Hi everyone that is still following me on this blog. Sorry for my sparse (lack of) postings these last two weeks. In truth, nothing super interesting happened. I have been surfing almost every day possible excluding the two days a week I have been doing army training. When there are no waves, which happened about half the times I have gone to the surf shack, they always have something else to do. This past week I learned how to paddle surf. It is sort of like canoeing on a surf board while standing up with small waves throwing you to and fro. It was challenging, but once I got the hang of the balance the only reason I fell was due to waves that I wasn’t sufficiently prepared for.
I also got my second test back in my Ulpan class; 95% wasn’t too bad, but I feel like the test was so easy that I could have probably done better had I studied more. I really have been trying to study more. Some nights I am more successful than others. But I have been doing other things to help my Hebrew: talking to my bosses in Hebrew, watching Israeli television, and flirting with Israeli girls in the pub ;-) . I am starting to pick up on the most of the words when people talk. Now I just need to learn the meaning to the 95% of words I don’t know.
I am also in the process of switching rooms in an amicable way. I am switching with this kid Gideon, who is going to CWRU next year, except the switch is currently postponed, due to Gideon’s second thoughts. If the switch does happen I will be rooming with Pavel, the Russian, who lived in Germany most of his life and speaks English. The other guy I would be rooming with is Daniel, another guy from Russia, I don’t know that much about him because he doesn’t speak English and is a little quiet, but I think it will be a nice change.
Last night we got back from our two day trip to the Negev. It was Amazing. I will try my best to give a detailed outline of the trip.
The night before the trip some friends and I stayed up really late and watched “Horrible Bosses” in the “moadon” our ulpan’s community space. The movie was really funny, but by the time it was over we had all passed out on the couch. Luckily, someone set an alarm on their phone and we were all able to get up with sufficient time to pack and shower before our bus left at 5:30 AM. Or it was supposed to leave then except being part of the Middle East, where time means nothing, the bus didn’t arrive until 6 AM.
My lack of sleep the night before contributed the ease I had in falling asleep on the bus as we made our way to the Negev. The first stop on the trip was the “machktesh gadol” a giant crater like geological formation in the middle of Negev near Ber Sheva.
Our guide Felix gave us a great “eggsplanation” of how the machktesh was formed. I am not sure if he confused his thousands and millions, so either 80 thousand or 80 million years ago, the Arabian tectonic plate collided with the African plate, created enormous earthquakes which resulted in 3 giant egg shaped sandstone mountains. Here is where our guide pulled out a hard-boiled egg. He started cracking the egg shell with his finger and said that was how years of rain began to crack the hard outer soil later. Then eventually it washed this outer layer away, with that he wiped the shell away. Then the rain and erosion quickly (geologically wise) broke down the inner layers of the earth and washed it through the one flash flood stream that runs through the machktesh, then he took a bite of out of the egg. That left a crater like shape.
After the machktesh we went to an ancient camel water hole on a spice trade route to the port in gaza.
Then we were off to the Dead Sea (yom hamelech) the Salt Sea. Almost everyone went into the Dead Sea. Someone bought a jar of mud and was nice enough to share the extra mud with everyone. My skin felt super soft afterwards.
Then we headed to the Bedouin camp. It was really fun. They welcomed us with the traditional Bedouin three cups of coffee. After that we had a beduin dinner where we sat four to a ground table and consumed tons upon tons of rice, lamb, and chicken. It was delicious. After dinner we had a bonfire, where we revealed our secret Midgets to each other. It was a game we played modeled off of Secret Santa except we would leave anonymous presents at people’s rooms or in their boxes. The person who gave me my gifts which included two very good chocolate bars was my friend Daniel Chippin from Canada. I never would have guessed him though, he was uber anonymous. After that we all went to sleep in a giant Bedouin tent. It was really dusty, but sort of fun being in a giant tent with 90 good friends.
In the morning we went to hike Masada. It was really pretty. I relearned the history of it as the last zealot stronghold during the Roman destruction of second temple in 70A.D. and the resulting war.
After Masada, we went to the Eyn Ghedi nature reserve. In the parking lot I saw a flash of red hair go by and decided to follow it. It turns out that it was the younger sister of Micah’s best friend Isaac Hoffman. I knew their family was in Israel because I was planning on meeting up with them this coming weekend, but it was really cool that we were in the same place at the same time. The nature reserve was a beautiful green spot in the barren Judean desert right next to the northern side of the Dead Sea. There were many spectacular waterfalls that came from nahal (stream) David.
It took about four hours to get back to the Kibbutz after Eyn Ghedi due to some bad Jerusalem traffic. About 7 of us ended up taking a nap on the floor of the bus because everywhere else was super cramped. I arrived back to the Kibbutz exhausted at 6 P.M. yesterday
(pictures to come soon)
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Late Nights in Kibbutzland
The past week on kibbutz Ma'agan Michael has been pretty fun. I guess I will relive the past 5 or 6 days in chronological order, just the highlights though.
For some reason last Tuesday night I had a horrible time sleeping, so I woke up at about 5am and went out to the beach: it was beautiful. Even though the sun rises over the mountains to the east of the kibbutz, the moon was on a certain cycle where it sets in the west over the sea. It was beautiful. The funny thing was that as I was taking these pictures I tripped over a giant rock hidden by the darkness and fell flat on my face.
This picture was worth the pain and self humiliation.
I spent the next hour and a half laying on top of some huts on the beach and watched as the sun illuminated the kibbutz and the moon disappeared over the horizon in the sunlight. It was inspiring.
Nothing particularly interesting happened the rest of the week at the kibbutz until Friday night-- the night of the Kibbutz adult Purim Party. It was crazy, and held at a redecorated hedar ochel dining hall. While the consensus among most of the ulpanists was that the party was in likeness to a high school dance. The thing is that I guess it was sort of like a high school dance, if your high school served super cheep alcohol drinks, great food, and didn't lock you inside the pool lobby for the duration of the dance. OK maybe the last statement was just a Hawken thing. I do have to say I had a blast. For the party I went as a French painter. My costume was equipped with a pallet, paintbrush, frenh baret, and a button down painting shirt with paint of a assortment of colors covering it.
After the party ended at about 3:30 AM! I wondered over to the pub right outside my room. They had an alternative party going on equipped with trance music instead of regular pop party music. The party was pretty dead, but luckily I spotted my new friend Pavel, the Russian who lived in Germany for 10 years and speaks perfect English. He introduced me to his new friend Sonia, a neo-conservative Russian American olah hadesha. After about an hour of speaking about politics, we decided to go to the roof of the then abandoned, the chedar ochel. We stayed there until about 5 AM. Then I went to bed.
Saturday was filled with some catching up on sleep and lounging on the beach.
The last thing the I want to tell you, my readers, is about my evening tonight. Every Wednesday and Sunday evening at 4:30PM the kibbutz has a pre-army training workout program. It's meant for the kibbutznics and olim hadashim planning on entering the army, but they don't actually check and my faked interest in joining the army (not in a million years)was enough to get an invite to the training. I didn't finish class until about 5 PM so me and the rest of my classmates got to the training about 45 minutes late. Nonetheless, the training was fun and hard. It included running down the beach from circuit to circuit. In between circuits of crawling, sprinting, running up a sand dune, and just plain running we had to jump into the salty Mediterranean. The first time I made the mistake of opening my mouth a little, and I felt the salt in my mouth all the way until the first, and only water break. We also had to wade in a fishpond empty of fish for about 10 minutes, its a test in the army tryouts. While it made most people cramp and freezing. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It reminded me a bit of cold rink before, during, and after run through. It was a bit easier just because the air was relatively warm compared to the ice cold, dry or super damp, lung puncturing air inside the ice rink. Overall, I finished tied for 3rd among the 25 or so ulpanist that did the training. Not too bad for my first time doing the training. When I finished the training I was soaked, covered in sand, and smelled like sweat and fish poop; I felt amazing.
Before I go, I forgot to mention that Katie Scott, my history teach in 10 and 12 grade asked me to skype her Middle Eastern Studies class and talk about the kibbutz and current politics in Israel. While I know a lot about the the history of the kibbutz, I know close to nothing about Israeli politics, it seems so much more complicated than American politics, or at least to an outsider. I better go and educate myself about this stuff. Until next time.
For some reason last Tuesday night I had a horrible time sleeping, so I woke up at about 5am and went out to the beach: it was beautiful. Even though the sun rises over the mountains to the east of the kibbutz, the moon was on a certain cycle where it sets in the west over the sea. It was beautiful. The funny thing was that as I was taking these pictures I tripped over a giant rock hidden by the darkness and fell flat on my face.
This picture was worth the pain and self humiliation.
I spent the next hour and a half laying on top of some huts on the beach and watched as the sun illuminated the kibbutz and the moon disappeared over the horizon in the sunlight. It was inspiring.
Nothing particularly interesting happened the rest of the week at the kibbutz until Friday night-- the night of the Kibbutz adult Purim Party. It was crazy, and held at a redecorated hedar ochel dining hall. While the consensus among most of the ulpanists was that the party was in likeness to a high school dance. The thing is that I guess it was sort of like a high school dance, if your high school served super cheep alcohol drinks, great food, and didn't lock you inside the pool lobby for the duration of the dance. OK maybe the last statement was just a Hawken thing. I do have to say I had a blast. For the party I went as a French painter. My costume was equipped with a pallet, paintbrush, frenh baret, and a button down painting shirt with paint of a assortment of colors covering it.
After the party ended at about 3:30 AM! I wondered over to the pub right outside my room. They had an alternative party going on equipped with trance music instead of regular pop party music. The party was pretty dead, but luckily I spotted my new friend Pavel, the Russian who lived in Germany for 10 years and speaks perfect English. He introduced me to his new friend Sonia, a neo-conservative Russian American olah hadesha. After about an hour of speaking about politics, we decided to go to the roof of the then abandoned, the chedar ochel. We stayed there until about 5 AM. Then I went to bed.
Saturday was filled with some catching up on sleep and lounging on the beach.
The last thing the I want to tell you, my readers, is about my evening tonight. Every Wednesday and Sunday evening at 4:30PM the kibbutz has a pre-army training workout program. It's meant for the kibbutznics and olim hadashim planning on entering the army, but they don't actually check and my faked interest in joining the army (not in a million years)was enough to get an invite to the training. I didn't finish class until about 5 PM so me and the rest of my classmates got to the training about 45 minutes late. Nonetheless, the training was fun and hard. It included running down the beach from circuit to circuit. In between circuits of crawling, sprinting, running up a sand dune, and just plain running we had to jump into the salty Mediterranean. The first time I made the mistake of opening my mouth a little, and I felt the salt in my mouth all the way until the first, and only water break. We also had to wade in a fishpond empty of fish for about 10 minutes, its a test in the army tryouts. While it made most people cramp and freezing. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It reminded me a bit of cold rink before, during, and after run through. It was a bit easier just because the air was relatively warm compared to the ice cold, dry or super damp, lung puncturing air inside the ice rink. Overall, I finished tied for 3rd among the 25 or so ulpanist that did the training. Not too bad for my first time doing the training. When I finished the training I was soaked, covered in sand, and smelled like sweat and fish poop; I felt amazing.
Before I go, I forgot to mention that Katie Scott, my history teach in 10 and 12 grade asked me to skype her Middle Eastern Studies class and talk about the kibbutz and current politics in Israel. While I know a lot about the the history of the kibbutz, I know close to nothing about Israeli politics, it seems so much more complicated than American politics, or at least to an outsider. I better go and educate myself about this stuff. Until next time.
Monday, February 25, 2013
It’s A Small World After All
Last Wednesday we had a tiul, or field trip to Rahovot and Jaffa. Rahovot, now somewhat of a southern suburb of Jaffa contained three highly interesting places: The Weismann Institute, which has it’s very own particle accelerator; the site of one of the largest British military outpost in the middle east; and Ayolan Institute, the place that we came to see. Before its conversion into the ghost of its former self, the Ayolan Institute was an active functioning kibbutz, with an underground bullet making operation. From the late 1930s-through the 1940’s there was an illegal arms race between Arabs and Jews. The British who had control over Palestine at the time forbid both groups from gathering arms. It was a capital punishment under the British Mandate to produce weapons. All around Palestine at the time there were secret operations producing the guns for the coming war between Jews and Arabs, but the secret factory at the Ayolan Institute was the only place producing bullets for these guns. The factory itself was located underground between the laundry room and the bakery. I still can’t believe that they did the whole operation within a mile of the largest British base in Palestine.
After the Ayolan Institute, we took a quick tour of Jaffa. In Jaffa we went shopping in the shuk and flee market, but since cleaning out Mary’s house, I can’t look at so much junk and have any intention of buying it. The bus ride back took 2.5 hours (a trip that should take about 40 minutes). We basically took every side street from Tel-Aviv to Natanya.
Nothing particularly interesting happened the rest of the week until the Friday night of Purim. A newly arrived Ulpanist from Zurich, Liat, invited us to her cousin’s party in Tel-Aviv. None of the people who went to the party wanted to stay the night in Tel-Aviv, so we rented a sherut for the night. There were 9 of us who split the sherut. Before the party started we went to this bar where the bartenders were dressed as bees. It was pretty funny, seeing a fully grown man in a bee costume meant for a petite girl. At the bar I ordered my first beer ever from a restaurant. It was so exciting!
After the bar we headed to the party. It was located about a mile north of the Florentin neighborhood of Tel-Aviv. We got to the building and the door was locked. Luckily, a friendly face from a nearby balcony shouted the code: 1357. After walking up 4 long flights of stairs, we ended up on the roof, for a misebah al roof. I felt a little awkward at first because it was a costume party and I didn’t have a costume. Once the party got underway though, I felt much more comfortable. It was so much fun. Unbeknownst to everyone from the kibbutz that came to the party, except for Liat, Liat’s cousin did the Ulpan at Ma’agan Michael a year and a half ago (ulpan 107, we are 110) , and a lot of the people she invited to the party had done the ulpan with her and lived nearby in Tel-Aviv. I also met a couple other Americans my age who are also taking a gap year and going to college next year. Altogether, it was a very exciting and fun night. The sherut picked us up at 2:45 and we were back at the kibbutz by 3:20; much faster than the bus on Wednesday.
Here is my friend's beard costume I tried on for a picture, I sort of had the right them with cowboys and cacti on my shirt.
We got class off on Sunday because of Purim, but I still had to work in the afternoon.
Today in class we had a giant misebah (party) to celebrate Purim. Luckily, our teacher brought some play costumes for us to use for the party, and I actually found a great costume; a French painter, barrette, palate, and everything. I am planning on wearing it to the kibbutz’s Purim party this weekend.
After the Ayolan Institute, we took a quick tour of Jaffa. In Jaffa we went shopping in the shuk and flee market, but since cleaning out Mary’s house, I can’t look at so much junk and have any intention of buying it. The bus ride back took 2.5 hours (a trip that should take about 40 minutes). We basically took every side street from Tel-Aviv to Natanya.
Nothing particularly interesting happened the rest of the week until the Friday night of Purim. A newly arrived Ulpanist from Zurich, Liat, invited us to her cousin’s party in Tel-Aviv. None of the people who went to the party wanted to stay the night in Tel-Aviv, so we rented a sherut for the night. There were 9 of us who split the sherut. Before the party started we went to this bar where the bartenders were dressed as bees. It was pretty funny, seeing a fully grown man in a bee costume meant for a petite girl. At the bar I ordered my first beer ever from a restaurant. It was so exciting!
After the bar we headed to the party. It was located about a mile north of the Florentin neighborhood of Tel-Aviv. We got to the building and the door was locked. Luckily, a friendly face from a nearby balcony shouted the code: 1357. After walking up 4 long flights of stairs, we ended up on the roof, for a misebah al roof. I felt a little awkward at first because it was a costume party and I didn’t have a costume. Once the party got underway though, I felt much more comfortable. It was so much fun. Unbeknownst to everyone from the kibbutz that came to the party, except for Liat, Liat’s cousin did the Ulpan at Ma’agan Michael a year and a half ago (ulpan 107, we are 110) , and a lot of the people she invited to the party had done the ulpan with her and lived nearby in Tel-Aviv. I also met a couple other Americans my age who are also taking a gap year and going to college next year. Altogether, it was a very exciting and fun night. The sherut picked us up at 2:45 and we were back at the kibbutz by 3:20; much faster than the bus on Wednesday.
Here is my friend's beard costume I tried on for a picture, I sort of had the right them with cowboys and cacti on my shirt.
We got class off on Sunday because of Purim, but I still had to work in the afternoon.
Today in class we had a giant misebah (party) to celebrate Purim. Luckily, our teacher brought some play costumes for us to use for the party, and I actually found a great costume; a French painter, barrette, palate, and everything. I am planning on wearing it to the kibbutz’s Purim party this weekend.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Tel-Aviv: Early Nights?
Last weekend was the first time since I arrived that I left the kibbutz. After an eventful Valentine's night, where I captured my first valentine, I ditched the Kibbutz early Friday morning at about 7 because I didn't have any work. Since the shuttle to Binyamina (a town about 5 miles away with the closest train station)didn't operate until 12 PM, my plan was to walk to the nearest bus station about a kilometer from Ma'agan Michael. While walking, I was going to hold out a thumb hoping for a car leaving the kibbutz (specially marked of course, so it is safe) to either give me a ride to Tel- Aviv, the train state, or the bus station. Luckily, I didn't even have to walk out of the entrance before someone offered me a ride. The friendly driver who so nicely offered to take me to the train station, was a girl who works at the school on Ma'agan Michael who was going to Jerusalem to visit her family. Once I got to the train station, it was smooth sailing (besides the train station's inability to take an American credit or debit card) to Hashalom station. Although, David Chertock recommended taking a bus to Dizengoff square, I was feeling a little antsy after the car and train ride, so the twenty minute walk to chateu Chertock seemed like a nice change of pace.
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When I arrived at the 14 Zamenhoff, Tel-Aviv, I was greeted with a smile and a warm welcome from David Chertock, my dad's good friend from Columbia University. After I settled my stuff in to the apartment, we went to do double errand: get me breakfast, and pick up hallah and food for the weekend. It so happened that we were able to accomplish this at the same place. Yachanan!, a little restaurant about a kilometer or two south of the Chertock's apartment. The best way to describe it would be a mix between a waitressed Stone Oven and the ready made food section at Whole Foods. David's mission for the weekend was to keep me better fed than a Jewish Bubbi. At Yochanan's, I ordered french toast and a cappuccino. I was ecstatic when the dish came with real maple syrup, not kibbutz corn syrup syrup, or Omaha's hot syrup, REAL MAPLE SYRUP! I also tried some of David's herring. Delicious. We also got an assortment of salads, meats, and some vanilla toot jam..jpg)
We returned to the apartment, and shortly after Hanush, David's wife, arrived. Then about half an hour later, David and Hanush's son Noam arrived. He was in a hurry because he had a pre-army thing, for the community based army service he is going to enter next year. After Noam left I decided to go to the mall and get a few essential items that I had been lacking the past few weeks, which included: extra socks and undies, a power-cord with 4 outlets (we only have two working outlets in our room of three people), and an extra towel. The Dizengoff mall, though not humongous, was utterly confusing. It consisted of uneven ramps that went up about 3 levels or 4 levels depending how you counted that spanned two small blocks. The narrow hallways would not have been a problem if by 2PM everyone had not stormed the mall, and there were no street vendors making food inside the hallways, thus creating narrow gaps for people to pass through. All in all the shopping trip was successful. After shopping, I took a walk by myself to the Tel-Aviv port, about two miles away. The farmer's market was just closing, but I did manage to get some fresh squeezed carrot juice and cooked sugar coated pecans and cashews.
Here is a pic of the port, now a shopping area.
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When I got back to the apartment, Mika Chertock, their 16 year old daughter, was back, but soon left for her friend's house concert. This left me with no kid plans. Since in Israel I am a full adult, I decided to embrace it, so I ended up going to Django Unchained with David and Hanush. While the movie was enthralling, it was violent enough to even give Hanush, an Israeli worn by many years of Israel's conflict, nightmares. So much blood! The movie ended at 2, and I was to bed by 2:30AM. Although this sounds late, in Israel, especially Tel-Aviv, the night is young until about 4:30AM. When we got back we found Mika, in her pj's. Apparently, the concert had been broken up by the police due to sound complaints.
Since Noam was gone, I got his room for the weekend. I got sooooo much sleep. I slept until 11AM. To put this in perspective, usually, after a 4:30 AM Friday night, I wake up at 8:30 or 9. The bed was so comfortable. At about 1PM I went to get coffee at a cafe a few blocks over per David's recommendation. One by one, the three Tel-Aviv present members of the Chertock clan joined me. I had another delicious cappuccino, and a frittata with potato and Gouda cheese on top. It also came with bread, jam, and a delicious 3% spread.
For the afternoon David took me to the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. According to Hanush, our resident art expert, the museum recently experienced a change in leadership, so the main exhibits encompassed many more modern and contemporary pieces. The most interesting exhibits in the museum were the photographs by Pinchas Cohen Gan, and the artistic movies by Douglas Gordan. My favorite part of Gorden's large exhibit entitled, I Am Douglas Gordan was his 90 minute film of Zidane, the French soccer player. It plays on two wide screens next to each other and was of one of Zidane's game shot at 12 different camera angles, which alternate and fade in and out at different times.
After the museum I took a long nap, then went out to yet another amazing local restaurant with a Greek Mediterranean theme. David and I split some fish, a burekka with an egg inside, and ... sweat breads, which weren't that bad. After dinner, Hanush dropped me off at the markaz train station and I returned to the kibbutz.
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When I arrived at the 14 Zamenhoff, Tel-Aviv, I was greeted with a smile and a warm welcome from David Chertock, my dad's good friend from Columbia University. After I settled my stuff in to the apartment, we went to do double errand: get me breakfast, and pick up hallah and food for the weekend. It so happened that we were able to accomplish this at the same place. Yachanan!, a little restaurant about a kilometer or two south of the Chertock's apartment. The best way to describe it would be a mix between a waitressed Stone Oven and the ready made food section at Whole Foods. David's mission for the weekend was to keep me better fed than a Jewish Bubbi. At Yochanan's, I ordered french toast and a cappuccino. I was ecstatic when the dish came with real maple syrup, not kibbutz corn syrup syrup, or Omaha's hot syrup, REAL MAPLE SYRUP! I also tried some of David's herring. Delicious. We also got an assortment of salads, meats, and some vanilla toot jam.
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We returned to the apartment, and shortly after Hanush, David's wife, arrived. Then about half an hour later, David and Hanush's son Noam arrived. He was in a hurry because he had a pre-army thing, for the community based army service he is going to enter next year. After Noam left I decided to go to the mall and get a few essential items that I had been lacking the past few weeks, which included: extra socks and undies, a power-cord with 4 outlets (we only have two working outlets in our room of three people), and an extra towel. The Dizengoff mall, though not humongous, was utterly confusing. It consisted of uneven ramps that went up about 3 levels or 4 levels depending how you counted that spanned two small blocks. The narrow hallways would not have been a problem if by 2PM everyone had not stormed the mall, and there were no street vendors making food inside the hallways, thus creating narrow gaps for people to pass through. All in all the shopping trip was successful. After shopping, I took a walk by myself to the Tel-Aviv port, about two miles away. The farmer's market was just closing, but I did manage to get some fresh squeezed carrot juice and cooked sugar coated pecans and cashews.
Here is a pic of the port, now a shopping area.
.jpg)
When I got back to the apartment, Mika Chertock, their 16 year old daughter, was back, but soon left for her friend's house concert. This left me with no kid plans. Since in Israel I am a full adult, I decided to embrace it, so I ended up going to Django Unchained with David and Hanush. While the movie was enthralling, it was violent enough to even give Hanush, an Israeli worn by many years of Israel's conflict, nightmares. So much blood! The movie ended at 2, and I was to bed by 2:30AM. Although this sounds late, in Israel, especially Tel-Aviv, the night is young until about 4:30AM. When we got back we found Mika, in her pj's. Apparently, the concert had been broken up by the police due to sound complaints.
Since Noam was gone, I got his room for the weekend. I got sooooo much sleep. I slept until 11AM. To put this in perspective, usually, after a 4:30 AM Friday night, I wake up at 8:30 or 9. The bed was so comfortable. At about 1PM I went to get coffee at a cafe a few blocks over per David's recommendation. One by one, the three Tel-Aviv present members of the Chertock clan joined me. I had another delicious cappuccino, and a frittata with potato and Gouda cheese on top. It also came with bread, jam, and a delicious 3% spread.
For the afternoon David took me to the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. According to Hanush, our resident art expert, the museum recently experienced a change in leadership, so the main exhibits encompassed many more modern and contemporary pieces. The most interesting exhibits in the museum were the photographs by Pinchas Cohen Gan, and the artistic movies by Douglas Gordan. My favorite part of Gorden's large exhibit entitled, I Am Douglas Gordan was his 90 minute film of Zidane, the French soccer player. It plays on two wide screens next to each other and was of one of Zidane's game shot at 12 different camera angles, which alternate and fade in and out at different times.
After the museum I took a long nap, then went out to yet another amazing local restaurant with a Greek Mediterranean theme. David and I split some fish, a burekka with an egg inside, and ... sweat breads, which weren't that bad. After dinner, Hanush dropped me off at the markaz train station and I returned to the kibbutz.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Lets go to the beach
Its been a couple of days since my last post and a lot has happened. Unfortunately, it's way to much to put into this small blog experiment so I will try to go over the highlights in chronological order.
Friday after work, which ended at 11AM, everyone went to the beach for an afternoon filled with sun. After relaxing for an hour or so on the sand, I decided to go for my long run of the week-- a 10k on the beach. While it was a hard run, I think I did it pretty fast for my first 10k especially in sand. When I returned back to where everyone was hanging out, two Aussies, my roommate Alex and I decided to swim out to the small rocky island about 300 meters into the sea. The water was freezing! When I stepped onto the rock, to my surprise, pain went shooting up my foot. Luckily, I didn't cut anything, but the island turned out to be a dead coral reef that had been pushed up above water. We managed to find a smoothed out part of the coral and rested there for about 15 minutes, before swimming back. Later, we found out that to kibbutznicks , the coral was basically nothing because they are used to rough surfaces from running around the kibbutz barefoot at such a young age. I guess Friday was my partial triathlon day, I just forgot about the bike part of it.
Saturday, while most people slept in until 11 or 12, i made sure to wake myself and my roommates up early enough to catch an 9:30 breakfast. After breakfast we went to the beach until 12. Then we went to lunch. I made sure to save some of the salad being served at lunch for dinner, because the Kibbutz does't provide any food for Saturday night. After lunch, we went back to the beach for 4 more hours. I got in on a game of soccer (football), and learn how to play the Israeli beach game with the wooden paddles (I still don't know it's name).
FYI, for all those concerned I wore lots of sun screen and remembered to reapply.
Around 7PM I returned to the beach with some of my friends and we had a great barbecue cookout on the beach. Because no one had an actual grill, we dug a hole in the sand, put wood in it, and had a small metal frame over it. We also made a second larger fire for light and heat. In addition to the salad I nabbed from lunch, I had mini veal burgers I bought from the merkolit . The burgers were delicious and everyone else agreed. There was a lot of other food too: hot dogs, salchichas, bruchetta, kebabs, and marshmallow. We sung a lot of songs by the fire too, but none of them were in English so I just clapped to the beat.
Sunday, was sort of sucky going back to work and classes, I really wish we had two day weekends here instead of one day weekends. My class and work schedule changed. This week I have class in the morning, and work in the afternoon. Even though class starts at 715, it is so close to my room I don't have to wake up until 7 AM. Although I am tired in the morning, I find that from years of early school days, I learn better in the morning. Habit I guess. In the afternoon my work partner Ofir came down with something, so I was by myself with Yizack (Isaac) and Nomi (the woman who had her birthday last Thursday who's name I forgot). I actually had a really nice conversation with Yizack while pealing and shredding (through a machine) 4 full 15 kilo bags of onions. As a side note, normally the kitchen uses 7 of these bags a day, yet there is rarely any dish where you actually see onions, it is a mystery to Ofir, Nomi, Yisack, and me to where Shlomo, the chef, hides all of these onions. Anyways, Yisack has 3 children. A daughter in her 20's just finishing the army. He has an 18 year old son, who is a dancer. And he has a 14 year old son who came into the kitchen today (Monday), to make cookies with his friends.
Speaking of today. Today I while cutting 3 boxes of eggplant, I found an especially Jewish eggplant with a great sense of smell :)
Friday after work, which ended at 11AM, everyone went to the beach for an afternoon filled with sun. After relaxing for an hour or so on the sand, I decided to go for my long run of the week-- a 10k on the beach. While it was a hard run, I think I did it pretty fast for my first 10k especially in sand. When I returned back to where everyone was hanging out, two Aussies, my roommate Alex and I decided to swim out to the small rocky island about 300 meters into the sea. The water was freezing! When I stepped onto the rock, to my surprise, pain went shooting up my foot. Luckily, I didn't cut anything, but the island turned out to be a dead coral reef that had been pushed up above water. We managed to find a smoothed out part of the coral and rested there for about 15 minutes, before swimming back. Later, we found out that to kibbutznicks , the coral was basically nothing because they are used to rough surfaces from running around the kibbutz barefoot at such a young age. I guess Friday was my partial triathlon day, I just forgot about the bike part of it.
Saturday, while most people slept in until 11 or 12, i made sure to wake myself and my roommates up early enough to catch an 9:30 breakfast. After breakfast we went to the beach until 12. Then we went to lunch. I made sure to save some of the salad being served at lunch for dinner, because the Kibbutz does't provide any food for Saturday night. After lunch, we went back to the beach for 4 more hours. I got in on a game of soccer (football), and learn how to play the Israeli beach game with the wooden paddles (I still don't know it's name).
FYI, for all those concerned I wore lots of sun screen and remembered to reapply.
Around 7PM I returned to the beach with some of my friends and we had a great barbecue cookout on the beach. Because no one had an actual grill, we dug a hole in the sand, put wood in it, and had a small metal frame over it. We also made a second larger fire for light and heat. In addition to the salad I nabbed from lunch, I had mini veal burgers I bought from the merkolit . The burgers were delicious and everyone else agreed. There was a lot of other food too: hot dogs, salchichas, bruchetta, kebabs, and marshmallow. We sung a lot of songs by the fire too, but none of them were in English so I just clapped to the beat.
Sunday, was sort of sucky going back to work and classes, I really wish we had two day weekends here instead of one day weekends. My class and work schedule changed. This week I have class in the morning, and work in the afternoon. Even though class starts at 715, it is so close to my room I don't have to wake up until 7 AM. Although I am tired in the morning, I find that from years of early school days, I learn better in the morning. Habit I guess. In the afternoon my work partner Ofir came down with something, so I was by myself with Yizack (Isaac) and Nomi (the woman who had her birthday last Thursday who's name I forgot). I actually had a really nice conversation with Yizack while pealing and shredding (through a machine) 4 full 15 kilo bags of onions. As a side note, normally the kitchen uses 7 of these bags a day, yet there is rarely any dish where you actually see onions, it is a mystery to Ofir, Nomi, Yisack, and me to where Shlomo, the chef, hides all of these onions. Anyways, Yisack has 3 children. A daughter in her 20's just finishing the army. He has an 18 year old son, who is a dancer. And he has a 14 year old son who came into the kitchen today (Monday), to make cookies with his friends.
Speaking of today. Today I while cutting 3 boxes of eggplant, I found an especially Jewish eggplant with a great sense of smell :)
Thursday, February 7, 2013
One Week In
It has officially been a week since I arrived at Kibbutz Ma’agan Micheal. I have finished a week of class, four days of work, completed a load of laundry, and taken five runs. As an update to my post “Maybe it’s jetlag, maybe it’s the coffee.” I figured out why I couldn’t sleep. It was neither the coffee nor the jetlag. It was the mattress and the lack of a pillow with any cushion. Luckily, I was able to get a second pillow and switch my mattress. I can say with certainty that I have been getting my nightly eight.
Today, a lady from MASA came to check up on all the tourists. She told us that around this time in the program we should be getting over our first hump of acclimation to Kibbutz life. I would say her assessment is pretty accurate. I don’t get lost anymore. I have a great group of friends who I can talk to and feel comfortable hanging out with. My room is not a mess anymore.
This week I have been testing the waters with a new form of exercise. No, it’s too cold to swim. I have been running all around the kibbutz and on the beach. Most of my runs have been after class lets out, but today I decided to take run between work and class. The strong beach breeze provides a great way to cool off during the run. Here are some of my favorite pictures from my runs. The sunsets and sunrises here are so beautiful
Life is really laid back here. With the myriad of cultures on the Kibbutz, it is really fun how almost nothing is off limits for conversation: from shit to stereotypes. For example, today in class I asked my Mexican friend, Moses, what kinds of maids and housekeepers they have in Mexico (I meant this to be a little jab at him since he had to be the maid of the class this week: sweep, and clean after class). He calmly responded mostly Mexicanas and Guatamaltecas. Needless to say he got the joke.
Actually, my Spanish has been super helpful here on the kibbutz. About half of the program is from a Spanish speaking country. Without Spanish, I would be lost.
Today I found out that every Thursday in the kitchen we have a staff meeting where we celebrate occasions. Today it was someone’s birthday so we had pop ice cream and cake.
For now the week is over and Shabbat is near. I am not going anywhere this weekend, but next weekend I plan to venture out somewhere. L’hitraot for now.
Today, a lady from MASA came to check up on all the tourists. She told us that around this time in the program we should be getting over our first hump of acclimation to Kibbutz life. I would say her assessment is pretty accurate. I don’t get lost anymore. I have a great group of friends who I can talk to and feel comfortable hanging out with. My room is not a mess anymore.
This week I have been testing the waters with a new form of exercise. No, it’s too cold to swim. I have been running all around the kibbutz and on the beach. Most of my runs have been after class lets out, but today I decided to take run between work and class. The strong beach breeze provides a great way to cool off during the run. Here are some of my favorite pictures from my runs. The sunsets and sunrises here are so beautiful
Life is really laid back here. With the myriad of cultures on the Kibbutz, it is really fun how almost nothing is off limits for conversation: from shit to stereotypes. For example, today in class I asked my Mexican friend, Moses, what kinds of maids and housekeepers they have in Mexico (I meant this to be a little jab at him since he had to be the maid of the class this week: sweep, and clean after class). He calmly responded mostly Mexicanas and Guatamaltecas. Needless to say he got the joke.
Actually, my Spanish has been super helpful here on the kibbutz. About half of the program is from a Spanish speaking country. Without Spanish, I would be lost.
Today I found out that every Thursday in the kitchen we have a staff meeting where we celebrate occasions. Today it was someone’s birthday so we had pop ice cream and cake.
For now the week is over and Shabbat is near. I am not going anywhere this weekend, but next weekend I plan to venture out somewhere. L’hitraot for now.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The New Norm
Yesterday was the first day of work and class. The way the schedule works is that everyone works 24 hours a week, and we have 4 hours of classes Sunday through Thursday, but don’t have class on Friday or Shabbat. Each week we switch off who goes to class in the morning and who works in the morning. For me, this week I start work in the kitchen at 7 AM, get a break for breakfast at 9AM, then work again from 9:30AM- 11:30AM. I start class after lunch at 1 PM in the afternoon. It goes until 5 PM and we have two breaks. Every other week, when I have class in the morning, I actually don’t have anything on Friday. This means I have Thursday night and Shabbat to travel throughout Israel on these weekends.
So far, the ulpan class has been very interesting. I am in Kitah Bet (class 2 of 4). Although, everyone in the class knows Hebrew in some form or another, the teacher, moreh Tamar, explained that we would start from the beginning, but do an accelerated version of Kitah aleph. So far we have been learning the aleph-bet, not in the regular order of things, but in a way that we can create, and read simple words. The strange thing about the class is that about half the class learned Hebrew in a Synagogue Hebrew School setting, so they can read and write, just understand very little of what is spoken and/ or written in complicated sentences. The other half of the class never learned Hebrew in a class setting. Though they can communicate to the teacher in Hebrew without any hesitation, when it comes to reading and writing, they act like dyslexic kindergarteners, messing up reading two letter words. The teacher said that two weeks more in and we would all be in the same place. I am a bit worried that when the Hebrew speakers learn the phonetics, they will leave the non-hebrew vocab lacking people in the dust.
(my friend Moses from Mexico, who I sit behind)
Working in the kitchen has been pretty fun so far. The first day of work Yaron gave us bad information about our start time. He told us to arrive at 9:30 instead of 7. So we only worked half a day. There are six of us that work in the kitchen. Justin, a 22 year old, self-made, internet advertiser, works unloading shipments, while my roommate Noah, another gapyearie Emily, and another kid (I haven’t bothered to learn his name yet) work in the hot kitchen. I work in the cold kitchen with an 20 year old, Olim (new immigrant) from Australia: Ofir. Although she is technically a returning citizen (she was born in Israel), I still group her in the category of people who are staying in Israel after the kibbutz-ulpan program ends. The first day, for the whole (daunting) 2 hours, I just shredded onions through a food processor. It went by quickly just talking to Ofir.
In addition to Ofir, a man older man named Yizach, and a middle aged woman whose name I can’t remember at the moment work with us (I will find her name out tomorrow). Well actually they tell us what to do, how to do, and when we are doing it wrong. But they have been very nice so far.
Today, it was a little challenging getting up at 6:45 AM since I haven’t been used to it for almost a year (2nd semester senior year I got up the latest I possibly could with being late, usually 7:20). It is a little weird working for two hours without breakfast (breakfast doesn’t open until 7:30 AM so we can’t have breakfast beforehand), but I managed. Today I got to do more of a variety of mindless tasks. I got to cut up sweet potatoes, shred zucchini, shell hard-boiled eggs, and peel avocados.
The last two were to be used for a salad that was to be mixed together. The time went by pretty fast, and before I knew it, the end was upon me. The people were very nice. When the shift ended they gave us free freshly baked pizza that was being served at lunch, so I didn’t need to even buy lunch today!!!
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