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/