When we arrived at Gezer, we were greeted by their family friend, Roxanne. She began by giving us a small tour of the kibbutz. First she showed us the moadon. This is a hang out spot that is open to everyone who lives on this kibbutz. It's complete with couches, a television, wifi (yes!), and a refrigerator full of food. She then showed us the kolbo (mini market), which is very similar to the one they have at Ein Dor. Right across from the kolbo is a few racks of free clothing. Yes, I said free. I took a shirt from it, and some others took scarves, pants, t shirts, etc. I'll throw it into the laundry when we get back to Ein Dor before I start wearing it. 
The place with free clothing is called meeshmeesh, which means apricot in hebrew.
Next, she showed us some of the houses on kibbutz.
She also took us to the gan and showed us a few playgrounds as well. There is also a very nice baseball field on Gezer and we were able to watch some of the kibbutz boys play baseball.
One difference between Gezer and Ein Dor is that Gezer no longer has a chadar ochel (dining hall). They used to serve lunch and dinner on kibbutz, but kibbutzim in Israel have changed so much over the years. People have taken a step away from the whole communal living aspect. Don't worry though, we still had a great dinner here on Gezer, which I will explain later in this blog post.
After the tour, Roxanne took us on a short hike. We hiked up to Tel Gezer, and saw the ruins of the old Canaanite city. We walked on top of an old water tower and a few of us actually went inside of it too. I chose not to though. I was much more content hanging out on top of the water tower and experiencing the great view of kibbutz and the near by cities. Plus, those who went inside said it was extremely hot and muggy in there.
When we got back to the moadon, a few of us took naps while the most of us played a game. Some people decided to go to the reform synagogue on kibbutz for services. We were then split up into 9 groups of 2 (one person was by himself) and had Shabbat dinner at some of the kibbutzniks' houses.
I went to dinner at Ira and Debbie's house with Robert Berman, a fellow workshopper. Debbie, like Robert, is British and the 2 found a lot of interesting topics to talk about. I found myself talking to Ira more, as he was from the States too (Chicago). They both cooked a very traditional, yet delicious meal for the four of us. We ate outside, which was very nice. We started with challah and wine, and then had chicken soup, chicken, potatoes, green beans, pickles, and salad. For dessert, Debbie made chocolate cake and carrot cake. I couldn't resist so I had both, but I'm not ashamed at all. It's quite nice having food that's 1) home cooked 2) not schnitzel and 3) not carb loaded. They kept insisting that we take more food, but both Robert and I were stuffed to the brim. As we were eating cake, we saw 2 other workshoppers walking back to the moadon after they had dinner. Ira and Debbie called them over for cake, and I mean, who could resist cake? So Micah Arnson-Serotta and Eli Jenson joined the four of us for desert.
After thanking Ira and Debbie for the delicious meal, we met back in the moadon with the rest of us workshoppers that came to Gezer. Some of the Israeli youth that live on kibbutz came and joined us.
All 17 of us plus the Israeli youth playing a name game. You have to tell the person to the left of you to say their name with a specific accent. For instance, I would say "say your name as if you were a drunk cowboy" and the person would have to say their name with that accent. Afterwards, the kibbutz girls showed showed us their newly installed disco ball and colorful strobe lights.
After that, some of us workshoppers went to the kibbutz pub and played some pool. The kibbutzniks that we hung out with couldn't come (they are still under 18), but they continued dancing with some of the workshoppers who didn't go to the pub.
I went to the pub for a little bit before going to bed-- we had to be up at 6 this morning to go olive picking! Kibbutz Gezer is known for its many olive trees. All 17 of us spent the morning picking olives with Donnie, one of the kibbutzniks who actually was a part of Habo and went on workshop! We used giant tarps to cover the ground below the branches and then used rakes to get the olives out of the trees. Around 9:30 we had breakfast, which was probably the best breakfast I have in Israel so far. We had the best pita with the best hummus, fresh vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, etc), olives (of course), this challah type bread, the BEST olive oil, cheese, apples, oranges, and chocolate wafers.
1. I don't care, OLIVE it!
Or
2. We OLIVE in a yellow submarine,
Or
3. I don't like you, OLIVE you.
Or
4. I came in like a wrecking OLIVE, I never raked so hard in love
You get the point.
We had so much fun olive picking. I think what was best about the whole experience was that we chose to come to this kibbutz and go olive picking. We didn't have to, but I wanted to do something active instead of sitting around Ein Dor all weeekend sleeping or watching movies. Usually avodah like this is part of programming and we usually don't choose to get all dirty and sweaty. But coming out to spend the weekend at Gezer with 16 other workshoppers was truly something special. No one cared how sweaty or gross we all were. I mean it's part of being a chalutz, right?
And in the end, we had enough olives to make 130 bottles of olive oil!
We then went to Varda's house (a Kibbutznik) and had a wonderful homemade lunch which included lasagna, quiche, salad, bread, couscous, pasta salad, cheese, vegetables, and more delicious chocolate cake! We all ate until we were very full mostly because we knew we probably wouldn't be getting this kind of food again for a very long time, but also because it was so good!
Varda then let Eva Bernstein, Jess Glassman, and I shower in her house (Galil girls represent)! Everyone else went to other houses to shower.
After we all showered, we met back in the moadon for some chill time before we have to begin cleaning and packing up our belongings. And that brings us to right now. I'm sitting outside blogging and enjoying the fresh air before we say goodbye to the wonderful people families of Kibbutz Gezer who let us into their lovely home for the weekend. At 5 we will board 2 vans to take us to Tel Aviv where we will attend the Rabin rally, which commemorates the life of Yitzhak Rabin. There, we will meet up with the rest of the workshoppers who didn't join us at Kibbutz Gezer this weekend.
I'll post again soon telling about the Rabin rally which will surely be an interesting, yet crazy experience. Thousands of people from all over the country will meet in Tel Aviv, including the Austrliaans we met on Yam l'Yam!
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