As the summer draws to a close and my plane draws crawlingly towards Phoenix, from where I will finally fly to Albuquerque, I find myself with time to reflect upon the end of the summer. This is probably for a couple of reasons. For example, I realized that I completely forgot to chronicle the last two weeks or so. Also, as one may expect, I have a lot of airport/plane time on my way home. Most importantly, however, has got to be the fact that the same character has been spewing who knows what about God and religion in The Brothers Karamazov for at least the last ten pages, one of which I may have followed.
Ulpan ended pretty quickly and suddenly. One day, I was going to class as usual, the next I was packing (pretty much instead of studying for the final.) The next day, I took the final and a few hours later, was in a sheirut on the way to Tel Aviv with Dalia. As usual, Ofra completely spoiled me, waiting for about an hour in Tel Aviv for our sheirut to arrive and then taking us back to Rishon le Tzion to hang out for a bit. That night, we went out for dinner with Shira and our friend from Bronfman’s Amitim program, Omer. It’s really so strange that we’re old enough to have friends scattered in random places across the world!
The next day, it was off to Eilat where we commenced the tanning process (and in my case, a significant amount of burning.) We spent two days just sitting on the beach. Actually doing nothing but enjoying the beautiful water and the really hot weather. Did I mention that it was hot there?
On Thursday, we headed back to Tel Aviv to spend Shabbat with Sandra and her family. I was grateful that I had had a month of practice with switching back and forth between languages. The family flowed through Spanish and French without even realizing that they had switched languages. Every so often, they would throw in some English for Dalia and my benefit. On Saturday, Dalia, Sandra, and I walked to the beach (only a half hour walk!!) to hang out by the sea. Really, that is the life!
From there, we headed to Kibbutz Nitzanim to stay with Dalia’s family friends. The family was originally from Argentina but moved to Israel about 40 years ago. So, yet again, we were staying with a family incapable of sticking to one language though this time it was a blend of Hebrew and Spanish. On Monday, we took the train to Haifa. Fortunately, we had a family friend who made it her mission for us to see all of the most important parts of the city. We walked through the Arab quarter and saw the uniquely harmonious nature of interfaith relations in this Israeli city. Our visit, of course, included a spectacular visit to the Bahai Gardens as well as a tour through various other parts of the gorgeous city.
The last couple of days in Israel are a little bit of a blur but included a lot of time sunning by the kibbutz pool, a trip to the movies with Ron, and a visit from Ally and Paula (friends from WashU who are studying at Hebrew U in Jerusalem until Spring Semester of this coming year!) Finally, with a lot of reassuring oversight from Ofra and Eitan, we made it through about 7 layers of airport security at Ben Gurion Airport and began our journey back home.
This trip has been truly amazing. Firstly, I can’t believe how much more attached I feel to Israel (and especially to Jerusalem) after this summer. I think that my growing grasp of the Hebrew language really made an indescribably difference as compared to my last trip when I didn’t understand one word of Hebrew. I’ve come away from this experience with more than just an improved knowledge of Hebrew and love of Eretz Israel. I’m now comfortable speaking with people in French and Spanish and have begun some truly beautiful friendships that I can only imagine will last for years to come. Most incredibly, this summer I have begun to see myself as an adult. Beginning with my work at the beginning of the summer with Dr. Weissmann which gave me a peek into things that I might be involved with after college and moving right through my travels through a foreign country without a parent (gasp!) I’ve really come to realize that I am approaching the part of life where I am becoming my own separate person who is responsible for herself. I’m not quite there yet, but oh boy, it’s coming! Maybe it’s good that this realization is coming before I start this school year living in an apartment off campus!
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