A First Time for Everything: Travel Abroad, Israel, Interviews, Backyard Tours, and More

Currently, I'm sitting in Israel on a bed eating Max Brenner chocolates (these things are dangerous!) way too late at night, thinking about how I should probably get around to doing this blog. It's going to take far more time and energy than I ever imagined it would and so I won't be updating it as much as I envisioned because I don't have a lot of spare time, but here's the first one!

NYC lights

After handing my last paper of the semester in by email at 5pm Friday afternoon (almost a week ago), I started packing, which turned out to be a rather stressful process. I took a break only to eat a very apropos Shabbat dinner of Ethiopian Doro Wat (of sorts), which my thoughtful mother cooked as a going-away meal. All that was missing was some injera, but we had Indian naan instead. It was a late night packing, but by the end of it I had one 37 lb suitcase and a big backpack with all my books and papers. I definitely get the prize for lightest packer for a 40 day trip or, at the very least, I should get a prize for not over-packing as a first-time international traveler! After services the next morning, grabbing a quick bite to eat at oneg, and lots of hugs, waves, and prayers, I started my journey to JFK. Thanks to Debra Lundgren's excellent driving ability and a limited amount of my own navigation skills, we had a, thankfully, uneventful trip down. Getting through security wasn't a problem and I was 2 hours early to my gate. Fast-forward all that boring stuff. My plane took off about 10pm Saturday evening December 18th from JFK. The blanket of NYC lights below me was so beautiful. I purposefully chose a window seat for this reason. It's always dificult for me to choose between a window or aisle seat, but I have a good bladder, so I usually pick the window. This time it served me well- I went to the sheyrutim right before getting into my seat and didn't have to use them again until I got to Ben Gurion. And I managed to stave off any potential blood clots with some muscle exercises in my seat, so it all worked out without me ever having to physically leave my seat.

Before landing in Tel Aviv on Sunday afternoon. This view gives a good look at the new board walks on the Tel Aviv beaches.

Long plane rides are one of those necessary evils I suppose. Uncomfortable seats and annoying people behind me made for fitful sleeping and the meals were hardly edible (only the salad and fruit were bearable). But I got some sleep and had fun talking with the man seated next to me who was not the typical Israeli enchanted with America. Needless to say, we agreed about a lot of things. And then I had arrived and I couldn't believe it. I didn't kiss the ground or anything. Honestly, man-made concrete and carpeted floors don't really create the romantic effect I envisioned. Maybe I would have been more emotional if it had been dirt or if I had actually paid more of a price to get there, more like the price of the Ethiopian women I interviewed yesterday who lost many members of her family and community on the trek to the Ethiopia-Sudan border on the way to Israel. Fortunately, in my case, I was pre-warned of the unrighteous state of this country before I decided to spend the energy to come here, so my dreams, unlike hers, weren't dashed to pieces and I didn't request to be sent back home upon seeing the "Holy Land."

Some Israeli homes along a street in Kiryat Haim on my morning commute to Avi and Hannah's house. Their structure reminds me of Navaho homes.

Lest I spend too much time on details, I will refrain from giving a detailed account of everything and transition into sharing some more general observations and experiences:

The hardest adjustment has been to the more fluid, non-chalent, take-it-as-it-comes, passage of time here. There's not as much of a sense of urgency about anything and I don't have my whole life planned out in advance like I tend to try and do back home. But this could be good for me. . .it simply forces me to release control to the only One who really has it anyway. Jet lag wasn't a big deal. All those late nights and all-nighters as a college student had me well-prepared. In some ways, I feel like I've been here forever already!

I'm staying, for my first 2 1/2 weeks, in Kiryat Haim (just north of Haifa) with an American-Ethiopian-Israeli couple and their three kids aged 8, 5, and 2. It is really the ideal situation for me in so many ways. They are so welcoming, I don't think I've ever been in a more hospitable environment. I've been able to ease into the language and culture differences at a nice pace since they speak primarily English at home. I've been able to practice my Hebrew a bit with the 8 and 5 year-old girls who are more on my level in terms of language ability. I've been able to help out with the kids and be a general blessing around the house. Avi is this amazing resource of an Ethiopian man who can speak English, Hebrew, and Amharic fluently, and who is arranging all the interviews I could have ever dreamed of AND who translates for me. And I'm officially receiving the backyard tour, real-life experience that visitors to Israel don't usually get either because they spend all their time at the tourist spots or they don't want the real-life experience. But, as I've told Hannah and Avi a million times, I really appreciate this backyard touring since I hate feeling like a tourist. I've quite literally walked through people's back yards, visited the local library, gone to an after-school kids tennis event at the community center, and had my first Israeli falafel experience at a small-town street shop.

 Tuesday was my first trip to the SuperSal, the Israeli supermarket. It was fun, but not very different from a supermarket in the US. We entered the store when it was light out and left when it was dark. Let's just say Hannah was glad I was there and I will remember for the future never to take three hungry children into a grocery store when I'm eight months pregnant, and exhausted from the earlier part of the day. I made sure to purchase some foods that I couldn't leave Israel without trying. That included an authentic IDF experience as I closed my eyes and drank Shoko (chocolate milk) from a bag and an Israeli schoolchild's lunch experience of shnitzel (breaded and fried chicken breast) and ptitim (small pasta with the appearance of couscous but the texture of spaghetti). After adding some bisli, bomba, pita, local oranges, dates, and various dairy products to my cart, I was set.

Sderot Kakal. Part of my commute between where I'm sleeping on HaPlugot and where Avi and Hannah live on HaKibbutzim.

Avi and Hannah's driveway. They live right by a school, the noises from which I can hear almost as soon as I turn onto HaKibbutzim from Sderot Kakal in the late morning.

The weather is ideal for me here. Just hovering in the low 70s and not too humid. It's like fall in the US, except that there are flowers in bloom all over and it doesn't get nippy until evening.

This is the building where Avi and Hannah and the kids live. People don't seem to care about their front yards very much, but usually the back yards are greener with plants and orange/clementine/guava trees.

Israeli Hibiscus

The park near the house which Mati and I played at when I watched him one morning. That's really ingenious thing to do with the tires.

Signing off for the night, but I will try to give more frequent, shorter updates.

Looking ahead: details from interviews with Ethiopian Israelis, tutoring Ethiopian kids in English at a community center in Kiryat Haim, Shabbat service at Ohalei Rachamim, pics of Avi, Hannah, Desta, Kidan, Mati, and I.

~Jerusha