First off, I must make a note to myself. Israelis literally celebrate Shabbat with not one, but two feasts. One big dinner on Friday night, then a long Saturday lunch. Last weekend’s Tel Aviv visit was certainly not an exception. Therefore, I must change my diet during the week accordingly to prevent weight gain.
Anyway, the Tsfat trip was amazing. After checking my spam folder on Thursday at 1:30, the e-mail for the trip said to meet for the bus at 2:15 PM. I ran out of the main campus back to my room since I hadn’t packed or eaten lunch yet (even though I was a bit filled from my breakfast avocado sandwich earlier). I got there on time but there were not many people yet. Strange but more people eventually came and I saw a lot of my friends. I was really excited and happy knowing that I’d have a great time with these people. I sat with Sam- she was just so nice, curious, and helpful. Did I mention generous too? She bought food to share with everyone- deli turkey, a huge bag of sliced peppers, and awesome Belgian chocolate wafers. The bus ride was uneventful. It took about 3 hours as we left a bit after 3 PM and got to Tsfat around 6:30. I spent a lot of time thinking about traveling and what I want to do after graduation. We went through Tiberias along the way- good to see the Sea of Galilee. I also saw Decks’ restaurant- a big upscale place that gives vouchers for the dance/party boat that goes around the sea in warm weather. By the way, the chaperones brought their children along, including a 3 month old baby. She was soooo sweet the whole weekend- not very fussy.
When we got to Tsfat, we stayed in at Tel Aviv hotel. For some reason, the whole scenario reminded me of arriving at seemingly sketchy hotels from my birthright trips. Israeli hotels, real ones, aren’t as fancy or poshy as European or American ones. They are simple and clean (though later one of the people complained of mold in the bathroom). We just dropped out stuff in the lobby as the program rented out the entire place for us. Pretty neat.
Before dinner, we made a trip to Safed Candle Factory (Safed is also another name for Tsfat). It was soooooo cool to see decorative wax art on the walls and in glass cases. The candles were gorgeous and I bought some for gifts figuring that I probably would not get a chance to come back here. I was really impressed with the woven wax mats on the wall, wondering how fragile they were. After purchasing my candles, I ended up walking back with a girl named Leah, who was from Tel Aviv University. That’s when I found out that we were not the only school going on this program. Apparently a bunch of people from Tel Aviv and Beersheva (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) joined in the fun. She told me that she was from Canada, close to Toronto area (I have been meeting a lot of Canadiens…) and majoring and minoring in the exact same subjects as I was!
Dinner was really disappointing- only pita with humus, salsa, and meat along with chips and soda. I felt a little sick- I just had pita and humus for lunch! Lexi, Sam, Aly, and I decided that we’d be roommates for the weekend. So we headed up to our rooms to put our stuff away. The room had four twin beds- two side by side and two as bunk beds. Sam and I shared the bunk beds (me on the bottom since Sam’s really tall). The toilet was separate from the shower/sink- on opposite ends of the room! The room was also cold- the heater was no but there was no circulation. I felt like I had been spoiled up to this point in terms of staying in decent places. Sam reminded me that as long the room was clean, it’s fine. They did provide towels and linens (which later I actually had to make the bed).
Our evening activity was to take a “mystical tour” of Tsfat, which meant night walking tour. I definitely brought my flashlight (Thanks, Mom….). Somehow some of us got separate from the group after a while. I met Liora, also from Tel Aviv. Like Leah, she had been here since August. When we griped a little about dinner, Liora compared pita and humus being like America’s PBJ sandwich. Good point as I had been making similar comparison about falafel and schwarma in Israel being like hot dogs and hamburgers. I exchanged a couple stories about my trip to Spain as she told me that she’d be meeting her mom and sister in Spain for a week during Passover. She helped me find our way back to the hotel.
During the night, I was freezing in my little corner. I had so much trouble falling asleep that the night just seemed to take forever. I had even brought my black stadium Colgate blanket and that did not help t o trap in my body heat. I thought that maybe I had turned the heater the wrong way so I got up. When I stood in front of the heater, I felt a tap from Sam. I realized that she was sleeping with her head towards the heat and there was also a working portable heater that felt so toasty warm. Then I switched around the bed so my pillow was towards the heat. I slept well after that. (By the way, Sam wasn’t actually sleeping the direction I thought- she was just up and coming in from the outside because people were being obnoxiously loud).
We arose at 6 AM for our 6:30 depature to Mount Hermon. The breakfast was very Israeli style- fish, yogurt, cottage cheese, et cetera. We also had to make our own lunches at another table. Since it was dairy I made myself a tuna sandwich. Then we climbed on the bus and made a 2 hour trip to the North. I slept for about an hour. It was really exciting getting closer but also pretty nuts because we were in middle of a busy traffic heading towards the mountains. When I saw the snow, real snow, my jaw dropped. The view was simply surreal to see- snow in Israel. Yesterday, I had been in the desert. Linda had told me that the area had some recent snowstorms but I did not think that they would dump so much as those in the United States. The roads were obviously plowed.
Mount Hermon was basically wild. That’s the best word I can describe it as every moment I had there was every man for himself kind of situation. I had to buy a headband to keep my processors from flying off my ears- fortunately they had Columbia brand ones so I could get a blue one that matched my jacket. Then we waited around a bit for the chaperones to pay for our ski rentals. We all got our skis and put our stuff in the lockers. I shared with Ellen since the lockers cost 10 shekls to rent and I just needed someplace to put my lunch and boots in. The entire lodge was a madhouse- who knew that even Israelis loved to ski!
Because of the locker sharing, I ended up hanging out with Ellen for the next three hours. That’s right, we skied/snowboarded (she did) for the entire time. The chairlift stations had no line markets so it was a big crowd- no one stood in straight lines and taking turns. Ellen and I literally hung onto each other so we’d ride up together. The first run was rather difficult because the trail was not very well groomed and also I had not skied in two years. We both rated it high intermediate or low black diamond.
Mount Hermon, like I said, is a jungle. It became very important to watch other people to see where they were going and how they were handling the trail. There are no trees and not very many fenced off areas. You chose how you wanted to go. A lot of times, we found ourselves doing some cross-country type of skiing on the mountains to find another path to go down. There were also more lifts behind the first one that we had just gotten on. One or two of them were bars- it was a hilarious sight. The bars could push up two people but they had to be skiers. Snowboarders had to have the bar to themselves and more than often, they could not make it all the way to the top without falling off their boards. Ellen got left behind each time. The second time, she simply hiked up with the snowboard under her arm. While I waited for her, I took the time to take in the view around me. It was just simply breathtaking and gorgeous. Beautiful white snow stood against vivid blue, cloudless sky with crisp lines separating the two natural elements. The sun was out and it was not very cold- perfect skiing weather for Mom. I only had my jeans, long sleeved shirt, sweater, and parka on. I doubled my gloves- wearing my liners underneath my regular cashmere gloves. Anyway, I felt so incredibly lucky to be in Israel and skiing in this gorgeous setting. It was just so amazing to be on the top. Actually where we were was on the back side of the mountain. When we approached this part of the jungle, I felt pretty nervous because nothing was marked, there were no real trails with names and I just had no idea where we were going. It felt pretty easy to get lost!
Ellen and I stayed up on the top for another hour before heading all the way back down. The trails on the very top were kind of easy- it was great for snowboarding with deep walls on the sides. Then we did a couple of lower runs- they were actually much more challenging. I did not think that they were groomed at all as the snow felt pretty heavy. I had a lot of difficulty making the back of my skis turn well. The snow was not powder. A Colorado skier in my program said that the equipment wasn’t that great… I didn’t know it was Salmon brand. I actually ended up bending of the poles from hitting something very hard- I can’t remember now. The Israelis on the mountains were better at skiing than driving, thank goodness. After all, I am here, unscathed and not traumatized by my amazing experience. Elle and I would love to come back here and do more skiing. We just went all over the mountain- never taking the same trail twice (it was hard to anyway). I also took some pretty great shots.
We left around 2:45ish due to a delay with another fellow participant’s injury. So many of us were so tired and I actually did fall asleep after we passed Tel Dan, where I had hiked 18 months ago. The scenery changed so fast, within about 5-10 minutes of where we were to the town from lots of snow to beautiful green nature area.
For Shabbat, we went to makeshift services on the top floor of Tsfat’s visitor’s information center. It was set up in an orthodox fashion with women on the right and men on the left. The nice part of our side was that we had lots of windows overlooking the hills of Tsfat. Several wooden dividers with laced drapery over the windows separated the women from the rabbi and his men. We sang some prayers and danced out of our plastic chairs. It was pretty unexpected as I was used to sitting down the entire time (except for certain prayers like the Amidah). Nevertheless, it was fun to get up and moving around and doing all the Jewish dances that we did at bar mitzvahs and weddings. Apparently, Shabbat in Tsfat is really a celebration- as it is true that the Jews allude the Shabbat as the bride (hence the “Shabbat bride” term). Towards the end, one of the rabbis did a sermon about how we had traveled from desert to sea to mountains in one place and talked about Shabbat in Tsfat and Israel. I am not sure if I am ready to make that big of a deal out of Shabbat like that yet.
For dinner, we feasted on a four, five course menu of appetizers with mixed salad, bread, geefilte fish, and potato burrecas. Then we had chicken soup which I saved my challah for dipping. For the main course, we had baked chicken (very dry), carrots, and rice. For dessert was sorbet (of course, I did not touch it). Our last course was served in another room where we sang more songs with chocolate crossiants, cinnamon rolls, strawberries, and some chocolates. The whole affair was extremely loud that my hearing aids kept going off and I had a lot of difficulty keeping up and understanding the conversations around me. A group of men in one corner felt so jolly that they kept singing songs and did get up at one point to dance. Then some of the girls, including me, got up and danced around an empty buffet table. I sat with Sam, Aly, and Lexi with both of the rabbis’ families on either side of us. One of the rabbis told us of how he made aliyah and his decision to become a rabbi. Interesting story. I was so full and tired afterwards that Sam and I went up and hit the sack at 10:30. Plus I was tired of all the loudness.
My roommates and I slept in the next morning. Being the first one to get up with time on her hands, I bravely took a shower. Notice that I used the word bravely because yesterday, Lexi went to shower after skiing before Shabbat, she screamed in the shower because the water was freezing cold. She came out looking pretty traumatized. I said that I’d wait until the next morning since I take forever anyway. However, my shower experience was just fine- I had nice, hot water the whole time. The tub was very, very small that you could not step forward or backwards or side to side.
I joined a girl, Nicole, to downstairs to hang around before Shabbat lunch. Then Julianna came in with someone from the services. She and I sat together during lunch along with a couple of guys from Buffalo and I think, Westchester. I was able to follow a little better as I took advantage of several quiet moments. We did Kiddush and feasted on same appetizers as the night before. Our main course was chicken schinztel, potatos in brisket stew, and some kind of kugel. I liked the lunch better especially that chocolate/vanilla soy ice cream was served for dessert. We talked on several topics including our family trees and where our families came from before America. The only annoying part was the son of one of the rabbis had sat across me and kept kicking me. Of course, I kicked back hard to get him to stop but being mischievous he was, he kept going. Julianna tried to scold him in Hebrew, then, his parents made him elsewhere. Ugh, don’t little Jewish boys ever behave?
After lunch, we broke up into discussion groups. It was okay as my group discussed Esther and the Purim. Our leader read an article that was recently printed comparing the Purim story to the current Middle East situation. Okay, whatever. She did tell us a bit about how Purim is celebrated in Israel.
We did a Shabbat walking tour of Tsfat. I visited the synagogues that I had been in and walked the same paths as I did on birthright. I just mostly listened to the conversations around me. I met a guy who’s a graduate student from San Francisco and so we talked a little bit. Then I met Jenn and just as we were heading back to the hotel, some guy in our program came up to us and told us of what happened to him last night. He said that he only got two hours of sleep because he partied and got so drunk that he just punched through a window without thinking. Then one of the rabbis found out and woke him up at 5 AM. I asked him where he was from and he said Canada. Go figure.
I played cards with Becca and Ellen. I’m glad that Ellen remembered her cards as I forgot to bring mine from home. Then we had a light Shabbat dinner- the pasta they served was soooo good. I also exchanged numbers with Liora.
We got back on the bus and left around 7:30. Jerusalem greeted us at 10:45 PM, an hour earlier than I expected.
Anyway, the Tsfat trip was amazing. After checking my spam folder on Thursday at 1:30, the e-mail for the trip said to meet for the bus at 2:15 PM. I ran out of the main campus back to my room since I hadn’t packed or eaten lunch yet (even though I was a bit filled from my breakfast avocado sandwich earlier). I got there on time but there were not many people yet. Strange but more people eventually came and I saw a lot of my friends. I was really excited and happy knowing that I’d have a great time with these people. I sat with Sam- she was just so nice, curious, and helpful. Did I mention generous too? She bought food to share with everyone- deli turkey, a huge bag of sliced peppers, and awesome Belgian chocolate wafers. The bus ride was uneventful. It took about 3 hours as we left a bit after 3 PM and got to Tsfat around 6:30. I spent a lot of time thinking about traveling and what I want to do after graduation. We went through Tiberias along the way- good to see the Sea of Galilee. I also saw Decks’ restaurant- a big upscale place that gives vouchers for the dance/party boat that goes around the sea in warm weather. By the way, the chaperones brought their children along, including a 3 month old baby. She was soooo sweet the whole weekend- not very fussy.
When we got to Tsfat, we stayed in at Tel Aviv hotel. For some reason, the whole scenario reminded me of arriving at seemingly sketchy hotels from my birthright trips. Israeli hotels, real ones, aren’t as fancy or poshy as European or American ones. They are simple and clean (though later one of the people complained of mold in the bathroom). We just dropped out stuff in the lobby as the program rented out the entire place for us. Pretty neat.
Before dinner, we made a trip to Safed Candle Factory (Safed is also another name for Tsfat). It was soooooo cool to see decorative wax art on the walls and in glass cases. The candles were gorgeous and I bought some for gifts figuring that I probably would not get a chance to come back here. I was really impressed with the woven wax mats on the wall, wondering how fragile they were. After purchasing my candles, I ended up walking back with a girl named Leah, who was from Tel Aviv University. That’s when I found out that we were not the only school going on this program. Apparently a bunch of people from Tel Aviv and Beersheva (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) joined in the fun. She told me that she was from Canada, close to Toronto area (I have been meeting a lot of Canadiens…) and majoring and minoring in the exact same subjects as I was!
Dinner was really disappointing- only pita with humus, salsa, and meat along with chips and soda. I felt a little sick- I just had pita and humus for lunch! Lexi, Sam, Aly, and I decided that we’d be roommates for the weekend. So we headed up to our rooms to put our stuff away. The room had four twin beds- two side by side and two as bunk beds. Sam and I shared the bunk beds (me on the bottom since Sam’s really tall). The toilet was separate from the shower/sink- on opposite ends of the room! The room was also cold- the heater was no but there was no circulation. I felt like I had been spoiled up to this point in terms of staying in decent places. Sam reminded me that as long the room was clean, it’s fine. They did provide towels and linens (which later I actually had to make the bed).
Our evening activity was to take a “mystical tour” of Tsfat, which meant night walking tour. I definitely brought my flashlight (Thanks, Mom….). Somehow some of us got separate from the group after a while. I met Liora, also from Tel Aviv. Like Leah, she had been here since August. When we griped a little about dinner, Liora compared pita and humus being like America’s PBJ sandwich. Good point as I had been making similar comparison about falafel and schwarma in Israel being like hot dogs and hamburgers. I exchanged a couple stories about my trip to Spain as she told me that she’d be meeting her mom and sister in Spain for a week during Passover. She helped me find our way back to the hotel.
During the night, I was freezing in my little corner. I had so much trouble falling asleep that the night just seemed to take forever. I had even brought my black stadium Colgate blanket and that did not help t o trap in my body heat. I thought that maybe I had turned the heater the wrong way so I got up. When I stood in front of the heater, I felt a tap from Sam. I realized that she was sleeping with her head towards the heat and there was also a working portable heater that felt so toasty warm. Then I switched around the bed so my pillow was towards the heat. I slept well after that. (By the way, Sam wasn’t actually sleeping the direction I thought- she was just up and coming in from the outside because people were being obnoxiously loud).
We arose at 6 AM for our 6:30 depature to Mount Hermon. The breakfast was very Israeli style- fish, yogurt, cottage cheese, et cetera. We also had to make our own lunches at another table. Since it was dairy I made myself a tuna sandwich. Then we climbed on the bus and made a 2 hour trip to the North. I slept for about an hour. It was really exciting getting closer but also pretty nuts because we were in middle of a busy traffic heading towards the mountains. When I saw the snow, real snow, my jaw dropped. The view was simply surreal to see- snow in Israel. Yesterday, I had been in the desert. Linda had told me that the area had some recent snowstorms but I did not think that they would dump so much as those in the United States. The roads were obviously plowed.
Mount Hermon was basically wild. That’s the best word I can describe it as every moment I had there was every man for himself kind of situation. I had to buy a headband to keep my processors from flying off my ears- fortunately they had Columbia brand ones so I could get a blue one that matched my jacket. Then we waited around a bit for the chaperones to pay for our ski rentals. We all got our skis and put our stuff in the lockers. I shared with Ellen since the lockers cost 10 shekls to rent and I just needed someplace to put my lunch and boots in. The entire lodge was a madhouse- who knew that even Israelis loved to ski!
Because of the locker sharing, I ended up hanging out with Ellen for the next three hours. That’s right, we skied/snowboarded (she did) for the entire time. The chairlift stations had no line markets so it was a big crowd- no one stood in straight lines and taking turns. Ellen and I literally hung onto each other so we’d ride up together. The first run was rather difficult because the trail was not very well groomed and also I had not skied in two years. We both rated it high intermediate or low black diamond.
Mount Hermon, like I said, is a jungle. It became very important to watch other people to see where they were going and how they were handling the trail. There are no trees and not very many fenced off areas. You chose how you wanted to go. A lot of times, we found ourselves doing some cross-country type of skiing on the mountains to find another path to go down. There were also more lifts behind the first one that we had just gotten on. One or two of them were bars- it was a hilarious sight. The bars could push up two people but they had to be skiers. Snowboarders had to have the bar to themselves and more than often, they could not make it all the way to the top without falling off their boards. Ellen got left behind each time. The second time, she simply hiked up with the snowboard under her arm. While I waited for her, I took the time to take in the view around me. It was just simply breathtaking and gorgeous. Beautiful white snow stood against vivid blue, cloudless sky with crisp lines separating the two natural elements. The sun was out and it was not very cold- perfect skiing weather for Mom. I only had my jeans, long sleeved shirt, sweater, and parka on. I doubled my gloves- wearing my liners underneath my regular cashmere gloves. Anyway, I felt so incredibly lucky to be in Israel and skiing in this gorgeous setting. It was just so amazing to be on the top. Actually where we were was on the back side of the mountain. When we approached this part of the jungle, I felt pretty nervous because nothing was marked, there were no real trails with names and I just had no idea where we were going. It felt pretty easy to get lost!
Ellen and I stayed up on the top for another hour before heading all the way back down. The trails on the very top were kind of easy- it was great for snowboarding with deep walls on the sides. Then we did a couple of lower runs- they were actually much more challenging. I did not think that they were groomed at all as the snow felt pretty heavy. I had a lot of difficulty making the back of my skis turn well. The snow was not powder. A Colorado skier in my program said that the equipment wasn’t that great… I didn’t know it was Salmon brand. I actually ended up bending of the poles from hitting something very hard- I can’t remember now. The Israelis on the mountains were better at skiing than driving, thank goodness. After all, I am here, unscathed and not traumatized by my amazing experience. Elle and I would love to come back here and do more skiing. We just went all over the mountain- never taking the same trail twice (it was hard to anyway). I also took some pretty great shots.
We left around 2:45ish due to a delay with another fellow participant’s injury. So many of us were so tired and I actually did fall asleep after we passed Tel Dan, where I had hiked 18 months ago. The scenery changed so fast, within about 5-10 minutes of where we were to the town from lots of snow to beautiful green nature area.
For Shabbat, we went to makeshift services on the top floor of Tsfat’s visitor’s information center. It was set up in an orthodox fashion with women on the right and men on the left. The nice part of our side was that we had lots of windows overlooking the hills of Tsfat. Several wooden dividers with laced drapery over the windows separated the women from the rabbi and his men. We sang some prayers and danced out of our plastic chairs. It was pretty unexpected as I was used to sitting down the entire time (except for certain prayers like the Amidah). Nevertheless, it was fun to get up and moving around and doing all the Jewish dances that we did at bar mitzvahs and weddings. Apparently, Shabbat in Tsfat is really a celebration- as it is true that the Jews allude the Shabbat as the bride (hence the “Shabbat bride” term). Towards the end, one of the rabbis did a sermon about how we had traveled from desert to sea to mountains in one place and talked about Shabbat in Tsfat and Israel. I am not sure if I am ready to make that big of a deal out of Shabbat like that yet.
For dinner, we feasted on a four, five course menu of appetizers with mixed salad, bread, geefilte fish, and potato burrecas. Then we had chicken soup which I saved my challah for dipping. For the main course, we had baked chicken (very dry), carrots, and rice. For dessert was sorbet (of course, I did not touch it). Our last course was served in another room where we sang more songs with chocolate crossiants, cinnamon rolls, strawberries, and some chocolates. The whole affair was extremely loud that my hearing aids kept going off and I had a lot of difficulty keeping up and understanding the conversations around me. A group of men in one corner felt so jolly that they kept singing songs and did get up at one point to dance. Then some of the girls, including me, got up and danced around an empty buffet table. I sat with Sam, Aly, and Lexi with both of the rabbis’ families on either side of us. One of the rabbis told us of how he made aliyah and his decision to become a rabbi. Interesting story. I was so full and tired afterwards that Sam and I went up and hit the sack at 10:30. Plus I was tired of all the loudness.
My roommates and I slept in the next morning. Being the first one to get up with time on her hands, I bravely took a shower. Notice that I used the word bravely because yesterday, Lexi went to shower after skiing before Shabbat, she screamed in the shower because the water was freezing cold. She came out looking pretty traumatized. I said that I’d wait until the next morning since I take forever anyway. However, my shower experience was just fine- I had nice, hot water the whole time. The tub was very, very small that you could not step forward or backwards or side to side.
I joined a girl, Nicole, to downstairs to hang around before Shabbat lunch. Then Julianna came in with someone from the services. She and I sat together during lunch along with a couple of guys from Buffalo and I think, Westchester. I was able to follow a little better as I took advantage of several quiet moments. We did Kiddush and feasted on same appetizers as the night before. Our main course was chicken schinztel, potatos in brisket stew, and some kind of kugel. I liked the lunch better especially that chocolate/vanilla soy ice cream was served for dessert. We talked on several topics including our family trees and where our families came from before America. The only annoying part was the son of one of the rabbis had sat across me and kept kicking me. Of course, I kicked back hard to get him to stop but being mischievous he was, he kept going. Julianna tried to scold him in Hebrew, then, his parents made him elsewhere. Ugh, don’t little Jewish boys ever behave?
After lunch, we broke up into discussion groups. It was okay as my group discussed Esther and the Purim. Our leader read an article that was recently printed comparing the Purim story to the current Middle East situation. Okay, whatever. She did tell us a bit about how Purim is celebrated in Israel.
We did a Shabbat walking tour of Tsfat. I visited the synagogues that I had been in and walked the same paths as I did on birthright. I just mostly listened to the conversations around me. I met a guy who’s a graduate student from San Francisco and so we talked a little bit. Then I met Jenn and just as we were heading back to the hotel, some guy in our program came up to us and told us of what happened to him last night. He said that he only got two hours of sleep because he partied and got so drunk that he just punched through a window without thinking. Then one of the rabbis found out and woke him up at 5 AM. I asked him where he was from and he said Canada. Go figure.
I played cards with Becca and Ellen. I’m glad that Ellen remembered her cards as I forgot to bring mine from home. Then we had a light Shabbat dinner- the pasta they served was soooo good. I also exchanged numbers with Liora.
We got back on the bus and left around 7:30. Jerusalem greeted us at 10:45 PM, an hour earlier than I expected.
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