(I'm really, really busy now!)Despite living like I’m on a dream vacation, I think I’m finally getting closer to having a “life” here in Tel Aviv. I live here. I even had to start using Google Calendar to keep up with everything going on…Oh, I LOVE being busy!!
Az ma kore? (what’s happening?)
My plan was put into motion, bigger and better than expected! While I did not get to see a show, I have been fortunate to see some art. Lindsay took me to the Tel Aviv Museum of Contemporary Art a few weeks ago, and then I visited the Rubin Museum, home to the artwork of Reuven Rubin, an amazing Israeli painter. Just a couple blocks from my house lays Bialik St. where the museum is, and I followed along on a seminar with some kids from Cleveland who were on an Israeli Advocacy trip. The speaker was really great, teaching the kids about the symbolism in an interactive way. I love learning about the Jewish symbolism in painting: pomegranates, donkeys, fruit, babies, boats, sea, desert. I’ve been studying this a bit on my own, as Lindsay gave me a lesson plan based on Rubin’s work to edit...The reason I was spying on the tour group in the first place! There’s an amazing painting of the street I live on, Yona Hanavi, back in the 1920’s, which I absolutely love! What a special time to witness the city of Tel Aviv (a work in progress) 100 years from its foundation. The same diversity in Rubin’s portraits remains relevant today. Following the Rubin tour, I joined the group as they watched video art presented by Nurit Sharett. If you know Israeli politics, she is the granddaughter of Moshe Sharett. While I found her to be quite off-putting and a bad lecturer, her art is unique and very political. She made a video letter to a friend discussing her love/hate relationship with Tel Aviv during the Gulf War which really touched me. She said even though friends had offered to pay for her flight to live with them in another country, she feels a responsibility...a need to be in Israel during such hard times because it wouldn't be fair to let her fellow Israelis suffer while she lived in peace.
Az ma kore? (what’s happening?)
My plan was put into motion, bigger and better than expected! While I did not get to see a show, I have been fortunate to see some art. Lindsay took me to the Tel Aviv Museum of Contemporary Art a few weeks ago, and then I visited the Rubin Museum, home to the artwork of Reuven Rubin, an amazing Israeli painter. Just a couple blocks from my house lays Bialik St. where the museum is, and I followed along on a seminar with some kids from Cleveland who were on an Israeli Advocacy trip. The speaker was really great, teaching the kids about the symbolism in an interactive way. I love learning about the Jewish symbolism in painting: pomegranates, donkeys, fruit, babies, boats, sea, desert. I’ve been studying this a bit on my own, as Lindsay gave me a lesson plan based on Rubin’s work to edit...The reason I was spying on the tour group in the first place! There’s an amazing painting of the street I live on, Yona Hanavi, back in the 1920’s, which I absolutely love! What a special time to witness the city of Tel Aviv (a work in progress) 100 years from its foundation. The same diversity in Rubin’s portraits remains relevant today. Following the Rubin tour, I joined the group as they watched video art presented by Nurit Sharett. If you know Israeli politics, she is the granddaughter of Moshe Sharett. While I found her to be quite off-putting and a bad lecturer, her art is unique and very political. She made a video letter to a friend discussing her love/hate relationship with Tel Aviv during the Gulf War which really touched me. She said even though friends had offered to pay for her flight to live with them in another country, she feels a responsibility...a need to be in Israel during such hard times because it wouldn't be fair to let her fellow Israelis suffer while she lived in peace.
In other news, I started my volunteer work. Wait, isn’t a non-paid internship considered volunteer work? Apparently not. We’re also required to put in community service hours during our time here. I chose to volunteer at a therapeutic horse-riding center in Ramat Gan, just outside Tel Aviv at the National Park. The lessons from my adventure trying to find this place:1) I’m ALWAYS going to go the wrong way, get lost, or miss my bus stop going anywhere for the first time.
2) You cannot be afraid to ask for directions, just be prepared to be sent in a circle by 10 different people.
3) Learn how to say, “horse,” before trying to find a horse center.
More to come about the center and its amazing cause after I’ve spent a real day there…so far I just toured, and attempted to put a saddle on a very stubborn horse!
July will start a whole new chapter in my life here…Leetal is gone for a month staffing a high school tour of Israel through Oranim, so I’ll have the apartment to myself but be forced to face the world without my best friend here....it's bittersweet. A lot of my friends are also leaving, as they finished their programs. On the plus side, I will be busy volunteering, working for Omanoot, babysitting, taking dance/singing, and travelling as usual! How will I keep up with my tanning?? Thank goodness for Shabbat!
And now, instead of my usual Hebrew phrases.....here are two short dialogues based on my attempts to find my babysitting family’s house and the horse riding center in Ramat Gan:
Destination Desired: 64 Pinkas (Babysitting)
Current location: heading straight down the road the driver directed me towards, which dead-ended...great.
Me (to little old lady with lipstick on her teeth): "At makirah rehov pinkas?"
"Are you familiar with pinkas st?"
Little Old Lady: "Ken."
….15 seconds of silence…
Me: "Um..efo ze??"
Little Old Lady: "Ken."
….15 seconds of silence…
Me: "Um..efo ze??"
"Um...where is it??"
Little Lady: Lots of words I didn’t understand, which basically translated to… “You’re on it”
Destination Desired: Sport Riding Center (Ramat Gan)
Current location: Lost in the middle of a national park after spending 1 ½ hours on a bus that should have taken 30 minutes...awesome.
Me (to a random man): "Efo sport riding center??"
Man: "Ma? Emmmm….gym?"
Me: "Lo, lo gym…umm horses?? Ani lo medaberet harbe evreet, slicha"
Man: "Gym?"
Me: "Az, bye…todah"
(If you don't understand what happened in that conversation....join the club. Later he found me still lost, and told me my gym wasn’t in the direction I was going…Thanks.)
Little Lady: Lots of words I didn’t understand, which basically translated to… “You’re on it”
Destination Desired: Sport Riding Center (Ramat Gan)
Current location: Lost in the middle of a national park after spending 1 ½ hours on a bus that should have taken 30 minutes...awesome.
Me (to a random man): "Efo sport riding center??"
Man: "Ma? Emmmm….gym?"
Me: "Lo, lo gym…umm horses?? Ani lo medaberet harbe evreet, slicha"
Man: "Gym?"
Me: "Az, bye…todah"
(If you don't understand what happened in that conversation....join the club. Later he found me still lost, and told me my gym wasn’t in the direction I was going…Thanks.)
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