Post-Thanksgiving

On Friday morning I woke up at my Fulbrighter friend's apartment in Tel Aviv and set out to the Fulbright office for one of my check-in meetings (scheduled for this day because I am hardly ever in Tel Aviv, so the Thanksgiving dinner last night put me in a good position to have the check-in). I opened her apartment door to find the biggest rainfall of the season so far! Wow!
Immediately switching my plan of walking the 35 minutes to the office, I hailed a taxi. In the two blocks to find a taxi, I was already soaking wet, but loving it nonetheless! The desert hasn't seen much rain yet - we got a few rainy days, but in desert language that means five minutes of downpour and sporadic drizzles for the rest of the day.
I got in the car and the driver and I both exclaimed (in Hebrew) how happy we were to see the rain! I continued to use my new and improved Hebrew to tell tim that I'm not from here - I live in the desert - so this was a real treat for me.

He proceded to ask me what I was doing in Tel Aviv and I told him about Thanksgiving, an American holiday that I came to the big city to celebrate with friends. He said he had heard about it, but asked me what we do, and what we are celebrating.

Wow, what a question! Not only have I never been asked what Thanksgiving is, but I've never had to struggle with the language barrier of choosing the right words to express the feeling of true happiness. My small Hebrew vocabulary communicated to him that Thanksgiving is a time when you can surround yourself by people who you love and that bring happiness into your life. I told him you can think about what's good in your life and take some time to appreciate it.

This conversation with my taxi driver truly made me appreciate Thanksgiving. It warmed my heart, and that little ten minute ride was my real Thanksgiving here in Israel. The dinner on Thursday night was nice, but I had a feeling of entitlement or something because it was a bougie even at a stranger's home. Kind of felt more like a cocktail party...

So, I want to take a moment to truly appreciate my support system - my family, friends, mentors, and people I look up to. You have all impacted me in some way and made me the person I am - the person I am proud to be. You've affected me in ways you will never know.
Thank you for being in my life and thank you for helping me appreciate goodness....








... Like this challah that was displayed at the Deputy Ambassador's house on Thursday night (tee hee, tee hee....):

(Ok, so maybe I turned the photo upside down, and MAYBE they intended for it to be a "t" but they didn't do a very good job, am I right?)

Thanksgiving!

Fulbright organized a Thanksgiving dinner for us at the Deputy Ambassador's home in Hertzliya Pituach (very nice neighborhood). It was nice to see my Fulbright friends once again, but the experience was nothing in the league of the Ranch that my family usually goes to on the northern coast of California. I missed snuggling by the fireplace and playing with the little Chinese baby who's family also spends the weekend at the Ranch. I miss feeding apples from the apple tree to the beautiful wild horses and walking down to the algae filled pond with my papa or holding hands with my mom on our moonlight starlight walk after the big Thursday dinner.

Here's the whole group - wives, husbands, kids, and all! (not everyone came, but a good amount of us were there). I bet you are thinking, "whoa, so many people!" - yes yes, I had no idea so many people were doing Fulbright. There are only 6 people like me (one year of either post-undergrad or post-masters research) all the other people are either doing one semester Visiting Professorships or 2 year Post-Doc programs.

Obama!

Guess who I voted for?!

All the Fulbrighters in Israel were invited to an election party thrown by the US Ambassador this past week in Tel Aviv. They held the party on Tuesday night (before the election results came in) because the Ambassador, Dan Shapiro, is appointed by the president and if Obama didn't win, then Shapiro could be out of luck. So they held the party before the results were announced.

Jess (who hosted me for the night), me, the ambassador, Amelia (my friend from Sde Boker)

I brought a friend from the midrasha to the party and we stayed in Tel Aviv for the night with one of my Fulbright friends. The party was painfully stereotypical American with hot dogs and burgers, when I was expecting this to be a nice, elegant gathering, haha. Oh well. The company was great - as I get to know my fellow Fulbrighters in Israel better, I appreciate their immense knowledge about all sorts of topics and I am always entertained by certain characters in our group.

It was a fun night to get out of Sede Boker and head to Tel Aviv, and I'll get to see my friends again soon for Fulbright Thanksgiving!

Fulbrighters!

Live band with balloon decorations!

Night Hike Magic

For the full moon last week I decided to lead a night hike! Brining my SC Outfitter skills half way around the world, I teamed up with a woman named Amber who already knew the trail and we lead about 30 people from the midrasha down into a canyon and back out to a campfire! No flashlights needed because the moon was so bright, it was amazing.

I told the story of the moon and the stars and we made food called Poyke - where you basically throw everything together (quinoa, rice, seasoning, vegetables, anything you want) in a pot and it is somehow ready all at the same time! It's a magic boiling pot!

My Address!

I moved apartments - from a studio apartment to what is called a Caravan (it's kind of like a storage container from a shipping boat, but painted nice and with a tile floor). I still live alone, but I am now located in a more social/community-oriented location. My direct neighbors are from Ethiopia and have an adorable 2 year old boy, who calls my name out when he sees me and makes me smile. My neighbor across from me is named Isabel - a very lively PhD student from Brasil who teaches me a word in Portuguese here and there and generally makes me laugh a lot.

There are 10 Caravans in my courtyard - all of our doors open to a common outside area with small gardens and picnic tables. For my first shabbat after my move, we all had dinner together:

      

 

I have a natural alarm clock every morning at 7:30, except Saturday, because I now live right next to the elementary school, so I wake up to the sounds of screaming (happy) children. Things could be worse... :)

Write me letters! And I'll write you back!
Here is my address:

Nina Gordon-Kirsch

New Caravan 127

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research

Sde Boqer Campus

Midreshet Ben Gurion 

Israel 84990

In front of my new pad