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!!!
Monday, March 29, 2010
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…..
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