The past two weeks

Saturday, 12/4

Saturday night after Shabbat ended, I went to a concert with Tamar Friedman (Timmi), Leah Pollack, and Samara Rosner.  When we were waiting for the bus to go to the zoo the previous week, I saw a poster across the street with information about a Gilad Segev concert (an Israeli artist whose music I LOVE).  I didn’t know of Gilad Segev until last December when my family was in Israel for Marielle’s bat mitzvah and Ilana bought his CD.  (I listened to that CD every day during my drive to school for a very long time.)  On the way back from the zoo I took a closer look at the poster and found out that not only was there a discounted rate for students, but the concert was at Beit Avichai, just down the street from where we live! Later that week I went to Beit Avichai to buy tickets, and I had the entire conversation in Hebrew.  This was exciting, because one of the frustrating things about living in Jerusalem is that people make it hard for you to practice your Hebrew.  The moment you struggle to think of a word or an Israeli detects your accent, they’ll switch to English.  Obviously you can keep speaking in Hebrew, but it starts to feel pretty silly when you know they would understand you better if you just spoke in English. 

The actual concert was GREAT.  It was a really small show, and the audience was mostly adults and people in their 20s.  We sat in the front row and at one point, someone passed up a note for us to hand to Gilad.  On the note was the name of a song she wanted him to play and it said “In honor of my birthday.”  The song happened to be one of my favorites, because the first word is my name! At first he wasn’t sure if he remembered the chords, but eventually he figured it out and played it for her.  At the end of the concert we got to take pictures with Gilad and talk to him a little, which was very exciting, and he even said he might come to the US at some point!  It was a great show, and a great Saturday night.

Leah, me, Gilad Segev, Samara, and Timmi

Sunday

In honor of Hannukah, there was an optional Tiyul on Sunday.  We went to a place that was the site of a battle both during the time of King David and the Maccabees.  Nearby, there was also a battle in the Independence War.  Later that night, we went to an old age home to sing Hannukah songs with some elderly Israelis, most of whom were Russian immigrants.  It was pretty hard to communicate with them, but we could tell that they enjoyed having us there.

Stevie, me, Timmi, and Max

Me and Timmi

Monday

Aaron Lapping’s cousin, Ari Steinberg is on Nativ.  Ari’s parents surprised him by visiting him in Israel, and they also brought with them things for Aaron from his mom. 

Included in the things Aaron’s mom sent him was more gluten free cookies! It was such a nice surprise, and obviously the cookies were fantastic.

Me and Aaron (and GF cookies!)

Tuesday

In honor of Hannukah we had a “party” during Ulpan.  The party consisted of a few Hebrew classes sitting together in one of the bigger lecture halls while a woman played piano and tried to teach us some Hannukah songs.  She wasn’t very successful, but was a nice break from class.  Later that night for Erev Nativ, we went to a light show at David’s Citadel.  To get there we had to walk through Mamilla, an upscale shopping area, and the Hannukah lights there were gorgeous.  The light show itself was also really cool.  I didn’t follow the storyline very well, but the graphics were very impressive.

Wednesday

Ever since I joined the YMCA a few months ago, my friend Hilary and I have been talking about going swimming there.  Finally, on Wednesday morning we went!  It was so nice to swim again (I hadn’t gone swimming since I was at camp) and I’m hoping to go again this week.  Later that night we went to the Hebrew University Hillel production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Hilary and I had been anticipating this night since we found out they would be putting on the play.  We listened to and sang songs from Joseph for weeks leading up to the show, so when Wednesday night came we were ecstatic.  The cast did a fantastic job, and it was really fun to see some Nativers perform in it. 

Thursday-Saturday

These were pretty laid back days.  I spent a lot of time reading a book called The Wall (by John Hersey, the author of Hiroshima) about the Warsaw ghetto for my final paper for my Holocaust class. It was a really great book, and I definitely recommend it.

Sunday, 12/12

On Sunday my “business team” presented our business plan to the class.  Our product is purified bottled air.  People laughed a lot (understandably), but our presentation went well and it has been a fun idea to pursue for our class (though I think it would be a pretty ridiculous product to actually create).  

That day was also EXTREMELY windy.  According to my friend Yael, who is currently in Arad, there were sand storms in the south, but in Jerusalem there was just exceptionally strong wind.  Because of the weather I planned on staying in that night, but I ended up braving the wind and going out to dinner with Eric.  We went to Japanika, a sushi place that a lot of Nativers like.  I had never tried sushi, but I decided it would be a good thing to try because it is generally gluten free and everyone loves it.  I planned on getting something with just vegetables, but Eric said that vegetable sushi isn’t “real sushi” and I had to go big or go home.  I know nothing about sushi so I went along with it and got tuna, cucumber, and avocado.  Though I was really hoping I would like it, when the sushi actually came, I was very apprehensive about actually trying it.  And when I did try it, I didn’t love it, to say the least.  My least favorite part was the seaweed which was really hard to chew and didn’t taste very good.  (My sister later told me that the seaweed is something you have to get used to.)  Though I didn’t really like it, I’m glad I finally tried it, and hopefully I’ll eventually find some sushi that I like. 

Monday

My roommate Aimee’s birthday was on Monday, so Roshana and I bought her a cake and decorated the door and the wall outside our room.  Later that night I played piano for the first time in a while, which was very relaxing.

Leah, me, Eric, Debra, and Aimee

Birthday girl

Me, Aimee, and our decorated door/wall

Tuesday

For Erev Nativ we watched a documentary called Trembling before God, about being homosexual in an Orthodox Jewish community.  It was sad to see how many peoples’ families cut off contact with them when they came out and to hear about their respective struggles to find where they belong when the world in which they used to live no longer accepts who they are. 

Wednesday

Wednesday was a long day.  I had been sick for a few days, so I finally went to the doctor and got some much needed Sudafed.  Later I had my Holocaust class.  Our teacher was at a conference on Monday, so to make up for the class we missed we had a double class on Wednesday.  We were supposed to finish class at 7:30, but instead we finished at 8.  Immediately when I got back to base, we had a meeting for everyone going to Poland in January.  By the end of the night, I had been studying the Holocaust from 4:30-9:30.  It was a lot for one day, and I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.

But my night still wasn’t over!  Elana Pentelnik’s birthday was the next day, and since a lot of her friends wouldn’t be in Jerusalem on Thursday night to celebrate, we celebrated on Wednesday night instead.  We went to Waffle Bar and everyone had a great time, despite many of us being exhausted and sick.

 

Maya and me (Wellesley sisters!)

Me, Elana, and Eric

Thursday

We had our second B’Yachad seminar on Thursday. (B’Yachad is the group of people who are in Israel for the year who are going to be counselors at Jewish summer camps this summer.) When I got on the bus I was really surprised and even more excited to see a group of my camp friends!  I knew that we would be with people from other programs for this seminar, but I didn’t know what other groups we would be with.  It was so nice to see them and catch up, and I’m really excited for our next seminar with them.

Friday

I planned to go to Shira Chadashah with Hilary for Kabbalat Shabbat services, but when we got to the lobby we found out that a group of Nativers was going to do their own service in the park right by Beit Nativ (Gan HaAtzmaut).  We decided to join them and stayed for Mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat.  When we got back to base, we ran into Dave Yedid, Samara Rosner, Zoe Kronovet, and Daniel Lewis, who were going to Kabbalat Shabbat services at Jerusalem’s Open House (LGBT group).  We decided to tag along and joined them for our second Kabbalat Shabbat service of the night.  Both services were really nice, and it was a fun, spontaneous thing to do. 

After dinner I skyped with my friends Joel and Hanna, neither of whom I had talked to in a very long time.  (Thank you Joel for finding that missing comma.)  Then I skyped with Marielle who brought the laptop around the house so I could see the new carpets and take pictures of my room.  She was very patient with me and moved the computer to the perfect angles for my many pictures. Eventually, my mom and dad joined the conversation, and after an hour I finally went to sleep exhausted.  I got a lot of sleep though, and am feeling a lot better, which is very fortunate since finals are in a week!  That’s all for now… feel free to COMMENT (that is directed at you, Marcus family).