Tiyul to the North with the Tzofim

The weekend to the north was great! There was about 70 of us that went. A very large group.

I packed all of my stuff and brought it with me to Ulpan. Following class we loaded the bus and headed out, which took much longer than expected, but we got there anyways. By there, I mean some kind of camping ground outside of an Arab village in the North. After setting up camp and hanging out for a while, we began to cook what is called "Poiykah". Basically, poiykah is a stew consisting of: chicken, lentils, rice, beans, cola, water, spices, and whatever else sounds good. All of which is cooked inside of a cast iron dutch oven. It taste much better than it sounds. I ate more than enough. After hanging out for a few more ours Aviel and I decided to make use of the extra meet by cooking some kabobs over the fire.

Friday morning we woke up and did a hike called Nahal Yagor. It follows a dried river bed until it hits Kibbutz Yagor. The hike was a little more intense than most of the YC hikes I have been on. It was refreshing to be a little challenged. Once we reached the kibbutz a druze lady meet us there and cooked fresh pita with all of the fixings. More great food!

From the kibbutz we were bused to one of the Tzofim tribes in Haifa. I took a nap on the floor while we waited for the other bus to get there. A few of us went to shul that night, but made it just in time for Yigdal, of course. Back at the tribe we had some amazing cholent cooked by Hila's dad. More amazing food!

Later that night we took a walk to the top of Haifa to get an over view of the city. It looked something like this:

Saturday morning we packed up and started out on a hike that literally starts in the middle of the city. Before we hit the trail we stopped by the Bahai Gardens. The Bahai religion is really interesting, feel free to read up on it, because I'm too lazy to type it all out.

The hike ended at the beach where we hung and out and ate ( I opened about twenty cans) for a while and played an great game of Lap Tag. From there we walked to the bus, did Havdallah and headed on a way back to Holon. A great weekend in a great location with some great food.

I'm a huge slacker...

"UPDATE YOUR BLOG YOU SLACKER!!!! Seriously, people are asking." -Lisa Siegel, My Lovely Mother.

Seriously, she's right. I can explain the absence, really, I can. The simple fact is that by the time I am done with my daily activities I am so tired that I hardly want to write. I attempted to a couple times, but feel asleep in the process. So here goes another post that will drag on for far too long. Enjoy!

From the 13th to the 22nd I was on break for another group of holidays. This included: Sukkot, Simchats Torah, and Shmini Atzeret. I am going to try to remember most things and reiterate them to you, with some pictures, as accurately as possible.

Monday and Tuesday: 13-14
This was the first night of Sukkot and when the actually celebration takes place. I was invited by Aviel to join him at his home in Giviat Zev, a town out side of Jerusalem. I accepted with great pleasure! We got a bus with Shelley and Ayelet to Jerusaelm. Ayelet is another one of the Tzofim living in Holon with the other YC. She also lives in Giviat Zev and brought Shelley with her for the holiday. The bus to Jerusalem was crowded, so we had to sit on the floor. That would never fly in America. I was sitting next to a soldier who is in the Givati unit. He had the new Tavor gun. An amazing Israeli development.
When we finally arrived in Giviat Zev. I meet Aviel's family. Wonderful people. Aviel is the oldest of six kids. So the house was all busseling with noise, which is not a bad as it might seem.

The meal that Aviel's mother and grandmother's prepared was excellent. It was a lot of tradtional sephardic dishes. Something that I never grew up having. I ate myself past the point of fullness.

Later that night things turned a little sour. I didn't feel so well because I ate so much, but it turns out it was something way worse. I spent pretty much all night hunched over a toliet. Wonderful I know. In the morning Aviel had to drive me to a hospital in Modi'in because it was the only open due to the holiday. I ended up getting an IV to rehydrate and an anti-vomiting agent. It worked and I felt much better after eating a little and sleeping all day at Aviel's.

That night we drove to the Judaean Youth Hostel in Jerusalem and hung out for a couple of hours before we caught a bus back to Holon. I saw Hiesler there and we talked for a while. It was good to see people from another section that I haven't seen yet.

Wednesday 10/15

Bright and early I woke up to meet a group for a mandatory hike in the North. I know I'm crazy for even getting out of bed that day after being in the hospital on the previous morning, but what can I say? I like to hike! It turns our the "hike" was more of a three hour bus ride each way and an hour walk. It was beautiful though. We walked a small trail on Mt. Meron. From this vantage point you can see Lebanon and only some of Tsfat because of the clouds. Adina, one of the counselors from Bat Yam, explained to us that one of the outlook points we were standing on was dedicated to a soldier killed in Lebanon. From where we were looking you could actually see the bunker where he was killed during the Second Lebanon War. A very powerful moment.

Thursday Morning 10/16

In the morning was another part of mandatory attendance during the Chofesh (break). Our group was required to meet at the community center around the corner from my apartment and paint the bleachers around the back side. I was all for it and getting my hands dirty, but some other people weren't. It took much longer than it should of because of people messing around and just straight up complaining. Eventually it did get done though.

After volunteering I went to my friend Fluffy's apartment. He owns a pair of hair clippers. Guess who go a mowhawk?!

Thursday Night-Saturday Night: BERESHEET MUSIC FESTIVAL!

I mentioned a couple of post back that I would be going to the Beresheet Music Festival on the Kneret. I went, and It was an amazing time. There were tons of Year Coursers, so it was kind of a YC weekend, but it was great to see people from different section, as always. The camping equipement that I borrowed from Lior worked out very well. I split food with with Daniella and Jon. It ended up being much cheaper and much tastier than the food at available for purchase at the festival.

The music at the festival great. Some of the bands were only ok. I saw this crazy metal band that had a song where they screamed the ten plagues and the shema. It was intense. I managed to miss a great concert by Abaraham Tal, the ex-lead singer of Shotei Ha'Nevua. I will forever kick myself for that. I did, however, see one of my favorite bands: Hatikva 6. They threw an amazing show. Besides just the bands, there was tons of other music. There was constant trance and dance music at one stage. We are talking 24/7 thumping bass. I somehow manged to sleep through it. There was a constant drum circle. I hopped in a couple times. There were also really cool workshops. I learned to play didgeridoo!

There were lots of fun things to do at the festival, especially since it was on a beach. Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Only in Israel do a large group of religious Jews show up to a hippy music festival.

A couple sunsets of the on the Kneret. Can't wait to go back.

There was a mud pit at the festival. It was tempting....

Good music, good company, and good coffee. These things make a great weekend

Sunday-Monday 19-20

CHILLED! I needed to catch up on sleep and hang around on my butt for a couple of days.

Tuesday 21st

This was the end of Sukkot, celebrated by the holiday of Simchats Torah. The original plan was to go to Tsfat via a Sherut with a few guys. After that was tossed out the door, the next plan was to go to Jerusalem....which also didn't happen. It really just ended up being a fun Tel Aviv night.


Thursday 23rd
Volunteering in the went really well that day. I know the kids really well now and I feel like I am a valuable member of the staff there.

Here is me with a couple of the girls in the gan. Hila on the left and Keshet on the right.

That night was a foam party in Jerusalem. A ton of YCers went, and I didn't. It ended up being a great choice. I heard from a lot of people that the party wasn't that fun. Aaron, Allon, and I instead went to Kibbutz Ha'polim where our friend Noa lives. All of us staffed camp together. We went to the kibbutz to see Noa preform her first concert! It was really cool and the atmosphere was very kibbutz. I liked it. I need to spend more time in on a kibbutz.

Friday and Saturday 24-25
Caught a bus straight from Holon to Jerusalem! From the central bus station I walked to the Shuk and met up with the Choikhit twins and their mom. We walked around for a bit and ate some food. From there we walked to Ben Yehuda street and meet up with some more KC people. This included: Hiesler, Feldman, Tali, Joey, and Molly. After chatting a bit I left with Hiesler, Feldman, and Tali.
We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out in Hiesler's apartment. It was really relaxing and fun. The five of us boys cleaned up Hiesler's messy apartment. I know! What would inspire five 18 year old boys to clean a whole apartment? Well I am telling you, it was that gross. Following our cleaning fiasco, the five of us sat down and had a wonderful, testotarone filled, shabbous meal. The rest of shabbat we slept, made some amazing brownies, and hung out with other YCers.
Hiesler lives in the set of apartments owned by YC instead of living in the hostel like the rest of their section does. Its a really cool deal. All of the 12 apartments are on the same staircase. Everyone leaves their doors unlocked when they are home and people just hop between apartments. As an added bonus, all the YC that live in the apartments get a bus pass for all of Jerusalem. Something you wouldn't get living in the youth hostel. I am really hoping I get to live in the apartments when I move there.

Sunday-Today 26-31
The Chagim (Holidays) are over and I can finally get back into a routine! Volunteering this week has been great! We have a new director at the gan because the old one is going into labor any minute now (Mazel Tov Avital). The new directors name is Maggie. Nice lady, but a much different style then the last one.
I had my first Ulpan exam. I passed with flying colors!.....but it was only oral. I am worried about the one tomorrow. It's all written.
Tuesday we had a siyur to the towns of Sderot and Nitzan. There will be a separate post on this becasue it is such a large and important subject.
I haven't gone into Tel Aviv at all this week. It's kinda weird. Every night there has been a YC activity or I have been to tired to go out. Last night was the Section 2 basketball. I was on a team that knew we were loosing coming into it, but we still had fun.
Tonight we watched the movie Beufort. Its an amazing story about a group of soldiers who were stationed on a mountain inside of Lebanon. A very intense and impressive story. The film is based on a book, I will read it soon. Both are defiantly worth checking out.

This Weekend
I am attending a trip planned by the scouts to the North. We are going to be in the Haifa area. The trip is costing me 200 shekel, about $50, but this includes transportation and food. A pretty good deal. We will be doing some hiking and sightseeing. I am pretty excited.

I know I say this every time, but next post will not be put off so long.

CrAzY WeEkEnD!

AHHH SO MUCH MORE TO SAY! I will keep it short.

This weekend was crazy. Friday I got back from Kfar Saba my friend Julie came to our apartment. We were dead out of food so we ran to the store before it closed. Aviel and I cooked a delicious shabbous meal of pasta with chicken meat sauce for our apartment and a couple of guest. Then we went to all of our neighbors in our building said, "shabbat shalom" and offered them some cake, I think it will help settle some issues they have had in the past with the people living in our current apartment. Following this we left to make coffee in the park. For there we hung out with my friend Jesse at his place. I told Jesse about my friend Itamar's finishing of the army party. I told him he could tag along, and my other friend Or came as well. At 10 Itamar came and picked up all of us to go to his party. The party was in Ben Shemen forest. It went all night. I finally went to sleep back at my apartment (sorry mom) at 6 A.M. Saturday morning. Oh, wait, I'm not done. At 1 P.M. Aviel and I, along with some other YC, went to a birthday party of one of the other Tsofim living in Holon with us, her name is Ziv. Her party was a ton of fun and we meet so many people. THEN, we got home and sat for literally less then 20 minutes and left to go see the Holon Tsofim's opening event. The caravan was there! And lots of really cool firesigns. We were actually impressed. While we were there we ran into the scout that lived in our very apartment last year. So she came back to our apartment with us for 10 minutes while we got ready for salsa night! Which turned to be good, but I suck at dancing. I came home from salsa night and COLLAPSED! PHEEEEEEEEEEEEEW! That was a weekend. And it just keeps coming. I love it.

Chatima Tova

While I have been in Israel I am constantly comparing society and life here to life back in the states. Nothing could be more different than the day of Yom Kippur. It was such an amazing experience. In the states most of the population is not Jewish, therefore the holiday of Yom Kippur is not noticed by the general population. On the contrary, here in Israel the population is about eighty percent Jewish. During Yom Kippur the country literally stops. Every store, even 24/7 markets, are closed. No one drives a car. Its as if someone turned off a giant light switch. Instead of cars on the street, they become flooded with people walking and children on thousands of bicycles. Like any other holiday, it is also used as a massive social gathering. I walked out of the synagogue after services Wednesday night. It was a breath taking sight. People were walking up to everyone and saying "Chatima Tova" (May your name be written in the good book as having lived a good year) and wishing a happy new year. Most people were dressed in the traditional white. Yom Kippur seemed like such a somber holiday back in the US, but here it was hard to find a person without a smile.

Here it seems that everyone had their own individual way of celebrating. The amount of people attending a synagogue literally triples, but some people go the whole time and some go when they choose. Other people choose to do things that would seem totally irrelevant to the holiday. There are a large group of people that spend it hanging out on the beach. Others stay up talking all night so that they can sleep through the fast easier. Some people just stay in all day and watch movies. However it is done, the day is something special.

Most of the children in Israel ride there bikes everywhere for the day. My cousins May and Guy rode their bikes about 24 km. The day before Yom Kippur, the bicycle stores make their earnings for the year. It made me a little jealous. Me being such a bike nerd and not riding one :(

It's not to say that my Yom Kippur was not amazing. It clearly was the most memorable Yom Kippur I have had so far. I initally wanted to try and spend the day in Jerusalem in the old city, but plans didn't work out. Maybe it was for the best. Instead I went back to Kfar Saba with the cousins. They were thrilled to have me and I was happy to be where it feels just like home. First thing I did when I got there: ATE! mmmmmm I love a full tummy! Then I went to their local Synagogue. The inside of that building is painted with various different scences of the bible, Judaism in general, and each month has its own section. The ark is large and painted beatifully and sits in a dome the height of the building. The dome itself is painted in waves different shades of blue. Haim's father had his own chair there that is now Hiam's. The services themselves were very recognizable because it was an Ashkenazi, which is what I am used to. The difference is that everyone there speaks Hebrew and is comfortable with the service, so things moved along at a much quicker pace.

Besides going to services, and taking my own little walk, all I did was sleep. It was much needed. Wednesday night I was asleep by 9:30 and woke up at 10 the next morning. The two days I was there I managed to get in more sleep than I do in four nights back in Holon. It was much needed.

After the holiday was over on Friday I had some logistics to figure out. This coming week is Sukkot, yes, another holiday! Sukkot is immediately followed by, guess what? Another holiday! Simchat Torah (which I hope to go to Tsfat for)! For these two holidays I have about two weeks for free time. I have to find something to do! I had heard from a friend about a music festival on the Kneret called "Bereshet". Seemed like a cool idea. The only problem is that I have some mandatory things to attend during the middle of Sukkot. Well after sitting on the phone for about an hour, I had a plan. A counselor in another section of YC was getting buses figured out, so I had a way to get there. She was also getting a discounted rate for all of YC. Great! Now I needed at tent. I called the office in Bat Yam, there are out of tents to lend. Then I remembered my cousins have camping equipment. I gave Lior a call and within an hour I in my hands a six person tent, a stove and accouterments to make coffee (I LOVE TURKISH COFFEE!), and some equipment to repair some parts of the tent. I am so lucky I have such wonderful family. Once I got back to Holon I found out that about half of YC is going to the festival. So now people are fighting for spots in my tent. That should be interesting. As far as cost goes, it is a little of the expensive side.

Here is how it breaks down:
-130 NIS (New Israeli Shekel) for the ticket at a discounted rate (normally 180 NIS)
-120 NIS for transportation there and back, but on private bus. So no getting lost, darn.
- Roughly 50 shekel for food
Right now the exchange us about 3.6 shekel to the dollar. So the whole deal will cost about $85. Actually not so unreasonable for a three day festival. In the states those are usually about $150.

I think I might spend a little money to make some. I will go buy about 50 pitas, some peanut butter, and some chocolate spread. I can then heat them up on a stove or fire and sell them for 3 shekel a piece at the festival. It could potentially pay for my ticket in. I would only have to sell 44 of them. (130/3=43.33333)

Tomorrow I am going to start the celebration of Sukkot in Jerusalem with my roommate Aviel's family. I am so excited to meet his family and eat more food! I have heard wonderful things about his grandmother's cooking. Great news on top of this: we are bringing back bikes from Aviel's house! YES!

Wednesday I have a mandatory hike followed by a day of volunteering on Thursday. Then Thursday night I will be off to the festival. So you won't hear from me for a while. Chag Samaech everyone!

Slichot

Photo courtesy of Jacob Greenberg

Slichot in Jerusalem is an amazing thing to witness and participate in. I was fortunate enough to do both. Slichot is a process were one repents for sins done in the past year. As part of this process their is a service consisting of a set of prayers and poems. Many of these "Slichot" have stories behind them. Our tour guide (NIR COHEN! My counselor from when I was in Israel in 2006) took us to a very special area in the Old City just a few steps away from the enterance into the Jewish Quarter. Within this small area consisting of a courtyard no larger than a two car garage and several cramped buildings, some very improtant history lies. In one of the buildings is believed to be the tomb of King David. The tomb is not open to the public because of work going on inside. Above the tomb is the room in which the last supper took place. Most of the other buildings around this area are currently being occupied by several Yeshivot (religous schools).

After walking through the Jewish Quarter we were given an hour of free time to see the Kotel and walk around the old city on our own. The place was packed, as you can tell by the picture. I walked down to the Wall by myself and witnessed dozens of different groups saying Slichot. Every group was unique. Some were more religously dressed, some looked like your everyday arsim, some were american, etc. One group that I noticed was a group of about six guys in their twenties. From what I could tell by their t-shirts, they were all in the same unit in the army. What was so unique about them was they way in which they were chanting the Slichot. They were standing in a line with their arms wrapped around each other, chatting energetically, and swaying back and forth. It was moving to just sit their and watch them.

I am not familiar with the Slichot because its more of Sephardic tradition, but I did really enjoy listening and taking in as much of it as I could while saying my personal Slichot. This was an experiance that I struggle putting into words. It doesn't do it full justice. Its really something you need to see for yourself.

It was pretty late and I was getting tired and hungry towards the end of our Siyur. It became hard to concentrate. I ate some food that I brought with me and a bagel from Bunker Bagles. As a group we then walked about half an hour to the bus. I noticed something very peculiar and interesting while walking out of the old city. There sidewalk at the foot of the wall that surrounds the Old City. As I was walking, on my right shoulder was a wall and a city that have been standing for literally thousands of years. On my left was a modern city. Cars honking, tourists milling around. It is Jerusalem. An ancient city with modern accesories.

Yom Kippur is tomorrow. It will be different from not being in Kansas City. Everything in this country stops. People walk down the middle of the streets and all of the children ride their bikes for miles. The only automobiles to be seen are emergency vechicles. (Hopefully I don't see any of those.) I am heading back to Kfar Saba to spend the holiday with the cousins. I wish everyone a meaningful fast.

Shana Tova!

I would first like to start this post by say Shana Tova to everyone! I hope you all have a year full of happiness and health.



I spent Rosh Hashana with my cousins in the city of Kfar Saba. It was a nice relaxing three days. I enjoyed all the great hospitality and love that I recieved. I look forward to returning to Kfar Saba often to make a better connection with family here.

The holiday basically went like this:
-Eat
-Sleep
-Hang out with family
-Eat
-Eat
-Sleep
-Eat
-Hang out
-Go to a cool park in Tel Aviv
-Eat
-Hang out
-Sleep
-Eat

Clearly this is a very simplified version of what happened, but you get the gist. I spent most of the time in Haim and Rachel's place. This is where I slept and gained close to five pounds in two days. Haim and Rachel are both in their 70's, but they neither look nor act like they are a day over fifty five. They took very good care of me. Refusing to let me to lift a finger the whole time, even though I did when they weren't looking.

Haim and Rachel have three sons: Erez, Muli, and Lior. Each one of them is married with children. A very tight knit family. They all live close, the farthest of them is about twenty minutes away.

Here is all of us before dinner on Monday night.
(Out of the three pictures taken, this was the best one, and there is still someone not in the frame)

This was a picture taken when I was in Israel the summer of 2006.
Look how everyone has grown!

Tuesday night of Rosh Hashana I went over to Lior and Family's apartment. After keeping his eldest son, Roi, occupied while Lior took care of his youngest, Omer, Lior kindly let me use his WiFi and I skyped everyone back at home in Kansas City. It was about 1 or 2 in the afternoon there, so everyone was at my house in Kansas City getting ready to sit down and eat. It was good to see everybody. While I was talking to everyone I had Roi sitting on my lap. My family was happy to finally meet him. Lior was sitting next to me and he said hello to the family as well. Who ever invented skype, I owe you a big one.

Wednesday morning I went to Erez and family's house in a neighboring city of Kfar Saba. It's a small, sleepy suburb. A great place to raise children. After hanging around in their garden and eating, guess what we did? We went to an Arab village, and of course we ate. Great shwarma. Apartly there is the same one in Yafo. I will have to find it.

If you are interested in looking at some pictures of my family here and the fun we had, here is a link.

Once again, the staff here at "The Adventures of Daniel Siegel" (that's me!) wishes you a happy and healthy new year!