Hebron and Leaving Israel

Yesterday I went to Hebron with a few friends. Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank, home to 166,000 Palestinians and 500 Jewish settlers. Hebron is quite contentious...it has been the site of much violence between Jews and Arabs in the past. Because the Cave of the Patriarchs is located in Hebron, Hebron is considered the second holiest city in Judaism, after Jerusalem. Although things have been relatively quiet there since the last intifada ended, Hebron is still considered an unstable area and is thus heavily guarded. We actually had to take a bullet-proof from Jerusalem to Hebron. Definitely an "only in Israel" type thing.

The Cave of the Patriarchs is supposedly the burial place of four couples: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Leah, and Isaac and Rebekah. It is a holy site for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Even though the area is controlled by Israel, Muslims control most of the complex. Jews are forbidden from entering the tombs of Isaac or Rebekah excepting ten days of the year that hold special significance in Judaism. The area Jews are allowed to enter is basically just a few connected rooms with chairs and Arks scattered throughout to allow for prayer. The tombs are located behind steel bars--each tomb has their own little room. The tombs basically look like gigantic coffins covered in material. It was very interesting--somewhat anti-climatic, but hey--all three major world religions believe our patriarchs and matriarchs are buried there. I wandered among the burial place of the folks God entrusted with starting modern world religion; I can dig it.

Sarah's tomb

 The Jewish area of Hebron is sectioned off from the rest of Hebron by police barricades, and it was eerily quiet. It truly felt as though we were walking through a ghost town. All the shops--which had previously been run by Arabs--were closed. Israel soldiers were stationed everywhere, their guns at the ready. From a lookout point, we were able to see Hebron stretched out beneath us--a large, bustling city. A striking contrast from the Jewish section. The soldiers were all very nice to us, inquired as to what we could possibly be doing there, (they probably thought we were crazy!) and a few asked us if we were Jewish. There wasn't much to do there besides visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs, but we walked around for a while before heading home.

 Hebron, West Bank

 I am being kicked out of my apartment tomorrow and am staying at a friends house for the next three days. We have been frantically packing and cleaning the apartment all day today. My flight leaves Monday morning. I don't know where the past 5 months have gone and I have extremely mixed emotions about leaving. One minute I feel the desire to leave Israel--I'm tired of certain things here and I miss home. Yet the next minute, I dread leaving--this has been my home for the past 5 months, and I am leaving my friends and life here. Israel is such a crazy, unique, beautiful country and I'm afraid it will be years and years until I will return. But I know that I want to come back. I must come back. Israel is my homeland, and it's part of me now. These past 5 months have been the best months of my life, and coming here was the best decision I have made thus far in my life. I learned a great deal about myself, and surprised myself on many occasions. I had a great internship and gained valuable career experience, I took advantage of being here and traveled throughout the country (and to Egypt!), and did almost everything I wanted to. I really have no regrets, and I think that is the most important thing. So I'm undeniably sad, but I think it is time to leave. I also know I will appreciate so many things about home and America that I took for granted before!!

Next stop: European adventure.... (I'll be back home in El Paso August 4)

Missing Home

Today marks my last day at Ruder Finn and two weeks until I depart Israel. I'm not sure where the past almost 5 months have gone! On one hand it feels like I have been in Israel forever, and on the other hand, I feel like I just arrived. I'm feeling so conflicted about leaving. I love Israel--it it such a beautiful, unique country--and I have made a home for myself here and made incredible friends from around the world. Yet there are also some things about Israel that I am just so frustrated with and I miss many aspects of home.

Although Israel is a fantastic country, I feel like Israelis themselves leave much to be desired. I have written often about how crazy and rude they can be. Although I realize this is a huge generalization, I find Israelis as a whole to be quite rude and disrespectful.  It's true that they can be generous and warm at times and not all Israelis are complete douche bags. Yet for the most part I think they are definitely not the nicest people on the planet. They push, shove, and yell and make no apologies for it. The Israeli men are aggressive to the point of being completely inappropriate. Cashiers never smile at you, say hi, or tell you thank you. I know much of this is just cultural--they have had to toughen up because their lives are much more stressful and difficult than what we're familiar with in the US. And of course there is the sabra mentality--hard on the inside, but soft and sweet on the inside. Still, I think 5 months is enough time for me to be immersed among the sabras! I have met some Israelis who seem so nice and warm, and then I discover that one of their parents made aliyah (immigrated to Israel), so they are really only half Israeli!! Without exception, I have found this to be the case. I think it's actually quite a shame; the entire world hates Israel as is--they don't want tourists to leave thinking Israelis are inconsiderate and offensive!

Random things I miss:
*I miss my car so much. I feel like I've definitely lost some of my independence by having to rely on public transportation. It's so much more of a schlep and takes 3 times as long to go anywhere on a bus than it would with your own car. Buses are often crowded, and that is never pleasant on a hot summer day! Plus, in Israel it's that much more difficult to rely on public transportation, since nothing runs for 24 hours every week (and sometimes more when other holidays fall during the week). When I get home I will without a doubt appreciate being able to go wherever and whenever I want!!
*Walmart (especially Super Walmart!)--There is no huge supercenter here where you can buy anything and everything you could possibly want. You need to go to a million different little places. And, again, without a car--not easy! And of course Walmart's prices can't be beat..especially compared to everything in Israel!
*A gym! The gym here was much too expensive for me to join (would have been 880 shekels!) so I have just been running 5-7 days a week. As gorgeous as the views of the Old City are on my daily run, running without cross-training does get tiresome after a while. I can't wait to go back to EP Fitness!
*TV. I have basically gone almost 5 months without watching TV. I didn't watch a ton of TV at home, but I would watch it everyday, whether watching it as I ran on the treadmill, or watching Jay Leno and Conan O'Brian before bed. So it's just odd to have no access to any TV.  I have only seen CNN.com video clips and movies on my laptop here.
*A comforter! I didn't want to buy a comforter for only 5 months, so I have been sleeping with only a sheet and a small throw blanket I brought from home! It's been adequate, but I am looking forward to curling up with proper bedding.
*I really love the food here, so there isn't too much food from home I miss terribly. Of course, I miss certain American brands (some of which they have here, but importing costs are ridiculous) I can't wait to have a million different types of cereal available to me again! Something I do miss that they have none of here are frozen dinners (specifically Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, etc)
*I also miss speaking the native language of the country. Of course in El Paso, many people don't speak English (!), but English is still the predominant language in America and everything is in English. I can read the newspapers, the packaging on everything, etc. Many times at the supermarket here, I have no idea what something is because there is no English. (Is this chicken or soy??) I am sure I have also been charged wrong many times at the supermarket, but considering the entire receipt is in Hebrew, I have no idea!
And of course it goes without saying that I miss my family and friends!

After I leave here I'm going backpacking in western Europe for 3 weeks with my cousin Amanda and friend Valerie from back home. We're meeting in Amsterdam, and traveling to Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany before ending back in Amsterdam (from which we will fly home). I'm of course excited, but at the same time part of me just wants to go home now. I've essentially been traveling in a foreign country for 5 months and 3 more weeks of public transportation, not understanding the language and spending more money isn't as appealing to me as it would be if I were coming straight from home! But I'm confident it will be worth it in the end.

O'Bethlehem

This past Thursday Leora and I decided to venture to Bethlehem, the famous city just south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. It was my first time in the West Bank, so we were a little nervous, but knew quite a few people who had been and they told us it would be fine. Israelis are actually forbidden from going to Bethlehem (apparently the Israeli government does not want to have to take responsibility for Israelis in land governed by the Palestinian Authority, which I suppose is understandable) so we thought we might as well take advantage of the fact that we're not Israeli! We wore long skirts, as we were going to a predominately Muslim city and took off any jewelry that would identify us as Jews. From the Old City, Leora and I caught an Arab bus. I see Arab buses all the time (they have their own bus companies, own lines, etc), but this was my first time actually riding on one, and it was fine. Nobody looked at as strange, or questioned us at all. We sat down next to two quite good looking boys who were speaking German. We asked if they were going to Bethlehem (they were) and inquired as to what they wanted to see there (the tourist sites, as did we!) so we decided to venture together. Their English was fantastic, and we figured it would be best to travel with two men. It is only about a 15 minute ride from the Old City to the checkpoint. The security wall is quite large and winds it's way around Bethlehem. There were murals painted on all the walls on the Bethlehem side, depicting everything and anything. Getting past the checkpoint was ridiculously easy. We flashed our passports to the guards though the glass..they merely glanced at them. Once we entered Bethlehem, we found a taxi driver who was willing to drive us to many tourist sites throughout the city, and wait for us at each one for only 200 shekels. That's 50 shekels each, or $12.50, for the whole afternoon! Good deal.
First we went to Shepard's Field, identified as the scene where the Angel of the Lord visited the shepherds and informed them of Jesus' birth. It was basically just an old, beautiful church! We then went to St. Saba's Monastery, a Greek Orthodox Monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley. It is considered to be one of the oldest inhabited monasteries in the world, and still maintains many of its ancient traditions. One in particular is the restriction on women entering the main compound. The only building that women can enter is the Women's Tower, near the main entrance. The Monastery was actually closed when we were there, though, so neither us nor the men could go in. Yet it is a beautiful, striking building located on the edge of these cliffs seemingly in the middle of nowhere. You can also see the Dead Sea from there. The 11 mile drive from Bethlehem to the monastery was striking as well..beautiful desert canyons everywhere. From the road and the monastery you couldn't see Jerusalem or Bethlehem. The only sign of civilization in that stretch of road was a donkey tied to a post and standing in the middle of the road!!! I'm not sure how much of a sign of civilization that is!! But you could tell he was owned by somebody. From there we went to Herodium, a fortress palace by King Herod the Great. This ancient site in the middle of Bethlehem is actually under Israeli control. It reminded me a lot of Masada, with ancient ruins, bathhouses, columns. There was also a very cool and extensive maze of underground tunnels that were used for protection as well as for attack. From there we went to the Milky Grotto, considered sacred because tradition has it that the Holy Family took refuge here during the Slaughter of the Innocents, before their flight into Egypt. Tradition has it that while Mary was nursing Jesus here, a drop of milk fell to the ground, turning it white. The church is beautiful..beautiful flooring, architecture, and art. A short walk from the Milky Grotto is the Church of the Nativity, which is the famous church that it is said Jesus was born in. It's a large, beautiful church. (I know I'm doing a horrid job of describing all these churches!) The entrance is filled with hanging colorful lamp-type things, a beautiful altar, and more statues and paintings of Jesus. We walked downstairs to the exact place where Jesus was supposedly born. I saw what I thought was a bunch of people kissing the floor, but Leora said she thought they were just looking down a hole at something. So we proceeded to kneel down and look through this hole. Well..there was no hole..just holy water and a star on the floor saying this is where his holiness Jesus was born!! Well, Leora and I started laughing hysterically at the fact that we had just knelt down at Jesus' birthsite. This is a holy place, and obviously laughing is not appropriate! So we moved to the back, and then this whole crowd of people started chanting "O'Bethlehem" in Italian, and we were stuck behind them, literally pitching each other to keep from laughing. We were just two little Jewish girls who had no idea what we were doing! But I think it makes for a pretty great story. Following the church, the four of us went to lunch with our taxi driver. He was a very nice man, and he told us how difficult life has been in Bethlehem since Israel build the security wall in 2002. He used to work in Jerusalem, but has not been able to travel there since the wall was built--like most of his neighbors. Many people in Bethlehem still work in Jerusalem, but he told us it is $1000 for 3 months just for a permit to travel there. He explained that his entire life is to the checkpoint and back home,to the checkpoint and back home. He is only 27, but he says he knows he looks much older because of the stressful life he has led. There are no movie theaters or malls or anything of the sort for entertainment purposes. He said tourism has fallen dramatically since the wall was built as well, because they are too afraid. Considering that so many businesses rely on tourists, they have really been suffering economically there. And it is true that they were very few tourists wherever we went there. It was sweltering hot, so I'm sure that kept some people away, but I was surprised, considering that it is the height of tourist season. It's really sad, and I definitely feel for him. It's just such a problem. Israel built the wall during the 2nd Intifada when Palestinians were coming over and blowing themselves up! So what is to be done? I really appreciated hearing the other side of the story though. Once we left the checkpoint, we wanted to go visit Rachel's tomb (one of the matriarchs from the bible). Her tomb is actually located in Bethlehem, but because it is a religious site for the Jews, Israel carved it out of the PA and controls it. Even though the tomb is located literally a 5 minute walk from the checkpoint, pedestrians are not allowed to enter (not safe I suppose). We tried to hitch a ride just through the guard station area, but couldn't find anybody with enough room in their car. Alas, we were unfortunately not able to go.
That night we went out to a bar with a new German friends. They are both 25 and lawyers! They live about two hours from Amsterdam, so I'm hoping I can meet up with them at the end of my Europe trip!

Seeing the Gaza Situation First-hand

This past Sunday my program took us all to Sderot, a southern city in Israel that was repeatedly in the news during the recent Operation Cast Lead (the War with Gaza this past December/January). Sderot, along with Askhelon, another Israeli city, received the brunt of the thousands of rockets fired from within the Gaza Strip by Hamas. Sderot is a small city, with a population of about 20,000. The city is really quite nice, with beautiful trees and flowers blooming everywhere. Yet immediately one notices something very different about this city. There are small bomb shelters everywhere--literally everywhere. All the bus stops function as bomb shelters, many homes have their own bomb shelters in their yards, and even playgrounds double as bomb shelters. One of the playgrounds we visited had a large, funky caterpillar-looking structure that children can run through and hide in. Yet this caterpillar also functions as a bomb shelter. This is just the way of life for the residents of Sderot--a generation of children are being born into this. This is their reality--they know no other. The warning system can sound at any moment (the words "Tzeva Adom, Tzeva Adom" (Code Red) are blared throughout the city, and residents have 15 seconds to run to safety. 15 seconds. The rockets are detected through heat sensors that are set up around Gaza. While we are now in the midst of a "cease-fire", there have been about 200 rockets fired into Israel since the cease-fire began 5 months ago. There is always the possibility of a "Tzeva Adom",but thank god we did not have to witness that. Sderot is less than one mile away from Gaza. From a checkpoint we could see the Gaza Strip. One immediately notices buildings that have been destroyed, yet right behind these buildings are huge skyscrapers. While their citizens suffer, members of Hamas' live comfortably in new, modern buildings. This is where most of the international aid money sent to Gaza goes to. In the distance one can witness a large power plant in Ashkelon (remember, it's an Israeli city). This power plant provides 70% of the electricity and power to residents of Gaza. Humanitarian crisis?? At the Sderot police station we saw a few hundred of the 10,000 Qassam rockets Hamas' has launched into Israel in the past few years.
While in Sderot we heard two Israeli peace activists speak to us. They were against the War and Israeli's offensive. I understand what they are saying--it breaks my heart to see so many innocent Palestinians suffer. Yet, what is the Israeli government supposed to do when Hamas' stores and fires rockets from mosques and schools and uses their own people as human shields? It's a massive problem--something I can't foresee a solution to.
We also went to an area in between Ashkelon and Ashdod, where the residents of Gush Katif--the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza--have been living for the past almost 4 years since the Israeli government dismantled the settlement. We talked to a few of the people who lived there. They were all extremely, extremely right-wing (talking about how this is their land, and the Palestinians should all go back to where they came from--"There is plenty of room in Iran or Iraq" They do not believe in a two state solution--just one state for the Jews), so our discussions got quite heated. Yet that is what makes all of this so divisive, controversial, and interesting. Again, I feel so conflicted. I understand some of their points of view. It must be quite traumatic to be uprooted from your home, and watch your home and your neighborhood destroyed. Yet at the same time many of these settlers literally fought tooth-and-nail the IDF soldiers who were merely following orders. The Palestinians need a place to live too--why is living in Israel proper not enough for them?
Yesterday Leora and I went with my ex-boyfriends's brother (!) and joined activists from the Movement to Free Gilad Schalit, the Kibbutz Movement and the Im Tirzu student organization at a protest rally in an attempt to pressure Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit the captive 22-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit an IDF soldier who was kidnapped 3 years ago by Palestinian militants in a cross border raid from the Gaza Strip. The Red Cross has not been allowed to see him since his abduction. Hamas has demanded Israel release 450 prisoners in exchange for Shalit. Protesters tried to block the three crossings into Gaza - Erez, Karni and Kerem Shalom. I was at Kerem Shalom--one of the most southern crossings with Gaza and the place where Shalit was captured from. I was literally right next to the border..the wall was right there. There were about 200 people there. We chanted chants in Hebrew stating that "Gilad still lives" and demanding that Hamas let him go. For the most part though, we just sat in the hot sun in an attempt to stop trucks from passing through to Gaza with humanitarian aid. Since Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza in June 2007, Israel has allowed only humanitarian aid to enter the area. It has also linked passage of non-humanitarian goods into Gaza with the release of Schalit. We were able to keep 100 trucks laden with goods from entering Gaza through Kerem Shalom. A large tractor was set up in front of all the trucks. Signs were everywhere proclaiming support for Shalit and demanding that Hamas allow the Red Cross to see him. Even truck drivers could be seen wearing Gilad Schalit T-shirts and outwardly proclaiming their support for the protest. Shalit's father visited Kerem Shalom during the morning and thanked us for coming out. Of course I didn't understand a word of what was said during this protest, but that was really besides the point. I got the jist. It was quite peaceful, nothing crazy happened. To be honest, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into when I went there! It was an extremely right-wing thing we did, but what an experience. Shalit is 1 month younger than me. I can't imagine the terror of being held captive by myself by Hamas with no contact with the outside world and no end in sight.
On a lighter note, last Thursday I went to the Jerusalem biblical zoo with Leora and Dan. The zoo is on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It is really quite a nice zoo with a beautiful view of the hills of Jerusalem. It was just like any zoo--with monkeys, tigers, lions, bears, penguins (yes..penguins in Israel!). The only thing biblical about it was that they posted bible quotes about the animals. Alas, no bible quote at the penguin exhibit!! A really pleasant day.
I also bought a hookah! I have enjoyed smoking hookah here--it's quite relaxing. I have never actually put one together or set one up myself, so I don't know how much I will actually use it at home (granted I can even figure it out in the first place) but I figured it's a pretty cool souvenir.

Tel Aviv, IOSCO Conference, and Tiyul to North

Last weekend I went to Tel Aviv for Laura and Rose's birthdays. Thursday night we we all went to a nice bar/club on the Tel Aviv Port, which is a really nice area right along the water with numerous restaurants and bars. We had a fantastic time there, and my friends and I were actually the very last ones to leave the club at about 3:30 am! Then one guy had the brilliant idea to go to the Mediterranean, so Dan, Leora, Laura, and I all stopped to eat pizza, and then headed to the beach. Tel Aviv really is the city that never sleeps. We were definitely not the only ones eating pizza at 4 in the morning! Then we went skinny dipping! Probably not the smartest idea to go swimming in the dark, but we didn't go over our waists, and now I can always say that I went skinny dipping in the Mediterranean in the middle of the night. How many people can say that?? The rest of the weekend was very relaxed..hung out at the beach, and watched movies. Tel Aviv is much hotter than Jerusalem, and humid, while Jerusalem is dry. But the water temperature was absolutely perfect and the waves were high. Buses don't start running until 8:30 Saturday evenings after Shabbat, and Leora and I didn't want to get home so late so we took a taxi at about 4:30pm to the bus station with another guy from our program who also lives in Jerusalem. From the bus station we took a sheirut, which is basically a ten person van that runs on Shabbats and holidays. It is a little more expensive than the bus, but sometimes it is worth it just for the convenience. The sheirut dropped us off in Jerusalem somewhat near the Old City and near Mea Shearim--the ultra, ultra, orthodox Haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem (basically it is the most religious Jewish neighborhood in the world). Michael, Leora, and I figured that we would walk the half hour home and safe money rather than taking a taxi. We are walking along and see a couple hundred Haredi men and boys all gathered on the street. They all are wearing the strimmels (beaver fur hats), funny bathrobe-looking jackets they wear on Shabbat and festivals, payes..the whole shebang. Then we see a secular man on his cell phone screaming at them in Hebrew. The Haredi men all start screaming "SHABBOS! SHABBOS! SHABBOS!" (Sabbath). The women and children on the balconies were also screaming it. Then they all start crowding around this man, one Haredi boy throws a rock, and the secular man also picks up a rock. We are standing a few feet away watching all this in shock--we had no idea what the hell was going on. We honestly thought there was going to be some huge physical fight. Then two older Haredi men pulled the man aside and talked to him and he then walked off. It was a really crazy thing to witness. We then found out the next day that there had been a huge protest at city hall (nearby) over a parking lot! Apparently the city decided to open up a parking lot nearby on Shabbat in order to control illegal parking in the Old City. The Haredis are against this because you are not supposed to drive on Shabbat, and they feel this disrupts their neighborhood and the sanctity of Shabbat. The protest apparently turned violent, with a few Haredi and police officers wounded. So I think we saw some spillover from that. It's so sad. Forget the Palestinian-Israeli crisis--first I feel we need Jews of different sects to stop fighting about religion! It is a problem that I have with the ultra-Orthodox--I feel it is completely unacceptable and detrimental to Judaism to shun Jews who they feel aren't religious enough.
Tuesday morning I took a taxi with a coworker to Tel Aviv for the IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commission) Conference. Ruder Finn was in charge of all the PR for the event, and my coworkers were generous enough to bring me along. It was a really fantastic opportunity and experience for me. The conference was at the Hilton Tel Aviv (a gorgeous hotel right on the water) and Ruder Finn put me up at a nearby hotel. This conference was basically the first time the world's leading financial regulators all came together since the economic crisis. There were huge names there--CEO of Goldman Sachs,and heads of state banks from across the globe. The US SEC Chairman was supposed to be there, but last minute was requested to attend a meeting with Obama so she spoke to the meeting live via satellite! The whole event was quite fancy. I got a laptop bag (yay for free goodies!) and ate lunch there the 3 days I attended the conference. It literally was the best food I have ever had in my entire life. The desserts were to die for--little chocolate boats, filled with cream and sliced fruit, and drizzled with strawberry sauce (just for one example!). I attended some of the panels and twittered about what was happening (the whole social media craze), and hung out in the press room for most of the rest of the time. The discussions were very technical, and it was all completely over my head, but I guess that didn't matter so much. I was able to see live Reuters and Bloomberg TV interviews, which was definitely cool. The first day (when it wasn't so crazy) I wrote a press release and an hour later it was emailed to 1200 journalists! Pretty neat stuff. Public sessions were held the last two days of the conference and my coworkers were churning out press releases and releasing them within two hours of each panel finishing. So I was able to see firsthand how stressful PR can be at times!! I spent the evenings with two of my female coworkers, and got to know them on a more personal basis which I actually really enjoyed. I had to miss the first two days of my program trip up north, but it was worth it. It was a great experience, and this conference will look amazing on my resume.
Rose and I then met at the Tel Aviv train station Thursday evening to take a train to Naharyia (a city north of Haifa) to meet up with our group. I was carrying my hiking backpack, a laptop bag, and then a fanny pack containing all my important stuff (wallet,cell phone, ipod). I put all my stuff down on the scanning machine and proceeded to walk through the metal detector. As I went to pick up my stuff, my backpack and laptop bag were there, but my fanny pack was nowhere! I asked the guard watching the monitor if he had seen a blue fanny pack, and he nonchalantly replied "No, maybe you should check lost and found." Well, of course I knew it wasn't going to be in lost and found--I had set it down literally 15 seconds before!! I started panicking and hyperventilating. I had no idea what the hell I was going to do--everything was in there! I thought the guy ahead of my had stolen it, and I started frantically yelling at the soldiers standing there. They looked at me like I was crazy, just stood there, and offered absolutely no help. Perhaps they didn't understand English, but they saw me freaking out--you would think they would offer some assistance!! Then the same man who told me to look in lost and found held it up and said "Here it is...it fell" and threw it at me. Oh.My.God. It took me 20 minutes to be able to breathe properly again!! Once that nightmare passed, the train ride was actually quite pleasant--much nicer than the bus. We went along the Mediterranean just as the sun was setting (the sun sets over the Mediterranean), so that was beautiful. It was actually my first time on a train--ever!! Not sure how I went almost 23 years without ever having been on a train. We then took a taxi from the bus station and met up with our group at a field school nearby. Friday morning we went to the most northern kibbutz in Israel. We were basically surrounded by Lebanon from this beautiful vantage point. The border was just a fence that was literally 5 feet away from us. All the buildings spread out before us belong to Hezbollah and everyone who works in the area works for the Hezbollah. There were actually Hezbollah flags flying--not Lebanese, just Hezbollah. The buildings actually looked decent, but we noticed there were no glass windows in any of the buildings and we were told this is because they have tons of ammunition in these buildings and they want to be able to fire through the windows without the shattering of glass. Terrific. All has been quiet there since the last Lebanese War almost 3 years ago, but apparently they are all just waiting for the word from their boss. But the view was spectacular. We then went rafting on the Jordan river which was great fun. We spent a quiet shabbat at another beautiful field school in the northeastern part of the country. We hiked down to a running stream/creek where there was an upturned Syrian tank that has been there since the War of 67. Interesting.
I can't believe I have been in Israel for 4 months. I leave 4 weeks from tomorrow. It's a very bittersweet feeling. It will definitely be hard for me to say goodbye to Israel, but simultaneously, I miss the states immensely.

Bibi, Shavuot, and Random Things!

I went to a MASA megaevent (MASA is a joint project between the Jewish agency and the Israeli government which has 150 long term programs for Diasopora Jews after high school--Career Israel is one of those programs) last week in Tel Aviv to hear Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, speak. He was actually the first head of state I have ever seen in person, so that in itself was cool. It was very unceremonious. Once we were all sitting in the convention center (after having gone through tight security of course), they announced him, we stood up and clapped, and he was on stage...no ceremonial music, no applause for fifteen minutes--very different than how I imagine it would be to see Obama speak! Immediately he told us all that he was thrilled we all came to Israel from dozens of great countries from around the world, but that "My one message for you all is--Israel is your home! You MUST make aliyah!" And basically all the speakers told us the same thing, very straight-forward. So MASA definitely does not win any points for subtlety!! But I'm not surprised. Bibi also talked about how Israel is a Jewish state, Jerusalem is a Jewish city, and how it will never be divided again. So it is easy to see why he is so decisive and why many people have a problem with him! But I think it is safe to say most people in this audience were moderate to hard core Zionists.
This past week was Shavuot, a major Jewish holiday commemorating the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai after 40 years of wandering in the desert. It is custom to stay up all night studying the Torah. It is also a custom to consume diary foods on Shavuot, so we had an ice cream party in my apartment Thursday night--we ate so much ice cream, it was ridiculous!! In Jerusalem, people congregate at the kotel to pray as the sun rises after studying all night. Rose and I really wanted to be at the kotel on Shavuot, so we woke up at 5:00 am Friday morning and walked there (about a 45 minute walk). By the time we got there, hundreds of people were already leaving (apparently people began to gather at 4:30 am!!!). Yet there were still thousands of people there. So many people were there, that they extended the barrier between the men and women all the way up the pavilion. It was an amazing thing to witness. You just see thousands of men in black hats and wearing talit praying and swaying vigorously. Everyone is praying to themselves beneath their breaths, but with all those people, you just hear a loud humming throughout the area. It's incredible. We then walked home and went back to bed!
One of the things I am looking forward to when I get back home is being able to go to the grocery store 24/7 (Walmart!!). Here in Jerusalem (in other parts of the country it is somewhat different) everything closes for at least 24 hours every week (Shabbat). You need to prepare in advance, because if you need something on a Saturday from the grocery store or whatever, you are basically out of luck. And there are so many Jewish holidays, it seems like everything is always closed another day of the week as well. Because of Shavuot, stores closed at about 3:00 pm Thursday, and were closed all of Friday and Saturday. It can be difficult. I took for granted in the states the fact that grocery stores are only closed one day the entire year!! And of course buses don't run at all on Shabbat or on holidays, which also makes it difficult when you rely on public transportation. But I have made an Israeli friend who owns a car, so that definitely comes in handy!! (So we are actually seeing each other--I guess! It's been a lot of fun dating an Israeli--all part of the experience!)
Other random observances and facts:
*Israel does not have an open container law. It is perfectly legal to drink a beer or any other type of alcoholic beverage in the middle of the street--anywhere! My friends and I have done it a few times here, but it just feels so odd.
*Israeli drivers are crazy! Motorcyclists (and sometimes cars!) often drive on the sidewalk--no joke.
*I live incredibly close to the West Bank and the security fence. I went for a walk this past weekend with a couple friends, and we have an amazing view of the fence. It is a large gray wall that winds around as far as the eye can see. However, there were some areas where there were huge gaps in the wall, which I don't really understand! It's really incredible to live that close though.
*There are quite a few Arabs in my neighborhood. However, they tend to remain very separate. They have their own buses that run through my neighborhood all the time. Aside from a few Arab teenage boys whistling at my friends and I (which is just fantastic), I have never had any real interaction with any. I did walk through an Arab neighborhood right near my own two weeks ago, and I didn't feel in any danger whatsoever (although I did take off my star of david necklace just in case).
*Partying in Jerusalem is really fantastic and interesting. You have such a unique mixture of completely secular people and then you have Yeshiva boys wearing yarmulkas and tsitsit and in suits dancing next to you in the club!
*Israeli pastries (especially the chocolate rugelach) are dangerously delicious.

Egypt (Cairo and the Pyramids)

I got back this morning from Cairo, Egypt which was definitely the craziest (and most exhausting!) experience of my life. I woke up at 6:45 Saturday morning to go for my run before work per usual. I packed up everything I would need and brought it to work with me. I left work at 3:00 and caught a 5:00 bus ride to Eilat. It was 5 hours, but quite uneventful. Leora and I met up with Rose and Evan (who live in Tel Aviv) in Eilat and got dinner and walked around when we waited for our tour group to pick us up at the bus station at midnight. We paid $230 for a guided tour of Cairo, and I am so glad we did! No matter how cheaper it would have been if we had done it by ourselves, Egypt is so sketchy that this was worth it! An Israeli from the tour company we hired picked us up and drove us to the border (a 10, 15 minute ride). She got us through the Israeli border and instructed us that someone would meet us when we walked to the Egyptian border control. The trip started out interesting immediately, as a drunk Israeli also crossing the border said to me "At yaffa" ("you're beautiful") and kept staring at me and smiling this crazy grin!! Oh, Israel.
An Egyptian, who spoke English, met us at the Egyptian border control--an old, somewhat sketchy, un-airconditioned building-- took our passports, dealt with the Egyptian authorities, we converted some shekels into Egyptian pounds, and then we were in Egypt! The passport guy brought us to a 14 person van, told us to get in, we all hopped in, said it would be about a 6 hour ride, he left, and then 3 random men got in. It was about 1:30 AM at this point. We assumed one of these men was our tour guide but none of the Egyptian men said anything to us, and we very quickly learned that their English capabilities were none to limited. We were pretty much thinking this was going to be a fantastic trip, considering our tour guide didn't speak English and had not even bothered to introduce himself to us. Because it was only the four of us, we each got our own row and settled down to sleep. We soon realized sleep would not come easily. I'm not sure if it was the road, the van, the driving, or more than likely a combination, but this was the bumpiest ride I had ever been on--by far. Sleep was next to impossible. There was nothing but expansive desert out the window (and a gorgeous nighttime sky). We basically put our entire trust in these random Egyptian men--they could have been taking us anywhere and we would have had no idea! Sometime about 5:30, 6:00 AM we stop at a rest stop, and our drivers get out, have some coffee, do whatever else they do, for about 40 minutes while we are all sitting in the van wondering what the hell was going on. We continue on the way for another 2 hours until we come to a city that we assume is Cairo, but since no one has said anything to us, we really have no idea. Some parts of Cairo are actually quite nice, with some beautiful architecture. Most of the women are wearing hijabs (head scarves where the face is in view--come in many colors or designs) or niqabs (dressed entirely in black--only the eyes are visible). The Nile runs right through the city. We pull up to the Egyptian museum, and --at last--we meet our English speaking tour guide!! It turns out that two of the men in the van were our drivers,and one was a security guard. So now we basically have a tour staff of 4 with the 4 of us. The Egyptian museum is a huge museum (people of all nationalities, speaking all languages visiting there)which is pretty much exactly what you would expect. Beautiful artifacts from King Tut and the other ancient Egyptians--jewelry, statues, burial chambers, mummies. It is very similar to what most of us have seen at traveling exhibits of one type or another, except all these were (supposedly!) the genuine thing as opposed to replicas. Following the museum, we went to both an ancient church and an ancient synagogue, both beautiful. The church is still used today, but the synagogue is preserved solely for tourist purposes. The Egyptian who worked there was actually Jewish, and said that there are about 200 Jews in Cairo (out of a population of 20 million). And I thought Jews as a proportion of the population in El Paso was bad!! We were then taken to a very nice restaurant where a buffet was laid out before us. This meal was included in the price we paid for the tour, and we were starving, but we were all quite weary about eating food in Egypt. We had been told by a few people who had previously visited that we should not eat anything at all. But it looked legitimate and we were so hungry that we all ate full meals. It was actually quite good (vegetables, rice, chicken, pasta, jello and rice pudding for dessert), but the entire time we were eating we kept saying that we really hoped we didn't get sick! I think we just had psyched ourselves out and become paranoid, but we were all (thank god) completely fine. We were then taken to a papyrus museum, where we were shown how genuine papyrus paper is made from the plant. According to our tour guide, Egyptians are all very hospitable people who must comfort their guests, so we were bought tea and juice. Then we all basically got suckered into buying papyrus art! I bought a portrait that is supposed to be King Tut and his wife (symbolizing true love and all that beautiful stuff!). While the four of us were trying to figure out what to buy, we kept talking about how many shekels it would be, and who would owe who how many shekels, etc, and the woman working there asked us why we kept talking about shekels. As we had decided it would be wise to downplay the fact that we were living in Israel, we told her we were just "confused."
Then we were finally on to the pyramids! The pyramids look pretty much exactly as you would expect them to from all the pictures we have seen of them. The only thing that might be surprising to many people is that the pyramids are not in the middle of the desert--they are right on the edge of the city. In fact, homes and buildings are actually surrounding the pyramids on some sides. Our tour guide pointed out that the "Mediterranean is over there, Morocco and Tunisia this way, and Palestine this way." We thought it would be wisest to not confront him about that!! It was quite hot at the pyramids--again, not unexpected. There are Egyptian men, women, and children everywhere trying to sell tourists a bunch of random souvenirs (mostly crap!). One man told Leora, Rose, and I that we were beautiful and worth 10 million camels (so that is quite the compliment I gather!) Apparently comparing the worth of women to camels is a favorite past time of Egyptian men. One men came up to me and tried to sell me postcards. Unfortunately for myself I kind of wanted some postcards! He asked me where I was from and I said America and he said "Ah! I love Obama! Here..have more." And he threw more postcards in my hand as well as some pyramid paper weights. I asked him how much, and he said whatever you want to pay. I said well, how much and he said whatever, whatever. I only had a 50 Egyptian pound bill, so I took it out and he grabbed it and I was pretty sure I was out 50 pounds! (About $10, no huge thing, but still!). So I insisted he give me some change, but instead he just threw a cheap head scarf at me. I told him I didn't want this, could he please give me change. So he gave me a 20 pound note. I asked for 10 more pounds but he just gave me some more postcards! So eventually I just grabbed the postcards, the paper weights and the head scarf (what the hell?) and took off. It was worth the 6 or 7 dollars just for the experience!!! But at all three pyramids and at the Sphinx these hustlers are everywhere (including children, which is quite sad). The men (after calling you "sweet sugar", will actually grab your hand and try to grab your camera while telling you they will take a picture of you and your friends!) There are also camels literally everywhere. The sphinx is really cool. It is directly situated between two of the pyramids, so it makes for a great shot. Basically, it just felt surreal the entire time there--I couldn't believe I was actually at one of the great wonders of the world. When you are that close, and you see these massive bricks built one on top of the other you cannot help but wonder how human beings thousands of years ago possibly built these! While the pyramids are amazing, there is honestly only so long you can spend at them. So we went to a "lotus perfume center" where a nice Egyptian man (we were served hibiscus flower juice--delicious!) taught us about Egyptian perfumes and let us try some. They all smelled beautiful. At this point it was about 5:00 PM, so our tour guide left us, and we settled in for another 6 hour bumpy road ahead of us. Again, very little sleep was had by any of us. We reached the Israeli border at 11:00 PM, and got through both the Egyptian and Israeli passport control quite uneventfully. I must say it was a huge relief to be back in Israel. Although I never felt in danger in Egypt, there was a little bit of unease, and I could relax and feel safe back on Israeli soil. Someone from our tour company was waiting for us, and took us back to the bus station. We hung around for a while and caught a 1 AM bus to Tel Aviv (no night buses go to Jerusalem). I slept sporadically for the next five hours, and we we arrived in Tel Aviv about 6 AM. Leora and I caught a bus to Jerusalem (I slept the entire 45 minute ride) and then caught another bus from the Jerusalem bus station to our apartment! So we arrived home at about 7:30, 8:00 and promptly fell into bed! So it was an exhausting 48 hour journey (half of which was spent on buses!), but I am so glad that I went and saw Cairo and the pyramids. Overall, a very interesting, but successful excursion!!

My Internship

My internship is just about half over (and my time here in Israel is more than half over, which is hard to believe!), so I figured it was about time to write a little about my experiences in my internship thus far. I work Sunday-Wednesday 9-4. It still feels weird to me that Sunday is a regular workday here! Ruder Finn is a large international public relations firm, with branches all over the world, including five in the U.S. Their office in Jerusalem is quite small. There is the CEO, CFO, receptionist, five full time staff members, and then myself and two interns who only work fifteen hours a week. Compare that to Ruder Finn's New York office, which I think has a couple hundred! They are all American, except for one Israeli (who is in charge of the domestic media). Ruder Finn Israel is the only English based public relations firm in Israel. They do most of their business for Israeli companies that do business in the U.S. Aside from the CEO and CFO, all the staff members are really young--in their 20s and early 30s at the oldest. Three of them have babies at home. So it's pretty cool to work with such a young staff. They are all super nice and provide me with a lot of positive feedback, which is always very encouraging. And I actually do real work--no making coffee or copies! I have been doing a lot of media lists (putting together spreadsheets of relevant journalists' contact information), market intel (what's happening in the news in a particular field), press releases, clipping (finding news articles that have been written about our clients and extrapolating them),social media (yes--sometimes I get to play around on facebook and twitter for work!) and always tons of research. It has definitely been an adjustment for me to sit in front of a computer for seven hours a day, and--I'm not going to lie--sometimes after 7 hours of computer work, I want to kill myself!! And working in that environment, I am afraid I have developed a bit of a coffee habit (this from a girl who would never touch the stuff before I started there!) So it is definitely boring at times, but sometimes it is quite interesting. For instance, one of the clients I have been doing a lot of work for is a very controversial organization that is against radical Islam. There was so much negative press about them before they hired Ruder Finn a few months ago, so it is a very challenging PR job--but that is what makes it so interesting! I have also been able to sit in on a few client meetings, and observe and take notes. I appreciate that my coworkers and boss allow me to do that. I feel like I honestly have learned more about public relations in these past two months than I have learned in four months of school. I still don't know if I want to do public relations or not, but in the meantime I feel like I'm getting so much invaluable experience that will come in handy no matter what I decide to do with my life.

Eilat

I just got back last night from three days in Eilat. I went with Leora and Laura, and met Rose and Dan down there. Eilat is the southern most point of Israel, situated right on the Red Sea. The city has a population of only about 60,000 people, but it is a very touristy city. It is absolutely hopping in the summer. For this reason, it is also very secular. Buses even run here on Shabbat and almost everything is open. We stayed in a really nice hostel close to the beach. One of our roommates was a woman in her 60s though--a little odd! It took us about 4 1/2 hours by bus to drive down to Eilat--through the Negev and along the Dead Sea. The scenery in Eilat is amazing...it is surrounded by desert and mountains, that truly reminded me so much of El Paso. Yet between these mountain ranges is the beautiful Red Sea! The Red Sea is bordered by Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. I was so close to Jordan and Egypt I honestly felt like I could have swam there if I were so inclined! It was incredible. Thursday we hung around on the beach, explored the boardwalk, and went to an Irish bar with a live band playing American rock! On Friday we went on a four hour cruise. They anchored in the middle of the sea and let us jump out and play around in the water, and fed us a delicious lunch (classic Mediterranean..grilled meat, pita, hummus, different vegetable salads, and rice). They had mentioned once we anchored that we could jump off the the tip of the boat..this particular location was surrounded by heavy chains and in very near proximity to the anchor. I really wanted to job into the water, but it didn't seem the safest. So I asked them if I really could job from there, and they said "Of course!" So I did, and it was fun, but it's very funny how there seem to be no regulations here!! That never would have flown in the states. After the cruise we rented a paddle boat for an hour. Friday we went to a dolphin reef, and went snorkeling with dolphins!! The dolphin reef is a big tourist destination--it's a large enclosed area in the sea that is home to 8 dolphins, and there is a beautiful private beach there. So we put on wet suits, flippers, goggles, and snorkels and followed an instructor into the water! Unlike some places in Orlando or Cancun, we weren't allowed to actually touch or grab onto the dolphins (we also paid a lot less than at those places!) But they swam so close to us--it was amazing. It's incredible to say that I swam with dolphins in the Red Sea, where Moses fled to with the Jews after leaving Egypt! We hung out at the beach for a little while longer, and then took the long trip back home.

Yom Ha'zikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut

In preparation for Yom Ha'zikaron (Remembrance Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror) we went to Mount Herzel this past Sunday, which is Israel's famous military cemetery located adjacent to Yad Vashem. The cemetery is absolutely beautiful. All the graves are identical like most military cemeteries but unlike Arlington Cemetery, for instance, which is rather stark, Mount Herzel is full of trees and flowers. The most emotional part for me is when we arrived at the graves of the soldiers who have died most recently (including those in the recent Gaza war). They are almost all my age, or younger,and many of the graves have pictures of the men placed there. The wars and conflicts sometimes seems so far away, but seeing their graves and their pictures really hits home. Yom Ha'zikaron started Monday evening at sundown with a 1 minute siren that sounded throughout the country. Everyone stands up..people driving stop and get out of their car. It is actually quite eerie, as well as incredible, when you realize that for that one minute the entire country is silent, and at a complete standstill. No other nation in the world sounds a siren and holds it collective breath for a few minutes to honor the memory of its fallen as Israel does. I went to an absolutely beautiful, and very heartrending, memorial ceremony that night on Ammunition Hill, where the battle of Jerusalem was fought in the Six Day War in 1967. There was beautiful music, prayers, lighting of Yizkor candles, and the stories of 7 brave men. Their families spoke of the loved ones they lost, and there were video clips showing their stories. One story in particular really hit home with me, because this young man was from the states (made aliyah) and was exactly my age when he died:
Michael Levin was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. From a very early age Michael sensed that his fate was bound up with that of the State of Israel. He first visited in 2001, when he attended the Alexander Muss high school semester program for American students. After returning to America to finish school Michael wanted to make aliyah and join the army, but for his parents sake he spent a year in Nativ, the Conservative Movement's program for high school graduates. He made aliyah in 2004, attended ulpan on Kibbutz Yavne to learn Hebrew, and enlisted in the IDF as a paratrooper. The Second Lebanon War broke out while he was in the army. Michael, who was visiting his family in the USA at the time, returned to Israel to take part in the battle. He fought in Lebanon and was killed in combat, fighting Hizbullah in the village of Aita a-Shaab on August 1, 2006.
His best friend spoke, and there were video clips of his parents speaking about him. His parents also attended the ceremony. I also found out the next day that my ex-boyfriend's brother was very good friends with him. It is very tough stuff. The flags were at half staff the entire day. The siren also sounded for two minutes the next morning.
Tuesday at sundown, Yom Ha'atzmaut started, which is Israel Independence Day (Israel's 61st birthday!). It is quite odd how instantaneously Israel goes from a day of somber remembrance to joyful celebration. But it is no mistake they place those two days right next to each other. We went to Ben Yehuda Street in the center of Jerusalem last night, where they closed off a large section of the area to cars. There were tons of people, DJs, shaving cream, and silly string fights, etc. Today we went to a BBQ at a huge park. The park was full of people BBQing, playing soccer, frisbee, etc. It was very "all-American!!"
Tomorrow morning I'm going to Eilat, with a few girlfriends, which should be great fun. I will blog about Eilat when I get back, as well as blog about my internship in the next couple weeks.

Shabbat at the Kotel

My roommmates and I have been wanting to go to the Kotel (Western Wall) on Shabbat since we moved here, so this past Shabbat we finally did it. It's amazing to live so close that you can walk to the Kotel. It's about a 45-60 minute walk from our apartments (or a ten minute bus ride). It's hard for me to put into words what the experience was like. I can try my best, but I feel that it is something that everyone truly needs to see for themselves. The Kotel was obviously crowded, with the men's side (which is also like 3 times the size of the women's side) being much more crowded. I made my way to the wall and touched it, then stepped back a bit and just stared at it and prayed my own prayers (as opposed to praying from the siddur--I find it more meaninful for me sometimes to pray whatever I'm thinking). My roommates all started crying a little, and I actually started crying quite hard. Since it's not uncommon for people to be overcome by emotion at the wall, I must have been crying abnormally hard, because one lady asked me if I was okay as I was leaving. And then she told me I was beautiful! So that was nice. My friends and I then walked over to stare at the men's side through the metal grates. You just see a sea of men davening (praying) with such intensity that all you can see are strimmels (the large fur hats the Haredi wear on Shabbat and festivals) and black hats bobbing backwards and forwards. Everyone is muttering the prayers to themselves, so you just kind of hear this hum of Hebrew. Some men in the back are singing and dancing. I always wished that I could go to the men's side, but on Shabbat especially! Then we all went to another free Shabbat dinner that didn't finish until 1 am! Those crazy Jews...
On Wednesday night I had a free meal at the King David Hotel (one of the nicest hotels in Jerusalem) with a rich American man and one other student. Just us three, and it was probably the most awkward two hours of my entire life. I got the impression that this man was very wealthy (flies to Israel first class every for weeks "just because he loves it") and likes to treat American students in Israel to holiday meals. So it was a great meal, extremely fancy, but just very awkward! It didn't help that the other boy I was with was really inappropriate (like one of those people who don't understand social decorum!). Another interesting experience here. But it is really amazing how I can get free holiday and Shabbat meals--I honestly can get Friday night and Saturday lunch meals for free every single week.
I went to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) with my program today. It's a very emotional experience. Beautiful museum--amazing architecture, extensive information and moving exhibits, including a beautiful memorial to the 1.5 Jewish children who were murdered. The pope will actually be there in just a few weeks.
I go back to work tomorrow. Pesach break went by way too fast! It's hard to believe I have been out of the office for almost two weeks. I suppose it's back to the grind.

Tiberias

I went to Tiberias with three girlfriends to spend a couple days hanging out. Tiberias is a city in the north, situated right on the Kinneret (Sea of Gallilee in English). The trip got off to a rocky start. Our gate at the bus station in Jerusalem was absolutely packed, mostly with young people who were more than likely all heading to Tiberias for vacation. My roommate Leora and I missed the first two buses, because there were just way too many people. So we made sure to stand at the very front of the line, right where the buses pull up. But when the bus pulled up, everyone just converged all around us--dozens of people pushing and shoving to get into the narrow bus door. Israelis obviously don't believe in lines, or any type of priority given to whoever was waiting first! Leora and I were being smashed from all sides, I had a gun shoved into my chest (from one of the many soldiers there who all wear their rifles slung across their body!), and we were falling all over the place. We were falling onto this one girl's luggage, and she is screaming at us in Hebrew. Like we are choosing to fall on top of her! I started getting claustrophobic and I was so close to just giving up and going home!! It was awful. We somehow managed to get on the bus and get seats, but about ten people didn't get seats. They were forced to stand or sit on the aisle for the two and a half hour bus ride. (The inter-city buses are all like Greyhound type buses) It's pretty ridiculous. In the US, paying for a bus ticket for a long trip and not getting a seat would not be okay. In Israel I guess it is!!
So we finally got to Tiberias. We were a ten minute walk away from the lake, but there weren't really any beaches that we could find. The only beaches are really small, full of rocks, and you need to pay to get in! So after walking around for a while, we eventually just paid a hotel right on the water 40 shekels to let us use their pool for the afternoon! It was fun and relaxing with a gorgeous view of the lake. The next day we went to some hot springs and another pool. The scenery was beautiful--green hills on one side of us and a large lake on the other side surrounded by more green hills. One night we went on a boat cruise for half an hour around the lake. Tiberias seems to be more of a family friendly place with lots of shops, restaurants, and a fair like atmosphere--everything open until late.
Many restaurants in Israel stay open during Pesach and just convert into Kosher for Pesach. Instead of bread, they serve matzah! They also serve pasta made out of potatoes (it was good!), and pizza and sandwiches, etc made out of matzah meal! So it's pretty interesting. All the grocery stores are open, but they put paper or covering over all the none Kosher for Pesach items.
I'm going to Yad Vashem--the Holocaust Museum here in Jerusalem--on Sunday, and I start work again on Sunday. In two weeks I'm going to Eilat, which is the southern most city in Israel right along the Red Sea.

Passover Seder in Jerusalem!

Since I have no family in Israel, myself and another guy from my program requested a host family to go to together for the Passover seder. In the Diaspora Jews observe two seders and 8 days of Passover, but in Israel they celebrate one seder and 7 days of Passover. Gabe and I were set up with an Israeli family. The father picked us up from our apartment and brought us to their house, and then dropped us back off afterwards. They live in a settlement right outside Jerusalem and in extremely close proximity to the West Bank. We had to go through a checkpoint leaving Jerusalem and reentering it. From their backyard you can see the security fence (a large stone wall with barbed wire on top that goes on as far as the eye can see) and Arab neighborhoods. They had a beautiful home--the nicest I have seen in Israel (although granted I have not seen many private homes here!) Much of their extended family was there--kids, grandparents, aunt, cousins--and then Gabe and I! But they were very warm and friendly to us. They all spoke English, some better than others, and while they spoke to us in English they spoke to each other in Hebrew and the service was conducted in Hebrew. So I was lost through most of it, but it was still fun! The Hagaddah was entirely in Hebrew, but it was written with vowels so I could follow along. Everyone went around the table reading paragraphs and I even read two paragraphs (extremely slowly!!) and everyone clapped when I finished. :)
The language barrier can result in some amusing stories for sure. For instance, when we met one of the aunts, we were informed that she worked at "checkpoints". So Gabe asked if it was randomly determined who had to work on the holidays and she said that no one was working. We said "No one?? Is it safe to have no one working at the checkpoint??" And they said "Oh, of course, it's fine." So Gabe and I were naturally quite worried about this (and quite shocked!), but they didn't seem worried so we moved on. When the mother came back into the room, she re-introduced us to the aunt, and mentioned how she worked at a telecommunications company called Checkpoints in Tel Aviv!!!! So Gabe and I cracked up and explained to them what we had been thinking and we all shared a laugh :)!!!
Yesterday Gabe and I explored the Old City. We went to the Kotel, but the rest of the Jewish Quarter was quite empty--no stores were open--because it was Yom Tov (the first day of Passover). So we wandered around the Christian Quarter. In a narrow passageway that weaves its way through many small shops, we were all of a sudden ordered by soldiers to stand to the side, and then witnessed as a huge contingent of Christian monks walked past us, with one man in front holding a giant cross. It was really amazing and kind of intimidating to see. I'm not sure if this is a regular occurrence, or a special event because it was the day before Good Friday. We then wandered through some of the Muslim Quarter. Israeli soldiers wouldn't let us walk through one particular part ("Muslims Only"), but we did explore other parts. There is no real delineations or barriers between the different quarters (except for the soldiers guarding that one passageway) and we were never quite sure when one Quarter ended and another began. The Muslim Quarter was distinguishable though because of all the Arabic and the women in hijabs, while the Christian Quarter was distinguishable because of all the crosses! And of course bread was being sold in these two Quarters!!
Another really cool thing to see was that throughout Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, there were small fires (right along the road) and people were burning all their hametz (bread products..not kosher for Passover).
It's hard to believe this is already my eighth Shabbat in Israel. On one hand I feel as though I have been in Israel forever, but on the other hand it has gone by quite fast.
I leave for Tiberias on Sunday!

Haifa

The whole program went to Haifa yesterday. Haifa is Israel's third largest city. Situated in a broad natural bay between the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and the inspiring Carmel Mountain, the city's terraced landscape offers a rich variety of breathtaking panoramas. Haifa is home to 250,000 inhabitants, members of five different religions, living side by side in harmony, peace and mutual respect. Secular, Religious and Ultra-Orthodox Jews live side by side with Christians, Muslims, Bahai and Druze. It's really remarkable and being there one can't help but wish that the rest of Israel and the Palestinian territories (and of course the surrounding Arab countries) had this mentality. We started the day off in a beautiful monastery with gorgeous views of the sea. We then went to the Ba'hai gardens. The garden consists of 18 absolutely breathtaking terraced gardens with another beautiful view of the sea. The Ba'hai temple is situated in the middle of the terraces. The gardens are meticulously taken care of--beautiful grass, flowers, fountains, running water going alongside all the stairs (dozens of them connecting each terrace). The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in nineteenth-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories. Religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people. These messengers have included Krishna, Abraham, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others, including most recently Bahá'u'lláh. In Bahá'í belief, each messenger taught of the next, and Bahá'u'lláh's life and teachings fulfill the end-time promises of previous scriptures. Humanity is understood to be involved in a process of collective evolution, and the need of the present time is for the gradual establishment of peace, justice and unity on a global scale. Mount Carmel, sacred to Jews and Christians alike, is also well known for its significant importance to the Bahá'ís, and serves as their spiritual and administrative centre. I think it's a pretty cool faith. We then hiking a short ways to Elijah's cave. According to tradition, Prophet Elijah resided in this cave while running from the wrath of Ahab, king of Israel. We then went to an Achmedim mosque.The Achmedim is a sect of Islam that rejects all forms of violence. An Achmedim Muslim spoke to us about how Islam has been perverted by radical Muslims, and reiterated to us the fact that that is not what Islam is about. Everything he said was dead on in my opinion. He told us that he would not die for land or for stones, or kill for land or for stones. Religion and faith are more than just land and stones.
Work started to get better this past week. I think I'm becoming more comfortable with the staff. Except for the CEO and CFO, I think the entire staff is in their 20s! So that's pretty neat. They have been giving me a lot of responsibilities and work to do, but have also been giving me some very positive feedback, which is always nice to hear! I only have 3 days of work this week before Pesach break. :)

Pesach in Israel

From my program director:

The Jewish Calendar-Passover in Israel

by Elana Glickman


This year you have the incredible opportunity to spend Pesach in Israel. You may have already noticed the holiday spirit taking over the country, as businesses conduct their major marketing campaigns and urge you to change your furniture/clothes/car in honor of the holiday, and supermarkets are packed with people loading up on supplies. People are talking about which cabinets they have cleaned for Passover. Everybody is wishing each other a חג שמח (happy holiday). Most Israelis celebrate a seder and prepare somewhat for the Chag. In Israel, work bonuses are given not in December but before Pesach and the High Holidays. You may have already heard talk at your workplaces of “we’ll deal with it after Pesach”. And Passover itself is especially beautiful in Israel. Many offices close for the week and the country is filled with families traveling, vacationing and taking tiyulim. In ancient times, the main mitzvah and event of Passover was the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb in Jerusalem, and all the Jews would travel from all over Israel to spend Pesach in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. In commemoration of this עלייה לרגל (the name given to the Jews’ pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year- Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot), Jews today come from all over Israel and the Diaspora to Jerusalem on Pesach. The Old City has many special events to honor this (such as a communal Priestly blessing at the Kotel) and usually a big sign welcoming the “olim leregel”(pilgrims). For those of you leaving the country for Pesach, you are truly missing out on a once in a lifetime experience!


This is all part of living in a country where the Jewish Holidays are the main calendar rhythm of the year, as opposed to living as the minority, which is the case in our Diaspora countries of origin. And of course, you are not just living in a Jewish State but in a country that is inextricably tied to ancient Jewish life, laws, custom and history and that encompasses eternal Jewish hopes and yearning.


Passover itself contains many important and significant Jewish concepts. Redemption, personal Divine intervention in Jewish history, freedom, Divine reward and punishment, the creation of the Jewish people as a nation holy unto G-d- are just but a few of the grand concepts learned from Passover. The laws and customs surrounding Passover are many, and justice cannot be done to the concepts or the laws in a brief forum such as this. Just because one can’t cover it all doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn anything, so with that in mind, below are two brief thoughts about Passover.


Matzah- As you bite into the hard, crunchy, difficult to digest and not so filling substance and think to yourself, why on earth do we do this year after year? Remember the following: leaven (which rises) represents haughtiness, and the evil inclination. Matzah, the bread of “poverty” represents humility and is called the “bread of faith” as fulfilling the mitzvah and eating the matzah that represents the exodus from Egypt instills and increases one’s faith. This is why we work so hard to rid our homes of any leaven, as we try to weed out arrogance from our lives.


Like all Jewish concepts the exodus from Egypt represents something eternal that we can tap into even today. Thousands of year ago we left מצרים (the physical land of Egypt), and every year on this day we have the potential and injunction to leave our own personal מצרים. The Hagaddah states חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים בכל דר ודר , in every generation one must see himself as if he had personally been redeemed from Egypt. How is this possible? מצרים in Hebrew is the same word as מיצרים – narrow straits(it is spelled exactly the same way, just with different vowels) Egypt, the land of our slavery, represents constriction and narrowness (מיצרים from the root צר- narrow). (The Hebrew language, a.k.a. Holy Tongue is incredible- nothing is coincidental- Egypt is called מצרים because narrowness and constriction is the essence of what Egypt represents conceptually. Note we are not talking about the modern day country but the paradigm of the nation of Egypt in Jewish mystical thought). Just as we were redeemed from physical slavery in Egypt on Passover night, each year we can be redeemed from personal and spiritual slavery on Pesach night. This year, let us not only commemorate leaving ancient Egypt, but let us each try to leave our own personal narrowness as we rise above our limitations, go beyond our usual selves, break free from whatever is always holding us back from reaching our personal greatness and potential, and experience the greatest gift of all- true freedom.


חג כשר ושמח- a happy and Kosher Passover to all!

I'm very excited about spending Passover in Israel! Like we say every year "Next year in Jerusalem", this year I am in Jerusalem! It's extremely special.

Shabbat in Jerusalem and Drinking on the Job

This past Shabbat was my first Shabbat in Jerusalem with no planned group activities. Leora, Rose, and I went to the Old City on Friday afternoon. We walked briefly through the Christian Quarter (my first time there!) and then went to the Kotel. After waiting for the bus back home for half an hour, we started freaking out because we knew that we had missed the last bus before Shabbat. Buses stop running really early on Shabbat--about 4:30. We ended up just taking a cab and we actually got a friendly English speaking cab driver who didn't rip us off! My roommates and I heard of this man who does Jewish student outreach at Hebrew University. He finds students free Shabbat meals, plans trips, etc. I have heard he is a crazy man, but for those of us with no means of income we'll take any free meal! So Friday night we went to the student center and had dinner with about 50 other young people from all over. The rabbi who officiated was a hard core young Haredi guy. His peyes were swinging and his body was swaying when he chanted the blessings! He was a Ba'al T'Chuva Jew, meaning he grew up secular and then became frum, or ultra religious. He then talked to us about when he decided to become religious and about the Torah. Interesting stuff. Saturday afternoon I just went with 6 friends from my program to a young American couple's house who are in Israel for six months. We had a delicious meal and argued politics among other things!
Today was my best day at work so far. I actually had a lot of work to do (stayed late and didn't even have time for facebook!). I was doing research for clients, media intel (sounds cool!), etc. Still not the most interesting stuff, but it's better than spreadsheets! Then my office today had a Passover party type thing. They supposedly do this twice a year--before Passover and before Rosh Hashanah. One of the girls gave us an really interesting lecture on Italian hagaddahs from the 17th and 19th centuries, and then one of the guys put together a PowerPoint presentation on a "Ruder Finn Hagaddah." It included, "Why is Ruder Finn Israel different than all the other Ruder Finn offices?", what the 4 sons ask about Ruder Finn, the "10 Plagues of RFI." It was very cute. I didn't get all the jokes since I had only been there a week and half but it was funny. We then all had wine (!) and they brought in lunch (bagels and tuna, veggies, muffins) for us all. All the employees got gifts and they gave me a bottle of wine. So it was very nice.
More observations about Israelis:
-When I'm out running people do not move out of the way for me. Whether they're walking or standing I have to go around them!
-Cashiers plop your change down on the counter. I don't think one cashier has handed me my change yet! Customer service is seriously lacking in this country!
But I know I can't take any of this personal..it's just the way Israelis are!!
Thursday the whole group is going to Haifa which I'm excited about. And starting next Wednesday I have the entire Passover holiday off. I'm going with a few of the girls to Tiberias, a city near the Knerret (or Sea of Galillee) towards the end of Passover break.

First week of work and running in Jerusalem!

I just got back from an amazing run. I ran to Hebrew University, which is like half a mile away from where I live. The whole campus is completely enclosed by large gates (which I am starting to get used to now) and everyone who enters needs to go through security. So instead I ran on the outskirts of the campus and stumbled upon a beautiful little walking/jogging path (at least that's what it looked like) surrounded by trees. I was meters away from the West Bank wall, and I could see an Arab neighborhood spread out below me. I was so close to the Old City that I felt like I was practically on top of it. It was the best view of the Dome of the Rock I have seen thus far. Even with my loud music on, I could very clearly hear the Muslim call to prayer. For a girl who is used to running on the streets of West Wind in El Paso, Texas, it is hard to find words to accurately describe this! I'm afraid that no matter how many times I run this route and stare at this view, I will never be able to fully take it in and absorb it. This path continued down, but as there was no one around and I didn't know where the path led, and since I was so close to the West Bank I was too afraid to continue down so I cut through back to the edge of Hebrew University. It's such a shame that I have any need at all to be fearful in such a beautiful location. It's incredibly frustrating.
My first week of work was relatively uneventful. I have mostly just been doing media lists in Excel--creating lists, updating them, cleaning them up, etc. It's unbelievable boring. But I do feel like I have already learned quite a few things and have at least an idea of what exactly PR firms do. After 3 months I hope I will know whether this is something I want to pursue or not. The office is so quiet..for the most part everyone just sits at their desk doing their own thing. Everyone in my office is nice enough, just no one terribly exciting. I'm not used to sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day, so after about 4-5 hours my brain just kind of shuts down and my eyes start to blur! It will take some getting used to. I know there is much more to PR than this, so I'm hoping it starts getting better. There are two other interns, which is nice for me, but they only work 15 hours a week as they are also taking classes. But on the plus side, I completely have the bus route down to and from work. :)
Rose is coming into Jerusalem for the weekend to stay with us. We are going to the Old City and the Kotel (Western Wall) Saturday morning/afternoon. I have never been there on Shabbat so I'm quite excited. We also scored a free Shabbat meal with an ultra Orthodox, Haredi family in the Old City, so that should be quite interesting!!
I have my mailing address:
Arielle Kaplan
#6413
Students Village
2, Lohame'y Hageta'ot St.
French Hill
Jerusalem Israel
97880
I would love to receive letters if anyone wants to write to me!

First few days in Jerusalem

So of course I got on the wrong bus going home from work yesterday. The bus system in Israel is so confusing! There are so many buses. I would probably get lost on the bus system in El Paso, so navigating my way through the bus system in a foreign country has proven quite challenging to me! But it was not too bad--I eventually found my way home! I went to the Jerusalem shuk with 3 friends from the program. The shuk is such an interesting place--tons of people jostling and yelling, eating and shopping. It is probably a madhouse there on Friday mornings and afternoons. The most interesting thing today was witnessing a group of Breslov men dancing. Breslov is a a branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810) a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism. Its adherents strive to develop an intense, joyous relationship with God and receive guidance toward this goal from the teachings of Rebbe Nachman. the Breslov approach places great emphasis on serving God through the sincerity of the heart, with much joy and living life as intensely as possible. Its Hasidim see Torah life as the means to a joyful existence, and their approach to worship is very personalized and emotional, with much clapping, singing, and dancing. (Thank you Wikipedia!) So today they had loud music playing and they are dancing frantically on top of their van and in the street! Just imagine these men with funny looking yarmulkas (they look like mini beanies), long payot, and beards dancing as though they were in a club, in the middle of downtown Jerusalem! Cars and buses are all around them and people were weaving in and out. It looked almost exactly like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQjGRjDdHWo
Jerusalem is so unique. In Tel Aviv everyone pretty much dressed like Americans--in 3 weeks I can count on one hand the number of Hasids or Ultra-Orthodox I saw. In Jerusalem they are the majority. I am definitely out of place wearing pants or jeans--most of the women are in long skirts.
Israelis are also very casual in the workplace. At Ruder Finn, the girls don't wear heels (you were right Bubby)--they wear boots (like Uggs) and the men wear khakis and just a button down shirt or sweater. No ties or jackets. In the US at a prestigious public relations firm I'm pretty sure it would be suits, or at least ties. Most of my peers on the program can wear jeans to work.
I am living in an amazing location. I went for a run today and could very clearly see the Dome of the Rock from many vantage points throughout my run. Surreal.

Moving to Jerusalem and First Day on Job

We moved into our apartments in Jerusalem last night. We are living in a student village that is connected to Hebrew University. It is a large, modern complex (was built few years ago). The apartment is really cute--nice kitchen, common area with sofa and chairs, 2 bathrooms, and one shower. And best of all--we all have our own bedrooms! The bedrooms are all identical--large desk, bed, and closet. And a surprisingly large amount of storage space. I am living with two girls (Leora and Ariella-my roommates from Tel Aviv) and two boys (Gabe and Lawrence). There is a grocery store right down the street, which is definitely convenient. Apparently I am living in far East Jerusalem (right next to the Green Line!) They told us it is a nice area to go jogging in, but to be careful because we may accidently jog into Arab neighborhoods!! But the security there is extensive. Student picture IDs were printed up for us, and we must show them to the guards everytime we enter the complex. So I'm happy with my accomodations and rooming situation. There is supposedly a gym very close by, so I hope to find it and join if it isn't too expensive (but then again it's Israel, so I'm sure it will be pretty steep!)
Today was my first day of work. Is actually, because I am still here and pretty much bored out of my mind! They work from 9-6 here, which is a really long day! I was basically just told to research their clients, and that is what I have been doing for the past 8 hours, but there is only so much research I can do at one time! They have pretty much left me alone the rest of the day! I heard that that is often the case in Israel--very laissez faire. People are kind of doing their own things--it's very quiet, and they seemed to go to lunch or not go to lunch whenever they want. I'm hoping they will start giving me specific tasks shortly, because this will get old very fast!! They all seem very nice though. And on the plus side, I found my way here with very little drama. It is only a few miles from where I live, and there is a bus station right outside of the dorms. Let's hope it goes smoothly on the way home! I will start buying a monthly bus pass (good for throughout Jerusalem at any time) and Ruder Finn is supposedly going to reimburse me.
Here's hoping my internship becomes a little more productive and interesting!

Weekend in the Negev

Our whole program spent Shabbat in the Negev desert, which is the large desert that comprises 68% of Israel, yet only a very small portion of the population lives there (less than 10%). Our first stop was visiting a bedouin settlement. Bedouins (who are Arabs) have traditionally been associated with a nomadic lifestyle that includes raising livestock. About 155,000 Bedouins live in the Negev Desert in Israel. They have almost no legal rights in Israeli society and often lack basic services (running water, electricity, garbage collection, schools, health clinics). The village we went to was basically a collection of tents made up of corrugated metal, steel, sheets and tarps. There were camels and donkeys roaming around freely. We talked to one Bedouin woman who is actually the exception in that she is studying at university. The living situation is so sad, and many Bedouins blame the Israeli government, although this woman had an interesting perspective in that she said she blames fellow Bedouins for not taking any initiative. She served us hot tea, and Bedouin hot tea is the best!! I stayed in a Bedouin tent on birthright, but that was actually more touristy, while this was the real deal.
We stayed on a kibbutz overlooking beautiful, dramatic, desert canyons. Other than the awesome canyons, the scenery in the Negev is very much like El Paso (minus the mountains) The place we stayed is actually the kibbutz David Ben-Gurion (one of founders of State of Israel and first prime minister) spent the last years of his life at. His grave was a two minute walk from our rooms. We went on two hikes, one of which including a beautiful waterfall in the middle of a parched desert! Very interesting. We had a fun world music workshop Saturday night with a small 3 person band and everyone drumming on big drums.
It was nice to get away from the city (we really were in the middle of nowhere) and share Shabbat with the whole group. I can't believe I have been here a full month already. We only have two more days of ulpan, and then on Tuesday the Jerusalem people (only 20 of us) are moving to Jerusalem. I will be sad to move away from the beach, but I'm excited to go to Jerusalem. Tel Aviv can really be like any city, but Jerusalem is so unique. There really is no other place like it.

Partying for Purim

Purim in Israel is practically an entire week of celebration. We started seeing people dressed up in the streets on Sunday. It really was like Halloween--everyone wearing random costumes. I went to a local conservative synagogue with three friends yesterday evening for a megillah reading. Then our entire program started partying on the roof of the apartment where most of them are living. We hung out there for a while, and when everyone was properly drunk (so as not to be able to distinguish between Mordechai and Haman of course!) we all went to Florentine, which is where the party is at in Tel Aviv on Purim. I think it is probably like Bourbon St. in New Orleans on Mardi Gras. It was quite a bit of a walk from the apartment, and when we got there it was absolute bedlam. Just walls of people crushing you from all sides. It was so crazy and claustrophobic that my friends and I decided to just leave. But Ariella and I got separated from everyone else, so we were wandering around drunk and lost for quite some time. It was not good! We finally found Rose and took a cab back home. Of course the cab driver ripped us off ridiculously. So it was quite an experience. I talked to an Israeli who was born and raised here and he said he always wanted to check out the Purim party on Florentine but never has! At least I can say now that I've been! Thank goodness we had the day off from ulpan today! Back to it tomorrow and then on Friday our whole program is leaving for the Negev, which I'm excited about. We'll be back Sunday evening.
It is hard for me to get used to all the smoking here. Israelis smoke like crazy. It is especially annoying when they're smoking around you when they're eating. They're not exactly considerate! I also find it interesting that none of the Americans in our group smoke, but practically all the foreigners (the French and South American) are chain smokers. I think it's because smoking in the US is no longer cool, while maybe it still is in the rest of the world.

Concerts and Tanning!

Last night our whole program went to an Idan Raichal concert in Jerusalem. He is one of the most famous singers/composers/producers in Israel. I had never heard of him, but my friends here from New York love him. He apparently has not hit it big in El Paso! It was a Masa event, which is the agency for long term Jewish programs. Masa has 150 programs and Career Israel is one of them. So there were about 2000 young Jewish people there from throughout the world. Even though I didn't know any of the songs and couldn't even understand them, it was a really fun concert!
Totally random event: I bumped into a guy from El Paso yesterday on the streets of Tel Aviv. I recognized this guy that walked past me, and we both stopped and did a double take. I was staring at him and he was staring at me, and I thought that I was going to make a complete idiot of myself because this was probably just some random Israeli. But I asked him if he was from El Paso and he said yes!! He goes to Temple Mt. Sinai, but he is a few years younger than me. So I don't really know him, but had met him a few times. Talk about it being a small world!
On Tuesday we went to a kibbutz and picked radishes for a charity organization. It was fun getting dirty and picking vegetables in the Israeli sun!
It is absolutely gorgeous here this weekend. Warm and sunny, so Rose and I went to the beach today, which was absolutely packed with people tanning and playing ping pong and volleyball. It could be a beach anywhere in the world. We plan on going back to the beach tomorrow.
I'm excited about Purim. It's like Halloween here..there are costume shops everywhere and all the stores have costume racks. I bought a bumblebee costume! We have a Purim party Monday night and then we have Tuesday completely off from ulpan to celebrate!

Crazy Israelis

The weather here has been pretty horrible since I got here. I think there have only been three days where it has not poured. I know Israel needs the rain very badly, but it is not fun getting stuck in it! The Israeli streets aren't designed for this kind of deluge, so there are puddles everywhere. I have still managed to run on the beach four times, which I absolutely love. It's just like any other beach--with people running, walking, and biking on the sand and boardwalk. I have noticed that older Israeli men prefer to wear short shorts!
Since ulpan and attempting to learn Hebrew, I have actually learned that I know much more Spanish than I thought I knew!!! Since I know really no Hebrew, I feel all of a sudden pretty good about my Spanish skills! Everything we learn in Hebrew, I can say in Spanish and I often fool around in class and speak Spanish. And Spanish seems so much easier compared with Hebrew!
Today in the shuck (market place) Rose (one of my closest friends here) and I were schmoozing at one of the kiosk type places (thats all the shuck is..a bunch of kiosks filled with fruits, vegetables, breads, candies, clothes, jewelry, etc). The man running that particular kiosk asked us if we were going to buy anything, and we said no. So he literally snarled at us to get away then. I thought he was joking and started to laugh, but he was dead serious! He told us again that we were a waste and to get away. Wow. Can you imagine a sales clerk saying that to people in America just because they didn't necessarily have plans to buy anything?! Israelis can be tough creatures.
I finally ate falafel for the first time since I've been here! It was delicious. I have also been eating a lot of hummus and this Israeli chocolate spread (like Nutella)! Many Americans would not be able to handle so much of what happens here in Israel. Americans are very OCD, while Israelis are so laid back about many things. For instance, dogs are everywhere here, and they often come into restaurants, stores, malls, etc with their owners! And mind..these are not seeing eye dogs. So it's definitely unsanitary but Israelis don't seem to care at all.
I got my ear cartilage (upper ear) pierced yesterday. I'm not quite sure why, but one of my other roommates wanted to get her nose pierced, so we went together and just did it!! It felt odd to be sitting in the room getting pierced in Israel! It looks pretty cool, it was only about $35, and I can take it out whenever I get tired of it!

Second Shabbat in Israel

Today is our first Shabbat in Tel Aviv. It is also our first weekend off in Israel (no programming). It was rainy and cold yesterday, so my roommates and I (Rose and Leora) just went to the grocery store and made shabbat dinner for ourselves and 7 friends from the program. Because of the lack of a real kitchen (only one hotplate) and utensils, we have to make do. For instance, we all drank soup out of styrofoam cups! Today is probably just going to be a lazy day. I have a cold (considering half the people in my program are sick, it's no surprise), so it will be nice to just hunker down. Ulpan starts up againt tomorrow. It is going to take a while to come to terms with the fact that Sunday is just a normal workday here!
On Thursday we met with Ethiopian Israeli students and then heard a lecture from an Israeli General who led Operation Moses, which is the operation that snuck 400 Ethiopian Jewish kids out of Ethiopia and brought them to Israel in 1984. He was a very animated speaker and it was a fascinating story. Many of us were in tears at the end. Thursday night most of us hung out on a rooftop terrace near the beach.
There is something called a "dude" here. It is the device that turns on the hot water heater. You need to turn it on like an hour before you want to take a shower and then turn it off right after. If you leave it on, they warned us that it could blow up and cause floods or fires! The hot water lasts about 3 minutes, and then turns cold--not even lukewarm, but cold. It is not fun.

Traversing Israel by Myself

I had a meeting today with Ruder Finn (the company I'm working for). Those living in Jerusalem met with their employers when we were in Jerusalem last week, but my contact person there was at a conference so I was told to meet with her today. So I was extremely worried about traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem all by myself. I had to leave ulpan early, and then caught a little bus from near where we are staying to the central bus station. The central bus station is massive..its like a mall and a large airport combined! I showed my paper with the address and the bus numbers it says to take and I ended up on one bus that I was told was what I needed. After we pull away I mention to the lady sitting next to me how I will just take a cab once we get to Jerusalem. She says "Jerusalem?! This bus isn't going to Jerusalem!" So I yell at the bus driver that I need to get off and he gives me my money back and basically just pulls over and lets me out. So I promptly burst into tears..I'm in a shady neighborhood in a strange city in a foreign country and I have no idea where to go! Then this nice lady sees me crying and asks "Slicha? Beseder?" (Excuse me? Are you okay?) I explained my situation to her and she was so sweet--she walked with me all the way to the bus station and through the station to the correct bus. It turns out the bus numbers the program gave me were for once I got to the bus station in Jerusalem (would have been nice if they had written that down). By the time I got to the bus station in Jerusalem (also huge) I didnt want to mess around looking for my right bus, so I just took a cab. The meeting went well. It basically lasted ten minutes! I will be working Sunday-Wednesday. Starting a workweek off on Sunday will take getting used to! She introduced me to people in the company. There are also nine employees there and they are all like in their 20s and 30s. They all seem very friendly. I then took a cab back to the bus station, somehow found my way onto a bus for Tel Aviv, and then took another cab back to our apartments. So it was a stressful and expensive (like $50!) ordeal for a 10 minute meeting. Fantastic.
Ulpan is difficult. I like learning the hebrew letters (in block and script) because that is easy for me (basically just remembering) but the speaking part is hard! She is throwing so much vocabulary at us. Five hours a day is a pretty long time to sit in a classroom learning one thing
Another interesting aspect about Israeli society: There are security guards at the entrance to all grocery stores and large stores. They look through bags and purses and carry a metal detecting wand. Definitely not something you have to go through to go to a Walmart in America!