While everyone back home is probably enjoying their snow and chilly-ness, i would just like to let you all know that the weather is still beautiful here.
We've been very busily planning out our Thanksgiving. It's been a little more stressful than usual, seeing as how our schedule this week has been switched around a couple times. We've finally figured everything out. Each machaneh is in charge of making a few different things. Since Tavor is the biggest, we're in charge of 3-ish pies, the turkey, gravy, vegetarian option, veggies, and whipped cream. It's a lot. Personally I'm in charge of gravy with my friend Adam from Chicago. Since neither of us can cook, we're all in for a fun evening.
We've been going on day trips every Wednesday. This past Wednesday we went to the Golan and wandered around there a little. We were mostly on the borders of Lebanon and Syria. It was really cool standing in one country and looking into another.
We watched the Michigan vs. Ohio State game. It was really embarrassing, but the kids here going to Michigan dressed for the occasion anyways. There's a really cute picture somewhere...
Seeing my host family was fun. They were very interested in meeting my parents when they come to visit. Speaking of that, we were given an assignment of figuring out what we want to do while their here. We've come up with a tentative list, but I think Judy has it somewhere, so I don't really remember what we're said.
I'm visiting Orly and David (my aunt and uncle) this weekend. I'm excited to get off the kibbutz for a bit and also to see them and my cousin. I haven't seen them since September, and I want to hear how their trip to the States was. Next weekend I'm travelling too. I finally got in touch with my friends in Jerusalem and we're going to see them then. I'm really excited. I haven't seen them in a really long time. I just hope that our kupah doesn't take to much of a hit from me travelling two weekends in a row.
Speaking of Kupah, I still have to put money into it... I don't know why I keep writing it here, but I feel like if I write it enough, I'll actually do it one of these days.
I've been writing a lot of letters lately. I haven't been able to mail any yet because we don't currently have stamps, but we're expecting to get them soon.
What else? My Hebrew class is going well. We watched "The Little Mermaid" in Hebrew the other day. It was very confusing, because the subtitles were just basically the English version of the film in written form, but the voices would actually be saying something slightly different. It drove me a little crazy.
The end of Boneh (the part of the program on kibbutz) is almost over. I'm a little sad. This year is going by so quickly!
I miss you all.
All My Lovin'
-Phia
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Potuguese+Spanish+English= Hebrew
Hi Again...
A few things have happened since last week. The biggest of them being the Yitzchak Rabin seminar and rally. We headed out on Friday to Nes Harim, next to Jerusalem, for the seminar. We got there, moved in and then split up into the groups. These groups were being taught in different languages, so earlier in the week you had to request which language you wanted to learn in. I chose Hebrew, along with the rest of my Hebrew class. We were six Americans, two Australians, two South Africans and a lot of South Americans. I feel a little naive because I don't really know which ones were from Brazil, which were from Uruguay, which were from Mexico and which were from Argentina. It was interesting because for all of us, Hebrew was a second language. Which meant that our Madrichim had to speak to us in Hebrew that we could all understand. We also all spoke to each other in understandable Hebrew. It was also good practice, because we pretty much had to speak in Hebrew because we all spoke different languages.
During the Seminar we discussed mostly democracy and whether Israel was a democracy. I'm still not completely sure how this topic is relevant to Rabin, but it was interesting. My group was very enthusiastic and we all really enjoyed each other's company. Coincidentally one of the girls in my group told us she had cousins in Ann Arbor and it turned out to be people that I knew. It's a small world.
I really enjoyed the rally itself overall. We got to see Shimon Peres, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barack, and Rabin's daughter speak. Since this year is election year, most of the speeches had to do with campaigning of one kind or another. Probably my least favorite speech was the one given by James Hoffa, the leader of the Teamsters Union. He was sent by the Barack Obama's campaign to give a speech at the Rabin rally. I have to say it was pretty embarrassing. It was completely unnecessary and irrelevant. He tried to get the crowd to start a chant of "Yes, we can!" but they were largely unresponsive. We were all slightly humiliated. Apparently my Madrichim weren't impressed with the rally this year. They say there were less people and the speeches were weaker. I still enjoyed it, probably because it was my first one.
The rest of the week has been relatively normal. I went to work for the first time at the cable drum factory on Tuesday. It was fun. It's basically a factory set up in a building that used to be a chicken coop. It wasn't like the last chicken coop and I didn't get a rash from this building like I did in the last one. We were working with two guys who were from one of the neighboring Arab villages. They didn't speak English, but I don't know if that's because they didn't know how or didn't want to. But it was OK, because they gave us instructions in Hebrew which we were able to follow. There wasn't as much lifting involved as I thought there would be. We got ice cream as a reward, so that was fun.
Today we took a field trip to see Har Herzl and Ammunition Hill. Har Herzl is the Israeli political cemetery. A vast majority of Israel's political leaders, soldiers and terror attack victims are buried there. It's really a beautiful cemetery. We visited the graves of a lot of Israeli big-shots. We saw the Rabins, Golda Meir, Herzl, Yoni Natanyahu, Chana Senesh...lots of people.
We also heard a story I really liked about a soldier who was killed in one of the wars (I don't remember which). An Israeli visited an Arab village and one of the Arabs told him about a cave called "Kever Yehudi" or "Grave of the Jew" but he wasn't sure why. So the two of them went there and found the remains of this soldier that had died. They knew it was this particular soldier for two reasons; One reason was that they took his remains in to be identified by the government, and the other reason was that this soldier really liked eating dates and would put the date pits in his pocket, and by the place where they found him, a date tree was growing because he had died with a date pit in his pocket.
We went to Ammunition Hill next which is a hill that was controlled by the Jordanians during the Six Day War. The Israelis had a really hard time conquering it and lots of people died there while they were trying to take over Jerusalem. We would've stayed longer and looked at the trenches, but it started to rain so we only really got to see the museum.
Last night we heard a talk from one of the survivors of the Entebbe hijacking. It was an American woman and her Israeli husband and they had a very thrilling story to tell. In addition to the interesting story, I loved listening to this lady speak because she reminded me of a mix of my mother's friends which in turn reminded me of Ann Arbor. It was very comforting to me.
Well, supposedly I'm visiting my host family on Friday. That should be good. I still have to wire money into my kvutsah's kupah account.
And, of course, my camera is still broken.
But I had a good week regardless.
All My Lovin'
-Phia
A few things have happened since last week. The biggest of them being the Yitzchak Rabin seminar and rally. We headed out on Friday to Nes Harim, next to Jerusalem, for the seminar. We got there, moved in and then split up into the groups. These groups were being taught in different languages, so earlier in the week you had to request which language you wanted to learn in. I chose Hebrew, along with the rest of my Hebrew class. We were six Americans, two Australians, two South Africans and a lot of South Americans. I feel a little naive because I don't really know which ones were from Brazil, which were from Uruguay, which were from Mexico and which were from Argentina. It was interesting because for all of us, Hebrew was a second language. Which meant that our Madrichim had to speak to us in Hebrew that we could all understand. We also all spoke to each other in understandable Hebrew. It was also good practice, because we pretty much had to speak in Hebrew because we all spoke different languages.
During the Seminar we discussed mostly democracy and whether Israel was a democracy. I'm still not completely sure how this topic is relevant to Rabin, but it was interesting. My group was very enthusiastic and we all really enjoyed each other's company. Coincidentally one of the girls in my group told us she had cousins in Ann Arbor and it turned out to be people that I knew. It's a small world.
I really enjoyed the rally itself overall. We got to see Shimon Peres, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barack, and Rabin's daughter speak. Since this year is election year, most of the speeches had to do with campaigning of one kind or another. Probably my least favorite speech was the one given by James Hoffa, the leader of the Teamsters Union. He was sent by the Barack Obama's campaign to give a speech at the Rabin rally. I have to say it was pretty embarrassing. It was completely unnecessary and irrelevant. He tried to get the crowd to start a chant of "Yes, we can!" but they were largely unresponsive. We were all slightly humiliated. Apparently my Madrichim weren't impressed with the rally this year. They say there were less people and the speeches were weaker. I still enjoyed it, probably because it was my first one.
The rest of the week has been relatively normal. I went to work for the first time at the cable drum factory on Tuesday. It was fun. It's basically a factory set up in a building that used to be a chicken coop. It wasn't like the last chicken coop and I didn't get a rash from this building like I did in the last one. We were working with two guys who were from one of the neighboring Arab villages. They didn't speak English, but I don't know if that's because they didn't know how or didn't want to. But it was OK, because they gave us instructions in Hebrew which we were able to follow. There wasn't as much lifting involved as I thought there would be. We got ice cream as a reward, so that was fun.
Today we took a field trip to see Har Herzl and Ammunition Hill. Har Herzl is the Israeli political cemetery. A vast majority of Israel's political leaders, soldiers and terror attack victims are buried there. It's really a beautiful cemetery. We visited the graves of a lot of Israeli big-shots. We saw the Rabins, Golda Meir, Herzl, Yoni Natanyahu, Chana Senesh...lots of people.
We also heard a story I really liked about a soldier who was killed in one of the wars (I don't remember which). An Israeli visited an Arab village and one of the Arabs told him about a cave called "Kever Yehudi" or "Grave of the Jew" but he wasn't sure why. So the two of them went there and found the remains of this soldier that had died. They knew it was this particular soldier for two reasons; One reason was that they took his remains in to be identified by the government, and the other reason was that this soldier really liked eating dates and would put the date pits in his pocket, and by the place where they found him, a date tree was growing because he had died with a date pit in his pocket.
We went to Ammunition Hill next which is a hill that was controlled by the Jordanians during the Six Day War. The Israelis had a really hard time conquering it and lots of people died there while they were trying to take over Jerusalem. We would've stayed longer and looked at the trenches, but it started to rain so we only really got to see the museum.
Last night we heard a talk from one of the survivors of the Entebbe hijacking. It was an American woman and her Israeli husband and they had a very thrilling story to tell. In addition to the interesting story, I loved listening to this lady speak because she reminded me of a mix of my mother's friends which in turn reminded me of Ann Arbor. It was very comforting to me.
Well, supposedly I'm visiting my host family on Friday. That should be good. I still have to wire money into my kvutsah's kupah account.
And, of course, my camera is still broken.
But I had a good week regardless.
All My Lovin'
-Phia
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The times, they are a-changin'
Hi everyone!! I'm sure everyone is excited about our new president. Everyone I'm living with is (except maybe the Canadians aren't as excited). People stayed up all night last night to watch the elections and started screaming with joy at about 5:30 in the morning. It was certainly an interesting way to wake up.
Unfortunately for the people who stayed up all night last night, we had a field trip today to a couple of different museums concerning aliyah. I really liked it, and I think that those who were awake for it really enjoyable. It was a big contrast, going from one display of patriotism to another. It was very interesting to be here while so much is going on at home. But I'm still really happy I'm here.
The past week's been fun. We celebrated Halloween all weekend. On Thursday night, we started off the weekend with "Rocky Horror Picture Show" night (weekends start on Thursday for us). You can look for the pictures on Facebook, once my sister finds the chord that will let me put my pictures on the computer. The next night, the Brits we were living with planned a very elaborate murder mystery that involved some of the villains of American horror movies. It was a lot of fun...very scary, but fun. After the mystery had been solved, we (the American/Canadians) went back to our house and had trick or treating. Our house has two separate hallways and each room set up their room with a different theme. You went from room to room (with the people from your own room) and got candy and played games. Then we just had a party.
A couple of days ago we went on a short bike trip in the Golan Heights. We learned about the Yom Kippur War and went to one of the battlefields of the war. It was right on the border of Syria. We could see several Syrian villages from where we were sitting. We Also got to go inside a tank. I think you all can count on me not signing up for the army- I was scared just sitting in that tank. After looking at the battlefield, we went to this rally that was set up by the Israeli Army for teenagers who were in their last year in high school and would be entering the army the next year. They fired off some of their tanks, which really scared the people I was with, but it seemed to empower all the Israelis who were standing around us. You could clearly see the cultural differences.
On Friday my group is heading to a youth hostel near Jerusalem to have a seminar on Yitzchak Rabin. He was assassinated around this time of year 13 (?) years ago. There's a rally in his honor every year around this time in Kikar Rabin (the place in Tel Aviv where he was assassinated). We're going to that on Saturday.
That's all I really have for right now. Hopefully next time I write, I'll be able to put up pictures (meaning that my sister had better get on finding that chord...)
All My Lovin'
-Phia
Unfortunately for the people who stayed up all night last night, we had a field trip today to a couple of different museums concerning aliyah. I really liked it, and I think that those who were awake for it really enjoyable. It was a big contrast, going from one display of patriotism to another. It was very interesting to be here while so much is going on at home. But I'm still really happy I'm here.
The past week's been fun. We celebrated Halloween all weekend. On Thursday night, we started off the weekend with "Rocky Horror Picture Show" night (weekends start on Thursday for us). You can look for the pictures on Facebook, once my sister finds the chord that will let me put my pictures on the computer. The next night, the Brits we were living with planned a very elaborate murder mystery that involved some of the villains of American horror movies. It was a lot of fun...very scary, but fun. After the mystery had been solved, we (the American/Canadians) went back to our house and had trick or treating. Our house has two separate hallways and each room set up their room with a different theme. You went from room to room (with the people from your own room) and got candy and played games. Then we just had a party.
A couple of days ago we went on a short bike trip in the Golan Heights. We learned about the Yom Kippur War and went to one of the battlefields of the war. It was right on the border of Syria. We could see several Syrian villages from where we were sitting. We Also got to go inside a tank. I think you all can count on me not signing up for the army- I was scared just sitting in that tank. After looking at the battlefield, we went to this rally that was set up by the Israeli Army for teenagers who were in their last year in high school and would be entering the army the next year. They fired off some of their tanks, which really scared the people I was with, but it seemed to empower all the Israelis who were standing around us. You could clearly see the cultural differences.
On Friday my group is heading to a youth hostel near Jerusalem to have a seminar on Yitzchak Rabin. He was assassinated around this time of year 13 (?) years ago. There's a rally in his honor every year around this time in Kikar Rabin (the place in Tel Aviv where he was assassinated). We're going to that on Saturday.
That's all I really have for right now. Hopefully next time I write, I'll be able to put up pictures (meaning that my sister had better get on finding that chord...)
All My Lovin'
-Phia
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