Har Nof, a bunch of skirts, and me

An engaging welcome

2008-01-10T06:23:00.000-08:00

So, yes, the flight was pretty awful - the food was overcooked and chewy, the seats were pretty uncomfortable, and the hour stopover in Ireland turned out to be two.
What got me through the flight was knowing that I would see Michael, my boyfriend, once I landed. Being away from each other for 3 weeks was a challenge for us both, but now that my trip was coming to an end, I was happy that we rose to the challenge and survived. :)
I was supposed to land at 6:30 AM, but with the two hour stopover in Shannon, Ireland, and leaving late, we didn't land until 9:30. Well, you can imagine it wasn't fun for him to be waiting for 3 hours for me, but the longer the wait the bigger the buildup. I called him to tell him I landed, and that I was so excited to see him! I wanted to get out of that plane, go through customs, get my bags and run over to him - but of course, the plane took forever to empty, the line for customs was long, and the bags were slow to come out. I was getting impatient also! Finally I saw my second bag come out of the baggage chute - I called Mike to tell him that I had my bags and was coming out to see him. I was so excited that I didn't even notice that he was standing in front of the security gates. I shuffled over to him (I would have run over but I was carrying some heavy bags), gave him a huge hug, and we both started crying. Three weeks does that to a person... The next thing I notice is he's getting down on one knee - at this point I go numb and can hardly believe what I'm seeing - he then opens a box with a ring in it and asks me to marry him. I was so completely overjoyed! I said, "Yes, of course," and we hugged and cried some more. Everyone in the airport clapped and cheered. It was embarrassing but awesome! I tried imagining this moment but it never came close to the way it actually played out - It's just amazing. I highly recommend getting engaged. :)

I was so happy that I forgot about the ring - he helped put it on my finger, and it's just so beautiful.

Then he gave me a dozen roses, and his friend made hats for us. His said, "I just popped the question," and mine said, "I said yes!" On the back they both say, "Just Engaged." It's very silly and dorky, but cute. :)

Then he took me outside to a limo that was waiting for us, and told me he was taking me somewhere. I had no idea, but we were taken to a restaurant where he gathered both our families, and a few good friends. It was so nice for all my friends and family to get up so early on a Sunday morning to celebrate in our happiness. And the funny thing is, the restaurant we went to was Israeli! I just came from Israel and the first food I eat is at an Israeli restaurant. It's like they were helping me adjust back to NY.

I found out later how he came to be standing in front of the security gates at the airport - apparently, he walked through the gates, and the woman guard shook her head and pointed him back to where he was supposed to be, but he just took out the box and opened it to show the ring, and she said, "Oh! Go right ahead! Is the kid with the video camera with you as well?" Mike said yes, and she said, "You know you're not supposed to have video cameras in the airport - but I'll let it slide for you - just don't tell my boss." So, we got the whole thing on video tape! What a great memory to have.

So, my personal and religious growth Israel trip ended with a wonderful life-changing event. I wanted to go to Israel to grow both personally and religiously - and I will never forget my experience there. It helped me to grow in my connection to Judaism, but also to Michael - they say distance makes the heart grow fonder - and we are living proof that it's true.

I hope this post wasn't too mushy for you...

Thanks for reading my blog throughout my journey - although this journey (and blog) has come to a close, my life's journey (and blog) has not. I am planning on creating another blog soon, most likely on blogger, so keep an eye out on my facebook page for the new address. :)

El Al is much better...

2008-01-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Shabbat was really nice - Liz, Ronen and I were invited to a meal with Liz's co-workers - so it was chock-full of Answers.com jokes, stories, and of course, answers. There were 16 people altogether, and although some people spoke mostly Hebrew, others spoke mostly French, we were all able to get along and enjoy the Moroccan-influenced food. (She made her own matbucha!)

We had about an hour's walk home, after which we bid each other good night and passed out.
I woke up at about 9, and was mad with my cold for giving me reasons to wake up so early on shabbat. I sat up and read this weird book called, "Still Life with Woodpecker." The guy's writing style was a lot more interesting than the plot, which is pretty impressive considering the plot was about a royal Spanish family who got kicked out and is now living in New York, where their daughter is a environmental-loving, vegetarian, cheerleading, outlaw. Yeah, it's weird.

Liz's friend Shira (who we went to college with but only really became friends with her afterwards) hosted a meal at Liz and Ronen's apartment, and much of the same people from my first shabbat at Liz and Ronen's were there again. Good people, and we had a good meal. Dessert was a really good apple crumb cake, which Ronen likes to call apple crumble - it's an Aussie thing I guess, and a bowl of citrus salad. There were kumquats and little lemon things where you could eat the peels! weird. but good.

By the time everybody from lunch left, shabbat was pretty much over, so I packed up my stuff and chilled out until we thought it was dark enough.

Shabbat was nice, calm, relaxing - pretty much everything after Shabbat wasn't.

I left my rugelach from Marzipan in my freezer in Har Nof, so the plan was to drop off my stuff at the hotel Prima Royale (where the JEC's sheirut was leaving from), take a bus up to Har Nof, pick up my rugelach, and come back down to the hotel by bus with enough time.
Here's what actually happened:

I got a cab to the hotel at around 6:30, get there at around 6:50, put my stuff in a room, and asked the lady worker at the hotel where I can catch an 11 or 15 bus. Apparently the closest way to get there is to take another bus and transfer, so I do. I transfered at one of the stops in Mea She'arim and got on the SLOWEST BUS EVER. He was stopping in-between stops, talking to the passengers, driving at 3 kilometers an hour - it was torture. And then, we get up to Har Nof and the bus starts making an obnoxious beeping sound. He hits a few buttons, nothing changes, so he stops the bus. He turns off the bus and turns it back on, hoping the restart method works for busses as well as it does for computers, and Eureka, it does. We go a few more blocks, somebody hits the "stop request button" and the noise comes back with a vengeance. Argh! He then pulls the bus over, shuts it off for good and tells us all to get out. We are now at the high end of Shaulzon. My apartment is on the low end of Shaulzon. I start walking towards #90, trying to flag down any cab I can find, and nobody's stopping. I see an 11 bus pulling up at the nearest stop (by # 50) and I get on. In my best pitiful pleading voice, I tell him how I was kicked off the other bus and I would just like to go two stops on the bus - can I get on without buying another ticket? He says ok, most likely because he couldn't understand my frantic English, and I thank him a hundred times. I get off at my stop and RUN into the building, where some kid decided to rebuild his bookshelves in the middle of the lobby. I get on the elevator, wishing it to go up first, and of course it doesn't. At this point, it's just about 8:00 and I had to be down at the hotel at 8:15, when the sheirut would be leaving. I go into the apartment, grab my rugelach, say goodbye to my roommate again, and run back downstairs, where the cab I had called was honking away.

I don't know how, but I got there in time. I overpaid the guy about 10 or 15 shekels, but I didn't care - all I cared about was getting on that sheirut so I could get to the airport on time.

This is the other story - remember how my first post was all about the horrors at the airport? Well, yeah, guess what... IsrAir SUCKS. Our direct flight has now been changed to a flight that's stopping in Ireland for an hour. I don't really know why, nor do I think it will only be an hour, but I'm annoyed, to say the least. The idea of being on a plane for 14 hours with a head cold less than thrills me. Who knows, maybe when we stop in Ireland, they'll give us all a good Irish beer. I know I'll need it.

School's out for winter!

2008-01-04T04:26:00.000-08:00

My last day of classes at She'arim: It was a really good day - I was surprised that I was able to stay focused for the whole day. You know how it is, last day of school, last day of work before vacation - you're mentally checked out. But I wasn't.
I really wanted to get the most out of my learning, so I really engaged myself in every class.
We finally finished the halacha of muktsa - I can't believe it took 6 hours to just go over all the laws of Muktsa. I found out something very disconcerting in that class today. Apparently, animals are muktsa. It's a very difficult thing for me to understand because I have quite a lot of cats at home - I can't imagine not petting them on Shabbos. That is something I'm going to have to work on, for sure.

The other class that was really interesting was "Finding light in Darkness."
We went over the Arab Israel conflict from a very unique perspective. Basically, Avraham's son Yishmael's descendants are Muslims and Arabs. I don't know how we know this, but we know it. It says in a midrash that Yishmael's job in the world is to take the idolaters out of this world by force. He is described as a wild man - but his blessing is that his descendants will have control of Israel for a long time and stop the Jews from coming back to Israel. It's scary how accurate this is - and it was written so many years ago.
It was kind of a low note to end on, but it got me thinking. I just hope that we can find some way to live with it - I mean if this is what G-d destined for us, then this is what we will live with. If we can't have peace with them, we have to protect ourselves, and that is what we are doing - as Jews, as Israelis, as Americans and whoever else - we're protecting ourselves against any possible threat to our safety and our beliefs.

After classes, I went back to the dorm, cooked a delicious dinner of fish with a tomato based sauce and sauteed vegetables, and then just hung out the rest of the night. I packed a little but will need to finish packing in the morning.
I had a really good time here in Har Nof, but I am ready to go back home. I miss my family, my boyfriend, and my life back at home.

I will post one more time about my trip, but it may not be until I get home - I hear the air port in Tel Aviv has free wireless, so maybe I'll be able to post one last time in Israel.
As soon as I am home, this blog's purpose will essentially be over, but I am considering creating a new blog about my general life - I haven't quite decided what the topic will be or what the manifestation of that topic will be, but I'll keep you updated.

I want to say that I met a lot of wonderful people here - I met wonderful teachers, students, and felt my experience here was fulfilling in an educational, physical, and spiritual way. I do hope to keep in touch with the new friends I've made and the school that helped me grow so much over the short period of two weeks.

B'hatzlacha, L'hitra'ot!

Downtown for the last time

2008-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

Today was jam-packed with goodies - classes were awesome, as they are on Mondays and Wednesdays, and after classes was another fun night in town.

I actually had two shalom bayit classes today - one in the morning with a group, and one in the afternoon, privately with the Rebbetzin who wrote the book on Shalom Bayit - literally. She wrote a book called "Dear Kallah," which I haven't read yet, but basically, she knows what she's talking about.
She said a few things I didn't totally agree with, like, the man is king of the castle - and you can't ever criticize your husband, but she said a lot of things that sounded like good advice. Like, respect, acceptance, and loyalty are the most important things in a marriage, and you need to start thinking in terms of "we." She told me about this book called "The Surrendered Wife" which was written by an ex-feminist. She apparently used such a controversial title to get people to buy the book - I guess it worked. Don't know if I'll read it though.

The rest of the classes were good (we're still learning the halacha of muktsa), and we had an interesting discussion about death in a statement of Pirei Avot. After classes were over, Francesca, a girl I know from New York, and I went down to town. I went to the shuk to get this picture I really wanted, and they went to Mea Shearim. I found the picture place in the shuk okay, but when I got there, the man who owns the store wasn't there, and some punk Israeli chick was. I told her in very broken Hebrew which picture I wanted - the view from the back of the prayer area of the Kotel with the bride on one side and the groom on the other - and she told me that they only had it in the small size. I wasn't terribly thrilled about it, but the small size of the picture is better than no picture at all. And, since I didn't spend as much money on the picture as I expected to, I bought myself a fun Israeli scarf.

I met back up with Francesca and Sari (the girl I know from NY) she went off to meet her friends, and Francesca and I went to the Kotel to do some quality davening. After we finished davening, we noticed a large amount of soldiers standing around at attention. They all sang HaTikvah (the Israeli national anthem) while they were looking at the flag, and they saluted and cheered towards the Kotel. It was really moving, and we saw some female soldiers wearing army green colored skirts! I guess that's what they do for religious girls in the army...

After the kotel, we planned on going to this yummy bakery/restaurant to get the exploding chocolate pudding thing, but they didn't have them tonight. Being disappointed, we went down to the next store where they sell Bagel Toasts. A bagel toast is basically a bagel, with stuff on it, shoved in a panini toaster and flattened like there's no tomorrow. It's delicious. Unfortuately, this place was closing and wasn't making any more bagel toasts. 0 for 2. So we go to Cafe Hillel, Francesca got her chocolate exploding pudding cake, that came with a side of ice cream, and I got myself a half sandwich of goat cheese and roasted red pepper with a glass of Limonada (Fresh Lemonade).
After being very satisfied, we headed to the bus stop. The bus made it usual route, with one extra stop... Apparently the bus driver wanted pizza, because we stopped by the shopping center with the pizza place. We thought he just saw someone he knew and was saying hi, which is weird enough for a public bus to do, but then the guy went in the store and brought out a slice of pizza! It was crazy. Talk about drive through service. I couldn't imagine a bus driver in New York pulling that shtick and getting away with it. The passengers in Israel just accept that as part of the deal - the bus driver will take you where you're supposed to go, but he may make a stop to deal some drugs, say hi to friends, or buy some pizza.

Begin towards the end...

2008-01-02T04:04:00.000-08:00

After class was much more interesting than the classes themselves, so I'll talk about everything that happened afterwards.
As Tuesday is a short day at She'arim, we had a trip planned to go to the Begin Museum. It's a very moving museum about the life and leadership of Menachem Begin. What I thought was most interesting, was the way they presented the information. It was extremely high tech, as all good Israeli things are, and the audio information kits were motion-sensored, so that when we were in a room, the appropriate audio turned on. Each room was a different story of Begin's life, told from the point of view of Begin. There were little vignettes acted out, and some plain narration with different images flashing on the screen, and everything was extremely well done. It was very moving to hear Begin's hard life coming to Israel, his secret life once he got here, his strong belief in the way to a better Israel, and the way he lived his life to the very end. I think the coolest thing about the museum was the "Jerusalem Elevator" which is an elevator, but also an exhibit itself. It was the audio of Begin addressing the public about all the casualties of the '77 war. Inside the elevator were huge panoramic pictures of Jerusalem where Begin gave the speech, and when the doors to the elevator opened, it led us to the view of the specific spot where Begin gave his speech. It was really well thought out, and all in all a very gratifying experience.

After the museum, I met Francesca in Mea She'arim to go to the most famous book store in Mea She'arim - Manny's. They have a huge selection of Jewish books in Hebrew, English, for kids - all sorts of amazing books with decent prices. I bought a small mincha/ma'ariv/birkat hamazon bentcher (afternoon/evening/and grace after meals prayers) and a workbook on how to read Jewish texts - i.e. the Torah.

We had planned to go to the Shuk, which is a wonderful place filled with cheap food, random cheap shops, and lots of screaming Israelis. It's a great place to bargain for already ridiculously cheap stuff and to taste lots of different food as you walk by. This is not like your average food market - this is hardcore shopping - especially if you go there on a Thursday night or Friday morning - whoooweee, it's crazy. So we went there, I was planning on getting a specific picture that Francesca had brought home a few days before, but sadly, they didn't have it in the size I wanted. He told me he'd have it tomorrow, so I will have to go back. After the shuk, we went to Marzipan to get some rugelach.

Let me explain Marzipan - ggggaaahhhhhmmmmmmyummmy. Basically, the best rugelach you will ever taste in your life - they're gooey, crunchy, chocolatey, and sweet in all the right places. In my opinion, the most perfect rugelach ever created.
We bought 20 of them each (for only a sheckel for each rugelach), and happily went further into town for a planned dinner of shwarma.

We got some shwarma in a pita, and really, really enjoyed it. The one thing about She'arim is that all the food is dairy - the only food we're allowed to have in the dorms is dairy, so I crave meat every once in a while - or in this case, every three days. The shwarma was good - I wouldn't say it was the best I've ever had, but it satisfied a craving.

The last stop on our outing was Michal Negrin. She's an Israeli designer who makes beautiful Jewelry. It's very, very feminine, and very popular. She has a store on Ben Yehudah, so we went to look around. I wasn't planing on buying anything because I'm trying to not spend any more money, but I found some really nice, but inexpensive earrings that I liked, so I helped support the Israeli economy (and my jewelry collection) by buying them. Francesca got a pair of earrings for her mom, and another pair for herself.

It was a very satisfying day in every aspect, as I hope my last few days in Israel will be.

Happy Gregorian New Year!

2007-12-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

Classes were good today, as I expected them to be. I went to a Shalom Bayit class where they talked about how to make good decisions at home, and the rest of the classes were the same as last Monday's schedule. I really enjoy them, as the teachers are as dynamic as the topics.

After classes, I went to another class - ballet!
I went to the same dance school as I went to last week, but I LOVE ballet. I used to be a ballerina (when I was younger and more flexible), but I haven't been able to go to a ballet class in 6 years! It was really great to do the strictest, most difficult of all the dances for an hour, and I know my muscles will "thank" me for it tomorrow.

Now I'm just waiting for the clock to strike 12 here so I can say, "Happy New Year," and then immediately after, go to sleep.

Happy 2008 New Year, everyone!

Learning the value of a drain

2007-12-31T03:43:00.000-08:00

As it's only my second Sunday in Israel, I haven't gotten used to the fact that Sunday is a normal day here. Well, I'll use normal as a relative term here.
Class went on as usual; some more interesting information about Rachel and Leah - it turns out that whole wife switch was a lot more complicated than it seems in the Torah. Lavan told the whole town that he was going to give Yakov Leah as a wife instead of Rachel, so that Yakov would work for them for another 7 years. Rachel knew he was probably going to do this, and so before they had to separate, she told Yakov that Lavan would try and trick him. They came up with special signs, Yakov told Lavan specifically that he was requesting to marry Rachel - not Leah - his daughter - meaning not some random girl named Rachel, and the younger one - so as to not give Leah to him but calling her Rachel.

It turns out Lavan gives him Leah anyway, and when he finds out in the morning (he couldn't see her at night) that he married Leah, he was really mad at Leah and Lavan - even though Rachel had plenty to do with it. She gave Leah the special signs between her and Yakov, Rachel stayed in the marriage tent with Yakov and Leah, so that when Yakov would talk to his wife, Rachel would answer. It was very devious on Rachel's part, yet he wasn't mad at her - the reason he wasn't mad at Rachel, was because he knew where her actions were coming from, and he knew that in the end he had to marry both sisters (even though in Torah law that's forbidden nowadays). Very interesting and convoluting story. The reason at weddings they have the bedeken, where the groom comes out and puts the veil on the bride, is from Rachel and Leah. Had Yakov looked under her veil at the wedding, he would have known he was being tricked. Now, the groom checks at his wedding to make sure he's not being duped with the wrong sister. :)

The other interesting class was "Finding Light in Darkness." This class is about hard times in Jewish history, and we talked about the cosmic struggle between Israel and Amalek. Amalek is the nation that was the first to go against Israel. Amalek is actually a grandson of Esau, the wicked brother of Yakov. So Amalek has a mindset of being against Jews because they are Jews - so too do the Nazis. The Nazis wanted to destroy the Jews, but they couldn't. We survived the holocaust by keeping our Jewish faith strong.

After classes, I went back to relax - a bunch of us made dinner, a very modest dinner of tuna and cheese in a pita, and then we just hung out until about 9 pm, when a bunch of us went to a wedding. This wedding was between an American girl and boy, which is not unique in Jerusalem. What was unique about this wedding is that the girl is an orphan - or at least she was until she married the guy. It's a very touching story, and we went so that she would have lots of friends and family dancing on her side. It turns out a whole class of seminary girls came to dance at her wedding. It was really nice and I felt good watching her dance and be happy. The bunch of us that went from She'arim had our picture taken by the wedding photographer - I wonder if she's going to look at that photo and go, "Who the heck are these people?" Either way, it was nice to see so many people come out to someone in need.

When we got back to the apartment, I went to take a shower - and as soon as I came out - the warning flags went up. There was a HUGE flood in the kitchen and the living room. It was everywhere. We spent the last half an hour trying to squeegee the water back in to the kitchen and back into the drain, but to no avail - it just wasn't draining. We called the head rabbi of the school, and he's actually here right now trying to sort it out. I've had enough drama with this apartment for one two-week session, that's for sure. First it was the fact that we had no hot water, then it was no pressure, now it's a flood. One girl in the apartment was joking around about how G-d is punishing us for something we did. I'm not entirely sure she's joking, but either way, the floors in our apartment are not only cold, but now they're wet too. I'm looking forward to my nice, warm, working, Long Island shower.

The pants, the bar, and the frummy

2007-12-30T04:26:00.000-08:00

Shabbat in Har Nof was a nice relaxed experience. Friday night a bunch of us went to a traveling Carlebach minyan that happened to be right in out area this week. It was held in someone's house, and the men were in the living room, while the women were in the kitchen.. It was nice to be at a minyan that sings, but this wasn't like the Carlebach minyans in the states, that's for sure. For dinner, another girl from She'arim and I went to a very frum family who have been living in Israel for about 35 years. They had lots of kids, and their 20 year old is engaged and is getting married in 8 weeks.
They had a bunch of other couples there, one of which has a very interesting story.

They're both Russian - the guy, who's 51, was living in New York studying with Rebbetzin Jungreiss, known for her creation of Hineni, and the girl, in her 30s, was studying in Israel. Reb. Jungreiss went to Israel, met this girl, flew back to NY and told the guy that his soul mate was studying in Israel, and he needs to go there to meet her. So he goes to Israel, they meet right before the month of Adar I (the month with Purim that sometimes repeats because of a Jewish leap year), they get engaged at the end of Adar I, and are married by the end of Adar II. And, what makes it more amazing, is the fact that his birthday is in Adar I, and hers is in Adar II! It's such an amazing story.

There was also a cute baby there, and so we were distracted for part of the meal with his cuteness. The whole meal was very frum - many d'var torahs (words of torah) were given, and lots of singing. It kind of reminded me of the Chabad at Binghamton. After the meal, I walked back with another girl from my school who was set up at that family with me, and got into a very interesting conversation about dreams, life, Judaism, and other random things that came up. I got back at 10:15 and was completely passed out by 10:30.

Shabbos morning I didn't quite make it to shul, so I just went to the other family's apartment for lunch. The wife had a baby 3 weeks ago, so I was really impressed that she was up for hosting anybody at all. The baby was crying pretty much the whole first part of the meal until the wife fed him, then he slept. He was cute, but all babies are cute... Her slightly older son, I think he was 2 1/2-3, was way more interesting. He was such a little mentsch! I mean it's weird, because the family is Sfardi - and Sfardi's name their kids after family members who are still living - and the wife said that this son is EXACTLY like the family member he was named after.
So this kid - he saw that there were books and bentchers (small books that just have shabbos songs and the Grace after meals) on his father's chair - so he takes them one by one and puts them away. Then he takes these super heavy books and puts them on the book shelf! I was so impressed. If that weren't enough, after putting books away, he got into his high chair all by himself, buckled himself in, and sat there - completely still for 10 minutes until the meal started. Wow. We should all be blessed to have children as well-behaved as that child.
The husband is from Gibraltar, so we had an interesting discussion of the political vs. geographical setup of Gibraltar. I think it's going on my list of places I need to visit soon.

After lunch, I went back to the apartment, met up with Francesca, and we went for a walk around our area - there's this really nice and mountainous park right nearby - and we walked down to a nice and sunny bench, hung out for a little bit, and then walked back up. I decided it was definitely a good time for a nap - and I napped right up until the end of Shabbos.

After Shabbos, I had plans to go meet the Parkers at this Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. I heard that they serve you the food on a big giant pancake, and you eat it without any utensils! It sounded like fun, so I went to meet them. Apparently on motzei (after) shabbos, they don't restock their food, so whatever they have, they have. Tonight, they didn't have very much, so we left after being told they didn't have any food. Don't know what good being open does them if they don't have any food. Also, we noticed some people were able to get food, so I'm not really sure how that works.

So we left the Ethiopian place and went to a bar that has kosher bar food! Chicken wings, burgers, fries, onion rings - the works! So we ordered the "Meat Platter" between 4 of us, and a side of chicken wings and onion rings. Yum. The sauce on the wings was soooooo good, we were all dipping the fries and onion rings in the wings sauce - and yes, we did lick the platter clean. MMM. I also had myself a half of a liter of HoeGaarden. Yummy. We were properly full, and by that time it was already so late, so I went to the bus stop, said goodbye to the Parkers and went back to Har Nof.

Just a tidbit of info - I went down to town tonight wearing pants - haha the looks I got on the bus.... oy. Such a shonde!

G-d's intended Weekend

2007-12-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

So, as my internet is very sporadic, I cannot post as often as I'd like to - I'm still writing every night, but I can only post when my upstairs neighbor's internet is working. Such is life!

Thursday is the last day of the work week for Israelis, and even though we are a school run by Americans, we follow the Israeli schedule. Friday is the only real weekend for religious Israelis (Dati), but most of the day is devoted to cooking for shabbos. Many people go out on Thursday night, knowing that they don't have to be up early for work on Friday. For secular Israelis, they get Friday and Saturday as their weekend, but for the Dati, it's just Friday day. And, Shabbat in Jerusalem starts 40 minutes earlier than anywhere else in Israel. Saturday night is treated like a Sunday night everywhere else - you have to go to sleep at a normal time so you can get up and go to work on Sunday. It's a hard concept to deal with for people who aren't used to it; for me, I'm losing a day of my weekend. For me, Shabbos is the only day off.
Classes were good, we had almost the same schedule as our Sunday, and the day went by quickly.
First class was about Rachel and Leah, and we did a chevruta (paired learning) and then a shiur/discussion on what we learned. I found out that Leah and Rachel were twins - and that Leah was an incredibly great person. She overcame all her hardships in life, for which Hashem rewarded her. She was supposed to marry Esau, who was a horribly wicked person, and so Leah cried day in and day out while she prayed to G-d. For this, G-d rewarded her with marry Yakov first. Leah had to endure a marriage to a man who didn't love her as much as she loved him. Yakov loved Rachel first, but Leah gave up her entire happiness because she knew she was the builder of the Jewish people. She was rewarded with giving birth to 6 children, which was twice as many as any of the other wives. Since Yakov had 4 wives, and he was to have 12 children, each wife was supposed to have 3, but Leah had 6 because she endured the hardship of a less than perfect marriage. Also, Rachel died much earlier, so Leah not only got to spend the rest of her life with Yakov, but she is also buried next to him in the Cave at Machpelach. (This is the place in Chevron where all our founding fathers and mothers are buried - except for Rachel, she's buried on the road because she sinned.)
The second class of the day is the only class I have not taught by a Rebbitzen or Rabbi. She's a former student of She'arim, and she's very ...enthusiastic. She teaches a great class on Prayer - we're learning about the 3 different shabbat amidahs (the amidah is the silent prayer). She's great, but she's very ...loud. Like I said, she's enthusiastic.
After lunch, we had another parsha (chapter of Torah) class, another halacha (Jewish law) class on muktsa, and the last class is called "Finding Light in Darkness." This one was about the holocaust. I didn't go to this class because I decided to spend some time with a tutor so that I could learn Rashi. If you remember from my post about Sunday, Rashi isn't exactly the easiest thing to read. I didn't realize the level of classes I was in would do Rashi - but in the Rachel and Leah class we were told to read the Rashi and translate it. As I had no idea what was going on, I decided to sit down with a tutor and learn. So, I did! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and now I gained a useful skill that will help me in every class.

After class, most people decided to go out to town or the Old City. As I had gone out every night for the past three days, I decided to stay in. It was time to do laundry, and I just wanted to chill out.
Now it's Friday and I'm just doing a lot of relaxing before Shabbat. I'm going to two different people's houses for meals - She'arim set it up, so I have to be on my best behavior.
Shabbat Shalom!

Sushi in the Holy Land

2007-12-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was the good day of classes - there was more learning about hating your "brother" and what hating does to you inside. She compared it to walking up the stairs with a ball and chain around your leg. Basically, holding a grudge and having anger against someone bears down on your soul and affects your day to day living. Also, it could come out at any time - she gave the example of a pressure cooker. When the pressure builds up, eventually it blows its top off.

Then she told us ways to get over anger, hatred, and ill-feelings. Very useful, because who really doesn't have anger towards somebody. She did say the best way to avoid holding hatred is to tell the person how you feel - tell the person what he/she did to make you angry. I guess it's good that I'm as honest as I am. :)

The rest of the day was great - learning more about Yocheved (mother of Moshe) and why she was so special, more about King David and the Tehilim he wrote, more about Muktza, and more Perkei Avot.

After classes, my roommate said she was going to a class, so I asked her where she was going figuring it was a shiur (lecture/discussion of Torah). She said she was going to a Jazz class. I said, "Dance? I want to go!" So we went to a dance class.
We went to town and the place is a women-only dance school. It's really great considering there are a lot of women who don't dance in front of men, and where else can they go? Anyway, so we went, and the class turned out to be hip hop, not jazz. It was a great class, and I had a lot of fun, and got to do the exercise my body has been so badly craving, but let's just say I'm a lot older than I used to be.

Hip hop isn't easy - if you do real hip hop, it's a lot of rolling on the floor, and my knees and elbows can't exactly take it for too long. Also, the teacher wanted us to end in some position with our legs in the air and head on the floor - yeah I took one look and knew there was no way that was going to happen anytime soon, so I sat up looked in the mirror and smiled.

After the good workout in class, my roomie and I went to the Ben Yehuda area and stopped by a goodbye party for one of the she'arim girls. We kept walking onto a restaurant called Gong. It's a sushi restaurant! In Israel! I didn't know they had sushi restaurants in Israel, but apparently there are quite a lot of them. After waiting for about an hour, we finally got our food, and it was really good sushi. Not like American sushi, but it was really really good.

I have to say, this being my 5th time in Israel, that it never ceases to amaze me that I can just go to practically any restaurant I want and get kosher food. It's like, I never have to think about it - I can just go, and it's Kosher. It's really really awesome. Although it does make it a bit difficult to go back to the states. I mean I do live in New York, the metro area and city with the most amount of Jews and most amount of Kosher restaurants in the entire US, so I do have it a bit easier than those who live in Arizona, lets say, but still, it's a culture shock.

Spending my Shekels wisely...

2007-12-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays are half days in yeshivah, maybe because it's the middle of the week and they feel like giving us a break, or maybe the teachers don't feel like teaching in the afternoon. Either way, we only had classes in the morning, and after lunch people were either free to do whatever (within reason of course, this is a yeshivah), or they could go on an afternoon trip. This week they were going to Yad Sarah, which is an organization run mostly by volunteers, that lends out medical equipment to the people of Israel and travelers, if they need it. It's a really great organization which I don't think would ever work in America.
So I decided to go on the trip, which was entertaining, but not quite in the way it should have been.
The lady who was giving us the tour of Yad Sarah spoke to us like we were 5 year olds. She was American, so it's not like she was just speaking slowly cause she couldn't speak English. Either way, we got a tour of the place, they showed us where they keep the equipment, and the volunteers that are there to help maintain the equipment. We went into this room that was basically like an Ikea showroom, but with medical equipment instead of trendy, modern, easy-to-put-together furniture. It was kind of cool - they had a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen set up with all of their equipment that is meant to help people function with a temporary injury or illness. They do this for people who come in to rent equipment, but they're not sure what they need. It's really nice, and we found out that they save the government something like 200 million dollars, so this is definitely a good thing.
Then we went into a room with wheelchairs set up on tables -waiting there for us to come in and clean them. This was the chesed project of the trip. So we got on rubber gloves, funky blue mechanic smocks, and got to clean wheelchairs. It was a little juvenile, and to bring that point home, the tour guide lady told our She'arim staff person that she was impressed at how well-behaved we were. Um, yeah, cause we're in our late 20s, not early teens.
After I came back from Yad Sarah, I met up with Francesca and we went down to Mea She'arim. (yes it has our school name in the name of the town, but trust me, we're completely different.) Mea She'arim is THE most religious place in Israel. This town makes Borough Park look secular..well, maybe not secular, but you get the idea. The great thing about Mea She'arim is that because a lot of poor religious people live there, all the stores are DIRT CHEAP. It's really a beautiful thing for tourists.
Francesca and I went shopping for Judaica, books, candy (for me), skirts (for her) and pretty much anything else we felt like buying. It was fun, and we spent a good amount of money, but a lot less than we would have spent anywhere else in Jerusalem - or probably the world. I got a really nice kiddush cup for $9 American. Yeah. It's awesome.
After walking around Mea She'arim and buying cheap things, we got pretty hungry, so we headed down to the greatest restaurant in Israel ever. Burgers Bar!
Oh Burgers Bar, how I love thee. This burger is the best tasting burger you'll ever have. They serve it on a hugongo** bun (much like Shnitzi), and they have to, because the burger is big and they put a gazillion toppings on it. Yummy. I so enjoyed that burger. If I try hard enough, I can still taste it now. Mmmmm.

**another made up word I created to give an idea as to the enormous size of the bun (much like my Shnitzi post)

School and food shopping

2007-12-27T04:09:00.000-08:00

Monday's classes were awesome - we learned about Interpersonal Relationships, and how having hate or ill-feelings about someone can really damage you, we learned about Women in the Torah, we learned about Tehilim, and we did some Halacha and Pirkei Avot (teachings of the fathers/Rabbis). The halacha we learned was about muktsa. Muktsa are the auxiliary things that aren't going against shabbos directly, but they are things that could lead to you doing things that are against shabbos. One of those fences Jews like to put around the actual halacha, and since the Rabbis wrote about it, we have to follow it. Either way, the class was interesting (since I don't really have any plans to be so stringent about Muktsa, I took it as a lesson, but didn't internalize it), and I feel like this is the reason that people think Jews are crazy. Well, one of, anyway. The other classes were amazing, and the teachers were energetic, dynamic, and just overall extremely intelligent and interesting people.

Since I went out for dinner Sunday, my friend Francesca and I decided to go food shopping on Monday. After classes, we went to the supermarket in Har Nof not too far from us, and we stocked up. Since our apartment is dairy, we got some fake chicken patties, cereal, yogurt, what I thought was cream cheese (it turned out to be sour cream), hard cheese, pasta, tomato sauce** tuna, pita, and some veggies to make our meals somewhat healthy. I also bought a frozen fish for myself - just in case I was feeling daring enough to really cook. We sort of forgot to buy condiments, or oil, so the only thing we could cook was pasta. We also didn't have salt, or pepper, so the pasta with the already bland tomato sauce was pretty flavorless. Edible, but not crazy tasty. Then we had some cactus-pear-apple juice to drink - g-d bless Spring and their crazy Israeli flavors.
After dinner, Francesca and I attempted to watch some pirated movies she bought in Ramallah. Oddly enough, the only pirated movie that worked on my DVD player was a movie about pirates. The others were video CDs, which my computer cannot handle, nor could I find the right program to download that would work with my 2 year old operating system.
Oh well. So we watched the pirates. "At World's End" started out pretty good, but it got kind of boring, and as it was getting late, we just decided to stop it before it got to the end battle and we'd actually want to watch it.
It was a nice lazy evening - and I'm quite looking forward to the next time I get to have on of those.

**tomato sauce in Israel is concentrated tomato paste, apparently, or at least that's the one that I bought. It's interesting.

Living and Learning in skirts

2007-12-26T03:54:00.000-08:00

I woke up, got ready, totally not excited about the long trek up the stairs to She'arim, but actually excited about classes starting. I'm not going to go into the details of each class, but I'll mention some of the good stuff, that is, if I remember it.

The first class I was in was way above my level - we were reading from the Chumash (Torah) and then reading commentary by Rashi - okay, so Rashi kind of writes in his own language and isn't exactly easy to read. Most people actually take a course just on learning how to read Rashi commentary. I have never taken such a course, so I had no idea what was going on. After the class, I switched into the less difficult level, and things were much easier for me. They were still challenging, but it the nice, sort of self-satisfying way.

Going to seminary is an interesting experience for may reasons; the class schedule, the class topic, and the actual place that is seminary. Let me explain.
She'arim is in Har Nof, if you haven't figured that out from my blog yet, and Har Nof is an extremely frummy (religious) town. When I signed up for She'arim, I was told that I should dress modestly, which I figured, since I'd be going to a yeshivah - but also, that I should really dress modestly to respect those living in Har Nof. As in, don't offend the people who live here with your exposed elbows or pants. Granted, it's winter, and I wasn't planning on exposing much of anything to the cold, but, the mere fact that I'm forced to wear a skirt was a little difficult for me to chew. I know it's fickle and shallow, but I really like the fact that I feel comfortable in pants. I don't plan on wearing only skirts every day, and I don't like the fact that I can't walk around my neighborhood in pants because I might offend someone. I don't mind wearing a skirt for the purpose of yeshivah, but when I come home, I want to wear my pants and be happy. That's the first interesting thing.

The schedule of classes is long. Classes start at 8:30, and don't end until 5:30. We get an hour for lunch at 1, and that's our only real break. It's a long day packed with tons of topics - and even the way you do learning is interesting... We'll spend an hour on one topic - I mean we could spend hours and days on one topic... The whole point is to learn as much as possible - and since there are so many rabbis and teachers who have already studied this topic, we get to study those other rabbis' thoughts and research on each topic as well. The classes are well thought out - and each teacher does a bit of speaking, and makes each class interactive.
The main thing that I like about She'arim, is that it doesn't feel at all like they're trying to get you to be more religious - they're giving you topics to learn - they're giving you information, knowledge, and intellectual stimulation. It isn't all halacha (Jewish law) classes - it's about kindness, Women in the Torah, Perkei Avot, Interpersonal Relationships - it's really a good variety of topics that keep you interested and engaged in all of the classes. And many of them give practical applications for the things we learn. It's really interesting and useful.

Sunday's classes were good, but slightly overwhelming, as it was my first day in Yeshivah EVER, but the day went by quickly and I took notes, so I can go back and re-learn what I was trying to learn in class. After class, a few of my apartment mates decided to go down to the Old City. We went to the kotel, davened Ma'ariv (night-time prayer) and walked around, looking at all the beautiful expensive apartments that rich Americans and Anglos live in. The Old City is exactly that - OLD. The Kotel (western wall) has been there for thousands of years, and although it's still standing up just fine, it looks old. I had a spiritual experience there, and we all enjoyed our time. We then went to get dinner, and found this really great cafe with great dairy sandwiches and baked goods. We each got a sandwich and a salad for 39 shekels (about $10) and then each got a hot chocolate muffin-sized cake with chocolate pudding in the middle. OH GOODNESS, it was the best tasting dessert I ever had in my life. I was a happy happy girl, and even though I was full halfway through, I finished it all. It was sooo worth it.

Yom Shabbos, and after

2007-12-24T04:08:00.000-08:00

Shabbos in Katimon was a nice relaxing shabbos. Friday night Liz and I went to shul held in a school gym. It's called "Shir Chadash" and the whole congregation is Anglo. Katimon is a very strong Anglo community, one of the many that exist in Israel. After shul, we met Ronen at a friend's apartment in Rechevia. On the way there, we passed a school that has a little farm of ducks, chickens, and turkeys. It was fun to hear the ducks quack. :)
A few other people came to the meal, which was very delicious. Challah, salads, chicken, beef stew, turkey meatballs - all were very yummy, and I ate way too much. Then, they told us how their apartment was almost broken into, at which point, we started to get ready to leave. Apparently, their cute little dog barked to wake his "mommy" who called the police to stop the robbers. Way to go, Noodle!

Shabbos morning we woke up late, and got ready for the meal. Liz and my friend from NY, Atara, came over, and so did a few other Anglo guests with a cute little kid. This girl made a toy out of everything - the blocks, the silverware, and the coasters.
It was nice catching up with Atara, and just relaxing for the rest of shabbos.

After shabbat was over, we hung around, watching a documentary on "El Nino," and I figured out my travel plans back to Har Nof. After going back to Har Nof, dropping off all my stuff, I went back to town to meet up with my friend Sherri who's here as a staff on birthright, the Parkers again, and Liz and Ronen came down as well. The plan was, to go get some yummy waffles, which the Parkers desperately wanted to eat, but didn't want to eat alone. So we began our search. I knew there was a place off Ben Yehudah, so we went, with the line around the corner, and found out that it wasn't even kosher. On to our next stop: An ice cream place behind Ben Yehudah, that was kosher, and had waffles, crepes and all sorts of ice cream on their menu. Jon asked the clerk if we were on the right line for waffles, and I heard her response, "Ein vafflim ha erev ha zeh." Great, they don't have waffles tonight. So, we gave up on waffles for the night, and I went to get some "Big Apple Pizza." Yum.
Then it was on the way back to Har Nof to get some rest before my first day of school in the frummy part of town.

Walking my weight in Shwarma

2007-12-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

Today was much busier - I painted a house, went to a monastery, walked up 200 steps, I had an awesome dinner of shawarma, and I met up with some friends at a coffee shop.

So, I wanted to do some volunteering during my time here - I figured I've come here to learn to help myself, wouldn't it be nice to help others? I contacted Livnot on Wednesday, and they told me that I can help finish painting a house for a project. It's kind of like "Habitat for Humanity" I guess, except they're fixing up a pre-existing apartment instead of building a house from scratch.

We met up at the Livnot office at 9, and I had some quality breakfast of a chocolate spread and honey sandwich, with some peach nectar to drink. I know it sounds gross, but it was good.

The house we were painting exists in Ein Kerem - a predominantly Christian village in Jerusalem. The reason mostly Christians live there is because it was the birthplace of John the Baptist. Also, there's a spot where Mary (Miriam) apparently learned of her pregnancy with Jesus (Yoshuah).

It's a pretty nifty place, and this guy's apartment had an awesome view of Jerusalem. He also had two dogs, one of which kept following me around as I was trying to paint this little outside roofed-area. Then we fixed up the bathroom. The other volunteer painted the ceiling (she was tall enough to reach with the ladder, I was not), while I cleaned it. We finished in about two hours, and then the Livnot guy decided to give us a tour of Ein Kerem.

We went to the Notre Dame Monastery to look at the gardens. They have a beautiful garden with flowers, funky plants like aloe, and lots of different fruit trees. It amazed me to see that in the winter the lemon and mandarin orange trees were very much alive and still bearing fruit. The pomegranate tree was very much not. They're not winter trees. Another tree they had there was this one.

I told you it was Christian!

We left the monastery and went to the spot where Mary got her pregnancy test results back - apparently some angel told her at this very spot, where the mountain water ends up into a little stream.

I went back to Liz's place to get ready to go to Har Nof. I had to repack a little, and then I brought my stuff to the main road on the other side of Liz and Ronen's to get a taxi. 50 shekel and 20 minutes later, I'm in the dorm in Har Nof. It's a cute little apartment, with 4 rooms of 2, a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and patio. After being welcomed by the dorm counselor (RA) an instant noodle soup, water bottle, and a welcome note, I chose my room and shoved my bag underneath my bed to claim it.

Here's the fun part: The RA was going to the school, so I asked her if I could come along to see it. She told me it was a trek, but it would only take me 6-15 minutes to get to school.
Let me just explain something about Har Nof. It means "Mountain with a view." It's been cut into a mountain, and it has quite a view. Everything in Har Nof is up-hill one way, and down-hill the other.

We walk out of the building and she points to the steps. 200 steps. TWO-HUNDRED!! I walked up 200 steps to get from the apartment to the school. By the time I got to the building I was panting, tired, and achey. This is going to be a fun two weeks.

After touring the school, I went back to Liz and Ronen's. We got shawarma! It was awesome yummy shawarma that made me very full. So full, in fact, that I decided to walk down to Emek to meet friends of mine who are in Israel for the year. Quick shout out! Their Israel trip blog.

We met at this awesome ice cream place that has a whole section of delicious looking pareve (non-dairy) ice cream. But then we went to a bagel place that was also a bakery, and finally decided on going to Cafe Hillel to talk and catch up. We talked about old Binghamton times, and slightly newer events going on in our lives. It was fun, and 3 hours later, we walked back home (them to theirs, and me to my temporary one).

Now I'm excited for shabbos - or should I say Shabbat... It's the Israeli way to say it.

A street named Emek

2007-12-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

My first full day in Jerusalem wasn't very exciting, I'll admit. But I'm on vacation! I'm allowed to take one day to lounge around and do nothing productive, right? Well, I did do some productive things, but I only left Liz and Ronen's apartment at 4 PM... and was back an hour and a half later.
I decided to go walk down to Emek Rafaim, which is one of the trendiest streets in Jerusalem. I can't actually say if that's accurate, but it's very trendy. There are about 50 restaurants in a mile strip of street: cafes, sandwich shops, steak houses, pizza shops, and even a McDonalds (not kosher) - so many of each kind that it's really amazing that they all stay in business. They have had American chain restaurants other than Micky D's, but sadly, they don't stay around too long. There was Pizza Hut (kosher) on Emek, and KFC (kosher) somewhere off Ben Yehudah, but they've closed sometime in the past 5 years. I do have to go down to Ben Yehudah to see if the kosher Burger King is still in business. It was so cool to order a burger there, even though it's greasy and horribly over-priced.

The other businesses on Emek are jewelry/judaica shops, sunglasses stores, little clothing boutiques, and markets for food. There's a book store, a video store and a few other random things, but the predominant business there is definitely the food industry.

I went into a few little shops, practicing my Hebrish (half Hebrew, half English) as I went along, and since everything was way too expensive, I bought myself a shnitzi and walked back to Liz's. Shnitzi's is a chicken place where they make your chicken in many different styles and give you pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, anything you want on it, smothered in whatever yummy sauce you want on a gigonzic* roll. It was highly recommended by my good friend/food connoisseur, Alan, so I bought one. There is one in Brooklyn, but I hear it doesn't do the Israeli Shnitzi's justice. Next time I go there to get dinner, I will have to get me some burger's bar - it's essentially the same thing as Shnitzi's, but replace the chicken with the best burger you will ever have. I've been to the Burger's Bar in Brooklyn, and it does do the Israeli one justice. Am I right, Alan?

*not an actual word, but gives you the idea of how big the roll is.

I'm leaving on a jet plane... sort of.

2007-12-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

Adventure finds me; I don't even have to leave the airport.
I'm standing in line waiting to be checked in - probably on the longest line I've ever been on in my life (barring the line to "Space Mountain" in Disney World). It's just not moving. I start to make some phone calls, and I'm just talking about my flight that's supposed to leave at 8:10. Two women in front of me say, "Oh, it's been delayed til 9:30." Great. Then they tell me that the flight has been chartered out.

What does that mean? Well, it means that IsrAir doesn't actually have a plane for us. So, they chartered some other airline to fly us to Israel instead.

I finally get up to the check in desk, and the guy tells me that they have to look for a seat for me. Um, isn't that the point of booking a ticket for a certain flight? Like, you buy the ticket for the specific flight so that you have a seat on said flight. He told me that they have to unblock some seats so people can sit on the plane. "Well, our system is a little weird." Weird? Weird is not the word. Stupid, maybe. Clearly, they overbooked. So I was told to wait over by the ropes, and 10 minutes later he handed me a boarding pass that said I would be sitting in seat 12 F.

At this point I was desperately thirsty, so I go buy a bottle of water for the hefty price of $2.70. It's like movie theater prices! I take the best drink of water I've had since that time my first Israel tour had no water in the dessert on our hike.

I walk to the security checkpoint so I can pass through and go to the gate. I totally forgot that you can't take liquids through security and here I am with a $2.70 bottle of water that I JUST bought. I was not throwing this bottle of water out, no way - so I downed the whole thing in about 30 seconds. Yeah, that was fun. Then I went through the whole taking off shoes, putting all electronic things in a bin, walking through the metal detector thing, and finally make it to the other side.
I walk to the gate and see that it is indeed not IsrAir's plane that we are flying on - it's World Airways. I was just hoping "World Airways" was actually going to take us to Tel Aviv, and not to, I dunno, Switzerland. Although, Switzerland would have been fun too - you know, for the mountains and chocolate, and cheese and such.
Anyway, finally, at 9:00, we start to board. Finally.

I get on the plane, and I find that I'm seated in-between two Chassidic men. Oh yeah. Me, wearing pants, sitting in between two chasidic men. It actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. The guy sitting on the outside got up about the same times I needed to use the bathroom, so I didn't have to try and jump over him without touching him. One time he fell asleep, and the chassid sitting on the other side of me saw me in my predicament and laughed - so I asked him to tap the sleeping guy for me - he did. :)

After many cramped legs, and two decently crappy meals, I land in Israel. Like all good Israeli travelers, the first thing I do is turn on my cell phone. This rabbi was supposed to pick me and a few other people up from my flight, but didn't know that the flight had been delayed two hours. So, I tried to call him to let him know that I arrived. I couldn't get through. I tried another number - nothing but some message from Cellcom I didn't totally understand cause it's in Hebrew. Great. Half an hour later, after I get my bag and go through customs, I try again and get through. The rabbi tried calling me, realizing my account hadn't been activated, and activated it for me! He's a nice guy - crazy, but nice.

Eventually, after waiting for two other people, we leave the airport. So, this guy is crazy - he was texting, typing, sending emails, making phone calls, all while driving. He's American, but clearly well acclimated to Israeli culture. After dropping the other two people off, we make a pit stop at the Magen David Adom, which is where he works. Ten minutes later he comes back to the car, and says, "There's an accident right near where we're going! You know what that means..." And I didn't, but apparently it means that we can take out our flashing light, put it on top of the car and drive like a complete maniac. Holy wow, I have never had an experience anything like that before! Thankfully, I am at Liz's apartment, relaxed, calm, with no shock symptoms from crazy Israeli ambulance drivers.