ni hao, it's nika on tour: 2016-08-28

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