Wow...It’s been awhile since my last post. My apologies to
everyone, I will try to be better from now on. For now though, I will try to
summarize my past two months in this blog post…A very long blog post. Let’s
see, I left off right before I was leaving Jerusalem.
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| Sunset from the Bat Yam beach |
At the beginning of December I left my home in Jerusalem to
move to Bat Yam which is a medium-sized city just south of Tel-Aviv. Bat Yam,
also known by its nickname “Little Russia” is home to a large population of
Russian immigrants. About 30% of the population is Russian. Bat Yam also is
home to one of the highest crime rates in Israel. It seems that whenever I tell
an Israeli that I live in Bat Yam, I get one of two responses: either “Why?” or
“I’m sorry.” With all of that being said, I love living here. Its proximity to
the beach- a 20 minute walk away, and to Tel Aviv- a 20 minute bus ride, makes
this place the ideal location for me to live. When I want hustle-and-bustle, I
can take a bus to Tel Aviv and when I just want to relax and watch the sunset
on the beach I can easily walk there. I have been living here for 2 months and
I enjoy Bat Yam much more than Jerusalem. I also enjoy living in an apartment a
lot more than the campus/dorm feel. As an added bonus, the high here is regularly
in the 60s and 70s so that’s always nice. Luckily, Bat Yam has not lived down
to its reputation of being a crime-ridden city run by Russian mobsters…yet.
My schedule in Bat Yam is a lot different than in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was mainly education-based while Bat Yam is currently much more
volunteer-based. Beginning in March, it will be nearly only volunteering. I am
currently volunteering with Magen David Adom (MADA), the Israeli ambulance
service. Basically it’s the equivalent to the American Red Cross. Currently I
volunteer 3 times a week, with the option of a 4th night on Thursday.
Although I love volunteering, doing 3 overnight shifts in a row while still
staying healthy and attending classes is very difficult so normally I only do 3
shifts a week. While I haven’t gotten any interesting calls yet, I know that
time will come and I still love riding in the ambulance nonetheless.
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| Chinese food on Christmas |
Now that I’ve updated you all on my current living scenario,
let’s go back to the past 2 months. A lot of exciting things have happened
since I moved to Bat Yam. We’ll start with an experience I had outside of
Israel. Over winter break, 3 of my friends and I decided to take a trip to
Vienna, Austria. So on December 22nd, Aaron, Max, Matt, and I
traveled to Austria. We also met up with 2 of our Year Course friends in Vienna. When I first got there, it was exactly how I had imagined
it. Black and white. It was winter there so the ground was covered with a thin
sheet of snow most of the trip. The train ride from the airport to the hostel
was one of immense nothingness. As far as I could see it was dull and bleak. It
was like that until we reached the outskirts of Vienna, which injected a bit of
life into Austria. While Vienna was not what I would call a “vibrant city” it
was definitely entertaining. Since we went around Christmas-time, there were
dozens of Christmas markets around the city. It was always entertaining to head
to the markets and just walk around there for a bit. We did a lot of walking
around the city markets, including the fruit market and the flea market. Based
off of some very great advice (thanks Debbie!) we also visited the Schunbrun
palace where I was actually able to see first-hand some things I learned about
in AP European History way back sophomore year. It was incredibly beautiful and
nice to actually use some of my knowledge that I learned in that class. We also
went to the Vienna Zoo, the oldest zoo in the world, which brought out the
inner-child in us. Other than that, we visited a couple museums, including the
Jewish and Holocaust museum in Austria, ate the local cuisine, saw the
nightlife, and of course ate Chinese food on Christmas. Aaron and I also had a
rather adventurous trip to Venice, Italy. A trip that went from a great trip to
hell in the course of 5 minutes. All because of 1 train.
Aaron and I decided to go to Venice one day while we were in
Vienna. So after much effort, we finally booked train tickets to Venice. We
went on our way, failing to realize that our return train was actually booked
for the 27th at 1:00AM not the 28th at 1:00AM. So we went
there, saw the sights, had a great time and actually ran into a friend from
Young Judaea who was also visiting Venice with his family. We ended up hanging
out with them most of the night. It was a great trip and we were able to see
much of this unique city in the 1 day we were here. As we went back to the
train station, only when we looked at the departing trains did we realize our
mistake. After getting over the initial panic and shock of missing our train,
we decided we needed internet access so we could find another train. If all
else failed, we had planned to just get a hotel for a night and go back the next
afternoon. After failing to find wireless internet, we finally found a
gentleman who saved the trip from being a total train-wreck (pun intended). He
let us use the hotel desks computer where we were able to find a train,
departing from a station about 25 minutes away…in 23 minutes. So we decided to
give it a try. We sprinted through the streets of Vienna to the one road they
have, where we found a taxi and we told him to step on the gas. It took us
about 10 minutes to make a journey that should have taken 20 minutes. It also
cost us 30 euros when it should have cost us 15 but we weren’t about to argue
with him. Eventually we found the train and with about 5 minutes to spare, got
on the train and made our way back to Vienna, thankful to that man who let us
use the computer and completely exhausted; emotionally and physically.
After returning to Vienna, 2 days later we returned to
Israel, where I was met by some great news of the Vikings making the playoffs.
While that was exciting news, I was more excited to see my brother who was in
Israel. The next afternoon, I made my way down to Jaffa where I saw him for the
first time since September. (And yes, he still looked as ugly as I remember him.)
In a reunion that was fit for the big screen, we both saw each other at the
same time, got up, ran in slow-motion to each other and, with tears flowing
down both of our cheeks, we embraced for the first time in 4 months. In between
sobs of happiness we expressed how much we missed and loved each other. It was
like a scene out of a really bad chick-flick. (For all of you who don’t know my
relationship with my brother, this is what actually happened…. I saw him
sitting at the restaurant, went over, said hi to him and Marissa, and started
eating his food. I personally like the other story better.) Anyway, after
spending a couple hours with him, I got tired of him and went home. The next
day though I traveled to the airport to pick up my parents. After waiting for
them for an hour and seeing other families happily reunited, it was my turn. To
be honest, when I first saw them I had to do a double-take to make sure that
was them. Luckily I wasn’t running up to some random couple, passing the sign
that clearly stated “do not cross this point”, and hugging them, they were
actually my parents. It was great to see them. I never realized how much I
missed free laundry, free food, and overprotective rules. All jokes aside though,
I did really miss my family. I never really realized how much until I went
half-way around the world alone. It was amazing to see them and spend time with
them. They hosted a great Shabbat dinner for a couple of my friends, my cousin Nomi,
and I. It was great to be together as a family again. We went out to dinner
almost every night and I have to admit, I was quite happy when their flight got
cancelled and they had to stay an extra day. But eventually my mom decided she
loved her pet squirrels more than me and decided to leave me to fend for myself
for another 5 months. (By the way, off-topic but I’M STILL MAD YOU DIDN’T BRING
ME CHIPOTLE. If anyone wants to send me some Chipotle, that would be greatly
appreciated.) Back to the topic, after they left, a few days later I had to
travel to Jerusalem to take the advanced 88-hour MADA course so I could learn
how to put in IVs and deliver babies (both turned out to be extremely scarring
experiences.)
I’m splitting this post into 2
different parts so it’s shorter. I’ll end Part I here and post Part II in the upcoming
days.
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