Garin Tzabar and Aliyah

Hello everyone! Last post I mentioned something about the whole group and going to Jerusalem, well we weren't there for long but we went to Yad Vashem - the Holocaust museum - and It was a pretty strong experience for me. I've never been to a Holocaust museum before, the few things that I know about the holocaust were the things that I learned at school (and if you knew me from back then I wasn't that stellar of a student in anyone's eyes). Zigging and zagging in and out of all of the rooms in the museum, watching all the videos, reading all of the articles and looking at all of the memorabilia from WWII really got me thinking - Why the hell do people in this world try to act like this never existed? Like seriously, the Holocaust was horrible, I began to tear up while I was watching a few of these videos, something like this should never happen again, to any culture, any religion, or any race of people, ever. And still, there are people in this world who deny its existence, like come on man, it honestly wasn't that long ago - there are survivors, videos, and countries like Poland that have concentration camp exhibits (Auschwitz, hello??) where you could literally see where these poor people live. Nobody should ever live live that okay, enough for my rant, off to other things...

Here is me and the homie Elena at the entrance of Yad Vashem, sadly I wasn't allowed to take photos inside. I understand why.

I visited Nazareth for a bit, with a few of the volunteers, we walked around a bit, went to a church, ate some shawarma and got some sweets and left, not really much happened that night.

Jaden, Elena, Matteo and I chilling with the Virgin Mary

Me being... Well, me.

Christmas and Hanukkah fell on the same day this year, which is good because there aren't that many Jewish volunteers here so we had a Christmas/Hanukkah dinner. It was really sweet, The girls - Greta, Lisa and Antonia (they requested me to put their names on my blog) made a nice dinner and everyone sat down and ate together. It was bloody adorable, I wasn't expecting anyone to do anything honestly.

For new years, the girls and I (Greta, Antonia, Lisa and Paula) all went to Jerusalem and stayed there for a few days. I've always wanted to go there and check out the old city ever since I was a kid and finally, there I was, at the western wall, I prayed a bit and shoved a piece of paper in the wall and went on my way to explore the rest of the old city. The girls and I spent a lot of time at the shops - It's really different from what I'm used to in America, and I love it, all of it - the disorganization makes my OCD go in a frenzy, the haggling (which I need to desperately work on) was something new to me - back home nobody does that really, the craziness of people running around all over the place going off in all directions at the same time looks like insanity, but also, everything is "in order" like its supposed to be like that, everyone's just so used to it that it's basically just the everyday norm. It was wonderful, and I'm planning on going back really soon. For new years we went to a sorta party at a big bazaar that I don't really recall the name and it was pretty cool, the whole strip was full of people selling drinks and people were dancing everywhere, on the floor, on top of tables, screaming shouting and singing the songs, It was complete havoc, I'm starting to think that havoc is the everyday thing here, it's not a bad thing, you just got to get used to it.

 The New Years Bazaar

OH! I got a new job, not really a promotion, I just got moved to the kitchen, I'm learning to cook a bit and the people that I work with are cool, well, the ones that I speak to, two Argentinians, cool dudes, and if you know me then you know that I got a thing for Argentinians haha. So goodbye cleaning dishes and hello 3rd degree burns!

So, now to the Garin Tzabar and Aliyah thing:
Garin Tzabar is a pre-army program that helps you join the IDF and in order to be in the program I have to do Aliyah.
Aliyah is a process of a Jew immigrating to Israel and becoming a citizen.
So, first off, I am a Jew... By conversion, which was recently completed a few months ago.
That isn't a bad thing but one of the rules for a converted Jew to make Aliyah is that she/he must live in their Jewish community that they converted in, so technically I need to go back to Florida until June then apply for Aliyah again. BUT! Nefesh B'Nefesh has been a great help (thank you guys so much I really do love ya'll) and they said that if I move to a religious kibbutz for the remainder of my 9 month probation I have a good chance that I will be approved for Aliyah. So, I'm going to take my chances and save some money (like a good little Jew) and not go to Florida (sorry guys) and instead try to find a religious kibbutz accepting volunteers Which the KPC (Kibbutz Volunteer Program Center) office in Tel Aviv said they would help me out with. Now, hopefully everything will work out, I kinda maybe sorta do see a light at the end of the tunnel, I will find out in June.
OH! and one more thing, I need to make Aliyah before August and its roughly about a 2 month process, and what month is 2 months before August? June! Bloody hell! I just can't get a break can't I? With that said I'm going to push them to process this Aliyah application as fast as they can before the deadline.
Also! For Garin Tzabar I have to go to about 5 seminars before even getting accepted into the program! So what does that mean?? That I could get denied at any time before the program starts and I would need to wait till the next session to join again or I would need to do all of it myself.
I really do hope I get into this program, It seems really cool and all the people I met that also want to do this program are really chill, I bet it would be a great experience for me. Plus the fact that they help you out with everything is absolutely awesome and a person basically living alone in Israel with no help (me) this program is a godsend. So yeah, pray for me guys, I'll be doing a lot of it in the religious kibbutz, I'll let you know once I get into one.

One last thing that I've noticed, the architecture of these buildings here drive me mad, the people here really need some help, my OCD goes crazy seeing things that really don't belong, and seeing patterns mess up in random places, whatever, these people need to redraw some of the buildings here (or maybe all of them).

I'll be posting once a month for now on.

Thank you all for reading.

Peace in the Middle East Yo.

One Month Sum-Up

Whats up everybody?! Sorry for the one month delay, to be honest, I've been pretty lazy with not just blogging, but literally almost everything. So here is what I've been up to this past month:

The first weekend of November, a few of the volunteers and I hiked up Mount Gilboa - and all I can say about that is that I need to get back into shape. The hike took about an hour and fifteen minutes and bloody hell it was difficult. Coming from South Florida where all we have is flat land means that I'm not really acquainted to hiking uphill all the uneven terrain for an hour straight, but I did it! my calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings were on fire, and finally at the end I saw my savior - an ice cream truck! That truck literally saved my life (not really, I knew that I would have been just fine without the ice cream but hey, I do have a bit of a sweet-tooth - I've been eating chocolate every single day since I've arrived at this kibbutz). After resting for a bit and admiring looking past the horizon towards the Israeli & Jordanian border, I refueled on ice cream and then made my way back to the kibbutz.

The next week, I went to Tel Aviv for the day to get a haircut and to see a friend. The haircut was horrible, the barber finished too quick and left it a bit uneven and he was sort of a dick, my hair grew out now and it looks okay but I will never be going back over there to get my haircut again. And after that, all that I did was spend a few hours at Tel Aviv beach, had some shwarma, then I left and went back to the kibbutz, nothing really exciting that week. Winter is coming so I'm glad that I was able to go to the beach one last time before it gets too cold

I went back to Mount Gilboa with one of my coworkers at the dining hall the third week of November, This time it was in the evening, and we took a car (thank god) and it was really nice, we saw a fox, once the sun set the jackals started howling which I obviously took a part of, and we saw a cute little fat furry thing, I forgot the name of it but here's a picture of what it looks like.

That's about all I did outside the kibbutz this month, inside the kibbutz all that I've been doing was working every day, cleaning every once in a while, watching TV shows and movies on my computer, and working out, yes, I have started working out again, me and a few of the guys are starting to workout on a regular basis and i hope it lasts, because working out alone kills me especially when the gym that we have is basically a broken Lat-pull-down machine, a bench, and a pull up bar. I've been dreading running, this up hill runs with higher altitude and cooler air kills me, I'm not used to it but I just got to suck it up and stop complaining, I can do this, no excuses!

In other news, winter is coming, its getting cooler and the days are getting shorter, winter is also supposed to be the rainy season supposedly, it has rained a bit but nothing like Florida's rainy season yet, We really do need rain over here, it has been so dry that a few weeks ago my lips and my right hand were so dry that the skin broke and started bleeding. That has never happened to me, my body isn't used to the dry weather yet but I'll adapt.

Well, thats about it to be honest, if I'm missing anything its probably because I forgot about it, I should really keep a journal on me, anyways, in a couple of days the whole group and I will be going on a trip to Jerusalem, finally, I've been wanting to go there since I arrived in Israel, I will update my blog the weekend I get back. No more laziness.

Oh, one more thing - about the election and Trumps victory - I did vote for him and I was glad that he won, I did vote for who I thought was the lesser of the two evils and I was relieved to see his name on the news as our new president and not Hillary's. But, I did forget that I do kind of live in a socialistic compound and I learned that I'm probably the only right winged person here, so with that said, I was hated by almost everyone that knew that I had voted for him. Oh well, there's nothing I could do about it, nor do I care about the way they felt towards me. But for those who are reading this and don't agree with me: He's the president now, there's nothing that you could do about it, deal with it, calm down and lets seen what happens in these next four years. Yeah he is crazy, but she is too, give him a chance.

Kibbutz Week 1: Work, Drama, and Farewells

YO! Alright, so my first week at the kibbutz just ended. It was a long week, not really hard, just exhausting. My job here is in the dining hall, that basically means that I'm standing all day organizing dishes, silverware, etc etc into their designated places and cleaning, it can get pretty boring but all the people I work with now are pretty cool, I like them all. the reason why I said that "the people I work with now" is because the first week we had a couple people that literally wouldn't do any work, and if you know me, that ain't how I roll homeboy, I'm a workhorse, everyone has to be pulling their own weight, but luckily, they left - one left the kibbutz and the other got a different job somewhere - so now its all just people I like. Thank god.

The food is okay, I pointed out in the last post that I have access to 3 meals a day, and my life basically revolves around food so this is a great thing, even though sometimes I eat something that I have no idea what it is, it either looks funny or I cant pronounce it, but what the hell, I like to try new things, the worst that could happen is that I don't like it. I haven't had anything completely horrid yet, which is nice. Oh! and I think I finally got used to the salads, I can honestly say that I have at least one salad a day, this is basically the healthiest I've ever eaten... Ever.

I miss working out in a proper gym, the one here isn't that great but it's suffice, I could do all my workouts here and it's really hilly here so the running is different, better than running on flat land in Florida. I miss fast food, not really, but I miss that I could leave work and go to a Burger King to get some quick cholesterol packed fake meat burgers that are horrible for you but taste so good. I miss my family, being able to see them every weekend, seeing my sisters at my job and walking the dogs with my mom or dad, and the biggest one of all - family dinners - my old man can grill some bloody good steak and burgers.

Even though I miss all of those things, the people here keep me busy, and I feel like I'm wanted and at home here,  it's kinda like one big effed up family which is not a bad thing, I love effed up! all of these peoples different characters and attitudes mixing up like one big bowl of soup is awesome! we have French, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Russian, Ukrainian, American, German, Chinese, Japanese, and South African people living here (and in the kibbutz community it's a mix of literally almost every country I could think of) and we all have something to bring to the table. Getting to know these people is pretty interesting, My roommate is teaching me some Russian and I'm teaching him some English, I'm also trying to learn some Ukrainian and I also want to learn some German as well. Every single person here is great, well, almost but none of us are perfect, sh** who would want to be perfect anyways? Not me.

There has been some drama, I don't really know much of the details but to break it down for you nosy people it went something like this - there's a couple that lived together and a new person (who is really sweet and nice) came to the kibbutz, the couple in general are pretty lazy and loud and they kind of refused to split up so the new person could have a room which then lead to a few arguments and some drama and then at the end, the new person got into the room and the couple was kicked put of the kibbutz entirely. My take on this is that the the two "lovers" were indeed infatuated with each other and literally couldn't stand being more than 5 feet away from each other 24/7 which is pretty freaking weird in my mind, I love my space from my significant other (and just to make things clear, i don't have a significant other nor do I plan to any time soon). The couple dealt with this problem the wrong way, just listen and obey what the person above you tells you and you'll be better off, stubborn bastards, but hey, young love makes people blind right? But look here, drama is a good thing, a calm home is just a passive aggressive home with people who keep everything inside, we all need to release our steam and frustration someway, just not like that LOL.

On Saturday, I was invited to go out with a few of the people that I work with to the springs, and my god it's beautiful there, the water was perfect (besides the fact that I kept on slipping on every bloody rock and almost broke my damn ankle a few times), the view was beautiful, and the people That I was with were really cool. The coolest thing was the fish that nibble on you when you're in the water, it totally freaked me the eff out at first it was oddly satisfying, sorta felt like a massage, I'll definitely be going back sometime. We had a little picnic which was nice, some wine, talked about random stuff, got to know the people a little more and then went home to end the week. It was a great way to end a great week.

Sadly, one of the volunteers will be leaving next week, and  shes one of the sweetest and nicest volunteers here, shes not just sweet but shes bloody gorgeous as well, but in life people come and go.  I wish her the best of luck in her endeavors.

Anyways, I think thats about it, I'll post again next week, message me if any of y'all want to talk, my contact information is on the column on the right side of the screen.

Till Next Time!





 Here's another picture of my view in the kibbutz

                                       
And here's a few from the picnic

                                           
Look at that handsome young lad ;)

A Summary of my First Few Days in Israel

How's it going everybody?! I finally got the WiFi in my kibbutz to work, so, with that said let me give y'all a quick summary of what has been happening.

Thursday night I left Florida for a 28 hour flight to Tel Aviv (yes I did say 28 hours, why you may ask? Well, that's because it was the cheapest ticket I could find). The stops included Copenhagen, Stockholm - which had a 7 hour layover, Istanbul, and then finally, Tel Aviv.

I landed in Tel Aviv on Saturday morning relieved and content for the journey to come, once I got situated in my room, I went out to the beach, holy S*** Tel Aviv has a beautiful beach and about every other girl I saw was stunning as well. After my few hour stroll down the beach I met up with a friend of mine who was waiting for me to arrive to Israel for months now. we had some dinner, smoked some hookah, and toured down Old Jaffa, another beautiful place.

Sunday morning I went to the kibbutz volunteer office in Tel Aviv to get situated in my kibbutz, but that didn't work out as planned, turned out i was a few days late and all of the volunteers in my kibbutz were out on a little vacation for a few days. so instead they put me up in a hostel which I had to pay for sadly but that was cool, I made friends with the guys in the hostel, talked to some girls, went back to the beach and tried out my Hebrew on some girls - which ended up in a catastrophic, turns out my Hebrew is horrible and they just laughed at me like I was a complete idiot, and I don't really blame them for that, my Hebrew skills are about the same as a kindergartner lol! live and learn right?

So, I just have to say this, if you really know me, you know that I am NOT a salad guy, so, with that said, guess what i ate almost every day for every meal this week? You guessed it!! SALAD!!! well, its actually not that bad, I can deal with it, it's definitely healthier than all the crap fast food that I've been eating in america.

Today is now Monday, and my Monday consisted of me walking a few miles from the hostel to the kibbutz office in Tel Aviv because the taxi system is too much, I'm basically broke, and I don't really know the bus system that well, walking to the main bus with 37kgs (about 80Lbs) of luggage to the bus to Afula, getting reamed out by the bus driver for only giving him 7 sheckles instead of 27 sheckles (I'm not that good in Hebrew, and I only heard sheva not esrim ve sheva) getting onto another bus to go to the kibbutz, missing my stop by a couple kilometers or so and having to lug the 37Kgs of luggage a little more than a mile up hill! Great training for the IDF!! I think I already finished my first masa! A masa is a march that all soldiers have to do, they start small, about 2 kilometers or so and grow until the end of training, the length of your last masa - masa kumpta - depends on which unit you're in and i'm going to try to get into an elite one, so, the more training the better.

The kibbutz is beautiful, my room is not, the people are cool, my roommate only speaks Russian, the girls are cute, so far the only conversations I've had were with the old ladies, and the weather is nice, walking around all day with 80Lbs of crap in 80+ Fahrenheit weather is the best. No, but seriously, it is a nice place here, its huge, there is a little outside "gym" so I could workout, a lot of people my age and all of them are cool, food! 3 meals a day! heck yeah! And well that's all I know about it, tomorrow ill get a tour of the place hopefully and they will tell me my job (please don't be kitchen duty).

Thank you all for reading my blog, check in later :)

here are some pictures that I took, a photo of an orthodox watching the sun set in Tel Aviv beach, and a photo of my bed in the kibbutz, more will be coming later.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Now immerse yourself into reading as you join me in my sojourn through the Israeli Defense Force!