Weeks in Review & Passover Prep

The weather is finally starting to warm up here in the holy land, which is a nice change of pace from the cold, windy, rainy weather that was happening frequently. My classes are all still going very well, yet the ones taught in Hebrew are still just as challenging. In those three classes I’ve been sitting with my notebook and writing down as many words as I can distinguish to be a word and asking friends who know Hebrew to help me figure out what the words are later on. This has proved to be very helpful in learning a variety of new vocabulary, however it is still quite hard to even pick up even just the gist of what is being discussed.

Aside from school, the past couple of weeks have been jam packed with many things. A couple weeks ago I went to the Dead Sea with a school sponsored trip.

Representing the Albuquerque Hadassah chapter

It was juuust barely warm enough to consider going in…

Also not too long ago there was a wonderful night of music in the Old City. They had many musicians stationed throughout the city, but my friends and I stopped and stayed at the first one we saw since we didn’t get there until the end of the evening. Sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re in a western culture here, but music like this makes you remember otherwise.

A small video clip of the music from the festival

I went with Becka and a few of her friends to an ice festival.

brrr

This past weekend I went down to Kibbutz Yahel on a Hebrew Union College sponsored trip. It’s about 30 minutes north of Eilat and is one of only 2 Reform kibbutzim in the country. It was very interesting to be there and hear how Kibbutzim are evolving and most are not functioning in the same way that they were when they started. Kibbutzim started as very communal where everyone shared everything, including farming. Today, many are still agricultural based, but a lot are privatizing.

The kibbutz itself was very beautiful, and we ate many delicious meals, had Shabbat services (it was nice to partake in a Reform services after testing out different kinds the past couple months), talked with local Kibbutzniks, and went on a beautiful hike. Friday night the local kibbutz bar (imagine a garage in the middle of the desert) was having a large party with bands and DJs. It was quite a crowd as people from other kibbutzim from nearby drove over for the event.

Me and Sarah hiking outside the Kibbutz

Yesterday the ceramics department at Bezalel was having a special firing day. They had many different types of kilns going, including a raku firing and a wood firing. They also made a paper kiln, which I had never heard of, but was pretty interesting.

Loading up the paper kiln

Layers upon layers of newspapers and slip

Passover is just around the corner. I am generally pretty excited for this holiday, but being in Israel is bringing new challenges. Particularly, I am very excited that my parents will be visiting me in just about a week, though I am however worried as to what restaurants will stay open, but I’m sure it will be enough and we will not go hungry.

On my way in to the city center today I got to see quite a lot of hustle and bustle for Passover prep. The bus passes by a section in an Orthodox area that had hundreds of boxes of potatoes and other produce, and hundreds of Orthodox men lined up with dollies ready to take back enough food for the week to feed a small army (or simply their large families as the case may be).

Chag Sameach!