The First Week... (Part du)

So after the opening ceremony, we drove north to the kibbutz, which because of rush hour traffic ended up taking about 5 hours. (at least an hour longer than it normally would have) During these 5 hours i ended up sitting next to this girl Ella, who started Garin Tzabar last year on a different kibbutz, and so a convenient person to ask all sorts of questions about how the program works, what she reccomended, and so forth. We got to the kibbutz at around 8 o'clock, and proceeded to unpacking the bus with all of our many suitcases, (which almost didnt all fit in the bus with us) and we ate dinner which had been prepared for us. We got our keys, moved into our rooms, (which to my dismay, me and my roommate have the smallest room, much smaller than everyone elses) and got settled in. It was a really nice view of many different towns or cities, of who's lights we saw from our dormitories on the kibbutz. Soon enough we got ourselves to sleep, and rested some, since we were pretty much all still getting over our jet lag.

I woke up in the morning, in my small room, and got dressed, got my sunglasses on, only to go outside and see one of the most awesome views that i have ever seen in Israel. (ill post it soon i promise) Anyways, i forgot to mention that our first night some of us were wandering around the kibbutz to see it, and met the head of security on the Kibbutz, which turns our was born in Europe, but spend some twenty years in Texas, living in Houston, and i was glad i had someone who also knew was good mexican food, and Country music sounds like. (Not to mention speaks enlgish like a texan)

So the first full day on the Kibbutz, i had the opportunity to meet our three soldiers that are going to help us in many aspects of the drafting process, from figuring out where in the army is best for us, to helping with hebrew, and knowing what to expect. Their names are Adi, Shira, and Anya, and are all really cool each with her own story. (not to mention that they are cute in their uniforms)

The next few days we did many things from opening Israeli Bank Accounts for each of us, signing cell phone contracts, taking a test to place us in Ulpan, and such, in addition to fun stuff, such as taking a hike to the "hot spring" near shamir, which might be better described as a puddle of hot muddy water, and not the good mud they sell from the dead sea, just plain old mud. Another more fun thing we got to do was meet with the president of the Kibbutz who answered our many questions from, how many people live on our kibbutz(~600) to asking why we dont eat the beef from the cows that are slaughtered on the kibbutz.(because arabs will pay more money for the high quality beef, and we eat frozen beef from argentina). We also had a scavenger hunt on the kibbutz to learn more about its history, and to meet some interesting people who live on it.

So two days ago my parents came to visit the kibbutz with Bar, Yael, Miri, and Zeev. It was really fun showing them around, and my half sized room. I showed them the really nice pool, the view from where my building where im living, and from the other side of the Kibbutz, and the dining room, and the Coal-Boa (the little market where we buy pretty much any food or supplies we need).

This morning we had to get up, and get all of our paperwork with regards to making aliyah, or living here. We took a trip to Tiberious, which took us about an hour-ish to get there. There i got my Teudat Zehut (Official Israeli ID card) and I assigned for all of the money that the government of Israel is giving me for the next 7 months to be deposited in my new Israeli bank account. Then on the way back, we stopped at Kiriat Shmoneh (the closest city to our Kibbutz) and we stopped at this small mall for about an hour and a half to get lunch, and to shop for whatever we needed. At the mall we ran into a group of Birthright (oranim) which was kind of funny only because we were in the food court with them, and a couple of the guys asked if anyone spoke english. Of course i answered him, "yea, whats up?" and then recieved a complement of how good my american accent was in English. These are things im going to have to get used to, being a dual citizen. For now they just crack me up. Anyways, now were back on the kibbutz and we have our first Ulpan (hebrew classes) tomorrow morning. I really hope they are at my level and challenging. Anyways, ill post again soon, hope you all enjoyed, and cant wait to read your comments.