Volunteering: We finally called an elderly home and they told us to come in whenever for a meeting, which is very exciting. But, we were then told that we cannot work with this home because it is in Tel Aviv, and we are doing Community Impact in BAT YAM, not in Tel Aviv. That brought us back to square one. Today we made our PowerPoint presentation that we will present to Year Course staff for them to approve. In detail, we have to explain our goal, how we want to reach our goal, individual jobs within our group, etc. We are giving the presentation on Tuesday and I hope they approve our plan. I don't see why they would not allow it, because after all, the idea was given to us by Year Course.
Ulpan: Hebrew class is going well. We had a quiz last class. Our teacher, Aviv, said a word while we had to correctly spell it and translate it. I think I messed up the ע with א and ה also with א at the end of words. All those letters are silent and its difficult to remember in which word goes which letter. Next class we have another quiz. This time on grammar and prepositions. I have to make flash cards to ace this test!
Zionism Class: Zionism is the most stimulating of all classes. For the last class, we talked about different aspects of what led up to Zionism in the late 1800s. For homework, we had to write a few sentences about one of the five topics and why that made us a Zionist, or why it doesn't make us a Zionist. I talked about the Traditional Judaism within Zionism. I talked about how I struggled about whether or not that made me a Zionist. On one hand, the Torah does say that the land is ours, but is the Torah a real piece of history or is it just a compilation of stories. Also, very very observant Jews think that we are postponing the Messiah because we have our own state now, and they believe that the Messiah will bring goodness to us, but should we wait for something that might not be coming?
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| The earring I bought at Nechat Binyamin in Tel Aviv. It goes into my second hole and pinches my ear just like a hair clip. |
Tuesday night I saw a friend from Alexander Muss High School in Israel (the 2 month program I went on to Israel Junior year of high school 08-09). He was also on an Israel program, part Yeshiva part Military training. He was in it for more the studying and the program was very militaristic so he left and his parents would not finance him staying in Israel so Wednesday morning he was on a flight back to Canada, where he is from. Tuesday night was also the start of the Israeli Dancing class. The teacher was stuck in traffic so we got to leave early, giving me more time to hang out with my friend from Canada.
Wednesday night was the start of our elective classes. I signed up for a class on Israeli Society portrayed through Israeli Film. The first class we watched Walk On Water, which I have seen a few times before. It is a very popular Israeli film and if you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.
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| This is our teacher, Benji, sitting right next to an elevated tree. |
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| Some of the Israeli Scouts walking up the stairs. The Mediterranean Sea and Tel Aviv behind them. |
We got back to Bat Yam around 10 AM and I took a nice nap. At 2 PM I had my first Social Action Rwanda meeting! It was called for a 6 hour meeting and we supposed to watch Hotel Rwanda together but the technology was not treating us well enough so we ended early. I learned a lot about what we were going to do, what life is like there, what the history is and what our role is leading up to the trip. So far there are 14 of us, 13 girls, 1 boy and 3 British girls. Talia, the woman traveling with us, wants us to get 6 more people, including boys. This is going to be a very hard job especially since it costs $5000 extra. We also learned that we, as a group, have to raise $5000 for supplies for the village in Rwanda. We brainstormed a few fun ideas, like a Year Course wide dance or contacting family and communities back home. Once the meeting ended, my friend Alice and I took a bus to Jerusalem and met up with a camp counselor of mine, Miriam. She was my Israeli counselor/tour guide on my last trip to Israel in summer 09 with Camp Yavneh.
That night, Alice and I went to Ben YehudaUSY, AMHSI, school people, and more section 2 year course kids and section 1 kids (who are living in Israel). We all got into a little Bar/Club and danced the night away. It was like being back home at a USY dance, it was very fun to see all of them on the same street across the world from where I know them.
Friday came Yom Kippur, Alice and I went to Miriam's parents house where we had a delicious meal followed by services. We went to bed very early and slept late, missing services in the morning because we decided to contemplate our sins from Miriam's parents house overlooking Jerusalem and the West Bank. After long talks with Miriam's grandmother from New York (her other grandparents are from Brookline), who reminds me of my Safta, we went back to shul. Alice was quickly losing energy and had to have a little nibble a few minutes before the fast ended. After the most scrumptious meal I've had in Israel yet, starting with cheese cake with caramel on top (yeah, I know, mouth watering), lasagna and a bagel with cream cheese, Alice and I took a bus back to Tel Aviv then back to Bat Yam. After about an hour home a had a quick skype conversation with Grandma which was very fun. My roommates ran up to the computer to say hello.
That brings us to day, I am sitting in the apartment about to clean for our counselor to check on us. Then tonight I am going to a co-climbing wall-counselor from camp's home near Bat Yam to meet up with other camp people.
So who ever is reading this, I need help with a decision to make. I want to get my nose pierced but I am not sure if I like it or not. I bought a pack of bindis (those Indian forehead dots) to put on my nose instead. Everyone I have talked to likes it. Let me know what you think:
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| Comment to let me know if I should get a nose piercing. |
I hope everyone had a meaningful fast. Shana Tova
-Tamar
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