Thanksgiving abroad and other fun things

I have NEVER spent a Thanksgiving away from my family and although it's not my favorite holiday being abroad wasn't easy.

Luckily... I have OTZMA, and I have my wonderful OTZMA community and the 33 of us plus some guests (including our star guest Nana, my and Kitah Bet's Ulpan teacher) celebrated an American Thanksgiving in Ashkelon.

Bec and I made a PHENOMENAL squash soup, Amir made a Turkey and everyone made AMAZING side dishes, soups, desserts etc. Hilarious things that happened and made these normal holiday traditions difficult:

1. There is currently an agriculture strike in Israel (to find out more about this read here)and we weren't able to buy/find/order anywhere a whole turkey
2. Our kitchens are small. We only have 2 small burners and a toaster oven. Our soup took 2 days to make...but really...

It took the amazing teamwork and communal efforts to make the evening such a success, but we did it!

November is ending and December (a month of traveling and havoc) is about to begin!!!

For my part 1 1/2 I'll be living and working for two weeks in Tzukim in the far south of Israel helping to build an ecologically responsible village and resort with a team of people my age from around the work. Then for the second half of December, Rebecca and I will be going on a Eurotrip with special guests along the way!

• 12/16-12/19 Amsterdam, Netherlands w/ Krissy and Bec
  
• 12/19-12/23 London, England w/ Krissy and Bec
• 12/24-12/25 Munich, Germany w/ Bec
• 12/26 Frankfurt, Germany w/ Bec and Ariel
• 12/27-12/28 Berlin, Germany
  

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This week marks our last in Beit Canada and that means moving everything into storage for the month of December. So, I've started to move some of my stuff out and Bec and I took this Shabbat to spend with her family at her Aunt Mira's house in Tel Aviv. After the mandatory Friday afternoon nap, Becca's uncle Yonkel took us out in his 1957 Jeep. It's green, it has no roof or sides, it's amazing. After driving around the heart of Tel Aviv and enjoying the tons of attention a green army jeep cruising through the hot spots of town brings we headed to the northern beaches of Tel Aviv to drive around the sand dunes.

Yonkel is an expert driver and was given several rounds of applause by fellow drivers and sand dune cruisers. We finished the afternoon by watching the sunset over the ocean from the clifs next to the sea.

It's still surreal to me that we're walking around in tank tops and flip flops...but I'm sure Europe will be a huge wake up call.

Pictures to come soon!

Karmiel

Here's a post that never was posted from a while ago...oops

Life here is flying by and again I have to keep reminding myself what time of year it is. There's no Christmas carols on the radio and no windy Pittsburgh (or Philadelphia) days. November in Israel is still sunny, still hot, still beautiful and definitely without the radio reminders.

I've been here for almost 3 months now and I'm shocked at how at home I feel. My hebrew is ENORMOUSLY better and there's no longer any anxiety about taking a cab, wrong bus, or train.

I spent this past weekend in Karmiel where I'll be living for part 2 starting in January. Although I've been to most parts of Israel I had never been to Karmiel before and I was pleasantly surprised. Karmiel is in North-Central Israel less than an hour East of Haifa.

We (Michael, Jeff and I) spent Shabbat at Jeff's host family's house: the Kovesh's. The Kovesh Family is amazing to say the least. They have 4 children, Arbel, Klil, Carmel and Ortal and a beautiful home in Yuvalim (a Moshav in Misgav, the area next to the city of Karmiel, also part of the partnership with Pittsburgh). We spent the weekend relaxing with the family and went to a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat full of music that was the closest thing to services at home that I have yet to see in Israel. I played guitar with the 14 year old son Ortal (who is the same age and a doppelganger of my twin brothers Danny and Jonathan) and we went out with Klil and her friends who were all home from the army and their jobs for the weekend.

Karmiel's views are spectacular and breathtaking and the air is extremely pure. We spent Sunday on a tour of Karmiel with the women from the Jewish Agency to look at all of the volunteer opportunities available to us come January. I'm so excited to be living there in January!