Over the Rainbow

We are packed and ready to say goodbye to the Golan. Our final breakfast in the kibbutz was the regular meal: lots of veggies, yogurts, cereals, and eggs that were slightly tasteless and overdone. The veggies are truly the best though; so fresh, light, and refreshing that the Israeli breakfast never really gets old.

On the bus to Svat we go. Svat is a really old, orthodox town. Knees and shoulders must be covered at all times, and inhabitants usually have some form of interesting facial hair in addition to hat+kippa (sp?). There are some beautiful, beautiful old synagogues there, which I have pictures of but I took with someone else’s camera because mine was dead. Ideally I will be able to find them, because it was a really awesome place. Apparently one of the synagogues used to be in Spain, but a bunch of Rebbi prayed really, really hard and it managed to apparate (MS Word doesn’t think apparate is a word…tsk tsk) to Israel, along with the ancient Torah that is only allowed to be touched once a year.

oh yeah. everything is also painted blue.

For those of you that don’t know, Torah can have absolutely NO mistakes, and it must be written by hand. That means that if the poor bastard hand-writing the Torah makes even the most marginal of errors, the entire sheet is thrown out. Each sheet is sown to the next and each end is wrapped around a pole, so that when the Torah is unrolled, it is the exact spot of that week’s Torah “portion.” There are Torah that are hundreds and thousands of years old kept in ancient synagogues, and many more of these historic scrolls were destroyed over the course of the anti-Semitic eras.

Anyways, our next stop: Refugee camp for children. What sounds like a depressing place where kids line up and are served different kinds of goop out of ladles for every meal was actually a beautiful place filled with success stories. First and foremost, the camp is a family for children who are simply not welcome anywhere else and whose parents can no longer care for them. At the camp, they primarily go to school and work on the grounds, in addition to playing sports and all the things kids usually do.

needs a lot of work, but it was quite beautiful.

Basically, the region was devastated by a fire that was not even put out until a huge tank flew over from the States and dumped a shit ton of water on the area, which leaves a lot of work rebuilding in addition to prevention of another fire. When we got there, we learned about the camp’s graduates and how they were then able to apply for work permits and sign up for the army so that they can become citizens. After hearing this woman with her wonderful Brooklyn accent speak, we actually went down to the grounds that they were working on and were divided into groups. My group was responsible for clearing these fields (oh, did I mention everything is by hand? You know, character building) of dry weeds that had been a big part of sustaining the fire. I looked like the Grim Reaper for about 30 minutes, but damn I cleared a lot of weeds. How out of character for me.

quality. souls, right this way.

After getting completely drenched in sweat and feeling absolutely disgusting, I think it was lunchtime. We stopped at another shopping mall place and got perhaps the worst fake Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life. And after tasting almost every shitty Chinese food restaurant in the greater Boston/Cambridge area thanks to campusfood.com, that is saying something.

We were supposed to go to this amazing place in Haifa where you can see an amazing view of the port and the Navy, but we were short on time and couldn’t go. Instead, we stopped at this random but nice picnic area and listened to the Israelis tell us about their daily life, including school, the army, night life, fun things they like to do, etc. Basically, Israelis like to “see and be seen.” But actually. Also it was at this time that a wasp decided that it had a serious affinity towards the toes on my left foot, and insisted on not only just crawling all over my foot but also in the space between my sandal and my toes. I almost had a heart attack, but I believe the calm, cool, and collected David was sitting next to me coaching me through the entire episode to avoid getting stung. Mission accomplished.

ze israelis tell us about zeir life. 

We then got back on the bus and began the journey to Tel Aviv, which we were told was voted to be the 3^rd most interesting city in the world to visit. Not a bad ranking, and it is a fucking awesome city. Unfortunately, we did not see too much of it because we were dropped off right at the hotel for dinner. We were then given some time to shower and get ready to go out.

We are dressed and ready to go, and then we are told that we will be dropped off at a location and, from there, have a 1 block radius of where we could go. There was roughly 1 bar in the area, so we ended up not buying separate bottles of alcohol and not going to the beach to drink it because we were not allowed to do that. However, there were 2 real highlights to my evening. The first was that Noalee came to hang out with us as we wandered like idiots around, but it was so so so so amazing to see her. This was also the moment when I realized how fucking funny Marlee is, so then we spent a good 20 minutes just laughing at everything Marlee said. The second highlight of the evening was when, all the sudden, some horses came cantering around the beach where we were chilling! Naturally I had to say hi to the horses and the guy who owned them was really nice, even though he never called me back so that I could go riding with him :(.

 marlee is going to visit us at MIT. everyone…be prepared.

After cleaning up after everyone and subsequently cutting my finger on broken glass (thank you medic Ran for the band-aid), we hastily brushed the sand off our feet (well…I did) and made our way back to the corner so that we would be on time for the count off.

rowdy crew 

And the day was supposed to end there. Naturally, we decided to have some shenanigans in and around the hotel, which was actually quite lovely. Except drunk bitch. Now, if drunk bitch was 9 shots deep at the kibbutz, you can only imagine how she was in an actual city with real bars and clubs. Here’s the situation. We are all hanging out outside, enjoying ourselves with a wonderful group of people and all the sudden there is a crash. Drunk bitch, who was sitting with three friends on the steps at the entrance, had decided to throw her beer bottle against the bus parked in front of the hotel. She stumbles up and with her eyes barely open, she simple holds up 2 fingers in the traditional peace sign and says, in a daze, “YOLO.” Naturally, the concierge yells at us all to get out and stop smoking in front of the hotel and most of us go inside back up to the rooms. The girl’s friends? “I’m not going to do the whole apology thing. She’s just drunk.” I swear my jaw dropped to the floor and I just said, “How about you put her to bed now?” What. The. Fuck. Other than that, a beautiful evening. 

After our second evening in the kibbutz, we wake up, garbed in t-shirts (NO TANK TOPS), hats, and bags to hold our 1.5L of water and optional cameras BECAUSE we are going for a HIKE. Not a walk around the kibbutz, a HIKE.  In the lovely mountains of the Golan, we set off.

It was beautiful, and we walked through all sorts of lovely alcoves and patches of water/rocks/flowers. Definitely the most entertaining part was listening to the shrieks as people (i.e. divas) tried to figure out how to cross the different parts of the stream by hopping from rock to rock.

you know…just chillen on the rocks in a little alcove of beautiful vegetation and water

We arrive at this awesome cave, and basically chilled there for a bit. Looking back, we took so many breaks…if I went back and did this hike now, I would probably laugh at easy it was compared to what I do now. Sorry to sound like an asshole, but it’s been <2 weeks in Greece and I’ve wiped out at least 4 times because of such steep up/down hills, and the more breaks we take, the longer we’re in the sun. I’ve just never been really aware of personal safety I suppose.

looking out of the cave. 

Okay after the cave…was the waterfall!! I’m pretty sure they told us not to swim near the waterfall, but that was probably just for insurance purposes because about half of us swam to the waterfall, then under the waterfall, and then climbed on the rocks behind the waterfall. I had casually ignored that we were supposed to bring a bathing suit, so I ended up just going in my sports bra and athletic shorts. Did I mention the water was freezing? Perfect; I’m sure you can imagine why. Luckily, I didn’t give a shit. Thank goodness. Also, I gave my camera to someone who didn’t want to go in, so I took 0% of the pictures in the water. Shout out to Peter for the candid photography.

at some point I was there behind the waterfall. fucking awesome.

After the waterfall, we conclude our hike by meeting the bus at the top of a very long hill, where there were thankfully steps to help our ascension. We arrive at the top, and there is an ice cream truck waiting for us! And we weren’t allowed to buy anything. Awesome. However, they did immediately take us to a shopping mall, which had an awesome food court. Funny thing: all of the Americans are in these huge lines at the shwarma and falafel places. I sit down with my hummus plate and the Israelis next to me have ordered the largest plate of shit show I have ever seen in my life. There were 4 of them, so there was this platter with a burger at each corner. In the middle of these burgers was a fucking mountain of French fries, onion rings, and mini hotdogs. I swear I have never seen such a display of American food in my life…not even in America. I understand why they would not want shopping mall hummus and falafel when they can get good shit all the time, but…seriously? Holy shit. My arteries were clogging just looking at it.

Okay after the shopping mall, we went to what felt like the tip top of the Golan, from where you could see Israel and its neighbors around the north. It was a Syrian barricade, but some beautiful, brave Israelis gave their lives so that Israel may have it.

what staff told us: basically, the green part is Israel.

Next, we went to this beautiful cemetery where the famed poet Rachel (obvi supposed to be said in Hebrew but I don’t have the skills to insert the Hebrew letters here) was laid to rest. The Israelis sang us one of her songs, and then we looked around to appreciate the beauty of this magnificent cemetery and boarded the bus once again to head back to the kibbutz.

aren’t they so cute with their guitar and music?

Once we were at the kibbutz, I think we had some free time to shower and make ourselves nice after our sweaty adventures of the morning before dinner. After dinner, we had a pretty intense conversation about Jewish identity, where the discussion got a little heated. I believe I conducted myself very respectfully and articulately, but hey, when don’t I?

For our last night at the kibbutz, we of course made our way to the kibbutz bar. This time, however, I was not particularly interested in dancing like a fool or drinking, but I did play a round of pool with our sexy medic. Afterwards, I happened upon Elliott, who would be a wonderful addition to friends of Charles, if you catch my meaning. We decided to chill outside the rooms with some other lovely people (though far enough so that our forgiving staff wouldn’t get mad) and soon drew quite a crowd. It turned out to be a pleasant evening of chatting and smoking (cigars, of course, once again courtesy of Elliott), made especially pleasant by the appearance of drunk bitch, once again 9 shots deep. I just don’t get it. Kibbutz. Bar. Like why?

Breakfast: 10:30 AM!!! Best deal of the week. We start the morning off with coffee and cake and some discussions of the meaning of Shabbat as suggested by the Talmud. Another good discussion led by the one and only Mordechai. 

Remember drunk bitch from the first night? Well, I didn’t because honestly who the fuck cared. However, while I was mingling with the other bus before our discussion in the air conditioning and before they left on their hike (haha bitches suck it), drunk bitch comes up to me and was like (in my best valley girl impression) “oh my gawd, were you at the party last night?” So I replied, “Oh, the small gathering in the kibbutz bar? Yes, I was there. Ha..ha.” And then her friend came up to me and was like, “You should be impressed that she remembers you. She doesn’t remember anything.” And I just sort of looked at her and gave her one of my you-sort-of-disgust-me-but-it’s-rude-to-judge-you faces and said, “… … … you blacked out last night…?” “Haha yeah I took like 9 shots…haha!” Wow. Yeah. Okay end tangent.

ANYWAY our staff believed in the value of a relaxing and peaceful Shabbat. Which was great, because then we had about 4.5 hours to shower, sleep, swim, whatever. So of course we all go to the pool again with our new best friends and take lots of pictures, though I tried to avoid as many as possible. I played a wonderful game of catch in the pool, which I might have accidentally made into a game of semi-violent keep-away. I can’t help it…I’m a little competitive and I was bored.  I took an elbow to the forehead, which left a lump and a potential bruise that I asked everyone every 10 minutes if they could see it. I don’t know what the point was of asking if its visible if I just kept pointing it out, but this is irrelevant.

#divas. “here hold me for this picture.” at least it turned out nice. she probably just wanted to show how tan she was compared to me

After playing around in the pool, we all gather to take a short walk around the kibbutz and learn about life there. Turns out, it has a beautiful view of the lake and Tiberius, a small city built on the side of the mountain just across the lake. In fact, everyone was so interested in the kibbutz (or we spent too much time taking pictures) that we didn’t have time to actually walk around. But it was beautiful.

photocred for 2nd picture goes to the lovely Marlee

We then gathered in the dining hall to play games, learn about Israel’s history and eat snacks. I believe we had a fifteen-minute break, and then met outside to have a deep discussion with the person opposite us in our count-off numbers. I had a wonderful conversation with the one and only Nate about the things that we’re “carrying” with us, just as phones, watches, etc. Not really. It was about deep things. The type of things you would talk about with someone you had just met about 2 days before, minus the 12 hours we spent on the plane. But actually this time.

After our talks, we did the Havdallah (spelling?), listened to a bit of guitar, and boarded the bus to Tiberius. There were 51 of us, including staff, and about 3 restaurants we could eat at. As you can imagine, we broke up into about 5 groups and gave the restaurants as much hell as possible and, in return, received some mediocre food. Because this was before everyone really separated into their cliques, there were some interesting crowds and more interesting conversations. On the whole, a lovely meal.

everyone looking beautiful.

Also, this is probably when I decided I wanted to be in the pictures because I thought I should photo-bomb the divas. The picture-taking was, on the whole, a little out of control. 

looking creepy. haha…

No kibbutz bar this evening. Poor drunk bitch probably had withdrawal symptoms.

Okay. After all my procrastination, blogging about Israel begins…now.

We arrive at Newark airport at around 9am and begin the first round of questioning: where do you go to school, what year are you, what do/did you study, what are you doing for the rest of the summer, etc. We play some icebreakers, make our first judgments of each other, and board the plane. 

Like the champion I am, I fell asleep immediately for about 1.5 hours, only to awake and discover that not only have we not moved, but also something is wrong with the air conditioning and I am covered in sweat. A brilliant way to begin the trip. We finally take off, and the annoying girl next to me goes to join her friend, which was also excellent. I now realize she was probably a part of the other bus, and looking back, it’s quite funny that I didn’t particularly care for them from the very beginning. 

I sleep maybe a total of 4-5 hours on and off, but I was definitely done sleeping by about 8pm America time. The plane lands 1:30am EST, which is 8:30am in Israel. So, the day begins anew. Weirdest feeling ever.

As soon as we collect our bags, we are greeted by the Israeli soldiers from buses 122 and 123. Ben, the first soldier I met, is standing by the entrance to the lobby, shaking everyone’s hand and saying “Hi! I’m Ben!” about 20 times. Very entertaining. Not so entertaining: having to get in a huge circle in the airport, yelling Hebrew words, putting sweaty, smelly arms around each other and dancing in a circle. Classic.

classic airport picture. couldn’t resist.

After changing money, we get on the bus. I have the pleasure of sharing the 3 hour ride with Michal, my second Israeli friend. We soon arrived at our first destination, which was a scenic view of the Kinneret (sp?). We take our first group shot together, and pile back onto the bus so that we may continue to the kibbutz in the Golan, where we would be staying for the next 3 nights.

first view

#precious.

We are then assigned roommates. My first roomie: Ally Lundy. UMichigan grad with a pet named Jenna. Well, that’s what I thought. Actually, in my head they were immediately Frick&Frack. Not much has changed, especially since they started calling me classyrosebud064 after some password or something. They’re super clever, too (obviously). But now we’re biffles so I can be a bitch and it’s not even mean! And then I found out we’re all Thetas. Lolz. 

So, the kibbutz is beautiful, and the food is very welcome after 2 meals of airport food, which admittedly was not that bad all things considered. We relax a bit, change, and we are allowed a few hours of free time…which we use to go to the pool. After getting to know each other a little bit and telling ridiculous stories, we do some more talking and then prepare for Shabbat (props to Rabbi Mordechai for a wonderful discussion). At this point, most of us are approaching hysteria. I was getting into crazy-tired mode, so dinner was super entertaining. I believe the table was me, Lior, Rotem, Ran, Max, Garrett, and Rachel. Even though these names won’t mean anything to most of you, I need to make sure that this meal stays preserved in my memory because it was so fucking funny. We played another game after dinner, in which I believe I told someone that my greatest addition was caffeine (lies…).

^ the kibbutz, by all of the rooms.

the best view of them all :) #nevergetsold

After all this, I was SOOOO excited to go to bed. I was disoriented and I had no idea how long I had actually been awake…though I could have done the math..whatever, irrelevant. Anyway, Ally convinces me to go to the kibbutz bar, which at first I thought was a joke. Seriously, a kibbutz bar operating on the evening of the Shabbath? I decided that drinking would inevitably lead to disaster, as I have been known to get drunk off of half a beer when severely lacking sleep. People were just standing around anyway, so I decide to dance and yell like an idiot (totally sober) until everyone started dancing. Some unfortunate pictures were taken of me (thank you Lior…8 hours of friendship does wonders), but its okay because almost no one knew who I was so it didn’t matter…AND it was so much fun. Also, it should be noted that this is the first appearance of “drunk bitch.” She will come up later in this tale, so it is imperative to mention that she found it necessary to consume roughly 9 shots in the kibbutz bar. Did I mention this was the kibbutz bar? Great. 

Okay so I know this is out of order but I had to write about my latest experience. With teary eyes I had to say goodbye to the Beach House this morning, home of Noalee, Gabi, Mano, Ron, and Baba, to continue my summer adventures to Greece. But I will talk more about this later.

I arrive at the Athens airport and the bougiest airport hotel I have ever had the pleasure of staying at and immediately pass out for a few hours. Lame, I know, but I had a really rough week so it was really important that I rest before exploring (this is a joke…I had the easiest week of my life). Regardless, I lost my cell phone charger and therefore set out to try and buy one in the airport before taking the metro downtown.

Continuing on alone with my nearly dead phone, unsuccessful in my ventures to get a charger, I decided it would still be a great idea to go into the city. After getting confused in the 1-track station (another haha moment), I make my way down to the train and watch it pull out of the station. Naturally, I had to miss the train by about 2 seconds because I was too stupid to walk down the stairs to literally the only train I could have gotten on. Moving on…

Fifty-five minutes later (and feeling VERY pleased with myself for making it there…not that I ever feel really pleased with myself…) I land in some sort of square. I had plans to walk to La Plaka, which apparently has some pretty good restaurants, but the square was eerily active and crowded for a Sunday at 10 pm. After looking and walking around, I realize that there are policemen EVERYWHERE and any road surrounding the square felt so dark and empty there was no fucking way I was walking down there alone. So, the square it was.

i don’t know what this is…it was the first thing i saw when i left the station. best. tourist. ever.

As a result of the aforementioned situation, I think I must have found the shittiest place to eat in the whole city and am even a little embarrassed to say what exactly it was. Also, I believe this is a good time to mention that I really must look like I fit in because no less than 5 people came up to me yammering in Greek asking for something or another. Lo siento, je ne le parle pas. Anyway, I grabbed my nasty grub and brought it back to the center, which is getting more and more crowded. There are cameras everywhere, people shouting, etc. 

looks cool.

the crowd of people at the beginning of the evening when I arrived…

and i’m supposed to have a video i took at the end of the night where there were so many more people chanting and shit but i can’t figure out how to do it. maybe i’ll upload it to youtube and share it or something?

And now just picture me in your head. Typical white girl, standing in the middle of all these people just looking around, eating, and absorbing what’s going on without having a fucking clue. I waved in the background of a couple cameras, spoke to some people in broken romance languages and decided to call it a night. It was exciting, I was a part of it, even did some yelling, but that’s good for me. I had a train to catch and it’s probably better if I avoid the mob scene, being the culture-savvy American tourist that I am.

Moral of the story? Viva la Revolucion!! Though it would be kinda shitty if Greece switched back to the Drachma because the entire economy would essentially be at a standstill for a little bit, I can cross the “be a part of a revolt/revolution” off the bucket list. Too bad it’s not on the 101 Things to do Before Graduating. 

Also, I have pictures and a video (maybe, phone died in the middle of taking it) to provide a little evidence for the above tale, but it will have to wait until I find a charger. For now, peaceeee!!! Miss you all!!!!

::UPDATES::

Pictures have been added. Obviously. Additionally, the newspaper man was not very informative (shocking). Perhaps there was a little excitement in the square (I mean…there definitely was…) but I think the right person won? I’m not exactly sure. They also voted to stay with the Euro, which is definitely best for the stability of the country. But hey…these are just minor things…

In < 48 hours, I will be on a plane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Probably. Maybe over a continent. I don’t really know. But I do know that I have not packed, nor have I set any of my affairs in order for the fall or otherwise before leaving. While all of you are recovering from the shocking level of my preparedness, I figured I would detail a little of my life at home.

First and foremost, I must introduce you to the wonder known as water-ice. I describe this phenomena as something like “soft Italian ice, but a million times better.” 

^Best shit ever. 

I’ve also been doing very strenuous things like catching up with friends, chilling on my hammock, Charlotte (distant cousin of Charles), and drawing. What can I say, I needed to reward myself with a relaxing couple days after doing so brilliantly on my finals </sarcasm, if possible>.

Read: Meet Charlotte and the backyard.

My mother and I hit up the mall. She says hello.

My latest sketch, though I clearly need some practice. I thought it was a cool shot and the most magnificent subject (the horse, that is. it’s not even me riding….pshtttt not that arrogant. yet.)

Well, this truly has been a wonderful experience to share with you all. I am not used to documenting my life so bear with me. I think I have a date with Charlotte and Disney, though, so I’m going to bid thee farewell until next time I get a chance. slash when I have some more interesting things to share…

Tl;dr [though this technically defeats the purpose of reading a blog…]: Birthright: May 31 to June 11. with Noalee in Tel Aviv: June 11-17. Athens: June 17-18. Papigo, Greece: June 18-August 16. Summer 2012, here we goooooooooooo!