Living in Israel

As some of you may have heard, this afternoon there was a terrorist attack in Jerusalem next to the Central Bus Station, a place I have stood many more times than I can count. 20 people were injured, and one was killed. Last night at about midnight, we heard a siren in the mechina and we all hurried to the bomb shelter that we have inside of the boys' bathroom. There were a few katushot (small bombs) in cities close to the mechina, including Ashkelon, Ashdod, and others. It's scary to be in a place where it is possible for things like this to even happen-at home, I would never imagine something like this happening. Although it is terrible, it is giving me insight into what life can be like for Israeli families. Last night when we were in the bomb shelter, everybody was very relaxed about it and even took it as a joke. I asked around to see if maybe the reason people were so relaxed was because they were so used to it. For many people, it was there first time hearing a siren and going to a bomb shelter, but somebody else told me that he went to a bomb shelter every day for a month and a half.

I know that we are very safe at the mechina-it is unlikely that anything will hit us in the first place, and even if something came close, we are well protected in the rooms and hallways until we can make it to the shelter. However, there is fear that these attacks will continue, in which case I will continue to be scared to ride on buses (basically my only form of transportation here) or even go on runs outside of the mechina, because the bomb shelters will be far away. I remember talking to my Israeli family about 6 years ago, when the attacks were more common, and they told me that they did not let the attacks impact their life-it is not healthy to live in fear 24/7. This is something that all Israelis must deal with; even if there are not attacks in their neighborhood, the country is so small that everybody knows people around the country, so an attack in a place that is far away still has a high probabilty of affecting you.

After the initial stress this afternoon, when we all crouded around the TV and watched what was happening in Jerusalem, everything went back to normal. We continued to stay updated on the news, but other than that, we are going back to our normal schedule-leaving for Survival Week on Saturday (I think...they still haven't told us when!) My bag is packed so that I can leave in 15 seconds when I hear the whistle. Ahh!

Right now, we are in the middle of "Education Week," and all of our lessons are about education, which is one of the most interesting topics in my opinion! We have learned about problems in education in Israel, education for tourists, education in sports, education in agriculture, religious education, technological education, and much more. It's been inspiring me to think more strongly about having a career in education in the future.

So many updates!!!

Okay, I know I haven't written in soooooo long, so I am going to try to give a short update on everything we've done since Gadna! This is an almost impossible task, but I will try my hardest.

First of all, exactly one month ago, I was on a plane to BARCELONA for three days! I went during the one week break that we got from the mechina. I went with my friend Shir from the mechina and her friend Inbar from her high school. We had busy days and did so many amazing things-my favorites were seeing all of Gaudi's architecture, seeing a beautiful church about an hour and a half train ride from Barcelona, seeing the flea market, going on a bicycle tour of the city, and of course, the breakfast at the hotel!!! Other than that breakfast, the food really sucked in Barcelona, so we ate huge breakfasts, late lunches, and very small dinners. Below are a couple pictures, and I have a lot more that will hopefully be on facebook soon!

Shir, Inbar, and me in a chocolate shop in the Spanish quarter on Mont Juic!



Me and Shir in Park Gaudi!

The weekend after I got back, I got to the mechina a day early with the rest of "Taboo Committee" to decorate the mechina! We made lots and lots of signs and printed out lots of post-secret postcards to put around becuase they are taboo. It was really awesome!

We had a three-day trip in Haifa, which was something that we had all voted on as a group because the program had left us three completely empty days to do whatever we wanted! Haifa is a city with both Arabs and Jews living together, so we had a few lectures about that. We also visited the Bahai Gardens, a few schools that are considered to be exceptional, and Elijiah's Cave. After our three day trip, we went to a leadership seminar in Tel-Chai, which is very north, right on the border with Lebanon. We were there with a few other mechinot, and we had many interesting lectures about leadership in all spheres: politics, army, family, and more. While we were there, we got to stay in a special hostel for soldiers, and we all got beds!!! It was the first time we slept in beds on a trip, and it was especially nice after the night before, where all 45 of us slept in a tiny wrestling gym of some school with only one bathroom whose door wouldn't close. The wrestling mats also tempted the boys to have fights until late at night, which is a not-so-pleasant experience when there isn't room for that in the first place and you are trying to sleep. :)

The whole group in a rainy Chaifa!

Me and Sagit at the Bahai Gardens

An outside lecture!

Since then, we've had Israeli Culture Week, which I was also on the committee for (It was Chulyat Tiyulim), which ended up being great! It was stressful at first because everything was very last minute, but the feedback we got was great. We were supposed to have "Survival Week" this week, which is something that the counselors plan and we don't know anything about it, other than that we will have to navigate and probably not get very much food. However, because of the predicted rainy weather, they postponed the trip, which was very stressful for all of us becuase we thought they were lying to us-the whole week is kind of them keeping secrets from us. Anyway, we had to plan a week in about 2 days, and it actually is turning out to be one of the best weeks we've had! We had a two-day hiking trip today and yesterday around the area that we are living in, and we are bringing tons of interesting lecturers! I'm excited!