The Million Person Rally...sort of

You have never truly cottage cheese until
 you have eaten Israeli cottage cheese

Since I've been in Israel, there has been a social protest going on. They started out as protests against a rise in the subsidized price of cottage cheese. I know that sounds absurd but you truly have not experienced cottage cheese until you have eaten Israeli cottage cheese. It is an essential part of a traditional Israeli breakfast. I refuse to eat cottage cheese in the US but I have bought it every time I have gone to Shufersal or the closer supermarket, Machsanei Lahav.

The protests started in earnest with a single tent on Rothchild Boulevard, one of the wealthiest streets in Tel Aviv. More and more people came until it was a tent city, alive at night with the sounds of drum circles and acoustic guitars. Different groups came together from all political parties to protest the high cost of living in Israel: students protested the lack of affordable housing, doctors protested their long hours and low wages, and some people protested just because that is what the cool kids were doing.

Protesting on the shoulders of my suit-mate.
 Photo credit: Darielle Shandler

That is where I come in. A month and a half into the protests they tent cities had spread to different cities throughout the country. They had held several rallies, the biggest in Israel's history, the new commentators and journalists were predicting that the protest was running out of steam. The leaders of the protests decided that they needed to rejuvenate their efforts. A million-person rally, they dreamed, by far the biggest in Israel's short existance. More than one out of every eight people in the country. There was no way I would miss it.

The night of the protest I went downtown to Kikar Hamedina, Tel Aviv's largest square, to check out the action. I went with five friends, but by the time I elbowed my way to the middle of the giant crowd I had lost all the others except for my friend Max. We felt like individual curds of cottage cheese stuffed into the container with the heat turned up to about 150 degrees. Luckily, there was no spoilage.

One of the heads of the protest, Daphne Leaf, spoke about the significance of the rally and why they should continue to be upset with the government. Then Hadag Nachash, a popular Israeli Hip-Hop group performed three songs, including the appropriate song, "Lo Frayerim," which talks about Israelis not wanting to be suckers for paying high taxes and going on mandatory military reserve duty.

This sign doesn't necessarily reflect my political
view because I have not solidified mine yet.
Whether or not it reflects your's, you
have to admit that it looks cool.

There were a lot of cool signs with clever slogans and striking designs, one of which I snagged from the side of the road after we left. It reads "The nation is mentally ill (sick in the head). Sometimes Advil isn't enough and you need to switch it's head." This of course, is a reference the the Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, and was sponsored by Kadima, the opposition to Netayahu's Likud Party.

On the way home we quietly chanted the slogan of the protest to ourselves: העם דורש צדק חברתי (the nation demands social justice).

The next day the media outlets reported that the rally totaled approximately 450,000 people across Israel. Not nearly the million protestors that were promised, but still the largest protest that ever existed in the country. More than fifteen percent of the population participated and I still didn't see anyone I knew. Maybe this country is bigger than I thought it was...

Mailbag

Israel's postal service. Do'ar Yisrael:
In everyplace, for everyone

Hey everyone, while I hope that you are enjoying my blog posts, I wanted to put some of the choice in the hands of you, the reader! Next week I will write a mailbag post, following after my favorite writer on ESPN.com, Bill Simmons. Feel free to write me any questions about my experience as a comment on this post, a message on facebook, or via e-mail.

The Nineteith Minute, Part 2

No, he is not hurt, he is kissing the "land" of Israel.

When we got off of the airplane I had a wave of nostalgia for the country I had left just several hours before. We got off the plane and walked down a staircase to the ground and boarding busses instead of walking straight into the terminal. Now this might sounds ridiculous, but I remember when you used to fly into Ben Gurion Airport and go through the same process. It used to be a little different because the when more religious passengers stepped onto the tarmac, they would get down on their knees and kiss the 'land,' which was sort of strange because the asphalt there hasn't even been there since the time of Herzl, let alone the time of King David.

Once through the teensy airport we got onto a chartered bus that took us to our hotel. On the way, an Israeli woman named Orit told us a little about the Island and some activities she organized for all of us (if we were interested). The two of us were surprised and happy that we could understand everything that she was saying in Hebrew. We decided that we were not interested in touring around Malta with a bunch of Israelis who were, on average, 15-20 years older than us.

Also, we had some scuba diving to do!

Krispini: a way to put Christmas
cheer on your hands and that romantic
garlic smell on your breath

We got to our hotel in the early afternoon. Josh decided to go for his first dive so he took a bus to the diving center while I took a nap and then went shopping for some groceries. In the area we were staying there were no big grocery stores, but there were lots of cute markets, sort of similar to a makolet in Israel. I bought us provisions for the coming days including a curious snack of garlic-flavored hollow crunchy sticks. We were surprised by how good they were when we ate them the next day, but I was a little creeped out by the Christmas-like green and red residue that they left on my hand that resembled glitter in look and processed garlic and salt in flavor.

On the first night Josh and I decided to take a nap before finding a place for dinner. When we woke up in the morning, we realized that we had taken a bit more than a nap. Rejuvenated and ready for the coming day, we packed sandwiches and headed down to the continental breakfast buffet. We liberated a few fruits from the buffet and then got picked up by the diving school.

In the process or scuba diving certification I had to watch three videos that looked like they were made in the 80's, replete with musical transitions of synthesizers and drum-kits, short-shorts, and different dated fonts for every important note that you needed to remember in order to prevent injury. At the end of the last video, the copyright date said 1999.

The other section is the practical, where you actually get to go into the water and practice the skills that you saw in the videos. My favorite skill that I had to learn is the controlled emergency ascent which involves taking your regulator (mouth piece) out and yelling "AAAAHHHHHHHHH" as you ascend to the surface. Yelling is not necessary, but I learned that it makes it a lot more fun. The idea is to prevent the air in your lungs from expanding too much and causing your lungs to burst, therefore you expel at a consistent rate until you reach the surface.

Me and Josh

The open water dives that I went on were very cool. I got to swim through schools of tiny fish and swim around the rusted metal skeleton of an old ship. I don't think I could tell you more about what I saw down there because I was too busy concentrating on maintaining my buoyancy and equalizing the pressure in my sinuses (think clearing your ears on an airplane).

The Nineteith Minute, Part 1

I apologize (sincerely) for my lack of posts. Every week of ulpan has gotten more intense: more material, more homework, and more grammar. We did, however, get a three day break (plus two days of weekend) off from class. What did I do, you ask? Flew to Malta and learned how to scuba dive. I'm sure you had a nice weekend too...

My trip started badakah hatish'im, that is to say, in the 90th minute. In Israel, the expression "הדקה התשעים" (hadakah hatish'im, the 90th minute) means the last minute. It is a reference to the 90th minute, the last, in a regulation soccer game. It is also the name of an Israeli travel website where you can book cheap last minute deals. Josh, my classmate from ulpan, would say that it is also a good metaphor for the Israeli culture, but that is another post.

For those of you who knew nothing about Malta
(which included me until a week and a half ago) here is a map
showing where Malta is relative to the rest of the Mediterranean. 

The aforementioned Josh approached me at the beginning of last week and asked me if I wanted to go scuba diving with him in Malta over the long weekend. I think you'll agree with me that it was reasonable for me to be skeptical. Traveling with a relatively new friend to a relatively obscure island country in the middle of the Mediterranean. On top of that, trying something new with potential risks like being eaten by relatively obscure scaly animal with teeth the size of my fists.

I simultaneously investigated and tried to convince my parents to let me go, in case I actually decided to give it the green light. It was a good price for the tickets and the hotel and, did I mention, I was going to learn how to scuba dive?!?! Josh confirmed the flight on Thursday and the flight was to depart at on Friday at 4:30am from Ben Gurion Airport. When we got to the airport, we found out that the flight was actually delayed for three and a half hours.

We spent an hour swept up in an angry mob of Israelis, who booked the same flight, looking for someone to get yell at. We tried to appeal to a manager, but he had already gone to sleep, not surprising since it was past 2 in the morning. Josh and I decided to take after the manager and found a corner to sleep until the check-in opened up.

We boarded the airplane at around 7:45 and I don't think that I could have stayed awake, even if I had chugged two Redbulls and ran an IV of Mountain Dew. Two hours later we woke up in Malta.

Shabbat in Jerusalem

Before I write about my trip this past Friday to (SPOILER ALERT) Akko and the rest of the weekend, I'll tell you about my trip to Jerusalem the weekend before...

I started out by going into Tel Aviv, where I met Ben, a friend from Tufts, who has been in Israel for a few weeks this summer. Ben has recently become a vegan so, naturally, I met him at a vegan restaurant in Tel Aviv where he was casually interviewing one of the Hebrew Israelites who own the restaurant. At first glance, it was a little hard to tell it was him because 90% of his trademark blond locks were covered up with an enormous white knit kippa. It was striking because you usually expect to see a fedora or ironic baseball cap with cargo shorts and a plaid, slim-fitting, button-down shirt.

The kippa that Ben was wearing made me think he
might have been dancing with these guys too much

We caught up on the walk over to the bus station and during the bus ride. I was afraid we were talking too loudly, but I guess that is expected because no one shushed us. After we got off the bus we headed our separate ways: he back to his program and me to my cousin's house.

The drive from Jerusalem's Central Station was a little bit nerve-wracking. Some of it was due to the nature of my cousin, Divsha's, driving. Most of it was due to the ridiculously confusing streets and my aunt's constant reminders to her: "don't drive so close to the right...slow down in this area, people might be pulling out!" Above all, it made me appreciate that I never had to learn how to drive with my mom in the car. The few times that she was there with me, I could sense her clenching the door and the armrest out of anxiety. I don't think it was completely a reflection on my driving skills because she still does it a little bit when she is in my brother's passenger seat.

Of course I had a lot of time to spend with my my aunt, my uncle, and all of the cousins who didn't spend the whole of shabbat in their rooms. We had a great time, but the more notable things happened with the people who I didn't expect to see.

At Saturday morning services, a bunch of high school students on Ramah Seminar visited the synagogue for their last shabbat in Israel. I distinctly recognized two of them but could not figure out exactly who they were. During the luncheon I went up to them and introduced myself. The two didn't even give me their own names rather, they just referred to themselves as 'Slapin's younger brother' and 'Ari's younger sister.'

Don't be fooled by its high ceilings and festive
atmosphere, Tel Aviv's New Central Station is
one of Israel's most confusing destinations, and
considering Jerusalem's roads, that is saying a lot. 

The second incident occurred after my bus had arrived in Tel Aviv after shabbat. I wasted a half an hour trying to navigate to the right gate in Tel Aviv's notoriously baffling New Central Station. After I found out that the last bus back to the University had already left I resigned to take a cab. It was even more difficult to find the exit than it was to find the right bus terminal, but I mazed my way through the station and stepped out into the not-so-fresh aired sidewalk lined with taxis.

I was about to approach a taxi when I hear someone call "SAM!" I turn around and hear it again.  A third time I hear it is a girl's voice, but this time she says "SAM MELLITS! Are you going to the University?" I found it curious that the first name belonged to me, but the last name belonged to a good friend of mine from home. Close enough, I thought and I waved off the taxi I had approached to find this mysterious hollerer. As I approached, I recognized her and could place her as someone from elementary school, but I couldn't quite recall her name. We split a cab and caught up during the ride. A few minutes into the drive back to the University I remembered her first name but it wasn't until I was brushing my teeth in my apartment that her last name came to me. Despite my frustration and weariness from the journey from Jerusalem, I checked on Facebook to confirm that I was right about her name before I went to sleep.

From left to right: Sam Mellits, Sam Sittenfield (aka: me)

Roommates... and a new roommate?

I've been here for a week now, and I realized that I haven't really told you anything about my roommates, so here is a little info to get to know them:

Roommate #1

Ari doesn't like to take photographs,
so I decided to put up this picture
for the sake of aesthetics, enjoy!

Ari is a tall Jewish boychik who has lived in various places around the US. He has settled in Buffalo, NY and is currently a Junior at University of Buffalo. He is majoring in history and aspires to become a professor. He sometimes describes himself as 'brooding' but is much more cheerful than that word implies. He enjoys reading, long walks on the Tel Aviv beach, and when he is not socializing, a bit of alone time.

This is Stephen, he doesn't usually
look so surprised

Roommate #2
My roommate, Stephen, is a Senior at Franklin and Marshall College in PA. He is originally from Westchester, NY and is majoring in government. Some of his favorite pastimes include playing ultimate frisbee, trying to fix skype on his dad's computer (from 6,000 miles away), and snoring for the first 5 minutes he is asleep.

All silliness aside, they are really nice guys and I'm am lucky to have them as my roommates. It has been great to have each other during the first few days as we explored the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv without feeling alone.

On Friday Stephen and I went to Shuk HaCarmel, an outdoor market with everything from fresh produce to a wide array of Ran-Bin's (knock-off Ray-Ban sunglasses). We afterwards we went to the beach to meet up with Ari and a few other guys from the program. I left with some of the guys a little early and before Ari and Stephen left to come back to the dorm. After I took a shower I was getting dressed in my room and I hear the front door open. "Hey guys, how was the rest of the time at the beach?"

...no response...

I finished getting dressed and opened my room's door to find a stranger in the kitchen. "Hello..."

"Hello, my name is Nick!" said the stranger in a European accent. "I am your roommate." You can imagine my confusion. We had already spent three nights in the our apartment and the university didn't mention anyone else who was going to join us. It turns out that Nick is great too. He is full of stories from his many travels and has a thirst for learning about us too!

Roommate #3
Nick is German but has traveled a lot around Europe and around the world. He is a europhile who is not Jewish and has no prior knowledge of Hebrew. He is excited to learn Hebrew and many new things about Israeli and Jewish culture. His dream is to be able to go to the local supermarket and come back to find that all the groceries were the things he thought they were.

***Some parts of the roommate profiles were exaggerated for comedic purposes.  If you did not find them funny, please disregard the last sentence.****

Early Returns

Thank you all for waiting patiently on my second post. I thought I wouldn't be writing anything until tomorrow or the next day, but it turns out that a lot can happen in a short amount of time. I have decided that I will try to tell short stories of my travels in an attempt not to bore you too much with the particulars of everyday life. If you would like to hear more about that, send me an e-mail or a facebook message or just leave a comment at the bottom. I will start with the official beginning of my trip: the flight.

Well... we had to wait a little while before the actual take off. There was some trouble getting water in the plumbing on the plane (I didn't even realize that could even be a problem), so we were delayed for an hour and a half.  They couldn't fix it so they decided to put bottles of water in the bathroom and let the passengers figure it out for themselves. I was just imagining the Israeli pilots and flight attendants saying to each other: (insert heavy Israeli accent here) they are going to a country that is constantly in... emm... how do you say... drought. They might as well get used to it now.


Once we got to the campus in Ramat Aviv, they gave us our keys. I carried my bags up to the fourth floor of one of the dormitories. I could not remember whether I had signed up to live with Israelis or other American students. I weighed the pros and cons of each before thinking that it didn't really matter. Whichever room they put me in is where I would be and there was no reason to worry about it. I opened my door and I found an apartment style dorm with a well stocked fridge.  When I went into my room I saw the two beds, one empty and one made with a purse on it. Did they put me in a room with a girl?  I was really confused: I could see why they might put two different genders in the same apartment, but the same room seemed like a little bit much. It turns out is was just a mistake.  There was a girl who was placed in the with all guys, so I just moved into her original placement.

My real bedroom (check out the b-grams!)

After all that trouble coming to the country and then finding the place I would be spending the next five and a half months, my roommates were very kind and inviting.  Last night the three of us went looking for a place to eat dinner and ended up exploring a little bit (read: about an hour) before finding a place to eat. It turns out that if you follow the signs for "Center" it is really trying to take to the center of Tel Aviv instead of the center of Ramat Aviv (where Tel Aviv University's campus is located)

Introduction

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in! As I am finishing up my preparations to leave for Israel, I wanted to get the ball rolling with my first blog post. This post is an introduction to my blog. For those of you who know me, I love you very much and thank you, in advance, for reading the rest of this post. For those of you who don't know me: I'm surprised that you are reading my blog. Here is a little bit about myself so that you get caught up:

I am a Junior majoring in Psychology at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts (GO JUMBOS!!). I went to Jewish Day School in the suburbs of Philadelphia from kindergarten through 12th grade and spent many a summer at Jewish sleep-away camp. Some of my favorite things to do are cooking, playing sports, Israeli Folk Dancing, and last, but not least, singing with my Jewish a cappella brethren (also known as Shir Appeal). I will be spending the coming semester studying at Tel Aviv University's School for Overseas Students.

I haven't designed a particular format for this blog, so I imagine that the first few posts will a little bit all over the place. This is the first time I have ever kept a blog or journal or anything of the sort and the going will be rough. My goal is to post one or two times a week and allow you to live vicariously through me. With that, I also encourage you to write comments on my posts or send me e-mails or facebook messages. Not only will that help me stay in tune with the interest of the common folk ;) but it will also remind me that I should be putting up new posts.

Thank you all for reading my blog! I'll be getting into Israel on Wednesday and you can expect another post to be up by Friday. I suggest you just stay by your computer until then and click the refresh button on this page every couple of minutes.