Sunday, February 25, 2007
i just ate eleven pieces of french toast
I love Matan. He is the bestest boyfriend ever in the history of the entire universe and cosmos. And Israel. "And so it shall be written: on the eighth day G-d created Matan." (Genesis 2:25)
Anyways. We had the greatest weekend in Jerusalem. We stayed at this hostel that was supposed to be really sketchy but was actually very nice. It's across the street from Kikar Tzion, at the end of Ben Yehuda. It's a cute little place with wireless internet and high ceilings and private bathrooms, so it's more guest housey than hostely. And there's a kitchen we can use, I went in on Saturday morning to make some coffee and there was a religious guy with his two religious kids were in there, I felt weird turning on the kum-kum. They didn't seem too bothered by it, though. One of his kids was staring at us later on when we were using the computer.
Moving on. Matan's youth director or something from his synagogue was in town on a trip with some other youth directors and Danny Siegel. We met up with Sherry, Matan's youth person, at Shira Chadasha on Friday night. She's a character, I met her on my Philly visit. Shira Chadasha was good as usual (Nussie was there!!!!), then we went to the Dan Panorama to join the youth director trip for dinner, Sherry had bought us tickets. What a crazy bunch of adults! First of all, this youth advisor from Pinwheel was there, she'd made aliyah when she was seventeen and joined the army and stuff, then moved back to the US. She was talking to Matan the whole time about making aliyah.
And then, then! So, all these people are youth directors, right, which means they're often around youths, so after we're finished eating they start singing zmirot, like at a USY convention. And they're all banging on the tables of everything! And then, they all get up and start dancing around! I swear the Dan Panorama (a very shmancy hotel) has never seen the like. There's all these people eating their dinners and tolerating these elderly people singing very loudly, and then they actually get up and start dancing! And as they're running around, get this, they grab a table full of Asian tourists and make them start dancing with them! Meanwhile Matan and I are just sitting there staring at all of them in shock, huge hilarious smiles on our faces and everything.
Oh, and the food was really good. :-D
Anyways, the rest of the weekend. It was great. We slept late, lounged around the hostel until noon, then went to McDonald's for lunch. We were pretty anti-Shabbat, but that's never bothered me. We wandered around and walked into the Old City and people-watched and wandered back to the hostel. It was just relaxing, and fantastic to get back to Jerusalem for a bit. I missed it.
After Shabbat we met up with Sherry and a bunch of TRY kids, including Elana, Matan's sister. We had dinner with them at Burgers Bar, and then I met up with Nussie and hung out with him for a little bit, it was so great to see him.
Then we bussed back to Ein Tzurim. It was a great weekend. And Matan's awesome, I love him. :-D
Anyways. We had the greatest weekend in Jerusalem. We stayed at this hostel that was supposed to be really sketchy but was actually very nice. It's across the street from Kikar Tzion, at the end of Ben Yehuda. It's a cute little place with wireless internet and high ceilings and private bathrooms, so it's more guest housey than hostely. And there's a kitchen we can use, I went in on Saturday morning to make some coffee and there was a religious guy with his two religious kids were in there, I felt weird turning on the kum-kum. They didn't seem too bothered by it, though. One of his kids was staring at us later on when we were using the computer.
Moving on. Matan's youth director or something from his synagogue was in town on a trip with some other youth directors and Danny Siegel. We met up with Sherry, Matan's youth person, at Shira Chadasha on Friday night. She's a character, I met her on my Philly visit. Shira Chadasha was good as usual (Nussie was there!!!!), then we went to the Dan Panorama to join the youth director trip for dinner, Sherry had bought us tickets. What a crazy bunch of adults! First of all, this youth advisor from Pinwheel was there, she'd made aliyah when she was seventeen and joined the army and stuff, then moved back to the US. She was talking to Matan the whole time about making aliyah.
And then, then! So, all these people are youth directors, right, which means they're often around youths, so after we're finished eating they start singing zmirot, like at a USY convention. And they're all banging on the tables of everything! And then, they all get up and start dancing around! I swear the Dan Panorama (a very shmancy hotel) has never seen the like. There's all these people eating their dinners and tolerating these elderly people singing very loudly, and then they actually get up and start dancing! And as they're running around, get this, they grab a table full of Asian tourists and make them start dancing with them! Meanwhile Matan and I are just sitting there staring at all of them in shock, huge hilarious smiles on our faces and everything.
Oh, and the food was really good. :-D
Anyways, the rest of the weekend. It was great. We slept late, lounged around the hostel until noon, then went to McDonald's for lunch. We were pretty anti-Shabbat, but that's never bothered me. We wandered around and walked into the Old City and people-watched and wandered back to the hostel. It was just relaxing, and fantastic to get back to Jerusalem for a bit. I missed it.
After Shabbat we met up with Sherry and a bunch of TRY kids, including Elana, Matan's sister. We had dinner with them at Burgers Bar, and then I met up with Nussie and hung out with him for a little bit, it was so great to see him.
Then we bussed back to Ein Tzurim. It was a great weekend. And Matan's awesome, I love him. :-D
Friday, February 16, 2007
i think you bobbed when i weaved
First update of Kibbutz! Sorry for the complete lack of updates forever, we had tiyul then when we got here we didn't have our computers/internet till a few days ago. Plus my computer needs to be plugged in to work because the battery's a bitch. Excuses excuses.
Anyways, the first thing that you should know is that we are NOT on Kibbutz Sa'ad, as was originally planned. Before tiyul they sat us down and explained to us that Sa'ad, being directly next to Gaza, was too dangerous this year for us, even though they've been going there the past twenty-five years without event. So that was quite a blow. We had all of a week's notice that we weren't going there.
We are on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, which is somewhere in the middle of the desert in southern Israel. And it's fucking beautiful. I love it. We live in trailers, or "caravans" as the Israelis call them, which consist of two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a common room with kitchenette. And we're all desperately proud of the label, "trailer trash." Chuckles. My roommates are Abbie and Shosh, and we're all three of us squished into a room that's hardly big enough for two people. I don't spend all that much time actually in our bedroom cuz it's so small and crampy, but we did decorate it like mad and it looks hot.
I work at the moshav across the street, Massuot Yitzchak. I'm a field hand along with five other Nativers. It's a good group, and a really fun job. We just finished our first week. We've been mostly working in the parsley fields. We started out picking weeds out of parsley, then for the next like three days we had to move irrrigation pipes back and forth across the fields so that the Combine (you know, that big tractory thing that cuts crops) could come and collect the parsley from the rows. Then it dumps the parsley into the dumpster, which we enjoy sitting in because you get to be buried in parsley. It's awesome. We've basically just been moving pipes around all week, except yesterday was really exciting because we got a paint a tractor part with this antirust stuff. So that's my job. Our boss's name is Chanan, and he's very chill.
In the afternoons, since we get off work at two, I generally come home, shower, and go sit outside with a book or crocheting or whatever until the sun goes down. It's really amazing to be outside from sun up to sundown basically. I love afternoons here, they're so relaxing.
At nights I hang out with Matan or Molly or Abbie, and this Shabbat, Traci and Justin and Phil are here. It's good to see them. Matan's in Jerusalem right now for a bball game, and I'm just chillin in his room, relaxing, enjoying the privacy since Abbie, Justin, Traci and Shosh are all sleeping in mine.
For Valentine's Day I got home from work and Matan had made this super awesome really really sweet picnic in our backyard with cookies and wine and crackers and Nutella and sandwiches and it was amazing and romantic. He wins at Valentine's Day, and life in general. :-D
I think that's all for now that you need to know about Kibbutz. I'm happy and content and have a really funny tanline on my face since I wear a hat at work.
Oh, one last thing. I'm also enjoying this so much because this is probably the last semester of my life where I won't have to worry about school or work (real work that I get paid for) or anything. I have absolutely nothing on my mind. And it's awesome.
Anyways, the first thing that you should know is that we are NOT on Kibbutz Sa'ad, as was originally planned. Before tiyul they sat us down and explained to us that Sa'ad, being directly next to Gaza, was too dangerous this year for us, even though they've been going there the past twenty-five years without event. So that was quite a blow. We had all of a week's notice that we weren't going there.
We are on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, which is somewhere in the middle of the desert in southern Israel. And it's fucking beautiful. I love it. We live in trailers, or "caravans" as the Israelis call them, which consist of two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a common room with kitchenette. And we're all desperately proud of the label, "trailer trash." Chuckles. My roommates are Abbie and Shosh, and we're all three of us squished into a room that's hardly big enough for two people. I don't spend all that much time actually in our bedroom cuz it's so small and crampy, but we did decorate it like mad and it looks hot.
I work at the moshav across the street, Massuot Yitzchak. I'm a field hand along with five other Nativers. It's a good group, and a really fun job. We just finished our first week. We've been mostly working in the parsley fields. We started out picking weeds out of parsley, then for the next like three days we had to move irrrigation pipes back and forth across the fields so that the Combine (you know, that big tractory thing that cuts crops) could come and collect the parsley from the rows. Then it dumps the parsley into the dumpster, which we enjoy sitting in because you get to be buried in parsley. It's awesome. We've basically just been moving pipes around all week, except yesterday was really exciting because we got a paint a tractor part with this antirust stuff. So that's my job. Our boss's name is Chanan, and he's very chill.
In the afternoons, since we get off work at two, I generally come home, shower, and go sit outside with a book or crocheting or whatever until the sun goes down. It's really amazing to be outside from sun up to sundown basically. I love afternoons here, they're so relaxing.
At nights I hang out with Matan or Molly or Abbie, and this Shabbat, Traci and Justin and Phil are here. It's good to see them. Matan's in Jerusalem right now for a bball game, and I'm just chillin in his room, relaxing, enjoying the privacy since Abbie, Justin, Traci and Shosh are all sleeping in mine.
For Valentine's Day I got home from work and Matan had made this super awesome really really sweet picnic in our backyard with cookies and wine and crackers and Nutella and sandwiches and it was amazing and romantic. He wins at Valentine's Day, and life in general. :-D
I think that's all for now that you need to know about Kibbutz. I'm happy and content and have a really funny tanline on my face since I wear a hat at work.
Oh, one last thing. I'm also enjoying this so much because this is probably the last semester of my life where I won't have to worry about school or work (real work that I get paid for) or anything. I have absolutely nothing on my mind. And it's awesome.
