4 days feels like 1 month here (I wish it felt like a year). It could be because there are so many experiences that happen each day that boggle my mind, or because time and life feels slower. Anyway, the moroccan bar mitzvah does not feel like it was just last Thursday. This bar mitzvah belonged on an episode of my super sweet 16--so of course I took pictures.
Picture Alex took of me (even though I was saying "no no, I want a picture of the event)
This picture does not do the room justice. Seating for 450 people, 2 huge screens, stage, dance floor, HUGE bar in the middle of the room, soccer field, and a "video game station" for the kids.
Part of the "soccer field"
Ilya, the banquet manager, put me in charge of canapes for the start of the night. I was in the kitchen working with the head chef, taking the canapes as they came out and setting them up properly on the waiter's tray as they stood there, then sent them out into the event. It was actually kind of fun because I got to interact with the kitchen and the waiters, and work the back of the house. However, once the canapes were done I didn't have anything to do so I just walked around and tried to find things to do, but there wasn't much. I ended up just talking to guests, walking some more, and wishing it was time to go. Overall though, glad I was there because it was a great experience to see this in person.
Dancing
I stayed at the event until 11:30 and then rushed home to meet up with everyone because they were partying on the roof and I had serious FOMO (fear of missing out). That night the girls and a couple of our guy friends went to Villa. Here we are pre dancing in our apt per usual...
Ein Gedi
The next morning we woke up to go to Ein Gedi for a dialogue seminar. The program invited 100 Israelis so we could have discussion groups on everything from what it means to be jewish, to how Israelis view the diaspora moving to Israel, to stereotypes of Americans, etc, etc. Some of the conversations were great, sometimes all I wanted to do was be back in Tel Aviv. Talia met one guy who lives his life by the roll of his dice. He keeps a dice in his pocket, and then when he needs to make a decision he will roll it and if it is 1-3 go with one choice and 4-6 make the other choice.
On Saturday we went hiking through Ein Gedi. I went on this hike during birthright and it was by far one of my favorites. We came to a waterfall/spring and jumped right in. I wish I could live my life hiking and jumping into springs and waterfalls.
One interesting discussion we had is where we come from. We had jews there from ALL over the world but majority of us either traced our ancestors back to eastern europe or north africa. It really was a dose of reality how we are all so closely tied to each other--which was moving and paradigm shifting. All of the discussions in my group took place outside under a tree and our view was the dead sea. It doesn't need more words.
Back in Tel Aviv
We came back Saturday night. Sunday I met Mia for coffee, did laundry, went to spin class, and then went out for mojitos with a group of friends and met the one Israeli celebrity/actor we know of. He gave us his number, but we think it was fake because he didn't pick when we called later on haha.
Tonight is Lag BaOmer so after a lecture the girls and I went to meet friends at a party down by the beach, where we knew there would be fire so we brought marshmallows to roast. One Israeli kept insisting on roasting mine and showing me how she does it, and kept taking my stick from me. Typical here.
IDF
On a serious note (I know this post is very long but I have a lot to say and I am still cutting it short) as the program comes to end and all of us need to decide what we are doing with our lives a lot of friends are deciding to make aliyah and a handful of my guy friends are making aliyah and joining the IDF. For some reason, hearing that close friends of mine are joining the army makes me really sad inside. It isnt that I don't think this is what they should be doing, because if anything it is admirable and I am proud to know them for doing it. Yet, at the same time it makes the conflict and everything that Israel needs to do in order to exist seem so much more real, and it makes the situation, or an event here very personal when I picture dear friends of mine becoming a part of it all.
Tonight I went to a lecture at Tel Aviv University to hear Neil Lazarus speak. He spoke about Israel and the media (hasbara) and the reasons it is misrepresented a lot of the time. I can't shake the images of some slides during a protest in San Francisco where people held up signs saying Jews are like Nazis because of the conflict, or Jews are terrorists, or Israel likes killing kids. How the hell can there be peace when messages are being spread like this about us? This isnt the case at all, and to think that my friends will be in the IDF trying to keep some sort of order in Israel and some sort of safety so Neil Lazarus's children do not get blown up at the bus stop on their way to school, makes me sickened and sad that this is the way it has to be right now. Besides my friends joining the army in Israel, it sickens and saddens me that there has to be the kind of army there is in Israel, and that this is even an option for my friend's lives. It sickens and saddens me that people would participate in a protest and hold signs like they did in San Francisco when they obviously do not know a fraction of what is really going on here. A lie repeated is a lie remembered.
My good friend Brian is joining and he wants to join the combat forces, so to think of him out there if another war does break out is really making me emotional which is probably where all of this is coming from.
Future
Tomorrow I am volunteering for a few hours and cleaning apartment because my mom and dave will be here on wednesday! Of course my work schedule this week is wednesday, thursday, and friday. Joy of joys. I plan on sneaking away from work and hanging out in my mom's room as much as possible.
lyla tov
p.s. i had this moment today when i was walking onto the beach with zo and talia about how lucky i am that this is my life right now. i dont think i could have ever appreciated where i am, the freedom i have, the time i have, the friends i have, or the opportunity to learn that i have, if i had not spent the last 2 years doing corporate work and living my life 9-5. i'm getting a sliver of time in my life to break away from it all and i realized that coming here is one of the best choices i could have ever made.
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