hi bloggy friends. i promise there will be a new entry by sunday. I PROMISE!!! i have literally not had a day off in ten days, but i have the next three days to myself, so things are coming.

stay tuned.

happy thanksgivikuh.

i love you.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

bonjour mes amis!

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written during the past week! The main reason is that there hasn't been too much new news. I was a little more tired, so I mostly took it easy. The main focus was on ulpan, my content writing and spending time with my friends. My friend Nicole and I have claimed a restaurant as "our place," it is an adorable little cafe with the most amazing greek salads that have huge blocks of feta cheese, and all of the chairs are facing the sidewalk so we sit and eat salads and drink wine and talk about everything that is going on in our lives. It's become a lovely little tradition already! My friend Lisa has invited me to go to Amsterdam and Berlin during our one week break with two of her friends from home (a couple), being in Berlin for New Years Eve, and I have happily accepted! I wanted to do something fun for the break and this sounds like the perfect thing.

Finally yesterday my roommate arrived! Her name is Yohanna and she is an adorable French girl who never stops smiling. She arrived early yesterday morning, and immediately asked what I was doing for Shabbat. I told her that I didn't have any plans, and she insisted that I join her at her uncles that evening... of course I wanted to go! Her cousin picked us up, and it turns out I had met her the week before at a panel as she works for one of the employers that some people on Masa intern with... small world! Her aunt and uncle live in an adorable little flat in a nice neighborbood, and for a family of people who spoke primarily French and Hebrew, they welcomed me with open arms. I will admit it was a bit unsettling to finally get the hang of Hebrew and then all of a sudden be in a room of beautiful people yelling at each other in French, but I still had a great time and was so happy that she invited me.

After a lovely and gigantic meal, we went back to our apartment (or our flat as she calls it, and I may start doing that too!) and got ready to meet up with everyone and go out. Unfortunately for me people in Israel don't like to go out until SO LATE and we literally left FOR the bar at 12:15am and I was ready to be in bed at like, 10pm. But alas, it was Yohannas first night so I went anyway and we had a really nice time.

Sorry I don't have more news, I just wanted to check in before we go to the Negev tomorrow for three days of hiking and sleeping in the desert...yay! I'm pretty sure I'll get to ride a camel again, #score. We get back Tuesday night, and on Wednesday I will begin my internship. Woohoo! I will be out of touch for the next few days, but will definitely post about the Negev and my internship once those things begin.

xo
Jordyn

How to Stop Eating McDonalds

...move to Tel Aviv.

Ha... I kid. But really.

Last night we had our "Welcome Party," which was an event at a bar for my group, the group before us (who arrived in August) and all of the staff. The bar ran a special deal for us which was that for every drink you buy you can get a shot for 10 shekels ($2.50).

Yeah... I don't know WHO thought that was a good idea, but so it goes. This morning I walked over to Dizengoff Center (the most massive chaotic gorgeous mall ever which happens to be two blocks from my apartment) to run an errand. It is CRAZY there, you could spend hours just walking around, moving with the crowds and never make a single decision about where to go or what to do. I was feeling pretty exhausted after last night and completely starving, and as it's Friday the selection of places open to eat was way smaller than usual, and then I saw the glowing lights of McDonalds!

There was literally a trail of large "M's" leading up to the top floor of the mall where the Mcdonalds was located. After fighting with myself for all of 10 seconds, I decided that yes I was going to just do it... instant hangover cure, right?!

Well, this particular McDonald's was quite busy, with a constant stream of people going up to several different registers in a pattern I could not figure out. The entire menu was in Hebrew with NO English, and there were not pictures. Normally I might just try to order, but I remembered that Israel uses a different measurement system than the US and a quarter pounder wouldn't even be a thing. I sat there and stared for about ten minutes and was so overhwhelmed with the prospect of ordering that I gave up and left.

So, no McDonald's!

Otherwise, things are going well over here! Hebrew lessons are difficult yet fun and tapping into a weird part of my brain. One activity we do is learn different questions (what is your name, where are you from, where is your house, etc.) and ask them to different people across the room, but we do one at a time and everyone listens. The other day, and I have no idea how this happened, I accidentally started speaking Spanish which is bizarre because I haven't taken a Spanish class since the 8th grade. Everyone laughed and thought I was joking, but I totally wasn't! Though it is crazy how much the Spanish sneaks up on me, I know it a lot better than I thought I did.

While I don't know too many Hebrew words, the reading and writing of the letters is very easy for me which is good. I feel really bad for the kids who came in not knowing the letters at all because this is 100x more difficult for them. I just have to learn the words/grammatical structure but I don't have to worry about memorizing a weird variety of letters in both print and cursive that looks strangely like hieroglyphics.

I went to visit the Newshound office the other day and I can't wait to work there! It's about a 25 minute walk from here which is perfect for me, and right at the cusp of being walkable. While the busses here are great, I hate depending on busses, and by walking to/from work I'll be able to get some exercise in every day whether or not I have time to hit the gym. I find busses undependable and the bus ride takes about 15 minutes, but when you add in the time spend waiting for it it's not too different! So I will be able to walk to work, at least temporarily. They are moving offices in two months and I may not be able to walk then, but the move is good news because it means they are expanding, and expansion is good because it means there might be a job for me later. Just sayin'.

My boss is very nice and very cool, and I think working at Newshound will be a lot of fun. Additionally, both my direct superior and the CEO do not speak Hebrew, so I will be in good company! I am still going to focus on learning it, but it's nice to know I won't be out of place in the office without it.

Other highlights of my first two weeks include dogs and cats everywhere, gorgeous sunny weather, delicious coffee every morning, crying into my wallet at how expensive everything is and considering hummus and pita an actual food group.

Shabbat Shalom everyone!

Pink Pangea Writing Workshop

At the risk of sounding cliché, I’ll come right out and re-quote the phrase we’ve all heard: “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Those that know me know that I often live this way, whether I like it or not – it just seems to be in my nature. Whether that means moving straight across the country to go to college, kayaking through the Alaskan wilderness or signing up to raise $2,500 in order to run a half-marathon in three months when I have no experience running OR fundraising, I am continuously pushing myself to do new, different and challenging things in order to grow as a person. 

In this case, the initial challenge was leaving behind everything I knew to move to Tel Aviv, Israel for five months. However, moving and traveling are old news to me, and while still incredibly challenging (for anyone), the act in itself of relocating to Israel does not count as “pushing” myself. That is why, since I’ve been here, I have tried to emulate that terrible movie “Yes Man” which I only watched half of before I got bored so I actually have no idea how it turns out, but that is to say I have been trying to say “yes” to everything I feasibly can, even if it seems hard or boring or I’m tired or any other number of emotions that can masquerade as reasons to turn something down.

So far, this has done me well: I have gone out even when I was tired and had an amazing time, I have met friends of friends and gone on adventures with them, I have played an international volleyball game with people from all over the world even when I felt like a whale on the beach and I have spent time with and become friends with people who at one point I would have been intimidated by.

The first real challenge, however, came tonight. I am part of a facebook group called “Secret Tel Aviv” which is basically a forum for Americans living in Tel Aviv to communicate with each other about any and everything. There are over 20,000 people in the group and people post about events, apartment listings, classes, questions about medical care or even just for suggestions on where to eat dinner.

A few days ago there was a post advertising a Writing Workshop for female travelers by Rachel Sales, the founder of Pink Pangea, an online community and blog for female travelers.  Registration was 40 shekels and it took place just two days later at a coffee shop/bar/book store called the Little Prince Café.  I was apprehensive about going for a few reasons: 1. It was my first week in Tel Aviv and I barely new my way around my street let alone the entire city, 2. I have never been to a writing workshop and I did not know what it would entail or what I would have to do, 3. I would have to venture there and back alone, 4. I would miss out on what everyone else was doing while I attended and 5. Writing is scary and sharing your writing is scary and also it’s work and drinking and talking and watching Netflix is easier. In the end, it was a no-brainer: I had to go. I reached out to Rachel to confirm the workshop was in English and signed up on the spot.

The meeting took place tonight and it was led by Rachel herself. It sold out with 15 attendees and the age rage was probably from 20 to 50 if I had to take my best guess. I had made it to the workshop and that was a challenge enough so I told myself that I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to. I didn’t have to make any comments, I didn’t have to read anything I wrote, I was just there to listen and gain from it what I could.

First we all went in a circle and talked about where we were from and our most significant travel experience. The thing that stuck out to me immediately was how inexperienced I felt compared to everyone else. I’m used to being one of the most well-traveled people in any group, so to be the least-traveled who had not yet spent significant time in any other country made me feel insecure. Still, I reminded myself that I was only 23 and I had just arrived in Israel and I had plenty of time to travel in the coming years, and these were all people like me who I could learn from. 

After talking a bit we read two essays, one from Vanity Fair and one from the Pink Pangea website and critiqued them: what worked, what didn’t, what we liked and how it was effective travel writing. I didn’t plan on speaking but ended up making one comment on the second essay and I felt good that I had contributed.

The highlight of the workshop, however, was the final activity, the actual writing. Our prompt was simply to write about a travel experience we had had while thinking about everything we had just discussed in terms of what worked/didn’t work.  All of a sudden, it was like an essay that had been waiting to get out of me for years was at my fingertips, one about my Ghanaian trip on Semester at Sea.  Of all the things I talk about when it comes to Semester at Sea I probably have talked about Ghana the least; it’s something I have kept for myself. Evidence of this is the fact that I said something about it to my mom a month ago and she was shocked that in the previous two years I had never mentioned it. However, as I began to write this essay, I realized I was finally ready to share with the world what I experienced there.

Without getting into too much detail, the introductory pages that I completed today were self-deprecating, introspective, ironic and funny.  And the best part… those aren’t my words. They are the feedback I received from everyone else. With only 25 minutes to write, most people did not want to share what they had written, and after two people had shared the circle was silent. I wasn’t planning on sharing but took this as my queue; my opportunity to accept a challenge and say “yes.” I was so nervous when I started reading, I rarely share something of that nature that has not been edited several times over, but as soon as I got to the first punch-line and everyone laughed at my joke I felt better.  When I finished reading, everyone was on the edge of their seats and two girls excitedly exclaimed that they wished I had written more so they could hear the rest, followed by asking Rachel if she would forward the final essays to everyone. I got great and thorough feedback and this made me feel awesome.  Additionally, instead of just Rachel offering a few words, several people told me things they liked, thought worked, thought were cool, thought were funny etc and also said that they respected the subject matter and my honest portrayal of the experience, even though it did not paint me in a positive light. They said it was  very relatable which is my ultimate goal as a writer; to write something that other people can connect with and relate to.

So, I’m a little bit on top of the world right now. Going into the workshop I thought there was no way I would share anything, and to not only write something I like and am excited to finish AND get good feedback on it I am just really thrilled. I have been wanting to start writing non-fiction essays on my travel experiences and I haven’t known how to do it and I feel like in this workshop I received the tools I needed to get started. I also now am connected to 14 other female writers living in Tel Aviv and those are 14 more people I can add to the community I am trying to build for myself here.

It was a great first week and things are only getting better.

Shabbat Shalom!

Hello everyone!  It’s Friday afternoon before Shabbat and the city is really bustling. I spent about an hour pushing through hoards of crowds on the street thinking “don’t any of you people have jobs?!” until I realized it was the weekend here. Really though, even on non-weekend days I’m amazed at how many people are out and about at all times. Almost every bar and restaurant has outdoor seating and no matter the time of day there are always groups of people sitting outside eating, drinking, smoking and having loud, boisterous conversations.

I’ve been here 4 nights so far, and gone out 3 of them, barely getting to sleep before sunrise. People here party late! Even my “early” night had me asleep around 2am. Granted this is the first week of the program and the end of summer so everyone is quite excited, but things generally run much later here. On Tuesday we went out to dinner at 9pm and the restaurant was packed with a 25 minutes wait.

This week primarily consisted of introductory things. We took walking tours of the city, had seminars on the Israeli workplace and panels with different employers and previous interns. People who haven’t yet cemented their internships are going out on interviews and we are doing many group activities.

My group consists of 24 people, and I like everyone very much. The majority of the participants are from the USA, although there is also people from Chile, Denmark, Canada and Mexico.

One cool thing about Tel Aviv is that everyone here is very social. All of my Seattle friends are very familiar with the “Seattle Chill,” that is you typically go out and socialize with your friends but it can be difficult to expand your friend group or meet new people in a sincere way while out. Tel Aviv is the opposite. Everywhere you go people want to talk, hang out, exchange numbers, etc. Several of my friends here have Tel Aviv connections from Birthright, family, or traveling and this has helped us already begin to build a community around us.  On Tuesday night, for example, I was walking outside to find food and came across my friend Mike. He had just met up with a friend he met on Birthright who lives in the area. They hadn’t eaten so we all went to dinner.  I added his friend on facebook and the next night we went out for wine and gelato. Another guy on my trip had a friend who he met through a friend while in the US who lives in Tel Aviv as well.  This friend was a promoter for a club and got us all in to an exclusive Halloween party last night. 

So in this way I am already meeting many people! As I previously mentioned almost every restaurant has outdoor seating on the sidewalk so even just walking through the streets you are likely to see someone you know to sit and talk with. Even if you don’t, people are very inviting and would not find it strange if you asked to sit with them.

Tonight we are having a group Shabbat dinner and then I am going to lay low. Thursday is the big party night here and after last night I am quite tired.  Tomorrow since most things will be closed I plan to finally make it down to the beach and on Sunday I will hopefully have time to do some much needed shopping for things for my apartment.

I hope everyone at home had a lovely Halloween and I will talk to you soon!