Volunteer This Week!

Many of us volunteer weekly and many of us don't.  If you're anything like me you want to do every single opportunity that comes your way and then you realize that they all conflict with prior engagements.  I've been doing some reading on the surge of volunteerism after September 11, 2001 (blood bank drives, monetary donations, etc) and the anual urge to volunteer around this time.

We volunteer for all different reasons.  We volunteer to make others happy, we volunteer to make ourselves feel good.  We volunteer because we feel a sense of community and we want to give back especially in times like September 11th, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukah when we really feel culturally thankful for what we have in our lives- food, shelter, family, friends, and the like.  So whether you are volunteering to remember a loved one, to make September 11th a little different than the 10th or 12th, or because you simply volunteer on Tuesdays and tomorrow is a Tuesday, here are some things that you can do in the New York City area this week.  No one is questioning your motivations, we can get into that later if it's something you're interested in grappling with.  But tomorrow join me in helping the New York, or Boston, or DC, or, LA, or Jerusalem, or Tel Aviv community in the spirit of remembrance and always working towards a brighter future.  Sunday night marks Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year, so let us strive for a year where giving- time, energy, thought, or money- is part of our daily lives.

• Donate Blood at the New York Blood Center
• Make Sandwiches for the homeless at JTS- 2nd floor Unterburg 12:15-12:45
• Fold Clothes for the homeless at JTS- 2nd floor Unterburg 12:15-1pm
• Find an opportunity in your area through 9/11 Volunteer Match
• Find inspiration from this website, Birthday Spirit, my friend from high school created for those whose birthdays are on September 11th.

Of course if you have other opportunities or suggestions (or just comments), post them in the comments below to share!

Senior Year Tomorrow

--I wrote this post last week and apparently never pressed "publish."  So it's a week late, sue me!--

Instead of packing for my senior year of college which is an impossible task and will no doubt end in me giving up and resolving to just come home with an empty suitcase in two weeks for Rosh Hashannah (which is, by the way, after I turn 21), I am freaking out about everything I need to do before and during this year.

All you 2013ers out there, I know you're feeling it too.  The excitement of having the best year of your life and the anxiety of having to make it the best year of your life.  I'm taking 6 classes (again, ugh) this semester, how am I supposed to have time for fun and friends and shows in the city and volunteering and maybe even a little sleep?  It seems like the impossible dream.  But it's not a dream, in fact I'm very awake- this is the latest I've been awake since I landed 6 days ago.  Jamming to Guster, Shwayze, Goo Goo Dolls, and Rihanna (I've always had a keen sense for bringing together artists no one else listens to in the same sitting) I find myself dancing in my room surrounded by clothes and crap to decorate my tiny college dorm room, pausing only to make lists upon lists of things I'm forgetting and need to do, and of course, to blog.

And my mom just came in and threatened to throw out everything I leave behind because I clearly don't need it if I'm keeping it at home in Natick for yet another year.  Great.

This time not ransacked, just messy 

And the question.  Oh my god the question.  You all know the question I'm talking about, the one where everyone all of a sudden becomes an expert on life after college and asks you what you plan to do the minute you graduate because 10 months from now I'm magically going to be doing exactly what I want where I want how I want.

Tomorrow's move in day followed by a week of hanging out in the city, seeing friends, meeting new students and starting to figure out how the future is going to come together.  And planning my 21st birthday party.  So here's to two semesters of working hard and playing harder.  Of developing those friendships of the we're all going to be at each other's wedding variety.  Of trying to figure out what's next and remembering that it's okay if it's not all figured out.  I'm energized.  I'm nervous.  I'm excited beyond imagination.  Let's make this year count in every way possible.

A Reflection or Two

Every moment in every day there are people around us just waiting to influence our lives, but it's not every day that we stop to let them in to allow them to do just that.  As I sit on a bus from NYC to Newton thinking of some of the people I've met this summer I realize how lucky I am to have spent time with them and to have allowed them to influence my thoughts and ideas.  Below are some bullet point reflections on my 7 weeks abroad, but I would be remiss without acknowledging those friends, family members, coffee shop and hummus store owners, who played a bigger part in my time away shaping the way I think and act and want to conduct my life than I could have ever imagined.

So here goes a thought or two...
Everyone needs a Nahum.  I am forever indebted to the friendship Nahum Binder has provided me in my time in Israel and since I met him 4 years ago.  My third day in Israel Nahum and I spent 3 hours laughing, catching up, figuring out my busses from my apartment to classes and getting school supplies from his office. When I babysat his wild and fun five year old boy he gave me the special Sara Liben rate and when I got robbed he printed out copies of all my documents to bring to the consulate and made sure I still studied for finals. My last day in Israel he came into town just to say bye, not to mention all the times he helped me with directions especially when I was computer-less and getting more lost than the average once or twice a day.  We all need someone as kind-hearted as him in our lives.

It is okay to not have your life planned out by age 20.  Or even age 21.  And it is okay to not be the most accomplished person in the world before you graduate college.  If you're also in the Ivy-League craze of everyone needs to land the best internship freshman year and start a non-profit in a third-world country by junior year, (or you know, if non-profits aren't your thing then I'm sure you have a job at Goldman or Citi by summer after sophomore year) then you will greatly benefit from what I have learned.  Our contemporaries in Israel are spending these years serving their country and are astounded by the direction that we have by age 21.  Which makes me wonder, what kind of direction do we have by age 21?  Some of us have a lot and some of us have very little.  But we have our whole lives ahead of us and it's simply okay to realize that it's not all planned out and not everything will be accomplished by graduation.  Which leads me to my next thought--

Make a list (which we all know I love to do) and don't accomplish it all.  It gives you some things to look forward to in the future-- helllo skinny dipping in Tel Aviv!

The far Left is often, if not always, as close minded as the far Right.  There is nothing that made me want to cry in class more than someone putting down my convictions without being able to listen to what I had to say because if I thought that there was a legitimacy to the Israeli army, well then I must be an awful person but of course you're not because you're a Peace and Conflict Major so you must be correct.  We need more open-minded thinking people who aren't hiding behind broad statements to be in conversation with one another.  Listening, understanding, challenging others, and challenging ourselves is the direction of the future.  Let's get there together.

Everyone has something to teach you, you just have to let them.

Even if vegetarianism is not for you, it is worth having a veggie or even vegan meal if only to explore new ways to cook with simple, accessible, and delicious ingredients.  And to make your roommate, friends, and cousins happy.

Say yes when you want to say no, otherwise you never know what that night could have been.  And it is oftentimes better than it would have been if you had said no.  It IS possible to have dinner with your friends and her parents, go out to drinks with her afterwards, see your bestfriend (Rachel here's your shout out!) in a random apartment in Nachlaot, and end up sleeping at a different friends' place all in the same night.  Just figure it out in your head and make it happen.

Some inspiring friends:

Natan, Gabe, and Rachel are friends from high school (Maimo '09) who made Aliyah and are following different paths- Gabe just finished his 3 years in the army, Natan is waiting to hear from Med School/Army programs, and Rachel is about to begin her degree at Hebrew University.

Me and Micah at a Hadag Nachash concert.  Micah just moved to Jerusalem to start The Jerusalem Youth Choir - an acapella group for Israeli and Palestinian students in Jerusalem

With Keren (also my freshman year college roommate) and Julia- my buddies in Jerusalem.  Julia was interning at IPCRI  and was my partner in fun in Jerusalem as well as in Petra, Jordan which I promise will be posted about some time....

You can do everything.  But if you always do everything you won't be able to do anything.  Take care of yourself or else you'll end up sick in your last week of Jerusalem getting 6 hours of sleep and coughing up a storm and before you know it you'll be boarding a plane for a 12 hour flight with no cough medicine.  So yes, do everything, but do it in moderation so that you don't lose time and end up doing nothing.

Try living without a computer for a few weeks.  It's not easy and it will drastically change your plans, but it's definitely eye opening to see how much you depend on the connection to the rest of the world and what you can do without it.

Accept help when it's offered.  Ask for it when it's not.  I never would have gotten through one of my weeks in Israel without the help of Aunt Shirah (Super Dodah as I called her) and friends David, Julia, Rachel, and Hody.  Whether it was driving me to the Consulate or police station, getting me out at night and my mind off of the apartment, or realizing that I've been crazy for sleeping with my wallet every night (seriously, that happened) these friends significantly helped me get through a week without parents or siblings.

Sometimes silence is the best indicator of comfort.  If you can sit in silence eating or reading or thinking next to someone and feel completely comfortable, not having to force any sort of conversation, you're in a good place.

Make friends with strangers and trust your instincts.  Your travels and stories will be infinitely better if you do.  See post 48 Hours of Tel Aviv for just an idea of some of the great characters I met on the streets of Jerusalem.  Then begin to imagine the ones met in Tel Aviv, Eilat, Petra, and more.

Don't just talk the talk but start to walk the walk.  Even if that means taking baby steps.  Wow, the people who are walking the walk, whatever their walk is, those are the inspiring people I referred to in the first paragraph.

Make time for family.  Always.

Spend time with friends at night.  We'll sleep later on buses, airplanes, or on the beach during the day.

L'hitraot, Israel.  See ya in a year or less when I start looking for an overpriced apartment in your wonderful cities.

Boker Tov, Indeed!

You know those days that you wake up and you just know... today's gonna be good.  Despite the anxiety dreams the night before, the incumbent laundry and packing, the sore throat only exacerbated by the coughing, the food to cook for the BBQ tonight... You just say to yourself, hot damn, I have two days of vacation left and I'm gonna do what I can with those two days.

I believe in the pay it forward method. So I said boker tov (good morning) to the guys emptying the dumpsters on my street as I was walking home this morning. And yes, I did just invite the guy at my favorite coffee shop (Butiko, check it out) to come and visit me in NY anytime he wants.  If my boker tov leads to aother person's boker tov which leads to someone else's tzohorayim tovim (good afternoon) then today is gonna be a good day for a lot of people.

I'm gonna go drink some tea to take care of my sore throat (don't worry, it is accompanied by ice coffee) and hop on a bus to Tel Aviv to check out some jewelry at the crafts fair (when life gives you robberies, get new jewelry, ammirite?!) Tel Aviv sun, here I come!  But not for too long, gotta be back in Jerusalem by 5pm to buy the food and cook for the bbq David and I are hosting tonightin honor of his finishing his degree in computer engineering and to say l'hitraot (see you again) because we all know I'll be back!  To those reading in Israel, enjoy the beautiful day. Those just waking up in America, boker tov and pass the energy forward across the globe!

Life is good. Life is funny. Let's do our part in acknowledging that in our day to day routines, we can do little things that can make a big difference.  Indeed, today can be, and will be, a boker tov.

(Written from my blackberry, please excuse any blatant, or not so blatant, typos).

6 Week Slump

I think I'm wearing down.  I know it seems like all I've been doing is a whole lot of staying out late and getting lost on buses, (I admit that I really did take a bus the wrong direction and ended up in Gilo, a somewhat contested area, until I finally made it back to my neighborhood an hour or so later...) but the studying, the finals, the robbery, saying bye to Jonah, and the list of friends here shortening by the day as people go back to the states and parents are visiting their children in Israel for the summer is all finally catching up to me.

I can't remember getting more than 6 hours of sleep in a while and my body feels it.  At camp (my only summer frame of reference) we refer to this at the sixth week slump.  I refer to it as my anxious about only having 6 days to get a new computer, phone, see friends and family, and move in to New York when I go home and only having 6 days to have the best week of my life in Israel when all my friends have family visiting them slump.  So besides sleeping (I'm about to go down for at least a 3 hour nap), cleaning my room, and stretching, here's my short list of things to accomplish in the next 6 days.  Friends in Israel, take a day off from your parents or an evening away from work and have some fun with me... 6 by 6 here we go (ah, if only it was 5 by 5 for all you fellow Buffy fans...)

1. Karaoke Night
2. Swing dancing
3. Get my passport from the Consulate (you laugh but it needs to happen)
4. Skinny Dipping (two birds, one stone!)
5. Go running on the Tayelet
6. Watch the sunrise in Jerusalem

(No picture due to stolen camera... it's never too soon, right?)

A different kind of Tisha B'Av/ פרצו

Every day in Israel I'm learning new words. They generally have to do with my daily life or are fun slang words that make me seem more part of the culture.  Like all new words I'm adding to my lexicon the one I learned on late Saturday night/early Sunday morning was not by looking it up but by experiencing it: פרצו- they robbed.

On Erev Tisha B'av, the night before the 9th of Av, a fast day very meaningful particularly in Jerusalem I made a schedule of things I wanted to do in Jerusalem during the day.  (Yes, I love making schedules, thanks for that, Mom).  I had finals on Tuesday so studying was a must, but I wanted to daven mincha (the afternoon service) at the Kotel, was seeking out a community at Robinson's Arch to be with, and had planned on waking up early to go to an interesting learning session at the Pardes Institute.  I have always been at camp for the fast day and I was so excited to connect on a different level in Jerusalem, going to the sites which we mourn praying side by side all types of Jews and delving into the issues Jews face every day within our community of Sinat Chinam, senseless hatred (which at camp at least is the primary focus of most older-level discussions on the day of mourning).   I was out of my apartment for 3 hours and by the time I got home my apartment was ransacked.  I walked into my apartment, saw my very neat roommate's room was a little messy, and then saw that the door to our backyard was open.  Shock and panic rushed through me as I entered my room which can best be described as hit by a tornado; clothes were thrown out of my closet on to the floor, my bed was torn apart, every single box under the bed was emptied and items from shelves were everywhere.  Keep in mind that I am sub-letting my apartment so most of the stuff gone through was not mine.  But most of the stuff stolen was.  Thank god my friend Micah had walked me home and he describes the scene as follows:

"Holy shit. Holy shit.  This is not messy because of me.  Holy shit."  I sat on my couch staring at my room and thought about everything that was ostensibly (the room was really messy, did I mention that) missing.  Computer-- shit.   Camera--shit.  American money--shit.  

He started to call the police and we suddenly heard a knock on my door- turns out the police were already there because another apartment in my building was also robbed.  I stood there staring at them and just showing them around.  My Hebrew escaped me.  My mind was racing.  I needed to call my roommate, David, who was staying at his parent's that night and tell him what happened.  

Just an idea of what my room looked like

The police look around, ask me what I can think was stolen, figure out how they broke in and give me the case number and tell me someone is coming tomorrow for fingerprints.  Try to not move anything so the investigator can see the whole scene.  Great, I'm really going to sleep easy tonight....  So Micah stays with me as I call my dad, "Do you have your passport?"  I check and see they stole my backpack with my passport in it (I went to Petra, Jordan on Thursday and hadn't yet unpacked).  More panic ensues and I start thinking of everything on my computer that was lost.  Don't bother asking, it wasn't backed up.  I start making lists on sticky notes of things to do.  If the options are fear and panic or panic into action, I choose turning panic into action.  People to call: Mom, Jonah, Maya (who I'm sub-letting from), Hebrew U (How am I going to take finals with no notes to study from)....  Things stolen: that list just kept getting bigger and I added passport and jewelry (some really really nice, expensive, and meaningful jewelry) to it.  I had my dad give me the phone numbers I needed and hung up the phone.  I told Micah he could leave, that I had many phone calls to make, and that I would be okay.  He was very hesitant to leave me alone but the police assured us I would be okay in the apartment.  I called my mom and took down many phone numbers and then resolved to try to read until I could sleep.  I was up until 4am getting in touch with the Consulate and family and finally got to sleep until 7:30 when David saw all my calls and texts, called me, and came right over.  Before 8am he was here and we started to see what they stole from him, most notably an expensive camera, his fan, and a pair of old sneakers.

My day of fasting, studying, and davening turned into a day of filing police reports (I spoke in Hebrew at the police station!), dealing with locksmiths, checking for fingerprints (they wore gloves), getting calls from almost all of my family members in Israel, and starting to clean the room.  I was an emotional mess.  Someone was walking around with my passport.  My computer.  My camera.  My jewelry.  I am so thankful that I wasn't home, that no one was hurt, that these are all material things.  But the violation of someone having your stuff- photos, papers, thoughts and ideas, identity... that is still with me.  Every hour I think of something more that was on the computer and feel that pang of hurt.  I was too scared to sleep and too tired to work.  The vicious cycle has prevented me from sleeping almost all week and I've woken up every 3 hours on the nights that I got more than 4 hours of sleep, which have been 2 since Saturday night.  I feel emotionally and physically tired like I want to be with my friends and family and go through my photos in the comfort of my bed.

Do not get me wrong.  I am extremely thankful that I am okay.  I am extremely grateful that everything is material, that I had my wallet on me, and that 3 years of things on a computer, in the greater scheme of things, is not so much.  I wrote an email to 15 of my closest friends from different walks of life telling them what happened, telling them I missed them, and hoping that wherever they were commemorating Tisha B'Av we could work towards a better place devoid of senseless hatred next year.  Almost everyone responded and the love and support I felt from abroad was unimaginable.  My friends in Jerusalem were offering anything I needed- I told them I just needed to get out a little bit.  My roommate took me to the police station and put himself in my shoes trying to help me in any way possible.  I am beyond grateful to my Aunt Shirah who went above and beyond getting me a computer from my cousin for my finals week, helping me with my appointment with the Consulate for a new passport, and constantly checking up on me.  To friend Nahum Binder who I called Sunday morning and who helped me remember things I needed to do from a practical standpoint, making sure I was still studying for finals, and printing out all of my documents my parents scanned.  To my parents for sending me tons of emails this past week and putting up with my calling them every day to check in.  For acknowledging that I was pretending to be not as scared as I was.  For emailing my aunts and uncles and asking them if I really seemed like I was actually okay.  

David and I did nothing wrong.  Our doors were locked, our shades were down, and even if my stuff was strategically hidden it would have been found by the way every single pocket of my luggage was gone through.  We're victims of senseless hatred exacerbated by the fact that people were not home because they were at synagogue, with friends, walking around the streets of Jerusalem.  The police said there's no hope of finding our stuff, even in second-hand stores, that it's all probably in the territories by now (I'm not saying this  because of stereotypes, 3 different police officers all said the same thing) so I have no hope of getting anything back.  

What next?  Everyone go back up your computers.  Then take a minute to be so grateful for your health, family, friends, lives.  I hear that getting your apartment robbed is a type of rite of passage in Jerusalem.  This is not okay.  So once you take a moment to reflect and thank whomever or whatever you thank, take action.  Teach about senseless hatred, work on a way that you can prevent it in your daily life.  You know it's funny, because before I came home that night I told my friend Micah that I have a lot of faith in the power of humanity.  I still do.  I have a lot of faith in the power of what you can do.  And all of those yous make a pretty strong we.  Next year, let us all have a better Tisha b'Av knowing that we did something, no matter how small, to make this world a better place.  

48 hours of Tel Aviv

One of my best friends from college, Mia, came to stay with me for a week in Jerusalem. Mia was in Barcelona for 7 weeks and made a pit stop in lovely Rechaviyah (the neighborhood in Jerusalem where I live) before heading back to Massachusetts. Granted I was only in Israel for a week and a half when Mia got here, I was determined to give Mia the best week of her life. You'll have to ask her if it was or not. Because I am in class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Mia toured Jerusalem during the day and at night I did homework, we went out a little, and the next morning we would go out for breakfast before repeating. Our initial plan was to go to Tel Aviv on Wednesday night and have a real Tel Aviv nightlife experience and tour on Thursday but alas we couldn't find anyone to host us for the night so we decided to experience the Jerusalem nightlife on Wednesday...not exactly sure what we were expecting but here is what we got.

**This post seems long but is just a ridiculous slew of events that is a very easy read. Also, there is no point other than to retell some of our adventures and relive some good times so don't expect any more. Also, Mia and I assure all readers, especially parents and grandparents, that we are very responsible girls who know our limits and are staying safe.**

To understand the next 48 hours, allow myself to introduce you to some of the characters:
Me- Living in Jerusalem, Hebrew is pretty good, generally translate for friends
Mia- Visiting me, can understand very basic Hebrew, attracts boys everywhere she goes
Ari and Keren- friends from school (see post Live from Jerusalem)
Adam and Nati- Our waiters at a bar in Jerusalem who don't speak English
Doran and friends- Guys who sat next to us at a bar in Jerusalem. Doran speaks minimal English, his friends speak none.
Natan, Ariel, and someone whose name I forgot- Israelis with North American parents
Julia- Friend from Jerusalem who goes to school in the states, minimal Hebrew (see post Manifest Destiny?)

Mia and I go to meet up with Keren and Ari in the center of Jerusalem at New Deli, a delicious kosher meat sandwich place where we see a bunch a friends from Columbia and Barnard. We are dressed up significantly nicer than everyone there and we explain that we were supposed to be in Tel Aviv that night and wanted to bring the Tel Aviv life to Jerusalem. Ari and Keren suggest that we go to a bar called Tel Aviv to help us get the full experience and so the four of us go with our friend Leelee who is leaving Israel that night. After a nice amount of catching up, Ari, Keren, and Leelee leave and Mia and I head over to the first bar which has seats open called Nadin. This is where Mia and I meet Nati, our very nice and cute waiter. Nati takes our orders but Adam, another waiter, comes over and begins to talk to us. Adam and I speak in Hebrew a little and assures us that he will be back to sit with us. About 10 minutes later, Adam asks us how we're doing and he's really trying to lay the moves on me. He speaks to us as if Mia doesn't exist and this is something I'm not used to when being with Mia so we're just eating it up. Adam asks us if we want shots and we politely decline but after assuring us they are free (b'emet, free!) we accept and get shots of really bad vodka. But we're in a good place and are enjoying each other's company and continue talking about all things school, family, and life. Adam asks me (not us, just me) if we enjoyed our shots, we lied and said we did, and then these two guys sitting next to us asked us if we were on brithright. No, we answered the 20-something-American men, but they continued conversing with us and the conversation was so exhilarating that I can't even remember their names and when they tried to get our numbers to hang out with us later after trying to convince us to go to Tsfat with them and their Aish-type trip, we politely declined and said that maybe we would see them around Jerusalem. We were happy to see Adam who asked if maybe I would dance with him, and I said maybe later because we were still enjoying each others company.

Me and Mia outside of Tel Aviv in Jerusalem

At this point a group of 20-something Israelis come to sit next to us and two of them turned to chat up me and Mia. We meet Doran who mostly speaks to me in Hebrew but is clearly trying to get Mia's attention. Doran has a friend whose name I also don't remember but he barely said anything... we know that some of them are in the army and other have finished so we figure that they're fun. Typical American girl response. Doran makes a toast which I translate for Mia, "To life, to drugs, to sex!" and we decide that maybe they're fun but they're not really our cup of tea. Not the typical nerdy boys I'm into, at least. After lots of translating between Mia and Doran and laughing at them thinking that I can't understand what they're saying, it's 2am and Mia and I decide we're going to call it a night. Doran looks at me as says in Hebrew, "tell her that I think she's --" So I translate and say, "Doran thinks you're, wait, what was the word? I didn't understand." "Tell her I thinks shes HOT" "Ohhhh okay... check please!"

Mia and I pay for our drinks (but not our free shots! Woohoo!) say goodbye to Adam who is sad we didn't dance with him, and head on home. But wait! We never took a picture of us at the bar and we're determined to photo-document our time together so it seemed perfect when we are approached by a red-head guy who looks at us and in Hebrew goes, "Hebrew or English?" I answer in Hebrew, "Shneihem (both)" he switches to English, "how can it be both?!" to which we proceed to make fun of him for asking us the question when he clearly speaks both. This gingy, Natan, is a riot and we enjoy meeting his friends who are "mad cool" and "super cool." After trying to get us to sit at the bar we had just left, we settle on a bench in the area we are and for about 30 minutes Natan amidst his severe ADD tries to flirt with Mia and I spend the time talking and joking with Mad Cool (whose name I forgot) and Super Cool otherwise known as Ariel. The three of us are having a great time cracking jokes and just chilling when at some point Natan puts his number into Mia's phone and we say we're going to walk home, after all, we are going to real Tel Aviv tomorrow! Natan, who is driving Ariel back to his home outside of Jerusalem (that seems to be the only reason Ariel was there- his mom is catching a flight to America in the morning and he needs to give her something... he swears that it's not a curfew despite our insisting that as a 21-year old he has a curfew). Natan offers us a ride to which I reply, "Yeah, okay, and when you show up at my apartment tomorrow looking for Mia we're going to have ba'ayot (problems)" and just to make sure he gets the point I add, "And my shutaf (roommate) is really big." (He's not). So no ride, but we'll see each other tomorrow and Mia and Natan have exchanged numbers. After parting ways we call them back to make them take a picture of us because as we explained that's why we were talking to them in the first place. Successful night complete with pictures and it's time to put this story on hold for a little....

Me and Mia on our way home from TA in Jtown

Mia and I head out to Tel Aviv with three things in mind- we want to go to the Palmach Museum (my favorite), we want to go to Shuk Hakarmel, and we want to go to the beach. We plan nothing and bring no map. And remember how good I am at getting lost? Looking back on it, I have no idea what we were thinking. After getting into Tel Aviv we somehow manage to go in the right direction and then finally find the right bus (with help from cousin Michal who we called after realizing that we just didn't know what stop to get off at) and when we got to the museum we were told because we didn't have a reservation they would "try to fit us in, but we could wait in the cafeteria for an hour or so." Oooookay. Let's clarify, the cafeteria was more like a shack outside and its safe to say that we didn't buy any food. Finally we got on a tour and as expected it was incredible. There's nothing to reinforce your Zionism like learning about the people who fought for the very existence of the State of Israel while being attacked from the inside and the out after having come to the land from the Holocaust. Not to mention all things that have to do with fighting affect me differently now that Jonah is a soldier in the IDF. But I digress, this is supposed to be a post about our 48 hours spent in real and imagined Tel Aviv. When we left the museum we asked someone at the front desk for directions (how smart and unlike us) to Shuk Hakarmel and low and behold I recognized the woman sitting there! She was a counselor in my age group at camp 7 years ago, or as she so adequately put it, "oh, you were one of those effing brats." Again, oooookay. Campers, if you read my blog or made it this far in my post, let it be known that I love you dearly and when you are 20 if we're still in touch (we will be) I will never describe you that way cause I even love when you're bratty. So we make it successfully back to Jerusalem (while exploring the Tel Aviv buses) and after meeting up with Julia head out to town again at about ten to 12.

Me at the Palmach Museum.  Talia- check out my dress!  I'm listening to your advice!

Thursday night in Jerusalem is much more hoppin than Wednesday night but we finally found a place to sit- 21 up but the waiter didn't seem to care "just this time." Julia, Mia, and I chatted for over an hour and then we (Mia) decided to check in to see where Natan was. As expected, he was in the same part of town that we were last night (no, definitely not waiting for us and definitely not because we said we'd be back) and we headed over. He and Mia headed inside to get drinks and I heard someone call "Sara!" and saw our friend from last night, Adam! I was SO excited to see our friendly flirtatious waiter when he asked me what I was doing here I responded jokingly in Hebrew, "we wanted to visit you! More free shots, right?!" He didn't think it was so funny but he told me to sit down and I said I would once I got a drink. I told Mia and we were so excited to sit with him until she comes out asking me where he is, I point to him, and she goes, "no Sara! That's Doran!" Woops. My bad. We definitely did not want to sit with him. And that explains why he didn't think my joke was so funny..... After sitting down with Natan and meeting some of his friends, Julia got to talking to one of them and Ariel met up with us and we started talking as well. Julia and the guy she was talking to were having difficulty with the language barrier, and every 5 sentences or so Ariel or myself were helping with the translations at which point I hear someone else call "Sara!" This time it WAS Adam and Mia and I, once again, were very excited to see him. So we talked for about 5 minutes until he went back to his friends, Mia and Natan went to "look for some food" which is definitely not a euphemism for take a walk and make out, and the four of us remained chatting at the table waiting for the check. At the same time we realized it was 4am, we also realized that they were charging us extra for "security" which is definitely a euphemism for just sitting at an outside table. Julia picks that exact instant to remember that she has to wake up at 9am and starts getting real mad at the amount she has to pay but we resolve the situation and head out trying to find Mia and Natan. Natan and Ariel are of course very hungry and so we stop for food, dance in the streets a little, and finally after a few more detours make it home to the sounds of the birds chirping at 5am.

Julia, Myself, Natan, Mia, and Ariel after they stopped for food

Me dancing in the streets late at night

A post wouldn't be a post without some politics thrown in so allow me to add (if you've made it this far then you deserve it anyway) a part of the story that I originally left out. The second night when we saw Adam (this time for real) and he came to say hi, as he left one of the boys we were with said in Hebrew, "oh, of course the American girls like the Arab guys." I am very confused and ask Ariel and Natan about their comment. They explain to me that guys like Adam hang out in this area to try to pick up American tourists because they know that Israeli girls won't date them and that they have friends who have been taken advantage of by "guys like these." I challenge them, saying that despite Adam's flirting he was just our waiter the other night, we had no intention of going home with him (or allowing him to go home with us, after all, did we not just tell Ariel and Natan the other night that they couldn't drive us home), and that if they were in some country and they saw their waiter from the night before, wouldn't they be excited to see him/her? We agreed to disagree and Adam came back for a few minutes to speak to me and Mia and the guys we were with didn't go out of their way to be friendly. Adam then recognized Natan and, in hebrew, told me "I think I got into a bar fight with that guy once." Oh. That could definitely shed some light on these guys' attitudes. But they laughed about it, shook hands, at least pretended to make up.

So there it is, folks. Mia and I had quite a fun time in the Jerusalem nightlife (and a little Tel Aviv), participated in some shtuyot (nonsense), and found that no matter how much you preface a blog post by insisting that there is no point other than to retell and remember good times, you always end up with a lesson. Ours was that the conflict is all around us. Who knows if Adam, if that even is his real name or just his Jerusalem-bartending-name, has spent a single second thinking about that night, but when I woke up the next morning (to babysit on 3 hours of sleep, it was lovely) I couldn't get the exchange out of my head. Ariel and Natan live in a reality that's just different than mine. My waiter was nothing more than friendly and flirtatious, to them he was deceptive (did he tell us where he lives? Did we even bother to ask? Does it even matter?) and creepy. Of course I believe that they have friends who have been taken advantage of by Arab waiters. But I bet that they have friends who have been taken advantage of by Jewish waiters too. And I certainly have friends who have been taken advantage of by frat guys in NYC. There are people like that everywhere, so why are we generalizing, stereotyping, and preventing ourselves from having a good time?

We're safe and we laughed all night long- ultimately that's all that matters. For now. Later, we'll have to delve in to the realities that people are faced with here, and maybe even try to throw out some suggestions on how to make things better. Until then, I'm down for more fun nights in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and beyond.

If you made it this far, I'll send you a postcard.