Through the Desert

So after Rosh HaShana break, I began my first day of volunteering in Arad before I leave for the army on October 15th. We got to completely repaint a bomb shelter in the Ethiopian part of town and in the process, we got paint in our hair, clothes, skin, and also had a few paint wars. I'm still trying to get the paint out of my shorts. We also spent another day cleaning, raking, and picking up every single dead grass and leaf in the ecological garden behind the children's preschool here in Arad. On Thursday we had our first field trip. They took us to a city called Sderot. For those of you who have never heard of Sderot, it is a town about 1.5 km from the Gaza Strip that back during wartime, was raided with thousands of rockets. As a result, the government of Israel funded the city to turn every bus stop into a bomb shelter, and built bomb shelters everywhere else from children's playgrounds to outside houses. We met with current residents of Sderot around our age and heard their positions on the conflict and why they choose to still live there. We also met a woman who was evicted from her home in Gush Katif (northern part of Gaza) back in 2005 during the disengagement. All that remains of Gush Katif today is giant piles of rubble and sand.

On Friday, a group of about 15 of us were bored and decided it would be a good day to go to the Dead Sea. We all met up at the bus station and ended up spending about half the day at the sea. I also put Dead Sea mud all over my body for the first time (pictures coming up below). It is an amazing feeling being able to completely sit up in the water. On the other hand, it sucks when you realize you have cuts on your feet and your feet burn for 5 minutes straight. Overall it was a great day and I got to spend it with some amazing friends. Yesterday, we all decided to go on a hike to a viewpoint half an hour away from where we live. Besides taking a bunch of pictures over the edge of a cliff, a few of us decided it would be a good idea to try to hike all the way down the canyon on no trail whatsoever, just loose rocks and sand. After slipping a bunch of times, we finally made it to the bottom of the canyon, screamed crazy things to hear our echoes, and eventually made our way back up. Surprisingly the way down was a lot harder. Our dinner last night consisted of microwavable schnitzel, and some Israeli salad that I made for the apartment. Slowly but surely, I shall learn to cook!

 

 

For everyone observing have an easy fast and Gmar Chatima Tova.
צום קל לכולם וגמר חתימה טובה!

Rosh HaShana

There are no words that can explain how amazing this whole last week was. Last Sunday I began Sar-El, a one week opportunity to volunteer in the Israeli Army. We started every day with breakfast at 7:30, flag raising at 8:15, and scrubbing the floors until 9. The majority of the rest of the day, we spend working out in the field on tanks, trucks, and helping out with the daily jobs that soldiers have during their service. The first night we had curfew and lights out at 11 and so we all fell asleep thinking we were going to have a good 8 hours of sleep. We were so wrong... At about 2:30 in the morning, commanders came banging on all of our doors screaming for us to get up, put our uniforms on, and get outside all within 2 minutes. When we got outside, we were told to do push ups. People started laughing so they made us do more push ups. We were also told to run to a staircase 30 feet away and back within 10 seconds and when we failed each time because it was impossible, they'd make us do it again. Then they took us to the field and taught us a position that you are supposed to jump into if a grenade is thrown, but they didn't check that there were thorns in the field so we got a bunch of thorns stuck in our uniforms. It was a painful, but great experience, and I hope the Israelis had a laugh from it. The following nights, they took us on night activities which included games, learning about the different ranks and forces, and meeting soldiers in service right now to talk to us about their experience in the army. They also took us to a place I am not allowed to speak about, but let's just say that it was pretty awesome.

Thursday night, my cousins and I all drove up to the Sea of Galilee to an apartment my cousins own up north. We spent the nights making food on the grill, and blasting Israeli music so that everyone at the neighboring hotel could hear it too. While there, we went swimming in the sea, drove up north to go kayaking in the Jordan River during which we kept shoving each other into the water, and ate so much food.  Rosh HaShana dinner was delicious and I spent the rest of the weekend swimming in the Mediterranean and going to see the movie Ted. I have to thank my cousins for one of the best weekends I ever had.

Orientation week

So the past 6 days in Arad have been filled with "fun" lectures lasting for hours about alcohol safety, sexual encounters, and rules of Year Course. A few days ago though, we got the apartment debit card and got to go shopping for our apartment for the first time. We bought 16 bags of shoko be sakit (chocolate milk in a bag for those of you who have never had the privelege to try it), a handful of junk food, some healthy food, and a bunch of other things. If we save up hopefully we'll have enough for a nice steak dinner at the end of the month or something. I can't explain how amazing the past week has been. I came on the gap year not knowing anyone and now it feels like I've known them all for years. The apartment is great although it's in a huge mess right now but that's just because we've been to lazy to unpack everything. My roomates are awesome and we are one of the only rooms with Midwest kids in our section. 2 of them are from Milwaukee, one from Minneapolis, and one's from Pittsburgh. Here's a nice photo of us:


Friday and Saturday we spent "Shabbat Beyachad"/Shabbat together. Before Shabbat came in, they took us to a lookout from where we could see the backside of Masada, and in the distance we could also see the dead sea. We then went to dinner and spent all of Shabbat as a family. After sleeping in Saturday Morning, we had the choice to do some activities. Myself and a few others all chose to do yoga, in which we stretched for about 20 minutes and ended up sleeping for half an hour.


In a few hours, I am leaving my apartment for a week for a program called "Sar-El". I will be staying on an army training base and helping the soldiers with whatever they need, whether it be packing parachutes into bags, or helping out the commanders. I'm a bit nervous but kind of excited too. Friday and Saturday, theres a possibility I may go kayaking but I haven't figured that one out just yet. I'm going to have limited internet access this week so if I don't manage to post this week have a Shavua Tov/great week

First Day

When I got to the airport to meet up with everyone that had just landed in Israel, I'll admit it was a bit awkward but by the time we got on the buses, I was already talking to half the people there. It was an annoying 2 hour bus ride to get to Arad (which is in the middle of nowhere by the Dead Sea) from the airport. When we finally got here, we were told dinner was at 7. By the time we finished the apartment placements, it was already 9. To feed our starving stomachs, they got us like 10 different kinds of pizza and I have no complaints. For those of you wondering how the apartment works out, we have 6 guys, and one bathroom...this should be interesting. Everything else in the apartment is great although we have to wash the dishes by hand. My roommates are great and I'm excited to meet new people tomorrow. And I forgot to mention that absolutely EVERYONE tells me I have a Chicago accent especially when I have an "A" in the word. Apparently we Chicagoans stretch out our A's. I didn't even know Chicago had its own accent although I guess with most of the program being either from Florida, Texas, and New York, I might sound a bit odd. Jersualem on thursday!!

One More Day Til' Year Course!

Hey everyone,
I've been told by a few people that I should try to keep a blog while I'm in Israel so here it goes. Tomorrow I'm starting Young Judaea Year Course, a 9 month long program during which I will go through 3 months of Israeli Army training in the desert, 3 months of college level and credit worthy classes in Jerusalem, and 3 months of learning and volunteering in Bat Yam (20 minutes from Tel Aviv). I know absolutely no one going on the program so this should be interesting. I'm going to try to post as often as I can to keep you all updated.

Shalom!