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.