On Thursday afternoon, the rains came to Israel. We waited for our bus in the rain and it continued to rain on the ride into Yafo. We got mega lost on our way, arrived way late, but still managed to see a really cool percussion show. The whole program on Thursday night was for MASA gap year programs, so a lot of other teens were there. A few drunk boys from
programs actually got into a fight during the performance and we were all a little embarrassed to be American.
We had dinner on the run, got lost again, and then we began the real adventure of the evening. The bus dropped us off in front of a club in Tel Aviv where we thought Subliminal was holding a concert, but it was the wrong club. It was beyond pouring. The bus couldn't get through the parking lot, so we had to climb on banisters in order to avoid the Kinneret that had formed in the street. A picture may or may not (mike or mike knopff, anyone?) be shown below, depending on my internet connection. And I'm not even kidding, it was a typhoon and there was a lake. Since Israel doesn't get that much rain, the drainage systems are just terrible. Really terrible.
Anyway, we finally made it to the concert in one piece and it was at this really chic club in Tel Aviv and it was loud and fun and it was all MASA participants. I saw some people I knew and enjoyed the hip hop and hung out with Meir, who was immobilized by his broken foot. Getting out of the concert was even more treacherous than going there, and I actually slipped and really bruised my knee!! It was still raining like crazy and the bus was even farther away than before. We got into the hotel in Maale HaHamisha at a rather late hour but we all lived to tell the tale.
On Friday, we went to the Eretz Yisrael Museum and the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv. Both were cool museums, not super handicap accessible, not gonna lie. The Palmach Museum was the cool multi-media video/automatic museum that Israel loves so much, and I like it too. In the Palmach Museum the videos take you through the stories of ten Palmachniks and you get quite attached to them and it was actually the saddest thing when one of them died.
Because of the rain, the group decided to skip the street fair in exchange for a really cozy pre-Shabbat nap back at the hotel. The hotel was also not the most handicap accessible thing on earth, but it was really pretty because it was on a really beautiful hill outside Jerusalem and the villages and views around it were very picturesque. Once I was in for the night on Friday, the evil rain seemed so majestic, and we pray for it three times a day so it became a very spiritual thing as well. During Kabalat Shabbat, there was a crash of lightning/thunder and the lights flickered and it seriously felt like God was communicating with us in some way!!! People told me that I got too worked up about this particular phenomenon, but I thought it was awesome. The room where we prayed had a wall of windows and I watched the clouds the whole time and I swear to God the sky was opening up for our prayers. I'm a sucker, I know, you don't have to tell me.
After a delish dinner I had a study session with the multi-talented and very learned Rabbi Dan Ornstein from good old Upstate New York. We studied the ever present Talmud sugia about the oven but I did learn new things and saw it in a new light. Very cool. I don't really remember what else happened that night but I have a feeling it has a lot to do with being very happy and content with life because that was just kind of the theme of Shabbat.
Saturday was much of the same-melodic services, good food, cozy sweaters, napping, studying, playing, happiness. My study session with Yossi was really quite captivating, upsetting (in the good way, the way that makes you think about stuff even though it makes you hella uncomf and you really just want to go back to the dessert table but you can't because lunch is over already and the topic at hand is the self destruction/disintegration of the entire Jewish people), and deep. You can read the emails we discussed
here, and you really should if you call yourself a Jew. If you don't call yourself a Jew, then read it anyway because it's dramatic and interesting. You have to push the "next" arrows in order to keep reading the email thread. Do it. It really got all of Nativ talking, even the people who usually just braid hair and whisper about other things during study sessions. This time they were braiding hair and debating the future of Judaism. It was great. The conversation lasted all day.
Saturday night was the beginning of our Purim festivities. I dressed as a farmer with Joshy and Joey was our farm animal. Not a specific animal, since he wore a rope tail, cat ears, and a wife beater with "FARM ANIMAL" on it and cow spots. We were a big hit, but the male porn stars really stole our thunder. What are you going to do. It's a question of getting less attention or dressing as a porn star for Purim-pick your poison.
We read Megillat Esther and I actually read it and learned stuff and read commentary and asked questions because it's one hell of a story. The best part was that Nativers, and Elkana and Rabbi Ornstein, all read the Megilla.
A dance/karaoke party followed which was super fun. My favorite dance lighting is the strobe that makes everything look like it's in slow motion. It's my blog and I can write what I want, by the way, if you're thinking that the lighting bit was unnecessary. Moving on. Meir fetched me because dances are depressing when you can't put any pressure on your left foot and you're dressed like a settler from the board game because no one wants to dance with you anyway. That last part was a joke.
Sunday morning we read Megillat Esther again and I liked it even more the second time. We had a program with a Medical Clown who was really cool and funny and he had such a good message. The basic idea is that being sick and tired and depressed when you're in a hospital doesn't help anything, but being happy and laughing and smiling probably does help something. We did funny games and made funny faces and spoke in weird voices and it was pretty fun. Stasia was a beast at gibberish. Then we did Israeli dancing which brought me back to the olden days at the J, thanks Adina.
We had a snack and board the buses for Bat Yam, hoping for sun but getting more and more rain instead. We had our Purim feast at a restaurant on the beach and for the few minutes that it was sunny, the place was beautiful. It was fun to sit and celebrate with friends and many congratulatory high fives and fist bumps were exchanged. When we got back to the hotel, I was drowsy from sleeping on the bus and fell asleep right away before dinner. That unfortunately meant that I completely missed dinner and a little bit of the next program, which was a really hysterical group of improvisation actors who acted out stories told by Nativers about Nativ. They made even the not funny at all stories really funny.
On Monday morning we set out for Casearea where we participated in all sorts of team building activities. I got really into it and cheered too loudly and made a fool of myself but I had a great time. Some people were bummed that my group missed paintball because of scheduling, but I was rather relieved because I heard it hurts a little, and I don't know if I could handle the pressure. We headed to Jerusalem that night and settled in back at Beit Nativ. The weather was still bad and I didn't go out and I was frustrated with the kippah, but such is life.
All day Tuesday and Wednesdaywe had sessions on leadership with topics ranging from personal identity and goals to public speaking to Jewish leaders. We got a cool presentation about branding Israel and presenting the amazing side of Israel that has nothing to do with the conflict, because most people on the outside world see Israel only in terms of war, but I see the Israel that has beaches and deserts and waterfalls and mountains and really delicious vegetables (even if I don't eat them often enough) and incredibly warm and inviting people. There's a word for the brand but I'm not allowed to say on my blog!!!11! You'll just have to trust me.
On Wednesday afternoon, Meir and I discovered that our Shabbat plans had fallen through and we needed a place to stay. The weekend that followed was both a challenge and a shining example of Israeli hospitality and the warmth in people's hearts. We stayed Thursday night at JJ's apartment in Talpiyot, a nice suburb that's also a good distance from the city center. After hiking up and down Ben Yehuda a few dozen times, losing my jacket forever, buying a book that I can't wait to tell you about and make you read, bemoaning the loss of my jacket, reading the book about soldiers dying in Lebanon and getting a hold on my life vis-a-vis the jacket (never used vis-a-vis before but I'm gonna try it out and see how it goes), we boarded a 21 headed towards Talpiyot. The bus was surprisingly accessible and although terribly inconvenient, still manageable. Unfortunately, it was the wrong bus. And I told the driver when we got on that I wouldn't need a transfer slip. So we got off, crossed the street at the driver's kind suggestion, waited, waited, and finally boarded a bus headed in the right direction. I tried to explain in Hebrish about the transfer slips but the driver wasn't buying it-he just wanted me to pay and stop slamming the wheel chair ramp that comes out from the floor of the bus. I slammed it on the way out.
Then we hiked. I hiked, to be more accurate, and I pushed, and Meir wheeled, and it was up an endless hill and it was a rather challenging night for both my gluteus and my relationship. We arrived at JJ's sweating, exhausted, spent. Still, we watched basketball for some reason and Israel beat Italy which I would say, from experience, is a fair victory that can be extrapolated to other realms of society. The next morning we lounged, read, played with kiddies, and watched a bad movie with Selma Hayek. We split around 2 pm and we were transported in a car by an angel by the name of Shira who not only brought us from door-to-door, she figured out how to fold the wheel chair, where to go, and all with two screaming kids in the backseat.
So we arrived in one piece to Elkana's apartment. I showered and ran out to the one store left in the city open before Shabbat to repurchase strawberries for our hosts on Shabbat, since I had left the originals in JJ's fridge. So we showered, we dressed, talked, rested. Then it was time for Shabbat. It would have been too simple to stay there, though, so we walked across Rehavia to Elkana's grandparents' apartment. Don't worry, that was up a flight of stairs too. Because some heavenly force was smiling down on us that day, it turned out that the living quarters were very comfortable and the grandparents were super nice people and delicious cooks. It also turned out that the grandfather was a descendant of the foremost scholar of Hagra of Vilna, the main and original opposing force to Chassidism, and was completely obsessed with the man. Books and paintings were everywhere. He had even published his own siddur complete with Hagra customs and traditions. His family had been in Jerusalem since the 1800's. It was really interesting.
After dinner, we went to hang out with Jacob and Jacob's sister who is on a program with school here. They are from New Jew, a high school in southern CA, and I talked to a lot of the kids and they all "LOVE HIGH SCHOOL" sooo much. It was cute. But it was also awkward, because of the circumstances surrounding our visit. Whatevs, it was fine, it was nice, we got back at a decent hour and headed to bed in our lovely home for the night.
We slept in on Saturday morning and headed straight to lunch. On the way, a woman who was running fell flat on the sidewalk and it was so bad. A super religious man and I helped her up and sat her down, a heroic effort later deemed a "picture perfect moment" by onlookers. Meir kept the woman company and communicated using her language of choice while I got water for her. It was pretty scary though, because she was drooling and had crazy eyes and was bleeding in several places. I hope she got home okay. I then wheeled Meir to the corner of Agron and Keren Hayasod and left him in the trust hands of Jacob and sister. Hazui. I skipped down Aza to Elkana's apartment where I waited in the surprisingly tropical yard for him, Chen, and two other staff members from Nativ 28 who were in town for a wedding. The lunch was tasty, fun, USY oriented, and everyone was so friendly.
Three o'clock came and I met the wheelchair brigade at the fountain and we exchanged the person and a few strained words. I spent the rest of Shabbat resting in the sun and talking and trying to nap, an area where I rarely fail. We had Havdalah with Elkana's grandparents before departing into the wild jungle of Jerusalem motzei Shabbat. The buses weren't running by the time we got out there and it was cold and I was impatient. Finally a bus came to get us to take us to another bus station where we got on more buses and parted ways. I ran into a number of Nativers there, which really calmed my nerves when the bus to Yerucham was TEN minutes late! That kind of thing really gets me going.
Babies and open windows and cell phone conversations disturbed my bus experience, but the fact that I slept in my own bed last night with my roomies and we pillow talked was the best thing ever. I had weird, disturbing dreams though and that led to a bad attitude at school today, which was highly chaotic today due to standardized English testing of the 11th and 12th graders. The afternoon made this day great though: a run, before which Adina told me to wear sunscreen-an endearing reminder that made me feel cared for, an apartment meal of cornflake chicken/macaroni salad/cauliflower, a Hebrew lesson, a grocery shop, my book, and soon, a West Wing Club meeting. Can't wait.
So we made it out alive, and I'm here to tell you. I wish my stories had more of a punchline, but they really don't, as a general rule. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What does matter is this book I'm reading, Beaufort, by Ron Leshem. Maybe you've heard of it or seen the movie. It's translated from Hebrew and it's about the Lebanon (second?) war and it's really fantastic and I hate the war in it but I love the people in it and I feel like that is only setting me up for heartbreak. Oh, well, I'll continue reading (I was about to say soldier on but that would have just been toooo much) and let you know how it goes. Seriously though, it's good stuff.
Lailah tov,
Jorda
na
