Smile, You're Beautiful

Yesterday I ventured out of the realms of Ramat Rahel into the southern part of Jerusalem in search of Emek Refaim, what was rumored to be a cool street with lots of cafes and such to explore. My map does not extend as far as the kibbutz so I set off in the direction of Jerusalem and assumed I'd find a street that was on my map pretty soon. To my dismay and growing anxiety, I found myself quite lost in a series of streets that looped around one another in mockery of my directional difficulties. And then I saw on a bus stop, "Smile, You're Beautiful," and a little of my fear dissipated as I smiled. But I was still in unmapped territory and hardly even sure of where I wanted to go. And then I saw it again, "Smile, You're Beautiful" written on a phone booth. And I saw it on more bus stops and hidden on signs and scrawled on benches; it made me think of Oscar from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, shaking his tambourine through the neighborhoods so he'd remember that he was still himself. And it made me think of how some days we wake up so full of sunshine that it's easy to be pleasant and in good spirits even when lost or in a less than opportune situation, and then there are other days we wake up on the wrong side of the bed so we work a bit harder to turn our attitudes around. The last time I wrote I was cranky from being bored and lazy, a terrible combination. On one hand you're annoyed because you've got nothing to do, yet on the other hand you're too unmotivated to find something to do! But I woke up in better spirits yesterday, and today also...though today it might also be because I woke up early for a phone call with Noa.

In some ways being lost has its benefits, because when you suddenly find where you intended to go there's such joy and pride. And if you don't find where you meant to go, you run the risk of ending up somewhere even better. With the help of a lady at a bus station, in a mixture of english and hebrew, I got the directions I needed. I've discovered a new problem with learning Hebrew: I can usually figure out how to ask the questions I need, whether or not they're grammatically correct, but then people will respond in Hebrew...rapidly, and I have absolutely no idea what they are saying. Regardless, communication is always possible and I've never not been able to get my point across or find out what I needed to know. So I made my way into mapped territory and then it was easy sailing to Emek Refaim. After being told to go there by at least three different people I guess I expected something a little bit more widespread. There aren't such a lot of stores and it doesn't take very long to walk from one end to the other and back again. That didn't really matter, though. I saw what there was to see, my favorite place being a used book store. I couldn't resist - I bought another book that I really don't have room for. I just can't stop reading! I finished East of Eden the day I arrived at Ramat Rahel, I read all of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in three or four days, and this book was small and on sale and I needed something to read so it was a justified purchase. For those of you who've read Life of Pi, it's by the same author, Yann Martel. I hadn't heard of this book before but it's called Beatrice and Virgil.

Since I left in the morning I had a strong feeling that I was going to see someone I knew at Emek Refaim, and sure enough, who should I run into but a girl I met at Danny's apartment and hung out with on New Year's! She was on her way to work so we didn't talk long but it was pretty cool because how many people do I know in Jerusalem? Maybe a dozen, tops? And everytime I'd walk around Nachala'ot with Danny or anyone else, they would always run into at least one person they knew and I never did. So take that, onlookers of Emek Refaim, I too have friends!

And now it's Friday. Heather and I finished our puzzle on Wednesday night and began a new, even more difficult one yesterday. We're doing pretty well in that we've made some progress, but it definitely won't be finished before I leave. Tonight we're having Shabbat dinner here and some of Heather and John's children and grandkids are coming over. This will be my fourth Shabbat in Israel and I can't help but remark on how time has gone by. I am more than half way through my time here, how strange is that? Sometimes it feels like I've just gotten here, but mostly I feel like I've been here such a long time, in a good way. I don't know that I'll get a chance to write again before I leave on Sunday for the farm in the desert, and once there I'm really not sure that I'll have access to a computer so this might be the last post for a while. If that's the case, then have a wonderful next two weeks! And remember to smile because you're beautiful.

Ramat Rahel

If there's one thing I really miss about home, it's having my cat sleep on my bed. It's a rare moment when I enter my room to not find her there, and unheard of for her to be missing when I go to sleep. Heather and John are the first people I've stayed with to have cats and I love it. The first is Mitzy, she's very old and not allowed inside the house; she sits by the door meowing all day. On mornings when she isn't at the door right away Heather hopefully exclaims, "Maybe she's died!" Then there's Missy, short for Mississippi, who is a little weird. She's friendly enough and will come and sit on your lap now and then but it's as if she forgets where she is because you'll touch her and she'll meow and look around shocked, trying to figure out what just happened. Also, she won't come in doors. She insists on jumping onto windowsills (giving you a heart attack if you're sitting next to the window) and meows until you open it for her. Finally, there's Spot. He is my favorite, mostly because he sleeps on my bed all the time. He makes reading in bed a bit difficult because he gets jealous when you don't pet him and will either sit right in front of the book or wrap his paws around your arm and pull it away. You have to pay attention while you're petting him because every so often he likes to affectionately nibble, or as I call it, "bite," your fingers. Also, yesterday I had a snack next to my bed and when I came back to get it he had taken the liberty of eating it for me. Nonetheless, he's still more normal than the other cats.

My first day at Ramat Rahel rained off and on the whole day, and when it wasn't raining it was cold and windy so I really didn't have any desire to walk around much. But it's nice to have a day to relax here and there. Heather and I spent most of the afternoon (don't laugh) doing a puzzle. Well we started it, it's 1000 pieces but by now we're almost done. And by "we," I mean mostly "me." Puzzles are addicting! I can't stop. I do like Heather quite a bit; she's kind but also just a cool lady. Her husband, John, is also nice if a bit quiet. They have five kids but I've only met two of them; those two usually drop in at least once a day. Most of their children live close by but one lives in Germany right now.
Yesterday was much nicer out that Monday so I spent a few hours exploring the kibbutz. It didn't take very long, there isn't a lot to see. Or there are some cool things to see, it just doesn't take long to see them. I first explored the archaeological park. Not the most impressive ruins I've seen (and I've seen a lot of ruins in my time here), but a good little walk. There is still debate over what is what so all the descriptive signs are hypothetical. If you walk past the main section of stone remnants you get a wonderful view, in which direction I couldn't tell you. There's this funny little house made of stones that looks like a mushroom house which leads down to a better view of the cities in the distance. I was at Ramat Rahel with my dad when I came to Israel seven years ago and didn't recognize a single thing until I saw that little house. I walked around a little bit past the house, only to be told when I met up with Heather for lunch to not really explore past the house if I want to return alive. Whoooops. Not planning on going that way anymore! After lunch I went off in a different direction to see the hotel and its grounds. There are more beautiful views in other directions, and the entire hotel is quite lovely. So after seeing the archaeological park and the hotel, there are really only two more sections that, from what I can tell, make up Ramat Rahel. There's a pool and gym and such, but those are fenced off and I need either Heather or John to call ahead if I want to go in there. And then there's the area where the members of the kibbutz live. I think I saw most of the houses but if not, they're all quite similar and I got the gist of it. Time to start exploring past the kibbutz I guess!

Today seems like an even nicer day so I'll definitely go on an adventure. Heather and John had to leave early and won't be back until 11 so I have to wait for them to return if I walk into Jerusalem. They're rather protective and always want to know where I am or where I'm going, and I have to meet them at certain times at the dining hall for lunch or dinner. I think kibbutzim are for people who really enjoyed college and campus life. All your food is prepared for you in the dining hall, everyone lives in small houses in a designated area, and during the day people have different work they do at certain hours. It's a communal living center, so everyone is working and offering their skills for the overall survival of the kibbutz. Kind of like small-scale communism, though its changed a bit over the years.
I'm here until Sunday, and I'm afraid I won't have much to do in these days. I offered to work but if you're visiting for less than two weeks it isn't required. I suppose if nothing else, it'll be nice to have some quiet time before I go work on a farm for two weeks. I don't remember if I said that's what I was doing after being here, but I'm WWOOFing at a farm in the desert. I still need to get in touch with the people to make sure Sunday works as a good day for arriving, but I'm thinking it will all be fine.

Could I brag for a second? So I just figured out how to check the stats of this blog and it's been visited almost 900 times since I started writing it a month ago! I'm kind of amazed and I really didn't realize how many people were reading it. I thought it was just my family and close friends, but I've gotten e-mails and been messaged on facebook by random people telling me that they're reading and enjoying this. Someone even said it had inspired them to take a semester abroad! So thank you to people who are reading this, I really appreciate and am honored by it.

Three Weeks? When Did That Happen!

I have come to the conclusion that no matter how many times you may walk a particular street, you never really know the terrain until you walk it with a 50lbs wheeled suitcase. The walk from Danny's apartment to the bus station is not a long one, but it's funny how curbs and uneven sidewalks don't really register until you've got an oversized suitcase trying to pull your shoulder out of your socket. Today I left Nachala'ot, the center of Jerusalem, to come to a kibbutz called Ramat Rahel which is in the very south of Jerusalem. I am really glad I chose to stay at Danny's apartment for as long as I did, I had a very wonderful time there for Shabbat and the new year, but it feels like the right time to move on and be somewhere new. Funny how 5 nights in one place seems like a long time, and I'm a week at Ramat Rahel - that's practically forever! I think the longer I stay in one place the more accustomed I become to it and the more difficult it is to adjust to the next place. Arriving at a new house with new people took me by surprise, I hadn't realized how comfortable I'd become with Danny and his roommates.
True to my word, I spent Thursday at the Israel Museum. If you are ever in Israel I would definitely recommend going there. There's a really great mix of history and art and relics and religion. There's something for everyone, and you can easily spend hours there. My favorite part was the contemporary art section; so many cool pieces of art and so many different forms of media. There were movies and paintings and photos and sculptures, and so many pieces combined some of these. My favorite piece I think was a three screen film called "Going Places Sitting Down" by a Japanese artist whose last name is Sawa. I'd give it a quick google if you have 8 and a half minutes to spare.

For any non-Jewish readers, Friday night at sundown until Saturday night at sundown is Shabbat, the day of rest. People will go to different degrees of respecting Shabbat, from just a nice dinner on Friday nights (my family's style) to turning off all electronics, not handling money, not riding in cars or other transportation forms, etc (Jerusalem's style). The whole city stands still for one day a week. No buses, no stores, no nothing. Danny and his roommates are all pretty respectful of Shabbat so we spent most of the day cooking food for Saturday (can't cook on Shabbat). What does cooking require? Ingredients. Where do ingredients come from? The shuk (market). Who else is trying to cook before Shabbat starts? Everyone. Who got to go to the shuk twice and face near death at the hands of small women and hungry men? Me. It's fairly terrifying in there. Picture yourself at a busy concert or in a packed group of people. Now imagine this group of people squished into an alley that's maybe 10 feet wide, and everyone's trying to go every which way. You've got vendors on every side screaming out prices of any type of food you can imagine and everyone's trying to get what they need which requires much veering from side to side of the market alley, with others trying to go up and down the path. It's completely ridiculous! And being Israelis, they want everything as fast as possible. So people are running and pushing and dodging; I happen to pride myself on the dodging skills I acquired on Friday. By the end of the second trip I could run and dodge and slither my way through the crowds with bags of groceries in either hand. So after getting everything we needed and spending a less than ideal amount of time cooking with a more than ideal number of people in the kitchen, we had all our food prepared for lunch the next day. Shazam.

I went to shul with Danny in the evening. It was my first time being in a synagogue that segregated men and women. So all the ladies and I were crammed in a small, cold room to stand the whole time. Not so peachy, but the music was nice and I knew some of the people there as Danny's friends. Afterwards we went to dinner at the house of a man who studies with Danny. He and his wife are, without a doubt, the most extraordinary people I've met so far. Especially his wife. She is my role model from this moment on. I can't describe her in a way that will do her justice, but there is such love that radiates off of her and aimed at people she'd only just met. When she looks and you and talks to you, you feel so wonderful about yourself. She's a psychotherapist, which is what I want to end up doing but with horses, and I have no doubts she helps everyone she meets with. She's so genuine and honest and interesting. She's one of those ladies who should be used to negotiate world conflicts because at the end of the meetings all the countries would walk away feeling good about themselves and the other. At the same time, they hosted a birthright trip. Birthright is a program where Jews who have never lived in Israel after a certain age or gone on any organized trip to the country can apply for a 10-day, all expense paid tour around the country. I applied for this, didn't get it, but came anyways (obviously). I really loved meeting all these kids because they were such a kind and intelligent group of people. I didn't get to speak to all of them but those I did were wonderful and engaged. It was undeniably my favorite Shabbat so far in Israel.

Saturday was a nice, quiet, electronics-free day. Around lunchtime a slew of Danny and his roommates friends came over for lunch. I was pretty tired and a little out of the loop, but nonetheless I enjoyed the food and the conversation was interesting. That night was new years and up until about 10 I had no idea what I was doing. One of the guys at lunch, Mori, had invited Danny and his roommates over but I wasn't so sure the invitation extended to me. Before I continue, instead of always saying "Danny and his roommates" let me actually tell you who his roommates are. There's Aaron, originally from Canada, who has lived in Israel for two years but mostly in Tel Aviv. He's the kind of person who genuinely smiles when he sees you as if he's truly happy to see you. Then there's Moshe who grew up in Boston and has only been in Israel for four months. He divides his time between Jerusalem and an organic farm in the north. He studied sustainable agriculture in school and he really enjoys working at the farm. He also has a supremely comfortable bed, which I got to sleep in for two nights while he was away. Hooray for tempur pedic! And finally there's Hovav. Except it might be spelled Chovav. I know how you would spell it in hebrew but basically in english it's that deep throated "H/Ch" sound. He's lived in Israel...all of his life? At least most of it. All of his family is here. He plays guitar and is kind of always on the move and running out to fetch things. So those are the guys I've spent most of this past week with, and I am so grateful to how welcoming they were, and are, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up there again before leaving. So anyways, I did end up going to Mori's with Aaron and Moshe and then Danny showed up and a bunch of other people. Various stages of drinking later and with midnight approaching, it was decided we would go to a bar on Jaffa Street. We ran into Chovav and his friend when we left Mori's, but then somehow everyone pretty much got divided. Magically we all ended up at the bar at exactly midnight, just in time for a drunken Mori to grab and kiss us all in turn to the tune of "What A Wonderful World" in the background. Danny and Moshe headed home not much later, Ariel Fisher from previous blog posts arrived and herded the remainders off to a soup only restaurant. I don't really know who wanted soup or why it was suggested but it was a sweet little place to hang out. Everyone sort of drifted in and out over the next few hours until maybe six of us were left and close to three we ended the evening. So I missed the beach ball wrapped in lights being thrown off a rooftop in downtown Bangor, but for some bizzare reason spending the night in Jerusalem was slightly preferable.

Sunday morning, a brand new year, time for me to go somewhere new. I am now at Ramat Rahel, as mentioned earlier. I had my reservations at first, just because Heather and John, old friends of my parents, are so to the point that it caught me a little off guard I guess you could say. But in the short time I've been here I'm really liking them and it's definitely nice to have my own room for a little while. Not to mention that I spotted Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a Harry Potter mug, a book called Horse Heaven, and the fact that they have three cats...I think we'll be getting along just fine. So that's me up to the present moment! I hope everyone had a wonderful new year. Oh! Resolutions. Mine are to try to be interested more than I try to be interesting (taken from Danny), to not miss up any opportunities that might lead somewhere good, and to be like the woman I met on Friday night, I'm telling you, I idolize her more than is justifiable for the amount of time I've known her.

And I can't believe I've been here three weeks already! Seriously, when did that happen? And now I have exactly one month in Israel. I think I'm going to be pretty sad to leave. So I hope everyone is enjoying their new year and doing wonderful things and being the loveliest they can be. Shalom