final thoughts

Here I am, sitting in the Zurich airport on my way back to Chicago. It is hard to believe that my days abroad have come to an end. At the same time that it feels as though I haven't been home in forever it seems that I just began my journey from O'Hare to Madrid only recently. It has been a year of new experiences, travel, and growth. I have caught the travel bug, says Papa Bill, and he's right. I have to say, though, that towards the end of my time in Israel I no longer felt like I was traveling; it felt like home. I have mixed feelings about returning to Highland Park, and it is not easy to describe the individual pangs in my stomach, heart, and head. I miss my family a lot, and it has been difficult to hear about the milestones I have missed from across the world (to name a few: Leora's graduation and final concerts, my dad's promotion, Paul's successful adaptation to big HPHS and new braces colors, and my mom's concerts too). But I didn't feel right leaving Israel just yet. People ask me continuously, "Which was better, Madrid or Tel Aviv?" It's not an easy question to answer because these cities are not really comparable in my mind. Last semester was so exciting for me, starting off not knowing anyone in the country to being able to travel around europe with my eurailpass to learning about and living in a completely new culture for a few months. I learned a lot about myself and how to travel. This past semester was different. From the moment I stepped off the plane at Ben Gurion Airport I felt instantly happy and comfortable, surrounded by people like myself, many of whom share the same passion for the state of Israel. I felt healthier eating Israeli food, and enjoyed the freshness of the fruits and vegetables one can buy so cheap in the shuk. Perhaps the fact that there is so much history in Israel or that Israelis are so good looking or the hospitality of my Israeli cousins influenced my feeling so at home. A smart friend of mine advises me to go with my gut feeling if I feel conflicted, and I will take his advice on this subject. I can't wait to see my friends and family in Chicago, but I have two homes now. My gut feeling tells me that I wish to continue traveling throughout my life, seeing and hearing and experiencing new things every day. I look forward especially to returning to Israel, maybe even to live for awhile. I thank everyone who supported me in this journey!

feelings

with only about a week left in tel aviv, i find it very difficult to sit and write papers when a) it is beautiful outside, b) they aren't due until a few weeks after i'm home, c) i'm having trouble admitting that these essays mark the end of the semester, d) everyone that walks by this cafe is good-looking, and e) i don't want to come home yet.

:(

why are israelis so attractive?

שביל ישראל

We had two days off of class this week for Shavuot. Like many Israelis did on this holiday, I went with three friends on a hike and camped out. We packed some food, clothes, a mini grill, one tent, and took the 30 minute train to Cesarea. After checking out the ancient ruins and having a delish lunch overlooking the water, we set out on a hike south on the beach. We were mostly on the beach until we encountered a humongous powerplant on the beach with intense fences which we had to find a way around. ("can't go under it, can't go over it..." Name that song!) It was a tough hike uphill and through sharp plants around the powerplant, but we eventually found our way to the Israel trail leading us through a path in a forest eventually back to the sea. The Israel trail runs all the way through Israel, from the north in the Golan to Eilat in the south, and takes about 40 - 60 days to complete. Most Israelis know about the trail, and we were asked multiple times by Israelis chillin' on the beach if we were doing it. Of course, I said yes, but little did they know that we were only doing two days of it! They kept saying kol hakavod, "well done/way to go". Before sundown, we found a spot to set up camp far enough away from the powerplant that we weren't going to be electrocuted in our sleep. Lauren and Mark made excellent hot dogs on the mini grill (and did a nice job opening the bean and corn cans) and Dan made an awesome campfire.






The next day we did a lot of hiking. Mostly on the beach, we walked and passed a lot of Israelis who had the same idea as us. They had very intense setups...some brought huge tarps, speakers, and even some mini-fridges. We were asked a lot of times if we were doing שביל ישראל, the national Israel trail. We were offered water and beer so many times! We must have gotten off the trail at one point, because we found ourselves unable to go around a cliff because the sand ended and the rocks were submerged underwater, so we climbed to the top of the cliff where there was a fence. There was a spot under one part of the fence where we could climb under, so we threw our backpacks over the fence and made it to the other side. So adventurous! We stopped under some shady rocks for lunch (tuna sandwiches and peanut butter on crackers, or if you're Mark, tuna peanut butter sandwiches). We got a little tired toward the end, but eventually made it all 15 miles to Netanya. After a celebratory watermelon on the beach there, we had a dip in the water and headed back to Tel Aviv on a sheirut.

Yom Hastudent

Thursday was Yom Hastudent, Student Day at Tel Aviv University. Every university in Israel has one of these, and it was great! My classes were canceled and I went to campus around one in the afternoon to check it out. The entire campus was covered with a huge fair and grinning students. I walked around with some friends to find: stands of cheap cute clothes, hot dogs, chinese food, ice cream, yogurt, multiple stages with different bands, hookah to rent, and a mini pool. It was a balagan! After a sivuv, we decided to rent a hookah and chill out near a band performing nice music. There were even pillows set up on the grass for us to sprawl out. The weather was beautiful, as usual, and it was a lovely afternoon. I left around five for my violin lesson, and I returned to campus just in time to catch Shalom Hanoch performing. Go TAU for sponsoring a day dedicated to its students!


bbq smoke


mini pool

highlights

Here are some highlights of everyday life in Tel Aviv:

• riding my bike-it's purple and has a basket
  
• lazy tuesdays and wednesdays (no class till 4:30!)
  
• shabbat lunch at bela and eser's with all the cousins
• playing doodle jump
• frozen yogurt at tamara with unlimited toppings
  
• running in shorts and a tshirt january through may (and getting high fives from randos on the way!)
  
• visiting the dried fruit man in the shuk
• hearing Joshua Bell play two concerts
• making friends in the sheirut (shared taxi)
  
• drinking excessive amounts of ice cafe from aroma
• making shabbat dinner at my apartment with friends
• hearing tiny (roommate's dog) snore at night
• lunch with Joshua Bell at benedict's
• learning how to cook
• realizing israelis know more about english literature than i do
  
• going to see alice in wonderland
• eating avocados at lauren's
• listening to my environment teacher talk about the pancake house for most of class
• wearing flip flops out to the bars at night without getting any dirty looks
• attending the tel aviv film festival on the namal (port)
• walking down nahalat benyamin (art fair) on tuesdays and fridays
• wine tour and tasting at Golan Winery

yes, i realize this is mostly about food.

some visits

Last weekend, I went on a jeep trek with my environment class. It was mostly off-roading, which was cool at the beginning. It reminded me of off-roading in Morocco, but this time we continued for hours and hours! My neck didn't feel great at the end. Atar, the driver, said we shouldn't wear seatbelts during offroading. We saw some cool things. Most of the day we were in the west bank...we saw the wall and learned how to distinguish Israeli settlements from Palestinian settlements (red roofs from flatter, white roofs). We saw some tanks on the roads and did a small hike along a stream (unlikely to find in the desert!) Later, we saw a beautiful view of the dead sea from the west bank side with the Jordanian mountains in the background, which looks very different from the views I've seen before. Our guide pointed out the places the dead sea scrolls were found. That night, we had a picnic/hot dog bbq between the jeeps in a pretty area between tall gorges. As we drove back to Tel Aviv, we used strong flashlights (or panas in Hebrew) to look for animals. We were unsuccessful.

On Wednesday I went to Sderot. Long story short, Lauren knows someone from the Jewish Agency who is on the board of TAU and was going down there to visit a friend and offered to take us. So Lauren, Sara, Dan and I piled into John's car and we drove the short drive (less than an hour) down to Sderot. Sderot is mentioned in the media all the time...this is the town that gets hits with rockets from Gaza. Ofer, John's friend who lives in Sderot, showed us around and told us that some days they get up to 65 rockets shot into the streets of their small town. (There has only been one fatal rocket in the past year, though.) A siren goes off and they have 15 seconds to get to a shelter. Ofer took us to a small hill from which we could see Gaza--it's so close. There is a balloon-like machine in the air in between this hill and Gaza which detects rockets. By the height of the rocket it predicts where it will land, and the sirens go off accordingly. Afterwards, we went to the police station where Ofer showed us the pile of 200 rockets they kept. Each one is labeled with the date and place it fell in hope that there will eventually be an investigation and they will have evidence. The first thing I noticed driving around Sderot is the lack of people in the streets. It was the middle of the day, and people were probably going about their activities, but the residents are so used to hiding inside that they are not accustomed to being able to walk around outside. We went to a playground in the town where there are these huge concrete tube-like things painted with fun colors like snakes. In Hebrew, it is written: "In case of siren, enter the snake for safety." These toys serve as rocket shelters. Ofer told us about the people of Sderot who sleep in one room, shower together, and go to the bathroom with the door open in fear that a rocket will come and they will be separated from their family. Most have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and one can only imagine the effects the rockets have upon the kids, parents, and everyone living there. People are living in hell both in Gaza and in Sderot, and it is painful to experience even second hand.

North Trip

April 23 - 25 was OSP's North trip. On the first day, we did some silly ropes course activities. We split into groups and had to climb things and pick up balls and run the fastest in order to gather the most keys to open a treasure chest, which turned out to have a bottle of champagne in it. In the end, they pulled out 6 more bottles of champagne and everyone had some. This would never fly on Ramah seminar. We then went to the Kibbutz where we were staying for the weekend near Nahariya...it was nice, but is mostly a moshav (less of a socialist community, more just an Israeli village) today. I roomed with Sara and Elli, and we had a beautiful sea view from our window! I went on a nice run with Elli along the sea and read on the beach before we had dinner at the hotel/kibbutz and had free time at the local pub, woohoo.

The next morning we explored the natural caves at Rosh Hanikra. We had to take a cable car (the steepest in the world!) down to the caves. The best part of the visit was the video where a British dude narrated the erotic relationship the sea has with the caves and then we were spritzed with water. After the caves, we went on a hike along one of the upper Galilee streams. Later that night, we boarded the buses headed to a small town called Rosh Pina. After driving for an hour, they realized there wouldn't be anything open there on Saturday night after Shabbat, so we turned around.




On Sunday, we did a pretty hike along the Amud stream that I remembered doing on Seminar. It was really nice out, and not too hot. Along the hike, we played a game where each of us had to tell an embarrassing story if someone put a clothes pin on us. I know you all want to know mine: one time at a party, my friend was tickling me. As soon as it was silent when the music was changing songs I farted really loudly. So....after the hike, we went rafting on the Jordan river! My dad reminded me it was like rafting in a bathtub, but the water was actually much higher than I remembered it being on Seminar. Israel got a lot more rain than usual this year, and there is always more water in the spring than in summer. We had a double date in my raft: Elli and Ben, and me and Moshe. Moshe and I were the rowers while Elli and Ben enjoyed a pleasant ride along the river.