Kibbutz Lotan Wrap Up & Fish for Dinner, yikes!

Oh, the civilized Middle Eastern world. How nice and HOT it is, well I guess it’s cooler then the desert, but the humidity is about 75% +.

Friday, I made the 8-hour journey from Kibbutz Lotan to Qiryat Shemona in the north, only a few miles from the Lebanon border. Along the way, actually about 10 minutes into my trip, I was fortunate enough to once again experience the weak stomachs of the Israeli people when it comes to riding in a bus. I had just settled into my seat when a passenger came to the front looking of the bus looking for plastic bags. I immediately knew, from my past experience, that someone had already or was about the blow.

I was sitting against the window on the right side of the bus and I turned around to take a look down the crack between the window and the seats. Instantly the disaster zone was spotted. In the second row of seats behind me, a gentleman was hunkered over, leaning on the glass and spewing all over the sidewall and floor. The window was covered with vomit and it was barreling down the windowsill towards my right elbow. There were no towels near by, no napkins, nothing to set up a barrier between me and flood of liquid bile. Then, at the list minute I saw a crumbled up napkin on the floor under my seat. It was probably someone’s snot-rag, but at this point I had to put that thought behind me and try to pick it up with the least amount of contact. At the last second I stuck the old dirty snot-rag to the windowsill and managed to stop the bile in it’s path, or at least divert it down the wall of the seat behind me.

For the next hour I couldn’t help to continue checking on the strength of my barrier until the rising, hot, sun, dried and crusted the bile to the windowsill.

About 30 minutes later, round two for this poor guy started as we wound our way up the desert canyon. Fortunately, this time he had plenty of plastic bags to contain his fluids, it was the sound affects that were hard to stomach.

Daniel picked me up from the bus station and we were off to his aunts’ house, just in time for Shabbat Dinner. After waiting for the men and boys to return from the synagogue, we took our seats around the table. They began with a few prayer songs, blessed the wine, we washed our hands, and then served the bread. Dinner was then served.

I need to take a minute to go off on a little tangent here to explain the next part of this story. When I travel, I always try very hard to show the most respect. One the hardest parts when it comes to showing respect can be around the dinner table. I always forced down anything that is put in front of me. Whether I know what it is or not, I do my best to eat it. It simply becomes a mind of matter situation, often times I don’t even chew and I just swallow it whole, trying to control the amount of flavor that is released. With that said, on the menu for Shabbat Dinner Friday night, Fish. Most of you probably are thinking, what’s so bad about fish? Well, I don’t eat a whole lot of seafood. I have an incredibly sensitive gag reflex when it comes to the smell and taste of anything slightly fishy. I when I say slightly, I mean that I will find the fishy flavor even in the freshest fish that is prepared by a five start restaurant.

Back to the story. So Daniel looks at me and says, with a smirk on his face, “you like fish, is that ok?” He know’s I don’t. I immediately become anxious about how this is going to taste, what kind of fish is it, and I’m hoping I don’t throw up like the guy on the bus. Fortunately the portion was small and a managed, with the help of some spicy peppers, chickpeas, and eggplant all mixed together, to respectfully polish off the plate. I even had seconds, but no fish.

I think when I return home I need to practice eating more fish so I am prepared for the future. I just don’t know how this is going to work because I really haven’t enjoyed it for the past 25 years.

We are going to spend a few days in the north babysitting Daniels two younger siblings while the parents are vacationing in Ireland. I’m sure there will be a few more meals of unknown dishes at his aunts’ house. I haven’t let down my mental preparation yet. I’ll just keep eating everything she places in front of me. This could become very interesting.

Let me wrap up the Kibbutz Lotan experience as well.

Beyond the regular every day life of milking goats, labeling yogurt bottles, mixing yogurt flavors, and cleaning up dead goats, life was pretty normal. I took a one night trip down to Eilat with Dion and Johikim. I could have gone without the trip, but whatever, it was an experience to add to the record book. I quickly realized Dion is not the kind of person to travel with and Johikim is an inexperienced and somewhat naïve 19 year old proper kid from England who questions EVERYTHING. I jumped on the first bus Saturday morning while Dion and Johikim slept in. I was ready to return to the kibbutz.

On Monday of last week, Dion was asked to leave the kibbutz. Dion had a very poor attitude, not many people liked him, and he always seemed very angry. After our trip to Eilat I learned a little bit more about Dion which explains his behavior. He is a street hooligan from Holland that grew up in a very rough atmosphere. He’s had to fight, physically and mentally, to survive and he was sent to live on a kibbutz by his parents to try and shape up. He has a very tough personality and a lot of people didn’t understand him because they didn’t take the time to get to know him. Granted this took a few whiskey cola’s to get him to open up. After showing up late again to work, and after a few confrontations in the kitchen with his coworkers, he was asked to leave by Tuesday afternoon.

I had decided on Tuesday afternoon that I was also on my way out. I phoned the coordinator and it went very smoothly. They are used to volunteers coming and going all the time so it was no surprise to anyone. The news spread like wildfire. I had only mentioned I was leaving the kibbutz to Penny the coordinator, and within 2 hours people were approaching me, “oh man, you’re leaving already? When? Why?”

Everyone was very understanding and very sincere with their well wishes and safe travels home.

I received a few emails from friends after they found out I was coming home so soon and they were apologetic and concerned my trip fell short of my expectations. I do appreciate their concern, but I want to reassure everyone that this trip has been exactly what I needed and nothing less. I made the decision to come home because I am ready. Before I left I wasn’t able to give any an exact return date because I did not set any expectations. I was going with a completely open mind and open-ended trip.

In the 6 weeks I have been in Israel I have seen a majority of the country, I have met people from around the world, I have dealt with a variety of adverse situations, and I have had a great deal of time to self reflect. The trip has been a success in every aspect, well except financially, ha. My spirits are much higher and my priorities are clearer. I have a new sense of myself and I have begun to realize what it will take to accomplish the goals I have set.

For the next 2 weeks I am excited to spend more time with Daniel, which has been the best part of this trip. The support he is provider, the conversations we have had, and bond we have strengthen have been the major highlights of my trip. I have a few small day trips planned to make sure I see the Dead Sea, Masada, Haifa, and anything else along the way. Then, I will be ready to make the trip back home, and very excited too.

So, please do not think the trip was a bust. It has been another amazing experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I wish more then anything I could have shared this experience traveling with someone else, but in some cases I probably learned more having traveled solo. Either way, this will not be my last trip abroad. My trips in the future will be more leisure based because my priorities have shifted and it’s time to start a “career path”, but traveling will always provide meaningful experiences in my life.

Checkout Time: 8:00 a.m.

I have to keep this short and sweet because I have a lot to do this evening.

Well, I've decided to check out of Kibbutz Lotan after about only 3 weeks. Don't think it was a bad experience, it just didn't end up being a good match for me. The people are mostly great, the lifestyle is relaxing, and the pool is wonderful. However, I just couldn't fall in love with milking goats or making yogurts and cheese. Volunteering on a kibbutz would be a great experience during the summer while I was in college, which seems to be the common theme among the current volunteers.

Each day that passed a tried to give kibbutz life another chance or find something about the kibbutz that attracted me enough to stay, but I just couldn't find anything and I am perfectly o.k. with that. I have learned to trust my instinct a lot more and I try not to force any experience's to work. Why would I force myself to continue doing something that I don't enjoy. For the past two and a half years I worked at a job that crushed me emotionally and psychologically. Although it was a great learning experience, it took a major toll on me and I don't ever want to be in a situation like that again. If I have the opportunity to move on, I will, and so I have decided not to stay here at Kibbutz Lotan.

I have met some really amazing people from all over the world. In our group of volunteers we have travelers from England, US, Mexico, Nepal, Brazil, France, Holland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Canada. I have loved all the memories we have made as a group; sitting around in mud huts, swimming, playing soccer, milking goats, trips to Eilat, and plenty of other great times. It fascinates me that I have sat around eating lunch with 5 complete strangers, from 5 different countries, and we have all come to Israel for the same reason and are now friends. Although the length of my time here was short I have become very good friends with a handful of the volunteers and I hope I have the opportunity to see them again one day.

I am headed back to Tel Aviv tomorrow morning and then off to the North. I will be traveling from the southern tip of Israel all the way to the very northern tip (which isn't really that far, about 8 hours by bus). Then after a few days in the north with Daniel, back to Tel Aviv and then home. I will be home the last week of July. My trip is going to be much shorter then I imagined, but I am ready to come home. This trip has allowed me to learn some very important realizations that were a bit fuzzy in my mind before I came.

I will wrap this up with a bit more detail when I settle back in after my trip to the north. I added some more pictures so please take a look if you are interested. I have also added a link the Multiple Sclerosis Bike Tour for this coming October. I sent out an email to some of you about the charity ride and I was blown away that I did not receive a single response. I highly recommend the event. I had a blast riding in it last year and I have registered to ride again this year. I heard registration was being offered at no cost right now (its usually $60), so I would like to suggest, again, that you take a look if you are interested. The link is on right side of this page.

Ok, off to dinner then packing. Talk to you soon.

Moldy Cheese and Homicide Investigations

Although passing the time on the kibbutz can be slow, there seems to always be some kind of excitement or a new responsibility with work. One thing I have learned about the culture in Israel, there is not much consistency. Whether it is work related or personally, you never really know what you are going to get until it happens, and more often then not, it’s a lot different from what you may have slightly been expecting.

I suppose, in an environment that can easily become very monotonous, inconsistency and surprise will keep you on your feet. I’m never quite sure what might be waiting for me at work in the morning. I thought in the first few days of work I would have covered most of the unexpected, but I clearly that was not the case. With the start of a new week, came new job responsibilities, of course.

Moldy Cheese:

Wow! I wish I could have taken a picture because words could never describe the disgust I encountered when I showed up to work Monday. I had always seen the many blocks of moldy cheese in the fridge, but I just figured they forgot about them and just didn’t care to bother because at this point, they just needed to be thrown out. However, everything can always serve a purpose in a land where resources and financial support or scarce.

I showed up to the cheese house after the morning milking. There wasn’t much to work on because we were waiting for purchase orders so I started to become very excited because my workday might be ending early this morning, that’s great! But then, my boss just had to ask Josh if he needed any help, and although he didn’t really, he thought it would be funny to trap me in with him. The task for the rest of the day, scrub the mold off each block of cheese until it looks potentially edible. Let’s just say I have stopped eating any cheese served in the cafeteria because the kitchen is exactly where these non-sellable pieces of cheese were headed once we finished. So we sat and scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed, for close to five hours. Block after block of cheese, deep breath of rotten moldy cheese after deep breath. We managed to wear through about 5 or 6 wire sponges. When a wire sponge looses a battle to cheese, I think that is a clear sign no one should even come near these blocks of cheese. Moldy cheese water was spraying everywhere. On my arms, my face, and my clothes. I was absolutely repulsed. I’ll have to try and take a camera next time I’m lucky enough to scrub moldy cheese.

But the fun didn’t stop Monday. When I showed to Tuesday after the morning milking, I saw Ryu was the lucky victim today. In the beginning I managed to keep busy making yogurts and pouring new bottles, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. I didn’t work slow enough to pass the time in the cheese house and now I was headed into the second day of the battle with the moldy cheese. This time they gave us a cheese slicer that made it a bit easier and Ryu offered to keep scrubbing if I’d do the slicing. By the end of the morning I had filled two buckets with mold cheese. I have now seen mold in each color of the rainbow; hard mold, fuzzy mold, chunks of mold, and moldy roots half an inch each deep. Had I been at home, these blocks of cheese would have gone straight to the trash, no questions asked.

Fortunately, after 2 days of cleaning moldy cheese we managed to empty all the refrigerators, at least for a while. Every time I pass them, I see the more recently made blocks, slowly beginning to mold and on their way to becoming another future battle for me. Hopefully I will have checked out by then.

The Goats:

My official report as a Goat Homicide Detective:

Early Wednesday morning, approximately 3:00 a.m., an innocent goat in the northern pen was brutally attacked and murdered. The suspect is believed to be a Wolf. The suspect managed to flee the scene, leaving behind a trail of evidence. There were pieces of goat found hanging from the top of the fence, providing enough evidence to determine the entry and escape path of the wolf. The only witnesses available for questioning are a bunch of dumb goats that probably already forgot what happened, even if we could communicate with them.

The coroner (now also apart of my job description) arrived on scene approximately 6:00 a.m. to scoop up the remains so they could be buried in the desert. This part was disgusting. I had one of two choices. One, grab the legs and pick them up like a rotisserie, or two, scoop up the intestines with a shovel while the other person picks up the body. For some reason I decided to go with option number one. On three, grab the front and back legs and lift. I grabbed a hold of the legs that had a very creepy and cold feeling. I was shocked how cold the goat felt. I have never touched anything that was dead and it was a very eerie. We wheeled the goat to a bin so it could be picked up later by the tractor scoop and taken to the middle of the desert to be buried.

This was the third attack this week. Fortunately I did not milk the morning there were 2 attacks. Apparently one goat had been tossed around and scattered throughout the pen. I’m glad I didn’t have to clean that up.

These are the two highlights of the week thus far. There is one more half day of work left, and then the 1-day weekend.

While I have been typing this, I have been listening to two of my friends, Dion from Holland and Johikim from London, bitching and laughing about their jobs and coworkers. It’s been pretty funny listening to their thick accents imitate some of the volunteers and attempt to talk in their respective accents. Guess you have to be here.

Well, I’m off to the evening milking, then dinner. The weather has been a bit cooler, but still very hot and the breeze feels like a high-powered heater. I tend to spend most the day in my little room resting in the A/C.

Have a fun and safe 4^th of July weekend! Happy Birthday America!!!

The Week in Review

Hello my friends,

Sorry it’s been a while. It has been quite the week settling in, adjusting to the new schedule, adapting to the heat, and breaking the ice with the other volunteers.

General notes about life on the Kibbutz:

Beyond work, life is very relaxing. There is not the regular feeling that I have a lingering ‘To Do’ list. There isn’t anything to do. I wake up early, milk goats or make yogurt, and then relax. We spend a reasonable amount of time lying in bed, in our cool A/C rooms relaxing and napping. I try to swim every day and it surprises me that the pool area is often very empty. Why wouldn’t you spend the afternoon in the pool or in the shade? Crazy people. Beyond lying around, in the evenings we sit around and talk. Being that the average age is about 20, most of the volunteers sit around and drink cheap vodka and smoke hookah all night. I’m not big fan of either, so I just hang out and enjoy the conversation.

It’s a pretty slow lifestyle. In some cases it’s nice to feel like I have been on a long relaxing vacation, but sometimes it can be a bit slow. You have to learn how to improvise. Find games to play, activities to try, or just sit and drink vodka. The nights typically end early, at least for me, by about 10:00pm. I actually become a little anxious if I know I’m not going to make it in bed by 10:00pm. It’s pretty sad, but all this waking up at 5:00am business is quite the adjustment. I have been shocked every night when some of the volunteers are up drinking until 1-2am and then have work at 5 or 6 am the next morning. Crazy youngsters.

All-in-all, I have enjoyed relaxing, collecting my thoughts, meeting new people, and recharging my battery. Life has been pretty good.

Work:

Of course last week I was handed all the newbie jobs. The shitty job’s that the more experienced volunteers all grimes at when you mention what you had to do, “Oh yah, I did that once, it sucks huh?” And yah, they really do suck.

Each day last week I was handed one of these newbie jobs. The first, I already mentioned about pouring out all of the old curdled yogurt. The next day it was time to trim to goat’s hooves. Wow, something I NEVER want to do that again. Salomon hands me a pair of hedge trimmers, grabs a pair for himself and we’re off the pen #1. After we grab hold of one goat, we pin them down. Salomon spins down their upper body and has me pin down their rear. Mind you, the goats rear portion of the body, including their legs is the strongest area of their body, Salomon is a solid, big guy and he offers to hold their freaking neck. Thanks dude, now I’m fighting with 2 kicking legs and a sharp pair of trimmers. I knew I was in for a treat.

Salomon gives me a brief example of how to trim. “If you cut to low you can hurt them very bad and their hoof will bleed. You will gain confidence as you guy, but start slow with small pieces. Try to keep the line even with the angle of their hoof.” That was it. We captured our first victim and started trimming. Hoof clippings were flying everywhere. The worst is when the fly at your face and hit your lips. It makes me want to gag thinking about it again. I usually took 5-10 minutes longer on each leg because I was nervous as hell. I managed to fight through the disgusting experience, but I did cut one hoof really bad and I still think about it. Blood just started pouring out, all over the clippers, on my fingers, on my pants, but we continued on, crusted blood on my fingers and all, and trimmed about 12 goats. I hope I never have to do that again. I still lay in bed at night thinking about the poor goats hooves. Oh, not to mention, Salomon accidentally cut one of her front hooves really short and it bled as well.

The next day Salomon had me clean out the goat’s water troughs. There are 8 troughs scattered throughout the 7 pens. I don’t think they had been cleaned in weeks, if not months. The water was solid green, Filled with algae, goat poop, dirt, saliva, bugs, and who knows what else. It’s amazing what you’ll dive right into with the protection of small plastic gloves. The job wasn’t that bad, but the goats were very curious. They like to nibble on your clothes so I had this ongoing battle with the goats while I doing them a favor. They were about to have the freshest, cleanest, most pure water and they still wanted to harass me the whole time.

I had a few more troughs remaining when Salomon walked over and said, “I have to head down to the office, you can head over to the cheese house (also yogurt dairy) when you are done. Oh, and don’t forget to clean the trough in the males pen.” Ok, the males are pretty big and some of them have a decent set of testosterone filled horns on their head I thought to myself, so I asked Salomon, “Ok, but I’ve never really worked with goats so I am not familiar with them. Are the males very aggressive, might they try to head-butt me?” Salomon replies with the least reassuring answer, “Uh, they are usually ok.” Sorry buddy, but “usually” doesn’t fly with me. I had one trough left and it was in the males. It was actually my second trip to their pen while I was cleaning. The first one didn’t go so well so I thought I’d let them lay back down and I would try to sneak up again later. Sure enough this failed as well. Probably the biggest male greeted me at the gate and wasn’t budging. I opened the gate a smidge, he didn’t move. So I said f-this, you’re not gonna get any clean water. You look mean dude and I’m not going to risk a head-butting contest with you over clean water. I’ll be the bigger man here and walk away. So I did, pretty easily and pain free.

It was now Friday and our short weekend was about to start. On Friday’s most work days are cut a little short for Shabbat. The cafeteria serves Shabbat dinner at 7:30pm and everyone on the kibbutz attends. They set all the tables very nicely and it is quite different then the rest of our meals. Dinner starts with everyone standing, arms linked across shoulders and we all sway back and forth while they sing prayers. We break bread and dinner is served. It was a pleasant dinner.

Friday nights the small pub on the kibbutz is open. About 20 people headed down to the kibbutz. There was a mixture of volunteers and a few residents. Shortly after a van pulled up with about 10-15 kibbutzniks from another local kibbutz. It was nice to see new faces and meet new people. We listened to a lot of remixed clubbing songs, some club jams in Hebrew, and watched lots of people dance in the strobe light. They loooove storbin’ here.

Saturday rolled around and everything is closed. The kibbutz is a ghost town and your land locked because no one works and there are no busses. Saturday is strictly a day of rest, and that we did. Most people slept all day, woke up for a quick meal, and then back to bed. But you have to remember to take food at lunch in a tupperware because the cafeteria is not open for dinner on Saturday nights. Every Saturday at 6pm residents from our kibbutz, any volunteers interested, and other local kibbutzniks start showing up for a friendly soccer match. We played for just under two hours and it was a lot of fun.

The rest of night, surprisingly enough, is pretty quiet. Everyone is lounging around or sleeping early and preparing for the start of the week Sunday morning.

Monday, I made my first trip to the city of Eilat. Its at the southern tip of Israel along the coast of the Red Sea, between Jordan and Egypt. It’s a 40-minute bus ride and only about $5. I went with Ryu (from Japan), Jonathan (from Mexico City), and Ariella (from Brazil). It always excites me when I think of experiences like this one. There are four kids, each from different countries, and we have instantly connected and take day trips to the beach. Sitting in the sand along the coast of the Red Sea, drinking fruit slushies, and swimming with these people that were complete strangers from 3 different countries only a few days prior. It’s the little things in life I suppose, but never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined a trip to Eilat with Ryu, Jonathan, and Ariella. Unfortunately, our time at the beach was cut a bit short because Ryu was stung by a jellyfish and was in a considerable amount of pain. I know, I know, I should have offered to pee on him, but I just couldn’t make the offer to this little quite Japanese friend of mine. I’m pretty sure he would have rejected anyways. I mean after all, we’ve only known each other for a few days and I know it would take a lot for me to allow even my family or best friends the chance to pour a bottle of their pee on me. He managed through the pain with a few vodka and fruit slushies. Eilat is a small beach town and I hope to make it back as often as possible.

After my first week, I will say it has been an incredible experience adjusting to the lifestyle and the schedule. I have enjoyed the time to relax, reflect on my experience, and compare lifestyles through conversation with the other foreign volunteers. Over the weekend I managed to break the ice a bit more and squeeze my way into the existing groups of friends among the volunteers.

I know it’s only been a weak and I’m not usually one to jump the gun with my opinions or interpretations, but I do think I have come to realize life on the kibbutz may not last as long as I was anticipating. Milking goats and making yogurt doesn’t really set me up for much when I return home. If I were still in college, as most of the volunteers are, I would have no worries because I’d be on my way home soon and back off to fall semester. However, when I make my way home, I have to find a job and a place to live. The experience here has been exactly what I was looking for mentally and physically, but realistically I have priorities at home that I feel are more important. But we’ll see how things go. I haven’t set a final date and I won’t until I feel I am ready. I take each new day as it comes because each day is always different.

I am pleased to hear that people are reading my stories. I hope they have even just a bit of value beyond the randomness. I am sharing these stories because I want to share this experience of a lifetime with you. I want you to understand what I have learned about Israel and myself. I know I can go on these inspirational tangents, and it all began during my trip to Kenya a few years back, but I do enjoy inspiring people, if it’s only just one. I see a lot of people stuck in the same route I was before I left and I know it is the pits. It may be a bit cliché, but I have to pay a major respect to Michael Jackson. Beyond his past 10 years or so, he wrote some of the most amazing and inspirational music that I have lived by since I can remember jamming out on a tennis rack to his songs. I was honestly very saddened to hear the tragic news of his death. I know it’s easy to highlight the negatives, but I hope you will always remember he was an incredible musician and inspiration in my life. His song, ’Man in the Mirror’, is a song that can inspire anyone looking to make a change. You have to take it upon yourself to make the change. Like M.J. says, “if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then a make the change....sure mon....chaaaange.” I would have given anything to see him live one day.

Well, I know it’s long, but it’s been a while and lot goes down here on Kibbutz Lotan. Well not a lot I guess, but enough to keep my busy. I try to update more frequently. Take care. Peace.

Job Description

Job Title: Kibbutzik

Salary: 240NIS per month (approx. $60)

Experience Needed: None

Start Date: Immediately

Job Responsibilities:

Milk Man - Rise at 5:30 a.m. First, you must have no allergies to alfalfa, wheat, or pellets because you start your day filling and emptying enough food to feed all the goats. Second, check the perimeter of the makeshift goat pens for any damage, holes, or repairs needed. Third, check for new born goats, goats that are stuck, dead goats, or anything else suspicious. Fourth, open pen #3 to milk first round of female goats. Herd the females up the ramp and into their holding cells. Lock their head into place and test each utter by hand to check for proper milk flow, no blood, or infection. Turn on the suck-pump and hook the girls up. Now, sit back and watch the milk flow monitoring proper flowage. As the utter drains, help squeeze out any precious last drops (after all, every penny counts) and turn off the suck-pump. Continue on down the line until each goat has been milked. Once each goat is milked, unlock their head, open the gate and watch them trample each other down the ramp and back into their pen. Repeat these steps until all female goats are empty. Fifth, spray down and clean all equipment, half-ass. Sixth, time for breakfast. This job may also involve a second milking in the evenings. A few times a week

After breakfast you may be called to “Goat Wrangler” or off the Yogurt Land.

Goat Wrangler – Shuffle all the separated goat pens around like a rubrics cube in order to set up new female and male partners, and to separate the females who are expected mothers. Number one responsibility, run around, jumping, waving your arms, clapping your hands, and scream ya-la, ya-la, ya-la, like a caged monkey being mocked by an entire elementary class on a field trip at the zoo. Something to keep in mind, you may be asked to put down the clip board and tackle a few goats that will be running away from you, jumping, kicking, screaming, and dodging each of your fancy counter moves so you can read the number on the ear tag, “Yep, she’s on the list, put her in this pen.”

Yogurt Maid – Suit up in rubber boats, latex gloves, a white lab coat, and hair net. Mix liter after liter of plain goat yogurt with various fruit mixes. Label hundreds of plastic bottles with the appropriate flavor. Using a soup ladle, fill pitch after pitcher with yogurt and hand pour into each bottle. Cap the bottle, but make sure you have the right color cap. Slap an expiration sticker on the bottle, fill up as many containers as possible and then move them to the storage fridge. Spray wash ever bucket, pitcher, ladle, mixer, and counter top after each bucket of yogurt is empty. Repeat all these steps until the boss say’s you’re done. If you are the unlucky new guy, you may be asked to empty the hundreds of broken bottles, expired bottles, or moldy cheese packets that were sent back by opening each item, dumping it into one big bucket and washing out the plastic.

I’ve never seen anything like this when I searched through thousands of jobs on Careerbuilder.com, CraigsList, LinkedIn, Jobing, Monster, etc. Sign me up, well I actually I guess Penny the kibbutz coordinator signed me.

Officially, I am now a Milk Man by morning, and Goat Wrangler or Yogurt Maid by late morning/afternoon. Today was the first day on the job and it was quite interesting. Lots of mindless information will become routine with practice. No college degrees required, no prior experience needed, no letter of recommendation or references. Just a pair of work boots, some crummy used clothes picked from a pile of shirts and pants left behind from past kibbutznik’s, and a willingness to do what you’re told.

My boss is Salomon. An American from northern Los Angeles County who relocated to Israel 17 years ago and has lived on Kibbutz Lotan from the beginning. He seems like a good guy. He gave me the tour of the grounds, showed me who’s who in goat land, who is fed what mixture of food, and how the milking all goes down. I jumped right into it, squeezing milk out an utter for the first time in my life. Boy, what a thrilling experience. The feeding and milking lasted about three and a half hours. After breakfast Salomon asked me to join him back at the goats to separate some of the females, and rearrange some of the pens. I thought I could be one step ahead and grab the clipboard containing the list of females we needed to find and separate. I wasn’t too sure about wrestling goats. We had 14 females to find and after the first 7, Salomon said, “why dont you give it a try now.” Oh of course. It was actually kind of fun and tested your reaction time. I can’t quite say mine were cat-like, but it wasn’t half bad. Wrangling the goats took about an hour. I went home to change into clean clothes and I was off to yogurt land.

After a short walk to the dairy, I suited up in my boots, lab coat, gloves, and hair net (I hardly have any hair, but whatever). There are 3 other volunteers I work with and they were all in yogurt land this morning. Julia from Austria, Josh from Miami, and Ru from Japan. I paired up with Ru and he showed my the ropes. Pretty much all I did was capped off a few hundred bottles of yogurt, stuck an expiration label on it, and moved the bottles to the storage fridge, for 4 hours. Toward the end of the day I mixed a few yogurts and then of course was asked to dump out all the old, moldy, broken bottles that were sent back and rise out all the plastic. Loads of curdled goat milk and goat cheese. I did sample a few flavors, not of the old stuff I was throwing out, and they were surprisingly tasty. I have not tried goat yogurt before. I recommend it now. We make strawberry, coconut, pineapple, peach, sesame seed, date, and few others.

It was a very interesting day learning all the responsibilities of the job. I’m not sure how accepted or if this experience will qualify me for any jobs that I have looked at in the past, but I guess it will have to work.

Life on the kibbutz hasn’t blown me away yet with excitement. It is pretty slow going and hot. After work I took another dip in the pool, which is beautiful. The water temperature is perfect, the pool is huge, and it’s a little green oasis. I am still not sure how thrilled I am to be here. I am still taking in the alternative lifestyle and adjusting to the job, the people, and the atmosphere. I don’t have any expectations as to whether or not I will fall in love with the Kibbutz life, of if I will decided to move on. I mean after all, people have been here for years, there must be something worth staying around for. Beyond the residents, whom I have only met a few briefly in passings, the volunteers are a random bunch of young adults, 19-27. Some of the countries represented are: US, Germany, Austria, England, Mexico, Holland, Canada and there are a couple more, I just haven’t caught them yet.

It has been a pleasant experience realizing material items do not have a value here. The people are honest, upfront, and real. They are here because they have decided to travel, willingly offer there work ethic to support people who are living a much different lifestyle. More different then anything I have ever been involved with. No one is higher on the totem pole then the other. I’ve had the opportunity to visit with complete foreign strangers, move into a shared bedroom with random travelers, and sit around a table with people who, although different cultures and backgrounds may present conflict, have come together and left everything behind to support a community who’s foundation is held together by equality. This is the reason why I made to decision to trek to Israel and wait for 3 weeks before I was placed. Even if I am having different realizations now then I imagined in the beginning, I know this experience will still have a more powerful influence on my character, more then any job, any school, or any material item I may want.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the amount of time I have had to self reflect. I’m not sure if I would have the time or place at home to escape from everything and truly reflect on my character and what motivates me to succeed, whether it be financially or emotionally. It's easy to be consumed in your everyday routine and loose track of what is truly meaningful. I know I was struggling with that before I left. In a conversation I had, we were discussing how people escaped to handle different situations in life. Some of us resort to food, friends or family, alcohol or drugs, art, reading, yoga, climbing a hill side to sit atop and think, or traveling. Some people have a hard time finding their retreat. If you have, that is wonderful and I encourage you to find alternatives sources that will challenge your prior comfort zones. If you are more timid, I highly recommend you just throw yourself out there, just try something new, anything. Something that will allow you to completely escape your thoughts, comfort zones, and familiarities. I believe this will allow you to truly understand what is important to you, which I also believe a lot people, including myself, are unable to accomplish.

I dunno, I’m having trouble trying to convey my ultimate point, and at this point just rambling, but I was trying to express my opinion about the importance of truly finding your character, your motivation, your morals. I am just now am beginning to realize a few of mine and it has been an incredible feeling. I have realized quite a bit about myself, my values, and who the person inside my heart wants to be towards the people I value the most, my family and friends. It’s just a great feeling to have and I am excited to share it and I want other people to share the same excitement so I’m trying to explain what I have done in hopes that maybe other people will give it a shot and have the same success, emotionally, that I have had thus far.

Well, I’m exhausted, maybe you could tell. I will keep you posted on how life as a kibbutnik/milk man/goat wrangler/yogurt maid goes. Stay tuned…

Let the Journey Begin

I arrived at the program center this morning at 10:00am. I met one of the two people going with me. Yohkhim (like, yo-kim). He is a 20 year old student from London. Very cool guy, so far. We waited for the the 3rd member of our group, but after an hour the program center told us to just leave. Oh, can't forget that part of the story..So, I'm sitting waiting for our ride. Once the lady tells us to just leave without the 3rd person, she say's, "come here I will show you how to get there." Wait, what? I thought we were being picked up. Apparently not. She tells us how to find the central bus station in Tel Aviv, and then tells us what Bus to look for. It was pretty easy in the end. We hired a taxi, got to the bus station, and just in time for 1 of the very few departing busses down to Eilat, which we were told depart every 30 minutes. Not the case.

We happened to run into the 3rd member of our group. A 22 year old female, Lena, from Germany. We all shared similar stories about the cranky secretaries in the program center office, but were able to have a laugh about it at this point. We hopped on the bus and start the 5 hour trip down to Lotan. Of course, even a bus ride can not end without excitement. The girl two seats in front me did not quite enjoy the windy road down the massive canyon and puked on the floor and finally in a plastic bag. A few minutes later I noticed this lovely liquid running under the seat in front of me. I grabbed my bag quickly, just in time, and held it in my lap for the remaining 2 hours as liquid puke poured threw the bus. It was lovely.

We were told to ask the bus driver to drop us off at Kibbutz Lotan. About 5 hours later, he pulled off to the side of the rode, we grabbed our bags and waited for our ride from the Kibbutz coordinator. We were standing along side a two lane highway, in the middle of the desert with all our bags. I'm sure we stood out like a soar thumb to the few cars that passed. Only a few minutes passed before Penny arrive. Native to London England, but relocated to Israel for the last 14 years, and kibbutzik for at least the last 4 years. She gave us a brief tour of the place, showed us to our rooms, and said see you around 6 for dinner.

I must say I am a bit overwhelmed. I'm not sure if it is quite what I was expecting, but we'll see how life unfolds over the next few days as a kibbutnik. I tried to think of how I could explain the piece that I now call home, but I just couldn't. You will have to have a look at the pictures I posted because I couldn't come up with words. I live with 3 others guy. The london kid I came with, a guy from Miami, and a guy from Nepal. Should be interesting.

Dinner was short and sweet. A salad and a white bread and cottage cheese sandwich. Quite interesting. I also found out that I was selected to work in the goat barn. It was kitchen crew or goat farm and I didn't get to pick. Penny picked for me.

The other volunteers, about 10-12 total, come from Germany, Mexico, London, Nepal, and that's all I know so far. I'm not sure what we are going to do the rest of the night, but I'm just going to unpack and settle in.

At this point, I'm not sure how this experience will unfold, obviously, I've only been here a couple of hours. I will update you when I can. This should be very interesting....

WoooHooo! Finally! I'm gonna be a Kibbutznik...

I received an email this morning from my best friends at the program center. Simply put, it said: "Call Bella later today."

Phone Convo:

(B = Bryce, O= Office)

B: Hello, may I please speak with Bella?

O: Yes

B: ok, thank you

O: Are you in Tel Aviv?

B: Yes

O: Ok, come by the office, I think we have a place for you.

B: really? Great, thank you so much! I'll come down.

Hang up.

Short but sweet. I headed down to the office about an hour later. I open the office room door and Bella was filing passports and smoking a cigarette in their basement office. That's gotta be like triple hand smoke. She was embarrassed that I caught her, but I didn't care, I am desperate to be placed. She quickly realizes that she could have just called me, but instead apologizes that she did not process the fact that she could have just called me back to explain the breathe taking news she was about to share:

"There is an opening at Kibbutz Lotan. They are coming to pick you up tomorrow at 10:00am with two others. There is another guy, he's Swedish or Australian something, and a german girl."

"Really? Thats awesome, thank you so much! Do you need me to bring anything else?"

"Yes, passport and 810 NIS"

"Ok, great. Thank you. See you tomorrow"

After waiting 3 weeks, it all happened so fast. But who cares. I am finally on my way. I am set to goto Kibbutz Lotan. Please check out their website for more information about the kibbutz.

www.kibbutzlotan.com/

As you will see, the primary focus of this Kibbutz is promoting and teaching a sustainable lifestyle. I have no idea what to expect, but I am very excited to experience what is to come.

Today I have been very anxious about what to expect. I know I am headed to southern Israel, just north of the border between Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. The average temperature while I am there is going to be about 100 degrees. I will be living and working in the heart of the middle eastern desert. Something I never imagined, but something I am excited to experience.

When I mentioned that I was headed south to all the guys tonight, I received the same response..."oh, wow, the south? hahaha, it's going to be hot!" Yah, I know. Thanks for rubbing it in. But what are you going to do about it? I have been blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime. I don't pass up those kinds of opportunities. I know it's not a tropical paradise, but I also don't know when I will be able to take advantage of an opportunity like this. Living with the local people, meeting volunteers from all over the world, living with other Israelis who are visiting from different parts of the country, having a chance to ride a freaking camel, and most importantly, trying not to pass-out from heat exhaustion.

I will send your more information about the trip down and what the experience is like when we arrive. I am very excited and nervous!

Happy Father's Day

Just a quick thank you to my Dad and Alan on Father's Day. Happy Father's Day! Sorry I can't be there again to take you out to brunch and celebrate. I truly appreciate all your love and support throughout the years. I wish I could repay you with a trip to come visit me so we could celebrate here in Israel. Maybe one day. I hope you know all you have done for me is very much appreciated! Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful knowing you are the greatest Dad!

Happy First Father's Day to Gentry and Richard too! Congratulations! I hope you are excited!

And of course, Happy Father's Day to all the other Dad's out there.

I received an email this morning to call the volunteer program center today, I hope they have good news. I'll let you know as by this afternoon what I find out.

A trip North a few B.B.Q's and more waiting

Well, still no good news about the kibbutz to report yet. I continue to check in at the program center and take each snarling look from the 2 crotchety old ladies. I think they hate me, but whatever, I need to be placed in a freaking Kibbutz. We visited Daniel's Aunt and Uncle yesterday and they managed to help me track down the coordinator at Kibbutz Baram. Daniel spoke to the guy and they had a mutual understanding of the ladies in the program center in Tel Aviv so the coordinator said he is going to work on slipping my in the back door. We are going to follow up again this morning, but it was by far the most positive feedback we've received yet.

Since I'm still in Tel Aviv I have been spending my day's at the beach. It's been a wonderful vacation atmosphere. I find a chaise lounge in the front row, pay the guy 12NIS (about $3) to rent it for the day, sit along side all the other foreigners, and enjoy the relaxation. The water temperature is perfect. Warm enough that you can walk right in with out uh-ing and aw-ing and changing your mind when your only ankle deep, yet cool enough that is refreshing to float for a while. The tides and currents have been a bit strong this week so the lifeguards have posted signs, in hebrew, all along the beach and monitor where everyone swims very closely. It's amazing to see how many people disregard the danger signs and walk right past them, only to then be yelled out over the loud speaker by the lifeguard. All-day-long! It never fails. About every 7-10 minutes you hear the lifeguard yelling at someone else. I mentioned this to Daniel and he laughed. He said he wasn't surprised and they are probably all Israeli's who are ignoring the danger signs. Apparently, warning signs, red curbs, lane lines, and one-way streets are interpreted merely as suggestions by Israeli's. It keeps life interesting here to say the least. You never know what kind of ridiculous stunt you will see each day.

Daniel's house has become quite the B.B.Q. hang out. His mom bought him a gas grill for graduation and gas grills are not common in the city. Most people take the time to use small charcoal grills, but now that Daniel can start B.B.Q-ing in a matter of minutes, all the guys bring their food over to the house. Even the B.B.Q's. we've had have been learning experiences. Lesson number 1, and most important, apparently you only need meat for the B.B.Q. I was shopping with Daniel and I asked, "What do you want with steaks? Maybe some vegetables, rice, etc?" Daniel turned to me with a look on his face like I asked him cantonese. He laughed off his confused look and said, "Ha, no, we only eat. Just meat, that's it." Oh, ok, and sure enough, everyone showed up with an assortment of meat. We had steak, chicken, kosher hot dogs, and kabob. Of course, there was also pita and half a gallon of hummus. Everything turned out very well. Daniel's friends called him again yesterday asking if they could bring food over today so the doors are open for B.B.Q.-Meat-Fest #3, this week.

Thursday morning Daniel decided he needed to take a trip north. I had just woken up and he came in to the living, "Ready to go?"

"Uh-yah, where?"

"North, I have to get some things"

"Uh, sure, when?"

"Right now"

"Ok, let me grab a few things"

Right now turned into about 25 minutes so I had time to finish breakfast, shower, and pack a small bag. We hit the road about 11:30, bag packed, tupperware of fruit salad to go (which was about a $15 fruit salad, yikes fruit is expense here, it's like gold), and started our short trip 2 hours north to his Dad's neck of the woods. Daniel needed some documents and supplies for his business which he store's in the north. After we made the 2 business stops we stopped by his Aunt and Uncle's house where we spent the rest of the day. Oh, and on the way to his families house, Daniel throws a comment at me, "As counter intuitive as it may be to your personally, you really need to throw yourself into the conversation." Wham, thanks for throwing me a curve ball last minute and now I'm anxious. For someone like myself who can be a bit (to say the least) of an introvert at times, to say a comment like that ruffled my feathers. So I say, "Ok, I'm happy to, but can you tell me how to throw myself into a conversation in which the people I'm talking to don't have a clue what I'm saying?" Daniel recommends using hand gestures and facial expressions. So for the last 15 minutes of the car ride, I'm frantically motivating myself to become an extravert for people who won't even understand what I'm talking about, a change that would probably take some individuals years to make. In the end, I think it went ok. I spoke up when needed, but by no means was I a conversation starter.

It was nice to have a change in environment. The temperature was still warm, but it was dry and there was a steady breeze. The landscape was much different as well. Rolling hills, much more plush greenier, pine trees, and harvesting fields of corn, sun flowers, and olives. We passed by the See of Galilee which looked like a massive lake. Daniel said it has dropped over 5m recently due to drought and water diversion.

Visiting with Daniel's family was pleasant, although very quite for me. Only 2 of the 3 kids spoke very little english, and neither his aunt of uncle spoke a word. I played a game of fuzzball with the 10 year old boy. He managed to pull off the victory even after a late rally by my team. Of course I let him win though. Even the deepest competitor in me wouldn't let me beat a 10 year old boy at his game and in his home. Maybe next time if we make a second trip. I hope he keeps practicing.

We spent about 8 hours and Daniel's aunt and uncles house and although it was kind of a long and quiet day for me, the experience was very meaningful because I could feel the warmth and interest his family shared together. When you visit someone's home they take care of the entire time you are there. Food, drinks, conversation, activities. Anything to keep you occupied with all their sincerity and generosity. It would be very rude to just stop by, say Hi, and leave. You must come inside, have a drink, eat some food, and catch up. This can be one hour or 8 hours. Whatever it takes. And when you leave, you don't leave empty handed. His aunt sent us home with a tin full of puff pastries that she baked for us while we were there. His uncle sent us home with 2 cases of beer. Beyond the few times Daniel translated for me I just sat back and observed the very personal interaction. I have no idea what they said, and they could have been talking about trash about me the whole time, but they made it look good if that's the case. They were involved in one another's conversation and full of expression.

The clock hit 9:45 and it was time for us to make the trip back to Tel Aviv, and boy was I ready. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed his family and all their generosity, but I was tired. I had said maybe 56 words the whole day. But I knew it was important for Daniel to see his family as it would be important for me if the roles were reversed.

I don't have any plans for the weekend besides the B.B.Q. I'm sure there will be another B.B.Q. thrown in last minute with probably lots of meat, hummus, and pita, but that's ok with me. I am trying to stay very positive about this Kibbutz placement happening very soon. I think this coordinator guy will be very helpful. Keep your fingers crossed for me and I should be in the Kibbutz early next week, finally. If I do slip in the back door, I may just have to pay one last visit to the program center to "thank" the wonderful ladies for the help they didn't provide. Just kidding. I love them and I'm sure they are wonderful people outside of their daily jobs.

Once I am placed in a Kibbutz I'm hoping I can share more exciting stories. Please continue to check back and don't loose interest. Trust me, I know it's slow right now, but keep up your hope alive. I will also try to keep posting new pictures.

Have a great weekend!

Rock Climbing, still waiting, and Laundry

Shalom...I had to do my first load (actually 3 loads) of laundry this morning so I thought I'd pass the time sitting here, eating a toasted cheese croissant, and share some short stories. My parents raised me so well that I can even do my own laundry in another country. Thanks Mom and Dad, I even separated the colors. But I may need to borrow some money. Laundry is freaking expensive. About $3.75 to wash and $0.30/min to dry. Crazy.

I am still waiting to be placed in a Kibbutz. Officially over 2 weeks now. I'm crossing my fingers to hear some good news by Thursday this week. I went to visit the program center with Daniel after our third olympic training swim yesterday and the grumpy old ladies in the office treated us like we were the problem. I'm trying to volunteer my time and I'm being accused of not doing things correctly. They were trying to claim they never received my application before I left. To bad I checked my sent emails, thank god for electronic filing, and sure enough, on May 25th I sent my application to Nitsa the program coordinator. In your face. I forwarded it on to her, again, with a lovely little note trying to kiss her ass and she simply just responded with, "We will do out best. I understand it is difficult for you." What? So now I just have to continue harassing them.

We picked up Daniel's mom on Thursday from her volunteer program. She was invited to dinner with a family who's son she helped while he was traveling in California earlier this year. It was a wonderful traditional dinner. If you are unfamiliar with a Shabbat Dinner, it is a traditional family dinner held every Friday. They all eat together and eat lots and lots of delicious food. And by a lot, I am not exaggerating. Due to time constraints, they arranged to have dinner on Thursday night to accommodate Stephanie's travel schedule. We drove out to their home, a family of 7, and dinner was served. On the menu was cucumber and tomato salad, cucumber and corn salad, lettuce and tomato salad, chicken, turkey patties (that were incredible, ground turkey, dill, onions, and seasoning, grilled, so bomb!), french fries, hummus, fruit, baked bread, brownies, and this very interesting desert that is like strings of sesame seeds and who know's what else. There was more, I just can't remember. Everything was very tasty! Needless to say I was stuffed. Of course, being the odd-ball out American, they wanted to pass every plate of food to me first, and out of respect I took a little something from each one. Even if I didn't want it, I had to make room. Dinner lasted about 3 hours and was rather quiet for me. I just sat back and listened to a whole lot of hebrew, laughed when they laughed, and tried to follow their facial expressions and hand gestures. Overall, it was a great experience. I am very thankful and truly appreciate being invited to traditional family dinners. My goal is to see how many countries I can visit and share a traditional meal with the local people. So far, the best one yet was when my mom and forked up big bucks to be, what felt like kidnapped, taken to a small village in Zanzibar and eat a lobster dinner and chips prepared by the beach boys. Wasn't the best food, kind of nerve racking, I don't even eat lobster, but now it's a great memory. Thanks Mom!

Rock Climbing:

What a scary sport! Daniel asked me if I wanted to go, so I said sure. I wasn't sure where we were going, how amateur or extreme the climbing would be, what kind of safety would be involved, and who was going, but sure, I'll go. We headed out towards the West Bank, which is actually in the East of Israel. Come to find out on the way home, it's the west bank of the Jordan River. The landscape was beautiful. Rolling hills, rocky ledges, cliffs, rows of olive trees, and prickly-ass shrubs (a.k.a. bastard plants). I showed up in soccer shorts, sandals, and a tank-top (of course) to find out that we have to hike down to the base. There's no clear path so we are stomping through these bastard plants in sandals and soccer shorts. Not what I would have prepared for had I known, but that's life in Israel. You never know what you're really going to get.

After about 20 minutes, some pricks in the ass, a few bumps on the knee, and a great deal of sweat we arrived at the base of the climbs. If you don't know already, I'm afraid of heights so the nerves start setting in. I had a brief beginners lesson on the way over so sure, I'm ready to go. They set up the ropes, I watch 3 climbers before I go, and then it's my turn. Greeaaat! I cram my feet in to the climbing shoes that are about 2 sizes to small, which they are supposed to be and I started up the wall, chest and arms pressed as close to the rock as possible. Wasn't so bad, fairly easy grips, not to steep. I'm about half way up before I take my first look back, oh shit, not a good idea. My legs start shaking, I'm thinking, I gotta go higher?. My forearms are burning and I've reached a point where I'm not sure where to go from here. Daniel's buddy who is a very experienced climber attempts to coach me along, but nothing is working. He tells me to just sit back and rest. Right, I'm gonna just let go and lean back and hang out at a 90 degree angle from the rock face. Easy for you to say, guy whos down there with your two feet on the ground and my life in your hands. Although you know the ropes are secured and you really aren't going to go anywhere, you mind still plays games with you. And what do I keep doing in the mean time, I keep looking down to increase my fear's. I make a few attempts to stretch my short extremities as far as they will go in hopes there will be a hand or foot grip, but I can't find anything. At this point my arms are done for. I'm not going anywhere. My "coach" yells out, "if you are done, just yell out I give up." Thank's jerk. Not only am I about the drop a mess that will land on your head, hopefully, but now you're insulting my pride. Whatever though, I gotta get down. This just isn't happening. I yell back, "alright, I'm good, go ahead and let me know down. My arms are burnt out." At this point I wasn't worried about my pride. I threw that out the window, along with my interest in rock climbing.

I was back on the ground, where I'm supposed to be. Oh how great it felt. The rest of the day I decided to soak up the scenery and watch Daniel and his buddies climb, along with a few other guys who were there. They were all very skilled. There was also this 10 year old boy who was awesome. A couple weeks ago he won 1st prize in a contest that invited climbers from all over Europe. When his return flight home landed in Israel at 6:00 am, he went straight to a local contest in Israel that started at 8:00 am and took first prize there too. It was pretty cool to watch him and the older guys coaching him along. Although the climbing didn't go so well for me, it was a lot of fun. I learned that I can swallow my pride when I feel like my life is in jeopardy and I'm completely ok with that. Haha.

The only bad news I have to report is of course the Redwings losing in game 7. What a terrible terrible tragedy. And I stayed up all night to watch the game from 3:00 am - 6:00 am and paid to watch it on a 4"x 4" screen on my computer. Very disappointing. Hopefully next year.

The great news though, LET'S GO LAKERS!!!! Would have been nice to win in L.A., but I'll take the victory. I wish I was home to celebrate with my boys. Maybe I'll make a weekend trip back for the parade, if they even have one. I hear the budget crisis might rain on the parade.

Well my friends, my laundry is about done and I'm $25 dollars poorer because of it. If you want to donate to the Bryce Travel Fund Foundation, by all means, be my guest. You can contact me directly if you'd like to make donations....haha. I'm a only kidding. I'll be fine, I just won't eat any more falafel. :(

I hope you have checked out the link I posted to view all my pictures. I also posted a video of Daniel's paintball team. Check it out. The links are at the top left of the page.

Take care, and until next time....peace

p.s. - Do not go rock climbing if you are afraid of heights, or at least start indoors on a rock wall, with experienced climbers and complete safety. :)

Vacation, waiting, training, talking, produce, eating, and suggestions

Hey! It's been a while...I've slipped into vacation mode lately while I am still waiting to hear from the Kibbutz Program Center. I registered last week when I arrived and they said it could take 2-10 days.... thanks for narrowing it down. Oh, and then at the end of our conversation they throw in last minute that it might be as long as 2 weeks because they have a lot of applicants. So, we went from maybe a couple days to possibly 2 weeks. At this point, I'm afraid the 2 week estimate is more likely considering it's been over a week already. I check in about every 2 days but they don't really give you answer's. They reach for the stack of applications, find the one with your name on it, look at it again as if they are reviewing your skills and like they've never read it before, then say, "well, come back in a few days, still no openings. You can leave your luggage with us if you'd like. We will store it until you're called." The lady did actually asked me if I had a tractor license. Theirs a kibbutz looking for a tractor driver. Being honest, I replied, "a tractor license?, no I don't, but I can get one...". She laughed. Even if there is a language barrier sometimes,  I clearly understood that.

So I've just been hanging out at the beach. I guess that's not so bad though. The water is warm and the weather has been hot. Too hot and humid! I usually try to stay at Daniels place in the A/C or in the water between 12-3pm. The first few nights the weather cooled down in the even drastically, but now its just super humid!!! I sweat just sitting....that's not right.

Daniel and I decided to start training for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. We each bought some goggles and are motivated to beat Michael Phelps record of winning 8 olympic gold medals. Although his wingspan is probably longer then Daniel and mine put together, we are highly motivated to compete. We have officially trained twice so far this week. We roll out of bed at the crack of dawn, or I guess, closer to about 8:30 and head down to the beach. We don't need an olympic training facility or a hall of fame coach. Daniel played a year or two of water polo so we're good, he knows the strokes. The first day we wanted to start slow so we only swam about 500m (I really don't have any idea how far we swam). After the swim we headed home to eat about 18 lbs of potatoes (Daniel loves potatoes in the morning) and a couple eggs. We accidently rested for 2 days and hit the water again Wednesday morning. Even more motivated then the first swim. We only swam about 100m wednesday because there were millions of tiny dead jelly fish and they were freakin' us out. Come to find out it's their mating season so we actually didn't want to disturb anyone so we headed home. Again, for 18lbs of potatoes and chocolate milk in a bag.

I'll keep you update on our training schedule. Keep an eye out in 2012, you may see us, actually, maybe not. We might be swimming too fast....

Clearly, there's not a whole lot going on lately. It's been nice hanging out with Daniel, catching up on the last 6 years we spent in different countries. It's been amazing to see how much more mature Daniel is. We talk a lot about work, girlfriends, family, and he likes to present all his brilliant business ideas. One for example is the Gaza Stip-Club. I'm not sure how the locals would accept it, but either way they make for good conversations, brainstorming, and marketing plans.

The food so a far has been amazing. The produce and fresh fruit are by the far the best I've had. Everything is full a flavor. The tomatoes and cucumbers are my favorite thus far. The falafel is very tasty (pite bread stuff with hummus, fried eggplant poppers, tomatoes, pickles, onions, more hummus, some kind of sauce, and more hummus). They will fill your belly for a long time! Other then that, I've had some great pasta dishes, pizza, wonderful salads, lots of pita and hummus, and schnitzel (basically just a huge chicken finger).

One new experience I enjoyed happened last night. We were headed to dinner and Daniels buddy, Daniel 2, invited us over for a BBQ. He won some lottery that gave him 400NIS (appox $100) of coupons for this particular brand of food here. He bought a ton of sausage, hotdogs (kosher of course), pita bread, and hummus. We headed over to his house and 2 other guys came by as well. We hung out in his bedroom, which felt like a sauna, playing the game Risk. Everyone here is so, "military/take over or protect our land" minded, so they enjoy playing Risk (it's a board game, you have an army and you try to conquer as many continents as possible). Finally at about 11pm the food was ready and we all shoved-face. Pita bread, hummus, and sausage links that are inhaled at 11pm at night sit like a brick in your belly. But what are you gonna do...There's nothing better then sitting around with 5 guys in a small bedroom, feels like your in a sauna, stuffing yourself with bread, hummus, and meat, while trying to take over the world with little plastic soldiers, and half the time I didn't even know what was going on because their plotting their take-over's and alliances in hebrew...w.t.f.? I thought the US and Israel already had a solid alliance...maybe not so much anymore (and not necessarily just in the game of Risk).

I hate to break it to you, but I don't have any clever wise words today...ha. I've just been hanging out, enjoying my vacation for now. I have had a lot of time to think about what the heck my plan will be when I decide to come home and I'll open my forum to suggestions. I know I want to go back to school and earn my Master's Degree, but I can't decide on a program. I want to stay in the Environmental field, maybe along the lines of Sustainability programs. If you know of an interesting program or school to check out, please share. I also think about my career. What in the world am I going to be? I think a tea-cup, firefighter, the president, a tree, and an astronaut are out of the question at this point. If anyone has any suggestions, my ears are all yours. Or even if you want to just go ahead and set me up with a job, I'll accept that to.

Tonight we are picking Daniels mom up from the army base where she has been volunteering for the last 2 weeks. We have all been invited to another BBQ (probably more pita, hummus, and meat), and then who know's what after.

I apologize for the random blabbering at some points...If anything exciting happens I will be sure to share it with you. Oh, the elections in Lebanon seem to be a positive victory in the minds of most Israeli's so that's good news. 

I hope you are doing well and life is good. Remember to throw out those suggestions on school and jobs if they come to mind.

Talk to you next time.

Life is like Kayaking

One of the many characteristics of the Israeli culture that I have really enjoyed is the interest people share in conversation. Everyone talks openly about their life and their political opinions. They are not afraid to ask you a blunt questions like, "so how's your sex life" or "do you agree with what O'bama has done thus far?" And people are not shy or hesitant to respond. They are not worried about how someone might react or if they will disagree with them. They do not take your opinion personally and they do not hold it against you and make an assumption about the person you might be. You say what you have to say, and you move on.

Throughout the conversation you can feel that the people around you are very interested and pay close attention to what you have to say. They do this because they want to through your opinion right back in your face if they have to, but there's no hard feelings. Your opinion is important and a great opportunity for them to argue with you. In the end, the conversations are often ended with, can I buy you a coffee, not screw you.   

Conversation around the dinner table is often very politically or personally driven. Opinions about O'bama's interest are very popular, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is very common, and questions about the person you are and what interest's you have is very important. Dinner takes a while. It's not, sit down, order, swallow your food whole, pay, and move because there's a party of 5 waiting with a screaming baby and a hungry mother. You take your time. You engage in deep conversations and when your ready to leave, you ask for the check which will take long enough to that you can have a cup of coffee and dessert in the mean time. But just because you paid doesn't mean you have to leave. Why don't you let the food settle for a while, if people are waiting, oh well.

Sorry I've taken a while to share the new metaphor I learned about life, but I wanted you to have an understanding about the culture here and why someone would share what may seem like a silly metaphor, but I thought it was dead on, especially concerning the topic of our conversation at the time.

Daniel and I went to dinner last night at the only mexican restaurant in Tel Aviv (btw, my trip is officially complete, I ate mexican food in Tel Aviv). We sat at the bar eating diner for probably 2 hours +. We talked a lot about how people make their decisions in life. Some people know exactly what they want while others take some time to figure it out. The common point that we kept coming back to was how difficult it can be for some people to make a decision, and I am definitely one of those people. Taking the plunge, jumping into the deep end can make people like me very anxious. Finally deciding to book my trip to Israel was probably one of the biggest decision's I have made thus far in my life. Quitting a decent paying full time job, leaving behind a new baby niece that is going to grow so much while I'm gone, leaving behind a family that is finally starting to relocate within close proximity to visit, leaving behind a girlfriend of almost 6 years, and of course my only child-like figure, my 2 year old bulldog. Not knowing what Israel would have to offer and not knowing what the hell I am going to do when I decide it's time to come home. But it's these kinds of decision that will help me.

I've been stuck in a post college slump that I think many young adults suffer from for a couple of years. You've just left the ultimate hang-out party atmosphere, your bills have been paid for the last 22 years, your schedule included maybe 20-30 hours of commitment during the week, and you think your going to change the world now. Oh, sorry, I meant you've just graduate from college, now what the heck are you going to do, oh and by the way, no one is hiring right now. You're trapped, freaking out about who you are, what you are going to do for a career, how are you going to afford life, where are you going to live, how do you make new friends, who are you going to marry, when do you get married, how do you get married, etc. Meanwhile your friends friend is already the C.E.O. of the next upcoming Fortune 500 and they were at more parties then you were in college. So now you're stuck. What to do....how do I handle all these thoughts?

Finally, life is like kayaking. Daniel shared this metaphor with me last night and I thought it was brilliant. 

When it comes down to it, there are two ways to paddle a river, and in no ranking order here they are:

One way is to paddle hard. Quick paddle left, left, left.....no, no, more right, right, right...watch out for the rocks (boom), bounce back into the rapid, paddle, paddle, paddle. Working every muscle of your brain and body. Frantic about the next rapid around the bend. Already strategically planning how you are going to attack the waves so you don't crash into the next rocks or flip your kayak. This plan has to work in order to arrive at my final destination and if I do crash you may be left very disappointed.

Second, hop in the kayak, loosen the straps on your back support so you can lean back, place your paddle along side of you, rip open a bag of chips, and snap some pictures along the way with the waterproof disposable camera you picked up on your way down to the water. Floating down river you see all the detail along the way. You have a conversation with your kayaking partner about the trees around you, did you see that bird, there's a dear, you wave at people you pass along the shore long, you can even pull over and talk to them if you'd like. There is a small rapid approaching so you prepare yourself. Sit up, grab your paddle, close up the bag of chips so they don't get wet, find the best way through, work hard to get through the rapid, and then ride it out. Meanwhile the first paddlers are now stuck behind a rock and paddling their ass off because they freaking out, which in turn may be causing more problems then solving the one they are in.

At the end of they day, both groups of kayakers all paddle into camp at the same time. Helping each other carry all the kayaks up the beach.

The relationship kayaking has in real life:

There are people, the first group of kayakers, that frantically search for what's next. They are paddling through their job because the harder they work/paddle, it obviously has a pay off right? They take a few bumps along the way, and may be disappointed because you can see the damage they created. In the beginning they made the decision they were going to focus on paddling and working as hard as they could to arrive at their final destination with Newton's third law in that back of the minds: for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.

Then there are people, the second group of kayakers, who take a step back and enjoy the bumps along the way. When faced with adversity or new beginnings, the rapids, they figure out the best way through. They paddle/work when needed to accomplish the best outcome possible, and then adjust their responsibilities in order to keep the road ahead smooth. They realize that the journey ahead will bring new jobs/rapids, new people, new environments, and new beginnings. They will be prepared to adjust accordingly and conquering each rapid/experience along the way will prepare them for the next.

Again, at the end of the day, we all end up in the same place. No one has it better then the other. However, emotionally and spiritually, the second group of kayakers will have had a more enjoyable experience along the way. Like they say, take a minute to stop and smell the roses. 

I am not trying to preach the wrong or right way to live your life or control how you paddle the river. I just wanted to share this conversation because I thought it was very interesting. I have never heard someone explain life in this way and I thought it was great. 

I guess I would say I'd probably be in the second group of kayakers and my decision to take this trip to israel is to meet a group of people I saw along the shoreline while I was paddling. They looked very interesting and I knew if I took the time to stop and meet them I would learn something new, not only about them, but about myself. I would make a new friend, enjoy my time with them, and then move on when we were done. Eventually ending up at the bottom of the river along with the responsibilities and loved ones at home who made the decision to keep paddling on.

All in all, I would recommend to anyone who can afford the time or money to take the plunge. Do something completely different for a change. You don't have to leave your job, family, dog, or significant other and travel thousands of miles either. Try something new at home. Join a sports league you've never played, join an organization you have no idea what they do, eat lunch with a new group of coworkers, I don't know, something that's different for you. You may love it or you may hate it, but most importantly you will have tried it and will have recognized something new about the person you are. You will strengthen your sole and generate fascinating new experiences to share with friends and family. It's just an idea to think about. If you have already figured out everything you want and need in life then I admire what you have. 

Another great point that was raised, and I'll try to keep this short. If you are jobless or don't have anything to do, the harsh reality is that you often run the risk of giving off a vibe to others that you don't have much to offer them. I understand the economy is not the best right now, but that means you need to bust your ass that much more. And for those of you trying to help those who are jobless or not doing anything. The second harsh reality, they often are not the best people to rely on. People who don't have anything to do, often don't get anything done because they don't have a reason to do it quickly. They don't have a reason to hurry up and finish what you have asked them to start. On the other hand, someone who is busy working, give them the responsibility, they have a schedule that keeps them working so they will want to add it to their To Do list.

That's kind of a random point, but I liked it.

I'm sure my stories seem random, and maybe you don't agree with them, but I've learned that expressing myself feels the best. I started this blog to share my experience with you and my experiences are not just the sites I see. The most important experiences are the ones I learn something from while I'm doing it. I understand it works for me and it may not work for other people, but it doesn't hurt anyone for me to share it, and who knows, maybe it will ignite a positive spark in someone I know and I knowing that at least one person is inspired, that's all that matters to me.

I've posted a few pictures of the beach just for fun. Enjoy!

Random Nonsense

So I did confirm I am sleeping in a bomb shelter. Ha. The buildling Daniel lives in has been a bit refurbished. Back in the day it was constructed to be the first Military defense coordinating offices. A man by the name of David Ben-Gurion was one of the founds of the military defense team. He is also linked with the building of Israel as the Jewish State. He is "the Churchill of Israel." So back in the day it was the shelter for this building. It has since lost some of its protection because they added a window and a regular door. But at least I'd still be a lot safer if anything was to go down. :)

Speaking of things going down, well do you remember doing earthquake drills in grade school? You do if you live in California. Duck and cover. Well, the country had a little drill themselves yesterday. Not a fire drill, not an earthquake drill, none of the natural disaster drills, more like a bombing drill. Daniel wasn't going to warm me about this little drill the country has had planned for a couple of weeks, but fortunately Shai spilled the beans the first night I was here. Unfortunately, we never got to take part in the drill. For some reason the sirens never went off while we were in Jerusalem so we didn't get to duck and cover. I didn't hear how it went in Tel Aviv, but apparently they were going to set up fake disaster season so emergency crews could practice. Welcome to Israel! At least we know the practice to stay sharp.

Parking in Israel is insane. I love how some people, who cant find the space they are looking for then decide to just pull up on the curb. If your car doesn't fit the parallel spot, park it on an angle with your tires on the sidewalk, obviously. I dear someone to try that in the states and see how long your car will last. (but I'm not paying anyone's bills or tickets)

I ate an egg and avocado sandwich today. Its like egg salad, but diced eggs with avocado. It was interesting, but I liked it.

Daniel made me try tartare (raw beef) and bone marrow last night. It was flavorful, but not something I need to eat again.  

Here are some more pic's and 2 shot's of Daniel's pad.

Pic 1 - Jerusalem Market

Pic 2 - Dome of the Rock

Pic 3 & 4 - Daniels apartment

I guess that's all for now. Talk to you later. Peace

Israeli Graduation's & Daniels, of course...

Daniel’s Graduation was a bit different then the one I went through. Although very similar at times, there were clear differences.

First off, difference number 1: my ceremony was not spoken in Hebrew. I know, shockingly enough right? Well, there are not enough Hebrew speaking individuals in San Bernadino California, let alone Redlands more specifically, so they decided English was best. They did offer little radio translators so I checked one out. Of course it didn’t work well and really only worked best if I held it head high. So, I sat in the bleachers looking a like a silly foreigner holding a radio above my head so I could attempt to understand what was going on.

The guest speaker was interesting. Benny Landa, the founder and creator of Indigo. The “Champion of Print.” Excited yet? He created digital printing along with over 500 other patents. I’d say he’s pretty brilliant. And a baller too, after selling to HP and he made over $200 million with just the patent alones. But that’s not what’s important. I only caught about half his speech so I can’t really tell you what he said. After the group ceremony they broke off into separate departments. This is when the chaos ensued. When they started calling the students names to hand over the diplomas, families crowded the stage to snap their photos. It was a push and shuv affair. I joined in since I am slightly vertically challenged (thanks mom and dad) and I to wanted to get a picture of our graduate. The ceremony last almost 4 hours by the time everything was done. Too long for me, but it was great to see Daniel graduate. For those of you that don’t know my friend Daniel, it was a big accomplishment. We have been friends for a very long time and we have gone through quite a bit together. In high school we both made some bad decisions. I managed to stray from the pack a bit earlier, which ultimately made the difference with my own graduation a few years ago. Daniel eventually managed to turn things around after spending 3 years in the Israeli army as a paratrooper. It was great to see the excitement and joyful tears his mom shared at the ceremony. We all know how mom’s can get, but we were all very excited! Congrats again dude! I truly admire your perseverance and it’s great to see the character in you that we all saw from the beginning. Daniel graduate with a degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance from The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

I forgot my camera at home. I took a bunch of pictures with Daniels moms’ camera so I will post them if I can download them from her camera in a few days. Check back.