Ulpan Week 1 and 2
I...really don't know how I keep forgetting they don't serve lunch in the cheder ochel on Fridays. I hear that's going to change soon, but so far that's three weeks in a row I've gone and forgotten about the lack of food after class. Fortunately, there's bread and cold soup in the maodon, or break room.
Anyway, a quick catch-up of the last week: Last Tuesday it was announced that we would have a free weekend early (having Sunday off instead of working or going to class), due to Pesach (Passover) coming up. Not having a phone and not thinking to use the one in the offices until much later (when I was told I had to get a phone card and be billed), I tried emailing my father's friend, Jessie. No response. As it turns out, she went out of town for half a week and...never told me. So come Friday I had nowhere to go. Fortunately, Fredi and Aviva agreed to take me in. I could have stayed at the ulpan, but I didn't want to spend two days alone--almost everyone else had gone to spend the free weekend with relatives.
Now, a quick note on tramping: it is potentially dangerous, especially if you do it alone. The ulpan has some regular vans and cars going to Bet She'an, but at the time I didn't know this. When Aviva found out that most of the time people had to tramp all the way to Bet She'an, she launched into a full-out lecture on how the week before, an armed soldier tramping alone had nearly been kidnapped, and a few days before that someone had been killed.
To get from Bet She'an to Tel Aviv, where Fredi would pick me up and take me back to Yavne, I had to go to the bank and get money for a bus. This ended up being a problem, since I had only a week's worth of Hebrew classes, no matter how intensive. I did manage to get directions, though, and fortunately it was on the same road the ulpan mini-bus had dropped us off at, so I only had to walk a kilometer or so. Of course, since it was Friday, the bank was closed. So I went to one of the two machines next to the main doors. Machines that, I might add, looked identical to me and had no signage I could read indicating otherwise.
'This machine does not accept this card.'
...I cried, I really did. I was frustrated to begin with, since the thief had taken what I'd needed for the bus in the first place and made me go through the stress of trying to find the stupid bank and hope I'd still have time to catch a bus. I was incredibly lucky someone walked by and explained that no, that machine wasn't an ATM. It was a receipt machine for checking stocks and the like. The other machine was an ATM. So I got my money in the end, and the next bus stop was only a few feet beyond the bank.
In order to get from Bet She'an to Tel Aviv, one has to change buses at the main station in Afula. I could read enough Hebrew to find the place where I had to wait for the bus to Tel Aviv. Half an hour later, still nothing. I ended up using a group taxi, or sherut, which was slightly cheaper than the bus (27 NIS instead of 30, and WAY less than cab fare had I taken a taxi on my own). We arrived at the main station in Tel Aviv. There was just one little snag.
It didn't look like a main station. To me, it looked like a row of shops on a random street. I had no idea until Sunday that inside the building and several floors up was the actual station. And it took me forever to find a public phone and the address, all while cab drivers were watching me hungrily, hoping I'd pay for a taxi instead. Fat chance. I had little enough money as it was. Finally, Fredi came and got me. I'd been on the road since noon. It was now closer to 5:30 PM.
That weekend, we went to the old harbor in Tel Aviv, where a market was being held. The weather was remarkably cool, as it's been here in Sde Eliyahu all week. There were many stalls lined up on the docks, selling jewelry, clocks, figurines, and various other trinkets. Fredi shopped for old clocks, Aviva for watches and a wallet for me that I could fit in my pocket, and I just browsed. We had ice coffee at a cafe later, then visited another market in one of the warehouses where people were selling fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, and cookware. Aviva bought me halva with pistachios (pretty much the one in the picture there) to eat later. Absolutely delicious.
Sunday meant it was time to go home. On Sundays, the Egged company has one bus that actually does go directly from Tel Aviv to Bet She'an, which costs 45 NIS. I took it...and ended up missing the main station in Bet She'an because I had no clue what it looked like. By that point, we were halfway to Tiberias. I waited at a bus station in the middle of nowhere (so, Fredericksburg ISN'T the only place where bus stops are completely inaccessible!) until another bus came by. Once in Bet She'an and now very late, I called Jonny, the ulpan director, to come and pick me up, since it was now dark. All in all, the entire round-trip was stressful and exhausting, but I learned a lot about the bus system.
Monday was back to class. Still no textbooks, and it seems unlikely we will ever get any. This in itself is fine by me so long as I get blank notebooks, but when we received our exercise books we were informed that these were used, and we couldn't write in them. Not only this, but we couldn't keep them.
So...what did I pay nearly $5000 for? I get no books, no plane tickets, and according to Jonny, it doesn't go to the kibbutz that houses us, and we work there enough that we earn our keep anyway. What's the money going towards? I'd really, really like to know.
On a less bitter note, thus far I've worked in the vineyards, the organic garden, and in the cheder ochel. This meant mostly weeding, weeding, planting, more weeding, picking onions and dill and fennel--which is awesome when you're picking them early in the morning with the sun barely up and the dew clinging to everything--and cleaning like mad. I worked in the cheder ochel on Tuesday, which is the busiest day of the week for that to begin with, which involved cleaning the dining room and keeping all the food replenished. We had several group of people come in as well, though, so the already-large amount of people had their ranks swelled by almost a hundred more. It was a madhouse, complicated by the fact that only two people out of the four assigned to work were actually doing most of the work.
Now, if you're planning on going to a kibbutz and don't plan on working, I've got to wonder what exactly you're thinking. It's tough work a lot of the time, but it's extremely satisfying and you can actually see the results of your labor. It also helps if you've done similar chores at home, which I have. I've already had experience in weeding, in cleaning, and planting. This made it easier for me in that I knew what to expect, and I required very little instruction: simply point me at the task and I know what to do.
I also suffered a bad sunburn on my arms. Here's a tip for you guys, something I forgot: Just because you start work before dawn doesn't mean you can forget sunscreen. Long sleeves, preferably something light and made of cotton, also work. White clothing is about 15 SPF, so if you burn easily and just have a white T-shirt, you might want to put sunscreen on under the shirt too.
I'm still peeling from that, which is kinda gross. I feel like a snake. One with a tan. My face was fine, though, because I remembered a hat, but my calves were also burned because I was wearing capris.
In other news, things haven't been so good in the south. We discussed the attack on the school bus in class today, and many of my classmates have expressed a serious desire for Israel to launch a full-out war of destruction on the surrounding Arab countries in retaliation. As it is, Israel's hands are tied on that matter because of the UN. In the south, ulpanists are hiding in bunkers. I'm glad I didn't go south.
Though conflict is an inevitable reality here in Israel, so much closer than it was back in the States and looming over us every day, I still don't regret coming here. Right now, we're safe up here. Around me, students and volunteers are starting to prepare for our third party this week (the first being for Rosh Chodesh, the other because several volunteers are moving on) and for Shabbat. Since both my reading and writing skills have improved drastically from nearly nil two weeks ago, I'll see if I can keep up with the prayers this time.
I...will try and post the alphabet next week. Shabbat is coming up in an hour or two and the internet is horribly slow, so it'll take forever to find written examples. I'll also be posting photos of the kibbutz and other places I've been in a separate post.
Shabbat Shalom! See you guys (hopefully) Monday!
Anyway, a quick catch-up of the last week: Last Tuesday it was announced that we would have a free weekend early (having Sunday off instead of working or going to class), due to Pesach (Passover) coming up. Not having a phone and not thinking to use the one in the offices until much later (when I was told I had to get a phone card and be billed), I tried emailing my father's friend, Jessie. No response. As it turns out, she went out of town for half a week and...never told me. So come Friday I had nowhere to go. Fortunately, Fredi and Aviva agreed to take me in. I could have stayed at the ulpan, but I didn't want to spend two days alone--almost everyone else had gone to spend the free weekend with relatives.
Now, a quick note on tramping: it is potentially dangerous, especially if you do it alone. The ulpan has some regular vans and cars going to Bet She'an, but at the time I didn't know this. When Aviva found out that most of the time people had to tramp all the way to Bet She'an, she launched into a full-out lecture on how the week before, an armed soldier tramping alone had nearly been kidnapped, and a few days before that someone had been killed.
To get from Bet She'an to Tel Aviv, where Fredi would pick me up and take me back to Yavne, I had to go to the bank and get money for a bus. This ended up being a problem, since I had only a week's worth of Hebrew classes, no matter how intensive. I did manage to get directions, though, and fortunately it was on the same road the ulpan mini-bus had dropped us off at, so I only had to walk a kilometer or so. Of course, since it was Friday, the bank was closed. So I went to one of the two machines next to the main doors. Machines that, I might add, looked identical to me and had no signage I could read indicating otherwise.
'This machine does not accept this card.'
...I cried, I really did. I was frustrated to begin with, since the thief had taken what I'd needed for the bus in the first place and made me go through the stress of trying to find the stupid bank and hope I'd still have time to catch a bus. I was incredibly lucky someone walked by and explained that no, that machine wasn't an ATM. It was a receipt machine for checking stocks and the like. The other machine was an ATM. So I got my money in the end, and the next bus stop was only a few feet beyond the bank.
In order to get from Bet She'an to Tel Aviv, one has to change buses at the main station in Afula. I could read enough Hebrew to find the place where I had to wait for the bus to Tel Aviv. Half an hour later, still nothing. I ended up using a group taxi, or sherut, which was slightly cheaper than the bus (27 NIS instead of 30, and WAY less than cab fare had I taken a taxi on my own). We arrived at the main station in Tel Aviv. There was just one little snag.
It didn't look like a main station. To me, it looked like a row of shops on a random street. I had no idea until Sunday that inside the building and several floors up was the actual station. And it took me forever to find a public phone and the address, all while cab drivers were watching me hungrily, hoping I'd pay for a taxi instead. Fat chance. I had little enough money as it was. Finally, Fredi came and got me. I'd been on the road since noon. It was now closer to 5:30 PM.
That weekend, we went to the old harbor in Tel Aviv, where a market was being held. The weather was remarkably cool, as it's been here in Sde Eliyahu all week. There were many stalls lined up on the docks, selling jewelry, clocks, figurines, and various other trinkets. Fredi shopped for old clocks, Aviva for watches and a wallet for me that I could fit in my pocket, and I just browsed. We had ice coffee at a cafe later, then visited another market in one of the warehouses where people were selling fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, and cookware. Aviva bought me halva with pistachios (pretty much the one in the picture there) to eat later. Absolutely delicious.
Sunday meant it was time to go home. On Sundays, the Egged company has one bus that actually does go directly from Tel Aviv to Bet She'an, which costs 45 NIS. I took it...and ended up missing the main station in Bet She'an because I had no clue what it looked like. By that point, we were halfway to Tiberias. I waited at a bus station in the middle of nowhere (so, Fredericksburg ISN'T the only place where bus stops are completely inaccessible!) until another bus came by. Once in Bet She'an and now very late, I called Jonny, the ulpan director, to come and pick me up, since it was now dark. All in all, the entire round-trip was stressful and exhausting, but I learned a lot about the bus system.
Monday was back to class. Still no textbooks, and it seems unlikely we will ever get any. This in itself is fine by me so long as I get blank notebooks, but when we received our exercise books we were informed that these were used, and we couldn't write in them. Not only this, but we couldn't keep them.
So...what did I pay nearly $5000 for? I get no books, no plane tickets, and according to Jonny, it doesn't go to the kibbutz that houses us, and we work there enough that we earn our keep anyway. What's the money going towards? I'd really, really like to know.
On a less bitter note, thus far I've worked in the vineyards, the organic garden, and in the cheder ochel. This meant mostly weeding, weeding, planting, more weeding, picking onions and dill and fennel--which is awesome when you're picking them early in the morning with the sun barely up and the dew clinging to everything--and cleaning like mad. I worked in the cheder ochel on Tuesday, which is the busiest day of the week for that to begin with, which involved cleaning the dining room and keeping all the food replenished. We had several group of people come in as well, though, so the already-large amount of people had their ranks swelled by almost a hundred more. It was a madhouse, complicated by the fact that only two people out of the four assigned to work were actually doing most of the work.
Now, if you're planning on going to a kibbutz and don't plan on working, I've got to wonder what exactly you're thinking. It's tough work a lot of the time, but it's extremely satisfying and you can actually see the results of your labor. It also helps if you've done similar chores at home, which I have. I've already had experience in weeding, in cleaning, and planting. This made it easier for me in that I knew what to expect, and I required very little instruction: simply point me at the task and I know what to do.
I also suffered a bad sunburn on my arms. Here's a tip for you guys, something I forgot: Just because you start work before dawn doesn't mean you can forget sunscreen. Long sleeves, preferably something light and made of cotton, also work. White clothing is about 15 SPF, so if you burn easily and just have a white T-shirt, you might want to put sunscreen on under the shirt too.
I'm still peeling from that, which is kinda gross. I feel like a snake. One with a tan. My face was fine, though, because I remembered a hat, but my calves were also burned because I was wearing capris.
In other news, things haven't been so good in the south. We discussed the attack on the school bus in class today, and many of my classmates have expressed a serious desire for Israel to launch a full-out war of destruction on the surrounding Arab countries in retaliation. As it is, Israel's hands are tied on that matter because of the UN. In the south, ulpanists are hiding in bunkers. I'm glad I didn't go south.
Though conflict is an inevitable reality here in Israel, so much closer than it was back in the States and looming over us every day, I still don't regret coming here. Right now, we're safe up here. Around me, students and volunteers are starting to prepare for our third party this week (the first being for Rosh Chodesh, the other because several volunteers are moving on) and for Shabbat. Since both my reading and writing skills have improved drastically from nearly nil two weeks ago, I'll see if I can keep up with the prayers this time.
I...will try and post the alphabet next week. Shabbat is coming up in an hour or two and the internet is horribly slow, so it'll take forever to find written examples. I'll also be posting photos of the kibbutz and other places I've been in a separate post.
Shabbat Shalom! See you guys (hopefully) Monday!