** Ok, so I wrote this entry about a week ago but was too lazy to go and find an internet connection to put it up, so here it is—I know today’s the 15th, but I figured that I would give everyone what I had.


Sunday 5/14/06 Happy Mother’s Day mom!

Wednesday 5/10/06

Today was our last educational Tiyul (Field Trip). Very sad, but then again no more 6 AM wake ups…We went to the Supreme Court of Israel—such an interesting Tiyul except there was this one room—and I don’t really remember anything from it. Except apparently it wasn’t just me—nearly our entire group had fallen asleep on these benches they had us sitting on. My mom said that when she went there with the Parents Pilgrimage the same thing happened. Weird…

We had general studies in the afternoon and then the day’s excitement began! First, I was walking back from class and this super cool hippy guy walks up with 2 camels! On the Kibbutz! And then he asked us to watch them while he buys some food from the market?? Greatest thing that has happened yet on EIE…top 10 at least. Go and look at my pictures--I have some up of me and the 2 camels.

And then I broke my tailbone…sitting and moving in general has lost all of its fun. It’s actually a rather funny story, but not one that I feel like sharing. It involves me getting knocked over and some indoor frisbee…If you really really want to know e-mail me or something. I’ve concluded that this is probably one of the most amusing, but inconvenient injuries that I’ve ever had—It’s not like you aren’t allowed to do anything. The doctor said I can, just within reason. Within reason=me going sand duning + riding camels in the Negev? Ok, maybe not, but whatever—at least it’ll be an entertaining last few weeks. Not that it wouldn’t have been otherwise, but this only adds to the last week’s fun and joy! And my injury made the EIE yearbook! What more could one want in life…


So today is Tuesday May 9th.

Today we had Hebrew, 3 hours of fun and joy in a history class (it really was not all that bad), and NO GENERAL STUDIES!! I got out of them because my Aunt and cousins and everyone came to visit! Great day on the Kibbutz as usual.

Monday 5/8/06

Some kids and I decided that we wanted to play soccer. So we did—except we weren’t really supposed to be on the field? Too late…But I have a new appreciation for the sport so its all good.

Sunday 5/7/06

NO SCHOOL! Oh thank you College Board for making the SAT today…So instead of taking the SAT’s, which I was too lazy to get around to signing up for anyways, I joined the rest of the non-SAT takers in a tour of a Tel on the Kibbutz. Lunch was eaten…oh yea, and then we picked strawberries! For Tzedakah. The guy who was taking them told us all to bring some back with us so we did. They were so so good. They have nothing on American strawberries…Another example of Israeli food dominating over American…

Wow, I’m a terrible person. Actually I wouldn’t go that far, but I’ve been really lazy and haven’t updated this thing. Even though I said I would—at least I think that I did. Either way, here’s my entry, all apologies aside.

5/5/06 AKA CINCO DE MAYO!

So today I took the ACT. Standardized testing and I have never really been on the greatest of terms and this test only widened our prolonged rift. I have the flu, didn’t sleep last night, no eraser, calculator broke. Consequently, I failed the ACT if that is at all possible. And it was so so boring. So the test ended-I may not be heading to Harvard after that brilliant performance, but I really didn’t want to go there anyways. Community college all the way! Oh CLC…

So that’s really about it for today seeing as it’s only 3.

Alright, so I’m finishing up this post at around 2 AM (Saturday) my time so I’m adding a bit more to the day. At 6 we left for services in Jerusalem. Every so often, EIE will arrange for us to go to Friday night services off of the Kibbutz in various Synagogues around Israel. Seeing as there are 98 of us or however many, we are generally given a few options as to which place we go. This time around I signed up for an Orthodox service. It was quite the cultural experience—I’ve only been to a few Orthodox services in my time and so I was rather excited. Moral of the night being that I’m surprisingly a huge fan of the female/male praying division. Backing up a bit, in the Orthodox tradition, men and women are separated during services. The reasoning behind this being that gender separation provides for fewer distractions and thus an overall more focused and intense praying experience type of deal. There’s probably some biblical/Talmudic rationalization for this that I just don’t know and am too lazy to find out, but that was my take on it. So the whole gender separation—the way that this Synagogue was set up was that a white curtain was hung across the middle of the room with the women in the back and the men in front. I immensely disliked the whole women in the back of the room thing—from what I hear, some other places have their curtain down the middle with the women on either the left or right and the men on the other side. For some reason though, the segregated services have some huge potential. Next Shabbat, some of us are trying to get the girls to do their own service—I’m curious as to how it goes.

Friday nights! Our room and the one across the hall had this huge country dance party—one of my roommates is from the South and knows all of these crazy country dance which I learned last night, but since I’m rhythmically challenged and all that fun stuff, I still can’t do any of them. We used my speakers and ipod and blasted Sweet Home Alabama for about 4 hours straight. ---thanks mom and dad for said speakers/ipod!!

5/4/06 Thursday—full day of school

Got the flu? Or food poisoning? Either way, not my favorite day on EIE. I’m feeling better now though (now being today)--always a plus.

5/3/06 Wednesday—Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day—same thing as our 4th/2nd of July)

I’m beginning with the morning, but by morning I actually mean 12:30 AM. We left at 10:30 PM the day before for a concert in Rananas or whatever the name of the place was. Apparently, they had this big free concert fair thingy that EIE was going to take us to. So we get there, only to discover that all of the entrances had been turned into exits by the police because it became too crowded. Anyways, a whole bunch of us went running from gate to gate trying to get in, but to no avail. After that whole affair, we decided that it was a perfect time to create our own entrance! Apparently about 400 others agreed too. And thus a bunch of crazy Israelis and the remainder of EIE created their entrance by scaling the nice 12 foot fence surrounding the concert. Except I didn’t end up scaling any fences that night (morning?). The police came and did their little Hebrew thing and we got way out of there and went and ate crepes for the next few hours. We got back to the Kibbutz at around 5 AM with no intention of sleeping—we still had about an hour to go before we crashed from the sugar. All round super fun night/morning. And a major cultural experience. I feel as if that whole police/fence part is something I probably should not have written about here, but oh well.

At 10 AM (same day) we left for a beach right outside of Tel Aviv. Such a relaxing, content day. We had a BBQ, played in the sand, swam in the Med., slept, ate, slept some more---nothing really of much substance, but such an enjoyable day. Only downside would be when my intelligence shone through after the sun fried my entire back, front, shoulders, etc. It wasn’t my fault at all! Suntan lotion is overrated anyways--the blame should be entirely directed at the sun. A sign is in the process of being made urging people not to hit me on the back or really anywhere for that matter. Greatest idea ever—I’m going to have to remember that one next time I get sunburn.

About the beach though—it was gorgeous—not just gorgeous, all adjectives with affirmative, positive connotations would be applicable to this beach. So it really wasn’t the beach actually, it was the seashells. There were entire natural walls of shells—instead of sandbanks, there were shellbanks or whatever you would call it. Either way, I now have about 10 pounds of said shells residing on a tie dye towel in my room. The roommates and I are in the process of making necklaces with some of them. Put in a word if you want one…and then you can consider that your gift from me to you all the way from Israel. Plus then I get out of picking you out an actual gift--not that that’s not for completely selfish and lazy reasons.

5/2/06 Tuesday—Yom HaZicaron (Israeli Remembrance Day of Fallen Soldiers)

In the morning, we went to a Tekes (ceremony) on the Kibbutz’s cemetery. I loved it—I mean, well loved isn’t exactly the right word, but the ceremony was so cultural for lack of better words. There was nothing set-up or touristy about it. The entire thing was in Hebrew, but I understood quite a bit. One man who talked read a letter from his twin brother who had been killed in Lebanon in 2002. Nearly half of the Kibbutzniks there just broke down. It was really one of the first times in Israel that I have been able to get a picture of the emotions behind all that goes on here—no screening, no TV or newspaper, nothing—I figured something out that day, and despite the fact that it was at a vigil and I knew not a single person of whom was talked about, it was still such an experience.
Something really cool in Israel that America should do but doesn’t: They have a siren! The entire country stops for 60 seconds at the same time—completely stops everything and stands in silence until it ends. They had one on Yom HaShoah and another on Yom HaZicaron—even the traffic stopped. Whoa.

That night, the Kibbutz made this crazy transition from mourning to merriment. Wow, merriment is on the list of words that I try to randomly fit into conversations for the fun of it—one of those that no one actually says though. Moving on, the Kibbutz held a party with dancing and food and fireworks right after dinner. EIE tried to join in with the Israeli dances, but ended up collectively looking like idiots since no one had the faintest clue as to how to do those dances. Post food and dancing, the greatest fireworks that I have ever seen were set off no more than 20 yards in front of us on the roof of the dining hall. Ash was falling on me during it. I’ve never seen such vibrant fireworks—whoa, come to Israel purely for the Independence Day fireworks, no other reasons necessary.

4/28/06-Friday

Friday morning we went on a Tzedakah project where we volunteered at different retirement homes. We spent the morning there singing and dancing with everyone there and ended up taking them to the park.

Some other Reform Movement college Israel programs came to visit for the weekend. I believe the programs were Netzer, Carmel, a few kids from Young Judea came who I knew from camp, and some other programs though I can’t remember their names.

So some intense weeks lie ahead—AP testing, Finals (including a 6 hour Jewish History final), and then a week in the Negev…I may just be even worse with keeping in touch with everyone, but I’ll try.

---Yom HaShoah was sometime last week—It’s nearly 2 AM so before I fall asleep, I’m going to try to get this online…


A whole bunch of random side comments:

**I’m working on getting pictures up

Side Comment #1: summer plans—Ramah art staff 2nd 4 weeks, some bbyo summer program in the beginning of the summer, and of course the few weeks where I lay at home and do nothing other than sleeping/eating. Maybe I’ll shower every so often. But nothing that requires any substantial effort.
Side Comment #2: bbyo summer programs---whoever from bbyo who reads this and is knowledgable on the whole 2 week summer programs deal—any suggestions? Volunteer vs. leadership? Oh how I love communication via this online blog because I'm too lazy to actually go and e-mail people individually…
Side Comment #3: Our room is haunted. Specifically our cubberd thingy—things will spontaneously fall off of our kitchen counter when no one is near it—we walked into the room the other night and a candle had been lit there, but it was none of us did it. And it makes noises. As in something lives under it. Ruach! That means ghost in Hebrew. Vocabulary word of the day. Actually, its probably just some animal, but that makes it sound 10 times more exciting.
Side Comment #4: Our internet has been down even more than usual--a tractor ran over the power lines and our wireless connections haven’t been the same since—so I’ll try to keep up with the e-mailing, but the whole lazy personality trait doesn’t really allow for much effort there, but I’m working on it…sort of…

Ok so I probably forgot a whole bunch of stuff, but either way I'll add that into another entry some other time. I figured that I'd get this up first.

Love, Elaina

I'm updating more than a months worth of excitement in Israel over the course of the next few days. Ha, it'll be like in a series of installments, but instead it will be Live Journal entries...maybe I need sleep? I wrote this a while ago, but am finally entering it in here so the "last friday" comments are actually applicable to last Friday over a month ago.

It's been about a month since my last update--but I'm updating now.

What’s new with Israel? Well, we are somewhat on house arrest, the bird flu is in the West Bank, and..my birthday is on the 29th—elections are on the 28th!

I’m going to write this in backwards chronological order. It should make some sort of sense though, as in I’ll try my best to make it coherent but no promises or anything.

3/26/06

On Friday, 8 girls were caught drinking/completely drunk. I went to overnight camp with two of the girls, and of course have lived the remaining six for the past two months. Five of them passed out/were throwing throughout the night and two were about to be sent to the hospital. The past few days, the higher powers or EIE have been in and out of meetings weighing their options and coming up with possible punishments for the girls. EIE has a zero tolerance policy for such actions and as a result of this, two of the girls were sent home early today. The other six are under complete house arrest for the next 3 weeks or so. They will be joining us for our trip to Europe’s concentration camps; however, they will be completing community service projects while we are on Yam L’Yam (Sea to Sea hike). Other than that, their social interactions will be virtually nonexistent until after the hike and Pesach. Everyone in EIE, nearly without exception, has been in some way affected by the incident. Tensions and emotions have been all over the place since last Friday, and hopefully, with the verdict out, the atmosphere of EIE will go back to its natural state.


1. Climbed Masada--About Masada--Climbing Masada is in the top 10 of Things to Do in Israel. Last Friday, I CLIMBED MASADA! I almost fell off, but that’s not the point. I climbed THE Masada. And after climbing, I saw the sun rise over Masada. Comment about Masada though. The whole excitement and deal with Masada is that you wake up around 3 AM and set out to climb the mountain and watch the sun rise, and then tell everyone that you Climbed Masada. But for those physically unable to make the trek, a cable car is available to carry people up. What if you take the cable car? What do you say then, “Oh, GO ME! I just cable carred Masada.” Can you buy the shirts that say I Climbed Masada? Because that would be lying. I’ll get off my soap box now.

2. Swam in the Dead Sea--About the Dead Sea--Swimming in the Dead Sea is also on the top 10 list of Things to Do in Israel. Last Friday, I SWAM IN THE DEAD SEA! Actually, I sort of flopped around for a few minutes until I decided it was just too painful. About the Dead Sea—it sounds fun and all, but it’s actually quite painful. For those not in the know about this place, it’s a sea and it’s dead because of its lack of living breathing inhabitants. Why does nothing live in the Dead Sea? Because it’s filled with salt of course! The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on Earth. Just to throw that bit out there…So back to the salt—the salt makes things float and thus the big touristy attraction around this body of water is that you actually literally float in it. It sounds really cool and all which I promise you it is, but what they don’t tell you is that it hurts. So so so much. Emphasis on the so’s. Upon entering the Sea, every orifice in your body is filled with highly concentrated salt water. Shaving even a day before entering the Dead Sea is just out of the question. All cuts on your body you can pinpoint immediately after getting in. I mean, it was fun and all, but the fun wears off after you realize that your body is on fire. However, you get to play in mud and run around and its fun. And you float. And you can walk on water. Sort of. Kind of like Jesus. Except not really.

3. Attended Israeli Army Boot (Also Known As Gadna)-- It was long and fun and interesting and I have many stories. Army service is compulsory in Israel though I may have mentioned that in a past entry. Thus, a pre-army experience is available for Israeli teens in order to get a taste of their future olive green filled lives. Everything, or almost everything, in the army is olive green. The uniforms, the sleeping bags, even the canteens we were given. Our hats were olive green, the tents were olive green. Half of the food was olive green. So much green--I mean, I love olive green, don't get me wrong, but I now equate all green with the army. Gadna was a learning experience though. Not to give a two word response to how boot camp was, but it truly was just that. It had its high and low points. I spent the week in uniform, participating in field work, classroom study, learning Hebrew and translating some to English. I learned how the army worked, and I didn't shower for 5 entire days. So much fun as is everything in Israel. Our Mefakdim (commanders) spoke to us only in Hebrew allowing a few of the kids in our group to then translate to English for the rest. I don’t really know Hebrew. At all actually. But I had to some translating which was extraordinarily entertaining. I kind of just made up half of the stuff I helped to translate. Common sense combined with catching a few words in the sentence allowed me to report back to the group a simplified, often incorrect version of what our Mefakedet just said. It was an amusing week all in all, and it culminated in me making a decision to not join the army.

One of the highlights of Gadna for some would be the shooting of 10 rounds of an M-16. (Mem Shesh Esray). While I disagree with labeling this experience as a “highlight”, I can say that I have no future plans which involve me having to actually use one of those again. We were taken by bus to the shooting range where in groups of around 14, we were told to fire. Never before have I had that much power in my hands or realized how simple it would be to abuse such power. I hated it/end of that story.



4. I ate schwarma!
5. I met a Christian Monk living in a Muslim village.
6. I walked in a Purim parade/dressed up for Purim (Purim=Halloween).
7. I saw Dan Nichols perform for the first time in Israel. (random person with a guitar--wrote Na Na song).
7. I learned lots and lots.
8. I am officially not joining the Israeli army/cannot see myself doing Aliyah either...albeit, I've only been here for 2 months and still have 2 more to go.
8. I actually did much much more, but I'll write about it later. I moral of this entry being that my free time is somewhat limited thus resulting in a lack of recent journal entries. Yes, that would be an excuse.

Parents Pilgrimage is on Tuesday (The parents come for 10 days to see their wonderful offspring because they've missed them so much).

News from Israel? Well, classes are good. Life is good. Israel is good. The weather is great.

Yes I am quite aware of the fact that it’s been quite a while since my last update as many of you brought to my attention. I’m updating so stop kvetching. Funny side comment-I spelled that “cvetching” at first and my spell check told me that the word needed a “k” in the beginning. Spell check has Yiddish? Ehh…back to EIE/Israel.

I believe my last decently sized post was roughly 2 weeks ago. In the past two weeks, so so much has happened. Well not really, but it makes my post sound so much more exciting—Bob Marley had a birthday about 2 weeks ago. Or he would have were he still alive. So I’m sitting in APUSH right now and “taking notes”. No seriously I am…or I was anyways. We’ve already done these chapters back home so the next few days are a repeat of what I’ve already learned type of deal. Back to APUSH…

30 minutes later:

I haven’t exactly done the “What I’m doing here in Israel” post as of yet so I’m devoting this one or some of it anyways to what exactly I am doing here in Israel. I’m learning loads and loads of course. Want to see my schedule?!


An Average Day on NFTY EIE:

Wakeup: 7:30 (or 6:45 if we have services)
Hebrew Class: 8:00-9:30
Breakfast: 9:30-10:00
Jewish History Class with Ran: 10:00-1:00
Lunch (1st Period): 1:00-2:00
2nd Period-PreCalc Honors with Sheila: 2:00-3:00
3rd Period-Chem with Marc: 3:00-4:00
4th Period-APUSH with Aryeh: 4:00-5:00
5th Period-English with Barry: 5:00-6:00
6th Period-Free: 6:00-7:00
Dinner: 7:00
Meetings: 7:45

I just realized that this schedule sounds ridiculously painful and agonizing, but there really were no straps involved. Around once or twice a week, we go on field trips (Tiyuls) for Jewish History and usually miss some class. Say hypothetically we are learning about a battle in Jewish History, the group will go to that battlefield and have class there. Plus we take a week long trip once a month. Like the one that I leave for on Sunday. It’s called BOOT CAMP?? No, actually it’s called Gadna, and I’m placing it under the category of “painful and agonizing”. Just kidding, it won’t be all that unpleasant.

Paragraph all about Israeli Boot Camp (AKA Gadna):

Vocabulary:

--Tzahal (צה״ל): Tzahal is an acronym for Army For the Defense of Israel (צבא ההגנה לישראל)
--IDF: Israeli Defense Forces
--Mefakedat: Commander

In exactly one week I plan on embarking on what I’m calling boot camp. To be perfectly honest, I’m incredibly excited due to the fact that I’M GOING TO BOOT CAMP?? I mean, I wasn’t all that keen on the whole concept of “boot camp”, but it’s been growing on me. A few nights ago, a Mefakedat came to enlighten our group about Gadna and its facets. While on the program, we are spoken to in only Hebrew. I find this incredibly entertaining seeing as only around 4 of the 101 EIE-ers are fluent in the language. On another note, I tested into level 9 out of 10 for Hebrew class. I found this extraordinarily strange seeing as I always considered myself relatively illiterate in the Hebrew language. I mean, I can find a bathroom need be, but other than that…Past and future tense? Those don’t exist…I live in the present…or only use the present tense anyways. Back to Gadna—the program is actually aimed for Israeli teens in high school allowing them to get a taste of life in the army, but NFTY-EIE (the program which I’m on) got some sort of special allowance and thus all 101 of us will be shipped off to boot camp for the week. I don’t know about you, but I’m so so so excited. Me in boot camp? I’m going to do so amazing what with all of the strenuous activities they have planned for us.

Another side comment: I’m out of Prigat. In Israel, they have this drink called Prigat. It’s AMAZING and natural and healthy and AMAZING. My favorite flavor would have to be the orange, banana, and apple juice combination. Israel has better orange, banana, and apple juice combinations than America. I mean, I haven’t exactly tried any back in America, but I’m sure it wouldn’t compare to Israel’s Prigat. So the sheer fact that I am out of Prigat means that I must be experiencing some sort of a withdrawal what with the ridiculous amounts of Prigat I consume on a daily basis—I think it’s addictive. Or maybe it just tastes really really really good. I love love love Prigat. I know it’s only a liquid and may not love me back, but that’s not the point.

Back to life in Israel…

GOOD STORY: This one may be even better than my last one. It’s a tough call though—right, so here’s what happened. Some EIE-ers and I this past Shabbat decided that it was high time for an adventure. So we went exploring. And when I say “exploring” I mean full out hiking through all billion acres of Kibbutz Tzuba (where I’m staying…no I’m not working on the Kibbutz-just studying there). And back to my good story-So we went out. Now the Kibbutz I’m staying at is “nestled in the Judean Hills” as the EIE brochure told us all. What I’ve come to realize is that when they say “hills”, they actually mean these huge greenery-filled monstrosities attempting to pose as “hills”. Note to future EIE-ers: When exploring the Kibbutz (which I highly recommend) bring water, cell phone, someone with you literate enough to read the signs in Hebrew, and do not under any circumstances wear converses (really really bad idea…right after not bringing any water actually). And back to my good story-so the group us decided that we were going to find a natural spring. Rumors about some natural water spring had been circulating and we set out to find it! In theory, this plan was both genius and foolproof. Honestly, how difficult could it be to find a natural spring? Especially when I’m the one in charge of finding the way because I “know where the spring is” and “am fluent in Hebrew”…I said I vaguely knew where to find the spring, and when I say “vaguely”, I mean I saw a sign for a M’ayan (spring in Hebrew) on the second day. So with me as our guide, we set out for the day with one Nalgene to be shared among the 7 of us. Oh, and that nalgene? Only a quarter full…Footwear? I wore converses=one of my brighter decisions? Except it truly was not. Ha, anyways…we walked about 2 miles following a series of signs and somehow reached the “spring”. The “spring” was actually a little 5 square foot pond. So no swimming, but the view was AMAZING. Almost as amazing as my Prigat…So after exploring the spring, we continued on our quest with another genius and foolproof plan called “Let’s Follow This Path”. Remember how I mentioned something along the lines of “hills” being “monstrosities”. These “hills” have been labeled as such not just because of their size, but because of the fact that they boulder/tall rock-filled. Well we climbed and trudged through mud and over branches and rocks and it was actually quite a lot of fun. We saw a road overhead and had the brilliant idea to leave the path and free climb up to it. From that road, someone looked down and saw water! Water? It must be another natural spring. Except this one was huge and shimmering and sparkling in the sunlight. I mean, there was this weird black stuff we could see bordering the water, but it was probably just rocks or something, we rationalized. So we began our descent back on down the mountain towards the spring! Climbing down a mountain, well hill, is much more difficult than it looks. I didn’t actually climb down, I did more sliding than climbing but I enjoyed myself so so much which is all that matter. We were around 40 feet away from the water when it started to smell. This putrid disgusting stench just would not go away, yet we kept on going. Greatest Idea Ever. At about 20 feet, I looked up. The water was green. Not like a natural green, a puke “something’s been fermenting in here” green. And the black border? It was some sort of plastic bag holding the water in. Pipes were shooting this brown liquid into our “spring”. It was a sewage dump. Ha, the mud we had been stepping in? I hope it was mud. But we had a problem—how were we going to get back up? Someone discovered a road but we had to hike over two fences to get to it so we started making our way over. But then these people came out of nowhere, we panicked, and scaled that mountain/hill in 20 minutes flat. The same one that took us a good 45 minutes to descend. So impressive. By this point, the collective mud, dirt, and scratches covering our group made it appear as if we had just come back from battles. With no water left to speak of, and completely lost, we of course take a road that ends up leading us straight to our rooms. The best part? It turns out that we were a mere 10 minutes walking distance from them. Ha, I found that funny at least. Especially since we were so sure that we had journeyed so far from our nice warm beds. My favorite EIE adventure so far? I’d have to say so. The second best part? There was absolutely no breaking of rules whatsoever at any point in any way, shape, or form I am proud to say. It was all within the confines of the NFTY Code of Conduct. SO MUCH FUN. Note to Parents (specifically mine): I promise you there was no danger involved…Never at any point was I or any other members of my exploring group in any immediate peril. Except for the whole sewage dump having bacteria festering in it part. But it’s not like I took a swim in it or anything…

Remember how I mentioned something about my computer dying? Maybe it was in an e-mail. Well it did. Not in the literal sense of the word, but it’s most assuredly reaching the end. It’s not going to make it much longer, and I’m really going to miss it. It’s climbed mountains with me. Not really, but it has been with me across oceans which is like the same thing. But the other day…drumroll….IT BROKE! In 4 pieces it broke-the disk drive just fell out. And then some metal pieces fell out. And it’s nearing the end. I know death is inevitable as is my computer’s demise, but I’m honestly going to miss it. My computer’s death will be nothing short of sheer tragedy. No longer will I be able to yell and scream at it. Maybe I should stop verbally abusing inanimate objects as they lack the ability to properly defend themselves. But it’s not inanimate at all…SHE (or he) responds with funny noises and pop up screens! So there. I shall be optimistic and stop making conjectures as to the exact date of her passing. But I really will miss her.


Other good stories?

Valentine’s Day was a few days ago, was it not? The day was so entertaining in that the masses of EIE walked around all petulant and grumbling about their deep abhorrence and detestation of the holiday. Apparently, popular opinion would be that V-Day is actually D-Day and should be hated because of it. Hatred is such a strong emotion. Why waste it on a day of the year? 24 hours and you are done. Ehh..

This post is so incredibly long and I have to go finish my homework, but I’m still here and I take it you all are still running around in America as usual. Or just doing nothing/sleeping which is much more probable. But EIE is going well. I was a little shaded out at first, but it’s growing on me. Speaking of shaded/shady/shady people—the Israeli’s? Very very shady. One of the shadier bunches in the world, primarily because Americans of course are the epitome of normalcy.

Love, Elaina

So, I’m still in Israel. No, I have not been kicked out. Yes, I have eaten loads of Jewish foods. No, I have not been attacked or table topped or anything relating. I’ve been tackled—the EIE-ers are big on tackling for some reason—but there was no bloodshed involved. Ehh, I do believe that that covers it. Stories? I’m thinking. Oh, so I’ve discovered the key to EIE existence. It’s called nap taking. Whenever and wherever possible. Oh, and the sugary Israeli cereals will only nourish you temporarily. And after that, make you tired. Like mid-APUSH fall asleep on the table tired. But Israeli junk food tastes so incredibly good...

Today is Shabbat and thus I have free time. I'll try to write more at a later point, but in the meantime, I'm going to go exploring the Kibbutz/eat some hummus.

This may possibly be the shortest entry in the history of my livejournal. It's to tell you all that I haven't forgotten about you guys!

Love, Elaina

Top 10 differences between Israel and America:

12. Mickey D’s (McDonald’s) is Kosher! WOW.
11. Everything’s closed on Saturday/open on Sunday.
10. The toilet paper—and by that I mean it’s actually more along the lines of Kleenex. It fails.
9. The toilet flusher—it’s a button and doesn’t even work at that.
8. The chocolate milk—it’s in a bag? Enough said.
7. The Israeli’s overall lack of love and adoration of their American buddies. American’s worship Israelis, well most of them anyways. I’m not feeling the love from those Kibbutzniks. Although if I was Israeli and lived here, I’d want to come after those American’s by poisoning their food or something. We’ve taken over and we know it. Poor Kibbutzniks…
6. The sun sets ridiculously fast (because we are closer to the equator, eh?)
5. The M-16 carrying Israeli Defense soldiers. Not too many of those in the states…
5. The language. Ivrit. Ani tzricha l’lechet l’shirutim. Just kidding.
4. Stupid shekels/metric system/Fahrenheit…It took our room a day of bitter cold and chill to make the discovery that our thermostat was in Celsius and that we also had the air conditioning on. Ha, so much for my roommates supposed high IQ’s. How many EIE-er’s does it take to screw in a light bulb? They wouldn’t realize it was burnt out in the first place. OK, maybe it’s not that bad especially since I’m equally guilty here.
3. The moon is upside down. No, that’s not a joke. It’s literally rotated 90 degrees. I was walking to services tonight and noticed that one. Israel is way weird.
2. Stray animals…with rabies? So many cats and dogs.
1. An abundance of chocolate. The land of milk and honey?…Oh wait, they forgot about the chocolate. Enough said about that one too.

Yesterday I...

Saw my first M-16 carrying Israeli Defense Force soldier,

Saw a really really ridiculously old tree,

Learned what sporking was (apparently an EIE thing...),

Drank Israeli tea,

Ate a Pomelo (FYI: It tasted terrible…don’t try it),

Danced in the rain,

Evacuated the room at 12:30 AM after the fire alarm went off,

Danced the hora in the rain.

Details...

These paragraphs probably will have no connection or relationship to each other due to the fact that they’ve been written sporadically throughout the day whenever I've had free time. But I’ve updated and that is all that matters.

I was eating in the dining hall last night, and I looked up and saw a soldier carrying his M-16 3 feet away from my face. I’ve never actually seen a full out large machine gun in that close of proximity. While I knew that there would be both guns and soldiers here, it took me by surprise. The actual physical witnessing of both gun and soldier hand in hand shouldn’t have surprised me so much as I not only knew about it beforehand, but I’ve seen policemen with guns before albeit on a smaller scale. It was so strange though—this morning there were about 4 or 5 soldiers in their pajamas with their machine guns slung over their backs as casually as one would throw a backpack containing school supplies on. They were in their pajamas. With guns. Next to me. Maybe I should attempt to become a little more used to this as I will have to fire one of these come the closing days of this month (I have a week of “boot camp” in the Israeli army where some drill sergeants have us shoot off weaponry at targets-non living ones, don’t worry). No, actually the collective activities of the week will be amazing from what I’ve heard, and the few hours of target practice should be an interesting experience. So there. :)

Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of Tzuba. So apparently, Tzuba is home to this monstrous bullet-proof glass making factory, some really really old trees, some apple trees, and some really really old houses along with an abundance of greenery in the rolling Judean Hills. It was also learned today that exploring about half of the Kibbutz on our own is forbidden under EIE law. While this was sad to ascertain, I live with the insight that rules were forged for the express purpose of providing the youth of today with something to break. Just kidding mom…

I have a theory. It’s called the “Middle Eastern Water Shortage Conspiracy.” Right so they have this whole shpiel here about a lack of water and are all like “Oh, we’ve got no water.” Kind of like the Matisyahu song…But it totally rains here all the time and so I’ve come to the conclusion that the Israeli’s just want to dehydrate us American’s with their “conserve the water and energy!” speeches. Ha, what do they know anyways…gosh…us Americans know everything there is to know about anything. Just kidding…P.S. the great bulk of this paragraph was completely sarcastic. Well not the water conspiracy deal, but the Israeli’s out to get us deal/Americans know everything. The Israeli’s aren’t all that bad actually—if I had to pick my favorite culture, they would be #2 on my list right after the Brits. Oh internationals…

So completely changing the focus here--on our Kibbutz tour led by my counselor Yifat, she said something that sparked this huge revelation/thought process type of deal. One of the sites we visited used to be the home of a Muslim settler in the pre-declaration of Israel as a state days. Going back a bit further, the territory bordered by Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, etc. was identified as the Palestinian Territory by the British who held rights to the land. Both Jews and Arabs alike resided in the region until the UN passed a resolution declaring the land a Jewish state. And thus Kibbutz Tzuba came into existence. The Muslims living in the region left their homes behind them as they moved further East into the West Bank of Jordan. So who does the land actually belong to? I’ll write more about that later. My roommates and I had a big talk last night about this. WHOA. Metaphor time—the conflict over the land and its rightful owner is like the debate over whether the adoptive or biological parents have the rights to a child. The child would be the land and the separate sets of parents the Palestinians and Israelis, both claiming rights to the land. Ha, and the metaphor totally works. I’m kind of liking it.

2/3/06

And onto the here and now--Today was a terrific day overall. I believe the climax of this day would be the 6 AM wakeup call. That was fun. Ha, so the higher powers of EIE declared that today would be an early wakeup because we were “goin-a-diggin” at this archaeological dig in some excavation site over yonder. So we left the friendly confines of Kibbutz Tzuba for our first official adventure. So about this whole digging spiel…it sort of failed and died when some other EIE-ers and I commenced the building of a dirt/sand castle mid-excavating. We decided that it would a much more productive use of our time than hacking around with our hoes and buckets. The “dirt castle” was designed to look like Masada. It was a beautiful work of art until Mr. Israeli archaeologist tyrant guy killed all of our hopes and dreams by informing us the primary focus of today was not to erect models of battlefields. And thus our fun and joy came to a close with a symbolic falling of Masada.

But anyways—during the Masada-assembling, I found a shard of pottery! It’s currently residing in my backpack…AND it’s from the time of the Maccabees…Pretty cool, eh? Well, after the cave excavating adventure and the falling of Masada, we went on another adventure! It was time for spelunking-full out climbing on our hands and knees sliding down holes spelunking. It was above and beyond fun. It was epic I tell you.

Love, Elaina

P.S. I put my mood as cold…but I was referring to the temperature…the sad face is kind of overkill, eh?

I am going to share a story. It's about direction and my sense of it. Or lack thereof.

Right so I woke up at 4 AM today. I'm laying the blame solely on jetlag. But anyways, I decided to see the sunrise. I mean, what better to do at that hour than wait up for the sun to illuminate some Israeli sky? So I bring a blanket outside onto our balcony and sit out there with my computer. I waited, and then I waited some more. Of course the sun would rise over Jerusalem, I mean, where else would it perform its daily routine. You face Jerusalem in the East when you pray. And the sun rises in the East. BUT IT NEVER DID! I mean, the sun always rises and it will always set. Supposedly at least. It’s been a constant in my life for the duration of my 16 years. And it let me down. The moral of this phenomenal story would be that the sun never rose, over Jerusalem that is. Our Kibbutz is on the Eastern side of the city. Figures. I left that balcony at 7 having lost my eternal sunshine. Stupid light. But there’s always tomorrow. Gosh.

Well I thought that that was a good story. :)

Before I write about the most ridiculous 24 hours, I have something to say. My parents read this journal! So censor your comments.

And onto the sordid details that everyone wants to hear:

Backtracking a bit—I left Illinois on Monday via this miniature American Eagle plane which took Annie and me to New York’s JFK airport. So we get off the plane, and get our beastly 65 pound duffels. Great story—so I get my duffel and the side pocket ripped open with almost everything in it gone. The good news would be that I only had socks in it. So I’ll live.

I’m going to go to sleep since I’m tired and I have to be up in 6 hours; however, I’ll add more tomorrow. Maybe. No promises.

2/1/06

So I told you guys the basic gist of what was going on here over the phone. I can tell already that I am going to love this program. The history, the location, the everything. The next four months of my life will be filled with crazy learning of both Hebrew and Middle Eastern history, which is so beyond cool especially since it’s in the Middle East that I’m learning all of this.

When I first got to the EIE meeting spot at the JFK airport, I wasn’t really enjoying myself. It was actually really interesting to watch the 100 kids meet for the first time (well some of them for the first time…others went to camp together). Within minutes, the band kids were in one corner, the Dungeons & Dragons crowd found their corner and etc. down the line. My theory on this is that people feel more comfortable around those who share their interests—it’s a bonding point. The band kids pretty much all shared the same values, the OSRUI kids all went into their own corner as well. I personally just wanted to sleep. But that’s me. Haha.

Right so we got our bags checked in with El Al and eventually ended up on the plane. To Israel that is. At the airport and on the subsequent ridiculously lengthy plane ride, I met some really nice kids and we bonded and all that stuff.



The entirety of EIE Spring ’06 has been divided into 3 groups: Group A (Dagan), group B, & group C. You have Hebrew classes, Middle Eastern history classes, and field trips with your group. You also room with only those in your group. I’m really not all that happy with that whole deal. It makes no sense to me to have to concentrate your “bonding” or “getting to know each other” with the same 30 kids. Would it not make more sense to split up the rooming with all 100 kids so that you might have the opportunity to meet kids who are not in your select group?

And it's time for me to go.

Love, Elaina

P.S. I talked to Kara last night! And my parents. My phone has hebrew on it. If I'm up really really ridiculously early then maybe I'll call you too.

I’m alive.

I’m well.

I’m in ISRAEL.

Yesterday I left the country. Right now, I’m in ISRAEL, on a KIBBUTZ (not a Shabbat?). My room has a view of JERUSALEM. JERUSALEM!!!! THE Jerusalem.

Wow.

Love, Elaina

P.S. It's 6 AM here and I'm watching the sunrise. Over JERUSALEM. Because it's in the East.

On a less declatory note, I'm leaving. The country that is. And all of you. Tomorrow to be specific.

As promised, I'm leaving/writing/posting a live journal. My first one to be exact. In my opinion there should be some sort of ritual for this due to the obvious fact that livejournal is both cult-like and addictive. And cult-like addictive things deserve some sort of "joining ritual". Anyways, I’ve joined said cult and am currently facilitating in its expansion. Haha.

Onto bigger and better things--since I’m not going to be here in America any longer, and I might just miss a few of you…here’s my address in Israel. I’ll explain more about the program which I’m departing the country on in a later entry. Good plan?

Snail Mail:

Elaina Kaplan
NFTY EIE High School
Kibbutz Tzuba
90870 D.N. Harei Yehuda
ISRAEL
-----write "AIRMAIL"

E-mail:

Ekaplan329@gmail.com

Pictures:

http://photobucket.com/albums/f330/whoaitselaina/

So that is that and today is yesterday’s tomorrow meaning that…well I’m not quite sure, but tomorrow is really really really ridiculously soon.

I love you all and despite what you all may say, you really are going to forget about me in a few weeks. But nonetheless, I love you all even though I might just forget about you guys in a few weeks too. Just kidding...gosh. Feel free to write or e-mail me and I’ll see you people in June.


Love,
Elaina

P.S. I just made up the word declatory, but it truly is a remarkable expression and should be implemented into everyone’s daily chats…starting now.