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. :)
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