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…