Week before Pesach and Carmel Trip

This was an excellent week.

To begin, there was a lot of Ulpan - and furthermore, everyone who has had trouble making to 8:30 AM Ulpan asked for the 3 hour long sessions for the week to start a half hour later to give us additional time. It didn't help them, and some mornings only Jeff and I were in Ulpan. It was awesome, like private lessons. Eventually an hour or more after the class began, other students would stroll in.

Afternoons were without much going on since the schools here have two weeks of vacation. Wednesday evening was our weekly enrichment, a seder at Mazi's. Since coming to Israel, I have really enjoyed partaking in questions around challachah (talmudic law), despite my limited knowledge of it. You aren't supposed to have Matzah or sing the prayers prior to the actual seder is my understanding, so how can we have a mini seder with the group before pesach begins. A good question. Then there were other questions around the dinner itself, would it be in the spirit of Pesach without bread or could we put croutons in the salad since Pesach hadn't really started yet anyway. The debate amongst the group was enjoyable leading up to it.

Yosfetal - my home until Wednesday evening - was responsible for making a mixed green salad and bringing two bottles of soft drinks. I picked up everything for our group, and brought it back. I ended up making the salad as well, but keeping it separate until we went to Mazi's where we would mix it together (I never got to try the finished product for some reason, It must have been passed from just left or right of me, but it looked good, so I hope it was enjoyed).

The seder at Mazi's was nice, with Momo playing the role of Elijah and showing up and then leaving to go to other seders. I decided not to have Matzah, mostly because I didn't want any, not necessarily for religious reasons. The Haggadah we used, a mini haggadah, was a compilation of different pieces of the story. Some songs, some prayers. We got all four glasses of wine, the finger dipping (there was a discussion as to which finger to dip with) but we skipped the four children part, and questions were sung as a group.

The next morning, Izy and I arrived from our new residence at Herzl 15 to the bus stop where we met the group to begin our Carmel trip. On the bus, which arrived promptly at 6:50 PM (very unusual for Israel for things to run on time) was the new Ness Tsyiona group. I chatted with them for a while, or at least, those that were awake, before moving up to the front of the bus to talk with Asi, their organizer and some other Ramla people.

Nir managed to get hurt early in the trip, and returned home before the hike.

We managed to see some beautiful gardens planted around the Baron von Rothschild grave. I particularly enjoyed the rose gardens, where I used the color accent feature that I have come to enjoy on my camera so much. I only wish that it took two shots so you could capture the photo and then process immediately, so you can still have the original - which is the benefit of post processing in photoshop. I chatted with one of the new kids about the new photoshop coming out, it sounds amazing. I really need to learn more about photo processing. I loved what it said on Dorothy's tomb: "She tried to do what he wanted in the way that he wanted". Classic.

I stopped to smell red roses, which had a wonderful aroma. You aren't supposed to pick flowers in Israel, especially protected flowers - but smelling them is definitely allowed.

Below are views from the Carmel mountain looking out over the sea. It's stunning, from there, the majestic nature is not captured in the slightest with the camera. It was perfect weather with blue skies, not hot nor cold.

Here are one of the endangered flowers (shown below), oops! On the inside, each petal has a black dot, thus four black dots surround in the center of flower, and it is a vibrant red. They are protected, which is a good thing, since they are quite beautiful. In the background are other mountains close to Carmel, and behind us is a large cave.

 Unfortunately, stopping to take pictures earlier meant that I missed most of the lecture on the cave as a dwelling place in previous times.

On to the Bahai Gardens, in Haifa, where I lost the group for most of the time there.  I stopped when I saw some friends from other groups, and started talking.  When I looked up, everyone had disappeared.  I finally found them on the promenade just as everyone was getting up from the final lecture.

The coolest part of the day for me was running into Uriel in Carmel town.  Uriel was my brithright guide nearly  5 years ago when I first came to Israel.  I got his email, and the following day sent him some photos from the trip.  It was like coming full circle for me here in Israel.

The bus ride home was fine, we got back relatively early, and spent some time taking photos in front of the Ramla sign (must ask Rachel for a copy of her photos) before I went back to my new apartment.

Before shabbat started some friends and I went for dinner at the Indian Restaurant in town.  The food was alright, it made me miss New York indian food (London is still my favorite place to have indian cuisine!)  After was a low key evening of scrabble and 

Shakshouka for Lunch

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Dinner in Tel Aviv

After arriving in Tel Aviv, I took the 4 towards HaCarmel Market.  My first stop was a yarn store to pick up some knitting needles, but hunger won out.  I wandered back into the food market until I realized I was being drawn towards a familiar smell.  The Kebab was delicious, and I inhaled a sandwich while chatting with the guy in the small stand.

With my hungers satiated, I returned to find the yarn store.  As I walked, I took a phone call, and as I chatted, and meandered aimlessly I stopped looking.  Then I suddenly found myself standing before the store - it certainly worked out nicely!  I found a nice yarn only to realize I had been looking at them while still on the phone, and with my attention diverted to the call, I hadn't realized my sunglasses were still on.  I removed the sunglasses, and selected another color now that I could see the actual color.

I continued to meander up Sheinken, and then headed down towards Dizengoff Center, and Hamelekh George street, or King George Street.  Nick called, and we agreed to meet for dinner.  I had come in as well originally hoping to meet up with some friends, but hadn't heard from them yet, and knew that they wouldn't be arriving in time for dinner.  Later learned that they decided not to come back until today (the day after).  As I walked across the street, a familiar looking smile caught me attention.  A girl sitting at the bus stop looked up at me, and we both had a moment before realizing we knew each other.  We spoke for a few minutes before the bus came, and then as she was getting on I mentioned a restaurant I was planning to go back to.  She suggested I go early because from 5 - 7, all the pasta dishes are 10 shekels, and the pasta is really good.  It was still early, so I called to give Nick the address, and then headed to a used book store for a while.  I ended up selecting The Firm by Grisham, and came back to put my name on the list so I could sit and read.  I ended up getting called, and decided to sit at the bar for a while, have a glass of cava and continue reading.  I also chatted with the two gentlemen next to me briefly about books, a nice change from my typical conversations which revolve around the fact that I am volunteer, I live in Ramla, etc.

It was getting close to seven, so I picked two pasta dishes and ordered for us.  Shortly after, Nick arrived, and we caught up over a glass of wine or two.  The plan had been to get together for at least one more crazy night like we had in Jerusalem.  After dinner, we headed to 70Poalim, the wine store I like on Bograshov.  We ended up deciding on a bottle of Finlandia for the evening, and headed down the street to purchase a juice to mix it with.

Sitting back on the same pier I had sat on a few nights prior, only this time, we had lounge chairs, we shared stories, laughed and continued to talk about things going on.  At some point, we finished the bottle and decided we were hungry.  Mike's Cafe was right behind us, and so we went there.  We ended up running into Aviva, who was amazing.  She made sure we were hydrated, and we ordered a calzone or pizza, so we had food in our stomach as well.

After that we went back to the Takanat Mercazit, the central bus station, and parted ways.  I hit the Sherut perfectly - I got on as the last person, and off we went.  I must have fallen asleep, but luckily Jonathan, my roommate, was also on the Sherut, and woke me up to get off.  It was then that we realized that I hadn't payed for the Sherut.  Surprising since usually the drivers are very good about getting money.  I suppose it makes up for the trip in, when someone tried to keep my change as it was passed back.

This morning I woke up bright and early, around seven.  Layed in bed, wrote an email or two, and then around 8:30, got up and went to Ulpan.  I think Jonathan was in shock seeing me up and about.  The night before I was not in great shape after having half of the Finlandia bottle.  I turned out to be the first one at Ulpan.  Like the day before, Jeff showed up as did Annie and Rachel.  The rest of those that came arrived an hour late.  Jonathan came only a few minutes late, which shocked us all.

I imagine that I will crash later today, and sleep quite peacefully tonight - which would be a pity, I am looking forward to catching up with friends this evening.  Hopefully a nap this afternoon will buy me some additional time.

Leaving Ramla and heading To Tel Aviv

Heading into Tel Aviv for dinner and to run some errands.
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Good Deeds Day

Last week there was a national holiday called good deeds day, and so we volunteered at a school in Jawarish - the arab side of town. Most of the mothers came and made food which was amazing. But, in addition to just consuming their food, we also helped make the school a little more beautiful. You can see the sketched out stuff above.

We worked with the kids and brought some color to the area. Nicole and Jackie look on as Erica works on some flowers.

Above, Jeff shows off a finished product, a day of hard work and lots of consumption of tasty treats. It was a most enjoyable experience, and some of us have asked Nir about the possibility of returning to do work at the school instead of some of the Jewish schools in Ramla. We were all impressed with the respect the students had for the teachers, something that doesn't seem to exist in the Jewish schools where the authority of the teachers appears to be ignored almost entirely most of the time.

Shabbaton in Arad

I went to a shabbaton this weekend in Arad on the Periphery.  It was nice to get away, and I some really interesting people on the trip - the lectures weren't particularly exciting though for me.  We spent a lot of time discussing what is the periphery - but we never gave that discussion importance or context because it was never made clear how deciding what is the periphery and what is not changes the types of benefits available to certain locations.

Also, MASA never reached out to inform us that the host families would not be happening or that we were moving from a hotel to a youth hostel.  I definitely believe that when you are paying for something, even something that is highly subsidized, keeping open communication is important.  It's frustrating to feel like you weren't important enough as a group for MASA to take the moment to update you with changes.  And, you begin to wonder what sort of other changes would be taking place.

I am of the opinion that periphery is a state of mind, and it is relative.  It's all in the context of what your field of view is.  There is no such thing as absolute definition, one might argue that all of Israel is in the periphery.  I did watch an interesting argument play out though that prompted some thinking.

Israel, is the only country for which a large portion of the world continues to question it's right to existence.  It's a unique thing, no other country is constantly being told that it is not a valid country.  When in fact, it shares many similarities with other countries in terms of the development of it's statehood.  But, that is not the topic of my observation.

We were going to our cabin, there were four of us with two bunk beds.  Izy and Ben, Josh and I.  I am not particular with housing or sleeping arrangements, but they all wanted the lower bunk.  They started calling out for the bottom bunk as we neared the cabin.  As the argument ensued, Izy started to suggest doing rocks paper scissor to decide.  I pointed out that he was deligitimizing his claim to the bunk by being willing to offer ways that they could decide.  And then I thought about Israel, maybe Israel is questioned because it doubts itself at times?  Perhaps because Israel is always willing to give up so much, or give back, it is making it difficult for itself because it gives us the appearance of trying to make up for something, the fact that we were given land that was already inhabited by the British.  Obviously, it's a lot more complex - but there are a lot countries in the world that don't get along, and yet only in this instance is the question of right to existence brought to the table.  It's an interesting point for discussion.

After the Shabbaton, we came back to Tel Aviv, and Aviva and Sasha and I met up with Aviva's friends at a neat little bar in Tel Aviv for some appetizers.  The bar is called King George and it's on King George.  I highly recommend it.

Afterwards, we went for some wine tasting at 70poalim, and then split a bottle and exchanged stories on the beach.  A good ending to Shabbat.

Waking up for Ulpan this morning was painful on almost no sleep, and the apartment being freezing from the night before.  I rather enjoyed it however, and plan to spend the rest of the day working on my hebrew at the library to patch up some things which are lacking in clarity for me.