Bisqueets and BedOHwins

SO, Israel.

To try and make this short would be impossible, so, bear with me.

Israel was an amazing and confusing and heart-breaking and fantastic adventure. As many of you know, I have never really been too keen on going to Israel, or Israelis in general, to be honest. It's a prejudice I've had since traveling in South America and meeting so many "post army Israelis" who are traveling after their service is over. Also, politically, most of you can imagine, I'm not exactly a Zionist, to put it lightly. SO, deciding to go on a birthright trip was definitely much more of a "yay free trip to a foreign country" decision than a "I really identify with my Israeli brothers and sisters" decision. However, it turned out to be a spectacular experience.

Rather than tell you about everything that I did, I'll tell you about how I feel changed by the experience. (Scroll to the middle of the blog if my political rambling bores you...there are LOTS of photos.) I feel changed in a few different ways. The main thing is, I don't have a predisposition towards disliking Israelis anymore, which I think is really important. (Clearly, being racist isn't a good thing!) Basically, I went to Israel thinking, "How can one country and it's people so blatantly/violently/completely take over/oppress/dominate another group of people and think they are in the right?! What is WRONG with them? Well, truth be told, after this trip, I've got a ton of dislike for the Israeli government because the children of Israel are brought up only seeing one side of the argument (Up Israel, Arabs are monsters who suicide bomb and kill our children). The propaganda is SO blatant in the country that it is sickening. We went to a museum of Israeli history which I can only describe as a propaganda museum not unlike something that might have been used in WWII to rile up German citizens. Basically, I could go on about this forever, but here is the story of the turning point of my decision "to dislike the government but not the people":

On our fifth day in Israel, our group of 41, plus our 8 Israeli soldiers that joined our group to be part of the "birthright experience" went to a mosque. My birthright group "Kesher Birthright" is the only birthright group to go to a mosque. We were given an opportunity to ask the Imam (leader of prayer) questions about the religion of Islam. One of our Israeli soldiers, Ben, asked a question. Ben is a combat marine, so keep in mind that seeing battle from the front lines is his job. He asked about the belief that suicide bombers have, that they will get to paradise because they have done God's will. The Imam basically responded that the religion of Islam DOESN'T believe that, and that things get misconstrued. The Imam's response isn't the point of this story, though. The point is that Ben is 21 years old, fighting and killing "for his country and it's people," and he doesn't even have the resources to ASK questions that he might have about the opposition. He doesn't have ANY knowledge about REAL Palestinians or any outlet to learn about what they believe because they are fed the propaganda of hate from the time that they are children. My realization in the mosque that Ben (and maybe the other soldiers too) actually WANT to know more about the conflict and have nowhere to turn for that information, made my heart break. How are ANY conflicts ever solved if there are no means of communication and no avenues with which to learn about the opposition. How can there ever be peace if BOTH governments only feed their people hatred.

Let me break up this entry with some pictures before I get to the other major reason why I feel changed by going to Israel.

Day 1: We got to Jaffa-Tel Aviv, Israel on Shabbat Friday. The elevator stopped on every floor. I have never seen a shabbat elevator though I'm told they exist in some apartments in NYC. For those of you that are unaware, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, Jewish people have their day of rest. If they are very religious Jews, they take that to mean that you cannot do any work at all, including pushing the DAMN buttons on the DAMN elevator. :) Most of the Israelis I met were what you would call, somewhat ironically, secular Jews. They identify with Judaism, but don't actually practice or go to synagogue or anything like that...much like Christmaster Christians, they only really "practice" their religion on high holidays. I did not meet anyone that was pleased that the elevators totally suck on Fridays and Saturdays.

Day 2: Apparently, most people who live in Tel Aviv go to the beach on Saturday because it is Shabbat, you can't do work, and everything is closed. I would like to live in a place where the "day of rest" is treated as a day at the beach! From left to right: Me, Jenny, Jenna, Diana, Emily H, Chelsea.
Emily and Chelsea, and another Emily were my closest friends on the trip. They are so great and we will definitely keep in touch.


Day 2: Tel Aviv at night. We had services on the rooftop of our hostel before we went out dancing. This is the view from the roof.

Day 3: We walked around Jerusalem all day. This is a photograph of two domes--one representing where Jesus was apparently crucified, and the other one representing where he was buried.


Day 3: Obviously, while in Jerusalem we went to the Western Wall. Here I am writing a letter to put in the wall.

Day 3: We rode camels in the desert. It was SO hot and SO scary. I won't ever do it again...or so I say now.

Day 3: After the whole camel extravaganza, we ate Bedouin food (on the ground) and slept in Bedouin tents (on the ground). Definitely the best meal of the trip...but certainly not the best sleep!

Day 4: There is nothing quite like waking up at 4 am to hike up a mountain and watch the sunrise. This is Masada at sunrise.

Day 4: After our long, hot hike at Masada, we hiked through the Ein Gedi nature reserve in the middle of the desert and swam in this oasis! I had no idea oases actually existed!

Day 5: Someone decided that, even though we weren't allowed to go clubbing alone in Tel Aviv, that we could scale down the cliff side of Arbel Mountain. I'd be lying if I said there were no tears around me from people who were so scared they were crying...I'm not exactly sure this was one of birthright's most brilliant idea.

Day 5: This is the poets and artists cemetery.

Day 6: This is soldiers manning their posts at Golan Heights. (Right out over the edge of the photograph is Syria.) Could someone please explain to me the genetic predisposition for complete and utter hotness that Israelis seem to possess?

Day 6: Hiking in the Tel Dan nature preserve. Meet Dan, he just moved to London from Glastonbury, CT 5 days ago and now we are old Israel friends. It's going to be fantastic to have him here.

Day 6: At the artist colony in Tzvat. Tzvat is an amazing village FULL of VERY serious Jewish people.

Day 6: Another photo of Tzvat had to be included because it is an absolutely beautiful place.

Day 6: Don't worry, we danced a fair amount as well ;)
From left to right--me, Ben (an Israeli), Emily, Dan

Day 7: This is at the mosque in Ein Rafa, an Arabic community in Israel. That's Liz.

Day 7: It was kind of an intense day. After the mosque we went to Har Hertzl, the war cemetery. This is Michael Levin's grave. He is the only American citizen to die fighting for Israel.

Day 8: Yad V-Shem, the holocaust museum in Israel. This is one of the many outdoor memorials.

Day 8: This is Mahane Yehuda, the crazy market in Jerusalem. It was Friday, so everyone was doing there last minute shopping before sunset.

Day 8: Goodbye to our Israeli soldiers. From left to right: Greg (one of our leaders from NY), Ben, Tal, Dima, Elad, Yufal, Dana, Anna, Liz (our other leader from NY)

Day 9: We went to this nature reserve that I can't remember the name of. We planted trees as a "new beginning" for Israel.

Day 9: Goodbye Israel, home of the original?? chip butty.

Alright, so the second major way I feel changed has to do with religion. Being brought up Protestant and not really identifying with my "Jewishness" is never really something I have thought about. We never went to synagogue, we stopped lighting menorah candles when I was young, etc. As it turned out, there are many different Birthright programs you can choose from, and I chose one that was very religious. (My group was lead by the Cantor of a synagogue in NYC and the synagogue was the major financial supporter of the trip.) I did not know this when I signed up, and most of you would guess that I would never have chosen to go on one of the "more religious" trips. Retrospectively, I'm very glad that I ended up on the trip that I ended up on (and as my cousin Missy will say, "There are no coincidences...") because I got to learn a lot about Judaism and I found it all very interesting. Most notably, I KNEW that Judaism and Christianity were similar on many levels (hello, old testament) but, I had never really seen how that panned out in actual religious practice. As it turns out, much of the practice is the same--singing during services, prayer, a "sermon or lesson" that you can ponder during the day or week--it's all there in both religions. Additionally, a lot of the traditions of Judaism are very interesting to me--the lighting of the candle, the drinking of the oh-so-horrible wine, etc. I found services to be beautiful and relaxing, and I think I was just expecting it all to be strange and unfamiliar. I plan to learn more about it in the future. (Don't worry everyone, I'm not about to don a long dress and long sleeves and not talk to men. I still think orthodoxy of ANY kind is a little bit insane.)

SO, now you've both gotten to see a "trip in pictures" and read about my inner-thoughts on the trip. I'd love to get some COMMENTS ;)

If anyone is interested, Paul kept an official Central Synagogue trip blog.

I promise I will now attempt to catch you all up on being back in London.

Love Sarah

Back Logging!!!

Soooooo, I wrote this blog two months ago, and then never sent it. Yea. But...I think there are some useful/interesting tid-bits hidden away in it (namely, that I have a job, incidentally starting tomorrow...), so I thought that I would post it anyway.

Enjoy...

Sitting in Newark Airport waiting for my Tragically (and severely) delayed plane to Minneapolis (Mini-Apples??), I thought I would catch everyone up on my whirlwind last week in London.

Last weekend was a return to the raucousness of hockey-hang-outage. On Friday night the Ladies 5's (that's my team) went Bowling (incidentally at the same bowling alley that I worked at for exactly one day...Did I tell you all that I worked as a waitress in a bowling alley for exactly one day? Yea...it didn't work out.) Anyway, I got ROCKED by everyone on my team. It was a low-scoring, high-embarrassment kind of a night. The girls are always fun and I can't WAIT for next season to start. My captain, Rowena, came out as well, and informed me that because I am "dependable," I will be going to some hockey conference with her in the fall to learn better short corner techniques that I can then teacher to the squad. Go me!

On Saturday we had a club day (people from our club played in a mini tournament against each other.) Club days are always fun because it is basically 30-40 guys and girls out in the sun playing hockey. Inevitably, it ends up with us heading to the club afterwards for food, drinks, and rugby/football. This time around it was rugby. (Have I mentioned lately how much of a fan I have become?? It doesn't hurt that a few of the British/Irish Lions are extremely good-looking.)

England has been shockingly summer this past week, so on Sunday a few of us went for a picnic in Finsbury Park (the park one block away.) Those of you that have been subjected to playing "Rack-O" with me can have a little giggle at the fact that we played for hours! I also went and saw a movie called Looking for Eric. It is British so I don't know if it will come out in the States, but, it stars Eric Cantona (hello United fans...???) and it was BRILLIANT. It really showcased British city life and what it's like to be down and out.

Basically, after the weekend, this past week has been a week of saying goodbyes. I have surrounded brief periods of work with lots of eating too much and staying out too late.

Here is a picture of Tristan and I on Monday messing about in the Royal Music Hall. We were playing in the fountain and got completely soaked. Whoops! (So...there WAS supposed to be a picture here, but since I wrote this so long ago, I have since put the photos on my external hard drive which is currently god-knows-where. Sorry!)

Our dear and forgotten Eamonn hurt his neck quite badly at the weekend and has been bed ridden. Even my friends who aren't his biggest fans (and of them there are many) felt bad for him and didn't give me tooo much trouble for heading to South London to eat ice cream and watch movies on Tuesday event though I'm going away and prooobably should have been busy doing other things. I guess I'll never stop wanting to play "fix it" with things that are broken. I know it's a weakness, and I'm working on it. Or, at least I say I'm working at it. Sometimes, wanting to fix what's broken isn't such a bad quality, but sometimes it means you get walked all over. If anyone comes up with a way to strike the perfect balance, enlighten me.

Another reason why I was feeling so charitable on Tuesday is because I got a job. Let me back up. My agency conned me into going on an interview that I had NO interest in whatsoever. It was at a school called the "PPP" which stands for Pupil Parent Partnership. It's actually not quite a school at all. It is a non-profit organization unrelated to the department of education that runs classes for students with serious behavioral/emotional disorders. All of the students at this "school" have been kicked out of the London school system. Many of them live in residential homes for kids who have nowhere else to go because they have been kicked out of their houses. They are the students who need the most help (and of course those are always the ones that receive the least help).

In any case, I ended up going on the interview (quite begrudgingly), and as soon as I entered the building, I felt comfortable. I just got the feeling that it was the place for me. The interview and demo-lesson went well, and later on that day, they offered me the job. Needless to say, I accepted. I am excited to have a full time position for next year, but I can honestly say that I have my doubts about it. The school is only 90 students and 12 teachers. The organization has about 60 other staff members--most mentors, psychologists, and therapists. I am nervous because teaching English is not going to be my "main" objective. I will also be taking a course to get a special mentoring qualification so that I can help to guide the students emotionally. Yes, that is one of the many hats that we as teachers wear, but to actually have it be a written part of my job description is nerve wracking. I mean, what if I mess up? What if I make a child MORE depressed than he already is because I say the wrong thing? It is very scary to have that kind of responsibility (and teaching comes with enough scary responsibilities as it is)! Also, because this is a "special" environment, we have different hours and vacations than mainstream schools. I will be working 9-5pm Monday -Friday, but I have 2 weeks less vacation than other teachers, though I am being monetarily compensated for that. (Don't worry folks, I will still be making nowhere near as much money as I was in NYC!)

That pretty much catches us up to the present (and by present, this means, two months ago, of course). And now jet-lag sets in, and I haven't even finished flying yet.

Cheers for the summer,

Sarah