Thursday morning we went on our first Siyur in Arad. It was to Nahal Peretz, a canyon hike a short distance out of the city. It was fairly intense—the first section was mostly uphill through a dried-up riverbed, and the second section went down a canyon-like area with tall ladders and portions where we had to climb ropes down the cliff face. It was pretty great. After this, we went to the Dead Sea for a little while, which, frankly, is nothing special to me anymore. I’ve been there so many times that I expect the unusual buoyancy before I get in. Regardless, it was fun—Jake, Scott, I and others made a long “toboggan” line in the water where we were resting on each other’s legs. Then we went home.
That night was nothing particularly special. We went to Muza (the only good bar in Arad) and hung out for a little while. The only really cool part about it was getting to see Ido, my co-counselor from second session at Midwest this past summer. He lives close by in a town called Lehavim, and invited me to come over any time. I think maybe I’ll take the apartment there one weekend later on in the trimester.
Friday I woke up late and went to a meeting between business track and Joseph, the leader of the Sudanese community in Arad. I went to go find firewood after this for the bonfire we were planning on having Saturday night. The supermarket here (שופרסל, “supersal”) was selling palettes of wood for 50 shekels, which I thought was preposterous. I went around looking a little more and then found a palette behind the store, which I promptly took. I then went for a run and passed a construction site, where I found and took another palette. That night, we had a “Shabbat B’Yachad” at the Ulpan, where every apartment cooked dinner for themselves and then brought it to Ulpan. It could have been a fun potluck if the madrichim had put any thought into it and had each apartment prepare a lot of a specific dish. Instead, we just ended up having our own dinners with everyone—which, granted, was still fun.
Saturday morning, a big group of people went on an amazing hike to the observation point just outside of Arad. It was absolutely phenomenal, and made me remember why I love the negev so much. When we got back, I went with Scott and Nathan to grab some more firewood from the construction site, and an incredibly helpful guy let us in and gave us another palette and a bag full of small log-type wood. It was excellent, although it took a long time to drag all of the wood to the bonfire site.
I then went over to Lizzy and Maya’s apartment with Scott, Jake, and Nathan to have dinner and play some Monopoly. It was a good deal of fun, as Monopoly always is. I left a bit early to go prepare everything for the bonfire, which, after a bit of a rough start, turned out great. It was a little ways off from a road but with desert on almost every side, and was absolutely amazing.
On Sunday, I awoke and went to volunteer at Cecilia’s, but then had to leave early because I needed to pack. I left Arad at about 1 in the afternoon bound for America for my sister’s Bat Mitzvah. My week and a half or so in America was nothing too special—it was fun to see friends again and talk to my family some about the idea of aliyah, but I truly missed Israel. Talking to my parents and being back in general has made me less enthusiastic about aliyah, but it’s something I’m still considering. Everything seemed so strange and foreign to me—the trees were all dying and barren, there was snow on the ground, and it was preposterously cold. Merav’s Bat Mitzvah went pretty well, and I got to catch up on some television shows I haven’t had time to watch in Israel. It was great to see friends again, and talking to some people I haven't spoken to in a while was easily the best part of the week. I arrived back Wednesday night, after many flight delays and cancelations due to snow in Philadelphia. After taking some buses home, I went over to Cera’s apartment with some presents and to enjoy some delicious birthday cake and presents. I then returned to my apartment to find Scott, Nathan, and Scott’s brother (Ari) awaiting my arrival. We went to Maya’s 19th birthday party that night and everyone had a great time.
Thursday morning, we woke up late and ran to get to the bus for the Black Hebrews siyur. This ended up being a pretty great siyur—we went with a small group to Dimona and went to the Black Hebrew village there called “The Village of Peace.” Black Hebrews are African-Americans, primarily from the Chicago area, who believe that they are the descendants of the Hebrews who left Egypt. They consider Israel a part of Africa because in the Torah Jews walked from Egypt to here (by the same merit, Spain is part of Asia). They do not consider themselves “religious” but rather culturally Jewish. Black Hebrews are vegans and live in their own villages that operate similarly to kibbutzim. The entire idea seems somewhat contradictory to me, but also intriguing, and, when it comes down to it, I’m glad that the Black Hebrews are in Israel. They add in another element to the vast complexity of the nation’s demographics. After touring us around the village, Avichaiel, our guide, took us to an industrial area nearby and fed us a delicious vegan lunch with faux meat. Their lifestyle is very holistic: on top of being vegans, they have a highly regimented workout routine that all members of the community are obliged to follow. After lunch, the siyur ended, and I headed back to the apartment with Scott and Nathan, where we met up with Ari and then headed to Jerusalem that night.
I was in Jerusalem until Sunday morning—that night, I met up with lots of people, both mishlachat and American tzevet from camp (including Elisse Kavensky) and had a nice dinner near Ben Yehuda street. It was great seeing everyone again, and going to Ben Yehuda for the first time was everything I expected: crowdedness, confusion, overpriced everything, and lots of English.
Friday morning, we woke up a bit late and met up with Adam at Machane Yehuda, where I got an Eyal Golan CD. We then headed back to the apartment and made some bean sprouts for a joint dinner with Shosh. The rest of the night was pretty crazy, as Maddie’s mom (NJ), her brother Sam, and Dan all came into town.
Then, Saturday morning, we woke up late and decided to walk to the old city, where we once again saw the Kavensky family at the kotel. We weren't initially planning on going there, but I thought it would be cool to see it when there weren't that many people around (most other times I've gone, there has been a plethora of people). We looked through the shuk some, as well, and I got a pretty great Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt. We went to dinner at a sandwich place nearby called New Deli and then headed back home. When the buses started running again, we went to Ben Yehudah street for a while with a huge group of people, but then came back home. All in all, Jerusalem was a good deal of fun.
Sunday morning, Scott, Nathan, Ari, Adam and I headed down to Eilat. We got up pretty early to get to the central bus station so that we wouldn't miss the bus, but when we got there they told us there were no more seats. I didn't realize that Eilat was such a popular destination from Jerusalem--they had 3 separate buses going there, and none of them had any seats left, even though we were there 10 minutes early or so. We ended up getting on one bus and having to just sit on the floor, which wasn't so bad. Actually, it was pretty hysterical. At first, Adam, Scott and I sat on the floor in the back of the bus toboggan-style, leaning on each other, but this quickly heated up and left almost no room for our legs. Then I suggested that we space ourselves out on the floor of the bus, which was infinitely more comfortable. I fell asleep on the floor and only woke up a couple minutes before we got to Eilat, when a soldier boarding the bus accidentally kicked my feet as he was trying to pass by. As he awoke me, however, I thought that he had intentionally kicked me and grunted "תקום, גנגי!" ("Get up, redhead!"). I also imagined that he shot my foot when he said this, but that the bullet just bounced off of one of my toes and nobody noticed. I think I was still dreaming a bit. That night, we went to the Eilat boardwalk and bought some preposterous hats, as well as generally just had a good time. We went to a bar and saw some other section 2 people in Eilat, which was also cool. Scott was obsessed with the idea of trying to sneak into a hotel and swim in their pool, so we tried this in a couple of places. We only ended up getting into one, and by that time we were so wearied by the entire ordeal that we only sat by the pool and felt accomplished. When we got back to the hostel that night, we met some girls who were staying in the room next to us. We all talked pretty late into the night and found out that they had gone on the Habonim D'ror version of Year Course, Workshop, several years ago. The next morning, we woke up early to get breakfast at the hostel, then went back to bed for a while. We then went to get lunch and went swimming in the Red Sea. That night was nothing too special, although when we got back to the hostel, a man at the front desk noticed that we were 5 instead of 4 people, so Adam went to go sleep on the beach. He ended up coming home in the morning with a strange, large rash on his arms that ended up being flea bites from a stray dog he petted.
Thus I awoke on Tuesday and headed back to Arad with Nathan. I was there for a couple hours before heading out to Ashdod to go with Cera on our hiking trip. We intended to hike from Ashdod to Tel Aviv, but the coast was cut off by a massive industrial sector in North Ashdod. We hiked for 5 hours or so, then were forced to take a taxi to southern Rishon L'tzion. That was, to my surprise, the first time I've ever slept on the beach. Wednesday morning, we woke up as it was raining heavily. We tried to hide under a gazebo, but the roof had slats in it, so rain continued to pound down on our things and soak through everything. Finally, at 11:30 or so, the rain decided to take a quick respite (???), so we made our way to a bus stop and went to Bat Yam. We stayed at Lior's and went to Chen's birthday celebration that night. It was fantastic seeing all the scouts again and being in Bat Yam. I remember as I was leaving for America the week before, I was sitting at the central bus station waiting for a bus and looked out over a disgusting cross-section of Tel Aviv, with cranes and slowly rising apartment buildings. Despite the repulsive part of the city I was looking at, I felt a distinct sense of belonging and nostalgia for it all. That is what it was like to return to Bat Yam.
Thursday, I woke up at about 2 and went to a Garin Tzedek meeting. It was good to see everyone from other sections and heartening to discuss the subject with Andrew Fretwell. After the meeting, I left Bat Yam for Karin’s parents’ apartment by the port in Tel Aviv, where a group of us were staying for New Year’s. That night was possibly one of the craziest nights I’ve had in my life, and, while I was considering not drinking in January before that night, I decided afterwards that I am definitely not going to.
I’m 5 days in now and I think it’s going pretty well—I’m going to save a lot of money and feel pretty accomplished at the end, I think.
Friday consisted of making my way back to Arad, and, that night, getting to see my apartment-mates for the first time in a while. We did nothing special really, just hung out and talked about things, watched some movies.
Saturday, I and a small group of people went for a hike in the northwestern desert section of Arad in hopes of finding an abandoned army base I’d heard about, but didn’t end up finding it. It was a fun hike regardless. That night, Nathan cut his hair and we got Ben Jirik very drunk because he and Jake were going to Marva (two months of the army) Sunday morning. It ended up being a good deal of fun for both of them, but I can’t wait for two weekends from now when I get to see all of the Marva people again. The apartment feels a little bit emptier without ours. :(
Sunday morning, I awoke and went to volunteering at Cecilia’s gan. I guess that, while I was gone, she was diagnosed with Diabetes, because she told me she felt better and I noticed her taking her blood sugar during the day. It was good to work with the kids again, and older ones came in the middle of the day, which was exciting. Most of the kids I work with in the morning don’t speak much English or Hebrew, so it can be kind of hard to communicate with them. They are also quite young, so I don’t really know what I can play with them (if you have any suggestions please tell me! I usually just stick my hand out and let them high-five it over and over again, or puff up my face and squeeze my cheeks together so that I pop, or hit my forehead and stick my tongue out. I need another shtick.). One thing I noticed that I’m freaked out a bit about is that the women who run the gan, including Cecilia, have no qualms about using violence as a method of discipline—whenever one of the kids does something they don’t want them to, they just hit them. Not terribly hard, but regardless. I’m not exactly sure I can do anything about this, though. While it makes me feel extraordinarily uncomfortable, it’s also not my place to tell these women how to raise children.
The day before, I met a man who wanted to donate Bamba (a delicious Israeli snack) to people, so he came to the gan in the middle of the day and we distributed it to the kids. It was great, Bamba is truly fantastic—if you’ve never had it, it’s like peanut butter cheetos (although that sounds kind of disgusting, it’s excellent, trust me).
That evening I had a Garin Tzedek meeting with Cera, Laura, Emilie, and Melanie that was pretty productive. After that, I went to optional class for the first time about volunteering—it’s kind of a joke. Eli got me my bike after this, and then I came back to the apartment and did some dishes before we all went to Muza. In the past several days, Simon has found it very funny to offer me alcohol.
This morning, I went to the optional activity—“Medicinal Herbs in the Desert.” We met up with a self-described “naturopath” named Lior, who led us through the desert while showing us different plants and telling us what could be done with them. It was intriguing and useful. Afterwards, Scott, Nathan and I went to a place in the mall called “Amigos” for lunch, where we all had delectable burritos. Scott and I tried to take our laundry to a service before ulpan started, but the place was closed and we couldn’t find another one we’d heard about, so we dragged our grocery cart full of laundry to class.
Ulpan class for the first time was fun. We went out into Arad and interviewed random people about their lives in the city and what they think about Arad. Then we met in the mall food court and talked about them, and got let out of class a half an hour early. I then went to my mandatory class about immigration, which seems much more legitimate than the optional class. I don’t feel all that behind in any of my classes even though I missed a week because everything is restarting after winter break. After class, Garin Tzedek met with Roni, which is something we’ve wanted to do for a while. Then I got home, had some dinner, relaxed a bit, and Scott and I went for a 5k. I’m excited to be back on a regular schedule again—winter break was fun, but I like to live with patterns, too.
I realize it has been almost a month since I wrote anything on here, and, if you have endeavored to read this post all the way until the end, I commend and thank you heartily. Since my leaving for America and since my return, everything has been a whirlwind of activity and I’ve barely gotten a chance to think, much less write blog entries. In the coming month, though, I’m going to try to write at least every other day—I recognize how hard it is to read a post this long. Anywho, I should probably get to bed, but I hope you had an excellent New Year’s and have a great 2010! If we have not, we should definitely talk sometime soon! All the best, שלום!
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