Gone Fishing (for Hummus)

Although I've been an obnoxiously avid blogger for the past few months, I'm hoping you can all bear just a few more from me.  Due to my terrible memory and your lack of infinite free time, I will mostly concentrate on what I've been doing in the past few weeks and just sprinkle a bit of the past few months towards the end.

In the beginning of May we had English Day at the school I've been volunteering at, Yad LeBanim. It was a super fun crazy day that we (the fellows) planned and prepared for for quite a bit of time.  On English day, there were 4 different country-themed (Greece, India, Italy, and America) stations throughout the school where the students did different activities ("Olympic" races, henna tattoos, Venetian masks, smores and campfire songs, respectively).  The older students in 5th and 6th grades memorized English scripts and directions and did everything they were supposed to do beautifully with only some vague overtones of balagan.  It was a lovely happy day, but I think the most important things I learned from this experience was what the world actually looks like.

Which I am indebted to the 1st grade children for teaching me 

So thank you.

(Although sometimes it was slightly alarming)

Another really meaningful day was Yom Hazikaron, or Israeli Memorial Day (for soldiers and victims of terror attacks).  I went to a few different ceremonies and did a bunch of crying, but the most crying I did was at the ceremony at my school, which was mostly made up of the students singing sad Israeli songs and saying sad quotes by children about war and the best friend of a former student speaking about his best friend who died in the war this past summer.  Something about children grappling with and presenting such a heavy, depressing subject in such a simple yet poignant way was incredibly touching.  In a way it made me feel more connected to Israel, to be let into such a personal and sensitive subject, but as a 22 year old who never went to the army and doesn't have too many Israeli friends, I also felt somewhat distanced from the undoubtedly stronger emotions every Israeli around me must have been feeling.

The next day my program took us to a beautiful spring commemorating a soldier who died in Gaza where his incredibly inspirational sister spoke to us in a truly positive, admirable way.  Something I really love about Israel is how a great percentage of the beautiful things here commemorate someone or something. I think it makes even leisure time more meaningful because not only do the beautiful things commemorate important people and events, but a lot of Israelis are aware of their significance too.

Here are a few of my favorite songs that played around this time. They are all sad:

https://youtu.be/Y05rqt0YHtw
https://youtu.be/7UAnc7lqJjM
https://youtu.be/RJ8UnHR16Uo
https://youtu.be/XUR6jL3D6N8

Spring close to Giv'at Ze'ev commemorating Dvir Emanuelof

All the sad ceremonies were quickly followed by millions of BBQs for Independence Day

And all the cars/everythings were covered in these

A few weeks ago Aviv and I went for a 65 kilometer bike ride circling the Kinneret.  It was one of the most beautiful bike rides with the amazing Kinneret conveniently in view for the majority of it. We stopped at a few kibbutzim, parks, and sometimes in the middle of the trail/sidewalk/anywhere that happened to be under us and somewhat flat due to intense butt/back/leg/everything pain. I FaceTimed with my parents that night and they were convinced I had taken all the drugs (fatigue).  Perhaps next time a few preparatory bike rides should be more strongly considered.

Views of Har Arbel

Lucky bees with their beachfront property

And now for the more random happy moments in a confusing non-sequential order: 

Cecile visited and we picked an avocado near Nachal Alexander!

And went to Akko 

Where we ate baklava

Went to the Darom Adom (red south) Festival which was incredible

Hiked in a magical fairy land called Nachal Tavor

Was briefly famous

Swam/froze my bum off in the Meshushim (Hexagon) Pools

Used the Telafun bikeshare system to bike from Namal Tel Aviv to Namal Yafo

Where they don't make it particularly easy to tell time

Went against a few voices of reason and hiked for a few days in the desert carrying more than 10 liters of water on each of our backs

Hopped over to Spain

Where we ate everything 

And sat in beautiful courtyards (this one is in Cordoba which is perfect)

Found my hummus soulmate, the Meshulash, which is fava beans, masabacha, and hummus (this one happens to be at Shlomo and Doron in Tel Aviv, but there were about 800 others)

Was a smiley happy thing with this fellow