The rest of Birthright was a blur. One sad thing that happened was that I ended up getting really sick from all of the exhausting traveling we were doing. Congested and tired, I lugged myself from place to place with the rest of the group. We saw some cool stuff on the last few days: we went to a military cemetary in Jerusalem, where we saw the graves of people who died from the first Lebanon war, the independence war, and the more recent conflicts. Seeeing the soldiers' graves from the second Lebanon War in 2006 was really sad. They were really decorated- some had freshly picked flowers, some were adorned with pictures and keepsakes, and they were generally well-looked after. Those kids were 18 or 19 or 20- and it's clear that 4 years after the conflict, the parents are still incredibly affected by the conflict. I can't imagine losing a friend or a sister that early on. It really hit home, knowing how young they were and how much they had left to offer.
The trip ended pretty briskly. I didn't realize until the actual airport that most of the people on the trip were leaving, permanently. The people I became friends with on the trip were so diverse and different from me- Midwesterners, law students, grad students, poets, dreamers and realists- and I hope we all stay in touch. Talking to the grad students made me want to go back to grad school. Being in contact with people two and three years older- people with rent and real person jobs and even spouses made me a little more ready for growing up. There is a difference between the 22 and the 25 year olds. The 22 year olds- Hillary, Jessi, and myself- all graduated in a really tough economic year and have spent the time since graduation perpetually seeking meaning, employment, and to find the elusive Nest Step. The older kids told us that it will all work out, and I believe them- the first year out is the most shocking and the hardest to get used to. I can't wait to live with friends and teach English in another country and go back to grad school and ride a bike around the city and get moving on life. At the same time I feel this great reluctance to grow up- this tug between the desire to be a kdi and the desire to be a big important Real Person. Maybe life is about wrestling a balance between the kid and the adult.
The day after the program, my Russian biochemist friend Ilya and I went to Jerusalem. We stayed at the Jaffa Gate Hostel, which is in an amazing location but is an incredibly crappy hostel. Our room was in absolute darnkness, the toilet made this loud draining noise for 20 minutes after it was flushed, and we were given one measly thin blanket for the wintry night. The people in the hostel were fun though- I met Sevillanos taking shots of whiskey the first night Typical!
Ilya and I tried to sleep in but both wound up wide awake at 8am- Birthright conditioned us well to rise early. We wandered around the Old City, walking through the Christian quarter of the market. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and saw where Jesus was crucified. I felt a great sadness and reverence for this gentle man who only wanted peace and love. My relationship to Jesus is constantly changing- I know he was special, but is he divine? That I don't know. But it was a very beautiful and sad church, and to see the actual crucifiction spot was astounding. We reverse walked the Via Dolorosa- Jesus' march from where Pontius Pilate sentenced him to death to the spot of his crucifiction. It was an uphill walk, and to think that he did it after being tortured and beaten, and with a giant wooden cross on his back, is insane.
For lunch, we went to the Arabic quarter and sat down for two hours, drinking mint tea and talking about life. Birthright wouldn't let us go into the Arabic quarter but I really liked it- especially the tea. Everywhere in the Arabic quarter, there are posters from 1929 that say "PALESTINE: A paradise." I guess the Brits used the posters for tourism back in the day. They are everywhere, and it's clear that to the Arabs, Palestine was rightfully theirs, a beautiful paradise that was stolen in the 40s when Israel became a nation. There really is no easy solution to the problem- do we give Jersualem back to the Arabs? No way! They would want the entire country before they are happy. I think the Jews need a homeland- we've been pushed around and killed and persecuted for thousands of years. But what can we do to bring lasting peace? And would each sides recognize it? I'm glad that Arabs, Christians, and Jews can all live in Jerusalem in relative peace. Jews can't go up to Temple Mount though which is sad because it's beautiful. Apparently the second intifada in 2000 started because Ariel Sharon, the Jewish prime minister of Israel, went up to Temple Mount. Just by entering the Mount he ignited a war. It's crazy how delicate the peace is between the three groups in Jersualem, the holiest city in the world to Jews and Christians and the third holiest to Muslims.
I will write more later. I've tried Skyping people, but I just realized that while it's 2:42 here, it's 7:42 am there. OOoooooopsss.
Love love,
A
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
So much has happened since my last post. The last four days of Birthright were a blur. Birthright in general felt like a fast current, one you couldn't escape from. Wake up calls at 7am. Nights that lasted til 2 or 3am. No sleep, one bus that you spent hours on a day, the same 46 faces who you see every day. People become unveiled to you, and I was really surprised by how quickly I got to know- really know- people. I also ended up very sick at the end of the program- my body was aching and tired and I had a bad cough, but still had to get up early every morning and do what the group was doing. In the last four days of Birthright we:
-went to the desert, the Negev. The Jews became a people in the desert, and I was awestruck by how beautiful the area was. It was very rocky, unlike the Morocco desert, which is full of finely grained sand. We rode camels (and some of us rode donkeys) into the sunset. Halley and I had a camel that Zach dubbed "the belle of the ball." She really was very pretty- she had long coquettish camel eyelashes and light skin. Cammy, as I called her, was very calm. All the camels followed eachother in a line, and when the leader stopped the camel line, the camel behind us came about an inch from my face! I couldnt help thinking about his big camel teeth and how easily they could sink into my leg. But camels are very chill- as long as you don't get up in their face and bother them, they won't hurt you. One of the funniest moments of the camel riding experience was when I looked up and saw Jason, sitting contentedly on his camel while lighting up a cigarette. That boy never stops smoking.
We stayed in a Bedouin tent and met local Bedouins. The Bedouins are the people of the desert. They live anywhere there is a desert in the Middle East region- I met some in Morocco and they were very similar to the ones I met in Israel. The Bedouins in Israel used to be a nomadic people who wandered the desert and moved their homes from place to place, but the Israeli government encourages them to settle down in one place permanently. So, although we stayed in a tent, many of the Bedouins had actual houses nearby. Our host sat our group down, served us the most addictive tea of my life, and played us traditional Bedouin music on his guitar-like instrument. He was fantastic. Apparently he traveled throughout the world playing his Bedouin music. His strumming and his rythym were awesome and the combination of the tea and the music put me in a nice trance. Then, Bedouin dinner. Under tents, we sat in groups of 5 on cushions and were served a feast- beef, chicken, pita, vegetables, rice. We ate everything with our hands and were served seconds, thirds, and fourths- Bedouin hospitality is something they take very seriously.
After dinner it started to pour, and right as it started to pour Jessi asked me if I'd go with her to the bathroom, which was about 400 yards away from our tent. There were about three tents of Birthright groups staying at the camp that night, and the bathroom was the farthest from our tent. It started to POUR as we reached the bathroom. When we left the bathroom, it was so cold and raining so hard I could barely see her running in front of me. We got rapidly disoriented and ran in circles for a while, until we found the camel den, which was right next to our tent. Completely soaked, we walked in to the tent. Five minutes later, all the power in the camp went out, so we played a game with flashlights until it came back on. Exhausted, I fell asleep at 9pm, passed out on the sleeping back in the heated tent.
The next day, we woke up to sad news. Masada, one of the most important monuments in Judaism, (here thousands of Jews committed suicide to avoid being captured by the Romans in 70 AD after the temple was destroyed) was completely impossible to get to because all of the roads were flooded. Apparently, the Negev had not gotten that much rain in five years. There was so much rain that flash floods had formed in the desert. There were newly formed temporary waterfalls and streams that the past night's rain had created, which completely shifted the sand formations. Six of our students got Bar and Bat Mitvahed in the desert, and afterwards we threw candy at them and sang songs and danced to celebrate their emergence to adulthood. Dring breakfast, George, Lee, Brandon, Josh and I could drank four cups (!!) of the Bedouin tea, which was incredibly addictive. We had a drink-off- even though we weren't thirsty, the tea was so good we kept having to get up and drink more.
We went to the Dead Sea- luckily, the road to the Dead Sea was still open. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth- and the salinity in the Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than regular ocean water. We ended up being the only people at the Dead Sea, because all of the roads, except the one we took, were blocked. We got in to the Dead Sea, which is aquamarine, and the second you get on your back you float! And once you start floating, getting upright on your feet is very, very hard. I plopped down on my stomach and without doing anything, I was floating above water. Swimming freestyle in the Dead Sea was really fun- you feel almost as if you are flying. Then, we got out, smeared mud all over our bodies, let it dry in the sun. Once we were caked in mud, we got back in, and reached down to the Dead Sea bottom to get the salt rocks out. We smeared sea salt all over our bodies to get the mud off and my skin was as smooth as silk afterwards. I felt like I had just left a fancy spa, I felt so smooth. It was a great end to a sad opening day.
The rest of the trip is a little more hazy. We went to a kibbutz that functioned as a secret factory during the war of independence. A group of people who were quite young- about 18-21 years old, formed a plan to make a bullet factory under the laundry room of their kibbutz, in an area streaming with Brits, who controlled the country before the independence war. Many people on their kibbutz didn't even know about the secret bullet-making operation that was going on. The bullets they made (and they were never found out) helped the Jews win the war of independence in 1948. Those kids risked their lives for this pipe dream of Jewish independence. It was a cool factory.
I am quite quite tired but will write more tomorrow. Birthright is over but there is much more to say.
Love love,
A
-went to the desert, the Negev. The Jews became a people in the desert, and I was awestruck by how beautiful the area was. It was very rocky, unlike the Morocco desert, which is full of finely grained sand. We rode camels (and some of us rode donkeys) into the sunset. Halley and I had a camel that Zach dubbed "the belle of the ball." She really was very pretty- she had long coquettish camel eyelashes and light skin. Cammy, as I called her, was very calm. All the camels followed eachother in a line, and when the leader stopped the camel line, the camel behind us came about an inch from my face! I couldnt help thinking about his big camel teeth and how easily they could sink into my leg. But camels are very chill- as long as you don't get up in their face and bother them, they won't hurt you. One of the funniest moments of the camel riding experience was when I looked up and saw Jason, sitting contentedly on his camel while lighting up a cigarette. That boy never stops smoking.
We stayed in a Bedouin tent and met local Bedouins. The Bedouins are the people of the desert. They live anywhere there is a desert in the Middle East region- I met some in Morocco and they were very similar to the ones I met in Israel. The Bedouins in Israel used to be a nomadic people who wandered the desert and moved their homes from place to place, but the Israeli government encourages them to settle down in one place permanently. So, although we stayed in a tent, many of the Bedouins had actual houses nearby. Our host sat our group down, served us the most addictive tea of my life, and played us traditional Bedouin music on his guitar-like instrument. He was fantastic. Apparently he traveled throughout the world playing his Bedouin music. His strumming and his rythym were awesome and the combination of the tea and the music put me in a nice trance. Then, Bedouin dinner. Under tents, we sat in groups of 5 on cushions and were served a feast- beef, chicken, pita, vegetables, rice. We ate everything with our hands and were served seconds, thirds, and fourths- Bedouin hospitality is something they take very seriously.
After dinner it started to pour, and right as it started to pour Jessi asked me if I'd go with her to the bathroom, which was about 400 yards away from our tent. There were about three tents of Birthright groups staying at the camp that night, and the bathroom was the farthest from our tent. It started to POUR as we reached the bathroom. When we left the bathroom, it was so cold and raining so hard I could barely see her running in front of me. We got rapidly disoriented and ran in circles for a while, until we found the camel den, which was right next to our tent. Completely soaked, we walked in to the tent. Five minutes later, all the power in the camp went out, so we played a game with flashlights until it came back on. Exhausted, I fell asleep at 9pm, passed out on the sleeping back in the heated tent.
The next day, we woke up to sad news. Masada, one of the most important monuments in Judaism, (here thousands of Jews committed suicide to avoid being captured by the Romans in 70 AD after the temple was destroyed) was completely impossible to get to because all of the roads were flooded. Apparently, the Negev had not gotten that much rain in five years. There was so much rain that flash floods had formed in the desert. There were newly formed temporary waterfalls and streams that the past night's rain had created, which completely shifted the sand formations. Six of our students got Bar and Bat Mitvahed in the desert, and afterwards we threw candy at them and sang songs and danced to celebrate their emergence to adulthood. Dring breakfast, George, Lee, Brandon, Josh and I could drank four cups (!!) of the Bedouin tea, which was incredibly addictive. We had a drink-off- even though we weren't thirsty, the tea was so good we kept having to get up and drink more.
We went to the Dead Sea- luckily, the road to the Dead Sea was still open. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth- and the salinity in the Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than regular ocean water. We ended up being the only people at the Dead Sea, because all of the roads, except the one we took, were blocked. We got in to the Dead Sea, which is aquamarine, and the second you get on your back you float! And once you start floating, getting upright on your feet is very, very hard. I plopped down on my stomach and without doing anything, I was floating above water. Swimming freestyle in the Dead Sea was really fun- you feel almost as if you are flying. Then, we got out, smeared mud all over our bodies, let it dry in the sun. Once we were caked in mud, we got back in, and reached down to the Dead Sea bottom to get the salt rocks out. We smeared sea salt all over our bodies to get the mud off and my skin was as smooth as silk afterwards. I felt like I had just left a fancy spa, I felt so smooth. It was a great end to a sad opening day.
The rest of the trip is a little more hazy. We went to a kibbutz that functioned as a secret factory during the war of independence. A group of people who were quite young- about 18-21 years old, formed a plan to make a bullet factory under the laundry room of their kibbutz, in an area streaming with Brits, who controlled the country before the independence war. Many people on their kibbutz didn't even know about the secret bullet-making operation that was going on. The bullets they made (and they were never found out) helped the Jews win the war of independence in 1948. Those kids risked their lives for this pipe dream of Jewish independence. It was a cool factory.
I am quite quite tired but will write more tomorrow. Birthright is over but there is much more to say.
Love love,
A
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Sorry about the scarceness of writing, I have not had the chance to sit down for a long period of time and write. Today I am in Jerusalem, it is 70 degrees and sunny, and life is pretty sweet. We have been here for almost a week, and I really like the kids in the program- it is a group of 50 Jews and Israelis, which gets overwhelming, and you have everyone under the sun, from PHD history students to law students to California girls to funny New Yorkers. It is a good mix. I will write about things that have happened so far:
Yesterday, we visited Vad Hashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum. It is 100 times better than the one in DC. They had an actual part of the train track from the Warsaw ghetto. The way the museum worked was you walk in to this extremely gray and dark building with a triangular shaped ceiling. You start out by seeing rare videos of the Jews in Europe before the war: alleyways of Jewish musicians, little kids in schul being taught by a rabbi, and people dancing the hora in a circle. This was extremely powerful because, as the guide said, all of these communities were exterminated and destroyed by the war. Seeing these joyous, happy people and their rich communities before the war gave the whole museum a dark forboding for what would come next. They showed Nazi propaganda of the Jews. They showed the Jews as ugly parasites who were dragging the German people down. I didn't realize that for Hitler, being Jewish was an ethnicity- it was the blood of the Jews that needed to be wiped out. So in that respect, you, Codie, and I would have all been arrested and deported to a concentration camp.
They showed the uniforms the people war, the conditions of what life was like in the camps, and they showed footage that American soldiers took of these horrible sad skeletons that had just been liberated. All are mournful because they have learned that everyone they knew had died. I just thought of how I would feel if I saw you in that uniform every day and I was with Codie, who ALWAYS gets sick, and how horrible the experience would have been. We listened to an actual survivor give his testimony, and that was really cool, because I've never hear a living person talk about the Holocaust.
Besides that, we saw the famous market in Jerusalem yesterday, which was bursting with energy. Everyone was getting ready for the Shabbos, so you had Hasidic women (who were my age or younger) with their little kids, running around, and you had tourists everywhere, and less religious Jews and even secular people, all rushing to get the best deals before Sabbath. They sold everything: meat, fruit, spices, desserts. I got strawberries for 10 shekels (about 3 bucks) and they were AMAZING, way way way better than any strawberry I have tasted in America, because they aren't genetically modified and they are grown locally.
Two days ago I had a very powerful experience at the Western Wall. We spent the day in Jerusalem, and saw the Old City in the day. They say Jerusalem glows- that since all the buildings are built with this light-colored Jerusalem stone, the light hits the buildings in a special way and the city glows. There is a different energy that you feel in Jerusalem- and to know that the city is thousands and thousands of years old only adds to the revering quality that the city commends. We saw the Western Wall, or the kotel, at night. I saw it at first in the distance and thought that it didn't seem that different than any other old wall. However, when I was physcially near it, everything changed. Women all around me were reciting the Torah, bowing, crying, and praying. I wrote prayers on a piece of paper, and when I was finally at the wall I put it in there so God would here. When I touched the wall, an incredibly powerful energy hit me. I started praying for everyone I knew, for the suffering in the world to end and for Dad and Mom to retire and live happily and for Cal and for everyone. It was this beautiful release- and I really felt God. It's interesting that every single temple faces towards Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem they all face towards the wall, so you have the spiritual energy of millions of people praying for the very spot you are standing on. Absolutely incredible.
I will write whenever I get the chance. When this program ends on Thursday, I will be able to write a great deal more. Until then, I will fill you in whenever we get an opportunity to use a computer.
I feel like I'm uncovering this side of me I have never known. To be in Israel, a place that my grandmother's grandmother's grandmother prayed about seeing, that people for thousands of years in my bloodline have prayed for, to finally be here, in a country that the Jews have only had for 60 years, after thousands of years of oppression and getting kicked out of countries and persecuted against, is a really empowering feeling.
Anyways I miss you all but need to let other people use the computer. Shabbat Shalom!!!!
Yesterday, we visited Vad Hashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum. It is 100 times better than the one in DC. They had an actual part of the train track from the Warsaw ghetto. The way the museum worked was you walk in to this extremely gray and dark building with a triangular shaped ceiling. You start out by seeing rare videos of the Jews in Europe before the war: alleyways of Jewish musicians, little kids in schul being taught by a rabbi, and people dancing the hora in a circle. This was extremely powerful because, as the guide said, all of these communities were exterminated and destroyed by the war. Seeing these joyous, happy people and their rich communities before the war gave the whole museum a dark forboding for what would come next. They showed Nazi propaganda of the Jews. They showed the Jews as ugly parasites who were dragging the German people down. I didn't realize that for Hitler, being Jewish was an ethnicity- it was the blood of the Jews that needed to be wiped out. So in that respect, you, Codie, and I would have all been arrested and deported to a concentration camp.
They showed the uniforms the people war, the conditions of what life was like in the camps, and they showed footage that American soldiers took of these horrible sad skeletons that had just been liberated. All are mournful because they have learned that everyone they knew had died. I just thought of how I would feel if I saw you in that uniform every day and I was with Codie, who ALWAYS gets sick, and how horrible the experience would have been. We listened to an actual survivor give his testimony, and that was really cool, because I've never hear a living person talk about the Holocaust.
Besides that, we saw the famous market in Jerusalem yesterday, which was bursting with energy. Everyone was getting ready for the Shabbos, so you had Hasidic women (who were my age or younger) with their little kids, running around, and you had tourists everywhere, and less religious Jews and even secular people, all rushing to get the best deals before Sabbath. They sold everything: meat, fruit, spices, desserts. I got strawberries for 10 shekels (about 3 bucks) and they were AMAZING, way way way better than any strawberry I have tasted in America, because they aren't genetically modified and they are grown locally.
Two days ago I had a very powerful experience at the Western Wall. We spent the day in Jerusalem, and saw the Old City in the day. They say Jerusalem glows- that since all the buildings are built with this light-colored Jerusalem stone, the light hits the buildings in a special way and the city glows. There is a different energy that you feel in Jerusalem- and to know that the city is thousands and thousands of years old only adds to the revering quality that the city commends. We saw the Western Wall, or the kotel, at night. I saw it at first in the distance and thought that it didn't seem that different than any other old wall. However, when I was physcially near it, everything changed. Women all around me were reciting the Torah, bowing, crying, and praying. I wrote prayers on a piece of paper, and when I was finally at the wall I put it in there so God would here. When I touched the wall, an incredibly powerful energy hit me. I started praying for everyone I knew, for the suffering in the world to end and for Dad and Mom to retire and live happily and for Cal and for everyone. It was this beautiful release- and I really felt God. It's interesting that every single temple faces towards Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem they all face towards the wall, so you have the spiritual energy of millions of people praying for the very spot you are standing on. Absolutely incredible.
I will write whenever I get the chance. When this program ends on Thursday, I will be able to write a great deal more. Until then, I will fill you in whenever we get an opportunity to use a computer.
I feel like I'm uncovering this side of me I have never known. To be in Israel, a place that my grandmother's grandmother's grandmother prayed about seeing, that people for thousands of years in my bloodline have prayed for, to finally be here, in a country that the Jews have only had for 60 years, after thousands of years of oppression and getting kicked out of countries and persecuted against, is a really empowering feeling.
Anyways I miss you all but need to let other people use the computer. Shabbat Shalom!!!!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
jkdfajkjioeajkfdkandf kls ahhh 2:55 am, you make me wonky
First post, complete brain exhaustion.
I am sitting in my room. It is 2:52 am. Every time I go somewhere I really do try to pack early, but inevitably I wind up in the same place: in my room, late at night, clothes strewn everywhere and a triumphantly packed suitcase. I have everything, I think, except for a towel. I am listening to my new Ipod touch (thanks mom!) and the amount of applications on it scares me- you hold the internet in your hand! And can put your pictures on it! and maps! and all by touch. Maybe my excitement over this is exacerbated by the fact that I haven't and will not sleep until 430 when I am in the passenger seat of a car bound for the Newark airport but right now the Ipod touch is the bee's knees.
So here embarks my blog that I'll use for all my travels. I'll be in Israel from January 10, 2010 to mid February, and whenever I get the chance to sneak into an Internet cafe I will write, write, and write about all the things I see and, most importantly ,the FOOD that is eaten. mmm. Already excited for the food.
I'll miss a lot of people, especially my GURLFRIEND AND FIANCE (sorry i did not get to see you girls tonight, and haing), and my family, and the dogs especially cal, and maybe Moobs too. But we are all connected on the energy level, and so it's ok. So see you soon, and welcome to my new blog!!!
Shalom,
A
I am sitting in my room. It is 2:52 am. Every time I go somewhere I really do try to pack early, but inevitably I wind up in the same place: in my room, late at night, clothes strewn everywhere and a triumphantly packed suitcase. I have everything, I think, except for a towel. I am listening to my new Ipod touch (thanks mom!) and the amount of applications on it scares me- you hold the internet in your hand! And can put your pictures on it! and maps! and all by touch. Maybe my excitement over this is exacerbated by the fact that I haven't and will not sleep until 430 when I am in the passenger seat of a car bound for the Newark airport but right now the Ipod touch is the bee's knees.
So here embarks my blog that I'll use for all my travels. I'll be in Israel from January 10, 2010 to mid February, and whenever I get the chance to sneak into an Internet cafe I will write, write, and write about all the things I see and, most importantly ,the FOOD that is eaten. mmm. Already excited for the food.
I'll miss a lot of people, especially my GURLFRIEND AND FIANCE (sorry i did not get to see you girls tonight, and haing), and my family, and the dogs especially cal, and maybe Moobs too. But we are all connected on the energy level, and so it's ok. So see you soon, and welcome to my new blog!!!
Shalom,
A
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