Today was a great day! I slept late to make up for days 5/6 and then snapped some pics of the hostel for you guys to see:
As you can see, it's a really colorful, lively place! I love it!
Then I headed out to the shuk, which is a marketplace, two parallel streets with covered alleyways in between. It was just before Shabbat, so it was so crowded! Everyone rushing to get their shopping done. It was kind of like being a pinball... i just aimed myself in the general direction I wanted, and got bounced around until I got there.
I had my first Aroma iced coffee of the trip. AMAZING. I did not remember. It's AMAZING.
Then I went back to the store where Matat and I shopped last time, and I'm not misremembering that, either. I practically bought myself a new warddrobe. I made two trips. I'm serious.
They have slushies in amazing flavors. Look! I knew I was meant to be here:
I got a piece of pizza, and in ordering I learned two new Hebrew words:
tapucha = apple
pitriot = mushrooms
Then I headed to the old city. It's about 20 minutes walk from my hostel, right down Jaffa road. It's a lovely walk!
The Old City is a big pain in the butt!!! It's like a maze in there. All the streets wind around and they all look the same. I spent 3 hours there and I managed to get lost about a million times and somehow never find the Jewish quarter. Here's some of what I did find...
I saw this sign and I figured I might as well check it out since I was there.
The courtyard that leads into the tomblike... tomb
This is supposedly where they took Christ's body down from the cross.
There were lots of big, vault-like altars inside
If you go down a bunch of stairs you get to this cave within a cave and this altar where people kneel. It is supposedly where the cross fell at the bottom of the hill when they tossed it aside after taking Christ down
The Holy Sepulcher is like a mini church in the bigger cave church
I had to wait in line for a bit to go inside. Ahead of me was this guy who kept giggling, I think he found the priests funny. The priests were letting in 3 people at a time, and then clapping at them when they took too long.
The entrance
Once you go through the entrance you are in this little holding spot and then you have to stoop down to go through this tiny ivory door into the tomb. I didn't feel right taking a picture of the tomb itself, but basically there's a marble slab that I suppose is coffin like, and lots of candles and ornamentation. It smells nice, like incense. I knelt beside two other people and said some prayers for my Christian friends. Then I took a candle from a dispenser above the "tomb."
I like it and put it in this thing outside the tomb. Mine is the one on the right!
The store!
A street in the Christian Quarter
A Franciscan monk directing tourists
Path of Suffering
It's funny, when I left the Holy Sepulchre the Muslim call to prayer came on. Jerusalem is like a Comparative Religion happy land.
The Muslim Quarter looks basically like the other quarters except there are more women with head coverings and more Israeli soldiers standing around
The sign was cooler than the gate
So I started to feel a little sick because I was tired and I think I drank too much water. I gave up on trying to find the Jewish quarter and just wanted to get out of the maze. So I thought I'd take this little alley...
Not smart
This was a shitty idea, apparently, because it had all the backsides of restaurants facing other streets. So they were loading in animal carcasses and fish heads and God knows what. It smelled AWFUL and I slipped and slid through fish slime on the cobble stones. But I was invested, so I made it out the other side.
Nobody reads signs, I guess.
Then I took the lightrail back to the hostel, where I'd signed up for their Shabbat dinner. Basically one head chef put us all to work as helpers. I peeled and sliced carrots.
I got a drink with a new friend I made while things were cooking
The dinner prayer guide. I love the top quote! No fear at all!
It was really good! And the company was great, everyone was friendly. Note the pitcher of an Israeli fluid called "Drank." Yes, "Drank." This "Drank" was supposedly orange.
So after dinner, this guy is like "HEY! Weren't you in line with me at the Holy Sepulchre?" He was the giggling one! I had just ruined his wine because I was trying to clean up and I thought his glass was left behind so I poured the extra wine from all of the other glasses into it to toss out. Then he drank it anyway. Funny guy, teaches world religions in CT. We talked a lot about religion!
He performed a number form Jesus Christ Superstar for me. He's Catholic, but is wearing a kippah because he went to the Western Wall earlier and just didn't take it off.
Someone came over and asked if we knew each other and he said "No! We just met in Christ's tomb and then met again at the Shabbat table! Destiny!" So we took a pic.
This guy works at the hostel and I thought he was cool.
Rooftop!
We were joined by this French kid who wants to be a musician. He was good at guitar! It turns out his Dad is Jewish and he thinks he wants to convert. He told me about his cousins's conversion and his thoughts on commandments and the Torah and all kinds of things. He put a lot of thought into it. I told him in my experience other people confirming your faith isn't as satisfying as it seems like it will be, but I wished him the best.
Man, I am so tired. Not sure what I'm gonna do tomorrow! I'll play it by ear!
Sorry for the missing blog post. Basically Days 5 and 6 became one long day with about an hour of sleep in the middle. Let's see if I can string this all together... I'm going to put bold headings so those of you who only want to read about certain topics can skip around.
WEDNESDAY CONFERENCE
On Wednesday morning, Ruth Calderon came to give our morning speech. She is a member of the Knesset, among other things. She holds a PhD in Torah study (I think) and is famous largely for this speech she gave when she entered the Knesset (which is Israeli Parliament, FYI)...
She gave a really great talk. She used a Talmud portion (I think it was Talmud... the sources weren't listed clearly, I think this is the sort of thing that is obvious to Israelis but maybe not to others, and also Israelis obviously have different names for sections and books than we do in English, so even when they do cite I don't always immediately know what they're talking about.)
Anyway we did a kind of Talmud study as a group of 150 with lots of audience participation and she used the portion to talk about our obligation as leaders and members of the fringes of society. At one point she looked at us and said "I know you guys are all the cool kids, the well dressed popular kids, but it's important to step back from that sometimes..."
You know it was a pretty good looking, charming group over all, but none of us were the popular kids in high school. We should make a "Jews, it gets better" video.
Okay now I actually really want to do that.
Anyway, then she took questions from the audience, most of which were political. I suspect I disagree with her on a lot of her foreign policy stances, but I liked a lot of her domestic policy initiatives. One she spoke about was civil marriage (YES!) and it seems like it might actually have a chance of passing this time since the coalition has no ultra orthodox members AND the coalition was formed for the first time without a clause demanding the maintenance of religious status quo. This made me really happy.
Though I still appreciated my roommate getting up and asking why they're accepting civil unions when all Jews deserve to get married as their beliefs fit. I appreciate this, because it's true. One step at a time, I guess
Overall I was encouraged by her speech and I feel more optimistic about the Knesset than I did before.
Next we had master classes with experts. My class was media training, on how to court the press and important interview skills. I loved it. Daphne, the teacher, worked for CNN, ABC, among others (She interviewed Kasparov about his match vs Deep Blue!!!!! I nearly fainted.) and she now runs a business specifically training people to deal with the press. She really impressed me. I learned a lot from her, too much to write here, but one of my favorites was her advice on how to deal with personal questions.
Earlier an Israeli radio station had interviewed me. They asked about my writing, but then they asked if I was married and if I wanted a Jewish husband. I asked Daphne what she would have had me do. Is responding unprofessional? Is not responding snooty and alienating?
She said you can respond to personal question if you want... and if you don't want to, sass your way out of it. Her off the cuff suggestion for my situation was to say "I don't even answer when my mother asks me that!" With a big smile.
I better sharpen my sass.
After lunch we had focus groups with leaders of various Jewish organizations. I attended the one with the VP of marketing of Birthright, who wanted to hear our ideas on how to get more people to go on the trip. As I was speaking to him, I realized that's kind of EXACTLY WHAT I DO AT EF. Exactly. Not even kind of exactly. Just exactly. It was great to have an outlet for my enthusiasm and I hope I was helpful.
MUSEUM OUTING
That night we were broken up into many groups, and it was very specific. Each group was based on a common thematic interest of its members. My group was commonly interested in narrative and story telling. In addition to conference members, Jewish leaders from the area joined in. Our group, for example, had the HEAD OF HILLEL, among others. Talking to him a little was the highlight for me. He looked so much like my Dad. We had to tell the story of an object that represents us in some way. He said his frequent flyer account, because it shows all the places he's been in the world to help build up Jewish communities. I said Daddy Bob's necklace, because it represents Judaism in my life moving from obscurity to understanding and closeness.
Then we had a "specially curated tour" of items in the Israeli Museum, including items not on display. My group didn't really do this though, we looked at slides of photographs, I think there might have been some miscommunication.
With Frida Kahlo and her bad leg.
Moroccan Jewish wedding headdress.
This made me really sad. It's for a baby, and then there are the star badges.
One of the most poignant and most hurtful moments of the conference happened at the museum for me.
I had to go to the bathroom so I went looking for it on my own. On my way I saw this image of a Passover Seder on the wall...
The same image used in the haggadah my family has always used. It really struck me. I'd never really thought about those images, their history, where they'd come from. But passover is I think the Jewish holiday my family keeps best, and my favorite, and the haggadah is a big part of my memories. It really moved me to see the originals and see it all blown up and learn some history. And it moved me how many other Jewish objects were preserved, that would have been destroyed otherwise. They have entire recreations of synagogues, they have rooms full just of menorah, of Torah caps and coverings. Wedding rings and goblets and headdresses and prayer shawls. Items that were so personal to people and such a part of our cultural memories. And I felt really grateful for the museum.
Our Hagaddah!
The explanation
Then I got back to the group and I heard a lot of objections from people that we were in the "Israel Museum" and yet there were only Jewish objects, and that's wrong, since there were not only Jews in Israel.
This was the first time I really felt agitated and frustrated at the conference. I'd mostly kept it at bay by trying to be in my debate-mode mindset, where I suspend personal emotional response and look just at the logic and rhetoric. But this wasn't possible in this moment because I was kind of weepy from my Haggadah moment and it felt so personal.
These kind of remarks are so frustrating because they're unfounded and point to this intense desire people (Even Jews, which endlessly vexes me) to find some horrible sin in everything Israel or Israelis or Israeli institutions do. The Israel Museum is HUGE. It's so gigantic. It has EVERYTHING. Every culture, art, artifacts, historical stuff, mummies, paintings, modern stuff, you name it. Our group walked through Picasso collections. We saw that there are many objects that have nothing to do with Judaism. The topic of our particular outing was narrative in Jewish art and artifacts, which really shouldn't be seen as a surprise or a misdeed considering it's a Jewish Leadership Conference. But lots of people complained even though the evidence was clearly against them. People really want to see Israel as tyrannical. Of course there are things Israel does wrong, it just feels like people LOOK for them CONSTANTLY and always assume the worst. It hurt me after just thinking to myself how grateful I was for this Jewish collection.
And you know, if the ISRAEL museum doesn't have a great Jewish collection, then were will????
I had another poignant moment when I came across a death registry. It was all in Hebrew, and this time, I could read it. I could read all of the names. Records of people who'd lived hundreds of years ago were accessible to me, their lives kind of resparked when I read it, remembered. Hebrew is really powerful. Last year at this time I'd have not been able to read a single letter.
After, we went out to a VERY fancy multiple course dinner on the museum terrace. Tons, tons, tons of food. Tomatos so fresh even I liked them. Lots of wine. Lots of everything. The location was gorgeous, with a view of the hills and the Knesset.
Fancy dinner! Knesset in the distance on the left.
There were many speeches and a band playing. At one point, someone sang Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, which moved me. I could sing along with all the words, again, such a stark contrast with the last time I was in Israel. It is a very, very beautiful song if you don't know it:
As performed at our dinner
PARTY AND ODD NIGHT
It seems like the day should be over, but not even close. We then went back to the hotel for a huge party. They pulled out all the stops. Free open endless bar, tons of food and deserts and snacks, etc. Also, it was this really interesting "silent disco" (??) party. Basically, everyone is given a pair of huge noise-cancelling headphones set for the frequency of the DJ. If you want to dance, you keep them on your ears, and you hear the blasting music and it's just like you're in a club. If you want to talk, you take them off and it's like you're in a pretty quiet bar with a fog machine and lots of lights. If you want to talk like you're in a loud bar, you leave it on one ear.
It was awesome!! All three "settings" worked. When you're in talk mode, it's especially fun to watch everone dancing and singing along to music you can't hear. Apparantly this is a really common thing in Israel, but I'd never heard of such a thing so it was really cool.
They had hard alcohol so I was basically zonked after 1.5 rum/cokes. I spent the night dancing and hugging people and asking silly questions. You know, typical drunk Ariane behavior. The party ended around 2:30 but some people asked if I wanted to go out to a bar. Still in "yes" mode, I agreed. So off we hike into Jerusalem at 3 am and I'm in 4 inch wedge heals and a dress I'd probably get stoned in if I wandered into the wrong neighborhood.
The bar was really cool. It was tiny and the people were so friendly. There was an "acoustic grunge" session going on which basically consisted of a guitarist, some singers, some hand-percussionists, and some dancers. And my first whiskey shot.
At ~4:00, I decided it was a great idea to go running through a long row of sprinklers in a park singing Matisyahu.
Back to hotel by about 4:30, soaked from head to toe and my shoes will never be the same.
THURSDAY CONFERENCE
This morning's speech was by Joshua Prager. I don't normally like it when people read speeches, but he's writer and his speech was beautiful and meant to be delivered in a particular way. He told the story of how he was in a car accident in Jerusalem when he was 19 that cost him most movement in the left side of his body. Then he told the story of the rest of his life spent mourning/dealing/rehashing/cursing/wondering afterward. I was choking on tears the entire hour. It was too close to home. Are we what is done to us? Why does God allow these things? Is there a God? And the beautiful writing, it reminded me of some of what I try to do in ETHER. And my fascination with the Jewish obsession with memory and the preservation of it. And trauama.
I'll post his ROI talk if it goes up on youtube. For now though, here's a TED talk he did that's kind of similar to what he talked about today...
At this point I was really overwhelmed. I was emotionally overwhelmed, I was physically exhausted, I was dehydrated. We were supposed to do lightening case studies but I went for a walk instead. It was the only part of the conference I skipped, but you gotta take care of yourself.
Lunch was a riot. They made one of the hotel hallways into a shuk, or a kind of marketplace. It was all street food and vegetable carts, and all delicious of course.
Then there was a kind of.. magic/illusion show used to talk about the benefits of being an ROI member.
The piece I'm most excited about is that for the rest of my life I am able to apply for 1-2k worth of funding each year from ROI to work on a project, and it seems like the funding is given most of the time. I could go on writing retreats. I could go to Israel every summer to study Hebrew or Torah. I could collaborate with other artists (luminarium?) Or any other productive endeavor, essentially. You can use the money to attend conferences, to get training, to do anything.
ROI also offers free PR services! And it's clear now that ROI knows everyone, right? You just call them when you want PR for something and they basically make it happen. That is amazing. When I have a pub date for Ether... bam!
I'm really baffled about ROI. It's so amazing. I don't really understand how this happened to me. I didn't realize when I applied that it was THIS big a deal. I mean, it seemed awesome, but I did't really get it. I didn't know that 90% of attendees were there by referral (I was one of the few who applied for permission to apply and then applied, haha), that 120/650 were taken, that people apply year after year after year for the chance to go. I'm so lucky.
And if you're Jewish and awesome and a leader, and want to go, let me know. Now I'm a member and can refer people!!! It's the chance of a lifetime, it really is. I met so many amazing people, and now I have a network for life. It's insane.
Still, by the end I was definitely overstimulated and ready to go. I got some cell phone numbers and basically fled the scene during goodbyes. I don't do well with goodbyes.
MY AWESOME HOSTEL
Several people from the conference invited me to crash with them in Tel Aviv, and for a while that was my plan, but I was feeling pretty done with crowds for a while and craving some alone time. So I decided to stick with my original plan to stay in Jerusalem on my own. I found a cab driver brave enough to take me to my hostel in Davidka square. Apparently most roads were shut down for a city wide drag race (?!?!) but this guy knew a back way.
My hostel is awesome!!!! The rooms are simple, dorm-like. The people are so nice and friendly, all young and wanting to talk. There's a laundry room, computers, a travel agent on-site, free tours (an inexpensive tours), a game room, a bar, and tons more stuff. Housekeeping at this hostel appears to consist of 3 good looking guys knocking politely on everyone's doors and offering shots of arak. I'm on the third of three floors and they take a shot with every guest that wants one so they were already pretty tipsy. And offering free tours. And inviting me to a CD launch on the second floor. I went down and I only stayed for a bit but it was so cool. Tons of people on beanbag chairs and couches gathered around this band that was actually pretty good!
There's not much hot water and it's noisy, which is the downside. But I don't really mind. It's very much like being back in a college dorm except without any bros and with more international students and RAs that give you shots. Unless yours did give you shots to begin with.. mine never did.
I took and evening stroll around the shuk, bought more comfortable sandals, a sandwich and some snacks, and chilled out. I have two days in Jerusalem now to hang out and collect myself before the West Bank excursion.
Interesting graffiti in Jerusalem
As always, please excuse my spelling and mistakes, these are usually written in a rush! No time for yeast!
This morning started out with a really interesting speech from the founder of University of the People, a completely free degree granting online university. It's pretty important, amazing work and I was really impressed!
Next there were two peer-led skill sessions. The first one I went to was a speech-giving class by the same guy whose doing the debate project I mentioned yesterday. It was a lot of fun and really funny because a lot of his points were ones I'd thought about before but in a different way, and he had hilarious names for several speech habits and hand gestures people do. I learned a lot, too, surprisingly. I'm psyched to bring these tips back to my role as a sales trainer.
(Dad, if you can't read the points: 1) Vary your tone 2) Never use a long word when a short one will do 3) Never use two words when one will do 4) Never speak for longer than is absolutely necessary .... familiar? :) ))
The second session was about using found text in writing and story telling. We had to search our e-mail for certain words and then tell the story of what we found. It was really fun to hear everyone's story. One in particular was from this girl from Russia. The word we had to search for was the name of our hometown (my story was about how almost all of the e-mails were about overdue books I had at the library...), and she told the story of this e-mail. Basically, when she was little in this small town in Russia, she had to have her adenoid's removed. They had no anesthetic, so they had to tie her to her father to keep her still while they did this. The e-mail was from her father, and said "Don't worry..." and had a link to that doctor's obituary, and "He can't hurt you anymore."
Wow! There was no following that up.
Over lunch I talk with another writer and a girl who works in digital publicity for a talent agency. We had a really interesting conversation about literary denouement and also about author publicity. I really enjoyed it.
After lunch there was a panel of various experts talking about current issues in Israel: 1) Women of the wall, and generally the way Orthodoxy controls the law despite being a minority. 2) Are Israelis capable of criticizing the diaspora the way the diaspora criticizes Israel? and 3) Tikkun Olam ("Repair the world"/basically Jewish community service and Jews as agents of change.
It was a fascinating panel. Everyone had interesting things to say. One of my favorite things was that Micah Goodman was speaking. He is the director of Ein Prat, the leadership academy I'll be at later this trip. And I really loved a lot of what he had to say, so I'm looking forward to that.
The panel ended with a little speech by one of the panelists that began so encouragingly, and ended... well, it was something like this...
"The point of Judaism is not for the white view and the black view to discuss until they can find the common grey. The point is to fight it out! To disagree! There's only one Torah but so many interpretations. Black and white simultaneously exist. Orthodox and Reform and Progressive and Feminists and Traditionalists and Zionists and Anti-Zionists simultaneously exist. And no one group can tell the other they're not Jews. That can't be taken away. That's the amazing thing about matrilineal descent."
This was me listening to this:
Yes yes yes!
And then...
Sigh.
So then I was feeling a little overwhelmed, and the thing about these conferences is that they're very intense and wonderful but things are mostly on a surface level. There's no way to really discuss emotional things except in an odd way. On that note I'm really looking forward to Ein Prat where we will study together every day for 4 weeks! It will be nice to have that depth.
So I decided to go sit by myself outside for a little while. I was feeling a little discouraged. Everybody knows this identity question is THE sticking point for me (and the things that go with it, like marriage and other rights in Israel) but I don't feel like going over it here. So I went outside, and I was kind of bummed, and I saw this garden:
And then I noticed these hoses...
And I looked and I saw they were dripping...
It's kind of hard to see here, but the hoses are dripping. And first I thought the hoses were all leaking. But then I realized they were dripping, and not leaking. And it's intentional. And it's drip irrigation, which is an Israeli invention, you know. And something I've read a lot about for a long time and never seen. It's kind of hard to put into words now, but I found this really encouraging. I think sometimes I just need to remember these little awesome things around me even when certain parts of the Israeli reality are very disheartening.
So in we went and we had another round of discussions. This time I sat in on a couple of topics... 1) Gender issues in Argentina, in which I actually just ended up talking to this female Rabbi about her work and her experiences and Leah in the Torah. I loved it! 2) Should we specialize or should we study broadly? I which I ranted a bit about my experience as a comparativist. 3) Best places to travel 4) How do we maintain a Jewish society when we don't really know who qualifies as a Jew? Which was interesting.
Sorry I'm getting really tired so the details are failing me a bit but i want to get through the day! I'm sure I'll remember stuff and add it in the future.
At dinner I met another guy from Boston, and it turns out we both brought Red Sox paraphernalia as our special object to swap. He's also in sales, sort of, well, fundraising, and we talked a lot about that and that was fun.
And then we spiked the lemonade...
And I got into a REALLY cool conversation with this girl who works as an American Sign Language interpreter. I was FASCINATED! I learned so many things. Here are just a few:
1) There are "classes" within deaf society defined by one's deaf heritage. The highest class is if you're genetically born deaf and your parents were deaf as well. The less deafness in society, the lower your deaf class. Whoa.
2) Lots of deaf people consider it a form of genocide to give infants cochlear implants. They feel deafness is a culture and it IS a language minority, and unilaterally decided a child born deaf should not be a part of that culture is cultural murder. Whoa.
3) I guess I knew this, but I never really thought about it... written text is a second language to deaf people. It doesn't match their language in any way, really. I always thought if i were deaf I would read all of the time... but it's really not so easy for most deaf people. For this reason there are very few deaf writers or playwrights.
I learned other stuff too.
Then I went back to my room and talked to my roomate for hours about Israeli society, marriage, gender norms, child rearing, the humanities, war, house keeping, haha... it was great.
I admit, I'm having a really hard time remembering all the cool things that happened today.
After a hurried breakfast (I love my new makeup routine, but it takes FOREVER), we were ushered into the main hall where we heard a talk about what ROI is really about and how it came about. It was originally meant as a follow-up to birthright, a way to start to see the results of the investment birthright makes in young Jews. I'd say it majorly pays off.
Next was you-pitch-it. They'd called me last week and asked if I'd be willing to pitch my writing. I'm in a 'say yes' kind of mode these days, so I agreed. That said, I'd been pretty anxious about it. But it went really well, I think! Eventually there might be a video somewhere, I'm not sure. But many people came up to me after who really enjoyed it, and that felt really nice
So then we broke into groups for community case studies. Basically some members stated the aims of some business or social endeavors and described their goals and challenges and then the people in the group gave feedback and advice and asked lots of questions. It was great to be in such a collaborative environment with so many people eager to help and make connections and all the rest.
Then we all went back into the room and did "collaborative space" which is basically open ended panels. They dropped a pile of paper into the middle of the big hall and said "write down topics you want to discuss!" then the topics were assigned different areas of the room and then you go talk to whomever you want. I have to say, I was nervous that no one would write down a topic.... but the floor was FLOODED with people and we had more than enough! I went to a group about Jewish heritage discrimination and another group about whether or not Israelis "get" diaspora realities and whether or not it matters. I felt kind of like the odd one out in both of these groups, but not really in a bad way.
People writing topics!
People posting topics!
Somewhere in there was interviewed by a bunch of people... for an Israeli radio station, and a newspaper, and a TV show. I have to dig out their cards and try to track it down. I'm not really sure if anything will come of it, but it was fun! And I got to practice my author pitch over and over and over.
My jet lag started to bother me at this point and I was running low on steam. I was feeling a little down, but then I chugged an ice coffee and had a great chat with the same guy whose case study I'd attended earlier. His project is basically to bring Israeli and Palestinian teens to England to teach them debate skills and foster flexible thinking and respect. I think this is a brilliant idea. We talked more in depth about the debate side of things since I couldn't bring up a lot of my points in the original session since it felt too in-speak-y when surrounded by people who did not debate.
Reinvigorated, we all went to dinner by the pool. The food didn't really agree with me this time so I had a lot of hummus and cake, haha. You can't go wrong with hummus and cake. And I made fast friends with some Israelis! I talked about things in an hour some of my friends still don't really know about :).
New friends by the pool! Liat, Bar, and Reuel!
Then there was a huge talent show! They turned the main hall into like... a poetry lounge? There are so many talented people here. Some highlights were the Bagels and Box beat boxer (He was REALLY talented! Wow!), the comedienne, and the fake-rapping, which I found so amusing and pretty brave.
So basically this conference is the best thing ever!
I'll start from the beginning. I had intended to go out into the city today but I decided to take it easy instead. I really don't want to feel like I have to cram everything into this trip. I want to enjoy myself and my time and I know I will always come back :). So I took it easy this morning... I slept in, ironed all of my conference clothes, painted my toenails purple, took my time getting ready, lounged on my little balcony... and I'm glad I did because the conference is SO busy!
So this conference is basically a gathering of young Jewish entrepreneurs from all over the globe. There are 150 attendees representing 37 countries! I'm mostly here as a writer, although sales training comes into a lot of these conversations, too. This is the 8th annual conference funded mostly (completely?) by the Schusterman foundation. They paid for our flights, 5 nights hotel, all of our (amazing) meals, our programming... it's spectacular.
It's like... birthright + DI World Championships + swankiness.
For example...
A bellhop came just to give me this nice chocolate
Free, endless supply of frozen lemonade... I nearly died of happiness.
Free, endless supply of edamame...
A chocolate fountain... into which I dipped... everything.
But the best part, of course, is the people! SO many brilliant, fascinating people, and everyone is kind and excited to meet you. Just some people I've met: -This guy who used to do the social networking for Charlie Sheen, then he worked for an Israeli consulate, then he worked on the Obama campaign, now he consults for start ups
-This girl who runs dating match-making parties based on pheromones (This girl is awesome and I can't wait to hear more about this)
-This guy who runs an organization dedicated to Jews and educating Jewish organizations on how to be more intelligent and inclusive
-This girl who patented a shirt that doesn't gape open at the chest when buttoned (I want this)
-This guy who opened a cafe/salon in Jerusalem that sounds like the best hangout ever, I'm totally going after the conference
-This guy who publishes a poetry magazine
-This girl who is a DJ and produces music videos (among other things)
-My roomie is a really sweet girl who is a secular rabbi, which I've loved hearing about
-A girl who made aliyah and then started her own improv troupe to make fun of her experiences in Israel
And on and on. Everyone has a unique story. People have been really receptive to my stories, too. Such a fun community!
Dad, you would like to know that one of the rules of the convention is to say "YES, AND." And "YES, AND" was declared the official phrase of the convention. You always do this. I love you.
I've had some humble experiences, I admit. I was talking to two Mexican guys who were really nice. I didn't know Mexico is technically "The United States of Mexico." I also didn't know Chihuahua is not just a kind of dog, but also a state, and ALSO a cheese. I learned the name of some other Mexican states as well. They said they'd quiz me tomorrow, I'd have to say if things were a state, a cheese, a small dog, or some combination :). It was funny but also odd to be 'that girl,' you know, the one that doesn't know basic geography. But it's okay! Now I do know!
One thing I found funny was that they had us do ice breakers, of course, BUT FIRST they gave us all shots. Hahaha. That's SO the way to do icebreakers. L'chaim!
Basically I am having a fantastic time! I'm so excited to be making so many new and interesting friends. That said, I do miss you all at home! I hope you're well. Comment and say hi :)
There were lots of delays and incidents with my flights, but that's over now! Delta was surprisingly pleasant... the people were nice, the food was fine, and there were a zillion movies.
Traveling alone is a little lonely, but only a little. I feel like I've interacted with strangers more in the last 24 hours than I would in a week or two at home. I think travelers are perhaps more open to experience in general, they're looking outward already instead of lost in their own worlds and routines.
I wasn't surrounded by Israelis on the flight this time, but rather about 30 members of a Venezuelan-American church tour, and they did indeed clap and sing when we landed in Israel... well, they sang "HALLELUJAH." They were really friendly and talkative and shared their bottled water with me. I also met a family on a Baha'i pilgrimage, and they were really friendly, too.
Yoni Netanyahu wrote in a letter to his parents: "Dear mother and father, when I saw the country from the plane I felt a twinge in my heart. Jerusalem is more beautiful than ever. Perhaps I am a bit sentimental because I haven't seen it for so long. Despite everything that's wrong here - and God knows there are many faults and evils - it's our country. And I love her as I always have."
And that's how I felt, too. It's so gorgeous! From the air and on the ground. So many trees and flowers, and all these valleys and terraces and gorgeous sunsets! And Jews everywhere! It's fun to be around so many Jews.
The ATM at the airport didn't work, so... thanks Dad for making me take cash to change :). That's how I paid for my cab! I took a shared taxi, where everyone going to Jerusalem pays about $16. It was fun because I got to see some neighborhoods I might not otherwise. Also I met another purple haired lady in the cab who had never been to Israel before and has no idea really what she's going to do except that she's going to be here for 30 days. I asked her what drew her to Israel and she said "The Word is So Strong In Me!!!!"
Speaking Hebrew is tricky. I keep slipping into Japanese which is not helpful at all. I get excited whenever I can understand an exchange. I overheard this in the taxi
Lady: "My house is straight ahead. Then left, then left."
Driver: "I understand."
Woooo hoooooo!
I like the way Israelis speak. When I got out at my hotel, this older guard/porter wearing a bunch of friendship bracelets took my suitcase from me and said "It's okay, Miss. Don't worry. I'm here now." Thanks, Yakov.
I can read this!
My hotel room is really nice. I have a balcony all to myself! Look at my view:
Probably my biggest annoyance when it comes to Israel is the way everything shuts down on Shabbat. I know it's also a charm, that here is a country that actually lives by Jewish law. But to be frank it can be really disruptive!!! Everywhere to eat around the hotel was closed, and room service was closed. There was a buffet in the hotel open but it was $50... I decided to go for it. Sometimes you just have to spoil yourself after traveling. And I ate a LOT! I had stuffed chicken, roast beef, spicy potatoes, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, rice, purple cabbage salad, beat salad, fried artichoke hearts, regular salad, pluuuuus 2 pieces of cake and 4 slices of ridiculously good watermelon. So, I guess I got my money's worth.
Then I bought some sandals as stand-ins for the sandals I left at home (long stupid story that I'm putting behind me.) They're not ideal, but they'll do while I look for better ones. Long shower and hopefully a good night's sleep tonight!
I'm feeling pretty good. I miss my friends and family but I'm not sick or too worn out or disoriented, and tomorrow I'll be surrounded by people in my program!
I tend to have panic attacks when I'm traveling, usually at the beginning of trips when I'm jet lagged/disoriented/confused/exhausted and probably a little bit sick. They're hard to entirely quell, they just kind of go away after I get 2 or 3 decent nights of sleep in a row. But there are certain songs that help me keep them under control! I've starred the ones that are super effective!
1) Lauryn Hill, "Everything is Everything"
*2) Avenue Q, "For Now"
*3) The Beastie Boys, "Slow and Low"
4) The Beta Band, "Dry the Rain"
5) Jimmy Eat World, "The Middle"
6) Bob Marley and the Wailers, "No Woman No Cry"
7) Indigo Girls, "Closer to Fine"
8) The Grateful Dead, "Ripple"
9) Ani DiFranco, "Little Plastic Castle"
********10) Guster, "Mona Lisa"
11) Bright Eyes, "Train Under Water"
12) Paul Simon, "Born At the Right Time"
And, if I'm honest...
*******13) Mulan, "I'll Make a Man Out of You"
Are there songs that help you keep calm and collected?
