Sunday- Erev Chag.
For some reason on Saturday night I really just did not feel like sleeping, and felt no tiredness at all whatsoever, so I stayed up until 5:30 AM listening to music, blogging, and talking to friends from home. Staying up that late, especially for no reason, is something I haven't done in quite a long time, so it was a little bit exciting for me haha. I went to bed, though, and woke up at 11ish-- I think?! Somewhere around there... I got my stuff together for Chag, had some lunch, and made my way out the side gate and to the main bus station called Aluf Sadeh (about a 10-12 minute walk from my apt). I caught the 400 bus to Yerushalaim, and got there within about forty minutes- as always. As I was nearing the end of my bus journey I started to call Sarah Varon and Garce, because I was heading to Garce's from the bus station and needed her to open the door for me once I got there, but they were of course not answering. I figured that they would get back to me pretty soon, though, so I was totally chill about it. When I got off the bus, and had walked to the train to take me down Yaffo Street, I started calling them more, because I was getting closer. But, of course they weren't answering. Side note: completely and totally randomly the woman who was sitting in front of me on the train happened to be a woman who made aliyah from Seattle 2 years ago... I knew her from SBH, totally recognized her voice, then when she looked up for a second I knew it was her and was totally taken back. We talked for a couple minutes, and she's doing well- but wow! Was that unexpected or what... Honestly I had forgotten that she moved to Israel. Back to the story, though. Garce and Sarah were doing anything but answering, and obviously I knew I would figure out a way to get up to her apartment, but I was so much more comfortable with having one of them open the door for me. Then I figured out that Adina was there, too, so I was non-stop rotating between calling all three of them until I got to the front of the building. I probably made like twenty calls, and they somehow managed to not here a single one of them... Weirdos. I walked into the building and talked the security guard for a while, who let me in because he kind of remembered me and I knew where I was going, but then I faced the problem of a locked door to the elevator. Luckily I knew how to get out of the parking garage that I was in, re-entered the building, and this time asked the security guard to come with me.
When I got up to Garce's, they were of courseee blasting musing and cooking so none of them were anywhere near their phones. But I definitely still announced that I had called them many many times. I got over myself, put my stuff down, and the four of us hung out in the kitchen for a while-- putting together a meal for lunch on Chag. With only a couple of hours left until Chag, everyone started showing up... Shana Jacobson, Carol Jacobson, and Ilana Greenberg. So nice that all seven of us Seattlites could be together for Chag!!
Once Chag started, we went to the great Sephardic synagogue that I prayed at for Rosh Hashanah, where we watched the men do Hakafot. Obviously we sang along with them, too, but it was a different experience than the many I've had in Seattle before. It was nowhere near as crazy, and there wasn't as much dancing. Word on the street is that it's because of the fact that Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are combined into one day... Let me explain why. Something that takes place on Shemini Atzeret is the prayer for rain. In Israel, the difference between rain and no rain is the difference between life and death. And thus, the tefilah for rain is obviously taken very seriously. Though dancing with the Torahs and singing and being super happy is a very important part of Chag in general, and Simchat Torah specifically, people don't go as crazy here because they know that the next day they will be waking up and praying literally for Israel's means to life for the year. Regardless, synagogue was fun. We went back to the Almo's afterwards for dinner, and on the way we ran into Josh Voss and Dena Phillips who were coming to say hi to us. We hung out for a little bit before we started dinner, then we got down to business. Haha. Dinner was awesome. We had tons of delicious food, and great company. They even made some barbecuing happen because it was Chag as opposed to Shabbat. Dessert was awesome too.. Really just a great meal all around.
So Garce has this ping-pong table. I hadn't really played ping-pong for quite a few years (I honestly can't remember the last time I played), but I figured I'd give it a go. Turns out that Garce and I are a really good match for each other, and we basically played somewhere around fifteen games over the course of two days... Also, it's so much fun!! Weird that I liked it so much-I know-but it was great. I also played Adina, and they played each other.. We basically had an ongoing ping-pong tournament, which was great. Carol, Adina, and Sarah went to bed rather shortly after dinner, which left Ilana, Shana, Garce, and myself still awake. So what did we do? We busted out Taboo, sat on the couch, and had a great time. Me and Garce vs. Shana and Ilana... SO fun. First we just played the normal way, but then we played this weirdo version where you can't skip any cards. It made is so challenging but ridiculously hilarious. The first card that Garce got was some three-word, who-knows-what-that-is word and took basically the entire two minutes for her to be able to get me to say each word individually... We stayed up playing until 3 AM, and I honestly don't remember the last time I was laughing that hard. We were basically peeing our pants because it was just so funny.
Monday- Day of Chag.
In the morning I was the only one who woke up for synagogue, so I went. When I came back Garce and Sarah were up, so the three of us got everything together for lunch. It was just the girls for lunch, because Garce's parents were eating out. At some point we woke everyone else up, and everything came together.
Pause for a little slice of awesome: Within an hour of praying for rain at synagogue, I look outside and saw nothing other than Seattle-style rain clouds forming in the skies... I knew what was going to happen and was so excited to see it. About five minutes later I looked outside again, and there was rain coming down from the sky. Not pouring, but not drizzling. Just, rain. I know that it happens every year in Israel, but there is something really awesome about praying for something and then seeing it less than an hour later. Just sayin'. Back to business... Lunch was amaaazing. Way too much food. We had a HUGE taco salad, this cucumber salad, schnitzel, asparagus, corn, among tons and tons of other things which I loved. In addition to dessert. Hello-- who knew that Shana Jacobson has inherited the Jacobson baking gene? She did... Incredible cookies. Josh Voss showed up for the end of the meal, and ate with us, but also stayed to hang for the afternoon. We really just all hung out. We sat on the marpeset because it was beautiful outside, there was definitely some ping-pong action, some people read, some people talked-- all good and fun.
When Chag was over for everyone we said Havdalah, but Chag wasn't totally over yet for me. Since I did the "half" day thing, I still had another 24 hours of not doing melacha but not keeping Chag. Again, weird. Even weirder than last time because everyone around me was using cell phones, computers, listening to music, etc. And it's not even like they were doing anything wrong. Everyone was trying to make plans for a really long time, and it wasn't until it was way too late at night that we came up with something concrete. But don't worry, we did it anyway. Haha. At 11 or so we headed out and went to Hakafot Shniyot at this park up the street from Garce's, then went to Waffle Bar. On the way there we ran into Natton Ben-Meir, which was great because I've been unsuccessful in my efforts to track him down. He's going to the army in less than 20 days, and he's super excited. He seems great, and I'm hopefully going to get together with him at some point next week. For anyone who doesn't know what Waffle Bar is, by the way, I'm going to go ahead and explain... Basically, exactly what it sounds like. A restaurant made for waffles. Let me just tell you... Not eating that was hard. I almost would have given up the non-dairy for a bite of the waffle, but I couldn't because I had eaten meat for dinner earlier that night. Honestly, so much better that I didn't take a bite because it would have killed my stomach. Just saying- it smelled amazing. They got ravioli, two elaborate cheesy salads, this other delicious-looking thing with pesto, and two waffles for dessert. The waiter handed me the chocolate waffle to hold while everyone was clearing the table, and OH MY LORD the smell was ridiculous. It was just wafting into my nose like a beautiful, good-smelling rainbow of chocolatey delight... Yum, is all I can say. After waffle bar, we headed back and cutely hung out and talked on the couches for a little while until we were all too tired to not sleep.
I suprisingly woke up at 11:30ish and totally expected everyone to be up and everything, but I was wrong. I mean, at least regarding the people who were still at Garce's. I guess I was right because Ilana, Adina, Carol, and Shana had already left, but I felt wrong because Garce was still sleeping and Sarah had just woken up. The three of us got up and dressed and everything then went to Mamilla Mall. Garce found some solid purchases, and afterwards we went to Aroma Cafe for lunch. It was weird eating at a restaurant when I was doing the whole not-Chag Chag thing, but it was totally okay because I didn't do any melachot since Garce paid for me. Afterwards we went to Sarah's apartment, where we hung out for a while and met Ilana and Adina, and then I left to hang out with Ilana for the afternoon in the Old City. We ended up just sitting and talking about the Kotel, where Dena later joined us. The three of us got some quality hangout time together, which was great, and after my not-Chag Chag was over I went back to Garce's. I got my stuff together, sadly said goodbye to the Almo family, and made my way to the Tachanat Ha'Merkazit- Central Bus Station. I got on my 400 Bus, and started feeling ridiculously nauseated so I set an alarm for half an hour later and fell asleep. I woke up just as the bus was taking the exit to my stop, so that was definitely great timing. Strangely enough, as I got up to get off of the bus I heard, "Julia!" and when I looked up and around for the voice calling my name it was none other than David Schwartz. It was lame that I couldn't talk to him for even three seconds because I was getting off of the bus, but it was crazy to see him and it makes me think that I'll see him again since I am a rather frequent passenger on that bus.
I got home and still wasn't feeling so great, so I put my stuff down and decided to eat a little something before bed. I did so, then hung out for a bit in our kitchen with some of my friends, then went to bed.
Tuesday- Akko and Rosh Ha'Nikra.
This morning I woke up early for an optional tiyul which everyone went on. First we drove to the ancient city of Akko, which was definitely a lengthy drive. I want to say somewhere around 90 minutes? But maybe longer.
We had a lovely tour by our tour guide Yeshiyah, and we started by walking around through the big Citadel which was constructed over one thousand years ago. Below are pictures of the big hall, for meals and meeting and such (on the left), and the dungeon (on the right). The dungeon was very dungeon-ey, if I may say so myself.
We spent about an hour walking around that area. It was definitely cool to see the impressive architecture and everything, but it was not the most lively or exciting of tours. Like I'm glad I did it, but it wasn't my #1. Afterwards, we got back on the bus and drove for a little bit to the Akko Jail which is totally famous. Basically it was this big time jail, used by the British to hold Jews and Arabs as prisoners for many years. In 1947 many of the Jews there were members of the Lechi, Haganah, or Etzel underground Israeli "army" units. On May 4, 1947 a large prison-break occurred, and 41 pro-Israel prisoners were able to escape. Now, the Israel Ministry of Defense is in charge of the jail. The tour that they have organized is most definitely a comprehensive and organized way to show the jail, and I definitely appreciated that. We were led room by room through the jail, and in each room we watched a video about what had occurred in that room. But the videos were interconnected in that the story of the jail was told through a re-make of the jail-break. We saw the perspectives of Lechi, Haganah, and Etzel members, which was a really interesting and seemingly all-encompassing way to do it. I guess I have never really been to a jail before, though, so thinking about and internalizing everything that had gone on in the same places that I was standing was a little bit unsettling to me. But I totally appreciated the tour, and I'm glad I had the chance to learn about and see the Akko jail.
The view from the first room that prisoners who were to be tried would enter. I thought that seeing that beautiful view, but behind bars, was symbolic of the whole jail scene in general.
This is a plaque with part of Ha'Tikvah on it, which sits on the wall behind the gallows. The reason that only half of Ha'Tikvah is there is because when men who were fighting for Israel were hung there, they would sing Ha'Tikvah and unfortunately be hanged before they could finish singing it.
If the jail did anything for me it seriously motivated me to continue down the wonderful path of legality which I have lived my whole life. There is definitely no reason for me to go to jail...
When we finished in Akko we drove for a little while to a place called Rosh Ha'Nikra-- the northwestern most point of Israel. Literally on the other side of these huge clay mountain things lies Lebanon. It was absolutely stunning. I'm serious when I say that the color of the water is 8,000,000% indescribable. As beautiful as the pictures below are, they don't do it justice- at all. I could have just stared into the ocean for hours and hours, but unfortunately we had to go back tonight. While we were there we went through these awesome water-made tunnels, and just walked around and enjoyed the view. I felt so bad for my friend Aimee, who hurt her ankle in Akko.. It was really lame. But we had some quality bonding time because I carried her around for a lot of the Rosh Ha'Nikra trip. Though she had done the tour before, so she did not come with us through the tunnels and we just sat together for a lot of the staring time.
Before taking a cable car down to the ocean this is the view.. I though it was cool with the Israeli flags there.
The totally incredible and unbelievable color of the water inside of the caves!!! It was super deep but we could see all the way to the bottom because of how clear it is... I would have paid so much money to be able to swim in that.
View from just outside of the tunnels... Also stunning.
When everyone finished enjoyed the beauty of the water we got back on the bus, and most of us spent a couple of hours sleeping. When I got back I showered, went to the store to buy some food, and I've just been hanging around since. I'm about to go to bed because it's way too late for me, but below are some other little things that I am deciding to share with you all... Enjoy!
I sent an email to my mom on Sunday morning, and I thought I would share it with you all. Despite my honest seriousness, I think it's a funny email. So here it is:
"I am currently about to express to you my first of hopefully very few "cries for help" throughout this year... I realized this morning that one of the biggest errors in judgment I have made in my entire life is that life would be all good and dandy if I just showed up to this country and found a random israeli product to substitute for my pantene pro-v curly hair mousse. Boy, was I wrong. Though I will say that I have, impressively, made my singular bottle last an entire month in attempt to prolong the time I have to find a new product, what I have found in this time is that nothing is going to be anywhere near the same. And unfortunately I like my hair with the mousse in it. So my cry to you, mother dearest, is a request for you to send me a couple of bottles of mousse in a package in the mail. I think I'll cry if you fulfill this wish, just fyi."
Thank goodness she responded by saying, "Well my darling daughter it is an honor and a privilege to say yes to you.
I will ship some on Wednesday."
I almost cried... It was so exciting.
By the way, a couple of things that I miss about home:
The non-chalky taste of green grapes, crunchy Washington apples, guaranteed Kashrut of fruit wherever you go, and Cappy's Boxing Gym... Just sayin.
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