It's been a really long time since I wrote in this blog. Nothing much has been happening over the past two weeks or so. Last week the topic of our lessons was early Jewish history in the biblical period. That's not really a topic that excites me too much. That Monday we had our first Yom Kvutzah. I was expecting Gil and Gozal to run some sort of peulah designed to help the kvutzah, but I was let down when we just had a peulah about Rosh Hashanah. Oh well.
That Thursday, we had avodah for the first time. Since the high school wasn't ready for Sara and I to come yet, we were asked to work with a plumber. At first, this sounded really cool and exciting for both of us. We thought we'd be fixing toilets and the like. What ensued was probably the closest I've ever been to intense sexism. Right when the plumber comes up to us, he looks at Sara and says, "Yesh lach coah maspik?" That translates to, "Is she strong enough?" Throughout the morning there were continued moments where the plumber and his assistant made both Sara AND me incredibly uncomfortable. For example, if she made to pick something up, he would be like... "No, no, no, let the boy do it." Or later on we had to clean out his area and he had me lifting heavy metal while she was organizing a shelf. Not the greatest experience.
Then came an incredibly long weekend. After our programming ended Thursday night, we were off Friday and Saturday as usual, but also since Yom Kippur was on Monday, we had Sunday off too. I got a little bored because I didn't really have much to do throughout the weekend. This Yom Kippur was really interesting to me because it was the first one I spent away from home. All other Yom Kippurs I fasted pretty much because my parents did it and sort of expected me to. This year, however, originally I wasn't going to fast, because it's never been meaningful. About half an hour before the pre-fast meal, however, I decided to fast. I felt that without having to worry about food and whether my stomach was satisfied, I could allow myself to think about my time spent on Workshop so far and how I want to change myself throughout these nine months. It was a great experience.
The week resumed on Tuesday with the subject of the lessons being the exile period and the talmud. Once again the topic didn't excite me too much. On Tuesday we had our first day of ulpan. When they assigned us to our classes, the first thing I noticed about mine was that I was with people who grew up speaking Hebrew. I haven't spoken Hebrew since 8th grade, where I was semi-sufficient at best. When I got to the class, I immediately thought there had been a mistake. Our teacher spoke incredibly fast. I talked to one of the counselors in charge and they suggested I stick it out and see what happens. That was great advice because it caused me to realize that I just needed to try harder. I decided to stay in the class. I hope that by the end of Boneh I'll be pretty close to fluent.
The rest of the week passed without much happening. I have a new reading craze and me and Erez are starting a Workshop book club. Last night the kibbutz had a celebration for Sukkot. Some people danced in their chultzot. It was a really nice experience. Tonight I think some people are planning a slumber party. On Tuesday we start yam l'yam which is a four day hike from the Mediterannean to the Kinneret. We do it with the North Americans, Europeans, Aussies and South Africans so that will be exciting. They separate us from our kvutzot though which doesn't sound that great but it will be a great chance to interact with a lot of other people.
That's about it from this neck of the woods.
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