Let's Hike

I'll be honest, I gave some serious thought to retiring from the blogosphere after my first post. The first-go-round was draining. I felt like I was writing a college paper except I never had to turn it in. I could just keep proofreading it, tweaking it, deleting it, and questioning it forever - Which I did until I loved what I had. But then of course I instantly hated myself for trying so hard. Anywayyyyyyyy, I'm going to give this another shot and I hope it gets a little easier. Thanks to all the people for the compliments on the blog; it's much appreciated!

Alrighty, so a lot has happened since I made it to Israel more than a week ago. After meeting everyone in the OTZMA program at the airport, we headed off to a kibbutz to begin orientation. A quick recap of what we did during orientation:

- We played icebreaker after icebreaker after icebreaker.

- The second night, we all grabbed some drinks (the ultimate icebreaker) at a pub before...

- We went to a small stadium to catch the Ha'Dag Nachash concert. This band, which was like a rock band but led by two rappers, was awesome. How do I know they were awesome? They got me to sing along to all their songs which were in Hebrew. Thing is, I don't know Hebrew. Hopefully no one was watching.

-We floated in the Dead Sea. It didn't kill us.

- The last couple days of orientation were spent swimming at the pool at the kibbutz, partaking in some informational sessions with the OTZMA staff, enjoying a nice Shabbat service, visiting Jerusalem for a night out on the town, and of course, doing some more ice breakers.

What I found most interesting about orientation was the hikes we did through the desert. Our group hiked both Nachel Tamar and Nachal Arugot. Although I did not know we would hike these particular canyons, I knew I would be hiking during orientation way before I saw the actual orientation schedule. How? Because when I was in Israel last month for a different program, we hiked. We hiked a lot. And we saw a good amount of hikers when we hiked. It seems that hiking is the thing to do in Israel. I would go as far to guess that the majority of programs that bring young Americans to Israel have those Americans hike. And that's what we did

I think that the idea of hiking as a way to orient oneself to a new country is cool, because it happens all the time in Israel but I suspect not often in the U.S. The desert defines Israel. The canyons, hills, streams, etc. in desert are deeply tied to Israel's culture and history. Go check out Masada for proof. In the U.S., yes we have the Rocky Mountains, yeah we have the Great Plains, sure we have some nice beaches in Florida, but if you are visiting the U.S., you know you're going to check out the Statue of Liberty or (insert famous monument). When people think of the U.S., they might think of skyscrapers, malls, highways, but certainly not Yosemite National Park. When I think of Israel, I think of the desert. And it's because I hiked in it.

So that was orientation in a nutshell. Now I'm living in a house in Petach Tikva and I'll post some more details about the place later. To end, I'll close with an exchange between me and an Israeli friend who came over to our house for its first shabbat dinner.

Setting: I am talking to Amit outside as he is grilling some chicken for dinner.

Me: So around how much does a grill cost?

Amit: (Looking confused and a little disturbed) Uhh I am not sure.

Me: Yeah, we were thinking about getting one.

Amit: (Avoiding eye-contact) Uh huh...

Me: Yeah I saw a grill store in Tel Aviv yesterday, but I didn't look at the prices.

Amit: (Realizing something) Wait, you wanted to know how much what cost?

Me: A grill. You know, a grill. Like what we're cooking on right now.

Amit: Oh, I thought you said girl. You wanted to know how much a girl cost. Ahh, I understand now.

Oh, accents....probably had to be there.

Laila Tov

First Post in Israel or, Blogging is Hard

Alright world, so this is my first foray into the blogging game. I'm not exactly sure what the best way to blog is but I'll do my best.

Quick confession: it took me 15 minutes to decide on the title of this blog. If blogging is going to take this long, this might be a problem.

So let's jump right in...

Last week I moved to Israel as a member of OTZMA's Israel Teaching Fellows program. For the next ten months I'm going to be working as a teacher's aid in an Israeli public school and do other volunteer work in my community.

I have a history of getting off to a rocky start when starting new endeavors. My freshmen move-in day at Tulane was also the day I evacuated for Hurricane Katrina. After joining Teach For America, I got hit by Swine Flu (later I got mono but that's a whole 'nother story). Getting to Israel also provided a few challenges.

A quick recap of how I made it to the Home Land

1. I'm on my flight to JFK and find out an earthquake has hit and JFK is closed down. (Sweet!)

2. Flight circles around in the air for a half hour and decides to land in Scranton where we hang out at the gate. We did not have time to check out Dunder-Mifflin. (Awesome!)

3. I get to JFK and am told I'm to late and can't board. (Yep, just keep it coming!)

4. After some pleading, they decide to interrogate me, search my stuff, and then whisk me through security VIP style. (Actually, that was kind of cool.)

5. I land in Israel and find that one of my bags didn't make it. (Seriously??!)

6. I finally find my OTZMA peoples. They all know my name already because I've become "that guy who keeps making us wait for him everywhere." Introductions go smoothly and everyone is awesome. (Sababaaaaa...)

So that's how I made to Israel. Since then, so much has happened. Everything has been great so far and I'm stoked to be here. More details to come on how the last couple of days have played out.

Lastly, a quick shout-out to all my REALITY peoples. I love you guys and miss having you all over here with me. Hope everyone has had a good start to the school year. Stay strong out there (and wash your hands constantly, you don't want to get Swine Flu!)

Wow, that took so long and I hate everything I wrote. Is this how blogging is supposed to work??? I hope I can keep doing this and that everyone is having a sababa day!