Trying to squeeze a blog entry in between trips so I don't forget everything I want to say! Just got back from a 2 day tiyul with WUJS up North. We traveled with the Jerusalem group of our program, which made for a nice change of group dynamic, and crammed a ton into our time together. It kind of felt like a mini birthright; samples of lots of different cities, tours, lectures, hikes, awesomeness.
We got picked up at 7 am, the Jeru kids already on the bus for an hour, and promptly found out that our hikes that day were not approved due to wet and slippery conditions. Bummer. They told us we were going to tour Acco instead. Ha! BeJAcco take 2! We asked if we could be the tour guides. The official tour guides of cool. They said no. That's okay, we don't know the history anyways, just whats pretty and has a good view. We entered the same complex/courtyard where the theatre festival had been held, and where I had come on birthright. We wandered the underground cities, learned the history of the Crusaders from our tour guide Etai, all while carrying around the super dorky lunch boxes they gave us that morning. Then they took us to the Shuk. Jaks and I remembered the incredible baklava place we had gone with Viola and Tomer, so we grabbed a few people and took them there when they released us for free time in the market. I put on a glove to pack up a box for us, and we ended up getting 99 shekels worth of pastries for the 5 of us. Covered in honey. Amazing. We ate our box lunches and our plethora of pastries at the tables outside. Yes, I know Dad, more food entries. I can't help it. It is Thanksgiving after all. We saw a gutted shark hanging in the shuk. Didn't want to forget to mention that. Anyways, Acco adventure take 2.
After Acco, replacing our hike, we moved on as planned to Tzfat. Love that city. Tzfat is the home of kabbalah and spiritual judaism, and you can just feel it in the air. We learned a lot from Etai and Shlomit (the Jerusalem Ricky) about the city and why everything is painted blue (so when the demons come down to get you they think it is still the sky and miss you). We also visited Avraham, whom I saw on Birthright, and remembered quite well due to the fact that he's quoted several times on my trip t-shirt. He is an artist, originally from Michigan, who apparently came on WUJS and now lives in Tzfat. He is incredibly spiritual and believes in spreading the word of the kabbalah, and speaks to groups like birthright and us for free to share his knowledge. He manages to sell plenty of his works to group members too. All of his art reflects different elements of kabbalah. He is a crazy, hippie-esque Jew, describing everything from the history of his name to the spiritual nature of meditation as "awesomely awesomely awesomely awesomely awesome" and "4 thoooooouuuuuusand years of awesome". Despite teasing him, he is incredible knowledgeable and a fascinating perspective to listen to. We stopped by the candle factory store, which I love, and I bought the apartment some pretty candles for Hanukkah and some gorgeous decorative shabbat candles. Can't wait to put them on display. We were also given some free time in the artist lane, and looked at beautiful jewelry and judaica, but I couldn't decide on anything to buy. Guess I'll have to go back!
After Tzfat we headed to the kibbutz where we were staying the night. I roomed with Hallie, Donna, and Esther. We ate a wonderful kibbutz meal, a spread of meats and salads, and then they attempted to set up a movie for us to watch. After fiddling with the projector for 30 minutes, they gave up and sent us back to our rooms. We had tvs though, which was a nice exciting change, so we were content. We watched some random shows and a bit of a crazy zombie movie. Hallie and I slept on a double bed/two twins awkwardly pushed together, and Donna ended up on a trundle bed. Adorable. I slept quite well actually.
In the morning, we ate a wonderful israeli breakfast of eggs, cheeses, spreads, cereal, everything. Straight out of birthright. Love. We packed ourselves lunches (and snuck some cheese spread on to our sandwiches, shhh) and hit the road. Fortunately this hike was still going as planned. Although there were 2 options, an easy hike and a slightly more strenuous hike, we all ended up staying together on the "challenging" trail in Banyas. We learned all about the site, a christian holy site, and hiked the pretty shaded trails to a waterfall. It wasn't the most beautiful hike, but I really enjoyed it, and learning about the history of the site really adds to the adventure. We also made a stop to eat our lunches in the Golan Heights and had an incredible discussion/debate about the land situation, peace with Syria/Lebanon, Gilad Shalit, the I.D.F., Israeli Politics in general, and so much more while overlooking the border. Really a great discussion. It makes such a difference to be in the places, talking about them looking over the land, rather than watching the news. Intense. From there we stopped by another place I recognized from birthright (by the giant metal dinosaur statue). It was an old army bunker, overlooking Syria, where we ran through the trenches, and shivered our butts off learning about the sight. Hallie and I took a detour down some stairs, but found another tour group looking at the bunkers, and decided to leave before we got in trouble. Etai and Shlomit lead another great chat, and, although really cold for the first time since I got here, learned a lot.
We rode the bus home, about 3 hours, stopping every hour for a bathroom break at a gas station : /. Being Thanksgiving, and already 7 pm, I wasn't quite sure what my dinner situation would look like. I got home and not long after Michal and Chelsea showed up to start cooking. I munched on their mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, etc, and had a brief makeshift Thanksgiving. Not the real thing though without cranberry sauce, orange jello, and cork volleyball. I'm thankful though for being in this incredible country, for learning a lot these past few days, for my family and friends safe at home where there is peace, and so much more. A weird Thanksgiving away from the family, but a good one. Besides, who needs to eat turkey when you are GOING THERE TOMORROW!!
I apologize for my lack of detail. I may add in more later, just wanted to get the framework down. I kind of want to go to bed since I'm going to Turkey Tomorrow!!! So psyched. Can't wait to tell you all about it. Happy Thanksgiving, hooray hooray hooray, aren't you glad you're not a turkey on this Thanksgiving day!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
A Jew and a Christian walk into an Arab Bar...
It's been a while since I wrote! Sorry for keeping you all waiting to hear about my adventures. I should start with Jerusalem. Yes, again, Jerusalem to meet a friend. This time, it was Emma Wiegand, a good friend of mine from Emerson. She was visiting Israel with her godfather, and staying with a friend of his, an Irish priest. And no, to answer your question, Emma is not Jewish. This made for a very different Jerusalem experience. I took a sherut in to the city around noon on Saturday, and wandered through the shopping on David St. waiting to hear from her. She didn't have a cell phone so I had to just wait until she could reach me. Fortunately it wasn't too long, and she said they were on their way back from Bethlehem and asked to meet at the Damascus Gate, near where they were staying. I guess I should explain this now. They were staying with Brendan, their Irish Priest friend, at a church in the Muslim quarter. This meant little Jewish Becky walking by herself from the Jewish Quarter, into the Muslim quarter, and out the gate to meet them. I confidently strode through the Old City, watching as the clothing changed from American tourist garb to long skirts and full head coverings, and items being sold changed slowly from Judaica to spices. I made it through allright, no worries, just a whole new view.
I took Emma back around to the Jaffa Gate, the main entrance to the Jewish quarter (this time around the outside) to do some shopping since she hadn't been yet. We both bought hamsa charms, wandered around through the Jewish, Christian, AND Muslim shopping areas, and just chatted catching up. We bought some cool looking pastry balls from an Arab place. The guy explained them to me in Hebrew, I heard d'vash, or honey, and we decided to go for it. They were these gooey, sticky, shiney, honey balls, and were amazingly sweet and quite tasty. This was just the beginning of my new view of Jeru though. We decided to head back to Lion Gate near where she was staying to see the church and rest for a few. We got lost several times, got several sets of directions, in Hebrew and English, and eventually found it. We talked Israeli politics for a bit, rested our feet, and then met back up with her godfather and Brendan. We decided to join them for dinner, and made a reservation at a restaurant. This restaurant turned out to be outside the old city, and not on the Jewish side. The signs in the area were all in Arabic and English. The first signal we were out of Jewish territory. When Emma ordered a Goldstar from the menu, my favorite Israeli beer, and they replied "We only serve Palestinian beers here", I decided using my Hebrew probably wasn't the best idea. It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, just different. I've gotten used to being surrounded by Jews, and actually felt like the minority. In Israel. Weird.
I explained to them what some if the menu items were, and Emma and I both ordered labaneh and salmon sandwiches, basically lox and cream cheese on toast. Yuummmmy. They were asking me the same political questions Emma did, and it was nice to feel like the one in the know for a change. We had some fascinating conversations actually. I was really glad to have met them all. It was great to get to catch up with Emma. I tried to convince her to stay for the nest weekend and come to Tel Aviv, but alas, she could not.
Another exciting adventure of the week, Chels and I got free tix through her work for a dance show at the Opera House. Jaks interns there, and made several of the props for the show. It was a nice hybrid of my roommates work. Called, Rooster, it was a crazy new dance show choreographed by Barak Marshall. A mix of several stories, and really entertaining. Confusing, and a bit strange, but I tend to like that kind of thing. We met up with Chelsea's supervisor afterwards, who invited us backstage to the opening night party. We wove through the halls of the Opera House to a rehearsal studio, with a giant buffet table and little cafe tables. We met Barak Marshall and saw lots of the dancers, and enjoyed a nice free glass of wine. We go to the theatre in style around here!
Whew. Field trip time. This Tuesday we went to the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot and Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv. The Ayalon Institute is the site of the Kibbutz that disguised an underground bullet factory during the war of independence. We watched a video, then took a tour of the underground factory. We couldn't enter through the laundry as they did back then, but we entered through the bakery where they brought in equipment. We wandered through room by room, with cheesy sound effects and cut outs of people, and even learned how to make a bullet. We learned that the people living on the kibbutz who did not know what was going on under their feet were known as giraffes, and there were quite a lot of them. The factory workers had to go tanning and eat special food supplements to be and look healthy enough to keep the secret that they were working underground instead of the fields as they told people. Interesting story behind everything.
The next stop of our tour was the Palmach Museum. It is an interactive museum telling the story of a group of Palmach soldiers during the war of independence and the beginning of the I.D.F. Instead of just looking at things and reading, it was like walking through time into different rooms decorated like different environments with projected videos and various things around. I feel like the Hebrew playing overhead was much more exciting than the English translation in our headpieces, but still, a great way to experience history. I learned a lot on this trip. And I wasn't even bored doing it. That's the way it should be I feel, interesting enough that you don't realize you are learning history. Well done Sheldon Shulman, well done.
News! I got a haircut. A big one. I went to a school called Shiki Zukri Duri, for a 35 shekel cut with one of the stylists in training. Between that and the language gap, I didn't quite get what I asked for, but I am quite happy with the outcome anyways. A short bob, shortest its ever been I think, and side bangs, for the first time since I was a little kid. I like it. Different, but good. I'll post pix soon soon!
And now for your video update of the week.
Jacob's WUJS videos:
WUJS Video 5
WUJS Video 6
A video I made for work, about our company, for U of I entrepreneur week. Long story. Later. Just watch for now. Don't laugh, its a little embarrassing.
My EVE Video
And a tribute to my friend Matt Starring who died of Lukemia last week. He was in my theatre ed program at Emerson and a great kid. Very talented actor, singer, and teacher and an incredible person. Wish I could have known him better.
Mattsgiving
Matt's story
I took Emma back around to the Jaffa Gate, the main entrance to the Jewish quarter (this time around the outside) to do some shopping since she hadn't been yet. We both bought hamsa charms, wandered around through the Jewish, Christian, AND Muslim shopping areas, and just chatted catching up. We bought some cool looking pastry balls from an Arab place. The guy explained them to me in Hebrew, I heard d'vash, or honey, and we decided to go for it. They were these gooey, sticky, shiney, honey balls, and were amazingly sweet and quite tasty. This was just the beginning of my new view of Jeru though. We decided to head back to Lion Gate near where she was staying to see the church and rest for a few. We got lost several times, got several sets of directions, in Hebrew and English, and eventually found it. We talked Israeli politics for a bit, rested our feet, and then met back up with her godfather and Brendan. We decided to join them for dinner, and made a reservation at a restaurant. This restaurant turned out to be outside the old city, and not on the Jewish side. The signs in the area were all in Arabic and English. The first signal we were out of Jewish territory. When Emma ordered a Goldstar from the menu, my favorite Israeli beer, and they replied "We only serve Palestinian beers here", I decided using my Hebrew probably wasn't the best idea. It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, just different. I've gotten used to being surrounded by Jews, and actually felt like the minority. In Israel. Weird.
I explained to them what some if the menu items were, and Emma and I both ordered labaneh and salmon sandwiches, basically lox and cream cheese on toast. Yuummmmy. They were asking me the same political questions Emma did, and it was nice to feel like the one in the know for a change. We had some fascinating conversations actually. I was really glad to have met them all. It was great to get to catch up with Emma. I tried to convince her to stay for the nest weekend and come to Tel Aviv, but alas, she could not.
Another exciting adventure of the week, Chels and I got free tix through her work for a dance show at the Opera House. Jaks interns there, and made several of the props for the show. It was a nice hybrid of my roommates work. Called, Rooster, it was a crazy new dance show choreographed by Barak Marshall. A mix of several stories, and really entertaining. Confusing, and a bit strange, but I tend to like that kind of thing. We met up with Chelsea's supervisor afterwards, who invited us backstage to the opening night party. We wove through the halls of the Opera House to a rehearsal studio, with a giant buffet table and little cafe tables. We met Barak Marshall and saw lots of the dancers, and enjoyed a nice free glass of wine. We go to the theatre in style around here!
Whew. Field trip time. This Tuesday we went to the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot and Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv. The Ayalon Institute is the site of the Kibbutz that disguised an underground bullet factory during the war of independence. We watched a video, then took a tour of the underground factory. We couldn't enter through the laundry as they did back then, but we entered through the bakery where they brought in equipment. We wandered through room by room, with cheesy sound effects and cut outs of people, and even learned how to make a bullet. We learned that the people living on the kibbutz who did not know what was going on under their feet were known as giraffes, and there were quite a lot of them. The factory workers had to go tanning and eat special food supplements to be and look healthy enough to keep the secret that they were working underground instead of the fields as they told people. Interesting story behind everything.
The next stop of our tour was the Palmach Museum. It is an interactive museum telling the story of a group of Palmach soldiers during the war of independence and the beginning of the I.D.F. Instead of just looking at things and reading, it was like walking through time into different rooms decorated like different environments with projected videos and various things around. I feel like the Hebrew playing overhead was much more exciting than the English translation in our headpieces, but still, a great way to experience history. I learned a lot on this trip. And I wasn't even bored doing it. That's the way it should be I feel, interesting enough that you don't realize you are learning history. Well done Sheldon Shulman, well done.
News! I got a haircut. A big one. I went to a school called Shiki Zukri Duri, for a 35 shekel cut with one of the stylists in training. Between that and the language gap, I didn't quite get what I asked for, but I am quite happy with the outcome anyways. A short bob, shortest its ever been I think, and side bangs, for the first time since I was a little kid. I like it. Different, but good. I'll post pix soon soon!
And now for your video update of the week.
Jacob's WUJS videos:
WUJS Video 5
WUJS Video 6
A video I made for work, about our company, for U of I entrepreneur week. Long story. Later. Just watch for now. Don't laugh, its a little embarrassing.
My EVE Video
And a tribute to my friend Matt Starring who died of Lukemia last week. He was in my theatre ed program at Emerson and a great kid. Very talented actor, singer, and teacher and an incredible person. Wish I could have known him better.
Mattsgiving
Matt's story
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Goat Herding and Pita Making
Shalom! Had a double long Ulpan on Monday, so I'm enjoying a nice night off tonight. Figure I might as well share it with you. So what has happened this week? Can't recall if I mentioned this yet or not, but Chelsea now has a new internship at Suzanne Dellal, a dance center in Neve Tsedik, and is doing a job similar to mine. We probably even have some of the same contacts which is cool. She got free tickets to a dance show last Thursday which was really cool, a group from Korea. The 3rd and last piece of the performance was this incredible duet between 2 amazing male dancers, perfectly in sync, and was just jaw droppping. The first 2 were good, but this one was great. Really glad I went. We have tickets to another show tomorrow, one that Jaks actually worked on at the Opera House which I am really excited about. It's great that Chels is getting me back into dance!
Friday night I went out with the Birk family for Yael's birthday. The entire family was there, all of whom I had met except for Merav. It was awesome to finally meet her. We've been in touch on the phone and via facebook, but now that we have met in real life I am looking forward to making plans and getting to know her better. It's nice to get away from the "dorms" for a bit and hang out with other people so i am hoping to have plans soon. Everyone is doing well and sends their love. I even got some nice cozy socks! (I'm wearing them right now) I love getting gifts on other people's birthdays.
Saturday night, we went to a rally in Rabin Square, a memorial concert for Yitzhak Rabin. We met Michal's brother, ran into Ricky, and just sat around the crowded square listening to music and speeched in Hebrew. It was really cool to be a part of it. We got lots of שלום עכשיו stickers. The four of us went to grab ice cream, and discovered it was much cheaper to get a half kilo to share than 4 individual cups, so we each picked a flavor which the lady packed into a big tub, and we went at it with 4 spoons. Best 10 shekels I ever spent.
So, Tuesday, siyur day, was one of our best yet. It was a place called Neot Kedumim - check out their website. It is a biblical landscape reserve, and they host groups for leadership training and stuff like that. We started off with a few cheesy communication/bonding games. This place is basically covered in trees and plants mentioned in the bible. And animals. Our next exercise in communication was a sheep/goat herding challenge. The first half of our group stepped into the fenced area, and were given the task of gathering the animals and leading them from one marked circle to the next as a herd. They got off to a rough start, but eventually succeeded. They started yelling "Yalla" which means let's go in Hebrew, and used giant sticks like a staff. My group then had to re gather them together and lead them across the pasture to a hay bail, preventing them from touching or entering the marked circle. We got off to a good start, but finally failed trying to get them to walk up the hill to the hay bail. I made friends with one brown goat, who was listening to me at first, but after shoving his butt for a few minutes with him stubbornly standing there, I moved on to other tactics. We learned later that the trick is finding the natural leader of the group and getting it to move, then following behind the herd to keep them in line. We attempted this, looking for a strong looking male, but we learned that the leader is always a goat, not a sheep, and always a female. Oops. "To lead the people, walk behind them", that's what my stage management teacher always used to say. Now I really get it.
Covered in sheep yuck, it makes perfect sense that the next stop would be to make food. We all doused ourselves with purell, then were given a quick lesson on the spice zaatar. We have learned to love zaatar since moving here, and immediately recognized the smell when our guide showed us fresh hyssop leaves. We promptly chewed them. Hyssop is apparently known as the humble plant, needing very little care and providing a lot. The cedar on the other hand is the strong, dominating plant, but is very difficult to grow properly. Our guide made some serious biblical metaphors from that. She then gave us some dried leaves from the plant, to which we added some lemony sumac seeds, and crushed them with a mortar and pestle. She gave us little baggies, which we filled with our new green spice, made the obligatory "can't go through customs with this" and "200 shekels a bag" jokes, and pocketed our fresh, homemade seasoning. From there, we scrubbed up, and set out to an area covered in fire pits and circles of benches. I called fire building duty and Jamie and I camped out next to one pit, a small group of boys by another. We made a one match fire, thank you very much, and made other people gather wood. It was a good deal. Other people went to work making pita dough. We laid a metal hood over the fire, and cooked our very own fresh pitas right on it over the fire. I made 3. Sooo good. We dipped them in olive oil and our fresh made zaatar, and in date honey, which is my new favorite. Incredible snack. Our guide also helped us toast wheat over the boys fire, with olive oil, which made a popcorn like snack. Full of pita and honey and snacks, I barely ate my lunch.
After lunch, we left the reserve for The Jaffa Institute. Site! One of our WUJies interns there. It is a not-for-profit that has various programs set up to help end the cycle of poverty in Jaffa-Tel Aviv. They have after school programs with a hot lunch and homework help, job skill training classes for women, food delivery, and a ton of great stuff like that. We all volunteered, packing up boxes of dry food to be delivered to needy families. I hope someone has a good meal because of the cereal and pasta and chocolate spread I packed. After that we went to visit one of the sites of the after school programs and got to meet and play with some of the kids in the program. I forgot how much I miss teaching. I spoke to them only in Hebrew (yay!) and had a really good time. They were incredibly rowdy, and not very well behaved, but they were doing a fun code breaking/puzzle game, which I helped some of them with. A lot of people got bored or frustrated, but I jumped right in to do whatever I could. It reminded me a lot of my Coyote Playwriting class actually. I miss spending time with kids, and teaching, and all that. I e-mailed the woman in charge to see if I could come in and help out again, teach a theatre game or two, but she said she couldn't take someone who didn't speak Hebrew because the kids "need strong discipline and will take advantage of a situation where you might not understand them" Sad, but I guess I understand. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to come back to Israel and teach English or something one of these days... Still a great day regardless.
Shalom!
Friday night I went out with the Birk family for Yael's birthday. The entire family was there, all of whom I had met except for Merav. It was awesome to finally meet her. We've been in touch on the phone and via facebook, but now that we have met in real life I am looking forward to making plans and getting to know her better. It's nice to get away from the "dorms" for a bit and hang out with other people so i am hoping to have plans soon. Everyone is doing well and sends their love. I even got some nice cozy socks! (I'm wearing them right now) I love getting gifts on other people's birthdays.
Saturday night, we went to a rally in Rabin Square, a memorial concert for Yitzhak Rabin. We met Michal's brother, ran into Ricky, and just sat around the crowded square listening to music and speeched in Hebrew. It was really cool to be a part of it. We got lots of שלום עכשיו stickers. The four of us went to grab ice cream, and discovered it was much cheaper to get a half kilo to share than 4 individual cups, so we each picked a flavor which the lady packed into a big tub, and we went at it with 4 spoons. Best 10 shekels I ever spent.
So, Tuesday, siyur day, was one of our best yet. It was a place called Neot Kedumim - check out their website. It is a biblical landscape reserve, and they host groups for leadership training and stuff like that. We started off with a few cheesy communication/bonding games. This place is basically covered in trees and plants mentioned in the bible. And animals. Our next exercise in communication was a sheep/goat herding challenge. The first half of our group stepped into the fenced area, and were given the task of gathering the animals and leading them from one marked circle to the next as a herd. They got off to a rough start, but eventually succeeded. They started yelling "Yalla" which means let's go in Hebrew, and used giant sticks like a staff. My group then had to re gather them together and lead them across the pasture to a hay bail, preventing them from touching or entering the marked circle. We got off to a good start, but finally failed trying to get them to walk up the hill to the hay bail. I made friends with one brown goat, who was listening to me at first, but after shoving his butt for a few minutes with him stubbornly standing there, I moved on to other tactics. We learned later that the trick is finding the natural leader of the group and getting it to move, then following behind the herd to keep them in line. We attempted this, looking for a strong looking male, but we learned that the leader is always a goat, not a sheep, and always a female. Oops. "To lead the people, walk behind them", that's what my stage management teacher always used to say. Now I really get it.
Covered in sheep yuck, it makes perfect sense that the next stop would be to make food. We all doused ourselves with purell, then were given a quick lesson on the spice zaatar. We have learned to love zaatar since moving here, and immediately recognized the smell when our guide showed us fresh hyssop leaves. We promptly chewed them. Hyssop is apparently known as the humble plant, needing very little care and providing a lot. The cedar on the other hand is the strong, dominating plant, but is very difficult to grow properly. Our guide made some serious biblical metaphors from that. She then gave us some dried leaves from the plant, to which we added some lemony sumac seeds, and crushed them with a mortar and pestle. She gave us little baggies, which we filled with our new green spice, made the obligatory "can't go through customs with this" and "200 shekels a bag" jokes, and pocketed our fresh, homemade seasoning. From there, we scrubbed up, and set out to an area covered in fire pits and circles of benches. I called fire building duty and Jamie and I camped out next to one pit, a small group of boys by another. We made a one match fire, thank you very much, and made other people gather wood. It was a good deal. Other people went to work making pita dough. We laid a metal hood over the fire, and cooked our very own fresh pitas right on it over the fire. I made 3. Sooo good. We dipped them in olive oil and our fresh made zaatar, and in date honey, which is my new favorite. Incredible snack. Our guide also helped us toast wheat over the boys fire, with olive oil, which made a popcorn like snack. Full of pita and honey and snacks, I barely ate my lunch.
After lunch, we left the reserve for The Jaffa Institute. Site! One of our WUJies interns there. It is a not-for-profit that has various programs set up to help end the cycle of poverty in Jaffa-Tel Aviv. They have after school programs with a hot lunch and homework help, job skill training classes for women, food delivery, and a ton of great stuff like that. We all volunteered, packing up boxes of dry food to be delivered to needy families. I hope someone has a good meal because of the cereal and pasta and chocolate spread I packed. After that we went to visit one of the sites of the after school programs and got to meet and play with some of the kids in the program. I forgot how much I miss teaching. I spoke to them only in Hebrew (yay!) and had a really good time. They were incredibly rowdy, and not very well behaved, but they were doing a fun code breaking/puzzle game, which I helped some of them with. A lot of people got bored or frustrated, but I jumped right in to do whatever I could. It reminded me a lot of my Coyote Playwriting class actually. I miss spending time with kids, and teaching, and all that. I e-mailed the woman in charge to see if I could come in and help out again, teach a theatre game or two, but she said she couldn't take someone who didn't speak Hebrew because the kids "need strong discipline and will take advantage of a situation where you might not understand them" Sad, but I guess I understand. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to come back to Israel and teach English or something one of these days... Still a great day regardless.
Honestly one of my favorite field trips. Homemade pita and playing with 10 year olds? What's not to love. I hope we have more siyurim like this, not so much tour based, but just cultural and fun. Love this country, as usual.
Friday, November 6, 2009
More Videos
And, I figure I might as well post the rest of the video updates while I'm at it.
WUJS Update 3
WUJS Update 4
Enjoy!
WUJS Update 3
WUJS Update 4
Enjoy!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Work/Networking Update
As promised, here is an update on what I've been up to at the internship. It is still going very well, and I am really starting to get my own responsibilities which is great. Tomer is in Paris this week, and I'm on my own with Viola. I'm I'll be e-mailing him, and have a list of questions, but it'll be nice to be independent.
If you want to read a bit more about my job and the company, WUJS did a feature article about me for the website recently. Pretty cool. Read it AND my video profile is up on youtube. Watch it
Today, Amy, Mike, Ricky, and their intern Allison (all from WUJS) came to visit me at work. I got to take a little break from the computer to tell them what it is that I do exactly and a bit about the company. It was nice to fill them all in (and I felt kind of important). I also learned that Amy is teaching a theatre class for the Year Course program (MASA post high school - pre college). When I mentioned my background was in theatre education, she got excited and said we needed to talk. I hope I can offer her lesson plans or games and maybe even help out in the classroom a bit. I'll keep you posted.
Speaking of networking, I may have mentioned earlier that Ricky asked me to be on a panel at the JCCs of North America convention. The panel consisted of Me, Seth, another guy from my program, and 2 other girls, one who just made aliyah and one who completed Career Israel last year and is still here... The discussion was about how the JCCs can reach our age group, college and post college, where they felt they were lacking. They are hoping to develop more programming to bring our age group to the JCC and basically to promote Israel without relying on Taglit-Birthright. Fair enough. I haven't set foot in a JCC since Shining Lights and unless they change their programming wasn't planning on it probably until I have kids of my own. Haha. So, we told them what would bring us in. We discussed how we can get Israel news on our own, but Israeli culture would be a big draw to an organized facility. Israeli movie night (with free food and Jewish singles), an Israeli cooking class targeted to college students (with free food and Jewish singles) or a concert from an Israeli band (with free food and Jewish singles). I also explained how it could be cool to collaborate with Hillels from local colleges. That way Hillel could do cooler things with their financial support, and the JCC could get a great social database. I also mentioned how cool it would be if they hosted a theatr eproduction/workshop from Israel (hint, hint, through EVE). They all laughed, but I did manage to get the business card of one of the JCCs of America Program Directors and a local actor who works as the arts representative for Makom Haaretz, a section of the local liberal English newspaper. He invited me to see his show next week, and although I am not sure I can go, I am hoping to sit down and talk with him and see if we can collaborate at all. I would love to get him to post a story about EVE or one of our shows. Overall, it was an awesome opportunity to talk, and a great chance to network. I also feel, that as I was talking to them about Israel, and telling them my story, that I solidified a lot of thoughts that have been floating through my head. As the only one on the panel not considering or in the process of aliyah, I had a different perspective to share, but I also confirmed for myself that this won't be my last time here. Now, after spending time here, I am eligible to staff Birthright, which means an endless supply of free trips back here. Don't worry Mom, I'm not moving here, just not planning to let it get too far behind me.
That's about all for now, just a quick plug. If any of you know of any Jewish Theatres, JCCs, or anything of the sort that may be interested in hosting an Israeli production, let me know. We are hoping to do a North American tour of Eshet in late 2010/early 2011 and would love to get as many stops as possible. Shameless marketing, I know, but figure its worth asking. Check out the facebook page again for info/pix from Eshet and some of the other shows, and please pass it on to anyone you know who may be interested. Thanks a bunch! Love and miss you all : )
So, as you probably know, most of my correspondence is with people and companies outside of Israel. I did do some good business with a woman at the New Center for Arts and Culture in no where else but the great city of Boston. And about the exact halfway point between my North End apartment and Campus. Meaning I walked past this office everyday without even knowing it existed. Nothing is finalized, but it looks like there is good potential they will book Eshet for sometime in the future, and that means I may be able to see my handiwork for myself one of these days back in the States. Yay. Also, I want to share with you a bit from an e-mail I received from a nice woman in London. Unfortunately, her company won't be able to host our show, but she was kind enough to say, "It fills the heart with much pride that such wonderful work is being created in Israel and that so much talent is to be found in this small country." Definitely posted that on our new facebook page! Facebook has been my fun new project. I asked if I could make the page because our current facebook profile is in Hebrew and deals only with local productions. Hebrew is of no use to me and my international market, so I made a new one in English focusing on the plays I am marketing abroad. Check it out here and feel free to become a fan or post a comment. I am hoping to beef it up a bit, but I think its pretty cool so far. I also made a LinkedIn page today for the company (and myself while I was at it) but I'm pretty clueless as to how the site works so I'll have to play with that one before I can really use it. Feel free to find me if you have a profile.
Today, Amy, Mike, Ricky, and their intern Allison (all from WUJS) came to visit me at work. I got to take a little break from the computer to tell them what it is that I do exactly and a bit about the company. It was nice to fill them all in (and I felt kind of important). I also learned that Amy is teaching a theatre class for the Year Course program (MASA post high school - pre college). When I mentioned my background was in theatre education, she got excited and said we needed to talk. I hope I can offer her lesson plans or games and maybe even help out in the classroom a bit. I'll keep you posted.
Speaking of networking, I may have mentioned earlier that Ricky asked me to be on a panel at the JCCs of North America convention. The panel consisted of Me, Seth, another guy from my program, and 2 other girls, one who just made aliyah and one who completed Career Israel last year and is still here... The discussion was about how the JCCs can reach our age group, college and post college, where they felt they were lacking. They are hoping to develop more programming to bring our age group to the JCC and basically to promote Israel without relying on Taglit-Birthright. Fair enough. I haven't set foot in a JCC since Shining Lights and unless they change their programming wasn't planning on it probably until I have kids of my own. Haha. So, we told them what would bring us in. We discussed how we can get Israel news on our own, but Israeli culture would be a big draw to an organized facility. Israeli movie night (with free food and Jewish singles), an Israeli cooking class targeted to college students (with free food and Jewish singles) or a concert from an Israeli band (with free food and Jewish singles). I also explained how it could be cool to collaborate with Hillels from local colleges. That way Hillel could do cooler things with their financial support, and the JCC could get a great social database. I also mentioned how cool it would be if they hosted a theatr eproduction/workshop from Israel (hint, hint, through EVE). They all laughed, but I did manage to get the business card of one of the JCCs of America Program Directors and a local actor who works as the arts representative for Makom Haaretz, a section of the local liberal English newspaper. He invited me to see his show next week, and although I am not sure I can go, I am hoping to sit down and talk with him and see if we can collaborate at all. I would love to get him to post a story about EVE or one of our shows. Overall, it was an awesome opportunity to talk, and a great chance to network. I also feel, that as I was talking to them about Israel, and telling them my story, that I solidified a lot of thoughts that have been floating through my head. As the only one on the panel not considering or in the process of aliyah, I had a different perspective to share, but I also confirmed for myself that this won't be my last time here. Now, after spending time here, I am eligible to staff Birthright, which means an endless supply of free trips back here. Don't worry Mom, I'm not moving here, just not planning to let it get too far behind me.
That's about all for now, just a quick plug. If any of you know of any Jewish Theatres, JCCs, or anything of the sort that may be interested in hosting an Israeli production, let me know. We are hoping to do a North American tour of Eshet in late 2010/early 2011 and would love to get as many stops as possible. Shameless marketing, I know, but figure its worth asking. Check out the facebook page again for info/pix from Eshet and some of the other shows, and please pass it on to anyone you know who may be interested. Thanks a bunch! Love and miss you all : )
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Another week gone by... HALLOWEEN SAMEACH!!
I think this is the longest it's been since I wrote since I started this thing! Hard to think back almost a whole week.
Tuesday our siyur to the embassies was cancelled, but hopefully rescheduled soon. Instead we took a walking tour of Jaffa. I recognized a lot of things from birthright, and its a pretty port town, but overall it was pretty unstimulating. We had a bit of discussion about coexistance and the arab population within the city, but mostly just walking around seeing the sights. We did get to sleep in though, which was quite a plus. Had a nice day off to just relax and do nothing. Much needed I might add.
Wednesday, work and ulpan. Nothing too exciting. Thursday, went to work and then since our hiking in Israel information session was canceled for the THIRD time, got to take a nice nap after work. Thursday night went out with my new Israeli friends. Had my first sabich, eggplant and hard boiled egg in a pita with various toppings. Yummy. Galit would be proud.
Friday, I slept most of the day, and then went out with the gang to a club for a bit. The only reason we got in is because there were 8 American girls. The first time standing out and being obnoxious speaking English worked in our favor... It was nice, but I really miss the smoking ban. Israeli bars are much stinkier than Boston or Chicago.
Saturday, I took a sherut into Jerusalem in the morning to see Kyler again. I realize I never explained before to those of you who don't know him. Kyler was a good friend of mine from Emerson, an actor/director I worked with a lot. He graduated after junior year and recently went on a program to Tanzania to teach HIV and AIDS education to villages, and learned Swahili. Crazy, I know, but awesome. Basically, we haven't spoken in over a year, but leave it to us to reunite in Israel. I went out in the morning and my sherut driver was super nice, so he took me right to the Zion gate to meet them without charging me more. Awesome. Granted it took a bit for me to find him and his family, winding through the Old City, but we finally connected and I joined his family and some other folks from their temple trip. Kyler wasn't kidding when he said they were the youngest of the group, and the next youngest was his mother. Anyways, I followed them around a bit, then a bunch of them went back to their hotel and Kyler, his Mom, Aunt, and I ventured into the markets of the Old City. Kyler was on a mission to buy a few gifts, and also to find a rug for his new apartment in NY. He exercised his bargaining skills, and quite successfully I might add, and foudn what he was looking for. The first few rugs were way, way, out of the price range, but he finally found a nice brown and tan patterned one that was already half price according to the owner, and got him down (in dollars) from 75 to 60. Not too shabby. We grabbed a falafel/shwarma for lunch, wandered a bit more, then went back to their hotel. The David Citadel, a fancy shmancy hotel in fact. We crashed a lecture with their tour guide briefly, then we met up with the rest of their family a little later to wander Jerusalem some more, and decided to stop at a burger place. They only had dollars left, but they fortunately took credit card so we were a-ok. Kyler and I had already eaten so we had Tuborg, a beer I like here, and he attempted to sound out all the English named cocktails spelled out in Hebrew on the menu. We went back to the hotel again, and I just relaxed while they all showered and finished packing.
Lucky me, crashing a temple tour group, but I got to join them for dinner. Waiting for the bus at the hotel I explained to a lot of curious temple folk who I was and what I was doing there, and for the first time I was the token Hebrew speaker of the group, teaching random people vocab of the things in the room. I then rode the bus with them and their luggage from the hotel to Beit Ticho. It's a dairy/vegetarian restaurant, and we were served an endless supply of family style goodness. Quiches, salads, mushroom blintzes, yummy. And not to mention a large plate of various cakes to share. Delicious. Their tour guide did a closing speech, as it was the last night of their trip, and then they filed out to the bus to the airport. I had been planning on riding the bus with them from Jerusalem to the airport, as the airport is much closer to my apartment, but it turned out their travel guide guy lived in Tel Aviv and had driven to Jerusalem to meet them that night. He offered me a ride back into the city and ended up dropping me off at home. Very nice and very convenient. We talked travel plans as well, and he offered to help as I was planning Israel travel with Mom and Dad. I'll talk to you about it soon. This guy also happens to have a sister in theatre in New York, and pretty much booked Kyler an audition on the spot. Kyler is now moving to New York city one step ahead. Look at that, networking in the Holy Land.
So, I got home at a reasonable hour thanks to my tour guide friend, and had plenty of time to get ready for Halloween. Halloween in Israel, an interesting day. No one does anything really, as they have Purim, but we did manage to find a party at a bar called the Culture Club. Pretty much all Americans, but fun none the less. I dressed up as a butterfly, or par par in Hebrew. Had to be extra creative this year, and make things from what I had with minimal spending and materials, so I ended up wearing black tights, little pink shorts, a black tank top, wings made out of a bath mat, and antennas made from a blue coat hanger. The bath mat was formally feet, but I cut off the toes and the shape and pattern worked surprisingly well. Pictures coming soon. Again, I have to say, I really have learned to appreciate the smoking ban in the bars and restaurants I go to at home. It was pretty bad. Overall though, a really good night and a fun excuse to party on a work night.
Lot's more to talk about regarding work and WUJS, but I'll save that for the next entry. Halloween Sameach!
Tuesday our siyur to the embassies was cancelled, but hopefully rescheduled soon. Instead we took a walking tour of Jaffa. I recognized a lot of things from birthright, and its a pretty port town, but overall it was pretty unstimulating. We had a bit of discussion about coexistance and the arab population within the city, but mostly just walking around seeing the sights. We did get to sleep in though, which was quite a plus. Had a nice day off to just relax and do nothing. Much needed I might add.
Wednesday, work and ulpan. Nothing too exciting. Thursday, went to work and then since our hiking in Israel information session was canceled for the THIRD time, got to take a nice nap after work. Thursday night went out with my new Israeli friends. Had my first sabich, eggplant and hard boiled egg in a pita with various toppings. Yummy. Galit would be proud.
Friday, I slept most of the day, and then went out with the gang to a club for a bit. The only reason we got in is because there were 8 American girls. The first time standing out and being obnoxious speaking English worked in our favor... It was nice, but I really miss the smoking ban. Israeli bars are much stinkier than Boston or Chicago.
Saturday, I took a sherut into Jerusalem in the morning to see Kyler again. I realize I never explained before to those of you who don't know him. Kyler was a good friend of mine from Emerson, an actor/director I worked with a lot. He graduated after junior year and recently went on a program to Tanzania to teach HIV and AIDS education to villages, and learned Swahili. Crazy, I know, but awesome. Basically, we haven't spoken in over a year, but leave it to us to reunite in Israel. I went out in the morning and my sherut driver was super nice, so he took me right to the Zion gate to meet them without charging me more. Awesome. Granted it took a bit for me to find him and his family, winding through the Old City, but we finally connected and I joined his family and some other folks from their temple trip. Kyler wasn't kidding when he said they were the youngest of the group, and the next youngest was his mother. Anyways, I followed them around a bit, then a bunch of them went back to their hotel and Kyler, his Mom, Aunt, and I ventured into the markets of the Old City. Kyler was on a mission to buy a few gifts, and also to find a rug for his new apartment in NY. He exercised his bargaining skills, and quite successfully I might add, and foudn what he was looking for. The first few rugs were way, way, out of the price range, but he finally found a nice brown and tan patterned one that was already half price according to the owner, and got him down (in dollars) from 75 to 60. Not too shabby. We grabbed a falafel/shwarma for lunch, wandered a bit more, then went back to their hotel. The David Citadel, a fancy shmancy hotel in fact. We crashed a lecture with their tour guide briefly, then we met up with the rest of their family a little later to wander Jerusalem some more, and decided to stop at a burger place. They only had dollars left, but they fortunately took credit card so we were a-ok. Kyler and I had already eaten so we had Tuborg, a beer I like here, and he attempted to sound out all the English named cocktails spelled out in Hebrew on the menu. We went back to the hotel again, and I just relaxed while they all showered and finished packing.
Lucky me, crashing a temple tour group, but I got to join them for dinner. Waiting for the bus at the hotel I explained to a lot of curious temple folk who I was and what I was doing there, and for the first time I was the token Hebrew speaker of the group, teaching random people vocab of the things in the room. I then rode the bus with them and their luggage from the hotel to Beit Ticho. It's a dairy/vegetarian restaurant, and we were served an endless supply of family style goodness. Quiches, salads, mushroom blintzes, yummy. And not to mention a large plate of various cakes to share. Delicious. Their tour guide did a closing speech, as it was the last night of their trip, and then they filed out to the bus to the airport. I had been planning on riding the bus with them from Jerusalem to the airport, as the airport is much closer to my apartment, but it turned out their travel guide guy lived in Tel Aviv and had driven to Jerusalem to meet them that night. He offered me a ride back into the city and ended up dropping me off at home. Very nice and very convenient. We talked travel plans as well, and he offered to help as I was planning Israel travel with Mom and Dad. I'll talk to you about it soon. This guy also happens to have a sister in theatre in New York, and pretty much booked Kyler an audition on the spot. Kyler is now moving to New York city one step ahead. Look at that, networking in the Holy Land.
So, I got home at a reasonable hour thanks to my tour guide friend, and had plenty of time to get ready for Halloween. Halloween in Israel, an interesting day. No one does anything really, as they have Purim, but we did manage to find a party at a bar called the Culture Club. Pretty much all Americans, but fun none the less. I dressed up as a butterfly, or par par in Hebrew. Had to be extra creative this year, and make things from what I had with minimal spending and materials, so I ended up wearing black tights, little pink shorts, a black tank top, wings made out of a bath mat, and antennas made from a blue coat hanger. The bath mat was formally feet, but I cut off the toes and the shape and pattern worked surprisingly well. Pictures coming soon. Again, I have to say, I really have learned to appreciate the smoking ban in the bars and restaurants I go to at home. It was pretty bad. Overall though, a really good night and a fun excuse to party on a work night.
Lot's more to talk about regarding work and WUJS, but I'll save that for the next entry. Halloween Sameach!
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