Not because there's a problem, but the computer lab in my friend's dorm is in the bomb shelter of the dorm. The safest wireless internet anywhere.
My birthright trip was finished on Thursday, and my volunteer program starts on Sunday, so I'm killing time with Greg from GSU at his dorm in Tel Aviv. Sadly, the University is pretty far away from downtown, so I'm pretty isolated. Plus it's Shabbat, and all the public transportation is shut down. It's pretty awkward, since I barely know Greg, and I'm really awkward, but like he said, it's nice to see a familiar face.
Tomorrow morning, I leave early in the morning to make my way over to Jerusalem where I'll be volunteering until the following Tuesday. I'm excited about having time to myself, since that hasn't happened in a long time, and I'm such a super introvert. I say this, but I'll probably wind up with 2 or 3 roommates in Jerusalem.
I'm not 100% sure how to get there from here, but the Livnot woman said that I shouldn't try to bring my luggage all to Jerusalem on Sunday morning, since there will be so many people there. I hope that my friend will be able to pick me up from Jerusalem when my program is done, so that I don't have to mess with it again. I'm anxious to get to Haifa and get settled in. I feel like a tool, since I can't even buy bread in Hebrew.
The Birthright trip was surreal. There was another girl who converted (in the same mikvah as me, three days later). She was really open about her conversion, and tending to say "but Sara converted too, it's not so strange" whenever it came up. As if "Sara too" ever meant "not strange". Of course then everyone wanted to know why I converted. First of all, there's no simple, real reason that I can make a soundbite from. Secon of all, why should I tell you? If I decide to share this information, super. Let's talk, and I did share it with 3 or 4 people. But mostly, Meg outed me, and pepole would just ask me "why did you convert". It sucked.
Somedays were worse than others, and thankfully the questions stopped after 4 or 5 days. It was really hard to feel like I belonged in Israel, with everyone constantly reminding me that I wasn't quite one of them. The day we went to the Western Wall, lots of people were asking the question, and there I was looking at the Wall, trying to convince myself that it was mine too. It was hard for me, but I think the next time I go there it will be a more moving experience (plus, I can bring my English friendly prayerbook, since I only saw Hebrew ones there).
The day after the Western Wall, we did a tour of the excavation at the Southern Wall. It was the coolest thing I saw, I think. They have a interactive computer model of what the Temple looked like, and the guide was really good. He shared a lot of knowledge with us, and the computer model, while it couldn't possibly show the magnitude of the Temple, did a good job of giving us an idea. (BTW guess who answered all his questions, except the Tisha B'Av one...I said the wrong day, but I knew the answer, it just came out wrong). Then we went outside and walked around the Southern Wall. It was really, really cool.
There were a lot of very ignorant people on our trip, and the DC trip tended to be on the same schedule as us, and it felt weird explaining things to them. Repeatedly. Some of the people who knew I (and Meg) converted would say things like "you're probably more Jewish than me, and lots of the pepole on the trip". That was odd and my answer wasn't what I wanted it to be. Basically, yeah I know a lot of information and stuff, but you've lived being Jewish your whole life. It's not the same. Knowing isn't experiencing, and experiencing is more important.
I would have to pull out my itinerary to give more details about the trip. It was incredible, if you can go, go. It was hard for me, since I wasn't 100% health-wise and was feeling like an outsider for much of the trip. I was the oldest one on the trip, except for one of the guides, and it definately showed in my lack of desire to stay up all night drinking, and sleep on the bus. I saw a lot of cool stuff from the window of the bus, and am glad I didn't sleep there.
Anyways, this is more than enough for now. My tummy is oh so very rumbly. Hopefully Greg is awake and I can rustle about his room for food. Oh, after 10 days of eating the same thing, this is what I bought when I went to the supermarket: bread, hummus, olives, ice cream. The Israelis now own my digestive system.
Stories for next time: I fell off the camel, guy in Tzfat, conversations about Al-Aqsa after Southern Wall, the MEGA event cheesiness...etc.
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3 comments:
This is what troubles me - those ignorant Jewish American kids on the birthdright trip who will probably go back to the U.S. as ignorant as when they came. I mean what is your general feeling on this - how political is the information given by the birthright program? Does it put everything in an "us vs. them" format?
No, they definately learned a lot. There's not much politics, although we talked about the stuff happening in Gaza. Plus, we were at a kibbutz in Kiryat Shmone the first 2 nights of our trip. About 4 days later, a rocket hit it...so that was scary. Not much us vs. them, really. Although there was some anti-Arab comments from the volunteer people today. So that was awkward, me with loving of Arabs, and then that. But they were saying some inappropriate things about other groups too...so yeah, not really my people.
It's a bummer that you sort of felt like you didn't belong there in Israel--when people kept asking you why you converted--I would have felt the same way. But I bet by the end of the summer you'll feel like you belong there and then whenever you go back you'll feel like you're going home :-).
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