Elf Yourself

I had a beautiful Christmas in the Holy Land.

I kicked everything off a day early with an impromptu visit to

 Tel Aviv to see Batsheva's Project 5.

It was incredible!!!

It was just what I need after a long week of rehearsals and people. The dancers of Batsheva are unlike any I've seen elsewhere. I'm so glad we saw the male cast. They flew through the air like an eagle and absorbed the floor like soil does water. My jaw literally dropped. We were in the balcony with the other company members so I did my best to get the gossip of the piece from them during the intermission.
I feel so inspired after seeing them.

I am excited to get into KCDC Rep in kick some ass of my own.

Hali, Megan, and I made it from rehearsal, showered, and got to the train station in 45 mins. Very impressive. We had a funny cab driver that spoke very little English but told us he loved our music. Elvis Presley was his favorite and we listed to the oldies the whole ride.
Why can't cabs in America listen to Elvis?

We had nice lite dinner and coffee at the corner cafe before the show and after indulged in our first real ice cream since coming here.

We haled a cab and had ANOTHER pleasant ride with a driver who happened to know all about dance and was friends with dancers in Batsheva. Small world:)

Christmas Eve I went into Nahariyya to shop for food, go to the beach (yes it was wonderful) and finish the trip off with sushi...a lot of sushi. We came back to the kibbutz and had Shabbat, Christmas dinner (hopefully we didn't offend anyone) and we watch The Holiday. 

Christmas morning I woke up to Chali's shining face and we got ready to our Christmas tunes in time to go to rehearsal. We had a mid day brunch which was delicious. There are so many talented chefs here! I love getting a taste of everyone’s favorite dishes from their home countries.

Hali and I did some laundry as usual. Can't avoid the hand washing for too long.

I got to skype the family as they started opening presents. It was a little weird but I am so glad I got to see them.

 Ended things with a nice walk around the kibbutz where I let out a massive amount of energy that I got from this weekend.

This Christmas discovery was the Office Max "Elf yourself" web site. Hali and I found it this morning and spent a solid two hours Elfing our friends. My facebook wall has a nice video of Hali and I rockn' to our Christmas tunes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should definitely sneak a peak at it;)

It was such a relaxing and rejuvenating weekend. Nowhere to be, no one to impress. I loved it. It was very touching to be in place that doesn't celebrate Christmas. Especially to be away from the commercial side of Christmas. I think this has been one of my favorite Christmases. I really got to remember what Christmas means to me and hold that close to my heart instead of "seeing" it all around me.

I miss all my friends and family so much but its wonderful to be loving where I am so much. How about everyone move to Israel with me??!!

Internet Connect...No Guarantee

I guess a down side to living in a desert AND on a kibbutz is

the internet connection can SUCK!!!

I have given up all together trying to watch TV shows online. It can take an entire day to download one, then lovely Megavideo tells you, you've watched 72 mins and to come back in 54 mins, when really its been 17 mins.

On a GOOD day, skype only has a six second delay--Bad day...lets shout a whopping 15 seconds. The person I'm talking to can be on a whole new topic by the time they hear my response to the first topic. AND they get to watch me stare at them as they wait to hear what I said.

When there's not a delay, skype drop the calls all together.

I finally got to talk to my best friend Stacy via skype and

you know what I heard...?

"Hello?"

Yup. That's it.

Upside to this.

Hali and I have an excuse to raise our voices and

 shout non-sensical (yes, that's a word) phrases.

Instead of talking to loved ones at home,

we've perfected the art of serenading each other.

Constantly.

In loud, off key tunes.

I am keeping up on my international affairs thanks to

CNN and the wicked slow loading rate. 

By the time the next page has loaded,

I'm done reading the first article.

So one day I would love to have a skype conversation with no delay, dropped call, or freezes. This day might need to come after I leave Israel.

Camille The Camel+2 Chalis=The Negev Desert

I had an amazing 3 days in the Negev Desert. It was perfect weather to be hiking. It had just rained the day before so all of Israel had cooled down. We stayed in Nitzana village which is 4 kilometers from Egypt.

The first night we were there we went to some sand dunes with another MASA group. It was a group of Russian boys who spoke close to no English. Normally it would have been a hayday for us. 22 girls, 20 boys...you do the math, but the language barrier was a bit of a challenge. I think one offered to rub my back after I'd been making our dinner, but all I know for sure is he wanted me to lie down in the sand. hahaha.

We looked for tracks in the desert and played on the sand dunes.

I do think sand surfing is better then snow sledding.

We made our own dinner in the sand, and by "made" I mean I chopped veggies and the guides cooked. It was delicious. We got back to our rooms with half of the Negev in our nooks and crannies and went to bed nice and dirty from our sand adventure.

I woke up bright and early the next day to go see David Ben-Gurion's (the first Prime Minister of Israel) home and grave.

Outside of Ben-Gurion's home

Living room

Bedroom

Dabbled in a little wine tasting while waiting for the bus

Went to the beautiful place were David Ben-Gurion and his wife are buried

Not to shabby eh? This is the view from his grave.

This was our first challenge of the five hour hike. We played Red Light, Green Light all the way to the top.

This is our ever lovely "man with gun". The pattern seems to be he comes with us when we go close to the borders...they tell us he is in case of animals. haha unless the desert mice are going attack, I don't know what good he is. He is also our "first aid". I use that term loosely because a girl got a nasty blister from a burn and he took his ever so dirty nails and popped it for her. (Heebie Jeebie moment)

The hike was beautiful. We went around Ramon Crater--it'g gigantic 

It was a climb for sure.

The last hour we were in a dry river bed

It was a spendid hike and the weather was perfect. We were so lucky.

Now,

Say hello to Camille, my new mode of transportation around Israel.

I had a blast crossing one of my "To Do" things off my list.
Camille is so well behaved and took to the Chalis instantly.
 I am a tich sore from riding Camille but it was all worth it. One of the best parts was when the camels kneel down to let you off.
Everyones faces are priceless.

Look carefully at each face:)

Note the face of the girl who's camel is already on the ground. hahaha!

After our early morning stroll, we headed to the Dead Sea. We were lucky again, because it was suppose to be the first rain of the season and we got sunshine and bikinis.

We covered ourselves in the glorious mud in the water and my skin has never felt softer. The water is so warm and of course, salty. By the end my va jj was a-burn'n and my skin felt like it was sunburned from all the salt. I thought I would enjoy the salty feeling the whole way home, but turns out one hour into the four hour drive, my skin hurt so badly. I thought it was burning wholes in my body. After my shower, my skin is even more radiant then the others (or this is what I am telling myself)

It was an excellent way to celebrate Chanukka.

Happy Chanukka!!!

Fires in Northern Israel

 The wildfire in Haifa has been the worst Israel has ever had. It burned more than 10,000 acres and killed over 40 people. I no longer know how it started.

They have changed their minds so many times as to the cause.

 It doesn't matter though.

 When we went into Akko this weekend

and the mushroom cloud of smoke was awful.

To top it off, we had the worst winds we've had since I got here.

It has constantly been shifting,

making it impossible for the firefighters to contain it.

Israel had a huge wakeup call this weekend, and I've heard more than one Israeli say they are embarrassed that

 Israel doesn't know how to handle the fires.

Their army is one of the best in the in the world,

but when the fires broke out,

they literally did not know what to do.

My director came in today and told us a little bit about what she had experienced this weekend. Her home is in an area that was endangered by the blazes and spent the weekend packing "the essentials",

being ready to leave as soon as the winds shift.

She shared with us that although this was a scary time, she was torn with the thought of being grateful the wind did not push the fire towards her, and knowing that it meant it was taking others homes.

 This is a trait I feel so strongly in Israel.

"All Are One"

.

A good thing I believe has come out of this; in Israel’s distress, countries that were not necessarily "friends" came to our aid. I hope Israel and others see this as a step forward. It would have been a perfect opportunity for some of the surrounding countries to let Israel burn (literally) and they didn't. Their assistance is immeasurable and the fires would still be burning full force if not for their kindness.  

 My friends and I are planning on volunteering to replant the trees lost in the fire and as our neighbors say, "Do a little dance of luck" for them.

Western Galilee Hospital Mural

 

Today was definitely my favorite volunteer project at the

 Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariyya.

When we got there, we met with some of the staff who told us a little bit about the hospital. It was cool to hear about how the hospital handles crisis, because they definitely have had a couple in Israel.

The hospital is SIX miles from the northern borders. This means that during the Lebanon War in 2006 and many attacks before that, this hospital literally had bombs falling around and on them. This hospital is the only in the world that has an underground hospital ready and waiting in case of an attack. In 2006 it took them an hour and a half to get every patient admitted, downstairs and into the safety. That's pretty damn good. The lower level is obviously a bomb shelter so it has blast proof doors, thick walls, and an air filtration system that can even handle a biological attack. There are connecting tunnels between the MANY underground wings, which ambulances can drive through. This allows the doctors to travel from wing to wing without having to go outside.

One of the wings underground

 

 Every employee at the hospital knows what to do if they are hit with mass casualty. They do drills often with the police and army which includes traffic control, civilian look out, getting the injured into the shelter, and knowing exactly where
 every single person should be in the hospital.

It’s hard to get the importance of this underground sanctuary through without you seeing from my bedroom window how close the hills of Lebanon are. It reminds me of when I went to Ground Zero and stood looking at where the Trade Towers use to stand, imagining what it was like for the people who were there on 9/11. It has a similar feeling here. Seeing how close we are and imagining what it would have felt like to be standing in my room, seeing rockets landing all around me.

Because of this, I was thrilled when they told us we would be doing a mural in the tunnel that leads from the Pediatric wing up stairs,
 into the shelter.

A famous children’s illustrator who pasted away recently, lived on our kibbutz his whole life. We had the opportunity to go to his house, speak with his wife, and hear their life story. His name is Shemuel Katz. He has literally painted thousands of pieces and has seen the world and made peace because of them. We decided to draw inspiration from his work and dedicate this to him also. We made huge stencils (of his easier works--remember, we are dancers) and started our mural with some of his work. I couldn't find the exact picture we used but here is some of his work.

He has dozens of books with his illustrations

And even more stunning paintings of Israel

Ours was a close second in likeness to his ;)

But I think the children will like it

The tunnel we painted was very long and has a variety of

paintings from all of us.

These are just a couple of the pictures

I pray that no one will ever have the reason to see these paintings, but if they do, I love knowing that our service and love will be there in a dark hour.