Here and There

Hello People,

So where am I? Right now I am in Tel Aviv, but we will get to that later. I have been down south in the Arava at Kibbutz Yahel. We arrived Monday Tuesday morning and had a great welcome tour where we learned about the Kibbutz and ate some Pomellos... which is a citrus fruit they grow there. They are delicious. We then unpacked the bus, moved into our rooms, and had some rest time. Wednesday morning, we joined together as a group, and started our kibbutz orientation. We learned about what all we're going to be doing, and decided as a group how we would build our own Netzer community among the larger Kibbutz community. Every week, we will work three and a half days, have educational classes one day,and take a trip off of the Kibbutz every Wednesday, and then we usually have Shabbat chofesh (free day). Every week will be busy and very exciting, and I'm excited to get involved in and learn more about the Kibbutz. We then had a chance to shop for some groceries and get started on dinner. On the kibbutz, we only eat communal meals in the Chadar Ochel  (dining hall) during lunch, so that leaves us to cook dinner and prep breakfast as individual rooms (mine being a room of three guys)... but thankfully our cooking hasn't been to horrible yet.

Thursday morning we got to work. Our first day of work, we were given special placement, and for about 5 hours we stood around tables peeling and wrapping sticker labels for fancy dates. There were supposedly 11,000 to complete, and while we didn't quite reach the goal, we go pretty close.  After working Thursday morning, we had lunch and then got started with Hebrew lessons. We first took a placement test, and it was pretty rough for most of the group. Out of 33, there were probably only 3-4 who made it past the first few questions.

After class Thursday, the weekend started, and 4 of us decided to take a bus to Tel Aviv. Its really nice having good public transportation, and there was a bus stop right outside the gates of our Kibbutz. When I got to Tel Aviv, I met up with my friend Ori, from camp GUCI, and he has been a wonderful host to the city. Yesterday, Friday, we spent the whole day around the town, starting with an incredible hummus place in Old Jaffa, where only the locals go... it was quite possibly the best hummus I've ever had. Then we walked around a lot, saw some flee markets, ran some errands at the mall (since the Kibbutz is in the middle of nowhere), and eventually showed up at his parents art galley. His family owns a really neat art gallery right in the center of town, and I really liked the sculpture garden, but the real reason we went was to meet up with my parents, who were in Tel Aviv for the day and wanted to see the gallery and me! It was good to see them but sad to say goodbye (even though it was like the 4th time we said goodbye!) I joined Ori's family last night for shabbat dinner at his grandparents house, and had a great meal and very interesting conversations.

Today, I'm just relaxing, and I will catch a bus back to Yahel tonight, ready to start more work on the kibbutz and learn more Hebrew. This next week will be a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to see what our Tiyul (day trip) on Wednesday will have in store!

 I will leave you with a picture of a Pomello... its sort of like a sweet grapefruit.

-Ethan