Yom Afooch
The Shnattim started the week off right with Yom Afooch (Backwards day). Our lovely Rosh Shavuah Tzevet, Rebekkah and Naomi, got up in the early hours of the day to put clothes on backwards and cook everyone dinner. After the challenge of getting the masses up and ready earlier than normal, we all enjoyed a dinner of couscous, corn, pickles, and schnitzel at 8am. Asefah was then held, and it was noticeably quieter due to the absence of any and all mechanical toy noisemakers. We then had Hebrew, which was enlightening and educational.
A hadracha lesson with Guy and Noa left us all wondering with intelligence(s) we had. More asefah happened, and then we headed down for Tanak, but little did they know there was a surprise waiting for them…
Surprise! Our Tanak teacher was sick, so our beautiful Rosh Week Ladies had something in store: A scavenger hunt! Naomi and Rebekkah sent two groups out into the wilds of Jerusalem to complete twenty tasks, which my group successfully accomplished (the other group did not). If I remember, I’ll attach pictures from this adventure. We had to do things like tune-in around a light pole, get a shoe, pick up trash in the Old City, sing the Netzer song, and run an obstacle course, among others. Both groups had a really good time running around Jerusalem, and then met up in Talpiyot (one group taking taxis, the other a bus). The plan was to meet at the mall in Talpiyot, but there are four malls in Talpiyot. A half an hour of chaos ensued, with three different groups of people running around the entirety of Talpiyot trying to find the right mall and each other. Eventually we met up at Burger’s Bar and shared a nice meal together. We then traveled across the street to the mall, where Naomi and Rebekkah had a surprise for the group: Bowling!!! Two elevators took the Shnattim up a floor (well, one group went to every single floor below, and then up to bowling). We bowled. The very first ball rolled (mine) was a strike, jussayin’. Naomi was fun to watch, with her right arm in a cast. After a plethora of strikes, spares, and gutter balls, Dan R came out on top, with Josh following a close second, and Dan A and I in third and fourth. Ice cream and racecar games were played after, and then we started the journey home. It started off badly, with someone (definitely not me) accidentally bumping into a parked car and setting off the car alarm. While one group took a taxi, the others took a bus and got off at the right stop. Beit Shmuel was right around the corner, guys, according to Dan R. Wait, just kidding, it was actually really far away. Oh well. We eventually made it home, Emily made us all coffee, and five or six laptops popped open.
I sit here in the Internet Couch, gross plastic sticking to my legs and arm, next to Jake. Jake isn’t really doing anything, just watching Dan R, who is on the other side of him, surf the web. Alyson is on the Comfy Chair. She’s skyping, getting the ‘dish’ from her connections back home. Naomi sits on the couch, sucking her thumb, rolling her wrist, making cracking noises that make Alyson squirm. Was she supposed to take her cast off already? Probably not. But we all trust her to handle her own breaks by this point. Dan A sits on the Purple Couch making comments to aggravate and infuriate Alyson and humor everyone else. Liz has gone off to bed, and who knows where Kitty went. We usually never know where Kitty has gone. Josh is suspected to be in the toilet right now, but no one is really sure. Jeff and Jemma are off being treated to nicer things than our measly gap year wallets can buy.
Monday (formerly known as Sprite Day)
Monday Monday, what a day. It all began with a lesson on history. Well, kind of. I woke up in the dojo, having fallen asleep in the company of Dan A, Kitty, Jake, and Jeff, alone. A moment of confusion, and then I was on with my day. The few steps it took to get to the kitchen enlightened me as to why my friends stole off to their beds in the middle of the night: the dojo is really uncomfortable to sleep in; I was so sore. After a big cup of coffee and a refreshing shower, I began to detect the stirrings of my other flat mates waking up to the morning. Dan A first, like always, then a special guest, Jess. The rest woke up about five minutes before class at nine, which was unfortunate because we were all wrong: class was at 8:30. We learned, we learned, and then we learned some more. A break that was fifteen minutes long took about twenty-five minutes, and then we ventured out to the park. The Shanttim became NASA (USA ftw!) and figured out how to survive on the moon. We then said names of geographical places in alphabetical order, and we got all the way to X before KITTY RUINED IT ALL. Yes, Kitty, the letter Y does exist. We went back to class and learnt some more, and then I had my peer-led peula on Controversy within Netzer ideology. We had a debate about whether or not Hebrew is necessary in true debate form, and then discussed how we treat the importance (or lack thereof) and how it relates to how we teach our chanichim. I think it was the most amazing peula in the world and everybody learned so much, but maybe I think that because it was my peula. Anyway, when we got back to the flat and every single one of us walked into the kitchen to prepare and consume our fifth meal of the day so far, people were still talking about the topic and debating it, which I take as a sign of success. We ate, and then kept eating when Noa came over. We all got on the Netzer bus (plastic chairs set up in our living room) with Dan R as driver. He got to pretend to know how to drive and we were all subject to his crazy whims. Noa took us on a Powerpoint tour of Israel and all the wonderful possibilities for Pesach, like dancing the Horah, creating a play, watching Jake swim down the hall and swimming straight into a door, and playing Sardines. When Noa left, Naomi and Rebekkah (the most beautiful, wonderful, lovely, smart, awesome, amazing, nice, fair, and enlightening Rosh Week Tzevet of all time) went with her to have secret behind-the-scenes conversations. Later, Dan A and Kitty joined us to discuss Tiyul Tzafon (northern trip), but first we made delicious coffee in bowl mugs. We then discussed how much we loved the bowl mugs. Tiyul Tzafon will be an amazing week of SURPRISE!!! I cant tell you yet, but rest assured that it will be worth the wait. Maybe, jokes: most definitely, there will be a t-shirt. Maybe one for each day. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get Sprite Day t-shirts and all the seven other t-shirts we have planned oswoll.
The best part of the day, however, has just ended: dinner time. Liz and Dan R cooked about forty hot dogs for about five people and a ton of fries (NOT chips). As I sit here, there is still a big bowl mostly full of vege noknikiyot and an empty oily bowl were the fries once were. And don’t tell Jeff, but we’re drinking Coca Cola. Jake was the first to break Shomer Yom Sprite; he bought a Coca Cola and brought it to the park with us. And after we got our groceries delivered to us (yes, we’re that lazy, we do our shopping online and get it delivered to our doorstep), we realized we didn’t have any Sprite, just Coca Cola. So seriously, don’t tell Jeff.
After we finished eating, we sat around eating more fries and talking. What did we talk about? Well, I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you that it was fun, disgusting, wonderful, and made us all laugh way too much for the amount of actual humor there was.
We have a few new additions to the flat:
· Etgar poo log: I’d explain it further, but I don’t really think you want me to
· The Rota/Roster: Kitty and I spent a good half an hour making up problems with it to fix. It’s now perfect.
· The Fun room poster, it’s beautiful
· Etgar Quote Wall: it is a wall of quotes from Etgar, but you probably figured that out.
· We moved the couches, and it doesn’t look like anyone wants to move them back, despite a couch blocking the entire hallway and a chair blocking to door to the Fun Room.
And… as I’m typing: we just came to group consensus: big fat clean poos are the best kind of poos.
Tuesday, March 27th
Loneliness, quiet, and solitude were the thoughts going through my mind last night. Alyson was in Tel Aviv with her dad and Naomi and Emily were in the guest room, so I was all-alone in the room. I don’t have loud roommates, but their presence is definitely something I have been taking for granted. I finally fell asleep.
My infamous alarm woke me up at 8:00am, and then I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 8:30am and got out of bed. I went to the bathroom and put on my face, and then went to my room to clothe myself. I realized I had no idea what the day was going to be like, so I checked the weather in Tel Aviv via the Internet. I learned that it was going to be too-freaking-cold, and raining, so I dressed appropriately, as did the rest of Etgar. I did the normal things, like brush my hair and put on deodorant, and then I went downstairs. The whole group met in the lobby and waited for the bus there. Emily and I made a bet: she thought it would take one hour for Jeff to notice I was wearing his shirt, I thought it would take three and a half hours. When we all boarded the bus, we were greeted by Machon and were off to Tel Aviv. Eventually, after a nap that was definitely not long enough, we arrived in Tel Aviv. One thing I can say with complete confidence about our group is that we definitely retain our childlike sense of play: our first stop was a playground, where we went crazy on the swings and slides. Much to our disappointment, we had to stop playing. Our guide for the day taught us a new game, one which we all enjoyed. It was educational, too: Kitty told us all about the new American states: Canada and Cincinatti. When we actually started to learn real facts, we learned about Tel Aviv and how it was formed and how it all relates to the idea of Zionism. We walked through the park and into a neighborhood. We saw a dog and a lot of donkeys. Like, real donkeys (well, you could argue that they were mules, there was a debate). We walked some more and saw a school that had afterschool and extra curricular activities run by a religious political party, Shos. From there, we headed to a neighborhood that had been superficially renovated by one political party when they had the majority of the government. We discussed how to change a deprived area into a thriving one. The next place we visited was an area just next to the Central Bus Station (the biggest bus station in the world, we learned) that was the main HQ, you could say, for all the foreign workers in Tel Aviv; it, too, was a depraved area. While we were talking about the situation the workers were in, how the world’s governments deal with it, and what should be changed, I watched a plastic bag being carried up by the wind, across a vacant lot, and into a tree in someone’s yard. The whole vacant lot we were in looked like something you would imagine in a third world country. A dirt lot with a carpet made of trash, and chickens picking their way through it all to find a good meal. Destination ba’a was a park. But not just any park. This park was home to countless amounts of people. These were not foreign workers; these were the immigrants and refugees. Although not many of them will receive official refugee status from the government, they are all here, some after a desperate and life-threatening journey. They are illegal, but have a better life here than anywhere else. We were talking about some ideas of plans to carry out so that these people wouldn’t have to live in this park, when a man walked by our group. He seemed under the influence of something, he was slurring for sure. The man was black and stumbling, as well. We started yelling to us, trying to talk or start a dialogue it seemed. Guy tried to talk to him away from the group so we could continue our discussion, but he came back and was yelling this time. It was all in Hebrew, but we didn’t need words to detect the animosity in his message. After a while he walked on, and we talked on. Another occurrence of note from that park was when someone asked what all the bags and sleeping bags were for, like was another youth group here or something? But no, those belonged to the people standing and sitting around the park, alone or in small groups. And we were sitting in their bedroom and in their living room. It was a surreal experience but we had to move on. The next place we went to was a shuk for lunch. We all got pizzur and were sent off. I really wanted falafel, so we walked through the shuk trying to find falafel, but alas, there was none. So we walked out to the main road and down the street until we found a suitable falafel place. We were considering one place when the workers came out and told us ‘yesh makom lkulam bifnim,’ and I used my ever-increasing Hebrew skills to alert the rest of the group that there was space in side for us all, and we went in. They told us to sit down and relax, and then brought us out salad, six falafels, fried potato crisp type things, and a bottle of diet Coke. Our meal was practically catered: all the food for the most cheap!
We visited Rothschild Boulevard next, after a quick ice cream stop. Emily and I made a pact to always tell each other if we have food on our face or other embarrassing things like that, and I am now much more comfortable in life knowing Emily is looking out for me. We saw where the first tents that started the tent cities were, and then we did a very Netzer-y thing: we made a Big Circle With Everybody In It in the middle of a public place. We read resources and talked for a while, but then we headed inside this very cool building. As we walked up a story, we saw that the walls were covered in graffiti and posters and slogans. A man met with us to talk about the tent city protests and social justice. While the conversation was very enlightening and gave us all much more knowledge and many more ideas, the one unifying thing that happened was a movement that caused every left leg to rest on top of our neighbor’s right leg. Don’t ask me why. Another highlight was the meal of pizza that followed the discussion. Of all the Yom Tnuot pizzas, I think this was the best.
Just before the pizza, however, Ben led us in a discussion about social justice and what should we do about it. We talked for a while, and then came up with real concrete ideas that will not only make a tangible impact, but might actually happen. Some of us are researching some ideas to determine the feasibility of our ideas and are going to put them into action at the next Yom Tnua. We are all pretty excited for this to happen, and are equally (if not more) excited that the twenty-five of us managed to have a civil and productive conversation that happened without yelling or interruption on a mass scale.
The bus ride on the way back to Jerusalem was full of songs (Disney, rap, and everything in between) and girl talks. The back of the bus ran the song sesh, but up at the front we girls chatted it up the whole way.
When I asked Dan R is he could have anything in the world right now, he replied with this little nugget of wisdom: ‘I’m pretty happy right now.’
I know I can’t speak for all of Etgar (despite that being the exact point of the weekly report), but the general feeling is that of happiness.
I’m sitting in the Comfy Chair sideways, which is rather uncomfortable, but from here I can see Liz on the couch, Jeff with his huge red headphones and business to do, Dan making friends with Alyson’s dad (Dan is the most friendly to strangers), and Alyson and her dad, reunited for the first time since she flew away almost six months ago. Kitty and her skype friend on a tour of the flat, and Emily having a computer crisis. Dan A coming in to say something odd and then leave, and Jemma running around looking confused. Josh and Naomi are in the bathrooms, his second time and her first today according to the Poo Log. I’m not sure where Jake is, but you can almost always find him in the kitchen or the dojo or the balcony.
The week’s not over, but we’ve had a grand ol’ time so far.
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