Days 4 and 5

Thursday gifted us with maybe the longest day of the trip (if you can believe it)!  We left the Kibbutz and headed into the Galilee area where we met our (Lehigh Vally) Rabbi’s sister-in –law who lives there and gave us a tour of the city.  It was very cool-we saw very very old temples and buildings and walked A LOT. 

After that we went to a high school where they had a program a lot like Hollywood Arts (if you don’t know what that is, go to www.hollywood-arts.org).  They helped high risk teens by enrolling them in a special program that gives them business skills.  It was amazing.  The kids presented their business plan to us and talked about their lives and how the program helped them.  I loved it.

From there we made our way to Jerusalem where we will be staying for the next few days.  Jerusalem is kind of like any big city-tons of people bustling.  We had dinner and listened to some kids play instruments (they were GOOD) and went to take a tour of the tunnels under the Western Wall.

When you get to the Western Wall, honestly the thing you see first is a bunch of men in black suits and hats.  Orthodox.  The wall itself is split in “half” (80/20) with a barrier between-one part being for the men, one for the women.  Can you guess which gender gets the 80 percent?  We went at night and the wall was lit like a movie premier.  There is a huge courtyard outside the wall where people just be and take tons of pictures.  We didn’t actually go to the wall last night, just underneath.  The tour of the tunnels WOULD have been cool if it wasn’t 10pm after a ridiculous day and IF my contacts didn’t feel like the Western Wall itself in my eyes.  We learned about the architecture (again-don’t care at 10pm) and walked the tunnel.  There was a part where they found the original street of Jerusalem.  As Simon said “Jesus walked there”.

We went back to the hotel and CRASHED.

Today.

This morning we went to a soup kitchen that is connected with the same company that we picked beets for on the first day.   I cut potatoes, peeled carrots and served food.  It was amazing actually-I loved every minute of it.   EXCEPT-as soon as I started peeling potatoes, an older woman from our group came up to me and said “Well, that’s good practice for you, huh?”  EXCUSE ME?!?!?!  Just because I’m married DOES NOT mean that all I do is peel potatoes.  A) I am a person.  B) Potatoes make you fat.

After the soup kitchen we went into the old town of Jerusalem.  Think about what you think Jerusalem looks like-that is what the old town looks like.  Cobble streets, little shops, etc.  Really beautiful.  You think you’re on a movie set the whole time.  We got to do some shopping and then went to the Western Wall again.  This time I did go up and prayed for a bit.  You can also write notes on small pieces of paper and stick them in the wall-so I did that too.  It was actually very moving and I’m really glad I did it.  Did I mention that I had to wear a long skirt to up to the wall?  I did.  They do NOT like sluts at the Western Wall.   

We then took a tour of another section of the wall and learned more about the history of it.  My brain is so full of information-I honestly don’t think I can learn anymore!  Ahh! 

Shabbat was amazing tonight-we did a service on the roof of the hotel looking over the city.  It was so pretty and peaceful. 

Some things I’ve noticed about Israel. 

1)      Tons of cats everywhere!  You can’t turn around without seeing a stray cat!  But here’s the weird thing….they’re all clean

2)      So many people move here from the states.  There is a girl about my age in our group who is living here for a year to teach.  She joined her mom and brother on the tour.  I talked to her a bit about it today and she doesn’t want to come back to the states!  She loves it here!  Also, a girl spoke at dinner tonight and she just became a citizen here after leaving PA.  They love it here and are willing to give up their whole lives and families, friends, etc. to move here.  It is NOT what the news tells us.  I would have never thought in a million years that anyone would ever want to live here.  But, people not only choose to, they sacrifice tons to do it.  Wild, right?

We have another big big day tomorrow, so I must sleep.   Sweet dreams!

Mom, I’m safe,

Elaine

Days 2 and 3

Boy oh Boy am I tired.  It has been go go go since we woke up on the morning we left Burbank!  So, please excuse any incomplete sentaces, thoughts and desires.  If I go to sleep soon, I can still get a few good hours of sleep before my 5am wake up call (!)

Yesterday we started the day at Independance Hall which is alot like Independance Hall in Philly, but it's in Israel and everything that happened went down only about 60 years ago!  So, (I may have said this before?) it's like if Geogre Washington and Ben Franklin were still around to chat about what they did.  The speaker was very good (and passionate!) and by the end of the presentation, he had many people in tears.  I even had chills.

After that, we went on a walking tour of Tel Aviv ending in a street fair.  We had very little time there (a theme of the trip) before we got whisked away to a museum cronicaling the life of former Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin.  HERE:S THE THING.  As we were waiting for the bus leaving the street fair, a woman in her 60s was singing on the corner.  She was marvolous and had a huge crown around her singing her songs with her.  Simon found out that she used to be the biggest singer in Israel in the 60s but she was standing RIGHT NEXT to Prime Minister Rabin when he got assasinated.  She suffered mental illness (duh) and is now basically pan handling.  Crazy.  SO, when we went to the Rabin museum, the first thing we did was see a film of his assasination (dark) and sure as anything, the lady that we saw on the street was right next to him on stage right before the shooting singing the song that she was singing in the street.  FREEKY. 

The Hammels then went back to the street fair for some more shopping.  I almost bought a bar of soap made from Dead Sea mud, but it was really expensive and the guy wouldn't come down off the price.

We went to dinner that night and then to a show that was performed by a company of blind and deaf people.  OK-remember when I told you I was exhausted?  Well, the theatre was warm and dark and honest to God, they began the evening by putting bread in an oven to bake-so it was warm, dark, and smelled like baking bread.  So, I fell asleep.  I feel awful.  But it's not like they knew I was asleep (oooohhhhh).  From the little I did see though, I wasn't really happy with it.  I thought it was going to be just a performance and the performer just happened to be blind and deaf.  I went in thinking "Yay!  Way to empower yourselves" but the show was all about them and their disabilities.  I didn't want togo there to feel bad for them, you know?

Skip to today...

We left Tel Avv and drove to "A Better Place".  It is a company that is creating a completly electric vehical.  They have a mission to replace gas stations with battery changing stations and get rid of gas all together.  I loved it.  We even got to drive a car-it was pretty much like driving a car....which is good! 

From there we went to the Neve Michael Youth Village which houses kids that are taken from their homes from anythng from neglect to abuse.  We got to play with the kids (which was crazy, becauase we all spoke different languages) and took a tour of the place.  It is such a beautiful beautiful facility that is litterally one of a kind in Israel.  It made me so happy to be able to go there. 

We then went to Safed to an art community for some shopping!  Such a cool place-completly covered and cobblestoned.  I got a neckolace and Simon got matching cufflinks!  And we both got a beautiful piece of art from his parents as a late anniversary gift :-)

We are now at a Kibbutz (key-boots) which, like I said, is a community living space.  We had dinner here and are staying the night at their hotel.  Yes, Kibbutz's have hotels....with free wi-fi!  And are up again bright and early for another packed day.....so I must sleep.   Goodnight all!

Mom, I'm safe,
Elaine

Day 1

Welcome to Israel!  First off, I would like to say Mom-I’m safe.

We started our journey yesterday (March 27^th) at Newark Airport.  The group that we are traveling with, Jewish Federation of Lehigh Valley (JFLV) packed many boxes of goods and supplies for various charities in Israel.  The contents contained anything from clothing to medical supplies to portable combination walker/toilets.  I’m not kidding.  The Hammel  family (which for this trip consists of Simon and me, his parents and two of his brothers, Aaron and Nathan) had the most allowed bags on the flight over so we were in charge of most of the boxes.  Poor Aaron was in charge of the walker/toilets.  Because we had such odd luggage and because Israel’s airport security is something that the US could never even dream of being, check in was, to say the least, challenging.  They had an Israeli Profiler speak to us about why we were going to Israel, if we speak Hebrew etc.  He was really hot, but scary. 

We finally get on the plane, and the flight was lovely!  I slept for about 4 hours, watched “The King’s Speech” and have a tasty dinner and breakfast.  Fun Fact: Israelis eat salad with EVERY meal.  I have had 4 meals so far, all had salad.  Breakfast-salad.  And on that note, everyone here is beautiful!  Simon refers to it as “LA, but real”.  So, America, eat more salad.

When we landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, we were bussed immediately to a field to start the day off (at 6am) doing physical labor for charity.  I think I’ve told a lot of you that this was going to happen.  The thing is this—An organization called “Table to Table” collects food that is left over from restaurants, grocery stores, fields, etc. and gives them to soup kitchens.  It’s a great program and we really were happy to help.  And it wasn’t that bad.  We worked in the field for about an hour.  There was talk about what we would be picking and the winner is…. (get ready, dad)…..BEETS!  We all left looking like we killed a man with our hands covered in beet juice.  My poor jeans and Second City hoody-you now could be evidence in my murder trial. 

After our beet adventure, we went to a Kibbutz (think non-cult communal living) for brunch and some  kick-a (literally) history.  This particular Kibbutz (there are many around) was a cover operation for a bullet making factory.  When Israel was fighting to become a nation, they recruited really dedicated 19-20 year olds to go undercover and build, manufacture and ship all the ammo for the army.  They did this by building a factory underneath the laundry room and bakery of the Kibbutz and smuggled the workers in and out every day for 3 years.  This was so undercover that the workers even kept it from their families.  What struck me most was how young the workers were.  Imagine yourself as a sophomore in college and all of a sudden a couple of your friends disappeared every day for 7 hours because (as it turns out) they were building bullets.  Weird.

We (finally) got to our (swankity swank swank) hotel and had about 4 hours of down time before dinner.  We then went down the street to a French restaurant and listened to an Israeli reporter talk about uprisings in neighboring countries and how Israel plans to handle similar uprisings in it’s own country.  No offense to him, but I kind of zoned out.  I’m sure it was a great speech, but I was tired. 

After dinner I was surprised by a cake coming out and the group singing Happy Birthday to me.  The cake had a sparkler in it, but it went out by the time it came to me.  Oh well, no wishes this year  ;-)

Now we are happily in our room and Simon is about to taste some Israeli candy and apple nectar.  When in Israel….

Goodbye until tomorrow!

Elaine