Purim, Moshav Carlebach, 19th birthday

For Shabbat, we went to Moshav Carlebach near Modi'in. The moshav was started by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the Rabbi was well known in the sixties for being all about peace & love and was famous for taking jewish songs and adding short, catchy melodies to them, it's said that he wrote about 1,000 songs. The moshav being started by a Rabbi of peace and love was like going into a time machine to the sixties, over Shabbat there was plenty of beautiful singing and dancing in synagogue. We had a tour around the moshav and we went on a hike to the Maccabi graves, which was really interesting. We had a shabbat rest of playing cards, we had seuda shlishit, for the start of Purim we listened to the Megillah. We left promptly after the Megillah reading, came back to our house to get into to costumes to go to a purim party in tel aviv. So let me explain this "Purim party", first of all the organization that organized it rents out clubs and hosts religious Jewish parties for some people who want to get re-in touch with their Judaism. The party went like this, dressed in our costumes we got a ticket that gave us one drink at the club, there were lots of Bnei Akiva groups and random people dancing and drinking etc. The difference between this party and normal parties at clubs, is the separation of men and women in the dance floor, of course this is completely normal for religious Jewish parties, not normal for me, little weird. With many parties where alcohol, you may find that there are some people who can't hold their liquor. I'm not much of a dancer so I went to go sit by myself on the couches above the dance floor. What I found on my shoe was quite unpleasant, lo and behold, lucky me, I have the good fortune to step in some drunk person's vomit that they strategically put right next to the couches, thanks for that! Second situation, whilst I was chilling on the couch waiting for my boyfriend to return from the dance floor. Some religious guy starts hitting on me, trying to hold my hand, rubbing my back, which is quite possible the worst thing for me, I told him to leave because I have a boyfriend, he left to my relief. I was sitting there playing on my iPad and was drinking my drink spilled it on myself, being a klutz. We were meant to leave the club at 2:30am but of course the bus was late and we didn't get home until 3:45am which sucked because we had to be up at 9:00am the next morning. The next morning we went to volunteer to give out food for Purim in Lod. After that we had purim seuda organized by some of the group, we played games after which was really fun. After that around 9:00pm we went to Jerusalem for a midrasha Purim party, this wasn't fun for everyone, we were all there for about three minutes before everyone split, even our madricha left and we went to Ben Yehuda St. which had quite a party going on with lots of crazy costumes and drunk people for Purim. After that we left to go get the boys who were at a yeshiva party at the yeshiva that they were at in November and December, they had a great time and were all drunk and singing. When we got back I went straight to bed. Monday, we went back to Jerusalem to volunteer at two retirement homes and then continued to a Bnei Akiva Purim seuda, good meal with all the Hachsharot so it was a little crowded but still enjoyable. After the seuda ended at about 3:00pm we had free time in Jerusalem, we had a vote about when we were going to come back we decided on 8:00pm to some peoples frustration, because we didn't really understand what people were going to do in Jerusalem for five hours. Me, my boyfriend and our friend went to Mamilla Mall, hung around on Ben Yehuda St., I had to get some crocheting stuff. After that we met with our other friend and went to a video game place where you can play video games and just pay by the hour, so I sat and watched them play video games for about 3-4 hours which was kinda boring but I started knitting again which is quite exciting, I'm making a scarf. Tuesday we started back into volunteering as usual, in the afternoon I worked on baking for me and my birthday buddy's dessert party Wednesday night, I made a brownie cake with cream cheese icing and butter cookies which both came out good. Wednesday we had volunteering as usual and then went to Yafo for a tour. Shockingly, on route to Yafo we heard on the radio of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem near the central bus station, it was a really shocking event for all of us because it's a place that we frequent a lot and it's so much more shocking when you are in Israel when a terrorist attack happens. When you hear about it in the news from outside Israel it's less important than when you're in Israel when these terrible things happen. With sad news on our minds, we continued to Yafo which was really lovely and the city is beautiful and was a bit of a mood booster. We got to check out the flea market which is always interesting with many characters. Everyone was really stoked on the dessert party that we organized I also made homemade hot cocoa and whipped cream for everyone. Everyone sang happy birthday to us, we had a crazy countdown to midnight and then we blew out candles (I hear that it's bad luck to blow candles out before your birthday). I got presents from people three of my friends including my birthday buddy got me a little guitar from the Yafo flea market, it was so sweet of them. Such a nice present. Also got a big basket with lots of food from my dad and stepmom which is amazing with a chocolate cream cake with "Happy Birthday Rachel" on it. Today, I'm 19 which is very exciting.

3/6/2011-3/8/2011: Israel museum, volunteering, Samir's

On Sunday, we had our weekly tiyul day, we started the day at the Bnei Akiva offices in Jerusalem for a seminar about synagogues and how they get started, so we had to design and synagogue. What it would be called, how the rooms building would be set up, activities offered, what adjectives would we want it to be described as. Our group of 5 made a synagogue called New Generation in Hebrew, our synagogue had two floors one was a banquet hall and kitchen for parties and bnei mitzvot; our second floor had a large prayer hall the altar was on a circular stage and on the women's side the kid's play room was attached so that the children wouldn't disturb the people praying, it was a pretty great setup. After that, we had lunch and then we were scheduled to leave the BA offices at 1:15pm but of course since Israel usually runs on Jewish Standard Time (the scheduled time in always 20-30 minutes later in JST), so we didn't leave until about 1:40pm, we were headed for the Israel museum where we had a tour scheduled for 1:30pm so we didn't start until probably 2pm. So that was just peachy because if any of you have ever been, seen or heard about the Israel museum, it's massive it like the Israeli Louvre. We were meant to have like a good 2-3 hours at the Israel museum, which still is barely enough but at least we could've gotten to see a lot. Thankfully we had an awesome tour guide who took us to the important parts of the museum that were really what we were there to see, a lot of the people in the group have been to the Israel museum multiple times and have "been there, done that" but I found seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls, statues of the kings, artifacts and the model of Jerusalem depicting the city during the second temple period, I found it really interesting and just the vast collection the museum has specifically on its own history, shows how much has happened on this small piece of land. We had a half hour of free time to check out the museum for ourselves so I went to look through all the artifacts from other countries that this museum has to offer, there are artifacts from the Americas, Eskimos, Native Americans, China, Africa, Oceania, it was amazing to see such a vast collection of artifacts from so many different places in just one country's museum. After two hours at the museum we continued on the bus to Mevasseret Zion to volunteer for World Hesed (kindness) Day, half of us went to one place and the other went to another, the gist of our volunteering was to go to different youth hostels where underprivileged, special needs and people who have had a hard life and need a safe place to stay, we went to visit these people for Rosh Chodesh Adar and cheered them up, played bingo with them gave them face paint all in the spirit of Purim. The group I was in went to the hostel with the special needs people, they are all so sweet and it was really rewarding to cheer them up even if it was just for an hour. We then went home at 6:30pm had to get some groceries for the week, make dinner and eat dinner then I went straight to sleep at 11pm. Monday morning we went to our volunteering jobs and came back for lunch, after that we had ulpan, we then had a meeting about an idea the madrichim have, to make a Purim shuk/carnival at the Ethiopian youth center in Lod next week, we have to split into groups of 4 and come up with an idea for a stand, our group of just Americans is doing that classic game of having bigs jars of candy and the people having to guess what the correct amount of candy is in the jar and whoever guesses correctly wins a prize or maybe wins the jar of candy, we'll see how that goes. That night my boyfriend's dad invited my boyfriend and I to tag along with his program from Kansas City to a dinner in their sister city Ramla. We went to a place called Samir's the restaurant serves classic middle eastern food like hummus, shish kebabs, falafels etc, the owner (Samir) is a friend of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, so when people from Kansas City come to Israel they always eat in Ramla at Samir's. the dinner we had was big and complex, there was a guy who is involved in the distribution of Israeli wine internationally, consults vineyards about their wines, also produces wine himself, the chef made a dinner that was served in four courses, appetizer, second course, main course and dessert and each course was paired with a different wine. It was a delicious dinner appetizers were olive bread, pitas, zatar, hummus with warm chick peas, onion jam all was great the appetizer was paired with a really nice Chardonnay, the second course was rice and lentils, stuffed vegetables (grape leaves, carrots, squash), roast potatoes, and falafels with tehina the second course was paired with a Bordeaux. The main course was lamb chops, shish kebabs, Nile perch and roast chicken stuffed with rice and fruit, the main course was paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon. There wasn't enough time because of their schedule to have dessert paired with the dessert wine which was fine we still got some delicious baklava for the road which was really nice. We went home to Lod, me and my boyfriend watched some of 'Milk' which is an awesome movie if you haven't watched it, check it out. Tuesday, we had another morning of volunteering we discovered that we actually don't have to come to school on Tuesday until 10am not 9am so I think we'll remember that for next week. We had a especially boring day we were in the computer room for about 2 hours and then we had one hour to work with the students on their argumentative essays and then we decided that it wasn't worth staying for another hour to play on the computers so we asked to leave, and we called the cabs and went home for lunch. After lunch we had a shiur about Purim to which my German friends from the German Bnei Akiva group went to which was awesome because I've missed them a lot after that we had free time, pancakes for dinner and some more free time that I spent watching family guy, finally finished 'Milk' which took about 3 nights to watch, then I went to sleep, got a semi-early night at midnight.

2/16/2011-3/6/2011: visit with my parents, settling into Lod, Shabbat in Efrat

After finally getting my parents from the airport,we headed to the Crowne Plaza in Tel Aviv to start my parents' Israel vacation. It was about 4am on Thursday morning, so we were hungry so after getting "breakfast" we all went to sleep until 2pm, see we were going to do some sightseeing on Thursday but we didn't have that much time after our sleep until 2pm. But we did have time to meet up with my boyfriend so that my parents could finally meet him for dinner. Friday morning, we spent the morning at the Diaspora museum at the Tel Aviv University and then a tour of Caesarea, including Dad's kibbutz, the neighboring Sdot Yam. We then ended our day at Dad's old friends from the kibbutz who live in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, and we stayed the weekend for Shabbat, it was very relaxing with lots of tea and a lot of catching up for everyone. Sunday, we first went to Zikhron Yaakov for breakfast to see the place that my stepmom spent the year at for ulpan, after that we went to my stepmom's cousins in Beit Oved to visit and get ourselves settled, we did tons of visiting the first couple of days. After my stepmom's parents arrival the night after we arrived in Beit Oved, we had a lot of catching up to do after two years of not seeing them, it was so nice to see them and I was very excited for our week in Israel together. The next day on Wednesday we went to Jerusalem for the first of two days in the Old City, we visited the Kotel and went through the Arab shuk which is always an experience. In the Arab shuk, my father has a tendency to bargain with all the vendors who are there, he does this every time he has the opportunity to, this time he met his match, he got kicked out of one of the stores it was quite unbelievable, I never thought it would happen. We went home to see family and have teat catch up some more and the next day we continued our tour of Jerusalem with a visit to Yad Vashem. It is one of the most amazing holocaust museums, it takes about 2 hours to walk through and it really gives you a true history and understanding of the holocaust it's a really great experience especially on the second time going it was even better than the first time. After a moving tour of Yad Vashem we then went to Abu Gosh for the best hummus and food that I've had in Israel. That night we went to our cousins for dinner and so more visiting. That Shabbat, we continued our task of visiting everyone who's family and friends in Israel we went back to dad's kibbutz friends in Binyamina and friday visited one cousin in Raanana and then to his brother on Saturday in Binyamina, after that me and dad went to Herzliyya to have dinner with my boyfriend's dad. Sunday, I went shopping with my stepmom and her mom to buy gifts for the family we stayed at. Monday, after breakfast with my dad, my boyfriend and his dad we continued to go to Lod so I could start getting settled. After saying my farewells to my dad we started off our afternoon in Lod with a huge house meeting to discuss food budget per week, house chores and schedule and house rules. The meeting was similar to trying to get cats and dogs to sit in a room together without fighting, there was a lot of arguing about stupid things, but somehow we got through it and agreed on most of the plan. The rest of Monday was spent getting settled and acquainted with Lod, we had a city tour and then we chose our volunteering jobs. I'm working at a school teaching English. Tuesday we met the teachers at the school and started working, we've helping the 8th grade students how to write argumentative essays because they need to write one for their entrance exam for high school. Wednesday and Thursday were the same from 9-12:45am we all go to work and then come back for lunch we have some kind of activity in the afternoon and evening or a free night then we sleep. Thursday night was free, so a couple of us went to Jerusalem, I went to dinner with some of my boyfriend's friends, my boyfriend and his dad to a nice restaurant on Emek Refaim. We saw our bartender friend Roni at his bar and hung out for a while before going back to Lod. Friday afternoon we went to Efrat to start our group Shabbat, we had Maariv, shabbat dinner, games and a little bit of singing, then we went back to our host families to sleep. Saturday was very relaxed we didn't have to do anything until about 4:30 so we played my favorite Munchkin and then just chatted about random stuff with some of the friends we've made on previous trips to Efrat, then we had Maariv, Seuda Shlishit, and then Havdallah, we all went back to our host families after that and then went home to Lod.