As of today, I have 5.
(Implicit apology for not writing sooner) It's all been happening really fast, and a lot has been happening. let me catch you up on where I am:
1. law school. I'm done with my application to Georgetown--Signed, sealed, delivered. Just waiting to hear in the meantime, and potentially applying to a few other schools if this process takes longer than anticipated to happen (which is already happening, oof).
2. about 2 weeks ago we had some TORRENTIAL rain, VERY off character for the country, and the Negev desert got flooded. It really sucked because not only did our trip to the army base in the south get cancelled, we also had to cancel our camping trip to Mitzpe Ramon, the giant crater in the south, for Sarah's birthday. we were going to stay in bedoin tents---it would have been awesome. Sigh.
3. two shabbats ago, Michal and I decided to go on a jerusalem adventure to the artists market there. We wanted to see if it was anything like the one in tel aviv, which is AMAZING. We show up and, eh, its not so cool. BUT, there was a CHEESEMONGER there!! Ya'll, the cheese. After being basically starved of good cheeses for like 5 months, this WAS HEAVEn. Goat cheese wrapped in grape leaves, and even a BLUE that I liked! very weird. We got this "sampler plate" where we basically just pointed at stuff we wanted and got a ton of cheese all for like 20 shekels (about 5 dollars). It was amaaaaazing. After the little cheese break, we wandered around ben yehuda street (think main, judaica shopping street), and met a creepy/nice djembe player who was very friendly and enthusiastic. We hopped a sheirut back to tel aviv, and stopped at our little rinkdink grocery store. Who do I see, but this GIANT (had to be) basketball player, shopping in our store! So we get to talk to him, and it turns out hes playing for Haifa, and used to play for the celtics. I believe his name is John Thomas, but yeah. It was fun.
later that night, we had a multicultural shabbat. We all brought dishes from different countries and it was actually quite tasty. We made a greek salad in like 4 minutes with some toasted pita and really good tzatziki actually.
Sarahs birthday was also really fun--we went to an irish pub and just hung out together and had a generally good time.
4. laterthat week, we had an ISRAELI COOKING CLASS in our apartment!!! It was SO much fun, and we made stuffed bell peppers and shakshuka and tahina and it was amazinggg. yum yum yum, and really fun to just group-cook and learn.
5. THE KIBBUTZ(Implicit apology for not writing sooner) It's all been happening really fast, and a lot has been happening. let me catch you up on where I am:
1. law school. I'm done with my application to Georgetown--Signed, sealed, delivered. Just waiting to hear in the meantime, and potentially applying to a few other schools if this process takes longer than anticipated to happen (which is already happening, oof).
2. about 2 weeks ago we had some TORRENTIAL rain, VERY off character for the country, and the Negev desert got flooded. It really sucked because not only did our trip to the army base in the south get cancelled, we also had to cancel our camping trip to Mitzpe Ramon, the giant crater in the south, for Sarah's birthday. we were going to stay in bedoin tents---it would have been awesome. Sigh.
3. two shabbats ago, Michal and I decided to go on a jerusalem adventure to the artists market there. We wanted to see if it was anything like the one in tel aviv, which is AMAZING. We show up and, eh, its not so cool. BUT, there was a CHEESEMONGER there!! Ya'll, the cheese. After being basically starved of good cheeses for like 5 months, this WAS HEAVEn. Goat cheese wrapped in grape leaves, and even a BLUE that I liked! very weird. We got this "sampler plate" where we basically just pointed at stuff we wanted and got a ton of cheese all for like 20 shekels (about 5 dollars). It was amaaaaazing. After the little cheese break, we wandered around ben yehuda street (think main, judaica shopping street), and met a creepy/nice djembe player who was very friendly and enthusiastic. We hopped a sheirut back to tel aviv, and stopped at our little rinkdink grocery store. Who do I see, but this GIANT (had to be) basketball player, shopping in our store! So we get to talk to him, and it turns out hes playing for Haifa, and used to play for the celtics. I believe his name is John Thomas, but yeah. It was fun.
later that night, we had a multicultural shabbat. We all brought dishes from different countries and it was actually quite tasty. We made a greek salad in like 4 minutes with some toasted pita and really good tzatziki actually.
Sarahs birthday was also really fun--we went to an irish pub and just hung out together and had a generally good time.
4. laterthat week, we had an ISRAELI COOKING CLASS in our apartment!!! It was SO much fun, and we made stuffed bell peppers and shakshuka and tahina and it was amazinggg. yum yum yum, and really fun to just group-cook and learn.
Dude, guys? This kibbutz was freakin off the hook. It was called Kibbutz Ketura, and it was in the middle of NOWHERE in the desert. Really, really, remote. But in the same sense, its own little oasis. Its near eilat, at the veeeeeeeeeeeery tip of israel, and i could probably throw a stone and hit jordan from their property. We hiked, wrote poetry in the desert, ate lots of fresh good food, had tu bish'vat services, and had an overall really really amazing time. we also got to see the algae factory, where they produce this insane antioxidant that is used in both cosmetics and in the natural foods industry, and baby cows and camels and cows being milked and date orchards! One of my favorite moments was from our reaaaaally early morning shabbat hike. We went out to exit the back of the kibbutz and climb a mountain, and the security guard for the kibbutz apparently forgot to unlock the gate, so our insanely hilarious guide named Marcello turns to us and says, "PEOPLE OF ISRAEL! we have a problem." haha he then went on to inform us that we had two options: shimmy under the fence, or scale it. This was a HILARIOUS sight to behold, let me tell you. Once we all got across, the hike itself was pretty rad. It was like STRAIGHT uphill, just straight hiking a mountain, and a sandstorm had begun that day so the wind was GNARLY and seriously trying to blow us off the mountain. but we stayed on, only minor injuries. It was funnn!!
5....b. This week was my last week at work. It was very sad, but we got a lot done. I got lots of really really sweet presents from my co-workers and on the last day they threw me a party and I FINALLY BAKED HERE (something I havent really done here at ALL), and it was really sweet. They presented me with all these gifts and it was very moving. Im going back to say bye this week--I am so lucky and so grateful for how taken-care-of I was there. It was really amazing, and an amazing environment to work in.
6. Last night was our last shabbat :(. It was really nice with everyone together, just talking and reminiscing about fun memories and "remember when so-and-so did thats" and stuff. We also made a BALLER dish--Drunken pasta (pasta Alla-Ubriesco?) cooked in red wine and finished with butter and onions and garlic and chives. It was amaaaazing. and it was purple pasta. so yeah, pretty nuts.
7. As my time here comes to a close, I'm just really trying to live it up. To experience everything, and to be totally grateful for my time in this wonderful city. Tomorrow night we have our surprise final dinner, which should be really nice. Afterwards, us crazy kids are camping out at a local pub to watch superbowl 2010. Which starts at 1:30 am here. HEHEEHEH.
On monday for Becky's birthday, we are going to the Blackout restaurant, which is a restaurant totally in the dark, where you are guided/served by blind waiters. Its supposed to be an amazing experience: you can read more here:
http://thisistheworldwelivein.com/2010/01/16/a-real-blind-date/
That's about it for now. I'm super excited for my trip to turkey(greece?), which is good because its taking my mind off the fact that I'm leaving Israel. Guys? I am so bummed about leaving. 6 months has gone by like 6 weeks, if that, and I'm just going to miss so many things. My little corner coffee shop, getting 2 shekel (50c) falafels at random hours, max brenner dates, trying new foods, giving directions in hebrew, actually understanding some hebrew, working at suzanne dellal, walking through neve tzedek every morning and afternoon, barth's crackers with carraway seeds in them, goldstar beer, SOUPS, my rooftop, having a shabbat dinner alltogether and then shabbat morning french toast with the roommates, laughing ourselves silly, exploring, and learning as much as possible wherever i can. On tuesday, ricky gave us the envelopes we wrote at the beginning of the program. In them, we wrote a note to ourselves '5 months from today...' and opened them, well, five months from when we wrote them. Most people wrote realistic goals, stuff about learning hebrew or getting a job--me? I wrote one word: change. It really hit home, that that was the reason I came here--to grow and mature in some way, to have this wonderfully difficult place open my eyes in a way I never could in the states, and to just take time to get to know MYSELF. To not have to define what I want at every second of the day--to just know that growth is my goal in any way that it happens.
I will be stateside the 23rd, and will probably try to blog once or twice more before I whirlwind leave for my travels. I already know I am going to be utterly culture shocked when I come home, so be prepared for me to be MIA for awhile. Im going to need time to process, heal, deal, and just re-define my life when I get back.
HWOTD: carli. it means "IM COLD" and has come in handy quite a lot this week.
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