My (very) frequent Skype calls with my family have been alleviating some of how much I miss them, but I still miss them a lot. I recently got this email from my mom:
I got a note from my sister, Grace, where she told me that she’d mentioned at their family dinner that I was feeling sad about you being away, and then said:
Avery suddenly burst into tears. "I just feel so sad that she's leaving!" he wailed. I assured him we'd probably see Abigail at Christmas, but I'm realizing now that she probably won't be back yet then. Avery did seem to cheer up when I reminded him that Louisa was still around to take care of him sometimes.
Avery is going into first grade, and is just about the cutest thing ever (as is his younger sister, Lucy.) I miss him too.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
New Pictures up on Flickr!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daughterofafeminist/
Most of the Israel pictures were taken by my roomie, but I do plan to start taking pictures soon.
Most of the Israel pictures were taken by my roomie, but I do plan to start taking pictures soon.
Shabbat Shalom!
I have been looking forward to this week's Shabbat ever since last week. Moving to Israel, settling in, and adjusting has been exhausting. In Israel, on Shabbat, everything shuts down. Almost no stores are open, very few people drive, and the public transportation doesn't run.
Last night we went to services at a nearby shul, and I must say, I was not only really disappointed, I was really upset. So far everything religious in Israel that I have experienced has been divided by gender, but has otherwise been almost equal. This shul was not. The men got an entire service, and the woman sat in a separate room in another part of the building with their kids. It sucked. I am definitely not going back.
However, the good part of the evening was going to dinner with our host families! I definitely requested a progressive family, and my host family definitely isn't, but they are still nice, even if there are some clashes. They spent some time talking about how we all should make aliyah and move to settlements because that would cause the the Moshiach to arrive. And they were shomer negiah and just had really separate and static gender roles. But they have a gorgeous baby girl, and the food was amazing (it wasn't a big deal at all that I am a vegetarian), and it was just nice to spend some time with people who were not American 17-20 year olds.
I slept until almost noon today, and haven't left the house since (neither have any of my three roommates.) It's been pretty much just what I needed. We still have to do some more cleaning (we did laundry, but have to take out the trash and reorganize our room.) We're having another apartment over for dinner tonight and we're having pasta with white and red sauce and salad.
Last night we went to services at a nearby shul, and I must say, I was not only really disappointed, I was really upset. So far everything religious in Israel that I have experienced has been divided by gender, but has otherwise been almost equal. This shul was not. The men got an entire service, and the woman sat in a separate room in another part of the building with their kids. It sucked. I am definitely not going back.
However, the good part of the evening was going to dinner with our host families! I definitely requested a progressive family, and my host family definitely isn't, but they are still nice, even if there are some clashes. They spent some time talking about how we all should make aliyah and move to settlements because that would cause the the Moshiach to arrive. And they were shomer negiah and just had really separate and static gender roles. But they have a gorgeous baby girl, and the food was amazing (it wasn't a big deal at all that I am a vegetarian), and it was just nice to spend some time with people who were not American 17-20 year olds.
I slept until almost noon today, and haven't left the house since (neither have any of my three roommates.) It's been pretty much just what I needed. We still have to do some more cleaning (we did laundry, but have to take out the trash and reorganize our room.) We're having another apartment over for dinner tonight and we're having pasta with white and red sauce and salad.
1st Week in Israel
We spent the first three days in Jerusalem, at a hotel. We were trying to get over jet lag, and adjust to being in a new country. On the first day we went to the Kotel, and briefly walked through the Old City. Then we went back to the hotel and (attempted) to sleep. The first couple of nights were horrible - I had trouble sleeping for more than 4 hours at a time, and would end up being awake from 1AM-4AM, which completely messed up the rest of my day. Thankfully, I got over jet lag after a couple of days. We also spent the time in the hotel doing group bonding activities and learning about the history, geography, culture, and media of Israel.
On our third day, we arrived in Ramla! Everything in Israel is so much closer than I thought it would be - Ramla to Jerusalem is like a 45 minute drive, Ramla to Tel Aviv is like 20 minutes. I was rooming with three other girls - one from Toronto, one from Connecticut, and one from California. We arrived in our apartment, and despite it being filthy, the first thing we all did was open our laptops and sit around the table. It was rather comical, but the funnier thing is that we still do that (like right now.) Then we cleaned the house, where we found maggots in the fridge. It was absolutely disgusting. We ended up having the City Coordinator, Daveed, clean it most of it.
The first day in Ramla we went adventuring and learned where important things in the city were (library, grocery store, falafel store, other people's apartments, etc.) The next day we painted a kindergarten and had a lecture on the history of Jerusalem. We also ended up moving apartments because we had sketchy upstairs neighbors. We also switched one of our roommates - the one from California moved into another house, and we got a lovely person from Seattle who had come into the program late. Our new apartment is much, much bigger and has a fully furnished kitchen, and has super nice neighbors who speak a little bit of English.
The mangoes here (actually all the fruits and veggies, except apples) are so much fresher here and taste so much better than in Boston! Everything tastes like it comes from a farmer's market. Also, I have to drink so much here! I go through several bottles of water a day here (the really big bottles) plus iced tea and juice. It's so hot!
On our third day, we arrived in Ramla! Everything in Israel is so much closer than I thought it would be - Ramla to Jerusalem is like a 45 minute drive, Ramla to Tel Aviv is like 20 minutes. I was rooming with three other girls - one from Toronto, one from Connecticut, and one from California. We arrived in our apartment, and despite it being filthy, the first thing we all did was open our laptops and sit around the table. It was rather comical, but the funnier thing is that we still do that (like right now.) Then we cleaned the house, where we found maggots in the fridge. It was absolutely disgusting. We ended up having the City Coordinator, Daveed, clean it most of it.
The first day in Ramla we went adventuring and learned where important things in the city were (library, grocery store, falafel store, other people's apartments, etc.) The next day we painted a kindergarten and had a lecture on the history of Jerusalem. We also ended up moving apartments because we had sketchy upstairs neighbors. We also switched one of our roommates - the one from California moved into another house, and we got a lovely person from Seattle who had come into the program late. Our new apartment is much, much bigger and has a fully furnished kitchen, and has super nice neighbors who speak a little bit of English.
The mangoes here (actually all the fruits and veggies, except apples) are so much fresher here and taste so much better than in Boston! Everything tastes like it comes from a farmer's market. Also, I have to drink so much here! I go through several bottles of water a day here (the really big bottles) plus iced tea and juice. It's so hot!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Flight to Israel
I'm in Israel! And I can only get Blogger and Google in Hebrew, which is proving to be a bit of a challenge. So much has happened since I was dropped off at the bus station in Boston.
I took a bus from Boston to New York City because my flight left from JFK. I met a friend of mine in NYC for lunch, which was a great because we were able to catch up, and it calmed some of my anxiety. I then took the NYC Metro to the LIRR to the AirTrain, and after about two hours (twice as long as Google told me it would take!) I arrived at the airport, where I met the people that I will be spending the next five months with. It was rather anti-climatic.
Then I went through El Al security. Not airport security, El Al security. There is a reason that they are the most secure airline in the world. My bags went through separate screenings before I could check in, and I also had to answer questions about them- "Who packed them? Where have they been since you packed them? What is this thing in your bag? Did you pack x, y, or z?" Then I had a "little chat" (their words, not mine) with an El Al agent. The little chat was hilarious. First the woman expressed lots of confusion over how to pronounce my name (which is very simple English words and Hebrew words, so it should not have been hard at all.) Then she tried to figure out if I was Jewish- "What are you doing in Israel? Who are you traveling with? Do you have family there? What are their names? Where do they live? Are you going to visit them on Shabbat?" This did not actually make me feel more secure, it just made me realize how overtly they were racially profiling the passengers.
Then we went through airport security, which seemed like a breeze in comparision to El Al's security. When I was boarding I had to answer more questions, but finally I got onto the plane. Whereupon I learned that I was in a middle seat with a TV that did not work and a broken tray table. And I also learned that the flight attendants were not interested in helping, and were rather rude. I was very awed by the prayer area in the back of the plane, and just by the amount of men wearing kippahs and tzitzit, but otherwise my experience on El Al was not that positive.
And then I arrived in Israel!
My first impression of Israel was that it was a cross between Florida and India- very hot, palm trees, different language, and lots of shouting. I was excited and ready to explore!
I took a bus from Boston to New York City because my flight left from JFK. I met a friend of mine in NYC for lunch, which was a great because we were able to catch up, and it calmed some of my anxiety. I then took the NYC Metro to the LIRR to the AirTrain, and after about two hours (twice as long as Google told me it would take!) I arrived at the airport, where I met the people that I will be spending the next five months with. It was rather anti-climatic.
Then I went through El Al security. Not airport security, El Al security. There is a reason that they are the most secure airline in the world. My bags went through separate screenings before I could check in, and I also had to answer questions about them- "Who packed them? Where have they been since you packed them? What is this thing in your bag? Did you pack x, y, or z?" Then I had a "little chat" (their words, not mine) with an El Al agent. The little chat was hilarious. First the woman expressed lots of confusion over how to pronounce my name (which is very simple English words and Hebrew words, so it should not have been hard at all.) Then she tried to figure out if I was Jewish- "What are you doing in Israel? Who are you traveling with? Do you have family there? What are their names? Where do they live? Are you going to visit them on Shabbat?" This did not actually make me feel more secure, it just made me realize how overtly they were racially profiling the passengers.
Then we went through airport security, which seemed like a breeze in comparision to El Al's security. When I was boarding I had to answer more questions, but finally I got onto the plane. Whereupon I learned that I was in a middle seat with a TV that did not work and a broken tray table. And I also learned that the flight attendants were not interested in helping, and were rather rude. I was very awed by the prayer area in the back of the plane, and just by the amount of men wearing kippahs and tzitzit, but otherwise my experience on El Al was not that positive.
And then I arrived in Israel!
My first impression of Israel was that it was a cross between Florida and India- very hot, palm trees, different language, and lots of shouting. I was excited and ready to explore!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Goodbye Boston, Hello Israel!
Whoa. Long time no post. I didn't mean to let the summer get away like that. I actually thought that my summer was going to be pretty empty, but I ended up doing a bunch of different things (an internship, classes, vacation-type activities.)
I leave in two days for Ramla, Israel. I'm taking an early morning bus from Boston to New York, where I'm meeting a friend for lunch, and then catching an El Al flight from JFK to Tel Aviv. And then I'll be in Israel! It's kind of hard to believe. Right now I'm finishing up my packing (ie doing laundry) and tomorrow will be final goodbyes with friends, and going out to dinner with my parents, siblings and grandparents, which will be sad, but also a nice way to say goodbye.
Despite not updating at all this summer, I will be posting much more once I'm in Israel.
I leave in two days for Ramla, Israel. I'm taking an early morning bus from Boston to New York, where I'm meeting a friend for lunch, and then catching an El Al flight from JFK to Tel Aviv. And then I'll be in Israel! It's kind of hard to believe. Right now I'm finishing up my packing (ie doing laundry) and tomorrow will be final goodbyes with friends, and going out to dinner with my parents, siblings and grandparents, which will be sad, but also a nice way to say goodbye.
Despite not updating at all this summer, I will be posting much more once I'm in Israel.
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