A Home Away From Home

No more living out of suitcases for this girl! I am now happily residing in my first Israeli apartment. Appropriately enough, everyone in our group has apartments in the Mirkaz Klita Ye'elim. This building is where anyone who wishes to make Aliyah, to become an Israeli citizen, gets free subsidized housing and many other social service programs to help their transition. These new citizens take Hebrew classes called Ulpan in the morning and families are hooked up with a counselor to help them find jobs and get integrated with the community. Continued...

What is amazing is that we are doing the same things right beside them. Every morning we go to Ulpan and hang out with new Jewish families from India, Argentina, France, Peru, and tons more all over the world.

It is very strange to actually be living in Israel. Last week I was in Jerusalem with everything I owned in a bag on the floor. Now I have set up an apartment with three other roommates and go about my day to day life in Be’er Sheva.

I totally lucked out on my living situation. Since we have a very few amount of boys in our group, there had to be a co-ed apartment. I volunteered to live in that one, so instead of having five roommates, I only have three – plus an extra room! Way less drama, more fridge space, and the extra room became the social hang out so there are always lots of fun people around the apartment.

Going grocery shopping for the first time was crazy. We were bused to this discount grocery (think the WinCo of Israel) and let loose. Only problem was everything was in Hebrew. We were totally confused! Things are set up really oddly too. Israelis have ventured much further than Americans in the bulk food department. Check out the frozen food section.

Cool thing was though, (not literally – there’s no air conditioning/ice in this city) everything here is super cheap. We got all you could need for a new apartment – cleaning supplies, food, cooking stuff, and many fans, for less than 50 bucks each! Whoa!

And now we spend our days here. A block away is a little market where we can get fresh fruits and veggies and falafel everyday – they are amazing! We do our laundry and hang it to dry, we make dinner together, and study, study, study the Hebrew!

Reality Check

OTZMA is doing an excellent job of making all of us feel safe, in fact, so much so that it is nearly impossible to believe all of the conflict and trauma we are hearing about is happening right next door. I do not have fear walking around and do not think about possible terrorist attacks, unless in an abstract sort of manner during discussions.

So you can imagine my shock and distress when our supervisor announced to us on the bus intercom, traveling to Be'er Sheva, that the central bus station had been bombed just a half an hour before. The whole group was stunned. This was not a far and removed action, this happened in the town we are going to be living in for the next three months. Our home continued...

We got more information on what happened. Turns out the bus driver was suspicious and did not let the man on the bus. He was removed from the bus station and blew himself up outside. No one was killed, and it was just the security guard who was injured.

The bombing has helped me to see an Israeli perspective first hand. For example, that afternoon when we arrived in Be'er Sheva, we traveled to the bus station. The sight was incredible to me. It was like NOTHING had happened. Buses were moving in and out. People were all over the place, talking, laughing, and just acting as they normally would. This was the same afternoon. In American, a bombing would cause complete chaos. Not only would the station be totally roped off and under investigation, but the whole town would probably shut down. Here in Israel, it was business as usual.

Another first hand perspective came from a women that came to speak with us about a volunteering option for our time here. During her talk, she mentioned the bombing and how it was bus number 9 and her bus driver that stopped the bomber from going on the bus. A hush went around our group when we heard that. Bus number 9? That was the bus we were told to take into town. It was our bus that was almost bombed! It was her bus! Everyone's stomach dropped at that news, but the women when on - oddly speaking very happily and excited about her next bus ride. She told us she could not wait to get on the bus again to give the driver a hug for saving the day! Can you imagine the individual sentiments from Americans? They might stop taking buses for the rest of their lives. The extreme difference in thought processing is very amazing.

As for me now, I am feeling better and a bit more aware, which is always a good thing. I am getting settled into my new apartment and will post about it next.

Shalom!
Jess

Out of the Desert

The disconnect I was feeling from the last post has long past. The last two days have been spent on long desert hikes, sleeping in Bedouin tents, riding camels, and smearing myself with Dead Sea mud. It has been incredible!

Two days ago the whole group left in a bus south of Jerusalem, about 2 hours until we reach the Bedouin tents we were spending the night at. First off were the camels. Jeramie Bloom and I picked the best looking camel around and hopped aboard! We traveled the trail and took some fun pictures, but our camel was a little too excited to head back to camel on the return and nearly bucked us off at the end!! - Continued...


That was a little freaky and we were both all too excited to head back to camp and learn about the Bedouin culture while enjoying their fabulous sweet tea. Turns out the Bedouins have been in a pretty hard place since Israel has been developed. Many of their homes these days are illegal and not recognized by the government. Their living arrangements are little scrappy shacks, we saw a few of them from the road, a far change from the exotic tent and nomadic way of life we were treated to at the camel rides. Seems like their struggle is similar to the Native Americans of our country.

Well from the tents, we had a 5am wake up call and were off to the first desert hike. I choose the harder hike of the two which was described as a 4 hour hike through the plain desert. I think that explanation was meant to weed people out because it was truly amazing! Although from far away the desert looks similar all through out, every step for me was something quite unique. Smooth stones, steep paths that we needed ropes to get down, big boulders we had to shimmy over, nothing was the same.

At the end we felt wonderful and had a great view! The group then traveled to the Dead Sea. We had some fun with mud and floating, but it is definitly not a good idea to wash your face in the water!

Now we are back in Jerusalem for the rest of the weekend and off to Be'er Sheva on Sunday (apparently Sunday is the new Monday here and the weekend starts on Friday)

Arrived and Alive!

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Jerusalem, but in my head I am still not completely in Israel. It seems odd that it has not hit me yet, and I wonder when it will. It didn't seem like I was going to be in Israel last week while I was packing and saying my goodbyes, just seemed like a small vacation. It didn't seem like I was going to Israel when Lauel left me at the airport. The reality of my destination seemed a little clearer when I met up in the international area of JFK and was surrounded by 60 of my new unknown friends for the next year, but not quite there yet. On a side note, it is quite amazing to bring together a group of people who know nothing about each other and watch them laugh and talk in a matter of hours like they've been friends forever.

Reality then sunk in a tad bit more on the plane. Intermixed with our crew of 60 college grads were families speaking Hebrew, orthodox Jews praying during the flight, Hebrew subtitles on the movies(in the back of our seats... it was sweet!). But then we arrived at night time and were bused to a youth hostel. After a few ice breakers and an hour (or two) of Set, I was off to bed.

Today has been filled with lecture and beginning info for the trip - part of the reason I haven't been exploring Jerusalem and why I believe I feel this disconnect of actually being in Israel. We had an incredible hour cram on the Gaza Strip. Wow. The history that I am and will be witnessing first hand is going to be such an incredible experience.

I learned later that evening that after the next two months, I will be volunteering in a group of six first hand with the Israelis that are being removed from the settlements. We will be interacting with families that have just been up rooted and doing what we can to help with their adjustment. We had dinner with our supervisor, who is this amazing Israel guy, he had us cracking up and basically told us he'd bend over backwards for anything we needed, help us in any situation, and take us out if we were just bored! He psyched us up so much for this experience that it's all I can think about even if it will be in two months.

So for the next week we will be hiking and celebrating Shabbat in Jerusalem. Next week half of us will move to Be'er Sheva and work with recently immigrated Ethiopian Jews.

There is quite a lot on my plate, but even though, this feeling of disconnection has been haunting me. Though as the hours pass, I feel it slowly coming together. The walk down the street of flashing Hebrew signs, the language surrounding me is completely unknown - but I feel not for long, and oh wow the food - hummus at every meal, breakfast is more incredible then even oatmeal could ever be! Israelis eat these incredible fresh cucumbers and tomatoes for breakfast! With this yogurt that tastes like nothing I've ever had... but amazing!!
I'm am having such a wonderful time and will post more news soon!


If anyone wants to contact me my phone is 011-972-52-604-2265... I'd love to talk to you, call me - incoming calls to Israel are free for me!

also I accept care packages and presents at
OTZMA
Jessica Mauer
POB 4390
91043 Jerusalem
Israel

(that's right, zip code before city.. those crazy Israelis!)

Take care, I miss you all!
-Jess

Getting ready to leave...

Welcome Everyone!

The week is nearing to an end and my bags are (sort of) packed. I will soon be departing for the great land of Israel and this blog will be your direct link to me half way around the world. If you would like, bookmark the link labeled bookmark me! and you will get a notification by it when I have posted a new entry. Please leave comments or email me with your thoughts, I would love to hear them!

Stay tuned... I will post in Israel as soon as I can!

-Jess Mauer