Well, I thought that I'd left the chilly weather back in the States, but when I arrived in Israel on Wednesday, I was greeted with downpours of rain, blustery winds, and chilly temperatures! I emerged from the airport with my 3 suitcases (well under 150
pounds, thank you very much! and about 25 of those pounds are books for
the school), tired and jetlagged, but officially an Israeli! It hasn't hit me
yet, exactly what I've just done, but I'm sure it will. Right now it
feels like I never left, which I suppose is a good feeling.
Israeli buildings on the whole are not built for cold weather (poured concrete doesn't do much in the way of insulation). If you're lucky, your air conditioning unit might have a "hot air" option that warms the air, but not necessarily you. So for three days, I basically hibernated in my room with the only heater in our apartment, very glad that I packed my -1 C sleeping bag and a dozen pairs of SmartWool socks. I never imagined that I would be using them in Tel Aviv!
I'm staying in HaTikvah - a neighborhood on the eastern edge of Tel Aviv. It's a slightly depressed area, but there is a lot of construction on our street, which means that people are snapping up cheap properties and "fixing" them. The people I'm renting from also rent out the top floor of the building (there are about 8 other people also renting rooms here). I've been spending time in the upper common room because they have heat, a working stove, working internet, and a tiny kitten! Her name is Katsi (sp?) and she was rescued from the street by a German guest. She was only a few weeks old when they found her, so she couldn't get any shots and couldn't travel on the plane yet. So she's currently wreaking havoc on the other tenants and resident dog and generally ruling the roost. The dog was suspicious of me at first, but after allowing me to pet her and getting a smoked salmon treat from me, we are best friends. So much that she attacked my door this morning when I failed to emerge at the hour she'd deemed appropriate. Her name is Lala and she's very sweet, but very lonely.
On the practical front, today I met with a few people to look at apartments, I've got some leads for jobs as an English teacher, and I just have to set up a bank account and then I will be all done with my aliyah process and ready to start my new life!
Just a few plugs before I go...
-In case you haven't seen them yet, here is the link for my audition videos again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1olde-_KBQ&feature=share&list=PLGN_pJ5E_VUJdtwcpKsotsv4V-VdL3fvw
-And here's the link for my mom and sister's art & poetry collaboration: http://www.adrianatd.com/forever-calendar/
Hope you're all staying toasty and dry!
Snowflakes and sahlab,
Daniella
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Mini-Universes
Ciao, tutti! I apologize for the huuuuge gap in blogs, but I am
hoping to get back to writing more regularly. It has been a whirlwind
summer and I am still processing everything that has happened and
everywhere I've been. St Martin, South Carolina, Colorado, Wisconsin,
France, and Ohio in just 4 months! Are you tired yet?
I was just doing some chakra meditation today and had a realization that I wanted to share. I often find it helpful to visualize the color of each chakra to keep my mind more occupied. Today I realized that the colors also correspond to Earth and the universe.
What do you think of when you imagine a cross-section of the earth? In the center (inner/outer core and mantle), red-hot metals gently cooling perhaps some magma forming? What are the colors of the first two chakras? Red and orange! Now, the third chakra is a bit tricky because it is yellow and soil can be many colors, but just stretch your imaginations a bit. I think you'd agree that the land surface could fall under "green" which is just the same as our heart chakra (it can also be pink, but let's not complicate things). The throat is sky blue, which coordinates well with our sky. Then darker indigo and purple (or white) make up our higher chakras, which you could easily imagine as the darkness of outer space and the rest of the universe.
Now, one of my Alexander teachers likes to remind his students of "heaven and earth." That is, to remain grounded down but to also be moving upwards towards heaven - you are neither pulled nor stretched in either direction. I've always found it interesting that Alexander's directions "forward and up" are also the directions for the third eye - the 6th chakra, and perhaps the first stop as we journey outwards from our own atmosphere into the unknown.
All Alexander teachers will speak to you about "freeing your neck," but what does that really mean? Is it just saying "my neck is free?" Is it stretching your neck to release tension? Or is it, as some of my teachers suggest, simply acknowledging where your neck is right now and knowing that it is free to be exactly where it is at this moment.
In my opinion, the throat chakra is your personal piece of sky. It is what separates and also connects your body, your emotions, to your higher self and the rest of the universe. Yehuda spoke to me about the neck being there to keep the head from floating off into space. The head wants to move forward and up, but we tend to get in the way of it. (Watch a small child playing or a cat or dog running after a toy - you'll understand what I mean).
The throat (5th), heart (4th), and "splenic" (2nd) chakras are intrinsically connected for me (and I imagine for many others, as well) because without their openness, I cannot sing well. This past year, I've been paying more attention to these areas in my daily life. As you might imagine, the heart chakra is linked to our emotions and if it is not open, then we cannot truly communicate our emotions or truly connect with anyone else. Now imagine what a closed heart chakra would do to a singer! Singing is melodic expression of emotion and simply painting on facial expressions or gestures will not really engage an audience. Singing from your emotions can. You are opening your chakras in order to express something genuine and that is how you can share it with others. You are connecting with heaven and earth within AND without you.
To date, the most comfortable I've felt singing in front of others has been at campfires or sitting with them in a small room. I think that being outside in nature or in the comfort of a friend's home, I don't feel that I need to "act," I can just sing songs that I connect with and my connection to them invites my listeners to also connect. It's a beautiful feeling and I think that soon I will be able to transfer this to a bigger stage and connect to wider audiences, including them in my own small universe.
I was just doing some chakra meditation today and had a realization that I wanted to share. I often find it helpful to visualize the color of each chakra to keep my mind more occupied. Today I realized that the colors also correspond to Earth and the universe.
What do you think of when you imagine a cross-section of the earth? In the center (inner/outer core and mantle), red-hot metals gently cooling perhaps some magma forming? What are the colors of the first two chakras? Red and orange! Now, the third chakra is a bit tricky because it is yellow and soil can be many colors, but just stretch your imaginations a bit. I think you'd agree that the land surface could fall under "green" which is just the same as our heart chakra (it can also be pink, but let's not complicate things). The throat is sky blue, which coordinates well with our sky. Then darker indigo and purple (or white) make up our higher chakras, which you could easily imagine as the darkness of outer space and the rest of the universe.
Now, one of my Alexander teachers likes to remind his students of "heaven and earth." That is, to remain grounded down but to also be moving upwards towards heaven - you are neither pulled nor stretched in either direction. I've always found it interesting that Alexander's directions "forward and up" are also the directions for the third eye - the 6th chakra, and perhaps the first stop as we journey outwards from our own atmosphere into the unknown.
All Alexander teachers will speak to you about "freeing your neck," but what does that really mean? Is it just saying "my neck is free?" Is it stretching your neck to release tension? Or is it, as some of my teachers suggest, simply acknowledging where your neck is right now and knowing that it is free to be exactly where it is at this moment.
In my opinion, the throat chakra is your personal piece of sky. It is what separates and also connects your body, your emotions, to your higher self and the rest of the universe. Yehuda spoke to me about the neck being there to keep the head from floating off into space. The head wants to move forward and up, but we tend to get in the way of it. (Watch a small child playing or a cat or dog running after a toy - you'll understand what I mean).
The throat (5th), heart (4th), and "splenic" (2nd) chakras are intrinsically connected for me (and I imagine for many others, as well) because without their openness, I cannot sing well. This past year, I've been paying more attention to these areas in my daily life. As you might imagine, the heart chakra is linked to our emotions and if it is not open, then we cannot truly communicate our emotions or truly connect with anyone else. Now imagine what a closed heart chakra would do to a singer! Singing is melodic expression of emotion and simply painting on facial expressions or gestures will not really engage an audience. Singing from your emotions can. You are opening your chakras in order to express something genuine and that is how you can share it with others. You are connecting with heaven and earth within AND without you.
To date, the most comfortable I've felt singing in front of others has been at campfires or sitting with them in a small room. I think that being outside in nature or in the comfort of a friend's home, I don't feel that I need to "act," I can just sing songs that I connect with and my connection to them invites my listeners to also connect. It's a beautiful feeling and I think that soon I will be able to transfer this to a bigger stage and connect to wider audiences, including them in my own small universe.
Snail friend near Monet's house in Giverny, France
In
other news, I finally got my official approval to make aliyah, so I am
heading back to Israel in December. I had hoped to be back in October,
but life and paperwork happened. This month, I'm preparing audition
recordings for a couple summer programs in Germany (time to learn some
Deutsch). I figured I might as well get all the recording business done over here, eat some turkey and latkes and then tackle finding a job and place to live in Tel Aviv.
I
hope that you are all well and adjusting to the chillier fall
temperatures. Trick-or-treating was delayed a day here due to wind and
rain - it was a truly spooky Halloween evening!
Crepes et marrons,
Daniella :)
Saturday, July 6, 2013
College for All
Finally, some pictures of my kids!
On the last day, we got a giant sheet of paper and asked everyone to write one thing that they thought improved with their English. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures with the 8th graders, but we did get some of the 7th grade (this is only about a third of them).
They were mostly interested in drawing pictures.
This was the most diligent they were all year :)
They were mostly interested in drawing pictures.
This was the most diligent they were all year :)
Yogev wrote "Thank you Daniella for the English lessons" :)
There are only 3 non-Jews in this picture, see if you can guess who they are.
sitting down l-r, Patrick, Alex, Afek
Yogev is kneeling and being silly in the front
sitting down l-r, Patrick, Alex, Afek
Yogev is kneeling and being silly in the front
standing l-r: Miriam (my teaching partner in crime), Mor, Naviu, Tasphoon, Moudi, Amanda, Pninat, Diana, me
standing in the back l-r: Kesem giving everyone rabbit ears, Shelly and Lior
Did you get it right? Moudi and Patrick are Muslim and Alex is Christian.
That's right, everyone else is Jewish. How's this for diversity!
Spring in Israel
Hi, all! Here is an assortment of pictures from my Spring adventures so far...
This was taken in Sderot, Gaza City is in the background (separated from Sderot by two walls). We weren't sure if it was appropriate to smile, but we did anyway.... (me, Louise and Alana, l-r)
The "Path to Peace" wall - a "do it yourself" mosaic project started by a resident of Sderot.
We put our pieces in the "lahmed" because we all have an "l" in our names :)
Pasting one of my pieces onto the wall
Walking along the beach promenade one day, we saw this monstrosity/pirate vessel. We couldn't tell if they were protesting something or just like pirate decor.
Whimsical sculpture at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv
It's spring and the rain shower trees are in full bloom!
(as are everyone's allergies)
(as are everyone's allergies)
Time for Pride Parade!
Some people decided to use the bus shelters as observation platforms.
I thought the "Danger of Death!" signs were particularly relevant here.
I thought the "Danger of Death!" signs were particularly relevant here.
I'm sure Adam and Eve wore even less than this.
Enjoying our "grandmother's hair" at the parade - I like Israeli cotton candy, it's not as teeth-numbingly sweet as American cotton candy. I think there must be extra sweeteners in the coloring that we use.
"Yeah, I'm at the Pride Parade. I'm not bovvered."
Sea of people at the sea.
This is the point where Louise and I left the parade...
Now that it's nicer weather, the Hare Krishnas serenade us every Erev Shabbat :)
Guess what I mished for...
Friday, July 5, 2013
Dailectivities
Pride Parade, White Night in Tel Aviv, talking to Birthright groups, finding an amazing tapas restaurant in Tel Aviv.....these are just a few of the things that have happened since my last post.
It has been a crazy last month, and this will probably be my last blog post during my program. I finished teaching at the school a few weeks ago, and though I enjoy the extra free time for practicing and exploring, I miss seeing my kids. I went back for a few one-on-one tutoring sessions this week and Lior, my newest tutoring challenge, was really disappointed that I was leaving for the summer. I introduced the game "Hangman" to him and now it is his favorite thing to do. He has taken it upon himself to beat me at the game but is always surprised when I can guess the words that he comes up with. I was a little stumped with "FC - Barcelona"...I don't think acronyms are allowed in Hangman, but I don't want to have to explain what an acronym is to introduce this rule.
Last month I did a lot of museum exploring with my friend Louise - we went to the Diaspora Museum (or "Museum of Jewish Peoples" as it's called here) here in Tel Aviv and enjoyed peering at the reconstructions of synagogues from around the world and learning about the Bukharan Jews. We also went to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which just had an overwhelming amount of artifacts, but was a delight to wander through. It was really cool to see mosaics with Hebrew on them, I usually only think of Greek and Latin as "ancient cultures." Louise and I amused ourselves by spotting all the cat (and lion and tiger) figurines of various sizes. Our piece de resistance of the day was going to the Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem - a restaurant that specializes in making foods native to Israel. We ordered a "King David Feast," which was basically a 7-course meal of vegetables, meat, soups, and dessert, of course. It was one of the best meals that I've had in Israel and inspired me to make more hot meals for myself.
Back in Tel Aviv, we went to Eretz Israel Museum, but our tour was mostly just us wandering around deserted museum grounds looking for entrances into things. It was a bit of a letdown after the amazing museum in Jerusalem, but we consoled ourselves by looking at the lovely items in the museum shop and eating some really tasty (and not overpriced) food at their cafe.
Last month also marked the start of a new kind of bodywork for me called the Grinberg Method. It was created by an Israeli and is kind of a combination of reflexology, therapy, and deep tissue massage. I met my practitioner by chance in the park next to my apartment building and have been having weekly sessions ever since. We unlocked some things that I had only started to scratch the surface of with my counseling and Alexander Technique and I really enjoy my sessions. I also went to a few movement classes (an offshoot of Grinberg) which were invigorating and stimulating. I plan to take regular classes when I come back in the fall.
Which brings me to the question on all of your lips - What is Daniella doing this fall? Fear not, I will tell you. My audition for the music school is on Sunday (yes, one day from now!) and it couldn't come a moment too soon. I am excited to present my pieces and also excited to then move on to new pieces. I am coming back to Tel Aviv in October and hopefully will start school at the end of the month.
In the meantime, my program ends on Tuesday, I am flying home on Wednesday, and then it's a summer of unpacking, traveling, and repacking...not necessarily in that order. I am looking forward to many things: having a full kitchen with a decent stove (and oven!!!), not having to squeegee my bathroom floor every time I shower, sleeping in a real bed without being awoken by people shouting joyously/drunkenly to each other at 3 AM, not living above a bus stop.... Mostly though, I am looking forward to seeing my cat again. This will have been the longest that I have ever been away from home, and the longest that I've stayed in one spot since high school! I never thought it would happen in Israel :)
I will post more pictures tomorrow (well, later today for most of you).
Mangoes and chrysanthemums,
Daniella
Oh, p.s. dialectivities is an example of the challenges of teaching English to kids who don't regularly use vowels when reading/writing their language. Mor, a 7th grader, was working with Georgie one day and was arguing with her about one of the answers on his homework. It was a fill in the blank sheet and the question was about television and computers. The answer they were looking for was "forms of communication," but Mor insisted that it was "dialectivities." Of course, neither Georgie nor I knew what he was talking about, so I asked him to show it to me in his book...."daily activities."
It has been a crazy last month, and this will probably be my last blog post during my program. I finished teaching at the school a few weeks ago, and though I enjoy the extra free time for practicing and exploring, I miss seeing my kids. I went back for a few one-on-one tutoring sessions this week and Lior, my newest tutoring challenge, was really disappointed that I was leaving for the summer. I introduced the game "Hangman" to him and now it is his favorite thing to do. He has taken it upon himself to beat me at the game but is always surprised when I can guess the words that he comes up with. I was a little stumped with "FC - Barcelona"...I don't think acronyms are allowed in Hangman, but I don't want to have to explain what an acronym is to introduce this rule.
Last month I did a lot of museum exploring with my friend Louise - we went to the Diaspora Museum (or "Museum of Jewish Peoples" as it's called here) here in Tel Aviv and enjoyed peering at the reconstructions of synagogues from around the world and learning about the Bukharan Jews. We also went to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which just had an overwhelming amount of artifacts, but was a delight to wander through. It was really cool to see mosaics with Hebrew on them, I usually only think of Greek and Latin as "ancient cultures." Louise and I amused ourselves by spotting all the cat (and lion and tiger) figurines of various sizes. Our piece de resistance of the day was going to the Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem - a restaurant that specializes in making foods native to Israel. We ordered a "King David Feast," which was basically a 7-course meal of vegetables, meat, soups, and dessert, of course. It was one of the best meals that I've had in Israel and inspired me to make more hot meals for myself.
Back in Tel Aviv, we went to Eretz Israel Museum, but our tour was mostly just us wandering around deserted museum grounds looking for entrances into things. It was a bit of a letdown after the amazing museum in Jerusalem, but we consoled ourselves by looking at the lovely items in the museum shop and eating some really tasty (and not overpriced) food at their cafe.
Last month also marked the start of a new kind of bodywork for me called the Grinberg Method. It was created by an Israeli and is kind of a combination of reflexology, therapy, and deep tissue massage. I met my practitioner by chance in the park next to my apartment building and have been having weekly sessions ever since. We unlocked some things that I had only started to scratch the surface of with my counseling and Alexander Technique and I really enjoy my sessions. I also went to a few movement classes (an offshoot of Grinberg) which were invigorating and stimulating. I plan to take regular classes when I come back in the fall.
Which brings me to the question on all of your lips - What is Daniella doing this fall? Fear not, I will tell you. My audition for the music school is on Sunday (yes, one day from now!) and it couldn't come a moment too soon. I am excited to present my pieces and also excited to then move on to new pieces. I am coming back to Tel Aviv in October and hopefully will start school at the end of the month.
In the meantime, my program ends on Tuesday, I am flying home on Wednesday, and then it's a summer of unpacking, traveling, and repacking...not necessarily in that order. I am looking forward to many things: having a full kitchen with a decent stove (and oven!!!), not having to squeegee my bathroom floor every time I shower, sleeping in a real bed without being awoken by people shouting joyously/drunkenly to each other at 3 AM, not living above a bus stop.... Mostly though, I am looking forward to seeing my cat again. This will have been the longest that I have ever been away from home, and the longest that I've stayed in one spot since high school! I never thought it would happen in Israel :)
I will post more pictures tomorrow (well, later today for most of you).
Mangoes and chrysanthemums,
Daniella
Oh, p.s. dialectivities is an example of the challenges of teaching English to kids who don't regularly use vowels when reading/writing their language. Mor, a 7th grader, was working with Georgie one day and was arguing with her about one of the answers on his homework. It was a fill in the blank sheet and the question was about television and computers. The answer they were looking for was "forms of communication," but Mor insisted that it was "dialectivities." Of course, neither Georgie nor I knew what he was talking about, so I asked him to show it to me in his book...."daily activities."
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Who is reading my blog from China?
Occasionally I like to look at my blog statistics and today I saw that somebody has been viewing my blog from China! This was surprising since I don't think I know anyone who is in China right now.
So I'd just like to take this opportunity to say if you are reading this post, please leave me a note! Thanks :)
Until next post,
Daniella
So I'd just like to take this opportunity to say if you are reading this post, please leave me a note! Thanks :)
Until next post,
Daniella
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
And a piece of peace on the side, please.
Last night, we had a 2.5 hour lecture that introduced us to the complexities and intricacies of Israel's dealings with Gaza. This lecture was in preparation for today's 13-hour trip (including transportation) to Sderot and other communities situated near the Gazan border. Our first speaker was from an organization called Sderot Media, whose aim is to let the voices of Sderot's people be heard, not only in Israel, but throughout the world.When I was here during the Pillar of Defense in November, the sirens, rockets, Iron Dome was like living in a surreal game. When we hear the sirens in Tel Aviv, we have 90 seconds to reach our shelters; in Sderot, they have 15 seconds.
Fifteen seconds!
Now, of course, whenever people hear this, they ask, "If the situation is so bad, why don't people just move?" And the answer is multi-fold: first of all, few of these people even have the possibility to move because of their socioeconomic situation; secondly, this is where they were born/grew up and their families are here; thirdly, they argue "If we leave Sderot, where is there to go to? Now there are rockets that could reach most of Israel, so where would we go?"
Last November, I was in Ulpan when one of the sirens went off in Tel Aviv. We had just been briefed on what to do: sit down by the interior wall and cover our heads. Now, our entire Ulpan building is filled with windows (Tel Aviv buildings don't have mandatory protected rooms as they do in Sderot) so I still didn't feel particularly safe. When the siren went off, we sat by the wall, heard the explosion (thank you, Iron Dome), took a break to call people to let them know that we were alright, etc., and then continued with our class. After class, I thought that walking home would be better than taking a bus because I didn't know where shelters were and figured that I could lay down in an alleyway if another siren went off. Soon I realized that I was searching for potential shelters every 10 seconds and after about 4 minutes of this, I decided to take the bus so that I would get home quicker and be closer to our safe area. This Monday, we had siren tests where we had to run to our protected area. I didn't leave my building before the siren because I didn't want to be caught outside, even though it was just a drill. But even though it was only a drill, my adrenaline was surging as I booked it to our protected hallway. Today being in Sderot, watching video footage of the aftermath of rockets, hearing people's stories, and seeing actual rocket remnants brought back that panicky feeling. Even though our speakers were engaging, I couldn't stop myself from scanning for bomb shelters and wondering how quickly our group could move into a room, or if all of us would even fit.
So there we were in Sderot, less than a mile from the Gazan border, and every lecture began with "If there is a Code Red, we will go to [insert place]," yet the speakers still believed that peace was possible. One of our speakers had lived on a kibbutz in the Northern Sinai Peninsula until the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. They rebuilt their community as close as they could to the Gazan border; in her words "as close to the recognized Israeli borders as possible." Another woman that we met had lived in Gush Katif, a settlement that was unexpectedly evacuated and demolished during Israel's disengagement from the Gazan strip. Both women are still in contact with Palestinian friends and neighbors from that time. And both women, even though they have suffered great losses and heartache, fervently believe that peace is the answer. We also met with students from the Sderot high school: the kids and their teachers that spoke to my group had the same message: "peace is the answer: violence only leads to violence." They also reminded us that there are also innocent people on the other side of the Gazan border, something that I think many people forget.
A few of our speakers pointed out that in order for us to "win over" the Gazan people, we need to make them see that a relationship with Israel would be beneficial for them. One girl on our program (who worked as a journalist in Ramala last year) pointed out that one of the reason why people elected Hamas in the first place was because they were building things like schools and hospitals for their people. The Gazans are not brain-washed or Jew-hating people, whatever the media would like us to think; they are innocent people struggling to survive, just like us. They want the same things as we do: a safe home for their families, food and water, and a long and enjoyable life.
Oy. My brain is a balagan tonight, but I wanted to get these thoughts out on "paper" while they were still fresh. I don't think that it is unrealistic to think that peace is possible: I do think that it is unrealistic to think that the government can achieve this on its own. I think people forget that the government is only a representation of the people, not the people themselves. Instead of discussing why peace hasn't worked so far, we need to start doing something that will help it work the next time. And that means speaking with Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Jews, Non-Jews, penguins....whoever will listen so that the next time the government tries another "attempt at peace," there will already be a foundation between the people and support from the world.
One woman that we met started her own project: a mosaic spelling "Peace Path" along the wall across from the Gazan border. Two of my friends and I bought a small pack of mosaic pieces (she makes the ceramics herself) and pasted them into one of the letters. I felt happy knowing that I had contributed just a tiny bit to filling up those letters and hoped that one day, maybe she'll have to add another sentence because there won't be enough space for more pieces.
Namaste.
Fifteen seconds!
Now, of course, whenever people hear this, they ask, "If the situation is so bad, why don't people just move?" And the answer is multi-fold: first of all, few of these people even have the possibility to move because of their socioeconomic situation; secondly, this is where they were born/grew up and their families are here; thirdly, they argue "If we leave Sderot, where is there to go to? Now there are rockets that could reach most of Israel, so where would we go?"
Last November, I was in Ulpan when one of the sirens went off in Tel Aviv. We had just been briefed on what to do: sit down by the interior wall and cover our heads. Now, our entire Ulpan building is filled with windows (Tel Aviv buildings don't have mandatory protected rooms as they do in Sderot) so I still didn't feel particularly safe. When the siren went off, we sat by the wall, heard the explosion (thank you, Iron Dome), took a break to call people to let them know that we were alright, etc., and then continued with our class. After class, I thought that walking home would be better than taking a bus because I didn't know where shelters were and figured that I could lay down in an alleyway if another siren went off. Soon I realized that I was searching for potential shelters every 10 seconds and after about 4 minutes of this, I decided to take the bus so that I would get home quicker and be closer to our safe area. This Monday, we had siren tests where we had to run to our protected area. I didn't leave my building before the siren because I didn't want to be caught outside, even though it was just a drill. But even though it was only a drill, my adrenaline was surging as I booked it to our protected hallway. Today being in Sderot, watching video footage of the aftermath of rockets, hearing people's stories, and seeing actual rocket remnants brought back that panicky feeling. Even though our speakers were engaging, I couldn't stop myself from scanning for bomb shelters and wondering how quickly our group could move into a room, or if all of us would even fit.
So there we were in Sderot, less than a mile from the Gazan border, and every lecture began with "If there is a Code Red, we will go to [insert place]," yet the speakers still believed that peace was possible. One of our speakers had lived on a kibbutz in the Northern Sinai Peninsula until the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. They rebuilt their community as close as they could to the Gazan border; in her words "as close to the recognized Israeli borders as possible." Another woman that we met had lived in Gush Katif, a settlement that was unexpectedly evacuated and demolished during Israel's disengagement from the Gazan strip. Both women are still in contact with Palestinian friends and neighbors from that time. And both women, even though they have suffered great losses and heartache, fervently believe that peace is the answer. We also met with students from the Sderot high school: the kids and their teachers that spoke to my group had the same message: "peace is the answer: violence only leads to violence." They also reminded us that there are also innocent people on the other side of the Gazan border, something that I think many people forget.
A few of our speakers pointed out that in order for us to "win over" the Gazan people, we need to make them see that a relationship with Israel would be beneficial for them. One girl on our program (who worked as a journalist in Ramala last year) pointed out that one of the reason why people elected Hamas in the first place was because they were building things like schools and hospitals for their people. The Gazans are not brain-washed or Jew-hating people, whatever the media would like us to think; they are innocent people struggling to survive, just like us. They want the same things as we do: a safe home for their families, food and water, and a long and enjoyable life.
Oy. My brain is a balagan tonight, but I wanted to get these thoughts out on "paper" while they were still fresh. I don't think that it is unrealistic to think that peace is possible: I do think that it is unrealistic to think that the government can achieve this on its own. I think people forget that the government is only a representation of the people, not the people themselves. Instead of discussing why peace hasn't worked so far, we need to start doing something that will help it work the next time. And that means speaking with Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Jews, Non-Jews, penguins....whoever will listen so that the next time the government tries another "attempt at peace," there will already be a foundation between the people and support from the world.
One woman that we met started her own project: a mosaic spelling "Peace Path" along the wall across from the Gazan border. Two of my friends and I bought a small pack of mosaic pieces (she makes the ceramics herself) and pasted them into one of the letters. I felt happy knowing that I had contributed just a tiny bit to filling up those letters and hoped that one day, maybe she'll have to add another sentence because there won't be enough space for more pieces.
Namaste.
Monday, April 8, 2013
HaTimunot shel HaTiyul b'Negev (Pictures from Negev Trip)
This....is an ex-locust. 
Our intrepid guide, Jeremy, about to taste a locust (Kosher for Pesach!)
Looking out over the makhtesh :)
Beginning our hike
Cool formations within the makhtesh - and, look! Water!
Tiny people for scale.
"Desert hike" meant buying appropriate headgear...
Campfire time!
Our Bedouin host and his adorable daughter (the youngest of four, I believe)
Faroud, the tiny bear-dog looking noble
I love this progression of pictures - HaTinok ohevet et haAbba shelah
Tasty nasturtiums at the Salad Trail
Beautiful flower complete with a BioBee!
The mother of all carrots!
Yes, it's even purple inside! (and so was my entire mouth when I'd finished eating it)
The most bulbous strawberries I've ever seen, but also the tastiest! Even our wonderful Bayfield strawberries can't compare to salt-water-fed Israeli strawberries
You see, Jeffe, a rose can bloom in the desert!
I love the Negev, where you can have fields of flowers growing alongside giant cacti
Hope you enjoyed haTimunot :)
Get your finger puppets out, it's locust time!
A few years ago, I was perusing Passover-themed games on the internet and stumbled across gems like "The Passover Game ("Help Moses lead the Jews out of Egypt") and Pesach finger puppets, complete with a strangely happy-looking blood drop to represent the death of the firstborn. I really do have a strange sense of humor. Last month, I went on my second Negev tiyul with the ITF-Rishon group, but this time, instead of being caught in raging sandstorms and torrential desert rains, we were attacked by locusts! Well, not really us, our bus drove through giant clouds of them. The birds were having a field day feasting on them (Kosher for Pesach!) and by the time we got to our destination, our bus was covered with giant yellow-green splats of ex-locusts. I had no idea they were so large! No wonder the Egyptians were terrified. They are like giant grasshoppers crossed with equally giant dragonflies.
Locusts aside, the Negev was beautiful as always, and it was really nice to be there and not be shivering from the cold or squinting to keep sand out of my eyes. We hiked in the Ramon makhtesh, one of my favorite places on Earth, visited a Bedouin family (my first "Bedouin tent" experience), ate our fill of fresh veggies, herbs, and strawberries at the Salad Trail, and of course, had a good old fashioned campfire singalong at the Ben Gurion field school. I had my "pop" debut in the desert and so I've decided that all of my future venues will feature a small audience seated around a campfire. There's something very comforting and inviting about a campfire that makes it impossible to feel stage fright.
I'm giving a very abbreviated version of our Negev itinerary but I hope that the pictures will help to fill in the gaps. The next week we had Pesach (three weeks of vacation for the kids, which they claimed was "too short") and I had Seder with Sharon and her family: her husband and their three kids (plus a friend), her mother, her half-brother, his daughter, and his ex-wife. It was quite the mix of people. Luckily for me, most of Sharon's family is bilingual: her mother was explaining to me how she never uses English and so she doesn't remember any of it.....in English. Sharon had warned me that usually, Pesach is a time for family dramma and her mother often gets so upset that she leaves the dinner half-way through and takes a cab home. This time, however, everyone made it through the dinner without too many upsets. The various family members spiced up the Haggadah readings by using different accents (Hungarian, "school-teacher," and Daniel's "small-chipmunk" voice) and her kids added beat boxing and improv. drumming to the songs. It was quite the festive occasion. The food was amazing - Sharon and her husband made everything, from the matzoh to the gefilte fish (I think I ate my life's quota) to the desserts! I think I ate more that night than I usually do in a week. After dinner, Sharon turned to the piano and played/sang her favorite French pop ballad (she had a concert a few weeks ago of French chanson and pop songs) and then her older son (Orel) and daughter (Yael) serenaded us a bit with guitar and voices. Possibly my favorite part of the evening was when Orel started playing the intro for "Sweet Child of Mine" and both the 70+-year-old grandmother and the 5-year-old grandchildren started shouting "No, no, no! Stop!!!" I hope that my passion for rock doesn't go away as I age.
So life continues well in the motherland. My voice lessons are going really well, we are finally at the "tweaking" stage of my technique: my current challenge is learning how to engage the muscles around my eyes and nose for the different vowels. "Earn your wrinkles!" Sharon tells me. (She also tells me, "I will never be able to have Botox - how will I be able to teach my technique?!?") I started working with a coach, Rodika, at the school, who is a very spunky Romanian Israeli. She wants me to "open my wings" (my shoulder-blades) to better engage my body in singing. She is quite a character - we have amusing discussions about the sexual subtext in just about all of my songs: welcome to "Opera Subtext 101: It's either about sex or death, or possibly both!" You see - opera is just rock 'n' roll with an orchestra.
Last night, I sang in a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial) event that my program (and a few other programs) have been planning for the past month. I think it's really funny how people think that anything sung with a big voice is automatically opera. I often have a difficult time explaining to non-musicians what it means to be a "classical" singer and when I consulted with my sister, discovered that I myself didn't really understand it. To me, "classical singing" encompasses actual opera from the 17th century, art songs and Lieder from the last few centuries, and contemporary 20th century singing. But how do you explain that a John Cage piece for voice is just as "classical" as a Handel opera aria? Well, I guess, I don't. At any rate, I was able to record last night's performance and Sarah, our marketing person, videotaped (do we say videotape still when there is no tape involved?) it, so we are going to splice it together and I will find a way to post it either here or secretly on Youtube.
I hope that everyone had good holidays, Pesach and [its distant relative] Easter alike. My Easter celebration consisted of eating an entire praline Ritter Sport bar - it was a pretty good substitute for a chocolate bunny.
Locusts and strawberries,
Daniella
Locusts aside, the Negev was beautiful as always, and it was really nice to be there and not be shivering from the cold or squinting to keep sand out of my eyes. We hiked in the Ramon makhtesh, one of my favorite places on Earth, visited a Bedouin family (my first "Bedouin tent" experience), ate our fill of fresh veggies, herbs, and strawberries at the Salad Trail, and of course, had a good old fashioned campfire singalong at the Ben Gurion field school. I had my "pop" debut in the desert and so I've decided that all of my future venues will feature a small audience seated around a campfire. There's something very comforting and inviting about a campfire that makes it impossible to feel stage fright.
I'm giving a very abbreviated version of our Negev itinerary but I hope that the pictures will help to fill in the gaps. The next week we had Pesach (three weeks of vacation for the kids, which they claimed was "too short") and I had Seder with Sharon and her family: her husband and their three kids (plus a friend), her mother, her half-brother, his daughter, and his ex-wife. It was quite the mix of people. Luckily for me, most of Sharon's family is bilingual: her mother was explaining to me how she never uses English and so she doesn't remember any of it.....in English. Sharon had warned me that usually, Pesach is a time for family dramma and her mother often gets so upset that she leaves the dinner half-way through and takes a cab home. This time, however, everyone made it through the dinner without too many upsets. The various family members spiced up the Haggadah readings by using different accents (Hungarian, "school-teacher," and Daniel's "small-chipmunk" voice) and her kids added beat boxing and improv. drumming to the songs. It was quite the festive occasion. The food was amazing - Sharon and her husband made everything, from the matzoh to the gefilte fish (I think I ate my life's quota) to the desserts! I think I ate more that night than I usually do in a week. After dinner, Sharon turned to the piano and played/sang her favorite French pop ballad (she had a concert a few weeks ago of French chanson and pop songs) and then her older son (Orel) and daughter (Yael) serenaded us a bit with guitar and voices. Possibly my favorite part of the evening was when Orel started playing the intro for "Sweet Child of Mine" and both the 70+-year-old grandmother and the 5-year-old grandchildren started shouting "No, no, no! Stop!!!" I hope that my passion for rock doesn't go away as I age.
So life continues well in the motherland. My voice lessons are going really well, we are finally at the "tweaking" stage of my technique: my current challenge is learning how to engage the muscles around my eyes and nose for the different vowels. "Earn your wrinkles!" Sharon tells me. (She also tells me, "I will never be able to have Botox - how will I be able to teach my technique?!?") I started working with a coach, Rodika, at the school, who is a very spunky Romanian Israeli. She wants me to "open my wings" (my shoulder-blades) to better engage my body in singing. She is quite a character - we have amusing discussions about the sexual subtext in just about all of my songs: welcome to "Opera Subtext 101: It's either about sex or death, or possibly both!" You see - opera is just rock 'n' roll with an orchestra.
Last night, I sang in a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial) event that my program (and a few other programs) have been planning for the past month. I think it's really funny how people think that anything sung with a big voice is automatically opera. I often have a difficult time explaining to non-musicians what it means to be a "classical" singer and when I consulted with my sister, discovered that I myself didn't really understand it. To me, "classical singing" encompasses actual opera from the 17th century, art songs and Lieder from the last few centuries, and contemporary 20th century singing. But how do you explain that a John Cage piece for voice is just as "classical" as a Handel opera aria? Well, I guess, I don't. At any rate, I was able to record last night's performance and Sarah, our marketing person, videotaped (do we say videotape still when there is no tape involved?) it, so we are going to splice it together and I will find a way to post it either here or secretly on Youtube.
I hope that everyone had good holidays, Pesach and [its distant relative] Easter alike. My Easter celebration consisted of eating an entire praline Ritter Sport bar - it was a pretty good substitute for a chocolate bunny.
Locusts and strawberries,
Daniella
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Tel Aviv-Yafo Pictures
A few weeks ago, I saw the Hare Krishnas again while walking on the beach promenade.
They actually looked quite healthy...
On our way back, they were still dancing and singing, but a random jogger ran by belting "My Way." There is something about Israel that makes singing and dancing in public completely normal.
A lovely Tel Aviv-Yafo sunset
Full moon rising over Tel Aviv (sorry for the blur)
Coastline view from Tel Aviv all the way to Herzliya (lefthand side of the horizon)
Minas Tirith? Just kidding - view of Jaffa's [re-built] Old City
And random graffiti. I have no idea what this means, any guesses?
Jaffa's famous Clock Tower
It is one of the six remaining towers built by the sultan of the Ottoman empire (because he could)
Detail of the Door on the ClockTower
Some creative uses of tree trunks :)
A sample of bizarre footwear. I may be re-visiting this store :)
Just in case you haven't seen enough seaside pictures, here's one more
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