Sukkot Break

Chag Samech everyone (i still am not 100% on what that means, but i bet by the end of my tour here i will)

well now what is sukkot, i certainly had no idea, so i wikipedia'd it for all of us

well turns out they went quite a bit more in depth than i had hoped for, so i kind of skimmed - what i do now know is that the word tabernacle is applicable to this 7 or 8 day holiday, that im supposed to eat all of my food in a sukkah and something about a funny little citrus fruit called an etrog (which i had thought was just some sort of israeli lime that they ate all the time, i was wrong and apparently you cant just find them in the shuk...whatever) very jewish menz studying the etrog...i, of course, have no idea why they would do this

anywho so as far as my break was concerned some friendies of mine and i went down to tel aviv to start off the good times. lauren and i found someway to blow money on ridiculous things, like our hostel room for $72 a night (not A PIECE, sheesh but still right, its a fucking hostel) whatever it had AC, its own bathroom and a tv - all legit luxuries, or perhaps being swindled into spending $50 on goodies at the Midnight Grocery and More - a store that admitedly sells crackpipes, this included an unmarked bottle of 2005 Gamla chardonnay (luckily lauren knows the good growing seasons so we NEEDED this particular bottle), 172 sheckel later it seemed like less of a good idea...especially when we let that bad boy oxidate for approximately 3 days in the hostel (after our tour at the winery later on in the week i learned this was a bad idea, however i think i might have already known that through common sense). it turns out niether lauren nor i should be trusted when it comes to making decisions concerning money, and it only took 2 days to figure that out - anyways so tel aviv is a bit of a blur, but what i do know is that it consisted of a lot of beaching on the MED, relaxing in the AC, purchasing stoli gold (like that shit is real, thanks eric yet again a bartender lets me down), daynas midnight rape and not necessarily consensual (just kidding) nap on the prison cot, watching communist chinese television (remember to do your studies so we can catch up with the united states, japan and europe), all of the poor food decisions lauren is capable of making (many of which are fairly obvious, but youve just gotta let your friends figure things out for themselves - thats how they learn), a wonderful meal that nicole and leore put together at a surprisingly delectable sushi restaraunt, oh then came the clubbing of course, which im not sure if youve heard but tel aviv works it the fuck out. im pretty sure we all found somewhere we really enjoyed - the port is always fun but thats closing down now that sukkot is over, so no more beachside bashes, but other places like Breakfast Club are alive and well...you know a place that doesnt even open until 2 is relatively worthwhile - they also play some amazing trance, however ive found that everywhere here plays better music than anywhere in america (no offense) (this is also based off of my extremely limited clubbing experiences in the US of A, so really no offense). that ended with us seeing the sunrise for like the third night in a row (or so i heard). i also managed to find a store that sold these cute little biddies i obviously bought them.

well from tel aviv we headed north to tiberias for one night before we started our four day sea to sea, aka yom le yom, hike (galilee to med), we only made it one day, obviously not all the way - it was in everyway disasterous, we ran out of water, we were scaling rock face 13 hours into the hike, dying in the hot sun all before we turned around and of course some how i was the one that planned this hike, so that looks pretty good on me - lets not talk about it, if it matters two people did finish (the fact that they are both eagle scouts is unimportant). well after that we cabbed into tzfat, one of the four holy cities in israel - this one symbolizing the air element (it being in the mountians and the closest to heaven). tzfat is also the birthplace of kabbalah and jewish mysticism, that means madonna has been there. the first hostel we stopped at (thanks Lets Go Israel 2005 edition) was absolutely terrifying, the second hostel was approx $40 american dollars a night, this was apparently unacceptable (im sure lauren and i would have paid it give the opportunity, but we werent in charge) luckily for the group of us a chabad (hasidic) hostel called ascent allowed us to stay there even though all of the girls were dressed like whores (in this context that means shorts and tanks). they were also gracious enough to let us eat with them and hang out in the sukkah singing nigguns with actual chabad lubavitch guests. nigguns are a sort of spirited chant religious jews tend to do with clapping and fist pounding to certain beats and rhythms, it was relaxing and a nice change of pace, also something i never really expected to be partaking in (perhaps because i was supposed to still be hiking, or perhaps because i still didnt know what sukkot was, your choice). from a completely anthropological view it was super interesting, but it did become rather apparent that a. they did not really like us heathen americans and b. that they were generous mostly out of a sense of obligation and took the opportunity to proselytize. we stayed there for the evening, and i think got yelled at somewhere around 45 times for having boys in the girls hall!!!! i know, sometimes i wish we werent so permiscuous but what can you do, we are from AMERICA. the next day we all walked around and got some lunch while we reorganized break plans. in a quick fit of energy and inspiration sharon, lauren and i decided we were going to cab to the golan and go horseback riding. so through whatever connections we had (connections means sharon) we called some israeli cowboy, grabbed our packs and headed off into the sunset (sunset here means the golan).

once we got to what i believe was called cowboy ranch or something along those lines, we settled into the grass made some pb&j sammies, which were might i add delicious, took more pictures than necessary, waited for willie and then boarded our respective horses. , so cute in my little helmet of course
mine was named benjamina (i dont personally think its the cutest name for a girl, but she was kind of butch if you know what i mean) - i didnt care to learn sharon or laurens horses names. the ride was beautiful, and it being israel there obviously were no real rules, so we galloped up to the top of some ridges and got to look out over the kinneret (sea of galilee). it turns out lauren is terrified of horses, and i think enough distance has been put between now and that particular day that i can say listening to her shrieking wasnt unfunny. the israeli kids we were riding with were unnecessary and found it pertinent to abuse the horses, i wasnt particularly a fan, and i can say i wasnt upset when one, what we will call a "dumb bitch", fell off of her horse. by the end of the hour and a half ride i knew the horses were beat, one was staggering another was virtually foaming at the mouth. i felt terrible about it, these are the things that really make me miss america, im sure the ride would have been so much more boring and structured in the states but the animals would have been looked after much better and even to someone like me thats much more important. either way after the ride we mosied on up to the restaraunt they had onsite and enjoyed ourselves a nice facsimilie of american west food, grilled chicken with salad (or saled depending on which menu you got) and french fries. they even had "bbq" sauce, quotes because that is obviously a lie but they had something they called bbq sauce, if given a blind taste test i might have said "is this supposed to be bbq sauce" or "i think this bbq sauce has gone bad", obviously it was close enough. once we were done with our not undelicious meal yonathan, our chabad cabbie from tzfat, came back and picked us up again and drove us all the way to tiberias, on the way we stole laurens ipod and we all listened to lubavitch jamz while yonathan told us about his life (apparently hasids can get divorced who knew).

back in tiveria (tiberias) we checked back into the same hotel aviv wed been staying at prior to the hike, where they realized quite quickly we had poorly planned our break so they made a nice mint off of us stuffing up to 8 of us into one room. but lbr (lets be real) they had ac, tvs, a fridge and a kum kum (eric this must have made you rather excited i forgot to ask, eric loves kum kums you should ask him about them at ewgreenberg@gmail.com). the next day those of us who hadnt had the foresight to rent a car (i.e. me, sam, lauren, shazy (sharon), hope and a few scragglers waiting to head off their own seperate ways) went out for a 4 hour brunch on one of the touristy streets of tiveria. lauren and i managed to spend $45 dollars because we NEEDED the smoothies, and two meals (we ate half of it, shocking). but it was rather good, especially this insane pizza we ordered and the smoothies, mmm. then we all broke off, hope lauren shazy sam and i heading up to the golan winery to meet up with some of the others, by that i mean 5 people who had rented a car and a surprise group of 7 other otzmanikim we hadnt expected to see...but ive come to accept that no matter where in the country i am i will run into at least one other otzmanikim because we are fucking everywhere all at once, even the same winery on the same 4 pm english language tour. i downed about 4 half glasses before the tour started, i thought i liked white wine best and it turns out i do, but i had to test that a few times.
we sat through a terrifying a/v presentation with a genie dubbed in english and it scarred me, especially their depiction of american culture (all i have to say is tupac is not from ny and the statue of liberty is specifically NOT a lush), however they were dead on with their interpretations of french and italian culture. did you know that the golan winery makes three labels of wines, yarden, gamla and golan, they also produce 22 different kinds of wines because of the climate they are able to grow so many different kinds of grapes for the various wines. you can even find them in america, check out the website at yardenwines.com. after that the five of us plus the seven other kids that showed up walked to this restaraunt recommended to us. we were told it was a twenty minute walk to some really cute bistro. 45 minutes later strolling down the highway we ended up at some gross mall somewhere in kitzran. the restaraunt was of course a bakery in this small, decrepit mall - we just happened to luck out that the line cook actually knew what they were doing and we all ended up with something relatively tasty. i know the eggplant lasagna lolkatz (lauren) and i split was delicious, i could have lived without the quiche, and as per usual laurens dessert demons took over and with a crazed look she ordered the most delicious fucking cake ive ever had, i dont even like dessert and i thought i might just die it was so fabulous. after that all 12 of us hoped into one sherut (a large van that acts as a cab) they only hold ten people but thats never a problem, for the right amount of sheqalim breaking laws seems to not matter to the drivers. so we headed back to hotel aviv, relaxed around the place and walked all along the boardwalk in small groups so as to avoid having to see one another...of course we ran into everyone we knew and then all walked back together.

the next morning those who had a car headed off to rosh hanikra, these gorgeous grottos on the lebanese border which i have luckily been to before, and the five of us without slept in compltely disregarding checkout times...psh unimportant, and do you know what they didnt care. oh israel, sometimes i forget. shazy and lolkatz headed off with one of shaz's friends and sam hope and i boarded a sherut bound for haifa to meet up with the others. we checked into the port inn, a rather nice little hostel. we all grabbed some lunch and chatted about, headed back napped a bit talked you know did the gossip thing, whatevs. later josh, eric, hope, nicole and i grabbed some chinese food...it was gross and american style, neither of which surprised me. but the woman was super sweet and even went out of her way to make us some chili sauce (im having actual withdrawls from sriracha), granted it was sweet ketchup and chili flakes GROSS, but she TRIED. we also helped her kid with some math and when i say we i dont mean myself, i didnt know there were a thousand milliliters in a liter i thought it was like a hundred or something, unimportant. we then had a few "cocktails" (mixed drinks in flimsy clear plastic cups) and one of hopes israeli friends took us out to a touristy strip in haifa where we had some drinks and some laughs, i broke a glass no biggie. nicole got the grossest looking cosmopolitan ever and i heard leore order a mojito, though im not sure what they served her. luckily ive lowered my standards as far as service and the actual product i am ordering, and overall we had a good time. hope and josh apparently found it difficult to stay awake, this is not my fault so i dont care (just kidding hope i always care). we then headed to a trendy little late night called amadeus and had some pizzas, royee's was delicious, but thats not what i ordered so leore and i's was only ok...it was also unnecessary, but we ate it. we then crashed at 3 something and our rando roomie woke us up at 6 to go out on his mada run (he actually had mada classes with a bunch of otzmanikim so we almost already knew him). when we finally did rouse i thought i lost my cellphone, i obviously didnt it was sitting in my bag with my wallet. then we got all guised up, just kidding, but i did put on my bathing suit and we headed to the beach. did some more lounging on the shores of the mediterranean, ate some less than appetizing lunch (why is yellow cheese white?) napped on the beach and then went back to the hostel to grab our things and go our own ways.

once all packed up we headed to a bus stop, sam simcha josh eric and i were all headed "home" to "b7" or be'er sheva (sheva means 7 in hebrew). this is the part of the trip in which we were terrorized by these young arab kids (haifa is a jewish and arab city that has generally genial relations between the two religions...except these two kids). they threw some glass, rocks and garbage at us. the menz stood tall to show them we werent MESSING AROUND, but they did try to steal sams purse. the boys thought they were kind of cute, i didnt. not that im not "motherly" but im not and i dont really like kids anyways, so it turns out these little rapscallions were really just annoying. whatever i got over it, plus eric had his peanut butter knife somewhere so i can remember to always rest easy now (haha, im laughing because eric is obviously a fighter, he was on the crew team at lehigh). after about a half hour of waiting we caught back to back buses all the way home. settled in and ate some delicious shawarma at our local stand, passed out and that brings me to today.

this morning sammie and i went to the shuk grabbed some delicious fresh fruits and veggies, put together a nice potato dish in one of the kosher apartments for a shabbaz dinner a bunch of us planned together. did some crucial resting and i complied this little diddy while simcha made some fabu chicken and rice and tzeira put together a from scratch chicken noodle soup. its such a different experience than ive ever had before, as a matter of fact ive never once had a shabbaz dinner in the united states, and i know i never really envisioned myself sitting around a cramped, square table with all of the people ive recently acquired in my life and come to rely on as my family, singing and praying, laughing and enjoying a meal at once so personal and yet also so traditionally jewish but here it is, and im finally feeling the jewish connection i was looking for. perhaps it wasnt as ingrained in my past life as everyone elses, but it certainly will be a bigger part of my future. enough for now - im going to go watch a movie and relax

Anne PlzExtreme