...OK...
Uh oh. I have SO much to blog about. This is what happens when people do this thing called "procrastination". It always comes back and bites me in the butt. Well, here goes:
So on September 3rd I left Chambana! I said goodbye to all my favorite people, and then I went on the plane. It was the weirdest experience, cuz I just got on the plane, and it wasn't a big transition at all, except that in terms of my life it was a huge one. Anyways I got to Chicago and Colette and I played phone tag for a while cuz we hadn't said goodbye to eachother. That was weird, but good that we at least tried I suppose ;). Then, they tried to not let me go on the plane to New York cuz I was the last person to book the flight and they overbooked it. This is another way that procrastination bit me in the butt. They said they have to let all the international connections make the flight, but I wasn't international. I was like HELLO going to Israel I AM TOO!!!! But they wouldn't believe me because Young Judea had my ticket. I used my Israeli stubbornness though, and eventually somehow they had room. I also met some cool people who thought it was ridiculous to kick people off.
Eventually I got to New York, called some people from there, which was good. I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time there it was terrible, but I just sat and listened to music and called people and stuff. Then finally it was my flight's turn to get our tickets, and I met Val and Lilli! Which was really cool, they were basically my two orientation friends. I called Val's name really loudly, and apparently her mom turned to her and was like "Does that girl know you??" Val was like "No mom, she just called my name really loudly cuz she has no idea who I am". Anyways we had a little reunion and hung out in the HUGE check in line (I thought I had NEVER seen that many Jews in my life, except then I realized I used to live in Israel). We later met Lilli and her parents and we waited around and eventually got on the plane. Its really hard to meet lots of people and remember all their names, but I think for 2 weeks I've done rather amazingly. I mean I know at least 100 new names, impressive for the 4 days of orientation.
Basically as soon as we got off the flight, apart from saying hi to my family which was really really nice (I missed them! 2.5 weeks of independence is hard.), they shoved us right onto a bus, to go on a 4 day camping trip. this might seem ridiculous, that they make 450 kids hike right after arriving in a new country, but it was actually a good experience. We stayed a night in a hostel on the Kinneret (sea of galillee, Israel's lake mattoon we might say, except its way bigger...I think. Ok well its a main tourist/resorty attraction and its more beautiful than mattoon I promise. But Bagelfest represent!!!). The hostel was really nice, and I got to know my 4 roommates really well, so thats a good way of meeting people, force everyone into a room so they have to work out shower schedules and packing for the hike. It was actually really fun and we had some good times, for it only being one night.
The next day, after having our first awesome Israeli breakfast (yum), we got on the Netanya bus. Ok, I did. Basically there were 3 buses for Track 3, which is the track of Year Coursers that does Israeli Experience first. The bus that I was on is people living in the city of Netanya or surrounding areas (yes, I'm surrounding areas, we live about 10 minutes outside netanya by bus). Yonatan is our group "madrich", or leader, and he reminds me completely of my uncle. Anyways, Yonatan basically thinks we're the best, which is true, so he calls us "THE group". Now within "THE group", there are the people who work at Hadassah Neurim, like me, and since Yonatan lives with us there, we are "THE the group." Even better. Back to the story though. We got on the bus and hiked around the Galillee, mountain/stream kind of area. It was gorgeous. Then we stayed in this campground place where we basically met lots of people, ate lots of food, and slept on rocks. The next day we bussed to the Golan Heights and hiked some more. We hiked around on mountains, and then we went down one of them and reached the most beautiful place in the world. Literally. It was amazing. Usually you think you go up to go to heaven, but no, you hike down. anyways, we swam around in the pools and hiked around and ate lunch, and it was really really fun. The bad part was hiking back up the mountain at 2 in the afternoon and it had to be at least 110 degrees (in the shade). But it was a good experience anyways. We think they made us do that so we don't complain later on in the trip. We basically all agree that this is futile, cuz we're Jews, we complain. Whatever though, it was good.
So summary of Tiyul (it means trip in Israel, basically our orientation hikey thing): It was really pretty, kinda gross feeling in terms of dirtiness, and very constructive in meeting a lot of people.
Speaking of people...BRITISH PEOPLE. I love their accents. For the first couple of days their accent caught on to me a bit, which was really weird, cuz it was obviously not the real accent, just my imitation of it, but I would accidentally say words Britishly. Oh well I got over it. The funny thing is, we totally all did the love actually scene of "bottle" "bottle!" "table" "table! oh." We did that with basically all the words. ever. But yeah, I have lots of new british friends, and they are all very cool. Holla.
What else. We went to put our stuff down in Hadassah Neurim (the youth aliyah {immigration} village i work at, if I haven't made that clear yet), and then we stayed for Shabbat in Jerusalem. It was really cool, doing the opening ceremony and then Friday night services at the Kotel (western wall). Then we walked back to the hostel, and there was a BEAUTIFUL view of all of Jerusalem. I wish I had taken a picture. I'll go sometime when its not Shabbat and take lots of pictures. Also I have to go to the Kotel anyways to put Drew's and my wishes in the wall. So I guess I should go soon!
Ok. damn this is going to be a long post. Grrr. I don't like blogging for a long time. I get into the groove I suppose, but it takes up time nonetheless. And its kind of pointless. But I suppose I have faithful readers, and I like all of them vaguely ;) so I'll do it.
that was my frustration break. Back to Israel. After Shabbat we said goodbye to all our beloved Section 3 buddies and went back to THE group. Actually we really went back to THE the group cuz we travelled to our respective houses/apartments/whatevers and went to bed. So we were back in Hadassah Neurim.
On sunday, but I can't think of it as sunday cuz its yom rishon (first day, literally), the first day of the week, we had lots of meetings with people so they can basically organize where we volunteer. We work with the students in the youth aliyah village, which is a boarding school. Probably we will be mostly teaching them english, but also whatever else we can do, i.e. math, various sports, etc.
Eventually, a lot of us (not me really) got extremely pissed cuz its really unorganized so far since they haven't assigned us to the morning stuff, so they had us basically cleaning up the village cuz they're understaffed, and blah blah blah. I've talked about it enough at this point, but we've had lots of meetings that remind me of the class of '06 conflict meetings: aggravating, annoying, long, boring, ridiculous, loud, and most of all...completely pointless! But anyways, I'm sure it'll work out soon enough.
I also just went to the beach, because I'm visiting my parents house and they took me there. I like the beach in Hadassah Neurim better obviously, but it was still lots of fun.
Ok thats enough for today. Obviously the beginning was way more descriptive as I got more tired later on :P. But I will fill details in as time goes by. I will try to post every couple of days, but I'm not promising anything as internet is hard. I hope many exciting bloggable things happen (okay, I'm very sure they will)
Peace!
So on September 3rd I left Chambana! I said goodbye to all my favorite people, and then I went on the plane. It was the weirdest experience, cuz I just got on the plane, and it wasn't a big transition at all, except that in terms of my life it was a huge one. Anyways I got to Chicago and Colette and I played phone tag for a while cuz we hadn't said goodbye to eachother. That was weird, but good that we at least tried I suppose ;). Then, they tried to not let me go on the plane to New York cuz I was the last person to book the flight and they overbooked it. This is another way that procrastination bit me in the butt. They said they have to let all the international connections make the flight, but I wasn't international. I was like HELLO going to Israel I AM TOO!!!! But they wouldn't believe me because Young Judea had my ticket. I used my Israeli stubbornness though, and eventually somehow they had room. I also met some cool people who thought it was ridiculous to kick people off.
Eventually I got to New York, called some people from there, which was good. I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time there it was terrible, but I just sat and listened to music and called people and stuff. Then finally it was my flight's turn to get our tickets, and I met Val and Lilli! Which was really cool, they were basically my two orientation friends. I called Val's name really loudly, and apparently her mom turned to her and was like "Does that girl know you??" Val was like "No mom, she just called my name really loudly cuz she has no idea who I am". Anyways we had a little reunion and hung out in the HUGE check in line (I thought I had NEVER seen that many Jews in my life, except then I realized I used to live in Israel). We later met Lilli and her parents and we waited around and eventually got on the plane. Its really hard to meet lots of people and remember all their names, but I think for 2 weeks I've done rather amazingly. I mean I know at least 100 new names, impressive for the 4 days of orientation.
Basically as soon as we got off the flight, apart from saying hi to my family which was really really nice (I missed them! 2.5 weeks of independence is hard.), they shoved us right onto a bus, to go on a 4 day camping trip. this might seem ridiculous, that they make 450 kids hike right after arriving in a new country, but it was actually a good experience. We stayed a night in a hostel on the Kinneret (sea of galillee, Israel's lake mattoon we might say, except its way bigger...I think. Ok well its a main tourist/resorty attraction and its more beautiful than mattoon I promise. But Bagelfest represent!!!). The hostel was really nice, and I got to know my 4 roommates really well, so thats a good way of meeting people, force everyone into a room so they have to work out shower schedules and packing for the hike. It was actually really fun and we had some good times, for it only being one night.
The next day, after having our first awesome Israeli breakfast (yum), we got on the Netanya bus. Ok, I did. Basically there were 3 buses for Track 3, which is the track of Year Coursers that does Israeli Experience first. The bus that I was on is people living in the city of Netanya or surrounding areas (yes, I'm surrounding areas, we live about 10 minutes outside netanya by bus). Yonatan is our group "madrich", or leader, and he reminds me completely of my uncle. Anyways, Yonatan basically thinks we're the best, which is true, so he calls us "THE group". Now within "THE group", there are the people who work at Hadassah Neurim, like me, and since Yonatan lives with us there, we are "THE the group." Even better. Back to the story though. We got on the bus and hiked around the Galillee, mountain/stream kind of area. It was gorgeous. Then we stayed in this campground place where we basically met lots of people, ate lots of food, and slept on rocks. The next day we bussed to the Golan Heights and hiked some more. We hiked around on mountains, and then we went down one of them and reached the most beautiful place in the world. Literally. It was amazing. Usually you think you go up to go to heaven, but no, you hike down. anyways, we swam around in the pools and hiked around and ate lunch, and it was really really fun. The bad part was hiking back up the mountain at 2 in the afternoon and it had to be at least 110 degrees (in the shade). But it was a good experience anyways. We think they made us do that so we don't complain later on in the trip. We basically all agree that this is futile, cuz we're Jews, we complain. Whatever though, it was good.
So summary of Tiyul (it means trip in Israel, basically our orientation hikey thing): It was really pretty, kinda gross feeling in terms of dirtiness, and very constructive in meeting a lot of people.
Speaking of people...BRITISH PEOPLE. I love their accents. For the first couple of days their accent caught on to me a bit, which was really weird, cuz it was obviously not the real accent, just my imitation of it, but I would accidentally say words Britishly. Oh well I got over it. The funny thing is, we totally all did the love actually scene of "bottle" "bottle!" "table" "table! oh." We did that with basically all the words. ever. But yeah, I have lots of new british friends, and they are all very cool. Holla.
What else. We went to put our stuff down in Hadassah Neurim (the youth aliyah {immigration} village i work at, if I haven't made that clear yet), and then we stayed for Shabbat in Jerusalem. It was really cool, doing the opening ceremony and then Friday night services at the Kotel (western wall). Then we walked back to the hostel, and there was a BEAUTIFUL view of all of Jerusalem. I wish I had taken a picture. I'll go sometime when its not Shabbat and take lots of pictures. Also I have to go to the Kotel anyways to put Drew's and my wishes in the wall. So I guess I should go soon!
Ok. damn this is going to be a long post. Grrr. I don't like blogging for a long time. I get into the groove I suppose, but it takes up time nonetheless. And its kind of pointless. But I suppose I have faithful readers, and I like all of them vaguely ;) so I'll do it.
that was my frustration break. Back to Israel. After Shabbat we said goodbye to all our beloved Section 3 buddies and went back to THE group. Actually we really went back to THE the group cuz we travelled to our respective houses/apartments/whatevers and went to bed. So we were back in Hadassah Neurim.
On sunday, but I can't think of it as sunday cuz its yom rishon (first day, literally), the first day of the week, we had lots of meetings with people so they can basically organize where we volunteer. We work with the students in the youth aliyah village, which is a boarding school. Probably we will be mostly teaching them english, but also whatever else we can do, i.e. math, various sports, etc.
Eventually, a lot of us (not me really) got extremely pissed cuz its really unorganized so far since they haven't assigned us to the morning stuff, so they had us basically cleaning up the village cuz they're understaffed, and blah blah blah. I've talked about it enough at this point, but we've had lots of meetings that remind me of the class of '06 conflict meetings: aggravating, annoying, long, boring, ridiculous, loud, and most of all...completely pointless! But anyways, I'm sure it'll work out soon enough.
I also just went to the beach, because I'm visiting my parents house and they took me there. I like the beach in Hadassah Neurim better obviously, but it was still lots of fun.
Ok thats enough for today. Obviously the beginning was way more descriptive as I got more tired later on :P. But I will fill details in as time goes by. I will try to post every couple of days, but I'm not promising anything as internet is hard. I hope many exciting bloggable things happen (okay, I'm very sure they will)
Peace!
posted by roamnoth at 1:33 AM
2 Comments:
wow that was one loooong post. but informative. and every time i saw a hebrew word i thought, "hebrew!"
oh dude noam we learned "ani ohevet..." on tuesday, and my teacher was like "ani ohev teh!" and i was like "ani ohevet noam!!!" in my head. and "ani ohevet teh!" out loud. and i was proud because i understood immediately because i had an awesome teacher, i.e. you. :)
also i miss you and want to talk to you and hope you get online soon and loooove you!
with love,
--ariana
wtf is teh...like tea? his example for learning love was tea? cuz thats kinda cool.
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