Eilat thats enough of you

Well today we woke up and walked the main boardwalk in Eilat for a few hours than got lunch at Moses. Its my favorite Israeli food chain. They have some of the best burgers but its kinda expensive so you have to watch out but still so good and made the trip worth it. 

We met up with some of our volunteer friends who came down to Eilat for the night to see the Coral Reef Nature Reserve because they get in free. We just hung out walked around and they eventually took the bus back to the kibbutz where they are staying. It was nice to see them. For most of them these nine or so people are the first people they met when they got here so i think everyone feels comfortable around each other. I think we will go and visit them one of these weekends because they seem to have the room to accommodate us while at the eco lodge we probably don’t.

Today the weather in Eilat was nice and sunny, so I hope that it warms up back in Tzukim because its not super cold there but just enough to bother. Depending on when we get back tomorrow I will take pictures of all the places and maybe a video. Well I don’t think I never need to come back to Eilat almost ever unless I have an actual good reason its just a tourist destination with nice scenery for sure but its kinda shitty overall in my opinion. Well thats it for now, here comes the first full week of work...

Early Days In Tzukim

            Well I’m writing this from my motel/hostel room in Eilat. I came here with Lizzy from Boston and Waleska from Honduras to visit on the weekend. now I have have worked really two and a half days at the Negev Eco Lodge Desert Days. Its been pretty cold these first few days to be honest. I spent the most of the first day with a shovel sifting earth to put in the cement mixer to make the mud mixture. I spent most of that day with Uri an awesome Israeli hippie who has been everywhere and loves Arak. He told me he believes in aliens and once met one in Yosemite National Park or at least he is almost positive he did. I also helped him make some of the mix which I still find a bit tricky. Nina  from the Czech Republic makes me laugh. She is just negative about everything in the funniest way to me. She is super nice and is brutally honest but not in a mean way. Her and Uri offset each other great and makes more fun and funny conversations after long days of work with our tiny fire in our little community room. 

            My second day of work I got to make a lot of mud mix because we were working on scaffolding putting a second layer of mud on the art room. I was not so good at doing that part and Rinat (one of the owners) said boys always have trouble with that part. So I just made mud and lifted up buckets to people on the scaffolding. A few of the families and their kids came over to where we were working to watch and the kids wanted of course to help and play with the mud. The families are mostly Israeli and have been very nice so far. We also made some mud bricks to which turned out not so bad. At the end of the first day we went to the top of this hill where they put a couch to watch sunsets which is really nice. I will take a lot of pictures of where I am and am working and I plan to make some walks and hikes into the wilderness in most directions except for towards Jordan cuz the border is like 1 mile away.

          We worked a half day today moving hay bales to make a makeshift fence and I went with Uri and Yair (the other owner) to grab rocks and boulders to line an entry road and to mark out some areas by one of the huts. I am doing lots of physical work which is good and I will probably be a bit stronger when I leave without too much effort. We have the next two days off and we are in Eilat and might meet up with some of the other volunteers we met in Jerusalem. Its nice to have internet now so I want to respond to people as much as I can now. Well thats it for now more to come soon and I promise pictures of my desert oasis...

Day 1 in Tzukim

Well I don’t know when I will post these because the internet but i will try to write all the time.

Today I woke up showered got breakfast and walked with all my stuff to the bus station with the other volunteers. It sucked because they are redoing the sidewalk and I had to drag my suitcase over some gravel and such.

We got on our bus and it was like a 2 and a half hour ride from Jerusalem. We got dropped off at a bus stop that was pretty much the middle of nowhere. An american volunteer Matt came and picked us up and it was only like a 5 minute drive or less to the location. He showed us around and we met the owners and few other people. The scenery is gorgeous and I can’t wait to explore and hike around. The huts the guests stay in are pretty nice in my opinion especially compared to our little bedouin style huts but I have more room to myself here than in Maagan Michael. Matt had his last day today but there is Nina from Czech Republic and Uri from Israel also volunteering. They are both cool and interesting people. We hung out and watched Matt make food in this cast iron pot thing over hot coals. Our hangout area where we prepare our own food seems super cool and almost like a cabin atmosphere. You can see so many stars at night, its remarkable and completely mesmerizing. I tried the beer that a guy brews in the small town right next to us like a 10 minute walk away.I interacted with my first guest tonight, they seemed nice. Tomorrow is the first real day so i will have more to say after. I feel like its gonna be cold here during my time so we will see how it goes!

We Just Met Today

Well to catch people up I left Mike’s apartment last night and took a bus to Jerusalem to stay with my other friend who’s name also happens to be Michael. I met a man originally from the spanish speaking part of Morocco and he helped me find the light rail station to my friends place it was really cool. I woke up had some chai tea and was off to the hostel to meet up for the orientation. There are like 9 people, 3 of us are going to the desert eco building, 4 to a wildlife reserve, 1 to a hostel in Nazareth, and 1 is staying at the hostel here. Its all young people around the same age from Sweden, Germany, USA, and Honduras.

We all took a free walking tour of the old city which was nice except for the fact that it was really cold and windy. After that we chilled then got dinner together. We all met up in the common room later and participated in the pub quiz trivia as team. Everyone put in 5 shekels and there at least ten teams total but somehow we won haha! We got like 25 shekels each which isn’t a lot but its nice. Tomorrow is the day we head to our projects so should be exciting. I probably won’t have internet access all the time so thats the reason if I don’t respond to some sort of message or email right away.

On a totally different subject. I have been in Israel 5 and a half months....damn thats a long time! I’m going to spend two more months here so it will be close to seven when I’m done and my visa is good till April 5th. Today when I was with people who have never been to Israel before and are seeing these cool sites for the first time it reminds me how cool it was for me and why I like it here. I like the fact that there are some many kinds of places in terms of climate and some many types of people. Also when I was at dinner the other night with my friends I looked around and realized that I was with people from France, Russia, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, and Israel. And that its almost impossible to have something like this in another country. 

Yeah I got Hebrew keyboard stickers too!

Well I guess I need to update my blog and perhaps the blog title because I FINISHED Ulpan Maagan Michael. I can’t believe five months past already. I met so many amazing people from so many places in such a short time! Somedays I wonder how I ended up where I am now after sitting on the floor of the airport waiting to get picked up on my first day here. That was July 27th and now today is January 6th. I won’t try to sum up right now the ulpan because its something so unique and special that I can’t even begin to do it. 

As for an update as whats going on now...right after the ulpan ended I stayed with my friend Sam’s family from the ulpan for about a week in Holon. I had originally planned to stay with my friend Shay’s family who I was with at the beginning of this trip/journey/thing but because of some seriously unfortunate circumstances I was not able to. I was treated so well by the family there and was lucky to meet such nice people. I wrote the mother a letter in Hebrew thanking her and she called me and said she loved it. I left there the other day because their daughter was coming back from the army for the weekend and there probably wouldn’t have been room and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. 

Right now I am very lucky that my friend Mike is letting me stay with him in his family’s place in Tel Aviv. today he showed me around the artist market the shuk hacarmel and other places nearby the apartment. I cannot stress how lucky I am to have friends and people to stay with. I am going to volunteer at an eco lodge toursit place in the Arava desert for two months and I hope that will be fun. I was able to get my visa extended for 3 months so i can legally be allowed to be here so that is nice. I have some days here where I can think about where I am and what I want to do in a general sense. Well I plan on just chillin in the apartment tonight but I hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

Yeah I continue to not put in paragraphs I'm sorry Aunt Charlotte!

Well this past weekend I went and met up with my brother Zak and my cousin Ally in Jerusalem. I left Friday morning with my friend Ari on two buses and got to Jerusalem at about 3:45 ish. We checked into our hostel and then as soon as we got settled we headed down to the old city to try and meet up with them at the Cotel. It was only a 20 min walk to the old city so it wasn’t so bad. As it turns out trying to find two specific people on friday night at the Cotel is not easy and we couldn’t find them. But we knew the name of the place the were staying in the Jewish Quarter so we just tried to find it. We knew we were close because we found some Sephardic synagogue and they were staying in a Sephardic center of some sort. They was basically no one in the streets but we found like 3 dudes and they happened to be British and were more than willing to help us find the place and had actually ate there once. We went down stairs into a small plaza facing some windows with the people inside getting ready to eat shabbat dinner. Someone came out and asked what we wanted because I’m sure it looked awfully strange. We walked in and I looked around as everyone stared at us until Ally waved me down and then I ran over and hugged them both. I let them eat their dinner and then we went to their room. We talked took pictures and I got my sweet Hannukah presents! Then we left and planned to meet the next day for Ally’s Bat Mitzvah. We walked back and chilled in the lounge area. Lots of people were eating dinner because they signed up earlier so we asked if we could have some and they said yes because they had a lot of extra food they didn’t want to waste or have room in the fridge. So free dinner we did eat! We then hung out by the bar and pool table and met these American students who were studying in Amman, Jordan and came to visit Jerusalem between finals weeks. So it was a real chill evening. We then woke up ate complimentary breakfast then checked out and left our backpacks in the luggage storage then left to go to the hotel for the Bat Mitzvah stuff. Zak and other people took pictures so you will see them but about 12 or so people got Bar/Bat Mitvahed in a little synagogue in the basement of this hotel/education center. It was nice and even though it felt weird to be there and not be in the group it was cool. We then talked outside for a bit and said our goodbyes. It was great to see family in person and hear whats going on with them. We then proceeded to go back and chill at the hostel and watch tv until the buses started after shabbat, we then started our journey back home and I got back in less than 2 hours which is great time. Well now I have to try and some Hebrew studying with a practice test this week and real thing next week so thats it for now!

Also I got my hat back

Well at the moment I feel a bit burnt out, maybe its from Hebrew or just this program. I think its just its hard to find the motivation on the weekends to study on the weekends sometimes. I think I once I make my decision on what I’m doing after which I need to do like now I will feel a bit better and such. I don’t have a lot to update really except that tomorrow I’m working in the dining hall just for that day so who knows. I just want to say to the past few days I have realized the awesome situation we have here. Like yesterday where I ate dinner with a people from Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and France. Sometimes its easy to take for granted hanging out and learning with people from all these countries. We just ordered some pizzas for dinner from a place called “American Pizza” which I obviously find amusing. Its getting a little chillier here but it depends if it rains. I also think I need to buy some new shoes because my slip on canvas shoes are pretty much shot. Me and Ziv always try to stream NHL games and we never get good coverage or anything and I solely blame the nation of Canada for no specific reason. I watched the movie “Drive” thats a really cool movie and I recommend its kinda slow and not a whole lot happens but the music is awesome and the action is good when it happens. The time went by really slow today which is good I guess but it just felt weird. At the moment people on facebook are saying its snowing in Minnesota. Which reminds me I need to go ice skating in the north still, maybe in a few weeks I will venture with some people for a day trip on the weekend who knows. Thats all I have for now but I should have news soon about something so keep your eyes peeled!