As I enjoyed a Mika sing-along at the hostel by Masada with my friends, I could not help but think how different my trip to the Dead Sea and to climb Masada was this time around. I was with an unlikely assortment of friends from a variety of backgrounds instead of with just people of relatively similar backgrounds to my own. Most importantly, nobody could make me wear an ugly hat. That also meant that nobody was there to save me from the creepy large old man who asked me to rub natural mud we found in Ein Gedi on his back. You have to take the good with the bad when it comes to traveling. It is impossible to know what surprises await you around every corner. When I left the United States, these kinds of adventures were exactly what I was perusing.
My trip followed the basic itinerary that we had planned. The first part was, as mentioned before, to the Dead Sea and Masada. My friends from Haifa arrived to Be'er Sheva on Tuesday night, we left Wednesday to go to the Dead Sea, we hiked Masada in time to see the sunrise on Thursday, we visited the beautiful Botanical "Gardens" of Ein Gedi (the flowers were not really in a garden, they were actually just all over the kibbutz) in the afternoon, and afterward we returned to Be'er Sheva. That night we joined a friend of my to search for Chametz (bread) in her apartment. In the process of burning what we found we also burned her table. To add to that night's unfortunate events, I also managed to lose my phone somewhere in the dorms. I have a bizarre, and perhaps paranoid, suspicion that some of the cats that surrounded our nighttime Chametz picnic that night may have found it and made it their toy.
For Passover we went to a Seder run by Chabad on campus. It was a nice gathering of misfits. Other than that, we did not do much during the duration of the first day of Passover/Shabbat except eat some of my favorite Passover goodies like macarons, matzah brie, and matzah pizza.
On Sunday we made or way to Jerusalem for the day. There we randomly ran into a friend from Brandeis on the bus as we were on our way to get me a new phone. She happened to be going to the phone company as well and she was also traveling to Tiberius that day. We took advantage of that huge coincidence to spend the day together. Jerusalem was full of people and delicious food. I got to eat my first kosher for Passover meal in a restaurant and I even got a cup of ice cream after. It was unreal. This theme continued throughout our trip. I never really got used to how all around me there were a plethora of options and how people across the religious spectrum were sitting in the sun enjoying some matzah. It almost felt too easy. Even when I only ate food without kitniyot it still was not very difficult. The food seemed a little strange to me at times. How can a fluffy roll be kosher for Passover?
Tiberius was also packed. The whole city was bustling with tourists and Israelis. To our dismay, it was not as easy as we had hoped to travel to other spots in the Galilee and Golan from the so-called "hub". I refused to let that stop me from having an adventure and I, therefore, made the decision to do a solo bike trip around the Kinneret (65 km or approximately 40 miles). Although I did not get to do any of the hikes I wanted to do, see the archaeological sites, or have some kind of water adventure in the Jordan river, I did get to pass by all of the places I have read and heard about on my bike. This afforded me with a lovely view, people watching opportunities, and a better understand of the lay of the land. On a vacation that had a lot of down time, it was nice to get away and get some exercise.
On Wednesday we saw the sun rise over the Kinneret and set over the Mediterranean Sea in Haifa. The beauty of the sun was slightly outshined by our frantic shopping and cooking to prepare a Freedom Seder in my friend's apartment for Thursday night. I was skeptical about the idea because of all the planning and time it required but, in the end, celebrating the holiday and thinking about both ancient and modern injustice was the perfect way to end the holiday. Being in Israel for Passover was definitely a new experience. I was not totally prepared for how different it would feel or how much I would miss my friends and family. Ending the holiday with nice people and familiar food was extremely comforting.
This break was an interesting test of my resolve to speak Hebrew even when I am not in Be'er Sheva. It has been difficult to keep speaking Hebrew with my international friends in Haifa. That is especially true when there are people around who do not speak English. The refusal of certain people to speak to me in Hebrew is eye-opening. I can relate to the fact that perhaps they are intimidated or afraid. It is more difficult for me to grasp how they actually will do slightly rude things to avoid me because, I am assuming, they really do not want to use Hebrew. On the bright side, I do not need to take part in a ton of small talk and it gives me a little confidence boost that my Hebrew is good enough to confuse other people studying Hebrew. When I am with my close friends here I have been speaking half Hebrew and half English. It has been enough that I have still learned some things since vacation started and have not forgotten anything but it is not enough that I feel I have truly succeeded in maintaining my language pledge to speak only Hebrew when possible.
I am excited to return to Be'er Sheva after Shabbat ends. I really want to jump back into pushing myself to learn Hebrew. I am really hoping that I can convince myself to try more new things. I only have eleven weeks left! By the end of that time I want to be able to say that I saw what I wanted to see and that I learned as much Hebrew as I could. There are many day trip adventures for Be'er Sheva that I would like to do and I have plenty of Hebrew to study. I think I have relaxed enough for now.
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