Our houses!

This is my kvutza's house.

And this is the bedroom I share with Aaron (Chief) from Gesher, Sara from Miriam, and Liat from Galil! Liat just recently moved into our room and I could not be more happy to be rooming with her! My bed is the one on the far right (the very messy one)

This is what the house looks like when you first walk in through the door. There are 5 bedrooms. Mine is the one with the door open and the light on. 

Some of the people in my kvutza decided to have a theme for their room. The top picture is a mean girls theme and the bottom one is a wild cats theme I suppose. My room doesn't have one yet, but I'm sure we will soon.

And our cute little kitchen, complete with refrigerator, sink, hot water heater, hot plates, cups, bowls, plates, and silverware.

So we have 2 bathrooms. The left side (pictured above), has most of our toiletries and towels in it. 

This is our moadon. We use it for asephot (kvutza meetings) and as a spot to just hang out all together. 

For instance, we made it into a jungle/tribal themed room last night for a party we threw for Eli Kaplan's birthday.

We also used it to play kvutza sock dodgeball one night.

This is the other kvutza's house.

And this is our shared backyard.

The lovely tree in front of our house.

And the sukkah that we made in our backyard. I swear it was nicer before the wind knocked most of it down.

Yam L'Yam

On Sunday morning we left for Yam l' Yam (literally meaning Sea to Sea). This three day hiking trip was crazy, but a lot of fun. We hiked from the Mediterannean Sea to the Kinneret with 38 Habo Australians, South Africans, and New Zealanders. I guess it would make more sense to call it Yam l'Bus l'Yam since we took a bus from the campsite to where we would begin the hike each morning. Some people were frustrated that we weren't doing the full, complete hike, but I didn't mind. I still think hiking from the Mediterranean to the Kinneret is quite an accomplishment and I had a great experience even though we couldn't shower for 3 days or use a proper toilet.

It was really awesome meeting the other English speaking members of Habonim Dror who were on shnat (their equivalent of workshop). My hiking group was mixed between my workshop kvutza, the other workshop kvutza and Habo Australians. Other groups had New Zealanders and South Africans, but at the end of each hiking day we got to be with everyone. 

On our first day of hiking, everyone met up at the Mediterannean for a brief tekes (ceremony), where we filled up a bottle with water from the sea. We then got on the bus to take us to our starting hiking location. They didn't tell us that the hike would include walking through several streams, so my hiking shoes got soaking wet and didn't dry until Monday. Midway through the day, my friend Sarah Kravinsky and I had to go to the bathroom, and so we found this decrepit, old stone building built into the mountain with a little opening that acted as a doorway. for the rest of the hiking trip we took great pride in ourselves for being so good at finding peeing locations. We hiked until about 5 in the afternoon and then went to our campsite and pitched tents. Sara B, Liat, Lindsey and I all pitched our tent, just to realize that we were missing the poles that were supposed to hold our tent in place. We then went back to get another tent, which then had "broken poles" labelled on the side of the tent bag, so we had to get ANOTHER tent. Luckily the third tent was intact and we were able to move our stuff into the tent (finally!!). Habonim Dror North America (plus our one Brit and one Dutchie) were in charge of doing dinner toranut. Some of us served the food, some of us wiped down the tables after dinner, and some of us cleaned the pots and pans. Dinner was this watery carrot and potato soup which wasn't very good at all, and then burgers which were good. I helped clean the dishes after dinner was over. The campsite we were at had only one  water spicket, so washing all the pans and pots was pretty difficult, especially because it was already dark out by then. The Australians then ran a tochnit erev (night activity) for us, but I was super exhausted and decided to just go to bed since we had wake up at 6 the next morning. 

On Monday, we hiked up Mount Meron. We couldn't go to the very top because there is a military base situated there, but it was pretty cool anyways. After hiking was over for the day, we went to a campsite, but this time it was situated way high up and was freezing cold. I wore my leggings, sweatpants, t shirt, chultza tnua, and sweatshirt and was still cold. Our tent was on a slope and so I kept on curling into a tiny ball at the bottom of my tent in my sleep. The next morning I woke up in so much pain, but it quickly went away when I started hiking again. We climbed down mount meron and then up a smaller mountain where the bus was waiting for us. We then went to the Kinneret and swam with everyone! It was so annoying putting in my contacts every morning before hiking, not showering for 3 days, not using proper toilets, not getting enough sleep, sleeping on rocks, and eating too many carbs to count, but swimming in the Kinneret at the end made up for it. I felt so dirty but having accomplished yam l' yam with the rest of workshop and the Aussies, New Zealanders, and South Africans felt amazing. 

Now it's our weekend and I am looking forward to traveling this weekend with some friends!

End of boneh orientation

On Tuesday morning we all awoke fairly early to catch a bus to Mount Precipice, which overlooks the city of Nazareth. 

The other side, however, had quite a different view. Here is a picture of my friend Aliyah and I.

Next, we took the bus down to Nazareth where we learned about the city's unique history, walked around in a shuk, and had lunch in the city center. 

After a long day in Nazareth, we took the bus to a beach in Haifa where many of us swam in the water and laid out on the beach to relax before heading back to Kibbutz. I slept most of the bus ride back, but I did manage to wake up for a few minutes to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous.

On Wednesday, we woke up, had breakfast, and then had our first main kupa asepha. I think it was pretty successful given that it was our first discussion on the subject. Of course there will be more to talk about as workshop continues, but we left off on a high note which was good. We then spent the afternoon at the kibbutz pool, which was very fun, especially after such a long morning. That night we had dinner and then went to a tekes (ceremony) with the entire kibbutz for Sukkot. There was dancing, singing, and even some speakers who talked to us about the kibbutz. Many of us dressed in our chultzot as well. It was very exciting being a part of the kibbutz life and interacting with the kibbutz members.

Afterwards, there was rikud (Israeli dancing) with the entire kibbutz. It was so much fun, even if I didn't know all the dances. The best part of the night was when most of the adults went back to their homes and only the teenage kibbutzniks and a few of us workshoppers were left. We taught them the wobble, and had a pretty crazy dance party. They wanted us to stay even longer, but we had to get to bed after a tiring day. 

On Thursday morning we had a peulah (activity) on Jewish history, and then split up into groups to build a sukkah! My group was responsible for building the structure of the sukkah while some other groups made decorations. 

Afterwards, we went to lunch and then listened to a guest speaker, a 92 year old Kibbutznik named Ariyeh who talked about his life and how he made Aliyah. Once he was done speaking, we were officially done with boneh orientation. I now have the weekend off, so I hope to use this time to catch up on sleep and explore the kibbutz some more. 

On Sunday we will start Yam l' Yam (from sea to sea). Us 37 workshoppers will join 38 Habo New Zealanders, Aussies, and South Africans on a 3 day hike from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kinneret. 

Settling into kibbutz ein dor

Hello everybody! I'm finally in Israel! We got here on Monday afternoon, and then drove and hour and a half to Kibbutz Ravid, where we stayed until Friday morning. There, we participated in some peulot (activities), went on a hike, and started to get to know each other again after 2 whole years. We all stayed up pretty late on Monday night, but I think we were all just very excited to finally be on workshop. I woke up pretty early on Tuesday morning and got to watch the sun rise over the Kinneret (sea of galilee) from my window, which was absolutely breathtaking. 

On Wednesday morning I woke up to the sunrise again. It's kind of funny because the madrichim (counselors) kept splitting us up into two separate groups and we kept on thinking, "are these our kvutzot?" However, later in the day we learned our actual kvutzot which was very exciting. I'm in the smaller kvutza, but I don't mind. My kvutza is:

Jess Glassman from Galil, Dan Shahar from Galil, Liat Paradise from Galil, Aliyah Nissim from Galil, Lindsey Taussig from Tavor, Sara Banai from Tavor, Aaron MacRitchie from Gesher, Gabe Paul from Gesher, Micah Arnson-Serotta from Mosh, Ari Egar from Gilboa, Hannah Martens from Miriam, Sara Sharpe from Miriam, Matan Reshef from Miriam, Sam Koppel from Miriam, Rachel Fishman from Miriam, Asher Zetler from Miriam and Jacob Faber from Miriam. 

Here we are outside of our house!

On Thursday morning we went for a what we thought would be a small hike, but what actually turned into a pretty difficult hike around Kibbutz Ravid. It was super hot and we had to climb down this cliff and then back up on a very steep path. The next day we left for Jerusalem for Yom Kippur. We went to Ben Yehuda Street on Friday afternoon and got falafel and gelato. 

We then walked to the hostel and relaxed a bit before the fasting began. I went to evening services with a few other people, but I wasn't that impressed with the service. It was basically a service that I could have gotten back at home. A lot of it was in English, but nonetheless I am glad I went. On Saturday we had peulot and other activities based around the meaning behind Yom Kippur. It was also Jess Glassman's 19th birthday on Saturday (first workshop birthday!) That night after breaking fast, we threw a surprise dance party for her. We all dressed in black and had a lot of fun after a pretty calm, and serious day. Afterwards, a lot of is hung out on the rooftop of the hostel where we sang kumzits. Before going to bed I hung out on our room's balcony for a bit and took this panorama.

 On Sunday we all woke up very excited because we were moving into our home for the next 3 months: kibbutz ein dor! After an hour long walk around Jerusalem with Julian Resnick, now the mazkir of HD Olami, we took the bus to kibbutz and started moving in our new homes. Our kvutza is in the smaller house, but it really makes no difference. I

To tell you the truth I actually like our house better. It's very communal. The bedrooms are all right next to each other and the kitchen and bathrooms are a few steps away as well. We just got the basic boneh schedule today, and while it seems a bit overwhelming at first, I'm sure it will be a great learning experience.

P.s cats are everywhere, meow