T marks the spot

I asked my friends what I should name this blog post, and Ari Rosenblum said “T marks the spot.”  Ari calls me T-Marc, so at first I didn’t get it— I thought he was saying “T-Marcs the spot,” which didn’t make a lot of sense.  In fact, he was actually being very clever and making a pun on “X marks the spot.”  I was very impressed and decided it was definitely worthy of being the title of this post.

Now onto the exciting news (clearly about celiac disease): last night I returned from spending Sukkot with Ariel Segal (from Toronto) and Elena Pentelnik (Cincinnati) at the home of Elana’s family friends.  The exciting part about this Sukkot was not just being in a comfortable house with no classes or schedule to follow (but that was nice too).  The family we stayed with, the Weiners, have a daughter with celiac disease!  For the first time since I’ve been in Israel, I was with people who not only understood all of my dietary restrictions (better than I do, in fact), but who were able to tell me what stores to shop at and what I can and can’t eat.  And besides all this, I was able to eat four meals (and many snacks) without worrying that there was some gluten in the food that I didn’t know about.  One thing I learned (which explained why my stomach was hurting last week) is that in Israel it’s not safe to eat nuts or dried fruit.  The workers who package these foods put four on their hands so the products won’t stick to them, but this tiny amount of flour isn’t mentioned on the packaging since it’s not an ingredient.  So when I ate dried cranberries and almonds last week to break my fast on Yom Kippur, that probably wasn’t the best idea. 

Last week we went to the shuk and were all encouraged to buy a lulav and etrog for Sukkot.  I was apprehensive—I had already bought two machzorim, one for Rosh Hashanah and one for Yom Kippur—and I wouldn’t have minded sharing a lulav and etrog with someone else.  It wasn’t until we arrived at a huge tent filled with people buying and selling lulavs and etrogs that I appreciated the opportunity we had here.  At home we always have what seem to be a perfect lulav and etrog.  We order them from school and they arrive with the lulav already assembled and the etrog always smelling as strong and as fragrant as I remember from the previous Sukkot.  When I finally entered the tent here in Jerusalem (the girls initially weren’t allowed to because our elbows weren’t covered... but our director, Yossi Garr, got us all in) it was apparent that I wasn’t just going to give someone some money and be presented with a perfectly assembled lulav and an aromatic etrog.  First I found out the price.  They started at 50 shekels and for 60 you could get a better one and 70 even better (and if you’ve seen the movie Ushpizin, you know how expensive these can get—or just ask my mom because she loves that movie).  I decided I would spend 60 shekels, and for much less than I’m sure my family paid, I got my lulav and etrog.  But the transaction wasn’t over when I paid.  I still had to pick out the etrog, making sure there were no blemishes on it (I saw one man sit for at least twenty minutes examining every millimeter of the etrog he was considering), choose three branches of Hadas (myrtle), making sure the leaves were growing in groups of three, and choose the actual lulav, making sure it wasn’t too flimsy.  Thankfully, the aravah (willow) was just given to me and wrapped in plastic, but the whole process still took me a good thirty minutes at the least.  I’ll be bringing my lulav and etrog with me on Desert Survival (we’re leaving on Sunday for a three day hike in the Negev called Desert Survival) and I’m really looking forward to using it.  As nice as it is to have a beautiful lulav and citrus-y smelling etrog, it will be nice to know that I picked mine out by myself and spent time choosing what I wanted. And I'm hoping that with time, my etrog will only get more fragrant.

Examining my etrog

A few nights ago, I played basketball with some Nativ guys.  The first time they decided to play at night I thought they were a little crazy and opted to stay in and do my work.  This time though, we had no school the next day, and I wanted to play a little more before the Nativ basketball league starts (if it ever does).  We ended up playing from 9:30 until around 11:30 (most people actually went back before that, but I stuck it out with a couple other guys).  The courts were packed, but we ended up playing with some Mexicans, an Argentinean (all 18-22 years old), and an Israeli man who was probably in his 40s but was without question the fastest and most talented player on the court.  (Not to mention really dramatic and a ball hog, but I won’t get into that.)  It was really nice to play outside at night when it was cooler, and now that I have my jersey and ankle brace (THANK YOU family and Jenna Silverman) I can’t wait to play again.  Now I just need my basketball shoes! (I brought my cleats instead of my basketball shoes… bad choice, Tali)

For Shabbat I’m staying on base and relaxing before we go on Desert Survival.  It will be nice to be here without the entire group (a lot of people went to Tel Aviv since it’s the first free weekend) and to have a low key weekend.  I even have the whole room to myself tonight since both my roommates are away!  And I guess now would be a good time to post the pictures I promised last time.  Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Love, Tali



My bed/area



So much gluten free food!

The sink (not usually this clean)

The shower

My roommates' beds, as seen from my top bunk

Happy Birthday Ilana!! (...a little late)

Note: I wrote this post on September 19 and meant to finish it the next day or the day after but I have had NO time. I'm about to leave for Sukkot, but I promise I'll finish it when I get back!

This post is dedicated to Ilana for her birthday, even though it was two days ago.  I took some pictures of my room, and I have lots of exciting things to write about everyone’s favorite topic—celiac disease! Here’s what I’ll be writing about, in no particular order:

Zumba

Maayan

Yom Kippur

Sukkot dinner

Pictures!

One of our madrichot, Maya (who went to Wellesley College, where I’ll be going next year), has a friend who is a zumba instructor.  Zumba is a really good dance workout that involves a lot of movement of the hips and whatever else the instructor decides to throw in (jumps, lunges, salsa, etc.).  Maya has offered a few zumba sessions (based on a zumba video her friend made), but tonight was the first one I did.  I am by no means the most coordinated dancer, but I had a great time and got a great workout.  I felt really tired at the beginning but now, two and a half hours later, I feel completely energized.  (Actually, that might not be a good thing since I have to go to sleep at some point, but I still have a lot of homework to do, so no worries.) One of the most exciting things about this zumba sessions was that one of the dances was to the Official World Cup 2010 song, Waka Waka.  We were taught the dance to this song at camp this summer but I never learned it.  I picked up a few parts though, so it was nice to know a small part of the dance we were doing.  After the hour long zumba session, I and two other people decided to stay and do some of the dances again (specifically Waka Waka). We did about fifteen more minutes of zumba and then some ab exercises.  It felt really great to do such an intense workout after not having much opportunity to exercise lately.  And now I can’t wait to join Ilana at her zumba class when I come home!

Between dinner and zumba today, I found out something very exciting: the receptionist at Beit Nativ, Maayan, has celiac disease!  She gave me a brownie that she made from a gluten free mix (from the US…if anyone wants to send me some GF brownie mix) and it was great to have some good GF food that wasn’t crackers or rice cakes. She’s also just really sweet and said she would tell me about all the places to get food in Israel, so that will be helpful.

Yom Kippur in Israel is a big deal.  There is no one on the street and the whole country shuts down.  Disappointingly, I didn’t have a particularly spiritual Yom Kippur, but it was relatively exciting.  For Kol Nidre I went to a shul called Kedem.  Kedem is one of the few conservative shuls in Israel; most are orthodox with a mechitza.  At Kedem there is no rabbi, but services are led by members of the congregation. To my surprise, Kol Nidre was being led by one of my Tanach teachers, Zac Johnson!  It was a great surprise to see him, and the service was really nice. Fast forward to the next afternoon: Yael Nurko, my best friend since kindergarten, was in Jerusalem for the weekend so we were finally able to spend some time together and catch up on everything that had happened in the last three weeks.  We decided to go to the Kotel for minchah and then back to Kedem to meet Yael’s friends for Neilah.  On the way to the Kotel, we ran into the Gann juniors on the Alexander Muss program. It was really exciting to see them, especially because one of the kids I’m friends with, Ilan Radbil, also has celiac disease!  We talked about what foods we’ve been eating and commiserated about how hard it is to find good GF food in Israel.  Once we got to the Kotel it was nice to be there, but it’s supposed to be more of an experience for men who pray there (because of the mechitza).  We left the Kotel with enough time to meet Yael’s friends at Kedem, and stopped along the way to take in the amazing view.  However, as we kept walking, the route that had initially seemed so familiar to me just became more and more foreign until I finally realized that we were walking through the Armenian Quarter.  We eventually got out, but not without walking around a large part of the Old City and making ourselves late to meet Yael’s friends.  With some serious speed walking and extreme thirst, we finally made it to Kedem just before they blew the shofar.  The only problem was that Yael’s friends were nowhere to be seen.  It turns out that they didn’t know which shul is Kedem and were actually at a different shul.  Luckily, Mr. Johnson had happened to be at dinner with Yael the night before, so he showed us the way back to her host family’s house and I went back to Beit Nativ.  Dinner was dairy which is my least favorite here since I can’t eat pasta, bread etc., so afterward, I decided to get frozen yogurt with my friends.  To my dismay, when we got to the frozen yogurt place, they said it wouldn’t be ready for a few hours.  I settled for some overly sweet cappuccino ice cream and thought about how much I would rather be eating BerryLine.

I’ll finish this another time since I REALLY have to do my homework now.

Gmar Chatima Tovah!

Excuse me, do you have another pair of your eyes?

(This was written on September 15)

Hi everyone!

As I told you, I’m taking classes at Hebrew U for the first half of the year.  The first month of school is the minimester, in which everyone on Nativ takes certain mandatory classes.  The real semester starts in October and we’ll get to choose our own classes then, but for now I’m taking Israeli Society, Jewish History through the Eyes of the Filmmaker (there are three people in this class; I’m sure I’ll mention it again soon), and Jerusalem Through the Ages.  We only have Jerusalem class every other day, but it’s a three hour class that is half lecture and half touring (with more lecturing on the tours... woohoo).  Yesterday we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, along with the site of the Last Supper (which is also a mosque), Kind David’s grave (it’s not actually his grave though), and the Cardo.  I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre last December with my family, but it was really interesting to go back there and see things I hadn’t noticed last time.  Our teacher, David Keren, was also there to explain everything we were seeing so that made it even more interesting. Anyway, when we left the church, we were standing in the courtyard hearing about the conflict regarding a ladder and cleaning the windows of the church, when Matt Goldberg, a fellow Nativer whispered to me, “The guy sitting behind me is a cross between Jesus and Hagrid!”  I not so subtly turned around and stared at a man who did in fact look like just like Jesus and Hagrid.  Naturally, we needed to take a picture of him, so I grabbed another Matt (Matt Alfasso) and we took a picture with Jesus/Hagrid in the background.  I know you’re all dying to see this incredible combination of a man, so here’s the picture.



Can you find him?



By the time we were finished with our Jerusalem tour for the day we were exhausted, but we still had to get back to Beit Nativ.  As we walked through the Arab shuk (with David and one of our madrichot, Maya) we saw classic Israeli t-shirts, bags, and jewelry that you can find at any shuk in Israel.  There were hundreds of different spices, fruits, and nuts to buy, as well as the tempting smells of rugelach, bread, and other non-gluten free treats. While I was telling my roommate Aimee all the gluten I wanted to eat, one of the stall owners stopped me and said, “Excuse me, do you have another pair of your eyes?” I was so surprised that someone would actually use such a lame pick up line that I just said no and walked away laughing. 

Once we got out of the shuk we walked through Mamilla, a new (very expensive) shopping area on the way back to Beit Nativ.  I had been meaning to stop by Aroma (a popular café in Israel) because I heard they had gluten free brownies, so we went to the one in Mamilla.  There weren’t any GF brownies, but they did have some cookies. In general, GF food is good for the first few bites until you realize that it really doesn’t taste very good.  I think this is because you’re so surprised to be eating “real” food that doesn’t crumble to pieces in your hands, but once you start really tasting it, the thrill is gone.  Anyway, the cookies were nothing special.  They tasted a lot like Passover cookies and were pretty unimpressive (and unhealthy).  I’m hoping the GF brownies will be better, but I won’t get my hopes up.  In the meantime, I found a really good chocolate cake that doesn’t taste like chocolate but is still the best GF food I’ve had so far in Israel (besides the Berryline-esque frozen yogurt).  Now it’s time for dinner where I’ll probably have the usual: GF crackers and hummus. YUM.

Love, Tali

Two weeks late...

Hi guys,

I know this first post is way overdue, but things here have been extremely hectic.  I’ll try to update you on everything that has been going on, but I also need to write a paper tonight, so it’ll take a few posts.

Before I tell you about Israel though, I should probably explain the title of this blog.  I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, which means I can’t eat gluten. Gluten is found in most grains (wheat, rye, barley, etc.) and also in soy sauce.  One staple of the Israeli diet is pita and hummus. Factor in my extremely picky eating and I’ve got a tough (and hungry) nine months ahead of me.  Anyway, as my family tried to help me think of a title, we got sidetracked by my plans for the High Holidays. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Where am I supposed to go for the High Holidays?

Sheryl: I don’t know but you’d better figure that out soon

Laurel: Go with one of your friends

Me: But I feel bad being someone’s guest and not being able to eat anything

Alan: Maybe someone will want to have you for Yom Kippur!

Me: Very funny Daddy…What am I supposed to say, “I can’t eat this, this, this, this, and this…and I don’t like tomatoes.”

Laurel: Maybe that’s what you should call it: “dot dot dot and I don’t like tomatoes”

So now that you understand where tomatoes fit (or don’t fit) into my blog about the next nine months, I can explain what I’ll be doing here in Israel.  I’m on a program called Nativ (www.nativ.org) during which I’ll be spending half the year in Jerusalem studying at  Hebrew University, and half the year volunteering in Be’er Sheva (in the south). The majority of people on Nativ either went to a Ramah camp or were active in USY. I’m proudly representing Camp Yavneh, and I’ve never been to a USY event in my life, so I knew a grand total of three people when the program started. Sam Doernberg and I have been in school together since seventh grade, Carmi Cheskis-Gold went to Yavneh until 2007, and Max Beede went to school with me until fifth grade.  I wasn’t completely sure that Max or Carmi would even remember me, so I was more than a little nervous when I met the group at the airport on August 30.

After a ten hour plane ride, many awkward and repetitive conversations (Where are you from? What tracks are you doing? Did you do USY?), lots of Jewish geography (usually involving Charlene Thrope), and a surprisingly decent gluten free plane meal, we finally landed in Israel.  Once we got through customs and baggage claim, we got on three different busses, divided by track, and finally found out exactly who we would be spending most of the year with.

There are a couple different options regarding how to spend your year on Nativ. The first semester everyone is in Jerusalem, but has the option of studying at a conservative yeshiva (Torah and Talmud studies), Ulpan (intensive Hebrew classes), or the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the second semester, one third of the group will be living and working on a Kibbutz, while the rest of the group will be doing community service in two cities in the south, Yerucham and Be’er Sheva.  Rooming is based on our second semester tracks and for the first week, most activities were done in these groups as well.  Even though we all got sick of being divided by tracks for what seemed like every activity (Tefillot included), it definitely helped us connect, and the Be’er Sheva group is a great group of people. 

Right now I’m starting to regret waiting two weeks to write this first post, because believe it or not, it’s pretty hard to remember exactly what we did during our first few days here.  The first day, our madrichim (counselors—each group has two, one American and one Israeli) took us on a tour of Jerusalem. Beit Nativ is under a ten minute walk from Ben Yehuda street, and a 15-20 minute walk from the shuk (outdoor market). There is a grocery store and ATM right across the street, and we also found some basketball courts that are under ten minutes away walking. After our tour we had orientation with the director, Yossi Garr, and then were given time to unpack. Embarrassing as it is, our room is still not completely unpacked (my suitcases are away though!), but I’ll post a picture of it eventually. 

Something great about Nativ is that not only do we have most nights free to explore the city and do almost anything we want, but our madirchim also tell us about events that we may not have otherwise heard about.  One of our first nights here, Israel was playing Malta for a spot in the 2012 UEFA European Football (Soccer) Championship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012). Nativ didn’t just tell us about the game and let us make our own plans though; they provided us with tickets and transportation for only 20 shekels!  That’s about 5 dollars.  Before the game I went to the shuk with some friends where we bargained for our jerseys and got the price down from 80 shekels to 65 shekels.  The game was great but exhausting, as we were all still extremely jet lagged, and Israel won 3-1. (Yossi Benayoun, who used to play on Liverpool and is now on Chelsea, had a hat trick. That means he scored three goals.)  The best part though, came when I got back to Beit Nativ that night and went on facebook to find that three of my Israeli friends wrote on my wall saying they had seen me on TV! We later found out that there was also a picture of some of the group on the Israeli national sports website (below). Despite the Israelis yelling at us to sit down every few minutes and the strange looks we got for being covered in blue face paint, it was a great night and a great way to start the year as Nativ 30. 

Now it’s time for me to start my first paper of the year, since I got back from school at 2:30 with the intention of writing it then and have done nothing so far. (Surprised, Daddy?) Shana tova  and g’mar chatimah tova to everyone.  Please forgive me if I have said or done anything that hurt you in the past year, and I hope you all have a sweet new year =)

Love, Tali

P.S. The graffiti background is only temporary until Ilana changes it…