It's also about time that I explain who I'm living and interacting with here and Israel. Here's a brief explanation of all the Otzmaniks and others that I see on a regular basis.
First of all, the Natzrat Ilit group is divided into two parts- the complainers and the non-complainers. The complainers believe that the apartments are too small, too dirty, too old. We're not being taught Hebrew well enough. Things are not explained explained well enough to us. Volunteer activities aren't starting fast enough and there aren't enough options. Everything is better for those in Beer Sheva.
The non-complainers feel differently. We feel that everything we have encountered has been explained to us clearly. We all expected the apartments to be much worse than they are ( I have yet to see a cockroach). While ulpan is not perfect, we need to be putting far more effort to learn Hebrew on our own instead of just ditching class because we don't like it. As for volunteer work, I have a full schedule and although everyone does have ample free time, that among other things, were expected because it was explained very clearly to us before the program even began.
My Roommates
There are five of us living in one apartment. Two sleep in one bedroom, one in the other, and two in the living room.
Zara- She's from Seattle and has spent the past two years teaching preschool. Before that, she lived in Spain for a year and taught English. Zara is probably my closest friend on OTZMA. She will be living with me in Kiryat Malachi in Part 2
Rena- Rena is originally from Philadelphia but has been living in New York City. She majored in painting and after this wants to try and become a makeup artist for movies. I absolutely adore Rena. She's hilarious and has awesome stories. Rena is the second-youngest person here (after me of course). We are probably two of the most put-together and natural leaders here.
Carly- Carly is also from Philadelphia. I don't know Carly that well because she is a complainer and I can't stand how much she complains about everything.
Ashley- Ashley is from Toronto. She's a little bit insane. I originally had the room to myself but I had to move into the living room so that Ashley could have her own space. This was the best possible thing for everyone's sanity.
Other Otzmaniks
Avi- Avi lives right next door to me. He is one of the funniest people I've ever met- also one of the neatest. He reminds me a bit of Danny Tanner from Full House. He has quickly become one of my closest friends.
Within the first week that we moved to Natzrat Ilit, Avi fell out of the shower and down the stairs. He is probably the only person who could have pulled that off. He hurt his shoulder and had to go to a doctor in Nazareth to get it checked out. He was driven over by a woman from the Natzrat Ilit doctor's office. She was Arab and the first thing she asked him was if it was true if all Americans hate Arabs. He spent the whole ride trying to convince her otherwise, because he was a little bit afraid for his life. Once at the doctor's office, he spent fifteen minutes trying to explain in Hebrew what had happened- and Avi's Hebrew is pretty weak. The doctor asked him where he was from. As soon as Avi answered he was from the US the doctor said, "Oh, so you speak English." This is a classic Avi story.
Brian- Brian is Avi's roommate. He was one of my first close friends I made on OTZMA. He is also hilarious and when he and Avi are together I can't stop cracking up. I spend most of my time in their room.
Diana- Another good friend of mine. We roommed together back during orientation and got along well. Diana has also studied opera and is my partner whenever we're needed to sing at an event at the absorption center.
Eilan- Eilan and I are a lot alike. After OTZMA, he's going to go to med school. He wants to be a pediatrician in third world countries.
Malachi Crew
These are the people, as well as Zara, who are in Natzrat Ilit now who will be moving with me to Kiryat Malachi after this
Sarah- Really sweet and outgoing and an all-around fun person to be around.
Justine- Justine wants to be an ESL and Spanish teacher after this. She's really sweet and hard-working. Justine is the one who organized our English classes at the absorption center.
Adam- Although he was one of the last people I got to know, I really like Adam. He's a great guy but is not looking forward to sharing an apartment with 5 girls in part 2. But he's happy because of all the girls here, we're the lowest-maintenance.
Rachael- She's from Sonoma but has been working for a non-profit for the past couple of years in Los Angeles. Until recently, Rachael had been spending her time with the complainers, even though she's really sweet and none of us would consider her a complainer. Rachael went with us to the volunteer project by the Kinneret. After that, she got to know us better and I think she's going to start hanging out with us more.
Matt- Matt is our Madrich (He works for OTZMA). He's originally from Los Angeles and we all like Matt a lot- even if he is a bit of a scatter brain. When we were in Jerusalem, we saw how Jenny (Beer Sheva's madricha) would yell at her group. We're all very happy we have Matt, who is much more laid back.
Friday, October 24, 2008
A Long One...
After Rosh Hashanah, we had only a little time in Natzrat Ilit before we left for Yom Kippur. While we were there, we were able to have our first English class. Unfortunately there was a scheduling conflict we weren't aware of, but our class was set for the same time as the Ethiopians had programming. A lot of them came to our English class anyway and their madricha came by and found them and was pretty angry. The class was for the residents of the absorption center and there were all different levels of English. Most of the Russians had pretty good English- they could have a basic conversation about themselves. Some of the Ethiopians had learned English in school in Ethiopia so they could speak fairly well but those who hadn't didn't even have any basics.
Right after our English class, we started to prepare to build a playground. The absorption center is a lot of concrete and the only recreation area is a basketball court that people play soccer on a lot. Behind one of the buildings is a dirt area that we're trying to turn into a playground. We spent the night planting a garden and planned to start the actual playground as soon as we got back from the holidays.
There were only a few days in Natzrat Ilit before we left but we could already see the impact of our English class. People felt more comfortable saying hi to us and coming up to us. All of us got asked multiple times when we were going to do the next class.
I also spent my first afternoon in the afterschool club. All the kids in the absorption center are allowed to come and do homework, art projects, play, etc. We set up a dance class for the kids one afternoon. All of the little girls loved it and took their ballet practice seriously. A few of the boys got involved too.
We went to Jerusalem the day before Yom Kippur and had a seminar their. There were a few interesting activities but most of it didn't interest me. We did to a yoga class that was fun though. The most interesting part was to see all of the people from Beer Sheva again. It was our first time seeing all of them again after orientation in the beginning. We were able to compare experiences in the north and the south. (Otzma is divided into 2 groups-half of the people live in Beer Sheva, half in Natzrat Ilit)
Being in Jerusalem for Yom Kippur was really interesting. No cars are allowed to drive through the city on Yom Kippur so everyone walks in the streets. It was really peaceful to be able to walk around. Our hotel was right by a few nice parks and as I walked through them I could hear all the kids playing and birds calling instead of horns honking.
We had a seminar in Jerusalem on Sunday so most of us decided to stay in the city for the weekend. My friend Zara and I stayed with Zohar's family. (Zohar works for Hillel of Silicon Valley). His family was very sweet and very welcoming. Neither of us had experienced a Sephardic Shabbat before. The tunes to some prayers we knew were different- and the food was delicious. Zohar's family lives on the edge of Jerusalem and we had spent the day with our friends in the center of the city, walking around the old city, Ben Yehuda Street area and Mahane Yehuda Shuk. By the time Zara and I were going back, the buses had already stopped running so we walked back. On the way, we had to walk through religious neighborhoods. As we were walking, everyone was going to synagogue. Almost everyone was wearing somber black, so Zara and I definitely stood out dressed in our bright colors. They had set up barriers on the streets so that no cars could drive through on Shabbat. As we were leaving a taxi was driving towards the neighborhood. A bunch of men were all standing by the barrier. As the taxi approached, they all started yelling, "Shabbas!" at it. The taxi turned around pretty quickly.
Our seminar on Sunday was all about the different quarters of the old city. We toured around the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim quarter. We were able to go up to the Temple Mount. It was definitely an interesting experience- once in a life time (check pictures on facebook). We also walked Via dela Rosa- the walk that Jesus made as he was on the cross. We also went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
After our day touring Jerusalem we were dropped off in the bus station to begin our sukkot break. Earlier that day I had called Danna (a good friend from high school who had made after graduation and joined the army) to see if she had any free time over sukkot. It turned out she was free that night so I went to go stay with her on her kibbutz. We spent the night talking and watching classic movies, just like at home. The next day (Monday), she had to go to Haifa for a family gathering and I headed back to Natzrat Ilit.
Before we had all left for Yom Kippur, everyone made sure to finish all the food they had so it wouldn't go bad before we left. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that when we got back, it would be a holiday so no stores were open for us to buy some food for the day we were there. Pretty much all of us spent the few days we were there eating pasta and ketchup.
Tuesday night, everyone left to begin a volunteer project called Students Moving Green. It was a college-student run project that did a few days of volunteer work every year. When it began two years ago it was called Students Moving North as university students from all over the country went north to help rebuild after the Lebanon War. Last Year it was called Students Moving South as everyone went south to help rebuild Sderot. This year, the project was focused on taking care of the Kinneret because of the water shortage this year. There were 500 people involved in the project and 150 of them sleeping in the kibbutz with us. We all made a lot of friends and improved our Hebrew! I spent 2 days working at a center for mentally disabled adults. The first day we had a bunch of drums and did a dance party with them. The second day, we did art projects; my group made crowns with them. It was definitely really rewarding work. They had mentioned to us that most people living there don't receive visitors and that our coming to help would be something they remembered for the rest of their life. We could definitely see how happy they were to have us there and how excited everyone was when they saw we had come back the second day.
After that, I spent the weekend in Rishon Letzyion with family friends. I pretty much did nothing except sleep and watch TV. None of us have a TV in the center and our internet doesn't work very well so we can't watch TV online. It's a pretty exciting event when we can watch TV. The six of us who are moving to Kiryat Malachi after this just found out that there's a TV and a DVD player there. All of us were so excited to hear that.
After I spent the weekend relaxing I went up to Haifa with two friends from the program. I stayed with this girl Nira that I had met on the volunteer project. Nira is from the US and was friends with one of the other girls on OTZMA before she moved. She's in Israel studying abroad for the year at Haifa University. Nira at home goes to American University, where I will be next year. She told me a lot about it. The good news is that she really likes her classes and all the opportunities she's gotten out of going to American. The bad news is that she hates it socially. I'm just hoping that the people who transfer into American and nicer and I can make friends better than she did entering as a freshman. Nira and I hung out and talked and I spent some time traveling around Haifa seeing the city. We also saw a movie at the film festival. It was an American movie called "Praying with Lior" about a boy with Down's syndrome preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. It was a really good movie. It was also really nice to be able to go see a movie. There are no move theaters in Natzrat Ilit and going to see movies is definitely an activity I
miss.
After I left Haifa, I went with Avi, another OTZMA participant, to stay in Zicharon Yakov. We spent a night there and spent the next day hiking through the city and a nearby nature reserve. It was really gorgeous there, but we definitely got lost. By the time we got back, both of us were exhausted. We then went down to Shoan, right next to Tel Aviv, to spend the night with Avi's family friends. Avi had been friends with one of the sons in college, but the only kid there was the fourteen-year-old, Roy. Roy was one of the coolest fourteen-year-olds that I've ever met. We spent the night playing poker and other card games.
The next day, Thursday, we had our first OTZMA activity in almost two weeks. It was really nice to be able to see everyone again, although everyone had realized over the break that we really do spend way too much time together. We had a seminar in Tel Aviv. I chose to see the business side of it. We went to see a presentation in Super Derivatives, an international finance company. After that we went to the trading room for Bank Hapoalim. That was really interesting to see how the run and the activity in there. After that, we came back to Natzrat Ilit for the weekend and to return to life as normal. I had a visitor come with me- Naama, from Hillel of Silicon Valley, who also moved to Israel, has come up for the weekend to visit! We were all also reunited with the internet, a beloved friend whom we have all missed dearly for the past couple of weeks.
Right after our English class, we started to prepare to build a playground. The absorption center is a lot of concrete and the only recreation area is a basketball court that people play soccer on a lot. Behind one of the buildings is a dirt area that we're trying to turn into a playground. We spent the night planting a garden and planned to start the actual playground as soon as we got back from the holidays.
There were only a few days in Natzrat Ilit before we left but we could already see the impact of our English class. People felt more comfortable saying hi to us and coming up to us. All of us got asked multiple times when we were going to do the next class.
I also spent my first afternoon in the afterschool club. All the kids in the absorption center are allowed to come and do homework, art projects, play, etc. We set up a dance class for the kids one afternoon. All of the little girls loved it and took their ballet practice seriously. A few of the boys got involved too.
We went to Jerusalem the day before Yom Kippur and had a seminar their. There were a few interesting activities but most of it didn't interest me. We did to a yoga class that was fun though. The most interesting part was to see all of the people from Beer Sheva again. It was our first time seeing all of them again after orientation in the beginning. We were able to compare experiences in the north and the south. (Otzma is divided into 2 groups-half of the people live in Beer Sheva, half in Natzrat Ilit)
Being in Jerusalem for Yom Kippur was really interesting. No cars are allowed to drive through the city on Yom Kippur so everyone walks in the streets. It was really peaceful to be able to walk around. Our hotel was right by a few nice parks and as I walked through them I could hear all the kids playing and birds calling instead of horns honking.
We had a seminar in Jerusalem on Sunday so most of us decided to stay in the city for the weekend. My friend Zara and I stayed with Zohar's family. (Zohar works for Hillel of Silicon Valley). His family was very sweet and very welcoming. Neither of us had experienced a Sephardic Shabbat before. The tunes to some prayers we knew were different- and the food was delicious. Zohar's family lives on the edge of Jerusalem and we had spent the day with our friends in the center of the city, walking around the old city, Ben Yehuda Street area and Mahane Yehuda Shuk. By the time Zara and I were going back, the buses had already stopped running so we walked back. On the way, we had to walk through religious neighborhoods. As we were walking, everyone was going to synagogue. Almost everyone was wearing somber black, so Zara and I definitely stood out dressed in our bright colors. They had set up barriers on the streets so that no cars could drive through on Shabbat. As we were leaving a taxi was driving towards the neighborhood. A bunch of men were all standing by the barrier. As the taxi approached, they all started yelling, "Shabbas!" at it. The taxi turned around pretty quickly.
Our seminar on Sunday was all about the different quarters of the old city. We toured around the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim quarter. We were able to go up to the Temple Mount. It was definitely an interesting experience- once in a life time (check pictures on facebook). We also walked Via dela Rosa- the walk that Jesus made as he was on the cross. We also went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
After our day touring Jerusalem we were dropped off in the bus station to begin our sukkot break. Earlier that day I had called Danna (a good friend from high school who had made after graduation and joined the army) to see if she had any free time over sukkot. It turned out she was free that night so I went to go stay with her on her kibbutz. We spent the night talking and watching classic movies, just like at home. The next day (Monday), she had to go to Haifa for a family gathering and I headed back to Natzrat Ilit.
Before we had all left for Yom Kippur, everyone made sure to finish all the food they had so it wouldn't go bad before we left. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that when we got back, it would be a holiday so no stores were open for us to buy some food for the day we were there. Pretty much all of us spent the few days we were there eating pasta and ketchup.
Tuesday night, everyone left to begin a volunteer project called Students Moving Green. It was a college-student run project that did a few days of volunteer work every year. When it began two years ago it was called Students Moving North as university students from all over the country went north to help rebuild after the Lebanon War. Last Year it was called Students Moving South as everyone went south to help rebuild Sderot. This year, the project was focused on taking care of the Kinneret because of the water shortage this year. There were 500 people involved in the project and 150 of them sleeping in the kibbutz with us. We all made a lot of friends and improved our Hebrew! I spent 2 days working at a center for mentally disabled adults. The first day we had a bunch of drums and did a dance party with them. The second day, we did art projects; my group made crowns with them. It was definitely really rewarding work. They had mentioned to us that most people living there don't receive visitors and that our coming to help would be something they remembered for the rest of their life. We could definitely see how happy they were to have us there and how excited everyone was when they saw we had come back the second day.
After that, I spent the weekend in Rishon Letzyion with family friends. I pretty much did nothing except sleep and watch TV. None of us have a TV in the center and our internet doesn't work very well so we can't watch TV online. It's a pretty exciting event when we can watch TV. The six of us who are moving to Kiryat Malachi after this just found out that there's a TV and a DVD player there. All of us were so excited to hear that.
After I spent the weekend relaxing I went up to Haifa with two friends from the program. I stayed with this girl Nira that I had met on the volunteer project. Nira is from the US and was friends with one of the other girls on OTZMA before she moved. She's in Israel studying abroad for the year at Haifa University. Nira at home goes to American University, where I will be next year. She told me a lot about it. The good news is that she really likes her classes and all the opportunities she's gotten out of going to American. The bad news is that she hates it socially. I'm just hoping that the people who transfer into American and nicer and I can make friends better than she did entering as a freshman. Nira and I hung out and talked and I spent some time traveling around Haifa seeing the city. We also saw a movie at the film festival. It was an American movie called "Praying with Lior" about a boy with Down's syndrome preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. It was a really good movie. It was also really nice to be able to go see a movie. There are no move theaters in Natzrat Ilit and going to see movies is definitely an activity I
miss.
After I left Haifa, I went with Avi, another OTZMA participant, to stay in Zicharon Yakov. We spent a night there and spent the next day hiking through the city and a nearby nature reserve. It was really gorgeous there, but we definitely got lost. By the time we got back, both of us were exhausted. We then went down to Shoan, right next to Tel Aviv, to spend the night with Avi's family friends. Avi had been friends with one of the sons in college, but the only kid there was the fourteen-year-old, Roy. Roy was one of the coolest fourteen-year-olds that I've ever met. We spent the night playing poker and other card games.
The next day, Thursday, we had our first OTZMA activity in almost two weeks. It was really nice to be able to see everyone again, although everyone had realized over the break that we really do spend way too much time together. We had a seminar in Tel Aviv. I chose to see the business side of it. We went to see a presentation in Super Derivatives, an international finance company. After that we went to the trading room for Bank Hapoalim. That was really interesting to see how the run and the activity in there. After that, we came back to Natzrat Ilit for the weekend and to return to life as normal. I had a visitor come with me- Naama, from Hillel of Silicon Valley, who also moved to Israel, has come up for the weekend to visit! We were all also reunited with the internet, a beloved friend whom we have all missed dearly for the past couple of weeks.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Beginning of the Holidays
On Sunday night, we left the mercaz klitah (the absorption center) around midnight to drive to Sfat. There's this thing called Slichot which is right before the high holidays. I'm still a little confused but I think you basically just stay up all night and pray. We were theoretically doing Slichot but instead of praying we did a tour of Sfat at night. The city is made of stone and it looked kind of eerie to see it lit in the lamplight at night.
The following morning we were driven to Tel Aviv to begin our Rosh Hashanah break. I spent the few days with Neta and her family- a friend of mine from when I was younger who moved to Israel. We went down to Beer Sheva to see her dad's family for lunch and then went to Tel Aviv for dinner- for those of you who don't understand Israeli geography, I basically drove from the top of the country to the bottom and back all in one day. Neta and I have lost touch since she moved, but we were actually able to find things to talk about and got along pretty well. It was really nice to spend the holiday in Israel. The whole country is covered in signs saying "Shanah Tova" (happy new year). It is kind of like Christmas minus all the shopping. It was nice to see the whole country celebrating and being happy.
Everyone was really welcoming and interested that I had decided to move to Israel to do volunteer work for a year. I was actually really surprised by the reactions I received. People kept telling me how much respect they had for me for doing this. Everyone on this program knew we were coming here to do volunteer work but when we talk about why we're here, most people mention putting off grad school or finding some direction in life. Even as I'm playing with the kids in the center, building playgrounds, or collecting food for soup kitchens, it didn't really occur to me that I was helping to improve the country. I never thought about what Israelis would think about us coming to volunteer here for a year.
The following morning we were driven to Tel Aviv to begin our Rosh Hashanah break. I spent the few days with Neta and her family- a friend of mine from when I was younger who moved to Israel. We went down to Beer Sheva to see her dad's family for lunch and then went to Tel Aviv for dinner- for those of you who don't understand Israeli geography, I basically drove from the top of the country to the bottom and back all in one day. Neta and I have lost touch since she moved, but we were actually able to find things to talk about and got along pretty well. It was really nice to spend the holiday in Israel. The whole country is covered in signs saying "Shanah Tova" (happy new year). It is kind of like Christmas minus all the shopping. It was nice to see the whole country celebrating and being happy.
Everyone was really welcoming and interested that I had decided to move to Israel to do volunteer work for a year. I was actually really surprised by the reactions I received. People kept telling me how much respect they had for me for doing this. Everyone on this program knew we were coming here to do volunteer work but when we talk about why we're here, most people mention putting off grad school or finding some direction in life. Even as I'm playing with the kids in the center, building playgrounds, or collecting food for soup kitchens, it didn't really occur to me that I was helping to improve the country. I never thought about what Israelis would think about us coming to volunteer here for a year.
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