June 29th 2008, Tel Aviv with Kate!

I picked up Kate at the airport that night and ate a huge McDonald's KOSHER burger which is delicious. If you don't believe the use of the word huge I believe there is a picture in my facebook of a time I got this burger and it's about the size of my face. I guess you could say it's tradition for me to get a burger there now... delicious, healthy tradition.

We went to sleep soon after but woke up early to head off to the dead sea. Just as we were leaving, my cousin, Ophir, walks through the door. Awkwardly having to say goodbye immediately as he arrived we headed off to a beautiful day of sulfur and mud baths, sunbathing, floating in the dead sea, ice cream and more. It was an unbelievably long ride home. It took about 2 hours to get there in the morning... We left the dead sea somewhere around 2:30 and got home after 7. I'm not really sure what happened but we literally had to stand on the bus ride for at least an hour at one point because of how crowded the bus got. In Israel there's no such thing as not having seats left... they will just let you on the bus regardless.

The next day we had Shabbat and visited my cousins at work which was awesome. After Shabbat started it was kind of a quiet time again. Just relaxed. Shabbat morning we woke up around 6:30am to go to a Sephardic service. It was pretty awesome and reminiscent of my bar mitzvah in Israel. They threw so much candy at this kid and continued to throw it throughout the service at random people. It was wild but hilarious.

The rest of the day was just sleeping and playing cards. That night, however, we went out to the bars with Ophir. Tried to get into a bar that was super packed but then just hung out at an extremely loud bar and a brewery. The brewery served us barley like they serve nuts or pretzels. They tasted like goldfish.

Today Kate and I met Rob Schlissel in Tel Aviv and hung out on the beach for a really long time, walked around, ate good food, saw The Bank Job and came home. It was a pretty awesome day and I had a great time. There's a game on right now between Spain and Germany... soccer... Spain was winning by 1 last time I checked... just thought it might be important... like documenting history in my blog.

The plan for the next few days is to see The Zohan, go to Jerusalem and talk to everyone to figure out our plans for the next 2 months and chill on the beach!

TTYL
Omz

Israel and Ted

So everything has gotten much better and any confusions that happened here have been cleared up for the most part. So life is good.

I hung out with Ted for the past few days. Today he is in Ein Gedi, an oasis on the dead sea filled with plant and wildlife. I have to pick up Kate tonight at 7 so I'm just hanging out until then.

Sunday we went out do dinner with Ted's friend, Danielle, and her brother. We had kebabs and basically unlimited salads of all types... and i mean all types. We sat down and they must have brought 25 or so small plates with different salads, dips etc... israeli salad, potato salad, picked things, babaganush(sp?), humus and so much more. It was delicious although pricey. I think I may have written about this already... anyway...

Monday Ted and I walked all over Tel Aviv. I took him to Shuk Ha-Carmel (the market), Sheinkin st, the Dizengoff Mall, The central bus station, the beach and some other little places. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we went to Jerusalem which was awesome. I took him to Machane Yehuda(the market) and had Marzipan's Rugula(the best ever... it's a pastry where they paste chocolate onto the dough and roll it into rugula and we ate it right off the baking sheet. Then we had lunch at one of the best Kubeh places in Jerusalem...(not as good as my Safta's though). We went through Mea' Sharim and went to the old city. We saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where Jesus was crucified and buried and came up from i think...) where there was a huge picture of him being wrapped in a cloth (which Jews are before they are buried) before he was buried which I found really interesting. We then walked on the street, De la rosa or something, that Jesus walked on with the cross. Then I took him to the Western wall. Somehow we got into a tour of the Western wall tunnels and into the Davidson center of Archeology which are the two awesome things to see when you are by the wall. We walked all the way down to the ancient street level of the second temple, saw ruins from Roman conquest etc. I tried to find a way to let him go up to the Dome of the Rock and the Temple mount but I didn't know there were such limited allowed times for this... so I couldn't get him up there. We finished the day with some delicious Magnum ice cream and headed back to Tel Aviv.

There are a bunch of pictures that he and I took at the following address:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Levin.Omri/


I was surprised but he loves Tel Aviv and keeps saying he wishes he had more time in Israel.

Anyway tonight I pick up Kate! And then tomorrow we'll go to the dead sea in the morning and then hang out with my cousins and maybe see Don't Mess with the Zohan... which in America I think is just called The Zohan haha.

TTYL
Omz

Israeli Craziness

Let's start out with Shabbat... I woke up on Friday and went out to get my Safta some flowers. I went to a bunch of different places to find good ones and I realized it's Shabbat and the color of Shabbat is usually white! So I got a dozen or so white flowers. I didn't want to spend too much because I know I'll want to do this again soon. So I brought them home and gave them to her and she said thanks but I was a little dissapointed in her reaction because I've been trying all week to be helpful and do nice things but it seems like nothing makes her happy. It is epitomized in the following example:

Safta cooks for me each day which I am extremely grateful for because it saves me a lot of money on food. So she is preparing food, probably the second day I am here, and I have offered in the past to help but she would just blow it off and continue to do it herself. So I think this time maybe I'm being too timid and I need to be more aggressive in trying to help... like it may be a cultural difference I'm not used to. So I get up and try to say in Hebrew and English... I want to help, what can I do. And when she got the message she stopped cutting food and said, "You want to cook? No? Then I do it."

And thus is my life in Tel Aviv haha. It's sad because I am really thankful that I have a place to stay and food to eat but I feel like the fact that we cannot communicate well is causing a lot of miscommunication which is putting negative feelings in the air. I spoke to my mom about it today and basically now I am going to do as much as possible to be overly nice through actions because I really have no other way of showing that I am thankful. I just reorganized my room to make it as clean as I can with the resources I have.

Anyway. I didn't realize that Sephardi services were at 6:30am so when I woke up later that morning to my Safta sleeping I just assumed we weren't going to temple. Later I am questioned about why I slept through services... how was I supposed to know?

The rest of the day I read my book... I actually read 2 books... and then waited on the porch patiently for the sun to set so that I could use my computer again. Then, I find that I have internet in the apartment as long as I have my computer outside! The problem is that it basically has to be at chest hight to get a good signal for some reason. So I've figured out, in my room, I can get a good signal if I put the computer in the windowsill... At first this worried me but I had used my computer lock to tie the computer down to the bed so it won't fall out the window... hahaha how crazy is this?

So that night I got to talk to Kate extensively about Judaism and a little about each other haha. And today Kate's friend Ted got to Israel! So I have someone to hang out with again. I'm gonna be his tour guide for the week which will give me something to do. I had dinner with him and his friend and his friend's brother. She took us to an awesome restaurant where you basically got all you can eat bread and salads and then some kababs of amazing meat. I had the young chicken which was so good... a little expensive but I've been saving a lot by not eating out at all basically... thanks to Safta! Although she confuses me she is pretty awesome!

Anyway tomorrow I'm going to wake up and take Ted around Tel Aviv and plan the rest of the week so he can see Israel in 4 days... crazy!

TTYL homiez
Omz

6/19/08 – 8:50pm Tel Aviv, Israel

So I am officially the last Meor-guy in Tel Aviv. Today Sam left to study at Yeshiva in Jerusalem and Josh, Saul and Jeremy probably are just boarding their plane now or just took off. Doing laundry… I just ate dinner back home and it was delicious.

Today I woke up and battled myself with whether or not I should run. I ran! It was awesome because I felt great and I got to see a bunch more of the neighborhood. After lunch I went to Ha-Carmel market and checked out that area as well and then walked up to the hotel where the guys were checking out. I saw a lot more of Tel-Aviv to familiarize myself with.

After that we walked to the mall and went to the beach and all parted ways slowly. We ended up at Mikes Place and had some drinks. Then I came home and the sheerut guy wouldn’t give me change for 6 shekels (supposed to cost 5.20) and then he also took 9.50 from another girl… the whole ride he was playing with the coins in the front of the bus… so sad… so obsessed with moneys… I hope I’m never like that.

I’m really happy that I’m getting to know the area because I can show Kate’s friend, Ted, around as well as Kate!

Tomorrow is Shabbat and I’m going to get my grandmother flowers because she does so much for me here. I don’t know what her favorite color is but Sam guessed red so I’m gonna try that. I was thinking about going out for internet tonight but I think I’ll just jump on tomorrow. (That’s funny because if you read this it’ll have been on the internet already, so it’ll seem like I wrote it online… tricky!)

Blogging is fun.

Love,

Omz

6/17/08 – 11:30pm Tel Aviv, Israel

Today I woke up to a call with the opportunity to go to the beach with some friends in Tel Aviv. Since I just went yesterday I thought I might as well hang out in Ramat Gan today and see what’s going on.

I watched TV for a little and then the phone started ringing in Carmel’s apartment… now usually when I’m in someone else’s house I don’t pick up the phone… so I didn’t. Then it rang again. I ingeniously thought… “maybe it’s Safta!” (my G-ma) and called her on my cell. It was and she still yelled at me for not answering Carmel’s phone haha.

So now I’m moved into Safta’s apartment. I went to town with her and bought some groceries and also went back to use the internet while she slept because she just got back from America… Jetlag. Chilling in the middle of a hallway in the mall I typed away and found out that my package with my Hebrew-English translator is going to have to be sent back to the company and re-sent to Kate, hopefully in time to get it to Israel.

Not such an exciting day. I came home to eat some dinner and watch TV. I talked to my mom about traveling to Jordan to get to India which she wasn’t so excited about. It’s funny because I gave her my blog so she read that we wanted to go in this blog and now is probably reading about her not wanting me to go hahaha.

Anyway I miss Kate a lot and can’t wait for her and my cousins to get here. Also on the 21^st Kate’s friend, Ted, is coming in so I get to be a tour guide for a little which should be fun!

Time to write in my not public blog… oooo I bet you all wanna read that huh? Mua hahaha no way!

Omz

6/16/08

It is my second day in Tel Aviv and I spent all of last night trying to learn as much Hebrew as possible. As promised I am going to explain last night and as a bonus you get to hear about tonight too!

The adventures began last night after I found a taxi to my grandmother’s sister’s(Carmel) house. It was lucky that I chose to taxi it because the Ha-Geffen street that she lives on was different from that on my map and if I hadn’t taken a taxi I would never have known. I arrived and again luckily know my numbers in Hebrew because all I could get out on the phone with Carmel was “esreem v’ shty-eem” and “l’malla shalosh”. Which means “twenty two” and “up three” so I knew to look for building 22 and the 3^rd floor. It’s almost as if I’m being given some help here because I am barely getting by but this is just the beginning of the story…

So that night continued with Carmel and I sitting in her living room and asking me if I was hungry… asking many things I didn’t understand, feeding me, asking more that I could somewhat understand… telling me I need to learn Hebrew and that she will teach me in under 30 days… and then I mentioned the internet. So she called her friend who spoke English and he told her to take me to McDonalds for internet. At this point she was determined to find me the internet at 10pm and it was extremely sweet. So we leave the apartment and walk and all the way she is making sure I am remembering all of the streets so I know my way around and making sure I understand all of the Hebrew that she is using in explaining the directions as well. Finally we get to McDonalds and I open the computer and I get a connection! So I try to communicate this… but she doesn’t understand and keeps saying basically “It’s closed… we have to look somewhere else”. So I give up on trying to explain and humor her and go on a search for internet. We walk inside and as she asks people walking by I find someone who is speaking English to explain to her that I found internet so we can go home… he thought it was hilarious that I couldn’t tell her myself and that we had probably been asking people for internet unnecessarily.

So we walk back to the apartment and we meet Carmel’s grandson Yoni and his girlfriend who speak English! And as determined as I am to speak Hebrew I needed a break after a few hours of it. So Carmel makes us an awesome platter of fruits and we sit on the patio and talk about New York, some stuff in Hebrew I completely didn’t understand… and how Yoni smokes too much when he is doing army service in the jail. Yoni is a guard in jail and his girlfriend, Zohar, is a legal assistant. It was interesting to meet people in these sectors of military service because they aren’t the ones that get to travel to America and work at camps so Americans don’t usually meet them.

So that was last night and this morning Yoni and Zohar drove me to Tel Aviv! However, this meant I hadn’t ridden the bus or sheerut(“shay-root” meaning: shared taxi)… foreshadowing.

I met with Sam who was speaking with some people at the Kibbutz Program Center that he is planning to go on. The woman said the most amazing thing to him. He was wearing a kippah(yamakah/yarmulkah/skullcap) and she asked if he was religious and told him that there were no religious kibbutzim in their program. After that she said “In Israel we don’t necessarily like kippahs so you shouldn’t be so proud of it”. Needless to say he was a little worried and is looking for potential alternatives to their placement program haha. I really don’t understand how that can happen here of all places… non-Jews are more accepting!

(This next paragraph may potentially insult you. Since reading is an action, I accept your act of continuing to read as an acceptance of the terms and conditions of my blog which are that you don’t take anything personal and if you are offended you tell me so we can discuss it over cheesecake and goodies)

This kind of opened my mind to see the difference that many people see between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is somewhat sad but everyone in Tel Aviv questions why I want to go to Yeshiva and proceeds to tell me how it’s a waste of time. Even the guy at the counter of a bookstore said that Jerusalem was a waste of time… The Holy City! I don’t get it… it’s the Jewish state and all of our ancestors were learned Jews. We protect this land so that we can safely learn and live our lives as Jews… not just as people with Jewish backgrounds. And all I want to do is have the ability to choose observance of Jewish law… if I don’t know Jewish law how can I choose to follow it or not follow it? If you think Yeshiva is dumb… do you still celebrate Passover? Get married under a chupah? And at the same time people from Jerusalem say that I should stay away from Tel Aviv… probably because everyone will tell me not to go to Yeshiva but also because the beach is freaking awesome.

So Sam and I went to the beach after Josh let us use his computer to check out some sweet info on flying from Amman, Jordan to Delhi, India (which Kate, Sam and I want to do in August if all goes well). And I also found out I might not get my Hebrew translator that I ordered and sent to Kate because… this is interesting… so I didn’t have Kate’s uncle’s, Kenneth’s, address but I know where they live. So I looked on google maps with street view and saw 425 on the 38^th street entrance. What I didn’t know was that it was 425 5^th ave and not 38^th street. So now we have to find a way to get it changed before it arrives on the 23^rd. Anyway… the beach was beautiful… I dug myself a chair in the sand which was so comfortable that I fell asleep (no worries… it was ater 3pm and I had sunblock on). Then my friend, Noam, called and we saw where she works. She works as a seamstress for a famous Israeli designer “Yosef”. They were pretty cool and trendy clothes. Then we walked all over and saw Ha-Carmel Market which I want to go to again and possibly get some really cheap shirts and a coin wallet for all the shkalim(shekels)… exciting right?

So then the next experience began… Noam took us to a really cool place where a guy sews materials into objects like toasters and phones etc. and to a Kubeh place. Kubeh is THE Iraqi food(my heritage food). It’s a ball of meat covered in a breading all in soup. It was delicious. Then I tried to get home… I saw many busses; however, neither bus nor sheerut had “sheeshim v shaysh” or 66 on it… so I walked with Sam and Josh until they had to go the opposite direction. I walked pretty far and it had been about 20 minutes that I was walking towards Ramat Gan when I saw people waving at me in a car. I had called Yoni, Carmel’s grandson, an hour before and told Zohar that I would take a bus. They thought I had taken it an hour ago and when I called they didn’t capture my number. So they went on a search for me! And they found me walking home! So I got made fun of and told that it was too far to walk… but I could have done it. And it was safe enough too… Anyway I got to Carmel’s and she started questioning me in Hebrew which I only understood… “Why by foot?” and “Yoni doesn’t have your number” and “Did you eat?”. And my favorite part is, after practicing some today and studying last night, I actually told her what happened… that I didn’t know he didn’t have my number and that I ate Kubeh; however she thinks I ate at someone’s house which I left alone because she probably doesn’t want me spending money on food. I even continued to explain to her that I was writing in my journal on my computer and told her when Kate/Kayla was coming to Israel! And I told her about Kate finding her Judaism and working for “rich people who help and send Jews to Israel”… that was the best I could do haha. (Sorry Kate! I wanted to see if I could make her understand!)

Anyways that brings us to the present… this has been an amazing Journal! I’m getting good… now I need to bring my camera and add pictures… SWEET… ok peace out homiez!

Love,

Omri

End of Meor, Beginning of my year

The day after Shavuot we volunteered at a distribution center of food for the hungry. We filled boxes in half the time that their volunteers usually do. We got there late and left early...hilarious. It was amazing to see what people received but also sad to see that a family may have to live on so little for a whole month. Either way the organization was doing amazing things giving out so much food to thousands and thousands of people living in Israel.

The next day we had one of the most fun activities so far. We went hiking and rappelling through the canyons by the Dead Sea. What I didn't know was that we literally were going to rappel into pools of water and again swim, full body under, to get to different parts of the hike. Therefore, the dry clothes and camera I brought were in danger. Luckily they had a dry bag that I put them in. Unluckily I didn't see that my ipod was in my bag and it's toast. However, I found myself surprisingly not that mad and only slightly sad because the experience was amazing, I won the ipod in the first place and I haven't been using it because I haven't wanted to add music to anything yet... the natural beauty of Israel. The hike was insane and we literally rappelled down one face that was 150 ft.

I don't have much time before the battery on Jobo's computer dies so I'll write quickly... We had Shabbat with the meor giants in Har nof and parted ways to end the trip. Now many of us are in tel aviv, some in Petra, Jordan today. I am at my family's in Ramat Gan (near tel aviv) and am hanging out and meeting random cousins... and trying desperately to learn hebrew. Staying with my grandmother's sister was insane last night because we could barely communicate. I'll have to write about that next time....

Bye Bye

Post Shavuot

So we just finished Shavuot... the holiday of receiving the Torah. It was amazing and I wish I could have taken pictures to show what we experienced. If you see pictures of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) where people are packed in by the wall... this was 3-4 times more people. We were literally at the wall. I turned my head to see every square foot filled with people. I mean even the rooftops of buildings around the wall... it was unbelievable.

Speaking of rooftops for a second... we spent some time with Rabbi Stein, the 1st in his class at Wharton business school... basically the best business student in the country. The house was literally overlooking the wall... higher than any other building that overlooks the wall. There are few people in the history of the world who have seen the view that we saw. If was something I will never forget and on such a day it was even more amazing. Watching from above, as if we were in a helicopter, as people filed in and packed the place.

When we were at the wall we got some awesome prayerage in. It was pretty cool to know that we were among the largest group of Jews together at that moment in the world.

Well this trip has less than a week left and them I'm on my own until Yeshiva. It's sad and exciting at the same time. One things for sure... I have to learn Hebrew asap... haha

I'm gonna go put more pictures on facebook so everyone can see whats been going on... although you can't see the holidays here.

I can put pictures in my blog!

So I learned how to put pictures in my blog so this one can be super dopeness...

Here's the beautiful view at the ranch where we went horseback riding, some pictures of the guys and pictures from the beach we were at:















And here are more pictures:










So that was totally out of order and also it made the text a link for some reason... I got some practice to do. Anyway I have more pictures to put up but thats a glimpse of a few of the early days of the trip.

We have had amazingly beautiful weather. We had a concert by this guy Chaim Dovid... Israeli music is so amazing (Jewish music too) because you don't need to know the words or be able to dance at all but some how you can sing and dance like crazy and have the most amazing time. Ari Sirner has some pictures and a video of dancing so hopefully that'll be online at some point.

We went on a cool hike where you couldn't bring anything that would get wet because we literally had to swim in water to get past a certain part of the hike. We hiked down into a canyon, swam across the water, and hiked back up the other side. It was beautiful and was reminiscent of a combination of the canyon in The Lion King as well as scenes from Jurassic Park.

We've been rafting, mountain biking, atving, and much more and I feel so lucky to have done all this! In the mornings we've also been learning and we've gone over some amazing subjects that, even though I learned many of them when I went on this same trip in the Winter, I am finding new ways to use the knowledge. It just goes to show how deep and true some of these concepts are.

Internet may be hard to find for a while and although I want to write much more I don't have the time.

btw... does anyone understand how amazing Kate Lord is? You should all create fan pages because you will want to be able to say you were on the bandwagon before anyone else.... she's so amazing :)

Love,
Omri

My First Blog

So although this is my first blog it is going to have to be short because I have to write to Katie and I've already used most of my hour on the internet.

We flew in to Israel yesterday. Usually when I leave school each summer or leave camp each fall I feel a little bit of that disuniting feeling from my friends and experiences. For some reason I keep getting it with Israel. When I saw David for the last time, Kate for the last time in America, the JEC, many of my friends at the parties we had, the people I work with... every time I feel it. And when I landed I realized that I'll be here for a year. Although yesterday it worried me... I woke up today feeling amazing.

Our group is fantastic although I wish more of the brothers could have come. Today we went horseback riding on the beach after an amazing morning of intellectual debate. I am filling my book of questions and noting the Rabbis' arguments. I have gotten into a small debate and am looking forward to future ones. I know so much will happen here and I can't wait. I hope so many people visit to see what I am experiencing and to experience something for themselves.

I miss Kate a lot! She is so amazing and I can't wait until she gets here. I am gonna go write to her!

Love,
Omri

PS I forgot to talk about the Kotel Tunnel Tours! We went to the Kotel the first night and it was awesome again. I love going there except it always gets me riled up about the whole situation. It is so amazing to see all that is under there and see what we, as Jews, have done to uncover history with the site. SO BEAUTIFUL.

Another thing... we've been getting around 5 hours of sleep a night so I'm so exhausted... tonight(it's now Friday morning) we have Shabbat in Bet Shemesh so that should be relaxing and awesome. I hope I get to see the Romm family which I stayed with last time I was there. I gtg pack cuz they won't let us keep our rooms for the one night we're gone even though we'll be back the next day...