New Experience Overload

I went on a Tiyyul (hike) with my hebrew class. we learned landscape vocab and the names of different kinds of trees. This is Ilana and me:


This past week was jam packed with new experiences!

Pre-note: Just in case you don’t know, it is mandatory for every Israeli citizen to serve in the army. Men serve for three years and women for two. They serve after high school and before college.

On Sunday I went to a rally for missing Israeli soldiers.
It was awesome. There is such a different attitude toward the army here than there is in America. I got interviewed by an Israeli radio station (in English) and I talked about the differences. Back home I don’t know anyone in the army, or anyone who is related to anyone in the army. So when if a soldier goes missing in America, it doesn’t affect me at all. Back home I feel completely removed from the army, but in Israel it surrounds me. In Israel EVERYONE has a son, daughter, sibling, or friend who is currently serving in the army. Therefore when a soldier goes missing all Israeli citizens are much more sympathetic towards one another. In the summer of 2006, Israel was at war with Lebanon. The whole entire war was over one P.O.W. who was captured in June. Two more men were captured in July, and all three are still captive. The America I know would never go to war just to get a few missing soldiers back. Israel is like a small community of a country, its nice.

The rally’s purpose was to inform people about the state of the three missing men. Family members and friends of the three men spoke to the audience (made up of about 2200 students, youth group members, and soldiers) about how to keep the cause going, “we cant give up now,” “our men will come home alive”… The chairman of the World Zionist Movement spoke to us about how Israel would do all they can to get their men home. It’s like the lives of these three men are more important in Israel than they would have been in America. I don’t even know how to explain it…just three soldiers have caused a national movement to occur. It really gives power to the individual.

On Monday night I went to a dance class at a studio near my hostel. Here is an excerpt from an email I wrote to Ms. Carr and Dance Production 2008:

“While I have been gone, I have had two rencounters with dance. The first was on a fieldtrip with my art class. We went to a Yemenite village and studied Yemenite art and culture. I got to stroll through an art museum, make clay pots, but most exciting, I got to take a Yemenite dance class. Now I don’t think Yemenite dancing is something I will pursue in the future, but it was a good experience. It involved a lot of twisty wrist movements and contractions of the chest. The woman teaching the class had huge curly hair and a velvet pink stretchy dress covering her petite body. I tried to imitate her hip swivels and “Habibi”-esc hand movements. A smile came across my face as my bare feet tapped the ground and I realized that dance is a truly world wide activity.

I am now sitting down at my lap top, in my hostel room, exhausted from taking a hip-hop class. This class was amazing. I was extremely intimidated to go because I knew the class would be in Hebrew, and I only just starting learning the language. The Yemenite class had been in English because it was will my American class from school, but this time I was on my own. I left my dance pants, half soles, jazz sneakers and jazz shoes in Berkeley so I showed up to the class in sneakers and leggings and a V-neck. The teacher ended up being the sweetest woman. The first half of the class was all technique with plies and rond de jambs. I haven’t done any real stretching in a very long time, so it was painfully satisfying. The teacher counted in English, I guess because numbers in Hebrew are all two syllables and in English they are mostly one syllable, which is faster to say. The language barrier ended up being less of a problem than I expected. I had to use my eye sight much more than usual because I couldn’t verbally understand if a foot was supposed to be pointed or flexed, I had to watch and see. It’s just remarkable that anyone can attempt any type of dance no matter where on earth they are. I had so much fun learning a hip-hop dance to “The Way I Are,” which has made its way half way around the world.

Dance is something that covers every continent. It is a language that can be spoken in any country and it is phenomenal.”

I went to an Ethiopian Community center for a field trip. I learned about how the Ethiopian population believes that they are from the lost tribe of Dan. After the first temple was destroyed, they fled Israel and settled in Ethiopia. They have bee returning to their homeland of Israel ever since it was created. I got to learn about how their Jewish customs are the same as and differ from the Jewish customs I know. They only celebrate holidays that are in the Torah, which means they miss out on Purim and Hannukah (my two favorites!). In Ethiopia, they have a day called Sigit on which they hike up a tall mountain and pray to G-d to be taken to Israel. This “holiday” is taking place this Thursday and I get witess it on another fieldtrip…the only thing I don’t understand is why they would have this holiday IN Israel… I guess I will find out!

Well that’s enough for now, but my next entry will include my experience on a Kibbutz.
La-he-tra-ote = until next time, bye= להתרןת