Shabbat

Shabbat Shalom!!

We all love Shabbat here! I want to live in Israel so that I can observe Shabbat every week! Everyone is home and off work and gets to have down time every friday evening and saturday. I mean. Who wouldnt want that?

Let me update you on yesterday

FRIDAY JUNE 6

We went to Tel Aviv yesterday. We took a sherut (I don't know if that's actually how you spell it). It's a mini bus van type thing that seats 10 people. They don't leave until they fill up with people. Seems like a legit way to get a cheap ride to Tel Aviv.

We went up there to volunteer with Russian children. Literally none of them spoke English, but so far they are the best behaved kids we've worked with on this trip.

So, we took them to the main Central Park in Tel Aviv and went paddle boating! Which turned into quite the adventure.

Boats from the bridge! Which had cutouts of the Star of David!

The river in the park

sweet bridge graffiti

paddle boats on paddle boats on paddle boats

YAY for paddle boating!!

There were three of us from the group on my boat along with three Russian boys. At first they wanted to do all the paddling, but then when we turned around (after 45 min of paddling) none of them would switch us back. We communicated by gestures and the 5 words we knew in Hebrew.

One little boy was really holding it and we had to pull over on the bank so that he could pee behind a tree. Welcome to life outside America. Then none of the other boys wanted to sit anywhere on the boat because he had mud all over his shoes. What divas. So I kept having to wipe off all the mud with my hand and river water. 

I also got a good amount of sun. Ive been wearing maxi skirts almost every day (I hate shorts and pants now) and my legs are so white. So I rolled up my shorts while paddling and got both a work out and a nice leg tan. What a great way to multitask!

After boating we played games in the park. We set up a relay race for them and had some fresh cut watermelon to eat.

Matching outfits in Tel Aviv!

After we ate pizza and I was able to share my story with the kids (there were maybe 30 of them. I don't know it seemed like they kept multiplying). I had a translator and I told them about my hard time during middle school and the lack of friends, mean girls, and gossip I had to deal with. It was a very humbling experience and definitely once in a lifetime.

When their parents came and picked them up some of us decided to make the most of our trip to Tel Aviv and we walked to Jaffa!

sketchy streets and alley cats on our way to Jaffa.

Clock tower in Jaffa

Then we walked to the beach. Tel Aviv and Jaffa are on the Mediterranean Sea!

looking toward Tel Aviv from Jaffa

LOVE feeling the Mediterranean on my toesies! And love knowing that my beloved Italia is right across the way.

Naturally I had to take a selfie. The ocean runs in my blood. I'm an island baby.

signature jump shot!

Six of us in the group walked to Tel Aviv, grapped a bite on the beach, and made our way to a Shabbat congregation meeting. It was such a fun experience! A few people there I had met at the picnic last weekend, it was so nice to see them again and reconnect!

Then the fun started. Since it was Shabbat after congregation we had to get a sherut from that area of town back to the central bus station. The buses don't run on Shabbat, but these sherut things do. So we grabbed a snack and an am/pm grocery store and jumped on a sherut to the station

This photo is not edited. There were these crazy blue lights on this sherut, kind of like cash cab but not as cool and WAY more sketch.

Once back at the station we hopped on a sherut to Jerusalem. The driver kept nodding off and those of us who were sitting up front were terrified for our life and muttering prayers under our breath and outloud. We kept asking him if he was okay and he got very mad and defensive. The normal drive of 45 min to Jerusalem took us 25... so not only was he nodding off, he had a death wish on us all with his speed demon ways. 

When we were in Jerusalem we randomly got off somewhere we thought was close to our house because we'd rather be somewhat lost than die in a sherut. Thankfully some nice Orthodox jewish boys helped us find the right street. It was a long day and they always turn into a grand adventure!

SATURDAY JUNE 7

Sleeping in on Shabbat is seriously one of the only things getting me through the weeks. We have another early morning and cram packed day tomorrow, but today, I slept until 11:30. 

We ate breakfast/lunch and then headed to the Israel Museum, a short 40 min walk from our house. And it was a walk we havent made so we got to see some new parts of the city! 

We walked by an abandoned monastery, but there were a ton of people with cameras and stuff that seemed to be filming in it. So we didn't get to explore it.

The museum is one of the only places open on Shabbat. Everyone wanted to go to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, which I saw this past year in Fort Worth because they are traveling right now. But this museum had so so much more. And all their exhibits were phenomenally done.

They have a replica of Jerusalem during the Second Temple. It was amazing!

stumbled upon this beautiful Roman sculpture in the gardens of the museum

I studied this vase in my Ancient Roman and Greek Art History class!!! I love finding pieces randomly that I have seen before in a powerpoint or text book! This is a red figure vase illustrated with mythology.

This beaut is the Emperor Hadrian. And guess what?!! HES BRONZE!!! These are EXTREMELY rare because they would be melted down for tools or weapons in times of war. ALSO this bust is in the likeness of the emperor, which we know because of his earlobes! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! He had a heart disease that effected the shape of his earlobes and eventually was the cause of his death. This minor detail was picked up by the artist and is shown in this statue.

This commemorates the building of Jerusalem's walls by the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificient, who decided to rebuild the walls of the city on the remains of the ancient walls. This contruction lasted from 1535-1538.

An illuminated manuscript :D!!!! Have I mentioned that this museum is a compilation of ALL of my favorite things in art and history?! Ancient Empires, middle eastern traditional dress, judaica, the merging of cultures (Judaism and Islam)... like everything. Above is an illuminated manuscript and the part shown is how to keep the passover traditions. how cool is that?! usually when thinking of illuminated manuscripts the mind goes to early catholicism/christianity or even islam, but seeing this about the judaism was awesome.

ah... the beautiful Monet. 

I have a story for you all now. i was looking at this painting when this cute german guy walks up right beside me and starts looking at it with me. As I walk to the next Monet I think to myself that he is quite the attractive young man (not uncommon in israel, as I have established) and he moves with me to the next Monet. And so we go along the impressionism exhibit like this. Following one another to paintings. 

He starts walking into the contemporary exhibit room and sees that I make my way down a hallway with more paintings. so he joins me and reads the wall description and appreciates the art by my side. Once again he walks into the contemporary exhibit. I turn around and see beautifully decorated rooms with furniture of different time periods, so the interior designer in me going into those first. When I come out, there he is in the hall waiting on me. So we enter the next exhibit space together. 

Then, as I round a corner leaving him a few steps behind i look at my watch and realize its the time i was supposed to meet the rest of the group at the museum entrance. So here I am in the bowels of this art museum not knowing the way out. So i had to bolt, and right in the middle of my "date" with the German. I didn't even leave him a shoe to find me with. not to worry, when we came out of the gift shop (after shopping in their cute store) there he was at the museum exit. So I was able to bid him adue. 

It was the perfect date, but we decided to stay non-commital and open minded about this whole "relationship" thing. I mean, come on, no one really has time for those ;) But seriously, thinking back on it now I really wish I had said something to him. Especially since he has such great taste and an amazing appreciation for art!

ANYWAYS...

We decided to go get dinner after shabbat ended (at 9pm everything opens back up) at the waffle place in our neighborhood... it was insane.

I got vanilla cream with bananas, oreos, tim tams, and maple syrup. THEN you get all that other yummy stuff like ice cream and choclate bits to sprinkle on top

And I ate the whole thing....barely. The last three bites were difficult but I really wanted a happy plate!

I love exploring this city, especially as I start to figure out my way around (which has been relatively easy and quick). 

View of Jerusalem from the top of the hill the Israel Museum is located.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rockets, Feasts, and Spa Night

 Tuesday June 3

Today we traveled to Sterot. Which is the closest Israeli town to Gaza. Because of this, it is also the town most frequently shot at with rockets. 

The bus stops in the town are covered with concrete that protects people from the debris of rockets. They have bad aim when shooting the rockets, and they know this, so they fill them with shrapnel and various other things that end up hurting people. These bus stops are the governments way of acknowledging that many people cant/wont move and therefore decide to protect their people from attack.

This is an elementary school, the entire school has a concrete protection built over the roof to protect the children from a rocket attack from Gaza.

The majority of the people living in Sterot are too poor to move and include both Holocaust survivors and Russian immigrants. Also, these people are so tired of being oppressed and victimized they claim Israel as their land and would not move even if they had enough money or the right opportunity.

We went to Sterot today to unpack a set of food palletes that we made yesterday with the Joshua Fund. Then we set to work making bags for people in the community to pick up. We made 170 food bags. 

Selfie at the end of the assembly line. My Baby Ruth days and Pine Cove came back to haunt me today as I was on cardboard box breakdown duty. Good thing I'm a pro!

Here a few of the bags we packed.

Driving out of the city we were able to stop by the police station and see a handful of rockets that had landed in the city. Each is dated and marked with the location it landed.

This case is mainly used as a display of different parts of the rockets

You can see the date and location (in Hebrew) on this one. 

December 20, 2008

A few years ago, during the height of conflict, there were up to 1200 rockets shot into Sterot in a single week. 

This situation makes it hard for people to carry out their daily lives. They have to get their children from school, they cant go to work, they are afraid to leave the house even to go to the market. Many died of heart attacks due to stress and anxiety and not from the rockets themselves. This truly is a terror attack.

When getting back to Jerusalem we were told that Rockets were fired on Israel yesterday. From Gaza in the south and from Syria in the north. Israel responded due to its attack in dual locations. 

We never even knew anything happened. It is calm here and on our way to Sterot they warned us of the sirens and told us where the safe room was in the house we were working at. 

The fact that we were able to make bags of food for these people living in such fear and disruption of daily life is humbling, but also seems miniscule. There is so much more that we can be doing for these people, but instead America is sending money to Syria thinking it will promote peace.

On a different note, tonight is the beginning of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, which occurs 50 days after Passover. The people stay up all night studying the Torah and celebrate the receiving of the law from God. Just like Shabbat, this is a time of no working.

We rang in Shavuot with yummy Arab food (unkosher with both meat and cheese...oops) but it was so so yummy.

Our yummy holiday meal!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 4

Unlike the Jewish people, we did not stay up all night. Instead we woke up at 4am (I wanted to die it was so early) and walked to the western wall with the rest of the masses. 

This is the day Christians know as the Pentecost. After seeing the amount of people out and about, especially at the wailing wall, it is easy to see how 3,000 came to faith on that day in Acts 2.

The Western Wall... 100,000 people were said to be there this morning. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

We walked back to the house and I got another three hours of sleep and then we headed to a picnic!

views on our way back home at 6:30am.

There were about 800 people there at the picnic and quite a few young attractive men (a nice theme ive been noticing in Israel ;). It was also the hottest day it's been so far since we've been here.

At one point we ran out of water and I didnt drink any water for over an hour... I grew a little delirious, then we realized there were water spickets, but you had to pass the crazy israeli children having water fights... So I took the risk and entered the war zone only to realize I was very grateful to get shot at right in the face with a water gun. It cooled me off quite nicely. It was so hot I was dry within minutes.

There were live bands playing so we decided to dance, but we don't know any israeli dances yet, so we made up our own. We have realized that we are a dancing group! And I love it!

Then, FINALLY, when we left (it was seriously the longest and hottest afternoon of my life) we went to a super yummy lebanese restaurant! Since it's a holiday, only non-jewish businesses are open, and it was right by the picnic (which was a little ways out of Jerusalem so it was the perfect time to go to this restaurant).

It was quite the feast! We had plenty of leftovers. 

but, you can't forget dessert!!! Baklava!!! :D it was so so yummy! It was also served with Turkish tea and coffee!!! Another yummyness!

I'd say I fully enjoyed myself.

When we got home I helped clean our urine infested toilets. Somehow our bathrooms in the house have reeked of pee the past couple of days and we finally had time to deep clean them. The biggest and most odorous bathroom, the one in which I helped clean, still makes me want to vomit. It also makes me rethink my cleaning abilities, which I know are above average, maybe someone on our group just has supernatural pee. In any case, that was something I didn't have in mind to do here, but hey, sometimes that stuff happens and I don't mind cleaning a toilet or two.

I have been in Israel a week today. Which is crazy. It's going by so fast. If I was here for only a 10 day tour trip I'd only have 3 days left. I can't believe people do so much here in so little time. I got an email today from southwest to remind me of my upcoming flight to Dallas, which isnt even for another 3 weeks I think. I didn't like that reminder of my limited time here. 

We keep joking about going to a matchmaker here in Jerusalem and finding all of us single girls some hubbies. However, one of the main stipulations for the matchmaker is to make sure you wont take the boy out of israel! And I would be 100% okay with that, however I'd probably want to live further north, you know I'm no hot weathered person.

THURSDAY JUNE 5

It's spa night!! Not for us though! We put on a spa night for single moms. It was a crazy day. We went to the market and to a few stores to get supplies. we cooked for 30 women and did nails and massages and pedicures AND watched their kids. It was a mad house, 

Food :D

However, I was put in charge of decorations and it was a blast. i was sent to a random store in which I had no idea where it was. And was told to "match the burgandy table cloth we already have" It was so much fun!

Blurry awful photo of part of the even, but it was so amazing to serve these hard working, single moms who deserve so much more than a spa night put on by some volunteers. I only know how to paint others nails because my mom taught me in second grade! But the women loved it!

Their children were an extreme handful. And only two kids spoke english. so that was fun! One of the boys who spoke english has parents from America, so he speaks english at home. He taught me A TON of hebrew, like how to count to ten, and how to subtract, and how to say snake. It was a lot of fun.

However, i'm still struggling with the language barries. So many people speak english, but I hate being the stupid American who cant communicate except in English. It's thw most frustrating thing in the world. 

What that, I encourage you to learn, practice, and use the foreign language you are "learning" it makes a world of difference!