The Most Crazy/Fun/Expensive/Israel Experience Week

This is going to be a long post, so I will have a quick summary at the end.

Sunday: Girls Pot Luck At My Apartment

The Roommates as Super Douche Bags

Most girls showed up dressed in great costumes and with food in hand. My apartment decided to go all out for our costume, so let me explain it. The super market we shop at is called Super Douche. The plastic bags we take our food home with are called Super Douche bags. So as a room, we decided to be douche bags because we had a drawer overflowing with plastic bags. The girls loved the party, it was great bonding for everyone. Before the dinner, Eyal (Israeli counselor), came over to check our apartments and help me finally find tickets for Matisyahu. We checked online and found out the concert was sold out and I was DEVASTATED. I had heard from a friend that someone might have an extra ticket, so I frantically went on Facebook, friended that person and wrote as my status "IF ANYONE HAS AN EXTRA MATISYAHU TICKET, PLEASE CALL ME." He quickly responded but he was not sure if he was positive he had a ticket, so he had to get back to me.

Sunday night we just went to the beach.

Monday was not a very exciting day. I woke up late, did my laundry and had a fun evening. The roommates and I went to a Sukkot Festival at the Bat Yam Beach called the Bianalle. We got there when it started so there were a lot of families and not much exciting going on. At 6 we left to go into Tel Aviv to go to our Eyal's house again for dinner. This time he had invited a lot more kids and it was just section two kids in his sukkah. It was not as fun as the first night we had at Eyal's house, but it was still nice.

Also, that night I finally found out I had a ticket for the Tamar Festival (Matisyahu and Balkan Beat Box (Israeli group) concert in the Negev). Elan, the kid who gave me his extra ticket, told me we would take a bus for 145 Shekels (about $40) round trip taking us directly to the concert and back to Tel Aviv, but we would be leaving at 6PM to go down to the concert which started at 9PM.

Tuesday
In the morning, my roommates and I woke up relatively early to volunteer at a special needs school in Bat Yam. I worked at the Sukkot themed coloring station. It was great to finally volunteer because I didn't get the chance to on Sunday (because I had to have that meeting at the elderly home) or Monday (cause I was too late to sign up). After volunteering, my roommates went to Tel Aviv as I went home to slowly get ready for Matisyahu. In the middle of making lunch, I got a call from Elan asking me if I could be ready at 1 PM because we are getting a ride to Tel Aviv from his aunt and we would get to the concert much earlier, which is good because we had to pick up our tickets. I looked at my watch and realized I had 30 minutes to eat, shower and pack and that's where my Tamar Festival experience began.

Tamar Festival- Matisyahu and Balkan Beat Box Concert

The venue in the back as we got to the concert at 7 PM.
From left to right: Elan, Ethan, Jacob and me

At 1 PM on Tuesday I got picked up from my apartment from Elan's Aunt with Elan, Ethan and Jacob with a few extra clothing, a little bit of food, my sleeping bag and my wallet/camera. The four of us were dropped off at a bus stop in Tel Aviv to get on a bus that would take us to Jerusalem. Once we got to Jerusalem we had about an hour and a half to spare. We got some delicious barakasim (filo dough pastries with potato or cheese inside) and sat outside our bus stop in the central bus station. About 30 minutes before the bus got there, we got into line with very few people in line. By the time the bus actually came, there were many more people somehow in front of us, many teenage Americans going to the concert too. It was a shove-fest getting onto the bus, luckily, all 4 of us got on but without seats. The three boys sat in the isle while i sat on the stairs in the middle of the bus. This bus ride was over two hours long...In the middle of the ride, I got very car sick and almost vomited. For a reason I truly don't know, I suddenly felt better and we soon got off the bus at the Dead Sea where the concert was. After a three minute walk we finally saw the BEAUTIFUL venue. The concert was in a little canyon-valley. The walls had colored lights shining on them so the sandy desert walls were all the colors of the rainbow. Once the wall stopped, it was the pitch black sky with a few stars here and there, and I couldn't forget the moon! We had a nice hour and a half before the concert started. We got a table near the bar and relaxed and hung out until the concert started, admiring the stunning landscape and hot dry air (we weren't even sweating, which we were not used to in Bat Yam).

The concert started but our other section two friends (who took the 6 PM bus) were not there yet! We also didn't know what to do with our big obnoxious sized backpacks. Elan took the initiative to find out place at the concert. We made a little chain, holding on to each others bags with Elan leading, and starting pushing through the crowd. Elan is a big kid so he easily got through. I was dying of laughter because I felt so uncomfortable watching the people next to me get pushed aside as these Americans with big bags pushed them further back into the crowd. We quickly made it to the second row where we found section three year course kids (who are currently living in the desert now.) About twenty minutes after the show started, the other section two kids finally showed up. I am very glad I didn't go on that bus, I would have been upset if I missed part of the concert.

Matisyahu played a rockin' show. I was dancing my heart out. It was my 4th time seeing him, but its always amazing. I think it was the best Matisyahu concert I have ever been to because a) it was in Israel, b) it was in the Negev (my favorite part of Israel), and c) it was under the stars (I could quickly look up at Jupiter whenever I wanted). Therefore, it was the best concert I have ever been to because I love Matis concerts the best. Around 11 or 11:30ish, Matisyahu finished and Balkan Beat Box came on. Balkan is an Israeli group so many Americans left and Israelis came up front. At his point, I was in the front row! They are a very fun and energetic group so the show they put on was very fun, even though I didn't know any of the music. Their last song was around 1:20 and they invited people up on stage. Of course, since I was in the front row, I went up. I jumped over the metal fence keeping the crowd back and hopped up on stage. It was ridiculously fun and crazy! The concert was over and I realized in the process of getting on/off stage, I had cut my thigh. It felt like a small scratch but ended up looking like a serious cut. I laughed it off and I look forward to the scar so I can tell the story of how I got up on stage at a concert and got a cut.

We all left the venue and had to figure out where we were going to sleep. There was a sunrise concert on top of Massada (a band played from 3:30 to about 5:30 when the sun rose) so we decided to go there, and if we couldn't get up, we would sleep at the bottom. The bus ticket cost 90 Shekels (about $25), but it would take us from Massada back to Tel Aviv at 6:00 in the morning. The bus ride was a quick twenty minutes and we started to walk up to Massada. The one Israeli we were with (who was kinda leading the way since most of us don't speak much Hebrew) found out we couldn't get into the concert without tickets so we layed out our sleeping bags at the small park next to the parking lot at the bottom and slept for an hour. We had to get up at 4:45 to make breakfast and get on the bus. The bus didn't leave until 7 but we slept on it before it left. I listened to my Ipod and slept nicely, except I woke up three times. The first time I woke up we had stopped at a gas station, I thought very little of it. The second stop was on the side of the road and all I could see was a desert wall next to the highway, again, I was too tired to think anything of it. The third time, we were stopped on the side of the road again. I went back to sleep but thought of how funny/horrible it would be if the bus broke down. A few minutes later, a fellow year course friend woke me up and said, "the bus overheated, we are only 30 minutes outside of Massada...We have been sitting here for an hour and made scrabbled eggs for the passengers with our burner. We are getting on another bus." So I got up and moved to the other bus. We were expected to be back in Bat Yam around 9:30 AM but got there at 12 instead.

I did nothing for the rest of the day out of exhaustion.....Until Simchat Torah that night!

Simchat Torah- Wednesday Night

Just as Noy turned 18 holding chocolate covered popcorn.
From left to right: Ilyssa, Robyn, Yael, Noy and me.

Around 7 PM, I wanted to go to temple to celebrate Simchat Torah and have another experience. None of my roommates wanted to go out so I called lots of people but no one else wanted to go out either. Finally, Becca David (a friend from Boston) and my roommate, Yael Nurko, decided to come with me. We went to a chabad right outside Becca's house but got there a little to late. They had just finished praying and had a little bit of food for kiddish. We stood out like sore thumbs so a few woman came up to us to talk to us. Then a woman, around twenties, came up to us and invited us to dinner at her house. We quickly declined because we just ate dinner and we didn't want to intrude, but it is a mitzvah for them to host us and we wanted an experience so we finally said "yes." We didn't walk far from the chabad to their house. The family had 5 daughters and 1 son. One daughter already had a baby and another daughter was due for her first in two weeks! The food was so yummy! We stuffed ourselves with Challah and honey plus the side salads on the table. Then the main course came out. It was chicken, rice and peas with carrot. Because I am a vegetarian, they put a huge pile of rice and peas with carrots. I couldn't eat another bite...Until the dessert, which was so good! It was like a mouse cake with chocolate shavings and a almond. Before we left, the family have the three of us three photos of the Lobuvich, who they believe is the Messiah. It was an experience that inspired me to officially try to keep Shabbat from now on! They invited us to services the next morning at 11 for dancing with the torah at the chabad.

We got home around mid night and realized it was our Israeli Scout's 18th birthday! There were lots of people over celebrating, so of course, we didn't go to sleep until 2 am.

Thursday- Simchat Torah and Noy's Birthday
We got there at 11 right when they started eating kiddish again. We didn't eat much, until noon, when we realized it was lunch time, so why not eat?! After great koogle and Israeli salad, the daughters of the family finally show up. We waited some more for the dancing to begin. We were worried because it was Noy's birthday and we wanted to be home by 1 PM to spend the day with her. The dancing finally began at 1:30, but it was disappointing. The woman were crowded in the corner behind the mehitzah and watched as the men danced with the Torah. We left the Chabad at 2 PM, trying to remember the girls names to find them on Facebook.

Once we arrived home, Noy was out to the door with her own Israeli friends to the beach. The other roommates and I spent the afternoon making signs for Noy and decorating the apartment. We also made a song for Noy and were recording it until she came home with all her friends. Then her dad and sister came over with lots of soda and cake! I was too exhausted to socialize so I went to take a nap until we went out to a Kibbutz club that night. We left our house at 10:45 then realized we thought we were locked out of our apartment. We called our counselor but realized we couldn't do anything, especially since we couldn't miss the bus to the kibbutz. Arriving home at around 4, we tried our one key that we brought but it didn't work...We were locked out. So we walked back to another apartment's home and they graciously let us crash at their place for the night. At 7 AM, we woke up to call our counselor to get our door fixed. At 9:30 we finally got it. The problem was that a roommate put the key in the door from the inside, and when you shut the door, it locks, but you can't get in from the outside if there is a key in the inside. At 10, we had to be at the Ulpan for our scouts trip. We scrabbled to pack our clothing, lunches and luckily, two of us got to shower. Noy's father also came by to drop stuff off for Noy and then drove us to the Ulpan. We only got there 10 minutes late.

The Tzofim Scout Trip to the Kinneret- Friday through Saturday

Alice and I in the stream hike.

We left around 10ish from Bat Yam for a two our bus ride to the Sea of Galilee up North. For the first day and night, we stayed at a water park next to the beach. Friday afternoon we went swimming in the Kinneret and had a BBQ dinner. A lot of kids were exhausted so we went to sleep around 12ish. I counted 4 bugs in or around my nose as I tried to sleep on the ground for the second night in a row. I also slapped my own face twice to shoo the bugs away. Despite the bugs, I did sleep well, until the sun came up and woke everyone up even though we didn't have to be up until 8. After breakfast and packing, we got ready for our hike! We went on an awesome water hike through a stream. At points the water was up to our ankles and at points, I had to swim because I could barely touch the ground (not everyone had to swim, I'm just very short). We hiked for about 3 hours but only walked half a mile.

Back on the bus then lunch then back home to Bat Yam.

An extremely fun and exciting week!

SUMMARY:
Sunday- Girls Pot Luck and beach
Monday- chill day, did laundry then Eyal's house for dinner, found out I had a Matisyahu concert ticket
Tuesday- Volunteering, INCREDIBLE Tamar Festival/Matisyahu concert with little sleep
Wednesday- bus broke down in Negev, Chabad family for dinner for Simchat Torah
Thursday: Noy's Birthday, waiting for the little dancing at Chabad in the morning, locked out of apartment
Friday: Scouts Trip, water part in the Kinneret
Saturday: Awesome water hike

A look ahead:
Finally, volunteering and school starts up again this week. I have very little money for this week so I won't be doing much.

Love a very tired person,


Tamar