Today is officially the first day of Fall, and with the changing of seasons has come the end (finally) of orientation. We had a week orientation to the entire program as well as another week of orientation to kibbutz, and by this point I'd say I'm pretty well oriented... almost too oriented.
After the long Rosh Hashanah weekend, our first official week of Boneh (the component of the program which we spend on kibbutz) started today with a peula about Jewish identity and unity, and then we chose our avodot (see glossary). The avodot range from taking care of the horses on the kibbutz, to working in the Dairy making cheese, to working in the kibbutz's cable factory, to folding laundry. I'll be working in the nursery with three and four-year-olds, which I'm both excited about and terrified of. While the babies won't judge my mediocre Hebrew-speaking abilities, they themselves tend to talk really fast, quietly, and mumble. But I'm hoping that this will help my Hebrew out a lot since I probably speak at the same (or lower) level as them anyways.
But before I get ahead of myself, we still have an entire weekend to discuss. This was the first free weekend on Workshop, and since it was also Rosh Hashanah, we had a three-day weekend and lots of people traveled to visit family and friends for the holiday. Only about 20 of us stayed on the kibbutz, myself included, and Tali (who's sitting next to me right now) feels it important to mention that she was only there on Thursday.
On Saturday I took a day-trip to Taveria with friends of my grandparents who live in Tel Aviv. I had never met Malli and Avram before, but Avram had contacted me about a week before and said that he had wanted to meet me. We made plans to go to Taveria (a city in northern Israel, on the edge of the Kinneret) on Saturday to meet some of their friends.
Malli and Avram came to pick me up at about 11:30 am on Saturday and we made the 20-minute trip (which is normally closer to a half hour or more, but when you drive like an Israeli...) to Taveria. We went to a small hotel in Taveria right on the edge of Kinneret, and there I met Malli and Avram's friends, as well as their friends' kids and grandkids and cousins... around 40-50 people in total. We swam in the Kinneret in the morning, had a big lunch, and then swam some more. We had tea and coffee around 4 pm, after which Malli, Avram, and I departed to head back to my kibbutz. Not only was the day extra relaxing and a nice change of pace from hanging out with a bunch of 18-year-olds, but being around only Hebrew-speakers for a change did so much for my listening comprehension. In addition, I had the opportunity over tea and coffee to listen to a few Israelis and an American-turned-Israeli debate a range of topics from Obama to 9/11 to the solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Though I've heard those kinds of debates happen before, it was so interesting to hear it happen in Israel.
The rest of the weekend was comprised mostly of playing speed-scrabble, going to the pool, and watching Glee. Except all halted on Sunday night when it began to rain (apparently that happens in Israel). I was sitting outside on the porch talking to my sister on the phone and lamenting the Steelers' loss to the Bears, when it started to drizzle. No sooner had I mentioned it to my sister than 15 people came rushing out of the house and into the rain,the which suddenly escalated to a full-on torrential downpour. Everyone retreated inside, except for those from the Pacific Northwest (i.e. just me and Leya), and we ran around in the rain for a little while.
Now we're just killing time before dinner, which, judging from the rest of the meals here on kibbutz, should be pretty delicious... Looks like an intense round of speed-scrabble is about to start. Bye guys, until next time.
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