I am extending a warm welcome back...to myself. As the tender mother, lover, and legal guardian of this humble blog, I sincerely apologize for the blogging dry spell. I am back as a more seasoned traveller, with more stories and tales from Ye Olde City. This is going to be one huge blog post. Sorry. I'll try to find pictures sometime.
It's so long I need an outline:
- Did I talk about cherry picking in the Gush yet?
- Shabbos
- Great times Watching the Euro Cup
- Israeli Presidential Conference
- J.A.F.I Weekend
- Diaspora museum
- Getting my video blog swag
- Crashing a Moroccan wedding
- beach
- explorin our Jewish identities, navigating our place in the Jewish narrative, analyzing the Three Corners of Jewish Ppl-hood
- almost crying from boredom/frustration
- Back to work Today...haven't been in the office in 5 days!
A. Cherry Picking in Gush Etzion
June 15
Far in the Judean Mountains, nestled within the golden fields of the Palestinian Territories, is Kibbutz Rosh Tziyurim, where the air is hot, the children frolic, and the cherries are sweet. A group of 8 or so of us took the bus from the Central Bus Station through the Judean Mountains and were stunned by the view on the way. There was a shuttle from a parking lot near the bus stop to the kibbutz. Crowds of religious American couples, armed with armfuls of sweating crying children, juice boxes, and bottles of sunscreen, crammed onto shuttle busses in a disorganized, dysfunctional fashion that is typical of Israel. It cost 25 sheckels to pick unlimited cherries from their orchard. The entire orchard is protected from un-humans by sheets of white mesh, creating transparent cloth tunnels through which we explored and picked the sweetest cherries I have ever tasted. Rows and rows of fruit trees offered us deep burgundy and golden varieties of the juicy fruit. It was great just walking through the orchard, mouth open, and pecking at the clusters of cherries directly from the trees like a bird. I even took handfuls of cherries, squeezed them in my hands and let the fresh-squeezed juice drip into my mouth, sometimes missing and staining my shirt. It was a good-natured down-to-earth, heartwarming experience. Watching kids climb fruit trees smiling, red-mouthed and sticky-faced, and being in the Gush on a friday morning with my friends. What a way to bring in The Shabbos.
B. The Shabbos
Eli was really nice to invite a lot of people from my program to his apartment for Shabbos. So, after cherry picking, we frantically shopped at the shuq for ingredients, and cooked up a storm in his kitchen, which was comparatively bigger and better-equipped for cooking for a crowd. We went to a Shira Hadashah minyan (caught the last 15 minutes) and then everyone came back for dinner. It was one guy's first Shabbat meal EVER! The day, in all, was really full. My head was really happy to hit the pillow that evening.
C. Euro Cup
One thing this summer in Israel has given me is a love for Soccer, or כדור רגל or futbol.
It's become a tradition for a couple of friends and I to go to this bar, Slow Moshe, in Nachalot, and watch the game with a Goldstar and some pretzels. The owner of the bar projects the game onto a big screen and we sit in the balcony of the bar on big cushions, our view slightly obscured by a huge cheap paper chandelier lamp. It's a beautiful sport. The athletes are so fit. It's hilarious and exhilarating to see the intense concentration of Israelis on each pass, goal, and foul of the game. Tomorrow is Portugal v. Spain! That should be interesting.
D. The Israeli Presidential Conference
Israeli President, Shimon Peres, hosts an annual conference of world leaders and influential people in Jerusalem. I was invited through PresenTense. After work, we all headed down to the conference center, greeted by halls of people in business suits with matching lanyards. We sipped free wine, chewed on complementary cervice and other fancy hors d'ouvres. I brushed shoulders with the president of Cote D'Ivoire, and mingled with the daughter-in-law of Shimon Peres. I heard him speak, along with other interesting journalists, Tony Blair, and Henry Kissinger. I had to miss the last day of the Conference due to....
E. Jewish Agency for Israel Weekend
We left our apartment on Thursday 7:30 AM for the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. The diaspora museum was a depressing disaster museum. The tour was shallow, rushed, we did arts and crafts in a basement. We were tired.
After spending a total 7 or 8 hours at the museum, we went to the youth village, Haddasah Neurim. The first sentence of an article about the youth village in Hadassah Magazine says, "Hadassah Neurim, with a student body of 385, is often the "school of last resort" for students who have failed to succeed in other schools"
So....essentially it was a pretty shady place. There were no locks on the doors. We met up with about 60 or so other people from other Onward Programs. We discussed our Jewish identities in large groups. Watched a movie about Samaritans (this weird sect of Judaism that lives mainly in Holon). We analyzed the three tenants of Jewish Peoplehood: Coventent, Community, and Cosmopolitanism (Who decided that these were the three branches of Jewish pplhood and why? I have no idea). Some of the sessions were interesting, but mainly I needed to drink a ton of coffee to keep me awake.
The best part of the weekend was on Thursday night, after programming, when I heard a rumbling of trashy DJ music near the pool of the Kibbutz. "Let's follow the noize!" I said.
As I got closer, I smelled the savory charred smell of meat being grilled. Sounds of drunken laughter and pool splashing filled the air. We were at moroccan pre-wedding. Kinda like a post-henna ceremony, engagement bash. I tried candied eggplant, some sweet baklava-like flaky dessert, danced in my Onward Boston blue T-Shirt, and jumped in the pool and swam in the warm water with my friends. We danced furiously to get dry. The family was so happy that uncultured American tourists were at their party (or at least they came off that way). They gave me a free bottle of leftover wine, too!We also had three hours of free time, with which I went to the beach. Beautiful, natural, unspoiled sandy splendor. I was very happy to take a dip in the brine and burn my feet on the hot sand!
F. And now i'm back
at work...today is not so productive, but i wrote this blog post! I'll try to find some pictures to post.
Oh yeah, I got a free camcorder for my new video blog (which you won't be able to see until it's produced...the producer is this guy who is aparently a big deal in the israeli tv world. He writes and produces the israeli show, Srugim, the Israeli modern orthodox version of "Friends"...)
so...I need to film experiences that exhibit personal growth in the land of Israel. Really, just me having fun, cracking jokes, eating, praying, clubbing, and being a silly american girl in a crazy israeli world.
