A "real" day at work

The other night my shift was from 4pm-midnight for an awards dinner. The award was...drum roll please...the best israeli wine. When I first got in to work, I went to the locker room to change my shoes and next to my locker were two muslim women praying. I believe it is called salah, which is the prayer to allah they perform 5 times a day. I tried to be respectful as my locker was right now to where one of the woman was praying. It felt like such a powerful moment to me, and something I don't think I would ever see in the states. It was natural and meaningful to be able to come to work and be surrounded by women from all over the world, and have these two women praying in the locker room, at the hotel, and not have it looked down upon. I feel like praying and the topic of g-d back home is almost coming this taboo subject to my generation. I think it is more taboo when someone truly believes, but here it is accepted, and its accepted if you dont believe as well--its as if as long as you have a belief, if you stand for something, then you exist. 

After that I went into work, found Daniel and began the night. Overall it was a great night. There were 450+ people at the dinner, and supposedly there were a grip of Israeli celebrities there. I didn't know any of them but Daniel pointed them out to me. Daniel and Ilya (the head banquet manager) put me in charge of the reception before they went to dinner. It felt amazing to finally have a responsibility and be in charge of something...although 5 of the 7 waiters spoke either Russian or Hebrew. Where is the english?? I am highly considering enrolling back in Ulpan. Did I write that in an earlier entry? I can't remember.

Anyway, the line up for the food was intense. Ilya, Daniel, and I would take the entrees just as the chefs finished preparing them, place them on the waiters trays and then send them out to the masses. Ilya kept yelling "BEVAKASHA" to the waiters (be quiet) but in a seriously rude tone. I felt bad for them because I could never tolerate being spoken to like that--but they do it all for a whopping $5 (20 sheckles) an hour. 

Overall the event was a huge operation and exciting. As much as I love being Daniel's shadow it was great to feel like I was finally contributing. I also got to taste a ridiculous amount of desserts which could also be the reason why my night felt so fabulous. The next day I had to work the same shift but this shift was BORING and tedious, and by the time I got home my toe was bleeding. The hardest part about this job is being on my feet for pretty much 8 hours straight. I know for a fact that working in hotels, or banquets, is not what I would want to do after Career Israel. I already knew this coming in, and I just wanted the experience for a little bit, but these last 2 weeks have already confirmed it for me.

At one point 2 nights ago, Ilya called me over. He opened the door to a back stairwell and Daniel and one of the head sales girls was in there sitting down. Ilya offered me a cigarette, and I told him I dont't smoke--he looked pretty shocked. So I just sat there while they smoked and spoke in Hebrew. 5 minutes into the conversation the sales girl turns to me and says...

"oh im so sorry! we have been talking in Hebrew"

I smiled and said "its fine, i try and pick up on little things you are saying"

She smiled and went back to talking in Hebrew.

So the last 3 days I havent done much except work and go to the gym. Today I have the day off (!!) so I am going with Mia to sit outside at a cafe for a couple hours, then I am going to Jerusalem for an event called "Israel Achievements and Successes". There are various speakers who have accomplished a lot in Israel. I believe they will be telling their stories and then we can choose a breakout to go to. I think I am going to go to: "Israeli Cinema as a Popular Ambassador to the World"

Thats it for now. Ciao.

My Work Day

Breakdown of a typical day at work:

-Get into work, put my bag in my locker, change out of my flip flops, walk into the conference center

-Walk around and search for Daniel (pronounced Danielle. He is the Banquet Manager that I shadow).

-Spot Daniel, wave him down, and fall into step next to him.

-Accompany Daniel on his cigarette break

-Walk to an event that is happening and make sure all is well.

-Walk through the back kitchen and get some coffee.

-Stand around while Daniel talks to someone in Hebrew. 

-Walk to the office (with Daniel of course) and sit at the desk while he schedules the waiters time for the day.

-Sit there while Daniel argues with other Banquet staff in Hebrew

-Accompany Daniel on his cigarette break.

-Hopefully get another latte 

-Check on an event that is happening and help the waiter's bus some tables.

-Walk upstairs to the 11th floor where the boardrooms are to make sure the meetings are going well.

-Ask Daniel what words he is using in Hebrew mean in English.

-Practice saying these words to Daniel.

-Go on lunch break at the cafeteria and eat hummus.

-Walk back down to the conference center to search for Daniel.

-Stand around while Daniel talks to co workers in Hebrew. Sometimes looking at them as if I know what they are saying, sometimes looking around in the distance.

-Wave down Daniel and fall into step next to him (actually behind because I can't walk as fast as he can especially when I am wearing my heels).

-Check on event that is happening and check on set up for other events.

-Accompany Daniel on his cigarette break.

-Walk around with Daniel and stand there while he talks to other staff in Hebrew...or argues in Hebrew.

-Repeat the Hebrew words to Daniel that I tried to learn for the day.

-Check on event with Daniel again.

-Accompany Daniel on his cigarette break.

-Day is over and walk home. Sometimes it is a 4 hour day sometimes it is an 8 hour day, but you get the jist.

Some of the events are extremely boring, some are amazing. Thursday night there was a Georgian wedding. 550+ were coming and they spent  $10,000 on vodka alone. I was just there for set up and left before the event started, which went until 5am. I don't even know when or if I want to get married, but seeing this amazing set up made me want to get married right on the spot...or at least become a professional wedding crasher. The dance floor was huge and it lit up different colors--it was like a huge dance dance revolution floor.

Tomorrow I am working from 4pm-12am for an awards dinner for the best wine in Israel. I don't think tomorrow will be much different then my typical breakdown above, except maybe I will be able to add a few different things to my day. Yesterday my "new task" was placing the floral arrangements on the tables and then I fell back into step with Daniel.

As tedious as it can be, and as much I wish I was somewhere else when I am working, and as tough as it is to think about the kind of work I was managing before I came here compared to what I am doing now, I have learned a lot already about the way the banquet staff operates, and it is a great growing experience doing all of this when I can't understand 90% of what people are saying. Stay positive. Stay positive. Stay positive. 

Shabbat and Work

Things keep happening that I want to write about, or someone says something that moves me and I want to share it, but then I procrastinate on updating and then the desire to write leaves me. SO I am going to just share a few things that have happened...

#1 On Friday night Rachel, Talia and I went to one of Talia's childhood friend's house for Shabbat. She had not seen him in years but they got back in touch once she moved here. His parents were out of town so he was having Shabbat dinner for a group of his friends. The dinner was supposed to start around 7:30 but in Israeli time that actually means 9pm. There were around 10 people there. Some people were from Israel, some Holland, some Iraq, and some the US. There was a moment when we were all gathered around the table, saying the blessings of the bread and the wine, and then one of the guys stood up (who is a musician) and sang an amazing prayer, smiling the whole time, and everyone else had their glasses raised. I looked around and I was overwhelmed with feeling because I was with other jews, from all over the world, all around the same age, sharing shabbat together in Israel. It sounds simple, but for some reason it felt like a moment I will never forget.

After that the guys took us to this underground loft party. I think Rachel, Talia, and I were the only non-israelis there. It was amazing. We danced until 4am, came home, slept till 12 and then went to the beach for the rest of the day. 

THEN vacation is over. I woke up at 7:30 today to get ready for work. I don't really feel like talking about work because it was kind of boring. I followed around one of the banquet managers all day long, but since I dont speak Hebrew there wasn't much I could do. Google was having an event today--their events look amazing because everything is branded with their colors and logo. The whole event was, of course, in Hebrew though so I have no idea what it was about. I am still not sure what my main function will be in banquets yet since there is the language barrier, but any experience is an experience. 

ALSO one of the girls in the office received an email saying that guests in the hotel are looking for babysitters. She sent them my information so I am HOPING I get a call to babysit. It would be the biggest relief, and its 50 sheckles an hour, which is really only $10 but its something and I think that is pretty good for Israel.

Tonight I am going out to dinner with the girls and then going out with Yoni, Talia's family friend, to a bar to see a band play (in hebrew haha).

work visa...work?

I have my work visa! I went to the Ministry of Interior at 7am with a girl from my program who also needed to get one. Picture the Ministry of Interior then imagine the DMV but 10 times worse. You can't tell by the picture, but it was one guy working the desk with at least 50 people waiting at the same time to get some sort of visa. We ended up having to wait 3.5 hours, and I had to be questioned a bit about the letter from my rabbi...but finally I received a 6 month work visa! For the stress of waiting, Rachel and I (the girl I went with) treated ourselves to a feast of shakshuka. 

Today was our last day of Ulpan. Below is a picture of some people in class so you can get an idea of what my last 3 weeks looked like.

One of our assignments today was to go outside for 20 minutes and ask strangers where their favorite place in Tel Aviv is. We would start off by getting someone's attention by saying "excuse me", then "i am studying hebrew" then asking the question. This is, of course, all in hebrew. Mia and I went out together to ask the questions....

 I saw a guy walking down the street, who was cute (Mia and I decided to ask cute men) and said "slicha" which is excuse me. He looked at me, shook his head and kept walking. Mia and I started cracking up, mostly out of embarrassment. I couldn't believe I had been so flat out rejected. We saw another guy walking down the street...I looked at him, "slicha?"...He looked at me and ignored me again. I couldnt believe it. For once, I thought my "slicha" sounded good because I had the CHHH down, but he kept walking. I started to second guess myself and my hebrew. We ended up being rejected 4 times. 

About 10 minutes later we ran into one of the leaders of Career Israel and I told her what had happened. "Oh, they just thought you were trying to sell them something or were from Green Peace". I felt a huge relief come over me. Why had I not thought of that before? There were promoters of Green Peace a block down from us. Mia and I, with our notebooks, looked like the people that I even shake my head to on the street to and keep walking. I was so quick to jump to the conclusion that they could automatically tell I was a foreigner and did not want to talk to me. 

After class Zo and I went out to celebrate St Paddy for a little bit and now we are back at the apartment. I was supposed to start working tomorrow but my supervisor is in Germany and she wrote me an email saying "you wont start before the 18th"...which I already knew because I told her I couldnt start before then. Everything is so up in the air...so Israeli. I hope she gets back to me tomorrow because I want to start working asap.

Thats it for now. Every day I am here I fall a bit more in love with Israel.

Back from the Desert

<---- Zo and I at Ben Gurion's grave site in the Negev

We just got back from spending almost 3 whole days in the Negev. I am EXHAUSTED. We went on hikes everyday, went to a bedouin tent, had shabbat, and laid under the stars one night. It was pretty freezing there, especially at night, and I didn't bring a real jacket with me so I ended up walking around where we were staying with my comforter wrapped around me all the time. We were staying at a field school in the middle of the desert.

The bedouin tent was much different then the one we saw on birthright. On birthright it was very touristy and I felt as if the bedouin lifestyle was glamorized. This time we went to a real bedouin village, where thewere tents made out of tarp and blankets. It looked almost like they were living in a dumpster. The bedouin we spoke with was different than most bedouin women because she was getting an education, which is breaking the "rules" of their culture. She spoke a lot about how the Israeli govt. does not recognize their village because they do not want them on this specific plot of land. Some bedouin villages are recognized by Israel, but her group will not move there. She said that she blames her people for the way they live, but I was still angry with the govt. I can't expect them to be perfect, but I hated hearing how they arent given what they need to have a normal functioning life--especially when I saw the children living there. So which lifestyle is the right one? The one I saw on birthright or this one? Maybe neither is the truth...maybe there are many truths. I heard a story about how a group of bedouins built a house on a plot of land that Israeli govt didnt recognize, so they bulldozed the house. It killed me to hear that. It was like having to swallow a very large, sharp pill. I wish people could just be.

I have to go the ministry of interior early tomorrow for the work visa, hopefully I will get it and be done with this whole bellagane (mess in hebrew).

lyla tov

First step...check! Budapest

I took off from hebrew class today to go to the Jewish Agency to get a letter from them stating I am really Jewish to then take to the ministry of interior for my work visa. it took me 45 minutes to get there because I got lost, once there I had to track down this woman Dina who didnt know I was coming because she hadn't returned any of my phone calls or emails. Once she went through my paper work, they wrote me my letter.

I went home and 30 minutes later I recieved a call from them saying I need to come back because they wrote the letter in black ink and the ministry of interior requires the letter to be in blue ink. This is only step one.

After that I went to a coffee shop on one of my favorite streets, bokershov and sat at a cafe, had a glass of lemonade and read my book. Then I came back here andddd...

booked my ticket to budapest!! Kristen and I are meeting up there from April 8-12. I CANNOT wait. 

Purim and Hebrew

Every day is almost turning into a blur. Hebrew class, then something for the program, then the gym (on a good day), hanging out with people at night. This week was Purim week, which is INTENSE here. People have been dressing up almost every day even though actual Purim was today. The roomies and I decided to dress up as...drum roll please...the teenage mutant ninja turtles. 

Zo and I went to the shuk yesterday on a hunt for costumes. It was kind of a stressful task walking around in the crowded shuk, trying to picture how we can look like turtles, and attempting to bargain for our green tank tops and scarves. Overall the costumes came out pretty well...

As you can see from these pictures I am doing my "turtle face" which for some reason, I decided to make in every single picture taken of me last night. Everyone went to Flourintine Street which is in South Tel Aviv. This street was PACKED with people, to the point you could barely move. Most of the night was us just trying to get to one end of the street, not finding the people we wanted to, and then pushing through the crowd again to get back where we started. The pre party at Beit Leni (the building we live in) was VERY fun, and all of us drank a little too much so most of the day we just tried to recover.

After we woke up we went to this little restaurant on a side street and had Shashuka for breakfast. It was amazing. Sitting outside in this little cafe with the girls, having an amazing breakfast in Israel, I felt so relaxed. It was one of those moments where you feel all of your muscles relax, your mind go on auto pilot, and you just "be" where you are. I realized that I hadn't felt that relaxed in a very long time. Every thing I do here I just become speechless because I feel so lucky. 

We go back to Ulpan tomorrow and then this weekend we take a trip to the Negev desert to go hiking and see the bedouins. THEN, finally we begin our internships. I am still trying to get my work visa which has been a bit stressful because I need it before my first day of work. Its a two step process and the people I need to make an appt with are impossible to get in touch with. Seems to be the Israeli way.

Thats it for now. Nothing too exciting to report except life is good.

brides in yaffo, ethiopian food feast, and bags of yellow peppers

Not much time to write because we are about to get ready to go to Landon for the night (an amazing club/bar) but I wanted to share a few things...

Yesterday we went to Jaffa/Yaffo on a tour of the city. The tour guide was a bit bland but it was great to see a different city. Heres a picture from Jaffo and the buildings you see are Tel Aviv.

SO one of the most entertaining parts of being here for the 2 hours were the brides that were EVERY WHERE taking photos. A few people thought they were models, but I think they were real brides because they all had cars "dressed up" with bows around them...like our "Just Got Married" cars in America. Anyway, these dresses were very...hmm...fresh. All of the bodices were see-through. I am not sure if you can tell from the picture.

Last night a bunch of us went out for Ethiopian food. I have never had it before, and neither had the majority of us. I ended up splitting this vegetarian plate with Talia. Heres a picture of us with our amazing smushed veggies and pancake. I am so sensitive to spicy food so I tried to stay away from the "blop" on the upper right. I had a few bites just to clear out my head.

Today after Hebrew every one split up to do different volunteer projects. I went on the "packing food" volunteer trip, onlt because I ended up not signing up until the last minute (this morning) and that was all that available. We had to take a van to some city about 40 minutes outside of Tel Aviv, went down to this underground parking lot, and sorted through boxes of peppers, bannanas, and oranges then bagged them in groups of 6. Not my ideal volunteer situation, but it was still nice to help out nevertheless. My team was in charge of the peppers. As you can see our beautiful mound of peppers after we bagged them.

I also went to the gym today and ran 30 minutes straight which I havent done in a very long time. Tomorrow I have hebrew and then we are going to see a concert in Jerusalem...Idan Raichel. We have all been learning this one song of his in class, so I am not sure if the song "boi" will ever leave my head for at least another week...or maybe ever. 

OH and also today, I learned how to say "I would like a large latte with soy milk please" in Hebrew. Even that line sounds a bit superficial to me in a weird way, but I love my lattes and this is going to be one of my go to sentences while I am here...this I am 100% sure.

I hate thinking up titles

Things have been insanely busy--in a great way. I don't really want to type out all of the different things that have happened in the last week or so, so I am going to type out a journal entry that I wrote a few days ago at a coffee shop. 

______

I am sitting in a coffee shop/restaurant on Shenkin Street. My chair is facing the street and the rain is pouring down so hard that the sound of the drops hitting the pavement and the trees takes over all other sounds.

Its strange to be sitting here, not speaking the language of 99% of the people in this room. Part of me feels like an intruder. I wonder if me sitting here with my journal out, my hebrew flash cards, and ipod is abnormal and they wonder why I am not at home, in privacy, reflecting and studying.

I think one of the many reasons I love going to coffee shops by myself is because I always feel like a fly on the wall. I have my own space, I am seen, but I have the freedom to dive into my own world (writing) or look and watch people walking down the street or watch the couple sitting across the room from me. I always feel very aware of my surroundings AND myself... which I think is hard to obtain, especially in today's world.

I wore flip flops here even though it is raining because I didn't bring shoes for this weather. On the walk here at least 3 people pointed to my feet and said something to me--obviously i had no idea what they were saying. I just smiled, nodded, and kept walking...

Even though they probably said something like "aren't you cold", it is moments like that which make me feel alone because I can't communicate back or understand, but I also feel thrilled that I AM here. I remind myself that I am here because I WANT to understand... and if I want to, then I belong here, right now, at this point in my life.

______