end of month two and BFL two...

a little catch up....

Time is flying by. Classes are going pretty well, we had our first hebrew test of the semester last Thursday and I feel confident, good stuff. Haven't had environment in two weeks because my professor has been in the states but he'll be back for this week's class, yayy, i love that class. Last weekend I went out with Abe and co. Thursday night and then Allie came for Shabbat. On our walk on Saturday we got chased by the University undercover security guards or whoever they were. Apparently we were walking on some private property we weren't supposed to be on (ohh, that's why we had to duck under those closed gates to get through there...). After the questioning we got escorted off the property and continued our walk. I'm kind of sad because that was a good short cut, oh well.

Oh yea, I got a bike finally! It's pretty good, actually, and was only 200 shekels, about $50. The guy said I can sell it back to him when I leave, too. I haven't taken a picture of it yet but I'll post that eventually. (Actually, my picture taking is seriously lacking). I made Challah this week for my first time, exciting! It was pretty good I must say.

This weekend was our second BFL conference in Jerusalem. Although I was excited to go, I was also pleasantly surprised at how connected I actually felt to the other participants and how happy I was to be with them again. We had the usual great speakers and discussion groups, and went out in Jerusalem and to the kibbutz pub. Friday morning we worked with an organization called "shachen tov" or good neighbor. This organization does many things, but one of them is collecting food and delivering it to families to have for Shabbat meals/food throughout the week. The 50 or so of us went to the shuk in J'lem to ask the shop owners and shoppers to donate anything they had to help out the less fortunate. At first I was a little skeptical and nervous, mostly because my hebrew isn't all that great yet, but it was amazing!! We all managed to get sooo much food, (most) people were very receptive and generous. After one hour we filled the entire bottom of the coach bus with boxes full of food. After that we went on an "accessibility" tour down one of the streets in J'lem. We were wheelchairs and experienced first hand how difficult it is to get around in this country if you are disabled. Most of the time, actually, things are not difficult, they are simply impossible. Hopefully by 2012 more places will be accessible, since that is a law now, but that doesn't really mean anything here since there is practically no one to enforce it. The weekend was great, although not as intellectually stimulating as last time, I still spent a lot of time thinking. Seeing new friends was awesome, and thinking about how we're 2/3 done with the program was sad. I need to seriously start thinking about my project for the program and really develop it further. I'll tell about my project idea at another time, when I have more figured out.


This week has much in store: momma's birthday Tuesday, Ultimate Peace in the Middle East starts tues/wed!!! And Pesach break starts Friday as well.

-Lauren

P.S. I booked my flight, June 30th at 5am. Hopefully I'll be spending the last month on a Kibbutz, more of that to come as well.

פורים שמח!

" Purim Same'ach" Happy Purim, and a happy purim it was! and quite long as well!

Quick overview of the holiday: Purim is a holiday where Jews celebrate the deliverance of the Jewish people from the Persian Empire and Haman's rule. The Megilla is the book that tells the story of Purim. On the day before the night of Purim religious Jews fast because Queen Esther fasted for three days in the story. During Purim you are supposed to do 4 things: 1. read the megilla, 2. give mishloach manot (gifts, technically 2 things to one person is enough) 3. give charity to the poor and 4. feast and drink, a lot. Jerusalem and a few other cities who had walls around them at the time of Joshua celebrate Shushan Purim...which is the day after Purim everywhere else. Also, very importantly, Purim is like Halloween, you dress up, except no one is too cool, adults, children, everyone! its awesome!

Monday night Allie came with me to a Purim costume contest party thing, the first of many parties with free food and alcohol. Afterward we went out in Tel Aviv. Florentine and the surrounding streets were packed for blocks and blocks and blocks. Soooo many people in the streets partying. We couldn't even make phone calls because cell phones wouldn't work, haha. Allie, Darya, and I eventually managed to meet up with Abe and his friend Jackie and walked to the Diner on the beach :). Tuesday Darya and I went with Allie back to Jerusalem. We went to the party at her absorption center and then went out with her friends in the city there. Wednesday we went to the Old City to celebrate Shushan Purim with all the relig Jews, hung out on the roof tops, saw some interesting sights, good times. Thursday we just went out in Tel Aviv, no more Purim, and then Friday Estelle, Julie, Allie and I went to Kibbutz Ein Herod, Estelle's family's kibbutz, for their Purim party! First, the kibbutz was great, such an awesome community. We had home cooked meals and I watched TV for the first time in 6 weeks or something? haha. But the party was great too, free to get in, free alcohol (even a white russian machine?!) and lots of food. All in all, I definitely got my moneys worth out of my Peter Pan outfit (although I was 80's for half of one night, haha) and I'm glad I finally experienced a true Purim :).

pictures will be up shortly, the photo uploader wasn't cooperating..

Building Future Leaders conference

This past weekend I participated in a leadership conference put on by MASA. Thursday we heard Bogi Ya'alon speak who is most likely going to be the next Minister of Defense over here. He talked about his "solution" to the conflict, which doesn't involve a two state solution (because that is not solution, nothing will change, he says) instead Israel needs to make the Palestinians recognize its right to exist. As he was Chief of Staff of the IDF and is going to be Minister of Defense, I think you can guess how he thinks we should "make" the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist. There were mixed reactions after hearing Bogi speak, many Israeli's and pro-Zionists thought he was great, and the more liberal of the bunch didn't necessarily agree with what he was saying. Thursday night we went to the Idan Raichel Project concert! Idan is great,you should listen to them if you haven't before, they are made up of 12 or so members most from all different countries around the world. Allie spoke at the show about Israel, her WUJS program she was on last year, making Aliya, and she gave a shout out to us BFL'ers. She was amazing and inspiring, per usual! After the concert I went out with her and her friends in Jerusalem, it was nice to meet some more of the people at her Ulpan.
Friday we went to the Herzl and Begin museums to learn about "where we came from" in terms of the Jews being in Israel and such. We heard a speech after Shabbas dinner about a lot of the problems Israel has, and how it's not this great land/place that it was intended to be. There were mixed reviews about this speaker as well, but I thought it was really important that he raised awareness about problems in Israel that no one wants to mention or think about like the failing education, divide in the society, homeless youth, and so forth. Next the soldier BFL participants held a panel like discussion. They are all in the most elite unit of the army, and are directly responsible for the day to day safety of the people living in Israel. We would not be able to do things like ride buses here without their unit, they physically stop the terrorists from committing acts of violence by going to their houses and arresting them and such. It's kind of hard to imagine even when you talk to them about it. After long discussions about everything the soldiers took a bunch of us out in the city, to a nice, authentic, typical Israeli pub. Just kidding, it was an Irish pub, haha. The conversation and company wonderful. You can't feel any more safe when you're out with these guys, two of which are carrying pistols in the belt of their pants...hmm.
Saturday consisted of more discussion/workshops and an inspiring speaker who is working with at risk youth. The weekend was packed full with intellectually stimulating conversation to the point where I almost felt like I couldn't think anymore at times, but it was sooo good to challenge myself like that. If I'm going to be here I need to seriously think about how I feel about a lot of the issues and resorting to "I don't know how I feel about it yet" is becoming less and less acceptable to me. Beyond the actual conference, forming friendships with the participants was great. I really enjoyed asking tons of questions (what else is new) and having conversations about things that had nothing to do with the conference. Great environment, great food, great friends, and I can't wait to go back for the next session in a few weeks!

Stay tuned for updates on Purim, the most ridiculous holiday I clearly have never experienced correctly before!

media

The tractor that a Palestinian man drove into a police car and attempted to hit others on Thursday March 5th in Jerusalem. Luckily the policemen were only lightly injured in the attack, the bulldozer driver was shot by both policemen and a taxi driver and killed. This is the forth incident like this since July 2008. The program coordinators on our trip told us what happened and I took this picture out of the bus window as we drove by. People asked a few questions but it seemed like no one was surprised, especially the israeli's and soliders with us. I wish it weren't like that here, the desensitization, but this is an example of why it is. And for all you wondering, YES it's safe here! It's hard to explain that to people who haven't been here though.


randoms and weekend adventures:


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Jerusalem:


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Eilat elle l'a

our weekend rendition of the song ella elle l'a that they play at everyy club here.

I went to Eilat, "The Miami of Israel," last weekend and it was great. It's the southern most Israeli city (in between Jordan and Egypt and on the Red Sea). The weather was much nicer than in Tel Aviv last weekend but it wasn't quite beach weather, although we did stubbornly try. Friday was the warmest, and luckily that was the day we had planned to go snorkeling. At first I had a hard time trusting myself but once I just relaxed I was in heaven floating with the fish and exploring the coral. I saw Dory and Nemo and my new favorite fish, the Parrot fish. Google it, they're gorgeous, I wish I could have taken underwater pictures. Tangent: I learned in my Israeli Environment class that the Red Sea is the most diverse ecosystem in the world. And also that in 25 million years it will be an ocean because of the way the plates are moving. Anyway, Eilat is pretty small, you can walk around the main part of the city very easily. It was nice to shop, party, and explore around a different city, though. I am planning to go back there after classes in June to do a 5 day SCUBA certification thing, yayy!
Speaking of classes, they started yesterday. So far I have had "The Struggle for Palestine: Roots of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" and "Israeli Environment." The former has a terribly dry teacher but I may stick it out as it seems as if the class will be taught from more of a pro-Arab than pro-Israeli point of view which I thoroughly enjoy as a much needed change. The latter is amazing, the teacher, Stuart, (he said it's an insult to call him doctor or professor unless he's really old. I'm not sure if that's for everyone here or just him) is hilarious and very entertaining. I'm really excited to learn a lot and go on fun trips in that class. More on other classes later possibly, but that stuff is boring anyway. This weekend I'm going to the Idan Raichel concert and Allie is actually speaking at the concert! She's speaking about a leadership program that she did two years ago that I (surprise surprise) am also doing this weekend and two other weekends. More on that laster as well. The organzation that runs the leadership program is setting up the concert so she has to speak in front of 2,500 people or something. crazy!
That's all for now, Passover break is in a month, I should figure out what I'm doing. Pictures to come soon!

as Darya would say: Shalom out!
Lauren