took a breather from the updating!
so this is a 2 week update just because i haven't gotta an chance to get to the computer too write an update. u
SOOOO, two weeks ago, hmmm thining back. Last week monday was just a full day of regular classes... so it was nothing exciting nor very fun.
Tuesday (or last week, remember) was our zionism seminar. We were spilt up into 5 groups and each assigned a leader of the zionusm movement. We had the night before to make a poster, a 10 minute skit, write a song, and then a informal infomational presentation. We all have spilt up the tasks and do our own parts but atthe same time bring it all together (similar to a play and a cast)... it was really funin the end but it was alot of work. After the zionism seminar, we headed to the JNF (jewish national fund) forest to prune trees and make it prettier. I got a lot of crap from my teacher because i didnt want to get dirty and pick up branches and get scraped... it just didnt seem fun... but from then on, everythingi did in the forest my teacher was like"look, way to go ashley...that branch was calling yoru name" it was fun, in the end.
Wednesday we went to a mueseum on Ofar Giladi were the people of the first and second alyiah were honored. We studied looing out over the valley and through to the golan mountains... it was beautiful. After we left the hilltop muesum we went to Rachel's - who was a famous poet and huge part of the second alyiah - grave. We saneg one of her poems (which has been changed in to a song) and studied about what she did and the impact she had. After sitting by her grave for a while talking baout who she was, we went just outside the cemetary and had a "bonding circle" for our class. We were all told to say one positive attribute we gave to our class and then 4/5 people would speak about what they think you offer and you give. it was really really nice. I cried after hearing what people said to me -becase im not usedto hearing overwheling nice comments.
Thursday we spent the day in downtown Tel Aviv and walking the Yafo flea market. I was expectinga lt more from yafo but none the less it was definitly a true israeli experience. Tel Aviv was nice we went to Rubin Rubin's house, who was a famous artist, that has since his death been turned into a art museum for all of his work. It was really interesting to see the difference in colors and shapes from his different waves of art. We let there and went to Rabin square. We were told we had to interview 5-6 random israelis, ask them what they thought a jew was, if they consider themselves more jewish or israeli, what customs they uphold, what they tink the biggest problem facin the jewish people is, what the biggest problem facng israel is, and what they consider an ideal jew. It was very interesting to see many of thier reactions and responses to our questions. I really enjoyed it.
Friday we went to Jerusalem for services at the Kotel (old temple/ western wall) but my friend Avi and i found the girls yashiva service at the wall was slightly too boring so we walked around the area of the old temple and found a service that one of the guys' yashivas was conducting and we joined right in. We had a good time. We had great Onegs (night activities)at night. We conducted our own version of singled out which was extremely amusing - we had 4 couples win dates. We did a bean circle after the game of singled out which brought our group down to a more mellow and unifying tone. We all were given one bead and as the circle went on someone stood up and gave you thier bead, then you had to stand up and give it to smome one else - it just showed how we are all connected. Now we all have blue strings on our wrists and everytime i look at it i think of sitting on the roof in the center of jerusalem on shabbat with 50 other amazing people.
In the morning we went to services at a "progressive orthodox" temple... sooo different. Half of thier customs were that which seems conservative or reform and the other half were noticably orthodox. The women read from the torah and assisterd in leading services but at the same time, we were diveded by a long curtain in the middle ofthe room so we couldnt see the men's section. There are only 3 temples in the world that are considered progressive like this. We hung out the rest of the day in jersalem, took a llong walk around the city, just expolring and finall had havdalah (my favorite service)... boarded the bus and haeded back to school. Saturday night was the start of Purim (which is so huge here - its the jewish halloween) and i ws a belly dancer :) it was fun. We had a disco(dance) and costume contests and the whole nine yards. It was alot of fun all night long. It was us and the JDS kids so there were just over 100 of us.
Sunday morning were purm activites in the lawn... lieke various competitive games and tug-a-war and al that kind of stuff. It was lots of fun. In the after noon we went to a local hospial about 25 minutes away had had fun with the kids in the childrens surgury ward. We just spent the afternoon trying to cheer them up and make them smile. They have to spend the happiest jewish holdiday in a hospital bed - so we did our bets to make it a good day for them. We had girls night out later that night.. all 32 of the girls went and had a belly dancing lesson (it was so much fun) .. i loved it! And then we got on a bus and headed to Max Brenner's Chocolate bar. Can we say amazing!!??!?!! OMG! it was absolutley incredible. we are missng out inthe states. I think ill open one up myself....
This week was emphasis on holocaust studies so monday was normal class and tuesday was class from 8am - more or less straight through to 9 pm. We had actual class to get the facts behnind the rise of the nazi's and the holocause for 2 hours in themorning, then we listened to a holocaust survivor who was absolutley mindblowing. Seh showed us her number which was the most realistic thing i have every physically seen. She was at Aushwitz and was a patient that Dr. mengilae performed an experiment on. we then had an afternoon class for 2 hours again and a evening descussion/ debate for 2 hours. t was along intense day.
Wednesday we went on a hike where the jews formed a place they could resist and fight had the Nazi's decided to invade Israel. It was a really nice hike but an overall a pretty slow day. The lessons were still string but the activites jsut wernt as exciting as i had hoped for. At night we had a mandatory movie to go to "Escape from Sobibor" s was so difficult to wtach. My friend Marlene and i cut up bananas and strawberries and melted dark/milk choc...mixed them together and created our own fondue. It was awesome. Great movie snack!!!!
Thursday we went to Yad Vashem. It is the holocaust memorial and museum. The actual muesum isn't as good as the one n DC but the idea of intesivly studying the holocaust and being at the places the jews were fighting and hearing in person a real story, made the impact of the museum here so much stronger. I took a long time to think about issues that frstrat me when hearing aboutthe holocaust and just some of the horrific events that occured. It was really amazing to hear and learn so much and then see it all wrapped up in one historical museum. At the ednof the musem there was a pillar for each country an dhow many people it lost to the terrors of the holocaust... irealized tat numbers individually are just simple single digits but wenn you put the numbers together, thats wehn they makethe impact and have the stregth.
That was about all we did this past two weeks. I cant believe we only have another 2.5 weeks here, We have free weekend in and hour and i am going with my friend Marlene and Rachel to Rachel's best friend's dad's house. He is a high position of authority in the IDF (israeli defesnse forces), so it will be really interesting. We are going to a very popular soccer game that has the biggest tems playing and has been sold ou t with sbsolutley no tickets left, and then we are going to go on a jeep tour through the gailalee.... :) it will be lots of fun - good last free weekend...
SOOOO, two weeks ago, hmmm thining back. Last week monday was just a full day of regular classes... so it was nothing exciting nor very fun.
Tuesday (or last week, remember) was our zionism seminar. We were spilt up into 5 groups and each assigned a leader of the zionusm movement. We had the night before to make a poster, a 10 minute skit, write a song, and then a informal infomational presentation. We all have spilt up the tasks and do our own parts but atthe same time bring it all together (similar to a play and a cast)... it was really funin the end but it was alot of work. After the zionism seminar, we headed to the JNF (jewish national fund) forest to prune trees and make it prettier. I got a lot of crap from my teacher because i didnt want to get dirty and pick up branches and get scraped... it just didnt seem fun... but from then on, everythingi did in the forest my teacher was like"look, way to go ashley...that branch was calling yoru name" it was fun, in the end.
Wednesday we went to a mueseum on Ofar Giladi were the people of the first and second alyiah were honored. We studied looing out over the valley and through to the golan mountains... it was beautiful. After we left the hilltop muesum we went to Rachel's - who was a famous poet and huge part of the second alyiah - grave. We saneg one of her poems (which has been changed in to a song) and studied about what she did and the impact she had. After sitting by her grave for a while talking baout who she was, we went just outside the cemetary and had a "bonding circle" for our class. We were all told to say one positive attribute we gave to our class and then 4/5 people would speak about what they think you offer and you give. it was really really nice. I cried after hearing what people said to me -becase im not usedto hearing overwheling nice comments.
Thursday we spent the day in downtown Tel Aviv and walking the Yafo flea market. I was expectinga lt more from yafo but none the less it was definitly a true israeli experience. Tel Aviv was nice we went to Rubin Rubin's house, who was a famous artist, that has since his death been turned into a art museum for all of his work. It was really interesting to see the difference in colors and shapes from his different waves of art. We let there and went to Rabin square. We were told we had to interview 5-6 random israelis, ask them what they thought a jew was, if they consider themselves more jewish or israeli, what customs they uphold, what they tink the biggest problem facin the jewish people is, what the biggest problem facng israel is, and what they consider an ideal jew. It was very interesting to see many of thier reactions and responses to our questions. I really enjoyed it.
Friday we went to Jerusalem for services at the Kotel (old temple/ western wall) but my friend Avi and i found the girls yashiva service at the wall was slightly too boring so we walked around the area of the old temple and found a service that one of the guys' yashivas was conducting and we joined right in. We had a good time. We had great Onegs (night activities)at night. We conducted our own version of singled out which was extremely amusing - we had 4 couples win dates. We did a bean circle after the game of singled out which brought our group down to a more mellow and unifying tone. We all were given one bead and as the circle went on someone stood up and gave you thier bead, then you had to stand up and give it to smome one else - it just showed how we are all connected. Now we all have blue strings on our wrists and everytime i look at it i think of sitting on the roof in the center of jerusalem on shabbat with 50 other amazing people.
In the morning we went to services at a "progressive orthodox" temple... sooo different. Half of thier customs were that which seems conservative or reform and the other half were noticably orthodox. The women read from the torah and assisterd in leading services but at the same time, we were diveded by a long curtain in the middle ofthe room so we couldnt see the men's section. There are only 3 temples in the world that are considered progressive like this. We hung out the rest of the day in jersalem, took a llong walk around the city, just expolring and finall had havdalah (my favorite service)... boarded the bus and haeded back to school. Saturday night was the start of Purim (which is so huge here - its the jewish halloween) and i ws a belly dancer :) it was fun. We had a disco(dance) and costume contests and the whole nine yards. It was alot of fun all night long. It was us and the JDS kids so there were just over 100 of us.
Sunday morning were purm activites in the lawn... lieke various competitive games and tug-a-war and al that kind of stuff. It was lots of fun. In the after noon we went to a local hospial about 25 minutes away had had fun with the kids in the childrens surgury ward. We just spent the afternoon trying to cheer them up and make them smile. They have to spend the happiest jewish holdiday in a hospital bed - so we did our bets to make it a good day for them. We had girls night out later that night.. all 32 of the girls went and had a belly dancing lesson (it was so much fun) .. i loved it! And then we got on a bus and headed to Max Brenner's Chocolate bar. Can we say amazing!!??!?!! OMG! it was absolutley incredible. we are missng out inthe states. I think ill open one up myself....
This week was emphasis on holocaust studies so monday was normal class and tuesday was class from 8am - more or less straight through to 9 pm. We had actual class to get the facts behnind the rise of the nazi's and the holocause for 2 hours in themorning, then we listened to a holocaust survivor who was absolutley mindblowing. Seh showed us her number which was the most realistic thing i have every physically seen. She was at Aushwitz and was a patient that Dr. mengilae performed an experiment on. we then had an afternoon class for 2 hours again and a evening descussion/ debate for 2 hours. t was along intense day.
Wednesday we went on a hike where the jews formed a place they could resist and fight had the Nazi's decided to invade Israel. It was a really nice hike but an overall a pretty slow day. The lessons were still string but the activites jsut wernt as exciting as i had hoped for. At night we had a mandatory movie to go to "Escape from Sobibor" s was so difficult to wtach. My friend Marlene and i cut up bananas and strawberries and melted dark/milk choc...mixed them together and created our own fondue. It was awesome. Great movie snack!!!!
Thursday we went to Yad Vashem. It is the holocaust memorial and museum. The actual muesum isn't as good as the one n DC but the idea of intesivly studying the holocaust and being at the places the jews were fighting and hearing in person a real story, made the impact of the museum here so much stronger. I took a long time to think about issues that frstrat me when hearing aboutthe holocaust and just some of the horrific events that occured. It was really amazing to hear and learn so much and then see it all wrapped up in one historical museum. At the ednof the musem there was a pillar for each country an dhow many people it lost to the terrors of the holocaust... irealized tat numbers individually are just simple single digits but wenn you put the numbers together, thats wehn they makethe impact and have the stregth.
That was about all we did this past two weeks. I cant believe we only have another 2.5 weeks here, We have free weekend in and hour and i am going with my friend Marlene and Rachel to Rachel's best friend's dad's house. He is a high position of authority in the IDF (israeli defesnse forces), so it will be really interesting. We are going to a very popular soccer game that has the biggest tems playing and has been sold ou t with sbsolutley no tickets left, and then we are going to go on a jeep tour through the gailalee.... :) it will be lots of fun - good last free weekend...