(no subject)
Packed up everything, got down a bit late to shaar, but no matter. Breakfast featured scary, drippy green eggs. We then went on to the Negev. I slept on the ride, and my ears hadn't popped from leaving the Jerusalem Hills, so when we arrived at the Bedouin Museum, I was dazed. The Bedouin kids were all together, almost entirely women. Eldar and I spoke in Spanish just to confuse things a little. We then went into a main room and sat in a circle, as Daniel introduced an "icebreaker" game in which we said our name, a rhyme with our name, and a nickname. I was quite proud to have done mine in Hebrew first. Then, one Bedouin girl said her name was Tahlil and her nickname was Free Palestine.
Wow.--way to make ice, not break it. Uri's group from Nesiya and Elham's group from Rahat went into the Bedouin museum into a small room where we played so many name games that I could scream. Of course, I embarrassed the Hell out of myself trying in vain to remember/learn the Bedouin girls' names. They are: Renal, Manar, Fat'ma, Asma'a (which Uri had a notoriously hard time pronouncing, in between calling me Zach, which kinda makes me laugh and kinda pisses me off), and Hadel. Arabic is difficult to pronounce! We made collages about ourselves using various newspaper clippings in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. I felt at first that this was a very childish idea, and then quickly remembered how inept I am with glue. Lunch was in a Bedouin tent, with DELICIOUS Bedouin food.
Michal told me how proud she is of my religious decision, and that she feels, in fact, a bit jealous because she says I will experience G-d in a whole new way. The food was so excellent, I had two helpings. A stray cat wandered in, and Sergio decided to feed it fries, thus assuring its presence. Many people had popsicles from the gift shop after lunch, but I was low on money, and quite full. We then went to ask each other questions about, and discuss, our collages. The translation process was ridiculously arduous, though, of course, necessary. I almost dozed off numerous times. It was a rather fruitless activity, in general. We had a brief snack to wake us up, then back into the museum, which we were allowed to explore on our own. It surprises me to see that some Bedouin are black, not all are Arab. Their society and culture are very complex and rich, especially the costuming, both on humans and camels. I then went to the gift store, which smelt horribly of armpits (someone doesn't know the meaning of deodorant, apparently!). The store was small and not very authentic, but I bought (with Rona's help) a necklace for my mom and a clay drum for I don't know whom. The bus ride to Beer Sheva was very bumpy, and I finally got to request more money from Uri. Had lots of silly discussions on the busride, and passed many Bedouin settlements, goats, sheeps, camels, desert.
Beer Sheva has a lot of Russians, and not all Jews; a Russian cemetery is near our hostel. And, oh, our hostel. Crammed full of kids at summer camp who don't speak a cent of English, and refugees from the north and Russians who are very bitter. The place is filthy, and we have a MILLION stairs to climb to get to our room. Fortunately, Eli and David B. are my roommates, so our awesome room structure from Ein Gedi is almost entirely refreshed.
I do hope to become closer with David, because he's a cool person, a good person, lives in Cali, and unfortunately I can't say I feel we've bonded as much as we should have in this period of time. Buuut then again the same is true for many people here. The room is tiny, and just as we were setting the third mattress on the floor for me, some Israeli kids stole it from us, saying they needed it. I got very angry at how Israelis never ask, they just TAKE. An overexcited Israeli annoying teen was hysterical laughing at the fact that her village had been ketusha'd, and thought to mock English. Some people are just such dipshits. The Russians BLAST reggaeton, techno, and pop, and it is so irritating. Everything stinks, and I keep returning to the hallway to find it REEKS of cigarettes. It is also stupidly humid here. Some hot guess-my age Israeli girls though. Nice arses. And we do have a TV in our room. And so far there's no mosquitoes. (Cross fingers)
The food in uninspiring, and I was introduced to shakshukah, which is like eggs in barbeque sauce. Had dinner with David, Noam, Reb Tzvi, and madrikhah Leah, after some general confusion as to where the vegetarians go. I discussed my temple and situation in terms of religion with Tzvi. The burekas were very good. Yair S. says I'll change the world. Maybe he's right? We then got into a room and had to stand in various places according to how much we agreed or disagreed with a statement. It started off about food, then eased into religion. After that, we got into smaller groups and had to rank the importance of numerous things that could be in a Jewish community, from youth organisations to Bob Dylan; the works.
Daniel, Tanya, and I chose as our top 3: Torah, Talmud, and synagogue. I convinced Tanya to pick Talmud over synagogue because at least these things can be studied at home, and although this may not be preferrable, it is good to have if your synagogue is burnt down by anti-Semites. We then had to discuss the 4 major sects of American Judaism. I discussed Reconstructionism in a rather lively manner, and irked Ilana a bit with my frankness and dashing wit. \D. It also roused many questions. The rest of the time was spent discussing the variations in halakha, gender, taboo, etc. Very interesting stuff. But it was all about Judaism; G-d was somewhat left out of the equation. Eli kept laying on me and moaning, which made me laugh, and we faked farts to freak out Mor. Ben joined at the end of the discussion to say that he is indeed leaving Wednesday night. His reasoning? His parents are worried, and he has band tryouts. Riiight. I know it's because you were a dick, so we treated you like shit, so you're leaving. Psssh. Eli and I joked that we were going to have sex, and Mel actually believed me. So I had to explain that that's not true, and that I'm not gay, I'm bi. Which she is, too. Cool beanz. Anya is sick, so no hook-ups for my roommate tonight.
We haven't seen too much of the other Ks. Jolie and I made our usual cat noises. In our room, I ended up (I forget how?) telling Eli I'm bisexual, and I don't quite know how he took it. He seemed mad, but he could've just been tired. Great, I thought, I just had to put a damper on an excellent friendship by saying that, knowing well that Israelis have big qualms with not being straight. But, I guess I'm sick of keeping secrets. David B. was kind enough to not want to leave me hanging, and admit his bisexuality too. He's a good man, that David Brown. We both pretty much knew each other's sexuality without it being spoken, so it was nothing shocking. The shower works again; before dinner, I used it, and the hot water knob broke and thus wouldn't turn off. It was Joey and his magic screwdriver to the rescue. Watched a smidge of Israeli TV, then slept. I really hope Eli can stand this truth. THE RUSSIANS' MUSIC IS BLARING.
Wow.--way to make ice, not break it. Uri's group from Nesiya and Elham's group from Rahat went into the Bedouin museum into a small room where we played so many name games that I could scream. Of course, I embarrassed the Hell out of myself trying in vain to remember/learn the Bedouin girls' names. They are: Renal, Manar, Fat'ma, Asma'a (which Uri had a notoriously hard time pronouncing, in between calling me Zach, which kinda makes me laugh and kinda pisses me off), and Hadel. Arabic is difficult to pronounce! We made collages about ourselves using various newspaper clippings in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. I felt at first that this was a very childish idea, and then quickly remembered how inept I am with glue. Lunch was in a Bedouin tent, with DELICIOUS Bedouin food.
Michal told me how proud she is of my religious decision, and that she feels, in fact, a bit jealous because she says I will experience G-d in a whole new way. The food was so excellent, I had two helpings. A stray cat wandered in, and Sergio decided to feed it fries, thus assuring its presence. Many people had popsicles from the gift shop after lunch, but I was low on money, and quite full. We then went to ask each other questions about, and discuss, our collages. The translation process was ridiculously arduous, though, of course, necessary. I almost dozed off numerous times. It was a rather fruitless activity, in general. We had a brief snack to wake us up, then back into the museum, which we were allowed to explore on our own. It surprises me to see that some Bedouin are black, not all are Arab. Their society and culture are very complex and rich, especially the costuming, both on humans and camels. I then went to the gift store, which smelt horribly of armpits (someone doesn't know the meaning of deodorant, apparently!). The store was small and not very authentic, but I bought (with Rona's help) a necklace for my mom and a clay drum for I don't know whom. The bus ride to Beer Sheva was very bumpy, and I finally got to request more money from Uri. Had lots of silly discussions on the busride, and passed many Bedouin settlements, goats, sheeps, camels, desert.
Beer Sheva has a lot of Russians, and not all Jews; a Russian cemetery is near our hostel. And, oh, our hostel. Crammed full of kids at summer camp who don't speak a cent of English, and refugees from the north and Russians who are very bitter. The place is filthy, and we have a MILLION stairs to climb to get to our room. Fortunately, Eli and David B. are my roommates, so our awesome room structure from Ein Gedi is almost entirely refreshed.
I do hope to become closer with David, because he's a cool person, a good person, lives in Cali, and unfortunately I can't say I feel we've bonded as much as we should have in this period of time. Buuut then again the same is true for many people here. The room is tiny, and just as we were setting the third mattress on the floor for me, some Israeli kids stole it from us, saying they needed it. I got very angry at how Israelis never ask, they just TAKE. An overexcited Israeli annoying teen was hysterical laughing at the fact that her village had been ketusha'd, and thought to mock English. Some people are just such dipshits. The Russians BLAST reggaeton, techno, and pop, and it is so irritating. Everything stinks, and I keep returning to the hallway to find it REEKS of cigarettes. It is also stupidly humid here. Some hot guess-my age Israeli girls though. Nice arses. And we do have a TV in our room. And so far there's no mosquitoes. (Cross fingers)
The food in uninspiring, and I was introduced to shakshukah, which is like eggs in barbeque sauce. Had dinner with David, Noam, Reb Tzvi, and madrikhah Leah, after some general confusion as to where the vegetarians go. I discussed my temple and situation in terms of religion with Tzvi. The burekas were very good. Yair S. says I'll change the world. Maybe he's right? We then got into a room and had to stand in various places according to how much we agreed or disagreed with a statement. It started off about food, then eased into religion. After that, we got into smaller groups and had to rank the importance of numerous things that could be in a Jewish community, from youth organisations to Bob Dylan; the works.
Daniel, Tanya, and I chose as our top 3: Torah, Talmud, and synagogue. I convinced Tanya to pick Talmud over synagogue because at least these things can be studied at home, and although this may not be preferrable, it is good to have if your synagogue is burnt down by anti-Semites. We then had to discuss the 4 major sects of American Judaism. I discussed Reconstructionism in a rather lively manner, and irked Ilana a bit with my frankness and dashing wit. \D. It also roused many questions. The rest of the time was spent discussing the variations in halakha, gender, taboo, etc. Very interesting stuff. But it was all about Judaism; G-d was somewhat left out of the equation. Eli kept laying on me and moaning, which made me laugh, and we faked farts to freak out Mor. Ben joined at the end of the discussion to say that he is indeed leaving Wednesday night. His reasoning? His parents are worried, and he has band tryouts. Riiight. I know it's because you were a dick, so we treated you like shit, so you're leaving. Psssh. Eli and I joked that we were going to have sex, and Mel actually believed me. So I had to explain that that's not true, and that I'm not gay, I'm bi. Which she is, too. Cool beanz. Anya is sick, so no hook-ups for my roommate tonight.
We haven't seen too much of the other Ks. Jolie and I made our usual cat noises. In our room, I ended up (I forget how?) telling Eli I'm bisexual, and I don't quite know how he took it. He seemed mad, but he could've just been tired. Great, I thought, I just had to put a damper on an excellent friendship by saying that, knowing well that Israelis have big qualms with not being straight. But, I guess I'm sick of keeping secrets. David B. was kind enough to not want to leave me hanging, and admit his bisexuality too. He's a good man, that David Brown. We both pretty much knew each other's sexuality without it being spoken, so it was nothing shocking. The shower works again; before dinner, I used it, and the hot water knob broke and thus wouldn't turn off. It was Joey and his magic screwdriver to the rescue. Watched a smidge of Israeli TV, then slept. I really hope Eli can stand this truth. THE RUSSIANS' MUSIC IS BLARING.