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.

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!

Desert Survival?

(I began writing this on September 28)

Last Sunday (three weeks ago…) we woke up at 5:30 to take our last showers before boarding the buses at six and heading off to the desert for three days. Or so we thought. After stopping at a youth hostel in Ein Gedi for breakfast and tefilot, Yossi gathered the group together for an announcement.  Due to the 100+ degree heat, a ban had been placed on hiking in Israel for the next three days.  Many Israelis take advantage of the Sukkot break to go on various hikes, so our group wasn’t the only one whose plans had been changed.  There was one shady area that remained open for hiking, so that’s where we headed, along with what seemed like every youth group in Israel.  After a short “hike” that was more like a nice stroll, we took a break to cool down and drink some water.  Then we all got in Jeeps and were driven to the original destination of our hike.  We all survived the bumpy ride and made it to Ein Akev where we took another short walk, but this one ended at a spring!  Some of us took at refreshing swim (in our clothes, since no one knew we would be swimming) and then we had lunch while we were drying off. After another Jeep ride back to our starting point, we waited on the buses for the rest of the group before being driven to our campsite.




Me and Elana Pentelnik after our refreshing swim...



...in the clothes we wore for the rest of the day



T marks the spot

I asked my friends what I should name this blog post, and Ari Rosenblum said “T marks the spot.”  Ari calls me T-Marc, so at first I didn’t get it— I thought he was saying “T-Marcs the spot,” which didn’t make a lot of sense.  In fact, he was actually being very clever and making a pun on “X marks the spot.”  I was very impressed and decided it was definitely worthy of being the title of this post.

Now onto the exciting news (clearly about celiac disease): last night I returned from spending Sukkot with Ariel Segal (from Toronto) and Elena Pentelnik (Cincinnati) at the home of Elana’s family friends.  The exciting part about this Sukkot was not just being in a comfortable house with no classes or schedule to follow (but that was nice too).  The family we stayed with, the Weiners, have a daughter with celiac disease!  For the first time since I’ve been in Israel, I was with people who not only understood all of my dietary restrictions (better than I do, in fact), but who were able to tell me what stores to shop at and what I can and can’t eat.  And besides all this, I was able to eat four meals (and many snacks) without worrying that there was some gluten in the food that I didn’t know about.  One thing I learned (which explained why my stomach was hurting last week) is that in Israel it’s not safe to eat nuts or dried fruit.  The workers who package these foods put four on their hands so the products won’t stick to them, but this tiny amount of flour isn’t mentioned on the packaging since it’s not an ingredient.  So when I ate dried cranberries and almonds last week to break my fast on Yom Kippur, that probably wasn’t the best idea. 

Last week we went to the shuk and were all encouraged to buy a lulav and etrog for Sukkot.  I was apprehensive—I had already bought two machzorim, one for Rosh Hashanah and one for Yom Kippur—and I wouldn’t have minded sharing a lulav and etrog with someone else.  It wasn’t until we arrived at a huge tent filled with people buying and selling lulavs and etrogs that I appreciated the opportunity we had here.  At home we always have what seem to be a perfect lulav and etrog.  We order them from school and they arrive with the lulav already assembled and the etrog always smelling as strong and as fragrant as I remember from the previous Sukkot.  When I finally entered the tent here in Jerusalem (the girls initially weren’t allowed to because our elbows weren’t covered... but our director, Yossi Garr, got us all in) it was apparent that I wasn’t just going to give someone some money and be presented with a perfectly assembled lulav and an aromatic etrog.  First I found out the price.  They started at 50 shekels and for 60 you could get a better one and 70 even better (and if you’ve seen the movie Ushpizin, you know how expensive these can get—or just ask my mom because she loves that movie).  I decided I would spend 60 shekels, and for much less than I’m sure my family paid, I got my lulav and etrog.  But the transaction wasn’t over when I paid.  I still had to pick out the etrog, making sure there were no blemishes on it (I saw one man sit for at least twenty minutes examining every millimeter of the etrog he was considering), choose three branches of Hadas (myrtle), making sure the leaves were growing in groups of three, and choose the actual lulav, making sure it wasn’t too flimsy.  Thankfully, the aravah (willow) was just given to me and wrapped in plastic, but the whole process still took me a good thirty minutes at the least.  I’ll be bringing my lulav and etrog with me on Desert Survival (we’re leaving on Sunday for a three day hike in the Negev called Desert Survival) and I’m really looking forward to using it.  As nice as it is to have a beautiful lulav and citrus-y smelling etrog, it will be nice to know that I picked mine out by myself and spent time choosing what I wanted. And I'm hoping that with time, my etrog will only get more fragrant.

Examining my etrog

A few nights ago, I played basketball with some Nativ guys.  The first time they decided to play at night I thought they were a little crazy and opted to stay in and do my work.  This time though, we had no school the next day, and I wanted to play a little more before the Nativ basketball league starts (if it ever does).  We ended up playing from 9:30 until around 11:30 (most people actually went back before that, but I stuck it out with a couple other guys).  The courts were packed, but we ended up playing with some Mexicans, an Argentinean (all 18-22 years old), and an Israeli man who was probably in his 40s but was without question the fastest and most talented player on the court.  (Not to mention really dramatic and a ball hog, but I won’t get into that.)  It was really nice to play outside at night when it was cooler, and now that I have my jersey and ankle brace (THANK YOU family and Jenna Silverman) I can’t wait to play again.  Now I just need my basketball shoes! (I brought my cleats instead of my basketball shoes… bad choice, Tali)

For Shabbat I’m staying on base and relaxing before we go on Desert Survival.  It will be nice to be here without the entire group (a lot of people went to Tel Aviv since it’s the first free weekend) and to have a low key weekend.  I even have the whole room to myself tonight since both my roommates are away!  And I guess now would be a good time to post the pictures I promised last time.  Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Love, Tali



My bed/area



So much gluten free food!

The sink (not usually this clean)

The shower

My roommates' beds, as seen from my top bunk

Happy Birthday Ilana!! (...a little late)

Note: I wrote this post on September 19 and meant to finish it the next day or the day after but I have had NO time. I'm about to leave for Sukkot, but I promise I'll finish it when I get back!

This post is dedicated to Ilana for her birthday, even though it was two days ago.  I took some pictures of my room, and I have lots of exciting things to write about everyone’s favorite topic—celiac disease! Here’s what I’ll be writing about, in no particular order:

Zumba

Maayan

Yom Kippur

Sukkot dinner

Pictures!

One of our madrichot, Maya (who went to Wellesley College, where I’ll be going next year), has a friend who is a zumba instructor.  Zumba is a really good dance workout that involves a lot of movement of the hips and whatever else the instructor decides to throw in (jumps, lunges, salsa, etc.).  Maya has offered a few zumba sessions (based on a zumba video her friend made), but tonight was the first one I did.  I am by no means the most coordinated dancer, but I had a great time and got a great workout.  I felt really tired at the beginning but now, two and a half hours later, I feel completely energized.  (Actually, that might not be a good thing since I have to go to sleep at some point, but I still have a lot of homework to do, so no worries.) One of the most exciting things about this zumba sessions was that one of the dances was to the Official World Cup 2010 song, Waka Waka.  We were taught the dance to this song at camp this summer but I never learned it.  I picked up a few parts though, so it was nice to know a small part of the dance we were doing.  After the hour long zumba session, I and two other people decided to stay and do some of the dances again (specifically Waka Waka). We did about fifteen more minutes of zumba and then some ab exercises.  It felt really great to do such an intense workout after not having much opportunity to exercise lately.  And now I can’t wait to join Ilana at her zumba class when I come home!

Between dinner and zumba today, I found out something very exciting: the receptionist at Beit Nativ, Maayan, has celiac disease!  She gave me a brownie that she made from a gluten free mix (from the US…if anyone wants to send me some GF brownie mix) and it was great to have some good GF food that wasn’t crackers or rice cakes. She’s also just really sweet and said she would tell me about all the places to get food in Israel, so that will be helpful.

Yom Kippur in Israel is a big deal.  There is no one on the street and the whole country shuts down.  Disappointingly, I didn’t have a particularly spiritual Yom Kippur, but it was relatively exciting.  For Kol Nidre I went to a shul called Kedem.  Kedem is one of the few conservative shuls in Israel; most are orthodox with a mechitza.  At Kedem there is no rabbi, but services are led by members of the congregation. To my surprise, Kol Nidre was being led by one of my Tanach teachers, Zac Johnson!  It was a great surprise to see him, and the service was really nice. Fast forward to the next afternoon: Yael Nurko, my best friend since kindergarten, was in Jerusalem for the weekend so we were finally able to spend some time together and catch up on everything that had happened in the last three weeks.  We decided to go to the Kotel for minchah and then back to Kedem to meet Yael’s friends for Neilah.  On the way to the Kotel, we ran into the Gann juniors on the Alexander Muss program. It was really exciting to see them, especially because one of the kids I’m friends with, Ilan Radbil, also has celiac disease!  We talked about what foods we’ve been eating and commiserated about how hard it is to find good GF food in Israel.  Once we got to the Kotel it was nice to be there, but it’s supposed to be more of an experience for men who pray there (because of the mechitza).  We left the Kotel with enough time to meet Yael’s friends at Kedem, and stopped along the way to take in the amazing view.  However, as we kept walking, the route that had initially seemed so familiar to me just became more and more foreign until I finally realized that we were walking through the Armenian Quarter.  We eventually got out, but not without walking around a large part of the Old City and making ourselves late to meet Yael’s friends.  With some serious speed walking and extreme thirst, we finally made it to Kedem just before they blew the shofar.  The only problem was that Yael’s friends were nowhere to be seen.  It turns out that they didn’t know which shul is Kedem and were actually at a different shul.  Luckily, Mr. Johnson had happened to be at dinner with Yael the night before, so he showed us the way back to her host family’s house and I went back to Beit Nativ.  Dinner was dairy which is my least favorite here since I can’t eat pasta, bread etc., so afterward, I decided to get frozen yogurt with my friends.  To my dismay, when we got to the frozen yogurt place, they said it wouldn’t be ready for a few hours.  I settled for some overly sweet cappuccino ice cream and thought about how much I would rather be eating BerryLine.

I’ll finish this another time since I REALLY have to do my homework now.

Gmar Chatima Tovah!

Excuse me, do you have another pair of your eyes?

(This was written on September 15)

Hi everyone!

As I told you, I’m taking classes at Hebrew U for the first half of the year.  The first month of school is the minimester, in which everyone on Nativ takes certain mandatory classes.  The real semester starts in October and we’ll get to choose our own classes then, but for now I’m taking Israeli Society, Jewish History through the Eyes of the Filmmaker (there are three people in this class; I’m sure I’ll mention it again soon), and Jerusalem Through the Ages.  We only have Jerusalem class every other day, but it’s a three hour class that is half lecture and half touring (with more lecturing on the tours... woohoo).  Yesterday we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, along with the site of the Last Supper (which is also a mosque), Kind David’s grave (it’s not actually his grave though), and the Cardo.  I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre last December with my family, but it was really interesting to go back there and see things I hadn’t noticed last time.  Our teacher, David Keren, was also there to explain everything we were seeing so that made it even more interesting. Anyway, when we left the church, we were standing in the courtyard hearing about the conflict regarding a ladder and cleaning the windows of the church, when Matt Goldberg, a fellow Nativer whispered to me, “The guy sitting behind me is a cross between Jesus and Hagrid!”  I not so subtly turned around and stared at a man who did in fact look like just like Jesus and Hagrid.  Naturally, we needed to take a picture of him, so I grabbed another Matt (Matt Alfasso) and we took a picture with Jesus/Hagrid in the background.  I know you’re all dying to see this incredible combination of a man, so here’s the picture.



Can you find him?



By the time we were finished with our Jerusalem tour for the day we were exhausted, but we still had to get back to Beit Nativ.  As we walked through the Arab shuk (with David and one of our madrichot, Maya) we saw classic Israeli t-shirts, bags, and jewelry that you can find at any shuk in Israel.  There were hundreds of different spices, fruits, and nuts to buy, as well as the tempting smells of rugelach, bread, and other non-gluten free treats. While I was telling my roommate Aimee all the gluten I wanted to eat, one of the stall owners stopped me and said, “Excuse me, do you have another pair of your eyes?” I was so surprised that someone would actually use such a lame pick up line that I just said no and walked away laughing. 

Once we got out of the shuk we walked through Mamilla, a new (very expensive) shopping area on the way back to Beit Nativ.  I had been meaning to stop by Aroma (a popular café in Israel) because I heard they had gluten free brownies, so we went to the one in Mamilla.  There weren’t any GF brownies, but they did have some cookies. In general, GF food is good for the first few bites until you realize that it really doesn’t taste very good.  I think this is because you’re so surprised to be eating “real” food that doesn’t crumble to pieces in your hands, but once you start really tasting it, the thrill is gone.  Anyway, the cookies were nothing special.  They tasted a lot like Passover cookies and were pretty unimpressive (and unhealthy).  I’m hoping the GF brownies will be better, but I won’t get my hopes up.  In the meantime, I found a really good chocolate cake that doesn’t taste like chocolate but is still the best GF food I’ve had so far in Israel (besides the Berryline-esque frozen yogurt).  Now it’s time for dinner where I’ll probably have the usual: GF crackers and hummus. YUM.

Love, Tali