A day in the life of Ali on Birthright
Hi everyone! My name is Ali Finklestein,, and I'm writing today's blog!
I've been using an application called Days to track my personal trip through Israel. Days is an awesome app that takes real time photos and monitors your time and location and description of the photo. This is how I will be telling our story of today.
- 7:53 am: a photo of a delicious breakfast consisting of toast and butter, eggs, cucumber and tomato salad, a slice of a green bell pepper, a few slices of cucumber, and a creme fraiche with dill as a dipping sauce > in the hotel
After a late night enjoying the Tel Aviv scene, waking up this morning was a tad bit hard. Yesterday was an amazing bonding experience for our birthright trip, as we laughed, sang, and talked the night away under the moonlight at the beach and the fluorescent lights of the Tel Aviv street sides.
I've honestly enjoyed the food here in Israel. Breakfast has definitely been quite different compared to those I would eat in America. Breakfasts in Israel are very light and savory, while breakfasts in America are heavy and sweet. Everyday I've been in Israel, I've had some sort of vegetable in breakfast. When I come home, I'm honestly going to miss these breakfasts because it makes you feel good about starting off the day.
We loaded up the busses and we were off!
- 9:53 am: a photo of _____ talking to not only our birthright group, but us and another group > in Independence Hall.
Independence Hall is one of the most important standing structures to the state of Israel. In the place, in the rooms where we sat, Israel was declared itself as an independent state.
Independence Hall originally started out as art gallery created by the (the founder of tel aviv, for his wife, I can't remember ATM). Our first guide gave us a little background about the physical location where the hall is , showing us photos of of first settlers of Tel Aviv struck ground. It was very interesting to see this photo, because looking at the city of Tel Aviv today, with it's well developed roads, and established land, you would expect the starting last to be a sand dune. Literally, a sand dune. We were then shown a movie bout Tel Aviv's proprietary settler and first mayor, decentgolf loolollololoolol.
After the movie we went into the actual room in ehich the documents were signed. Another curator spoke to us about the logistics of Israel becoming a independent state and the struggles it went through right before it declared, as well as Tel Aviv's struggles as a city right before thr signing.The curator pointed out, on multiple occasions, that on the night of independence, the signing hall was bombed by the Egyptians. We listened to an excerpt of ____ speaking during the simple 32 minute ceremony that occurred, as well as an excerpt of the rabbi that BLESSED the state during that simple 32 minute ceremony, and the recording of the Israeli national anthem that was played by a small symphony during that simple 32 minute ceremony. I'm stressing the simple part of this 32 minute sere money, because when it was all over, there was no celebration, there were no drinks, no pants on the back, no congratulations. Instead, the important and influential government personnel were escorted our and away from the premises in order to ensure their safety.
Even though we were safe and in high spirits, there was still a bit of a somber atmosphere as we let the conference room, thinking about how hard the state of Israel worked to be free, and couldn't even celebrate because the signers had to flee.
After collecting ourselves, we hopped on the bus and were off again.
- 10:56 am: a photo of a giant billboard advertising Tel Aviv's week long celebration of LGBTQ Pride, specifically about the pride parade that will be happening on June 7th > in Rabin Square.
Arriving to Rabin Square, we came to find that the entire square has been closed off and instead of open space, it has been filled with deserted temporary store stalls. It turns out that this week is some sort of promotion for literacy and reading,and thus Tel Aviv is hosting what is essentially a giant book fair. Since we couldn't go in, we found a nice tree to sit under.
Elaun explained to us that there will always be those events somewhere in the world, that cause a pivotal change. This moment is so ____, that you 'll never forget what was going on in your life when you learn of this happening. He had us go around to passerbys and ask them what was their reaction to the death of Rabin. My group found a very sweet lady who actually lives, and lived, around Rabin Square. She told us that when she heard the panic of the people, she left her balcony, where she was watching the speech, and joined into the crowd to see was going on.
We walked over and saw the actual place where Rabin was shot, as well as the memorial and graffiti that was preserved there.
- 12:48 pm - a picture of me and my friend Tamar holding our filaffel lunch > in HaCarmel Market (aka the shook)
I was super excited to go to the shook, not for the shopping, but to see the different foods sold. In the beginning of the trip, when we went to supermarkets to get food, I Would always go though to see what different foods are sold here in Israel, as compared to America. I only really found processed foods like candy and chip. At the shook, I saw actual produce, like different fruits (whole, untried figs) and pastries that you wouldnt find anywhere else. My friend Tamar, who is a part of the IDF navy, and my friends Lisa and Rachel, from Brandeis University, and Madi, from USC, purchased falafel for lunch and went through the entirety of the shook. I ended up buying an Israeli flag, a Kaballah bracelet, and a pair of boxers with the Israeli falag on them to sleep in. Oh! I also bought some candy, because it was super cheap and looked delicious in their large piles sitting in the stores.
Bargaining was a struggle. Tamar did most of the bargaining for me, not because I can't speak Hebrew, but because I lost my voice.
- 3:00 pm - picture of a large painted artwork > at Remi Meiri's studio.
After our trip though the shook, Elaun took us to visit his friend Remi Meiri's studio. Remi Meiri is a famous street artists, who happens to live on the beach in tel aviv. As we walked from the shook minis house, we passed by buildings that have been decorated by his skillful art work. Remi's actual studio, however, was very different. Most of the outside of his studio, the walls, the cement floor, the surrounding half was barrier, is all covered in graffiti. The layers of graffiti on the walls gorgeously meshed together to create such an interesting piece to look at. There was one part of the wall that was not covered in graffiti. It was a painting, by Remi, of a woman's face, surrounded by a growing ivy. He told us that even though it looks complete, and is very old, to not exactly finished. That is because he is always having too come out and fix the woman's hair, aka cut the ivy. As we toured his studio, we saw some his new and old work. There was one piece that was hanging up on the wall, that looked very modernist, mixed with a h int of Kandinsky (showing off some art history over here). As we toured the backyard of his studio, the was a chicken coup with two ducks cuddling with a rabbit. It was ADORABLE. Greene was also another artist working in the backyard, doing a splatter paint only image of his eye. It was pretty awesome.
- 3:36 pm - photo of the beach > @Jerusalem Beach, Tel Aviv.
BEACH. We basically spent the rest of the day of the day at the beach, enjoying the Israeli sun. We spent sometime on a late stack of rocks a little bit away from shore and ended up burying a couple people in the sand.
- 7:38 pm or now - picture of the sunset over the mountains
Right now, we're on our way to the kibbutz we will be sleeping at for the night, there we will have dinner and some free time to enjoy ourselves.
