Our house in Karmiel is large and wonderful! Our main floor includes a common area with enough couches to seat all twenty-two of us, bookshelves filled to the brim, a cart with lots of fun games, and a large dining room table. The common area leads into our roomy kitchen, which is complete with plenty of counter space, an oven, stove area, fridge, and storing cabinets. The basement, second, and third floors are home to our bedrooms. My bedroom faces the back of the house, overlooking the valley that we can reach in just a five minute walk, and thus is practically our backyard.
On the porch outside our kitchen we have shelves of art supplies as well as a washing machine and dryer, and outside the front of our house we have a couch area where we can leisurely hang-out in the fresh air. Our house is only minutes away from Karmiel's new mall, as well as other useful stores and eateries, a community center, and many, many parks!
After a week of peulot with our Kaveret Rakazim, many of us left our new home in Karmiel to travel across Israel with friends and family! I spent the first couple of days in Tel-Aviv with Anya and her mother, Dayle. Our first day together was a windy one with pouring rain, and the three of us trekked through the storm to arrive at the beach just as the rain subsided. The sun on the ocean's horizon was breathtaking, and the three of us walked along the promenade mesmerized by the dazzling sunlight along the water.Eliana, a kvutzamate from Galil who is not with us on Workshop but visited Workshoppers in Israel throughout Chofesh, joined us in Tel-Aviv the following day. The three of us, and later Dayle as well, spent the day walking around Tel-Aviv, talking, and eating delicious food!
Determined to find a Mass to attend, I stepped out of the church and moved on to St. Joseph's Church just next door. I walked in during the middle of Mass in Arabic, and sat down with the handful of attendees and listened to the first Mass that I'd ever attended. At it's conclusion, I stepped outside to find a tour in session, so I stood at the edge of the group to listen. The tour moved on to the basement of St. Joseph's church, where the guide pointed out the remnants of a mikvah and described the city of Nazareth at the time when Jesus was alive.
After leaving Nazareth, I met-up with my brother, Ben, and his fiance, Sam, in Tel-Aviv, and the three of us then drove to Jerusalem where we stayed for the next few days. Some highlights of our time there was when we ate my favorite ruggalach at Machaneh Yehudah (an outdoor market, which is called a "shuk" in Israel), and the few hours that I spent visiting with one of my madrichot from Muss.I stayed the weekend with my cousins in Ashdod, and then took a few trains up to Haifa in order to visit the Bahai Gardens with Ben and Sam. Although we did manage to get inside the Shrine of the Bab, many of the gardens' gates and terraces were closed, so we actually left the gardens after about an hour. Sam had a meeting at Haifa Univiersity, so Ben and I spent a few hours in Caesaria, walking around the ruins of the ancient city. Once back in Haifa, the three of us enjoyed dinner with cousins, and then Ben and Sam dropped me off in Karmiel.
Although it was nice to delight in restaurant meals and travel to sites in Israel that I don't usual get to spend time seeing, I missed my kvutza all throughout Chofesh. Only once I was back in Karmiel did I feel really, truly content. Although while on our kupa system we don't have copious amounts of money and living communally means that our house isn't always the neatest, the kvutza lifestyle is the only lifestyle I can fathom myself experiencing this year. Good thing that's what I have!
