Sunday, September 24, 2006
BAM no more chair!!!!
Rosh Hashanah = delicious.
Last night for dinner about twelve of us went right across the street to the Freedmans'. (Rachel - m'nucha v'simcha lady!!!!) You guys, we went to their house on Pilgrimage. It felt so awesome to be back in a place I went two years ago. We ate really good food, and a LOT of it, like four kinds of meat. And on Matan's request we sang M'nucha V'simcha. Paul Freedman was the pre-Jules Gutin director of USY. They are so cool, I was so so happy to go there.
Today we went to Talpiyot and went in groups to different host families. I went with Sari, Andy, and Simeon to Charles and Alexis Silverman's house. Oh my gosh the food was AMAZING, a real home-cooked meal after three weeks of Beit Nativ garbage (although to its credit, the new caterer is a serious improvement) So yeah. Then we did Tashlich and came home (about a 45 minute walk both ways, btw. We're hella dedicated.) Then me, Avram, Andy, and Abbie ordered Burger Bar and it was awesome.
Oh so last night, Alana, Matan, Andy, Abbie and I were hanging out on the boys floor kitchen, and Andy was sitting on one of the crappy plastic chairs, and Matan jumps on top of him, and I look away for a second then all of a sudden there's this deafening BANG, and the chair has literally exploded, Andy is on his back on the floor and Matan is on top of him. Like, the chair didn't just crumple, it was as though someone stuck dynamite underneath it. It EXPLODED. Pieces FLEW everywhere. I laughed so hard my stomach started to hurt, it was just the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life. Gooood times.
I'm annoyed that we don't start Ulpan until the semester starts. Ulpan is the Hebrew immersion program, one of the best language programs in the world. But we don't take it during minimester. I've picked up a few things, I can conjugate simple words and thanks to Matan I can say things like, "I am a rapist," and "in my pants," but I can't actually converse with anyone past "hello, how are you, good, thankyou." I can say things like, "I'm tired," and "I have bread," (or you have bread, we have bread, they, etc. I can say more than bread, that's just an example.) The best phrase I have is still "I don't speak Hebrew," but I'm working on it.
Alright it's really cold out here, and me and Abbie are going to have a tea party on our balcony. Abbie is my favorite. Goodnight!
Last night for dinner about twelve of us went right across the street to the Freedmans'. (Rachel - m'nucha v'simcha lady!!!!) You guys, we went to their house on Pilgrimage. It felt so awesome to be back in a place I went two years ago. We ate really good food, and a LOT of it, like four kinds of meat. And on Matan's request we sang M'nucha V'simcha. Paul Freedman was the pre-Jules Gutin director of USY. They are so cool, I was so so happy to go there.
Today we went to Talpiyot and went in groups to different host families. I went with Sari, Andy, and Simeon to Charles and Alexis Silverman's house. Oh my gosh the food was AMAZING, a real home-cooked meal after three weeks of Beit Nativ garbage (although to its credit, the new caterer is a serious improvement) So yeah. Then we did Tashlich and came home (about a 45 minute walk both ways, btw. We're hella dedicated.) Then me, Avram, Andy, and Abbie ordered Burger Bar and it was awesome.
Oh so last night, Alana, Matan, Andy, Abbie and I were hanging out on the boys floor kitchen, and Andy was sitting on one of the crappy plastic chairs, and Matan jumps on top of him, and I look away for a second then all of a sudden there's this deafening BANG, and the chair has literally exploded, Andy is on his back on the floor and Matan is on top of him. Like, the chair didn't just crumple, it was as though someone stuck dynamite underneath it. It EXPLODED. Pieces FLEW everywhere. I laughed so hard my stomach started to hurt, it was just the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life. Gooood times.
I'm annoyed that we don't start Ulpan until the semester starts. Ulpan is the Hebrew immersion program, one of the best language programs in the world. But we don't take it during minimester. I've picked up a few things, I can conjugate simple words and thanks to Matan I can say things like, "I am a rapist," and "in my pants," but I can't actually converse with anyone past "hello, how are you, good, thankyou." I can say things like, "I'm tired," and "I have bread," (or you have bread, we have bread, they, etc. I can say more than bread, that's just an example.) The best phrase I have is still "I don't speak Hebrew," but I'm working on it.
Alright it's really cold out here, and me and Abbie are going to have a tea party on our balcony. Abbie is my favorite. Goodnight!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
FUCK! damnit i can't believe i just swore on temple mount!!
Haha my smoothness. We went to Temple Mount today, obviously. It was awesome. Like, the most amazing thing ever. When I went on Pilgrimage, Jews were not allowed on Temple Mount, or Har HaBayit in Hebrew. Now there's an hour everyday where Jews are allowed to come walk around. The boys couldn't wear their kippot or tzitzits, and we absolutely were not allowed to bring prayer books. Jews are NOT allowed to pray on Temple Mount. There's not really a reason for us to want to, but yeah. We were AT the Dome of the Rock. I've been near it at the Kotel, but I've never been there. It was so intense, I can't even describe. I have been to the holiest place in the world.
Speaking of the Kotel, I went today for the first time on Nativ. We were chillin in the Old City and they were like, oh, you can go to the Kotel now if you want. Since we were all wearing skirts and dressed nice anyways (you have to be to enter Temple Mount) I decided to go. We had the option of going to the Kotel about a week ago, and I could have (my knees and shoulders were covered and all) I didn't want to. I was wearing icky capris and a T-shirt. I decided to go to the Kotel prepared, go the right way. Of course today I didn't have my prayer book because we were going to Har Habayit, but it's okay. I just said the Sh'ma and kissed the wall and walked away facing it, happy as all hell and high from the very holiness of it all. Amazing.
I love everyone here. I have a million best friends and I love my roommates and my staff members and I even made friends with the reception/manager guy, Mikhael. I should really go to bed, though, got class in the morning then tomorrow afternoon we're going to Har Herzl. Blech, I've been there before and it'll be tiring, but whatevs. Goodnight!
Speaking of the Kotel, I went today for the first time on Nativ. We were chillin in the Old City and they were like, oh, you can go to the Kotel now if you want. Since we were all wearing skirts and dressed nice anyways (you have to be to enter Temple Mount) I decided to go. We had the option of going to the Kotel about a week ago, and I could have (my knees and shoulders were covered and all) I didn't want to. I was wearing icky capris and a T-shirt. I decided to go to the Kotel prepared, go the right way. Of course today I didn't have my prayer book because we were going to Har Habayit, but it's okay. I just said the Sh'ma and kissed the wall and walked away facing it, happy as all hell and high from the very holiness of it all. Amazing.
I love everyone here. I have a million best friends and I love my roommates and my staff members and I even made friends with the reception/manager guy, Mikhael. I should really go to bed, though, got class in the morning then tomorrow afternoon we're going to Har Herzl. Blech, I've been there before and it'll be tiring, but whatevs. Goodnight!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
i need to find some dumb, ugly friends
Nativ is insane.
I've had so many new experiences in the past two weeks I can't even start to tell you. Well I can start, actually.
Friday night I went to Shira Chadasha, an Orthodox egalitarian service. That means it's Orthodox, but women can participate and lead stuff. It was my first time attending a service with a mehitzah. That's a curtain thing that separates men and women. It was the most beautiful service I've ever been to, there were insane amazing harmonies and everything was just awesome, and I was able to follow along for the most part.
Last night I went to my first Selichot service. It's the service that they have the week before Rosh Hashanah, it's for repenting I think. I couldn't follow along at all, and was kind of distracted, but it was new anyways.
Life in general has been odd the past few days. I mean amazing obv, but odd. Off, I think. Did some things, did some other things, did some things right and completely fucked up some other stuff.
So much has happened that's just so unexpected. Being friends with people I originally didn't like. Making amazing friends with Abbie, who is my twin. My roommates and I are at an easy stage with each other, we talk about stuff and get along awesome.
Today's been fucking hilarious. I mean class was boring, but after class is always the best. Nativ has this unofficial "corner" outside the Frank Sinatra cafeteria at Hebrew U, where we go sit after class and chill and act like idiots. We just do the funniest shit ever. Today we were fiddling with my camera and made this sequential "movie" that is essentially a really funny slide show.
I'll put up more pix soon. Keep checking the site.
http://www.web.mac.com/avivaisenberg
Bye!
I've had so many new experiences in the past two weeks I can't even start to tell you. Well I can start, actually.
Friday night I went to Shira Chadasha, an Orthodox egalitarian service. That means it's Orthodox, but women can participate and lead stuff. It was my first time attending a service with a mehitzah. That's a curtain thing that separates men and women. It was the most beautiful service I've ever been to, there were insane amazing harmonies and everything was just awesome, and I was able to follow along for the most part.
Last night I went to my first Selichot service. It's the service that they have the week before Rosh Hashanah, it's for repenting I think. I couldn't follow along at all, and was kind of distracted, but it was new anyways.
Life in general has been odd the past few days. I mean amazing obv, but odd. Off, I think. Did some things, did some other things, did some things right and completely fucked up some other stuff.
So much has happened that's just so unexpected. Being friends with people I originally didn't like. Making amazing friends with Abbie, who is my twin. My roommates and I are at an easy stage with each other, we talk about stuff and get along awesome.
Today's been fucking hilarious. I mean class was boring, but after class is always the best. Nativ has this unofficial "corner" outside the Frank Sinatra cafeteria at Hebrew U, where we go sit after class and chill and act like idiots. We just do the funniest shit ever. Today we were fiddling with my camera and made this sequential "movie" that is essentially a really funny slide show.
I'll put up more pix soon. Keep checking the site.
http://www.web.mac.com/avivaisenberg
Bye!
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
i just put a wet one in my eye
We did Hezekaya tunnels today. They are SO cool. We did them on Pilgrimage, too. The Hezekaya tunnels are these...tunnels, obv...underground that are all narrow and low ceilings and totally dark and rocky with water up to your knees. It's fucking terrifying with the flashlights off, you can't see a damn THING, but it's also fucking terrifying.
I had dinner with Dale and Aaron tonight, my cousins from Savannah, Georgia. They're so cool. We went to this obscure restaurant on Ben Sira called Ciela. It was DELICIOUS, especially compared to the crap they call food here at Beit Nativ. They invited me out again for tomorrow and told me to bring friends. I love them.
Tomorrow I have no classes whatsoever, by some stroke of good luck. I'm sleeping late!
Reitering how happy I am. :-D
I had dinner with Dale and Aaron tonight, my cousins from Savannah, Georgia. They're so cool. We went to this obscure restaurant on Ben Sira called Ciela. It was DELICIOUS, especially compared to the crap they call food here at Beit Nativ. They invited me out again for tomorrow and told me to bring friends. I love them.
Tomorrow I have no classes whatsoever, by some stroke of good luck. I'm sleeping late!
Reitering how happy I am. :-D
Sunday, September 10, 2006
hinei matov 'ma naim, hinei mativ uma naim, shevet achim, achim gam yachad
Shabbat was nice. There are a billion synagogues so we just pick one to go. I went to Kedem this week. It was kinda sub-par, but the nice thing is that I can go somewhere else next week. I think I'll go to the one on campus so I don't have to walk. :-p
Today was the first day of minimester. On Nativ for Hebrew U students, there's minimester for a month, then the actually semester starts. You take three classes. Two electives, and one for everybody. The required class is a field trip type class, with David Keren. He's real cool, that class starts tomorrow. Today I had Israeli Society, Culture, and Politics (hereafter referred to as Israeli Soc) with David Mendelsson, aka Dave. He's British, and funny. That class looks like fun, though there's a lot of reading. I'm not exactly interested in the topic, but it was either that or History of Arab-Israeli Conflict, which would be way over my head. My other class is Anarchy to Monarchy: A History of Jewish Kingship, or something. It's a class where you go through different stories from the Tanakh and just discuss such and such. I was more interested in the other class (Jewish Text Discussions) but they said if you didn't have a day school background it would be too much. The teacher is Rachel Adelman, aka Crazy Adel Lady. I decided in the first five minutes that I didn't like her. There's just something about her that annoys me. Plus, we were talking about historical versus literary perspectives when looking at literature, and she didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned voice. I keep forgetting she's a religious teacher, not an English teacher. But how could you not know what voice is in literature? I mean come on. I knew that even before Mrs. Greenstone's class.
On the upside, it feels amazingly cool to be able to sit in a class and study Tanakh. It makes me feel really really Jewish and awesome. Like, "Turn to Judges 8:22 and discuss Gideon's decision to turn down the kingship." Then I take my baby Tanakh and do just that. Idk I can't really describe why it feels so good, it just does.
This morning during Shacharit, I wrapped tefillin for the first time ever!!! I felt so proud of myself. Josh Goldberg (who ran for Int'l pres against Rami and Matan) showed me how and told me the prayers and such. Not that I remember them, but I said shechehiyanu (the prayer for doing something you've never done before) and it was awesome. I felt totally hardcore Jewish to have the marks on my arms from the tefillin. That's phylacteries in English by the way. It was a vocab word in Stengel's class freshman year.
So yeah. I'm still just ecstatic about everything. Israel makes me feel so...Jewish. Haha that's stupid. Sorry I don't know how to explain. This is the happiest I've ever been.
BTW, I saw Na'ama!!!!!! Na'ama was one of my Israeli staff members from Pilgrimage who I love and haven't seen SINCE Pilgrimage two years ago!! it was so so amazing.
I'm making the most amazing friends and seeing old friends and oh did I mention that Kibbutz is fifteen boys and thirteen girls? That's pretty sweet.
It's almost dinner time. There's a big soccer game tonight between J-lem and Tel Aviv, but I decided to stay home and do some homework and read some tonight. My Kehilla friend Hillel lent me this cool book that I just started. He's also trying to teach me Hebrew, which I totally approve of.
Bye!
Today was the first day of minimester. On Nativ for Hebrew U students, there's minimester for a month, then the actually semester starts. You take three classes. Two electives, and one for everybody. The required class is a field trip type class, with David Keren. He's real cool, that class starts tomorrow. Today I had Israeli Society, Culture, and Politics (hereafter referred to as Israeli Soc) with David Mendelsson, aka Dave. He's British, and funny. That class looks like fun, though there's a lot of reading. I'm not exactly interested in the topic, but it was either that or History of Arab-Israeli Conflict, which would be way over my head. My other class is Anarchy to Monarchy: A History of Jewish Kingship, or something. It's a class where you go through different stories from the Tanakh and just discuss such and such. I was more interested in the other class (Jewish Text Discussions) but they said if you didn't have a day school background it would be too much. The teacher is Rachel Adelman, aka Crazy Adel Lady. I decided in the first five minutes that I didn't like her. There's just something about her that annoys me. Plus, we were talking about historical versus literary perspectives when looking at literature, and she didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned voice. I keep forgetting she's a religious teacher, not an English teacher. But how could you not know what voice is in literature? I mean come on. I knew that even before Mrs. Greenstone's class.
On the upside, it feels amazingly cool to be able to sit in a class and study Tanakh. It makes me feel really really Jewish and awesome. Like, "Turn to Judges 8:22 and discuss Gideon's decision to turn down the kingship." Then I take my baby Tanakh and do just that. Idk I can't really describe why it feels so good, it just does.
This morning during Shacharit, I wrapped tefillin for the first time ever!!! I felt so proud of myself. Josh Goldberg (who ran for Int'l pres against Rami and Matan) showed me how and told me the prayers and such. Not that I remember them, but I said shechehiyanu (the prayer for doing something you've never done before) and it was awesome. I felt totally hardcore Jewish to have the marks on my arms from the tefillin. That's phylacteries in English by the way. It was a vocab word in Stengel's class freshman year.
So yeah. I'm still just ecstatic about everything. Israel makes me feel so...Jewish. Haha that's stupid. Sorry I don't know how to explain. This is the happiest I've ever been.
BTW, I saw Na'ama!!!!!! Na'ama was one of my Israeli staff members from Pilgrimage who I love and haven't seen SINCE Pilgrimage two years ago!! it was so so amazing.
I'm making the most amazing friends and seeing old friends and oh did I mention that Kibbutz is fifteen boys and thirteen girls? That's pretty sweet.
It's almost dinner time. There's a big soccer game tonight between J-lem and Tel Aviv, but I decided to stay home and do some homework and read some tonight. My Kehilla friend Hillel lent me this cool book that I just started. He's also trying to teach me Hebrew, which I totally approve of.
Bye!
Friday, September 08, 2006
group recovery is hilarious
Last night was craaaaaaazy.
Michael Levin's parents came and spoke to us about Michael. He was a Nativ grad from Hagesher who joined the Israeli army and was killed in Lebanon in early August. His parents came and talked about him and about Israel. How hard must that be? To relive the whole awful thing again and again for young kids? It was really intense and brave, there was hardly a dry eye in the house.
After that half of us were too sad to go out and the other half wanted to go get mad drunk and forget it all. I didn't want to stay and be sad, but I didn't want to drink either, so I hung out in the park with Abbie, Molly (her name's actually Malka so it might be spelled Mali) Andy, Phil, and Matan. They drank a bit and I ate my Werther's Originals and happily watched Phil and Molly cuz they were really funny. After a while we went back to Beit Nativ (we left Molly, Phil, and Andy in the park with some Kehillot who were sober and passing through) and fiddled on our computers for a while. See, Beit Nativ is supposed to have this super fast high-speed ethernet connection but it's not actually up yet, so when we want to go online we have to go sit outside and mooch off of the Yeshiva's wireless.
After another while Matan got a call and we went back to Kikar Zion because a friend of a friend was too drunk to walk. This Russian woman (who was a commander in the Israeli army) kept coming over and helping us and telling us what to do, cuz obv we had no idea. After about two hours they got him into a cab to get back to his Yeshiva. He wasn't part of Nativ, he was a friend of one of our Kibbutzniks. Then we went home.
So that was pretty intense. I've never been in such close proximity to someone so drunk in my life. I wonder what other new experiences I'll have here. Not that that kind is isolated to Israel, but at least here we're allowed to drink at 18. 17, actually. Even though I wouldn't consider spending money on alcohol at the SuperSol across the street, it's nice to know that I could if I wanted.
Today me and Abbie went to a book store and got our little Tanakhim, which are required for the minimester courses. It's a good idea to have one in general, anyways. We walked into the store and I said, "Shalom," in what I thought was a reasonable accent, and the guy immediately started speaking English. "You guys are definitely from Nativ." And immediately produces exactly the Tanakhim we were looking for. (A Tanakh is a copy of the Old Testament - the first five books of Moses. A bible, essentially, but ours are in Hebrew and English.)
Tonight starts our first Shabbat in Jerusalem. I love Shabbat. I love how everyone dresses up and looks fantastic and we all come together and it's great.
Anyways I need to conserve my battery because I still don't have an adapter to charge the lappy. So bye!
Michael Levin's parents came and spoke to us about Michael. He was a Nativ grad from Hagesher who joined the Israeli army and was killed in Lebanon in early August. His parents came and talked about him and about Israel. How hard must that be? To relive the whole awful thing again and again for young kids? It was really intense and brave, there was hardly a dry eye in the house.
After that half of us were too sad to go out and the other half wanted to go get mad drunk and forget it all. I didn't want to stay and be sad, but I didn't want to drink either, so I hung out in the park with Abbie, Molly (her name's actually Malka so it might be spelled Mali) Andy, Phil, and Matan. They drank a bit and I ate my Werther's Originals and happily watched Phil and Molly cuz they were really funny. After a while we went back to Beit Nativ (we left Molly, Phil, and Andy in the park with some Kehillot who were sober and passing through) and fiddled on our computers for a while. See, Beit Nativ is supposed to have this super fast high-speed ethernet connection but it's not actually up yet, so when we want to go online we have to go sit outside and mooch off of the Yeshiva's wireless.
After another while Matan got a call and we went back to Kikar Zion because a friend of a friend was too drunk to walk. This Russian woman (who was a commander in the Israeli army) kept coming over and helping us and telling us what to do, cuz obv we had no idea. After about two hours they got him into a cab to get back to his Yeshiva. He wasn't part of Nativ, he was a friend of one of our Kibbutzniks. Then we went home.
So that was pretty intense. I've never been in such close proximity to someone so drunk in my life. I wonder what other new experiences I'll have here. Not that that kind is isolated to Israel, but at least here we're allowed to drink at 18. 17, actually. Even though I wouldn't consider spending money on alcohol at the SuperSol across the street, it's nice to know that I could if I wanted.
Today me and Abbie went to a book store and got our little Tanakhim, which are required for the minimester courses. It's a good idea to have one in general, anyways. We walked into the store and I said, "Shalom," in what I thought was a reasonable accent, and the guy immediately started speaking English. "You guys are definitely from Nativ." And immediately produces exactly the Tanakhim we were looking for. (A Tanakh is a copy of the Old Testament - the first five books of Moses. A bible, essentially, but ours are in Hebrew and English.)
Tonight starts our first Shabbat in Jerusalem. I love Shabbat. I love how everyone dresses up and looks fantastic and we all come together and it's great.
Anyways I need to conserve my battery because I still don't have an adapter to charge the lappy. So bye!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
save tonight, fight the break of dawn
I. am. in. ISRAELLLLLLLLLLL.
Does anyone want to know how I'm doing? Yeah? No? I don't care I'm in Israel!!!!!
I am the happiest I have ever been in my entire life. Every single minute of every day (there've been two so far) is abso-fucking-lutely fantastic. I've already made some amazing, awesome friends, and I've been seeing the friends I already had.
I love Kibbutz. I mean I love the Kibbutz group (we're not on Kibbutz yet.) There are 27 of us and we're all amazing. Kehilla is of course amazing as well, but there are two Kehilla groups and I love being the smaller. Obv, some amazing ppls are on Kehilla. Mike, my Massachusetts pally, and Shoshie from Hanefesh, and then a ton of new people! I'ma put up some pix, with the names of people who are in them, and specifically what we're doing. Yeah. Here ya go.
http://www.web.mac.com/avivaisenberg/iWeb/Site/Nativ.html
But really...I just can't describe how happy I am. I love everyone here and I love everything that's happening. So...yes. I miss my Milford peeps, but I'm really just too deliriously happy to dwell.
Does anyone want to know how I'm doing? Yeah? No? I don't care I'm in Israel!!!!!
I am the happiest I have ever been in my entire life. Every single minute of every day (there've been two so far) is abso-fucking-lutely fantastic. I've already made some amazing, awesome friends, and I've been seeing the friends I already had.
I love Kibbutz. I mean I love the Kibbutz group (we're not on Kibbutz yet.) There are 27 of us and we're all amazing. Kehilla is of course amazing as well, but there are two Kehilla groups and I love being the smaller. Obv, some amazing ppls are on Kehilla. Mike, my Massachusetts pally, and Shoshie from Hanefesh, and then a ton of new people! I'ma put up some pix, with the names of people who are in them, and specifically what we're doing. Yeah. Here ya go.
http://www.web.mac.com/avivaisenberg/iWeb/Site/Nativ.html
But really...I just can't describe how happy I am. I love everyone here and I love everything that's happening. So...yes. I miss my Milford peeps, but I'm really just too deliriously happy to dwell.
