So...., continuing from the first part, we woke up on day 4 bright and early to catch our train. We headed over to the station to find that we had to go through a whole security checkpoint and customs. We went as fast as possible to make it on the train. Unfortunately, when we got to the boarding area, they said it had just left. We were lucky enough that they gave us a ticket for the next train at no charge. So we got on and left for London. The trip was somewhat enjoyable. It was very quiet and peaceful. We got to see a lot of the French countryside. The part of the trip where we went underground went by really fast and then suddenly - we were in England! Soon enough we arrived at the station and exited to the street.
We walked down one of the main roads to find our hostel. It was interesting to see all of the hustle and bustle in London coming from Paris which seemed to be a bit more calm. We arrived at our hostel which had a modern flare to it. It had a cafe/bar, 24 hour reception, and other nice amenities. The down side was that the rooms were like dorm rooms - with bunk beds and up to 8 people per room. We also had to share a bathroom with the rest of the floor. Anyways, we went to change our Euros into Pounds right away. After using Euros for a few days, I found the pound system to be very confusing with its all different shaped and colored coins. Euro bills may look like monopoly money but they were much easier to use. After a quick breakfast, we decided to head over to Regent's Park where we saw the Queen's gardens. Being as exhausted as we were, laying down on the grass seemed like a good idea. I can't remember how long I was laying there but it felt very relaxing. Eventually we mustered enough energy to get up and made our way over to a restaurant for some fish and chips. In my opinion, the fish and chips were not that different than what I have had at home. Even so, I really enjoyed them.
Our next stop was the British Museum - a history and culture museum with over seven million objects. I found the artifacts and various statues to be amazing. The Egyptian section was especially interesting to me. Unfortunately, the museum closed before we could see everything we wanted to. With not much else to do, we decided it was time for dinner. On our way to dinner, we walked down Oxford Street, which is London's version of Champs De Elysee. It has all the designer stores, nice restaurants, and other aspects similar to it's Paris counterpart. We arrived at the restaurant which was in Soho. It was a very upbeat Thai restaurant. I ordered Pad Thai and I believe Ben did the same. It was probably the best Pad Thai that I have ever had - yum. After our delicious dinner, we decided to walk around the Piccadilly Circus area (another main street in London). We even stopped at a Mac store and used their internet to check our e-mail on our i-pods. By the time it got dark outside, we were ready to head back to our hostel for some much needed sleep. Little did we know at that time that we would not be getting all of that sleep. The problem was that one of our roommates was sick, and had a monster cough. The whole night, he was coughing away and it was almost impossible to fall asleep between each one of his booming coughs.
We woke up tired, and missing our Paris hotel room. Our first order of business was to talk to reception about switching rooms. We didn't want to have another bad night of sleep. We were given the option to switch - but we had to move from a 6 person room to an 8 person room. We figured it couldn't be any worse than we experienced the night before. We moved our bags, ate a nice breakfast at the hostel, and headed out for another adventure. We had planned to do a free walking tour of the city this day so we started heading over to the start point. On the way, we stopped at a Nike store on Oxford Street and I bought myself a Manchester United mini soccer ball. Also on the way, we walked through another royal park called Green Park. This park was very nice. It had lots of paths with trees lining them. We relaxed for a bit on a bench in the park. When it was almost time for the tour to start we walked over to the meeting point at Hyde Park Corner.
I didn't know what to expect from the tour but I was pleasantly surprised. Our tour guide happened to be American and she was very good. She told lots of stories and interesting facts that helped make the tour entertaining. Starting at Hyde Park corner, we learned about the Wellington Arch. (By the way, all the pictures for this tour and the rest if the trip can be found on my Facebook page). The Arch was originally built as a memorial to the Duke of Wellington with his statue on top. Now, however, a statue of the angel of peace resides on top of the arch. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. I was not as awe struck as when I first saw the White House but the Palace was still great to see. We heard stories about how a lot of people have been able to break in to the Palace without much effort. One story was about a drunk guy who just wandered in and ended up on the Queen's bed telling stories. We were told that when the Royal Standard flag was raised, the Queen is in the Palace. Unfortunately, the flag was not raised that day. Also unfortunately, we didn't get to see the changing of the guard. In front of the Palace is a Queen Victoria memorial with a large garden and a statue. We went on to see the Princes Palace. The Palace was mostly hidden behind trees but we could see a bit of it. In front of the Palace were 2 guards on duty. They would stand still for a while, do some gun movements, and then some marching back and forth until filing back into the same positions. We learned that people used to be able to go right up to the guards and mess around with them and take pictures. Now, however, they have a chain fence that we were not allowed to pass. The closest we could get was about 5-10 feet away from them. We learned that this is because of a tourist who decided to march alongside one of the guards and ended up getting shoved top the ground. You can see this video at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPK1kPWj1E - so funny. We then stopped by St. Jame's Palace which is not used so much lately except for special meetings. Our next stop was Trafalgar Square, a main tourist attraction with fountains and statues. Nelson's Column is a big monument for Admiral Nelson with a statue at the top. On the way to our next stop we passed under the Admiralty Arch - an office building with an archway over the road. The arch was built as a memorial to Queen Victoria from her son Edward VII. The Arch is well known for having a nose like protrusion in one of the inner walls of the arch. Tradition is that soldiers riding by on a horse rub the nose for good luck. On our way to the next stop, we passed a bunker that was right next to St. James Park. The bunker was covered in ivy and had a grass covered roof. We soon found out that they did this so that enemy planes flying over head would think it was part of the park and therefore would not bomb it. Cool stuff. Our next destination was the Big Ben clock tower. I had really looked foreword to seeing it and it did not disappoint. We heard a funny story about how Big Ben might have gotten it's name. Unfortunately, I can't remember the story so I will have to talk to Ben (not Big Ben, little Ben). We saw Westminster Abbey but did not get to go in. It was very impressive from the outside though. Our last stop were the houses of Parliament. We were told about how there were numerous failed terrorist attacks long ago. The caught terrorists were hung, then beheaded, then their heads would go on display in the city to set an example, and many other bad things. I think times have changed. So that was the end of the tour and i think we both really enjoyed it. I learned so much about the city and had fun doing it.
Ben and I went to get lunch. I picked up an apple cinnamon pancake from a stand by the Thames River. It hit the spot. Ben found a sandwich and drink at a mini grocery store. From that area, we had a nice view of the river and also the London Eye ferris wheel behind it. I had wanted to do the ferris wheel until I found out that it was around $20. Ridiculous. Ben wanted to see the National Gallery, an art museum located by Trafalgar Square. So we went back and spent a short time in the museum. After this, we decided that another trip to the British Museum would be nice. We had only seen a couple sections on our last visit so we made our way over for round 2. This time, I really enjoyed seeing a section about currency, and one about clocks. There was this one clock with a ball that rolled along a path on a metal plate from one end to the other to the other......... until it got to the other side. This whole process takes 30 seconds. So, each time the ball hits the other side, the clock adds 30 seconds and the plate angles in the other direction so the ball will roll back. I found this really interesting and I think Ben and I examined it for a good 5 minutes at least.
Dinner for this night was Indian Tapas, a popular food in London. I had never eaten Indian food before so I was excited. We ordered a bunch of different dishes, making sure to avoid the oens that said spicy. Everything was going great until I ate some of a potato dish and got a hot pepper seed stuck in my throat. I kid you not, my throat burned for a solid 10 minutes or so. I chugged a glass of water and my fruit drink. It didn't help, Everything I ate tasted spicy and I couldn't get the horrible taste out of my mouth. I think the food in general was good but that one hot pepper seed got to me pretty badly. After dinner, we realized that we hadn't gone to a pub yet. So we walked a few blocks over to a place called the French House and enjoyed some beer. It was a pretty nice last night in London as we headed back to the hostel where I printed out my boarding pass for my flight back to Tel Aviv the next day. We settled into our new room and fell fast asleep.
We got great sleep that night without any sick people to keep us up. We enjoyed another hostel breakfast consisting of cereal, a pastry, a fruit and some coffee, tea or juice. I love breakfast. After checking out of the airport, we walked over to the Underground station where I was taking a train to the airport. Ben was leaving later but I had to go so we said goodbye and went our own ways. I got off the train at Heathrow Terminal 1 and the rest is history. I was sad to be finished with the trip but I missed Israel at the same time. It was nice to be back and I was so glad to have been through such an amazing experience.
My final thoughts are that I loved both cities but Paris had such an amazing feeling to it. London was very modern and felt like a big city whereas Paris was peaceful. I would love to spend more time in each city - especially since we had such little time on this trip. We ate amazing food, met really nice people, and learned a lot about history and culture. To sum it up, every dollar I spent was worth it.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my travels and be sure to check out my pictures on Facebook. In the meantime, I am sitting here writing this in my apartment with exactly a week to go. In fact, I will be arriving in Cleveland in about one week and 5 hours from now. I am anxious to go home but sad that this trip is coming to an end. It seems to have gone by so fast. This next week should be a good one with a few days off, a last visit to one of the schools I volunteer at, graduation, and much more. I am hoping to make the best of it. I will be starting my Masters of Education at John Carroll University a little over a week after I get back to Cleveland so things are going to be a whirlwind during that one week. Anyways, once I get my computer working I will post the rest of my pictures and update you with the rest of the trip and the parts in the middle that I missed.
From Ramla Israel,
ל'לה טוב
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Eurotrip (probably not as entertaining as the movie) Part I
Well about a couple of months ago, my computer decided that it didn't want to turn on anymore. Because of that, I have been unable to post pictures or update this blog. Luckily, my roommate Rachel has let me use her computer to do this. Meanwhile, I will be home in 3 weeks and I will get my computer fixed..............AGAIN!!! Once I have it back, I will post the rest of my pictures and finish my blog posting. I can't believe how little time I have left in Israel - this trip has flown by so fast!. That being said I am excited to be heading home where I will have luxuries such as not sleeping on a bunk bed, my own bathroom, and home cooking. Anyways, this post is about my trip to Paris and London with my good friend Ben Sattin. Without further delay, enjoy..........
So after a long debate about where to go on a vacation, Ben and I finally decided to do both Paris AND London. We knew this would give us less time in each city but that we would be able to see two amazing places instead of just one. I left for Paris at 5am from Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, April 25th with plans to meet Ben at our hotel. I had a quick layover at Riga Airport in Latvia - fun times. I arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport around noon, where I followed a maze of paths to get my bags and changed currency. I then took a shuttle train to a different terminal where I took a RER (Regional Express Network) train into central Paris. I ended up at a station named Chatelet Les Halles which was near our hotel. Above the station was a mall. After multiple failed attempts to exit, I finally found the right door. Soon enough, I was at the hotel with Ben where we dropped our bags off in our room. The hotel was very different than most hotels I have stayed in. It had a little door for its entrance and a small office for reception. It was almost like a house. It was nice because it was quiet and we had plenty of space. We then headed over to a nearby cafe where I refueled on an Omelet Fromage (a cheese omelet.)
As we walked over to the Louvre, I was amazed by the architecture and old time feel to the city. We walked through the inner atrium of the Louvre that had fountains, and the glass Pyramids. We were amazed by the architecture of the building and how huge it was. We didn't go in to the museum at that time but that will come later. Just past the Louvre is the Jardin De Tuileries - a big public park that used to have a Palace in its place. We walked through the park and stopped a couple of times to sit down and people watch. After we reached the end, we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower - or the Tour Eiffel in French. It was an amazing site. As typical tourists, we took lots of pictures. With the sun going down and not much to do at this point, we decided to take a boat tour on the Seine River. On this tour, we saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower again, and some other significant buildings. Once the tour was over, we were very hungry. We eventually found a bar and grille where we both devoured some amazing macaroni and cheese. After dinner we went back to the hotel - exhausted but excited for the next day.
On day two we woke up early enough to make it to the Louvre around when it opened. We stopped on the way and bought a fresh out of the oven baguette and dessert croissants. So good. We arrived at the Louvre to a much shorter line than we expected. Once inside, we grabbed a map and picked out certain things that we wanted to see. It was clear that this was an enormous museum and it would take days to see everything inside. We saw Italian paintings, a lot of sculptures, and of course, the Mona Lisa. I'm not a big art fan, and the art of the Louvre does not exactly spark my interest. That being said, I still found it to be an interesting experience. After our visit to the Louvre, we spent some time in the Latin Quarter, a University area, and got some lunch. We then walked over to Ile Notre Dame, the Island that the Notre Dame Cathedral is located on. We entered the cathedral in amazement. It had a high arching ceiling and stained glass windows. It seemed like it would be an amazing place to pray - not for Jews of course. I have not really been to too many cathedrals in my life but I knew right away that this one was amazing. At this point Ben and I were both exhausted from the day and decided to go back to the hotel for some rest. We felt lazy for not seeing more of the city but we needed some down time. Around dinner time, we woke up and decided that we didn't feel like doing much else that night. We got some Italian food near our hotel and walked around the area a little before heading back and crashing for the night. Another action packed day.
On day three we were heading to the Musee d'Orsay, an art museum containing mostly French art. The art in the museum is more modern than the Louvre and includes impressionist and post impressionist works. The museum has works by Monet, Van Gogh, and many more. I really enjoyed this museum and found it to be more relatable than the art in the Louvre. Our next stop was a Creperie that I had looked up before the trip that I heard was one of the best in Paris. We took a short train ride to get there. I ordered a chocolate banana crepe that was delicious. I don't know if it was the best in Paris but it was definitely good. We took a train to the Arch de Triumph. It was really cool coming up the escalator from the station to see the Arch. The Arch is right in the middle of a large roundabout with streets running into it from every direction. We walked a complete circle around the Arch, taking pictures along the way. One of the streets running into it is Champs De Elysee - a well known street around the world with cafes, stores, and many other shops. It is the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe with rest as high as one million dollars. Ben and I checked out some cool cars on display, saw some break-dancers performing on the sidewalk, and stopped for some delicious Haagen Dazs. We then relaxed at a bench and planned our next few stops. Our first stop was a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower where I had salmon and we shared some wine. We sat there for a while drinking because we ordered too much but it was nice to just hang out for a while. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower with plans to go up to the top. We wanted to see Paris at night and the sun hadn't set yet so we waited while watching some guys play soccer. When the sun started going down, we walked up to the tower and waited in line for the ride up. When it was our turn, we crammed in to the elevator. The first stop was the second floor. We had to transfer to another elevator but first caught the nightly light show on the tower. After the light show, we got in the elevator and went all the way up. It was much like any other observation deck except for the fact that it was the Eiffel tower which just made it amazing. While there wasn't that much to see from up top, we did see the Arch De Triumph and the river. I was really glad that we did it. Our last stop of the night was the train station where we were to take a train to London the following morning. We used a machine to print out our tickets and headed back to the hotel for packing and sleep.
We woke up very early to catch our train. Little did we know that we didn't wake up early enough. When we got to the station, we had to go through security and customs before boarding. We did not expect this delay and we ended up missing our train. If we hadn't already booked our return flight, I think we would have been happy to stay in Paris for another few days. Luckily though, we were able to get a ticket for the next train at no extra cost. Problem solved.
That is all for my Paris post. London should be up soon. I hope you enjoyed this post. I really had an amazing time in Paris. I had wanted to go there since I took French when I was in school. It definitely lived up to my expectations. We saw amazing things and ate great food. I already miss Paris and I can't wait for my next trip - whenever that may be.
So after a long debate about where to go on a vacation, Ben and I finally decided to do both Paris AND London. We knew this would give us less time in each city but that we would be able to see two amazing places instead of just one. I left for Paris at 5am from Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, April 25th with plans to meet Ben at our hotel. I had a quick layover at Riga Airport in Latvia - fun times. I arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport around noon, where I followed a maze of paths to get my bags and changed currency. I then took a shuttle train to a different terminal where I took a RER (Regional Express Network) train into central Paris. I ended up at a station named Chatelet Les Halles which was near our hotel. Above the station was a mall. After multiple failed attempts to exit, I finally found the right door. Soon enough, I was at the hotel with Ben where we dropped our bags off in our room. The hotel was very different than most hotels I have stayed in. It had a little door for its entrance and a small office for reception. It was almost like a house. It was nice because it was quiet and we had plenty of space. We then headed over to a nearby cafe where I refueled on an Omelet Fromage (a cheese omelet.)
As we walked over to the Louvre, I was amazed by the architecture and old time feel to the city. We walked through the inner atrium of the Louvre that had fountains, and the glass Pyramids. We were amazed by the architecture of the building and how huge it was. We didn't go in to the museum at that time but that will come later. Just past the Louvre is the Jardin De Tuileries - a big public park that used to have a Palace in its place. We walked through the park and stopped a couple of times to sit down and people watch. After we reached the end, we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower - or the Tour Eiffel in French. It was an amazing site. As typical tourists, we took lots of pictures. With the sun going down and not much to do at this point, we decided to take a boat tour on the Seine River. On this tour, we saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower again, and some other significant buildings. Once the tour was over, we were very hungry. We eventually found a bar and grille where we both devoured some amazing macaroni and cheese. After dinner we went back to the hotel - exhausted but excited for the next day.
On day two we woke up early enough to make it to the Louvre around when it opened. We stopped on the way and bought a fresh out of the oven baguette and dessert croissants. So good. We arrived at the Louvre to a much shorter line than we expected. Once inside, we grabbed a map and picked out certain things that we wanted to see. It was clear that this was an enormous museum and it would take days to see everything inside. We saw Italian paintings, a lot of sculptures, and of course, the Mona Lisa. I'm not a big art fan, and the art of the Louvre does not exactly spark my interest. That being said, I still found it to be an interesting experience. After our visit to the Louvre, we spent some time in the Latin Quarter, a University area, and got some lunch. We then walked over to Ile Notre Dame, the Island that the Notre Dame Cathedral is located on. We entered the cathedral in amazement. It had a high arching ceiling and stained glass windows. It seemed like it would be an amazing place to pray - not for Jews of course. I have not really been to too many cathedrals in my life but I knew right away that this one was amazing. At this point Ben and I were both exhausted from the day and decided to go back to the hotel for some rest. We felt lazy for not seeing more of the city but we needed some down time. Around dinner time, we woke up and decided that we didn't feel like doing much else that night. We got some Italian food near our hotel and walked around the area a little before heading back and crashing for the night. Another action packed day.
On day three we were heading to the Musee d'Orsay, an art museum containing mostly French art. The art in the museum is more modern than the Louvre and includes impressionist and post impressionist works. The museum has works by Monet, Van Gogh, and many more. I really enjoyed this museum and found it to be more relatable than the art in the Louvre. Our next stop was a Creperie that I had looked up before the trip that I heard was one of the best in Paris. We took a short train ride to get there. I ordered a chocolate banana crepe that was delicious. I don't know if it was the best in Paris but it was definitely good. We took a train to the Arch de Triumph. It was really cool coming up the escalator from the station to see the Arch. The Arch is right in the middle of a large roundabout with streets running into it from every direction. We walked a complete circle around the Arch, taking pictures along the way. One of the streets running into it is Champs De Elysee - a well known street around the world with cafes, stores, and many other shops. It is the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe with rest as high as one million dollars. Ben and I checked out some cool cars on display, saw some break-dancers performing on the sidewalk, and stopped for some delicious Haagen Dazs. We then relaxed at a bench and planned our next few stops. Our first stop was a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower where I had salmon and we shared some wine. We sat there for a while drinking because we ordered too much but it was nice to just hang out for a while. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower with plans to go up to the top. We wanted to see Paris at night and the sun hadn't set yet so we waited while watching some guys play soccer. When the sun started going down, we walked up to the tower and waited in line for the ride up. When it was our turn, we crammed in to the elevator. The first stop was the second floor. We had to transfer to another elevator but first caught the nightly light show on the tower. After the light show, we got in the elevator and went all the way up. It was much like any other observation deck except for the fact that it was the Eiffel tower which just made it amazing. While there wasn't that much to see from up top, we did see the Arch De Triumph and the river. I was really glad that we did it. Our last stop of the night was the train station where we were to take a train to London the following morning. We used a machine to print out our tickets and headed back to the hotel for packing and sleep.
We woke up very early to catch our train. Little did we know that we didn't wake up early enough. When we got to the station, we had to go through security and customs before boarding. We did not expect this delay and we ended up missing our train. If we hadn't already booked our return flight, I think we would have been happy to stay in Paris for another few days. Luckily though, we were able to get a ticket for the next train at no extra cost. Problem solved.
That is all for my Paris post. London should be up soon. I hope you enjoyed this post. I really had an amazing time in Paris. I had wanted to go there since I took French when I was in school. It definitely lived up to my expectations. We saw amazing things and ate great food. I already miss Paris and I can't wait for my next trip - whenever that may be.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Seder in Israel
So as everyone at home is probably just starting their Seders, I am at my mom's cousin's house where we just finished ours. It was my first Israeli Seder and my first away from home. I want to describe the Seder a little bit and explain some differences.
The Seder was all in Hebrew, as expected. It was hard to know what was going on as we went from page to page. Luckily, I was given an English Haggadah so I could keep up. Since it was written by Israelis, the English was very poor. We went through the passages quickly with little time to realize what just happened. I noticed a few things that were done differently - such as saying the hand washing prayer and then not washing our hands. No body wore Kippas except for me and one other person. We didn't do all four cups of wine if I recall correctly. We didn't have eggs (although there was one on the Seder plate). Dayeinu had different words but the same tune. These are some things that puzzled me, but I wasn't annoyed - just curious.
The food was very good although different than what we have at home. I had some pretty good matzoh balls and many other good things. We finished the Seder with some songs.
All in all, it lasted about 4 hours but felt even faster. Most of the discussion was in Hebrew but I tried my best to figure out what was being talked about. I can't wait to be home for next year's seder but I am also happy to have been able to experience an Israeli Passover. Chag Sameach to all!!!
The Seder was all in Hebrew, as expected. It was hard to know what was going on as we went from page to page. Luckily, I was given an English Haggadah so I could keep up. Since it was written by Israelis, the English was very poor. We went through the passages quickly with little time to realize what just happened. I noticed a few things that were done differently - such as saying the hand washing prayer and then not washing our hands. No body wore Kippas except for me and one other person. We didn't do all four cups of wine if I recall correctly. We didn't have eggs (although there was one on the Seder plate). Dayeinu had different words but the same tune. These are some things that puzzled me, but I wasn't annoyed - just curious.
The food was very good although different than what we have at home. I had some pretty good matzoh balls and many other good things. We finished the Seder with some songs.
All in all, it lasted about 4 hours but felt even faster. Most of the discussion was in Hebrew but I tried my best to figure out what was being talked about. I can't wait to be home for next year's seder but I am also happy to have been able to experience an Israeli Passover. Chag Sameach to all!!!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Purim fun, birthday party, and Sar El
Israel Blog Post #5:
Week three of volunteering was a fairly normal one. I started Sunday with a morning volunteering session at the middle school (Idanim). That night I had soccer with the disabled as my volunteering but I felt that I was catching a cold so I decided not to go. On Monday, I was back at the Elementary School (Ben Guryon), but was working with a different teacher this time. This teacher - Liat - worked with the younger kids, was much more organized, and had some sense of respect from her students. I was able to work with a few of the students on worksheets involving English names for articles of clothing. We did bingo, a word search, and other activities. I felt glad to be able to help some lower level English students. I finished the week with another trip to Idanim where I was told to talk about landmarks with a student. I had another strong week of volunteering. For Friday night dinner that week, I went with my roommate to my family’s house in Mazkeret Batya. We both had a nice time getting out of Ramla and enjoying the food.
The following Sunday was Purim and a group of friends and I decided to go out to Tel Aviv the night before to celebrate. “A person must get drunk on Purim until he cannot distinguish between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordechai.'” I figured out my costume last minute when I bought a top hat at the Ramla market and decided to be the Monopoly man. I drew a bowtie and buttons on an undershirt (everything washed off), and wore black pants and a black jacket. I made a cane out of tinfoil and had someone draw a moustache on me. Somehow I managed to pull it all together in one day. So we went to a bar in Tel Aviv, got some drinks, and hung out for a while. Late at night, a few of us ate at a coffee shop before heading home.
Because of Purim, the local schools were either closed or only having parties for the next couple days. I had Sunday and Monday free for this week. On Tuesday I was scheduled to go to a new elementary school that I was really excited about. Unfortunately, our coordinator scheduled it for me at the same time that I had Ulpan. No big deal though. I volunteered at the library that night and ran into a local teenager who I played soccer with during the first couple of weeks at a local park. I talked with him about what I am doing in Israel and learned a little about him. He even helped me with my Ulpan homework. Great kid. Wednesday was my birthday - the big 23!! I went to volunteer at the middle school in the morning and, for various reasons, I didn’t end up volunteering. I figured it was good luck since I wouldn’t be volunteering on my birthday. Even so, I ended up going with my other friends to the elementary school since I had nothing else to do. When I got there, they said that they didn’t need all six of us - so I went home. Two attempts at volunteering turned down. For my birthday, a group of my closest friends and I went to this cool area in Rehovot called science park, or kiryat Weizmann. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant called Papardella and then headed over to the Dublin Irish Pub for some drinks. I think we all had a great time as I definitely did. My friends were so nice that they paid for everything of mine - transportation, food, drinks, etc. I can’t thank them enough. The only bad part about this event was that I was forced to leave people out. I didn’t think that I would be able to bring 18 people to a restaurant. It would have been too hard. The people who were not invited found out and were upset. Some drama ensued but I hope that all frustration has been settled. I don’t want to be seen as the bad guy for leaving people out. Anyways, this was probably one of my favorite birthdays that I have had.
I finished the week off strong and had a nice, relaxing weekend, with not much going on. I did go see Shutter Island in Tel Aviv with a couple friends. Good but very strange movie. I was in for a tough week coming up so I made sure to be well rested. On Sunday we started an optional program called Sar El. Sar-El is the Hebrew acronym for Sheirut Le’Yisrael, meaning "Service to Israel." We were volunteering in the military for five days and had a few surprises included. Our trip started with a bus ride down South towards the base. We met our commanders or mefakdot on the way. They seemed like nice people but didn’t really interact that much. They were both women and they looked our age or younger. We arrived at the base, which was right near the border of Egypt, and immediately received our uniforms, sheets, and a sleeping bag. We went to our rooms and unpacked. I roomed with Izy, Ben, and Jonathon Harris. We had a nice room with plenty of space for four people. We were told to always be on time and always have our uniforms on (unless in our rooms). We soon found out that if we didn’t follow these rules, we were in serious trouble. The first day consisted of lunch and some group meetings. We didn’t do any volunteering due to the fact that we had just arrived. That night, we were given a ridiculous 10pm bedtime. Despite this crazy order, we all followed. At around midnight, we were woken up by our commanders and some soldiers banging on our doors and yelling for us to get downstairs in uniform in 7 minutes. Some of us thought there was an emergency but most had no idea what was going on. We were told to run to the basketball courts and form a chet - the Hebrew letter that looks like three sides of a square. We were told that we were being “inducted” into the Sar El program. They proceeded to call us one by one and put blue badges on our uniforms that said “a volunteer of Sar El” in Hebrew. The soldiers would then punch the inductee in the shoulder and say a phrase in Hebrew that I can’t remember. This was a really fun ceremony that made us feel welcome.
Our daily schedule consisted of waking up for 7:45am breakfast, meeting afterwards to assign jobs, working the jobs until lunch, continuing to work after lunch until four, a break until dinner, and an evening activity every night. My job was working with kitbags - large canvas bags stocked with equipment that reserve soldiers will use in case of an emergency. The bags hadn’t been touched in a couple years (they told us to watch out for snakes and scorpions in the bags! Yikes!). Our job was to open them up, one at a time, and check that all the equipment was correct. The helmet had to be the updated plastic kind. The uniforms and coat must be the right size. The backpack needed two canteens, a mess kit, and a hat and belt. There also needed to be a vest and sleeping back in it. Once we made sure it was correct or made changes to make it correct, we had to repack the whole bag. This was the hardest part as we had to really jam everything in to be able to close it. We then replaced the bag onto one of the shelves. We did this over and over and over…………. I think we did about 200 bags all together. It was very repetitive and boring but we felt proud of ourselves for helping out so much.
I heard that army base food was really bad. The meals at this base were actually pretty decent. We usually had a good amount of choices and we were always full at the end. We needed the food to continue on with our jobs since we lost energy fast. I always ate some vegetables, some protein, some starch, and a fruit at the end. I felt like I was eating pretty healthy.
Our evening activities included a discussion about Gilad Shalit, a lesson on the branches of the military, and an activity involving placing stickers with Hebrew names of body parts on to one of the girls in our group. I feel like I learned a lot of new information from these activities.
Because we were only there for five days, our commanders decided to give us as much exposure to the military as possible. They wanted us to really feel like we were in the army. That meant that any time we were late somewhere, or anytime we did something wrong, we would be punished like a soldier. Not only did the person who messed up get punished, but the whole group did. We did so many push ups and so much running that we were all sore all the time. The worst was when they had us run sprints and we had to finish under a certain time. If not, they gave us less and less time to finish until we basically gave up. We started to notice that their reasons for punishment didn’t make much sense. Even when we were on time, they found a reason to make us run. We also heard that the two girls were actually really nice - but we didn’t believe it. The volunteering combined with punishment made us exhausted every day.
On the last night of the program, they were making us run so much and do so many pushups that we all felt like passing out. Eventually they said that we weren’t working hard enough, and needed to change into our clothes from home that we could work harder in. We ran to change and came back as fast as possible. The commanders weren’t there but we got in formation and waited with fear of what was next. All of a sudden, the two of them came running out in street clothes (something that we had never seen before) and started mocking us by running around like crazy and doing pushups and pretending to be tired and complaining. We didn’t know what was going on but we thought it was really funny. When all the craziness was over, they said that they would finally be nice to us for the rest of the trip. We were so surprised to see that they had a humorous side and could actually smile. We then received Sar El t-shirts, hats, a letter from them, and a certificate of completion. They called this event “breaking the distance” because they no longer were distanced from us and reserved. We finally knew that we were done being punished and could actually be friends with them. They answered questions about themselves that they wouldn’t tell us before like how old they were (20 and 19). They said that they were told to make this hard for us and they struggled to be so mean and were hiding smiles when they made us do stuff. They even admitted that they made up reasons to punish us because we were so good. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with them as equals and talking about our experiences.
The last day consisted of light work, cleaning our space, returning our uniforms, and heading back to Ramla. We were so happy to be done but felt an amazing sense of accomplishment from all the work and dedication we put in to the last five days. We will keep in touch with our commanders and have no hard feelings about them because we know that they were just trying to give us an authentic experience. Sar El was one of my favorite experiences of this trip so far even though I felt miserable at times.
Kitbags - the job that I did for five days
Our Mefakdot - or commanders
After we finished the program
I came back to Ramla wiped out and didn’t do much for a couple days. Last night, a couple close friends (Izy and Ben) and I made Shabbat dinner together. I made pasta with vegetables while Izy made fish and Ben made mashed potatoes. DEE-LICOUS!!! I am about to start week six of volunteering and I am really happy with everything. I am especially looking foreword to my trip to London and then to Paris with my friend Ben who is volunteering in Berlin. It is going to be awesome!!! Until next time everyone…..
Week three of volunteering was a fairly normal one. I started Sunday with a morning volunteering session at the middle school (Idanim). That night I had soccer with the disabled as my volunteering but I felt that I was catching a cold so I decided not to go. On Monday, I was back at the Elementary School (Ben Guryon), but was working with a different teacher this time. This teacher - Liat - worked with the younger kids, was much more organized, and had some sense of respect from her students. I was able to work with a few of the students on worksheets involving English names for articles of clothing. We did bingo, a word search, and other activities. I felt glad to be able to help some lower level English students. I finished the week with another trip to Idanim where I was told to talk about landmarks with a student. I had another strong week of volunteering. For Friday night dinner that week, I went with my roommate to my family’s house in Mazkeret Batya. We both had a nice time getting out of Ramla and enjoying the food.
The following Sunday was Purim and a group of friends and I decided to go out to Tel Aviv the night before to celebrate. “A person must get drunk on Purim until he cannot distinguish between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordechai.'” I figured out my costume last minute when I bought a top hat at the Ramla market and decided to be the Monopoly man. I drew a bowtie and buttons on an undershirt (everything washed off), and wore black pants and a black jacket. I made a cane out of tinfoil and had someone draw a moustache on me. Somehow I managed to pull it all together in one day. So we went to a bar in Tel Aviv, got some drinks, and hung out for a while. Late at night, a few of us ate at a coffee shop before heading home.
Because of Purim, the local schools were either closed or only having parties for the next couple days. I had Sunday and Monday free for this week. On Tuesday I was scheduled to go to a new elementary school that I was really excited about. Unfortunately, our coordinator scheduled it for me at the same time that I had Ulpan. No big deal though. I volunteered at the library that night and ran into a local teenager who I played soccer with during the first couple of weeks at a local park. I talked with him about what I am doing in Israel and learned a little about him. He even helped me with my Ulpan homework. Great kid. Wednesday was my birthday - the big 23!! I went to volunteer at the middle school in the morning and, for various reasons, I didn’t end up volunteering. I figured it was good luck since I wouldn’t be volunteering on my birthday. Even so, I ended up going with my other friends to the elementary school since I had nothing else to do. When I got there, they said that they didn’t need all six of us - so I went home. Two attempts at volunteering turned down. For my birthday, a group of my closest friends and I went to this cool area in Rehovot called science park, or kiryat Weizmann. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant called Papardella and then headed over to the Dublin Irish Pub for some drinks. I think we all had a great time as I definitely did. My friends were so nice that they paid for everything of mine - transportation, food, drinks, etc. I can’t thank them enough. The only bad part about this event was that I was forced to leave people out. I didn’t think that I would be able to bring 18 people to a restaurant. It would have been too hard. The people who were not invited found out and were upset. Some drama ensued but I hope that all frustration has been settled. I don’t want to be seen as the bad guy for leaving people out. Anyways, this was probably one of my favorite birthdays that I have had.
I finished the week off strong and had a nice, relaxing weekend, with not much going on. I did go see Shutter Island in Tel Aviv with a couple friends. Good but very strange movie. I was in for a tough week coming up so I made sure to be well rested. On Sunday we started an optional program called Sar El. Sar-El is the Hebrew acronym for Sheirut Le’Yisrael, meaning "Service to Israel." We were volunteering in the military for five days and had a few surprises included. Our trip started with a bus ride down South towards the base. We met our commanders or mefakdot on the way. They seemed like nice people but didn’t really interact that much. They were both women and they looked our age or younger. We arrived at the base, which was right near the border of Egypt, and immediately received our uniforms, sheets, and a sleeping bag. We went to our rooms and unpacked. I roomed with Izy, Ben, and Jonathon Harris. We had a nice room with plenty of space for four people. We were told to always be on time and always have our uniforms on (unless in our rooms). We soon found out that if we didn’t follow these rules, we were in serious trouble. The first day consisted of lunch and some group meetings. We didn’t do any volunteering due to the fact that we had just arrived. That night, we were given a ridiculous 10pm bedtime. Despite this crazy order, we all followed. At around midnight, we were woken up by our commanders and some soldiers banging on our doors and yelling for us to get downstairs in uniform in 7 minutes. Some of us thought there was an emergency but most had no idea what was going on. We were told to run to the basketball courts and form a chet - the Hebrew letter that looks like three sides of a square. We were told that we were being “inducted” into the Sar El program. They proceeded to call us one by one and put blue badges on our uniforms that said “a volunteer of Sar El” in Hebrew. The soldiers would then punch the inductee in the shoulder and say a phrase in Hebrew that I can’t remember. This was a really fun ceremony that made us feel welcome.
Our daily schedule consisted of waking up for 7:45am breakfast, meeting afterwards to assign jobs, working the jobs until lunch, continuing to work after lunch until four, a break until dinner, and an evening activity every night. My job was working with kitbags - large canvas bags stocked with equipment that reserve soldiers will use in case of an emergency. The bags hadn’t been touched in a couple years (they told us to watch out for snakes and scorpions in the bags! Yikes!). Our job was to open them up, one at a time, and check that all the equipment was correct. The helmet had to be the updated plastic kind. The uniforms and coat must be the right size. The backpack needed two canteens, a mess kit, and a hat and belt. There also needed to be a vest and sleeping back in it. Once we made sure it was correct or made changes to make it correct, we had to repack the whole bag. This was the hardest part as we had to really jam everything in to be able to close it. We then replaced the bag onto one of the shelves. We did this over and over and over…………. I think we did about 200 bags all together. It was very repetitive and boring but we felt proud of ourselves for helping out so much.
I heard that army base food was really bad. The meals at this base were actually pretty decent. We usually had a good amount of choices and we were always full at the end. We needed the food to continue on with our jobs since we lost energy fast. I always ate some vegetables, some protein, some starch, and a fruit at the end. I felt like I was eating pretty healthy.
Our evening activities included a discussion about Gilad Shalit, a lesson on the branches of the military, and an activity involving placing stickers with Hebrew names of body parts on to one of the girls in our group. I feel like I learned a lot of new information from these activities.
Because we were only there for five days, our commanders decided to give us as much exposure to the military as possible. They wanted us to really feel like we were in the army. That meant that any time we were late somewhere, or anytime we did something wrong, we would be punished like a soldier. Not only did the person who messed up get punished, but the whole group did. We did so many push ups and so much running that we were all sore all the time. The worst was when they had us run sprints and we had to finish under a certain time. If not, they gave us less and less time to finish until we basically gave up. We started to notice that their reasons for punishment didn’t make much sense. Even when we were on time, they found a reason to make us run. We also heard that the two girls were actually really nice - but we didn’t believe it. The volunteering combined with punishment made us exhausted every day.
On the last night of the program, they were making us run so much and do so many pushups that we all felt like passing out. Eventually they said that we weren’t working hard enough, and needed to change into our clothes from home that we could work harder in. We ran to change and came back as fast as possible. The commanders weren’t there but we got in formation and waited with fear of what was next. All of a sudden, the two of them came running out in street clothes (something that we had never seen before) and started mocking us by running around like crazy and doing pushups and pretending to be tired and complaining. We didn’t know what was going on but we thought it was really funny. When all the craziness was over, they said that they would finally be nice to us for the rest of the trip. We were so surprised to see that they had a humorous side and could actually smile. We then received Sar El t-shirts, hats, a letter from them, and a certificate of completion. They called this event “breaking the distance” because they no longer were distanced from us and reserved. We finally knew that we were done being punished and could actually be friends with them. They answered questions about themselves that they wouldn’t tell us before like how old they were (20 and 19). They said that they were told to make this hard for us and they struggled to be so mean and were hiding smiles when they made us do stuff. They even admitted that they made up reasons to punish us because we were so good. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with them as equals and talking about our experiences.
The last day consisted of light work, cleaning our space, returning our uniforms, and heading back to Ramla. We were so happy to be done but felt an amazing sense of accomplishment from all the work and dedication we put in to the last five days. We will keep in touch with our commanders and have no hard feelings about them because we know that they were just trying to give us an authentic experience. Sar El was one of my favorite experiences of this trip so far even though I felt miserable at times.
Kitbags - the job that I did for five days
Our Mefakdot - or commanders
After we finished the program
I came back to Ramla wiped out and didn’t do much for a couple days. Last night, a couple close friends (Izy and Ben) and I made Shabbat dinner together. I made pasta with vegetables while Izy made fish and Ben made mashed potatoes. DEE-LICOUS!!! I am about to start week six of volunteering and I am really happy with everything. I am especially looking foreword to my trip to London and then to Paris with my friend Ben who is volunteering in Berlin. It is going to be awesome!!! Until next time everyone…..
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Israel Part 3: Volunteering starts and trip to the Golan
Since my last post, much has been going on. After my stay at the hospital because of a stomach flu and recovery at my relative’s house in Mazkeret Batya, I made it back to my apartment - finally!! I was happy to see all of my friends and they were happy to see that I was feeling much better. That Friday night, we did a guys Shabbat dinner involving steaks, potatoes, and other tasty dishes. I used my mom/grandma’s recipe to make cucumber salad. I think it came out pretty well. The whole dinner was great and we enjoyed hanging out for a few hours.
Two days later (Sunday), our volunteering started. We were assigned volunteering placements based on where we were needed and what our interests were. This first week, I was assigned to a few places. The first of which was Ackim - soccer with handicapped adults. While they may have been handicapped, they didn’t play like it. Our job is to play against them to help them train as a team. They have really great enthusiasm for the game and always play hard. I had a fun time playing but felt like I would rather spend my time with kids.
Monday and Wednesday of that week, I volunteered at Ben Guryon Elementary School. We usually either sit in the classroom and help with whatever the teacher needs or pull kids out and work with them on English. The kids love having us there and always want to hang out with us. That being said, they are disrespectful to their teachers and rarely focus in class. This is something that bothers us as volunteers because we know that a classroom should not be like that and the students will not learn if they don’t listen to their teacher. We hope to be able to teach some of the kids to be respectful and pay attention. Despite this fact, we all enjoy spending time there.
I also volunteered at the Arab Kadima - a place for Arab children to go after school to do homework, play sports, and other various activities. I really like it there and am starting to build connections with the kids. They even give us food there!
Lastly, I volunteered at the Ramla Library - where children from the community come to do homework after school. We usually hang out in the kids area which has a bunch of tables to work at. When those with English homework arrive, we go over to their table and help them with anything they need
A highlight of this week, besides the fun volunteering, was going to Kosher McDonalds for the first time since my last Israel trip (about 5 years ago). At the time, I wasn’t keeping kosher and it was not as special. This time, I keep kosher and was very excited to go. My friend Ilana from Paris also keeps kosher and could not wait to have McDonalds. So we walked over to the Ramla mall and enjoyed our food like no other. I had a big mac with fries while Ilana had her favorite - chicken nuggets. Everything tasted as good as or better than what I remembered. We decided to make a tradition out of this by going every so often (usually when we have cravings).
This first week of volunteering also included me and a couple friends switching into a new Ulpan. We decided to join the other Oranim group in Ramla who were 3 months ahead of us. This Ulpan was definitely challenging as we skipped over a lot of material - but I was happy to be learning new things. My Hebrew is coming along well - to the point where I can make basic conversation and understand some of what the kids say to me. By the time my five months are over, I hope to be able to carry on a full conversation with an Israeli.
The following Friday, my roommate Ben and I were invited to a host family who lived near Ramla, in a small community. Everyone there was really nice and the food was great. They had three kids - one our age, one in high school, and one around elementary age. They also invited some of their kid’s friends over. All together, there were about 10 of us. Most of the kids spoke Hebrew to each other the whole night while the Mom tried to translate for us. While we definitely felt like outsiders, it was nice to get out of Ramla and eat some good food.
On Saturday, Ben and I headed over to Tel Aviv to hang out at the beach. It was a glorious day and it felt amazing to be there. The water was pretty cold but I still loved it. We got some lunch at Aroma - the Israeli Panera - and walked around the area. Before heading back, we both got some delicious gelato. I had a great time and am waiting for the next opportunity to go back.
Ben at the beach
Our second week of volunteering was a short one because we were going on a trip to the North from Wednesday to Thursday. My schedule this week was very similar to the previous one. The only difference was that I was assigned to go to a middle school named Idanim. At the middle school, we were given low level English kids and told to work with them in the library. The teachers usually don’t tell us anything in particular to work on so we just have to look through their books and find some assignments. For the second period, we went into an older English class. The kids there were very disrespectful and all the teacher would do is yell at them - which clearly wasn’t helping. I was given a student who had very low English but really wanted to learn. These are my favorite kinds of students because they actually try even though they are way behind. As a group of four, we had mixed feelings about the school but were happy to have helped some kids.
On Wednesday, we left for the North. We had to get to the meeting place at 6:50am. Not fun. We took the 2.5 to 3 hour bus ride up to the Golan Heights with a stop for breakfast. Our first activity was a hike near the Gilaboon stream - going through deserted villages, an old Syrian army emplacement, and waterfalls. It was a hike that I did on my last Israel trip, and that I really enjoyed doing again. We went down to the waterfall and some went swimming. We went into a little cave for a quick rest, and finished with a big uphill climb that took all of our energy to complete. The hike took about 3 to 4 hours total and we were all pretty exhausted and gross - a perfect time to go to a mall!!
We were exhausted
They took us to a local mall for lunch where I ate for the first time at Burger Ranch - the Israeli version of McDonalds. The food did not compare to Kosher McDonalds. We then moved on to Mount Ben Tal - a common tourist attraction where you learn about the battle for the Golan during the Yom Kippur war. We went into a bunker that was used during war time and enjoyed the great view.
Heading into the bunker
We went to our hotel and had some time to shower before dinner. After dinner, we did a little icebreaker activity with the other Oranim groups that were there. The rest of the night was our own free time and we had the option of going to hang out at a dance room that the hotel set up or just hang out. Most of us wound up outside talking.
Day two started with us going to Rosh Pina - one of the oldest Zionist settlements in Israel. We saw an old synagogue and some other sites. We then went to a local Kibbutz, right near the Syrian border and next to a military base. We listened as a security guy from America talked about how he is in charge of recognizing when missiles are launched and when an attack is coming. He then alerts the military and makes sure the Kibbutz is safe. Lunch was at another mall this day and I ate at Aroma (I talked about this place earlier) with some friends.
Next stop was the Banias Nature Reserve for a “nice walk” as our tour guide put it. It really was a nice walk and not even close to the hike we did the first day. Here is a quick summary of the Banias:
We walked around the area and saw some amazing sites. It was a nice way to end the trip as we headed back South after the walk. I have many pictures of both hikes and can only include some on this blog but will post all of them on Facebook soon.
I am now in my third week of volunteering and things are starting to become routine. I have been given a very similar schedule for this week but plan to ask for some changes for next week. Both Purim and Pesach are coming up and I am interested to see what they are like in Israel. For the first time, “Next Year in Jerusalem” might come true!!!
Two days later (Sunday), our volunteering started. We were assigned volunteering placements based on where we were needed and what our interests were. This first week, I was assigned to a few places. The first of which was Ackim - soccer with handicapped adults. While they may have been handicapped, they didn’t play like it. Our job is to play against them to help them train as a team. They have really great enthusiasm for the game and always play hard. I had a fun time playing but felt like I would rather spend my time with kids.
Monday and Wednesday of that week, I volunteered at Ben Guryon Elementary School. We usually either sit in the classroom and help with whatever the teacher needs or pull kids out and work with them on English. The kids love having us there and always want to hang out with us. That being said, they are disrespectful to their teachers and rarely focus in class. This is something that bothers us as volunteers because we know that a classroom should not be like that and the students will not learn if they don’t listen to their teacher. We hope to be able to teach some of the kids to be respectful and pay attention. Despite this fact, we all enjoy spending time there.
I also volunteered at the Arab Kadima - a place for Arab children to go after school to do homework, play sports, and other various activities. I really like it there and am starting to build connections with the kids. They even give us food there!
Izy playing guitar at the Arab Kadima
Lastly, I volunteered at the Ramla Library - where children from the community come to do homework after school. We usually hang out in the kids area which has a bunch of tables to work at. When those with English homework arrive, we go over to their table and help them with anything they need
A highlight of this week, besides the fun volunteering, was going to Kosher McDonalds for the first time since my last Israel trip (about 5 years ago). At the time, I wasn’t keeping kosher and it was not as special. This time, I keep kosher and was very excited to go. My friend Ilana from Paris also keeps kosher and could not wait to have McDonalds. So we walked over to the Ramla mall and enjoyed our food like no other. I had a big mac with fries while Ilana had her favorite - chicken nuggets. Everything tasted as good as or better than what I remembered. We decided to make a tradition out of this by going every so often (usually when we have cravings).
This first week of volunteering also included me and a couple friends switching into a new Ulpan. We decided to join the other Oranim group in Ramla who were 3 months ahead of us. This Ulpan was definitely challenging as we skipped over a lot of material - but I was happy to be learning new things. My Hebrew is coming along well - to the point where I can make basic conversation and understand some of what the kids say to me. By the time my five months are over, I hope to be able to carry on a full conversation with an Israeli.
The following Friday, my roommate Ben and I were invited to a host family who lived near Ramla, in a small community. Everyone there was really nice and the food was great. They had three kids - one our age, one in high school, and one around elementary age. They also invited some of their kid’s friends over. All together, there were about 10 of us. Most of the kids spoke Hebrew to each other the whole night while the Mom tried to translate for us. While we definitely felt like outsiders, it was nice to get out of Ramla and eat some good food.
On Saturday, Ben and I headed over to Tel Aviv to hang out at the beach. It was a glorious day and it felt amazing to be there. The water was pretty cold but I still loved it. We got some lunch at Aroma - the Israeli Panera - and walked around the area. Before heading back, we both got some delicious gelato. I had a great time and am waiting for the next opportunity to go back.
Ben at the beach
Our second week of volunteering was a short one because we were going on a trip to the North from Wednesday to Thursday. My schedule this week was very similar to the previous one. The only difference was that I was assigned to go to a middle school named Idanim. At the middle school, we were given low level English kids and told to work with them in the library. The teachers usually don’t tell us anything in particular to work on so we just have to look through their books and find some assignments. For the second period, we went into an older English class. The kids there were very disrespectful and all the teacher would do is yell at them - which clearly wasn’t helping. I was given a student who had very low English but really wanted to learn. These are my favorite kinds of students because they actually try even though they are way behind. As a group of four, we had mixed feelings about the school but were happy to have helped some kids.
On Wednesday, we left for the North. We had to get to the meeting place at 6:50am. Not fun. We took the 2.5 to 3 hour bus ride up to the Golan Heights with a stop for breakfast. Our first activity was a hike near the Gilaboon stream - going through deserted villages, an old Syrian army emplacement, and waterfalls. It was a hike that I did on my last Israel trip, and that I really enjoyed doing again. We went down to the waterfall and some went swimming. We went into a little cave for a quick rest, and finished with a big uphill climb that took all of our energy to complete. The hike took about 3 to 4 hours total and we were all pretty exhausted and gross - a perfect time to go to a mall!!
We were exhausted
They took us to a local mall for lunch where I ate for the first time at Burger Ranch - the Israeli version of McDonalds. The food did not compare to Kosher McDonalds. We then moved on to Mount Ben Tal - a common tourist attraction where you learn about the battle for the Golan during the Yom Kippur war. We went into a bunker that was used during war time and enjoyed the great view.
Heading into the bunker
We went to our hotel and had some time to shower before dinner. After dinner, we did a little icebreaker activity with the other Oranim groups that were there. The rest of the night was our own free time and we had the option of going to hang out at a dance room that the hotel set up or just hang out. Most of us wound up outside talking.
Day two started with us going to Rosh Pina - one of the oldest Zionist settlements in Israel. We saw an old synagogue and some other sites. We then went to a local Kibbutz, right near the Syrian border and next to a military base. We listened as a security guy from America talked about how he is in charge of recognizing when missiles are launched and when an attack is coming. He then alerts the military and makes sure the Kibbutz is safe. Lunch was at another mall this day and I ate at Aroma (I talked about this place earlier) with some friends.
Next stop was the Banias Nature Reserve for a “nice walk” as our tour guide put it. It really was a nice walk and not even close to the hike we did the first day. Here is a quick summary of the Banias:
The Banias springs begin at the foot of Mount Hermon where the water rushes with great force though a canyon-like channel, losing 190 meters in altitude over the course of 3.5 kilometers to form the Banias waterfall, one of the most beautiful in Israel.
Nine kilometers further, the Hermon River meets the Dan River and the two flow into the Jordan River at an altitude of 80 meters above sea level.
Nine kilometers further, the Hermon River meets the Dan River and the two flow into the Jordan River at an altitude of 80 meters above sea level.
We walked around the area and saw some amazing sites. It was a nice way to end the trip as we headed back South after the walk. I have many pictures of both hikes and can only include some on this blog but will post all of them on Facebook soon.
I am now in my third week of volunteering and things are starting to become routine. I have been given a very similar schedule for this week but plan to ask for some changes for next week. Both Purim and Pesach are coming up and I am interested to see what they are like in Israel. For the first time, “Next Year in Jerusalem” might come true!!!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Tu'Bishvat, a Jerusalem spot, and a joyous Shabbat
As you will find out later in this post, I recently became sick and spent some time in the local hospital. That and the fact that I was in Jerusalem for a few days without a computer has delayed this second post. I hope that you have not been sitting at you computer waiting for this because you would have wasted a lot of time.
Anyways, here it goes……….
(Continuing from Friday the 22nd)
On Fridays our group has no activities. For those of you that don’t know, in Israel, Friday kind of part of the weekend. While some people still work/go to school, Friday is the typical day off in addition to Saturday. This Friday, my friends and I ad no plans for Shabbat dinner – so we decided to make our own! We went to the Ramla Shuk (outdoor market) and bought some fruits, vegetables, meat, potatoes, etc.
We invited over our closest friends and everyone brought a different dish. We had challah, Israeli salad, schnitzel, and many other delicious foods. We all had a great time just being together and enjoying the food.
Saturday is a rest day like in the states but in Israel, everything is closed and there is nothing to do. So a few of my friends and I went over to the community sports court where we found some young children playing basketball and some older kids playing soccer (or futball). We played some basketball with the kids until the older ones challenged us to a game of soccer. Since the main sport in Israel is soccer, they play it all the time. We didn’t stand a chance. Eventually, a retired professional soccer player joined our team and we played some close games. It was really fun to hang out with some of the local kids.
On Sunday, our group started Ulpan (Hebrew lessons). I chose to start in the beginner Ulpan like most of the people in my group. I figured that I would not remember all the Hebrew that I had learned when I was young. It turns out that my memory returned quickly and that beginner was to easy for me. I decided to give it a few days before switching. After our first Ulpan lesson, our coordinator Nir took us to some of the volunteer places that we might end up in. We saw after school centers for both Arab and Jewish kids. The Arab center seemed to be nicer than the Jewish one even though they get less support from the community.
We have Mondays off of Ulpan because the teacher takes a class of her own. That night, we learned a little bit about Israeli symbols and what they mean to the country.
On Tuesday our group was invited to a community Tu’Bishvat ceremony with some people from city hall speaking, saying prayers and singing songs. After all that, we planted some trees in the garden area and had some typical Tu’Bishvat fruits and nuts. It was a fun event that was different than what we were used to for Tu’Bishvat but very interesting.
\
Thursday was our group trip to JERUSALEM!!!!!!!!!!! This was a trip that every Oranim group in Israel went to. We got on a bus at 7:45am and headed to Jerusalem. Our day started with a stop at a great viewpoint of the city.
We moved on to a place called the peace forest where we planted trees for Tu’Bishvat (twice in one week!!!). We got in pairs and planted our trees. I planted with a friend named Judita (pronounced Yudita) from the Czech Republic. We named our tree Tubey in honor of Tu’Bishvat.
Our next stop was the old city where we had lunch in the Jewish quarter. Most of us ate at a falafel/shawarma/schnitzel combo place that was really good.
From there we headed to the City of David to walk through the tunnels that were built during David’s rule for an effective water system and eventually to be used as a military tactic. Some of us went through the water tunnel while others chose the dry one. I did the dry one because I did not bring a change of clothes or special shoes. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the tunnels and how they were used.
Our last stop of the day was back in the Old City at the Kotel. While I have been there before, I was so excited to get back and experience it again. I stopped to put on Tefillin and spent some time by myself at the wall.
A group of us had decided to spend some extra time in Jerusalem and booked a Youth Hostel for a couple nights. While it took us a really long time of searching with a heavy backpack on my back, we eventually found it. It was outside the Damascus gate – in the Arab area of town. Surprisingly, it was a really nice hostel that was comparable to a small hotel. There was a room of six girls and rooms of two and three for guys. We were all pretty happy with the accommodations. After a long time of searching for a restaurant recommended by a worker at the hostel, we gave up and headed for a main street with plenty of food places. I was starving at this point. We settled for a burger bar that was very tasty. I got some onion rings with my chicken burger and felt like I was eating at home for a short while. A few of us went to a coffee shop/bar next door while the rest went to Ben Yehuda Street to see what was going on. The coffee shop was amazing and perfect for a quiet and relaxing night. My friend Josh from home – who was my roommate in college for three years and is now at Yeshiva in Jerusalem – came to hang out with us and ended up being interrogated by my friends about his beliefs and spirituality. It was pretty funny
Shortly after that, we headed over to Ben Yehuda Street to meet up with the others and get some drinks. For those of you that don’t know, Ben Yehuda Street is a typical tourist location for bars, restaurants, and shopping. I was tired from the long day and eventually headed to the hostel for some sleep.
Friday was a pretty slow day with not much going on. We walked around the Arab quarter and spent a lot of time in the market where you can find anything from Menorahs to candy. I saw my friend Josh again who gave me a little tour before I went back to the hostel for some much needed rest. We had been told that if we needed a place for Shabbat dinner we could go to the Kotel right when Shabbat was starting and meet this guy who would set us up with a family. So we showered, got dressed, and headed over to the wall. Quick note – our shower was basically a shower head in the middle of the bathroom and I thought that was really funny. The Kotel on Friday night is an amazing sight. All of the orthodox men and yeshiva guys head over to do Kabbalat Shabbat and therefore the place is packed with praying men. It is truly Sababa (slang for cool). We got set up with a family and walked about 20 minutes uphill to their house. It was brutal. It turns out that most of the people there were American and some of them were from Columbus. On top of that, they knew the Rabbi at OSU Chabbad and one of the girls our age knew a friend of mine from school What a small world. The food was amazing – it reminded me of Chabbad. Afterwards we made the long walk back and I fell right to sleep.
On Saturdays, not much is open in Jerusalem because of Shabbat. However, the Arab markets and shops remain open. We spent the day walking around those areas and checking out the shops. We eventually climbed up to a rooftop overlooking the city, watched some kids do parkour, listened to our friend Izy play the guitar, and enjoyed the view. We were able to eat dinner at the heritage house – a Jewish youth hostel – but had to skip Havdalah to catch our bus back to Ramla. In a nutshell – we all had a great time in Jerusalem but were exhausted from the trip.
On Sunday I started the intermediate Ulpan because I found the beginners one a little too easy. My new teacher speaks entirely in Hebrew so it is definitely challenging. On Monday I went to sleep with a stomach ache, woke up around 1am and vomited 3 times over the course of a couple hours. My group coordinator took me to the local hospital and I spent the night in the emergency room. I was freezing cold and felt very weak. They gave me fluids and some medication as I fell asleep for the night. I woke up feeling better, but shaken up. I had a fever and a low blood pressure along with dizziness and weakness. They decided to keep me there for one more night. I was extremely bored with nothing to do but slept for a lot of the time. The nurses barely spoke English and didn’t make me feel to comfortable. There were a few med students who spoke English that helped me out a lot and made me feel like I was in good hands. I was released in the afternoon and went to my Mom’s cousin Carol’s house for some extra recovery time. I am writing this on Thursday and am going back to my apartment tonight. I am excited to see my friends and to be back at “home.”
If you are curious about who I live with, here is a picture of me with my roommates:
Jeff is on the far left. He is from San Diego and went to the University of Wisconsin.
To the right is Ben who was born in Cleveland, moved to Columbus, and now goes to OSU.
To the right again is Rachel who is from Annapolis, Maryland and went to Northwestern.
Yeah Big Ten!!!
Lastly is Falan (like Jimmy Fallon) who is from Boca Raton and went to Florida Atlantic University.
Also, here is a picture of Oranim Community Involvement 28 – Ramla (my group)
There have been a couple of fun things that we have done that I can’t remember when they happened and I have chosen to put them at the end. I saw Avatar finally! My personal analysis is that it didn’t live up to all the hype for me but that it was still a pretty good movie.
We went out to Tel Aviv and ate at a really nice Italian restaurant and then continued on to a cool espresso bar where I had the most amazing hot chocolate ever. We had a really nice waiter who loved Americans and gave us a free dessert. It was definitely one of the best times we have had so far and I’m sure there will be many more to come.
I apologize for the length of this post. I wanted to make sure that everyone is caught up with what I am doing.
Anyways, here it goes……….
(Continuing from Friday the 22nd)
On Fridays our group has no activities. For those of you that don’t know, in Israel, Friday kind of part of the weekend. While some people still work/go to school, Friday is the typical day off in addition to Saturday. This Friday, my friends and I ad no plans for Shabbat dinner – so we decided to make our own! We went to the Ramla Shuk (outdoor market) and bought some fruits, vegetables, meat, potatoes, etc.
We invited over our closest friends and everyone brought a different dish. We had challah, Israeli salad, schnitzel, and many other delicious foods. We all had a great time just being together and enjoying the food.
Saturday is a rest day like in the states but in Israel, everything is closed and there is nothing to do. So a few of my friends and I went over to the community sports court where we found some young children playing basketball and some older kids playing soccer (or futball). We played some basketball with the kids until the older ones challenged us to a game of soccer. Since the main sport in Israel is soccer, they play it all the time. We didn’t stand a chance. Eventually, a retired professional soccer player joined our team and we played some close games. It was really fun to hang out with some of the local kids.
On Sunday, our group started Ulpan (Hebrew lessons). I chose to start in the beginner Ulpan like most of the people in my group. I figured that I would not remember all the Hebrew that I had learned when I was young. It turns out that my memory returned quickly and that beginner was to easy for me. I decided to give it a few days before switching. After our first Ulpan lesson, our coordinator Nir took us to some of the volunteer places that we might end up in. We saw after school centers for both Arab and Jewish kids. The Arab center seemed to be nicer than the Jewish one even though they get less support from the community.
We have Mondays off of Ulpan because the teacher takes a class of her own. That night, we learned a little bit about Israeli symbols and what they mean to the country.
On Tuesday our group was invited to a community Tu’Bishvat ceremony with some people from city hall speaking, saying prayers and singing songs. After all that, we planted some trees in the garden area and had some typical Tu’Bishvat fruits and nuts. It was a fun event that was different than what we were used to for Tu’Bishvat but very interesting.
\
Thursday was our group trip to JERUSALEM!!!!!!!!!!! This was a trip that every Oranim group in Israel went to. We got on a bus at 7:45am and headed to Jerusalem. Our day started with a stop at a great viewpoint of the city.
We moved on to a place called the peace forest where we planted trees for Tu’Bishvat (twice in one week!!!). We got in pairs and planted our trees. I planted with a friend named Judita (pronounced Yudita) from the Czech Republic. We named our tree Tubey in honor of Tu’Bishvat.
Our next stop was the old city where we had lunch in the Jewish quarter. Most of us ate at a falafel/shawarma/schnitzel combo place that was really good.
From there we headed to the City of David to walk through the tunnels that were built during David’s rule for an effective water system and eventually to be used as a military tactic. Some of us went through the water tunnel while others chose the dry one. I did the dry one because I did not bring a change of clothes or special shoes. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the tunnels and how they were used.
Our last stop of the day was back in the Old City at the Kotel. While I have been there before, I was so excited to get back and experience it again. I stopped to put on Tefillin and spent some time by myself at the wall.
A group of us had decided to spend some extra time in Jerusalem and booked a Youth Hostel for a couple nights. While it took us a really long time of searching with a heavy backpack on my back, we eventually found it. It was outside the Damascus gate – in the Arab area of town. Surprisingly, it was a really nice hostel that was comparable to a small hotel. There was a room of six girls and rooms of two and three for guys. We were all pretty happy with the accommodations. After a long time of searching for a restaurant recommended by a worker at the hostel, we gave up and headed for a main street with plenty of food places. I was starving at this point. We settled for a burger bar that was very tasty. I got some onion rings with my chicken burger and felt like I was eating at home for a short while. A few of us went to a coffee shop/bar next door while the rest went to Ben Yehuda Street to see what was going on. The coffee shop was amazing and perfect for a quiet and relaxing night. My friend Josh from home – who was my roommate in college for three years and is now at Yeshiva in Jerusalem – came to hang out with us and ended up being interrogated by my friends about his beliefs and spirituality. It was pretty funny
Shortly after that, we headed over to Ben Yehuda Street to meet up with the others and get some drinks. For those of you that don’t know, Ben Yehuda Street is a typical tourist location for bars, restaurants, and shopping. I was tired from the long day and eventually headed to the hostel for some sleep.
Friday was a pretty slow day with not much going on. We walked around the Arab quarter and spent a lot of time in the market where you can find anything from Menorahs to candy. I saw my friend Josh again who gave me a little tour before I went back to the hostel for some much needed rest. We had been told that if we needed a place for Shabbat dinner we could go to the Kotel right when Shabbat was starting and meet this guy who would set us up with a family. So we showered, got dressed, and headed over to the wall. Quick note – our shower was basically a shower head in the middle of the bathroom and I thought that was really funny. The Kotel on Friday night is an amazing sight. All of the orthodox men and yeshiva guys head over to do Kabbalat Shabbat and therefore the place is packed with praying men. It is truly Sababa (slang for cool). We got set up with a family and walked about 20 minutes uphill to their house. It was brutal. It turns out that most of the people there were American and some of them were from Columbus. On top of that, they knew the Rabbi at OSU Chabbad and one of the girls our age knew a friend of mine from school What a small world. The food was amazing – it reminded me of Chabbad. Afterwards we made the long walk back and I fell right to sleep.
On Saturdays, not much is open in Jerusalem because of Shabbat. However, the Arab markets and shops remain open. We spent the day walking around those areas and checking out the shops. We eventually climbed up to a rooftop overlooking the city, watched some kids do parkour, listened to our friend Izy play the guitar, and enjoyed the view. We were able to eat dinner at the heritage house – a Jewish youth hostel – but had to skip Havdalah to catch our bus back to Ramla. In a nutshell – we all had a great time in Jerusalem but were exhausted from the trip.
On Sunday I started the intermediate Ulpan because I found the beginners one a little too easy. My new teacher speaks entirely in Hebrew so it is definitely challenging. On Monday I went to sleep with a stomach ache, woke up around 1am and vomited 3 times over the course of a couple hours. My group coordinator took me to the local hospital and I spent the night in the emergency room. I was freezing cold and felt very weak. They gave me fluids and some medication as I fell asleep for the night. I woke up feeling better, but shaken up. I had a fever and a low blood pressure along with dizziness and weakness. They decided to keep me there for one more night. I was extremely bored with nothing to do but slept for a lot of the time. The nurses barely spoke English and didn’t make me feel to comfortable. There were a few med students who spoke English that helped me out a lot and made me feel like I was in good hands. I was released in the afternoon and went to my Mom’s cousin Carol’s house for some extra recovery time. I am writing this on Thursday and am going back to my apartment tonight. I am excited to see my friends and to be back at “home.”
If you are curious about who I live with, here is a picture of me with my roommates:
Jeff is on the far left. He is from San Diego and went to the University of Wisconsin.
To the right is Ben who was born in Cleveland, moved to Columbus, and now goes to OSU.
To the right again is Rachel who is from Annapolis, Maryland and went to Northwestern.
Yeah Big Ten!!!
Lastly is Falan (like Jimmy Fallon) who is from Boca Raton and went to Florida Atlantic University.
Also, here is a picture of Oranim Community Involvement 28 – Ramla (my group)
There have been a couple of fun things that we have done that I can’t remember when they happened and I have chosen to put them at the end. I saw Avatar finally! My personal analysis is that it didn’t live up to all the hype for me but that it was still a pretty good movie.
We went out to Tel Aviv and ate at a really nice Italian restaurant and then continued on to a cool espresso bar where I had the most amazing hot chocolate ever. We had a really nice waiter who loved Americans and gave us a free dessert. It was definitely one of the best times we have had so far and I’m sure there will be many more to come.
I apologize for the length of this post. I wanted to make sure that everyone is caught up with what I am doing.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
First Week
After arriving, I was greeted by my mom’s cousin Carol – who lives in
On Sunday, Carol took me to a typical tourist attraction called mini
On Monday it was time for me to go to Ramla and meet up with my group. After 30 minutes of looking for my apartment caused by confusion between the two Joshes in the group, I finally made to
We spent a week of orientation with our coordinator Nir. He has taught us some geographical, historical, and political lessons about
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Hey everyone. I am leaving for the Holy Land tomorrow and will be arriving just in time for Shabbos. I will be spending the weekend with family and will head over to Ramla for the beginning of the program on Monday. I know this blog will not live up to Ben's but I will do my best to keep you updated. Next post from Israel!!!
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