ok, you guys??

Woah. Just, woah. Yesterday we had a siyur to a moshav right outside of the Ben Gurion Airport, which im gonna be honest was kind of boring but we learned about Thai workers working in farms in Israel which was kind of interesting and i spent 12 minutes trying to understand our guide when he kept saying "thais" and I kept hearing "ties" and it totally didnt make sense in context and then after 12 minutes i realized i was an idiot.

Hows that for a great sentence?!?! haha

Here comes the woah part: after we went to the moshav, Ricky took us to the Eretz Yisrael museum to see the World Press photo 09 exhibit, a photojournalist competition with submissions from all around the world. Mom and Joel, I'm really, really really really sorry. Im sorrier than I was about taking you to Ice Space. It's that bad, becuase this exhibit was THAT good. Ive had the privlege to see quite a few photography exhibits in my life, good ones at that, but you guys?? This is the best exhibit I have probably seen in my life.

I'm gonna link you to the website for press photo, so you can just get a taste of what was in this exhibit (and this exhibit was HUGE, and not only included the world press photos but local ones too which was even more moving/touching/inspiring/heartbreaking)

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=19&Itemid=223&bandwidth=low

They're seperated by category, but holy MOTHER this was an amazing exhibit. My favorite picture was taken by Yasuyoshsi Chiba, who is, i believe, Japanese but works out of Kenya. You can't tell on the website how stunning this picture is, but when its blown up to about 5 ft by 4 ft on a black background, the red pops and it is just SO visually stunning, I was blown away. I must have stared at it for 10 minutes. It was also just so much of a reminder that its the 21st century, and these men are still fighting with bows and arrows. As much as I hate fighting, when you're surrounded by images of highly-technologically-advanced war as I am every day here, it was somehow inexplicably comforting...beautiful? (that sounds weird but I cant really explain it better) to see an area of the world so untouched by that. And the visuals of it, just stunning. I'm still trying to figure out why a picture of war was my favorite, but I'll let you know.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=1429&type=byname&Itemid=224&bandwidth=high

(link to my fave photo)


Ok, thats all for now. Just wanted to give you a rundown on my day yesterday.

We also sat around last night and made hot cocoa and watched Elf, which we've been trying to do for awhile. That was Realllllly fun.

Miss yalll....

It's the mooost wonderful tiiiime, of the yearrrr (Or: overuse of the word Surreal)

Shalom Kulam! Greetings from the Motherland. Its about 75 today, sunny, beautiful, I'm in a tank top...of course it feels like winter!!!! muahahaha, I kid I kid. It feels like summer and its TOTALLY throwing off my holiday vibe.



Let me catch you up on what I've been doing since the International Exposure at my work ended.... CHANUKKAHHHHHHHHH!!!

It's been really fun to experience the holiday in a country where a majority of people celebrate it: It has also really really thrown me. Walking around the streets seeing decorations everywhere and menorahs everywhere and candle lighting with strangers on the street or in big city squares--its very surreal for me. I enjoy it, and Its been so fun and nice lighting beautiful Safed candles every night in my apartment with all of my program-mates, but It doesn't automatically register to me that its holiday time. I think it's a mix of the weather, the general Channukah-everywhere-ish, and the general absence of my family that is making me feel like it's not December. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely grateful for this experience and think it's amazing, but the American in me is craving snow and fireplaces and Panera soup and red cups with snowflakes on them from Starbucks and ironic and corny red-and-green motifs everywhere. Sigh, ok enough whining.

Last week was adventure-tastic as Michal and I FINALLY WENT TO SEE NEW MOON SHE CAN"T DENY IT AND YES I"M A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL WHO LIKES TWILIGHT AHHHH. And then we sat like adults and sipped lattes and got on a sheirut (shared taxi) to Jerusalem to go see our roommate, Jax, and our friend Abby in the Jerusalem WUJS program play a show at a bar. It was reaaaaaally small and crowded but I'm glad we went, it was an adventure. Afterwards we got hot cider from my favorite little bar in Jerusalem, and had a very surreal experience there too as we lit Chanukkah candles in a bar on upside-down aperitif glasses, and everyone in the whole bar sang along. Very surreal. I don't overuse that word at all....haha

Work has been going well: both of my bosses are not here this week (Claudio is out of town and Rachel is getting an operation on her teeth) so I am winging it and being productive, yay. Michal also had a tough night the other night so we decided to get a light dinner at this little cafe around the corner from our house that we always pass and mean to go to but never find the time. I am so darn glad that we went--when I tell you people that understand that we got like an Aunt Martha platter of veggies, you must know what I mean--we got this platter that had little dishes of pickled something and just straight radishes and sweet butter and perfect wine crackers with some black something seed in them that i cant remember but was awesome, and light cheese and almonds and raw cauliflower and olives and salami for the carnivore (ha ha) and it was just the lightest most perfect veggie meal ever. And it was ridic cheap, which is always a plus when you're living like a college kid still in a foreign country. yayy.

Becky's parents are in town, so last night they took us out to a late dinner. This was, of course, after our weekly fun program of karaoke, which they had set up at the music school for us nextdoor. Really fun, but we invited some music kids to come and boooooy did they show us up. Haha always think twice about inviting actual singers to karaoke--OI. Anywaays, dinner. We went to moon, a sushi restaurant in Tel aviv that has gotten stellar reviews from both my friends and from magazines I have seen. Now, let me say something about Sushi in Tel Aviv. it sucks.

You heard me right, it SUCKS. Granted, I have only been to one or two sushi restaurants in Tel Aviv, and they've been on the cheaper end (duh), but its just not good. I dont know how to describe it, but if you eat sushi you know what I'm talking about. not. good.

Moon--totally changed my mind about sushi in tel aviv. not only was their miso soup stellar, but their rolls were good and inventive, the fish was just plain awesome, and they had masago (flying fish roe). Raven and I have this slight obsession with flying fish roe, and at moon not only did they have a piece of a roll just stuffed with flying fish roe, but they had WASABI FLAVORED ROE. i died. AND, the roll was wrapped in salmon, which makes me die more. It was really awesome of Becky's parents to take us out for sushi, and it was aweosme becuase it was the first time all four of us have been together in awhile, and it was a really nice time.

Enough about food--onto the holiday season. I think that I am going to join Becky and her parents in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve--not only is that a huge tradition here, but it will also be really interesting to see that part of Christian culture. Triply interesting becuase bethlehem is in the West Bank. I am quite excited to experience this, and will update you all on my plans. As of right now for Christmas, I am just planning to skype with the family and open my stocking that Gran shipped to me (!!!) And probably get some Chinese, just because it's a when-in-Rome kinda thing. Do like the jews do!! haha

Happy holidays, happy new year, and as always, Love from the Motherland.

HWOTD: Yom. it means day. i thought that was really necessary since you all get words of the day from me but prolly dont know how to say day. It can be used as in days of the week, or as in "fun day" (yom kef).

Really, Adventures in the Motherland.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/3934989966_ae64d1b003.jpg (picture i LOVE....streetart in tel aviv)

Ok, ok, I stink. You can say it--I stink at blogconsistency. Your well-guided angerannoyance can be directed at me: I accept it.

Now, wanna read some 'bout what I've been doing? Do ya do ya?



Ok, here we go.



Let's start a while back: Dum dum dum......Mom and Joel arrive in Israel. Their mission: to bring me a suitcase full of stuff. Hahaha just kidding. But that part did happen.
We started with a day (shabbat day, to be exact) in Tel Aviv. Mom and Joel got here in the afternoon and I went over to their hotel to collect them and walk them to my apartment, where my roommate Michal and I had prepared a fabulous Israeli breakfast-for-dinner for them, complete with herb chavita (kinda like an omlette-fritatta), tons and tons of awesome dips like turkish salad, eggplant and tahina, hummus ful, lebneh with zaatar, etc etc. And i made a bomb-diggity Israeli salad, shwangg! AND who can forget the best pitot ever?? ...apparently they can. They practically blacked out the whole night from exaustion/cultureshock/sleepdeprivation. Darn dinner--shoulda been smarter and made it for them the LAST night. There i go not being smart again...oh well.

The next day we hung out in Tel Aviv--they took their first city bus, and we travelled down to Yafo to see the sights. We checked out the flea market there, and also had a bomb lunch at Dr. Shakshuka. After we got back up to tel Aviv, we checked out the Carmel Shuk (big outdoor markety thing) and bought little treats and just wandered the streets--fun. Dinner that night was Falafel, quite good.

The next day was the trip to Jerusalem-- or as my mom likes to call it, "the (shiver) central (shiver) bus (shiver) station (shiver)". She was totally overwhelmed/grossed out by the Tel Aviv central bus station, which I will give to her isnt in the best neighborhood and is a bit big and dirty. I dont mind it that much--she is uber freaked by it. The only teeeensy sketchy part was when we got in an elevator with some rando ppl, and there were no lights in the elevator. Pitch black. Kinda sketchy, but we survived and got on our bus to Jerusalem just fine (what an easy 40-minute ride?) Once in Jerusalem, we used the last of the light left to scramble from our hotel to the Kottel, since M +J wanted to see it. They both thought it was pretty cool and we got to take some cool pictures from this overlook that I remembered how to get to (go my memory).

The next day we just did more of the old city- finding cute cafes, back to kottel, muslim quarter, church of the holy sepulchre (which was very dark and ornate). We also managed to make it to the Israel Museum, which was under construction but we got to see the dead sea scrolls which was pretty cool.

Then we bussed it down to Eilat--not so bad--and spent a few days down there seeing the sights, going to Petra in Jordan (which was a realllly cool experience), snorkeling the red sea (SUPER AWESOME), and generally relaxing. We ended back up in Tel aviv for a day, where we got to go to my fave restaurant in Florentine and to Max Brenners. yay!!! Overall, an amazing trip.

After a tearful goodbye, I got right into the swing of my international Dance festival at my work, the Suzanne Dellal Centre. It was so fun on opening night, dressing up and meeting everyone from around the world. I was impressed I remembered almost all of the names, and my only blunder was not knowing what Country Amsterdam is in. Amsterdamn.

Got to see a lot of interesting performances, including one with water (trout) which was pretty cool. We also had a chanukkah party at my apartment for the first night of chanukkah, complete with a gift exchange, a latke-off, and a dreidel tourney. It was really really fun, and I'm enjoying chanukkah in the motherland. If only I liked doughnuts!!!!


That's all for now--more to come later. Misses and kisses, Chelsea

HWOTD: siampti-- it meants im finished. I leanred this when my roommate pointed at her empty cup and said "siampti" which i heard "see, empty!" which helps me remember it.

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Happy thanksgiving to all!!!

Just wanted to say that im thankful that I have this way to communicate with all my friends and family back home, and i am SO SO thankful that my mom and Joel will be joining me here in the motherland in TWO DAYS!!!!!


I am unbelivably excited.


Working hard, not a lot to update--getting ready for some travel-around-Israel time and then when i return and insanecrazyamazeballsamazing dance festival that I've worked really hard on--

Big Love.


HWOTD: Chamudah. it means cutie/sweetie-ish for a girl. quite a popular compliment here, lol.

REAL POST!!!!! I know, I know. You love me.

Peace sticker at the Rabin Rally

random artist whos stuff I like
fresh pitot!

herd them sheep.

Hyssop and Sumac and Sesameseeds oh MY!


So much to say, so little time. WHOOF time has flown by here!! ive been here almost 3 months and it feels like nothing--i am having a blast and kinda-sorta getting into the swing of things.

Im going to try and update just a weensy bit on what I've been doing, etc, so you dont hate me. Don't hate me, K? Just because Ive been delinquent? Dont hate. Busy life ova hea.

Ok, so I guess the first thing to tell yall about is about a week and a half ago, there was an annual memorial for Yitzhak Rabin, who was shot in tel aviv by an extremist for his peace policies. The memorial is held in Rabin square, and Obama, Shimon Peres, etc all talked (well, Obams sent a video message. He wasnt actually there) and there were TONS of people and peace now signs, and i got a lot of cool stickers, and it was generally a really cool experience. Would have been cooler if i knew what all the speeches meant, but eh. The singing afterwards part was cool--the Israeli national anthem always gives me shivers its so beautiful. We also went to a gelatto shop and had the BRILLIANT idea since we are all living like poor college kids to instead of getting a kids gelatto for 13 shekels, fill up a HALFKILOOMFG of gelatto and split it and it would be 10 shekels each! We are SUCH good jews. hahaah. So, that was really fun and we had a very Sex and the City moment with us 4 roommates sitting outside of a gelatto shop chatting and fighting over which charachters we were--I know i got VOTED miranda bc of the whole law thing, but i SO do not have bad hair. Or a kid. Harumph, so there. After the memorial we had to walk back cuz no busses were running thorugh Rabin square, and i decided it was the perfect time to photograph my favorite graffiti that ihave ever seen EVER. and, as I approached, HORROR: the city of tel aviv had painted over it. In grey. becuase of the memorial, Im sure. WTF TEL AVIV SO NOT COOL. I cant really describe what it was like, it was a womans face, but just the cooolest piece of art i had ever seen. I would seriously hang it in my house. Sad.

I guess the BIG BIG piece of news is my new job at the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance in Tel Aviv. Um, I LOVE MY FREAKING JOB. Everyone is so nice and its so fun and i am already making a huge difference there and just WOAH. I really really, lucked out. Im so glad i sad screw it and decided to work somewhere I wanted, somewhere fun. Right now I'm helping organize an international expo for works from tel aviv and people from all over are coming and I talk to this one dude in Belarus like 4x a day. Shweeet. I also get MAD FREE TICKETS TO INSANE DANCE PERFORMANCES. My life is amazing.

The first performance I got to see (ahem, THREE DAYS after I started working) was from Seoul that I already told yall about. The second one I got to go to was the world premiere of Barak Marshall's new work, Rooster. A little about Barak: hes from Israel/LA and he is very famous here and went to HARVARD for f-s sake and teaches at UCLA sometimes when hes not off being brilliant. It was a pretty spectacular piece, which my roommate incidentally made some of the props for (the opening was at the opera house), AND after the performance I got swept away by my coworkers to the back private reception in the depths of the opera house and got to meet Barak and OH i love adventures. Barak is also really close with my boss, apparently, and has showed up at my work. We chatted. Hes pretty awesome.

In other news, we've had some pretty good meetings with Sheldon, our teacher-dude-middleeastconflictexpert-exisraeli intellegence dude. Hes such a badass. And he knows a lot about alot--i cant tell you how good it feels to actually be able to understand a bit of what is going on with this super complicated conflict and to be able to describe to someone what the "middle east conflict" actually is. I know, right? Me liking history + geography? Go figure.

Speaking of history.....our siyur last week was to the biblical reservation. It was a place called Neot Kedumim - check out their website. Yes you read that right--a parcel of land here where they have tried to plant and keep everydamnedthing mentioned in the bible. Prettty cool. We played some games, herded some sheep (no im not joking--there was legit sheep herding. And goats. And that ish is HARD. For future reference, in case anyone ever needs to herd some shit in their life, pick the goats. They listen SO much better than the sheeps. Damn sheeps.) So, other than learning leadership lessons by herding things, we got to something even MORE FUN (I know, right? what could be more fun) and make our own za'atar. Za'atar (ok so thats the correct spelling, from now on its zatar becuase those damn two a's are just too hard to type over and over. i'm lazy, we know) is a spice made from hyssop and sumac and sesame seeds all ground into a powder. It is like THE spice here in Israel and we all are addicted---it is so good on EVERYTHING, pizza, eggs, chicken, toast... everything. Yay zatar. So, we got to make our own--walk on over to the hyssop plant growin in the rocks, pick some, walk on over to the (not poison) sumac plant, pick some, and grind it all up with a mortar and pestle. FUN!!!!! She gave us little baggies, which we filled with our new green spice, made the obligatory "can't go through customs with this" and "200 shekels a bag" jokes, and pocketed our fresh, homemade seasoning. After, we got to make our own pita over an open fire with these things that are really popular here that i can only describe as black, maybe cast iron, upside-down woks. you stick em over a fire and thats what ppl here make pitot on. Well, i got to make pitot and we cooked them and ate them with our zatar and it was soooo good. After the biblical part, we switched gears and went and volunteered with the Jaffa Instititue in Jaffa (DUH), a group that provides food for needy familes in jaffa and after-school meals and activities for underprivledged kids. We got to assemble boxes of food for families, and we also got to go to an afterschool center and play with kids for awhile. It was really fun, and nice volunteering like that which I havent done in awhile.

This week our field trip was about the Palmach, the pre-IDF israeli army when israel was not allowed to have one/attacked the day it was formed by like 5 armies. It was SO COOL the first part--they had a kibbutz, a real life kibbutz, and underground through a hole in the laundry room floor was a bullet factory. and no one on the kibbutz who didnt work there knew about it. How cool is that???? You all knwo me, I love secret passageways and doors and stuff. So in one room, the laundry machine slid out and there was a ladder down, and in the second room (the bakery), the whole huge OVEN slid across for like a bigger hole if needed. They just had to be so so sneaky!--they even had an ancient tanning salon in the basement so the workers wouldnt look like they were working underground all day. super cool. Then we went to the palmach museum which was pretty cool but too hi-tech for its message, i think. still really fun. On Tuesday we came home and tried to see the meteor shower, but it was REALLY cloudy and rainy=bummer. We instead watched the Wizard of Oz since it was the ANNIVERSARY of its release!! 70 years!!! and my roommate becky is obsessed.

Ulpan- Ulpan is going well. I think i am doing better, still trying hard to learn (I learn about 30 new words every day and about 2 stick. such is life). But I got a 92 on my first ulpan test so i feel like im not doing so bad!! yayy.

In the meantime, I'm just stickin to the daily grind--i love my walk to work every morning and afternoon through the BEAUTIFUL Neve Tzedek neighborhood in Tel Aviv, I am busy finding great new little local restaraunts on the cheap and finding amazing new food I havent tried, and am SO EXCITED TO HAVE MY MOM AND JOEL join me in Israel next week. I cannot wait!!!!


Oh, and...DUM DUM DUM. I had to put on a jacket for the first time this week. What a pity. Its still hot here, but I think ive acclamated, so 65 is cold for me now, lol. Hope yall are bundled up and surviving whatever nor'easters or other things that come your way!!

Im not sure if i did it before, but I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone who coordinated to send me birthday cards. I LOVE getting mail, and it was so special to have those lovely momentos from everyone in the states who thought of me. I love you all so much!!


HWOTD: mayim. As in, OMG there is a ton of mayim coming from the ceiling in my bathroom. Funny event this week--to this day we cant shower without the now=hole in our ceiling leaking. fuuuun times.