Last Friday, I took my sweet time getting to Tel Aviv. I rode the bus with Elana and Jessica from the university to Tel Aviv but I was mostly distracted by text-messaging on my cell with a friend that I was supposed to meet. I ended up ditching the plan since it turned out that we'd be taken to different places by our buses and I just freaked out because I still didn't know the city that well. Instead, I somehow navigated my way around the new central bus station (huge, HUGE, it felt like walking through Grand Central and Penn together) to find a bus that would take me to downtown Tel Aviv.
Though the day was beautiful, in the 70's with plenty of sunshine, I dragged myself to shopping. That's right, Mom, I said drag. It's not the weather but it's the whole fashion shopping in Israel that turned me off from wanting to wander in and out of the stores. As you might remember, I torn my favorite pair of jeans a couple weeks ago and the weather's getting too warm to wear my cords. So it was time to find a new pair of jeans. I detest Israeli fashion- it's all about rhinestones, metal tacks, huge wear holes (caused by rubbing in sandpaper to create major wear), and anything but plain and simple. Also, I generally think it's tasteless. So anyway, I walked down Shenkin street from Carmel Market and went into a few stores. It took me an hour to find a perfect pair of jeans at some store for $50 on sale. If anything to know about Israeli clothing, jeans tend to be more expensive than anything else. I sort of liked them and the store told me no returns but the very idea of having to shop some more, I just handed over my credit card!!! No more shopping in Israel, ever. Except if I happen to see a cute skirt. I can't wait to go home to America. Honestly, I was amazed at myself. Generally, I'm a shopaholic and love shopping no matter what but I had never felt this way about shopping before...
Afterwards, I went down to the shuk! I knew there was one but didn't quite know where it was but it was just in another street of Carmel Market that I didn't go down before. It's huge. I will do a post on it to give you a grand tour of a typical Israeli shuk in the next one. I picked up some yummy baklava at the end of the street. I also had some Arabic snack with a big pita folded in with yogurt, parsley, and zatar (Israeli seasoning). Tasty!
Mitchell and I finally got in touch and met up. It was great seeing him- ever since Ulpan ended, it's been hard to see other people from different classes! We went over to his apartment, which is in a very sweet location- just a block north of the Carmel Market, right on Allenby street. It's even on the top floor with amazing view of Tel Aviv- windows wrapped around the place. I met two of his new friends who had been on a break during ulpan. They were from Australia and Germany. The German girl's pretty affectionate... and she's in a masters program in Germany for Jewish Studies. The Australian girl ditched us pretty fast because she was tired. So anyway, the three of us went down to the crafts section of the market. Mitchell fell in love with these handmade diaromas that were copied to actual photographs. You could give this artist a picture of a room in your home and she would create a mini room just like it with different materials. For $75, the girl and I tried to talk him out of it but I gave in since if it'll remind him of Israel more than anything else, then so be it. While he went to the ATM, the girl and I hung out and looked at some jewelry. I actually saw some that I liked but didn't have enough sheklim on me.
Mitchell invited me over for Shabbat dinner but I declined since I wanted to meet the people that I'm meeting with the Ravids and his time was a little too late for me (9 PM). I did want to spend more time with the gang- especially that Sam was there too.
Linda picked me up, looking rather frazzled after such a long week for her, and we drove back to the kibbutz. I got a great surprise- their middle daughter, Yis'min, was there! She quit her job in Beersheba and was living at home. It turned out that because I was there on weekends, she was usually at her job as a guide wheres I wouldn't be there during the week and she would be. She reminds me so much of Maa'yan- talkative, energetic, and very sweet. I loved hanging out with her all weekend. The oldest, Anat, was nothing like her siblings- she's quiet, reserved, and fair whereas her siblings are more outgoing, curious, and dark. The "adopted" one you might say- as I would say about Andrew. Yis'min and I wonder if our sibling was "adopted" because they look nothing like us! Anyway, we love our sibling.
We went over to Goldsteins' house for Shabbat. They live outside of the kibbutz, closer to Hertzilya. The husband, Ken, is a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the wife, Amanda, is a teacher. They have two younger children- very nice. Ken and I hit it off right away because of "only in Israel/small-world connection." He actually grew up in Northampton and his father is one of the government professors. I knew his name but I had never actually met him. He told me where he lived- right down the street from the Quad. Also, since he went to University of Michigan for graduate school for his political science PhD, he also knew Zvi Gitelman personally- his father and him were best friends. Yay for academia. He offered to give me some guidance about graduate school admissions so I got his business card. He's in Israel for sabbatical and according to Yis'min, he met Shlomi in Jerusalem somewhere and was looking for a babysitter and of course, Shlomi offered him his daughters.
There was another family there but I didn't really get to know them much since they seemed kind of distracted, especially with their baby.
Ken and Amanda also brought their aged yellow lab from the States and "adopted" a Pinscher puppy that they found in a dump. He was really cute and loving! The dinner was very nice and slightly American style with sushi and chips 'n' guacomole for appeitzers.
Not surprisely, we watched that Friday night Israeli satire show.
On Shabbat, Shlomi woke me up with the smell of French toast challah. We had our breakfast outside- it felt like summer! I totally devoured my French toast since it's a novelty for me. We had long conversations about different things. Linda introduced me "sweet passion," some kind of fruit that you eat with a spoon. It tasted sour so I didn't eat the rest of it.
After brunch, Linda and I set off to do some hiking/fruit picking around the kibbutz. She told me that after Australia, Israel is the second country in the world with the highest rate of skin cancer. From anthropological view, many Israelis migrated from northern Europe so their skin wasn't made to handle this kind of climate with strong sunshine. We talked a little bit about Zionism since one of my professors gave a lecture on it last week and I was having difficult time with Kobe's Zionist attitude ("You aren't a Zionist unless you make aliyah!"). She told me about the Israeli and Arab perceptions about Israel and Zionism. Then Maa'yan called to say hello (she was working at the army base).
I've never actually done fruit picking other than just apples so it was interesting to see how oranges and lemons grew. The citrus fruit trees kept pricking me with its thorns! Linda showed me the buds for the flowers that would grow soon- Israel will eventually smell of lemon blossoms-mmmm. It's important that we picked as much lemon as we could before the flowers bloom so they can bloom and spread the pollen. Most of the oranges were gone when we got to its orchard.
When we came back, Linda put together a hot Shabbat lunch that included lasagna (which I just basically had). Yis'min and I talked a bit about birthright and her wish to travel to Central America when I asked her when she planned to come back to the States. Then I got into a discussion with her and Linda about the black people in Israel and how their treatment by the whites differ than from America. Israelis tend to look down upon the Ethiopians because they live a very simple life (which is interesting because sometimes American Jews can look down to Israelis for living such a simple life compared to them!). Anyway, Linda made the point that it's just a biological thing that the darker you are, the more likely you're looked down upon. She told me an example of the cheap Thai workers in Israel- they covered every inch of their bodies that you could only seen their finger tips and their eyes so they wouldn't get too tanned when they return to Thailand. When I brought up about America's treatment of the blacks as slaves, Yis'min countered that it's just the same as Israel do for the Palestinians- enslaving them to their horrible, impoverished environment with very little movement. So the tensions between the two countries didn't compete of who's worse off.
What was funny during lunch was that when Linda talked to Ofek about his high school paper project, she told him how excited she was because it'd the first paper she'd really get to read since it'd be in English. She still finds reading in Hebrew a bit difficult so she hasn't really read any of her children's papers written in Hebrew.
By the way, I have to mention that Linda reminds me quite bit of Eileen, my camp director where I used to spend my summers riding. Both are liberal, nature lovers, take pride in their work, and do things in their best interest. They also believe in simplicity. They also can be firm when they want to be. It didn't quite occur to me until I saw Linda embracing her kibbutz life when we'd walk around it. Same way Eileen views her lifestyle on her camp.
For the rest of the day, we just did our own thing. Watched a Survivor re-run, played on the Internet, slept.... I was just happy to be staying with a Israeli family where I could get so much out of living in Israel. I wish the program offered homestays.
Two things of interest in my classes this week:
1) I got fed up with my Holocaust seminar on Monday when I realized that the other two students seriously have very little background of the Holocaust. I felt like I could do all the lecturing for the professor in answering their questions, they didn't really bring up anything that was thought-provoking to create great discussions. So after consulting with Yoel, our program director, I e-mailed the professor for his suggestions considering that I just didn't fit in the class. Right now, it looks like I don't really have to go to class and just do the internship. I don't really know but somehow, we'll just get me a grade.
2) For my EE-Jewry class, we went on a field trip yesterday afternoon to see all the Russian architecture built around the Russian Compound, the Old City's Christian Quarter, and outside of the Old City in the foothills of Mount of Olives. Our guide was a doctoral candidate who was concentrating on Russian architecture. We visited several beautiful Russian Orthodox churches- probably the most pleasing churches I've ever been to, more so than Prague and Madrid. I noticed a major difference- no pews. The frescos in the church in the Russian compound were of gorgeous pale colors including blue, pink, and yellow. Not surprisely, each church had lots of gold. The Church of St. Mary Magdalene, just next to Mount of Olives, offered the best view of the Dome of the Rock- I wish I had my camera! Its architecture was really striking and more Russian than the other two churches with golden onion domes and white exterior. Many of the Russian architecture around Jerusalem were built by the czars in the 19th century. The point of the trip was... I think just to have a field trip and the fact that we're studying 19th century Russia right now.
That's my news! Grandma and Zev, and Uncle Joel and Aunt Rose come on Monday!!!!!!! 5 more days.
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