I am sharing my journey in Israel, so please share your comments, questions, thoughts!!! I want to know who has read my blog posts and "likes" on Facebook disappear with time so PLEASE instead of "like"-ing PLEASE leave me a comment - short or medium or long - on this blog!!
Also you'll have to excuse the typos and sentence fragments as I am typing this on my phone either in bed (while tired) or madly jotting notes( trying to keep up with my stream of consciousness while I ride the bumpy & dark bus).
My program is pronounced Tagleet and I will need to thank one Jenna Potash who, in tandem with my Grandma Jarvis, née Hildegard Rossbach, are the reason I am here. Jenna and I randomly met one day years ago while taking the bus to and from SFU. She was part of Hillel and invited me to join and encouraged me to feel safe and to protect the spark burning inside me my whole life that insistently whispers "am I Jewish?" in my soul. Her boyfriend was Israeli and she was from Toronto and she had an amazing voice and incredibly warm smile. I think she moved back to Toronto and we didn't really stay in touch (nor did we get to hang out much in the first place as I was busy working at the Keg and taking a full courseload) but I am going to track her down when I am home and send her a huge THANK YOU, probably with a link to this very blog, so she can see what this experience has been to me.
There are 40 of us in my group, from the Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver/Victoria areas. We are all between 23-26 and some will turn 27 on this trip. Plus we have our bus driver, our Israeli educator Yoav, an Israeli guard/medic whose name escapes me right now [edit: Eliran], and our 'madrichim;' Rotem and Megan. Rotem is from Israel but has lived in Toronto and currently resides in Vancouver, and is a duel citizen. Megan is another teacher :) who specializes in PE and Math for grades 7&8 at a private catholic school in Montreal. She grew up going to Jewish Dayschool, from elementary to grad... I didn't even know those existed! It is both Rotem and Megan's first time as Madrichim. I really like both of them and I think they're a great team. It's not necessarily easy to manage a group of 40 when you're close to the same age plus there are strict policies regarding alchohol since it's a sponsored trip, and naturally those need to be enforced, so it must be tough to juggle everything. I have a lot of appreciation for what Megan and Rotem are doing: planning, monitoring, encouraging, learning... I find myself reflecting on my professional practice as a Teacher constantly in this context.
My groupmates are tagging their photos on Instagram with #taglitbirthright , (#taglit or #birthright as well) so I encourage you to search #taglitbirthright on Instagram and see photos from either my group or previous groups (there were about 200 posts with that hashtag this morning when we decided to start using it, but those are all from previous group trips from last summer.)
Dinner TBA - I'll describe the food!!
You'll see a lot of random incomplete thoughts just jotted down;
example: Kate and Annie - my grandparents neighbours & Sharon's daughters & one of them worked on a Kibbutz (Kate I think)
^I'm basically just trying to keep a record of all my thoughts so I can grow a kind of mental map and better comprehend my Jewish identity. Some of you will 'get' some references, and some of you won't. Anyone in my mom's family knows Kate and Annie and Mary Jane, so otherwise just don't worry if I say stuff you don't thing is a complete sentence or something about someone you don't know about.
alright... My trip... I took the red-eye from Vancouver 10:20 and arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport in the COMPLETE CHAOS of Pearson at five AM local time. I had a lot of time to kill so I was amused watching lines snake throughout the terminal and observing airline employees frustratedly respond to frantic customers and it reminded me of when the kitchen at the Keg is 'in the weeds' (that's kitchen talk for UH-OH we're way too busy to keep up).
When I asked Sarina she confirmed there's a brand new gym at Pearson so i decided to check it out, liked what i saw. it's suuuper nice, an all kind of open to the terminal so it's nice and cool. Started out in massage chair from stiff flight shoulders then ran 2.13 miles (just over 5k) in 34 minutes. Bizarre that it was almost effortless - extra adrenaline in excitement leading up to the trip? (Now that i am waking up one day later i can definitely tell that my muscles were used.)
Pearson airport Q lounge after the gym, slept on the chairs pushed together, woke up from nap very disoriented after watching Elysium on the plane (Amazing movie!! Action and Sci fi) anyways Q lounge at Pearson Airport is covered with a futuristic ceiling of skylights and I was so disoriented upon waking after watching that movie that I opened my eyes to see the domes skylights and felt like I was waking up in the future. I didn't even know who I was!!
Met up w/ group by E orange info map, about 8 of us to start, grew to 40. One girl Emily had apparently been on my flight but lost her wallet with 500 cash, credit cards & passport. We waited for updates to see if she could get an emergency passport printed in time.
Extra security measure at Pearson in the waiting area for C70 boarding area. They emptied the room and then eventually we were able to re-enter but they swabbed out hands, our hip, our bag handle and our bag then scanned their swab to detect traces if explosive devices. Apparently on special request from Israeli gov't but not an isolated procedure.
Amazing panino Mediterranean chicken. Made me remember Anne Higgins' pet peeve about Panino vs. Panini from Italy 2010!
On plane started watching a québécois film about 3 guys confronting their biological clock but I fell asleep before it ended. The people on the plane are SO nice. Couple from Montreal: she's québécoise, CEGEP teacher, teaches francophone literature at collège/cegep. New husband = Israeli, their first trip there as a couple. Sat with Jeffrey who studied in Botswana and Rwanda doing a stage (internship). Reading "the fifth _______" <good quote
Tough to type b/c my sleepiness hasn't worn off, and my phone App for Weebly (my web host) seems to be causing problems... stuff is copying / pasting without me doing anything at all.
Beef and gravy with rice pilaf, omelette and roasted tomatoe with hahbrowns. Fruit
Still on the plane. Very religious men wearing a white fringe off their hip. I know not to touch Rabbis but is it the same for them? Gets very uncomfortable when you're not allowed to touch but we're all waiting for the bathroom in a tight space.
Awful coffee but Delicious kosher pareve breakfast (what does pareve even mean?)
Off the plane in Tel Aviv, got our bags, stood under a sign that said "Smile". Changed quickly into sundress b/c looks gorgeous outside & sure enough it is - palm trees and birds singing.
Director of Taglit-Birthright Israel is there to greet us so we sit on the steps in the sunshine beneath the palm trees and listen to this amazing orator deliver one of the best speeches I've heard: *rough quote: embed video or audio clip later *
[State of Israel exists since 65 years ago, but the age of Zionism is 120. There are football teams in Germany whose anthom dates back further than Israel.
Hungarian cuisine documented in longer depth than Israel.
Polish-Jewish grandparents. discoered his bio grandpa was murdered by nazi Went into A kind of primitive
Wikipedia called a library. 200 meters down the road from Haifa...
After IDF travel to Rio dijinaro, Thailand for self discovery
Bob Dylan= Robert Zimmerman
Jewish movies did not start with bleat
Jewish food isn't just Bagel and lox
Or cliched Movies
Iroquois -?? Typo
Greek Jewish tapas mezze
Judaism has Songs from last 2000 years
Last year #1 hit remix comes from Haggadah which our people have sung for 3000 years.
450 820 participants
Over a billion dollars have sponsored participants since inception.
Founded by Montrealer Bronfmann & steinhardt etc. philanthropists who pay 1/3, state of Israeli taxes pay for rich Americans to come for free. They could have paid teachers more or paid for better roads or paid for another F squadron to protect our skies but they pay for Taglit because the future of the existence of Israel depends largely on Taglit. That one hit home for me.
Taste, touch, inhale. And then when you land back in Canada. At least you know where you belong but it is your right to be here.
You are here because we understand that without you to lie back on all we have is 65 years. We need each other. This is how social not-networking is. Experience together and discover our joint past and hopefully creating out joint future. An offering of friendship. ]"
Wow. I can't even describe how amazing it is to hear words that resonate so deeply - words that affirm a part of my identity that I have felt too timid, confused, nervous to claim as my own, as though it would be denied of me but here I am being told "welcome home" - that Israel is mine and that this Jewish heritage is mine; something I've waited 26 years to hear. My great-grandparents' names are at Yad Vishim beside his. And so Israel is mine and I am allowed to feel Jewish.
Birds in the palm trees singing.
Mifgash=reverse birthright for IDF soldiers. Five marriages so far that he knows of from Birthright groups he has organized.
Company that rents cellphones right at our bus, 49 cents per day. good old tour bus like a greyhoiund (reminds me of Mexico! @Michelle&Kyle, @Lindsey&Marty, @Courtney&Janger)
Tagel=Flag, everyone takes turns carrying, must always be visible so no tuckin it into a pocket or a bag, no mercy if its lost
Mispareil Barktzel then roundoff up to 40 = Tagel
Sababah = Arabic for its all good /cool/awesome
Tour guide is hilarious. Very Assertive. We're gonna have a small chitchat as if I care. Makes you take your sunglasses, say your name 5x no blinking, and tell him a bit about yourself like military interrogation style. I said I was from Vancouver-ish and he said that was very Jew-ish of me! Haha!
Stopped in our first town for lunch, did a Map of Land of Israel vs. Polical / Geography lesson with 2 guys on the ground. Mike and Jeremy, Jordan border and East Bank. one hour to have lunch, most people went to get Falafel/Shawarma but my stomach feels a bit off and not hungry so bought yogurt for later, should have gotten Miso soup. Cooler out so i wore leggings @ sweater w/sundress. Got yogurt & granola from grocery store & Ben knew how to read the Hebrew on labels so he was pointing at things and saying "this is good" etc. & used washroom, remembered to CHECK FOR PAPER before peeing!! (probably in my top three travel rules!) then got a coffee they taught me some Hebrew on a napkin.
Adir bought this amazing chocolate covered fresh marshmallow. & shared and then promptly half broke off and fell on the ground.
Walked further up the street & took photos - gates, signs, shadows because sun is setting. There was a lemon tree with big fat fruit, Kitties all over - white, grey, black, kittens. Expensive clothing stores shoes are like 300-500 shekls (/3 for Canadian conversion). 2nd hand clothing stores more affordable & looking forward to having time to browse when I'm in my third week.
I'm starting to learn some names:
Steven from Calgary
Jessica Vancouver - I can tell we're going to be great friends.
Adir Montreal SO nice, shared some fruit leather and these amazing chocolate marshmallows. Not his first time here.
Logan piercing eyes & only packed a carry-on [update: he's a Canadian soldier, which explains his ability to pack light!]
Jordan has awesome style: a spike in his eyebrow and a braided beard, is traveling to Hong Kong for a week after. Owns a food truck in Winnipeg. Cool!
Ben leant me his laptop on the plane so I could try to blog, takes Psychology of learning
Max Montreal
Alex Med school (Karev from Grey's Anatomy)
Right where we exited the park to re-board the bus there was an old man pressing Pomegranates and Oranges for Juice. I took his picture after asking and then gave him two shekl.
Star of David built into the houses like the stucco sticks out. Murals of portraits with dates underneath. Stop signs with a white silhouette of hands up palm out like STOP
Played "Bang-Bang" in a park with beautiful trees. [note to self-try to remember this icebreaker activity so I can use it at school!] Info panels explaining each species & little Israeli children on the playground behind me. The game was a good way to practice everyone's name & Jonathan won, so he has to plan something for our 2nd to last night. (How that is a prize is beyond me!)
Back on the bus
Rolling hills and twisting roads . Jordan is sleeping (update: snoring!!) in the aisle of the bus. Literally lying on the floor sleeping. and the alleys are so narrow that everyone is cheering as we successfully squeeze through. This bus driver has serious skills. Reminds me of being in busses with my foreign studies programs - or nuns racing through Tuscan villages packed into teeny clown-like cars.
Israeli app called "ways" (update: Waze=israeli app social navigation sharing thing) to avoid traffic but the app does not know we are a bus. Used to be the best app ever until a month ago because it was sold to Google. A fee billion dollars sold, biggest app transaction ever in Israel) And now the app doesn't work as well. Israelis have been using Ways for two years with no problems and now it's the 2nd time in 3 weeks that it has lead them wrong. We'll be arriving a bit later to the Kibbutz but that's ok. <tour guide on loudspeaker. Everyone is excited because the bus is now reversing down that same narrow alley. "Mad respect" "oh my Gosh" "ok this is totally why we tipped $70 each" "this &$#* is surgical, man! He didn't even hit that blade of grass" "he's a champion" hahhaha I'm laughing listening to everyone react. "Zero cares being given by that other car" random tractor.
Making me remember being stuck in awful traffic coming back into Prato, and we had that epic bus diver who was this dashing Italian man, and he gunned it past this jerk driver with a size complex and we all erupted in applause.
The shop signs are completely in Hebrew script. I have NO idea what any of the stores are. It's rolling hills with patches of lights.
Now they're honking and we're blocking an intersection. And I have to pee. We get out and everyone claps.
Street meat vendors.
6pm we arrive at Kibbutz Moran for first night & pass over our passports to the Madrichim to keep in 'The Bag of Life'. Everyone is going to think I'm addicted to my phone but it's because I'm typing his all out: the bus is too bumpy and dark to handwrite in my actual journal. Off the bus backpack on and I'm very glad I put leggings on earlier! It's frigid. Use the paths & dinner is at 7:30 so we have one hour
Introductions with Traffic light m&m's for relationship status. That's weird for me, makes me feel like they're hinting that we should be thinking about that during the trip (let's put Jewish young adults together and hope that they fall in love?).
Question to research later What's 'the march'? [update: The March of the Living]
Jackie will also be in Tel Aviv extending 2 months
Birthright started 14yrs ago
Educational tour - not a vacation.
Arabeh- that's where we got stuck
Tomorrow we're going to the upper Galilee
We have to follow Shabbat rules on Saturday (we don't use the bus) and at night we will leave and go for food.
Day 4 Sunday check out and go to Golan Heights to learn more about political convicts and Syrian relationship and history of conflict and now 2.5 years of war in Syria
Go to Natalia (spelling?)
Soldiers join us in area of Tel Aviv for the Mifgash
Then to Negev Desert
Day 6=Tuesday Hiking close to Gaza Strip borders keep Justin desert Bedouin tents
Day 7 kibbutz in desert
Day 8 Yad Vashem all morning (Jersualem)
Afternoon = Mount Herzl, relationship btwn Holocaust & creation of he state of Israel
Friday old city Jerusalem Kotel western wall, special Shabbat dinner an then celebration
Shabbat
Sunday hiking area of Jerusalem, waiting for outcome of last storm
Some things on the itinerary have been changed because of the storm that happened last weekend we may see some damage when we are traveling.
Every night we will go over the next day's schedule
Tomorrow: back in time to prepare at Shabbat. 4:00 pm
1) city of tzfat=birthplace of Kanalah, Talmud, medieval synagogues (best place for Jewish art, calligraphy) you may wish to shop for Shabbat.
Instructions for us women: bring a skirt or scarf or shawl for entering into Synagogue. Bring hat to protect from sun. Water. Wallet. And designated time for shopping - best place for judaïca souvenirs.
Shoulder, elbow, knees must be covered.
Boys need a kippah or a hat.
Wake up call is at 0600 tomorrow
Breakfast at 6:45, bus leaves at 7:30
Learned a bit from Karly about Shabbat dinner and sundown-sundown practice. The day of rest takes me back to The Little House on the Prairie books of my childhood.
, then Israel - Lebanese border
(After dinner & group program sharing session.)
Talked to Zoe outside (camping w/uncle Fred and made friends with a Zoe and her brother and made friendship bracelets. I brake aware of a new thread that has been presebt my whole life. Grandma > historical fiction number the stars, The Devil's arithmetic (favoueire because of intro, includes some insight intro religious tradition of Shabbat) read probably 6 times then MAUS in university on my ENG 100-fiction course reading list then studied in Prague and tezerib and annexation. The mapping exercise with Matt and Heeemly was tremendously helpful analogy as I keep returning to that image in my mind.
My back hurts.
What's the March
Why no pork?
What is Hamas
How is Hamas different from typical Palestinian government
How do you feel towards Palestinian people? I feel love, compassion. I also know I have some reading to do when I get home, but I'm very relieved to see that the Israeli people do not speak badly of Palestinians.
Original Palestine in the books I read. Tezerin children's drawings. This trip is sewing together all of the things I have learned from previous travels in places like Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.
I got to speak French with Rob & the Montrealers today. Being around Hebrew for some reason switches my brain into French mode. It's like my mind knows "ok! Not an English environment!" and goes into the next language mode.
Woke up 2:36 an with drool on my face and questions in my heart. I got up with a tremendous feeling of urgency to write down my thoughts before they flee. I must have been processing in an insane dream cycle
Hiding under my blanket typing while the girls talk in their sleep (Karly &Keanna) Typing and shaking partly from cold partly from excitement of trying to get all my memories typed out before I forget them!
My questions for Yoav, our ever-swearing educator who is not the prim and proper 40's-something calm 'Mrs. Frizzle'-type tour guide I predicted we would have. He is maybe 40, virile, no-nonsense, a class clown but not a fool. He is exactly my kind of people.
Mispareil Bartzel in a sharing circle, Tagul when from number 2-3 for the night and the whole flag deal is teeming with metaphor: he'll probably debrief the flag at the end of the 10 days with something about how Israel never leaves you. It stays with you when you sleep and when you travel and when you eat. I have a Canadian flag in my bag that stays with me. I get feisty about politics because i care about human rights, ethics, environmental impact (caught myself probably 6 times alreay worrying about waste and pollution and recycling - on the plane with the tray of food in all plastic that i KNOW wont be recycled...like who are [Israelis] to pollute the earth and be complicit in the use of disposable plastics and yet claim to themselves be profoundly religious and dedicated to God. I care that Canada exist as a place where EVERYONE can feel at home. There may not be war at home but there is a fight to survive among the FIRST Nations people. The oppression of my Jewish ancestors brings me to an understanding and defence of my First Nations brothers and sisters and I care. Reminds me that I stood up and spoke @ BCTF social justice forum last year w/Trevor S. in the room with me & the girl who held up the STOP HARPER sign in Legislature : Brigitte DePape. I am so grateful to her for being a whistle blower: She is the future and she is telling Harper to STOP. It breaks my heart.
More of my questions to explore later:
Who is Ben Gurion (airport named after.
How to say Nicole in Hebrew
Write Down in front of him as I take notes.
Madrichim = trip leaders
Yoav = educator
= our medic /armed guard, he is young but was a commander in the IDF and lost soldiers
Explain IDF draft & how Israelis see it
Why not bring to light other genocide? Why focus on building a political state rather than expose truths about Darfur, Rwanda, Sri Lanka?
Gay community in Tel Aviv - how are they received all over Israel
What does being Jewish mean to you (questions for Yael)
This is exactly my element. Where my hyperactive mind is put to work & I feel stimulated, active. I follow and I can feel informed and like I have good perspective on this and on what I learn.
Takes to Zoe outside (camping w/uncle Fred and made friends with a Zoe and her brother and made friendship bracelets. I brake aware of a new thread that has been presebt my whole life. Grandma > historical fiction number the stars, The Devil's arithmetic (favoueire because of intro, includes some insight intro religious tradition of Shabbat) read probably 6 times then MAUS in university on my ENG 100-fiction course reading list then studied in Prague and tezerib and annexation. The mapping exercise with Matt and Heeemly was tremendously helpful analogy as I keep returning to that image in my mind.
My back hurts.
What's the March
Why no pork?
What is Hamas
How is Hamas different from typical Palestinian government
How do you feel towards Palestinian people
Original Palestine in the books I read. Tezerin children's drawings. This trip is sewing together all of the things u have learned from previous travels
French with rob, montrealersa
Woke up 2:36 an with drool on my face and questions in my heart. I got up and peed with a tremendous feeling of urgency to write down my thoughts before they flee. I must have been processing in an insane dream cycle
Hiding under my blanket typing while the girls talk in their sleep (Karly &Keanna) Typing and Shaking partly from cold partly from excitement.
My questions for Yael our ever-swearing educator who is not the prim and proper 40's something calm ms. Frizzle tour guide I predicted we would have. He is maybe 40, virile, no-nonsense, a class clown but not a bullshitter. He is exactly my kind of people.
Mispareil Bartzel in a sharing circle, Tagul when from number 2-3 for the night and the whole flag deal is teeming with metaphor: he'll probably debrief the flag at the end of the 10 days with something about how Israel never leaves you. It stays with you when you sleep and 'shit shower and shave' (btw I shave in the shower, makes me think about my dorm room in Tours) and when you travel and when you eat. I have a Canadian flag in my bag that stays with me. I get feisty about politics because i care about human rights, ethics, environmental impact (caught myself probably 6 times alreay worrying about qaste and pollution and recycling - on the plane wirh the teay kf food in all plastic thay i LNOW wont be recycled...like who the f*** are they to pollute the earth and be complicit in the use of disposable plastics and yet claim to themselves be profoundly religious and dedicated to God. i care that Canada exist as a place where EVERYONE can feel at home. There may not be war at home but there is a fight to survive among the FIRST nations people. The oppression of my Jewish ancestors brings me to an understanding and defence of my First Nations brothers and sisters and I care. For up and spoke @ BCTF social justice forum last year w/Trevor Spilchen in the room with me & the girl who held up the STOP HARPER sign in Legislature : Brigitte DePape. I am so grateful to her for being a whistle blower: HARPER for god's sake she is the future and she is telling you STOP. It breaks my heart.
Who is Ben Gurion (airport named after.
How to say Nicole in Hebrew
Write Down in front of him as I take notes.
Madrichim = trip leaders
Yael = educator
= our medic /armed guard, he is young but was a commander in the IDF and lost soldiers
Explain IDF draft & how Israelis see it
Why not bring to light other genocide? Why focus on building a political state rather than expose truths about Darfur, Rwanda, Sri Lanka?
Gay community in Tel Aviv - how are they received all over Israel
What does being Jewish mean to you
Kate and Annie - my grandparents neighbours & Sharon's daughters & one of them worked on a Kibbutz (Kate I think)
I went to the gym in Toronto Intl airport & started out in a massage chair from stiff flight shoulders then ran 2.13 miles in 34 minutes. Bizarre that it was almost effortless - extra adrenaline in excitement leading up to the trip? (Now that I am waking up one day later i can definitely tell that my muscles were used!)
Pearson airport: woke up from nap very disoriented after watching Elysium on my flight. The airport’s futuristic ceiling (all skylights) made me so disoriented because it felt like I was waking up in the futuristic film’s world.
Met up w/ my Birthright group by “E” orange info map, about 8 of us to start, grew to 40. One girl Emily had apparently been on my flight but lost her wallet with $500 cash, credit cards & passport. We waited for updates to see if she could get an emergency passport printed in time to not miss our flight to Tel Aviv.
Extra security measure at Pearson in the waiting area for C70 boarding area: They emptied the room and then eventually we were able to re-enter but they swabbed out hands, our hips, our bag handle and our bag then scanned their swab to detect traces if explosive devices. Apparently this was on special request from Israeli gov't, but not an isolated procedure.
Amazing panino: Mediterranean chicken, makes me think I’m already in Europe, not in a Canadian airport.
On plane started watching a quebecois movie about 3 guys confronting biological clock but fell asleep. Met a couple from Montreal, she's québécoise, teaches francophone lit at collège/cegep
Tough to type b/c my sleeping pill hasn't work off
Very religious men wearing a white fringe off their hip. I know not to touch Rabbis but is it the same for them? Gets very uncomfortable when we're all waiting for the bathroom
Awful coffee
Delicious kosher pareve breakfast (what does pareve even mean?)
On plane: Sat with Jeffrey who studied in Botswana and Rwanda doing a stage. Reading "the fifth _______" <good quote
Off the plane, got our bags, stood under a sigbthat said "Smile". Changes quickly into sundress b/c looks gorgeous outside & sure enough it is - palm trees and birds singing.
Director of Taglit-Birthright Israel is there to greet us so we sit on the steps in the sunshine beneath the palm trees and listen to this amazing orator deliver one of the best speeches I've heard: *rough quote*
[State of Israel exists since 65 years ago, but the age of Zionism is 120. There are football teams in Germany whose anthom dates back further than Israel.
Hungarian cuisine documented in longer depth than Israel.
He has Polish-Jewish grandparents. discovered his bio grandpa was murdered by nazi Went into a kind of primitive Wikipedia called a library.
After IDF travel to Rio dijinaro, Thailand for self discovery
Bob Dylan= Robert Zimmerman
Jewish movies did not start with bleat
Jewish food isn't just Bagel and lox
Or cliched Movies
Iroquois -?? Typo
Greek Jewish tapas mezze
Judaism has Songs from last 2000 years
Last year #1 hit remix comes from Haggadah which our people have sung for 3000 years.
450 820 participants
Over a billion dollars have sponsored participants since inception.
Founded by Montrealer Bronfmann & steinhardt etc. philanthropists who pay 1/3, state of Israeli taxes pay for rich Americans to come for free. They could have paid teachers the salary they deserve or paid for better roads or paid for another F squadron to protect our skies.
Taste, touch, inhale. And then when you land back in Canada. At least you know where you belong but it is your right to be here.
You are here because we understand that without you to lie back on all we have is 65 years. We need each other. This is how social not-networking is. Experience together and discover our joint past and hopefully creating out joint future. An offering of friendship. ]"
Wow. I can't even describe how amazing it is to hear words that resonate so deeply - words that affirm a part of my identity that I have felt too timid, confused, nervous to claim as my own, as though it would be denied of me but here I am being told "welcome home" - that Israel is mine and that this Jewish heritage is mine; something I've waited 26 years to hear. My great-grandparents' names are at Yad Vishim beside his.
Birds in the palm trees singing.
Mifgash=reverse birthright for IDF soldiers. Five marriages so far that he knows of from Birthright groups he has organized.
Company that rents cellphones right at our bus, 49 cents per day. good old tour bus like a greyhound (reminds me of Mexico! @Michelle&Kyle, @Lindsey&Marty, @Courtney&Janger)
Our Tour Guide Yoav introduces us to ‘Dagel’ (Israeli Flag). Everyone will take turns carrying, must always be visible so no tucking it into a pocket or a bag, no mercy if its lost.
Mispareil Barktzel then roundoff up to 40. Takes me back to Girl Guides when we’d number off for attendance. Sababa = Arabic for “its all good” /cool/awesome
Tour guide is hilarious. Very Assertive. “We're gonna have a small chitchat as if I care.” Makes you take your sunglasses, say your name 5x no blinking, and tell him a bit about yourself like military interrogation style. I said I was from Vancouver-ish and he said that was very Jew-ish of me! Haha!
Stopped in our first town for lunch, did a Map of Land of Israel vs. Polical / Geography lesson with 2 guys on the ground (Mike and Jeremy). He shows us the Jordan border and East Bank. We had one hour to have lunch, most people went to get Falafel/Shawarma but my stomach feels a bit off and not hungry so I bought yogurt for later (I should have gotten Miso soup!). It’s a bit windy. Ben Gazit knew how to read the Hebrew on labels so he was pointing at things and saying "this is good" etc. at the grocery store.
Learned my lesson to take pee breaks whenever possible, and proud that I remembered to CHECK FOR PAPER before peeing!! (probably in my top three travel rules!). I got a coffee and the café employees taught me some Hebrew on a napkin.
Walked further up the street & took photos - gates, signs, shadows because sun is setting. There was a lemon tree with big fat fruit, Kitties all over - white, grey, black, kittens. Expensive clothing stores shoes are like 300-500 shekls (/3.3 for Canadian conversion). 2nd hand clothing stores more affordable & looking forward to having time to browse when I'm in my third week.
Some of my Taglit friends:
- Steven from Calgary
- Jessica from Vancouver
- Adir from Montreal is SO nice: he is always smiling and shared some fruit leather and these amazing chocolate marshmallows. Not his first time here.
- Logan has piercing eyes & only packed a carry-on, which is admirable!
- Jordan has awesome piercings and a braided beard. He is traveling to Hong Kong for a week after. He’s into parcour and seems really enthusiastic about life!
- Ben leant me his laptop. He’s taking Psychology of learning so we connected talking about Education.
- Max is from Montreal
- Alex is in Med school (Makes me think of Alex Karev from Grey's Anatomy)
Star of David built into the houses like the stucco sticks out. Murals of portraits with dates underneath. Stop signs with a white silhouette of hands up palm out instead of a typical stop sign.
Played "Bang-Bang" in a park with beautiful trees. Info panels explaining each species & little Israeli children on the playground behind me. The game was a good way to practice everyone's name & Jonathan won, so he has to plan something for our 2nd to last night.
Back on the bus
Rolling hills and twisting roads . Jordan is sleeping (update: snoring!!) in the aisle of the bus, and the alleys are so narrow that everyone is cheering as we squeeze through. Reminds me of being in busses with my foreign studies programs - nuns racing through Tuscan villages in teeny cars.
Israeli app called "ways" (Waze=israeli app social navigation sharing thing) to avoid traffic but the app does not know we are a bus. Used to be the best app ever until a month ago because it was sold to Google. A few billion dollars sold, biggest app transaction ever in Israel) And now it sucks. Israelis have been using Ways for two years with no problems and now it's the 2nd time in 3 weeks that it has led them wrong. “We'll be arriving a bit later to the Kibbutz but that's ok.” <tour guide on loudspeaker. Everyone is excited because the bus is now reversing down that same narrow alley. "Mad respect" "oh my God" "ok this is totally why we tipped $70 each" "this shit is surgical, man! He didn't even hit that blade of grass" "he's a champion" hahhaha I'm laughing listening to everyone react. "Zero effs being given by that other car.” Then we almost hit a random tractor.
It’s making me remember being stuck in awful traffic coming back into Prato, and we had an epic bus diver who was this gorgeous Italian man-specimen, and he gunned it past this jerk driver with a size complex and we all erupted in applause.
The shop signs are completely in Hebrew script. I have NO idea what any of the stores are. The landscape beyond the arab village is just rolling hills with patches of lights.
Now they're honking and we're blocking an intersection. And I have to pee. We get out and everyone claps.
Street meat vendors.
6pm we arrive at Kibbutz Moran for first night & pass over our passports to the Madrichim to keep in 'The Bag of Life'. Everyone is going to think I'm addicted to my phone but it's because I'm typing his all out: the bus is too bumpy and dark to handwrite in my journal. Off the bus, backpack on and I'm very glad I put leggings on earlier! It's frigid. “Use the paths” & dinner is at 7:30 so we have one hour.
After dinner we have group program in a side room. We do introductions with Traffic light m&m's for relationship status. Green means GO.
Some people have been in Israel before, on ‘the march,’ which seems to be a Jewish youth program that takes participants from Israel to Poland to see Holocaust sites.
Jackie will also be in Tel Aviv extending 2mo
We get some info about the program: Birthright started 14yrs ago, and it’s an Educational tour, not a vacation.
Arabeh- that's the Arab Village where we got stuck.
Tomorrow we're going to the upper Galilee
We have to follow Shabbat rules on Saturday (we don't use the bus) and at night we will leave and go for food.
Day 4: Sunday we’ll check out of the Kibbutz and go to the Golan Heights to learn more about political convicts and Syrian relationship and history of conflict and new 2.5 years of war in Syria
Go to Natanya after
Soldiers will join us in area of Tel Aviv
Then to Negev Desert
Day 6=Tuesday. We’ll be hiking close to Gaza Strip borders and staying the night in desert Bedouin tents
Day 7 kibbutz in desert
Day 8 Yad Vashem all morning (Jersualem Holocaust museum)
Afternoon = Mount Herzl, relationship btwn Holocaust & creation of the state of Israel
Friday: old city Jerusalem: Kotel western wall, special Shabbat dinner, then celebration
Shabbat = Saturday (Shabbat is a religious day of rest)
Sunday: hiking in an area close to Jerusalem, will depend on the outcome of last storm, because a lot of trees are down from the snow.
Some things on the itinerary have been changed because of the storm that happened last weekend we may see some damage when we are traveling.
Every night we will go over the next day's schedule
Tomorrow: back in time to prepare at Shabbat. 4:00 pm
1) city of tzfat=birthplace of Kabalah, Talmud, medieval synagogues (best place for Jewish art, calligraphy) you may wish to shop for Shabbat.
Girls: bring a skirt or scarf or shawl for entering into Synagogue. Bring hat to protect from sun. Water. Wallet. Designated time for shopping - best place for judaïca souvenirs. Shoulder, elbow, knees must be covered. Boys need a kippah or a hat. Wake up call is at 6:00 AM tomorrow. Breakfast at 6:45, bus leaves at 7:30, then Israel - Lebanese border
I learned a bit from Karly (one of my roommates) about Shabbat dinner and sundown-sundown practice. The day of rest takes me back to The Little House on the Prairie books of my childhood.
Pronounced Tagleet and I will need to thank one Jenna Potash who in tandem with my Grandma Hildegard Rossbach is the reason I am here. Jenna and I me one day while taking the bus to our from SFU. She was part of Hillel and invited me to join and encouraged me to feel safe and to protect the spark burning inside me my whole life that insistently whispers "I am a Jewess" to my soul. Her boyfriend was Israeli and she was from Toronto and she had an amazing voice and incredibly warm smile.
Dinner TBA - I'll describe the food!!
Kate and Annie - my grandparents neighbours & Sharon's daughters & one of them worked on a Kibbutz (Kate I think)
Actualy went to the gym in Toronto Intl airport dtarted out in massage chair from stiff flight shoulders then ran 2.13 miles in 34 minutes. Bizarre that it was almost effortless - extra adrenaline in excitement leadif up to the trip? patrick border services agent helped me with form on free weights and then asked me to go for lunch since I had time to Jill between flights and he didn't start work for a while. (Now that i am waking up one day later i can definirely tell that my muscles were used.
Pearson airport woke up from nap very disoriented after watching Elysium w/futuristic ceiling of skylights so disoriented, felt like I was waking up in the future
Patrick border services guard at the gym helped me train and chatted me up, asked me to grab a bite to eat but called back to work so came in uniform to tell me
Met up w/ group by E orange info map, about 8 of us to start, grew to 40. One girlEmily had apparently been on my flight but lost her wallet with 500 cash, credit cards & passport. We waited for updates to see if she could get an emergency passport printed in time.
Extra security measure at Pearson in the waiting area for C70 boarding area. They emptied the room and then eventually we were able to renter but they swabbed out hands, our hip, our bag handle and our bag then scanned their swab to detect traces if explosive decices. Apparently on special request from Israeli gov't but not an isolated procedure.
Amazing panino Mediterranean chicken
On plane started watching a quebecois movie about 3 guys cofronting biological clock but fell asleep. Met a couple from Montreal, she's a CEGEP teacher.
Tough to type b/c my sleeping pill hasn't worn off
Kosher food on plane. Beef and gravy with rice pilaf, omelette and roasted tomatoe with hahbrowns. Fruit
Very religious men wearing a white fringe off their hip. I know not to touch Rabbis but is it the same for them? Gets very uncomfortable when we're all waiting for the bathroom
Awful coffee
Delicious kosher pareve breakfast (what does pareve even mean?)
People are SO nice. Couple from Montreal: she's québécoise, teaches francophone lit at collège/cegep. New husband = Israeli, their first trip there as a couple.
Adir bought this amazing chocolate covered fresh marshmallow. & shared and then promptly half broke off and fell on the ground.
On plane: Sat with Jeffrey who studied in Botswana and Rwanda doing a stage. Reading "the fifth _______" <good quote
Off the plane, got our bags, stood under a sigbthat said "Smile". Changes quickly into sundress b/c looks gorgeous outside & sure enough it is - palm trees and birds singing.
Director of Taglit-Birthright Israel is there to greet us so we sit on the steps in the sunshine beneath the palm trees and listen to this amazing orator deliver one of the best speeches I've heard: *rough quote: embed video or audio clip*
[State of Israel exists since 65 years ago, but the age of Zionism is 120. There are football teams in Germany whose anthom dates back further than Israel.
Hungarian cuisine documented in longer depth than Israel.
Polish-Jewish grandparents. discoered his bio grandpa was murdered by nazi Went into A kind of primitive
Wikipedia called a library. 200 meters down the road from Haifa...
After IDF travel to Rio dijinaro, Thailand for self discovery
Bob Dylan= Robert Zimmerman
Jewish movies did not start with bleat
Jewish food isn't just Bagel and lox
Or cliched Movies
Iroquois -?? Typo
Greek Jewish tapas mezze
Judaism has Songs from last 2000 years
Last year #1 hit remix comes from Haggadah which our people have sung for 3000 years.
450 820 participants
Over a billion dollars have sponsored participants since inception.
Founded by Montrealer Bronfmann & steinhardt etc. philanthropists who pay 1/3, state of Israeli taxes pay for rich Americans to come for free. They could have paid teachers the salary they deserve or paid for better roads or paid for another F squadron to protect our skies.
Taste, touch, inhale. And then when you land back in Canada. At least you know where you belong but it is your right to be here.
You are here because we understand that without you to lie back on all we have is 65 years. We need each other. This is how social not-networking is. Experience together and discover our joint past and hopefully creating out joint future. An offering of friendship. ]"
Wow. I can't even describe how amazing it is to hear words that resonate so deeply - words that affirm a part of my identity that I have felt too timid, confused, nervous to claim as my own, as though it would be denied of me but here I am being told "welcome home" - that Israel is mine and that this Jewish heritage is mine; something I've waited 26 years to hear. My great-grandparents' names are at Yad Vishim beside his. And so Israel is mine and I am allowed to feel Jewish.
Birds in the palm trees singing.
Mifgash=reverse birthright for IDF soldiers. Five marriages so far that he knows of from Birthright groups he has organized.
Company that rents cellphones right at our bus, 49 cents per day. good old tour bus like a greyhoiund (reminds me of Mexico! @Michelle&Kyle, @Lindsey&Marty, @Courtney&Janger)
Tagel=Flag, everyone takes turns carrying, must always be visible so no tuckin it into a pocket or a bag, no mercy if its lost
Mispareil Barktzel then roundoff up to 40 = Tagel
Sababah = Arabic for its all good /cool/awesome
Tour guide is hilarious. Very Assertive. We're gonna have a small chitchat as if I care. Makes you take your sunglasses, say your name 5x no blinking, and tell him a bit about yourself like military interrogation style. I said I was from Vancouver-ish and he said that was very Jew-ish of me! Haha!
Stopped in our first town for lunch, did a Map of Land of Israel vs. Polical / Geography lesson with 2 guys on the ground. Mike and Jeremy, Jordan border and East Bank. one hour to have lunch, most people went to get Falafel/Shawarma but my stomach feels a bit off and not hungry so bought yogurt for later, should have gotten Miso soup. Cooler so i worr leggings @ sweater w/sundress. Got yogurt & granola from grocery store & Ben knew how to read the Hebrew on labels so he was pointing at things and saying "this is good" etc.
& used washroom, remembered to CHECK FOR PAPER before peeing!! (probably in my top three travel rules!) thengot a coffee they taught me some Hebrew on a napkin.
Walked further up the street & took photos - gates, signs, shadows because sun is setting. There was a lemon tree with big fat fruit, Kitties all over - white, grey, black, kittens. Expensive clothing stores shoes are like 300-500 shekls (/3 for Canadian conversion). 2nd hand clothing stores more affordable & looking forward to having time to browse when I'm in my third week.
Steven from Calgary
Jessica Vancouver
Adir Montreal SO nice, shared some fruit leather and these amazing chocolate marshmallows. Not his first time here.
Logan piercing eyes & only packed a carry-on,
Jordan has awesome piercing a and a braided beard, is traveling to Hong Kong for a week after.
Ben leant me his laptop, takes Psychology of learning
Max Montreal
Alex Med school (Karev from Grey's Anatomy)
Right where we exited the park to re-board the bus there was an old man pressing Pomegranates and Oranges for Juice. I took his picture after asking and then gave him two shekl.
Star of David built into the houses like the stucco sticks out. Murals of portraits with dates underneath. Stop signs with a white silhouette of hands up palm out like STOP
Played "Bang-Bang" in a park with beautiful trees. Info panels explaining each species & little Israeli children on the playground behind me. The game was a good way to practice everyone's name & Jonathan won, so he has to plan something for our 2nd to last night.
Back on the bus
Shit shower shave
Rolling hills and twisting roads . Jordan is sleeping (update: snoring!!) in the aisle of the bus, and the alleys are so narrow that everyone is cheering as we squeeze through. Reminds me of being in busses with my foreign studies programs - nuns racing through Tuscan villages in teeny cars.
Israeli app called "ways" (Waze=israeli app social navigation sharing thing) to avoid traffic but the app does not know we are a bus. Used to be the best app ever until a month ago because it was sold to Google. A fee billion dollars sold, biggest app transaction ever in Israel) And now it sucks. Israelis have been using Ways for two years with no problems and now it's the 2nd time in 3 weeks that it has lead them wrong. We'll be arriving a bit later to the Kibbutz but that's ok. <tour guide on loudspeaker. Everyone is excited because the bus is now reversing down that same narrow alley. "Mad respect" "oh my God" "ok this is totally why we tipped $70 each" "this shit is surgical, man! He didn't even hit that blade of grass" "he's a champion" hahhaha I'm laughing listening to everyone react. "Zero fucks being given by that other car" random tractor.
Making me remember being stuck in awful traffic coming back into Prato, and we had that epic bus diver who was this gorgeous Italian man-specimen, and he gunned it past this jerk driver with a size complex and we all erupted in applause.
The shop signs are completely in Hebrew script. I have NO idea what any of the stores are. It's rolling hills with patches of lights.
Now they're honking and we're blocking an intersection. And I have to pee. We get out and everyone claps.
Street meat vendors.
6pm we arrive at
Kibbutz Moran for first night & pass over our passports to the Madrichim to keep in 'The Bag of Life'. Everyone is going to think I'm addicted to my phone but it's because I'm typing his all out: the bus is too bumpy and dark to handwritten in my journal. Off the bus backpack on and I'm very glad I put leggings on earlier! It's frigid. Use the paths & dinner is at 7:30 so we have one hour
Introductions with Traffic light m&m's for relationship status
What's the march?
Jackie will also be in Tel Aviv extending 2mo
Birthright started 14yrs ago
Educational tour - not a vacation.
Arabeh- that's where we got stuck
Tomorrow we're going to the upper Galilee
We have to follow Shabbat rules on Saturday (we don't use the bus) and at night we will leave and go for food.
Day 4 Sunday check out and go to Golan JEIGHST learn more about political convicts and Syrian relationship and history of conflict and new 2.5 years of war in Syria
Go to Matalia
Soldiers join us in area of Tel Aviv
Then to Negev Desert
Day 6=tues Hiking close to Gaza Strip borders keep Justin desert Bedouin tents
Day 7 kibbutz in desert
Day 8 Yad Vashem all morning (Jersualem)
Afternoon = Mount Herzl, relationship btwn Holocaust & creation of he state of Israel
Friday old city Jerusalem Kotel western wall, special Shabbat dinner an then celebration
Shabbat
Sunday hiking area of Jerusalem, waiting for outcome of last storm
Some things on the itinerary have been changed because of the storm that happened last weekend we may see some damage when we are traveling.
Every night we will goover the next day's schedule
Tomorrow: back in time to prepare at Shabbat. 4:00 pm
1) city of tzfat=birthplace of Kanalah, Talmud, medieval synagogues (best place for Jewish art, calligraphy) you may wish to shop for Shabbat.
Girls: bring a skirt or scarf or shawl for entering into Synague. Bring hat to protect from sun. Water. Wallet. And designated time for shopping - best place for judaïca souvenirs.
Shoulder, elbow, knees must be covered.
Boys need a kippah or a hat.
Wake up call is at 0600 tomorrow
Breakfast at 6:45, bus leaves at 7:30
Learned a bit from Karly about Shabbat dinner and sundown-sundown practice. The day of rest takes me back to The Little House on the Prairie books of my childhood.
, then Israel - Lebanese border
Pronounced Tagleet and I will need to thank one Jenna Potash who in tandem with my Grandma Hildegard Rossbach is the reason I am here. Jenna and I me one day while taking the bus to our from SFU. She was part of Hillel and invited me to join and encouraged me to feel safe and to protect the spark burning inside me my whole life that insistently whispers "I am a Jewess" to my soul. Her boyfriend was Israeli and she was from Toronto and she had an amazing voice and incredibly warm smile.
Please excuse the typos and sentence fragments as I am typing this on my phone in bed and also pretty tired.
Dinner TBA - I'll describe the food!!
Kate and Annie - one of them worked on a Kibbutz
Actualy went to the gym in Toronto Intl airport dtarted out in massage chair from stiff flight shoulders then ran 2.13 miles in 34 minutes. Bizarre that it was almost effortless - extra adrenaline in excitement leadif up to the trip? pateick border services helpede with form on free weights and rhen asked me out for lunch. bow that i am waling up one day later i can definirely tell that mh misckes were ised. Dec 18
Pearson airport woke up from nap very disoriented after watching Elysium w/futuristic ceiling of skylights so disoriented, felt like I was waking up in the future
Patrick border services guard at the gym helped me train and chatted me up, asked me to grab a bite to eat but called back to work so came in uniform to tell me
Met up w/ group by E orange info map, about 8 of us to start, grew to 40. One girlEmily had apparently been on my flight but lost her wallet with 500 cash, credit cards & passport. We waited for updates to see if she could get an emergency passport printed in time.
Extra security measure at Pearson in the waiting area for C70 boarding area. They emptied the room and then eventually we were able to renter but they swabbed out hands, our hip, our bag handle and our bag then scanned their swab to detect traces if explosive decices. Apparently on special request from Israeli gov't but not an isolated procedure.
Amazing panino Mediterranean chicken
On plane started watching a quebecois movie about 3 guys cofronting biological clock but fell asleep. Met a couple from Montreal, she's a CEGEP teacher.
Tough to type b/c my sleeping pill hasn't work off
Kosher food on plane. Beef and gravy with rice pilaf, omelette and roasted tomatoe with hahbrowns. Fruit
Very religious men wearing a white fringe off their hip. I know not to touch Rabbis but is it the same for them? Gets very uncomfortable when we're all waiting for the bathroom
Awful coffee
Delicious kosher pareve breakfast (what does pareve even mean?)
People are SO nice. Couple from Montreal: she's québécoise, teaches francophone lit at collège/cegep
On plane: Sat with Jeffrey who studied in Botswana and Rwanda doing a stage. Reading "the fifth _______" <good quote
Off the plane, got our bags, stood under a sigbthat said "Smile". Changes quickly into sundress b/c looks gorgeous outside & sure enough it is - palm trees and birds singing.
Director of Taglit-Birthright Israel is there to greet us so we sit on the steps in the sunshine beneath the palm trees and listen to this amazing orator deliver one of the best speeches I've heard: *rough quote: embed video or audio clip*
[State of Israel exists since 65 years ago, but the age of Zionism is 120. There are football teams in Germany whose anthom dates back further than Israel.
Hungarian cuisine documented in longer depth than Israel.
Polish-Jewish grandparents. discoered his bio grandpa was murdered by nazi Went into A kind of primitive
Wikipedia called a library. 200 meters down the road from Haifa...
After IDF travel to Rio dijinaro, Thailand for self discovery
Bob Dylan= Robert Zimmerman
Jewish movies did not start with bleat
Jewish food isn't just Bagel and lox
Or cliched Movies
Iroquois -?? Typo
Greek Jewish tapas mezze
Judaism has Songs from last 2000 years
Last year #1 hit remix comes from Haggadah which our people have sung for 3000 years.
450 820 participants
Over a billion dollars have sponsored participants since inception.
Founded by Montrealer Bronfmann & steinhardt etc. philanthropists who pay 1/3, state of Israeli taxes pay for rich Americans to come for free. They could have paid teachers the salary they deserve or paid for better roads or paid for another F squadron to protect our skies.
Taste, touch, inhale. And then when you land back in Canada. At least you know where you belong but it is your right to be here.
You are here because we understand that without you to lie back on all we have is 65 years. We need each other. This is how social not-networking is. Experience together and discover our joint past and hopefully creating out joint future. An offering of friendship. ]"
Wow. I can't even describe how amazing it is to hear words that resonate so deeply - words that affirm a part of my identity that I have felt too timid, confused, nervous to claim as my own, as though it would be denied of me but here I am being told "welcome home" - that Israel is mine and that this Jewish heritage is mine; something I've waited 26 years to hear. My great-grandparents' names are at Yad Vishim beside his. And so Israel is mine and I am allowed to feel Jewish.
Birds in the palm trees singing.
Mifgash=reverse birthright for IDF soldiers. Five marriages so far that he knows of from Birthright groups he has organized.
Company that rents cellphones right at our bus, 49 cents per day. good old tour bus like a greyhoiund (reminds me of Mexico! @Michelle&Kyle, @Lindsey&Marty, @Courtney&Janger)
Tagel=Flag, everyone takes turns carrying, must always be visible so no tuckin it into a pocket or a bag, no mercy if its lost
Mispareil Barktzel then roundoff up to 40 = Tagel
Sababah = Arabic for its all good /cool/awesome
Tour guide is hilarious. Very Assertive. We're gonna have a small chitchat as if I care. Makes you take your sunglasses, say your name 5x no blinking, and tell him a bit about yourself like military interrogation style. I said I was from Vancouver-ish and he said that was very Jew-ish of me! Haha!
Stopped in our first town for lunch, did a Map of Land of Israel vs. Polical / Geography lesson with 2 guys on the ground. Mike and Jeremy, Jordan border and East Bank. one hour to have lunch, most people went to get Falafel/Shawarma but my stomach feels a bit off and not hungry so bought yogurt for later, should have gotten Miso soup. Cooler so i worr leggings @ sweater w/sundress. Got yogurt & granola from grocery store & Ben knew how to read the Hebrew on labels so he was pointing at things and saying "this is good" etc.
& used washroom, remembered to CHECK FOR PAPER before peeing!! (probably in my top three travel rules!) thengot a coffee they taught me some Hebrew on a napkin.
Walked further up the street & took photos - gates, signs, shadows because sun is setting. There was a lemon tree with big fat fruit, Kitties all over - white, grey, black, kittens. Expensive clothing stores shoes are like 300-500 shekls (/3 for Canadian conversion). 2nd hand clothing stores more affordable & looking forward to having time to browse when I'm in my third week.
Steven from Calgary
Jessica Vancouver
Adir Montreal SO nice, shared some fruit leather and these amazing chocolate marshmallows. Not his first time here.
Logan piercing eyes & only packed a carry-on,
Jordan has awesome piercing a and a braided beard, is traveling to Hong Kong for a week after.
Ben leant me his laptop, takes Psychology of learning
Max Montreal
Alex Med school (Karev from Grey's Anatomy)
Right where we exited the park to re-board the bus there was an old man pressing Pomegranates and Oranges for Juice. I took his picture after asking and then gave him two shekl.
Star of David built into the houses like the stucco sticks out. Murals of portraits with dates underneath. Stop signs with a white silhouette of hands up palm out like STOP
Played "Bang-Bang" in a park with beautiful trees. Info panels explaining each species & little Israeli children on the playground behind me. The game was a good way to practice everyone's name & Jonathan won, so he has to plan something for our 2nd to last night.
Back on the bus
Shit shower shave
Rolling hills and twisting roads . Jordan is sleeping (update: snoring!!) in the aisle of the bus, and the alleys are so narrow that everyone is cheering as we squeeze through. Reminds me of being in busses with my foreign studies programs - nuns racing through Tuscan villages in teeny cars.
Israeli app called "ways" (Waze=israeli app social navigation sharing thing) to avoid traffic but the app does not know we are a bus. Used to be the best app ever until a month ago because it was sold to Google. A fee billion dollars sold, biggest app transaction ever in Israel) And now it sucks. Israelis have been using Ways for two years with no problems and now it's the 2nd time in 3 weeks that it has lead them wrong. We'll be arriving a bit later to the Kibbutz but that's ok. <tour guide on loudspeaker. Everyone is excited because the bus is now reversing down that same narrow alley. "Mad respect" "oh my God" "ok this is totally why we tipped $70 each" "this shit is surgical, man! He didn't even hit that blade of grass" "he's a champion" hahhaha I'm laughing listening to everyone react. "Zero fucks being given by that other car" random tractor.
Making me remember being stuck in awful traffic coming back into Prato, and we had that epic bus diver who was this gorgeous Italian man-specimen, and he gunned it past this jerk driver with a size complex and we all erupted in applause.
The shop signs are completely in Hebrew script. I have NO idea what any of the stores are. It's rolling hills with patches of lights.
Now they're honking and we're blocking an intersection. And I have to pee. We get out and everyone claps.
Street meat vendors.
6pm we arrive at
Kibbutz Moran for first night & pass over our passports to the Madrichim to keep in 'The Bag of Life'. Everyone is going to think I'm addicted to my phone but it's because I'm typing his all out: the bus is too bumpy and dark to handwritten in my journal. Off the bus backpack on and I'm very glad I put leggings on earlier! It's frigid. Use the paths & dinner is at 7:30 so we have one hour
Introductions with Traffic light m&m's for relationship status
What's the march?
Jackie will also be in Tel Aviv extending 2mo
Birthright started 14yrs ago
Educational tour - not a vacation.
Arabeh- that's where we got stuck
Tomorrow we're going to the upper Galilee
We have to follow Shabbat rules on Saturday (we don't use the bus) and at night we will leave and go for food.
Day 4 Sunday check out and go to Golan JEIGHST learn more about political convicts and Syrian relationship and history of conflict and new 2.5 years of war in Syria
Go to Matalia
Soldiers join us in area of Tel Aviv
Then to Negev Desert
Day 6=tues Hiking close to Gaza Strip borders keep Justin desert Bedouin tents
Day 7 kibbutz in desert
Day 8 Yad Vashem all morning (Jersualem)
Afternoon = Mount Herzl, relationship btwn Holocaust & creation of he state of Israel
Friday old city Jerusalem Kotel western wall, special Shabbat dinner an then celebration
Shabbat
Sunday hiking area of Jerusalem, waiting for outcome of last storm
Some things on the itinerary have been changed because of the storm that happened last weekend we may see some damage when we are traveling.
Every night we will goover the next day's schedule
Tomorrow: back in time to prepare at Shabbat. 4:00 pm
1) city of tzfat=birthplace of Kanalah, Talmud, medieval synagogues (best place for Jewish art, calligraphy) you may wish to shop for Shabbat.
Girls: bring a skirt or scarf or shawl for entering into Synague. Bring hat to protect from sun. Water. Wallet. And designated time for shopping - best place for judaïca souvenirs.
Shoulder, elbow, knees must be covered.
Boys need a kippah or a hat.
Wake up call is at 0600 tomorrow
Breakfast at 6:45, bus leaves at 7:30
Learned a bit from Karly about Shabbat dinner and sundown-sundown practice. The day of rest takes me back to The Little House on the Prairie books of my childhood.
, then Israel - Lebanese border