Sushi Star
Making sushi is a LOT easier than it sounds. It is also a lot cheaper than ordering it at a sushi house. The key is finding a good Japanese Supermarket that you can get all your sushi needs at. I live in the bay area, and often go to Suruki because the staff is friendly and helpful, and the prices are fair. You can buy a lot of fresh or frozen fish and make virtually any roll you want! Ahh, the possibilities!
There are some basic ingredients that you have to have… a bamboo sushi roller, seaweed, rice, and, depending what kind of roll you are making, veggies and fish. For the sake of simplicity, this is a recipe for a basic California roll. Should you feel the urge to get creative with it, GO FOR IT!! (For example, I added some jalapenos to these to spice things up!)
First thing you want to do is cook the rice. I use a rice cooker: first, rinse the rice until it no longer exudes a milky-water discharge. Then, add ¾ of a cup of water for every 1 cup of rice. I recommend making it a full ¾ of a cup, if not a little bit more, rather than a skimpy one! Then, add water and rice to the rice cooker, and press cook. (Staples should have inserted a “that was easy button” on all rice machines. God, whoever invented those are brilliant!!)
While your rice is cooking, the prep work begins! A California roll consists of: crab, avocado, cucumber and carrots. You can use Japanese or regular cucumber, it doesn’t matter. Slice carrots, avocado and cucumbers into thin strips to layer in your roll. Just set them on a plate for easy access once the rolling party begins.
The crab I get is pre-packaged. You have the choice of tearing it apart and adding mayo (Japanese mayo) to make the creamy artificial crab you get at most sushi restaurants, or you can just use prepackaged strips of crab. I usually stick to option b. I like to cut the crab rolls (which resemble string cheese) in half (hotdog style), and then overlap so it reaches each end of the roll with a plentiful serving in the middle.
Hopefully by this time your rice is done. Take it out and put it into a large (wooden, if you have it) bowl. Add the recommended amount of Kikkoman’s seasoned rice vinegar to however many cups of rice you made, and fold in/let rice cool a little. This website explains the process really well!
When the rice is good to go (slightly warm/room temp) it is time to let the rolling begin! Lay out seaweed, and cover with rice. I recommend flipping the rice-covered seaweed over at this point so you aren’t biting into seaweed, but it is totally up to you. Add a layer of you middle (in this case, the cucumber, avocado, and carrots), then roll using your bamboo roller. The first wrap you do you really want to get everything stuck together so press as though you are trying to make a square out of the sushi. Then, roll. When you slice the rolls, make sure to dampen your knife!
Ways to mix it up: I LOVE eel. So I buy eel and make caterpillar roles often (cali on the bottom topped with unagi (eel)…I also love salmon. The lion king roll/baked salmon is also really easy to make. All you have to do is make your sushi roll however you want (get creative and put different odds and ends in the middle), then mix some sriracha, Japanese mayo, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl, glaze over a thin strip of salmon, place salmon on your roll and bake for 7 or so minutes on 350. MMMM tasty goodness!
This next part is clearly the hardest: mmm, enjoy! Sit down, eat, and compliment yourself on your amazing chef-like skills!
I made 4 cups of rice, and with that, about 13 or 14 sushi rolls for 7 adults, and there was definitely leftovers.
Enjoy!
Israel Day 9
Today it was hard (as usual) to wake up and get ready. We are going to Yad Vashem, the National Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem. We have to load up the bus by 9 am, so breakfast was a quick egg sandwich, with instant coffee (go figure) and cucumber and tomato salad. It’s a regular breakfast. I remember one of the first days of the trip tons of people were talking about how awesome Israeli breakfast was, and I have to say, it consists of the same thing daily for me: an egg sandwich, with apricot jam, and cucumber and tomato salad. Sometimes I will put some cheese on it, but generally not. The yogurts are weird, however there is definitely a larger selection of all types of food here at this hotel than the past hotels, but I still miss me some delicious cereal with berries! (They have coco puffs here). We all loaded up the bus and traveled to the museum. It wasn’t a very long drive, but it is pretty with a good view of nature and the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is such a dense city, with so much greenery once you step outside of its immediate stone city walls. Yad Vashem is located in or on a mountain, I’m not sure which, but in short it offers spectacular views. We all got off the bus to appreciate the aforementioned views, and took some pictures before going inside to an academic wing of the museum. I’m not exactly sure what the building’s actual name or purpose, but it had classrooms in which we saw a documented account of a Holocaust survivor’s experience. We went down a long hall with postcards framed with interesting captions and pictures combined together—mostly holocaust facts and dates and what not. There were also pictures of famous movies that were produced, songs that were popular, and political and celebrity figures that faded in and out with pictures that were taken at the same time (for example, May 1942) of Holocaust victims and had the year. It highlighted how most of the world turned a blind eye to what was going on in the war. It was just so interesting. Anyway, we went to a classroom and all sat down and were given a small spiel about what we were about to watch, however the projector wasn’t working. Mike got up and tried to fix it, but we ended up moving to a smaller classroom (with a good view of the city) down the hall closer to the entrance to watch the film. I was bummed out that they did not have an actual survivor come talk to us because films cannot answer questions, but the film provided pictures of where the man was talking about and traveled with him from the town in Greece he was from to Auschwitz, and then to the final camp he went to before being released (I forget which one it was). He took part in the death walk and owed his survival to working in a factory at Auschwitz. He had an original story because he met the love of his life in Auschwitz, as she was a fellow prisoner who was used for experiments involving female sterilization. She had an operation to make her infertile, but the doctor who operated on her was Jewish and did not actually perform the operation according to the Nazi’s command. When he returned to Greece, he believed she had perished, but she had not and the two got married and lived in an abandoned cow shed. A neighbor allowed her to shower there, and after a few months she told her husband that she wouldn’t shower there because she had believed she got a disease from the shower—it turns out that she was pregnant (despite their belief that she would be unable to have kids). Anyway, after this video, which had about 3 technological difficulties in which the projector stopped and we had to get someone who worked there to fix it. While we waited for her to come and fix it, AJ took control and fiddled around with the computer and the projector. After the whole video we were given a head set and audio player so we could hear our tour guide throughout the museum. We were told that we were not allowed to take pictures within the museum and hiked to the actual museum. There was an outside area where a bunch of trees, plants, and statues were placed to remember those who helped hide and secure Jews during the Holocaust. I took a picture of a tree in memory of Shindler, and a statue that was in honor of all the nameless helpers throughout the war. From there we entered the museum. The architecture of the museum was incredible. It is shaped somewhat like a triangle, getting narrow at top. From the beginning of the museum you can see the end, and there were a lot of windows to let light in. However, you can’t walk straight from the front of the museum to the end, although you are able to see it, you have to wind from side to side like a maze going through the progression of the war. The museum was crowded and busy. This made it hard to follow the tour guide as we could not all see what she was pointing to and explaining, and there was a lot of things (pictures, artifacts, letters, tv’s with streaming recounts of survivor’s stories, and explanations of everything we were seeing). The tour guide was not passionate like Mark (we are very spoiled with him), and did not really say much in addition to what the plaques said. The first three rooms took about an hour and a half to get through, at which point the tour guide lost about half of the audience. I had a terrible migraine for some reason that started in the first classroom, but Leora told me Zohar was unable to distribute any medication to us so perhaps my perception of the whole museum/memorial is skewed. For the middle three rooms or so I mainly watched videos playing of survivors stories—these are the most interesting and special parts of the museum in my opinion. They had some cool artifacts that were fun to look at, and really altered your perception of the reality of the Holocaust. I definitely thought I would cry throughout the entire museum (as did almost everyone I talked to) but I don’t think anyone did. I honestly would have cared for it a lot more had I gone on my own with the ability to stroll at my leisure, but oh well. I will say that the final room in the museum was by far my favorite. As aforementioned, the architecture in the museum is exquisite. The last room is shaped like a circle. The walls are book cases with the identification cards of about 5,000,000 (maybe less, I am not quite sure) holocaust victims. There will always be empty shelves for people whose names are not turned in, as some entire families and towns perished. The tour guide said that recently many more people have entered names and what not, as it is unlikely that family members who have not found each other by now are probably not still around. The book-lined walls are about 6-10 feet away from where the floor we stood on was, and there is a gap in between the shelves and the wall so it is like you are on an indoor bridge or something. In the center of the room, there is an (approximately) 25 foot hole with a pool of water at the bottom. On the roof overlooking this area, there are pictures of many victims that line the high ceilings. When you look down into the water (along with about 100 coins, 2 or 3 pairs of fallen sunglasses, and a passport looking object) you can see the pictures of all the victims along with your reflection in the water. It was a very moving experience to see your own reflection, and the reflection of your friends, in that water with the reflection of hundreds of Jews who were victims. Anyway, after this room we all left, trading the air conditioned museum for the hot, humid heat. When we got outside we returned all the audio gear and gathered up together. It was so bright I really thought my head might explode, and Max let me borrow his sunglasses to shield the light. Jess and I went and sat in the shade. Jacqueline somehow managed to find a delicious cheese sandwich she was nice enough to give all of us hungry kids bites of. I still don’t know where she found it but I wanted my own. We then walked a bit to the children’s memorial, which was far more moving than the museum I just described. It was dark and reminded me of a very starry night inside, and you walked and heard name after name of children who were killed in the Holocaust, with sad songs in the background. The museum was very small, more of a 2 minute indoor hallway, but had high ceilings and wide walls. After this, we all walked back to where the bus would pick us up. Mark kept telling us to go outside and wait by a purple sign, but a group of us (Marielle, Max, Mike, and maybe others, I can’t quite remember) all decided to wait in the air conditioned building outside of the museum (but before the area I first described where they had all the tree and statue dedications) for the bus to come. Finally we all journeyed out into the heat to load up onto the bus and took a couple pictures on the way. At this point it was about 2:30, and (I hate to phrase it like this coming from Yad Vashem, but…) we were all starving (or rather, we hadn’t eaten since before 9 am). We traveled to a local square that had (mainly) a kosher McDonalds (yes, for some this was the highlight of their trip; I however don’t like non-kosher McDonalds so felt no need to eat there), Kyoto Express (an Asian restaurant with both Chinese food and sushi), and Haifa Café (I wanted to eat here but they were very slow—salads, pizzas, sandwiches, hummus, etc). There was also a super market, ice cream shops, candy shops (clothing shops and random stores too), and a coffee house. Have I mentioned that iced coffee in Israel is amazing? It’s like a slurpee coffee; if you want a coffee with ice (an American iced coffee) you have to say cold coffee or you will get this. Anyway, Marielle and I went to Kyoto Express and got teriyaki chicken with veggies and rice for 49 sheckles. It was a ton of food and we were both full by the time we finished it. However, I was craving chocolate or junk food, something really American you know, so we ran to the super market and I got chips (sour cream and onion Pringles) and an Israeli chocolate bar that like 8 of us devoured on the bus in less than 2 minutes (mmm, it was good!). From here, we went to Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery. My head was feeling better (after lunch, a lot of water throughout the day, and uh, 4 advil), but was not tip top. It was too hot in my opinion to do anything but sleep. Birthright doesn’t work that way, so we had to put on happy faces and check out the cemetery. It was quite beautiful. Marielle and I hadn’t allotted any time to use the restroom at lunch, so Zohar waited with us while we went to the lu. If you didn’t know already, Zohar is a jukebox. She constantly sings random songs and made it to the top 200 contestants for Israel’s American Idol (is it Israel’s Idol? I don’t know). AKA, she has a good voice. She sang and danced for us and then we slowly caught up with the group. Mark, Rabbi, Zohar and Leora have been fasting since last night, and Zohar kept telling us how thirsty she was. I felt badly for her—all of them really. It was so hot out. I felt especially terrible for Mark who was talking to us the whole time about the silver platter people of Israel (those who helped save Israel by sacrificing their lives in battle), in addition to the historical background to all the graves and what not we were seeing. If you are reading this mark, I am sorry if you were parched! We saw the grave site of the old prime minister (woman) and then went to an area where all the civilians who were killed (in like bus explosions or anything really) have a memorial in alphabetical order by year. Mark says that they reprint the entire plaque every time someone loses their life to keep it in alphabetical order. He also says that almost any Israeli you meet will know at least one civilian on this wall. This statement was very sobering, as I doubt any of us on the trip can actually relate to that statement. It became even more sobering when he asked all the Israelis to share any stories (if they wanted) about people on the plaque, and sure enough, everyone knew of someone posted on the wall. From here we went to a smaller grave area with graves of many young children (some ages 12 or 13) that Mark referred to as the silver platter people of Israel. Many don’t have names on their gravesites, because they were immigrating to Israel and immigrated into the war and no one knew who they were. It was sad. Our second to last stop on the tour was the gravesite of Michael Levine, the American Israeli soldier we watched the movie about last night. His grave was decorated with all kinds of everything—bracelets, cotton sticks, many hats, rocks, pictures, sports paraphernalia, etc.—it was very moving. Finally, we went to a gravesite of 2 important Israelis, but I forget their names sadly. From here we loaded back onto the bus, and began our journey to the Negev desert for some Bedouin hospitality. On the way I talked to my parents on the phone. It was good to hear their voices, although the beginning part of the conversation revolved around their inability to access my blog (haha, ironic if you’re reading this now, huh?). While they were still on the phone we stopped at a bathroom/Aroma/mini-market/fast food/gas station and had some time to eat and get drinks or food or whatever. I got an iced coffee and it was delicious per usual. We then all loaded the bus, only to discover that we should have bought alcohol at the mini market, so Max and I ran back (AJ joined later) and got a fifth of vodka, chaser and wine. We would welcome the desert and our last night together with a small celebration. Surprisingly, there were some vineyards and other agricultural areas in the desert. Everyone was tired and gross feeling but it was exciting to drive through the South as it is very different than the north. The drive from Mt. Herzel was about 2.5 hours. We stayed at a Bedouin tent campsite called Chan HaShayarot. It was definitely in the desert, and the campsite was pretty interesting. It was pretty much a bunch of tents (huge areas, not small tents we use when we go camping), and the ground/dirt was covered in big mats so that we weren’t directly on the ground/dirt. There were no doors, but they did have electricity for lights (no outlets or anything though). There was a nice bathroom with running water and sinks and showers and toilets, and a campfire area. We arrived close to 8, so the sun was beginning to set. We all set up camp if you will—took sleeping mats and arranged them next to the people we wanted to sleep near and got sleeping bags. There were no pillows, but it was ok. We looked around the campsite area, and then drank a bottle of wine before dinner. It was really good wine—Israeli grown Merlot. Dinner was absolutely amazing—definitely a good way for those on the trip who were fasting to break it. It was all you could eat, on a revolving/refilling basis, of fresh hot pita, two types of hummus, cucumber/tomato salad, chicken, rice, potatoes, chicken balls, pickles, olives and water. AJ fell on the way to dinner and busted her knee—it was really hurting her and we were all bummed because we will be going to the Dead Sea tomorrow and that will really hurt a lot. AJ, Brittany, Marielle, Kaela, Eric and I all sat on mats on the ground around the big communal buffet we shared. There were no plates, only napkins, and everyone shared forks and everything. Dinner was delicious, I am pretty sure we all stuffed ourselves and took more than we needed because the Bedouins kept coming around refilling everything we had dented into. Dessert was tea, coffee, baklava, and some other pastry I don’t know the name of. I only cared for the tea, but I really cared for it and wish I could drink it every night. It was so tasty! After dinner, everyone went back to the tents to change (into some looser pants, haha) and we all met in an empty tent to hear about the Bedouin culture from a Bedouin man. We sat in a large circle and tried to decipher what the man had to say about Bedouin hospitality, coffee making, women, and living in the desert. When someone traveling through the desert stumbles upon a Bedouin campsite, it is customary for him or her to stay for 3 days and relax, eat, drink, and listen to music. I don’t know why it is 3 days, but he said something about not being able to find a hotel anywhere close on his journey, and the need to rest and relax (his accent was very strong). He told us that Bedouins will pour you three small cups of coffee if they like you, and you will converse over their famous coffee. He said traditionally Bedouin men can have up to 4 wives, and 35 children, but marrying more than 1 woman is illegal in Israel (he has 1 wife and 7 children, I believe). Typically (and I say typically because Mark says we are paying a lot of money to stay at this fancy, tourist-version of a Bedouin camp), the three days, food, drink, lodging, etc. is free. He showed us how they grind coffee (to an awesome beat), and played a customary Bedouin instrument that was something like a distant cousin to the guitar. He opened the floor up to questions, but it was very hard to understand his answers so this didn’t last all too long. After he was done with his spiel, we returned to the tents we were staying in (boys and girls are separated, of course), and got ready for our night walk through the desert. Corey brought an astronomy book and pointed out a bunch of constellations. Then, Mark told us a bad camel joke. A couple guys from a different birthright trip joined our group and were trying to talk over Mark and them, so I gave them the evil eye in the dark. They ended up being ok guys, but on the last night of the trip I couldn’t care less about anyone not in our group (every party has its pooper…). After all the jokes and stories and star gazing (I thought the desert sky would show stars so clearly but there was a lot of light in the distance—very surprising. The sky was somewhat hazy and it was kind of hard to see stars. I can confidently assert that stargazing in Tahoe is the best I have yet to see, YEEE California!), we broke up into small groups to roam the desert. Jess, Lindsay, 2 of the random kids, and Daniel all went off and found some cardboard boxes to sit on and talk in a circle. It was pretty sweet. We had a campfire scheduled at 10:45 so we all made our way back to the campsite before then. We had talked about our hopes of getting s’mores, but in Israel, one should know better: we roasted kosher marshmallows! (haha). AJ told me a crazy story about Purim, and how Esther asked in a letter to her King (presumably Ahasueras) to hang Haman and his 13 children for all the world to see once more, and in her letter certain letters were larger than others and highlighted. The night before their hanging, one child committed suicide and the other 12, including Haman, hung in the square before many to see. Over the years, many scholars, and religious and other people studied this letter, trying to decode its secret meaning, and could only find a date (she doesn’t remember exactly, but say March 12, 1943). For years they thought it meant nothing, but on the date uncovered in her letter, 13 of the worst Nazis of the Holocaust were all summoned to be hung in the town square for all to see. The night before the hanging, 1 man committed suicide, and the 12 others hung the following day. When the last man to be hung’s turn came around, and he was able to say his last goodbyes, he said Purim, 1943, and died. Many believe that her letter was a letter to God (her king, not Ahasueras), and these 12 hung men and 1 who committed suicide were the spirits of Haman’s children so long ago. (AJ, if I butchered the story let me know). Anyway, AJ told that story at the camp fire, and the some other people told jokes and what not, then we broke up and went back to the tent to sip on some mixed drinks and talk. Everyone started rubbing each other’s backs (how awesome, right) and we finally decided to take a hike in the desert. About 15-20 of us left, and we walked out to the desert and formed a circle and talked, listened to music, and star gazed. The stars were much brighter at this time and I saw at least 3 shooting stars. We listened to some music and just relaxed. Jesse and Ryan randomly found us while they were hiking and we all said hello! I sat next to Adam, who is quite hilarious and has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor that I will truly miss. I love everyone who was out there, if you are reading this! We stayed for at least an hour, maybe two, and then headed back to camp. It was kind of loud (people were playing cards and what not) but we had to wake up early so AJ and I talked until we fell asleep. It was pretty easy to fall asleep once everyone who was talking moved to that empty tent we had heard the Bedouin man talk to us in…
Israel Day 8
This morning I woke up around 8 and got ready for the day. Josephine, Jacqueline and I all listened to music and talked as we got dressed. We went down for breakfast—they have this delicious brown bread with all these nuts and grains all over it. The hotel brings out fresh warm loafs and you cut the size of pieces you want. I had an egg and veggie sandwich with cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, eggs, and some kind of tziki spread. After breakfast we all loaded up on the bus. We are going to the Knesset—Israel’s parliament, and we will not see tighter security anywhere in Israel. We are not allowed to bring cameras—waa. You will all have to rely on my eyes and memory to reconstruct our experience! The Knesset is about 2 minutes away from our hotel. We just got on to the bus and for the first time in a couple days we are starting our days on the bus leaving the hotel which means Mark, Leora, and Yaakov have free reign over the loud speaker. The Hebrew word of the day is Avatiach. To give you all a hint is something delicious that we have been eating every day as dessert at our hotel. Okay, if you give up, avatiach means watermelon. The Yiddish word of the day today is fergessin, which means to forget/I forgot. The word accompanies a joke, that Yaakov started to bring up, but then realized that he would not have enough time to finish it so is leaving us all in suspense until after we visit the Knesset. Because Rabbi began his joke that accompanied his word of the day without time to finish it, Leora told us another joke: a mohel is a guy who does the bisque (circumcision). That being explained, her bad joke of the day: Mohel’s don’t get paid; they just take tips (hahaha). Now we are arriving at the Knesset and are instructed to leave everything (except for our passports) on the bus. I am not even allowed to bring a pen and paper to take notes because who knows, I could be a Russian spy. Anyway, we unloaded the bus and all waited in line to get into the Knesset. We went through a minor security station, similar to those at airports when you go through customs (with the bag scanner and metal detectors, but we did not have to remove our shoes. Outside of the building (along with an amazing view of the city, as the Knesset is on a hill and you can see a lot of trees and buildings etc.) was a very long planter box that had a ton of colorful plastic inside of it (yes, a planter box with plastic rather than flowers) with different shades of purples, pinks and blues. It was so colorful and original I was very upset that I couldn’t take a picture of it, especially now as I butcher the description of it. Our tour guide’s name was Leor and she had beautiful red hair. She told us about the Knesset and Israel’s parliamentary democracy and the three branches of Israel’s democracy. She then lead us into a room called Nir that was very official with a huge round wooden nice table with microphones and everything and we watched a movie about the Israeli government and history, then she answered questions. Mike had a bunch of economic questions which she asked him to stop asking because he was trying to simplify it too much, and financial issues are not the core purpose of what is accomplished at the Knesset. Then we went to a part of the Knesset that all this artwork by a famous Israeli artist named Chagall. There were 3 huge tapestry’s hanging that were gorgeous and huge. They represented (from left to right) the present state of Israel, the past of Israel, and the future of Israel. The present and future tapestries were the same size, and the past tapestry was about twice the size. While the tapestry’s appear to be water colors or something, they are actually woven out of 144 (I believe) colors of yarn by a team of Russian artists. Vivid colors were used to symbolize celebration and happiness in the present tapestry; however, his original painting was done in 1964, before the 6 day war was completed, so the Western Wall was depicted within a bubble, and the colors were much less vivid. The middle tapestry, representing the past of Israel, showed Moses twice (on blank mountain when he received the 10 commandments), and as one of the people, a leader on the land, leading the Israelites away from Egypt. The final tapestry was a depiction of the future of Israel. The colors and actual artwork was described as euphoric and blurry because it was a projection of a dream of what the future would hold. The colors were darker than the other 2 tapestry’s. Anyway, she then showed us a mosaic of a menorah with the 12 faces of the 12 descendants and some other stuff on a wall perpendicular to the wall of tapestries. The final thing she showed us was an exact replica of Israel’s Declaration of Independence that was housed in a glass case. She told us that the original declaration was removed a few years ago to be kept in a special place at a special temperature so that the parliament would not disintegrate. There are only 3 exact replicas of the declaration, one in the Knesset, one in Independence Hall (where we went to the other day—due to the crazy packed days we have full of so many different activities I have no concept of how long ago we went there!), and she didn’t know where the last copy of it is (but is pretty sure it on , exists). After this, we thanked Leor and left the building. We went across the street to a famous menorah that has a ton of different stories engraved into the large statue. Yaakov recalls (upon my request) that there are 7 different pictures/mini statues that each had 3 levels, each with engravings telling different stories. Mark told the group the bus was about a minute walk up the road, and asked us to take a vote of whether or not we wanted to get out cameras. I said yes, but majority ruled no, and Molly told me to write about my loss in my journal. Luckily David smuggled his camera into the Knesset and had it on him (which is the only reason we were able to document the menorah without googling it (which people suggested me!)). After we were told about the stories depicted on the statue, we went to the bathroom and loaded up onto the bus. I walked with Mark and Jess, and we passed an olive tree. Mark picked fresh olives and encouraged Jess and I (and later when we got to the bus others) to try a *small* bite. It was absolutely disgusting and I spit out the bite I took, but it’s cool that I can say I had a fresh olive off an olive tree! Once on the bus we headed through lush green mountains to reach Sataf for a hike. Finally, Rabbi had enough time to tell us his joke…Rabbi’s joke: John and Mike are playing golf, par 4, and Mike is going for a birdie. As mike is about to hit the ball, all of a sudden they see a funeral going by the street, so he stops and takes off his hat, puts it on his chest, and waits for the funeral precession to pass. John turns to Mike and says, I am so inspired—I’ve been golfing with you for years and I have never seen you be so respectful (blah blah). Mike turns back to John and says, “well, it’s the least I could do—we were married for 25 years!” (Sadly, that was the punch line). I couldn’t figure out how this joke related to our Yiddish word of the day—so after he told his joke I called Yaakov to my seat and asked him how it relates. He told me that he told a different joke because he forgot the joke with the fergessin story, then tried to piece the joke together unsuccessfully (Rabbi if you’re reading this I’m just giving you a hard time!) . The punch line was kind of dead by this point, so I guess the whole point of ‘fergessin’ is very applicable to the situation! (I guess I talked up the joke too much, but hey, we’re in the same boat!). So now we are in the bus and beginning to drive out of Jerusalem for a hike—the hike will be level and downhill, so hats and water are essential. Anyway, we arrived to Sataf and all got off the bus and put on sun screen and hats and drank water. I had my bandana today and folded it so that the “Mayanot” could be read across my forehead. Shawn and Alexis both liked how it looked so I folded theirs the same way and bandana-ed their heads. There was a snack bar and many people got ice cream and popsicles (Anna gave me a bite of hers and it was totally delicious). After everyone was ready to embark on our hike, Rabbi and I started talking about having kids (his wife is only 21! None of the women on this trip—myself included—could imagine having a kid right now). Anyway, I mentioned to him I would be down to have a surrogate mother for sure, and so as we embarked on our descent down the mountain (that was really what our hike was), we talked about how reproduction and having offspring is so highly valued in the Jewish religion and I told him how some of my closest friends don’t know if they will even ever have kids. Anyway, we walked and talked and occasionally stopped for Mark to tell us what certain trees are (the only tree that has withstood the area in this particular area is the olive tree). It was so hot out everyone was dripping sweat and chugging as much water as they could. We got to a caved area that had a tunnel that housed an ancient irrigation system. The cave was cool and a good break from the sun. There were a bunch of kids there (maybe on a camp excursion or field trip), and they were exploring the cave so we didn’t really get much area to explore. Outside of the cave was a balcony overlooking an old, green man-made pool that some Israeli men got into to cool off. Perhaps my description of this pool area is not intense enough, because swimming in this pool is clearly disgusting—the water is green and obviously polluted. When we got down to the base of the pool (we were at this point standing on an viewpoint of it) there were signs in Hebrew, Arabic, and English saying ‘do not swim’. Anyway, the area we were hiking around was very hot and yellow and dry, but there were groves of greenery and trees (olive trees and other trees) and we eventually even got to an area that the Jewish National Fund (that has planted over 250,000 trees!) now is in charge of the upkeep of Israeli parks and nature areas, and has planted gardens that are growing a lot of produce in the hills. We hiked all the way to the bottom of the mountain where Elle was waiting for us. We were all absolutely starved (it was about 2 pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast (the bus left at 9 this morning). Anyway, we went to the same park that we went to the other day for the activity lead by the soldiers. It is in the heart of the political and government area of Jerusalem, and very close to our hotel. Today we were given lunch: we had a choice of a tuna, egg, or cheese sandwich, water, and delicious plums. There was a water area/pond and I wanted to explore the area a bit and not sit on grass. I thought I would find a crew to join me, but Jacqueline and Ryan were the only two people adventurous enough to join me! We walked about 100 feet away from the grassy area everyone was sitting and found a small waterfall and Japanese garden with a (tiny) pond and bridge. It was quiet, shaded, paved and offered a nice breeze, so we decided to eat there. We ate and talked and as we finished our sandwiches Jesse and Eric found us. After about 5 minutes we all went back to the grassy area and rejoined the group. I sat down and talked with Alexis and Jesse and AJ was next to me giving Kaela a back massage. Karen (a Mayanot field consultant who is from New Zealand, and has popped in and out of our activities throughout the trip) came and talked to us all about post-trip options, return options, and Mayanot as a whole. After she finished speaking we all formed a massage train and rubbed each other’s backs—I was sandwiched between Jesse and AJ; Jess requested me but I told her I already made a deal with Jesse and Jesse told me I should become a professional masseuse. Our session was cut short when Mark told us we had to go to the bird conservatory. We took a short walk to the bird conservatory and sat on long benches facing a counter. I sat next to Mr. J. and Ilana. There was a man and woman who talked to us about birds in Jerusalem and what they do at the bird conservatory. Birthright wants to do a green or nature thing on every group, so we are going to a bird-watching conservative. Half a billion birds fly over Israel, so it is appropriate that we are going to a bird watching conservatory in such a bird-dense area. I learned that the birds that migrate from Africa to Europe fly through harsh conditions (or not ideal green conditions), and Jerusalem is the first area they reach that is truly green and lush for them to eat and rest on their journey—that is why there are so many birds in this area. Anyway, we were taught for a while and learned about how they catch birds in nets, store them in cloth bags (so they can breathe), and are weighed (by being put head first into a pointed—cone-shaped—bag closed with a clothespin), measured, and given identification cards. We saw all of this happen. Hannah kept jumping every time the man holding the bird would turn to her. After the bird was set free we all planted some kind of plant. We were divided into groups of four (Mr. J., Ilana, Jacqueline and I were a planting squad) and given a hoe, a canister of water, and a plant. After planting everything we all returned to the area and were given watermelon and watched a video in a cool room. Then we headed back to the bus. Kate shared with us a bad joke: Donald’s tooth really hurt, what time was his dentist appointment?: Tooth-hurty (2:30)! Haha. Before we got back to the hotel, Leora told us the schedule for the night. Tonight our dinner will be very early because there is a fast beginning tonight. We have a couple hours to shower and what not and need to be downstairs at 6:15. When we got to the hotel, I went downstairs to hopefully find an extra memory card for my camera (mine is full and I have been using Yaakov’s because his camera died when he dropped it into the water tunnel yesterday), but I would prefer to have my own card. Our hotel has this underground connection to the mall, and the whole connection is lined with stores. Unfortunately everything was pretty much shut down because of the fast that is taking place tonight. After dinner we will go to two 9th day of Ov, twice when Jerusalem was destroyed. We will be spending time walking around with thousands of Israelis who are hanging out and looking out over Jerusalem at night. So we all ate dinner tonight (it was my favorite dinner at this hotel so far)—I basically ate rice, sautéed veggies, and a cucumber, tomato, lettuce mix. I got more stuff on my plate but didn’t like any of it so basically made a huge stir fry of all the aforementioned foods. It was really yummy but as I write this at 10:30 I have been hungry for junk food—chocolate, candy, ice cream, cookies, chips, anything—and I wish I would have eaten until I was full (and not just not hungry anymore). At 7:15 we met in the lobby and walked upstairs to a cool bar area where a woman named Natalie who works for Birthright came and talked to us about being alumni’s and how we can stay connected in the states. She was really awesome—originally a Jew from Alabama who now lives in NY and Tel Aviv. She told us about Birthright Alumni programs and invited us to a huge party that I hope everyone attends in NYC on the 23rd. She also made fun of me for taking so many pictures (someone must have told her) and I (according to Jess) ‘geeked’ out with laughter at her statement. Guilty. After she gave us her spiel we all went down to the bus to go to Mt. Scopus lookout. It was quite beautiful—we got there as the orange-ish pink sun was setting over Jerusalem, and we all took a bunch of pictures with the breathtaking view. Mark made us stop taking pictures so he could give us a history lesson, but in all honesty I sat with Marielle and looked out over the city and watched Zohar teach Brittany how to belly dance and heard maybe 2 words Mark said (okay, well I heard a lot more than 2 words obviously, but I definitely didn’t pay attention :/ ) Here is all I can tell you about the significance of the evening: a ton of Jewish tragedies happened today in Jewish history (the 9th of Ov—and an example of a tragedy is that the temples were destoryed), and that is why everyone is fasting today and there was no meat at dinner. (And by everyone I don’t mean myself, nor most of us on this trip; it is 11 pm and AJ just coordinated (with Daniel and like 12 other people) just threw down 400 n.i.s. for 5 boxes of pizza, haaay! Anyway, when we got back to the hotel we all went to floor 02 (I just can’t get over there are 2 floors numbered 01 and 02 before floor 1 starts, that’s why I keep saying the floor numbers—they crack me up!) and watched a movie about an American man named Michael Levine who moved from the east coast (I want to say Jesse’s town or county) to Israel to fight in the Army. He fell in battle in 2006, but was a remarkable soldier and man who believed his purpose in life was to fight for Israel. It was a moving documentary, and the way his family spoke about his death and life in the army was truly inspiring and touching. After the video we all headed back to floor 5 where we were staying. I went into David and Kerry’s room with Marielle, Mike, Daniel, Matt, and a couple others and hung out while I journal-wrote (some of this is in the present tense—that is what I was writing while I was in there, now I am going back and filling in the blanks of the day—while they all hookah-ed. David bought this amazing hookah that is like 3 feet tall, and when he lit the coal it like exploded and popped and gave us a fun little fire show (they asked whether or not I would add that to the journal—see guys! I did!) After about an hour (we had ordered the pizzas during this time) we wandered downstairs to go check out what was going on and wait for the pizzas to arrive. The dominos man was waiting downstairs when we got there, so we paid and took pictures (because I take pictures of everything) and then we all headed out to the rooftop balcony we did secret Macabee on and ate in a circle and talked. It was pretty cool because it was like 15 or 20 of us, and we would split up into different circles and talk—for example, if you continued walking down some stairs on the opposite side of the plateau there were these little bench cement areas that would cut out to the left of the stair case so they were like hidden rectangular seating areas (Jess/Daniel, am I describing these correctly?) and we called these cut outs “the spot” because you couldn’t tell from the roof top area that anyone was down there so it was like a hidden secret area—so we would leave to the spot for a while and have an intimate conversation (this particular night, AJ, Jesse, Jess, Lindsay, Daniel, Brittany, Kaela, Mike and maybe one or two others cut out to the spot for about a half hour), and then would return to the group and others would go. It was pretty sweet. At about 1 I decided I was too smelly, gross-feeling, and tired to hang any more so returned to my room to shower and journal write. Of course, I fell asleep writing and will have to get up way too early tomorrow…
Israel Day 7
This morning, after 5 short hours of sleep, I woke up around 7, again before Ariel and Goldie, afraid that I would not have time to shower (boy, I needed to shower!). I reluctantly rolled out of bed and hopped in the shower. It is lucky that the bathroom floors here are covered in tile with drains in the middle of them because the floors get absolutely soaked. On the note of bathrooms, all bathrooms here are pretty small. They have two flushers (a small one for pee, and a larger one to flush down poop, similar to the toilets at my Santa Ynez apartment), and I have not seen one toilet in the entire state of Israel with seat protectors, and I have peed in a lot of different toilets all over the country side. Most bathroom doors have the occupied (red) or vacant (green) symbols outside of them, even in nice hotel or restaurant bathrooms. The hotels (while sanitary) are also not close to as clean as those in America. For example, the bathroom had dirt or dust and two or three curly pieces of dark hairs in the corner behind the door where the shower meets the wall. Also, my pillowcase had a make-up stain on it, and towels (starting with the first towel I picked up at the Eden Hotel in Tiberes) are not bleach-white. None of this really bothers me, I just think it is an interesting culture comparison. Anyway, I packed up all of my stuff and borrowed a dress from AJ to wear to the kotel (wall). It was hot and humid and wearing a floor length dress accompanied by a cardigan was not peachy. I will never be Orthodox and will definitely never dress so covered up (especially in ridiculously hot weather). Terrible idea. Miserable. Anyway, despite waking up around 7 I still found myself running short on time and hurriedly went downstairs and made breakfast. I had some coco puffs, an egg sandwich (yes, with jelly and sprouts and tomatoes), cucumbers (and hummus) and some egg and tomato mixture Kate said was good (but I didn’t like so had about 1 full bite of). This morning I also had the best cup of hotel coffee (or hot coffee in general) since I got to Israel. It was well needed because I woke up with a little below zero energy. Leora rushed us out of the dining hall (I was with AJ, Kaela, and then Lindsay, Jess and Eric who were late to breakfast and obviously still feeling the lack of sleep combined with the effects from last night’s pubs), and we all went to floor 02. (In this hotel there is floor 0, the lobby, then floors 01 and 02 before reaching floors 1-7. Later in the day, after returning from all the adventures you will read about, Adam, Josephine, Mark and I took the stairs, and Adam was joking about how when we first arrived to the hotel, the lines for the elevators were so crowded he decided to take the stairs, and he was very unhappy when, after climbing 2 flights of stairs with his heavy suitcase on his shoulder, that he had only reached floor 1 while we are all staying on floor 5!) Anyway, some Rabbi came to talk to us for an activity Mayanot calls ‘A Taste of Jewish Learning’. The Rabbi told us the story of Josef, son of Rachel, and how his 12 brothers sold him into slavery then lied to his dad saying he was killed. However, Josef becomes prime minister of Egypt and good friends with the Pharaoh. His brothers discover this years later, and when they reunite his brother Binyamin, who shared the same mother and father as Josef, and Josef cry on each other’s necks. The rabbi said that the neck metaphorically represents a temple, specifically the tower of David (a temple in Jerusalem). Symbolically the neck is a bridge between the mind and heart, connecting the values, feelings, and theories of the brain that is transmitted into the body that in turn allows those thoughts/values/feelings to manifest themselves into something tangible that can be turned into actions. The temple functions as a bridge that links our spirituality to our physical beings. Our minds communicate through our bodies (i.e., as I write my fingers are typing but my mind is transmitting what I want to say through neurons and what not that make my hands/fingers type—my hands are a mere tool that I’m using and they do not understand what is being typed). Moving back to the temple metaphor, the temple is like a window that shines the light of all the infinite knowledge the universe has to offer (spirituality), where we can physically connect with this (*this is all from a religious standpoint/summary of what the Rabbi was saying and I don’t necessarily agree with all of it). Anyway, after this taste of Jewish Learning, we headed down to the bus, filled up our water bottles, and started our journey to the Wailing Wall. I sat down next to Max on the bus, and he shared some pringles with me and we made duck faces and talked with Shawn and Daniel behind us. I asked people to help me remember names and people and details and people laughed at me—everyone knows I am trying to document everything we do, eat, and see as thoroughly as possible though, so everyone is more than willing to help which is awesome (Mark even spells things out for me so I can log it!). Today is Leora’s Hebrew birthday, and Shawn (after telling a joke on the loudspeaker) told her how much she means to all of us and gave her the card we all signed last night (she cried, aww). (The joke was pretty good so I’ll share it with all of you: joke). Anyway, as we drove Mark gave us the usual history lesson and I took the following notes:
The year is 1921, and the first modern neighborhood (within the Old City of Jerusalem) contained all the Jews in Israel. As we drive, we are less than 3 blocks away from both the Prime Minister and president of Israel We are driving through the first modern city of Israel, and just passed the first tennis court of Israel. We are passing the protest tent and sign for the soldier who was captured that we talked about yesterday –Gillad Shalit—which is located directly outside the Prime Minister’s house. He was captured by Hamas, and we believe he is located (being tortured and kept as a prisoner) in the Gaza Strip. For his release, Hamas wants 800 terrorists to be released. Israel is split 50/50 about whether or not to fulfill their request. Max was on camera duty for me (he is my bus partner today) and the protest signs and what not last for about a block. None of them are in English, but Hebrew and Arabic. The architecture of Jerusalem is completely made of stone, which dates back to a British for strictly astatic reasons, and after Israel became its own country they decided to upkeep this law. It makes the city feel old and beautiful and historical. We are passing the Waldorf Aesteria hotel that is being built, and will be the most expensive hotel in Israel. There was a big cement wall that split the Jewish and Arab (Jordanian side) Jerusalem’s that was torn down in 1967. The walls are 500 year old and are either Turkish walls, or build by the Turkish. I’m not sure. Mark says both—it was built by the Turkish so thus they are Turkish walls. Now the year is 1953, and there are Israeli soldiers and Jordanian soldiers on their respective sides of the wall. As we drive we are entering East Jerusalem. This is where the great majority of the Arabs live, it was not part of Jewish Jerusalem before 1967, and it where most of the holy and religious sites in Jerusalem are. Mark says that the population in Jerusalem is 750,000 people (500,000 Jews, 250,000 Arabs—of which, about 40,000 live in the old city). The Muslim area is largest in area and population in Jerusalem. Now we are passing what Mark considers the most impressive gate—the Domaskus gate, which is next to the Roman gate which is 2,000 years old. It’s called the Domaskus gate because if you walk straight out of that gate you’ll get to Domaskus (also called Maskus gate, and the Jews call it schem). If my memory serves correctly, Domaskus is the capital of Syria. The area of the wall we are passing is all built on bedrock because it is much more secure—and it has been around for thousands of years so I guess bedrock is the place to build! On our left we are passing the Rockefeller museum, a building that is designed to look like a chess piece (the rook—but I don’t see it). There are bullet holes on the museum because the Jordanian side had shot at the Israeli soldiers stationed on its roof during the 6 day war. In Mark’s history lesson, it is just a couple hours before Israel would break into Lion’s gate, and for the first time in 2,000 years see, touch, and be in the presence of the ancient Kotah. Now we are circling around the perimeter of the wall. On the mountain in front of the bus (I realize this tells you nothing, but hopefully for those of us who are on the trip, we—myself included—will remember what I’m talking about with these descriptions) is the Hebrew University, which is the oldest university in the world. Coming down the hill (the University is on the bus’s left hand side), we see where the 1967 paratroopers ran up to Lion’s gate—making history by finally breaking through the walls. Still on our left hand side we see the mount of Olives, a mountainside that is holy to Christians and Jews alike, as it is was where Jesus was praying right before he was taken away (in the Garden of Gethsemane). Near this area is a Russian church with beautiful golden domes, surrounded by the oldest cemetery in Israel and the world—there are graves there dating back 3,000 years!— that swings around the mountain. Part of the cemetery was destroyed by Arabs when it temporarily was taken away from Israel. Now we are instructed to hastily disembark the bus, which we will not return to until it is time to return to the hotel (aka, we have to carry a whole lot of stuff since we will be going through a water tunnel cave later this afternoon which requires shorts and water shoes—an entirely different wardrobe attire than that required at the Western Wall). We all congregated in the shade and Mark read us an article by Rabbi Shlomo Rafkin, who was the chief rabbi of Efrat (that is where Leora lives!). Here are my notes that I hastily scribbled in terrible cursive while profusely sweating…Israel and Egypt made peace in 1967. President Carter accused Israel of being an apartheid state. The prime minister of Israel and President Carter met to draft a peace treaty, and at this meeting Carter asked the Prime Minister to be open to putting Jerusalem on the board of negotiation; the prime minister refused, saying that Jerusalem is the heart of Israel, and it will never be negotiated. 2,000 years ago people started down where we are sitting and talking and walked uphill towards where the temple of David once stood. It no longer exists, only the wall has withstood the time and threats by foreign nations. We are now entering the wall through Dung-gate (in Hebrew this means garbage gate because 2,000 years ago many sacrifices were executed at the temple, and while the temple itself remained spotless, all the blood and remains from the sacrifices exited through this gate). In May of 1967 the entire area we are standing in was Arab territory. The whole area looked different—everything we were looking out on was at ground level—if you see the picture of Kate and I on her camera you will see that we were standing on a vantage point looking down at about 2 or 3 stories of building that was once underground. It was not until after the 6 day war that much of what we have found was dug up. You can tell what was dug up at this time because the wall is a different color on the bottom (what was all underground) than it is on the top (look near the window level—that was ground level!). A man name William Davidson game the money to do the digging. The UN has condemned Israel for doing these diggings because if we were to continued them we would have to take down the Muslim Masque in order to put up the 3rd temple. We are looking at the 3rd holiest site in Israel for Jews and Muslims alike—‘El Axsa Masque’ on the Temple Mount. We had to go through security similar to that at an airport to get into the wall area because we are suck a large group—our bags went through the conveyer belt and we walked through metal detectors. It is hotter than hell in one of the holiest places on earth. Now we are overlooking the holiest site in Islam—the black dome—El Aksa. The gold dome (they call it the dome of the rock—is also in sight, which is where they believe Mohammed ascended to heaven. Thousands of years ago—before any of these platforms were built—there were two brothers, one who was financially poor but married with a wonderful wife and children, and one who was financially rich but with no wife or offspring. One night, the brother with the family decided to give his brother a lot of his grain because he felt bad for him not having the emotional riches in life. The same night, the other brother, decided to give his grain to his brother because he had a family to feed and he himself had a surplus. So in the middle of the night the brothers carried all this grain to one another’s house (without the other one knowing) and woke up to find their fields still full. This process went on for a couple of days, until the brothers ran into each other hauling the grain to the other’s houses. They broke out into tears and rejoiced at how kind each was to the other. It was here and then and because of these brothers that God said that this spot (where they rejoiced) was land holy enough for the Jews, and that is how and when Israel (and Jerusalem) was founded. The next part of my notes are so terrible I considered omitting them, but hopefully I will be able to fill in some of the blanks in time: Mark is talking about Mt. Mariah—the foundation stone (the stone where Isaac was brought to be sacrificed, but wasn’t). The temple was built by King Soloman around the year 950 BC, and will last for until the 9th day of Ov of the year 586 BCE. Herrad the Great is the King of Judeah, and is a son of a bitch (Mark’s words, not mine), and he knows that people don’t like him but he wants them to so he puts up a beautiful complex that can’t be built on Mt Mariah so brings in dirt and builds a huge, gorgeous temple that washed away with the first rain. Frustrated, he decides to put up a huge wall to protect the Temple (the Romans later destroyed this). The temple (at some point) was taken out of Jewish control and Jews were unable to reach it for 2,000 years (until 1967 when the paratroopers put an end to the 6 day war). Only 1 little piece of the temple that remains (the wailing wall) and of that only 1/3 of the bottom part (that we visited and touched) is the original. It is actually a retaining wall, not the actual temple, and we pray for what the wall represents. Another 10 levels of wall exists below us. 2,000 years of destruction has taken place. 2,000 years ago we’d be much lower, and in 5 years we may be able to walk to the wall at it its original height. The middle stones (in the wall) date back to the stone ages, and the iron gate at the top of the wall is 100 years old. Some of the wall dates back to Turkish ages, but I didn’t catch what parts those were. Mark says, “It is the year 1967. Colonel Mordechi Gore breaks through Lion’s gate and the temple is in our hands!” The first soldiers at the Western Wall in 2000 years were these Israeli paratroopers. Mosha Dyan and head of Israel army show up a few hours later Mark then showed us the most famous pic of the 6 day war—a candid shot of soldiers looking in astonishment at the wall. Mark then read us a poem: Paratroopers Don’t Cry. After all this it was time for the bar and bat mitzvah services. I also wrote as though it were my journal during this time: It is incredibly hot and it may or may not be considered torture to wear long dresses in this humid and hot heat. We are sitting, looking at the wall we danced, sang, prayed, and cried at 2 nights ago on Shabbat (Friday night). Rabbi is talking to us as he prepares to lead those in our group who are about to become a bar or mat mitzvah at the Kotel. Suzy is fist. She is instructed to stand on a chair that is facing the rest of us, but she is afraid of heights so she stays on the ground. Josephine is second. She stands on the chair and takes off her glasses. She speaks about how connected she feels to the people and how she loves the incredible energy in the holy land. Jessica is 3rd and cries with happiness (she also stands on the chair). Violet is next, and does not stand on the chair. Marielle follows and also stays on the ground. People walk around and pass our group but do not stop and really pay attention to us. Jacqueline is the last of the bat mitzvahs, and Mike is the first of the bar mitzvahs. He towers over all of us at 6’3” plus the height of the chair. Matan has been throwing candy (as tradition goes) at the candidates, and finally hits them. Now he goes to pick up all the candy from the floor to re-throw it (he is out of his own candy and I already gave him half of mine, and Goldie refuses to give him any of hers—he is throwing multiple pieces at each person, and everyone around us is out). Mr. J. is the last person to get his bar mitzvah. I am sticky and saturated—wet in my sweat (haha, that rhymes). Yuck. I just took off my sweater (Goldie and Matan convinced me it was okay) and some Israeli woman in a uniform just came over to me and told me to put it back on (at least I had it off for about 15 minutes!). Now that the ceremonies have concluded, the bar and bat mitzvahs are being sung to (mazel tov!!) and lifted up on chairs, Rabbi and Leora are celebrating for them as they are being raised. Like any and all Jewish events, there are refreshments—chips, pretzels, wafer cookies, and soda. Now the men and women will split ways and meet back up at 12. I headed down to the women’s section of the wall with AJ, Brittany, and Marielle. We all decided we would take pictures of each other as we put our notes into the wall, and waited patiently to make our way to the wall. Brittany was first, then AJ, followed by me and Marielle. While I was praying at the wall Brittany accidently erased all of her pictures on her camera (bummer L). When we all reunited, we decided to go explore a small staircase leading to a room on the right side of the wall. Josephine came with us. It was a small room that had about 10 chairs and a small (maybe 8 by 10 ft. area) portion of the wall with small tea candles lit on it. AJ and I stayed and prayed in the room and everyone else left. After we were done (yes, AJ cried), we exited the women’s area of the wall and returned to where the group was told to meet. From there we all went to take individual and group pictures in front of the wall. It was literally balls hot (I am sorry, but that is the only expression that adequately describes a heat that causes drops of sweat to roll down the small of one’s back, in the cleavage of one’s chest, etc.). Finally it was time to leave the area of the wall where we had to be modest and Orthodox-like dressed. We walked up into old Jerusalem, and found the first bathroom where everyone put on shorts and tanks (the heat was still ridiculous but at least we were able to air out our bodies a little bit!) We walked to the office of Jeff Sydel (the man who invited us for dinner after the wall on Shabbat), who was offering 5 books to each of us—prayer books, bibles, the books of Moses, etc.—and invited me back for lunch, dinner, or l’chaim (drinks). Unfortunately we didn’t have free time so I declined but plan on keeping in touch with Jeff as he definitely has connections to travel within Israel for cheap. Anyway, after leaving Jeff’s office we went to some historical site by the Muslim quarters of Old Jerusalem (we were told we were not allowed to go there because it could be very dangerous). After this we were allowed to go wander the area and get lunch and shop. I ventured out with Matan, Goldie, Josephine, and Goldie (we took the Israeli crew with us for lunch), and we ended up at a bagel place near the plaza we were instructed to meet at. Josephine, Isaac and I all got bagels (and later Jess and Lindsay wandered into the bagel shop and got bagels of their own). Personally, I got an onion bagel with chive cream cheese on half and garlic cream cheese on the other half, and onions and cucumbers for 16 n.i.s.. We went to the plaza to eat and found Asaaf sitting at a large table. Gili and Matt were inside getting hummus platters, and we got to try their hummus (it was delicious, obviously). After lunch I went into a souvenir shop and found Max and Marielle inside. There was nothing I wanted to buy so I returned outside and Jess, Lindsay, Josephine and I left to wander the shopping area. We went to a jewelry shop and I got a couple souvenirs for friends. At this point, Josephine and I ran into Eric and the three of us went towards the Muslim area (but still in the Jewish quarters) and Josephine bought some sick earrings at a jewelry shop. I went across the alley and found (drum roll please) SF Giant’s shirts in Hebrew, so got a couple for gifts. The lady at the store let me pick out another shirt for free, so I chose an Israel Monopoly shirt that had a bunch of places and foods and stuff in the shape of a Monopoly board. After this stop it was time to meet up with the group so we headed back to headquarters and as a group left the wall and headed about two blocks or so away to the ancient irrigation tunnels that we would be walking through (some 2,000 years). The tunnel was pitch black, and Matan, Mike, Jess, Shawn and I were at the rear of the group with one flashlight between the 5 of us. It was so much fun. The water was freezing but I remember just feeling cool the entire time (not cold). We sang for almost our entire journey, and while I only had to duck for one short time of the walk, poor Mike and Justin were probably hunched over for the majority of the walk. Luckily the water was never higher than my mid/upper thighs (from the signs showing the water level I thought it would reach my belly button). After the walk we sung happy birthday to Leora and then walked to a large pool. Mark said that there is a large pool that was the source of all this water somewhere, but we do not know where because the land directly across from us (literally feet away) is owned by Arabs so we cannot explore it and uncover our history (when I say ‘we’ and ‘our’ I am referring to Israel—something that is promoted on a daily basis here is that as a Jew this land is my homeland and it is my country. While I don’t know how strongly I feel that connection, I do feel part of the Jewish community here and am definitely on the side of Jews and Israelis, but consider CA my home). Mark echoed Newton and said “whatever comes down must go up”, and with that we began our ridiculously long and steep journey in the heat up a huge hill. The coolest part of this walk was the Muslims were being called to prayer (we were literally right next to the Arab territory of Israel). It was so loud and kind of annoying (the sound), but it was just crazy that that happens daily and people actually drop their lives to go pray. It doesn’t cease to amaze me how much tradition and religion and history is integrated into the land here—it is so different than home. When we finally reached the top we all changed and then sat in a circle to bid farewell (with heavy hearts) to our beloved Israeli soldiers and students. Whoever wanted to speak was invited to say goodbye (or rather, see you later) and tell them how much they meant to us and how much we will miss them. After this sad process, we walked through the heat to the bus and drove to a bus station to drop them off. We then returned to the hotel for dinner. I sat next to Justin and Shawn, Josephine, Jacqueline and Kerry (and then Eric came and took Shawn’s place—after I said I would guard it but went to get food and came back to a new table). We shared hilarious youtube videos before we parted ways. Anyway, after dinner we went back to our room, and, from our window we are hearing the gnarliest and loudest cat fight I have ever heard! We had free time (I’ll give you one guess how I spent it) until 8:45 when we had to meet in the lobby. It is 9 pm now, and we are all on floor 01 in a large room with another Mayanot group, listing to a British man for a Israel Update—he is already a jokester (starting out with a thick Israeli accent although he is British, and has already switched up his name—Noal Lazatherith). He keeps making the whole room (of about 80 people if not more) laugh. He says Birthright is always fun to work with because you could tell what day they are on based on how delirious we are—it is so true. He said that groups on their 6th or 7th day of the trip (which we are on), are always looking blankly and confused at him wondering where they are, who they are, and what they are doing because they are so exhausted from the trip. His goal is for us to leave the room able to understand what is going on in the middle-east and understand what is going on in the news. Yesterday 350,000 people were holding a demonstration in the streets, trying to get change in Israel to take place (this is connected to the overall revolution going on in the middle-east). Now we are watching a slide show about the protests going on—it is too expensive to start. The protests started by just one tent, and within a few days there were over 400 tents. On Saturday students are organizing a protest that will make living more affordable, starting with the cost of rent for apartments. One of the sign reads that Israel is a state with no hope. The Israeli government is calling this the Sushi Revolution because the middle classes (students at university who can’t afford to pay rent, highly qualified professions—doctors, nurses, teachers) who are rebelling. Taxation is extremely high—in order to be taxed 35%, you have to earn 85,000 n.i.s. without taxes per year (which is about $20,000): bottom line—Israel is an expensive place to live! There is now a map of the middle-east: from the Atlantic—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Syria/Lebanon/Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Oman and Bahrain. Democracy is spreading through this area, and there is a price for that democracy to take place. The price is that people are allowed to say what they like, and (aside from Israel), most countries are against the West and America overall. The speaker says that as democracy spreads, it is unleashing some remarkably anti-Western forces. Take for example Egypt, which borders Israel and has peace with Israel, sees itself as a go-between between Israel and the Arab nations. Noal predicts that there will be another revolution in Egypt, against the army because there is a divide within Egypt between those who want a religious and those who want a secular country. While his lecture is entertaining, it is quite hard to take notes and comprehend what he is saying as he keeps giving examples and then rapidly moving onto another country with another example. He told us that today 50 people were killed in Syria, yesterday 140 were killed. In the past 2 months thousands were killed in Syria (around Dyera). People have lost fear of their dictatorship, and we are shown a video of commoners hacking down a statue of their dictator (and thus it is just a matter of time until the regime collapses). Now we are moving away from the Israeli perspective: Israel doesn’t understand the region just as much as America doesn’t understand the region. He gives us a quick Hebrew lesson, teaching us two words: ‘hootz l’aretz’(outside the country) and ‘hul’ (abroad). He is now talking about how Saudi Arabia is divided by the Sunis and Shiats is Iran—these are the two main tribes of the middle-east who battle about who are the true descendants of Mohammed. Now there is a picture of Obama on the screen with the words: legacy, Iraq, Economy, Korea, Pakistan, and Afghanistan next to him. The whole mess that Obama stepped into when he took office took about a decade to create, and it will take at least a decade for us to get out of it. Moving on, people always ask what do Israelis think of Americans?: To answer this, we are watching a commercial about American’s on satellite TV that is a parody of Obama in the White House, that makes fun of his ‘Yes We Can’ campaign. Israel has become very Americanized and sees America as the be-end and end-all…it sees America as good. This goes back to the Sushi revolution: Israel is not a 3rd world country—they have all the technology and is becoming more and more western, but in Israel everything is very expensive and Israeli’s cannot afford it (and when you travel you learn that everything is cheaper in the West, so people tend to smuggle goods into the land to save half the price). I hope these notes are decent to follow because I don’t have adequate knowledge to provide a good transition between ideas, or the ability to give any kind of foundation or explanation farther than what we are being told. Now the speaker is saying that Jerusalem is at the heart of the Arab-Jewish rivalry…both want Jerusalem to be on their land and to be their capital. The conflict is about land, water, religion, history, security; geography is very important. The dead sea is the lowest place on earth, and creates a natural barrier between Jordan Iraq and Iran—a virtual war that protects Israel and the infiltration of terrorists from the Arab world. To protect itself, Israel must keep control of the Jordan Valley. If it loses control, weaponry would be able to reach the heart of Israel (including the Ben Gurion airport) and Israel would be reduced to a 9 mile width (the bay bridge is 7 miles!) Geez, it is hard to type and listen and comprehend everything that this self-described short fat British man has to say. He showed us a video from one of the middle eastern countries—I want to say Syria— that is the equivalent of Barney, where a child is asking the cartoon figure ‘is it wrong to kill the Jews’, to which the figure replies ‘no’…and going on to continue to encourage the youth of the nation to kill Jews because they are bad people. We watched another clip (Mike is requesting I document it) where an 18 year old man is attempting to operate a tank, and can only manage to make it go in circles, highlighting that people who are not equip to be fighting these wars are in charge of these heavy killing machines. He told us that if there is one thing he wants us to take from his presentation, is that every situation is more complex than it looks, and challenged us not to be bystanders to life, but instead to make a difference in the world and stand up for justice. After this activity we all returned to our rooms. Instead of journaling, I went with Marielle, Alexis and Brittany to the patio I found on Saturday morning while I was journaling on floor 02 for some yoga. After about 20 minutes we went to Max’s room—the Jersey boys were in there and everyone was hanging out and listening to music. We hung out and talked and I painted my nails and Marielle then borrowed my nail polish (Sephora by OPI—the bomb.com when it comes to sparkly nail polish!) After a while we, along with Adam, Shawn, Matt, Josephine and Kaela (and maybe one or two others) we all went to the balcony to drink wine and chat. It was a nice night out and we talked for about an hour. Jess, Lindsay, Eric, Jesse and Daniel all wondered out to our balcony and joined our circle before realizing that they had forgotten a pack of cigarettes on the roof wall that we had done the gift exchange on. So Daniel, Jess and I went to retrieve it and ended up staying and talking for a while. Jesse came and joined us for about 5 minutes and then we all returned to the balcony, although more than half of the people we had left there were now gone. I decided I was too tired to sit and talk so went back to my room to journal and fall asleep. Josephine was already in our room and we got ready for bed and talked a bit. It was about 12:30 and I fell asleep before 1.
Israel Day 6
Shabbat Shalom! I woke up at my own leisure at 9 am. Both Ariel and Goldie were still asleep so I quietly got ready in the restroom and then went to the floor 01 (yes, there is a floor 1 and a floor 01) for coffee and cake (today there is no official breakfast because of Shabbat I guess). I wore a cap sleeve shirt in efforts to be conservative-ish and jean shorts, but was still given a nasty glance by a fully dressed Orthodox woman when I stepped off the elevator with my iPod in and mini-computer in hand. Oh well. There was a Shabbat service going on in a room next to where the coffee and cake was being served (which was just left out and not fancily served or anything), and it was separated men in front and women in the back behind a screen/wall. I got some coffee (in Israel all coffee is instant and really sucks, so I mixed in some coco mix) and a piece of cake and entered what appeared to be a second dining hall. The hall was adjacent to the aforementioned women’s prayer area. I sat at a table and wrote for about an hour and a half before returning to my room to prepare for the day’s activities. In observation of the Sabbath, we didn’t really go anywhere today but instead had activities. The activity at 11 am was about our Jewish Identity, and began with a game of ‘celebrity heads’ where you are given a hat with a name on it and you have to ask yes or no questions to find out who you are. AJ, Mr. J, and I were the 3 volunteers to wear the hats. The game was so hard, and we played for about 10 minutes. AJ was a model—Bar R…., Mr. J. was Bob Dylan, and I was Albert Einstein. After that we were divided into 7 groups and were given a bunch of terms which we were to rank in a pyramid of importance with 5 on the bottom tier, 3 on the middle tier, and 1 on the top tier (what we considered most important). I was in a group with Goldie, Sara, Isaac, Justin, Josephine, and Jesse. We chose charity as the most important value, followed by the middle tier which had: getting a general education, supporting the state of Israel, and visiting Israel. The bottom tier had marrying a Jew, circumcision, sending your children to Hebrew school, Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur, and Bar/Bat Mitzvah. We went in a circle and shared what we chose and why, and were allowed to discuss and what not. This was one of the highlights of my trip so far because we got to hear what it means to be Jewish from people with varying experience with the religion, culture, and community. Two main differences that I noticed while my group was discussing what words to keep and how to rank the final 9 were the perspectives of Israeli’s vs. Americans, and those of men vs. women. The former of which was interesting because the state of Israel (unlike the US) is founded with religion, so what I consider an important element of Judaism differs from what the Israeli’s thought. The ladder observation of differences in gender was demonstrated when the women in my group thought we should eliminate circumcision from our final 9 choices that would construct our pyramid (we had to get rid of approximately half of the words they gave us), but the men, who are actually circumcised, thought it was fundamental because all Jewish men are circumcised. After this activity was lunch time. Again, I was unable to take pictures due to Shabbat. Lunch was ok, but I am really starting to miss sandwiches (there was salad options, chicken and beef, rice, potatoes, and all those middle-eastern salads and cabbage and eggplant options). I sat with AJ and Kate and AJ and I talked about out passion for theater and our Jewish experience. The entire lunch table (which also consisted of Suzy, Brianna, and blank. After lunch we went back to the room on floor 02 where we did the Jewish Identity activity for ‘Stump the Rabbi’. During this activity we were invited to ask the Rabbi any questions we wanted. I honestly disliked this activity because people were rude and either asked unnecessary questions or did not give Rabbi the respect required to appreciate the discussion. My favorite question was about sex—go figure. I learned that the Torah says that males can have more than one wife, and that men can sleep with their brothers wives should their brother pass away. Someone asked how often one could have sex with (and that was the answer), then Mike added to that question how many people, and Shawn asked how many locations. Anyway because everyone was so loud we ended the session early and got free time. I used it to write (duh). We met back up in the lobby at 4:45 pm for an activity planned by the soldiers. We went on a walk to a park about 10 or so blocks from the hotel. The area is surrounded by government buildings and the park was very pretty. We split up into groups and Gili and Assaf were my leaders. Our group consisted of Max, Marielle, Kerry, Rabbi Yaakov, Molly, Jennifer, Hannah, Jordan, Jill, and Matt. We divided into two groups among us for a leap-frog like game where we had to jump over each team member, run and give Gili a high five, wait until everyone returned to Gili’s side and then return running back. My team consisted of Molly, Matt, Jennifer, Hannah, Yaakov and myself. (Yaakov, Marielle and Max searched for a bathroom, so for the first trial run it was just 5 of us). I hate to be cocky but we definitely dominated, winning both games that we played (although we did somewhat cheat). After this activity, we had to stay in Mach-tov Stiem (a raised pushup position) while we went around the circle telling each other what our favorite part of the trip has been thus far. Of course Rabbi, Gili, and Assaf took a long time explaining their favorite parts and those of us in Mach-tov Stiem suffered. It probably sounds a lot worse than it was, and we were giggling while we struggled. After this, we joined in a circle (I made everyone move to the concrete because the grass was too itchy and both Molly and I are allergic to it) and were invited to ask the soldiers any questions we had regarding the army. It was both an interesting and short discussion. At its conclusion, we returned to the area of the park where we first arrived and the entire Mayanot 380 group congregated together and discussed what we did in our respective groups (everyone did different things, and our group was the only group who partook in any physical activity—go figure!). We then headed back to the hotel for dinner! My stomach was absolutely in pain and so I mostly ate rice and salad and a beef sausage. Salad in Israel kind of sucks (I don’t think it is washed because it is crunchy like there is tasteless salt or sand or something in it). I chose a thousand-island type dressing because the Israeli traditional olive oil and lemon and salt that I tried last night wasn’t exactly my favorite. (again, I do not have pictures of anything other than my plate). After dinner (at which I sat with Assaf, Gili, Matt, Josephine, Jesse and Adam were also at our table, but I mostly talked to Assaf, Matt and Josephine). After dinner we got about an hour and a half to get ready for our night out in Jerusalem on Ben Yehuda Street, which is a crazy shopping alley way with food and what not. It was very busy and interesting; although all the stores and what not are modern, the walls surrounding the marketplace are all made out of stone and it is truly beautiful. I wish that the beauty of Jerusalem could be captured in one of the hundreds of pictures we are all taking, but I guess you will have to travel here yourself and see everything with your own eyes to truly appreciate it (or you can just take my word for it!). Mike, AJ, Brittany, Kaela, Max, Marielle and I stuck together for most of the night, going into alley ways and jewelry shops looking for souvenirs and gifts for our loved ones back home. Many of the places had similar things for pretty similar prices. Isaac, who we met in a store, helped us bargain for bracelets and necklaces. Mike haggled and got a chess set for his grandfather. AJ got a cool necklace. I got Destry a 49ers T-shirt in Hebrew and a bracelet for myself. Mike and I broke away from the group by this harp player who was playing music and singing ‘puff the magic dragon’. It was beautiful. Mike and others really wanted kosher McDonalds, but they didn’t have one and so he settled for shwarma. I got a dark chocolate ice cream cup for 11 n.i.s. from a place called Aldo’s that Leora highly recommended. It was delicious. After we got our goodies it was almost time to meet back up with the group so we walked to the base of the street where the group was instructed to meet at 12:30. On our way we both met up with and lost Kayla. Mike and I sat and talked about sole mates and past loves. When the group reconvened it was Leora’s Hebrew birthday so we all sang to her and then walked to the bus. I sat in the front with Alexis. When we got back to the hotel many people wanted to continue partying (many people spent the night in local pubs and bars getting their drink on), but I went to my room to write. At about 2 am Alexis came into my room to tell Alexis and I that we would be consolidating rooms tomorrow when Goldie and the rest of the soldiers will leave us. I am sad about the entirety of the previous statement. I don’t remember falling asleep so I probably fell asleep writing or just gave up and went to sleep as in the morning I will have to wake up, shower, and pack/move rooms.
Israel Day 5
So I believe every day my journal has started off by commenting on how I have never been more tired, but I don’t think I have ever been more tired than I was this morning. After about 3.5 hours of sleep I woke up hungry and in need of coffee. Luckily Israel is all about instant coffee, which I am terrible at making, so even coffee cannot cure my tiredness. I was also very hungry from drinking the night before (not hung over, but you know that feeling where your stomach just wants some substance and a nice hearty meal…?) Unfortunately, breakfast was basically inedible. There were some cheeses, a corn salad (that was decent) bread, a very sour and unappealing strawberry yogurt, and the soggiest, grossest looking eggs I have ever seen and/or ate. There was bread to toast so I toasted some and shmeared it with jam, and tried to put some eggs on it and disguise the nasty wet eggs with bready sandwiches but it didn’t work. I ate about 5 bites before scraping off the eggs and folding the bread in half to hide the soggy-egg residue that was left on it. I filled up my water and made an espresso (they had a cool coffee making machine like those in the dorms). We all loaded onto the bus, and Jess and I sat in the back. It was at this time Jess saved my life by lending me her mom’s mini-computer and allowing me to catch up on journal entries as typing is far more efficient than writing by hand! We were headed to Independence Hall. When we got there we were given a briefing by Mark—Jaffa (Tel Aviv) population is about 400,000 (25,000 Israeli Arabs). In 1909, when Tel Aviv was discovered, it was all sand dunes. 66 families split up the land and built houses on it, and that is how the city was formed. Inside the hall we watched a video about the history of it, and the music was absolutely hilarious paired with what has happening in the film. It also looked very low budget and like it was made in the 1980s. From there we moved into another room, where a woman with a very thick accent spoke to us. The only thing I took from it is that it took 32 minutes for Israel to be declared a country when Ben Gurrion went into the meeting with Israeli state council (it started at 4:00 pm, and at 4:32 Israel was declared its own nation. Later that day was the first war). I massaged Jess as she talked and then we all stood and listened to Israel’s national anthem. Then we went outside and walked to the bus. We were driving down Alanby, one of the major streets in Israel, named after the commander of British forces and journalist who defeated the Ottoman rule and Turkish Empire in Palestine. Mike asked Mark why there were so many bikes everywhere, and Mark explained that in Israel there are thousands of bike stations around here, where you can rent bikes and return them anywhere across the city. Out of the left hand window is a large market place with a street fair/market place that looks cool but Mark says the ones in Jerusalem is better and we will be there later! As we drove Mark told us about the city and its history. The further north you go, the more developed the neighborhoods are getting, because the development is from south to north. It is interesting to watch the progression of the city and stores as we pass. Even the sidewalk is noticeably different; however the people all look the same. We just passed Ben Gurenon Street, on which he lived when he lived in Tel Aviv in an apartment. Mark says that he owned a few houses, but when he retired he moved to a hut. Now we are passing Rotshili Boulevard, where all the protests started. There are a bunch of tents all over and shade structures and people with signs and posters. There is also a ton of graffiti. Israelis are protesting the how expensive it is to live in Israel. Apparently the protests have been going on for almost two months, and nothing has been done about it yet. At a stop sign just now a random Israeli man just stuck his tongue out at Jess (she did not provoke him) and I stopped writing to laugh about that. Anyway, we are driving to where the first born Israeli born president (prime minister), and general in the army, Yitzhak Robin was assassinated in 1995 on November 4. We all got out to see the actual location of where his last speech was, and where he was actually shot, sadly I do not really remember the details of any of this. It was hot. I wanted to take a group picture but it didn’t happen. Kiddy corner us I noticed a restaurant called Heidi’s—how random and awesome (I took a picture, haha!) After Mark was finished taking we all walked back to the bus and got on. We were finally heading to the beach! When I woke up I thought for sure the only thing I would do was sleep on the beach, but when we arrived it was so gorgeous and hot I knew I wanted to play in the water. We had about 2 hours to hang out, and some people went to get food while others went straight to the beach. Anna, Lindsay, Jess and I went straight to the beach, stopping only at a bathroom (where a man sat outside collecting 1 n.i.s. for entry) to change and put on sunscreen. The sand was hot and we found the other people in our group on the beach and put our towels down before running into the warm water. The water was (like the beach last night/this morning—whatever you consider it) saltier than necessary. It stung my eyes and hurt so I went back to my towel to get my sun glasses which protected some splashes to my eyes. I decided not to go out as far as Jess and Jesse because there was a slight rip tide and I didn’t feel like dealing with any of that. I bounced between groups, playing with the Jersey boys (Mr. J. had forgotten his trunks so had to wear his boxers in the water and free ball it until we get to the hotel later), talking with the girls, and sitting by the shore with Josephine (who had rented a chair for 6 n.i.s. and was sitting with her feet in the water listening to music) and Adam (who hadn’t brought swimming trunks and was trying to keep his shorts dry), and Goldie and Alexis. The beach time passed way too quickly. The sea stole my sunglasses with a huge and unexpected wave that pulled me under and in a split second they were gone. I was a little bummed out, but they had gotten kind of beat up rafting so I guess it is the perfect excuse to invest in some Israeli sunglasses! About a half an hour before it was time to head back to the bus I returned to the depths of the ocean (with Jess, Jesse, and Mike) and we took some pictures and played for a while then went to shore to shower off. My hair felt ABSOLUTELY disgusting. The shower hardly helped. On the way back to the bus I thought I burned off a layer of my feet, the sand was scorching hot. I have complained about the sand being hot in Tahoe (and I’m sure other places) before, but I had no right to after walking on this sun. I literally thought I may have to go to the hospital for some degree of burn, but it cooled off and turned out to be ok about 10 minutes later. We all met up at a snack bar just off the beach. Some Israeli policemen gave me (and some other girls) pieces of watermelon that were DELICIOUS, and after taking a couple bites I shared the rest with the boys sitting down near me—I thought everyone should enjoy a bite of the delicious fruit! Then I asked Gili (another soldier who works in the Israeli air force) for help ordering a Popsicle. For 9 n.i.s., I got a watermelon flavored popsicle that was pretty delicious. I ate about half of it before it got too cold (and thus old) and again passed it to people around me to share. Walking to the bus Gili complemented me on my rings and I shared the significance of each one. Then, he made me a ring out of the straw he was holding to complete my collection. Jess’s computer had died, so I asked the rabbi if I could borrow his as we still had to travel to Jerusalem which is a substantial (2 hour or so) drive. He lent it to me, but it was unfortunately almost dead so I only got to type about a page before it started beeping and yelling at me and I gave up. On the bus ride to the Jerusalem market which we were going to lunch at I sat next to Matan. He asked me if he could read my journal, so I gave it to him while I typed. It was interesting to hear his feedback and we chatted after my computer died. Finally we got to the market place. I was beyond famished and intolerant of pokiness. Although I wanted hummus (it’s just so good here), I told Jess I would get pizza with her and so Jess, Rabbi, Anna, Natalie (an Israeli student), Lindsay, Alexis and Isaac (an Israeli soldier) all went to get pizza. I was cranky and a bit annoyed because I was so hungry I didn’t care what we ate, and Isaac was about 30 feet in front of Jess, Rabbi and I while Natalie was poking along 30 feet behind us. It was crowded and Isaac lead us all the way one way before turning us around and walking about 200 feet in the opposite direction of the location we originally started at. We went to a pizzeria and ordered 2 pizzas for 7 people, and paid about 20 n.i.s. total. I wanted fruit, Natalie wanted a bagel, and Jess wanted a drink so we left to find what we wanted in the marketplace while the pizza cooked. I took control and warned Jess and Natalie I would be walking fast. We got to the market place and parted ways to get what we wanted. I got about 3 lbs of green grapes for 10 n.i.s. They were cold and good but not as delicious and sweet as the ones Goldie had gotten yesterday in Tzfat. We all met back up and walked back to the pizza parlor. I had one piece of cheese and one piece of onion pizza and was stuffed at the end (I think I may have literally inhaled the food…?). Israeli’s have a kind of garlic white sauce they use like us Americans use ranch that we all dipped our pizza into (it was really good). After lunch we had about 25 minutes to get our secret Maccabee gift (we each picked a name on the bus and were doing something for Shabbat very similar to secret Santa, and we were instructed to find a gift for the person we chose in the marketplace). I felt overwhelmed and rushed (the place was very crowded and I did not really vibe off the energy as I was just so off from being so hungry, then rushed to get this gift). Upon departing the store I told everyone I was going to speed walk and wait for no one—which is what I did. After arriving at the market (which was about 5 blocks north of the pizza place we ate at) I was surprised to see that Lindsay had kept up with me pretty well and we decided to shop a little. The problem with the marketplace is that most of it was food, and I didn’t want to get Mike (the person I chose) something edible—I wanted to get him something cool to remember both me and the trip by (had I chosen someone I didn’t know well/particularly like it would have been a different story). We ran around the market place looking for something cool. Lindsay got Eric, another good friend of mine, and we ended up getting them something at the first store we stopped at (after walking around for 20 or so minutes). We had even passed a sunglasses store and we didn’t get anything—that hopefully illustrates our dedication! Anyway, I got Mike a kippa and Lindsay got Eric an Israeli shot glass. We met others from our group outside the store and I offered everyone grapes. I tried a bite of Josephine’s baklava and of a leche, and didn’t particularly care for either. We returned to the bus and headed to our hotel for the next 4 days—Jerusalem Gold. It is by far the largest and nicest hotel we have stayed at. There were multiple birthright groups arriving so the scene by the elevator was ridiculous. Luckily one of the hotel workers pulled Eric aside and let him, Jesse, David and I take a service elevator. It worked out nicely because I was finishing my shower by the time Ariel and Goldie arrived at the room. We were going to the Western Wall for Shabbat, so we had to leave while it was still light out (in order to avoid walking both ways). I borrowed a pretty purple and white skirt that reached the floor from Laura. Daniel (from NJ) told me that he didn’t recognize me at first because I was so conservative looking! (haha). The women were instructed to meet Leora downstairs at 5:45 to light the candles (it is tradition for women to do this) so we all lit 1 or 2 candles and said the blessing together. Everyone looked terrific. I wish I could have brought my camera to document our studliness, but in respect to those who practice Shabbat I didn’t. We took a bus ride to the wall. On the way we saw people celebrating the Sabbath outside in parks, sung songs, and were spoken to by Leora and Rabbi. Leora said that in her house, her mom gives them treats each Friday night and so she gave us all pieces of chocolate. I saved mine so I could take a picture of it, haha. There was traffic getting to the wall because it is Ramadan and 200,000 Muslims were finishing praying at a different part of the wall. Mark explained that usually there would not be so many border policemen present, but because of the high amount of Muslims going to the Western Wall. We all got off the bus and said Shabbat Shalom to Elle who will be spending the Sabbath at home and we will not see him until tomorrow night. When we got off the bus everyone who wanted one took a Mayanot prayer book and we walked to the wall. Women had to enter through a different security system than the men, and I don’t know why because we all ended up in the same place. I guess these Orthodox people just take everything way seriously. Women and men split up once we got inside and went to the wall. The women’s area is much smaller than the men’s (maybe a fifth of the size) and a lot less lively. Matan told me there is a tunnel on the men’s side that has a glass that shows the very bottom of the wall, and what we saw (the men and women’s side combined) is less than a tenth of the whole wall. The men were dancing and singing and also had tables at which they were studying. There was a wall separating the two sides. Once getting down to the woman’s side we waited in line to pray at the wall. It was a very spiritual and emotional experience that brought tears to my eyes. I prayed for my family and for health, happiness and prosperity for my loved ones. I also thanked God for giving me the opportunity to come to this holy land and reconnect with what was once such a defining part of my life. Walking away from the wall is done backwards because you are not supposed to turn your back away from the wall. Doing so is odd and unnatural but it was cool to be a part of the bigger picture. There were people who were obviously more and obviously less religious than me everywhere. When the sun started to set the two Mayanot groups gathered and came together for song, dance, and prayer. It was cool and I remembered some of the prayers from temple back home. We did this for at least an hour, and then Jacqueline and I left to spy on the men’s side. We saw Mark and Gili jumped the highest. We then went to the bathrooms where we met a bunch of people in our group. There were these large cup things by every sink that I learned Orthodox Jews use to wash their hands because they can’t use the sink. A man named Jeff Sydel (how random) came up to us and invited us to his house for Shabbat dinner. Apparently he welcomes randoms every week—how sweet. We then met up with the guys and began the 45 minute walk back to the hotel (because people can’t drive on Shabbat). I walked next to Adam and we talked about everything. Many Orthodox men in snazzy coats and long pants and socks with ‘grass hats’ (that cost $5,000) passed us at a quick speed—they were basically running past us. We joked that it must be because they are so hot, or that it must be because they are not allowed to look at women (even us who were covered up). About half way through the walk (maybe more) we recruited Kayla, who was walking alone, to join our conversation. When we got to the hotel it was dinner time and we were all very hungry (it was like 9:30 and I had not eaten since the pizza at the marketplace earlier that afternoon around 3). Dinner was elaborate and there were many options. Unfortunately I could not take pictures of the spread because I didn’t want to be disrespectful to those observing the Sabbath by using electronics so openly, so only took pictures of my personal plate. After dinner we all went up to a roof/landing of the hotel (not the ultimate roof) and did the Secret Maccabee gift exchange. Brittany had gotten me and gave me a really awesome Jerusalem hamsa keychain with camels on it (I’m excited about the camels because we will be riding them on Sunday!) After this activity we were free for the night and do not (for once) have to be up at 8 am, but instead are free to rest and relax until 11 am. Many people were exhausted but most stayed up to socialize for a bit, and 8 people (mostly the Israeli’s) went out to a pub. I went back to my room and fell asleep writing, woke up, closed the computer, and did not set an alarm!
Israel Day 4
Waking up, per usual, was a mission. I have started just GETTING OUT OF BED so that I actually do it, as elongating the process makes it harder to do. After breakfast (which is the same every day in Eden) we loaded our stuff and selves onto the bus. The words of the day were ‘yala’ and ‘ich lib deer’. The Hebrew word of the day, yala, means something along the lines of ‘come on, move your tuckus!’, and the Yiddish word (phrase really, come on rabbi!), ‘ich lib deer’ means ‘I love you’ (awwww!, rabbi loves us!). Leora also told us a bad joke of the day that I liked (she encourages us all to share a ‘bad’ joke of the day every day—today she told us this one: what’s the difference between a Jew, and a canoe? (Give up??)…Canoes tip! (hahahaha). She also told us some fun, random facts, such as the glue on the back of Israeli stamps is kosher, and, during Passover, tissues are kosher. So, if you happen to be a starving kosher Jew, stamps and tissues could fill you up (theoretically). After Leora passed up the microphone to Mark, he began to tell us about what we are doing today and what it all means. Today we are traveling to Tzfat. It is supposed to be a very mystical and artsy town where many of the Rabbis study the Kabala, which is the essence of spirituality in our religion. Rabbi said that it teaches you that you can never be satisfied with staying in the same place; you always have to move forward and strive to be better. He reminded us that yesterday’s activities were themed to match this teaching: hiking and rafting encourages us to move forward and both explore and appreciate the earth around us as the scenery is changing as we move. We will be in Tzfat for 4-5 hours today, and have a pretty packed schedule of shopping, looking at art in Tzfat’s narrow alley ways, talking to people, and going to a Mikvah. Arizel’s Mikvah is like a Jacuzzi where Jewish women go to bathe and spiritually cleanse themselves. Only married women can go (into the Mikvah). After Tzfat, we will be leaving the north and traveling to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. We spent 1/3 of our trip time in the north, which only contains 1/8 of Israel’s country (aka, it is a densely filled place). When we arrived to Tzfat, we got out of the bus and began our journey by foot to the first Synagogue of the day by foot. We had arrived early so we got to stop in a playground and play for about 10 minutes. It was so much fun! All the Israeli playgrounds I have seen so far are much better than American playgrounds in that they promote exercise. For example, they have a balance beam that one could walk across—however, there are springs underneath it which activates your core muscles when you try to cross it and makes the crossing more difficult. We took pictures and played and reluctantly left at Mark’s orders. We resumed our journey to the synagogue. Outside of it, Mark told the group some history about it— Rabbi Adonav Rabano Yitzhak (family name Luria) and abbreviated “Ari” (the Temple of Rabbi Ari). He used to travel way back when to the outskirts of the land (now known as Tzfat). Rabbi Luri never prayed in that synagogue, because when he was alive he used to go there on Friday afternoons to welcome the Sabbath (it was the outskirts of town). He would sing the song Lecha Dodi, which means come by beloveds, and he would sing it on the outskirts of town so he could receive the Sabbath bride when she came in. Sometime after his death, they built a synagogue in Tzfat in his honor, but it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1832. (The earthquake pretty much destroyed the whole city). Before entering we had to make sure we were dressed very modestly so I went to find a bathroom where I could change into pants. The first day’s Hebrew word ‘shorootim’ came into handy and I found a place where I could change. Even with a shirt that had ¾ length arms (and did not show cleavage), and pants (remember, Israel is hot AND humid), I was asked to put a scarf over my chest and arms. Inside Mark talked to us about how special and old the temple is, and then we left. We walked maybe 100 feet to a famous candle store, inside which had many very special camera figurines. My camera had died and so Rabbi let me borrow his and take pictures (I had it since we got off the bus), so I documented this all but the pictures are on Rabbi’s camera. Some of the pieces were REALLY cool, all of them detailed and special. I don’t think I have ever seen such artwork made out of candles. I didn’t buy anything, although many people picked up Shabbat candles as gifts for their parents. After this, we roamed the streets looking into shops and art galleries and enjoying the beautiful art pieces. We stopped at the second and final synagogue we would go to in Tzfat—the temple of Rabbi Josef Mark told me Rabbi means ‘teacher’. There were books that were over 300 years old in this temple, and they looked like they had been heavily used/were faded and falling apart behind the tall glass cabinets. The temple is a sephardic temple, where the Jews sit around the bima in the perimeter of the room so they can face each other (unlike at home where we sit in rows facing the bima). Sephardic jews let all their emotions hang out—they are those that came from north Africa and the Middle Eastern countries and Spain. A different tour guide came over and told us to be quiet and Mark rolled his eyes at him. HAHA, Mark is really the best tour guide I can imagine (Leora and Rabbi are also invaluable assets to our trip). After the temple, we headed to the art gallery of Avraham Leventhal, stopping at a fresh juice stand on our way. Almost everyone got a strawberry banana, lemon, carrot and orange, or pomegranate juice, or an iced coffee—and everyone shared sips so I tried them all! For 5 sheckle (n.i.s.), you got a small cup, and for 10 n.i.s. you got a large cup. I got the lemon flavored juice, (they were all like icee’s) but Eric, who had gotten the pomegranate juice hated it so I traded (the pomegranate juice and carrot-orange juice was the only juice-juice, the rest were icee-like). It tasted delicious—bitter and exactly like pomegranate seeds. I wish I could take pictures of taste because I know my mom would have absolutely loved it. Anyway, outside of Avraham’s art gallery Mark told us a little story and made us scream ‘Avraham’ at the top of our lungs, and boom! Avraham appeared and we walked up the stairs to his gallery. Avraham is a man from Detroit who read the book ‘Jewish Meditation’ in college, then many other Kabala teachings, which changed his life and he moved to Israel. He was so passionate about Judaism and the Kabala it seemed like he must be on drugs (really, I think he is just high on God and the Kabala). He talked to us about how he had an English name (Robert), which he abandoned after learning how important his Hebrew name was—his ancestors and ancestor’s ancestors had used the name for 4 thousand years. He was pretty inspiring. His art was all abstract. He had one piece (Eric bought it) that reminded me of a Jewish Ying/Yang, but with chai. The top is white with a black chai, and the bottom is black with a white chai, as though the top chai fell into the black and for your whole life you struggle between what you give and what you take and balance it out until (in death) the bottom chai returns to the top and you live for the rest of eternity in ultimate happiness. I got the circle piece that reads ‘god is all around’ In the color of the rainbow. I liked the canvas piece better, but was not willing to spend $120 on a piece of art (so a smaller, $30 version would serve as a good reminder). Maybe someday I will return and get a larger piece, maybe not. Regardless, I really felt a connection to this man and would like to read the book that turned him on and changed his lifestyle. After everyone who wanted some of the art bought it, we broke up and ate lunch. At the beginning of the day Jess and I decided we would eat together, and after the gallery I found myself talking to Daniel (in English, Danielle, but she told me to call her Goldie which is a nickname derived from her last name, Gold), one of the Israeli’s on our trip. She is 20 (almost 21) and a commanding officer in the communication department of the army (so, whenever there is an attack or anything she is the first to know about it and prepares the national public announcements and deals with the press). We also decided to eat lunch together, and walked up about 500 ft. (and 2 million steep stairs) to a street bustling with food options. Goldie and I had to take a break from conversation because the journey was steep and the heat and amount of steps took too much breath and energy to talk. Jacqueline and Masha (another Israeli who is 23 and a lawyer for the army) decided to accompany Jess, Goldie and I for lunch. We walked for a while and found a café, the Baghdad café, which had a good view. After reviewing the menu, Jess decided it was too expensive and was going to leave us and return (and settle) to where many others in our group ate. Goldie and I told her we were down to keep walking, so the three of us left Jacqueline and Masha and continued our quest to find a good and cheap lunch option. We arrived at a café called Art Café that was far superior to the first—it was pushed back from the street so was quiet and offered a beautiful and secluded view of the middle-east. We decided to share a hummus platter and salad for lunch, and I could not have imagined a better option. We spent our whole lunch hour (or hour and a half) getting to know each other—sharing intimate conversations about our love lives, life experiences, and thoughts and beliefs. The food was delicious and we were able to fill up all of our water bottles for free with cold water (on our way to the Mikvah however I noticed stations around Tzfat that said ‘cold water’ and people could fill up containers or drink from it for free). While Jess and I used the bathroom, Goldie bought some delicious and cold grapes. We then began our descent down the stairs. I fell and rolled my ankle because the stairs were made of slippery stone so after a moment of recuperation we all walked single file down the stairs holding onto the railing. Jess laughed at the gracefulness of my fall, and complimented me on catching myself so well (not at all in a malicious way). When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we found Mark and many others in the group. Someone (I forget who) had bought red grapes with seeds so I tried some of those. Matan (another Israeli who is an army officer of special communication) told me some dead baby jokes and someone (again I forget who, but maybe Kerry) told Jess in Hebrew that she had beautiful eyes (the Israeli men like to teach our boys cheesy Israeli pick-up lines in Hebrew). Anyway, once everyone was together we walked down to where the males and females would split ways for the Mikvah. The women went to the right up a slight hill overlooking (I believe) the oldest cemetery in Israel. (It just so happened to be some kind of coming together this particular night so many people from all over we’re traveling here). Mark says, if he’s not mistaken, he thinks it was the anniversary of the death of either Rabbi Karo or Rabbi Ari (maybe we can google this one…? I think I’ll just trust Mark!) The woman who runs the Mikvah brought us together and called us sisters. She led us into the mikvah which she called the woman’s best kept secret. The mikvah was in from the street and the building looked old and unassuming. Jacqueline and I were hoping that it would be air conditioned inside, but assumed it would not be. Luckily we were wrong. As we entered the Mikvah I was surprised by how nice it was—it looks like (and I guess is) a spa. Women can get a massage, or a manicure or pedicure there in addition to the cleansing bath. Inside we all sat down in a cool (temperature-wise) room with beautiful mosaic mirrors. We were offered cold water and the lady turned off the lights, put on relaxing music, and did breathing and stretching exercises with us to relax us. Then, she threw candy at us (following the traditions) and explained to us the significance of the Mikvah. Married women go once a month to cleanse themselves and make them pure again after their menstrual cycle. The entire husband-wife relationship revolves around the woman and her cycle. When the woman gets her period, she and her husband do not touch one another for a period of 10 days (5 days of bleeding, and the 7 days following the end of her cycle). During this time, sexual energy builds and on the night of the 12th day the woman goes to the Mikvah to cleanse herself, making herself pure again, and then returns home to reconnect with her husband. It is a mitzvah to have sex (be intimate) when she returns home, and it is the man’s duty to please his wife first and foremost. Not touching at all for so long seems really hard but I like the idea of giving each other time to physically miss each other and can see how following this would keep the relationship good. Maybe I will try it for a month, but probably not. She told us about her life in the United States, how she met her husband, and their courtship/marriage. She told us about her family and her children. She told us that men and women (orthodox) take classes on how to be intimate before their marriage so they will know what to do, and she now teaches them (she has been married for 16 years and has taught them for 15). She never used the word sex, only ‘intimate’. After a (too) brief period of questions and answers, it was finally time to explore the Mikvah. Each woman enters her own bathroom (there are 18 at this particular Mikvah) filled with everything they could possibly need to cleanse themselves—brushes, soaps, lotions, towels, robes—even crocks. They are pampered like prisons. Jacqueline jokingly said she didn’t realize that Jewish law commands women to go to the spa once a month. She told us the secret of the Mikvah (and, if you were there, I am sure you remember it), then lead us to the actual room. It is the only Mikvah in the state of Israel (and maybe the word) that has 3 different options for handicapped women. The actual Mikvah was like a very small pool. Women go and dunk themselves 3 or 7 times, following the tradition of what kind of Jew their mother was (so, if they marry the opposite Jew, they would follow their mother’s tradition). The process of the actual dunking is very fast and well-timed so that no woman sees another. After this we all took a survey on the quality of the presentation, then met back up with the boys. AJ, Kate and I had an interesting talk on the way to the bus. I wanted to sit next to her but my stuff was next to Eric’s already and he didn’t want to move, so we part ways. It ended up being ok though because I made him write about the day on the notepad that was provided to us the first day. It was now that we found out that him, Jesse, Jacqueline and Josephine all extended their trip for 10 days and would be staying with Kaela, Kerry and I! We drove to Tel Aviv and wrote for most of the 2-3 hour drive (in all honesty we talked a little bit too about what each other did at the Mikvah—all the guys got to go in the water (naked) and be cleansed. We got new roommates—I am now rooming with Goldie and Ariel—and checked into our next hotel, Armon Yam. The elevator was even smaller at this hotel, and Goldie and I and our luggage hardly fit into one elevator! Once we put our bags in our rooms I charged my camera and went down for dinner. Goldie, Mr. J., Matan and I all sat at the same dinner. The food was not as good as it was at Eden, but definitely more white. We had mashed potatoes and rice, chicken, green beans in a red sauce and then I tried a Turkish salad, a cabbage salad, and hummus (duh). After dinner we walked down the street we were staying at which was right across the street from the beach. It was beautiful out and we watched the sun set (although the sky was still very bright). We returned to our rooms and changed for our night out in Tel Aviv. Matan made arrangements for us all to go to Yaya club. I went to Jess’s room and talked and hung out with Jess, Lindsay and Anna before leaving. Anna and I sat next to each other on the back of the bus and talked about our love lives and what not. We got to the club and went out to a table on the balcony. Drinks were extremely expensive so a group of us left to go find somewhere cheaper to drink before returning to the club. All together there was me, Jess, Lindsay, Daniel, Brett, Masha, Adam, Ariel and Sharon (an Israeli student) on a mission to find drinks. We did and walked to an outdoor seating area to drink and talk. Then we returned to the club and danced. We had fun running into friends on the trip and dancing with different people. I requested Cinema (go figure) and the DJ literally played it 2 songs later—where’s that kind of service in America!?We left the club too early (everyone wanted to stay and dance) and boarded the bus around 12:30. I sat in the very front of the bus with Rabbi and we discussed partying and premarital sex and what the Torah says about it etc. When we got to the hotel everyone went to my room and we talked for a little bit, then I wandered downstairs to find Anna. She was next door with many of others from the trip at the pizza restaurant. Everyone ate their pizza on the curb (I had a couple of bites, it was good) and then everyone concocted a wild idea to go swim at the beach! Ariel and I went upstairs and changed, then went downstairs and crossed the street with others to play in the ocean. Many people were there so reference the pictures! The water was warm and felt good. It was my first time using my underwater camera in the water and it felt foreign to keep it around my arm as waves crashed down around it, but we took some pretty awesome pictures. I have never swam in saltier water. I could feel my skin drying and my lips, and it stung my eyes but it didn’t matter. It was awesome. We played for an hour at least and when I headed back to the room. I showered and got into bed, and was genuinely surprised when Ariel told me it was 3:52 am! We had to be on the bus (with all of our luggage, and having ate breakfast/filled up our water) by 8 as usual! We talked for a while and she told me that I fell asleep mid conversation on her! I was thoroughly exhausted but had had one of the most memorable nights I think yet!
Israel Day 3
Mark says today is the Galilie Panhand day—we are traveling to the finger of the Galilie. There are 3 springs that combine to form the Jordan river. Mark says that the springs are called the headwaters and they are a major source of water in Israel. The only reason Israel was granted the land that we are traveling on is Israel’s (and not Lebanon’s) is because a small group of people came in 1920 and purchased the land and stayed on it. And thus UN granted Israel the land. (this was all copied from Rabbi’s computer, I will integrate it later and add transitions…)
…after looking out the viewpoint, Zohar, Jesse, Jacqueline, Jess, Ryan and I hiked down to catch up with the rest of the group. We got to this beautiful spot that looked out over a small waterfall and greenery and beautifulness. . Literally it looked like a desktop background. It is unbelievable how beautiful this country and the world in general is. Being here, in such a holy land with so many wonderful people makes me so happy to be alive. The girls all stopped to take a ton of pictures (per usual) and Ryan climbed down to the water. It was hot (duh) and Jess wasn’t feeling well so we dipped her bandana in the water and then we walked a little bit farther to the end of the road. Rabbi was being interviewed by some camera crew but as soon as we got there it was impossible to check out what…we were at the bottom of the waterfall. Literally I cannot remember seeing anything more beautiful in my life—including all of the beautiful places I have hiked to in Tahoe and Nicaragua! Everyone took pictures with the waterfall as the background and enjoyed the scenery. The only way the experience could have been better was if we would have been allowed to swim and play in the crystal clear water. The same camera crew that was interviewing Rabbi Yaakov had us sing us the Boker Tov song on camera and we were filmed to be on some program. Yes, we definitely are already Israeli stars! After taking in the final breath-taking view, we hiked up a long staircase to where we were meeting the busses. I walked next to Rabbi and talked to him about how his wife is coming to Israel with Bella (his baby) and they will be staying for 2 weeks. It will be their first time in Israel together. When we reached the top of the mountain, we were able to look down on the hike we just took from the cactus waterfall view point, all the way down to the waterfall (and of course miles of country side; the amount of lush and undeveloped land everywhere is a constant reminder of our location). Some more pictures were taken and then we headed to the bathrooms/a snack bar and people got popsicles and what not before loading up onto the bus. Alexis made an announcement about how disappointed she was that no one would split the fries from the fry vending machine with her (and said that on her trip, that moment was ‘her moment’). From there we traveled to a mall in the city of Kiryat Shmona for lunch. The mall was clean and similar to an American mall, and pretty modern. We went to the second floor to a food court type place but there were only a couple of places to eat. I got a chicken wrap thing with all the Israeli fixings (seasoned onions, cabbage, hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes…all the veggies and toppings you see in the pictures). It was way too big to finish and honestly not very good at all, but I was hungry so ate the meat and picked at everything inside before throwing it out. I definitely destroyed it. Mr. J, who was super starving, wanted shwarma with a side of falafel. I told him it would be way too much food and he didn’t believe me until it was too late. Something interesting I have noticed about the eateries of Israel (at least the ones who sell this type of food) is that they have a counter with this friend bread or something (it’s very crunchy and pretty good but I have no idea what it is), olives, Israeli pickles, pickled carrots and cabbage stuff, and maybe some other stuff that people can take as much as they want of. People pick and snack on it in line…and it kills me because I don’t think any of their hands are clean. Anyway, after lunch Mike and I headed downstairs (to leave) and Mike had just bought French fries and so was in search of salt. We saw our fellow trip mates in Aroma’s coffee (Israel’s Starbucks) and decided to stop in and get salt. Kaela and others had purchased their famous iced coffee and I tried some. It is truly excellent—like blended coffee and sweet. For the heat, it is perfect and I understand why it’s so famous. Anyway, Mike’s fries were good—just like American fries, but they were way too hot and I laughed at him as he rapidly ate them while mildly burning his tongue. We all loaded up on the bus and headed to the boarder of Lebanon to the Misgav Am Kibbutz. It is a both a Kibbutz that was established in 1945, as well as an Israeli army base due to its prime location. Literally the only thing separating us from Lebanon (a country Israel is NOT at peace with) —Syria, Israel and Lebanon. Apparently on a clear day you can even see ships in the Mediterranean sea in the far distance. Unfortunately today it is too humid so it looks as though everything is smoggy. I never knew that the moisture from humidity made the sky hazy as though we were in LA. We all sat down and listened to Aryeh Ben-Yaakov tell us about his life and experience. He was from Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Israel some time ago. He served in the army, and then moved’ to the Kibbutz where he has lived ever since as a farmer and serving his country. He was one of the bluntest men I have ever known. He openly shared his opinions and beliefs regarding Judaism, the war, Muslims, life on the Kibbutz, and his war experience in a very non-politically correct manner. His experiences in war (he has many) has hardened him to a degree that makes him non-relatable; however, his insights and knowledge are both intriguing and insightful. Perhaps the most memorable thing I took from his speech is that as a Jew, Israel is my homeland. While I have no intentions on moving to Israel, nor serving in the army, I enjoy being in a place where everyone is Jewish. There is just an instant connection and understanding between Jews that you don’t share with anyone else. I have always known and loved this about being with Jews (at temple, at Jew camp, etc.), but an entire country of it is just remarkable. It’s a spiritual experience to share such an ancient and historical thing in common…I don’t know how to put it into words so I think I have to stop talking about it as my words do not do it justice. After he finished talking Brittany, AJ and I went to explore a little. We met another American who moved to Israel and he answered all the questions we had about the Kibbutz, told us about what becoming publicized was like (it used to be a privatized kibbutz), and told us about how Syrians once broke in and took children in the children’s quarter hostage, and killed one child. We talked to him until it was time to go, then all loaded onto the bus and headed for the river. Both sides of the bus are green and lush. Small trees growing oranges or apricots and tons of summer fruits and cotton fields surround us. It is hard to believe that at one time (50 or 60 years ago) this land was all swamp land, but Mark insists it is so. The area is the #1 recreation area in Israel, filled with a ton of hiking and rafting and camping opportunities. I noticed that the homes in the land we are driving through is very flat, and asked Mark why. He said that this is because the area (after it was de-swamped) was originally filled with agricultural homes, which could be spread out. However more modern kibutsim and moshom are more space conscious. There is always a reason for everything. Anyway, we are on our way to rafting. When we arrive everyone changes and puts on their water shoes. There are 6 people per boat, so everyone breaks up and gets into groups. Rafting was absolutely awesome. Mike was the self-proclaimed captain of the raft (and yes, I argued about this as soon as he said it), and took the rear. Alexis, Ariel and Lindsay were in the middle, and Anna and I were in the front. I took the second paddle up front and Mike and I were a good team. It was a whole lot of fun! There were hardly any rapids unfortunately, but it was a great trip all the same. The whole ride was about an hour and a half, but we were intensely paddling and navigating for some of it, so it could have taken longer. We were the last group out, but one of the first back (I believe we were the 3rd or 4th group back). The Jersey boys were first, but it was just them four in the boat and they are all pretty strong and capable…one or two other groups took the first bus home with them, and we were the first group to arrive back out of the people taking the second (and last) bus home. (That all sounds really confusing but I think it should make sense). Anyway, we passed a really cool rope swing I would have liked to play on, but it was almost immediately after the ride started and we didn’t think to stop. We passed some other groups and saw that Violet had fallen out of the raft and hurt herself. Their group was waiting on the side of the river waiting for one of the workers to come and rescue her. The river was not too crowded. Every now and again you would see people BBQing, camping, fishing, playing music, or hanging out on the side of the river (families mostly). There were also many people kayaking and stuff. We ran into the edges of the river bank a few times, and there were branches that stuck out and hit us in the face and scratched us if we didn’t duck. Once we ran into a wall with thorns—ouch, that hurt! We docked on a rocky shore for a few minutes with a few other boats from our group. Some of the braver people (me, Mike, and many of the boys) swam in the water and let the current take us downstream before swimming back to the bank. We stayed for 10 or so minutes then resumed the course. About ½ of the way through we decided to stop intensely paddling and let the river take us (this was also to stretch out our time on the river). I was having fun paddling and making our boat go where I wanted it to, but I also enjoyed slowing drifting down the river peacefully. At points there was no one around and you could only hear and see nature all around you. Anyway, about ¾ of the way saw a sign (in Hebrew) and thought the end was near. We passed a different organization’s end point and started wondering about where we would end and how we would know (as none of us spoke Hebrew). Finally and all of the sudden, some seemingly random Israeli grabbed our raft from the water and told us it was the end of the line. Since the place had our life-vests hanging and the same color oars, we believed them and went to wait for the bus. While waiting we saw a really cool but that looks like a large (defected) ladybug. My photo doesn’t do it justice. Anyway, I sat next to Josephine on the bus. We talked about how amazing the raft ride was, and the hikes in general have been, and she invited me to come visit her in Bolder to see how beautiful and awesome it is there. When we got back to our bus, everyone changed and got back on board to head back to our hotel for the last night. I think it is an understatement to say everyone was exhausted. I sat next to Shawn on the bus, and we talked about many things—school, his job, the Jersey shore, our experiences in Israel thus far…and then he asked me to read him my journal (which I did). The bus ride was about an hour, and we did not sleep on it although we were physically and mentally ready to pass out (in addition to being pretty hungry). We enjoyed our descent from the mountain, as it provides a beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee and we could see the area in which we were staying. Once back at the hotel, everyone had time to shower before dinner. Dinner was pretty similar to the past night—buffet style again in the hotel dining room. I tried everything again (except if I had tried it before and disliked it). I had hummus, carrot and cabbage salads, rice with peas, schnitzel (it was very good) and check picture. I sat with Jesse, Mike, and Eric. After dinner, everyone sluggishly dragged themselves downstairs to where we were the first night at the spider web activity. A woman who we had never met came to show us Israeli films and talk to us about how Israel is portrayed through its cinema. While American cinema is very unrealistic, Israel films have moved towards a realistic and thus not necessarily uplifting approach that documents what goes on in the Israeli army etc. She said that this helps remind the country of what it does etc. on a day to day basis. If they want an escape, they go to see an American movie. I thought of Meredith while I wasn’t passing out. I felt terrible but all around me everyone was nodding off and catching themselves, temporarily waking themselves up, and then nodding off again—a vicious cycle. In our defense, our bodies were past exhausted, it was at least 9:30 if not 10 at night (our bus left at 8 so we had all been up since about 7), and we were in a dark room watching movies in Hebrew with English subtitles. My mom would have liked the movie The Syrian Bride (one of the clips we watched). Maybe I will rent it at home. The woman had prepared a much longer presentation and had hoped for a more enthusiastic discussion, but let us go after watching 4 (of about 10) clips. We still had to pack before we could sleep. I was cranky. I packed as quickly as possible and talked with Alexis, and Kaela. Jesse and Eric who wanted to extend their trip were in and out of our room for a while, but Israel’s Delta line (which they needed to call) was open from 9-5, so they parted ways and will have to do it on the bus tomorrow. The bus leaves at 8 am tomorrow…
Israel Day 2
will update post later
Israel Day 1
will update later
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