Pyramids…Check!

Cairo can be hard to describe in a few words but if I had to I would say it’s dirty, over crowded but amazing. My friends Arielle, Lindsey, Jess, Dan and I decided to take a long weekend and go to Cairo to see the Pyramids. I was really excited to go but also a little nervous because I had never been to a Muslim country and didn’t know what to expect. Taking a flight from Ben Gurion to Cairo was expensive so we decided to cross at the border in Eilat and take a taxi through the Sinai to Cairo. The trip started with an 11:59 evening bus ride from Tel Aviv to Eilat. We arrived earlier than we expected and arrived in Eilat at 4:30 in the morning. After a nap on the bus station floor and some breakfast, we walked to the Egyptian consulate and got out visas to enter Cairo. We took a taxi to the Taba border, crossed the border and found a taxi van to take us to Cairo. After the taxi company said 10 more minutes 20 times and we waited for 2 hours we finally agreed to pay a little more and we were on our way. The drive to Cairo took about 4 and half hours and once we finally hit Cairo the traffic in Cairo took about 2 hours to our hostel. To say that the traffic is Cairo is horrible would be such an understatement. There are no traffic lights, nobody stays in lanes (if the road is lucky to have lanes), cars weave in and out, people cross the street whenever they want, bumper to bumper traffic, and people honking non stop, just insane.

We finally arrived to our hostel, put our bags in the room and came down to drink tea and talk with Ayman who was our tour organizer. We only had 2 days there so he put together a tour where for 25 dollars each day we had our own driver and tour guide to drive us around and take us where we need to go. After we planned our tour, we walked around downtown Cairo, went to an amazing restaurant called GAD (one of the best deserts I’ve ever had, Egyptian pancakes with honey and sugar) and just tried to take in the fact that we were in Cairo. The next day we woke up early, had breakfast and were on our way, first stop was Memphis. Memphis was the original Egyptian capital and apparently where Moses lived with Ramses before he took the Jews out of Egypt. After some pics and an explanation of Memphis, we stopped at one of the hundreds of carpet making schools in Cairo. The schools take children at the age of 7 and force them to make carpets for 7 straight years until they become experts. Apparently this is not considered child labor in Egypt but it was interesting to see the process of making silk rugs. After that we went to Saqqara to see the step pyramids followed by a stop at papyrus paper factory where they served us tea and showed the process of making papyrus paper. After the papyrus store it was finally off to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. We decided to ride camels and horses to the pyramids. Riding a camel for 2 hours is not the most comfortable way to see the pyramids but it was an amazing experience. The pyramids were huge, very impressive and what I didn’t know, they are right next to Cairo, the city ends where the pyramids and desert begin. We stopped and took about a million pictures and just enjoyed the whole experience, being in the desert, hanging with Bedouins and camels and overlooking the pyramids. Afterwards we stopped at a perfume factory before we headed back to the hostel. We spent the evening, wondering the city, eating like kings again for 5 dollars, drinking tea and smoking Sheesha (Hooka).

The first day we had an amazing guide “Sam Sam” who made the sites really entertaining, the second day we got stuck with a new guide who was an old Egyptian man. He was very knowledgeable but not nearly as much fun. We first toured the Egyptian Museum which had a lot of cool stuff like statues, mini sphinx, mummies, lots of gold…but also like Egypt it was organized poorly and extremely overcrowded. We all had enough of the museum after about an hour but continued on the tour until lunch time. We then headed to old Cairo where the guide showed us some important churches that have something to do with Jesus and finally the oldest synagogue in Cairo. After lunch we headed to the Khan El-Khalili market which was one of the craziest parts of the trip. I love going to the Muslim souq in the old city because Muslims are so much fun to barter with. They drop their prices so quickly, I was really looking forward to visiting the souq. The souq was so crowded, there was nothing but junk being sold and the vendors were so aggressive that it just made me miserable being there. After walking around for a while Dan and I had enough and decided to sit down for some tea and sheesha. There are definitely no set prices in Egypt, we were even able to bargain the price of our drinks and sheesha before we sat down. After a quick comment from the guide how Muslim terrorist are not real Muslims so we don’t leave with a bad impression of them, we went back to our hostel, relaxed and got ready for a cruise down the Nile. The cruise was a buffet first followed by belly dancing, and a performance of a midget and his friend twirling nonstop for 30 minutes doing cool tricks such as pouring a glass of water and drinking it while spinning the whole time. After the cruise, went back to the hostel and enjoyed some Egyptian beer before we went to sleep. Since it’s a Muslim country there are very few bars and they are very expensive (for Egypt) so going back to the Hostel was the best idea.

We woke up the next morning, Muhammad (aka Alex), the driver who took us from Eilat to Cairo picked us up about an hour and a half late and we drove back through the Sinai to Eilat. We had booked a 5 PM bus to Tel Aviv and didn’t arrive to the border crossing until 4. We got through the Egyptian border crossing in about 10 minutes because Egypt knows your not going in or out of Israel without tight security so they just asked to see our passports and 2 pounds (15 cents) per person and basically trust Israel to handle everything. When we arrived in Israel there were about 1,000 Nigerians and 500 Asians on organized tours waiting to get through the passport questioning. This was not going to work so we bypassed the line, told security we had a 5 O’clock bus and we couldn’t wait in line. After they made sure we were Jewish they let us in front of everybody, we ran quickly through baggage security/passport control, caught a taxi and made it to the bus station with 10 minutes to spare.

Overall, it was an incredible journey. Egypt is so different than anywhere I’ve ever been. For the most part, the people we met were very friendly. Even though I know they do it for the money, everyone seemed eager to help us. This was also my first time having real interactions with Muslims and while it certainly doesn’t change my view of Israeli politics, I enjoyed talking with them and experiencing the Muslim and Arab culture for a few days.

Awesome two weeks

I just got home from the end of an amazing but exhausting 2 weeks. As I told you, I spent Chanukah volunteering at an IDF base. We started off the first day with a 3 hour drive to the northern border between Israel and Lebanon. The base we stayed on was about a mile south of the Lebanon border. I think the best way to describe the setting of the base would be to compare it to summer camp. The base was in the woods on top of a mountain with tons of bunks everywhere. Some of the bunks were sleeping quarters and some were for working. After we arrived we went to another bunk where we were given our IDF uniforms to wear for the week. In Israel, you see soldiers everywhere you go and I always thought that the uniforms look uncomfortable but they were surprisingly not too bad. However it was about 60 degrees, I wouldn’t want to be wearing it during the Israeli summer. After we got our uniforms, put our bags down and relaxed for a little we went to the dinning hall where the Chanukah candles were lite and we got to eat as much as we could at the buffet (the food was a lot better than I expected). The next day we started our volunteering, we took a 30 minute bus ride each morning to an outpost on the Israel/Lebanon fence. The work consisted of filing boxes of sand on top of the concrete walls so we made lines and carried sand bags from one person to other until the last couple people took the bags and filled the boxes with sand. It might not sound that exciting but wearing the uniform, being on the border fence and doing tough manual labor while helping to secure the outpost was a blast. We spent the evenings doing an activity related to the IDF such as a game where we learned all about the structure and the different infantry units. Some of the other kids in my program and I spent the rest of the evenings playing soccer with the soldiers. The army plays such a different role here in Israel than it does in the U.S. You can’t go anywhere in Israel without seeing soldiers dressed in their uniforms while carrying huge machine guns around, and not help being interested in the IDF. In the U.S. the wars are being fought really far away and as sad as it is, the current wars have very little impact on the everyday life of Americans. In Israel everybody joins the military and the wars are fought on the borders and unfortunately sometimes inside the borders. It’s that and all of the success the IDF has had which makes the military so interesting to me. Hopefully and thankfully this is probably the closest I will ever get to having to fight in a military.

I got home at about 2 PM from Sar-el last Thursday, watched the awful Ravens/Steelers game, (I didn’t check the internet or ask anyone what happened the whole week) repacked and hoped on a train back to northern Israel to start a 4 day hike. The hike I was planning is called the “Sea to Sea” hike because you start the hike at the Mediterranean and walk until you reach the Sea of the Gaililee. I’ve been in Israel for almost 4 months now and have seen rain for maybe a total of 5 minutes so it never occurred to me to check the weather. When we arrived in Akhziv the night before the hike we were told that a terrible storm was coming through and we probably shouldn’t hike. We were already there and the storm wasn’t supposed to start until the evening of the next day so we decided to go on with the hike. We woke up really early, and followed a river bed through a banana farm for about 4 miles until we hit the Nahal Kziv nature reserve. We then hiked for about another 10 miles in the nature reserve. We misread the map a little and ended up walking up a huge hill/mountain towards the city of Maalot when the storm was just about to start. We stopped and asked a police officer driving by where the camp ground was and he told us to get in because by this time the thunder had already started and the sky did not look happy. After confirming we were Jewish and realizing we had no where to go for Shabbat he said he would take us to the yeshiva and we could spend Shabbat there. The yeshiva gave us a room, dinner and lunch which I was very grateful for because the storm went on for 4 days and according to some Israelis was a once in a 10 year storm. I’m planning on finishing the hike but will definitely check the weather next time before I leave.

The last 2 days Oranim took us on an overnight trip to the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights are very interesting because it was not part of Israel originally and only became a part of Israel after the 67 war. Like everything else in Israel there is a huge dispute between Israel and the Muslim countries over whose land it is which makes for some incredible views, interesting lectures and of course Israel war stories. The highlight was probably the hike in the Banias today which is a stream with beautiful waterfalls, as well as ancient ruins dating back to the third century BC.

I’m getting ready for tomorrow because Aubrey is coming to visit me! I’ve got a lot of really fun things planned while she is here. Aubrey has been here twice before and both on organized trips so I’m hoping she can get a better idea of what it’s like to live here on top of having a great time which I know she will. Check out some of the bananas growing while I was on the hike, me today at a waterfall in the Banias and my favorite pic me at the Golan Brewery where i tried 4 of their microbrews.

Happy Chanukah

Happy Chanukah everybody, tonight is the first night of Chanukah as well as the start to a 10 day vacation from volunteering. I’m really excited for Chanukah and not just because I love latkes and Sufganiyot (Israeli jelly doughnuts). The vacation was supposed to start with a 4 day hike from the Mediterranean to the Kinneret on Sunday but due to an unnecessary lecture that I had to go to on Tuesday, the hike will have to be delayed a couple weeks. The good news is that I will get to do some things that I would have missed out on such as going to Jerusalem during Chanukah. Chanukah is celebrated much different here than the U.S., the main difference being that parents don’t give their children presents and then have to explain that Chanukah is better than Christmas because you get presents for eight days instead of one. There are no presents given, just lighting of the menorah, long lines at the bakeries and another reason for Israelis to end every conversation with “chag sameach” (happy holiday). I’m not really sure what Jerusalem will be like for Chanukah but I’m excited to see. The delay of the hike also let me go to a Macabbi Tel Aviv basketball on Sunday which is something I had wanted to do. It was a pretty normal basketball game not much different than going to a WVU game. It was kinda cool to hear Hatikva play before the game, I think that’s the first time I’ve heard it since I’ve been here.

The main reason that I’m so excited for Chanukah this year is that on Sunday I will be doing a 5 day IDF volunteering program called Sar-El. Usually Sar-El is 3 weeks and volunteers come from all over the world to help but Oranim has some type of deal with the program so we don’t have to commit the whole 3 weeks. I don’t know much about the program except that I will be wearing and IDF uniform and will stay on an army base for the week. I think the base is in the Negev and we will be eating with the soldiers and in their sleeping quarters. I’m not quite sure what the volunteering activities will be but I can’t imagine anything to difficult since if you go on the website they have volunteers from all ages who participate. I think I’m most excited for the picture of me in the IDF uniform but whatever I end up doing it will be something completely different than I’ve ever done before.

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving, I went to a bar in Tel Aviv that had a full course Thanksgiving dinner. It was great, the only thing missing with the sofa for me to fall asleep on afterwards. We tried to go to a bar in TLV afterwards but we were so full and tired we went home early. The following Saturday I met a father and son from New York at the Kotel, we started talking and he invited us to his house for Shabbat lunch. A great lunch, awesome conversation and the best part was they had Thanksgiving dinner at their house for 45 people so on top of the Shabbat meal there was also a ton of Thanksgiving leftovers. Other highlights of the last couple weeks would include the IDF and Israel Museum. The IDF museum was pretty cool, just houses full of guns, tanks, missiles... that were either made in Israel or from the surrounding countries that Israel has captured throughout the years. The Israel museum had fossils from 30,000 years ago and took you on a journey of all the nations who have conquered the land of Israel throughout history. I took a tour of Jerusalem which was necessary since I’ve been there between 8-10 times but never did any tour and never knew what I was looking at. At the same time, Jerusalem is so filled with tourist that it’s been nice to be able to go when I want, do what I want and not be rushed around following a tour guide with a yellow umbrella who yells at the group constantly to catch up. Took a trip to Ashdod & Herzliya, more haggling with arabs over things I don't need but I think most importantly I found a hummus joint in Yafo (Abu Hassan) that I’ve been to 5 times since I found out about it 3 weeks ago. I’m not saying in competes with Pat’s or Willie Mae's fried chicken but its damn good (always long lines no matter the time) and and they serve massabha which is basically hot humus, i just can't get enough of it. Happy Chanukah everybody, I put some more pictures on FB if anybody want to take a look.

http://www.sar-el.org/

Midway Point

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, part has been laziness and part has been me being busy, but not so much traveling around Israel. So what’s been new with me, we’ll the biggest thing has been the decision if I wanted to stay in Israel after my 5 month program is up. I’m not sure why I did but I applied and surprisingly got a job with a large accounting firm in the Tel Aviv office. I had to make a decision if I wanted to stay here longer or come back. I needed to look at what is most important to me and for me its family and friends. If I knew that I would have only been here for 2 more years at the most and would have had no problem coming home, then I probably would have stayed. But once I actually got the job, I started to really think that if I took the job there is always the possibility that I might not have came home. I really don’t know what would have happened and it’s not unreasonable to think that I might have stayed in Israel. For people who have never been here or for only a couple weeks than Israel can feel very different. After living here for a few months, I feel very comfortable and really enjoy being in Israel, especially near Tel Aviv but that doesn’t mean that I want to spend the rest of my life here. I’m happy that I was offered the job because it made me think about what’s really important to me and made me decide if I really wanted to be in Israel. The decision was easy, I’ve spent my whole life building great friends and family and that’s what is most important to me and where I belong. Even though Israel will always be very special to me and I’m sure this won’t be my last visit here.

So with that out of the way, this weekend me and two friends from my program rented a car and drove to the Dead Sea, Ein Gedi and Masada. I was the only one who could drive and I must say that I was a little nervous to drive since Israeli drivers are crazy. Everybody is in such a rush to get everywhere, it’s not uncommon for Israelis to hunk before the light turns green so the person in front of them won’t waste a second to go once the light turns. On Sunday we drove to the Ein Bokek, a tourist resort on the Dead Sea and floated in the water for about an hour. Even though I’ve been there a few times before it’s still so cool to go and float in the water. Your body feels so healthy and smooth afterwards and it puts you right to sleep. After that we drove to kibbutz Ein Gedi and walked around the kibbutz. We called it an early night because we had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning so we could get to Masada before it became light out. The highlight of the evening was definitely while sitting outside having a drink and smoking the hookah we saw and IDF fighter jet fly almost eye level with us because we were in the mountain and only about a mile in front of us. After that about 12 more jets came following the first one in about a 15 minute span, the jets were so loud and so close, pretty exciting. The next morning we arrived at Masada at about 4:30 while it was still dark out and began to hike up the snake path. I’ve walked down the snake path but never up before, the beginning of the hike was very tough because we couldn’t see anything but slowly it became lighter and lighter and after about 45 minutes we made it the top of the hill. We watched the sunrise and then walked around Masada. After a schwarma lunch we drove to the Ein Gedi oasis and hiked for about 3 hours through the waterfalls, up the mountain until we arrived at a cave 3 quarters up the mountain. After we hiked back down and a well deserved stop at McDonalds I drove home completely exhausted but still managed to stay awake when I got home to watch the Ravens game that I missed on Sunday…nice win.

So what else have I been doing in the long time since the last post? When I first arrived in Israel, there was the initial excitement of wanting to do everything, followed by the holidays and time to backpack around the country and then some organized trips such as a few days in Eilat. We’ll since then I’ve still been very busy but I’ve also settled in and even though I’m here for only 5 months I now feel like my apartment is home. The weekends have been pretty busy mostly between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I really enjoy going to Jerusalem and the Muslim quarter in the old city and bargaining with Muslims over stuff that I don’t need. Jews start their prices at a more reasonable price so if you bargain with them you will save a few dollars but the price won’t come down that much. Arabs start off their prices at such a ridiculously high price so they will come down quicker and a lot more than Jews but if you work at it you can get them for a lower price than the Jewish price. I’ve had quite a few Muslims upset with me because my prices were so low and I wouldn’t go to their price but I also got a lot of stuff for really cheap. Jerusalem has a really fun nightlife on Thursday’s which I enjoy hanging out in as well as a humus place (Ben Sira if anybody is visiting soon) that I’m obsessed with and can’t get enough of. Last Thursday I was in Jerusalem and slept on a hostels rooftop deck in the old city. It’s a lot cheaper that staying in a hotel but the Muslim morning call to prayer at 5 AM is really loud and annoying so I think that might have been a one time thing.

I’m only 25 minutes from Tel Aviv and I seem to go all the time. There’s so much to do there, so many different cool areas that there is no way I will be able to see everything before I leave, even though I’m trying my best. There are a lot of great restaurants so if I ever want a normal meal (non middle eastern) Tel Aviv is where I have to go. I got lasagna last night that would have been decent in the U.S. but not having normal Italian food in a while, the lasagna was extra delicious. I’ve been very busy the past month but instead of doing a lot of tourist stuff it’s been a normal life of living in Israel, going to restaurants, bars, pubs, hanging out by the beach and wondering to see the different areas of Tel Aviv. I’m at the midway point now before I come home so I’m going to take full advantage of my time left. I’m really looking forward to Aubrey coming in December and some other friends in January. I’m hoping to volunteer in the IDF for a week during Hanukah break in a program called Sar-El which could be an amazing experience. We’ll I’m off to Jerusalem for dinner, going to meet one of mom’s old friends who I haven’t see in years. Yesterday we toured an army base that was on a hill over looking the west bank in the north where they showed us what they do and how they stop terrorist from coming over the fence from Palestine into Israel. Most importantly they let us play with the guns, bullet proof vest and other IDF toys. I posted some pictures of last weekends trips and other random pictures of facebook if you want to take a look. The pics are of Emi, Dan and I starting our hike up Masada at 5 in the morning and me playing with a huge gun.

Israeli Cancun

After my first full week of volunteering, it was time for another vacation. Sorry for such a long delay between post but I spent the week after the last post recovering from an exhausting trip traveling up north. I needed to spend the next week relaxing in Nes Zionna. Everybody from the Oranim program (about 150 people) went to Eilat for a 3 day vacation last Friday. The bus picked us up at 6:45 Friday morning so I was planning on going to bed early so I could be ready for the weekend. A few girls that Dan and I had meet invited us to a kibbutz party Thursday night about 20 minutes from our house. I’m starting to learn that some words have different meanings between Israelis and American’s. For example, the word ‘party” at home usually means somebody’s house so when I was invited to a kibbutz party I figured it would be out in a field, maybe bond fire with people drinking. “Party” in Israel means nightclub and that also means that parties here don’t start until 12 AM at the earliest. The nightclub was in the middle of a farm surrounded by nothing. The “Party” was a lot of fun even though I don’t understand techno music dancing. When we left the club at 3:30 in the morning because we had to be up in 2 hours, there were still people coming in and the club was packed.

That night pretty much summed up the entire Eilat experience. After my 2 hours of sleep, and a light nap on the bus it was time for a 4 hour hike before we got to Eilat. The hike was in the Negev in an area called Machtesh Gadol. This is one of five craters in the Negev and when we finally reached the top of the hill if you do a 360 you can actually see the wall of the crater. The hike was very challenging but once we got to the top the views were amazing and well worth it. After lunch and a smelly 2 hour bus ride, we were finally in Eilat. The nickname for Eilat is the “Israeli Cancun” and that’s a pretty accurate description of it. It’s made for tourist, both Israel and abroad with beautiful hotels on the water, packed beaches with DJ’s blasting techno music, scuba/snorkeling/Jet Skies… and nightclubs/bars galore. Needless to say, I had a blast going out at night, meeting other people from the Oranim programs and there was even a booze cruise Saturday night to start the evening off right. Having to be ready to leave the hotel at 7 AM Sunday morning did not seem like the best idea after another night of very little sleep and the 8 AM hike seemed like an even worse idea. Luckily for me I sweated all the alcohol out of my body by 8:15 from the desert sun since it was another tough hike. This hike just like the first hike was amazing and from the top of the mountain you could see Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. After that we stopped at Ben Gurion's grave for a history lesson and more views of the Negev. We made it home about 15 minutes before the Ravens/Bronco’s game so I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.

The approximately 10 hours of sleep over 3 nights took a toll on me and caused my eyes to be very bloodshot and hurt so I took the last couple days to rest. I’m feeling all better now and am planning on going to Jerusalem tomorrow night. While Jerusalem has so many historic and Jewish things to do, it also has a great nightlife and restaurants. After the holidays, I’m taking a break from all the Jewish stuff and am just going to enjoy the night out tomorrow. I put some pics up on facebook from Eilat if you want to see more. Here’s a picture of me hiking up the Machtesh Gadol and of some Israelis we were hanging out with Friday night.

It’s about doing, not seeing

“Israel is about doing, not seeing” is what the Rabbi from New Jersey told me Wednesday night during Simchat Torah dinner when I told him where I had travelled during Sukkot. I think that comment does a great job of explaining what it’s like to be here and to really try and understand Israel. Unlike traveling through Europe where you wake up early, sight see all day and then do the same thing the next day. To really see Israel you need to talk to Israelis, party at night, have conversations about life and Judaism, dance with torah’s on holidays and of course sight see. I think it’s the variety that Israel has that you can’t find anywhere else, and that’s what makes Israel so fascinating to me.

I travelled for the past 10 days and started and ended the trip in Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Being in Jerusalem is really incredible for the Jewish holidays, even though I don’t really know much about them there is such an amazing feeling being at the western wall with everybody. I’m not sure who sponsors or runs the program but for every Shabbat and Jewish holiday in Jerusalem anybody who doesn’t have a family to go to can meet this guy named Seidel just outside of the western wall. Seidel sets you and your friends up with a family to go to for dinner and lunch the next day. It’s such a great program because it makes you want to go to Jerusalem for the holidays since you have something to do the whole time. The people who meet for dinner are different ages and come from different backgrounds, families take sometimes up to 10 people so it’s a great way to meet new people in Israel as well.

After I spent the first night celebrating Sukkot and the next night partying just off Ben Yehuda street I went to Haifa for a couple days. Haifa is very beautiful, the majority of Haifa is built into the surrounding hills and looking up from the beach it’s a very pretty city. The saying in Israel is “Tel Aviv parties, Jerusalem prays and Haifa works” and that’s the feeling you get there, especially with the enormous port and the technology park next to the bus station that had such companies offices there as Google, Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo, Hewlett Packard and many more. After a few days exploring Haifa it was off to Tiberias on the Kinneret. Tiberias is very beautiful and since it was Sukkot, it was packed with Israelis vacationing. The entire beach was surrounded with Israelis camping on the water, grilling, drinking, smoking nageliah (hukkah) and blasting techno music. We stayed in a hostel but next time I go back I’m definitely renting a tent and camping for a few days. The highlight of Tiberias was probably the bike ride along the Kinneret where we ended with a swim in the Jordan River and a walk around Kibbutz Kinneret where we sampled so many delicious dates, chocolates, cheeses and candy all made and grown at the kibbutz.

After Tiberias it was off to Tzfat which is the center of Kabbalah. We stayed at a place called Ascent where they run Kabbalah classes all day and night. When I said earlier about “doing Israel”, this is what I meant. I went from partying in Tiberias to the next night up just as late having a discussion with Rabbi’s and other people like me about Judaism and how it relates to life, it was very enjoyable. After a late night of discussion, took a 4 hour bus ride on a packed bus to Jerusalem with nothing but ultra orthodox, not the most enjoyable bus ride. Simchat Torah was awesome in Jerusalem, such a special feeling being in Israel for it and I even carried the Torah while dancing in circles with everybody else celebrating. I’m exhausted and need a few days to recover. I posted pictures from the first month on facebook. Next Friday all of the Oranim programs are going to Eilat for 3 days so I’m very excited for that. Check out the sign above the urinal in Haifa just in case you were worried about going to the bathroom during Shabbat.

First Month Observations

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Israel for a month already. The question I’ve been asked a couple times from multiple people is “Do you think you could live in Israel?”. Before I answer this question, I want to state that my answer does not mean that I’m staying past January 25th. With that said, when you take away all of the extra material items that America has, life in America and Israel are not that different. What I mean by that is that the U.S. has a so many Malls, restaurants every 5 feet, Wall Marts in every city, big cars, big houses with lots of land and a million extra curricular activities to choose from. There’s a lot to do in Israel but it’s not so much running from place to place and you don’t have the options in the U.S. The people seem to be a more relaxed and in not so much of a rush all the time. Most people seem fine spending their weekends at the beach or hanging around with their families. The part that makes Israel feel so comfortable for me is the family aspect. Despite the fact that everybody here is Jewish, it’s an incredible diverse country. People come from so many different countries and continents (mainly Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa) but every family I’ve meet so far reminds me of my family. It seems that if you meet somebody at the beach on a Thursday, they are calling you Friday morning and inviting you over for Shabbat dinner. That’s the part for me that made Israel so easy to adjust to and for me to feel comfortable immediately. There might be other places in the world that are more beautiful or have more to do but I don’t think there is anywhere else where I could have moved to for the last month and felt as immediately comfortable and adjusted so quickly. So the answer would be Yes, I know I could live here. I don’t know if I could live here forever but I don’t feel it’s so different to live here as you might think it is.

Tomorrow evening starts sukkot and schools will be closed for the rest of this week and next week which means I’m off for the next 10 days. The blog will be put on hold while I do some traveling in Israel. The plan is to go to Jerusalem tomorrow morning for the night, and then go from Jerusalem to Haifa. After a few days in Haifa I’m planning on living on a kibbutz for a couple days followed by a few days of hiking and camping in the northern part of Israel. Were going to finish the trip off with another couple days in Jerusalem. I spend a lot of time in Tel Aviv on the weekends and in my free time so it will be nice to go see some new parts of Israel. I won’t have skype while I’m gone so if you need to talk to me, call me on the cell phone. Off to get ready for tonight, spending the night in Rishon, here’s Asi and I, Asi is in charge of my program.

Phone # 011972526042751