American in Israel: Living Abroad

February 23, 2013

A reflection on a change of mindset. The mind is a powerful thing and can make all the difference. (edited life update I emailed to a friend recently):

After a roller coaster of a winter, I am cruising into spring with my head held high.

Months ago, I arrived in Israel with the mindset to LIVE ISRAEL. Thinking back to Year Course, I arrived this time determined to live my Fulbright year much UNlike Year Course: not with Americans, and definitely not in English. I wanted to live in ISRAEL, with the whole shabang.

I dove in and immersed myself in the culture, the language and the people. For the first few months, my core group of friends were primarily Israelis, I went to Hebrew Class twice a week for 3 hours each, and I tried very hard to let the culture seep into my skin - pushing and honking and talking back, as well as making tea and hosting almost every weekend. At all of this I succeeded - I speak Hebrew well enough now, I love my friends and I know more about Israeli culture than I thought I would ever know. 

But this all came with a cost. For many weeks and even months I had the constant feeling of being an outsider. I constantly struggled with following Hebrew conversations. I had no comfort blanket of Americans to go home to and talk about the nonsense and ballagan that is Israel. I had no shoulder to cry on when dealing with language barriers and no friend who truly understood what it meant to live in a country with no family members, and no one to whom I would say "I love you."

So it got to the point where I knew I needed a safety net. One night, I called up the 2 other American girls at my university and as we walked along the cliff, I immediately felt a calming come over my body. I’ve since learned to be OK with speaking English and being friends with non-Israelis in Israel. I now know that a balance is so necessary, and although I'm proud of myself for the determination I had when I arrived here, I would never ever go to a new country with that mindset again. It's taxing emotionally and physically, and a support system of familiarity is necessary for me. 

Advice to anyone going abroad - it's not cheating to have a little bit of home with you while you are away, and I would even say it's a strategic thing to do :)

School = Learning?

So I’ve recently been enlightened to a phenomenon here. Apparently School does not necessarily imply learning.

Now you might look at this as a complete generalization, and I’m sure that any teacher or professor here in Israel would have a word with me (whether I like it or not, as is the Israeli way), but from talking to my Israeli 20-something aged friends about college, this seems to be a consensus.

I am currently in finals season– I had a final today, I have one on Thursday, and then I have a few weeks off before two more finals in February. So, as I’ve done for the past X number of years, I’ve gone into study mode: constant tea in my thermos, snacks in my backpack, and hours in my office at my computer going over power point presentations.

After spending too much time trying to figure out a problem set from Groundwater Hydrology, I go to my friend Imri’s apartment and start to complain – I haven’t learned anything this semester, the professor doesn’t explain the concepts well enough, there are no office hours to ask questions, etc, etc, blah blah blah. My other friend Sivan is also there and just blatantly says, “But he’s the best teacher I have.” Wow. Holy moley. And it’s true – my GW Hydrology course is often a favorite when polling Hydrology students on best classes to take.

For those of you who know my academic background – that I do not have a degree in engineering or geology, or something that would have given me the basis for learning Groundwater Hydrology – you might be thinking that it is unfair of me to blame my lack of understanding on the professor.  But get this:

Apparently Israeli students (at the college level) are so used to having bad teachers., that they have created a strategy to still get by with good grades. My friends Almog and Eyal informed me that they don’t actually learn all the material – they just do the practice problems and memorize how to find the answer. And that’s it! Ze o!

For my exam on Thursday – Contaminant Hydrology – Eyal called me tonight to ask if I was studying. I said yes, and that I was going through each lecture, writing down notes, re-learning material, and then planned to do the practice problems. Eyal said, no no, you don’t have to read the lectures. I have a few tests from previous years that you can practice. I told him that this was sometimes illegal in the states, and often Professor’s make a point to recollect tests after they are handed out so that they cannot be passed on. “Welcome to Israel,” Eyal said as he handed me a photocopy of the only test he had with questions in English.

So there you have it. School here, does not seem to actually mean learning material, but rather learning a strategy. 

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?)

Week Two: Learning and Re-learning Israel

After my second week here, I’ve learned some very important things about Israel, the culture, my program rules, and have continued adjusting to life in the desert.

I would like to share with you three things from my week:

1. “Lines” in Israel are equivalent to an American first grade class lining up after recess; every single person is pushing to be first in line.  Now that I've re-experienced it, it's something that I remember from last time I lived here as well. I have a vivid memory of going to the grocery store in Netanya and being full fledged elbowed to the side by an eighty-something year old woman who ended up in front of me to pay.  

Read an article today that introduced Israeli culture, and this was in there! 

2. At my Fulbright orientation this week (where we met the American Ambassador) the U.S. Department of State Regional Security Office presented to us about safety. The officer advised us not to go to the Old City in Jerusalem on Shabbat. Ha. I hope everyone does go because it’s one of the most magical experiences to have as a Jew in Israel.

3. After spending some time in Tel Aviv this week, I was thankful to be living in Sede Boqer: it is ridiculous how cheap my rent is in comparison, I don’t have to gag a few times per block because of looking at watery dog poop that no one cleans up, and I am finally starting to penetrate the close-knit community that exists here.

I finally got an Israeli cell phone plan for my iPhone (thanks to our close friend Yoni) so now I have internet and all my apps, etc. This means that all of you should download an app called What’s App – which allows us to text for free! Yaaahoooooo!

Classes start on Sunday – I am taking two classes about how people can live sustainably with little resources (aka in the desert), a sustainable urban planning class, a hydrology course, and Hebrew! I’m definitely looking forward to learning again, we will just see how I fare with the assigned reading and writing assignments. Homework. Oy vey.  

Date Trees and Judean Desert, near Ein Gedi

Dead sea and Jordanian mountains in the background

Arrival to the Holyland!

Friday October 12, 2012

Goodbye America and Shalom Israel!

I arrived on Tuesday October 9 to Israel. Ben Gurion Univeristy sent a taxi driver to come get me – he held a sign with my name on it! It was very exciting! We drove two hours straight to the Sede Boqer campus in the middle of the desert. Literally the middle of nowhere - check it out by clicking here. Quite a different Israel than the one I knew on my gap year. There is one store,  three restaurants, and a post office.

As you might imagine, this is quite a contrast from Los Angeles. It’s been almost four days, and I’ve gone through many feelings already.

Why I find it hard to be here:

What do I do all day? Nothing. Wow. Nothing though, really. Classes haven’t started yet,  nor have I started my research, so I literally have nothing to do all day. I walk around looking for people, but it's often pretty quiet out. 

Also, it is very hot here. I wake up at like 5:30am everyday because it’s so hot. I’m looking to buy a second fan for my room. I hate being hot. poop.

Why I love it here:

Although the day times are very still and hot, the night times have been fun for me. Considering I'm in the middle of no where, there is a surprising amount of things going on at night time. I played Frisbee on Wednesday night at the kibbutz that is 10 minutes from here - there is an email group here in Sede Boqer and people post when they are doing things so that everyone can come, so I caught a ride from someone going. It was awesome! Not only did I get to meet new people, but I totally held my own on the field! Afterwards, there was a going away party for a girl who just finished her studies. I hardly knew anyone, but it was nice to see so many people there. It showed me that they really have a close-knit community here – everyone knows each other and loves each other. Thursday night, I watched the Giant's win the 5th game of the playoffs on a TV in a new friend's apartment. And tonight I am going to a concert and art show in the desert called “desART”. I am hoping that it is something like spending a night at burning man, but I can’t get my hopes up.

A second thing I've truly enjoyed is the international aspect of the school. This is an international campus so there are people from all over the world. I met folks from Mexico, Ethiopia, Jordan, Armenia, Ghana, Italy, Kazakhstan, Zambia, Brazil, and Canada. It is truly amazing. I am learning SO MUCH worldy knowledge. To those of you who only know of Kazakhstan from Borat, well think again. I learned that they speak Russian there. Also, the Kazak girl here, she is Asian looking! Totes didn't know that. The only downside of the international campus is that everyone speaks English. All. The. Time. I’ve spoken Hebrew a little bit and I will tell the Israeli’s here to speak with me. But it’s amazing – my friend from Zambia, he’s been here 6 months and only knows how to say "how are you" in Hebrew. I think that is no good. The students here are experiencing a very different Israel from the one I think of.

Something else I LOVE is that no one locks their bikes. This place is small and so community oriented. No one steals, etc. So you know which bike is yours and you don’t take someone else’s bike. I don’t have a bike yet, but I can’t wait to get one and NOT lock it and it still be there when I come back. Oh bliss.

I also feel very lucky to have the scenery that we have here. I feel like I have the Israeli Grand Canyon here on campus. It’s pretty ridiculous. This canyon is a three minute walk from my apartment:

Wow! And there are always Ibex there. I learned that it’s mating season for the Ibex, so the male does this thing where he stops in front of a woman, and kind of bows his body and sticks his tongue out for the female to look at. He stands there, still like a statue in this silly formation until she either gives him permission to mount her or shakes him away. How funny!