From the Mid-West to the Mid-East

Quick Catch Up (I'm a Terrible Blogger)

In my own defense, I did put up pictures....

So I'll share a few of the funnier stories that have happened over the past few weeks. I think the reason I don't write mroe often is because nothing happens around here, so I blame Arad and this damn WUJS program.

We went on a tiyul to the desert that lasted 4 days. I lasted 1. Before the trip even began I went to m madrich (counseler), Hilik, and told him I didn't want to go. My main reason is that I am really scared of heights. I'm not sure if he didn't believe me or if he didn't care but I ended up on the trip because he promised there would be hard and easy hikes each day that we could choose. The first day there was no choice, the hike was hard and it began by going up a steep mountain. About two thirds of the way up I just couldn't go on (it was as much physical exhaustion as actual fear, but we'll discuss my physical failures antoher time.) So I'm on the vergo of tears and this other girl, Susan, is outright sobbing because she was really sick and forced on this trip too. So Hilik asks what's wrong and I respond "You know what's wrong" and he acts all surprised that I'm so scared. Finally after much moaning he says "So, you want to give up?" it was sort of shocking because in the PCness of America I don't think any authority could say that, so I responded "Yeah, I want to fail, quit, be a loser, underachiever..." I went on until our guards with guns couldn't stop laughing and even Susan cheered up. Hilik got angry though and gave me a lecture about self confidence, but in the end I won and Susan and I got to slip and slide down the mountain. We then sat for 5 hours with our bus driver, Yussuf who fed us pomello (grapefruit-like-fruit) and we watched Bruce Willis movies and Syrian talk shows (Yussuf translated). The next day, after Hilik realized that all the "easy" hikes included mountain scaling, Susan and I got to catch a bus back to Arad.

The next day I left with Sandra (she had stayed back because she was "sick") to Jerusalem to stay with Hanna. I ended up going on a blind J-Date (Jewish internet dating) with Sandra but I liked her guy much more than she did. We went to the Israel Museum which is huge and confusing but really impressive and hung out on Ben Yehuda street. The next day Hanna and I went to the Museum on the Seam, a museum dedicated to dialogue on coexistence. I find it so incredibly cool and they had a new exhibit on the graffitti that represents the conflict, especially graffitti that's been painted over with new sayings of peace. It was interesting that a group of Israeli soldiers were going through the museum after us so they left their guns on the roof. I've got pictures of it that I will (I promise) put up.

I then spent two days with Frederik, a friend from three summers ago in Beersheva, in Tel Aviv. Frederik is fantastic, he is so democratic and optimistic and European and a little "The Hills are Alive..." He took me on a long wlaking tour of his favorite parts of Tel Aviv which included the industrial area where he haggled for chairs, Jaffa where we had coffee with a french couple, and the central area where he lives. We saw where Rabin was shot, the beach, and a little artists colony. That night his two roommates (both a little more Orthadox than not) put together a very sweet Shabbat dinner and invited friends from their own Ulpan. It was too Israeli to be having Shabbat dinner and singing prayers and have the neighbors yellign at us to keep it down, we're drowning out their television. I went out late that night and met up with David. David is one of those people that just makes my world so much better. We met on EIE 5 years ago and he joined the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) 3 years ago and is getting out soon. He showed me some videos of his training (how to enter homes of suspected terrorists) and pictures of his team. The things he does are too incredible, and frightening, and it's perfect for him. He really thrives on the extreme challenges of a combat unit. Now he's faced with going back to America and college or becoming a career soldier. Although of course I want him safe he is just so good at wht he does and it's hard to imagine him having to take classes with 18 year olds whose life experiences can be summed up with Fraternities and partying.

During this past week we had another tiyul, this time to archaeological caves. The caves are actually from the time of Hannukah and the Maccabe revolts, the people who lived in the areas used them as cellars. When a Jewish general conquered the area he told the residents they could either convert to Judaism or leave, most left and pushed their whole houses and all they owned filling up their cellars so as to make it all useless. Some agreed to being forcibly converted, one was Herod's grandfather. This was the first and last time Jews ever converted other peoples, and part of the lesson learned is that Herod was a terrible insane king who brought about the destruction of Israel 2000 years ago. So our job on this tiyul was to dig up the peices of pottery in the caves. The guide encouraged us to take peices back for ourselves and use them to make hannukiahs (a nine candled lamp for hannukah) which I think is the ultimate insult to this people. To think that three thousand years ago they destroyed everything they had so that the Jews couldn't get it, and now here we are picking even through that and taking it to make a Jewish symbol. Irony doesn't begin to explain it.

When the rest of the group went to spelunk (go crawling through) other tiny caves I got a little group together to go investigate a little ruins a hill over. It ended up being a big hike because we had to go around all the barbed wire that blocked off the hill we were on and then more barbed wire on the other hill and the three different fences around the old church. Eventually we got there and had a really good time taking pictures and exploring. I think it was the best time I've had on a tiyul so far.

Now I'm back in Arad, looking for an internship. Last week 4 girls left our program (that's 10% of the group) because they disliked it so much. I'm sticking with it, but if the internship doesn't work out I'm going to do it on my own.

Hope to hear from you all!

posted by A Mus-Ed Blogger @ 6:33 AM