volunteering

The last couple of days have been pretty busy for me. Yesterday, I woke up at 6 AM to go to a food packaging company for the homeless and worked for 4 hours in the exhausting heat. It was like a sweat shop- it was packed with people sweating and there was no room to move. It was very monotonous work- packing heavy foods in boxes and sealing them- but sometimes the "behind the scene" work for charity companys are the most important(although the least fun). Anyways, it felt good to work hard and be able to help. There was also an army section there volunteering which was pretty cool- I talked to a lot of them and exchanged numbers. Their job in the army is to produce and run the army radio station. Not all soldiers are on the battlefront fighting! One of the girls who is my age lived in Chicago for a couple of years and told me about a cool indie musical festival in the Negev coming up. Anyways, after we got back I went to the young judaea office and planned a hike for tomorrow morning to go to Yehudia up north and camp there for a night with a couple friends. I'll blog about it when I get back!! I was so used to Muss where they baby fed you everything but here you have to make things happen for yourself, you can't just sit back and expect trips to be made. No one was taking initiative to plan a trip so I did it myself and more and more people are calling me to join:) I'm very excited I'll let you know all about it. Eyal (my madrich) invited 30 kids over for dinner in his Sukkah last night and his mom cooked for all of us. His mom is so generous- she made AMAZING dishes (lasagnya, keesh, corn pie, salad, cucumber mix, patatoe dish, and 3 different desert cakes with ice cream), and now that I am paying for my own food and cooking for myself, I appreciate home cooked meals more then ever. After dinner we sang hebrew songs and then a lot of us went to the beach to go swimming. On the way to Tel aviv I saw a pro-palestine protest with signs saying "stop the ethnic cleansing!" There has already been some security warnings here because of the peace talks. This morning I got up early to work with special needs kids! We did arts and crafts with them and even though I can't speak Hebrew, I did bond with a couple of the kids by communicating in other ways. And a couple hours later my apartment went to a 1st grade class and played games with them. Kids are way more patient with my hebrew then adults are! Even though I was supposed to be teaching them, they were trying to teach me words. During one of the games,one of the kid's cell phones went off and he politely excused himself and answered. What the heck! Since when do 1st graders have cell phones and bring them to school!! I was amazed. Am I so old already that the changes in society are scaring me?? Does this happen every generation??

Herzlia

Me, Matt, Turner, Jenna, Seth, Allison, and Ari all traveled to Herzlia together to Jenna's apartment (well more like a mansion) She lives right on the marina where there are hundreds of fancy yachts and boats. She has a pool, sauna, steam room, hot tub, and workout room! I stayed there for 3 nights:) Every day we walked to the beach- soft sand and calm waves- and we went out to dinner on the marina one night. Mostly, thought, we hung out on her porch looking at the water and listening to music. Me and my friend Zach went for a run on the beach at night and ran almost two miles. It was the most exhilarating, liberating feeling I've ever had r and even though my stomach was cramping up I wanted to run faster and faster. I felt so free from all the restraints,obligations and pressures that is smothered onto you by the people in your life and society itself. I really feel that I have no ties holding me back from anything and that I have a whole world of endless opportunities.. and every road that I turn on (or get lost on) will take me somewhere new and exciting! There are so many things to be explored I feel restless just thinking about it. :)




we can lose ourselves
not find our way back home
till the whole world feels just like a saturday night
without a care in the world
without a net underneath us
floating through the air
high as a kite 
(lyrics by Bob Schneider)

potluck /Ranana

A couple minutes ago, I just got back from an all girls potluck dinner. Every apartment dressed up in a theme( we dressed as ninjas- some others dressed as pregnant mothers, superheros, garbage bags, farm girls, etc.) One of the girls' apartment planned a dinner and everyone brought one dish- there was pastas, salads, chicken, vegtables, etc. My apartment brought green beans. I made them with garlic, olive oil, salt, and grain mustard! I have been experimenting a lot and am definitely become a good cook. This last weekend I spent Shabbat in Ranana at Dena's house. I traveled all by myself!! I'm not scared of getting lost anymore because I know that eventually I will end up finding my way, and sometimes getting lost is an adventure and you experience new things and places. For instance, many times at home I would get lost driving around, but end up stumbling upon a garage sale! What luck! Next time you make fun of me for getting lost to Benihana I will reply to you that, "Not all who wonder are lost.." Every turn or road I take here will take me somewhere, so why does it matter if I don't end up where I originally planned? Life is about the journey, not the destination. :) Anyways, I ended up at Dena's place successfully. It was the first time I ever kept shabbat fully- no electricity, kaddish, davaning, havdallah, etc. It was really amazing. On Friday night, Dena's synagogue  had their service outside and invited the whole town to come. Ranana is dominantly Americans who made Aliya, so everyone I met spoke perfect English(which was nice for a change). On the walk back, it started drizzling (which is very rare here) and hundreds of people were walking back to their sukkahs for dinner - there was an amazing spirit and energy in the air. We ate lasagna, salad, and chalah in Dena's tye dye sukkah. The next day we did Kaddish with their whole family (she has 2 other sisters, and her parents are from Canada) and the neighbors came by too to have lunch. Her parents are really amazing- they are both really into the Grateful Dead and love kayaking, and the mom is an artist and their house is decorated with her art and bead work. The rest of the day we read books and played cards, and then did Havdallah in the Sukkah. I really love how relaxed and low stress Shabbat is there. Without the chaos of television, computers, phones, etc, the family really becomes close and appreciates each others company more. Shabbat is really a wonderful holiday.

neighbors

Today i got yelled at in Hebrew by my neighbors because I always feed the cats.

Rwanda/beach

Were are raising 5,000 dollars for Rwanda and I'm apart of the committee that will be trying to get money from the states (from synagogues, community centers, jewish schools, etc.) Mom, do you have any ideas on who I can ask? Were going to be writing a uniform draft letter to send out to different organizations. Maybe the Jewish community action group that you work with would sponsor us/ donate some money? In about a week, a Rwandan who survived the genocide who now lives in Israel is coming to talk to us/answer any of our questions and I'll be doing a presentation on the psychological process behind a genocide. Were planning on selling t-shirts/bracelets here, and having a big year course party to raise money. Anyways, Yesterday I had my first hebrew test and I think I did pretty well. I have been learning quick (a lot faster then in spanish because I am trying to put what I learn to use here) and 3 of my roommates are fluent in Hebrew so they have been helping me a lot. Learning hebrew is actually bringing a lot of my Spanish back to me weirdly because when I try think of a word in hebrew, the Spanish word always comes to mind first. It's kind of funny. Yesterday after class I went to the beach with my friends and read my new book called Homesick(It takes place in Jerusalem) and it gives all different perspectives including an Arab worker and a new Israeli couple that is living in the house that the Arab lost during Israels Independence day. I have never heard an Arabs perspective on that before and it's very sad and true that when the Arabs left their land to escape the violence and threats that were coming, they assumed they would come back in a matter of weeks so they left all of their belongings, but by the time they returned to their homes, Jewish people had moved it to their houses and knocked down their things. I understand why Arabs are so upset about all the settlements..  in the book, the Arab comes back to his home 50 years later with the document that says it is his land (under the Turks rule) and removes part of the ceiling to collect a hidden gold necklace that was his mothers, but because the Jews took over the house and it was in their name, he wasn't allowed to take it. I'm starting to understand how deep and complicated the Arab-Israeli conflict is, and it is purely ignorant to say that the Jews are 100% right and Israel is completely our land. So after I finished the book I took a nap and woke up to the sun setting over the ocean it was beautiful !! I attached a picture :) Then our whole section had a Sukkot activity and did different activities relating to Sukkot. I hope you guys are putting up the Sukkah this year... they are popping up everywhere here is it so cool:) It reminded me of our own sukkah and how proud I was showing it off to my friends when I was younger. After the activity, about 40 people went down to the beach and we had a bonfire! Some people played guitar and we were all just chilling by the ocean it was great and I went in the water. I miss you and love you! Oh by the way I bought 3 months worth of birth control here(it's a lot cheaper here) It's less then 10 dollars for each pack.

letter I wrote to friend..

i was just in jerusalem (at the western wall)for one of the holiest days of the year. it was absolutely amazing ..everyone was dancing/chanting/singing/praying/lifting eachother up! A ton of the arabs hate jewish people though and we had to walk through the Arab quarters (the country is split up into Jewish quarter,Arab quarter, and Christian quarter) and they were spitting at us and yelling at us"go home this is not your land" etc. I saw an arab mother abuse her child today too.. she took her three year olds ponytail and yanked her and pushed her to the ground it was so sad. Honestly the Arabs here will do anything to rip you off.. this one guy tried to kidnap me and my roommate Emily by saying he was a taxi driver and "get in my car I taxi driver!" and was following us it was so scary. It sucks walking down a road and knowing everyone hates you... thats how it is here. especially if your an american tourist, all arabs know your a zionist/jew. Its crazy how much tension between races are here.. but they have been living with it for so long that it is normal. Before you go into any building/mall/bus there is hard core security like what they have in airports, and they look through all your bags and stuff. it's such a different world here..... I do feel safe though. There has been some terrorist threats tho(which isnt so abnormal here). Hmmm what else... oh well I fasted allll day today!!! It was so hard! I couldn't eat or drink anything untill 6.30. I didn't do it for religious reasons.. I wanted to do it because I've never really felt what real hunger is, and so much of the world is hungry all the time and you can't be 100% sympathetic unless you have a little taste of what its like to be hungry. It really worked though because after I ate, I saw some homeless people and thought "why do I get to break fast and not them?" I haven't done anything better/more special then they have ... and i'm not more worthy. It really isn't fair at all, so I ended up giving 100 shekles to one guy. The beauty of religion lies in the human spirit, not in silly beliefs. The cool thing about Judaism is that it focuses on living and how to live a meaningful/happy life, whereas most religions focus on living right to attain a good afterlife.

yom kipur, I fasted!!!

Yop kipur in Jerusalem was very interesting. We stayed at hebrew university which is located in an Arab neighborhood. Walking through the arab village was pretty sketchy. I saw a little adorable 4 year old girl crying and ran up to her mother and her mom YANKED her by the ponytail and threw her down so she started crying harder and then ran up to her dad and her dad just pushed her face and everyone around was watching but no one was saying/doing anything. I wanted to comfort the girl except it was a little dangerous that we were walking through there as it is and I didn't want to attract attention anymore then I was(being a white, jewish american and all..) Also a man tried to kidnap us! I was walking with my friend Emily and he was in a little shitty car and was like 'you want a taxi?? I taxi driver! come into car i taxi driver!" Seriously man, were not that retarded. Anyways, we finally got there. This morning we woke up at walked about a half hour to the old city. There were a ton of cars though because it was in a Arab town- but some of my friends who were in the jewish quarters camped out in the middle of a major highway because all the streets were shut down. So we went to the cotel and stayed there for about an hour and then walked through the old city and ran into some yearcoursers. They were staying at a hostel and we climbed up to the roof that looked over the whole city(where a lot of kids were sleeping in sleeping bags) and napped up there for a while.  It was a beautiful place and only 50 sheckles for a night (which is 11 dollars) so I definitely want to stay there sometime. I met people from Spain and Britain there, too. We went back down to the cotel at 5.30 and it was packed. A lot of dancing/praying/singing as the sun went down.. then they blew the shofars and we broke the fast there. There were huge tables of free food and drinks for everyone and everyone shared:) We walked back and on the way we saw an Arab wedding! It was more like a parade through the old city.. loud chants and singing(only for the men though) it was really scary at first though because we thought they were yelling to make a commotion because of Yom Kipur.. and I assumed they were planning some kind of attack. Also, they make it very clear that they hate us because they know we are zionist, jewish tourists.We kept walking and saw a park where all the little orthodox kids were playing at.. they are so cute with their little peyas!! I'm back in bat yam and were cleaning our apartment now so Aviv, our Israeli, wont freak when she comes back:))
Sorry for the bad writing/grammar .. I am just rambling about whatever comes to mind.
Miss and love you all

college

just to update you guys on my decision making.. i'm leaning more towards minnesota right now.. as long as i get to travel/do hiking trips once in a while, the u wouldn't be too bad:)

Classes and Yaffo

Yesterday I was very busy with classes.. I had 2 hours of Hebrew, 2 hours of Zionism, and then at night I had three house of a Israeli film class. The Hebrew class is very helpful but it does get pretty long and boring. I love love love the Zionist class- my teacher is from Britain and is very passionate about Zionism except sometimes he can be  narrow minded and biased on the subject matter. We are currently learning about Theodore Herzl. In my film class we watched the movie Walk on Water which is about a Israeli who is hunting a Nazi; it's very controversial and it has made me think really hard about whether or not I think killing Nazis at this point is ethical - especially one that committed major, terrible crimes and killed hundreds or thousands. What do you think? At Muss when I was learning about the holocaust I was 100% behind catching and killing Nazis, but now my view has changed a little. In the movie, the nazi they found was an old, sick man who had a family and when I saw how normal and human he was it made me think that even though the things that the Nazis committed were atrocious and disgusting, they aren't evil at heart but were merely brainwashed by society- if the media, your family, friends and teachers were all telling you how sickly Jewish people are, then that dehumanizes them and it is no longer a crime or shame to hurt and kill them. Anyways, on a better note..... This morning i woke up at 4.00 and watched the sunrise at the port in Yaffo. It was so beautiful! And it's amazing how Yaffo is mentioned in the bible and it is thousands of years old. We toured around Yaffo and then had free time to go to the flee market(It was like one HUUGE garage sale!) and I got shashooka which they are famous for there- it's a dish with over easy eggs,tomatoes, and spices served hot right from the pan, with bread to dip it in. It was yummmmmy:)(Check my facebook for a picture of it) It's 10 AM so I'm going back to sleep. Then I have a meeting for Rwanda today and then I'm going to Jerusalem with my roommate Emily. I am going to try fast are you guys?
Love you,
miss you, Jen

protein

I have been getting a ton of protein here.. I have eggs or yogurt every morning, I eat humus, edamema, and a lot of soy milk. Last night I made really good potatoes for everyone.. put in garlic, onions, and spices from Israel. I have a new roommate from Chicago who is coming to Rwanda with me! She's really cool, her name is Aliza. Also, I was wrong about Jenna's dad being the mayor of Jerusalem.. she is friends with the mayor of Jerusalem..(Thats how rumors start haha). I'm really frustrated with the post office here! It's crazy...my teeth are hurting and moving :(

dinner:)

I made an AMAZINGGG pasta dish for our room tonight. (they all think I'm the best cook). I made red sauce with garlic, onions, red peppers and tomatoes it was great. Our Israeli is crazy about cleaning in our apartment and she made a chores chart haha. She acts like our mother:)

taxi driver

As I was traveling to my friend's apartment in Tel Aviv, I got attacked by a taxi driver. As I was getting out of the taxi, he tried to steal my purse and he yanked me into the car and broke my purse and my camera, cell phone, and wallet all fell out but I grabbed the camera and wallet but he managed to get ahold of my cell phone and he was grabbing me and wouldn't let me leave until I gave him all of my money in my purse! It was so scary :( There were other girls with me too, though, and I gave him all the money in my wallet (50 shekles) and my friend gave him more so he let go of me and then we ran away. There are some very stingy, shady people here. We got out of the car and he didn't even take us to the right place. We had no idea where we were, but we ended up finding our way to this girls apartment. Her name is Jenna and her parents are from S. Africa! How ironic! And her mom started the orphanage that I'm going to in Rwanda, so Jenna knows all about it and has been there multiple times. Apparently her dad is the mayor of Jerusalem, too. Well anyways, we finally arrived, but her "apartment" was 3 full floors of a beautiful building(including the penthouse). It was a mansion, and we hung out on her roof all night. It had fancy couches and the view was amazing, we could see other people below us on their roofs playing poker. The next day, I come home to my apartment and it was so funny.... Aviv's whole family was in there: her dad was doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, the mom was mopping our floor, the brother was installing a TV and playstation, and the grandma was in our room folding clothes!! They brought boxes of things for our apartment- cooking utensils, food, beautiful plates and cups, tableclothes, a panini maker, a toaster, a hot water maker, couple plans, plastic plates and cups, and soaps. It was soo soo nice of them. Then they took out our trash. Then they insisted I join them for Shabbat at Aviv's aunts house. So I went there for Shabbat and once again, had amaziinnggg food and the aunt was like "I made this special for you just incase you came.." There was about 10 different veggie dishes , 3 types of chicken, meat berekas, potato berekas, rice, diced potatos, salads, and a special vegetable pie thing for me! Yumm. Well, I got back from dinner and then walked to the beach with my friend Rebecca and met up with a bunch of people from yearcourse. :) And then, of course, came back home to chat with Mimi:) Love you all,
PS- I'm freaking because I haven't got my retainer yet and I feel my teeth shifting terribly.


PPS- the Rwanda village I'm going to is for teenagers not for little kids like we thought. They all work on the farm and go to school.

new yeara

Hello ! Shana Tova everyone.. First of all I want to tell you how happy I am that I didn't get lost and I found my way ALL the way to Haifa. It was a three hour long journey and I did it!!! The train was packed full of soldiers and their huge duffel bags and guns, so there was no where to sit but I studied my hebrew book that mom got me on the way. Haifa is absolutely gorgeous; the rolling hills, sparkling ocean,quaint neighborhoods, and a famous garden. Aviv's parents are incredible. They took my out to lunch when I got there to a place that is known for the best humus in Israel. It was amazing, and then they took me to a place for desert and got this weird baked cheese cake with orange sweet sauce(i forgot what its called, apparently its very famous).Then they took me to an amazing view of Haifa, one of the highest points overlooking the ocean. You can even see Lebanon faintly in the distance. Then all of Aviv's family started coming over. A couple of her cousins from the army, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, and some random guests came it was really cute. Most of them spoke English pretty well but not comfortably, they tried to communicate with me but for most of the dinner everyone was babbling away in Hebrew. The coolest thing though is even when  I didn't understand the language, as soon as we started praying  I could sing along and didn't feel like such an interloper anymore.The food was ammmazzinnng. I didn't realize there were so many courses, though, and when all of the appetizers came I got full off of that and couldn't eat the main course. The appetizers consisted of salads, kafilta fish, potato berekas, meats, veggies, fish, egg salad, breads, etc.. how was I supposed to know there was more? The table was filled with about 15 different dishes. I couldn't eat any more when they brought in rice, chicken, and here comes the worst part.... they knew I was vegetarian so they made me my own mushroom filled pastry thing. :( I felt so bad because I literally would throw up if I ate any more! But wait, its not done. After this they bring in a meat pie and made me my own brocolli pie!!! :( I couldn't eat it but I took it home with me to my apartment. And of course, they made dessert honey cake that I couldn't eat. Later that night Aviv took me to a bar in town and we met up with some of her friends from the Scouts. This morning when I woke up they made breakfast for me, and I was going to take a taxi home because the buses are all closed, but the parents insisted they drive me home! It took an hour and a half I felt so, so bad.They are the nicest people. I felt bad for how much they went out of their way for me by cooking and driving me back, and just as I was about to get out of the car, they gave me a grocery bag fulll of fruits, pop, and veggies for our apartment. They did so much for me that I felt embarrassed. But wait. Theres more. When I came to their house and gave them a present for having me(a box of chocolates and a note), the dad gave me a present right back! It was a nicely wrapped box full of soaps,lotions,perfumes, etc! He said, "Merry Christmas" when he gave it to me. Haha.
Well, peace and love. Shana Tova love you all

First time getting lost

Surprisingly, today was the first day I got lost. 10 people in my volunteer group were supposed to meet at the office just ten minutes away from my apartment at 11.30 and me and my friend Rebecca left at 11 just to be safe. We took the bus the opposite way and realized it after a couple of stops, so we got off and took another bus, unfortunately it was the wrong one and we ended up in another city. Finally we figured it out and got to the office at 12.00! We were sweating hot and frustrated, and when we finally got to the meeting it was over. :( We went to the beach today though and me and my roommate did a workout video in our living room. Tomorrow I am leaving at 8.00AM to travel to Haifa by myself! Ah! I'm a little nervous. Love and miss you. peace out

first day of class.

Today we started classes. I had hebrew ulpan first. I'm in the lowest class, of course, because I don't know any hebrew, with about10 kids in my class which is wonderful because we have more hands on help from the teacher. I wish University classes weren't so big in the states :(  Even though it was only the first day, I felt like I learned a lot and I am very keen on learning hebrew so I don't feel like such a tourist in the country. Then I had my Zionist class which I also love. My teacher is very passionate and enthusiastic like Tuvia. I'm really excited to start learning because I feel like my brain has been dead for so long because of summer break !! It's nice to get my mind stimulated again.  I have been starting to understand the bus system a bit better which is good, except the bus drivers are very rude and sometimes wont open the door for you even if it's an empty bus! There was a story in the news of one bus driver who drove around all day without picking anyone up(whats the point? I have no idea they are crazy..) One thing I love about Israel is how on Shabbas, the city shuts down and everything is quiet and peaceful. Also, I went to buy eggs today from the corner store and the cashier gave me a candy and said "Shana Tova!" It's wonderful how things like Shabbat and holidays here bring everyone closer together. Speaking of Rosh Hashana, Aviv(my Israeli roomate) invited me to spend it in Haifa with her family! So I'll be going there with her on wednesday night. I know you guys are getting together with a lot of people so I send my wishes and will be thinking about you! Love you, miss you, <3 Jenna

meal

Tonight I cooked our first real meal !!!!! All by myself. I made fried rice with white rice, eggs, peppers, onions, garlic, carrots,mushrooms and soy sauce. it turned out amazing!!! I was so proud of myself. Also, we invited 5 girls over for dinner so all together I cooked for 9 people and everyone loved it. Now were going to someones apartment to play bananagrams :) wish me luck
peace out, Jen

orientation week

Orientation week has been very stressful, exciting, frustrating, amazing, and exhausting. We are finally starting to settle in though. Today we washed all the floors and cleaned the kitchen and it has finally hit me that we are managing our own apartment! It's very cool. We live on the 6th floor of an apartment building with all Israeli neighbors because they split up all of Americans from year course so we could feel like regular citizens here. We live so close to the beach, it's only a 25 minute walk and it is absolutely beautiful ! We went to the ocean a couple of nights ago and ordered drinks and dinner on the beach, it was very cool. Last night after our initiation we went to the old city and walked to the cotel. It gave me so many flashbacks from the Muss program and i loved how everything there stays exactly the same, and even though I have grown and changed so much in the last couple of years, the old city is left untouched. Just walking through there was so spiritual and beautiful. Touching the cotel again also felt amazing and gave me an instant reconnection with Israel. It made me feel apart of something so whole and wonderful.
We finally got back at midnight.. but the night is still not over! The tzofim(scouts) planned a really cool evening. We had ten minutes to change and then about 50 of us took a bus to a "party".We went in the middle of nowhere to a Kibbutz (my first kibbutz ever!) and walked past a barn full of disgusting smelling cows. It was funny though because everyone was dressed up in heels and nice clothes, and we were walking past a barn. But then we walked further and there was a huge barn made into a club and hundreds of people dancing. We stayed there untill 4.30 in the morning and then only got back into bed by 6. Luckily we got to sleep in today untill 2.30! I have to go and make a salad for a combined shabbat dinner with our whole group. I will update later! Love you mom and dad:)

First couple of days

I have arrived in Bat Yam a couple of days ago. My roommates are just great.. I have an Israeli named Aviv, who has the cutest accent, Emily who's from philidelphia and Ilana who is from Boston. Although its hot as hell in our apartments(we have no fan or AC) it is really cute and homey. I'm having trouble with directions.. luckily I can just follow my roommates , but sooner or later I need to know for myself because we'll probably have different classes and volunteer placements. Many Israelis have already tried ripping me off/taking advantage of my money. If they see you are American, they instantly charge you more. Israelis are also very pushy and rude , especially in grocery stores! They kept pushing me over with their cart and nudging me out of their way.
Tonight we went to a pool party on the beach and had dinner watching the sunset it was beautiful. My feet hurt from walking everywhere.. everything in Bat Yam is very far apart so we walk miles and miles every day.