Time Has Flown

Time is flying!

In six weeks I will be leaving Israel and starting

my journey back to the States.

These last few weeks have been long days but the weeks are flying by. Rehearsals have been crazy with our student show coming up in 10 days. My schedule has consisted of rehearsals before our 9:30 class, costume and clothing orders during lunch hour, and 4-5 hours of rehearsals after classes are done for the day. I love being busy and the tiredness that comes each night when I give myself permission to come down off the all day adrenaline rush. In this crazy schedule though, I have neglected to stay in communication with a lot of my friends and family. As I say in Hebrew, Sleekha! (My skills are mad crazy, I know)

In the last few weeks we have had Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day, and Independence Day. Being here for Memorial Day really opened my eyes and heart. I could go on for a long while, but am getting ready to go back to rehearsal and this will never get up if I don't do it now. I will always remember this day and have learned so much from observing it here in Israel

Independence Day was the very next day, which was a huge shift and a little weird I think, but I spent the day at a Israeli style BBQ at Roni's house. I ate way to much (American style) played with her kids, and had a lovely day with friends.

I spent a weekend in Tel Aviv where we rode a bus to the boonies on accident, saw a great show, ate Indian food, walked in the rain, sat in a cafe for hours, shopped at the shuk, went with friends to get things pierced, slept in a not so great hostel, and haggled (in Hebrew) our way back to the kibbutz via bus/car. Good weekend.

My barber parlor is back in business. We got hair cutting scissors and the list of clients is long. The other day included 3 haircuts and 2 waxes. I really should be charging for this service. I could make a butt load;) I really want to do something to my own hair... I got the itch.

All in all, everything is going great, and I am soaking up my last weeks in Israel just in time for summer. (Got some nice sun time in this friday and I'll cherish it)

I've done my best to make my scattered thoughts make sense to more then just Stacylyn, who is an expert at deciphering my crazy emails, but in the now...8 mins I have taken to write this, you get what you get.

Six Weeks Left!

Pesach

I guess in this case, it's better late than never...

Happy Pesach!! Two weeks ago! If you’re Jewish!

Pesach, "Passover" in English, celebrates Moses freeing the slaves from Egypt and their journey to the promise land.

We had Monday and Tuesday off then the following Friday-Monday. Let me start out by saying it sucks that we can only go places on Shabbat (when the country pretty much shuts down) and on holidays. (when the country pretty much shuts down) So, we took a day trip to Akko, which is a old Arab town on the coast. We walked around, window shopped, partook in the Shuk, and ate hummus with mushrooms and 'hummus with hummus' ('hummus with hummus' is how they explained we could order plain hummus. Love Israeli English. Similar, but not as cute, as my American Hebrew.

I experienced my first Seder with a host family on the kibbutz. I didn't know what to expect and I have to say I loved my first Seder. Everyone took turns reading out of the Haggadot (stories and blessing special to Pesach) It felt like no one was listening but everyone would shout 'amen'! and pour another glass of wine. All of the family took turns explaining what was going on and made jokes the whole time. As always the food was epic and never ending. By the end of dinner the family was telling me the benefits of dating a man who has been circumcised. I was dying of laughter. I told them that most men are circumcised in the states and not to worry. It then led into what kind of Jewish man I should marry so I can stay in Israel. We aren't picky: Jewish, doctor (preferably plastic surgeon to work on my host family's grandma;) her words not mine, 'McDreamy' status, non religious, non kibbutznik, Israeli AND American humor. (good luck with that) As you can see, men like this are everywhere, so if I don't come home, it's because my host family is pimp'n me out. Dinner lasted four hours and I stayed and talked for a fifth. It was my favorite holiday so far.

Side note:

I have had my first set of allergies this spring (this will come full circle, back to Pesach in a second) Hali and I have been DYING in our room! A tree is pollinating right outside our window and makes both of us a sneezing, dripping, itchy MESS!!! After dinner at my host family's, I walked in my room and in about .5 seconds my eyes were so swollen I could barely see. In retrospect, if Roni had seen me, she probably would have taken me to the hospital. I walked outside and grabbed two cucumbers from my neighbor, and stood with them on my eyes for half an hour. The swelling went down, and after one long night, my eyes were back to their normal, red, itchy, allergic selves. It's been a fun few weeks in the Chali house hold.

We decided to rent a car for the four days we had off and see some things we hadn't seen. We started with a trip to a artist colony called Zefat. It is one of the four cities in Israel that is considered holy by the Jewish. It was so beautiful. All made of cobble stones, alley ways, art galleries around every corner.  We beat the rain and only got a little wet as we walking to our car.


Our "student midget" car



Singing to the Hebrew radio




Entrance to Zefat

Northern Israel is so beautiful and lush this time of year. We drove past the Sea of Galilee on our way to Nazareth.

Let me tell ya folks, there ain't a lot to see in Nazareth. We thought it would be like Jerusalem, full of ruins, churches, and history...Not so. It looked like a ghetto. Nothing was kept up on, the signs were horrible, and very few sites to see. After driving in circles looking for the churches, we decided to pursue on foot and shortly realized we were going to get nowhere this way. We finally found a pack of tourist and followed them in our tiny car. We tried to park several times in an alley way that was only inches wider then our car with no luck. After maneuvering around a parked car in the middle of the road, we turn a corner and end up in the middle of Shuk. Literally. We start hysterically laughing as a man comes running at us waving his arms. I had to get out of the car and direct as Marissa did a 72 point turn in the alley way. She rocked! We decided to get out of Nazareth as fast as we could. We saw one Greek Orthodox Church, snapped a picture and tried to avoid the senior citizens as we maneuvered our way out.

We stopped in Nahariyya for a lovely dinner at our favorite restaurant, Penguin, and spent the rest of the night enjoying dinner and each other. I'll say so I remember in years to come, several secrets came out this night and waiter witnessed one well timed "why didn't you tell me?!" slap. Priceless.

It rained the next day so our plans for hiking and a possible rafting excursion was cancelled but we got some great food shopping done, and sight-seeing trip to Rosh Hanikra. It's a cliff on the border of Lebanon that was drilled into during World War II for the potential transport of goods, and people into Europe. Now, it's beautiful caves and wild-ish life surrounding them. We finished off the night with a sushi rolling session, and ate wonderful meal all together.

Sushi night

 

The rest of the weekend was chill with sun bathing, beach, and rehearsals. I realized that I will have celebrated every Jewish holiday in Israel by the time I leave. Pretty cool:)

Holocaust Memorial Ceremony

I had the amazing honor of dancing at the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony in Israel this year. We performed a piece from Aide Memoire, the piece Rami Beer choreographed around the Holocaust. The day started out with a siren going off throughout Israel for 3 minutes, signaling a moment of silence. Everyone stops, gets out of cars, and observes silence: One of the most moving things to witness.

Now, this performance has gone down as the most memorable and unpredictable performances of my life.

To start with, the stage was so big, we had to practice on a tennis court. To add some excitement to the already mentally and physically fatiguing dance, there were statues all over the stage that were bigger than me, a cat walk that was 6 inches raised from the stage that zigzagged back and forth like a Pac Man. We knew in advance, so we taped off the tennis court and practiced, in the rain, to make sure we would be able to do it. We had a surprise when we got to the outdoor ampatheater and found out the stage was made of COBBLE STONE. Yes, we wore our tennis shoes with lovely white socks over them.

Best Costume Award.

 We got on stage for dress rehearsal and the cat walk was in a different design then what they had sent us. Even though our director checked the day before for any changes, it was different. We got on stage and pretty much re-did everything we had done. We were there for 5 hours with our restaging, and their unorganization. They tried to do crazy things like have a singer walk down the stage while 28 of us were spinning and kicking our legs in the little space we had. Mika, quickly vetoed that idea and we moved on. We also thought for a moment the 6 TORCHES would be lit while we were dancing, putting the all of the beautiful, long, curly hair in danger of catching fire.

Thank goodness we avoided that.

The next day we arrive one hour before the performance to find that another statue has been added to the stage, and the cat walk was in a different configuration. We weren't allowed to get on stage, so everyone just stands on the sides and 'plans' what is going to happen. Mean while, 50 high schoolers have discovered we are foreign and start taking pictures with us like we are 'Brad and Angelina'. Mika had to yell at them and "yalla bye'. There was no place to change so we took turns holding up a tarp and changing.

We all got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

It's our turn to go on stage and the music starts 12 counts later then it should. Everyone was amazing and pulled together. Go Masa!

Half way through a man appears on stage.

 I guarantee both parties did not know about the other, because you see how confused he looks. He stood in my spot the whole time, and at one point, there is a close up of him speaking and I am circling him. He kept flinching away from me and giving us all 'the eye'.

 

I know I just spent an a long time talking about all that went wrong, but if they asked me to do it again exactly as it was, I wouldn't hesitate one bit in saying yes. It was such a touching experience and I'm so honored I got to participate. Everyone one amazing and pulled together to get it done. Literally through rain and shine, rough roads, and blocks in our path, we did it and it turned out beautiful.