Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

It’s been a month since my last post, so I have a lot to say, but I forget most of it.  I’ll do my best to give you a sense of what’s been going on in the last month though, and try to be more consistent with my posts from now on. 

We finally finished the minimester (the semester at Hebrew U in which we took classes only with other Nativers) and have now begun to get used to what will be our schedules for the next two months.  In my last film class we watched Walk on Water, a great movie that I strongly recommend.  I had seen it a couple of years ago, but I didn’t remember much from the film, and I probably didn’t understand it very well when I saw it the first time.  I also watched Sallah Shabbati for my final paper, another movie I had seen a couple of years ago, but was very funny to watch again.  Sallah Shabbati is about a Yemenite family who makes aliyah to Israel around 1950 and the father’s efforts to move his family out of the ma’abarah (transit camp) they are placed in.  It was great to see both of these movies again and was a nice way to end the class.  Our final Israeli Society class was also very fun.  We were given 20 minutes to walk around Hebrew U and ask three Israelis to tell us about 1948, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, and the disengagement from Gaza.  The responses we got were all very interesting both because of the many similar answers, but also because of the different opinions that we heard on each event. 

After finishing our finals for each of our minimester classes, the real semester began.  I was particularly excited for this for a couple reasons. We are now taking classes based on our interests and with non-Nativers.  Though there are Nativers in all my classes, it’s nice to also be with other students at Hebrew U, both Israelis and Americans who are studying abroad.  Another reason I’m happy to be in the real semester is that we’ve finally starting our Ulpan classes.  I love studying Hebrew and one of my goals this year is to significantly improve my Hebrew skills.  So far, my Hebrew class has been fantastic.  My teachers are both great, and after only two weeks I feel like I’ve already learned a lot.  It is a little intimidating, because the teachers only speak in Hebrew, even to explain new words, but it’s a very effective way of teaching.  I only wish I had been taught Hebrew this way for my whole life!

My other classes are called Silicon Wadi: Global Entrepreneurship in a Middle Eastern Economy, Issues in the Study of the Holocaust, and Battle over the Bible.  Silicon Wadi is pretty self-explanatory.  It focuses on the entrepreneurial aspect of Israel’s economy, and for our final we each have to design our own business plan for a start-up company.  The professor, Avner Halperin, is the CEO of Early Sense which you can read about here: http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000595087&fid=1725.

The Holocaust class is also GREAT. I’ve learned about the Holocaust before, but I feel like I’m learning about it so much more in depth, and it will be great preparation for my trip to Poland in January.  The professor gives us a ton of information each class, but it’s never hard to concentrate because he’s so engaging. My final class, Battle over the Bible, is about the different ways in which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam interpret the Bible.  We’ve been focusing on background about the Bible so far, but I think it will be a really interesting class once we get into it.

Other things that began with the real semester are J.E.T (Jewish Educator Training—an optional once a week session to learn how to be an effective Jewish educator), Zumba on Sundays and Thursdays, West Wing Wednesdays, Israeli movie night/Disney movies b’ivrit (alternating showings of Israeli movies and Disney movies in Hebrew), girls football team, and NBA (Nativ Basketball Association), among other things.  The first Disney b’ivrit movie was Mulan in Hebrew.  I didn’t see that one, but I watched the first Israeli movie, Mishehu LaRutz Eeto (Someone to Run With).  I saw this movie a couple years ago at camp and didn’t understand it at all.  There were still some confusing parts, but I understood it a lot better the second time around.  It was also fun to watch because the movie takes place in Jerusalem so we saw some familiar landmarks, including the park across from Beit Nativ, Gan HaAtzmaut (Independence Park). 

On Monday, the girls’ football team played and won our first scrimmage.  The team we played had already been playing together for a few seasons, so it felt really good to win, despite the fact we didn’t know exactly what we were doing at some (many) points in the game. It was a really fun time, and I even scored a touchdown!  NBA is also going really well.  So far our team is 3-1, and our only loss came after we were all exhausted from playing a forty minute game right before our second game.  I recently joined the YMCA which is very nice, but no Koko (my gym at home—www.kokofitclub.com).  I was really excited the first time I used the machines there because they’re actually the same as the ones as at Koko (Precor).  It just got a little confusing when I realized they were in Hebrew so I couldn’t figure out if I was changing the resistance of the elliptical or the incline.  Either way, I got a good work out and I’m hoping to go swimming there sometime soon.

On Friday morning we are also given the opportunity to explore Jerusalem.  Last week, a small group of us went on a short hike with Achi (one of the Yerucham madrichot) to a natural water source where we all took a quick swim in our clothes, and dried off as we learned about water in Israel and talked about different ways to conserve water here.  On the bus ride back from our exploration, I ran into one of my camp friends, Zach Avigan, along with Sam and Ben Fisher.  It was a great surprise to see them, and the morning was a very nice beginning to my Shabbat.

This is very out of order, but to explain the title of this post… A few weeks ago Adir (Be’er Sheva madrich) asked around about whether we had any bug bites.  Apparently, some Nativers had lots of unexplained bug bites that turned out to be from bed bugs.  As a result, everyone had to strip their beds and all the mattresses were taken outside to be cleaned.  My room didn’t have any bed bugs (thankfully), but we all cleaned our sheets just in case.  The whole situation was pretty funny (except the part when we all had to carry our mattresses up a few flights of stairs) and we got our laundry done for free in the process (Nativ paid for us to wash our sheets and anything else we thought might be dirty). 

Two weeks ago, I went to Haifa for Shabbat to visit my friends from the Ironi Hey school (the sister school of Gann Academy my high school).  It was really nice to see my friends, some of whom are already in the army, and to be at someone’s home rather than at Beit Nativ.  Though it is always nice to come home to Beit Nativ after a long day at school or a weekend out, it is refreshing to be hosted by family or friends for a few days.  I stayed with Nitzan Tessler, one of the Israelis who visited Boston my junior year in high school.  Her little sister, Lior, reminded me a lot of my little sister Marielle.  Lior showed me her entire collection of bobble heads, Webkins, and Bratz dolls, and we watched Arthur (in Hebrew!) and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody together.  Before I left, Nitzan and I met up with some other friends and got frozen yogurt.  The frozen yogurt place in Jerusalem is good, but this place was FANTASTIC.  There were so many different fruit toppings that were all delicious. My favorite was these apples that were cooked in cinnamon and sugar—like from an apple crisp.  Maybe Berryline will add that topping before I come back home! 

That’s all I remember for now, so Shabbat Shalom!