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