A Lovely Shabbat

tangent: Last Thursday night I saw Balkan Beat Box perform for Earth day, good stuff. Very typical Israel does Earth Day...let's turn on ALL the lights around the square so people notice when we turn them off for an hour then we'll turn them ALL back on again. good energy conservation skills. (although, to give them credit, they did power the lights from people riding stationary bikes and by using the excess oil from falafel stands, haha).

For the past Shabbat I went to Jerusalem to my friend Daniel's. I was pretty nervous since my Hebrew isn't superb and I was going to be eating dinner with his family. Plus the typical concern: I didn't know they're Shabbat customs and I didn't want to, basically, make myself look like a fool for doing something stupid. Well I got there, we hung around, went up to some part of what I guess would be the "country-side" of Jerusalem to watch the sunset over the city/valley, then went back for dinner. Daniel's mom is from France, she made Aliyah here when she was 22 and his dad is from Argentina and came here when he was 15. Ohh, Zionism. So that means his mom speaks French, Hebrew, and English, his dad Spanish, Hebrew, and English and him all 4. His dad's mom was at Shabbat dinner as well, and she speaks Spanish and Hebrew, no English. I would soon find this out when I tried to respond in English and she stared at me blankely. Dinner was delicious, and the conversations were plenty, although almost entirely in Spanish and Hebrew. yayyy Spanish! I haven't listened/spoke in so long! I actually understood a lot more than I thought of the Spanish but that was probably because his grandmother speaks really slow. I paid attention very well in hopes to not be so left out, and I actually followed the conversations pretty well. I kept getting caught up in the moment though, thinking about the situation I was in and how cool it was that I could understand, and then I couldn't understand cause I had stopped listening. Saturday we went on a mini hike to a spring and enjoyed beautiful sites.
All in all, it was a wonderful Shabbat and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Updates on Yom Hazicharon and Yom Ha'atzmaut (memorial day and independence day) when I have time to process. Big Independence pick-up ultimate game today then the last leadership conference tomorrow.

61 years and going strong :).

camera's working again..

long album, over pesach break

short album, maccabi tel aviv basketball game




during the siren that sounds for 2 minute on yom hashoa to remember the victims of the holocaust. Everyone in the entire country stops what they're doing and stands, even on the highway they get out of their cars. (well, everyone except that person on the "tus tus" or scooter that rides by.)

pesach break

fairly long update of break.

so I decided to change the title of the blog for the last time since I decided to spend my time here traveling in Israel, and not around other middle eastern countries. I wish I could do it all, but money and time make this not possible. (Except, I WILL go to Jordan before I leave.)

That being said...I got back last night from traveling around the country for the past week and a half/two weeks with my sister. First, we spent some time up north in and around Haifa. We did a little hike on a trail called "Little Switzerland" which I guess looks like Switzerland? either way it was pretty cool. Then we went to the Bahá'í gardens, Daliyat-a Druze village, Mt. Carmel/the Carmelite monastery, and Zichron Ya'kov-one of the first Jewish settlements in Israel. In one day we saw four different religions (Bahá'í, Druze, Carmelite Christians, and Jews) which exist in one area of the country. Sidenote: If you haven't heard of Bahá'í or Druze before your should check them out, they're really cool religions.
Back to TA then to J'lem in the morning. My friend Daniel took Allie and I out to an area in Jerusalem that wasn't Ben Yehuda street! (The area where everyone goes out in J'lem...it's fun but c'mon, I knew there had to be more, haha). Then the next day we went back up to Haifa for the Passover seder. We stayed at the grandparents house of Allie's friend Adina for a few nights and went to her family's seder at her great aunt and uncle's house nearby. The night was fun, interesting, and similar yet different to what I am used to. There were about 30-35 people at the seder and the whole night was in Hebrew. Much of the joking around went over my head but I still had many laughs and enjoyed myself all the same. Then it was back to TA for the following Shabbat.
Friday Allie and I thought it would be a good idea to ride our bikes to the shuk (market) and the artist's fair in Tel Aviv, typical day usually, but we totally forgot it was holiday and the city would be PACKED. If i'm ever here for Passover again I'm leaving the country, it is SOO busy!! Anyway, Saturday night was the long awaited dinner with Abe's parents! We went to Havana, a Cuban restaurant Darya and I went to one afternoon and it was just as amazing as the first time. We had never met Abe's parents before but the feeling of having known them for a long time was mutual for some reason. Went out in TA, I met Abe's friend Ari finally, came back to the university, then we were off to J'lem again Sunday morning.
Sunday night we went to Be'er Sheva and stayed with Allie's friend Yoav for a few nights. Be'er Sheva is south of J'lem, kind of desert but not quite desert yet. We explored Be'er Sheva a little and got to meet up with friends including Adam, our friend from Ultimate Peace who is studying in Be'er Sheva :)!!
Back to J'lem where Allie and I parted ways. I met up with my friend Gili from the leadership program I'm doing and we hopped on a bus to the dead sea. Gili and I met up with Daniel and his friends for the second night of a festival on a kibbutz right by the sea. The night was really fun we saw Mosh Ben Ari and Aviv Geffen! This was the fourth or so consecutive day of hanging out with Israeli's/people that speak Hebrew and it started to really frustrate me, a lot, that I can understand the gist of conversations but I can't communicate back much. Of course they all speak english as well but I don't want to talk in english, I want to know more hebrewww. Moving on, we got back to J'lem around 7am yesterday morning and promptly went to Daniel's to go to sleep. Traveling from place to place came to an end last night when I arrived back in TA for probably the remainder of break (until Sunday). Today I'm bumming around, tomorrow I'll probably go to the amuzement park nearby with friends, and I'm not sure what Saturday and Sunday will bring. I surprisingly have some work to do before school starts again, lame.

my computer decided to stop recognizing my camera so here are some old pics for now.

Until next time.

Ultimate Peace in the Middle East

Last Tuesday I went to Hayarkon Park, a park about a mile and a half from where I live that I run and bike through a lot, to help set up for Ultimate Peace in the Middle East. When I got there I helped do some odds and ends things but since the company delivering most of the equipment didn't show up until about 630 the day wasn't as productive as I thought it would be. Instead, I went to lunch and played a lot of ultimate with new friends, I even learned a few new games! Wednesday I wasn't able to help with the clinics and teaching of the coaches (the israeli and palestinian children's local sports coaches) because I was in class all day. Thursday, was the day that the Israeli and Palestinian children played together! The Palestinian children came from areas in the West Bank and the Israeli children from within Israel. Many of the Palestinian kids are not Israeli citizens but since they are under 16 the laws are less strict on allowing them in the country. After getting a quick briefing on "rules" like how we could only speak english not hebrew and how the guys should wear hats not kippas and tuck in their tzit tzit (all so as to not preference the israeli kids), we were off to go teach ultimate! Although the children predominantly speak two different languages, an outsider could barely tell any difference. The kids were playing together and enjoying learning a new sport together. And to add to it, the kids were wearing jerseys of teams like Bodhi, Brute Squad, Ironside (left), Hodags, Dartmouth, Riot, Sockeye, PoNY, Revolver, and other teams that I am familiar with.For those of you not involved in the ultimate culture, these are some of the best club and college teams in the US, many from the Boston area. As you can probably imagine, I did not wipe a smile off of my face the entire day.
Friday and Saturday were the hat tournament. In ultimate they call it a "hat" tournament because of the way they pick (or I guess used to pick teams), by putting the names of everyone who signed up in a hat and randomly choosing. We played 4 games each day with two byes and a lunch break in the middle. My team went 8-0 and won the tourney (below)!! I learned some new games, taught some new games, and played many familiar games like "wah" and miniature tanks (for those of you that know what those are).
Sunday some of the UP staff went into the Palestinian villages to play with the kids some more. Unfortunately it's not so easy to get there on your own since you have to cross the "green line" aka into the west bank and they didn't have enough room in the cars and vans for everyone.

So UP in the Middle East was an amazing event, and I'm glad to hear from the staff that they think it is only the beginning. By September they intend to have Ultimate as a high school sport in Israel! Peace through spirit of the game, such a simple concept, now let's all cross our fingers. And as a plus, I have so many more friends to play with my last few months here!



Pictures:
Ultimate Peace in the Middle East

another update of pesach break adventures to come soon, hopefully.