Life in Natzrat Ilit

All of us have been getting used to life in Natzrat Ilit. Every morning we have ulpan until about 12:30-1:00. After that, we spend most of the rest of the day hanging out or going grocery shopping. We don't have cars so each time we grocery shop we can only buy as much as we can carry. Some of the volunteer opportunities have started up. My favorite thing I've done so far was to work at an afterschool center. We hang out with the teenagers there and talk to them and compare what it's like to grow up in the US versus in Israel. The kids that go there like to work on their English and we want to work on our Hebrew so it ends up that they talk to us in English and we respond in Hebrew. Everyone who went to that really enjoyed it and it really helped us all with our Hebrew.
There are a few Israelis staying in the absorption center that we've become friends with. They are there to work in the local schools in a program that seems fairly similar to Teach for America. They are all really nice and a few of them have started to come to ulpan with us in the mornings to help us learn. The way ulpan is structured is that there are three classes and one teacher who spends most of her time with the beginners. The intermediate class, which I'm in, turned out to be a bit of the blind leading the blind. But now that the Israelis have started to come it helps a lot.
By now I've walked into Nazareth a few times. It's much more of a city than Natzrat Ilit. The shwarma there is also bit cheaper and better so people like to go for that. It's a really nice little city. We walked around to check it out and went to see the Church of Ennunciation. I also found a coffee shop with amazing turkish coffee- it's the only thing keeping me going since we don't sleep anymore. Everyone stays up talking and hanging out until late at night.
Last weekend was our first adoptive family weekend. I was set up with a family in Kiryat Malachi in the south, which is Silicon Valley's partnership community. It is also where me and five others will be living for Phase 2 of OTZMA. I was the only one whose adoptive family was in Kiryat Malachi so I was able to check it out for everyone. It is definitely a very small city. There are no malls, no movie theaters, one bar, and a very small shopping center. The city is also very religious so everything closes for Shabbat. On weekend nights, everyone who is not religious and is between the ages of 13-23 goes to one park in the center of the city to hang out. It's a very quiet city and when I went to the park with my adoptive sister, it was really big news that an American was there.
My adoptive family was really nice. There are five kids, but only the youngest, 15 year old Michal, still lives at home. The mother, Devorah is head of the Kiryat Malachi side of the Partnership Community project. But Kiryat Malachi is really far away from Natzrat Ilit so I probably won't be visiting them much until I move down there.
This past weekend, the group arranged to go camping in Tiberias. We found a place where we could sleep out on the beach. We had a bonfire and went swimming in the Kinneret at night. Everyone had a really good time. Then on Saturday morning, we went hiking in a national park called Arbel. It was a really nice hike down a hill. Along the way you can see remains from caves carved out during the Roman period. We're not totally sure, but we think that Jews used to hide and live in the caves there. We spent the afternoon napping and walking around Tiberias and going to the beach. Now, people are starting to get back to Natzrat Ilit to prepare for the beginning of the holidays.