartments to commemorate before the move (hosted by Jaks and myself), some clips from the Matisyahu concert, and a profile of Harold at his internship. Enjoy!
Watch it!
.
Watch it!
.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Another Week - From Silence to Blasting Reggae
I have opted to take on a new format for this entry. The following is a list of all blogworthy occurrences in the past week or so:
- Michal spilled superglue on her computer.
- Don't worry, it still works.
- We went to see גשם של פלאפל (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, or literally Rain of Falafel) but it was only playing in Hebrew
- We saw Up (למעלה) instead in English with Hebrew subtitles
- We went to the Invitation to Silence Museum in Holon, a alternative sensory experience lead by deaf guides and wearing noise cancelling headphones
- It was quite literally an eye opening experience, and although it had the potential to be really cheesy was actually informative and powerful.
- We watched a motorcycle protest go down our street from the balcony.
- Seriously, there were motorcycles filling the streets and honking for at least 4 blocks both directions. They are protesting higher insurance rates and taxes for motorcycles in Israel.
- We all took a private rented bus to Jerusalem to see Matisyahu in concert.
- Reggae isn't really my style, but it was still a really cool experience to see him live, and in Jerusalem of all places. Almost our entire group went, and we saw Michal's brother too.
- I just found out the German show we saw in Acco was in fact an Israeli troupe pretending to be German.
- They fooled me! Oh well, at least we got to dance with them.
- My profile got put up on the WUJS website!
- And the biggest news of all - WE'RE MOVING
- None of us wanted to, and its going to suck to have to pack everything up, but the new building is much nicer and more modern. Although we won't get to spy on our neighbors anymore, it'll be nice to have the whole program living together, and we'll have the whole building to ourselves too which is cool. Pretty sure I'll have my own bedroom as well, which will be a nice upgrade. More on that later.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The BeJAcco Affair - Becky and Jaks take... Haifa??
Hello there! As many of you know, my co-workers invited me and my roommate Jaks to join them to the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre these past few days. I had seen signs for this festival while in Acco last summer on birthright, and was very excited to find out I was able to go this year. What we got, was more of an adventure than we had bargained for, and it turned into an amazing few days. I guess I'll start from the beginning, so grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable for this one. It's gonna be a long but exciting story.
Jaks and I left the apartment around 7:15 am, yikes, to venture to the train station. Tomer and Viola, my co-workers, were getting on to meet us at a later stop, so we were on our own. Despite leaving half of our breakfast on the bench at the station, we found it no problem, and after about 2 hours on the train, arrived up North in Acco. I guess I should begin this story by giving you the same warning Tomer gave me about this festival. It's not the most organized, and because we know many people and have helped a lot with the organization, we aren't getting tickets in advance, we are going to use our connections and play everything by ear. He said, don't be dissappointed, trust us, and roll with the punches. Fine. I can live with that. Not paying for tickets? I won't complain if we don't make our 10 shows in 2 days goal. I was excited.
So we arrived on schedule, grabbed a snack of corn on the cob from a street vendor, and found the festival grounds. This complex, beautiful old buildings surrounding the court yard, looked very familiar, and I realized that I had toured the crypt with my birthright bus. Crazy! We went to catch our first show at 11:00. Tomer and Viola hadn't picked up their badges yet, so we couldn't get into the building and it was too late to buy tickets. No big deal. We miss 1 show, there's 9 more on the schedule. We ventured into the famous Shuk instead, a large open air market with food, clothing, and basically anything you can imagine, winding through the walls of the ancient city. Within the market, is Hummus Sayid, apparently the most famous hummus in all of Israel. Despite the line, we waited a little over 20 minutes to squeeze into a table. Jaks and I shared a plain hummus with pita and a hummus ful, which has basically baked beans on top. I have to say, I'm not sure I see what all the fuss was about. Granted, it was very yummy, and the texture was the smoothest I'd ever had. "Like Butter" as Jaks said, thanks Rachel Ray. After our brief detour, we headed back to the festival grounds.
The next show on our schedule, was at 3:00. Now Tomer had received his badge, and also an extra lanyard. I had no pockets, but the plan was for Jaks to wear the lanyard to get into the building, and then we would find people who knew us inside to get seats. Plan foiled again when I couldn't get past. "Are you sure I can't just buy tickets Tomer?" "No. They owe us favors." Okay, whatever you say. 3:00 show? False. Oh well, still 8 in our plan? Hmmm. We got some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice, with so much iron in it you can feel it on your tongue, and took a seat at one of the tables set up in the courtyard. At this time, the festival organizers decided it was sunny and that they should set up some shade. Ask people to move while they string up the tent? Neh, this is Israel, let's just drag it over their heads. They won't care. Well, we didn't, but it was quite funny to sit at a table holding up the fabric so it didn't spill our drinks. If this was in the States, there would have been a lot of angry people yelling. Here, just some laughs and picture taking. I love this country.
At 4:00, we finally got in to see our first show, with physical tickets in hand. Not sure who paid for them, but we knew we could get in the door this time. The theatre space was incredible. All the underground caverns and crypts had been converted, room by room, into different theatre spaces for the Festival. Amazing to think I had been there before in the dark looking up at a ceiling covered in bats, and now was seeing a play there. "Tateh" was not a play originally on our list, but a play all the same. It turned out to be this very obscure, non realistic, very weird show entirely in Hebrew. At one point, someone ate some noodles, and there was a guy with a keyboard singing. They also sang each others cell phone rings and had some serious fog machine overuse. Jaks and I didn't understand a thing, but apparently those who spoke Hebrew were almost as lost as we were. At least we can recognize bad theatre without understanding the dialogue! "Show didn't go as planned? Oh, then let's eat." Could have been the phrase of the trip. This time we had a collection of baklava like pastries. Viola excitedly packed up a box of honey soaked sweets and we camped out outside the bakery to enjoy. We tried these bright orange ones with a cheese like substance inside, that were apparently made from carrots. We had postachio layered, and peanut layered, and everything layered flaky "dope" covered snacks. We corrected them to "dough" and taught them some new English words as they explained what each one was. See pictures to get the full effect. Basically, to sum it up, yummmm.
Our next show at 7:00 was called "Sanatorium" and was a dance theatre piece without words, so we were excited we'd have the same experience as the Hebrew speakers this time around. We had tickets again, so Jaks and I got in, but with badges Tomer and Viola had to wait until everyone was seated to see if they could get in. It turned out to be sold out, so they weren't able to get in. The show was interesting, to say the least, but a bit too long for what it was and pretty sloppy. They had this great effect with these big white curtains opening and closing at different angles to isolate different rooms in the hospital, but it really didn't live up to its potential. A good idea of a show, and great for us English speakers, but needed some work.
We got outside to find the rest them again, and were greeted with some interesting news. A. Sanatorium was supposed to be the best show in the festival. Yikes. B. They were less than impressed with the Festival organizers and our housing for the evening fell through so we were going back to Tel Aviv for the night. WHAT?? I didn't come all the way here to go home that night. Tomer and Viola attempted to explain the situation, and we understood, but decided we simply wouldn't do it. Having been told all hostels and hotels in Akko would be booked and we had no other option, Jaks and I had a private pow wow to come up with a plan. Tel Aviv; just over 2 hours, South. Haifa; about 20 minutes by train. We came to see new things, not to sleep in our own beds. We were staying in Haifa for the night whether they liked it or not. Armed with just a blackberry and a cell phone, in less than 10 minutes, we looked up a hostel, made a reservation, and hit the road. No other option you say? Ha! We came for an adventure, why not get a spontaneous vacation out of it as well? What more of an adventure could we ask for? So glad I did 4 months in Europe and knew how to do this...
Hostel office closes at 10 you say? It is currently 9? GO!
We got a cap to the train station and got on the same train as Tomer and Viola. Jaks and I left them at the Hof HaCarmel (Mount Carmel) stop. We sprinted to find a cab, read him the address, and 5 minutes later, at about 9:59 we arrived at the hostel. The beds were 97 shekels each, which isn't bad at all, and we got a clean room, shower, and included breakfast. There was only 1 other girl in our room, from Germany, about our age. She was already in bed when we got there, so we dropped off our stuff, sat outside eating our leftover hummus from the afternoon for "dinner" and then went to bed pretty early. I think we got more sleep that night than we have most of our nights at home. We knew the Haifa detour was a great plan already.
We woke up early for the buffet breakfast. This was one serious Israeli buffet. Israeli salad, with or without cheese, fried eggs, hard boiled eggs, tuna, yellow cheese, salty hard cheese (like Feta), cereal, olives, everything 2 girls on a spontaneous adventure vacation could ask for. We capped off our morning feast with hot tea, and ...pudding? I don't complain when someone offers me chocolate pudding for breakfast. Lama lo? The new catch phrase of the day. Why not?
The plan was to make our way north and meet Viola and Tomer back in Acco for the afternoon.We hopped a bus from the hostel, backpacks in hand, for the Carmel beach nearby to begin our day. Not having couldn't ruin our day. Wade in the water anyways? Lama lo? Jaks took off her leggings, down to just her short "dress" and we waded in up to my shorts, leaving our packs on the shoreline. The beach was much cleaner than the ones we go to in Tel Aviv, and definitely less crowded. In fact, the only people there seemed to be over the age of 60. Whatever. We relaxed in the sand a bit, walked through the waves, and then went out to explore. Leave it to us to find an empty outdoor amphitheater. We took turns putting on shows for the camera and a collection of confused onlookers. Jaks told the story of our adventure so far, while I chose to share the tale in the form of interpretive dance. Click to see it for yourselves. One man stopped I assume to ask what we were doing, and when we responded "anachnu lo medaberot Ivrit" he said "oh well, Hebrew is a lousy language anyways." In case I haven't said it enough, I love this country.
Some nice people we met at the bus station suggested we walk around the German Colony, or Moshava Germanit. You say it this time. Lama lo? We got on a bus and, although the bus driver didn't speak English, a very nice man told us when to get off. It was then we realized we had, again, left our leftovers behind. The rest of the pita and hummus was in the fridge at the hostel. We were unknowingly leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind. Oh well. We got off the bus at the top of the German Colony. We found ourselves in this gorgeous neighborhood, looking up at the Baha'i Gardens. We decided to start uphill and work our way down, so we began with the Gardens. The security guard at the gate was from Texas and couldn't have been older than 20. That makes perfect sense. We were only able to go up 2 levels without joining a formal guided tour which left from a different location, but that was fine with me. We watched some workers pruning the trees through the gate, and explored the areas that were open. We made friends with a local Israeli there, saying he was being a tourist for the day, discovering things he'd never seen in his own country. I'm gonna do that one of these days. We said our farewells and walked down the stairs to walk the streets in the Colony. We explored alleyways and restaurants and just had a nice leisurely stroll through the beautiful city, looking up at all the houses above us on the hill. We stumbled upon the Haifa Museum, which happened to be free for Sukkot. This days just keeps getting better. We saw images and paintings from the founding of the city, old knives and swords, early photography, and lots of old maps. The best part of the museum, though, was the security guard at the entrance. He asked to check our bags, in Hebrew, and then said something else we didn't understand. "English?" Pointing to our backpacks he replied "When will blow up?" I'm so glad they can have a sense of humor about that here.
We then looked at our Haifa map to pick our next adventure. It looked as though down by the port there was a Turkish Market. Lunch soon? Dare I say it again? Lama lo? It took us a while to find it, and it wasn't exactly what we expected, but we did pass a train station on the way. We looked inside, train to Acco at 12:50. Perfect. We can make that. I asked the woman, entirely in Hebrew, how much a ticket would cost, and thus concluded my first full Hebrew Q and A. It was only a 14 shekel ride, so we decided to go for it. Why go back to where we started when we can improvise? We had just under an hour before th train was leaving, so we went to get food. We stopped in a small storefront, Turkish I believe, and got a collection of pitas for lunch. I looked at one, asked chatzilim? (eggplant) and she nodded, so one we knew was eggplant and cheese, the other some sort of meat with onions, and the third not quite sure. It resembled tuna salad pizza. We found a nice strip of grass, a tuffet if you will and sat down to eat. After a few bites we concluded it was not in fact tuna salad pizza, but whatever it was it was good. We wandered back to our new found train station, and got on the train to Acco. BeJAcco take 2.
When we got off the train, a man was yelling "Sheirut to the Festival!". Perfection. A Sheirut is kind of a cross between a taxi and a bus, with a specific route, but more like a shared taxi van. 5 shekels. When the man told us we were there, though, we were slightly confused. All we saw were kiddie rides. Could there be a different festival? He assured us it was just down the promenade, so we got off. So glad we took the long walk there, because we watched festival workers setting up stage after stage and vendors setting up booth after booth. We had discovered the street theatre section of the Festival. We knew where we would be spending that night!
We found Tomer and Viola and they had tickets for us to 5 short plays. He told us rather than the other competition shows we were planning to see, this one had a large non-verbal part and we would understand more. It was in fact pretty cool. Tomer introduced us to the professor who's students' works were being showcased and we entered the theatre. We sat down on a large rug facing the stage. After the first show, they announced something in Hebrew which we watched around us and concluded it meant, "turn around". The next show took place in a different space on the other side. This one was my favorite of all of them, and was completely no text, and very symbolic. For the next piece, we again followed the crowd and were lead outside the theatre to a dinner table. The actress served food to the audience members while delivering a monologue about her brother who had died in the army. We were very confused at the time, but the explanation Tomer gave us afterwards helped us piece it together. The next one, facing the stage again, involved a giant house of cards. Didn't understand the monologue, but I think got the basics as to what it was about. The last piece involved a Marilyn Monroe character in some strange contraption, and I think might have come close to making sense if we understood the recorded voices. Oh well. Can't get 'em all.
We wandered through the alleys of Acco a bit more while waiting for Tomer and Viola to get out of "Sanatorium" which they had missed the previous day, and had some dates and banana chips from a stand at the Shuk. At 6:00, we were supposed to go see Viola's show. It was an open room, with the 5 actors spread out and you walked around for one-on-one monologues. The only one that was in English, happened to be the actress we had come with, so of course we wanted to go. We knew only that the show was called StageFright in English, so we asked around to try to find the space. No one seemed to know, and we discovered we were pointing to the wrong picture in the booklet. A nice guy who had seen us circling the grounds looking lost offered to help and we together found Viola's name in the program and figure out which show. Succesful, yes, but he then sent us to a theatre down by the waterfront where we had seen the street theatre shows setting up. Ok... We walked all the way there, and no one seemed to know where it was. We decided to just hang out there and wait for Tomer to get out of his show to take us to see Viola. Soo glad we did, because the street shows turned out to be the best part.
We had only pictures to help us choose, so we looked at times and found things that looked interesting. It was almost easier to just wander the promenade until something looked interesting. We saw a crazy dance piece where the dancers were in a tide pool just off the shore. Talk about creating art to fit the theatre. We saw some antelope creatures in gorgeous masks dancing through the streets on stilts. There was a parade of scary puppet children. We found a kids show of a monkey-man in a cage trying to get bananas. We read the Hebrew, and discovered it was Tarzan. Although we stood in the back with the adults, we cheered him on screaming the Tarzan wail with the kids up front. This guy was so strong, swinging back and forth in the cage on a harness around his waste. We waited until he acrobatically got his bananas, cheered, and then went to find a show we had picked out from the book. All we knew was what we got from reading the Hebrew title "פלופנבאך וצופנהיים" Plupenvach and Tzopenheim? Flufenvach and Tzufenheim? Sounded German, and looked cool. We knew we were there when we heard the extremely German music. Flufenbach and Zufenheim turned out to be the best find of the weekend. It was a cast of actors, all with Hitler mustaches, dressed stereotypically German, and speaking only German. We watched them do several hilarious scenes, and very animatedly squeeze orange juice. They called out for volunteers and next thing I knew I was onstage helping them. I was the orange inspector. It ended with a game of something like Simon Says, and I was a little slow. A very nice, crazy, German man helped me out. See for yourself! Thanks Jaks for getting the ENTIRE thing on camera. When I figured out he was asking me, in German, for my name, I told him. Later in the show called me back onstage by name. Of course. This time Jaks was up as well and I didn't have time to leave my bag behind. In the middle of dancing with my crazy German friend, the program that had been tucked into my purse fell out, and he twirled on top of it, breaking the staple and scattering the pages everywhere. The actors proceeded to kick pages of my book all across the stage, dancing and tripping right over them, and laughing. Next thing I knew, my dance partner had a "gun" to my head and was yelling at me in German, probably for the mess I had made. The other actors protected me though, don't worry. Wish we could have gotten that one on film, but Jaks was busy dancing with the fat man, who resembled William Barfey from Putnam County Spelling Bee. I did get a cool sticker though for my troubles. Great find, great find.
We decided to make our way back to the main festival center to meet up with Tomer and see Viola's monologue. We were unable to get back though, due to a blockade in the road. Knowing Israel and large crowds, we had our assumptions as to what was going on. We walked away to get some food, I had a gooey banana crepe with caramel and coconut. Sitting on a rock, eating, waiting for the blockade to clear, an announcement came on. I didn't understand anything other than, "we don't know how long", so we assumed it was about the road block. Not sure what they said, but when a huge boom sounded 5 minutes later, we seemed to be the only ones in shock. Either the Israeli public is used to bomb diversions and were unfazed, or they announced what it was and that there was nothing to worry about, but either way we stood out like a sore thumb. Never will know what the announcement was about or the mysterious piercing boom. Maybe its better that way.
Just a few minutes later, they were letting people through again, and we found Viola's show, in the exact spot we had first looked. Her monologue was a sweet Israeli's broken English plea for funding and support for culture in Israel to the wealthy foreigner, complete with bar graphs and an American song. Adorable, and a really great character for her. Being 5 months pregnant didn't hurt either. We waited for her to finish her last performance of the evening, and then boogied to the train station. We got there with about 10 minutes to spare before the last train after a difficult time getting a cab, and discovered the rest of the actors from Viola's show were not there. Viola explained the situation to the conductor, but fortunately they pulled up just in time and we all boarded the train back to Tel Aviv. I was exhausted after a jam-packed amazing day, and Jaks slept most of the way. We got to the Tel Aviv station around midnight, spotted our bus across the street, ran, and headed home. Of course that couldn't be the end of our adventurous day. An orthodox family, with 6 kids between the ages of 1 and 10 got on the bus with us. They were all dressed alike in plaid tops and navy bottoms, except for one boy, in a cute little vest and tie, and all with matching peyos. One slept in a stroller in the aisle. What 6 young kids were doing up at that hour I will never know. Ima and the oldest child, the only daughter sat across from us, with the youngest in her lap. The cute little one decided my backpack was his private foot rest. I didn't mind at all, but the sister kept laughing she watched him him kick my backpack and rest his feet in my lap the entire ride. Within 5 minutes 2 of the kids were asleep, one passed out leaning on a stranger in the seat behind me. When the the mother noticed, instead of going to pick him up, she proceeded to burst out laughing. We all shared a nice giggle, but the man-pillow looked less excited. Only in Israel.
We arrived home not long after that. What better ending for our 2 day adventure. We dubbed the trip a "balagan yafe" or "beautiful mess". Honestly, though, I wouldn't have had it any other way. So what if the Festival shows were less than impressive. The street shows turned out to be the best part! So what if our plans changed last minute. We got to tour Haifa on a whim! An incredible experience, and lasting memory for sure. I'm exhausted, but it was worth every minute. Please check out the pictures! I'm going to take a nap.
Jaks and I left the apartment around 7:15 am, yikes, to venture to the train station. Tomer and Viola, my co-workers, were getting on to meet us at a later stop, so we were on our own. Despite leaving half of our breakfast on the bench at the station, we found it no problem, and after about 2 hours on the train, arrived up North in Acco. I guess I should begin this story by giving you the same warning Tomer gave me about this festival. It's not the most organized, and because we know many people and have helped a lot with the organization, we aren't getting tickets in advance, we are going to use our connections and play everything by ear. He said, don't be dissappointed, trust us, and roll with the punches. Fine. I can live with that. Not paying for tickets? I won't complain if we don't make our 10 shows in 2 days goal. I was excited.
So we arrived on schedule, grabbed a snack of corn on the cob from a street vendor, and found the festival grounds. This complex, beautiful old buildings surrounding the court yard, looked very familiar, and I realized that I had toured the crypt with my birthright bus. Crazy! We went to catch our first show at 11:00. Tomer and Viola hadn't picked up their badges yet, so we couldn't get into the building and it was too late to buy tickets. No big deal. We miss 1 show, there's 9 more on the schedule. We ventured into the famous Shuk instead, a large open air market with food, clothing, and basically anything you can imagine, winding through the walls of the ancient city. Within the market, is Hummus Sayid, apparently the most famous hummus in all of Israel. Despite the line, we waited a little over 20 minutes to squeeze into a table. Jaks and I shared a plain hummus with pita and a hummus ful, which has basically baked beans on top. I have to say, I'm not sure I see what all the fuss was about. Granted, it was very yummy, and the texture was the smoothest I'd ever had. "Like Butter" as Jaks said, thanks Rachel Ray. After our brief detour, we headed back to the festival grounds.
The next show on our schedule, was at 3:00. Now Tomer had received his badge, and also an extra lanyard. I had no pockets, but the plan was for Jaks to wear the lanyard to get into the building, and then we would find people who knew us inside to get seats. Plan foiled again when I couldn't get past. "Are you sure I can't just buy tickets Tomer?" "No. They owe us favors." Okay, whatever you say. 3:00 show? False. Oh well, still 8 in our plan? Hmmm. We got some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice, with so much iron in it you can feel it on your tongue, and took a seat at one of the tables set up in the courtyard. At this time, the festival organizers decided it was sunny and that they should set up some shade. Ask people to move while they string up the tent? Neh, this is Israel, let's just drag it over their heads. They won't care. Well, we didn't, but it was quite funny to sit at a table holding up the fabric so it didn't spill our drinks. If this was in the States, there would have been a lot of angry people yelling. Here, just some laughs and picture taking. I love this country.
At 4:00, we finally got in to see our first show, with physical tickets in hand. Not sure who paid for them, but we knew we could get in the door this time. The theatre space was incredible. All the underground caverns and crypts had been converted, room by room, into different theatre spaces for the Festival. Amazing to think I had been there before in the dark looking up at a ceiling covered in bats, and now was seeing a play there. "Tateh" was not a play originally on our list, but a play all the same. It turned out to be this very obscure, non realistic, very weird show entirely in Hebrew. At one point, someone ate some noodles, and there was a guy with a keyboard singing. They also sang each others cell phone rings and had some serious fog machine overuse. Jaks and I didn't understand a thing, but apparently those who spoke Hebrew were almost as lost as we were. At least we can recognize bad theatre without understanding the dialogue! "Show didn't go as planned? Oh, then let's eat." Could have been the phrase of the trip. This time we had a collection of baklava like pastries. Viola excitedly packed up a box of honey soaked sweets and we camped out outside the bakery to enjoy. We tried these bright orange ones with a cheese like substance inside, that were apparently made from carrots. We had postachio layered, and peanut layered, and everything layered flaky "dope" covered snacks. We corrected them to "dough" and taught them some new English words as they explained what each one was. See pictures to get the full effect. Basically, to sum it up, yummmm.
Our next show at 7:00 was called "Sanatorium" and was a dance theatre piece without words, so we were excited we'd have the same experience as the Hebrew speakers this time around. We had tickets again, so Jaks and I got in, but with badges Tomer and Viola had to wait until everyone was seated to see if they could get in. It turned out to be sold out, so they weren't able to get in. The show was interesting, to say the least, but a bit too long for what it was and pretty sloppy. They had this great effect with these big white curtains opening and closing at different angles to isolate different rooms in the hospital, but it really didn't live up to its potential. A good idea of a show, and great for us English speakers, but needed some work.
We got outside to find the rest them again, and were greeted with some interesting news. A. Sanatorium was supposed to be the best show in the festival. Yikes. B. They were less than impressed with the Festival organizers and our housing for the evening fell through so we were going back to Tel Aviv for the night. WHAT?? I didn't come all the way here to go home that night. Tomer and Viola attempted to explain the situation, and we understood, but decided we simply wouldn't do it. Having been told all hostels and hotels in Akko would be booked and we had no other option, Jaks and I had a private pow wow to come up with a plan. Tel Aviv; just over 2 hours, South. Haifa; about 20 minutes by train. We came to see new things, not to sleep in our own beds. We were staying in Haifa for the night whether they liked it or not. Armed with just a blackberry and a cell phone, in less than 10 minutes, we looked up a hostel, made a reservation, and hit the road. No other option you say? Ha! We came for an adventure, why not get a spontaneous vacation out of it as well? What more of an adventure could we ask for? So glad I did 4 months in Europe and knew how to do this...
Hostel office closes at 10 you say? It is currently 9? GO!
We got a cap to the train station and got on the same train as Tomer and Viola. Jaks and I left them at the Hof HaCarmel (Mount Carmel) stop. We sprinted to find a cab, read him the address, and 5 minutes later, at about 9:59 we arrived at the hostel. The beds were 97 shekels each, which isn't bad at all, and we got a clean room, shower, and included breakfast. There was only 1 other girl in our room, from Germany, about our age. She was already in bed when we got there, so we dropped off our stuff, sat outside eating our leftover hummus from the afternoon for "dinner" and then went to bed pretty early. I think we got more sleep that night than we have most of our nights at home. We knew the Haifa detour was a great plan already.
We woke up early for the buffet breakfast. This was one serious Israeli buffet. Israeli salad, with or without cheese, fried eggs, hard boiled eggs, tuna, yellow cheese, salty hard cheese (like Feta), cereal, olives, everything 2 girls on a spontaneous adventure vacation could ask for. We capped off our morning feast with hot tea, and ...pudding? I don't complain when someone offers me chocolate pudding for breakfast. Lama lo? The new catch phrase of the day. Why not?
The plan was to make our way north and meet Viola and Tomer back in Acco for the afternoon.We hopped a bus from the hostel, backpacks in hand, for the Carmel beach nearby to begin our day. Not having couldn't ruin our day. Wade in the water anyways? Lama lo? Jaks took off her leggings, down to just her short "dress" and we waded in up to my shorts, leaving our packs on the shoreline. The beach was much cleaner than the ones we go to in Tel Aviv, and definitely less crowded. In fact, the only people there seemed to be over the age of 60. Whatever. We relaxed in the sand a bit, walked through the waves, and then went out to explore. Leave it to us to find an empty outdoor amphitheater. We took turns putting on shows for the camera and a collection of confused onlookers. Jaks told the story of our adventure so far, while I chose to share the tale in the form of interpretive dance. Click to see it for yourselves. One man stopped I assume to ask what we were doing, and when we responded "anachnu lo medaberot Ivrit" he said "oh well, Hebrew is a lousy language anyways." In case I haven't said it enough, I love this country.
Some nice people we met at the bus station suggested we walk around the German Colony, or Moshava Germanit. You say it this time. Lama lo? We got on a bus and, although the bus driver didn't speak English, a very nice man told us when to get off. It was then we realized we had, again, left our leftovers behind. The rest of the pita and hummus was in the fridge at the hostel. We were unknowingly leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind. Oh well. We got off the bus at the top of the German Colony. We found ourselves in this gorgeous neighborhood, looking up at the Baha'i Gardens. We decided to start uphill and work our way down, so we began with the Gardens. The security guard at the gate was from Texas and couldn't have been older than 20. That makes perfect sense. We were only able to go up 2 levels without joining a formal guided tour which left from a different location, but that was fine with me. We watched some workers pruning the trees through the gate, and explored the areas that were open. We made friends with a local Israeli there, saying he was being a tourist for the day, discovering things he'd never seen in his own country. I'm gonna do that one of these days. We said our farewells and walked down the stairs to walk the streets in the Colony. We explored alleyways and restaurants and just had a nice leisurely stroll through the beautiful city, looking up at all the houses above us on the hill. We stumbled upon the Haifa Museum, which happened to be free for Sukkot. This days just keeps getting better. We saw images and paintings from the founding of the city, old knives and swords, early photography, and lots of old maps. The best part of the museum, though, was the security guard at the entrance. He asked to check our bags, in Hebrew, and then said something else we didn't understand. "English?" Pointing to our backpacks he replied "When will blow up?" I'm so glad they can have a sense of humor about that here.
We then looked at our Haifa map to pick our next adventure. It looked as though down by the port there was a Turkish Market. Lunch soon? Dare I say it again? Lama lo? It took us a while to find it, and it wasn't exactly what we expected, but we did pass a train station on the way. We looked inside, train to Acco at 12:50. Perfect. We can make that. I asked the woman, entirely in Hebrew, how much a ticket would cost, and thus concluded my first full Hebrew Q and A. It was only a 14 shekel ride, so we decided to go for it. Why go back to where we started when we can improvise? We had just under an hour before th train was leaving, so we went to get food. We stopped in a small storefront, Turkish I believe, and got a collection of pitas for lunch. I looked at one, asked chatzilim? (eggplant) and she nodded, so one we knew was eggplant and cheese, the other some sort of meat with onions, and the third not quite sure. It resembled tuna salad pizza. We found a nice strip of grass, a tuffet if you will and sat down to eat. After a few bites we concluded it was not in fact tuna salad pizza, but whatever it was it was good. We wandered back to our new found train station, and got on the train to Acco. BeJAcco take 2.
When we got off the train, a man was yelling "Sheirut to the Festival!". Perfection. A Sheirut is kind of a cross between a taxi and a bus, with a specific route, but more like a shared taxi van. 5 shekels. When the man told us we were there, though, we were slightly confused. All we saw were kiddie rides. Could there be a different festival? He assured us it was just down the promenade, so we got off. So glad we took the long walk there, because we watched festival workers setting up stage after stage and vendors setting up booth after booth. We had discovered the street theatre section of the Festival. We knew where we would be spending that night!
We found Tomer and Viola and they had tickets for us to 5 short plays. He told us rather than the other competition shows we were planning to see, this one had a large non-verbal part and we would understand more. It was in fact pretty cool. Tomer introduced us to the professor who's students' works were being showcased and we entered the theatre. We sat down on a large rug facing the stage. After the first show, they announced something in Hebrew which we watched around us and concluded it meant, "turn around". The next show took place in a different space on the other side. This one was my favorite of all of them, and was completely no text, and very symbolic. For the next piece, we again followed the crowd and were lead outside the theatre to a dinner table. The actress served food to the audience members while delivering a monologue about her brother who had died in the army. We were very confused at the time, but the explanation Tomer gave us afterwards helped us piece it together. The next one, facing the stage again, involved a giant house of cards. Didn't understand the monologue, but I think got the basics as to what it was about. The last piece involved a Marilyn Monroe character in some strange contraption, and I think might have come close to making sense if we understood the recorded voices. Oh well. Can't get 'em all.
We wandered through the alleys of Acco a bit more while waiting for Tomer and Viola to get out of "Sanatorium" which they had missed the previous day, and had some dates and banana chips from a stand at the Shuk. At 6:00, we were supposed to go see Viola's show. It was an open room, with the 5 actors spread out and you walked around for one-on-one monologues. The only one that was in English, happened to be the actress we had come with, so of course we wanted to go. We knew only that the show was called StageFright in English, so we asked around to try to find the space. No one seemed to know, and we discovered we were pointing to the wrong picture in the booklet. A nice guy who had seen us circling the grounds looking lost offered to help and we together found Viola's name in the program and figure out which show. Succesful, yes, but he then sent us to a theatre down by the waterfront where we had seen the street theatre shows setting up. Ok... We walked all the way there, and no one seemed to know where it was. We decided to just hang out there and wait for Tomer to get out of his show to take us to see Viola. Soo glad we did, because the street shows turned out to be the best part.
We had only pictures to help us choose, so we looked at times and found things that looked interesting. It was almost easier to just wander the promenade until something looked interesting. We saw a crazy dance piece where the dancers were in a tide pool just off the shore. Talk about creating art to fit the theatre. We saw some antelope creatures in gorgeous masks dancing through the streets on stilts. There was a parade of scary puppet children. We found a kids show of a monkey-man in a cage trying to get bananas. We read the Hebrew, and discovered it was Tarzan. Although we stood in the back with the adults, we cheered him on screaming the Tarzan wail with the kids up front. This guy was so strong, swinging back and forth in the cage on a harness around his waste. We waited until he acrobatically got his bananas, cheered, and then went to find a show we had picked out from the book. All we knew was what we got from reading the Hebrew title "פלופנבאך וצופנהיים" Plupenvach and Tzopenheim? Flufenvach and Tzufenheim? Sounded German, and looked cool. We knew we were there when we heard the extremely German music. Flufenbach and Zufenheim turned out to be the best find of the weekend. It was a cast of actors, all with Hitler mustaches, dressed stereotypically German, and speaking only German. We watched them do several hilarious scenes, and very animatedly squeeze orange juice. They called out for volunteers and next thing I knew I was onstage helping them. I was the orange inspector. It ended with a game of something like Simon Says, and I was a little slow. A very nice, crazy, German man helped me out. See for yourself! Thanks Jaks for getting the ENTIRE thing on camera. When I figured out he was asking me, in German, for my name, I told him. Later in the show called me back onstage by name. Of course. This time Jaks was up as well and I didn't have time to leave my bag behind. In the middle of dancing with my crazy German friend, the program that had been tucked into my purse fell out, and he twirled on top of it, breaking the staple and scattering the pages everywhere. The actors proceeded to kick pages of my book all across the stage, dancing and tripping right over them, and laughing. Next thing I knew, my dance partner had a "gun" to my head and was yelling at me in German, probably for the mess I had made. The other actors protected me though, don't worry. Wish we could have gotten that one on film, but Jaks was busy dancing with the fat man, who resembled William Barfey from Putnam County Spelling Bee. I did get a cool sticker though for my troubles. Great find, great find.
We decided to make our way back to the main festival center to meet up with Tomer and see Viola's monologue. We were unable to get back though, due to a blockade in the road. Knowing Israel and large crowds, we had our assumptions as to what was going on. We walked away to get some food, I had a gooey banana crepe with caramel and coconut. Sitting on a rock, eating, waiting for the blockade to clear, an announcement came on. I didn't understand anything other than, "we don't know how long", so we assumed it was about the road block. Not sure what they said, but when a huge boom sounded 5 minutes later, we seemed to be the only ones in shock. Either the Israeli public is used to bomb diversions and were unfazed, or they announced what it was and that there was nothing to worry about, but either way we stood out like a sore thumb. Never will know what the announcement was about or the mysterious piercing boom. Maybe its better that way.
Just a few minutes later, they were letting people through again, and we found Viola's show, in the exact spot we had first looked. Her monologue was a sweet Israeli's broken English plea for funding and support for culture in Israel to the wealthy foreigner, complete with bar graphs and an American song. Adorable, and a really great character for her. Being 5 months pregnant didn't hurt either. We waited for her to finish her last performance of the evening, and then boogied to the train station. We got there with about 10 minutes to spare before the last train after a difficult time getting a cab, and discovered the rest of the actors from Viola's show were not there. Viola explained the situation to the conductor, but fortunately they pulled up just in time and we all boarded the train back to Tel Aviv. I was exhausted after a jam-packed amazing day, and Jaks slept most of the way. We got to the Tel Aviv station around midnight, spotted our bus across the street, ran, and headed home. Of course that couldn't be the end of our adventurous day. An orthodox family, with 6 kids between the ages of 1 and 10 got on the bus with us. They were all dressed alike in plaid tops and navy bottoms, except for one boy, in a cute little vest and tie, and all with matching peyos. One slept in a stroller in the aisle. What 6 young kids were doing up at that hour I will never know. Ima and the oldest child, the only daughter sat across from us, with the youngest in her lap. The cute little one decided my backpack was his private foot rest. I didn't mind at all, but the sister kept laughing she watched him him kick my backpack and rest his feet in my lap the entire ride. Within 5 minutes 2 of the kids were asleep, one passed out leaning on a stranger in the seat behind me. When the the mother noticed, instead of going to pick him up, she proceeded to burst out laughing. We all shared a nice giggle, but the man-pillow looked less excited. Only in Israel.
We arrived home not long after that. What better ending for our 2 day adventure. We dubbed the trip a "balagan yafe" or "beautiful mess". Honestly, though, I wouldn't have had it any other way. So what if the Festival shows were less than impressive. The street shows turned out to be the best part! So what if our plans changed last minute. We got to tour Haifa on a whim! An incredible experience, and lasting memory for sure. I'm exhausted, but it was worth every minute. Please check out the pictures! I'm going to take a nap.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
We Are Gonna Build A Sukkah (Sukkah)
Sukkot! A forgotten holiday at home! I remember when we used to build our Sukkah every year, order chinese food, and eat outside every night. What an awesome time that was when we were little. Things seem to have gotten busy in the last few years, because its been a while since we put it up. This year, the holiday really came back to me. We don't even have Ulpan this week, that is how prominent the holiday is here. Welcome back into my life Sukkot!
My first encounter regarding Sukkot was ont he way home from work. Crossing through Rabin Square to catch my bus, I found myself in the middle of a Sukkot Market. Stand after stand, selling nothing but lulovs, etrogs, and sukkah decorations. Awesome. I wish I had an excuse to buy everything. There was an etrog inspector, who checked and smelled and approved of everyone's purchase before getting it boxed up. In my excited picture taking of the market, I hear my name and look up to see 2 other WUJS friends, Sarah and Harold also exploring. We looked around together a bit more and even went into the kids section. Harold avidly watched the puppet show and Sarah and I made crafts at the kids table. We made little foil etchings of a smiley lulav and etrog pair. See pictures. The best part about this chance encounter, was when we heard our name called out again. Jaks had been riding the bus home from work, seen us out the bus window, and darted off to join us. Our happy little family wandered around a bit more, then we headed home.
We went out that night with one of Jaks' friends Meytal and a few people from our program, Sarah, Jacob, and Chelsea. We decided to explore a new neighborhood and found some cute bars not too far from us. I have to say though, I really miss the smoking ban...
Friday, many of the people on our program had gone to be with family for the holiday or gotten a host family, but I decided to stay back and just take it easy. Chelsea and I decided to cook a Sukkot meal for ourselves, and went to work menu planning. We decided, since it was Sukkot, we had to base our meal about fruits and vegetables. We settled on quinoa salad with mango. Chelsea had bought quinoa a while back, and my mind kept drifting back to this dish I used to get in the dining hall at Emerson. I never thought I would be making recipes inspired by a cafeteria, but I had this memory of quinoa salad with green onion, mango, etc. We googled around, and found a recipe that sounded good. Scallions, mangos, cilantro, lime, paprika, what could be bad? We went to the shuk, bought the necessary ingredients, and came back to start the cooking process. While cooking, we watched the Olympic votes. Sad to see Chicago get eliminated first, but ohhh well. We decided we needed a makeshift sukkah of some sort, so we strung up some ribbon on our porch and hung necklaces and jewelry and sparkly things. Its no plastic fruit, but it served its purpose. Leehe, our sukkah guest, came over and we feasted on our themed meal, the quinoa salad, lime marinated chicken, and mango juice in our pretend sukkah. Sooo good. In fact, I am eating leftover salad right now, soo glad we doubled the recipe. Since is was Shabbat we lit candles, said the kiddush over our mango juice (its fruit, it counts) and had challah. I am really enjoying our shabbat traditions.
After dinner, we sat down for a game of Texas Hold 'Em. Leehe had never played before, so we taught her. The challenge, though, was playing a poker game without chips. We searched around the apartment for something we had a lot of, and concluded on agorot (Shekel cents), razor blade refills (multiple brands), and credit cards/giftcards. It was pretty funny actually. We played a nice long game, and when Chelsea got out I gave her a nice loan, considering I was rolling is razor blades. She made an amazing comeback actually, wiped Leehe out, and we went head to head. After a long time of going back and forth with the lead, we called it a day and ended the game. Technically, I won because she should have been out a while ago, but we got bored and stopped before finding a real winner. She's gonna laugh if she sees I typed that.
After poker, we watched some episodes of Glee. Stupid show, but I have to admit I enjoy it. Somehow it became 1 am, and we headed to bed for our weekly sleep as late as you can on Shabbat. Now, just taking a nice relaxing day, and may even leave the apartment eventually. We should adopt this Shabbat resting day at home, its quite nice. That's all for now. Check out pix of our Sukkot adventures on the picture site. Later!
My first encounter regarding Sukkot was ont he way home from work. Crossing through Rabin Square to catch my bus, I found myself in the middle of a Sukkot Market. Stand after stand, selling nothing but lulovs, etrogs, and sukkah decorations. Awesome. I wish I had an excuse to buy everything. There was an etrog inspector, who checked and smelled and approved of everyone's purchase before getting it boxed up. In my excited picture taking of the market, I hear my name and look up to see 2 other WUJS friends, Sarah and Harold also exploring. We looked around together a bit more and even went into the kids section. Harold avidly watched the puppet show and Sarah and I made crafts at the kids table. We made little foil etchings of a smiley lulav and etrog pair. See pictures. The best part about this chance encounter, was when we heard our name called out again. Jaks had been riding the bus home from work, seen us out the bus window, and darted off to join us. Our happy little family wandered around a bit more, then we headed home.
We went out that night with one of Jaks' friends Meytal and a few people from our program, Sarah, Jacob, and Chelsea. We decided to explore a new neighborhood and found some cute bars not too far from us. I have to say though, I really miss the smoking ban...
Friday, many of the people on our program had gone to be with family for the holiday or gotten a host family, but I decided to stay back and just take it easy. Chelsea and I decided to cook a Sukkot meal for ourselves, and went to work menu planning. We decided, since it was Sukkot, we had to base our meal about fruits and vegetables. We settled on quinoa salad with mango. Chelsea had bought quinoa a while back, and my mind kept drifting back to this dish I used to get in the dining hall at Emerson. I never thought I would be making recipes inspired by a cafeteria, but I had this memory of quinoa salad with green onion, mango, etc. We googled around, and found a recipe that sounded good. Scallions, mangos, cilantro, lime, paprika, what could be bad? We went to the shuk, bought the necessary ingredients, and came back to start the cooking process. While cooking, we watched the Olympic votes. Sad to see Chicago get eliminated first, but ohhh well. We decided we needed a makeshift sukkah of some sort, so we strung up some ribbon on our porch and hung necklaces and jewelry and sparkly things. Its no plastic fruit, but it served its purpose. Leehe, our sukkah guest, came over and we feasted on our themed meal, the quinoa salad, lime marinated chicken, and mango juice in our pretend sukkah. Sooo good. In fact, I am eating leftover salad right now, soo glad we doubled the recipe. Since is was Shabbat we lit candles, said the kiddush over our mango juice (its fruit, it counts) and had challah. I am really enjoying our shabbat traditions.
After dinner, we sat down for a game of Texas Hold 'Em. Leehe had never played before, so we taught her. The challenge, though, was playing a poker game without chips. We searched around the apartment for something we had a lot of, and concluded on agorot (Shekel cents), razor blade refills (multiple brands), and credit cards/giftcards. It was pretty funny actually. We played a nice long game, and when Chelsea got out I gave her a nice loan, considering I was rolling is razor blades. She made an amazing comeback actually, wiped Leehe out, and we went head to head. After a long time of going back and forth with the lead, we called it a day and ended the game. Technically, I won because she should have been out a while ago, but we got bored and stopped before finding a real winner. She's gonna laugh if she sees I typed that.
After poker, we watched some episodes of Glee. Stupid show, but I have to admit I enjoy it. Somehow it became 1 am, and we headed to bed for our weekly sleep as late as you can on Shabbat. Now, just taking a nice relaxing day, and may even leave the apartment eventually. We should adopt this Shabbat resting day at home, its quite nice. That's all for now. Check out pix of our Sukkot adventures on the picture site. Later!
Wine Before Noon
I realize I never wrote about me field trip last week! This will be a quick one.
Chelsea wasn't able to join us this week, she was taking her LSATs. We wished her good luck and hit the road. We left early as usual, and after a bit of a bus ride up North we arrived at a gorgeous Binyamina winery. We got off the bus, filed in, and all started taking pix and taking in the surroundings. About 5 minutes later, after talking with the guides, Ricky called for us all to get back on the bus. Apparently, we were at the wrong winery. There are 2 in the town.
Anyways, we drove a bit more and arrived at Tishbi Winery. We got a tour of the facilities, learned a bit about the process of wine and brandy making, and saw all the barrels and presses etc. We then sat under this gorgeous leaf covered terrace and had a wine tasting. She showed us how to properly open a bottle of wine, as well as the steps to a tasting. I feel like I can be really cool at a restaurant now! We tasted a semi-dry white French Reisling, 2 Cabernet Sauvignons, 1 aged in oak barrels one not to see if we could taste the difference, and a delicious sweet dessert wine, Muscat. She gave us the option of spitting the wine into the tub things or drinking it. It was about 11am, so we did a combination of both. It was a nice relaxing morning, and we learned some really cool stuff.
Our next stop was interesting, but not my favorite of our trips so far. We went to the Ahronson house and the N.I.L.L museum. N.I.L.I. or נ.י.ל.י is an acronym for נצח ישראל לא ישקר or in English, "The Eternity of Israel will not lie". It was basically an underground movement to help liberate Palestine from the Turks during the Ottoman Empire. We watched a movie learning about the movement and the important figures, mostly members of the Ahronson family and their associates, and then got a tour of their houses on the estate. Although it wasn't the most exciting our our trips, I am glad I learned about this new part of history I was pretty unfamiliar with before.
On the way home, we got stuck in horrible traffic behind a truck that had overturned on a ramp. We sat in the same place for probably 45 minutes before moving an inch. Needless to say we all got a nice nap time on the bus. I watched an old Grey's Anatomy on my ipod. When we finally got home, we had our group meeting. We always have them Tuesdays after the siyurim. We played Jeopardy that Ricky had made with the categories Israel, Tel Aviv, Florentine, WUJS, Staff, and Other. Some of the questions were really easy, like "what they sell on our street" (furniture, furniture, and only furniture) or "What is Becky's boss's name" was one of the questions since most people had met him, but many were really hard, "What is Mike's (our program leader who we've met once) wife's name". It was fun and I was surprised by how much we knew about our neeghborhood and about Israel so far. Ricky passed out our 1 month goals that we wrote on the first day to see if we accomplished them. I wrote "see a play in Hebrew and get a basic understanding". I did see a show in Hebrew, but it had English subtitles. Does that count? I don't know, but it was shocking to conclude we had been here a whole month already. Time is flying by, but I am savoring every moment.
Chelsea wasn't able to join us this week, she was taking her LSATs. We wished her good luck and hit the road. We left early as usual, and after a bit of a bus ride up North we arrived at a gorgeous Binyamina winery. We got off the bus, filed in, and all started taking pix and taking in the surroundings. About 5 minutes later, after talking with the guides, Ricky called for us all to get back on the bus. Apparently, we were at the wrong winery. There are 2 in the town.
Anyways, we drove a bit more and arrived at Tishbi Winery. We got a tour of the facilities, learned a bit about the process of wine and brandy making, and saw all the barrels and presses etc. We then sat under this gorgeous leaf covered terrace and had a wine tasting. She showed us how to properly open a bottle of wine, as well as the steps to a tasting. I feel like I can be really cool at a restaurant now! We tasted a semi-dry white French Reisling, 2 Cabernet Sauvignons, 1 aged in oak barrels one not to see if we could taste the difference, and a delicious sweet dessert wine, Muscat. She gave us the option of spitting the wine into the tub things or drinking it. It was about 11am, so we did a combination of both. It was a nice relaxing morning, and we learned some really cool stuff.
Our next stop was interesting, but not my favorite of our trips so far. We went to the Ahronson house and the N.I.L.L museum. N.I.L.I. or נ.י.ל.י is an acronym for נצח ישראל לא ישקר or in English, "The Eternity of Israel will not lie". It was basically an underground movement to help liberate Palestine from the Turks during the Ottoman Empire. We watched a movie learning about the movement and the important figures, mostly members of the Ahronson family and their associates, and then got a tour of their houses on the estate. Although it wasn't the most exciting our our trips, I am glad I learned about this new part of history I was pretty unfamiliar with before.
On the way home, we got stuck in horrible traffic behind a truck that had overturned on a ramp. We sat in the same place for probably 45 minutes before moving an inch. Needless to say we all got a nice nap time on the bus. I watched an old Grey's Anatomy on my ipod. When we finally got home, we had our group meeting. We always have them Tuesdays after the siyurim. We played Jeopardy that Ricky had made with the categories Israel, Tel Aviv, Florentine, WUJS, Staff, and Other. Some of the questions were really easy, like "what they sell on our street" (furniture, furniture, and only furniture) or "What is Becky's boss's name" was one of the questions since most people had met him, but many were really hard, "What is Mike's (our program leader who we've met once) wife's name". It was fun and I was surprised by how much we knew about our neeghborhood and about Israel so far. Ricky passed out our 1 month goals that we wrote on the first day to see if we accomplished them. I wrote "see a play in Hebrew and get a basic understanding". I did see a show in Hebrew, but it had English subtitles. Does that count? I don't know, but it was shocking to conclude we had been here a whole month already. Time is flying by, but I am savoring every moment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
