It is an accurate description of my last week and a half, though. I left off blogging about the Yad Mordechai (a kibbutz named after Mordechai Anielewicz, leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) Ceremony. It was a really lovely ceremony but there were way way way too many long speeches in Hebrew. The best parts were definitely the singing numbers and an incredible group of children playing harmonicas. They sounded like a mix between recorders, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, and ghostly voices, and it was very haunting and beuatiful. It was hard to stay focused during the presentations but worth it for the musical numbers and torch lighting ceremonies.
The next day, we changed gears completely and had the ultimate battle between the Nativ tracks of Yerucham and Kibbutz!!! Yom Sport was a huge success and a lot of work (I was on the planning committee). We competed in basketball, frisbee, football, a relay race, Jewish Jeopardy, sports trivia, sudokus, banners, and cheers. I was getting really nervous at the end that Yerucham was going to lose!!! But we won, in the end, because the good guys always win in the end.
I went back that night to kibbutz and hung out with the wild animals in Caravan 1, slept in the next day, and then headed off to Jerusalem for the MASA leadership seminar with Marc and Haley. We met the rest of the BFL crew, minus a few, outside the central bus station and together we traveled to the outskirts of the world, otherwise known as the Judaean Youth Hostel--a place where NO BUSES MAY GO! Once I was feeling significantly cut off from humanity, I discovered a miracle of God: the place had internet access! Even though I used it for only about an hour total between Wednesday and Saturday, just knowing that facebook was only a click away immediately calmed my nerves.
The seminar was pretty cool. We had great speakers come talk to us-Gil Troy from McGill, Neil Lazarus, Jessica Kosmin (who campaigned in England during her university years for Israel and is actually the most amazing person ever), and a few other really good ones. Some/most of the workshops were kind of a waste of time, but it was worth it for the speakers because I really feel like I have a better handle on how to advocate for Israel next year at school. I also spent about 20 minutes on the phone with Rabbi Kate from the Cornell Hillel, which was sups fun and made me excited for school next year. On Friday night, we played fun improv games like Taxi (someone gets into a taxi and assumes a strange persona and everyone else in the taxi starts acting like them too) and Train (you sit down next to someone and do weird things to try to make them get up) and another one where silly lines from the seminar were integrated into a turf debate between male prostitutes and a CSI episode in Mea Shearim. The games were most successful when funny people were playing, naturally, but even unfunny people were still laugh at-able.
It took me about 4 hours to get back home to Yerucham on Saturday night, which was not excellent. I was actually looking so despondent at the bus stop in Beer Sheva that a few soldiers checked to see if I was okay. I made it home all right though, don't worry.
Sunday was a regular day at work, but it was pretty fun. My horrible/terrible/very bad eighth grade class was totally bearable because Michal (the only girl) finally decided she likes me! Too bad she's two and a half months late. Then I had my 12th graders who are actually almost like real people and I'm friends with them, and then I had the two cutest baby aarsim in the 9th grade class, and we watched the first hour or so of Chronicles of Narnia. It was a good day!
I worked on the Nativ Yearbook (yes, I still haven't escaped yb!!) after school and also a few other projects. Then Sunday night we had a group wide Yom HaZikaron program to remember Israel's fallen. It was a pretty good program, or at least as good as those kinds of things can be, because it's really sad. A bit on the long side for Nativ programs, but good.
The Yom HaZikaron memorials continued the next day with a trip to Jerusalem. We went to Har Herzl for the official ceremony and put flowers on graves and watched the thousands of family members, friends, strangers, tourists do the same. It was a really moving and overwhelming event. I felt kind of on the outside of the sadness, and kind of undeserving to even be taking up space. It was a weird experience. I stuck with Laura and Leeann the whole time which was nice because they are very appropriate people about that kind of stuff.
After Har Herzl, all of Nativ met up for lunch at Agron and a program to conclude the day. Michael Levin's (check out his memorial fund online) parents actually came to speak to us about their experiences and tragedy (their son went on Nativ 22, made alliyah to join an elite paratroopers unit, and was killed in Lebanon) and they were amazing. They were so selfless about their loss, and they shared so much with us. Amazing. You could see where Michael had gotten his Zionist ideas and determination. They were great. Then we watched "As If Nothing Happened" about a bombing in Beit Lyd. It was not well made but the actors and story were really moving, because it is about a true event. It's forty five straight minutes of a dysfunctional family trying to get in touch with their son, who was at Beit Lyd junction at the time of the bombing, the whole time blaming each other and fighting and thinking their son is dead. Then at the end, he comes home, and it is as if nothing happened. Really a great movie, and typical of great Israeli movies: not perfect filming or editing or what have you, but heartfelt acting and true to life kinds of stories.
Then Yossi and Elkana shared personal stories with us and Elkana sang us a song that he made up a melody for and it was beautiful. It was all a lot to handle and before transitioning into the happiest day of the Israeli calendar, we decided to nap for a bit in negative two and a half. Then it was off to Burgers Bar on Emek Refaim and Shira Hadasha for services. Services were sooo crowded and longer than expected and it was nice that there is such a cute community at Shira Hadasha but not cute that we are on the outside of it. Then we went downtown for a night of crazy partying and Israeli dancing. The Israeli dancing at City Hall was AMAZING! So many thousands of people and they were doing dances I know from home!
We slept in the basement of the old building on couches pushed together until Tzippi came in at 11am and told us we should leave, which was fine, and she was pretty chill about it. Then we had a Nativ barbecue in Gan Haatzmaut and saw lots of cool fighter planes! We enjoyed the sun and the food until four, took a bus home, and then had a fun night in Yeruru.
Wednesday, I met with Debbie Golan about nativyerucham.weebly.com, got the best haircut of my life, cleaned the kitchen, worked on Nativ YB, went grocery shopping, hung out with my host family and got a Hebrew lesson, and hung out with my apartment mates and Meir who came to visit!
Now I am recovering from a nice day of school by eating Yerucham pizza and RC cola and blogging while Josh and Seffi and Meir play Settlers of Catan. I'm about to leave to check to make sure my apartment is locked but I just put on some really good music so I'll stay for the end of the song!
I remembered my question - was it harmonicas, or kazoos? Love, Mama
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