So I have officially started rabbinical school! Ulpan (summer intensive hebrew class) began last week; so I'm about a week and a half in now. I'm originally got placed in bet (the 2nd level) but moved up to gimel (third level) because bet was wayyyy too easy. I've already had my first test (yesterday) and I think it went pretty well. I know I haven't written anything in a while, but I have been unbelievably busy! I will attempt a brief overview of the last week and a half.
Orientation week Shabbat (7/16/10):
Two Shabbats ago our class was altogether at HUC. We had Friday night services on campus followed by a great dinner outside in the academic building area (pictures of my beautiful campus can be seen on facebook). Somehow a song session broke out after the dinner, and even though I never went to Jewish summer camp, my experience on my NFTY trip (youth group Israel trip) and at Hillel definitely helped me to know the tunes and happily participate! Saturday morning I went to services at HUC again (it is basically "strongly recommended" that we go to all of the summer morning services if we are in town aka we have to). After services I went over to some friends' apartment and made what has become our traditional Shabbat morning brunch. I'm having it at my apartment this week! There is a really cool park/garden/view point behind my school, and we organized Havdalah there (the ceremony that marks the end of Shabbat). If you've ever heard a stereotype about reform rabbis playing guitars... it's kind of true. There were soooo many guitars in one place, but it worked out really nicely!
Ulpan Week 1:
Ulpan began two Sundays ago (July 18). I already mentioned that ulpan is hebrew but it is basically 4.5 hours a day of class that you can only speak hebrew in (sometimes english pops up if there is a word that has to be translated that we don't know). My teacher's name is Oznat, and I like her a lot. We have her Sun - Tues and then have a different teacher Sarah on Wednesday. Sarah is a lot less great, so I guess it's a good thing she's only once a week. On Sunday I also had my first cantillation class (ulpan and cantillation are the two summer classes and they last for 6 weeks). Cantillation is the class where we learn trope which is essentially what you need to chant from the Torah. They had two sessions of the class; the first being for people with little to no experience with trope/reading music and the second one was for people who did. I of course went to the first one. The teacher's name is Cantor Tamar Havilio and we came to find out that her name used to be Heather Phepher and she changed it to Tamar when she moved to Israel. The Havilio part came in when she married and old Sephardic family that has been in Israel for 900 years (she really loves telling us about this part, and we can't help but love making fun of it a little). Cantillation was slightly terrifying but I got through it.
That same day (I was gone from 8am - 10pm) I went on a great tour through the old city called "Walking the Psalms in Jerusalem" with Rabbi Wilfond (HUC staff member also known as "Gingy"), where we used the psalms as our guidebook through the ancient part of Jerusalem. It was amazing! I also have pictures from that on my facebook and am in the process of creating a youtube channel to put some videos up.
Sunset Monday - sunset Tuesday was the holiday of Tisha B'Av which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples (among other tragic events in Jewish history). It is supposed to be the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. It was really cool to be in Jerusalem so close to where the events that the holiday is based on occurred (the kotel/western wall/wailing wall in the old city is the remnants of the platform on which the 2nd Temple used to sit). I still can't understand why we had school that day considering it is a major holiday where people traditionally fast. The main school offices were closed, and even our teacher said it sucked that we had to be there. I think she felt bad for us so she didn't give us any homework. Definitely a bright side to the "saddest" day of the year.
We have ulpan Sunday through Wednesday and then Thursdays we have various other activities. This past Thursday the interns organized a Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) where we got to choose an activity in Jerusalem from a bunch of things that they had put together. I chose to go to the Tavor House and then the Museum on the Seam. The Tavor House is the Swedish Theological Institute, and my group (of 6 people) met with a guy named Neils who showed us around, told us about the history of the institute, and then facilitated a great interfaith discussion about Jerusalem and Israel. I really enjoyed talking to Neils, and plan on being in touch so that we can get together in the future and talk more.
From the Tavor House our group walked to the Museum on the Seam which is a socio-political contemporary art museum. They are actually the ones that came up with the "coexist" bumper stickers with the different symbols in place of the letters that can be seen all over America. We had a little bit of an adventure when walking from the Tavor House to the museum. Jerusalem has a VERY religious neighborhood called Meah Shearim which is basically home to only ultra ultra ultra orthodox people. Some of these people are the fanatics that often set dumpsters on fire in protest of things like building parking lots that will be open on Shabbat. Unless you are completely covered up... you do not want to walk through this area. If anyone saw the movie Bruno, this is the neighborhood where he gets chased by religious people for basically wearing underwear. When we were walking to the museum, I saw that we were going in the direction of this neighborhood, and made sure we did not go in. We basically ended up walking in a street that borders the neighborhood so we walked a little faster than normal, kept our heads down, and avoided getting too close to any balconies (Meah Shearim is know for pouring dirty water on people that they don't think are dressed appropriately). We finally got to the end of the street which was a little bit of a dead end so had to jump over a short wall to get to the main street. It was a small step up to get onto the wall, but then a pretty legitimate jump down. When we had to meet back up with all of the other groups at school at the end of the day and talk about our experiences this was definitely one of our highlights.
Shabbat/Tel Aviv:
This past week's Shabbat was great! There is a weekly progressive Shabbat service on Friday evenings at the Tel Aviv port, and we picked this past week as the time that everyone from school could be there together. I got to sleep in Friday morning which was AMAZING after getting up early every day. There are very few days that we get to sleep in because the week is Sunday-Thursday and we have to be at morning services on Saturdays at 9:30. Friday is really the only day to sleep late. I got up, got brunch at a great cafe right near my house where I had shakshuka for the first time. It's basically an egg dish with tomatoes and other stuff thrown in. Wikipedia defines it as "a Middle Eastern dish consisting of poached or fried eggs cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices (often including cumin, turmeric, and chillies), and usually served with white bread."
After brunch we caught a sherut (inexpensive van taxi) to Tel Aviv which is less than an hour away. It is extremely amazing but also weird how easy it is to get to Tel Aviv especially because of how very different it is from Jerusalem. It really is like going to an opposite world. Where Jerusalem is very religious, Tel Aviv is all about the fun and party. I traveled with my friends Liz and Yael, and we went straight to the beach where we met up with some other classmates. Getting to relax at the beach after my first week of ulpan was so amazing and necessary. When the day started turning into evening, we went to the port where the service was. This service is known to attract a crowd at least ten times bigger than any single progressive service in Israel. There were a bunch of instruments and singers leading the services as the sun was setting. While it may not have been the most prayer oriented service I've been to, it was absolutely beautiful to be able to watch the sun go down over the water. Another highlight of this trip was that after services, I went out to dinner where I proceeded to eat three different types of shellfish (this would never happen in Jerusalem). I absolutely love Jerusalem but there was something about being in Tel Aviv on Shabbat where I was listening to live music and eating non-kosher food that just felt so amazing and freeing after only being in Jerusalem for so many weeks. (It's ok that I'm saying this because I was having dinner with a current 5th year student, other classmates, and another rabbi who were all enjoying it just as much!)
Shabbat morning I went to HUC services and then went back to Liz, Nina, and Yael's apartment to make brunch. In Jewish tradition Shabbat is a day of rest where if you follow Jewish law more traditionally, you don't do any work or use electricity or fire of any kind. This really doesn't leave a whole lot to do, so a lovely tradition known as the Shabbat nap developed. While I don't keep Shabbat in the traditional sense, this past week I decided to fully embrace the tradition of the Shabbat nap, and I think this will become a regular thing. To lay it out... my basic Saturday schedule now looks like this: services, shabbat lunch, nap, wake up and do something outside, go to havdalah, and then various evening activities.
This past week I also discovered an amazing restaurant right across the street from my neighborhood called Restobar that is open on Shabbat which equals non kosher meaning that I got a salad with grilled chicken AND cheese (kosher food doesn't allow you to mix milk and meat). Everyone I was with basically decided that this was our new favorite place. After dinner there was havdalah in the same location it was last week, and then some people came over to my place to watch a movie (the movie of choice was Hair which should be shocking if you know me well).
Ulpan Week 2:
This past week was pretty quiet considering we are really getting into the swing of things with school. As I already mentioned I had my first test yesterday. It was on a lot of grammatical concepts that were review but the fun part was the 75 word vocab sheet that the teacher gave us to know for the test (of which i probably knew 5-10 of the words beforehand). I also had my second cantillation class this week. Surprisingly I am nowhere near the worst person in the class and actually hit all of the notes I was supposed to.
I realize that my attempt at being brief didn't go so well, but I will really try to stay more on top of posting so that I don't have to put so much in one post. If you are regularly reading this, follow me or feel free to leave comments.
L'hitraot (goodbye for now)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Shabbat, Start of School, and Sabras
I know it's been a while since my last post but I have been super busy. This is my attempt at a recap of the past week.
Shabbat:
Last Shabbat was my second in Jerusalem, and I had a great time. I went to services at Har-El synagogue which is a reform synagogue about 5 minutes away from where I live (that was a great discovery!). I am pleasantly surprised by the number of progressive synagogues that I am coming across/hearing about. I didn't know of any in Jerusalem other than Kol HaNeshama where I went the first week. Har-El is definitely more my cup of tea. There is an American cantor who graduated from HUC and a female Israeli rabbi. Most importantly... there's a guitar which I absolutely love in services!
After services I went to dinner at Josh (our rabbinical intern's house). His fiance who I have met a couple times in Cinci is in town so I got to catch up with her and get to know the other two interns and a few of my classmates a little better. Dinner was surprisingly amazing! It turns out Josh is a great cook and he made us figs stuffed with chicken and vegies in a tamarind sauce. Yum!
Saturday I went to a great park called gan saker. It is kind of near me meaning that it is walkable but a crazy curvy and steep hike downhill. Of course that meant that to come home I basically had to climb a mountain. No matter where you go in Jerusalem, there will be hills! Everyone in our class says that regardless of what we get out of the year, we will be leaving with some very defined calves. In the park my friend Brian taught me how to play sheishbeish (backgammon) and we threw around a frisbee for a little while. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. This week I will be exploring a different park that I used to hang out in all the time when I was here two summers ago.
Last Shabbat also happened to be HUC alumni Shabbat. They had speakers and events going on all day but I just went to havdalah that evening. Havdalah means separation, and it is a beautiful ceremony at the end of Shabbat that symbolizes the separation of Shabbat from the rest of the week. We had the service outside by the fountains, and it was really nice with all of the current/future rabbis, cantors, and educators participating. If you have looked at the pictures of my campus that I put up on facebook, you know it is gorgeous!
Sunday:
On Sunday I entertained people in my apartment for the first time! We have more common space than anyone's apartment that I have seen so far, so I definitely have been trying to take advantage of it. I cooked my parmesan crusted chicken with white wine lemon caper sauce for five people and I would say it was received extremely well! One of the best things about cooking here is the shuk (market place). Last week I went and got 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 2 giant ears of corn, and about a kilo of grapes for 11 shekels (less than 4 dollars). It is cheap and amazing because everything is so fresh. I swear vegetables taste ten times better here than they do back in America.
Orientation:
While the Israeli week starts on Sunday, HUC gave us a break and started orientation this past Monday. Although I had gotten to know most of my classmates in the past week, orientation was a nice chance to meet everyone else. The week has been super busy! We have basically had 9 hour days filled with speakers, small breakout groups, tiyuls (hike/walk things), and of course praying. While this definitely wasn't the most fun week, they did break the days into clever categories with a different theme related to why we're here/who we are each day.
On Tuesday we had a picnic lunch where we brought a main course for ourselves and then something to share with the group. This was the day where I discovered my extreme hatred of sabras. Many people are at least familiar with the word sabra because it is the name of amazing American hummus. A sabra is like a cactus fruit and also happens to be a nickname for native Israelis because they are sharp and prickly on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside. Someone ended up bringing these to the picnic and no one was exactly warned about their cactus-like features which lead to many of my classmates (myself included) with a bunch of tiny and almost invisible spikes in our hands. While they are really really small, they really really hurt. I have definitely learned my lesson about touching sabras, and will never make the same mistake again. I'm pretty sure I've still got a spike or two left in my hand.
To backtrack a little bit, Monday was Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av). There is an organization in Israel called Women of the Wall who are progressive Jews that pray at the kotel (western wall) while wearing tallit, kippot, and singing loudly. The kotel area is under the control of the chief rabbinate who are ultra-orthodox Jews that basically don't believe that women should be doing any of those things. The WOW (women of the wall) often get yelled at and have things thrown at them by the charedim (ultra-orthodox) people that are praying in the area. This past week the leader of WOW Anat Hoffman was arrested for carrying a Torah and singing (the chief rabbinate also believes that women should not be allowed to read from the Torah). I wish I could have been there, but I definitely will be going every month from now on.
Shabbat:
Last Shabbat was my second in Jerusalem, and I had a great time. I went to services at Har-El synagogue which is a reform synagogue about 5 minutes away from where I live (that was a great discovery!). I am pleasantly surprised by the number of progressive synagogues that I am coming across/hearing about. I didn't know of any in Jerusalem other than Kol HaNeshama where I went the first week. Har-El is definitely more my cup of tea. There is an American cantor who graduated from HUC and a female Israeli rabbi. Most importantly... there's a guitar which I absolutely love in services!
After services I went to dinner at Josh (our rabbinical intern's house). His fiance who I have met a couple times in Cinci is in town so I got to catch up with her and get to know the other two interns and a few of my classmates a little better. Dinner was surprisingly amazing! It turns out Josh is a great cook and he made us figs stuffed with chicken and vegies in a tamarind sauce. Yum!
Saturday I went to a great park called gan saker. It is kind of near me meaning that it is walkable but a crazy curvy and steep hike downhill. Of course that meant that to come home I basically had to climb a mountain. No matter where you go in Jerusalem, there will be hills! Everyone in our class says that regardless of what we get out of the year, we will be leaving with some very defined calves. In the park my friend Brian taught me how to play sheishbeish (backgammon) and we threw around a frisbee for a little while. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. This week I will be exploring a different park that I used to hang out in all the time when I was here two summers ago.
Last Shabbat also happened to be HUC alumni Shabbat. They had speakers and events going on all day but I just went to havdalah that evening. Havdalah means separation, and it is a beautiful ceremony at the end of Shabbat that symbolizes the separation of Shabbat from the rest of the week. We had the service outside by the fountains, and it was really nice with all of the current/future rabbis, cantors, and educators participating. If you have looked at the pictures of my campus that I put up on facebook, you know it is gorgeous!
Sunday:
On Sunday I entertained people in my apartment for the first time! We have more common space than anyone's apartment that I have seen so far, so I definitely have been trying to take advantage of it. I cooked my parmesan crusted chicken with white wine lemon caper sauce for five people and I would say it was received extremely well! One of the best things about cooking here is the shuk (market place). Last week I went and got 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 2 giant ears of corn, and about a kilo of grapes for 11 shekels (less than 4 dollars). It is cheap and amazing because everything is so fresh. I swear vegetables taste ten times better here than they do back in America.
Orientation:
While the Israeli week starts on Sunday, HUC gave us a break and started orientation this past Monday. Although I had gotten to know most of my classmates in the past week, orientation was a nice chance to meet everyone else. The week has been super busy! We have basically had 9 hour days filled with speakers, small breakout groups, tiyuls (hike/walk things), and of course praying. While this definitely wasn't the most fun week, they did break the days into clever categories with a different theme related to why we're here/who we are each day.
On Tuesday we had a picnic lunch where we brought a main course for ourselves and then something to share with the group. This was the day where I discovered my extreme hatred of sabras. Many people are at least familiar with the word sabra because it is the name of amazing American hummus. A sabra is like a cactus fruit and also happens to be a nickname for native Israelis because they are sharp and prickly on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside. Someone ended up bringing these to the picnic and no one was exactly warned about their cactus-like features which lead to many of my classmates (myself included) with a bunch of tiny and almost invisible spikes in our hands. While they are really really small, they really really hurt. I have definitely learned my lesson about touching sabras, and will never make the same mistake again. I'm pretty sure I've still got a spike or two left in my hand.
To backtrack a little bit, Monday was Rosh Hodesh (the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av). There is an organization in Israel called Women of the Wall who are progressive Jews that pray at the kotel (western wall) while wearing tallit, kippot, and singing loudly. The kotel area is under the control of the chief rabbinate who are ultra-orthodox Jews that basically don't believe that women should be doing any of those things. The WOW (women of the wall) often get yelled at and have things thrown at them by the charedim (ultra-orthodox) people that are praying in the area. This past week the leader of WOW Anat Hoffman was arrested for carrying a Torah and singing (the chief rabbinate also believes that women should not be allowed to read from the Torah). I wish I could have been there, but I definitely will be going every month from now on.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
My Soldiers
I've already mentioned that I live on the same block with BB (Netanyahu... the Prime Minister). So basically every time that I need to leave my neighborhood, I walk past two security posts. For people not used to Israel, there are many soldiers that routinely carry around very large guns (I think they are m-16s but really just don't have the gun knowledge to know for sure). I had really hoped that since I walked by every day, the soldiers would recognize me and we would learn each others names to be able to greet each other. While many said that this was complete wishful thinking; it has totally happened! Yesterday I had many errands to run, so I was going back and forth through the gates to the same exit (probable 2-3 times within a couple of hours). When I was going back in the second time I looked to say shalom (hi) to one of the soldiers sitting at the post and she asked me in Hebrew where I was going/what I was doing. I explained (in perfect Hebrew) that I lived on Balfour (the street we were on) and was going to my apartment. She said yom tov (basically good day) and I went back home. When I came back through the next time she asked me what I was doing. I wore out my Hebrew pretty quick and soon switched into English. I then got into at least a 20 minute conversation with the two guards about America, Israel, what I was doing living here for a year, some politics, music, etc. It was awesome! Since I haven't had Hebrew in a while I was rusty and explained to them that I would be starting ulpan in two weeks and would be able to speak to them in Hebrew soon. They are both 20 and the guy's name is Tomer and the girl is Nofar. I can't wait till they are on duty again :-). When I passed by the next guard who is on the other side of the prime minister's house, I said shalom to the guard and he asked me if the others had asked why I was walking back and forth. If anything... I feel unbelievably secure in my neighborhood. If anyone enters the area there is constant walky talky communication about who is there. This security guard (whose name is Baruch) immediately looked at my necklace, asked it if was Hadaya (a jewelry store in the old city), and told me that his wife worked there. I've now decided that we have to become best friends so that his wife can hook me up with some more Hadaya jewelry :-). We talked some more and I explained that I had just moved in less than a week ago which is why he didn't recognize me.
When I was walking home tonight (different set of guards), the one closest to my house said lyla tov (goodnight) and I heard a kesha song coming from the radio in his booth so told him that I liked his music. He started talking more and asked me if I had heard about the soldiers. I had no idea what he was referring to so he told me that recently a group of soldiers had posted a video on youtube where they were dancing to the song and that it had been all over news stations such as al jazera (i guess i missed that broadcast). He told me what to look up so of course when I got home I did and found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoieZVapUww
That was a great end to my night, so I hope you enjoyed it too. To conclude... I freakin love my Israeli soldiers and my mission to become bff with them has officially gotten off to a great start.
Lyla Tov
When I was walking home tonight (different set of guards), the one closest to my house said lyla tov (goodnight) and I heard a kesha song coming from the radio in his booth so told him that I liked his music. He started talking more and asked me if I had heard about the soldiers. I had no idea what he was referring to so he told me that recently a group of soldiers had posted a video on youtube where they were dancing to the song and that it had been all over news stations such as al jazera (i guess i missed that broadcast). He told me what to look up so of course when I got home I did and found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoieZVapUww
That was a great end to my night, so I hope you enjoyed it too. To conclude... I freakin love my Israeli soldiers and my mission to become bff with them has officially gotten off to a great start.
Lyla Tov
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Getting Settled In
So the past couple days since my last post have been very busy. Although school and orientation haven't officially started, I've been running around getting things for my apartment, having campus tours, etc. Before I go over what I've been doing lately, I thought I'd fill whoever is reading this in on some funny things that come with the territory when living in Israel. First; I had to get basic supplies which included this handsoap. Try to figure out what is wrong with it...
In Hebrew the description definitely doesn't say anything about being "soapless." I'm really not sure how a soap can be "soapless" or what on earth they were trying to translate this too... but i'm pretty sure whatever english message that was supposed to be on the label did not work out like it should have.The next fun fact is that to get to school I go down Lincoln street. Here Lincoln is pronounced link-o-lin. You have to love awesome mispronunciations and bad translations.
This past Sunday the HUC interns (older students who are here for the summer to help get us acclimated) put on a 4th of July bbq/picnic. We went to a really cute park called liberty bell park where we had a giant potluck. It was a great chance to get together and spend time with everyone that had arrived in Israel so far. Since then, many of my other classmates have arrived, and more continue to get here daily. Orientation starts Monday, so I think everyone should be here by the end of the weekend.
On Sunday I also went on a tour of my amazingly beautiful campus. The campus is located right outside of the old city (ancient part where the western wall, dome of the rock, etc are located). When HUC got the land in the early 1960's it was considered no mans land because of it's proximity to Jordanian territory where it would receive a lot of cross fire. The Israeli government really did not support the Reform movement, so it would only give HUC land that was considered crappy real estate. That crappy real estate has now turned into one of the absolute best bits of land in the city. From one of the buildings on campus, there is one of my favorite views of the old city. I'm having problems putting more pics on right now... but I have a bunch of pics of campus on facebook.
On Monday I walked around the old city. From campus into the old city takes maybe 10 minutes. To get to the kotel (western wall) from the Jaffa gate where I entered, you have to go down hill a lot. So naturally to get back you have to go up again. I was with a group of people and we were all content to wander, so somehow our wandering took us on an uphill journey that must have lasted at least an hour to get back out. (It DEFINITELY shouldn't take this long.) That night I went to a lecture by Rabbi David Hartman at the Hartman Institute. I really had no idea what this was going in; but was just told that he was really important and old, so it would be good to go. While I still am not a hundred percent clear on the Hartman Institute, I do know that it is a big pluralistic organization that supports Jewish thought and education. The room was full of rabbis from all over America, and everyone around me was running into people that they knew. I had no expectations of this because I knew that none of my rabbis were in Israel. As the doors were closing and the lecture was about to begin, I saw the mom of a girl I used to go to preschool and middle school with. It really is a small world, and in Jerusalem it is ten times smaller.
Speaking of running into people, I was with a group of people going to a nearby mall to get things for our apartments and I ran into another friend from home. He has a place in Jerusalem that he and his family stay in for the summers, and it turns out we are basically neighbors. I ran into his parents again when I was walking to school this morning. So far I have been here 6 days, and have already randomly run into three people that I know. I absolutely love this city!
Tuesday night is official HUC bar night. Since this is not America; soccer is a really big deal here so everyone watches the world cup. We all met up at a cool bar where the entire area outside of it was basically transformed into a theater. There was a giant projection screen onto the building, and hundreds of chairs set up. It was packed! I just got back from watching another game (Spain vs Germany), and I actually followed it pretty well. If you know me... you know I don't watch sports (unless it's the nola saints this past year); so this is a pretty big deal.
Lyla Tov (Goodnight)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
First Days
So I've now been in Israel for three days, and it's been great so far.
Thursday:
After an 11 hour flight where I only slept about 2 and a half hours (even after a sleeping pill that was described to me as being very fast acting and strong... woops), I landed in Tel Aviv, went through customs, got my baggage, and went outside to find a sherut. A sherut is basically a ten person taxi and it takes people from Tel Aviv to anywhere in Jerusalem for about 12 dollars. This is about a 50 min ride, but when you have to wait for multiple people to get dropped off all over the city.... it takes a quite a bit longer. For anyone that doesn't know, Israeli drivers are insane! I honestly though we were going to crash (either into other cars, bicycles, or people) at least once every five minutes. I did end up making it to my apartment which I did completely in Hebrew. It was great to see that I was able to get back into Hebrew mode after not really using it in a while.
So besides from being insane drivers, sherut drivers aren't necessarily the most accommodating people. When I got to my street, we couldn't see the building numbers but knew that it was somewhere close. The driver did help me get my stuff out, but put it on the opposite side of the street from where I needed to be, and as it turned out about four houses/buildings down from where I needed to be. This wouldnt have been a problem if I didn't have a ton of stuff, but I had 2 GIANT duffels, a big rolling carry on, a backpack, and a purse. No one person is capable of handling all the stuff I had at once. Luckily my landlord's husband happened to be home, came out to the street, found me, and helped me with my stuff. While I've not had a lot of landlord experience before that I can go off of; that definitely gave him a lot of points.
I ended up jumping right into stuff as soon as I got here. My orientation starts the 12th and then I start ulpan (intensive hebrew program), and then regular class a couple weeks later. There have been about 15 students here for the past month doing a pre-ulpan for people that needed more help with hebrew, so I met up with a bunch of them as well as some other people that had just arrived for dinner at one of their apartments about five minutes away from me. I live in a really cute area called Rehavia. I have a lot more exploring to do, but from what I've seen there are a lot of cute coffee shops and stuff around. While I've been to Israel four times before, and knew my way around parts of Jerusalem very well, I had no prior conception of where Rehavia was. Turns out it is amazingly convenient to just about everywhere I would need to go and a lot of other students live near by. I managed to stay pretty awake functional during the dinner and made myself stay up till about 11 so I could get on the right time schedule. I ended up waking up at 4:30 the next morning so that didn't work out too well.
Friday:
Sundown on Friday is when Shabbat starts, and since Jerusalem is a very religious city, everything shuts down by an hour before Shabbat. I had a lot of stuff that I needed to get before everything shut down so I planned on going to the store. I have two other roomates; Ari and Andi. Andi has been in Israel for the past year so she moved her stuff in, and went back to America for a few weeks, so I was basically the first one to be at the apartment this week. Ari got in in the morning, so when he got here we went to the Supersol (name of the grocery store) with one of my other classmates and picked up some essentials.
One of my favorite things in Jerusalem is the shuk (basically a market that has tons of fresh produce and many other food items). Friday afternoon before Shabbat is when EVERYONE goes to buy the food that they will cook for dinner. It is absolute chaos and i love it! Since it closes right before Shabbat, the merchants are desperate to get rid of their produce so you can get amazing deals. In past trips I often took advantage of getting a melon for a shekel (slightly more than 25 cents). Since I needed food for the weekend (shabbat lasts from sundown fri to sundown sat) I went to the shuk to stock up. At this point I still didn't really know where my apartment was in relation to everything. I met up with a friend to walk there and asked for directions (in hebrew!) as we headed out. The first guy I asked looked at us like we were crazy and told us it was 30-40 minutes away and would be a very long walk. We kept going and asked some soldier/guards who also gave us kind of a weird look and said it was far. When asked they said about 20 mins away and recommended taking the bus that had a stop next to us. We gave in and took the bus, but on the way I realized where we were so I knew how to get back. Had a great time at the shuk, got a bunch of fruit (among other things lychee which is AMAZING and some tamarim which are dates), and even ran into someone I knew from the states. We decided to walk back home because it didn't seem like it would be too bad. I meant to time it but we got very side tracked by an artist market on the side of the road that apparently happens every week. The walk back was definitely do-able. It really made me question how much walking Israelis do because of how intimidated by the distance both looked when asked for directions.
I got back that afternoon, had a little bit of downtime and then went to services at Kol Haneshama which is a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem. Israel is basically under the command of a religious authority called the rabbinut who are ultra-orthodox. This means that religious organizations that are not orthodox such as the progressive movement are not at all supported, so it is really nice to find a vibrant reform community. While I've gone to reform synagogue my whole life, it has been in America so English as the primary language has been a big part in the service. Being in Israel where the primary language is Hebrew makes things much different because every thing is in Hebrew. It was a nice service but since I had been up since 4:30 and hadn't gotten a whole lot of sleep in what I think was the past 2 days (kind of confusing with the time change), it was extremely hard to stay focused. The good thing was that if my eyes started to shut a little bit, I figure it could have looked like I was just really into praying at that moment.
After services some of the students that had already been in Israel a while hosted Shabbat dinner, and I got to meet a bunch more of my classmates. It turns out the apartment I ate dinner in was actually a friend of mine's apartment when she did her year in Israel four years ago. What makes it a really small world is that I had actually stayed there with her my senior year of high school, and that happens to be the same friend I ran into at the shuk that afternoon.
Saturday (Today):
Today I went to campus for the first time since I've been here to go to morning services. It turns out I live a less than 10 minute walk away which is awesome. Another cool thing is that I am basically neighbors with the prime minister. His house is a couple seconds down the street from me, and I pass it along with many soldiers with extremely large guns on the way to school. I spent the rest of Shabbat relaxing. One of my classmates had people over for lunch which ended up being fours hours of hanging out. I just got back from Ben Yehuda Street which is basically a very popular/famous street with a bunch or restaurants, bars, stores, street performers, etc. At about 8:00 when Shabbat ends, everything opens back up and it gets swarming with people.
I am back in my apartment now which is great. Compared to all of the places I've seen so far, we definitely have the most common space. It has its odd downfalls like not having mirrors in any of the bedrooms, but I figure I can work that out somehow. I can honestly say I have never wanted I swiffer more in my life. Israelis seem to have different standards on the condition of a place that they rent, and while the apartment is great, there were unbelievable amounts of dirt and dust everywhere. It was actually shocking that so much grime could accumulate on a floor, but I really think that there is magical multiplying dirt in this country. I will take pictures soon and then post them on facebook. I will try to put them on here if i can figure out how to do that.
L'hitraot (good bye for now)
Thursday:
After an 11 hour flight where I only slept about 2 and a half hours (even after a sleeping pill that was described to me as being very fast acting and strong... woops), I landed in Tel Aviv, went through customs, got my baggage, and went outside to find a sherut. A sherut is basically a ten person taxi and it takes people from Tel Aviv to anywhere in Jerusalem for about 12 dollars. This is about a 50 min ride, but when you have to wait for multiple people to get dropped off all over the city.... it takes a quite a bit longer. For anyone that doesn't know, Israeli drivers are insane! I honestly though we were going to crash (either into other cars, bicycles, or people) at least once every five minutes. I did end up making it to my apartment which I did completely in Hebrew. It was great to see that I was able to get back into Hebrew mode after not really using it in a while.
So besides from being insane drivers, sherut drivers aren't necessarily the most accommodating people. When I got to my street, we couldn't see the building numbers but knew that it was somewhere close. The driver did help me get my stuff out, but put it on the opposite side of the street from where I needed to be, and as it turned out about four houses/buildings down from where I needed to be. This wouldnt have been a problem if I didn't have a ton of stuff, but I had 2 GIANT duffels, a big rolling carry on, a backpack, and a purse. No one person is capable of handling all the stuff I had at once. Luckily my landlord's husband happened to be home, came out to the street, found me, and helped me with my stuff. While I've not had a lot of landlord experience before that I can go off of; that definitely gave him a lot of points.
I ended up jumping right into stuff as soon as I got here. My orientation starts the 12th and then I start ulpan (intensive hebrew program), and then regular class a couple weeks later. There have been about 15 students here for the past month doing a pre-ulpan for people that needed more help with hebrew, so I met up with a bunch of them as well as some other people that had just arrived for dinner at one of their apartments about five minutes away from me. I live in a really cute area called Rehavia. I have a lot more exploring to do, but from what I've seen there are a lot of cute coffee shops and stuff around. While I've been to Israel four times before, and knew my way around parts of Jerusalem very well, I had no prior conception of where Rehavia was. Turns out it is amazingly convenient to just about everywhere I would need to go and a lot of other students live near by. I managed to stay pretty awake functional during the dinner and made myself stay up till about 11 so I could get on the right time schedule. I ended up waking up at 4:30 the next morning so that didn't work out too well.
Friday:
Sundown on Friday is when Shabbat starts, and since Jerusalem is a very religious city, everything shuts down by an hour before Shabbat. I had a lot of stuff that I needed to get before everything shut down so I planned on going to the store. I have two other roomates; Ari and Andi. Andi has been in Israel for the past year so she moved her stuff in, and went back to America for a few weeks, so I was basically the first one to be at the apartment this week. Ari got in in the morning, so when he got here we went to the Supersol (name of the grocery store) with one of my other classmates and picked up some essentials.
One of my favorite things in Jerusalem is the shuk (basically a market that has tons of fresh produce and many other food items). Friday afternoon before Shabbat is when EVERYONE goes to buy the food that they will cook for dinner. It is absolute chaos and i love it! Since it closes right before Shabbat, the merchants are desperate to get rid of their produce so you can get amazing deals. In past trips I often took advantage of getting a melon for a shekel (slightly more than 25 cents). Since I needed food for the weekend (shabbat lasts from sundown fri to sundown sat) I went to the shuk to stock up. At this point I still didn't really know where my apartment was in relation to everything. I met up with a friend to walk there and asked for directions (in hebrew!) as we headed out. The first guy I asked looked at us like we were crazy and told us it was 30-40 minutes away and would be a very long walk. We kept going and asked some soldier/guards who also gave us kind of a weird look and said it was far. When asked they said about 20 mins away and recommended taking the bus that had a stop next to us. We gave in and took the bus, but on the way I realized where we were so I knew how to get back. Had a great time at the shuk, got a bunch of fruit (among other things lychee which is AMAZING and some tamarim which are dates), and even ran into someone I knew from the states. We decided to walk back home because it didn't seem like it would be too bad. I meant to time it but we got very side tracked by an artist market on the side of the road that apparently happens every week. The walk back was definitely do-able. It really made me question how much walking Israelis do because of how intimidated by the distance both looked when asked for directions.
I got back that afternoon, had a little bit of downtime and then went to services at Kol Haneshama which is a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem. Israel is basically under the command of a religious authority called the rabbinut who are ultra-orthodox. This means that religious organizations that are not orthodox such as the progressive movement are not at all supported, so it is really nice to find a vibrant reform community. While I've gone to reform synagogue my whole life, it has been in America so English as the primary language has been a big part in the service. Being in Israel where the primary language is Hebrew makes things much different because every thing is in Hebrew. It was a nice service but since I had been up since 4:30 and hadn't gotten a whole lot of sleep in what I think was the past 2 days (kind of confusing with the time change), it was extremely hard to stay focused. The good thing was that if my eyes started to shut a little bit, I figure it could have looked like I was just really into praying at that moment.
After services some of the students that had already been in Israel a while hosted Shabbat dinner, and I got to meet a bunch more of my classmates. It turns out the apartment I ate dinner in was actually a friend of mine's apartment when she did her year in Israel four years ago. What makes it a really small world is that I had actually stayed there with her my senior year of high school, and that happens to be the same friend I ran into at the shuk that afternoon.
Saturday (Today):
Today I went to campus for the first time since I've been here to go to morning services. It turns out I live a less than 10 minute walk away which is awesome. Another cool thing is that I am basically neighbors with the prime minister. His house is a couple seconds down the street from me, and I pass it along with many soldiers with extremely large guns on the way to school. I spent the rest of Shabbat relaxing. One of my classmates had people over for lunch which ended up being fours hours of hanging out. I just got back from Ben Yehuda Street which is basically a very popular/famous street with a bunch or restaurants, bars, stores, street performers, etc. At about 8:00 when Shabbat ends, everything opens back up and it gets swarming with people.
I am back in my apartment now which is great. Compared to all of the places I've seen so far, we definitely have the most common space. It has its odd downfalls like not having mirrors in any of the bedrooms, but I figure I can work that out somehow. I can honestly say I have never wanted I swiffer more in my life. Israelis seem to have different standards on the condition of a place that they rent, and while the apartment is great, there were unbelievable amounts of dirt and dust everywhere. It was actually shocking that so much grime could accumulate on a floor, but I really think that there is magical multiplying dirt in this country. I will take pictures soon and then post them on facebook. I will try to put them on here if i can figure out how to do that.
L'hitraot (good bye for now)
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