Be'er Sheva no more--Nativ takes on the North!

Last Sunday, we had a speaker in my business class.  The speaker, Dan Halperin, is an expert on US-Israeli relations and was the Israeli economic minister in Washington a few years back.  He is also one of the founders of the BIRD Foundation (“BIRD is an acronym for Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development. The BIRD Foundation's mission is to stimulate, promote and support industrial R&D of mutual benefit to the U.S. and Israel.” – www.birdf.com) and is the father of our teacher, Avner Halperin!  He was an interesting speaker and it was especially exciting because he was directly involved in negotiations between Israel and the US regarding US aid to Israel.  At the end of class we found out that we would be hearing from yet another speaker next week (tomorrow).  The speaker tomorrow is Saul Singer, co-author of the recent book Start-Up Nation.  I loved this book, and it was actually one of the main reasons I signed up for the class, so I was thrilled to hear that Saul Singer will be coming to speak to us tomorrow.  We’ll also be visiting the Intel factory in Jerusalem tomorrow, so it will be a very exciting day.

Monday is always my busiest day, but this past Monday was even busier than usual.  The morning started out as usual with my first two classes, lunch, and a four hour break until my last class.  Usually I spend my break in an empty classroom pretending to do work, but this time I decided to explore the Hebrew U campus a little.  After walking up a staircase that I walk by everyday but have never taken, I found a really nice patch of grass with a beautiful view of Jerusalem.  After an hour relaxing in the sun there, I walked around some more and found the outdoor amphitheater.  It is a really magnificent place and the view is fantastic.  I was going to take a picture but I haven’t had a chance, so I’ll try to do that this week.   

Towards the end of my break I was in the café when I saw someone from my Battle over the Bible class, John.  John lives in Vancouver (I forget where he is from originally) and has a business (he’s probably somewhere in his 30s I would guess?) but is studying at Hebrew U and running his business from Israel while he’s here.  John is the “Christianity expert” in our class—our teacher often turns to him to clarify certain details and stories about Christianity.  I’ve wanted to talk to John for a while simply because he seems like an interesting person.  I want to know what he thinks of Hebrew U, of Israel, why he is in Israel, and much more.  While we were both waiting for our coffee, my chance came.  He asked me what I thought of the class and I told him I like it, but I often wonder how it would be if taught by a Christian or Muslim professor.  He agreed that there are certain biases since the class is taught by a Jewish professor and said he sometimes feels a little uncomfortable with the way his religion is portrayed.  I was in a rush to get to class, but I found out that John is here because he thinks of Israel as his home, and that he is a Christian who follows the laws in the Torah such as keeping Shabbat (on Saturday) and keeping Kashrut.  I forget exactly how he described his observance, but it sounded very interesting, and I told him I’d love to talk to him when we both have more time. 

That night we had our third football game.  After winning our first scrimmage, we proceeded to lose our first two games by the mercy rule (that means that if the other team is up by a certain amount of points the game ends early because it is so unlikely that the other team will catch up).  We later found out that we had played the two best teams in the league for the first two games, but we still needed a little confidence boost.  That confidence boost came in our 38-0 win against a team of girls who looked no older than my little sister, Marielle (8^th grade).  It felt great to finally get some touchdowns and interceptions, despite the fact that our opponents were about half our size.  After that ego boosting game, I ran back to Beit Nativ with one of the Kibbutz madrichot, Maya Dolgin.  Maya went to Wellesley College (where I’m going next year) so she’s been answering all my questions about the school and I asked her lots more on our run.  After a quick shower, I left Beit Nativ again to see Harry Potter 7!  The movie was great (it actually stuck to the story without adding random, made up scenes), but the best part of the night was when we were waiting for the bus back to Beit Nativ.  I was waiting to ask a bus driver whether his bus went to our street when I heard someone call my name.  I looked around and saw Maya, Gabi, and Sam Forman!  I sat with them on the bus ride back and they invited me for a Shabbat/Thanksgiving dinner at their apartment.  Seeing them was a great end to an extremely busy, but very exciting day.

The next day was less busy, but definitely not less exciting.  I finish class at noon on Tuesdays, so I decided to get a start on my homework and everything else I needed to do.  Despite my good intentions though, I did about half a page of Hebrew homework before my friend Sean Haber came and asked me if I wanted to go on an “adventure” to Mea Shearim.  Mea Shearim is an extremely Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem.  I’ve heard stories about women having stones thrown at them for being immodestly dressed, so I was pretty unenthusiastic to join Sean on his “adventure.”  In fact, when he asked me, my initial response was “absolutely not.”  But then I gave it a little more thought and decided to go—my homework would get done, and when else was I going to go to Mea Shearim?  It’s a place I’ve heard about a lot, and I was curious to see it for myself.  So despite the heat (yes, it is still shorts weather here at the end of November), I put on a skirt and long sleeved shirt and headed to Mea Shearim with Sean, Aaron Gillman, and Seth Fineman.  As we walked there, Sean and I talked about the reputation of Mea Shearim, and he said that the only people who would actually throw stones at someone are the uneducated extremists and that they only make up a small minority of neighborhood. When we got to Mea Shearim, there was a sign at the entrance of the neighborhood asking visitors to be respectful of the standards of modesty they follow.  I didn’t have my camera with me, but I found a picture of the sign online (below).  Overall it was an interesting experience.  It didn’t feel significantly different than any other orthodox neighborhood I’ve been to (not that I’ve been to so many), but I’m glad I went and saw it for myself.

Later that night we had Erev Nativ.  The Kibbutz and Yerucham groups went out into Jerusalem for their programs while the Be’er Sheva group stayed at Beit Nativ and had a discussion about Kashrut (after watching videos of animals being slaughtered).  But the real excitement that night wasn’t in watching the unhalachic shechita (ritual slaughtering done in a way that does not comply with halacha, Jewish law) done at an Agriprocessors plant or even in hearing my roommate Aimee tell us about Temple Grandin, a doctor of animal science with autism (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Temple_Grandin).  It didn’t come until after the official program, when our director Yossi Garr came in and drew a big map of Israel on a whiteboard in the room.  It was then that the K1 (Kehilla 1) Be’er Sheva track became K1 Carmiel—the first ever Nativ group to go to the North for the second semester.  It turns out that the absorption center in Beer Sheva in which we were going to live during the second semester had been closed, and the other one was full.  After considering many different options, Nativ decided to send us to Carmiel, in the Galil and near Haifa and Acco.  Though the change was a HUGE shock to everyone, I could not be more excited to go to Carmiel.  It sounds like a really nice place to live, with great hiking and a nice community.  According to the Jewish Agency for Israel 40% of the population of 50,000 people in Carmiel is made up of immigrants from 75 different countries.  Additionally, we will be living in an absorption center with Russian olim (immigrants) ages 17-22 who decided to leave their homes and families to join the Israeli army.  It will be so cool to be living with people so close in age to us and hopefully to develop some really interesting relationships with them.  Though it’s still weird to call the group Carmiel now instead of Beer Sheva, and it is hard to think about being three hours away from the rest of the group instead of 40 minutes, I think living in Carmiel will be a really great experience, and I am very excited for second semester.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Karmiel

View of Carmiel

Carmiel City Hall

Wednesday morning I looked on the website of the Celiac Association of Israel to see if there were any stores that sell gluten free products in Carmiel.  It turns out that there is a store just a five minute walk from where we’ll be living!  I called the store and the woman was extremely nice, telling me all about their gluten free section (which sounds really big)  and asking me what I’ll be doing in Carmiel and for how long I’ll be there.  She even told me to call her when I get to Carmiel so she can show me around the store.  That night, I went to Ben Yehuda Street with some friends where we met our friend Aviva Pollack’s dad who bought us all ice cream. Then I played basketball for the first time in a few weeks.  It felt great to play again, even though my blister that finally healed came back. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  Though the Canadians on the program couldn’t care less about the holiday, the Americans had been talking about it all week.  Thanksgiving is a big deal on Nativ.  We have a big meal and all the Nativ alumni who are living in Israel are invited to join us for dinner.  The Thanksgiving Vaad (committee) made a slideshow and a video about the first three months on Nativ and the acapella group sang two really nice songs.  The best part of the night was the surprise before we went into dinner: on a table next to the door was an envelope for every Nativer with his or her name on it and a letter from his or her family.  It was a really nice surprise and everyone loved getting a note from their families.  After dinner some people went out, and some people stayed at Beit Nativ and watched every Thanksgiving episode from the popular show Friends which were being shown in the auditorium.  Though it was a little sad to be away from our families for Thanksgiving, everyone had a great time with the Nativ family and a really fun Thanksgiving.



Me, Amy Shuman, David Keren (our Jerusalem class teacher from minimester, and former Nativ director), and Zoe Beiner at Thanksgiving dinner



A vegetarian, a vegan, and a celiac (and this past month on Nativ)

To summarize whats been going on since my last post:

Sunday, November 7

My friend Aaron Lapping has cousins who are gluten free.  His mom, Debbie, was sending him a package with a friend visiting Israel, and she made him some homemade cookies.  I had jokingly told him to ask her to make some GF cookies not thinking he would, but I was wrong and Debbie sent some GF cookies for me!  They were REALLY good, and didn’t taste GF at all (though I’m not sure how Aaron’s cookies tasted).  The only downside is that it is a secret family recipe so I’m not sure if I’ll ever have them again.

Monday

On Monday I got a package from the Lippers.  They were in Israel for a family simcha and brought me some things from home.  It was really nice to get a package J

Tuesday

For Erev Nativ on Tuesday night we had a speaker from AIPAC, Jonathan Kessler.  He talked to us about developing relationships with our new congressman and senators, and told us about AIPAC.  There were also some kids at the talk form Aardvark, a new gap year program in Israel that I was considering doing.  It was interesting to ask them about the program and hear how it’s going.

Friday/Saturday

We had a closed Shabbat, but it was not at Beit Nativ.  Instead, each track went to a different place in Israel.  The Yerucham group went to Yerucham, Kibbutz went to Modi’in, where our director Yossi Garr lives, and Be’er Sheva went to Ma’alot, where our assistant director, Elkana Cohen, grew up.  Shabbat was really nice.  I was hosted with Zoë Kronovet, a vegetarian, and Ariel Lubow, a vegan.  At first we were all pretty confused about this grouping.  Since I can’t eat gluten, one of my staples is meat, the very thing they don’t eat.  Elkana explained to us that the people we were staying with are the nicest people he knows and that they had agreed to make a meal that would accommodate each of us.  Elkana was right, and the family we stayed with was very nice and accommodating, making dishes that we could each eat.  It was a really relaxing Shabbat and the whole community was very welcoming.  It was also a nice change of scenery from Jerusalem, and we all had a great time.

Sunday, November 15

On Sunday, I left Jerusalem right after my class ended to meet Nancy and Gary Brandeis in Tel Aviv.  The Brandeises were in Israel for the week and had brought some clothes and my winter boots for me from home.  We went out to a very nice dinner (the restaurant was very accommodating of my GF diet) and it was great to catch up.  I went to school with Julia Brandeis from kindergarten through 8^th grade and we stayed in touch throughout high school. She is visiting in January, so seeing her parents made me all the more excited for her visit. 

Tuesday

For Erev Nativ we were divided between boys and girls (within our track).  Each group did a bonding activity and ours was really nice.  We did some personal reflection as well as writing messages to other girls in the group.

Thursday

On Thursday we had our first B’Yachad seminar.  B’Yachad is a program run by the Avichai Foundation for students on gap year programs in Israel who plan to be counselors at Jewish summer camps.  The goal of B’Yachad is for the counselors who spent the year in Israel to bring their experiences back to their camp and share it with everyone else.  The seminar was fun, though it started off on a shaky note for me.  I had missed the email which said that the bus would be leaving at 4:15, and I thought it was leaving at 5:00.  Consequently, I missed the bus, and had to find my own way there.  I got there just as they began the first activity though, so everything worked out.  Later at dinner though, I asked the chef what I could eat that didn’t have gluten in it.  He told me I could eat the meatballs, but then another man told me that they did have gluten in them (after I had already eaten them).  Another chef then told me I could have them, but I had already eaten them, so it was irrelevant by then.  After all the programming for the night I called my dad (it was his birthday) and talked to him until my phone died (I had forgotten the charger).  The next morning, after a FANTASTIC breakfast where there was an omelet chef, we did more programming and then headed back to Beit Nativ for Shabbat. 

Friday

I had planned to stay at base for Shabbat, but then the Leshems called me and invited me for dinner that night! It was perfect, because I was able to spend some time away from Beit Nativ and have a home cooked meal, but I came back that night was able to relax for the rest of Shabbat.  At dinner, Eli Leshem was talking about a book he read in Hebrew.  The more tired I get, the less I pay attention to the Hebrew that is being spoken around me, but I caught on to what Eli was talking about and realized that it sounded very familiar. It turned out that he was talking about Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist who currently teaches at Duke.  I read the book and loved it, so I was really excited to hear that Eli was talking about the same book.  What was even more exciting was when he brought me his copy of the book—in Hebrew!  In Hebrew the title is “לא רציונלי ולא במקרא”, which translates as “not rational, and not by chance.”  I read some parts of the book and was very excited that I could understand a lot of what it said. After a great dinner, Rachel and Eli went to the movies (but not before they had given me some food to take back J ) and Uri Leshem drove me back to Jerusalem.  I really enjoy riding with Uri because he helps me practice my Hebrew and tells me a lot of interesting stories in the process.  By the way Uri, “to settle a bill” is a real expression, you were right!  It means to pay the bill, or to agree on the price of the bill.

Saturday

The next morning I did something I’ve been waiting to do since I’ve been in Israel.  One of the Israeli TV shows that I really like, Srugim, takes place in Katamon, a neighborhood in Jerusalem.  I’ve wanted to go to Ohel Nechama (Nechama’s Tent), the shul where the characters pray every Shabbat, since I’ve gotten here, and this Shababt was the perfect time.  I went with the Kibbutz madrich Aviv, Joel Mackler, and Tamar Friedman, fellow Srugim fanatic.  The shul was closer than we thought, and we were so excited to find it!  Though the congregation was much older than in the show (in the show they’re all in their 20s and 30s, and in real life they were closer to the 60s and 70s age range), it was still cool to be at the shul in person.  The rest of my Shabbat was really relaxing—I did a lot of reading which I haven’t done much since I’ve been here, and caught up on some sleep.  I led Havdallah to close Shabbat, and later my friend Hillel Lehmann came over to hang out before meeting up with some friends.  It was a really nice Shabbat and exactly what I needed to relax. 

My Birthday

Here is a very belated account of my birthday:

Wednesday nights I have basketball at 9:45, so as usual I played until about 11:00.  Normally I shower and go to sleep when I get back, but the next day was my birthday so I wanted to stay up until midnight.  After basketball I went back with my friends Aaron and Jacob to their room where I stayed until about 12:15 when they told me they REALLY wanted to go to sleep. What was actually going on was that my roommates kept calling Aaron telling him to make me leave and come back to our room so they could surprise me. When I got back to my room I still had to finish my Hebrew homework but I kept getting distracted so it took a pretty long time.  Aimee and Roshana (my roommates) kept making hints that I should get in the shower and just forget about my homework for the night, but I was convinced that my teacher was going to collect it the next day (she didn’t).  When I finally decided to shower, I thought the shower would be filled with balloons (we had a TON left over from dressing up as grapes on Tuesday night), but there was nothing in there when I opened the door.  As I was showering though, I heard a balloon pop in our room, so I got a little suspicious.  I decided not to ruin the surprise though by trying to figure out what they were doing, and when I go out of the shower my bed and entire area were covered with balloons and my friend Elena was also there with a cake for me!  If you remember, on Sukkot I went with Elana to her family friends’ house, the Weiners, whose daughter is gluten free.  For weeks, Elana had been planning to go to the Weiner’s to bake me a GF cake for my birthday.  The scheduling didn’t work out, but instead David Weiner made the cake and brought it over to Beit Nativ.  It was such a sweet surprise, and so nice to have a homemade cake in addition to the store bought one my roommates had bought me.  Finally, after a great start to my birthday, I went to sleep around two that night.

Gluten free cake! (You can also see the cut on my leg here)

Yum =)

Me and Elana with the crazy hat she bought me

The next day was extremely hectic.  I had class until 12:00 then ate a quick lunch and came home to take a nap.  That weekend I was going to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea with my friend Eric, so after my nap I went to the shuk to buy some food for our trip.  As I was leaving Beit Nativ I passed Elana who (unbeknownst to me) was returning from getting me a birthday present and she came with me to the shuk.  On our way there, I got a call from Elkana, who told me that he had something for me in the office.  After trying on many different slipper socks and getting a variety of vegetables for the weekend, Elana and I returned to Beit Nativ and stopped at the office to see what Elkana had for me.  It turned out to be… more balloons!  My parents had ordered a balloon arrangement to be delivered to me at Beit Nativ clearly without the knowledge that my room was currently filled with so many balloons that I could barely reach my bed.  It was really nice to get something from my family though, and I still have them next to my bed (we popped at the other balloons).  After eating dinner at Beit Nativ (we get dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays) we had the first of four seminars/meetings to prepare for our trip to Poland in January.  The meeting was interesting and it made me even more appreciative of the great Holocaust class that I’m taking at Hebrew U.  Everything I’m learning in the class will allow me to understand better and get a lot more out of the visit.

After the Poland meeting I went to Talpiyot with a few friends to go bowling.  Though the bus driver forgot to tell us when to get off the bus, we managed to find our way there, and met up with some of my friends from school and camp.  This was definitely the highlight of my birthday.  I have a pretty big group of camp and school friends in Israel this year, and though we’ve been talking about getting together, it’s hard to plan something with all our different schedules.  Finally though, I saw all my non-Nativ friends in Israel, and I even had a surprise guest!  Aviya Cohen, who I went to school with until 8^th grade before she made aliyah surprised me by coming to the bowling place.  The night ended with Aviya, Yael Nurko, Gabi Remz, Sam Forman, Maya Lee-Parritz, and me (all Schechter 2006 graduates) reminiscing about the 8^th grade play, updating each other on what we’ve been doing for the last four years, and talking about what we’re each doing this year.  This mini-reunion was a great end to the day and a great way to spend my birthday.

Forman, Sam, Gabi, me, Maya, Aviya, and Yael.  SSDS '06 reunion!

Friday morning, I woke up very early to catch the bus to Ein Gedi.  Once Eric and I arrived at the Ein Gedi public beach, we walked back and forth between the beach and the the hostel a couple times before finally deciding that the beach where we were originally dropped off was, in fact, the campsite we were looking for.  We decided not to do any hiking that day, but we did go swimming in the Dead Sea.  I was a little apprehensive to get in the water, because I still had a huge cut on my leg from football and everyone told me it was going to hurt worse than anything else in my life.  Actually, the cut had scabbed so it didn’t really hurt at all, but what I was really worried about was getting water in my eyes.  Both Eric and I did a good job at avoiding our eyes for most of the time, though we weren’t so successful at avoiding our ears, noses, mouths. 

Eventually though, as I was effortlessly floating on my back with my eyes closed, some water splashed onto my face.  I kept my eyes closed really tight and Eric said he would guide me out of the water, but then he decided it would be a good time to play silent Marco Polo.  As I waved my arms around trying to find him with my eyes closed, he said nothing.  After a few minutes of this “game” I opened my eyes—not a good idea.  Once the water actually got in my eyes it hurt a lot more, but finally Eric guided me out of the water.  It was really interesting being totally dependent on someone else’s guidance and trust that he would tell me if there are any obstacles ahead of me. It reminded me of a museum I went to with my family when we were here last December which simulates what it is like to be blind.  The museum consists of a few different rooms, each a different environment with various smells, sounds, and obstacles, but every room is pitch black.  Everyone has a walking stick and a blind tour guide, and you’re forced to use your other senses to move through each room and figure out where you are.  The museum is in Holon, I highly recommend it.  Anyway, I finally made it out of the water, and before I realized that we had reached the outdoor showers, Eric turned mine on and shocked me with a gush of cold water. 

The next day we went to the Ein Gedi nature reserve for a very long day of hiking.  After going up and down one trail two or three times, we realized that the Ein Gedi spring we were looking for was just a small stream that we had passed a couple times.  Then we hiked to a small waterfall where we took a refreshing swim to cool off.  After looking for a specific trail on the map that seemed to not exist after lots of retracting our steps and looking very carefully for trail markers, we realized that when the map said “not drawn to scale” it really meant that it wasn’t accurate at all.  Though the trail was drawn in front of the waterfall, it was actually 15 minutes passed it and passed another waterfall that wasn’t even on the map.  Despite the inaccuracy of the map though, or maybe because of it, we got a lot of hiking in and saw lots of ibexes, too.  After a full day of hiking we stopped to look at the remains of a synagogue from the Roman-Byzantine period which had been renovated after a fire.  We finished the day with ice cream and then relaxed while waiting for the bus back to Jerusalem. 

Overall, it was a fun, though exhausting weekend, and as usual it was very nice to return to the comfort of Beit Nativ with a shower and a comfortable bed.

Israelis pushing for what they want--from the government, and from the soup kitchen

Last week started off with lots of excitement and ended with even more—my birthday!  Sunday night I went to a cycling class at the YMCA.  The only other class I’d been to so far was Body Sculpt, which was hard but didn’t involve any cardio.  This class was very intense and really got my heart rate up.  After showing me how to set up my bike, the teacher closed the door, turned off all of the lights, and turned on a black light (I was wearing a white shirt, which made it that much cooler).  He also turned on some very loud music and told us that since no one could see what we were doing or how hard we were working, we had to push ourselves to do whatever we could.  He coordinated the pace of the class with the music and also sang along with much of it.  Though it was definitely a challenging class, I loved the atmosphere and especially listening to the teacher sing along to Beyoncé and other popular female artists. 

On Monday we had our first football game (the last game I wrote about was a scrimmage) and though we lost pretty badly (by the mercy rule) we still had a lot of fun.  Usually I play offense but Adir (our coach) decided to have me try defense a little in this game.  I actually enjoyed it a lot, but after sprinting after one girl and diving to get her flag, I skinned my leg pretty badly.  I did get her flag, but it probably wasn’t the best decision both since we were playing on turf and since I get injured so much even without trying. 

Before we even went to the game though, there was a lot of excitement going on right next to Beit Nativ.  Beit Nativ is down the street from Bibi Netanyahu’s house (the Prime Minister of Israel) and that night there was a protest across the street from Beit Nativ against a law that was recently passed giving money to Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) to study in Yeshiva.  Haredim are exempt from serving in the army and paying taxes, a very controversial issue within Israeli society.  The protest was organized by Israeli students who were arguing that the Yeshiva students shouldn’t be paid by the government for studying while the university students are paying to study, as well as serving in the army and paying taxes.  I went to the rally right as I got home from school (our bus actually couldn’t go up our street so we had to get out a stop early) and met up with Tomer Rachmani, one of the mishlachat (Israeli counselors) from camp this past summer.  After talking to Tomer for a little, I left the rally while it was still relatively small and went to Beit Nativ to make some dinner.  I ate dinner on a friend’s balcony overlooking Kikar Paris, where the protest was taking place.  In the few minutes it had taken me to put my backpack in my room and heat up my dinner (leftovers from the Leshems J) the number of people had grown exponentially.  Now I could see why the streets were blocked off—when I was at the rally it was contained within Kikar Paris, but by this time the streets were overflowing with hundreds of people (mainly students) carrying signs and wearing shirts in protest of the new law. 

Tuesday night is Erev Nativ (Nativ night).  This week’s Erev Nativ was done by track and the Be’er Sheva group had a roommate competition!  The first part of the competition involved each room dressing up together.  Aimee, Roshana, and I were initially going to take it easy and dress up as the Israeli flag—two of us would wear blue, and one would wear all white and tape a Jewish star on herself.  At the last minute though, we decided to go all out.  Aimee and Roshana ran across the street to buy balloons so we could dress up as… GRAPES!  We definitely made an entrance coming in late and covered with balloons.  The actual competition turned out to be a trivia contest.  It was supposed to include a variety of different topics (Israeli culture, American history, music, etc.), but mostly ended up being about American geography.  We actually did pretty well in the beginning, but had lost our lead by the end.  For the last question we were allowed to wager points as many points as we wanted, so we went all in, wagering our 11 points.  The final bonus question:  When is the least popular month to get married in America?  The answer: January.  We got the question right, but still didn’t think we won because the team above us had also guessed correctly.  However, once the judges (our madrichim Adir and Roni) factored in points for the costumes, the winners were… ROOM 205! (Us.)  It was a very exciting way to end the night, and as a prize we got air freshener which has actually been very useful.

Room 205: WINNERS! (From left: me, Roshana, and Aimee)

Wednesday morning I went to a local soup kitchen with Zoe Beiner.  Zoe and I have discovered quite a few ways in which we’re connected, but we’re on different tracks and in different classes at Hebrew U so we haven’t spent much time together.  Some connections are:

1)      My mom and her dad were good friends in high school.

2)      I was co-counselors with her Israeli cousin, Hadas, this summer (hopefully we’ll visit her at some point).

3)      She was the counselor of one of my little sister’s closest friends this summer.

Going to the soup kitchen was a really interesting experience.  I had been to a soup kitchen once at home, and though there were certain similarities between the two experiences, this soup kitchen was very “Israeli.”  Israelis are known for being very pushy and arguing to get what they want.  Though one would expect a homeless person to be happy to get any food, this Israeli personality definitely came out at the soup kitchen.  People were not shy to demand a different kind of meat or tell us that the food didn’t taste good or that they didn’t get enough or as much as the person next to them.  Though it was initially a bit surprising, it didn’t take long to get used to this attitude (afterall, we’re surrounded by it every day) and get everyone the food they wanted.  I also liked seeing the different kinds of people who came to the soup kitchen.  There were those who clearly looked homeless and who wrapped up their bread in a napkin to eat later, there were people who ate just a little from their plates and put the rest in a plastic container to take with them, and there were even some who ate their meals cleared their plates, and waited for someone to bring them a second, third, or even fourth meal because some of the volunteers didn’t know they had already eaten.  There were grown orthodox men, young yeshiva students, a blind man, a man who sometimes plays the accordion, and a man who just came to study there and only ate a piece of bread.  We also got to practice our Hebrew a little by talking to the volunteers, and we met another American volunteer who told us about his program and the other volunteer work he’s doing in Israel.

Wednesday night was the beginning of my birthday celebrations, but there is a LOT to write about that, so you’ll have to wait for the next post!

Idan Raichel, Phil Dunphy, and Eyal Berkovich

A little over a week ago, all of Nativ had the opportunity to go to an Idan Raichel concert, paid for by Nativ.  The concert was a Masa sponsored event to bring together all the teenagers and college students in Israel on gap year and study abroad programs.  The slogan of the night was “Find It Here.”  I’m still not sure exactly what I’m supposed to find in Israel, but the concert was fantastic, and I saw all of my friends on Year Course which was really nice.  I even saw Aviv Grinbooch, one of the students from the Reali School who visited Boston when we were in 8^th grade.  I’ve kept in touch with Aviv through email and Facebook, but it was great to actually see her for the first time in four years.  The concert was a lot of fun, as usual, and had a different feel than the other Idan Raichel concerts I’ve been to.  Whereas at the two concerts I went to in the US people generally stayed in their seats until the end of the show, within a few minutes of the start of this concert almost everyone was standing and dancing along with the music.  Overall it was a great night, and at the end I took a nice walk back to Beit Nativ instead of going back on the bus.  (Don’t worry Mommy, I wasn’t alone.)

From left: Henry, Elana, me, and Eric at the concert (in our new Nativ shirts!)

Band member...or Lord Voldemort?

Something I forgot to mention in my last post is that during Sukkot break after our early return from Desert Survival I saw Josh Pankin!  It was great to catch up and talk to someone who knows everyone from home.  It also turns out that one of my friends on Nativ, Allie Griff, is related to the Pankins and their cousins in Israel!  We’re planning on visiting them together on a Shabbat when we’re both free.  Another random person I saw last week is David Goodman, a counselor from my camp.  I was waiting for the bus home from Hebrew U and he came over and said hi.  He was never my counselor but I was very impressed that he remembered me and we had a nice camp conversation on the bus ride home.  It can get a little frustrating being surrounded by so much Ramah excitement all the time, so it’s always nice to run into someone from Yavneh.

After football practice on Thursday night, I went to Café Ivrit (translation: Hebrew Café) for the first time.  Café Ivrit is a weekly event organized by one of our madrichot, Achi. Every week Café Ivit takes places at a different café in Jerusalem, and from the moment we leave Beit Nativ to walk to the café, we are only allowed to speak in Hebrew.  At first I didn’t realize how strict the rules were, but when I got in “trouble” for getting an English menu in addition to my Hebrew one, I understood just how intense Café Ivrit is.  I have good enough Hebrew that I can have a conversation in Hebrew, but what was interesting for me at Café Ivrit was trying to help the other Nativers who are not at the same level.  It was challenging to explain words using simple vocabulary and in ways that would make sense to someone who isn’t at the same Hebrew level as I am, and it actually reminded me a lot of my Ulpan class.  The entire class is taught in Hebrew, and even new vocabulary is taught and explained using words we already know.  Though I’m not always sure that I understand each new vocab word exactly right, I can generally get a sense of what the word means. Even though I didn’t learn lots of new words at Café Ivrit (though I did learn לפרוט=to get small change) it was a really good experience and a lot of fun to explain things to others and help them improve their Hebrew.

The next day I headed to the Central Bus Station to visit The Leshems, family friends who live in Ramat Efal (a very small town in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv).  The bus to Ramat Efal is the same one that goes to Bnei Brak (a very religious city in Tel Aviv), and the waiting area is at the farthest end of the bus station completely isolated from that of every other bus.  After waiting for the bus for about 40 minutes, it finally came and I was on my way to Ramat Efal.  Since Ramat Efal is such a small town, the bus doesn’t stop there, but instead stops on a main road nearby where local buses stop on their own bus routes.  I got off at that stop, but when I got there I didn’t see Rachel Leshem who was picking me up.  I tried to explain where I was and gave the phone to an Israeli to explain it to her.  Unfortunately, he actually turned out to be a Russian immigrant who wasn’t really familiar with the area. His explanation of where we were wasn’t much better than mine, because I think Rachel ended up going to the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv.  After about fifteen more minutes of waiting for me, Rachel called again, and I once again tried to explain where I was.  This time though, I found an Israeli who actually knew where we were, and finally we found each other.  It turns out Rachel had come to the right bus stop in the first place, but neither one of us had seen each other. 

Arriving at the Leshem’s house almost felt like coming home.  We have no close family in Israel, but the Leshems are like family and we never come to Israel without visiting them.  Two summers ago I stayed with them for a few days when I came to Israel on my own for the first time.  Last March, I came to Israel and my ride from the airport fell through so I went to their house instead.  When Rachel and I arrived at their house this time, I went to the room I always stay in, and besides all the familiar features I’m used to, there was a whole bag of gluten free food and some of my belongings from home!  Rachel had been at a conference in Boston just a few days before, so my mom sent some things back with her to give me.  I knew what I would be getting, but it was still nice that it was all in “my” room when I got there.  By this time it was relatively late; I had spent a lot of time waiting at bus stops, and Shabbat starts pretty early these days (around 4:30).  Rachel offered to bring me to a natural food store to see if I could find anything gluten free, so we rushed back out of the house to get to the store before it closed for Shabbat.  Though most of the gluten free items there are also sold at the store I go to in Jerusalem, I did find one thing I’m very excited about: a frozen GF pizza! I still need to figure out how I’m going to make it (we don’t have an oven here), but right now I’m just excited about the fact that I even have it. 

The Leshems used to live in Brookline and their two daughters, Yael and Anat, went to preschool with my sisters (that’s how we know them).  When Rachel was in Boston, she went to Brookline and took pictures of the places they used to live, go to school, and walk by every day.  Seeing these pictures was bittersweet; I loved seeing the familiar streets and the trees with their colorful leaves, but it definitely made me miss home a little.  After the slideshow, I went out again, this time with Anat, to get some ingredients to cook dinner.  My job was making the lemonade.  Lemonade is pretty common in every household in Israel, and there are two main ways to make it.  You can either use a liquid or a powder and just add water (that’s a pretty popular technique in the Marcus household as well), or you can use a juicer and squeeze many many fresh lemons until your hands hurt and all the little cuts you didn’t realize you had start stinging.  I went with the second method.  It was pretty messy and my hands were sore by the end, but I had fun, and felt like I made my contribution to dinner. 

Dinner was delicious, and it’s always nice to have a home cooked meal these days.  The food at Beit Nativ isn’t great, and though the food at Frank Sinatra Café (at Hebrew U) was good for the first month and a half, it’s starting to get a bit repetitive (especially since I can only have two things since everything else has gluten in it).  I even got to take some leftovers back with me, which lasted me a while and was a very welcome change from the grilled cheese or turkey sandwich I usually have for dinner.  After dinner, Yael and I watched two of my favorite TV shows—The Office and Modern Family.  Yael loves American TV shows so it’s always nice to watch them with her, especially since I’m so busy during the week that I generally don’t do much TV watching.  Yael even gave me the episodes of Modern Family that we didn't get to watch, so now I can finally catch up on what has been going on in the life of Phil Dunphy, my favorite TV dad and character on the show.

The next day we went out to lunch for Yael’s birthday and I got the best hamburger I’ve ever had in my life (without a bun, of course).  The restaurant we went to was really nice, and the waitress was even familiar with all of the restrictions of celiac disease! (For example, she knew that I couldn’t have the french fries because they’re cooked in the same oil as something with gluten in it.)  As we were leaving the restaurant, Uri, Eli’s brother who came from Jerusalem for Yael’s birthday, pointed out that sitting at the table next to us was Eyal Berkovich, an Israeli soccer player who used to play in England and is known for having a very big mouth.  Though he was a great soccer player, he is mostly known for his bad attitude and poor relationships with his teammates.  That night, Uri drove me back to Beit Nativ.  It was much more comfortable than a bus ride would have been, and much easier to take all my extra food, pots, containers, etc. back with me.  The Leshems even lent me a coat to bring to Poland in January, so it would have been pretty impossible to get back to Jerusalem on the bus with all this extra baggage.  On the drive back I got to practice my Hebrew with Uri and I learned more about Eyal Berkovich, among other things.  The weekend was really nice, and it was great to see the Leshems for the first time since I’ve been in Israel.