Jerusalem Siyur, Afula, and Weekend

On Thursday morning, all of workshop awoke very early and extremely exhausted. But my kvutza wasn't just tired because we had to wake up at 6 AM, although waking up that early will usually make anyone grumpy/tired. Flashback to high school, am I right? Anyways, most of us only got 4 or 5 hours of sleep that night because we had an asepha (meeting) on our kupa money that went until about 1:30 in the morning. I went to bed at about 1 because I could not keep my eyes open any longer. So after a breakfast of paninis made by Jacob and Chief, we boarded the bus to take us to old city Jerusalem for a day of learning in one of the holiest cities in the world. It took us about 3 hours to get there instead of the typical 2 because the bus driver got lost and we stopped for a bathroom break. I slept most of the way there so I didn't notice how late we were until we were already in Jersusalem. Once I woke up, I participated in one of my favorite past time activities to pass the time: people watching. Just observing the different kinds of people walking around Jerusalem was so interesting, but also sort of funny. There were a lot of Hasidic Jews, but I mean duh, I'm in Jerusalem. There was also a man that I saw trying to light his cigarette, but the lighter was out of lighter fluid so he threw it on the ground and it smashed into a million little pieces out of frustration. It was quite strange. Once we got off the bus, we all walked to a roof where we sat down and talked about Jerusalem's prime location and how it serves a great military defense advantage since it sits atop a hill. We then went to the supposed location of where the "Last Supper" happened and continued on our way past the Zion Gate through to a wall where we were able to see many bullets from the 1948 and 1967 wars. We also went to the Western wall where those who wanted to could go up to it and put messages into the stones. I walked up to where the split between men and women were, but didn't feel like going up much farther. Some of the people at the wall yelled at some of the workshoppers for not dressing properly, which was something that we predicted would happen, but was still very aggravating. I guess it just takes understanding that we are different people with different views on Judaism. While we waited for those who went up to the wall to come back, we learned about the history of the Jewish temples, the Dome of the Rock, and Al-Aqsa mosque.

Next, we boarded the bus again and headed to a park for lunch. I had actually been to the park before when we stayed in Jerusalem for Yom Kippur. It has a great playground, FYI. We ate lunch, and then heard a guest speaker talk about his experience working with IRAC (Israel Religious Action Committee). IRAC strives stop segregation on buses, advocate for more womens rights at the Western Wall, and change how marriage and religion coincide in Israel.

We then had a short hafsaka (break) and were allowed to walk around some of the shops around the park. I stopped by Aroma (the equivalent of Starbucks in Israel), and bought myself an iced coffee. We then went on the bus again to listen to our second and last guest speaker in Mea Shearim, an ultra-orthodox neighborhood. We had  the opportunity to listen to a Haredi man speak to us about his views on Judaism and Israel. He doesn't believe that cultural Judaism exists, and doesn't think that the LGBT community should have equal human value. As you can probably guess, his responses were not ones that I necessarily agree with, but it was still super interesting hearing alternate points of view on the subjects. It's not every day that you get the opportunity to hear someone like him speak.

At around 5:30 we boarded the bus again, where about half of workshop went back to kibbutz and the other half stayed in Jerusalem for a night. There was a Renaissance fair happening in Jerusalem that night so a lot of people went to that and then stayed in a hostel for a night. 

Lindsey and Matan being silly with the Renaissance Fair decorations. 

I decided to go back to kibbutz and I'm awfully glad I did. I was still exhausted from a long day and lack of sleep the night before. When we got back we hung out with some of the kibbutzniks and then built a bonfire.

The next morning I went to Afula with Aliyah and Liat so that we could get some knitting supplies and beads. I also stopped by a healthfood store and got myself some dates! 

We also stopped by a pet store in Afula. Craziest jellyfish I've ever seen.

We had a nice few hours out before heading back to kibbutz. It was nice spending a night and morning with a smaller group of workshoppers. When everyone got back, they took naps and showered before Shabbat and our night plans.   All week workshop pretended that it was prom night to cover for what it actually was, Aliyah and Gabe's wedding! Don't worry, it was a fake wedding to celebrate their birthdays that occurred this past week. Matan, one of my kvutza mates assigned roles to every person on Workshop. For instance, there was the jealous ex-girfriend, the extremely drunk girl, the Rabbi, the grandma, the inappropriate 10 year old cousin, the bridesmaids, the best man, and of course, their parents. I played the role of Aliyah's mom, while Michael played the role of her dad, and Jess and Rafi played the roles of Gabe's parents. Michael and I took Aliyah aside and talk to her about how proud we are of her, and how we just want to see her happy. Mind you, she still didn't know that it was her fake wedding at this point. It was awfully funny, but we couldn't tell her the truth quite yet. Soon enough however, we brought her into the house where we walked her down the aisle. Everyone played their parts so well. Chief, for example, played the part of the Rabbi and did a fantastic job. He has quite a way with words that made him perfect for the part. Dan Shahar played the role of the flower girl, and actually threw flowers down the aisle! It was such a funny night that I think everyone enjoyed.

Our lovely flower girl!

A mother and her daughter on her wedding day!

The next day, we were all exhausted (shocker). Everyone, aside from a few people just hung out and napped all day until the workshoppers from Gesher lead us in Havdallah/Musical. It was a really nice way to close the weekend in a relaxing way. The weekends that we have on workshop are always something special. During the week we  have a very packed schedule that leaves little room to hang out all together, so the weekends give us time to be creative and have fun.

Rabin Seminar

This past weekend all of workshop met with Habo South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and a few Brazilians and one guy from Habo Mexico for a 2 day seminar on democracy and the peace process. After waiting around for an hour or so at Ein Dor, the bus (with the Australians living in Akko on it already) finally came to pick us up. We quickly threw our bags on the bus and then rode for another hour until we arrived. Most of workshop was under the impression that we would be staying at Ravid, but to our surprise, we actually ended up staying at a very nice seminar center. It was very exciting seeing everyone again. We saw most of our Southern Hemisphere friends last week, but coming together for a couple of days was a great way to get to know each other a bit more. We were split up into 4 mixed groups to do peulot (activities) in. My kvutza (group) for the weekend had Habo North America, South Africa and Australia in it. What was really nice about my group was that only 2 of the people in it had been in my Yam l' Yam group (and 1 of the 2 is actually in my Galil kvutza back at home so I have known her for a long time), and so I had plenty of opportunity to meet and get to know new people. 

After eating lunch, we split into our groups and began the first peulah. 

The view right outside our classroom.

We were asked to write down our own definitions of democracy. I wrote down something along the lines of a political/governmental system where the citizens are supposed to be represented by the government and vote on candidates in a majority rules fashion. Most people wrote down definitions that were similar, but it was still hard to come up with a definition that most people could completely agree on. One of the girls in my group brought up an interesting point that Australia, Israel, Canada, and South Africa (the countries that were represented by the people in my group) all practice slightly different forms of democracy. While the people in each of these countries all vote,  each one of these countries has different threats to democracy that could potentially alter the system. We also read a bunch of different texts over the 2 days. One was Yael Gvirtz's Black box timeline leading up to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Another was Ariel Sharon's speech titled Danger for Israel, in which he talks about what Israel is to do next. We also read Tamar Applebaum's speech in the Banish the Darkness Conference, and lastly Yitzhak Rabin's own speech at a convention of HaNoar HaOved Vehalomed where he specifically asks what the youth movements of today can do to bring change and peace.

On Friday night we all gathered in front of the Chadar ochel and brought in Shabbat together. 

We sang songs that we typically sing in North America for Shabbat, but also learned and sang songs that the Southern Hemisphere Habos sing. We then all went inside and ate dinner together. Dinner was nothing special, in fact it was actually worse than what we get at Ein Dor, and that's saying a lot. I didn't mind though, I wasn't that hungry at all. We then went back to our classrooms later that night and had a fun peulah in our groups. My madrichim for the weekend, Maya and Oren, planned a game of trivia for us. We split into 2 groups and wrote down one interesting fact about us. The other team then had to guess which one of us wrote it. After the peulah, some people went to bed, but most people hung out in the grassy area in front of our rooms. And speaking of rooms, I got to room with people on workshop whom I've never roomed with before! I roomed with Eli, Zoe, Sam Sarah, and  Pickle. We didn't spend that much time in our rooms, but I did like the change even if it was only for a night. Don't worry Liat, Sara, and Chief, I still love you guys too. 

What I loved about hanging out in the yard outside with everyone was that I could go up to any circle of people talking and just join in. Everyone is just so nice and I really enjoyed talking with people and sharing stories about random things. And by random, I really mean random. One of the groups I was in was talking about different methods of torture. Actually. Like who has even heard of white room torture before? I certainly haven't for obvious reasons, but it was still an interesting topic of conversation. I talked so much with people that before I knew it, I was one of about 5 people still awake outside talking! And 2 of the 5 were guys from Mexico and Brazil. I learned that most of the Brazilians know both Portuguese AND Spanish and so they communicate with the Mexicans in Spanish. I was able to pick up what they were saying, which was awesome especially since the last time I took Spanish was in 11th grade. 

On Saturday we had breakfast, had 3 more peulot, lunch, and then a closing tekes (ceremony). Perry (from New Zealand), Ella (from Australia), and I a read short little excerpts in front of everyone as part of the ceremony. Afterwards, we had to say goodbye and board the busses to go home. I was sad that this seminar fell over our weekend, but I think it was so worth it. Over the past couple of weeks I have formed many new friendships with such unique, interesting and nice people. It's sort of weird how they are getting ready to go back to their homes in Australia, New Zealand, and Sourh Africa, while we are still kind of at the beginning of workshop.

Soon however, a new set of Southern Hemisphere Habos will come as part of shnat and we will hopefully get to know them as much if not more than we got to know the current shnatties. 

When we returned back to Ein Dor, we had dinner and then gathered together for Havdallah. We did it Miriam style, and so we all layed in a circle with the candle in the middle.

It was an amazing weekend, but now it's time for another full week of Boneh with just workshop. 

Spool Factory

Micah Arnson-Serotta and I both work in the spool factory for our avodah (work) every Sunday morning. For the past few weeks we have been asked to screw on a bunch of washers and other screws onto these giant metal rods that are used to hold the tops and bottoms of the spools in place. We don't mind doing this since it's very easy, but we both would rather be doing more active, heavy duty work. We decided that we would ask our boss or one of the other guys working with us if we could do something different today. When we got to the spool factory, we were asked to screw on things onto the rods again (disappointment!). We figured that since we work on Sunday mornings, the first day of the work week, there isn't much else for us to do. However, after we were done with the giant metal rods, Baruch, one of the workers told us we could help him assemble the tops and bottoms of the wooden spools by hammering washers and screws onto them. We didn't even have to ask!  We also got to use this drill-like device to secure them into the wood. It was really nice being able to do something different today and I'm really beginning to enjoy my avodah that Micah and I do.

The tops and bottoms of the spools we were working with.

Micah drilling the rods into one of the spools

Inside the spool factory, it's surprisingly very organized! All the different sized spools are grouped together.

I'm looking forward to a new week of Boneh. After a long, yet really fun weekend, I'm excited to be going back to our normal schedule of things. This upcoming weekend we will be going back to Kibbutz Ravid to participate in a Rabin seminar with our Southern hemisphere friends, the New Zealanders, Aussies, and South Africans. While I'm not too thrilled to be going back to Ravid, I'm looking forward to this seminar and all that I will have to blog about afterwards. Hope everyone back at home is doing well, I'll blog again soon, Naomi

So what do we do on Boneh?

I haven't really gone over what our weeks look like here on Boneh, so for those of you who are wondering, let me explain.

Here is our master schedule of the week.

Weekends
Our weekends are from Thursday late afternoon until Saturday night. So on weekends we can travel outside of kibbutz, hang out on kibbutz, or really just do whatever we want. Everyone is usually very tired after a long and busy week, so weekends usually consist of a lot of sleeping and watching movies. My kvutza really wants to take a break from the whole being lazy and watching movies aspect of our weekends and start doing fun things together.

This weekend we have many exciting things planned for us by some Workshoppers!

Sundays
Sunday's in Israel are like Monday's in the United States and Canada. Our programming begins on Sunday. My kvutza has avodah (volunteer work around the kibbutz) on Sunday mornings, while the other kvutza has shiyurim (classes). I work in the spool factory with Micah, one of my fellow kvutza members.We have to show up at around 8:30 every Sunday morning and work until about 11. The first week we drilled holes into the wood that is used to make the tops and bottoms of the spools, but for the past two weeks we just screwed on a bunch of washers and screws onto giant metal rods, which are used to holding the spool in place.It could definitely be a lot more fun, but the work is relatively easy and we're helping out the kibbutz so I don't mind. Other people in my kvutza do other forms of avodah such as working in the mitbach (kitchen) preparing food for meals, working with horses, working in the petting zoo, working with the little children in pre-school on kibbutz, and doing some yardwork/cleaning up around the kibbutz to just name a few. We then go to lunch before having a peulah (activity) on hadracha (leadership) and participating in a power course of our choosing. I chose the power course on education, which is very interesting. We talk about the different forms of education in our day to day lives and the effects that education has on people. For instance, so far we have talked about the difference between informal and formal education, democratic schools and the difference between them and regular public schools, etc. Next, we have some cleaning time and a break before we go to dinner. After dinner a few members of each kvutza run an activity for their respective kvutzot. We call this erev tarbut (culture night). We have had fun, crazy activities, but also serious bonding activities with the intention of getting to know one another better.

Mondays
We begin Monday mornings with Ivrit (Hebrew) classes. There are 3 levels of the Hebrew classes. I'm in the beginner class, but I still find myself learning a lot. We then have tzevet (team) time. Within our kvutzot, there are smaller groups that are in charge of doing specific things on workshop. For instance, I'm in the chinuch (education) group, where we run educational activities for each other, inform everyone of Israeli and North American news, and keep track of all the Hebrew words of the day! Some other groups are the food shopping one (self explanatory), Erev tarbut planning group, and bet bet bet/cleaning group, which restocks the soap in the bathroom, the toilet paper, and makes sure everyone is staying healthy (we're a kvutza, we have to look out for one another, ya know?). Next, we have lunch and then the afternoon is dedicated to Yom Kvutza. Our workshop madrichim (counselors) run different peulot for us throughout the whole afternoon and night after dinner. Some of the past peulot during Yom Kvutza have been on values, freedom, and responsibilties.

Tuesdays
Tuesdays are probably the longest day of the week for our kvutza. While the other kvutza begins with avodah in the morning, we begin with shiyurim. Each week these shiyurim are centered around different topics. Some of the topics so far have been Jews in the Modern World, Anti-Semitism, and our Jewish lineage. After lunch we have a course on Judaism and then a course on Israeli Society. After some cleaning time we then go to dinner and have a guest speaker who comes and talks to us about a certain subject. Sometimes these speakers are past Habos, but other times they are kibbutzniks, or other people that come to share their lives and knowledge with us.

Wednesdays
We start out Wednesdays with shiyurim again, but this time both kvutzot have classes. The afternoon is dedicated to a 3 hour block of Hebrew class. We then have a free block to do whatever we want. Sometimes we plan activities for ourselves, and other times we are free to spend the time catching up on sleep, skyping with a friend, or doing whatever we want. After dinner we have the option of taking part in Wednesday selections, which are optional peulot run by someone from off the kibbutz. The first wednesday selection was run by Ruth Stevens, a former Galilnik who now lives in Israel. She talked about shira (singing) that we do at our respective machanot (summer camps). It was very interesting hearing about singing, and made me realize how big of an impact shira has on our lives during the summer at camp. It definitely brings about the feeling of unity when we all sing together.

Thursdays
Thursdays run a bit differently than our typical Boneh schedule. They are our siyur (trip/tour) days. Usually we leave kibbutz for the day and typically learn about something as a follow up to whatever we just learned about in our classes. Over the past couple of weeks we have traveled to Nazareth and the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Sometimes instead of having a siyur, we have Yom Meyuchad (Special Day). This differs that the Yom Meyuchad that I'm used to at Galil. At Galil they are themed days where we plan fun activities for everyone based on that theme. On Workshop, however, they are still educational, but just run with a different theme than what we are learning about in our classes. We had one Yom Meyuchad so far where we learned all about education. By late afternoon around 4 or 5, we are officially on our weekend.

Meals
We make breakfast for ourselves every morning. We have a sign up list for those that want to volunteer to make breakfast for everyone. Since we have a food budget, most of our breakfasts are either eggs, egg in a hole, sometimes french toast, or breakfast sandwiches. Most mornings we also have Israeli salad, bread with spreadable cheese, and cereal on top of what the main dish is.We eat lunch and dinner in the chadar ochel (dining room) on kibbutz every day except during Saturday's when it is closed for Shabbat, and on Sunday nights when we make our own dinner. Usually meals in the chadar include some form of meat (like schnitzel, brisket, chicken breast etc, rice, couscous, some vegetable, and salad. A lot of carbs, I know. On Thursday nights, Kibbutz Ein Dor has a kibbutz-wide falafel night! Thursdays are deemed "burger Thursdays" because lunch is always burgers. However, we are usually on trips on thursdays so I have only experienced burger Tuesday once!

Rabin Rally

After a long, yet fulfilling weekend of picking olives and hanging out on Kibbutz Gezer, the 17 of us Workshoppers who went met up with the rest of the Workshop participants on Saturday, October 12th for the annual Rabin Rally in Tel Aviv. When we got off the van that brought us to Tel Aviv, we were all very tired, but excited to be able to experience such an event. While we were walking to try to meet up with the other Workshop participants, we saw many people wearing chultzot tnua (movement shirts). There were people from HaNoar HaOved (our sister movement in Israel), HaShomer HaTzair, and of course, Habonim Dror. We saw our new Australian, South African, and New Zealand friends from Yam l' Yam just a few weeks prior. We even saw some people walking with Habo Uruguay on the back of their shirts! It was amazing just walking the streets of Tel Aviv before the rally and seeing all the different movement shirts. It's sort of funny because when I'm in Philadelphia or any other public place in the United States, the first thing I look for when  trying to find someone who belongs to Habonim Dror is the blue movement shirts that we wear. In Israel, not so much. It was very confusing having so many people walking around with chultzot tnua. However, that didn't stop us from seeing some familiar faces. While us olive pickers were walking to meet up with the rest of the Workshoppers (holding all of our sleeping bags, backpacks, and a microwave that we found [trust me on this one, it'll come in handy at some point on Workshop]), we saw Oded, Galil's most recent shaliach who just moved back to Israel after working at machaneh and in the eizor the past 2 years. While at the Rally, we met up with 3 members of Galil's 58 kvutza (Anna, Elissa, and Eve) who just made Aliyah last week! We also saw Pele, who is studying abroad this semester in Haifa, Hadar, one of the shlichim who worked at Galil this past summer, and a bunch of other familiar faces of those Habos who had made Aliyah over the past few years. We also saw Segev, who is here in Israel as part of Kivunim (another gap year program)!

The Rally was all in Hebrew, so many people had to translate for us. It was fascinating hearing the different speakers even though I don't speak Hebrew. One of the speakers was Yitzhak Rabin's grandson, Yonaton Ben Artzi, who talked about the importance of working towards peace with Palestinians. It was really interesting actually being at the Rabin Rally. I have heard about the rally from past workshoppers, but actually experiencing it was something special. I even got to hold one of the signs for some time, but I passed it off to someone else after about 40 minutes of holding it. I kept accidentally knocking people on the shoulders with it since I'm so short. Plus, holding up a giant sign requires immense arm muscle and that's just something I don't have. What was really interesting was that the rally had more of a positive outlook towards this event in Israeli history instead of the sadder feel that I get from going to the Rabin memorial service every year back at home in Philadelphia There's something really inspiring about going to a rally in the heart of Tel Aviv and participating in an event with 35,000 other people that commemorates the life and legacy of one of the most famous people in Israeli's history.

But honestly though, the rally was very overwhelming. It was a lot of fun and super interesting, but never having been to anything like that before was tiring and sort of nerve-racking. There were so many people and finding my friends amongst the crowd was like finding a needle in a haystack. At the end of the rally, we all boarded the bus to bring us back to kibbutz. I slept the entire way back, and awoke the next morning feeling extremely tired, yet so thankful that I was able to participate in such an exciting event.

It's now about 1:10 in the afternoon on a Thursday. I'm back at our house on Ein Dor while the rest of the workshoppers minus a few are hiking Har Tavor. I wasn't feeling well so I ended up coming back early and resting/writing this blog post before they return and the weekend commences.

Sarah Kravinsky and I at the rally right before it was about to begin.

Aliyah and I holding up one of the signs together!

"Shalom Achshav" meaning Peace Now.

Some of us Galil kids being silly before the rally/ we were eating our dinner whilst trying to smile whilst the picture was being taken.

Photo creds to Rachel Fishman on this last picture. 

Kibbutz Gezer

Hi everyone! Right now I'm sitting just outside the moadon at Kibbutz Gezer where 17 of us workshoppers are staying for the weekend. We were invited by Rachel Fishman and Jacob Henderson's family friend to go olive picking at her kibbutz! We all took a sherut (communal taxi) from Ein Dor to Gezer on Friday morning and arrived a little bit past noon. 

 

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. 

 As we walked around we saw a lot of families and kibbutzniks. A lot of them grew up as members of Habonim Dror and most actually went on workshop too!

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.

They also made delicious tea with some herbs from their garden. 

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. 

We then decided to have a dance party.

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. 

We then continued picking olives. The whole time we kept on singing songs and making olive puns. For instance,

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! 

Here we all are (sweaty, dirty, and dusty) after a long morning of harvesting olives!

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. 

All 17 of us walking to lunch!

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!

A Day in Tel Aviv

For our second siyur (day tour) on boneh, we traveled to Tel Aviv and went to the diaspora museum. This museum was built in the 1970's by Abba Kovner, the leader of the Vilna ghetto Uprising in Lithuania. We learned about the history of the Jewish people through the diaspora, and explored the connections that Jews have with other Jews from all around the world. My favorite part of the exhibition was the part of the museum that showcased models of different synagogues from these places around the world. There were synagogues from China, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Holland, Italy, and the United States to name a few. I thought the synagogue from China was so fascinating. I never knew that there was a big enough Jewish population there. And to my surprise there was a model of Beth Shalom, a synagogue located in Elkins Park, PA which is only about 45 minutes from my house.

We also explored the history of where our ancestors might be from. One wall was filled with an Ashkenazi family tree/timeline and a little further down there was one of a Mizrachi family tree/timeline that was originally from Baghdad. We then went to HaCarmel Market, a shuk with lots of cheap clothing and many shops filled with fruits, vegetables, pastries, and of course, falafel. Some other workshoppers met up with their friend Yehuda who they knew from MBI and Gesher. He recently joined the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and so it was very nice for people to get to see him, and spend an afternoon with him. I walked around the shuk with one of my kvutza mates, Hannah Martens. We got falafel for 7 shek, which was such a good deal. I think that's about $3 USD.  We then got an assortment of baklava from one of the vendors, which i devoured soon after the purchase. It was some of the best baklava I have ever eaten and I only which I had taken a picture. This baklava place probably had about 15 different kinds to choose from. We got the standard triangle baklava, but also got one was with cylindrical and one with this green powdery stuff on top. I don't really know what it was, but it was delicious. Afterwards, we met up with Aliyah, Sara, Lindsey, and Liat and then did some more shopping and exploring. At 3:15 those workshoppers who were heading back to Ein Dor boarded the bus, and the rest of us who were planning to stay in Tel Aviv for the night or the weekend stayed. I was one of many who planned on staying for just the night. I then went to beach later on and watched the sunset over the Mediterranean with 6 other workshoppers, Micah, Rafi, Hannah M, Matan, Celia, and Dan. It was one of the most gorgeous sunsets i have ever seen.

The sunset over the Mediterranean Sea

Hannah Martens and Micah watching the sunset

After spending about an hour on the beach, we met up with Sara and Lindsey and then the 9 of us got some dinner. 

Funny story: when we were eating dinner a young man who looked a bit older than us starting talking to us. He later told us he was 19. He told us he just landed in Israel this past week and is on a program geared to prepare him for the IDF. We could all tell he was from the States as he spoke perfect English, although he did add in a few "y'all's" and did speak with a thick southern accent (he was from Texas). He then asked if he could walk around with us for a while. After some initial hesitation, we said yes. It was so strange, but we felt safe. We then walked around the city together and explored Tel Aviv at night. 

Although it was mostly just hanging out in Tel Aviv, it was really really nice just getting out of kibbutz and immersing myself in Israeli society. I don't know hebrew that well, but getting a break from the sort of separated, sequestered kibbutz life was very nice. It's quite different from MBI (the Israel summer program I did 2 years ago) because we actually have the freedom to go places without madrichim (counselors). We used public transportation yesterday, which is something that we would not have been able to do as easily on MBI. 

It's now the weekend again, and after a long day yesterday, I'm using the time today to just hang out on kibbutz and sleep.