We arrived to our new home for the next three months in Hadassa Neurim (near Netanya, but I am sure that probably doesn't make a difference). Like in Hod Hasharon, we are living in a boarding school with other Israeli students. The location of the school, while a little rural, is still pretty fantastic, since we can literally see the beach from our dorms. However, the facilities of the boarding school are not the most aesthetically pleasing. Granted they are actually fairly comfortable accommodations, but from the looks of the place when we first entered, I thought we were in one of those abandoned ghost towns in New Mexico where the government tests atomic bombs and other WMD's (like in the beginning of the fourth Indiana Jones movie, which if you saw and enjoyed than stop reading this right now you dirty ape). I was secretly afraid that a giant mutant-type creature would pop out of the sewer and try to eat my brains, but thankfully that was not the case. Upon touring the campus, I learned that there were facilities there which trained emergency medical units to respond to disaster areas. In fact, the Israeli medical team sent to Haiti after the earthquake trains at the very facilities that I am staying at.
That night we all went out to a local bar for a swell time, when an Israeli girl came up to me and asked in Hebrew where I was from. I responded that I was from America, and she quickly changed to English. We started to talk and she basically told me that the only reason that she came up and talked to me was because I looked too young for the club we were in (the minimum age is 25, and I am only 22), and she could tell that I was not from Israel. Nevertheless, my friends and I had a great conversation with her and her friends and at the end of the night we all exchanged our contact information. I call this the "fish out of water" technique. Basically, look as hopeless and helpless as possible and hope that somebody takes pity on you and talks to you. Once in a while, it works...
The next day my friend Sammy (the Frenchman from our group) and I set out for Petah Tiqwa to stay the night and have our Seder with Karen and her family. Karen is a mutual friend of ours who we met while living in Hod Hasharon. She was actually born in America but moved with her family to Israel when she was younger.
It is amazing how friendly people are here. Although neither Sammy nor I knew her very long, she enthusiastically invited us to her house for the holiday. This is phenomenon that is known across Israel, where it is a taboo for any Jew to celebrate the holiday alone and it is a Mitzvah (good deed) to bring someone into your home for the Seder (the dinner for Passover). The Seder itself was pretty relaxed. It probably did not last more than 30 minutes, followed by an evening of glutony I won't soon forget. Here I find it interesting to note the cultural difference among Jews. While I am an Askenazi Jew (from Europe), Karen's family are Sephardi Jews (from the Mediterranean area). While Ashkenazi's do not consider rice to be kosher for the Passover holiday, Sephardi Jews do, so this was the first time I ever had rice at a Passover Seder.
After the dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing guitar hero, and then her older sister, Naama, suggested we watch Kindergarten Cop (starring the current governor of California) on DVD. There aren't many girls in their 20's who suggest watching such a movie, but Naama's self-depricating sense of humor and ecclectic taste in pop culture lead us to watch an hour and a half of Arnold pretending to be a Kindergarten teacher. After the movie Karen received a call from a friend who invited us to the Kineret, a town that borders the Sea of Galilee, the largest freshwater lake in Israel. Although we didn't bring proper attire for such an excursion, we didn't hesitate to go.
We left the next morning on a 2 hour car ride to the Kineret with 10 Israelis I had never met. Everyone was very gregarious and we made acquaintances quickly. When we arrived at the site, we pitched our tents and took in the scenery. It was a truly beautiful site. The beach was made of smooth rocks that warmed our skin when we laid on them, and best of all, there was no sand. I consider sand to be the ultimate pest of mother nature. It just gets everywhere and you can never get rid of it. No matter what you do, a week after you are at a sandy beach you are still going to find it in your shoes or ears or something. We spent the day swimming in the lake and laying on the beach, and spent the evening eating BBQ. I tried to go to sleep, but the beach was filled with a lot of Arseem (the equivalent of Guido's from America, who are really obnoxious guys with intense tans, Ed Hardy T-Shirts, gold chains, you get the picture right?) who were playing techno music on massive speakers at their maximum level.
The next morning was more of the same. Just relaxing near the beach, taking in the sun, and enjoying BBQ. Let me tell, spending a day with Israeli kids talking 80% Hebrew and 20% English is a better way to learn the language than any classroom I have ever been in. Every once in a while I picked up a word from a conversation I was listening to, and Karen helped fill in the holes. It was overall a swell time.
We left the Kineret that evening and Sammy and I returned to our new home in Hadassa Neurim. The next morning I woke up and walked with some friends down the beach of Hadassa. We eventually walked so far that we were in Netanya, the big city near our town. The walk was long enough and we walked slow enough if you take into account that walking in the sand is more difficult that I think we waked about 4 kilometers. The beach was beautiful there, but unfortunately it was packed with tourists because of the holiday.
Later that night we met up with Ziv, the girl who we met earlier in the week who only talked to me because I looked so hopeless. Her friend was throwing a party at a local bar and she invited us along for the fun. The people who we met there were very friendly to us lowly tourists, but it is always a little intimidating being surrounded by people who speak a different language from you. Overall it was a swell night, and I am glad that we are all making friends here who aren't just other tourists.
The following day I went to go visit some friends for BBQ. Apparently BBQ's are huge in Israel during the Passover week because nobody eats bread, so everyone just loads up on extra meat. Other than that the week has overall been swell and very relaxing. Right now we are finishing up our break and leave for a two-day hike in the desert. Thats about it for now... bye.
-MG
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