Am I Dreaming

I arrived in Israel about 48 hours ago, but I feel like it has already been a week.  It is not that I have done so much but probably more that I have done so little and time is going very slow.  I have 10 months here.  By the end of my trip I will look back and say it flew by but for now it seems as if I have an eternity here. 

I don't really feel like I am that far from home either.  This is probably due to the high level of internet access (including on my phone) and the fact that I have only really spent time with Americans.  There are 15 people in the same program as me in Ramla and another 15 are coming in a few weeks to do the Community Involvement Program for 5 months, also in Ramla.  I think everyone in the program will get along nicely and within a few weeks we will be in a nice routine. 

I am really excited to meet some Israeli people.  I meet Americans everywhere I go, but now that I am a member of the community in Ramla, I want to meet my neighbors, shop at the market, and do as they do on a day to day basis.  The only thing that makes this challenging is the language barrier.  When I went to Spain I could get by with Spanish, but the main difference was that I could read the signs, the names of stores, and so on.  In Tel Aviv, there is a lot of English, but in Ramla not so much.  Almost nothing is in English and this will make the first few months a little difficult.  At the Shuk (open market) today I did some shopping for vegetables.  I had a 50 shekel bill ~$13.  I went to the vegetable stand and said shalom, gave the items to the owner so he could weigh it, he said a number, I gave him the 50, and he gave me change of 45 sheckels (it cost just over $1 US).  Then I said "toda" (Thank You) and walked away with my 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, and 2 limes.  For all he knew I was fluent in Hebrew.  It worked out very well, but there was a lot of other stuff I didn't even want to think about buying.  Like the cheese.  With the cheese you have to specify an amount and what kind you want.  Maybe in a few weeks I will know enough to buy cheese but for now I will just stick to the simpler items. 

My apartment is supposed to be average living standards for Ramla, and after seeing it and getting settled it was about what I expected.  Nothing is new but everything works, it fits all of my stuff but it is not big.  It is practical and I think I will be satisfied living here for 10 months.  We don't have an oven and there is limited space in the kitchen but I think we will live.  There could also be air conditioning in the bedrooms because I like sleeping in the cold but soon enough the night temperatures will drop and it will be more comfortable.  Sleeping comfortably has been the most difficult task when it comes to my apartment so far.  Last night I couldn't fall asleep because I was hot.  Then I was finally sleeping and I had a nightmare.  I have not had a nightmare in a long time but I woke up screaming.  I learned in my Dreams and Dreaming class last year that people often have vivid and unusual dreams when they are sleeping in new places and this was definitely the case.  In my dream my older brother, Adam, and his wife, Kris, were visiting me, along with my other brother, Mike.  They were visiting me in New Hampshire.  Adam and Kris left a note in my car that they would be back soon and I received a call from Mike that he was in Newport, Rhode Island, ready for me to pick him up.  That was strange especially since they all live in Boston and Rhode Island is in the wrong direction.  Anyway, I thought my keys were in the ignition but they weren't so I was going to get them from somewhere else.  As I was walking away from my car a very creepy man slowly walked around the fence at the entrance of the parking lot and was staring at me with some dead, evil eyes.  I could tell something was wrong and I tried to run but I took one step and fell down.  In real life before I went to sleep we were talking about the other group of Israel Teaching Fellows in Ashdod and someone mentioned that it is dangerous.  They said "if a man approaches you from an alley they either want to mug you, kill you, or severely injure you."  As I lay on the ground this was going through my head.  I could not move or do anything.  I tried to yell and eventually, after several attempts, I let out a quiet strange yell.  At that point I woke up and actually screamed in my sleep.  This was very strange and I do not have any recollection of talking in my sleep.  Hopefully once I really get settled the strange dreams will go away and I will have nice peaceful sleeps in my hot Ramla apartment in Israel

That is all for now.  More to come soon when I start training next week, and maybe some stories from this weekend

The Israel Experience

When I first named the blog I went with "The Barcelona Experience."  That name was really good, at least I thought it was.  The blog was originally for my semester abroad and I was taking a class called The Barcelona Experience.  Originally I never thought I would keep writing after my trip abroad but now that I have, I need to rename the blog to something else.  I will be in Israel for the next section of the blog so maybe I will just name it The Israel Experience.  Then after that I can just keep renaming the blog.

While on the subject of Israel, I don't think I have mentioned anything about my past trips to Israel.  I have spent 25 days in Israel in two trips.  My first trip was in the summer of 2010.  I traveled to Israel with my brother and two friends.  Their brothers were both in Israel and we had a place to stay in Tel Aviv so we all decided to visit.  It was an awesome trip and we traveled around the country, partied in Tel Aviv, swam in the dead sea, and watched the world cup final.  Before I started my blog I kept a travel journal, and I wrote a lot about what we did.  I still have that journal and it is awesome to go back and read some of the entries.  I started the journal back in 2003 as a community service log book for a trip to the British Virgin Islands.  About half way through that trip I started using it more as a personal journal and now this blog is my journal. 

The second time I came to Israel was for Birthright.  Birthright is a program that sends Jewish kids aged 18-26 on a free trip to Israel.  About 40 people from the US go on the trip and you travel around Israel learning about your Jewish identity, history, and traditions.  I went with my brother and  3 friends from home and a bunch of other Americans.  I had a great time and got to see some new things and some of the same things from the trip before.  I probably wouldn't be going to Israel now if I had not done birthright.  Its not like Birthright changed me or anything, but I think my email address found its way into my programs website and before I knew it I had applied and gotten accepted to teach English.  It all happened pretty fast but I think it worked out well.  At least for now.  I guess we will have to wait and see if I chose the right path.

As one door closes, one more open; Part II

I officially graduated college from the University of New Hampshire on May 19^th 2012.  My family came up and we had a great celebration.  The feeling of being done with college has not really sunk in yet but after the summer I am sure it will…especially since I will not be returning to New Hampshire in the fall.  I did however; get a job teaching English in Israel for 10 months.  So in a way it is similar to another year at college but I get a stipend for living while I am there.  I also found out I got this job on my final day of class.  This was amazing, and has been all summer, because I am locked into something and I do not have to worry about applying to jobs, interviews, finding a place to live, or even too much about preparing for my trip.

Even though college is over, I am extremely grateful for my experience and I do not have many regrets.  In almost everything that I do, I try and look for some sort of takeaway: something that I may be able to apply later in life or even in my daily routine.  My biggest takeaway from my college experience is being able to go outside of my comfort zone.  In high school, I don’t think I really tried too many new things.  I wouldn’t try and meet new people, try new foods, or really go out of my comfort zone much.  When I went to New Hampshire I did not know anyone.  My only contacts were a girl from Ithaca who was 2 years older than me that I didn’t know and my brothers and friends in Boston.  I had never been in a place for an extended period of time without any of my really close friends.  It was somewhat of a challenge for me and I was even thinking of transferring.  I moved dorms between semesters freshmen year and met a lot of people there and also joined a fraternity where I met a lot of people.  At the time I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into but looking back on it, it was one of the better choices I made in college.  Fraternities have a somewhat poor reputation in our society but I can say first hand that for some it is not true.  Besides the social aspect, there is a lot you can learn from being in a fraternity.  The amount of things I took from it may be greater than anything else in my life.  I also made the most of my experience by caring about more than just the social aspect.  The next best decision I made in college was to study abroad, and as you can see from this blog, it was an amazing experience.  If I can recommend 2 things to do to make the most of your college experience it is to go abroad, and to join a fraternity or a sorority.  These experiences are things that you will not be able to do ever again in your life and you may look back one day and say “oh I really wish I went abroad in college, or joined Greek life.” 

Another thing I learned in college is that, whatever it is that I am doing I will learn it quickly, and do the best job that I can.  I got the opportunity to go abroad again in January 2012 to do an Archaeology field school in Belize.  I understood everything really well and for some reason it was just easy.  Not to come off as cocky but I am smart and am confident that I can do anything with the proper training and experience, and possibly better and faster than most people.   This is also why I will succeed next year teaching English.  The first month I am in Israel there will be 85 hours worth of training and then slowly over the next 9 months I will have a larger role in the classroom.  Then by the end my program I will have some great experience and some great references for future jobs. 

I titled this blog post “as one door closes, one more opens.”  It is a quote by Alexander Graham Bell, but I herd it in a country song and got the idea to use it as a title.  The rest of the quote says that we often focus on the closed door and not on the open door in front of us.  Some of my friends were devastated that college had ended, and they have the right to be.  I am a very optimistic person and I focused more on that open door in front of me.  I may have graduated college but I am still young and have my whole life in front of me.  I also did well and graduated from a great school with a liberal arts degree.  I can pretty much go into any career field that I choose.  I think teaching is a right place for me because I am patient, caring, smart, and will be a good role model for our future generations.  Sometimes when I tell people I want to teach they say that they could picture me as a teacher and say that I will be good at it.  They might just be trying to be nice but everyone likes a compliment here and there.  Also the program is only 1 year, so if I don’t enjoy teaching I will not have a lot of time or money invested in the wrong career choice.

This summer has been great.  I am working a lot at a new restaurant in town trying to save as much money as I can, but other than that I have just been relaxing, watching tv, reading, and went to a few concerts.  This summer has been very stress free, most likely because I already have a job lined up. 

I am really looking forward to starting my job in Israel.  My friends have started leaving Ithaca and I think by the time I leave only 2 or 3 of my close friends will still be here.  So I’ll probably be bored out of my mind and ready to take off.  I will continue with this blog but it may be a little different than the first part of it.  When I was in Barcelona I was always doing something, whether it was traveling, doing things in Barcelona, or going out with people.  This Israel experience will be much different because I will not have as much time or money.  My monthly budget will be about $750 a month (and since my program pays for rent, utilities, and local transportation that $750 will get me a lot in a month).  I will also be working/volunteering for a lot more hours a week than my course load in Barcelona so I won’t have as much time.  And lastly, I have already traveled all around Israel and there is a good chance that I will not leave the country