Today is the last day of work and yesterday was last of class, crazy how things like this go by so fast.
But last weekend a couple of us decided to go up to the north to see the christian sites and a few other things that we are not covering on the Northern Israel tour next week. Instead of busses this time we rented a car- which is a great feeling being able to drive again. First day we went to Mt. Megido(site of armageddon) over to Mt. Tabor (Mt. of transfiguration) beautiful views of the surrounding with alot of turn to get up and very steep arab city below. Then out to Kibbutz Degania (first Kibbutz and also site of important battle during the war of independence, and finished the day out on the East side of the Kinneret(Sea of Galillee) where we slept on the beach in sleeping bags and also went for a late night swim under the stars in the waves.
The next day we went to alot of churches -Tibga/bread and fish church, capernum (sat on shore for a while also), orthodox capernum, Up to the Mt of beattitudes-amazing view of the sea of galilee. After lunch on the shore near Tiberius went to Nazareth and saw many more churches-Basilica of Annunciation (huge orthodox church, very impressive), Orthodox church of annunciation, church of adolescent jesus, sisters convent, synagog church, st josephs church and marys well. It might sound like alot, but the city is very small just like the rest of jerusalem. It was interesting to see the differnt culture of the north which is primarily christian and arabs and not seeing a single kippah for the trip made it feel like it was almost not a part of the israel i have experienced before. Since we still had time we went out to visit Mt. Gilboa-on the boarder of the west bank and apparently where saul and david died in battle-with a outlook tour of the west bank and finished up eating good food up near there.
On tues we visited the Diaspora museum in Tel Aviv then had free time afterwards where we ended up going to a mexican restaurant-ive been craving mexican-and it was alright i guess for israel, but didnt satisfy the craving, looking forward to green chili back in NM.
Yesterday on a kinda sporadic trip, 5 of us went with a guy from the next door kibbutz who wanted to take a group down to see Sderot. If you dont know Sderot is about a mile from gaza and has been hit the hardest during this fighting. It is very evident when walking through the city with filled in rocket holes on the street and a bomb shelter on every street corner and all the building are built like bomb shelters. The town itself felt so strange with hardly any activity for a city its size and just thinking how these people have to live with the fear of a rocket attack at anytime-there are still a few a month. Another disturbing thing is when going by any of the playgrounds, bomb shelters are built next to and part of the playground itself. Definitly worth spending the hour there and taking 6 hrs of busses there and back.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
So last week, week of July 29th, I had planned on skipping the Aliya (jewish options for moving to israel) but was forced to go anyway even though the trip had no bearing on me whatsoever. But i went anyway and tried at first to have a good attitude but that started to fail by the end of the trip. During this day trip we went to two colleges, Hertelia and Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mt. Scopus (which was really beautiful) and then went on to a lecture on Aliya down in Jerusalem. Afterward we had a little free time in Jerusalem to shop, so the time was at least partially enjoyable, and i ended up going to Nazareth this weekend anyway, which in the details we figured out worked much better than our original plans would have worked.
The next day there was a seminar on Jewish Identity. It was a lady who was super orthodox-you would have to ask me about the experience, hard to describe, but very zealous about jewdaism, which even though she was extreme her base values were actually close, but still she was pretty far out there. After that shocking conversation with her, it turned out she was an actor and also showed how the life style and thinking of a jewish woman that lived in a settlement in the West bank, a liberal kibbutz member, abnd an arab christian. After our initial shock wore off it was very interesting to learn about these different peoples identities in jedaism expressed in israel.
That shabbat Annie and i endedup traveling out to netanya in the morning since we had heard about a messianic congregation there and would be interesting to visit. It took a bit of time with the cab to get there, but we were eventually dropped off right by a group from holland that was visiting the same church also, so that was a blessing having found it fairly easily. It was interesting the music being in hebrew and trying to read along in hebrew, but they also had the wordsspelled out in eglish as to follow along easier, and the repition in the songs helped with trying to read the hebrew. The teaching for the day was on what the temple meant to us, since the 9th of Av had just been observed by the jews (fasting in memory of the destruction of the temples and other events taht happened on that day. Afterward we were trying to figure out how to get back since we were stuck in S. Netanya away from everywhere, when an older gentlman endedup coming and talking to us and volunteering to drive us up to the main beach. NOt only did he and his wife do that but they took us out to lunch, and got to hear how they had ended up in israel since neither of them were jewish and both from the states. After that we spent pretty much the day on the beach, and when the busses started running we headed back. That night i started to knit a hat, which i actually finished the next night, i was pretty excited about that.
Durign this last week the ulpan went on a day trip to tel-aviv to visit the old and new city. We started off in joffa and heard about the culture from turkish ruling times to more modern israel before tel-aviv was built. There was always a feud between the christian and muslims on who dominated the skyline so the minaret had been built higher many times as well as the belltower on the church. Also dont trust a jewish tourguide on christian facts, they always get things messedup, but did look up what peter did did in the city and the church is there in memory of him having his vision about eating unclean food. Even though we werent alowed in the churhc we snuck in anyways. After Joffa, we traveled towards the city and went the the jewish settlement in the middle and then eventually worked our way to independence hall to hear about the starting of the state of israel.
The free time was very interesting, Instead of going and shopping with everyone else, Annie and i went to meet up with an old lady that she had met on the beach in tel aviv the first day she was here. It was an experience getting to the ladies house, but people are very hospitable in israel, and the man that ended up giving us direction also invited us in his shop and got us something to drink. After we arrived at the ladies house (80yr old holocaust survivor) we had only 45min to talk to her, but it was amazing hearing about the holocaust and seeing pictures of her family before and after and the things she brought back from the camp. Really interestign story, almost got shipped to Auswitz a couple times but barely was turned back. She was amazing to listen to and was still full of energy. She has written a book, that is being translated, and hopefully she will send us a digital copy so that we can learn more about her story.
The next day there was a seminar on Jewish Identity. It was a lady who was super orthodox-you would have to ask me about the experience, hard to describe, but very zealous about jewdaism, which even though she was extreme her base values were actually close, but still she was pretty far out there. After that shocking conversation with her, it turned out she was an actor and also showed how the life style and thinking of a jewish woman that lived in a settlement in the West bank, a liberal kibbutz member, abnd an arab christian. After our initial shock wore off it was very interesting to learn about these different peoples identities in jedaism expressed in israel.
That shabbat Annie and i endedup traveling out to netanya in the morning since we had heard about a messianic congregation there and would be interesting to visit. It took a bit of time with the cab to get there, but we were eventually dropped off right by a group from holland that was visiting the same church also, so that was a blessing having found it fairly easily. It was interesting the music being in hebrew and trying to read along in hebrew, but they also had the wordsspelled out in eglish as to follow along easier, and the repition in the songs helped with trying to read the hebrew. The teaching for the day was on what the temple meant to us, since the 9th of Av had just been observed by the jews (fasting in memory of the destruction of the temples and other events taht happened on that day. Afterward we were trying to figure out how to get back since we were stuck in S. Netanya away from everywhere, when an older gentlman endedup coming and talking to us and volunteering to drive us up to the main beach. NOt only did he and his wife do that but they took us out to lunch, and got to hear how they had ended up in israel since neither of them were jewish and both from the states. After that we spent pretty much the day on the beach, and when the busses started running we headed back. That night i started to knit a hat, which i actually finished the next night, i was pretty excited about that.
Durign this last week the ulpan went on a day trip to tel-aviv to visit the old and new city. We started off in joffa and heard about the culture from turkish ruling times to more modern israel before tel-aviv was built. There was always a feud between the christian and muslims on who dominated the skyline so the minaret had been built higher many times as well as the belltower on the church. Also dont trust a jewish tourguide on christian facts, they always get things messedup, but did look up what peter did did in the city and the church is there in memory of him having his vision about eating unclean food. Even though we werent alowed in the churhc we snuck in anyways. After Joffa, we traveled towards the city and went the the jewish settlement in the middle and then eventually worked our way to independence hall to hear about the starting of the state of israel.
The free time was very interesting, Instead of going and shopping with everyone else, Annie and i went to meet up with an old lady that she had met on the beach in tel aviv the first day she was here. It was an experience getting to the ladies house, but people are very hospitable in israel, and the man that ended up giving us direction also invited us in his shop and got us something to drink. After we arrived at the ladies house (80yr old holocaust survivor) we had only 45min to talk to her, but it was amazing hearing about the holocaust and seeing pictures of her family before and after and the things she brought back from the camp. Really interestign story, almost got shipped to Auswitz a couple times but barely was turned back. She was amazing to listen to and was still full of energy. She has written a book, that is being translated, and hopefully she will send us a digital copy so that we can learn more about her story.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The south trip was now a while ago, so im finally getting to it.
On the first day we went to some ruins, im bad and dont remember exactly where they were, and also visited caves taht had been quarried out and lived in. Also we visited the place where a fortress usually was on a hill to the west of Jerusalem, the only real way to go from the sea to Jerusalem. That night we ended up staying at a bedouin camp and learning a bit about their culture, and hospitality-where visitors are very welcome-they have great coffee and tea and ways of preparing it. In the afternoon we went on a camel and donkey ride up to a viewpoint where we could see quite a bit of israel, and took the bus back down to the bedouin village. Since i wrote about dinner before, i neednt remind you, but the dinner there was an actual feast, with lamb and chicken rice pita, and all you could eat-probably the best/fullest meal i have had here in israel.
Breakfast in the morning would also count as a real meal with eggs, and of course a couple cups of the bedouin tea. That day we were able to travel up to Mesada, but were in a rush since we were unable to head down the opposite side-snake path- and thus had a shortened tour-but the fortress itself was very impressive with its view over the dead sea. After this we went to the Ein Gedi-possibly one of the most beautiful places to hike in all of israel, with a stream and a small waterfalll at the end of the hike. HIking and swimming in the water on the way up was nice, with the constant heat of the day. The dead sea was the last stop of the day, and it was an experience floating on the dead sea. How hard it is to try and not fload, and then piling rocks on a friend to see how many it would take to make him sink. Also i had cut open my elbow the day before so the very warm salty water was great fun in there. The hostile we stayed in that night was a short drive and had a beautiful view over the dead sea facing east.
Because of the beautiful view, i decided to get up at 530ish in the morning to take pictures of the sunrise-which was a view to behold-but sleep might have been nice also. In the morning we went on a short hike through some canyons and saw a spot where the second rambo film was shot. Yehudit had been there when it was filmed and made them stop while thye toured the canyon apparently on th trip a long time ago. After this we visited Timna Park-a place where egyptians mined for copper. We ended the day with a jeep tour of the southern mountains and then a free night in Eilat.
The last day we went snorkling in Eilat in the morning and then quickly took off to see a crater in the north on the way back to the kibbutz. Me and a couple others were dropped off afterwards in Be'er Sheva to make our way to Jerusalem for thurs-sat. That night after some much needed nourishment and finding a hostel near the joffa gate, we started to wander the old city. A couple times we tagged along with tour groups for the fun of it even though they were not in english, it was still entertaining. Ended up of course near the western wall which was quite empty and then visited the bazzar on Joffa street, where there was a small band playing mexican music and i ended up doing some salsa dancing, didnt end so well but figured i could make a fool of myself in a foreign country. The hostel we stayed in was alright, the only iffy thing was the shower, where it was in the same rooom as the toilet and sprayed from waist height onto the toilet, good adventures always showering.
In the mornign after the hostile 'breakfast' we went to another place for a little more food. And we saw bacon on the list, so of course had to order it. It was raw bacon served with lettuce, olives, and tomatoe. Guess i learned my lesson about trying to get bacon in israel, but i ate it anyway. Throughout the day we wandered through the different quarter-and ended up in the 'first church' with the upper room(actually 2 stories below) in here they had a middleages style painting of Jesus that was actually painted by Luke-the only one to have the real face of jesus and mary. The lady that let us in was really sweet and told us all about the recent miricle done-healing cancer, speaking in tounges to a man who spoke russian, and the most recent visitatin of jesus, about 6 months ago. We ended up at one shop twice in the christian quarter and the man was a bedouin, and made us tea and we had the chance to talk to him for a while, also he made some earings for Anne for free, it was interesting seeing the bedouin hospitality mentioned above in practice still in the city although they do it also to try and sell you more stuff.
To make my dad proud, we visited the bethseda pool, marys birthplace(which was cool and 2 stories underground) church at the second station, herods gate,lions gate, damascus gate, then went over to the mt of olives, garden of gethsemanae, and there saw many churches including the Basilica of Agony, Dominus Fleavit(great view of the old city/dome), up to the top of the mt of olives to dome of ascention(not worth seeign and too a while to get to) before heading back and meeting up with the rest of our group at the western wall for shabbat. The Western wall on shabbat wasnt as crowed as i would have figured, but was a scene to behold.
Still we had another day visiting the Church of the HOly sepluchure(wasnt great since lots of people taking and taking pictures) enjoyed the garden tomb way better that we went to later on which was very scerene and also said it was only a place where Jesus could have been killed on one side then buried on the other, but was there to at least give a visual of what it was like-i appreciated it alot that there was that disclaimer. After this we treked across jerusalem to the newer part and went by the great temple and lower hebrew university campus for adam, and made our way to the Israel museum to see some dead sea scrolls and their other exhibits which werent that exciting to me, but there was a mask display-ah the story of the first mask, good stuff.
SInce it was shabbat it took a few hours to find food, but ended up a a little place where i got some good turkish coffee(for some reason i was craving it) and pork ribs in bbq sauce. The busses started running at 9 so we made our way back to the kibbutz after that, and a very nice man helped us out by interpreting with a lady on what stop we needed to make, most people look out for each other very well in israel and are always willing to help even though they are a very loud culture.
On the first day we went to some ruins, im bad and dont remember exactly where they were, and also visited caves taht had been quarried out and lived in. Also we visited the place where a fortress usually was on a hill to the west of Jerusalem, the only real way to go from the sea to Jerusalem. That night we ended up staying at a bedouin camp and learning a bit about their culture, and hospitality-where visitors are very welcome-they have great coffee and tea and ways of preparing it. In the afternoon we went on a camel and donkey ride up to a viewpoint where we could see quite a bit of israel, and took the bus back down to the bedouin village. Since i wrote about dinner before, i neednt remind you, but the dinner there was an actual feast, with lamb and chicken rice pita, and all you could eat-probably the best/fullest meal i have had here in israel.
Breakfast in the morning would also count as a real meal with eggs, and of course a couple cups of the bedouin tea. That day we were able to travel up to Mesada, but were in a rush since we were unable to head down the opposite side-snake path- and thus had a shortened tour-but the fortress itself was very impressive with its view over the dead sea. After this we went to the Ein Gedi-possibly one of the most beautiful places to hike in all of israel, with a stream and a small waterfalll at the end of the hike. HIking and swimming in the water on the way up was nice, with the constant heat of the day. The dead sea was the last stop of the day, and it was an experience floating on the dead sea. How hard it is to try and not fload, and then piling rocks on a friend to see how many it would take to make him sink. Also i had cut open my elbow the day before so the very warm salty water was great fun in there. The hostile we stayed in that night was a short drive and had a beautiful view over the dead sea facing east.
Because of the beautiful view, i decided to get up at 530ish in the morning to take pictures of the sunrise-which was a view to behold-but sleep might have been nice also. In the morning we went on a short hike through some canyons and saw a spot where the second rambo film was shot. Yehudit had been there when it was filmed and made them stop while thye toured the canyon apparently on th trip a long time ago. After this we visited Timna Park-a place where egyptians mined for copper. We ended the day with a jeep tour of the southern mountains and then a free night in Eilat.
The last day we went snorkling in Eilat in the morning and then quickly took off to see a crater in the north on the way back to the kibbutz. Me and a couple others were dropped off afterwards in Be'er Sheva to make our way to Jerusalem for thurs-sat. That night after some much needed nourishment and finding a hostel near the joffa gate, we started to wander the old city. A couple times we tagged along with tour groups for the fun of it even though they were not in english, it was still entertaining. Ended up of course near the western wall which was quite empty and then visited the bazzar on Joffa street, where there was a small band playing mexican music and i ended up doing some salsa dancing, didnt end so well but figured i could make a fool of myself in a foreign country. The hostel we stayed in was alright, the only iffy thing was the shower, where it was in the same rooom as the toilet and sprayed from waist height onto the toilet, good adventures always showering.
In the mornign after the hostile 'breakfast' we went to another place for a little more food. And we saw bacon on the list, so of course had to order it. It was raw bacon served with lettuce, olives, and tomatoe. Guess i learned my lesson about trying to get bacon in israel, but i ate it anyway. Throughout the day we wandered through the different quarter-and ended up in the 'first church' with the upper room(actually 2 stories below) in here they had a middleages style painting of Jesus that was actually painted by Luke-the only one to have the real face of jesus and mary. The lady that let us in was really sweet and told us all about the recent miricle done-healing cancer, speaking in tounges to a man who spoke russian, and the most recent visitatin of jesus, about 6 months ago. We ended up at one shop twice in the christian quarter and the man was a bedouin, and made us tea and we had the chance to talk to him for a while, also he made some earings for Anne for free, it was interesting seeing the bedouin hospitality mentioned above in practice still in the city although they do it also to try and sell you more stuff.
To make my dad proud, we visited the bethseda pool, marys birthplace(which was cool and 2 stories underground) church at the second station, herods gate,lions gate, damascus gate, then went over to the mt of olives, garden of gethsemanae, and there saw many churches including the Basilica of Agony, Dominus Fleavit(great view of the old city/dome), up to the top of the mt of olives to dome of ascention(not worth seeign and too a while to get to) before heading back and meeting up with the rest of our group at the western wall for shabbat. The Western wall on shabbat wasnt as crowed as i would have figured, but was a scene to behold.
Still we had another day visiting the Church of the HOly sepluchure(wasnt great since lots of people taking and taking pictures) enjoyed the garden tomb way better that we went to later on which was very scerene and also said it was only a place where Jesus could have been killed on one side then buried on the other, but was there to at least give a visual of what it was like-i appreciated it alot that there was that disclaimer. After this we treked across jerusalem to the newer part and went by the great temple and lower hebrew university campus for adam, and made our way to the Israel museum to see some dead sea scrolls and their other exhibits which werent that exciting to me, but there was a mask display-ah the story of the first mask, good stuff.
SInce it was shabbat it took a few hours to find food, but ended up a a little place where i got some good turkish coffee(for some reason i was craving it) and pork ribs in bbq sauce. The busses started running at 9 so we made our way back to the kibbutz after that, and a very nice man helped us out by interpreting with a lady on what stop we needed to make, most people look out for each other very well in israel and are always willing to help even though they are a very loud culture.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
So i figured i would write abit about the kibbutz life since i have been her for a bit now. Might have time later to write about the adventures i have been having (bacon in jerusalem, etc).
So the kibbutz is a communal lifestyle where the people are actually paid now and have to pay somewhat for food and lodging. Everything is very community oriented and open for people to travel between houses and lunch is served in a large mess hall and everyone eats that one meal there throughout there day, and for their entire lives. The kibbutz itself is not at all religious, and some people even end up working on shabbat-example fish ponds everyonce in a while. The other week when i went to the neighborhood synagog with some of my friends from the kibbutz. There were very few people there, the 6 of us mad up half the congregation, and i assume they were from the community not the kibbutz. There is a large degree of separation between the jews in israel. Most the ulpan kids are jewish by ethnicity only, and a few religious, and the rest of the nation seems to be like that, with the jews being at either one end of the spectrum-orthodox, or the opposite-nonreligious. I always thought before most were middle ground and had some religion in their life, but most are secular even though they love and live in the holy land. Back to the synagog-it was an interesting service, all in hebrew so i didnt know much what was going on, but Josh (referred to as jewish josh here since there are 4 joshes and he is the religious one) kinda told me what was going on, and i tried as best i could to follow along in the reading in hebrew. There was quite a bit of individual prayer along with the recitation and singing of psalms in hebrew. The singing of psalms was different, but i enjoyed it, kind of like the difference between more modern worship and hymns, but even before that. It was interesting to see how they welcomed in shabbat by actually physically moving. First time in synagog-israel, good experience.
So back to kibbutz life since that is what i actually wanted to let you know about. Like i said the work is 6-7 full day a week for people on the kibbutz but since we are ulpan we do 6ish hrs a day everyother day but shabbat and trips. The main source of income for the kibbutz is the fish and a nice garden where they have wedding-no one is allowed inside so i have not seen it . Other jobs that we do include gardening around the kibbutz 6am-12 normal stuff, working in the kitchen/diningroom/dishes, picking fruit in the citrus plantation, foodshop, and working with the fish (guys only in ponds and shop). I have been very lucky so far and have had to do gardening twice-raking dirt for 6 hrs twice and then have been on fish since then.
In the fishponds we go out and take a massive net and circle the pond to bring in the fish, which are then sucked up and sorted on the top of a machine. THis is the most physical work there is but usually it is not too bad sicne it is around water the entire time and rather cool. We also deliver the fish to the fish shop. Usually we have a machine that pulls in the nets, but this morning since we were doing a smaller pond, we had to pulll the nets in by hand, and that is alot of work pulling in full nets of fish-reminded me of the disciples fishing when there nets were about to break. I really enjoy this work because it doing something all the time wheras in the garden we slack off quite a bit. Also the coordinator of ulpan activities works there-ahron-so have gotten to know him quite well.
I have worked at the fish shop once so far and our basic job is to kill the fish with a mallet and then scale them-later gutted by others. This was on friday getting all the orders ready for shabbat. This is also probably one of the better jobs on the kibbutz.
Back to food about all three meals. Breakfast is very small with maybe a small bowl of cereal and some bread and if we are lucky a hard boiled egg. Lunch is the big meal of the day like before and is the only time we actually have the option of eating meat. At first i thought i would get sick of constant snitzel, but i always look forward to it after the breakfast and after work or class. dinner is pretty bad with not much more than breakfast, so we end up going out to the mall alot to either actually eat something or just a snack. But one great thing about israel is the unlimited hummus availible at every meal-im going to miss that alot.
So thats pretty much the kibbutz life.
So the kibbutz is a communal lifestyle where the people are actually paid now and have to pay somewhat for food and lodging. Everything is very community oriented and open for people to travel between houses and lunch is served in a large mess hall and everyone eats that one meal there throughout there day, and for their entire lives. The kibbutz itself is not at all religious, and some people even end up working on shabbat-example fish ponds everyonce in a while. The other week when i went to the neighborhood synagog with some of my friends from the kibbutz. There were very few people there, the 6 of us mad up half the congregation, and i assume they were from the community not the kibbutz. There is a large degree of separation between the jews in israel. Most the ulpan kids are jewish by ethnicity only, and a few religious, and the rest of the nation seems to be like that, with the jews being at either one end of the spectrum-orthodox, or the opposite-nonreligious. I always thought before most were middle ground and had some religion in their life, but most are secular even though they love and live in the holy land. Back to the synagog-it was an interesting service, all in hebrew so i didnt know much what was going on, but Josh (referred to as jewish josh here since there are 4 joshes and he is the religious one) kinda told me what was going on, and i tried as best i could to follow along in the reading in hebrew. There was quite a bit of individual prayer along with the recitation and singing of psalms in hebrew. The singing of psalms was different, but i enjoyed it, kind of like the difference between more modern worship and hymns, but even before that. It was interesting to see how they welcomed in shabbat by actually physically moving. First time in synagog-israel, good experience.
So back to kibbutz life since that is what i actually wanted to let you know about. Like i said the work is 6-7 full day a week for people on the kibbutz but since we are ulpan we do 6ish hrs a day everyother day but shabbat and trips. The main source of income for the kibbutz is the fish and a nice garden where they have wedding-no one is allowed inside so i have not seen it . Other jobs that we do include gardening around the kibbutz 6am-12 normal stuff, working in the kitchen/diningroom/dishes, picking fruit in the citrus plantation, foodshop, and working with the fish (guys only in ponds and shop). I have been very lucky so far and have had to do gardening twice-raking dirt for 6 hrs twice and then have been on fish since then.
In the fishponds we go out and take a massive net and circle the pond to bring in the fish, which are then sucked up and sorted on the top of a machine. THis is the most physical work there is but usually it is not too bad sicne it is around water the entire time and rather cool. We also deliver the fish to the fish shop. Usually we have a machine that pulls in the nets, but this morning since we were doing a smaller pond, we had to pulll the nets in by hand, and that is alot of work pulling in full nets of fish-reminded me of the disciples fishing when there nets were about to break. I really enjoy this work because it doing something all the time wheras in the garden we slack off quite a bit. Also the coordinator of ulpan activities works there-ahron-so have gotten to know him quite well.
I have worked at the fish shop once so far and our basic job is to kill the fish with a mallet and then scale them-later gutted by others. This was on friday getting all the orders ready for shabbat. This is also probably one of the better jobs on the kibbutz.
Back to food about all three meals. Breakfast is very small with maybe a small bowl of cereal and some bread and if we are lucky a hard boiled egg. Lunch is the big meal of the day like before and is the only time we actually have the option of eating meat. At first i thought i would get sick of constant snitzel, but i always look forward to it after the breakfast and after work or class. dinner is pretty bad with not much more than breakfast, so we end up going out to the mall alot to either actually eat something or just a snack. But one great thing about israel is the unlimited hummus availible at every meal-im going to miss that alot.
So thats pretty much the kibbutz life.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
So last weekend i went up to Haifa with a couple of friends from the kibbutz (Ron-holland, berti-turkey, gal-U.S., Jenny-UK, Annie-U.S) to spend fri afternoon through shabat there. It is crazy how fast you get to know people since with these people i felt like i had known them alot longer than less than a week. The trip was really good taking busses up north and finding a fairly cheap hostel with a room to fit the 6 of us. We ended up at one on the side of Mt carmel with a great view of the sea. We got practically no sleep but traveled everyside of haifa during our time through taxi services. Highligts of the trip were going to a festival we happend upon the first day, seeing the BaHai gardens the second day, riding a merri-go-round at the zoo (annie and i tried to buy tickets just for that, but ended up buying tickets for the whole zoo, so we spent some time wandering around the zoo while the others checked out the town some more). While trying to get back on shabbat most busses are shut down so we tried taxis and service shuttles, but ended up getting to the wrong side of town away from the station, and hung out at an empty mall for a while-looked like the perfect setting for a horror movie with 6 college aged kids in an empty mall. We ended up splitting up and a couple went back to the kibbutz via service taxi and the rest of us found our way to the beach for the rest of the afternoon untill shabbat ended and we could take a bus back to the kibbutz. During my time here i have actually had quite a few religion discussions and one of those again popped up on the beach with some of bertis friends who we ended up hanging out with that were going to the university in Haifa.
Also last week went on a day trip of Jerusalem-which is really nothng. On the way down the other cristian-annie showed me the passage in psalm 22 about the prophesies of the messiah, which was amazing to read through right before ascending up to Jerusalem. GOt to visit the old city and the walls around the old temple including the western wall. Could write a ton about this but it was really cool getting to see all of it, but in a way t seemed slighty empty just praying to and through the wall, but still being that close to the holy of holies was an experience of its own. Wish that i could have gone on my own pace through this part, but was rushed a little with the tourgroup going through and trying to see alot in that one day. Also i fullfilled one of my lifelong dreams-keep one of the free paper kippahs from the western wall.
After that tour we went to the holocause museum area, which included many different museums and memorials. During this time i spent 2.5 hours in the main museum which i only really saw in detail about a third of it and the rest in the last half hour. It is very large and helped show the actual size of the holocause through its size. Marc from UK this was his third time there and he spend the entire time also in the museum and still wanted to come back again since he hadnt seen all of it yet. The museum itself starts off on a dark end and gradually get light to see the end of the tunnel which is a majestic overlook. The last room is a rememberance room which has names of holocaust victims in a large circular room-with a reflective well in the center. THis room hit me hard after visiting the rest of the museum and realizing alot more the scope of the holocause.
We also got to hear about Yehudit-the ulpan organizers parents holocaust story from her along with other stories from survivors. The other memorial we went to was the childrens memorial which was a dark circualr room with alot of small lights in the darkness with a constant soundtrack of all of the names of the children on a constant loop.
If this day wasnt long enough already we got on the bus and went to the opening cerimonies of the Maccabiah games-basically the jewish olympics meant to bring the jewish comunity together. I was surprised about the security since it was not that much, just like normal checkpoints. During the ceremony the president- Simon Peres and Prime minister- Benjamin Netanyahu both spoke, which was really cool getting to see them both speak during my time here in israel.
The other day after work went to Ceasarea with annie and jonah-its great how small the country is where you can leave after work at 2 to visit a site for the rest of the day and annie always wants to go see biblical places also so we are basically travel companions all the time. During this trip the buses somehow worked out perfectly, less than 5 min wait for any of the connecting busses and didnt miss the last bus out of ceasarea. This trip we got to see alot in ceasarea-the port paul sailed from when he appealed to ceasar in acts. Saw the circus where there were chariot races and where gladiators and christians were killed, aqueaducts, and the roman theatre-which was being set up for a concert-it looked over the sea and that would be awesome to see a hard rock concert there. Had sushi on the outcropping of the harbor-so much better than kibbutz dinners.
We got back just in time for the pub night on the kibbutz where we got to know some other people our age better and i talked to the organiser of our ulpan social guy-ahron who i worked with in the morning for a while about his story- where he is from argentina and moved here with his parents when he was 6 and had to get marriage license in cypres since he did not have a orthodox wedding which is the only one reconized in israel-alot more really cool guy. still had to do my hw for hebrew after this but it did get done.
So much more has gone on and going on a trip to the south next week and then i think jerusalem since our trip to petra couldnt happen due to insurance on our long 2 day weekend.
Also last week went on a day trip of Jerusalem-which is really nothng. On the way down the other cristian-annie showed me the passage in psalm 22 about the prophesies of the messiah, which was amazing to read through right before ascending up to Jerusalem. GOt to visit the old city and the walls around the old temple including the western wall. Could write a ton about this but it was really cool getting to see all of it, but in a way t seemed slighty empty just praying to and through the wall, but still being that close to the holy of holies was an experience of its own. Wish that i could have gone on my own pace through this part, but was rushed a little with the tourgroup going through and trying to see alot in that one day. Also i fullfilled one of my lifelong dreams-keep one of the free paper kippahs from the western wall.
After that tour we went to the holocause museum area, which included many different museums and memorials. During this time i spent 2.5 hours in the main museum which i only really saw in detail about a third of it and the rest in the last half hour. It is very large and helped show the actual size of the holocause through its size. Marc from UK this was his third time there and he spend the entire time also in the museum and still wanted to come back again since he hadnt seen all of it yet. The museum itself starts off on a dark end and gradually get light to see the end of the tunnel which is a majestic overlook. The last room is a rememberance room which has names of holocaust victims in a large circular room-with a reflective well in the center. THis room hit me hard after visiting the rest of the museum and realizing alot more the scope of the holocause.
We also got to hear about Yehudit-the ulpan organizers parents holocaust story from her along with other stories from survivors. The other memorial we went to was the childrens memorial which was a dark circualr room with alot of small lights in the darkness with a constant soundtrack of all of the names of the children on a constant loop.
If this day wasnt long enough already we got on the bus and went to the opening cerimonies of the Maccabiah games-basically the jewish olympics meant to bring the jewish comunity together. I was surprised about the security since it was not that much, just like normal checkpoints. During the ceremony the president- Simon Peres and Prime minister- Benjamin Netanyahu both spoke, which was really cool getting to see them both speak during my time here in israel.
The other day after work went to Ceasarea with annie and jonah-its great how small the country is where you can leave after work at 2 to visit a site for the rest of the day and annie always wants to go see biblical places also so we are basically travel companions all the time. During this trip the buses somehow worked out perfectly, less than 5 min wait for any of the connecting busses and didnt miss the last bus out of ceasarea. This trip we got to see alot in ceasarea-the port paul sailed from when he appealed to ceasar in acts. Saw the circus where there were chariot races and where gladiators and christians were killed, aqueaducts, and the roman theatre-which was being set up for a concert-it looked over the sea and that would be awesome to see a hard rock concert there. Had sushi on the outcropping of the harbor-so much better than kibbutz dinners.
We got back just in time for the pub night on the kibbutz where we got to know some other people our age better and i talked to the organiser of our ulpan social guy-ahron who i worked with in the morning for a while about his story- where he is from argentina and moved here with his parents when he was 6 and had to get marriage license in cypres since he did not have a orthodox wedding which is the only one reconized in israel-alot more really cool guy. still had to do my hw for hebrew after this but it did get done.
So much more has gone on and going on a trip to the south next week and then i think jerusalem since our trip to petra couldnt happen due to insurance on our long 2 day weekend.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
So as you guys know im in Israel for 6 weeks working and learning Hebrew on the Kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon. During this time we have a total of 12 work days and 12 days of learning and every shabat/saturday free to do as we wish along with an additional day. There are a couple of day trips to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv along with a 4 day trip to southern israel and another 4 day trip to northern israel. Afterwards i am going to be here for a few days most likely visiting Jerusalem since we only are spending a day in that city. We will see where i end up for those and who is staying after also to travel with.
The plane flight over was very long with a 10hr layover in London where i was going to see but accidentally went through check and could not get back out so i was stuck in the airport for the entire time. If you follow tennis at all you know that this was during the time of the wimbledon mens final and for the last set(turned out really long) i was sitting in a bar next to a swiss man. It was cool since the final was Federer (Swiss) vs Roddick (US). That along with an old man waking me up and a flight attendant making fun of my long hair summed up my time at the airport and london.
THere are 30 students in the Ulpan program, 2 from turkey, 1 Netherlands,1 swiss and the rest split about equally between England, Canada and the States. It has been interesting to see the different cultures interact as well as the different faiths. On the first day i was the 3rd person here and one was gone so i got to know annie fairly well. It turned out that she is the only other christian on the trip so that was a blessing getting to know her well first off. All the rest are Jewish (vary from most non-religious to slightly religious) and one girl who is neither jewish nor religious. I have been involved in quite a few discussions about religion already and have learned a bit about Judaism and peoples views in general. During these they also ask alot of questions of me since i am in the minority religously, but as before it has been a blessing having another christian around to help and discuss thing with. Everyone minus the three of us non-jews have been here before so they know the area and the sites so they are just visiting mainly for the culture/expereince not necisarrily the sites, but that always interests them still.
Travel here is great and i know im going to be going alot. My first experience with travel was to Netanya (about 15 min by taxi away) and the beach in california has nothing on the mediteranean-amazing and warm water beautiful beaches. But had lots of adventures there since we dont know much hebrew, but we got through it. Best thing was eating a burger, dont realize how good it is till it was gone and was going into withdrawls even being on the kibbutz for only a few days. The food is fairly minimal but it gets us throught the day somehow.
Work generally starts about 6am till noon and either have a free afternoon or everyonce in while a seminar-of which we have had one a couple days ago on the Israel-palestinian conflict. Other than that there was a swine flu with one of the kids from England and an adventure to Haifa this past weekend which i might write about later if i stay unlazy-doubtful.
On the first day i was here i was reading through matthew and had the reminder of 5:13/14 and that struck me about how i needed to act here instead of going along with everything to experience israel as most people visiting the kibbutz are.
The plane flight over was very long with a 10hr layover in London where i was going to see but accidentally went through check and could not get back out so i was stuck in the airport for the entire time. If you follow tennis at all you know that this was during the time of the wimbledon mens final and for the last set(turned out really long) i was sitting in a bar next to a swiss man. It was cool since the final was Federer (Swiss) vs Roddick (US). That along with an old man waking me up and a flight attendant making fun of my long hair summed up my time at the airport and london.
THere are 30 students in the Ulpan program, 2 from turkey, 1 Netherlands,1 swiss and the rest split about equally between England, Canada and the States. It has been interesting to see the different cultures interact as well as the different faiths. On the first day i was the 3rd person here and one was gone so i got to know annie fairly well. It turned out that she is the only other christian on the trip so that was a blessing getting to know her well first off. All the rest are Jewish (vary from most non-religious to slightly religious) and one girl who is neither jewish nor religious. I have been involved in quite a few discussions about religion already and have learned a bit about Judaism and peoples views in general. During these they also ask alot of questions of me since i am in the minority religously, but as before it has been a blessing having another christian around to help and discuss thing with. Everyone minus the three of us non-jews have been here before so they know the area and the sites so they are just visiting mainly for the culture/expereince not necisarrily the sites, but that always interests them still.
Travel here is great and i know im going to be going alot. My first experience with travel was to Netanya (about 15 min by taxi away) and the beach in california has nothing on the mediteranean-amazing and warm water beautiful beaches. But had lots of adventures there since we dont know much hebrew, but we got through it. Best thing was eating a burger, dont realize how good it is till it was gone and was going into withdrawls even being on the kibbutz for only a few days. The food is fairly minimal but it gets us throught the day somehow.
Work generally starts about 6am till noon and either have a free afternoon or everyonce in while a seminar-of which we have had one a couple days ago on the Israel-palestinian conflict. Other than that there was a swine flu with one of the kids from England and an adventure to Haifa this past weekend which i might write about later if i stay unlazy-doubtful.
On the first day i was here i was reading through matthew and had the reminder of 5:13/14 and that struck me about how i needed to act here instead of going along with everything to experience israel as most people visiting the kibbutz are.
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