Israel Jan 21

Today was Yad Vashem day. We woke up, ate and headed to the museum. Its ironic that the day we go to a museum about one of the darkest times in all of history is our first bright, sunshiny and gorgeous day. Beat that Alanis Morrisette. The museum is up on the side of a mountain and the view is quite decent. Our tour guide’s name is presently slipping my mind (probably because I never knew it), but he looked EXACTLY like a miniature Desmond from Lost. Desmond Jr. seemed to have Chenanitis, an untreatable disease where the victim suffers from a lack of ability to stop talking and takes forever to get to the point, but has great info that is very interesting when the listener puts all the facts together. I stayed a little behind the group the whole way so I could take my time and read and see everything. I took my headset off when I wanted quiet, and put it back on when I wanted to listen to Desmond Jr. The museum was truly amazing. We walked by the Garden of the Righteous, where trees are planted for non-Jews (I think) who did extraordinary things to save countless lives in the Holocaust. We saw Oscar Schindler’s tree, but we didn’t really get to walk through the garden. The inside of the museum had so many artifacts and pictures and stories, it was pretty indescribable. The most amazing thing to me was seeing an original copy of Mein Kampf. It was just a surreal moment. Seeing all different kinds of weapons, tools, clothes, possessions and other stuff and reading all of the stories that go along with them was mind-blowing as well. After we finished walking through the museum (I was the last one out with Courtney, and I could have stayed for hours longer), we went to another building and listened to a Holocaust survivor talk. He was 76 I think, and was a wonderful speaker. He also had a sense of humor about many things, which impressed me very much. That’s the kind of person I hope to be; someone that can stay positive and keep a sense of humor in any situation. I guess laughter really is the best medicine. After the speech we ate Israeli pizza (totally lives up to its reputation). We then hiked 5 minutes to the top of the mountain to Har Herzl, the national memorial where all ex-leaders and heroes, along with military personnel have the option of being buried. Theodore Herzl is also buried there, hence the name Mt. Herzl. Golda Mier is also buried up there. It’s an aesthetically pleasing place and we walked around most of it. This is where Chen told us about his time in service and how most of his missions are confidential and secret. We continued to get story after story from Chen and some of the soldiers and it turned out to be quite emotional. When leaving, we all washed our hands, which is ritual when leaving a cemetery. We then went back to relax and eat dinner before going to the incredible, amazing, mind-blowingly impressive Jerusalem Time Elevator!!! This was an interactive ride that was such an intense trip through history that we had to be pinned in by a bar like on a roller coaster at the state fair. Looking back now, my guess for the reason for the bar is so we don’t jump out of our seats from pure joy and excitement. The ride opened with a lady dressed as if she would be working at a hot dog stand in the mall, with a yellow suit and small cap on. She was standing outside our “elevator” on the screen. While in the middle of listening to the hot dog lady introduce everything, the elevator started to collapse and the seats shook. The lady looked genuinely concerned about our safety in the elevator and tried to help us. Unfortunately, we broke all the off and started falling. Down and down we went and the seats shook violently. My heart sank. They say your life flashes before your eyes right before you think you are gonna die. They are right. I saw Power Rangers, Captain Planet and that delicious steak I had in Peru. Heck of a life I’ve lived. As the opening line of Twilight most famously (sort of) says, “I’ve never given much thought to how I would die” (the only reason I know that is because my…uh…sister is watching it right now). I haven’t ever thought about it either, but I can’t say I ever woulda thought it would be in the Jerusalem Time Elevator. By what I could only imagine as the grace of God, our elevator got caught on something. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes from the coma of fear I was in was an old man with a long beard in a Moses robe. I thought to myself, “I must be in Heaven”. It turned out he was just another guide, this time from the past. He took us past ruins and through stories and through mine tunnels reminiscent of those in Indian Jones movies. We even splashed into some water and, what do you know, water sprinkled from the ceiling and got us a little wet. The violent shaking of the seats along with the pure adrenaline rush of the history lesson excited me to sleep. I missed the last 15 minutes. When I woke up it was time to go clubbing. We had about 45 minutes to roam around before clubbing so we walked around for a little while. Eva bought this snack which is a marshmallow like substance (which she kept insisting wasn’t marshmallow) with a cookie underneath and all covered in chocolate. Quite delicious, but then again how could you go wrong with that combination? So we then went to a club called Triple, I think. It was upstairs atop a bar and it was a pretty small dance floor. But as I always say, it’s not about the size of the dance floor that makes the party, it’s how drunk you can get everyone. And considering the bartender got confused all the time and gave so many free drinks out accidentally, we did a pretty good job of getting drunk (besides myself and a few others). So it was a blast!! I’ve never had so much fun making a fool of myself. Eva dragged me out and got me dancing first, and I didn’t stop the rest of the night except for a breather from time to time. Reminders of how out of shape I am. Love those moments. And the three things from that night that stick out the most are Chen dancing, Rebecca doing her best to help me out with a favor, and most of all, Katherine trumpeting. I will forever be in love with her for doing that. She could possibly be the next Louis Armstrong. Eugene was a dancing machine as well. After clubbing we got back and the hall was loud for a little while before we went to bed.

Israel Jan 20

I was excited about this morning because on the itinerary it says canyon hike. That usually means great pictures. But what’s new, it rained and the hike got cancelled. But the good thing is that fun comes from the inside and the people around you. I got lucky on this trip to get such a wacky, good group of people. So we started off the day by driving to an olive oil plant and taking a tour. The drives on the bus are actually quite fun. I sit in the back with the cool kids. We trade Pokemon cards. Today Andrew traded me a Charazard for a Squirtle. What a loser!! Kyle’s sack lunch also broke and his egg salad sandwich and string cheese fell out. That stinks because I was gonna trade my tapioca snack pack for his string cheese. Bummer. Then little Josh tried to sit in the back, but he isn’t cool enough. So we gave him a noogie, purple nurple and Indian sunburn!! Triple threat!! Apollo, the bus driver, saw us and made us sit back down. But on the real, we just sit back there and chat and play games and what not. It’s always interesting to hear Andrew’s analysis of girls, too. Watch out Dr. Phil. But the ride to the olive oil plant had a gorgeous view of the Sea of Galilee as we got higher and higher. It was cloudy, but still an amazing view. When we got to the plant, a lady greeted us and sent us first to a tiny theater with wooden benches. We watched a video on the plant we were at and all the products and how they are made. Before I continue on to describe the film in detail, I’d just like to say how baffled I am that this movie got snubbed from an Academy Award nomination last year. The only way I could sum up the film is a transcendingly brilliant melding of Citizen Kane and Tootsie. Tempting, I know. It starred one man in about 6-7 roles including an explorer, olive oil connoisseur, scientist and a woman, among others. This one man acting machine took us through the basics of how olive oil is made with the smoothness of an ice cold Mellow Yellow. The fact that all of his accents for his characters could barely be distinguished from each other emphasized the unity of the nation of Israel. It’s those subtle inferences and morals that are the foundation of the classics. His cane with a seat on top showed the pure sophistication of that character. And when he sat on it, it looked as if it was up his ass, which showed his toughness (I guess). Andrew actually thought it was up his ass the whole time until we told him later about the seat on top. When the actor dressed as a woman, my heart melted. The six inches of makeup, horribly unrealistic blonde wig and the seductively manly voice would make any transvestite loving man weak at the knees. I know I’ve been stuck on the superb acting, but the background/scenery deserves some recognition as well. The one scene that gets across the brilliance of the background for the whole movie is what I like to call the fountain scene. The actor is talking while standing, but it looks like he is floating because of his placement in front of the green screen. Behind him is the lobby of the building with a fountain and two people sitting on the bench. The mind-blowingly artistic part of it was that the fountain was frozen in time and the people never moved once, not an inch. The background was a still picture action shot. Rebecca was laughing her behind off next to me, but I personally was mesmerized by the pure genius of the movie. I don’t know about other people, but this could possibly be the next German Expressionism. Well I think I’ve plead my case for an Oscar. After the instant classic, we took a short tour of the plant. The best part was the testing and tasting. We washed our hands in freezing cold water (it was very cold around us too) with the soap they make out of the pits and skins of the olives. The soap just looked like wet, wet mud in a bucket, but it felt good and smelled good. The soap was fun once I got past the mental barrier of having a shit-like substance all over my hands. We then tasted the yellow, green and black label olive oils by dipping bread pieces into them. They had a bunch of bread and I kept dipping and dipping because all three olive oils were delicious. Jake would have loved it. Sadly, Andrew’s stomach felt awful and he complained all day (not an uncommon occurrence). And I had to be his roommate that night. Let’s just say nose plugs would have been nice that night. I felt bad but luckily he got better pretty quickly. So I don’t know how much he enjoyed the tasting. Besides tasting the olive oils, many people tried out facial products ranging from lip balm to moisturizer. After that we went upstairs and finally met the soldiers. To break the ice we did a game where each table of Americans did a skit on stereotypes of Israeli soldiers, and the one table of soldiers did a skit on stereotypes of Americans. For our skit I put Courtney’s puffy vest on to show my muscles off and we said they were strong (I flexed), sexy (I posed), and they love hummus (musician Mike held his hands out and I scooped imaginary hummus out of his hands and rubbed it all over my body. Needless to say there was drool on the tables from all the girls and jealousy in the air from all the guys. The soldiers did theirs on valley girls. Yael and Nadav played boyfriend and girlfriend in the mall. Eva walked in and Yael said how happy she was to see her and how nice her hair was, then when Eva left, Yael turned to Nadav and said how much she hates her. Right on spot with American girls. She also acted like she broke a finger nail and completely over reacted about it. It’s like these people have lived in America their whole lives. Mike’s group was quite funny as well. Mike stood up and said one descriptive word at a time while someone in the group would act it out quickly. After the skits, each soldier went with a group of us to make it more personal and we drilled them with questions. My group got Eva. She was gorgeous and had a dry, assholish sense of humor, but was very nice as well. What else could I ask for in a girl? Anyways, she is a commander in the army and is 21 years old. She trains soldiers. The other soldiers were Nadav (in engineering school, hilarious, and calls me Ya’al, which is forest in Hebrew), Ronan (outgoing prison guard who is hilarious; he is married and has a son, and he loves Seinfeld, the Chicago Bulls and Larry Bird), Nir (22 year old apache helicopter pilot with a bachelors degree and the face of a young George Clooney; a little shy until you get to know him well, which I was lucky enough to do as his roommate for 5 nights), Yael (pretty girl; I think she does HR for the army; always says “run Forrest, run”; never thought I would miss anyone saying that), Ashii (not sure what he does in the service, I think he is just in the Army; very funny, and his lack of English speaking skills makes him 10X funnier), Tal (cute; not sure what she does either; crazy and I love it; probably the best English speaker out of all of them) and Meital (the only blonde in the group; funny like the rest and loved to take group photos; the only other student other than Nadav). After intros we left to go to the Hamei Tueria hot springs in Tiberius. There was an indoor one and an outdoor one. The outdoor one had a gorgeous view of the sea but it was a little cloudy and drizzling (the drizzle felt nice in the outdoor one). The minerals in the water were supposed to be healthy for the skin and body. Let’s just say I wouldn’t put my trust in those “minerals” to help me physically, mentally or spiritually. It did feel great though. The sign said to stay in no longer than 15 minutes at a time; it’s a wonder why I was light-headed when I got out. And then, when I was changing, the unthinkable happened (or at least unthinkable in my mind): an orthodox Jew singing “shawty fire burning on the dance floor”!! What the Moses!? Jordana heard it and thought it was me at first, but then realized that the voice didn’t sound like Frank Sinatra so it couldn’t have been me. But that’s not all!! If you call within the next 5 minutes, you get a free “my n@#*!r” with the song. I started yelling “shawty!” for the heck of it and the guy said to me, “my n-word” (but actually said the word)!! Shocking. We all got changed, finished off my pull and peel Twizzlers and got on the bus to Jerusalem. On the bus I somehow got on late and didn’t have a seat in the back so I sat in front with Nir and talked to him for a while. He has Norah Jones on his ipod too!!! I had an epiphany at that moment in the front of the bus: cool people don’t necessarily sit in the back! Who woulda thunk? Ya learn something new everyday. I ended up rooming with Nir and Andrew that night, which was the start of something great.

Israel Jan 19

I slept like a baby and woke up energized at 6:30. So to waste the time until 7:00 I roamed around the kibbutz and found an amazing view of a valley leading into the Sea of Galilee. We then ate breakfast which consisted of many different veggies and yogurts, pudding, hard-boiled and scrambled eggs. Yum yum in my tum tum. We then sat through one of many of Chen’s inspirational, very informative talks with thrice repeated and over emphasized points and the lack of ability to condense a story into the normal human length. But don’t let that sentence fool you, Chen knows his stuff and is the best tour guide I could have ever imagined having. The reason we had this talk at the kibbutz is because it was raining and we couldn’t do the hike we were supposed to do. After the talk we headed to Tzfat, the Jewish mysticisms place. It was foggy but a nice little quaint place on top of a mountain, which would have had a gorgeous view if we could see more than 10 feet in front of us. We had a presentation by an artist who is from the US but moved to Tzfat 30 years ago to learn more about the Kabbalah. His artistic talent was good but nothing to write home about, but he explained Kabbalah through and in his work which made the pictures 10X more interesting. He was a little creepy because it seemed like a spirit would take him over for seconds at a time and send him into a blank stare that would burn a hole in the back wall. After the artist we went to a synagogue. Walking into the synagogue I got yelled at by this little old man for having nothing on my head, so he gave me a kippah. On the way out he was begging for money from everybody, but for some reason he didn’t ask me. Luck shows its face in many forms. After the synagogue we at lunch. I had a chicken shwarma in pita with hummus and this weird sweet/spicy sauce. It was actually quite delicious. After Tzfat we left to Yraon winery for a tour and tasting. I was tempted to get Dad a drinking wine at the shop and Jake a cooking wine. I then realized not only that I don’t know the difference, but I know nothing at all about wine in general. So there goes that. We took a tour with a lady guide who told us about everything. The best part was the barrels and how they were stored. For some reason that room seemed cool to me. We also watched a movie about the company that was absurdly cheesy, with a man (I would personally categorize him as a tool from my first impression) smelling and tasting wine and a random girl in a red dress dancing all over the screen. After that we went back to the kibbutz and ate dinner. After dinner I played cards with Viktoria, Dan and Eugene. Viktoria taught us “fool”, a Russian card game that I can’t remember the Russian name for. We played for a while and then headed to the bar where most others were for a couple minutes before heading back to hit the hay.

Israel Jan 17-18

The time-zone change really screwed me up so I’m blending the 17^th and 18^th together because I don’t know the difference. That’s what 36 hours without sleep does to me. Woke up at 6 am to catch the 7:55 plane to JFK. When I got to JFK at 9:30 I had to waste time until 2:00 in JFK. A dream come true. I walked as slowly as possible through terminal 8 three times looking at shops and people to waste time. Then took the air tran to terminal 4 where I was to meet the group. Unfortunately that wasn’t for another 3 ½ hours. Luckily there is a small little shopping mall outside security in terminal 4 to waste time in. Many testings of Brookstone massagers, some Chinese food, an article about an illegal animal smuggler kingpin (very interesting actually), and 1,656 games of pyramid solitaire later it was time to meet up with the group next to Swiss Airlines. I found 5 Jewish looking 22-26 years olds in front of the Swiss Air counter. Dan, Ryan, Lindsay and Farrah and Jordan were the 5. They were very nice people and we continued to pick out lost looking Jews to join the group. After everybody gathered we got our tickets and made it through security with ease. I hung out with Courtney and Laura most of the time until we took off. On the plane to Zurich, Freddie asked to switch seats with me (so he could sit next to Lindsay, DO WORK!) and I agreed. Little did I know it would send me in a whirlwind of bromance that would not end. I ended up sitting next to Kyle, a Target pharmacist from NJ, whose first impression led me to believe he was an asshole, but whose heart of gold corrected my false accusations. He was a really nice guy, a Seinfeld fan, played basketball and soccer and randomly brought up Detlef Schrempf on the airplane (huge plus in my book). We played cards, watched District 9 and ate a kosher meal that was to die for (or die from, not sure). The hot part of the meal said “meat” on it, with no specification of what kind. The meat was a gefilte fish looking ball/patty that was completely unrecognizable to the human eye, or taste buds. It also seemed on the plane that every time (twice) I was just about to fall asleep, the lights were turned on. I must be living right. So no sleep on that 8 hour flight and no sleep on the 4 hour flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv. On that one I did sit next to a State alumni thought, Stuart. When we got to Tel Aviv we got through immigration quickly and right when we got to baggage claim our baggage was there. How about that RDU. We got on the bus and they gave us a nice hard-cover Israel “travel” book and cash. Yes, cash!! A free trip to Israel where they give us 105 shekels for spending money? Life sucks. So we rode to our Kibbutz (Afik) in the Golan Heights, ate a decent dinner and I then conked out immediately after about 35 hours straight with no sleep. My roommates were Stuart and Josh, and Josh had some of the nicest clothes I’ve ever seen, especially his shorts. Also, when we took showers we had to squeegee the floor afterwards because the shower was even with the rest of the floor and the curtain was about a foot off the floor. Brilliant.