Last Week in Israel

I have been home now for about 4 days or so, and I already miss Israel so much! Here is an overview of what happened during the last week in Israel-

On Monday and Tuesday, we went to Jerusalem - just the Americans, with Ofra and Lior. We were really busy when we were there. We went to all the big places - the Old City, the Shuk (market), Yad Veshem - the Holocaust museum, the Western Wall...and we also did some things that I hadn't done before in Jerusalem. We got to explore/go on a tour of the tunnels at the Western Wall (what I would call a "behind-the-scenes tour" of the Western Wall) - which included the "holiest of holy" part of the old temple. We also went to the old city of David, and got to go in the water tunnels, which was really cool. Thousands of years ago, there was this whole underground tunnel system in Jerusalem that they used to transport water...and we got to walk through these caves/tunnels. We basically walked for 45 minutes straight in the dark in narrow tunnels in water that came up to our knees! We had small flashlights but that's it. It was definitely a cool experience! We also went to the Israel museum and got to see the Dead Sea scrolls...the Israel museum has been closed for renovations for the last 3 years or so and only opened two days before we got there. We had some nice meals in Jerusalem and definitely had a good time!

We got back to Arad late Tuesday night, and we were all so happy to be back. As much as we all really like the other cities in Israel, Arad really felt like home to us. The weather at night in Arad is amazing..and also, the stars are always really bright and great. Wednesday was our last full day in Arad - we went out to lunch at Tamuz and then went to the pool for the day. At night, we had one last gathering at our house and just hung out with everyone together. Thursday was our last day - we ate lunch with everyone, including Ofra, Lior, and another woman who works for the Jewish Agency - Nili. Other than that, we mostly just cleaned up, packed up, and did some last minute things in Arad. We left Arad around 7:30 Thursday night, and we were all so sad to leave. A lot of friends and other people we met came out to say goodbye to us as we were leaving. Our flight left Israel around midnight Thursday - and 12 hours later, we arrived at Newark Airport - where it was really only 5:30am in America.

The whole way to the airport, on the plane, and in Newark, we couldn't believe that we had to leave. We all had such an amazing time in Israel and will miss it so much! I knew that I would have a good time in Arad...but I didn't realize how good exactly. I definitely learned a lot while I was there, and there will be so much that I will miss. I really could go on and on about my trip and how great Israel is...I'm already thinking about when I can go back..

Thank you all for reading the blog! Hope you enjoyed it! :)

Fourth Week in Israel

It has been a while since I last posted (I have been so busy!), but I will give a brief overview of everything. Last week was the last week of camp already which was crazy. It was a good last week...the kids started to kind of try to do whatever they wanted, but overall, I really liked my kids and will miss them a lot. The last day of camp, they had big moonbounces outside with water, so the kids loved that. A couple of my campers gave me birthday gifts and cards, and I was definitely sad to say goodbye to them on the last day. A lot of my campers have friended me on facebook (crazy, since they are 9 years old), and now we chat (in Hebrew, which is a challenge) sometimes on there.

We also did a lot of fun things outside of camp last week! We went on a jeep tour all throughout the desert, which had amazing views and lookouts of the Dead Sea. We went on a bike tour around Arad which was fun, although challenging, because my bike was too big and because we went on desert/mountain paths. The guy at the bike shop's only solution for my bike being big was to stretch me... I don't know how well that was going to work. Thursday night, we had a final party for camp at Lior's house. We had a bbq with all the Israeli and American counselors and also did the Israel form of "backstrokes" (where we all got notebooks, opening in the opposite direction of course, and we wrote a little note in each person's book).

Friday we went to Tel Aviv for the weekend! We took a direct bus from Arad (which is great - costs less than $10) and got to Tel Aviv in the morning. The girls stayed in an apartment (basically like a hotel room) on Ben Yehuda Street (2 blocks from the beach!), and after we dropped our stuff there, we went to the Shuk HaCarmel. On Fridays, they have a ton of people selling jewelry and handmade craft things...which we all loved. There were a ton of Americans (from birthright and other groups) there, and I had a feeling that I would run into someone that I knew. Turns out, I ran into a girl in my Hebrew class...so funny. I actually saw her the following day as well. We also had a great lunch of falafel and frozen yogurt. At night, we ate dinner on the beach and watched the sunset (amazing) and had a fun relaxing evening.

Saturday we finally got to sleep in...and then we went to the beach. We had a relaxing day there and at night headed out to dinner with the other girls. We ate at an Italian restaurant (also not kosher), which was delicious. It was funny to be eating Italian food in Israel. Then at night, we celebrated my birthday at midnight and went out to a couple bars around Tel Aviv. When we got back to our apartment, we started talking to the people who were staying next door to us, and turns out, they were doing Kefiada in Beer Sheva. They were all from Montreal...it was so random but fun to meet other Kefiada people. A lot of the major cities in the US have partnerships with cities in Israel...so Kefiada happens all over Israel.

Sunday (my birthday), we woke up and went out for a great breakfast with everyone for my birthday...then shopped around Tel Aviv. We took a bus back to Arad in the afternoon, and when we got back to Arad, we were SO happy to be back. As much as we liked Tel Aviv, we all love Arad and the simplicity of the city. At night, we had cake for my birthday and made dinner for the whole group, and then we went out to celebrate my birthday. It was a fun birthday...hard to believe that I am now 23!

I will update more later....trip to Jerusalem and last few days in Arad! We leave tomorrow night and we are all so sad to leave. It's so hard to believe that 5 weeks has gone by!

Shabbat shalom!

This past week has been great (as usual)! We were very busy but here is a little bit about the highlights of the week.

Camp this week was good (and crazy) overall. I do like my kids, but there are a few who are challenging and causing some problems. We went to the pool on Wednesday which is definitely my favorite day. It's a lot of fun to play around with the kids, and also a great day for getting some color.

On Wednesday, it was my co-counselor, Paz's birthday, so a group of about 15 of us went to Beer Sheva for the night. Beer Sheva is the closet major city (also the capital of the Negev desert) and it's about 45 minutes by bus. It costs about 3 dollars to get there by bus, and the busses run a couple an hour - very convenient. Once we got there, we walked around and went into some stores, and then we all went bowling! We all had a good time - and then after, we went to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant. The night was a lot of fun, and it was cool to be able to see another city in Israel.

Thursday was the last day of camp for the week, and then after relaxing for the afternoon, most of the Israeli counselors and all of the American counselors went on a bus to Masada. We got there around 9 pm and watched a sound and light show, which explained the history of Masada with lights and sounds and speaking. Then, we went to a bedouin tent right nearby to hang out for the night. I helped make some pita for the group which we ate with hummos and this Israeli cheese. We also drank this tea that is really popular here - it has nanna leaves in it, which is very similar to mint leaves. We hung out for a little but then went to sleep because we were waking up at 4:30 to hike Masada to watch the sunrise.

So...a few hours later, at 4:30 we woke up and tried to energize ourselves to hike up the mountain. There are 2 sides to Masada...we did the Roman Ramp which takes about 10 minutes to hike up (the other side is much more difficult and longer-the Snake Path - which I did the last time in Israel). There were a TON of birthright people hiking as well so it was pretty crowded. We made it up around 5:15 or so and watched the sunrise...pretty amazing. We got to explore the top of Masada (where people actually used to live a long time ago) and then a couple of us decided to hike down the snake path (vs. taking the cable car down). We quickly went to see the Masada museum, and then we were back on the bus to go to the Dead Sea! The Jewish agency paid for all of us to hang out at a hotel for the day. So, we got to eat breakfast and lunch at the hotel (which was really good!) and use the pool. The Dead Sea is really cool to see - it was so hot and the water was like a jacuzzi. The whole day was relaxing and a lot of fun. We got back in time for Shabbat and then went to all of our host family's houses for dinner - great as always.

Now it is Shabbat, which is definitely a great day. Everyone really spends the day relaxing and sleeping. We went to the pool after waking up late and soon are going out to dinner!

Coming up this week is Tesha Beav...which I have been learning more about. There are a lot of people here who observe the day and basically, in the 9 days leading up to it, you are not allowed to "be happy"---really just you can't eat meat and go swimming are the ones that impact people here the most. A bunch of my kids didn't come to camp when we went to the pool this week because of the restrictions. There are a good amount of people who have been observing this -it has been something new that I didn't really know about before this trip.

This week is the last week of camp already (so crazy!). It should be a good week though...and then next weekend, we are going to Tel Aviv!

Typical Day at Camp

I realized that there are a lot of things that happen during the day at camp that I haven't written about, so I will explain a little bit about what a typical day for us is like-

6:30 am - wake up (very tired), get ready, eat breakfast (usually an egg, tuna, hummus, cereal)

7:20 am - get to camp and and then kids soon start arriving - we meet in the big basketball gym (or sports hall as they call it)

8:20 or so - go off in our groups to our individual classrooms

8:30-10 am - morning activities (arts and crafts, games, etc.)

10-10:30 am - we have breakfast, which consists of rolls with a chocolate spread on them - which the kids love

10:30-12:30pm - more activities

12:30-1 - we all go back to the sports hall. They are always playing music (a cd, which has 4 songs on it..casper slide, cotton-eyed joe, and 2 other spanish songs that the kids know the dances to). The girls have become obsessed with cotton-eyed joe - on the first day, i taught a bunch of my kids how to do it, and now, all the kids know the dance.

1-1:30/2 pm - All of the counselors meet with Lior to discuss the day and also the next day.

2-3pm - The American counselors all go to eat lunch together. We have 3 places that we can go to where we don't have to pay. The first is a sit-down restaurant in the mall called Tamuz that has basically everything - salads, pasta, pizza, sandwiches, etc. It's really good and we go there the most. There is also a pizza place and a shawarma/falafel place that we can go to also. We basically just say that we are from Kefiada, and they let us get mostly whatever we want.

3- 6 pm- We either take naps (camp is exhausting!) or go to the pool to hang out.

6-night - This part of the day varies - we sometimes make dinner, sometimes go places to eat for dinner, and then we often do different activities at night. It's really nice here at night..much cooler so it's nice to be outside.

So, that is a basic rundown of our day during the camp week. It is very tiring but the afternoons and nights are relaxing!

first week of camp comes to a close

The first week of camp came to a close last Thursday - it was a busy but fun week! Here are some of the highlights/interesting things i noticed-

-my campers overall are pretty good. i'm still trying to figure out how to work with them, because most of the times they don't understand me. they speak to me in hebrew 90% of the time, but often try to help me out and act it out which is helpful. i am getting better at understanding hebrew here though, which i am happy about!

-one day a week (every wednesday) we go to the pool with our kids for the day! it is fun but extremely exhausting - swimming around and playing with the kids in the water takes a lot out of you!

-one night last week we went to Lior's house to have a BBQ and then he taught us to juggle fire (or really, baton twirl with fire) - it was fun, not really as hard as it sounds!

-one night, we also went to this place a few minutes from Arad called "zman midbar" - it was this bedouin tent-esque place on a mountain where this one family lives. they gave us this nice vegetarian dinner and we got to watch the sunset and listen to them play the guitar and sing for us.. very cool!

-two of my 9 year old campers friended me on facebook. crazy!

-because everything is kosher here, they do not put meat on pizza. so they eat tuna on pizza! it's actually really good and we eat it often!

-there are stray cats EVERYWHERE here! it's not as common for people to have them as pets, because they are more often found outside. very different than the US.

-people are pretty good at conserving water here. I really notice it when the kids are washing their hands, they always turn the water off while they are washing.

At the end of the week, on Thursday we left for Eilat! Two of the four weekends we have here we are able to travel, so we went to Eilat this weekend and will go to Tel Aviv in a few weeks. We drove down to Eilat on Thursday night and stayed until Saturday night (because we had to get back for camp today - Sunday). Eilat is like the Cancun/Miami/Wildwood-ish city of Israel in the southernmost part. It was a lot of fun! The 8 of us stayed in this cool villa that Lior told us about. It had a ton of bedrooms, along with common rooms and places to hang out outside and on the roof - all for a great price! We went to the beach during the day and also walked around the promenade area there. It was so hot there - prob at least 110-120 degrees! Also the beaches are really rocky, but it's on the Red Sea, which is really nice and blue. Both Jordan and Egypt are only a couple miles away, so you can CLEARLY see them, which is really cool. There is a big Jordanian flag on the beach in Jordan which is very close and we could see from our villa. We also got to experience some of the nightlife in Eilat, and on Saturday, we went snorkeling and hung out on a boat for the day. There weren't many fish where they took us, but it was nice to just relax on the boat! We also have become obsessed with Israeli frozen yogurt...you get to pick whatever fruits you want to put in it, then they blend it all together kind of like a blizzard. So goood! We had a great weekend, but I definitely missed Arad..it is good to be back now!

Now we are back for the 2nd week in camp. Today was a crazy day.. We did paper mache with the kids (including paint), and I would have to say that my classroom is now probably a different color than it was earlier today from all the paint. I will try to update more often this week!

everything since the last post

It has been a great few days in Israel since I last wrote! Our internet hasn’t been working recently, but hopefully it will be working soon. Right now I am able to borrow our neighbors. In the last few days, we have spent a lot of time getting ready for camp to start. We have been having a ton of meetings with Lior to plan everything out and make the empty school look nicer. I have also been working with my co-counselor, Paz, to plan out activities we are going to do with our kids. My kids are in “kitah daled,” so they are in 4^th grade. We will have 16 kids. I am excited – it should be fun, but I know the kids are going to be a lot wilder than American kids.

We have become great friends with the Israeli counselors already and they are all very welcoming of us. Most of them know English really well and are totally on top of all the latest things. They all love the TV shows that we like – Glee, How I Met your mother, the OC, MTV shows, etc. For the last two nights, they took us with them to the local pub called Muza – which everyone seems to tell us will be our second home while we are in Arad. Also, randomly, right next door to Muza is this store/factory that sells lotions and soaps with dead sea minerals, that I realized that I went to when I was in Israel last time! Actually, the face wash that I brought with me is from that place, and it says it was made in Arad, so this is how I figured it out. It has been a lot of fun to meet everyone. On Thursday night, our friend Liat’s brother came home from the army for the weekend, so she brought him and his friends (all in the army also) out with us, so we were able to talk to the Israeli soldiers which was interesting.

The other night I got to go to the supermarket. The Jewish Agency lets us go with Lior to the supermarket every week to buy whatever food we want for us. I enjoy food shopping a lot, so it was fun for me to be able to go here. Pretty much every place in Israel is kosher, so the supermarket was also. There was a big wall in between the deli meat and cheese section – along with everything else being split.

Lately, we have been spending a lot of our free time at the pool. There is a big pool in the center of the city where everyone goes. We have free passes from the Jewish agency, which is great for us. Thursday night, we went to a big sport banquet/bbq for all the sports teams in Arad at the pool. There was a ton of people there, and the mayor and many different people spoke. My co-counselor, Paz, is on the Israeli national team for handball (a huge sport here) and won a trophy!

Friday night was our first Shabbat in Arad. We all got assigned to different host families throughout the city to spend Friday night with. They are families of the counselors that we work with in camp. So, my host family was a girl Tal, who is 18. She is half-American (mom is American), and her mom grew up in Stony Brook on Long Island. For Friday night dinners here, almost every family makes a really nice meal even if they are not religious (which most people are not religious here). The meals usually start later – Ofra drove us to our houses around 8:30-9pm. Their house was in a really nice neighborhood! It was big for houses we have seen and was very nice. Everyone in the family was very nice and welcoming. I watched “How I met your mother” and “Desperate Housewives” with Tal’s 14 year old sister before dinner started. The food was all really good – Israeli salads to start, salmon, chicken (schnitzel), rice, casserole and stuffed peppers. We all enjoyed our dinners a lot, and all of our host families were very welcoming and friendly towards us.

Friday night is the big night to go out in Israel, because of the 6 day work week. People work Sunday to Friday and take Saturday as a complete rest day. So, after our dinners, we invited everyone to our little house to hang out and then went to Muza-which was much more crowded than previous nights. We had decided earlier in the night that we were going to stay up to watch the sun rise and sure enough, we did. A whole group of us (Americans and Israelis) went to an open area and watched the sunrise around 5:30-6am. Luckily, we had Saturday to sleep in, which everyone does here. Most people actually sleep and relax all day – nothing is open so there really isn’t much to do anyway.

It has been a great few day! We are all having a great time, and Israel is such a great place! People are just very friendly and just have such a different lifestyle than Americans. Tomorrow (Sunday) is our first day of camp, and also the 4^th of July. We have a 4^th of July activity planned for all of the 130 kids for the first day – should be interesting!

Shabbat-

Shabbat was very much needed! After watching the sunrise, we took the day to sleep and relax. Later in the afternoon, the girls and I went over to one of our Israeli friend’s houses to watch the Germany vs. Argentina world cup game with a bunch of other people. His dad is an artist and makes these large metal sculptures which were really cool. Then they took us to this amazing look out point in Arad, where you can see everything – all the surrounding desert and even Jordan. We watched the sun set from there, which was funny, because we also had watched the sun rise the day same. We spent time just talking to our a few of the people we were with (who are all in the army), because they were leaving Arad to go back to their bases on Sunday. They all have different jobs – one is a paratrooper, one is in the air force, etc.

Sunday – First day of camp!

Sunday-also July 4^th – was the first day of camp! We had to be there at 7 am, and kids started coming around 7:30-8am. The theme for the day was 4^th of July (and the theme for the week is USA). It was a little chaotic because it was the first day, but I think it went well. I have 12 girls and 3 boys in my group, and they are all 9 and in 4^th grade. They are all nice – I just feel bad because they speak to me in Hebrew and then I don’t know what to say sometimes to respond. There are a couple who speak some English and they kept saying words they knew in English to help me though! One girl said that she thinks we are nice counselors and is going to bring us a present tomorrow! They were cute, and I think it will be a good few weeks! At night, we had a bbq in a park here with the Israeli counselors...it was a fun way to spend the 4th! More to come sooon!

First two days in Israel

A little overview about the camp/Kefiada program that I am doing– 6 other Americans and I will be working at the Kefiada camp for kids in Arad/Tamar and will be teaching them English through various activities. There are 4 guys and 2 other girls (one also named Lisa!). Four of them are from Vineland, NJ, one is from Monmouth County, and one is from Elizabeth, NJ. The camp is three weeks long (Sunday-Thursday) from about 7:30-2, and the off times will be spent doing things around Arad and also traveling in Israel to Tel Aviv, Eilat, and Jerusalem. Lots to look forward to in the next month – learning to juggle fire with our camp manager Lior, going to the Dead Sea and Masada, a jeep tour..and more.

First I will give you a rundown of what we have been up to so far.

Monday:

It has been a very busy but fun two days in Arad so far! The flight to Israel was very long, and we arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel around 8 am (1 am NJ time), after getting on the plane around 1:30pm NY time, waited forever to go through customs, and then were on our way. Arad is about an hour and a half drive from Tel Aviv. We got to the city and were brought straight to the Partnership 2000 office, where we met Ofra and Lior, who then took us to where we will be living. Ofra and Lior are both in charge of the camp, but also like parents to us while we are here. The four guys are living in an apartment and the other two girls and I are living in a house. It is nice! It has 2 bedrooms, 2ish bathrooms, and a living room with cable TV and stuff. It also has a porch area – and in the distance, you can see Jordan. After we dropped our stuff, we went and ate some lunch and met some people who work for the partnership. After lunch, we unpacked some and then went for a brief little tour around the central parts of Arad – saw the mall and surrounding shops, post office, etc. We were all so jetlagged so luckily we had the rest of the afternoon to relax and nap. Later on in the day, Ofra made us all pastrami/hummus/other Israeli stuff on a pita and then we walked around the city up to the observation point in Arad (the highest point). It is fun to walk around Arad – everyone is friendly and seems to know each other. Lior seems to be like a celebrity in the town because everyone is always stopping to say hello to him. At this point, we were all exhausted, but we ended up all hanging out as a group and then heading to a local bar to watch the world cup game. It was a very long first day but a good one!

Tuesday:

Today was the first day of camp orientation. We spent time in the morning meeting our Israeli co-counselors and learning about what we will be doing at camp this summer. My co-counselor’s name is Paz – she is almost 17 and lives in Arad. Her sister went to work at the JCC camp in Medford last summer, and she also worked at Kefiada last summer. After the orientation, we all split up into groups and went to the local elementary schools to advertise for the Kefiada camp to get some more campers. I kind of just followed along with the other Israeli girls that I went with. The school was very interesting – Israeli kids are really rambunctious and wild. Also, we went during lunch, and they were eating lunch facing the wall side by-side. They all had lunches that were from the school and almost looked like airplane meals that come with a few different things. After this, we went back to the camp (which is in a school) and had lunch with a birthright group from the Univeristy of Delaware Hillel. Together in the afternoon we painted the walls of the school and made it more welcoming for the kids to come.

After camp, around 4 or so, the other girls (Sam and Lisa) and I went to the mall and walked around there and now are back at our house just relaxing. When we were walking around, we stopped at the post office to exchange some money. Very interesting experience...it reminded me of a DMV and we had to take a number and wait a while. They questioned us as to why we were going in, which I assume is for security purposes. I think that Lior might take a couple of us to the supermarket later on to get more food. They stocked our refrigerators pretty well with food to eat, but they want to get us more. We are all pretty jet-lagged still but are definitely enjoying the time here.

It’s fun coming to Israel and being able to know some Hebrew. They all talk pretty fast so I can’t always understand, but I can definitely pick out the words that I know. I hope as time goes by that I am able to better speak Hebrew. Luckily, all the counselors at the camp also speak English.

More to come later! Tomorrow we have more orientation and we are hoping to then go to the pool in the center of the city, which we have free access to thanks to the Jewish federation!

ISRAEL!

I will be in Israel from June 27-July 30, 2010. More blogging to come later...