Israel Service Corps - My Life

Quick Update: I'm Too Lazy/Busy (mostly lazy tho) to Blog Everyday :)

2006-08-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

Alright so I need to post another blog real quik just so everyone knows I am alive. Israel still rocks. I went to Jerusalem yesterday for the day to visit a friend who was on the trip that I staffed back in January. We saw the church of the holy sepulchre, where jesus was crucified and later buried. i got a falafel for 4 sheckels, which is less than a dollar. it was delicious. i met up with my roommate naomi later on when my friend had to meet up with his girlfriend. i had a huge beer. it was delicious also. then we had ethiopian food my friend came back so it was 5 of us. it was decicious. i came back at around 11 pm with naomi and spent like $23 for the entire day total. awesome.

my stomach hasnt hurt in over a day. that is good. i like not hurting. hurting is bad. maybe if i type another sentence it will start hurting again...oh no...just kidding its fine for now.

we started ulpan class today (hebrew classes). it was really crazy going to a school and having to bust out a notebook again and learn. i promised myself i would never take a class in a school again (at least for a while). i guess i was wrong. but this is really a good thing im learning. i have studied a lot already tonite. daniel and i are going to take out a few israeli girls tonight. actually, we dont have a car so they are taking us out. oh yeah, and also we dont know where to go so i think thats up to them too. they were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago but israelis are always late. i hate late people...

we volunteered packing supplies for families up north today for about 4 hours. we packed up 25 pallets of food. sounds like nothing but they told us we were one of the best groups they ever had. we could have done maybe twice as much but we kept rolling tape and plastic into a ball and using a cardboard tube to play baseball.

hey, were volunteers, what do they expect? just kidding, they told us to take breaks so instead of sitting we did that. it felt really amazing to finally be doing some volunteer work in israel, and just knowing that what we were doing was going to be helping people up in the north. we are going back on thursday with another group of volunteers that got into israel today doing a different program called WIZO, they are studying trauma in israel. i guess now is a good time to be here for that unfortunately.

we have been watching the news and are glad at what we are seeing but are very unsure as to what kinds of things are going to come about soon or down the road from what has been going on. like always we are praying for the best and hope that all of you back in the states continue to support israel. you all have no idea how much support from america for israel means to this country. alright, this is getting ridiculous, i need to call these girls beacuse NO ONE stands up daniel and I! Haha kidding again they will be here. sorry for the short sentences but this is just supposed to be an update and nothing more. im too lazy and busy now to write for an hour every day. ill write again and sorry to all those who liked reading my blogs every day. sooooooon you shall have your fun again. but it wont be every day and it will be like this. miss you all!

Our First Shabbat in Ramla

2006-08-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

Friday, August 11th

Today was our first shabbat in Ramla. We had nothing at all do to today except to be ready for Shabbat by later in the evening, so a lot of us just sat around the house and hung out doing nothing much. We finally got to sleep in until as late as we wanted. It was awesome. I think I woke up around noon, but when I went downstairs to hang out for a little, my stomach was still hurting me a lot. Even though the pain went away the night before, it came back in the morning. I feel like when I am doing something that takes my mind off of it, it goes away, but when I am just sitting around doing nothing or whatever, I think that I think about it and make it hurt. I do believe I have some control over it. Maybe it's anxiety? Maybe it's stress. But from what? All I know is that I am LIVING in a new place, eating completely different food than I am used to, and I have a pretty bad stomach as it is. Anyways, if this keeps up I am going to probably go to the hospital to get some tests done, which is probably the last thing that I want to do, but I am miserable right now and it is hard to enjoy myself when it feels like this.

Anyways, I went back to sleep for an hour and it was really relaxing. Like I said, I think I have some sort of control over it because when I woke up the pain was gone. Soon after tho, it came back...I feel like I am being tortured by my own mind. It is crazy. Whoever is reading this, don't freak out. It is pretty painful right in the center of my gut, but I am doing all that I can to fix it. Hopefully it gets better. I have heard of travelers stomach, but for now I am just dealing with it. Has been really hard to be myself tho when I think about it all the time since it doesn’t go away. To continue…

When I woke up me, Jay, and Todd went to the Shuk (market). We walked there and I gotta say it is SO hot out right now. It’s funny how the weather here is exactly like that of Tucson. Hot hot hot summers, and hot to cold, cold to hot winters. We all can’t wait til winter. Everyone walks to get places in Israel, and much more in Ramla, and its interesting to see that everyone walks like a sloth about to die. Everyone drags themselves around like I can’t wait to get there. I hate this. I need a car haha. So at the Shuk we just bought some stuff we didn’t need, tried to talk to some girls with not much success, and came back. When we got back we just sat around doing nothing, everyone started to get ready for Shabbat and got picked up by their families.

Daniel and I are with the one family that took us salsa dancing (or at least tried to…). They are a VERY nice and fun family. The have one daughter named Maytav (22), and 3 sons, Gil (18? a guess), Sassi (24?), and their last son is actually now one of the 8,000 ground troops in Lebanon. I asked where he was and they told me, and it just hit me like a rock. Wow. Their son is literally up there as we sat there fighting for his family, his country, his life. It was an eye-opening experience like none other. Shabbat is very special in Israel because that is the one day of the week that families come together and eat a meal and talk about what is happening in their lives. Dinner was very good, the same stuff we have been eating day in and day out, but home cooked. I played it all by ear on how to act. We ate dinner for about 10 minutes talking, then turned on the news and watched the report on Lebanon while we finished up. It was at that point that I got really emotional (I told you im a little softy! Especially in Israel). Just sitting there watching the report of soldiers getting killed, wounded, etc, I was just thinking that any minute they could get the worst call of their lives. GOD FORBID! During dinner they offered Daniel and I wine. We accepted obviously. The father had like 1/3 a glass, and Daniel and I finished the rest of the bottle. It’s almost like they made us. They kept refilling our glasses. Towards the end of dinner I looked around at everyone’s plates. They were all members of the club. You know that club that sucks when you aren’t or don’t want to be a member? Yeah the clean plate club. I had half of my stuff left. So I looked at Daniel, looked at my plate, he gave me a stare, and I finished it all. It was hard I was stuffed… Then we sat around watching Israel’s American Idol, called “A Star is Born”. VERY good looking everyone, great voices. Everyone was talking in Hebrew so I just sat there in a daze watching this show. The wine made that a good call.

While we sat there they told us they had planned on taking us out for the night. We agreed. Gotta love our family. The mom and dad are very nice, and their kids are all really fun. Not to mention their daughter is pretty cute. But I think Daniel is gonna win that battle. Stupid loser speaks Hebrew and is always a step ahead of me. Whatever, he will be a good wingman. When I learn a few simple Hebrew words, we are going to go around to girls and Daniel will talk while I throw in cute little quirks like “cool” and “fun” and “dance” etc. It will work. The seeds have been planted and its time to start hoeing. So we got back to our house and got changed to go out. The rest of the house was already back, telling us they were about to go to bed. Yeah, right. So we got our cars full, with Sassi, Maytav, her friend Ef’Rat who I call Effie (danced with her a lot), their cousin Liron (very cute), me, Daniel, Josh, Jay, Aaron, and Naomi. We headed off to Herziliiya and I must say that when we got there it reminded me of Panama City Beach, Florida during spring break. The roads were jam packed with traffic, literally all people going out to clubs. In the stand still traffic with Daniel, Aaron, Maytav, and Liron, it got to be a sauna in the car. They don’t use AC, which is ridiculous. Daniel and my legs were stuck together. Yeah, sucky. I decided to roll my window down even tho I KNEW that I wasn’t supposed to because there was an Israeli flag hanging out of it, and it blew away. I decided to tell Liron about it later.

We finally found a club to go to called Voice. Very cool and fun place with great music. We danced all night. By all night I mean til 5 am. We got there at 2. I walked all over the club trying to dance with Israeli girls and got rejected by about 95% of them. That is a good percentage to tell you how many I talked to. All of them. It was fun tho haha. I met a girl named Lotem, who I went for a walk with with her friends. I decided it would be a good idea to steal someone else’s Israel flag out of their window. Too bad I couldn’t get the window open so I just broke it off. So now there were 2 people who’s flag I had ruined. And this one couldn’t even be put back on a car since I broke off the mounting piece. I hate myself. I tend to do a lot of thinking after I do things. Usually that is a bad way to make decisions. So I tried to crotch it into the club and the front door guy saw it. He looked at me like I was partially handicapped in my head, I just looked at him and said “flag”. He let me in but I felt dumb. I walked up to Liron and said “Hey I like that Israeli flag on your window of your car”. She said thanks. I said “oh and about that, yeah it blew away, sorry. But I got you a new one.” I pulled it out and she laughed. Probably not at how cute it was but at how stupid I am. The best thing was when they played a dance version of Hatikva (Israel’s national anthem) and I was dancing waving the flag around. Some Israeli guys came over and started dancing with us, wanting to wave the flag too. It was such an amazing, uplifting feeling. Can’t really understand it unless you’ve been here and love this country like I do. Just waving the flag around during this time felt so powerful to me. We ended up leaving the club at 5 am, drove back, almost seeing the sun rise and got to bed at 6 am. I definitely did have a good time with Effie (Maytav(our host family’s daughter)’s friend). We danced all night and were supposed to go to the beach in Tel Aviv the next day but yea, I think sleeping til 2 messed that up a little. I will probably get to see her again tomorrow (Sat) at some party thing. Oh yeah, and we ate some pita when we got home, naturally. I made Jay and I a pita with rice, hummus, ranch (oh yeah! I brought 4 powdered ranch packets with me haha. Theyre a hit! And I love that stuff so when its gone I probably wont leave my room…), hard boiled egg, and chopped onions. YUM huh?! Maybe that’s why my stomach keeps hurting…stupid weird Israeli food.

It Hurts So Good

2006-08-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

Thursday, August 10

I just realized how hard it is to type a blog every day. So here is what I have decided. I am still going to type every day. But I will definitely listen to some of the feedback that I have gotten and shorten these up a little. Yeah, what a relief for both of us. And you thought it was hard to READ these things, imagine having to type them all out every day.

Anyways, we started off the day by having a lady who is in charge of volunteers in the city come to our house and speak with us at like 11, which was pretty early for us since we were definitely out the night before. Again. I’m pretty sure that when we start volunteering this madness will all end and we will be a little more calm, but the excitement hasn’t quite settled down yet and we are all like little boys walking down the stairs Christmas morning and seeing that shiny red bicycle next to the tree. I guess for all of us Jewish kids out there reading this, it would be like spinning the dreidel and getting a gimmel and taking all of your brother’s cheerios. Dang, I guess when I put it that way hanukah doesn’t really compare to Christmas at all does it…? Anyways, she came over and talked about the same stuff we have been talking about for quite some time. Giving us extremely vague options for us to volunteer and repeating what we have heard from everyone. Still, no specifics, just “options”.

After about an hour of this and once we had all counted how many tiles are on the floor of our living room, we headed off to the Ramla community swimming pool. We get in for free, and will from now on, except Chava never gave us the passes we need to go back. It’s not that bad of a thing tho. It is a pretty good walk, and it was mostly young kids, arab kids. Stupid arab kids. Alright, that was a little harsh, well maybe not, but I gotta tell ya those kids are a little crazy. By crazy I mean like off the wall. I can compare them to those cats that you let wander all over the neighborhood that somehow find their way home at night to be fed while the rest of us are housecats, only leaving to go to the vet and hiding under the seats of the car haha no just kidding not that bad but you get the point. Either way, they were playing pretty good American music and the pool felt great. We hung out there for a few hours and came home.

When we got home we made some makeshift lunches out of random stuff. Pretty good tho. Oh, I think I should point out that the moment I woke up this morning my stomach had a sharp pain in it, the kind of pain I used to have at my Target internship that I hated more than anything. I had it the whole day. Didn’t go away. At one point I went in the bathroom, yelled at myself, and punched myself in the stomach as hard as I could a few times to snap out of it. Worked for about 1 minute. But boy was that minute sweet. I’m told it’s the food doing it to me but I’m not so sure…

At about 6 we went to a community center for youth our age and had a pretty ackward mixer type thing. It started out with a group of 8 Ramla kids our age that are some kind of singing group. They were actually pretty good. I wanted to talk to one of the girls but they had another show and left right away. We shall meet again my precious buttercup…

After that we sat in a circle and introduced ourselves to everyone. Don’t forget my stomach is killing me, like a deep pain sitting in my gut, all day, it just sucked. It was hard to hold a conversation with it hurting that much. But we all met some people, got some numbers, I got a few girl’s numbers, boo ya! We invited everyone to our house, we hung out for a bit, and they all left. Then the decision was made to go to Tel Aviv to party that night. Since everyone but Zeke was going, I couldn’t stay in the first group night out on the town, even with my stomach hurting so much. I can’t even explain how painful it was. I couldn’t hardly talk just because I was thinking so much about how much it hurt. Yeah, I’m kvetching like a little girl but trust me it was lo tov (not good). We had a Sherut (or service, taxi van) come pick us up and we paid like $4 each for a 20 minute ride to Tel Aviv. Not bad eh?

We got to a club, I had a beer and just chilled with it while the group ordered rounds of shots. Guess we all like to party…:) The club was really chill, right along the docks of the beach. There were so many gorgeous women there I thought a modeling conference had just gotten out nearby. Then I realized I was in Tel Aviv and that’s just how it is. I am going to start to have to get a little more aggressive and to the point with these women, or at least this is what I’m told. I hate that you can’t be a nice guy here and get a girl. You have to walk up to her and say “you are beautiful. I want to know you.” That’s what one guy told me to say. He then said “say something romantic like that”. What a moron. But I guess that’s what they think is romantic here. Guess the hot oil massages and incense will have to what. Until later that night! Don’t know what that means…

Anyways, the number we got for the taxi back was the wrong number so we stood on the corner at 2:30 am figuring out what to do. Some super jewish looking people in a van drove by, stopped at a red light, and had the coolest techno music playing out of these enormous speakers mounted outside of their van, just blasting this club music, it was amazing. I tried hitchhiking home but that didn’t work. Then Jay told me it wouldn’t work unless I showed a little leg. So I did. Didn’t work. Guess I just don’t have my mojo andymore :(. Soon we found a few cabs willing to drive us back for 125 sheckels, like $5 each. Still not too bad. We got home and did it up like true Real World style, if any of you watch it, and all went straight for the fridge. It was actually kind of funny. I was the sober responsible one, only because of my stomach, which actually got a little better later on in the night. Drunk people all over the kitchen like a stampede. Zeke made meatballs while we were gone and put the leftovers in the fridge. Those lasted about 2 minutes. Cold and delicious…mmmmmm.

Doin What We Do Best

2006-08-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, August 9

Today was a day once again of just chilling out with the roomies. When we woke up in the morning, we had a meeting with the mayor of Ramla. Before we left I tried to make something to eat. Now every breakfast is pretty boring just because I am either too lazy to make something good or because the food here is kind of strange. I mean yeah I can make eggs and toast and some other regular stuff, but the pots and pans we have, which there are like one of each, and on top of that we are trying to keep kosher in the house, not so much with cheese and meat being in the fridge, but trying not to cook the two in the same pans or eat them with the same utensils or off of the same plates, which I must admit is not working out as planned, but don’t tell Aliza, the one person here who is trying her best to keep kosher. I know this sounds bad but as long as she doesn’t know that when she isn’t looking we are just doing whatever...
So when we got to the mayors office, the camera crew (remember there are 2 highschool students filming us for this 5 months, but its summertime I don’t get why they are doing it!) was there too. We sat in with the mayor and I must admit I felt somewhat important. Not important like I was about to talk to the mayor about some genius idea I had to change his city forever (don’t worry that will come later but for now we don’t really know what we are even doing, or what we can do at that). This meeting was just to meet him and if didn’t know any better, I would say that we talked about basketball more than half the time we were there. In fact, we didn’t really talk much about anything at all. We just sat there and listened to him make jokes the whole time. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very nice and professional guy, he won over 86% of the vote for the last election and has been in office since ’93. But I got kind of down when Josh (in my group) asked what his vision was for us in Ramla and he responded “to have fun”. I mean guess I want to have fun, but shouldn’t he have said something deep and inspiring that would give us the motivation to go out there and leave an impact on Ramla!? But I was told that meeting was just a “hey how’s it going? You look like a nice person. I like your shirt. Blah blah blah” type thing.
So after the meeting, I came back to the house and did what I have been good at lately, took a nap. But before we got here Daniel and I decided to stop at a corner store to pick up some alcohol. We split it and decided that it would be just our bottle. Unfortunately later that night no one else had any so it was gone within minutes. But relax everyone! We are only drinking this much because 1) we are Americans and that is our roots! We cant forget where we came from J and 2) they actually want us to hang out and get to know eachother because I mean we did just move into a house with 10 people we have never met before! I cant believe I haven’t wanted to throw someone off the roof yet…just kidding, I would probably just throw em through a window. At least its not as big of a fall…okay, im still kidding if you couldn’t tell.

Anyways, when I got back I took a nice nap for a few hours. I woke up really out of it and I don’t even know why. It was weird waking up in the dark room and it being like 5. I walk downstairs and 4 of the guys, Daniel (my roommate, the only one here who speaks fluent Hebrew), Jay, Zeke, and Josh, were all juggling the soccer ball in the living room. I told them that we are probably going to keep doing that until someone breaks something in the house. They all agreed. Then I told them that when something does break we are going to look back at this agreement we just made and be like “wow, we are stupid, we knew that was going to happen” haha. Then they kept on juggling the ball waiting for something to break. I would have joined em but like I said I was really out of it so I just sat and watched in a daze. It was cool though because Daniel was teaching them Hebrew words for body parts the ball was hitting and the surfaces it was hitting. It was a really good idea, we’re gonna have to do that some more for sure. It was even cooler that by just sitting there I also learned about 8 words. 8 whole words! YESSS!! All words that are pretty much useless but still I am awesome! Yeah, thanks, I agree with you, I am awesome.

So we have pretty much gotten addicted to playing soccer here, or “regel gadur” in Hebrew. See I learned that! Movin right along…soon I’ll know know to say dresser drawer and never use it in my life. Yippee… So Jay and Zeke and I went back to where we played soccer the day before and no one was there. So we played with ourselves and just kept yelling as loud as we could “regal gadur tov!” meaning soccer good! We are stupid Americans its ridiculous. But it brought over some people everntually. We played a few games with kids that were like 5 or 6 and maybe 11. They were good. I played goalie and got scored on a few times. They scare me with their moves. Like a ninja on the court. They taught me some Hebrew but I forgot it like I always do. I hope I can remember it better when im actually trying to learn it.

After soccer, which is the best workout ive had in forever, I came home and showered, and had dinner. Oh wait, nevermind, I didn’t. none of us did. Guess it just slipped our minds. But we did go out salsa dancing in a neighboring college type town called Rachovot with a few Israelis that Chava sent over to our house. When we got there Daniel and I looked in and were like wow, this is not our scene and left. Now I can pretty much have fun everywhere, but this was just weird. Tons of guys, a few girls, all speaking Hebrew, bright lights (I need em dim of course), and yeah just not it. So we went to a bar. Like Americans do, you know.

There were 5 of us guys that went and one of the Israeli guys that took us to the dancing. After a few clubs told us we had to be 23 to get in, which is the dumbest thing ive ever heard since the drinking age here is 18, although if u walk into a store with a face and a smile, you can get a drink. So we get to this one place called “Dublin” and if you cant figure it out is an Irish bar. No dancing but drinking, of course. We went in, Haifa was playing a soccer game against Liverpool but lost, but I was told that not too bad. I guess Israelis have the attitude like “You won this game, but only 2-1 you guys suck! You only beat us by 1 you losers!” I think that’s awesome. Maybe cuz they know they suck haha.

So at about 11 pm I found out it was israel’s valentines day. Damnit. I am the cutest guy ever on valentines day but I didn’t know! I would have done something for someone somehow, but I guess the holiday is not as big of a deal here cuz the guys here aren’t very cute. They don’t do anything for the girls. Like I said, a huge difference in culture. One of the guys I saw later in the night was with his girlfriend and was like “oh I forgot about it, I was really busy…” Are you kidding me!? His girlfriend just laughed and so did he. I was like wow, this country is just stupid. I will never get a girl! They all put up with crap and I would be too nice. I would scare em away with my care. Whatever…it was just weird. So I got one of the girls with us a rose. The server was giving them out but I got one for her. I asked her to be my valentine and she laughed and walked away. Just kidding she was like yay, youre my boyfriend for tonight and I thought about it for about less than nothing and agreed. I gave her a hug but imidiately pulled back cuz her brother was there. aaaaaackward….after the bar we came back here, and from there we went back over to the neighbors to hang out for a bit, made some drinks, and smoked hookah again. I went to bed and it was fun. Slept in my cold room again. I like being cold. Better than being hot.

Day Two: Making Ramla Our Home

2006-08-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, August 8

Once again, I am writing my blog entry for today the day after (so on Wednesday). I have found that it is a lot easier for me to write about the previous day rather than about the current day late at night since we have been up until around 3 am the first 2 nights and I do not want to leave out anything.

Today (Tuesday) was a really fun day exploring Ramla on our own. Unfortunately, we had to be awake at 7:30 am (even after going to sleep at 3 am, but hey it was our first night and we had to do it up right) for a guided tour of Ramla. Now I’m not going to say that this tour was anything for the memory books, but it was really nice to just be able to walk around and see things around town. We started off by walking together with Chava (our mom, and from now on I will just say Chava so remember it!) to the White Mosque and White Tower, which are some of the oldest standing buildings in Ramla. Back around 700 AD, Ramla used to be the capitol of the Muslim religion. It was a very important place for them to pray. Um…so I’m sitting here trying to think of what else to say about that but I got nothing. Ramla does have one of the richest histories out of any city in Israel, but they do not know how to promote it to Israel and the rest of the world.

To Israelis, Ramla is the biggest dump in Israel. They all think that Ramla is a terrible place to live. Every time I had told Israelis that I was going to be living in Ramla for 5 months, they would all laugh and say good luck (which I must tell you really inspired me and made my decision a lot easier….just kidding). Ramla has a very bad reputation because of what it used to be like. There were times when violence was all over and drugs were prevalent around the city. Now, I am just saying based on what I think is true, things still aren’t the best, but the city is definitely turning itself around and making a bif comeback. Although the city is 28% new immigrants (many from the former soviet union, Russia, etc), 22% arabs, about 20% black Ethiopian jews, and the rest regular looking and living Israelis, the people here seem to get along really well. There really aren’t ever big problems with the different types of people all living together, which can also be very hard on the city, but it has been going fairly well for quite some time.

Anyways, back to the tour…so after visiting the two holy muslim sites, climbing to the top of the white tower and looking over ramla, seeing tel aviv in the distance, we headed to a place that is a very cool archaeological site in Ramla. Oh yeah, I just remembered that I need to explain why I am not volunteering yet and when that will start. I am sure that some of you are wondering what the heck I am doing just hanging out in Israel when I should be volunteering right? I will tell you why very soon. At this site was a really amazing underwater cistern, which is a place where water used to be kept for drinking and whatever. It was a really old looking underground water cavern, but they decided to turn it into some sort of tourist attraction because when we got down there, we noticed something strange. At first I thought that this wasn’t the kind of place where you would drink water, but more of a swimming, bathing area (back in the day that is). But when we got down there, there were 3 like row boats sitting on some kind of dock that we proceeded to get into and paddle our way around this ancient drinking water thing. It was a lot of fun, but when we had circled the entire thing 4 times in 10 minutes, weaved in and out of every column, realized that it really wasn’t that much fun and that we were ready to get out haha. But for real, it was fun for the first…I don’t know….minute.

After that we headed to the Shuk, which is Hebrew for market. The market they have here is known as one of the best (if not the best) in all of Israel. Fresh everything. Meats, cheeses, spices, TONS of fruits and veggies, and all the other random things you can think of. We started off as a group trying to buy groceries, but soon realized that shopping as a unit of 10 was pretty dumb. So we broke off into food group groups and did our shopping. I was with Daniel and Josh, and we didn’t even buy anything until the last second out of the Shuk. We just walked around looking at stuff. My stomach had been hurting the whole time we were there, on and off, like it used to when I was younger, and then I just had to find a bathroom. One thing that I just HATE about Israel is their lack of acceptable bathrooms. Now acceptable doesn’t mean clean floors, seats, or whatever, it means having a door on the stall, toilet paper, and soap. This one had one. If I had to choose which one to have, I honestly don’t know which one I would choose…Probably not soap tho. Ew, gross just saying that. Anyways this one had everything but toilet paper, soap, and clean anything. It was just nasty. So I went in and lets just say that I used to think notebook paper was just for taking notes….Maybe I went too far with that comment but I just had to get it out, it was just nasty. And then I get out and realize there was no soap. Even nastier. I went to get falafel with my friends and told them I would buy one if they let me wash my hands there. Thankfully, they had soap or I would have had to burn the place down. The falafel was good. Too many peppercinis tho, really hot.

After the market we paid about $1 to get a 5 minute cab back to our place. Oh yeah, and we bought a soccer ball which will come in handy soon. We can take a cab from any place to any place here for about $1. Yay for being lazy! Although it’s pretty hot out so shut your face. We came home, juggled the soccer ball inside for a while with about 4 of us, almost breaking many things, then 6 of us decided to go play soccer somewhere. Just leaving the house Josh called us and said he stumbled upon some kids playing near our house. We showed up and started playing soccer with these Israeli kids. It was soooo much fun! We were playing on a basketball court that had metal goals beneath the hoops. We would play to 2 on teams of 4. It was awesome. The older kids wouldn’t let the younger kids play. It was pretty sad/funny how they would beg to play but then told to shut up and get off the court. Maybe 1 of the Israelis spoke English, so we just communicated through signals and stuff. We would laugh, pat eachother on the back, and just understand what was happening. It was our first experience with the locals of Ramla other than our first night with our neighbors. If any of you have seen “The City of God”, the kids all looked like those kids, or at least reminded me of them. I thought they would kill us any second, but not really. They were just having fun. After playing for a while we left and said we would come back tomorrow. Some Ethiopian kids came to play after we left, they had been waiting to play, and they were much better than the Israelis we played with who were still pretty darn good. What an amazing time we had. Such a great memory.

We came back to the house and had dinner. It was really good since we just went shopping. Chicken pitas with fresh grilled veggies. Awesome. Oh yeah, after coming back from the Shuk earlier we all took a nap. Mine was like 3 hours. I woke up, and my room was dark, like I said it could be at high noon, and had no idea what was going on. I thought it was the next day. I chilled in our bomb shelter for a little bit (which is actually one of the bedrooms, and its not the bomb shelter actually, its just a room underground with really thick concrete walls that could be used as one) because that is the only place where we get internet. I don’t get it…We also get it if you sit on the sidewalk in front of our house, but with a laptop, just doesn’t seem too bright.

But then after dinner we were all kind of tired. Just sat around hanging out. We chilled with the neighbors again but this time we walked to a nearby park and smoked hookah (which is just flavored tobacco with no additives in it. Israelis smoke this from the time they are 12 or 13, its just something to do while hanging out). We sat there for a good couple of hours, watching the Israeli guys try to hit on our girls, but failing miserably because they are just too aggressive and don’t get how things are different. They are definitely really cool guys, but they were making the girls a little uncomfortable, even though I kept telling them how to be, they just didn’t get it. It was funny haha.

So I came back at like 2:30. Everyone was still up just reading and doing nothing much cuz we all took those long naps earlier. The girls room still doesn’t have AC so Daniel my roommate (just Daniel from now on) elected for us to sleep in their room cuz ours is all nice and cold. Wasn’t so bad except I woke up like every 30 minutes, because it was too bright or mostly because I kept sleeping on my arms and waking up with none. I mean they were numb. I hate that feeling. But at the same time its pretty cool to be like, whoa I have no arms! I can see em but they are totally numb. Anyways, sorry that has nothing to do with anything…

That was my day. It was really cool to finally get to hang out in Ramla on our own. After we were left at the Shuk at 10:30 am, the rest of the day was ours to do whatever. We got to know the city, and I actually know how to get places now and where I live relative to other places. Oh yeah, I promised I would let you all know why I haven’t saved the world yet (through my volunteering). They want us for the first week to get comfortable with living in a new place. Get situated, settle down, do a little exploring. Then the next week we start the Ulpan classes (Hebrew classes). This week, next week, pretty much at random times, we are going to take trips to see things, meet people, do things. The third week we go to all the places we can possibly volunteer and then the week after that we have picked what we are doing for the next months. We are just trying to establish ourselves in Ramla now. We are no longer tourists, but now are citizens of this city. This will be our lives for the next 5 months and it is a good idea to get comfortable with this. I like the way this is going, and we cannot wait to get to making Ramla a much better place.

We're In Israel!

2006-08-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

Monday, August 7

So I am almost done with my blog for today and just realized something. This one is also really long. So I am back at the beginning and here is what I am going to say. I realized today that I am doing this blog for me more than anyone else. When I get home, I am going to print and bind this entire thing. I am going to read it and sit back and go wow, that was pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever done. I am going to read it to my kids, to my grandkids, and let anyone I ever meet who wants to read it do it. I also need to say that the way I type is pretty much free flowing thoughts. I could go off on tangents and sit here typing for hours and hours just talking about stuff, obviously related to this program and what’s going on, but still. So I will just say this. I know that very important and close people to me are reading this (hopefully!). Everyone from my parents to sibling, from my rabbis to relatives and friends. If you really care about what I am doing and what is happening to me over here then PLEASE read. I want you ALL to read these, but I know that it might take too long or whatever. I promise it won’t take more than 5 or so minutes to read any blog, no matter how long they look. I know for a fact my family will read them all (I love you mom, dad, jake, and rachel!), and to be honest, that is good enough. If you are a really good friend of mine and are reading these all too, then I love you too! Maybe even more since you are reading this cuz you are interested. Thanks to everyone who is reading this and who will continue to read these as much as they can. Your love and support means a lot to me over here. Anyways, back to #6 down below…

I was right. When I was making my decision on whether to come to Israel, I told myself that no matter what choice I made was going to be the right choice. Now obviously since I am here now, I will never really know what it would have been like to have made the decision to not come, but I have to say right now, that this was the right choice. I know this for many reasons, but one will always stick out in my head until the day I die.

Before I explain why I need to get something out in the open. Now by this point, you should probably all know that I can be very emotional. Not saying that I saw the movie The Notebook and cried (alright so I did cry a little, but it was a good sappy movie! haha shut up) but when I am very happy or feel that something is beautiful then I am not afraid to let it out a little. Anyways, so back to the point. Now that I have been here for a little over a day (it’s actually Tuesday right now but I didn’t have a chance to type anything for yesterday because everything was just so awesome and overwhelming) I know that coming to Israel right now for this program was where my heart and mind needed to be.

The instant the plane touched down on the ground in Israel, I started to cry. It wasn’t like a my cat just died type crying, but it was crying from deep down in my heart and soul. I didn’t even plan on it. You know how sometimes when you think really hard about something sad, or beautiful, or whatever, it can be a lot easier to cry. But this came from somewhere else. I was just sitting there, listening to pretty relaxing music, and then the second I felt the plane hit the ground tears filled my eyes. It was such an amazing feeling, like the feeling of being reunited with a long lost family member or friend. It was a feeling like I have never felt before. A feeling like everything was right, like I was about to do something that would change my life forever.

Now that that’s out of the way, I just want to give a little update to all of my loyal fans out there as to what I am doing right now and what happened yesterday. I will make it quick and to the point unless it is a good story.

1)we landed
2)I cried
3)Got off the plane (okay, im just kidding, enough with the stupid details right!?)
4)Met Momo (the president of Oranim), Erez (the director of the program, run by Oranim), and Chava (our mommy for the next 5 months who I might add is the most amazing looking grandmother I have ever met). Chava and I met before anyone else, and she is just a stunning person. She always has this smile on her face that just makes you happy when she’s around. I have met SO many people, mostly women, in Israel that have this magical presence about them that when you are around them you have no choice but to be happy. It is amazing. Just one of those things about Israel that makes me just love it. People are happy. Yes, life is hard, but the people are very kind, warm hearted and happy.
5)We got on a bus to our house. Oh yeah, I forgot to say something really cool. So when I first came to Ramla about a month ago when I was staffing a Birthright trip I met with the principal of the best highschool in Ramla. We had an idea that some students would follow us around and film what we are doing. To make a long story short, we show up in the airport and there are 2 students, one guy one girl (who might I add is veeeeery cute but we’re not quite sure if that would be kosher  ) They are doing a documentary on us. They are going to be filming us and other stuff to make this thing every day for the whole time we are here. It’s like a class for them but it is going to be really cool when it’s all done. We want them to call it “The Real World: Ramla”. What do you think? Other than the fact we’re all pretty sure that Ramla would be the last place in the world they would ever want to film the show.

Okay, enough of the numbers…We got to the house and I must say that it is just stunning. Although there is some broken stuff here and there and some necessities missing, overall the house is great. You walk in and to your right is a huge kitchen. To your left is a common room with a tv that doesn’t work (yet), a couch, chairs, fireplace, etc. Straight through the front door almost is a bathroom and right next to that is a bedroom (remember there are 5 bedrooms, 2 people in each). Down some stairs is a huge bedroom, which the first pick guys took right away. By that is the bomb shelter. Yeah everyone, I am in Israel don’t forget . But we are hopeful and praying that we never have to use it. Mom, you are going to freak out when I say this but read it ALL before you do! The bomb shelter is filled with the stuff of the previous owner. Bu filled I mean there is no room for people. We are people. We can not go into the bomb shelter. Calm down mom! Haha We are moving all the stuff up into the attic tonight so that is going to be fine. Just thought it was kind of funny that we got here and it was full of crap and we’re like, wow nice haha.
So the girls got the biggest room upstairs (stupid girls I hate that). Upstairs is 3 more bedrooms, the girls has its own nice bathroom (which I might add the guys use ALL THE TIME already because there are only 2 showers in the whole house for 10 people) a huge sleeping room (main room), a walk in closet, and it’s own patio. Yeah, its pretty much not fair. Next to their room is another room. Now this room was the room that the last pick got. I’ll tell you why. There is no AC unit in the room (its like 100 degrees here), there is no closet in the room (theirs is in the hallway, yeah lame again), and the room is like really tiny. It doesn’t get too dark in there because their curtains are just pieces of cloth hanging over them. Anyways, that room is housing the 2 biggest guys in the group. Sucks for them haha.

Now to my room. First though, next to that last room I talked about is a shower and sink room, and next to that is a toilet. There is a wall in between them for some reason. Oh yeah, and I went up there last night to wash my face and there was a cockroach looking around just inside the window. Yeah, gross. Oh yeah again, there is a dead one sitting on one of the stairs to upstairs. Um so it has been there since we got here, no one feels like throwing it away haha awesome. Where was I……..oh yeah, sorry a tangent got me. So my room is awesome. I am rooming with a guy named Daniel. Him and I had talked a few times before the trip and he seemed real cool so when I met him and found out he was, it was the obvious choice. So we have the best room I think, well other than the huge guys room downstairs and the girls room (still bitter…). Our room is pretty small though, about 6 feet between our bed which are on the wall. But we have a big closet that all of our clothes fit into. And yeah, I’m sort of a chick I feel like because I brought more clothes than anyone…even the girls I think. Wow, I feel like an idiot now. But I had all that extra room in my bags! And I even packed a pillow and blankets and stuff! Whatever.

In our room too is a nice new AC unit with a remote. Actually last night it got too cold so I had to turn it off. I told the big dudes in the other room today. They weren’t too thrilled… Only problem is that the thing started to drip water almost on my head in the middle of the night. It was fun trying to figure out what that noise was. And here’s the kicker. Our windows open completely. But theres two layers to them. One is a sliding window which clicks shut and the other are these like metal blinds that when closed, make the sun disappear! It could be high noon and it would be pitch black in our room. Niiiiice. But dangerous. You know what I mean.

Alright, I will move on to the last thing that I will talk about for this entry. Last night after Momo came over and we had a little talk we cooked dinner. It was pretty good. Pasta and potatoes. I made the potatoes. Took like 2 hours but damn were they good when they finally came out! I never realized how crazy it is to try to cook for 10 people. A lot of food quickly becomes a pile of crumbs in a heartbeat.

After dinner we did what all normal people would do. Since we didn’t have a hot tub or swimming pool like a real “Real World: Ramla” should, we did the next best thing. We walked 80 meters from our house to a liquor store and threw ourselves a little party. It was a lot of fun. We played some games where we got to know eachother a lot better. It was really nice because we could all say things that no one knew yet and that the first impressions and skewed opinions of eachother didn’t allow for. We went next door to the neighbors house because they were having some people there. One of the children there, Schmulik (I think that’s how you spell it) left for the army today. It was really nice to see him having a good time with a bunch of friends before he left to serve his country and his people. He was heading up to the north for some training before possibly getting involved in the action. Very cool kid. We are all going to be praying for him. At the house was pretty much all guys and a few girls (one amazingly hot but had a boyfriend there, oh well, it was the first night we have plenty more ladies to fall in love with). I met a guy named Asaf who is pretty much the coolest Israeli guy I’ve ever met. We talked for a while while he tried to figure out a way to talk to the 2 girls in our group and not be too aggressive. Now there is a huge difference between American and Israeli people our age. The guys are more forward, sexual, aggressive people and the girls are exactly what you would think they would be like with guys like that all around them. Americans a lot more uptight, reserved, and just overall less aggressive in all ways. But Asaf is really cool, I got his number and we are going to hang out (yeah, the first number I got was from a guy, real smooth but don’t worry my head is still on straight…literally). He has a car and offered to take me and some of his Israeli girl friends to Tel Aviv or to parties sometime. Niiiiiiiice. Way to go Ben.

So at about 3 am I went to sleep because we had to get up early for a guided tour of Ramla. Everyone but me and Daniel, and maybe a few others, not too sure, were there til 2:15 just hanging out knowing that we wouldn’t get to do that for a while since the guy who lived there was leaving for the army. Anyways, I got back to the house, laid in bed talking to my roomie for about an hour about our lives and things like that and went to sleep.

So that’s it for now. I really think these will shorten up once I start doing much of the same thing every day, but right now I am getting everyone comfortable of what is going on and what I am going to be living with for the next 5 months. I will write again tonight on what happened today (Tuesday). Take care everyone, know that I am safe, HAPPY, having the time of my life (and Ive only been here one day!). I love and miss you all very much, but I gotta say this is awesome. I can’t wait for what will come next.

One Week and Counting...

2006-07-30T17:58:00.000-05:00

So the final verdict is in. I am going to Israel. You know, now that I have made my FINAL, no turning back decision, not listening to any more negative opinions or people that say I'm so stupid for still wanting to go back, I must admit that everything seems to make a little more sense. I mean don't get me wrong, I really do respect other people's opinions (disapproval from many including my mom...don't worry mom, I love you with all of my heart but this is something that I want to do with the rest of my heart), but I am now to the point where if i turn on the news and it starts to scare me, I turn it off. When I tell someone that I am going to Israel in a week and they tell me I'm an idiot and that I am going to get killed, I don't even waste my time trying to explain my decision to them anymore. It's just too hard. There were too many factors that finally led me to making up my mind that they just wouldn't fully understand where im coming from.

Ever since I got back from Israel about 2 1/2 weeks ago, my brain has been doing jumping jacks trying to figure out what the hell is the right choice to make in this situation. I was in Israel staffing one of those free 10 day Birthright trips with Oranim (the same organization that I am returning to Israel with for this program) for the first 2 days of this whole conflict. When we first heard about what had happened with the tank and the soldiers being killed and kidnapped, it all just seemed like another pointless, upsetting attack on Israel by those stupid radical terrorists. You could tell that there was a sense of mourning in the air. It just amazes me how much Israel loves its people. They love their people more than ANYTHING! One time Israel gave back something like 200 terrorists in a trade for I think 3 dead Israeli bodies! That's insane! But they did it. And that tells you a little about how Israel is such a unique, amazing place. I could go on and on about this kind of stuff, but I want to get back to the point: my decision to return.

So after leaving Israel literally the DAY that Israel starting its retaliation, my head hurt with pain and confusion. I could not believe that after 6 months of planning to do this program and getting excited for it, that everything had started to come crashing down on me. I know it sounds a little pigheaded to whine and say "Oh, wahhh I'm mad cuz i cant do my program anymore!" given that all of Israel is getting totally thrown in a loop from this crap. But to be honest, I was just really mad that all this planning, getting the entire program covered by 5 different scholarships (which wasn't easy let me tell ya), working with Erez (who from now on you should all know is the Director of this program, ISC) to make sure everything would work out as planned, whether it was talking to other interested participants, promoting the program, asking tons of questions that I knew many others would be asking, thinking of ideas as to where to volunteer, just so much time, effort, and energy on my part had been put into my heartfelt devotion and commitment to this program, it just was insane what had started and had so quickly thrown me against the ropes to take punches like a losing champ.

Sometimes it is better to follow your gut and let it think for your brain. Now I know anatomically speaking, guts aren't supposed to do much thinking for us (unless we're damn hungry or sick), but for some reason when I had gone back and forth (and I really mean back and forth, like I would be sure Im going one second, turn on the news, talk to my mom, or a friend, or come up with some other possible idea to spend the next 5 months, and then the next second I would be like HELL NO there is no WAY I could go right now, that would just be SOOO STUPID! which my mom will always say is the right way to think haha) for long enough I finally just made up my mind. There was no way that I could turn my back on the Israel Service Corps and Israel right now. More than anything, they need me to come. They need to know that we still support them in this, their utmost time of need.

When I told Erez on the phone during one of our conversations that I just didn't know if I should be coming to Israel, that I didn't know if now was the best time to be coming, he said to me "Ben, here in Israel, we have no place else to go. We are here, this is our life, and we must and have always learned that this is part of life and that things must go on." Alright, so I kind of created that quote (which is probably illegl but whatever you get the point). And after he told me that it kind of hit me. Now it wasn't just that that put me over the edge of my decision to come back. It was that and so many other things that had been flowing through my consciousness over the past few weeks that got me thinking.

I LOVE ISRAEL. I have been to Israel 4 times (3 times staffing those 10 day trips, once as a participant 2 summers ago). Every time I'm in Israel, I'm happy, I have no worries, not a care in the world. I mean, yeah Im staffing these trips of like 40 some 18-26 year old Jewish kids all trying to party, hook up, have the time of their lives, while trying to instill a little Jewish pride in em and see a couple places (if they can keep their eyes open since we get maybe 3 hours of sleep a night, and when I say sleep its pretty much just passing out drunk for a few hours...). Sorry about the tangents, I'm just trying to get some people out of the loop into the loop whenever I think it's a time when that makes sense to add some tidbit of information. So where was I...oh yeah. I LOVE ISRAEL. I do realize that I have never actually lived in Israel and that I have only just been on wild and crazy vacations to Israel, but when I look around, when I see the other people, the Israelis, and the way that they live their lives, the smiles on their faces, the warm looks I get from people, the peaceful places, the serenity, the spirituality, I cant help but fall in love.

I just realized that I could type in this forever, giving tons of background information on my life up to this point which has led me to where I am today, and the deicision to return to Israel to volunteer for 5 months, but I think you all get the point. I just graduated college and have to be totally honest, having a 3.95 GPA, 2 majors, with honors means close to nothing to me. I mean yeah Im really proud of all my hard work, how sweeet ill look at job interviews on paper, and everything that I've accomplished (and it feels really good to make my parents proud of me too), but I really dont feel like Ive done anything meaningful in my life for a while. I had to volunteer for 20 hours every semester for the scholarship I was on (and keep a 3.5 GPA which wasnt hard cuz im a friggin genious :), but I have to admit I never really liked any of the volunteer work I had to do. There were SO many times when I would sign up to volunteer at some place and then party too late and hard the night before and say no WAY im waking up at 6 am to do ANYTHING, let alone anything like that. there were other times when I would show up, say this sucks, go home and back to sleep, only to show up later and see the person in charge, tell him/her i really enjoying volunteering there, and have them sign the form that "I forgot at home". Yeah, I know thats pretty bad, but hey, what was I supposed to do? Actually do my hours? Yeah right...but for real its just that I really didnt think that any of the work I was doing had any meaning to me since I would do 4 hours here, 3 hours there, and never was committed to one organization for more than one or 2 times...

Which brings me to my conclusion. Yeah, I could have done this program in January. But RIGHT NOW is when I WANT to go and when i strongly feel is MY TIME to go. I need something amazing in my life. something to get me out of this rut that im stuck in. something to make me proud of what im doing, make me feel good that im using what God gave me to make a difference in a place that means so much to me deep in my soul. THIS is the main reason why I will be in Israel in a week. I need something like this to focus my efforts on and change the way im living my life. I want to see the smiles on the childrens faces, i want to laugh and learn with all of the people of Ramla. I want to commit myself to a program and make a mark. over the years i have done many things to be proud of, but this will be something that I can say years from now, I MADE A DIFFERENCE. I made a change. I was a pioneer for something great and look where it has taken me. I honestly do not know what to expect from ISC, but I will be going with an open mind and a total devotion to my work and to gaining a better understanding of myself.

The news can try to scare me all it wants, my family and friends can tell me this is the wrong time to go, but i have to say, where I will be is safe now. I would be arrogant to say that i do not understand that there is a little risk involved in this. i dont think its anywhere near what others are thinking, in fact i am not afraid one bit. i wont do any stupid things to put myself in any kind of danger. i wont be unaware of my surroundings and what is going on around me. i will always remember and be thinking about how beautiful life is and how many people are worried, thinking, and praying for me every day. but i do know that what im doing is one of the biggest mitzvahs (for those non-Jews reading this, a mitzvah is a "good deed") i could ever do at this point in my life. i have worked way to hard to let anything get in the way of my dreams and make my dreams just that...dreams. my dreams will be reality. i will go to israel, live with my people, show them that i am there for them, make a change, leave my mark.

there are about 10 others with me that are going to be living in a house in the city of Ramla all going through the same things. i feel that i have put just as much (if not more) into ISC as they have. it is AMAZING to me that even though there is some safety concerns about going to israel right now, EVERY one of the people that originally signed up to go on this program is going. i mean a few are showing up a few weeks late, but that it all is still amazing to me! i know that i am going to be there with a special group of people, all as completely committed to israel as I am and to the success of this program. we are all going to be there for eachother and grow, learn, live, and make a difference together. THIS is going to be the decision that changes my life. THIS is going to be the moment that defines who i am and what i do for the rest of my years. THIS is my dream. Nothing can get in the way of my dream except myself. And now that I've stepped out of my way, it's only positive thinking for this point forward. Only excitement, eagerness, and passion will flow through my vains for the next week of anticipation.

The moment my feet touch the ground in Israel, I will know will all my being that THIS, was the right decision. May all of Israel, the brave IDF soliders, ALL innocent civilians, the Middle East, the Israel Service Corps and all those involved (including me :), and the entire world be blessed with peace and happiness. My heart prays for them always.