Too sad starting to write a blogpost about my adventures
during my gap year knowing it will probably be the last one. Well, at
least it is the last one of Israel I guess, as I still have one month left before University will start. Unfortunately I have a fligh
ticket back home on the 3rd of September as I will start studying in
Germany in October. I try to enjoy my last weeks here as much as I can
and I think I'm managing pretty well. Im surprised of myself how much I
do, I go with, I see, experience I gain and learn for myself but thats
how I actually want my life to be. Everyday is a filled productive and
interesting day, sometimes very planned, still including some surprises;
sometimes as spontaneous as I would go out of my flat alone and let the
day just come to me as it is and landing in some bar/concert/birthday
party with 10 new friends in the end being more than happily taken in
this environment.
To some up, this month I did many things at the same time. I started
taking piano lessons in blues and jazz styles as I only played classical
pieces before and felt bordered in some kind of way. I want to be able
to improvise with other musicians in jams or play songs I just hear
nowadays. Its really fun, I have a great female teacher, who is a
pianist and singer playing in a duo with a friend of mine. We are
getting along with each other really well what makes all the thing more
than fun, so I hope I'll find someone like her in Germany, too, as I
want to continue with it. Where do I practise? At work with the
friends
(thats how we call the autistics). Some of them are pretty talented and
own a piano that they allow me to play for them. After playing them all
my classical pieces I start to practise all what Hagar, my teacher gave
me to work on. Its the most fun way I've ever practised piano and it's
one of the only moments when the friends just sit there calmly on the
bed listening and making quite sounds as if they would sing a little
melody with me.
Moreover, I started to work in a cafe on the beach called
Topsea, that is right in
front of the
Hilton Hotel so you can imagine it's quite expensive.
However, I thought it might be an interesting first experience as a
waitress, as they just earn from tips here, without having a minimum
amount per hour. I made more tips per hour than if I would work for a
minimum in Germany plus tips. Also made new friends. Got sunburned on
face and feet. All in all happy that I tried it out, as I could never imagine myself in this kind of job before.
After work I usually go surfing what I really started to love a lot, as I
improved. I do stand up on almost every wave after I catched it and
even manage to take some curves right and left. And the best (maybe not
always that good) thing in it is that I'm almost not scared at all.
To the top, there is something else I found here, seems it's really the
place for everything one wants in live. Or is it better to say it found
me - a model contract with an agent, who plans to manage me
internationally. He saw me in a beach bar and asked if I've ever done modeling before. I made an agreement with him and now curious about how
it will all go. He arranged a shooting for me with a good photographer
in
Haifa. We took pictures on the beach - it's mostly black and white
and very natural, without any make up.
Besides all this new things, I keep on doing what I did since I arrived
here: having nice local food, learning hebrew instensively, reading books
(right know a splendid book for the stay or before coming to Israel
-
Catch the Jew! (dt. Allein unter Juden) by
Tuvia Tenenbom, highly recommended if interested in the Israeli/Palestinian middle east conflict!) and travelling around the country,
be it nature or historical significant places. I went to Jerusalem
again, but I didnt walk around the old city, that I already know pretty
well with all the holy places, but I went to a pretty quarter named
En Kerem, an ancient village and now a neighbourhood in southwest and the
site of the
Hadassah Medical Center, where I went to see and feel the
athmosphere inside, as I heard its declared mission is to extend a “hand
to all, without regard for race, religion or ethnic origin." I also
visited the campus synagogue which is illuminated by stained glass
windows depicting the twelve tribes of Israel, created by
Marc Chagall.
If you would look at my photographies below, you'd understand me if I
say, the windows and the art inside of them and especially to see them
live, when the sun rays come through, is just breathtaking.
We also had a last night for all the volonteers who worked
for a year or less and go home now. We did a 2 hours Yacht Party
starting in the port of
Herzlyia. We had nice music, snacks and drinks
and funny vibes. Afterwards we all went for beers and to eat
Malabi (an
Israeli dessert similar to Panna Cotta).
Flat Water, no waves to surf on? No problem, let's take a
sup and paddle far inside the water to lie down on the board and just
get tanned without being disturbed. It's fun, good for the bizeps and
and gives you a nice tan.
In the last week of my stay I finished my volonteering in the hostel for
autistic people and I already feel sad. I even had a dream about coming
back to visit the friends there as I missed them and wanted to know how
they feel. I got attached to them more than I thought I would and they
gave me more feelings of happiness than I could ever imagine. It was an
incredible important and interesting experience for me. I had hard
times, especially in the beginning of the work there, but as soon as I
learned the language, knew the people better, what their talents are
what they love and hate what's positive and negative about them, I more
and more fell in love with them with every day especially because their
well-being was just heartwarming for me. Helping others to be happy
makes me happy.
In my last week I traveled to
Jordan with my local best friends Idan and
Yuval. We actually planned to go there with my two Taiwanese roommates
James and Ryan but we split at the border in Eilat as James had a
problem with his visa. He claimed being a volonteer together with us
although he just had a
tourist visa what made him not being able to come
back to Israel after having entered Jordan, because they knew he would
be illegal then. So he had to go back to the ministry with lots of
papers from our working place etc. It was really sad for all of us as we
planned that trip for a long time and didn't expect this at all, but we
were happy that we were enough people to split so Ryan stayed loyal to
his buddy and stayed with him in Eilat having a great time trying out
diving in the red sea for the first time. I had a bad conscience towards
them. If it wouldn't be my last week I would have stayed with them too,
to hold together as a team, but I'm pretty happy I didn't because I
would miss this amazing trip. Jordan has a stunning nature of a red
desert and thousands of years old ruins, scripts and pieces and
buildings. We stayed for 2,5 days in total and decided to see
Petra with
its beautiful beautiful red mountains, caves, monastery extremely
friendly beduines who took us around on donkies and mules and made hot
sweet tea and bread with olive oil for us telling us about their life in
this kind of nature and a bit of the story of the places. I can't
describe the feeling sitting on a mule enjoying the view left and right
from me tasting all the flair. It was similar when we drove further to
Wadi Rum the next day to go on a jeep tour for 3 hours around the most
interesting parts in the desert there where f. e. we saw the statue of
Lawrence of Arabia. Before we came back to the
Beduin camp we were
supposed to stay that night, we saw a magical sunset at a special
viewing point. A huge
Beduin dinner was waiting for us out of yellow
rice, salads and cream cheese. The desert was obviously the Shisha and
some Jordanian beers and the famous sweet Beduine tea. We listened to
some loud Arabic music and danced around the campfire and sang like we
are in the desert and no one and nothing is around us. Next day we
traveled to
Aqaba and crossed the border back to the holy land having
some more delicious
arabic coffee at the shop there and took the bus
back to Tel Aviv where we rested, had dinner and spend the night with
other friends. My last two days were very intense, I surfed a lot as the
waves were high, took the electro bike of Idan to explore Tel Aviv in
another way, relaxing in a cafe in Jaffo, buying some last souvenirs at
the flea market there and coming back to the sea again. I breathed in
the air as it would be the last oxygen I'll get and swam towards the
sunset as if it would be my life destination. After having a shabbat
dinner (
kiddush) in a friend's place we went out all together like it's
shabbat but still woke up early the next morning to surf again and
getting extremely tanned to have the color for the next months until I
come back there. Packing my stuff really fast I realized that I
definetly have too much luggage with me and decided to leave some things
in my friends place so that we can be sure to sea each other again
because I will need to get the stuff back... My friends came with me to
the airport gave me the cutest presents ever that are all around my room
now. The tears hold on until the next morning in Berlin after landing
and driving around the city with two suitcases to my friends flat. I
just fell in the bed and slept as long as possible to not go out of
there because I was scared to start crying again hearing the German
language instead of Hebrew. It was raining heavily and my mood went even
more down. I decided to search for an Israeli cafe on the Internet and
found one named "Gordon" where I waited for my friend that I know from
Tel Aviv, we had a nice day and to see all my family again in the
evening was very beautiful too.
I know exactly I will always miss this country and the people, the positive vibes and the nature and so many more things.
To sum it up, I will miss the sunset yoga on the beach and
running down the promenade and travelling all Israel seeing a great
variety. A beauty of nature - be it the desert, the underwater world,
mountains, waterfalls, forests, lakes, the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean
Sea, the Red Sea, be it a modern big city life with endless restaurants,
bars, clubs, beach life, cafes, galleries and atteliers or a
historical, religious, cultural city life with a positive atmosphere of a
living together, helping each other and blindly trust like in no other
place on this earth. The feelings that this place and people gave to me
will stay in my heart forever and I will always be open for it again.
I love you Tel Aviv and I know you loved me too
On the other side, I'm looking forward to this month, to
meet my family - grandma's, spend time at home with my dog and sister
and the forest around the corner, to meet my friends all over Germany
visit some festivals and doing some model jobs. All this before another
great period of life will start in October with my 20th birthday and the
university. Starting to study
"International Communication and Translation" I am looking forward meeting many international people,
learning the languages
french, english and german at a high level, with a subject of psychology and
aestethic literature what sounds extremely interesting for me. Of course I won't stop learning hebrew besides. Also
looking forward for the semester abroad and all the semester holidays in
which I will escape to do my homework in another country, and to be
honest I deeply think it will be my lovely
Israel. So, wait for me, I'll
come back very soon!
LEHITRAOT HAIM SHELI ISRAEL ANI BA SHUF ODMEAT
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Shuk (marked) in Tel Aviv. Notice the form of the eggplants right after the number 6 |
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Got a beduine scarf in Jordan |
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Wadi Rum..red desert |
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Monastery in Petra |
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Pita bread, salads, labane and yellow rice |
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Hike |
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Sunset point |
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Breathtaking sunset in the nature of the red desert |
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Personla cave |
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Lawrence of Arabia |
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Our Jeeps |
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2000 years old scripts..the love towards the camels |
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Our beduine camp |
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Suleiman..chilling on his babies |
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Little girl, living in a cave in Petra |
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Fresh baked bdeduine bread and delicious olive oils |
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Live in Petra |
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Don#t I fit here? |
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We climbed down alle this hill |
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Just some ribs |
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On our way down |
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Travellers group, lets gooo |
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Some balagan on stage |
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Paddling, paddling far away |
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Bike trip through the city |
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On of the shooting pictures |
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Regular juicebar visits on King George.. |
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Bon apetit..Cafe Bialik |
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My addictive Tel Avivian Sunsets |
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Working outfit of the restaurant on the beach Top Seaaa |
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Flatmates romantic dates |
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All the German girls united <33 |
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Lovely night out in Sarona Market |
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Break at work...waitress |
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Surfers on the wayyy |
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Camping on Haifa beach |
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Big fish and cold white wine |
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Haifa evening weather |
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Levontin Street and cafe concert of lovely Hagar Levy on the piano (my teacher) and Omri Skop |
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Playing for the "friends" |
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Happy birthday to my achot (sister) Yuvalush |
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Sushi dinner with achoti |
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love love |
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short meet of hanoveranians on dizengoff square |
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Soldier training in Jerusalem |
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Chagall Windows |
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This colors are impossible to realize on pictures |
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En Kerem |
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Volonteers night out |
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All the co worker on a boat trip and nika getting crazy of dancing.. |