A Day in the Life of Karmiel

I've decided that Karmiel might possibly be the greatest thing that's happened to Nativ.  Why you may ask?  Well, now that I'm in the North, I can travel ALL over the North in my afternoons instead of having to take days off!  Last Friday before Shabbat, 3 friends and I took a quick bus ride up to a town Katsrin which houses the Golan Heights Winery- the largest wine company in Israel!  They make the popular Yarden, Gamla, and Golan Wines.. all of which I've never drank, obviously!  We got an awesome tour by this little orthodox man then he led us through a wine tasting and in the end we got to keep our wine glass as a souvenir!  Surprisingly enough, mine broke while we were at to lunch enjoying the wine we just bought.  The day was such a great beginning to a fun weekend at Kibbutz Hannaton, 20 minutes away from where I live.  My whole Karmiel group went there for the weekend for our closed Shabbat (doing a closed Shabbat at the absorption center sucks because the kitchen provides us food and it is awful).  Luckily for me, I have a USY friend who recently made aliyah to join her parents who live on Kibbutz Hannaton, so I got some home hospitality this past weekend while hanging out with her and her family.  And interesting enough, another group was staying at the Kibbutz - a meditation Jewish renewal retreat run by my friend's friend's parents (both are renewal Judaism Rabbis).  For 10 days, the participants did not speak, except for chanting when praying and responding to questions based on their personal mediation.  We also had to be quiet in respect for their silence, many thought it was a hassle but I thought their program was SO cool and I definitely want to do some more Jewish meditative things (Dad... I know you'll have something to say about this).  The end of their 10 days was the end of Shabbat on Saturday so many of us talked to them about their experience after!
In terms of more traveling in the North... tomorrow I'm AGAIN to my favorite city in Israel, Tzfat, for Yom (day) Nativ.  Every Tuesday a committee of 4 people runs a day long program about a topic in Judaism or Israel.  My committee's topic is Tzfat and Kabbalah so we're taking our group up to Tzfat for the whole day! I'll make a different post allll about today.  Wednesday I'll be taking another day trip maybe to Katsrin (again I know) to see the ancient ruins and archeological sites there, Thursday I'll be visiting friends in Haifa who came to America this summer with NOAM (Israel's USY), and Friday before Shabbat I'll be going to Rosh Pina, a cute little town close by with a ton of boutiques and parks and a ton of stuff.  I'm sure you're wondering why I have so much time this week, wellll since Passover is a HUGE deal in Israel and lasts 8 days, Israel's schools go on vacation for 2 weeks!  My elementary school I volunteer at in the morning is closed and my kids at the Children's Village I volunteer at in the evening are home with their real families.  I'll also post what this village is later - still haven't heard from the woman in contact with the advocate.  So this week I'm volunteering from 8:30-1 where I volunteer every Wednesday morning, at a food packing warehouse for soup kitchens and the needy.  The warehouse is HUGE and they have crates and crates of food that needs to be bagged to be sent off ALL over Israel.  Volunteering here really makes me feel like I'm making a difference, I'm helping put food on a table.  Anyway, not to digress, I get out everyday at 1 so there's plenty of time to do some day trips!
Next week we have Passover vacation for 8 days and I'll be doing SO much fun stuff.  On the agenda now is: sedar with family friends, day in Jerusalem, paintballing in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and seeing my friend's family!  I cannot wait to finally get to see more of Israel I haven't yet!

1 month and 19 days until I'm home

XO Dana

http://gallery.me.com/danabornstein
Pictures!

p.s. I learned how to crochet Kippot!  I've finished one kippa so I'll post a picture later

Avital, me, Rachel, and Roshana at the Golan Winery