1. We went on an archaeological dig in the Judean Hills. While crawling through caves on my belly, and feeling the clay walls with my fingers I finally had that moment. That wonderful moment where my brain and my body and my heart are all in the same place. The same foreign location. It finally clicked. I'M IN ISRAEL! It sounds dumb, don't worry about it. So on the 'tel' (mountain in hebrew i think...or maybe it's archaeological site?), there were the most incredible views. I could see for miles around us. The tour guide (who is one of the archaeologists who continues to excavate the area) told us about the biblical village that lies adjacent to the place. Quite cool.
2. We had our first full day of classes. The regular day is fairly intense, length-wise. My schedule is as follows:
7: 30 wake up
8:00 breakfast
8:30-11:30 Jewish History class
12:00 Hebrew Class
1:30 first period (lunch)
2: 10 Algebra
3:10 History
4:10 Spanish
5:10 Biology
6:10 English
7ish dinner
and then the rest changes from day to day
I've found that strangely enough, I really like school. It's not ridiculously challenging (which is comforting, quite honestly), and my classes are really interesting. Jewish history (although really long when i see the times on the schedule), goes by quickly and I don't find myself yawning at all, which is really impressive. We cover six thousand years of Jewish history in a span of four months, so I suppose that the three hour class shouldn't surprise me, but still..
4. 4? i don't know, i can't scroll up right now because my computer's being dumb. Bear with my bad counting. We've had lots of time for exploring here and there, and my friends and I keep finding ourselves in our three favorite spots on Kibbutz Tzuba: the garden, the playground, and....oh wait, no it's only two. Just the garden and playground. We call the garden the 'secret garden' even though we talk about it all the time and invite everyone there to see the view.
5. So yesterday was our first Shabbat in Israel-I still don't understand how we've been here for almost a week. In the morning, we hopped on busses and were shuttled into Jerusalem to do tz'dakah projects (good deeds) in honor of Shabbat. My group went to a soup kitchen that serves special meals for the needy for the Sabbath as well as preparing food packages for families. I spent much of the time in the kitchen slicing potatoes with around 15 other kids, while the rest of the group was split between serving food in the cafeteria-type room and preparing food boxes in the warehouse room. After about thirty five minutes, two girls came in from serving and asked for two replacements to go in. Being obnoxiously over confident and perky, I delightfully agreed to go. In retrospect, that was a terrible decision. The room was cramped, incredibly overcrowded. All of the people waiting to be served were over the age of fifty and all looked unhappy. The woman standing at the front of the food line passed trays to me and the other girl volunteering, and we were meant to bring them calmly and politely to those who were seated at tables and had not yet been served. This proved difficult, as the room was loud and voices were calling from all directions for food. People were irritable, unhappy, and hungry. People with no teeth, people whose clothing seemed sad. Most weren't seated and as I went to pass trays to the few in their seats, an arm would come through the masses and pull the tray from my hands. Whenever someone got a tray, another person would come to me and say "don't give him anymore, he's had enough already." I was reaching the end of my emotional rope when I turned towards the door to see a man limp in. He seemed to be in his late 70's, and wearing a golf hat that had seen better days. The entrance to the room was filled, and he tripped on someone's foot. He landed on the lap of a woman sitting in a chair by the door. As awesome as that sounds, her response was less than glad. She promptly yelled at him in Hebrew and hit him with her cane, which prompted him to push back. I ran out of the room in tears- I couldn't handle so much at once. Going back into the kitchen, I shakily asked for someone to replace me in the serving room. Needless to say, I spent some quality time with a sack of potatoes. Getting back on the bus afterward, I found a much needed friend. I'm glad to say that I've started finding more of those around here. Things are definitely looking up in that aspect.
We returned to the Kibbutz after our community service projects for some free time to prepare for Shabbat. Running around and getting dressed up and cleaning as though we were being graded on it reminded me so much of camp. I love Shabbat in NFTY settings. I love it in general, I guess. We were told to dress modestly, as we were headed into Jerusalem to pray at the Kotel. I cannot describe the excitement I felt on the busride there. I have never had butterflies like that before. Not before a show, not before a concert, not before an apology. Never quite like this. Because this seemed like it....mattered. Not just as something that was happening then, at that moment, but as something that would continue to affect me as I grow older and possibly even after (this is a sentence about the afterlife. by the way). They say that where you go after this life is directly connected to your actions and thoughts while you're here. I'm starting to take that more seriously than I used to. Anyway, the kotel. It was everything I was waiting for. Standing with the other women waiting for my turn to touch and breathe and truly be a part of my Jewish history, I felt the connection with the hundreds of other people around me. In this moment, I felt a part of the land and its story. This wall, these people, the prayers on their lips and the slips of paper in their hands, I felt a part of it all. I had no tears to share, no smile to show for myself. Just a strangely deep understanding of why I had gotten on a plane five days before. Funny (and a little sacrilegious), but the first words i said upon running my fingers along the Jerusalem stone were "It's all happening". Thank you to the script writers of Almost Famous and everyone who was alive in 1969. The rest of shabbat is becoming hazy in my mind, but I know that we returned to the Kibbutz, had t'fillah in the hotel (THERE'S A HOTEL HERE!), ate Shabbos dinner and then had far too many hours of free time. I can't even remember what I did or where i went, but I do remember discovering an underground dance club. WEIRD. All of the Ulpan students (the americans and other foreigners who have either made aliyah or are just here for extended visits and spend five hours a day learning hebrew then working in the factory on the Kibbutz in return for room and board) and some of the younger Kibbutznit kids were getting their groove on in the darkness of an itsy bitsy building somewhere around the corner from our dorms. As you may imagine, I found this impossibly funny.
I woke up early to run this morning, but that failed miserably. I ended up falling back asleep and waking up just in time for morning t'fillah. joy. I'm not really a fan of the rabbi who leads services here. I suppose I'll learn to like him as the weeks pass. After services, we went to lunch, and I did some homework with a few friends. OH! i remember what else! Today was actually the best day I think I've ever had. A few of us (plus Jomi the madracha [counselor] and her friend from the army) got together for a hike to tel Tzuba, which is the ancient ruins on the hill of the Kibbutz. I have never enjoyed myself so much with a group of strangers in a place I'd never been. I won't describe much (the pictures I put up later will suffice), but I will say that the views are incredible, and I drank turkish coffee on the roof of an ancient chapel.
more to come tomorrow, it is 1:30 am here and i have school in the morning.
miss you all.
