My Amazing Weekend

Shalom Everyone!

I’m here to update you on what’s happened to me here in Israel over the past weekend! It was a great weekend, and I can’t wait to tell you about it! I would like to thank Josh Sacks for allowing me to borrow some “snip-its” from his blog to help me out!

Friday morning, October 23rd, Josh and I board a bus from the central bus station en route to Bat Yam [meaning The Daughter of the Sea], a suburb of Tel-Aviv. One of my friends from Camp Chi and USY, Arielle Rosenberg, is currently on Young Judea Year Course (YC). Unlike Nativ, YC is split up in 3 different locations (Jerusalem, Bat Yam and Erad [A city in the dessert]). The three different groups rotate between cities every three months, and at the moment, Arielle is currently in Bat Yam, so Josh and I went to visit her! Arielle lives in an apartment with 4 other people, which is extremely similar to what I will be doing come February! The bus ride over to Bat Yam is about an hour and a half, so it was just the perfect amount of time to watch a video on my iPod (Thank You for Smoking). Unlike the cities that I have visited already on Nativ (Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat, Tiberius) - Bat Yam doesn't have a central bus station. You just need to get off at a stop that is near your destination. Unfortunately, we weren’t really sure where our destination was, so we accidentally passed it. It was ok though, nothing a 20-shekel cab ride couldn’t undo! Once we go to Arielle's apartment, we rang the door, and discovered that she was actually out, at the Laundromat! Her roommates let us in, and we hung out with them for about 10 minutes until she got back! Her roomies are actually really awesome people, as are all of her friends that I met this weekend! I really enjoyed hanging out with them, and cant wait to do it again in the near future! Josh and Arielle decided to go out for a walk, while I stayed and hung out with her guy friends and some of her roommates. I also snuck in a quick little shluf (nap)

After Shabbat started, and we went to a Year course Ulpan dinner. Josh, Arielle, Marissa (Arielle's roommate) and I walked towards the Ulpan, where the dinner was. On the way, we picked up one of the Tzofim (Scouts), Yoni, along the way. Tzofim are Israeli's that live with Year Coursers, just graduated high school, and basically are taking a gap year before the army in Israel. Each apartment has a Tzofim that stays with the students. Yoni is a really cool guy, and he cooked a delicious Challah for the dinner. There were about 20 people at this dinner. We did the blessings, ate, and played some games as a group. This was a cool experience for me because it gave me a little insight into what being on Year course is like. Apparently, this not only was my first official year course dinner, but Arielle's too. She said they don't really do the whole "communal meals" too often. That made me sad, because I really enjoy our Kehilla (community) that we have on Nativ. I feel like it gives me a much closer connection to everyone else on the program.

After a great dinner, filled with meeting lots of new people and having a great time, we made our way back to change into bathing suits. We were going to take a little night swim in the sea. Arielle lives about a 20-minute walk from the sea, which is incredibly nice! I barely had gone swimming here, and really do miss it in the heat! At the beach, we met up with a bunch of other Year Coursers. We didn't end up swimming, but just ended up talking and hanging out with them for a while. There were about 25 of us there, and I had a great time! Around midnight, we made our way back to the apartment for a good nights sleep.

[Side Story] So, everybody that we spent the weekend with, (Arielle and her friends) are all in Magen David Adom. They have been working shifts in Bat Yam and have some amazing stories to tell already! Arielle’s VERY FIRST shift involved somebody who had lost an arm AND a leg in car crash. She had to help carry them (the limbs) back to the ambulance, and eventually the hospital. Hearing them tell these stories made me realize how much of an impact I am going to be making by volunteering. I am excited to help out with MDA and make a difference! [End of Side Story]

The next day, we woke up around 11:30 and Marissa and Josh went to the boy’s apartment to get some eggs and bread so we could make French toast. And by we, I mean Arielle made French toast. It was delicious, and I’m not even that big of a French toast fan! After the Brunch, we all decided that even though we woke up about 2 hours ago, it was time for another shluf.

After the nap, Josh took the lead and said "time to go swimming”. We got to the sea just in time to swim, and eventually see the sun set again. It was sooo beautiful. I forgot how much I love the yam (Sea)! It was so fun! After a good swimming/body surfing session we returned a final time to the apartment, made some pizza/pasta dinner and said goodbye. It was an incredible way to spend Shabbat!

Josh and I then boarded the bus, and went back home. Seeing and experiencing other study aboard program made me realize how happy I am that I was on Nativ. Not that I didn’t have a good time with YC, its just that Nativ is just SO perfect for me and my lifestyle. I was so happy to go back to Beit Nativ and meet up with my friends.

This was an incredibly busy weekend at Nativ, because 3 people (Michael Gelb, Max Gan and Becky Constantine) all had birthdays! Saturday night, we decided to go out and celebrate! By the end of the night, I was walking around with a group of 8ish Nativers trying to get random people to kiss Max on the cheek for his birthday. Our goal was 19, as that was the age he was turning. We happily settled for 51 different people kissing him on the cheek that night. It was just a really fun night with the Nativ boys!

Sunday was a great day, allowing me to recover from the night before by sleeping until 12:30, and going out for pizza with Tyler at Pizza Panini. Since I had no classes on Sunday, I had nothing to do! So, I thought I would be studious and start working on my homework for all of my classes! It was good to get ahead in my classes and stay on top of my work. As Mitch Lerman frequently says to me… “Don’t forget you’re in Israel for school…” Don’t worry Dad. I know.

That night, all of Nativ got dressed up in matching outfits (Nativ 29 shirts) and went to a MASA program. MASA is a government program that helps send people to Israel for school, through financial aid. At this program, there were over 3000 students from over 160 countries! It was at “Binyanei Hauma”, Israel’s National Convention Center in Jerusalem. The main event at the program was a concert by Idan Raichel, a famous Israeli Pop musician. I have already seen him in concert before, and I loved him then. His concert, which lasted about 2 hours, was totally incredible! They played new songs, and old songs! It was absolutely amazing! Not quite as good as Matisyahu, but still, really great. It was cool to see all of the students throughout Israel in one building. I ran into a bunch of people, including Omri Kempler, a girl who went on pilgrimage with me! I was so happy to see her, and it totally made my night. I forgot how much I missed her, and spending time with her brought back all of my good pilgrimage memories!

Monday, I had class as usual, nothing exciting there. But last night was the first game of the Girls Football league! A bunch of girls from Nativ are on a flag football team, coached by 4 Nativ boys. I was really excited to go to the game, and cheer on the girls! They play at a legit stadium, called Kraft Stadium. It is named after Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, the New England Revolution, and Gillette Stadium. He is a Jew and donated money to create a stadium in Jerusalem. It is really nice and has a Patriots logo in the middle of the field. As I was walking into the stadium, a big bouncer stopped me and told me that I wasn’t allowed into the stadium. I was really confused, so I asked him why I wasn’t allowed in! As it turns out, there are a lot of really frum (religious) girls in the league, and since they weren’t wearing skirts, they didn’t want to be seen by men. Even the 4 Nativ boy coaches had trouble getting in (but they were allowed to be inside after talking to the commissioner) It really frustrated me, but I could understand why. The guard told me that I could watch the girls from outside of the stadium. So I scaled a wall, and watched from above the bleachers. It was actually really cool. The girls lost 27 – 0, but apparently, this looks like the best Nativ team they’ve had in years. We’ll see! Despite the loss, and the whole not being allowed in thing, I still had fun watching the girls play!

While I was watching the game from the bleachers, two Yeshiva girls came up to me, told me that they were interested in starting a team from their school. The Nativ boy coaches told them that they should come talk to me about coaching them! I told them to get things organized, and if they get a team together, complete with a sponsor (every team needs one), then I would talk to them about helping them coach! It should be interesting to see how it plays out!

SO… that’s what’s been happening here!

Hope all is going well, whereever you are!