My title is in in Hebrish (Hebrew + Spanish) - - - I can't believe that I only have 1 month left in the program. To some of you that sounds like a looong time, but for me, the past 3.4 months have flown by like there's no tomorrow. So much can happen in this time but it still scares me. It is obviously time for me to start thinking forward so I have been able to come up with some tentative options. Here is the most thought about option that I have come up with so far:
Travel abroad for 2 weeks after program is over
Do Israel Trail for the remainder of February
Come back and live on Kibbutz for 2-4 weeks
Sublet apartment in TLV center for 1-2 months
Come back to States in beginning of May
What do you all think?
Today, we had Secret Santa during our weekly study day. Yes, that's right, Secret Santa in the Jewish State. I got my person a scarf and a necklace. I definitely did not put nearly as much thought into my gift as my secret santa put into mine. We all had to quickly put the gift where our person was sitting so that the receiver wouldn't know who gave them the gift. Through all the commotion I looked at where I was sitting and saw that there was a bag there with the picture of me and my beloved kitty from Jeru. I still can't stop thinking about that cat and wish he was here with me. I think this comes from never being brought up with an animal and now all these emotions are coming to the surface. ANYWAY! I looked inside the bag and was slightly disappointed that the kitty wasn't in there, however, there was a jar in there and it was filled with about 100 little folded pieces of paper. I picked up the jar and it said on the front "Messages in a Bottle." On the other side of the jar it said: "Anna - Open the jar and unfold a piece of paper whenever you need a boost. Enjoy!" Tear gathered in my eyes very quickly as I knew exactly who my Secret Santa was. It was Katie! Last week I had a rough couple of days and she was nothing but amazing, hearing me out and letting me be heard. I felt that I shed 100 lbs after I had talked to her. I ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug. It was amazing. She also gave a little diary and wrote nothing but the sweetest things in there. I feel so lucky to have met these people. I keep saying this over and over again but it is very true.
Yesterday I went to the clinic and they told me that they want me to start helping Sister Aziza, the amazing Ethiopian nun with conducting interviews with the asylum seekers who have crossed Sinai to get into Israel. They most likely will have me create analysis and other statistics that they could write more position papers to the UN. This stuff excites me! Also, they asked how much longer I am in the program and I told them a month a half and asked if it would be ok for me to keep volunteering when I am not in the program anymore and they happily said yes. Last night I met up with Raz! He was one of the Israelis on our Taglit trip. He is so great and makes me miss all the other Israelis who I still haven't seen since I came back.
A few days ago I was asked to come help do some program promoting to a group of Venezuelans. I was really nervouse because I haven't really spoken Spanish in so long. Writing is not a problem because I still talk to my amigo in Mexico every once in a while. I played hooky from Nofim, the kids could go without me for a day, I am sure. The Venezuelans were late. Latin American time must be the same is Israel time. When they finally got there I was super nervous. I kept thinking in Hebrew even though there isn't much going on up there with this language quite yet! Anyway, Dante was there who lived in South America for 6 months, so his Spanish is very different from my Mexican rattle, which I love so much more than the rest of the dialects. Dante lives in Yafo and I live in S. Tel Aviv so we both talked about our tracks and what we do and why we decided to come here. It's amazing how a language that I used to know well just "fell out" of my head because I have been focusing on my Hebrew so much. What I do know that being in a Spanish speaking environment for just a few days would bring it back. It's interesting, because I have completely compartamentalized my English and Russian, and so whenever I am learning something new I never confuse anything with those two languages, but when speaking Spanish, I interchange Hebrew and it is soooo embarassing! Oh well. It will be ok one day when I am living in DF (Mexico City). One day.
Went to the bus station today to get some boots without heel. Somehow I missed the memo, that Israel, just like other places in the world gets cold! I think it must have been the combo of moving out of Phoenix, leaving AZ and so on that I straight up forgot to bring closed toed shoes besides my sneaks and high heel boots! Oy vavoy! BUT I learned two new words today. Shoe size = mida and heel = acav. Very handy words. It was a complete balagan. I wanted to venture by myself and speak Hebrew and I got exactly THAT! All the dirty men store owners kept calling me hamoudah and motek and yafa - cutie, pretty. sweety and asking me if I have a boyfriend. One of them gave me his number so I asked for a shoe discount and nada! The other one tried to set me up with his son. Another one kept patting me on the back and giving me a high five. I have gotten used to all this but today was just rough. I was about to give up when I saw another shoe store. I finally found black suede boots. I was able to knock off 80 NIS off the price. Not bad. Rule #1 in Israel: If you don't like the price, just say so!
Did a home visit today with a woman who only speaks Tigrinia. We had to get a translator who barely speaks English but we managed to interact with him quite nicely and learn a lot from him! The woman was late and was not really sure why she had to meet with us. I had some donated baby clothes that I gave her but there was not much excitement on that end. We went into the Yeshiva to do all the questions and paperwork. It was interesting, because there were two language barriers in the room. Sara and I with the translator and then with the lady who didn't speak neither Hebrew nor English. I love me a challenge! Through all that it seemed to me that we were pretty successful. I could be way off though.
Overall today has been pretty mentally exhausting. To top off the night I am meeting up with yet another birthright Israeli, Itay. I haven't seen him yet! I'm excited.
Tomorrow going to the North (Galil) Going to canoing, sleeping at a Kibbutz and then hiking all day on Sat. Very excited!
What we did in the Galil:
- Went canooing on the Jordan River - I obviously didn't get a crash course because I defintely sucked. Dante and I went together so we spoke Hebrew and Spanish to each other. I have never been great at multitasking so we kept zigzagging across the river because I kept oversteering with the oars!
- After that we went to an area near Tiberias on the Kineret. It was a beautiful Mediterranean town. We got a speech about the water shortage in Israel and we talked about how wasteful we all really are. It defintely made me think twice about taking long showers and letting the water run when I brush my teeth and lather my crazy nest of hair. I have been much more conscious of it while here but it still needs to improve. It makes me sad how wasteful I was back in AZ where the shortage is just as bad!
- After the Kineret we drove to the Moshav where we were going to celebrate Shabbat, called Kabalat Shabbat, the way Shabbat was celebrated in Tsfat, the birthplace of Kaballah and mysticism. Some of the members of the group were cooking dinner and then we sang some Shabbat songs and just sat outside by the fountain. The moshav was beautiful, it had a calm fairy tale feel to it. We had a lentil, sweet potato, cauliflower broth over rice. For dessert we had some babka, which was DELICIOUS!! I may or may not have eaten 4 pieces. Yum! We were all so tired that we all crashed at like 10!
- We woke up in the middle of the night to an awful rain storm. It was crazy. It sounded like our little cottages were going to get torn apart. Luckily I was on the breakfast crew that morning so I didn't lose out on that much sleep. We always break into little groups for the trips we take.I like to work smarter not harder so I do the breakfast thing and the only thing I give up is like an hour of sleep. I think that works better for me.
-In the beginning of the day we were greeted by one of the reps of the Kibbutz. The name of the Kibbutz is Mala Tzvia - something deer I think. She told us about when it got started and took us to a place called the CnTent - basically a huge where lots and lots of story telling takes place. We listened and told stories for a few hours, it was very relaxing. After that we packed up our things and took off to hike in the Golan. Amazing hike, pictures were already sent. That took the rest of the day.
Went to Yehuda Poliker last night. My friend Sara and I were the only ones out of the group who were interested in going so we met our madricha there and a friend of hers. We noticed that our madricha and her friend disappeared and then saw them looking at us from a distance and smiling. Sara and I both figured out that they were calling some boys for us. What do you know? The exact words that came out of her mouth when she came back over to us "We are trying to arrange you some company." Hahaha. I love Israel sometimes. Anyway, the boys came and they were pretty cool. The one that was sitting next to me was translating to me the whole time, it was really nice. The concert was a mixture of rock and ehtnic music. It was really great. Rock singer that used to be popular in the 70's. Amazing how people have kept his music very much alive and what an in influence he made because the whole auditorium was singing along to his songs. At the end of the concert we all went down closer to the stage and started dancing! One of the last songs I recognized was played in my Ulpan class! Yom hamishi - Thursday. I also realized that I came to the tarbut (cultural) center when I went to see Idan Raichel for the first time. Oh the memories.
After the concert, went out after to celebrate Julie's (another one of the 9 people I live with) birthday. It was really fun. I was speaking Hebrew to people at the bar, I was actually really happy with it. Maybe I should drink everytime I speak......NOT. Not but seriously. It has become a pattern that every time I go out, I crave falafel, BADLY! For the past few weeks I wasn't able to acquire it. I don't know what I am going to do when I come back to te states and all there is, is Mexican food. But I do miss that too!
No comments:
Post a Comment