Another Update :)

Hi friends!

So, another week or so has gone by.  Last week was fairly uneventful, as I was sick most of the week, and spent all my time sleeping.  But actually.  The first day, when I really felt awful, I went to bed after class at 4:30, work up the following morning at 3:30 to get to work, thought I was going to throw up, went back to bed by 4:30 and didn't get up again until class at 1.  The next couple days looked pretty much the same.

But, now I am feeling almost 100% again with just a minor sore throat, and gallivanting around the kibbutz as normal.

I have to say, first and foremost, I love it here.  Even at quiet moments (like now) where everyone else is busy (class/work) and I'm not, the air is fresh, and the surroundings are calm.  Kibbutz life is where it's at.  Don't get me wrong, I miss the city, and I will certainly be traveling to Tel Aviv in the VERY near future, but there is something inspiring about living in a place where everyone has their roll and contribution.  I'm not just living here.  I'm participating here.


Work is amazing.  I have come to terms with the fact that I get home covered in cow shit.  For a few days I tried wearing gloves and rubber sleeves, but they got in the way, and it is much easier to milk the cows without them.  One of the men looked at me yesterday and asked (in Hebrew) "so, not afraid to get dirty?" and laughed as cow shit splattered off the platform and onto my face.  Yes, a week ago that grossed me out, but I've desensitized myself, by convincing myself it's just mud, and I've embraced herding the cows and milking them as just something that needs to get done.  I even tried fresh out of the utter, direct to a glass, milk.  I was a bit hesitant, thought it'd be super fatty.  Getting past the fact that I don't really like warm milk, it was far less creamy than I had anticipated and even a little bit sweet.  Needless to say, I ended up finishing the glass.
It also helps that the atmosphere is very relaxed.  We stop for a cup of coffee, joke around with each other, and nothing ever seems rushed.  When it's time to herd the next group of cows, I simply walk over, rearrange the gates, and walk them in.  In the mornings, they're pretty slow, but in the afternoons they're ready to go - sometimes running to their showers.   It also doesn't hurt that my boss is super nice.  Last week he called me every day to see if I was feeling better, and insisted I take an extra day off just to be sure.  Also, he feels bad asking us to come in every evening (most workers switch between morning and evening milkings) so he told me to take today off just because.  (One week I have class in the morning, work in the evening, and the next it switches).  Similarly, when I have morning work, he feels terrible asking us to come in at 4 every morning, so he gives me a couple "late" starts (7) in which I don't help with the milking, but just get a relaxed morning feeding calfs.

Speaking of calfs, I witnessed a birth yesterday!  Yeah, that's right.  During my shift a cow gave birth, and I got to watch it!  Kind of gross, yes, but so amazing!  And afterwards, I took the slimy guy, put him into a wagon so we could move him easily, fed him by bottle (gross fatty/bloody milk that's important for them to drink but looks like chocolate milk.  It's what you get the first milking after a cow gives birth), moved him to the nursury, santized his imbilical cord (dipped it in iodine) and pet him for a while.  I also got to witness his first stumbling steps.  Truly something magical.

In case you can't tell, I love my job; shit, placenta, and all :-P

Class is pretty uninteresting, so I won't bore you all with details.  I study 3 1/2 hours a day, and my reading is getting MUCH better, though still not good.  Grammer is hard for me because I don't know how I know what I know, but I get by filling in the blanks just by putting what I would say intuitively.  It's working.

As for friends, there's some really great people here... it's gonna be a great 5 months.  I've also met some Israelis at the pub (people come in from the area to go to our little kibbutz pub/club on Friday nights), so I get some Hebrew practice in.  Hebrew text messages take me like 5 minutes to write, and I always get an instant repsonse about something I've spelled wrong, despite T9...  all in the name of practice.

Sadly, I no longer live alone.  Some 18 year old girl complained that she was lonely (despite coming from Uraguay in a group of 20) so they rearranged a few girls so that she could live with her friend.  I got in a huge fight with the house mom in charge explaining to her that the rearrangement was unacceptable, espcially considering that the day prior she wouldn't let someone move into my room despite unpleseant roommate conflicts.  How can you let one girl, who gets along with her roommates just fine, move to be with a friend (which requires others to move out), but not let one girl move out of a conflict room, with no other rearrangement necessary.  The house mom yelled at me for being "spoiled" that I thougth I'd have my own room the whole time, and I finally got her to understand that I clearly don't care that I have roommates, as I had previously vulonteered my room, but I don't agree with the situation.  Since then, she has been super nice to me, constantly asking if I need anything, and trying to make amends for the fact that she fucked up.

Fortunately, the girls are prefectly nice.  One is from Venezuela (speaks near perfect English) and is absolutely adorable.  I really like her a lot and we get along great.  She hangs out mostly with the other South Americans, but we have a great time in the room together. The other is from New Zealand, and I'm neutral to her.  Though, she's in my class so she may be helpful with homework.  She spends most of her free time alone in the room, and visits family most weekends.  I'm not sure if she has desire to make any meaninful relationships while she's here.

I also requested to get a kibbutz family, preferably one with kids.  Some of my friends here have kibbutz families either through family connections of part of their immigration proccess.  They go over for dinner sometimes, and get to meet some members of the kibbutz.  Sounds fun :)

So there it is. Another overly long update, that doesn't say much at all...

Miss you all!  Please send updates my way, too!  I want to know how you're all doing.

Much love,
Michal