Getting into the flow

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.

Shana Tova!

This week was filled with tons of peulot about the kibbutz and our program in general. Some were decent but some were awfully droll. The most eventful night of the week was when we had our kupah asefa. It lasted a solid five and a half hours until the wee hours of early morning. We chose Tom, Miriam, and Noah as our gizbarim (people who facilitate the kupah structure). Our Kupah structure is going to be open (no spending personal money) with a monthly budget. Va'adot (different committees in the kvutzah) will request money from the gizbarim, and they'll do most of the spending. I think it's a good system. We'll just have to see how it goes. The next night Esther finally returned from the hospital after being there for four days with water poisoning (the opposite of dehydration with the same original symptoms). Finally our whole kvutzah was complete. To celebrate Esther's return, the next night Va'ad chevrati planned a really fun activity which I won't go into details about at this moment... Then the week gave way to a long weekend for the holiday.

About 35 workshoppers are going to different parts of Israel to celebrate Rosh Hashana this weekend with family. About 25 of them tried to board the bus from Ein Dor into Afula, where we could catch bigger busses. It just so happened that this bus only had 11 open seats. There's a mismatch somewhere in there... About 15 of us squeezed onto the bus and went to Afula. I had half an hour to kill before my bus to Haifa, so, with a stomach filled with schnitzel and rice as motivation, I set out for a schwarma at 10:45 in the morning. I boarded the bus a little too full and got to Haifa within an hour. While waiting for my great-uncle Barry to pick me up, some Israeli tried to sweet-talk/guilt-trip/low-ball me into giving him 20 shekels so he could get somewhere. He failed. After that encounter, Barry picked me up and took me out for lunch. In the course of two hours I had a schwarma and falafel. I love free weekends... Right now I'm just hanging around at his apartment. Later tonight his kids and grandkids who I sort of know are coming over for Erev Chag and then tomorrow and Sunday I think we're going to shul. It should be a nice weekend.

Besides all of the eating today, I was able to watch the first episode of the new Survivor season. Here are my thoughts: Russell is hilarious, albeit a huge d-bag, Shambo is very reminiscent of Rambo, and the producers have gone over the top in choosing contestants for the show who have nothing going for them except for their looks (see the three girls on the losing tribe?). I hope Russell stays around just to see how far his strategy will take him.

One of the things I miss most about home is watching baseball and being able to follow it routinely. I don't really think it's a coincidence that as soon as I left the Giants went from red-hot and tied for the wild-card lead to slumping and falling out of the race for the wild card. I haven't yet given up hope for them, but if they don't put up a good showing this weekend against the Dodgers, hope will be all but lost.

While the Giants are going down, Michigan football is on the rise! Watching the end of their 38-34 win over Notre Dame made me even more pumped to head out to Ann Arbor next year. Yahoo Sports called them a legitimate contender for the Big Ten title.

That's about it. I'm going to add a glossary for those people who don't know what I'm talking about sometimes (thanks Morriah). Shana Tova! Happy New Year!

It's been a while...

So we had a hiatus from internet for about a week, so that's why this is my first post in a while. After the hostel in Bet She'an, we went south near the Dead Sea for a few days, had some more peulot, then got our kvutzot. I'm really excited for the kvutzah that I got put in. Odds are, we're going to be the party kvutzah and we have most of the big and loud guys on Workshop so I fit in pretty well. I'm also really happy that Gil's our madrich.

Over the next few days we did a few more peulot about building a kvutzah before going on a three day hike in the Negev. It was disgustingly hot with no shade but it was a really beautiful hike. It also was great for kvutzah bonding.

Hot and sweaty we boarded the bus Thursday morning to make the four hour shlep up north to Kibbutz Ein Dor. It's beautiful here, very lush and pretty scenery. The last few days we've just been hanging out around the kibbutz. Our kvutzah is in one house and the other two are in another. We're also right next to the British/Dutch kvutzah. We interact with them a bit, but mainly we just chill in our house.

Tomorrow's our first day of boneh orientation, so we'll see how that goes. Updates will be a lot more frequent now.

Two Days in...

So we got here about 48 hours ago and it seems like weǘe been here for a few weeks. We went straight to a nice hostel in Bet Sheán which is up north. Its hot as balls here, I start sweating as soon as I step outside my room. Weǘe just been having some peulot and seminars, doing all that fun orientation shtuff. On Sunday we go on a hike in the Negev for three days and then we head to the kibbutz.

We get our kvutzot tomorrow. I dont really know what I want out of my kvutzah. On one hand I want to party, but then Iḿ really interested in all the ideology too. I guess weĺl just wait and see. I have to go right now... Peace!

-E

Last night at home

So the excitement is brimming over the edge for me right now. In 12 hours from now I'll be saying good-bye to the 'rents at the airport, off to begin a crazy new adventure in the land of Is-ra-el. Sonia and Narin are over at my house at the moment, saying their good-byes. It's hard to focus. I just want to fast forward these next 12 hours or so until I'm on the plane. I've said good-bye to everyone who merits a good-bye, I've packed my bag, I'm ready to go... I got my swim trunks, and my flippy-floppies. While I'm in Israel you're at Kinko's straight-flipping copies. Yeah, so moving on from that song... I don't really have much to say. Narin and Sonia are distracting me. It's all good. My next update will be from Israel! Yeaaaaaaaaaaah buddy.

-E

Yo Yo!

So after I told somebody what I was doing instead of going to college, she exclaimed, "That sounds amazing! You should keep a blog!" Lo and behold, here's my blog! I'll try and update it at least once a week.

I leave for Workshop in about four and a half days! Crazy... I've been thinking about going on Workshop ever since I started going to camp in 2000, seeing my sister, three cousins, and countless others all go to Israel after high school, and now the day's finally here! I have a lot of mixed emotions going into it: On one hand, I'm incredibly excited. It's going to be an awesome year on so many levels. I'm also sad that this means that my life after high school is beginning. I can no longer call San Francisco my home for 12 months of the year, which is really unfortunate. But putting that aside, I can't wait to board the plane from SFO to JFK, and then meet up with the rest of 59 and fly to Israel.

At dinner today, Noey asked me what am I most looking forward to on Workshop. Immediately about 20 things popped into my mind, so I just replied with a blatantly inefficient, "Everything about it!" Those three words come nowhere close to describing the absurd conglomeration of facets on Workshop that I am looking forward to. I think that it will be an incredible experience, both fun and really, really rewarding.

That's all for now though! I should pack soon.

-E