Julie in Israel

Day Two: January 5^th, 2011

The next morning we had breakfast in the kibbutz dining hall. We had to sit at different tables than we had the night before, because this was a dairy meal whereas dinner had been a meat meal. Breakfast was excellent: yogurt and cottage cheese and bread with jelly or honey. Although the packaging declared it Yoplait, the yogurt was far better than any I’ve had in the US, Yoplait or otherwise.

Kibbutz Merom Golan, contrary to my expectations, is not a farm. There was an adorable cat wandering around, which most of our group was immediately taken with.

By this point, I had realized that my camera was irretrievably lost, and started using my phone to take pictures.

After breakfast, we all got on the bus to start the day’s tour of the Golan Heights and the Galilee. 

Day One: January 4^th, 2011

I’m not sure what time we landed, since I didn’t write it down, but I’d been through customs and had my luggage by 3:30 pm*.

I stopped in the bathroom to change into the extra shirt I’d packed in my carry-on, and my camera slipped out of the bag, though I didn’t realize it was missing until we stopped at a gas station on the bus ride to Kibbutz our first stop, a kibbutz called Kibbutz Merom Golan in the Golan Heights, where we’d have dinner and spend the night.

We’d been on the bus for a few hours at that point, and that’s after the 10 hour plane ride and the wait at the airport.  I’ve never seen a group of people so excited to visit a gas station in my entire life.  

The gas station was a lot like the ones at home, except for the tanks in the parking lot and soldiers with guns inside shopping. I didn’t buy anything, but some of the other kids bought chocolate milk in a bag, which is apparently popular in Israel.

We set off again around 6, headed north with the announcement that we should reach the kibbutz, where we would get a full dinner, in about two and a half hours.

An hour later we got stuck in traffic. I was exhausted, hungry, and not at all pleased. Unsurprisingly, Israeli traffic jams, much like American traffic jams, are neither fun nor interesting.

When we finally reached the kibbutz, we had dinner - chicken and rice and rolls with hummus and tahini, then had a group activity before going to our assigned guest cabins for the night. There were three students to each room, and my two roommates were very nice. It was cold, and we all had to sleep in sweatshirts.

* From this point forward, all times will be Israeli time

Day Minus One: January 3^rd, 2011

The flight to Israel takes about 10 hours. Luckily, I managed to make friends with the boy sitting next to me, who was also a member of my Birthright group. He was from Brooklyn, and about my age. He hadn’t been on a plane in 5 years, so he once I told him I’ve flown at least twice a year my whole life, he asked a lot of questions. We also discussed Asperger Syndrome, which we had in common. I was glad to discover that I wasn’t going to be the only aspie on the trip.

When I wasn’t talking to —-*, I slept, and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One on the little tv on the back of the seat in front of me.

* I’ll be using —- in place of most people’s names out of respect for their privacy.

The first time I spoke Hebrew with an Israeli outside of Ulpan class was during a shabbat service on a shabbaton trip with a Masorti student group. A fellow hotel guest wanted to know why we were praying coed. He asked in Hebrew. I only said ‘ani lo mideberet evrit,’ but it was an improvement over what I’d been doing up until then, which was squeek ‘angleet’ at people in a panicked voice.

I haven’t updated this blog since I got back to the States in January, but I’ve given it some thought, and I’ve decided to keep writing here about my experiences in Israel and hopes - and eventually, plans - to go back. At first, it’ll be mostly stuff from my Birthright trip last year. Until that trip, I intended to study abroad in England; Israel hadn’t even crossed my mind. Without that trip, this blog wouldn’t exist, so it seems like the logical place to start continue. 

I’ve already written/outlined a lot of stuff  from that trip, so I should be able to update fairly regularly, but as usual, I make no promises. I’m not the most disciplined person on the planet, to say the least.

- Julie 

I only have about three weeks left before I go back to the States. I’m excited to see everyone back home, of course - 6 months without any visits at all is a long time - but I’m not at all excited to leave Israel. Part of the problem is that I really feel like I wasted a lot of my time here. I didn’t travel around nearly as much as I wanted to and should have. I’m a lazy person, and I don’t do so well at planning things, so I spent most of my free time in Ramat Aviv. I wish I could do it over. I’d definitely take better advantage of the month long break between Ulpan and the regular semester. 

A piece of advice for those going abroad: 6 months seems like a long time at the beginning, but it really isn’t, so don’t waste a minute of it. Time goes by so fast. 

There’s a lot I haven’t had a chance to see yet, and a lot I saw on Birthright/Taglit that I wanted to revisit but never actually did. I definitely plan on coming back to Israel, so I’ll have a chance to see everything yet, but I wish I had done more during this trip all the same.