eli, abroad

From Beaune to the Rhone

Well, after Barcelona, my body clearly needed a break, and I’m grateful to have gotten a particularly beautiful and tasty one in France with my cousin Paul. I haven’t seen Paul in over a year, so it was great to catch up with him, but we ended up doing a lot of wonderful things so my trip to France overall was pretty incredible.

First of all, Paul is a winemaker - viticulturist - in Beaune (pronounced bone, not bay-oon, like I first thought), which is a bit south and east of Paris in the Burgundy region. Getting there was a trek - I took four trains from Barcelona, stopping in Figueora, Spain, and then 2 more stops in France - Montpellier and Lyon - before arriving in Beaune. I was absolutely exhausted from hardy getting any sleep the night before, but I powered through to a fantastic dinner at a nearby restaurant with lots of good wine. I learned so much about wine on this trip, both about the making process and the tasting process. I’m not sure my palate will ever be as refined as the wine aficionados I met, but at least I can sound like I know what I’m talking about now. 

Wednesday and Thursday I spent the afternoons in the domaine Paul works in, aka the vineyards and winery. I didn’t spent much time at all in the vines - it’s too early for there to be much to do - but Paul did teach me about many of the ways vines are grown, placed in trellises, pruned, etc. What I did do was help to bottle thousands of bottles of wine for the winemaker sharing their winery, Dominique Lafon, who is apparently kind of a big deal in the wine world. Although that was a fairly repetitive and tedious process, it was really cool to not only see but also participate in the bottling of wine. Paul also took me to his winery’s cellars to learn about the barrel and aging process, and to taste about 10 of the wines they make. Yum! 

Paul took off work on Friday so we could travel down south through the Burgundy region (Bourgogne in French), to see some different kinds of vines, beautiful countryside, and one of Paul’s friends. We took long and winding roads down to Valence, stopping on the way at a beautiful, jutting mountaintop whose name I cannot remember right now. The french countryside is quite reminiscent of feudal times in history: old, decaying castles on hilltops with large tracts of land around them, clearly for the peasants of old. We drove along the gushing, beautiful Rhone river the rest of the way, noting all of the extreme labor-intensive vines growing up the mountainsides, with Paul giving me lots of information about different types of grapes and growing styles. The weather wasn’t ideal the whole week, but the sun came in and out amidst storm clouds, rain here and there, and one really beautiful and serious thunderstorm - my first in months - with an intense downpour. We also saw a rainbow at the end of it, which was just lovely. 

We stayed in his friends’ house overnight, and headed to a very nice farmer’s market Saturday morning to pick up delicious food to cook later on at another friend’s house. The next stop was in an amazing, huge, antiquated farmhouse in a mountain valley near near Montelimar. Paul’s friend Emile is living there now, while he’s writing a book. It seems like an amazing life to me - writing, reading, gardening, and just being around all that beauty. Wildlife everywhere, life remarkably peaceful and simple. Quiet. A nice break from Paris, I’m sure.

At Emile’s, we just enjoyed the good life. We cooked up a huge lunch, ate, I napped a bit, and we all just sat in front of the fireplace and chatted all night. They spoke in French sometimes, and I read my book a bit, but it was really one of the most relaxed nights I’ve had in a very long time. Emile made a delicious lamb stew for dinner (with lamb testicle on the side! Not my favorite dish, I must say, but it was worth trying it), we drank more good wine, and went to sleep. The next day we rose early, I made a frittata for breakfast, and we were off to Avignon to take me to the train station and for the boys to go see a bull fight further south in France. 

All and all, it was a fantastic foray into the wonderful world of wine, complete with good company, good food, and lots of peace and quiet. I never would have done anything like that if Paul wasn’t in my family, so for that, I’m very grateful. And much more rested for my final week of this incredible adventure, beautiful and green Ireland. All good things must come to an end, but at least I have lots more good things to look forward to at home. 

Caught in the Grip of the City Madness

Wow. Barcelona. What a magical, beautiful, city brimming with life - especially in the wee hours of the night. I went to Barcelona primarily to visit my brother Peter; I’d been there before about 2 and a half years ago, which was when I did all the really touristy things: Gaudi, Picasso, Dali, La Rambla, etc. This visit was purely for quality time with the brother, and some serious chilling. More or less. 

The Wednesday I arrived, Pete met me at the bus and walked me back to the hostel. The weather was just gorgeous, which was a nice reprieve after the week of winter in Turkey and living in a permanent tent. The Barcelona football (soccer) team was playing Milan that night, so we went to watch the game with some of Pete’s friends at a bar. I was exhausted (because instead of sleeping on the 3.5 hour flight from Istanbul, I read The Hunger Games basically cover to cover) and a bit overwhelmed but stuck it out for another bar where I met more of his friends, including a couple of awesome Catalunya girls with whom I had some great conversations in Spanish. I went home early that night (early for Barcelona, that is, which meant 1am) fora good night’s sleep. 

The next day I went to the Parc de la Ciutadella, or Parque Citadella, or Citadel park, depending on if you speak Catalan, Spanish, or English, with Pete and his friends. It was another gorgeous day inside a beautiful park with a huge Gaudi fountain tucked in a corner. The fountain wasn’t on that day, however, because of the massive general strike going through the entirety of Spain, and the huge demonstration in Barcelona. On the way back from the park, we stopped to check out the demonstration, which had apparently turned into more of a riot. Cops in full riot gear were beating up demonstrators, protestors were burning trash bins and throwing molotov cocktails. It was pretty insane, but Pete played the role of protective brother very well so we came out unscathed. I stayed in that night, which turned out to be a good thing because of the madness of the weekend. 

The weather was amazing again on Friday, so we went to the beach with some of Pete’s friends. First of all, I just learned that the Barcelona beach is man-made, so all the sand is imported - which is why it’s so dirty - it doesn’t replenish itself. Crazy! After working on our base tans and playing volleyball, Pete and I headed to see a small production some of his British friends studying in Spain put on. It was seriously strange, but well done and entertaining. We went out after that, and this time I truly experienced Barcelona nightlife. After a couple bars, I found myself going into a club at 3am and positively dancing my ass off. It kind of reminded me of the pub on Kibbutz Lotan, especially with the strobe lights, except it cost 10 euros to get it, they actually played really good music, and water was 3 euros a bottle instead of free pitchers all night. After the club, we all went back to one of Pete’s friends places, and I stayed there until almost 7am. Whoa. 

Saturday was more of the same: walking around a pretty park, out clubbing until early Sunday morning. But Saturday evening Pete took me to see the Magic Fountain, which lights up, plays music, and sprays out gorgeous streams of water in unison at dusk. It’s in Plaza Espana, right in front of the Modern Art Museum, which gives a fantastic view of much of the city. Quite stunning, really. On Sunday I went on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter, which was very interesting. I learned a lot about the old conflict between the Moors, Jews, Spanish and Catalunyas (actually the latter is still very prominent), saw a lot of excellent architecture, and heard some good stories about famous artists and novelists in Barcelona. It’s really a fascinating city. 

Sunday and Monday night were more chill than over the weekend, even though I still stayed up late,  but I was watching movies rather than clubbing. Peter’s friend had a birthday party Monday evening in a pretty sweet apartment, where I drank a bunch of mojitos and hung out with Pete’s Barcelona family, all of whom I was very glad to have met. They all love him a lot, think the world of him, and if he’s not back home with our family, I’m glad he’s enjoying himself with them. Plus, when he was busy over the weekend his friends really took care of me, for which I’m grateful. All in all, it was a wonderful and successful trip (the only drawback being that I never got to eat ceviche. A small price to pay for such a great time). I might have gotten hardly any sleep, lost my voice, and gotten a little sick, but I’m glad I got to experience real Barcelona, and have a fantastic time with my brother. Much love, Barca. Muchas gracias. 

Urban Farmer

Who ever said a girl from Brooklyn can’t farm? I had a blast on this farm (sorry for the poor translation) in Kerpe, Turkey. I found out about it from my friend Shaul, who happens to be the reason I know my dear friend Lilly ( thank you Shaul!). He was a Green Apprentice on Kibbutz Lotan a year before we were, and he’s done some amazing permaculture projects since then. But this is the amazing project he’s running now, which is why I got to go: permablitzing a farm for a wonderful family in Turkey. 

It’s an absolutely gorgeous place, even if it is still winter there. There are multiple fields, plenty of garden space (80% of the food we ate was from our land), 3 horses, 2 cows, a bunch of chickens, goats, and sheep (including baby lambs and kids! So so cute). Once Lilly and I arrived we got to work on the permaculture aspects. We started out with some basic construction - where I got over my 10 year old fear of table saws, thanks to Murrow’s hardcore stage crew - and made some simple boxes. The next day, however, we began to design and create a large space for composting! Yes, it’s still my favorite thing. 

We measured out a space and started to put some branches/stakes in the ground. Once those were in, we brainstormed and decided the best way to tie them all together within a cohesive area was to weave other branches in and out of them horizontally, which turned out extremely effective and beautiful. We spent the better part of 2 days digging, hammering, and weaving, but in the end created a completely functional and aesthetic compost area for garden waste right next to the chicken coop. 

Once we finished that project, we moved onto the new garden space, which we had to dig out and level before we could start the design. We’d been given a circular area, with a spiral (herb) garden in the middle, surrounded by a mandala of 4 keyhole gardens. The finished product was beautiful, but it really took a lot of work. After leveling the whole space, we hammered in hundreds of 40cm stakes in the exact distances they needed to be, and then had to cut down tons of laurel branches (not too many to kill the trees, just to promote growth), to weave through the branch stakes. Cutting the stakes down was actually a lot of work, albeit fun - we had to find decent enough wood to cut, then measure the branches, saw the wood down, and axe into pointed ends. And yes, it was nearly all done by women. Luckily I was working with some of the strongest, smartest, and most hilarious women I know - Lilly, and my new friend Laura I met on the farm. 

Once we had the stakes in the ground, we weaved the hundreds of laurel branches in - which turned out absolutely beautifully - and then filled it with layers of soil and manure, and then mulch, so it would be ready to plant in without the soil drying out. This region in Turkey is very wet, but also has very clay-ey soil, so it’s very easily compacted. Kind of the opposite from my experience in Israel, and definitely an interesting challenge. I acquired a couple of war wounds from cutting down the laurels, but eventually we finished our job and were ready to plant the herb spiral. Which, if I do say so myself, turned out beautifully. We transplanted everything from cilantro (coriander for British/Australian English speakers), onions, garlic, and mint, to parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. [Simon and Garfunkel, anyone?] It was especially cool to use our knowledge of companion planting and particular plants’ needs to maximize the use of the small spiral. 

After that, sadly, I had to leave for my next adventure. Luckily I got to feed the goats all week, while playing the very fun game of “catch the goat” with Lilly and Shaul, trying to get the baby kids back into their shelter. I also got to feed the horses, see them on their first gallop outside after the winter, trek though the forest, visit the Black Sea, and eat some amazing food fresh from the farm. Also, Lilly came to Istanbul with me to be a tourist for 48 hours before I departed for Barcelona, which was wonderful. We had a lovely tour of the Bosphorus Strait, did a bit of shopping, and spent some quality time together, because we’re not sure when we’ll see each other next. I guess that’s the nature of traveling - luckily, I know we’re too good of friends not to see each other as soon as possible, which will hopefully be next year. 

So that’s the story of my travels into Turkey. What did I learn? I think I want to be a farmer. Anyone know of any permaculture farms in Brooklyn? I’m keeping my eye out…

On the Road Again

I’m writing this entry from the train station in Bucharest, Romania, during my two hour layover in the midst of my 35 hour trip to Istanbul. I left Budapest last night, and was sad to go. But I was amazed and pleased to find that I slept for 10 hours on my overnight train last night, which makes me grateful that I can pretty much sleep anywhere. 

My trip has been quite wonderful, both with Lori and without. My last couple of days in Prague were great - Lori and I celebrated her birthday in full blast, eating some delicious Czech food, getting lost in the city for a bit, and ending with some cocktaily at the bar across the street from our hotel ( the Czech language has got to be the cutest ever, because their plurals take the form of ‘y’ rather than ‘s’, so there are cocktaily and drinky all over the place, seemingly terms of endearment for all they have to offer). The next day we visited the Communist museum, which should probably have been called the anti-communist museum, constituting a completely biased view of the regime they lived under. Now I know it was brutal at times for them, but watching a video of an 1989 protest in Prague and seeing the police brutality towards the protestors brought a chilling similarity to the Occupy protests in New York just last year. It doesn’t take a communist regime to brutalize the public, especially in the name of money. 

Last Saturday I caught a seven hour train to Budapest, which is very similar to Prague in the magnificence of the buildings, but much more seedy and gritty, which makes me feel more at home. Budapest is really awesome (and the Hungarian language is even more bizarre to me - k’s and z’s all over the place, bearing no similarity at all to the English alphabet). I stayed in a quaint, quiet hostel the first night, and then switched to one of Budapest’s Party hostels, which was both fun and also a little too reminiscent of college, which I thought I was rid of. However, I enjoyed myself with the hostel guests and just wandering about on my own. I visited City Park the first day with a girl I met in the hostel, which is a gorgeous and large green park (though the trees are still bare in March), also host to a glamorous and entirely fake castle. Apparently they built a cardboard castle for the World Fair in I think 1900 and liked the design so much they built a real one, which is made up of 4 different designs and styles. Truly bizarre, and truly magnificent. 

I also wandered around to find the famous opera house, and then the Szt. Itsvan Basilica. Both buildings are glorious and gigantic. The architecture in Eastern Europe ( and I suppose most of the rest of the continent) is so different from anything I’ve ever seen in the States. Especially in Budapest and Prague, although in Budapest the buildings are only (ha, only) a couple hundred years old, mostly built during the height of the Hungarian empire. The city wasn’t too badly destroyed during WWII, so the buildings are all mostly still intact. I also visited the Terror museum, which was a two hour long display of the two terrorizing regimes Budapest lived through, the Nazis and again, the Communists. It’s hard being from my background and seeing these city monuments that are so virulently anti-communist, but I suppose when a city lives through their own variations of communist regimes they see a different side of it than I ever did in the US. 

Then I  visited the Jewish district, which was the home of the Ghetto during the Holocaust, and lost about 600,000 Jews during the terrorizing period. I went inside the Synagogue there, which is the second largest in the world apparently. It was beautiful but surprisingly as opulent as many European churches I’ve seen. There was a beautiful monument to the Jews that died in the Holocaust in their garden, both in the form of beautiful weeping willows growing over mostly un-marked graves, and this incredible silver sculpture of a weeping willow, with the names of the deceased engraved on the leaves. Beautiful, respectful, and truly haunting. There’s also a monument along the Danube River: bronze sculptures of shoes, representing the Nazis marching Jews to the river, telling them to strip and take off their shoes, and drowning them. It’s hard to imagine the reality of such terror, honestly. No matter how much you read about it in history class, being there in person means so much more. 

I found my way across the river to climb the hill with a friend I made in the hostel, to see just an amazing view of the entire city (or the two old halves of the city, Pest and Buda. By the way, the proper pronunciation of Budapest is actually Budapesht, for those who care to know. If there’s a ‘z’ after the ‘s’, that signifies the ‘s’ sound). It was a good hike, though not nearly as excruciating as the hike up Masada in Israel. On top of the hill is the old Citadel, still home to gun shot wounds from WWII. All three bridges were blown out during the war, so they’re all quite new. Budapest was one of the fighting grounds between the Nazis and Communists in 1944 - 5. We also climbed a second hill, home to “the castle,” although there’s not actually a castle there, but some beautiful buildings and another old church. But that gives another incredible view of the city, especially of the Parliament, which is the second-largest in Europe, and obviously truly magnificent. 

That brings me about up to date. I’m heading to Istanbul to meet up with Lilly again, and we’ll be traveling to volunteer on an Eco-farm, where I’ll stay for 10 days or so. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty and being with my lovely hippies again, because I haven’t found any while backpacking so far. Here’s to beautiful old buildings, reuniting with friends, and permaculture. See you in Turkey. 

Switching Gears

I’m writing this from Prague, on International Women’s Day, which also happens to be my cousin Lori’s birthday. I’m in my third city since I left my friend Gaby’s house in Israel, and it really has been a huge shift in mentality for me. First of all, I had an amazing time at Gaby’s. She lives in an absolutely gorgeous place, just minutes from the Mediterranean Sea, on the western coast of Israel, near Natanya. She resides in a tiny house overlooking an amazing view - her own sea of green. In her backyard she has a little garden, and lots of trees and plants growing. There’s a field of wild plants and flowers going downhill from her house, and a tangerine orchard further downhill from there. It’s truly an amazing sight, and was so wonderful to wake up every morning to that view. After a few days at Gaby’s, watching the beautiful sights, walking around, and improving her compost bin, I started to think about that sort of natural beauty, and how that could be something I’d like to get used to. I always thought I’d end up living in cities for the rest of my life, but now I’m not so sure. 

My next stop after Gaby’s was Tel Aviv, which was kind of a shock to my system. It was probably partly because the weather was gray and dim, and partly because I was sad to be leaving Israel in a few days, and largely because I missed my travel buddy Lilly, but it was just such a switch from Gaby’s gorgeous paradise. It was dirty, and loud, with too much gray and not nearly enough green. I missed composting, and permablitzing in general. But I met up with my GA roommate Jessi and my good friend Ido, so I had lots of laughs and some great food and company with them. And wow, was I sad to leave the country. I had such a life-changing experience there, and met so many amazing people - I’d love to go back. 

But March First came and brought me my trip to Berlin, to start my tour of European cities (and country sides). Berlin was awesome - unfortunately, I was only there for 2 full days, but I had a great time. The first day I went on a somewhat bizarre walking tour of the city, which was cool in and of itself, but focused almost entirely on street art, pretty much ignoring the intense history of the city. The highlight of that tour was the Tacheles building - a huge, four-story building filled with art inside and out - on the walls, in display cases, and in a sculpture park in the backyard.

The next day I walked around by myself, which was quite wonderful. It was a beautiful day, perfect for a lone explorer. I walked along the Berlin Wall monument, which was really interesting - crazy to think that a wall very literally separated two parts of a city from each other (not too different from the wall separating Israel and Palestine today, actually, though I think Berlin’s wall was a much less violent and much more symbolic mark of political, rather than theological, difference, as far as I can tell). A long stretch of the Berlin Wall is now a public gallery, covered with beautiful paintings and inspirational quotations. It lines a gorgeous river, which used to be cut off from an entire half of the city. Crazy. I also found my way up to a very cool part of the city, called Prenzlauer Berg, and visited Mauer Park, both recommended by my friend Toby on the kibbutz. Overall, my impression of the city is that it’s very impressive, still fraught with intense historical struggle, but ultimately beautiful, albeit severely graffitied. 

And now I’m in Prague, which is just an amazing city. Its made even better by the fact that I’m here with my awesome cousin, Lori, and we’re having a blast. Everything, and I mean everything, is incredibly old and beautiful. The buildings are just grandiose, the architecture impressive, and the food is delicious, but extremely heavy. People aren’t kidding when they say Prague is a meat and potatoes kind of town - it’s almost hard to find a salad anywhere, and fruit is hard to come by, all of which has been a bit hard on my mostly-vegetarian stomach as of late. Regardless, I’m having a blast here. We’ve been to a couple museums, walked back and forth over a 650 year old bridge countless times, visited Prague Castle, gotten lost on several occasions trying to find the river that’s two blocks away, and have drank lots (but not too much, not to worry) of ridiculously cheap and delicious beer. It’s literally cheaper than water here. 

All in all, I’m having the time of my life. I’m back to being a lonely traveler on a lonely planet on Saturday, but I’ve had a fantastic time with my cousin.  I miss so many people - family, friends (new and old, and Eco-freako alike), but this trip has been as much an exploration of the world as it’s been an exploration of myself. Next stop: Eli in Budapest. Adieu! 

Culture shock

 I’ve been off the kibbutz for a week in a whirlwind of adventures. Leaving was hard, saying goodbye harder. I had such a magical experience in such a beautiful place, but life must go on. Go on it did, in the best possible way. 

I’m traveling around Israel right now with an amazing woman from my program, a beautiful flower child named Lilly. We started in Eilat, a touristy beach town about 30 minutes south of Kibbutz Lotan. It was tough at first, seeing all the people and waste and bright lights, missing the stars, the gardens, compost and surprisingly even the composting toilets. The program made such an impact on my mentality, an awareness of the world of consumption we live in. The beach was lovely though, we went to a dolphin reef and saw some happy dolphins playing in the Red Sea. They danced for us as the sun was setting, which was perfect. 

After a couple days of decompression, we headed up to Jerusalem for some serious city action. Wow. It’s an incredible place, filled with history and religion and violence. Very intense. Really amazing though, we spent a lot of time in the shuk, or street market, getting delicious foods and great smells. The next day we mostly spent in the old city, after we met up with a couple other GAs and picnicked on a hill. Our first stop was the Temple Mount, or the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest  places in the world for Muslims. While waiting on line for the temple, we met a fellow wanderer from  Norway named Simon, who accompanied us on a free 3 hour tour of the old city. That was breathtaking. So much history, fraught with legends and tragedy, and above all, a living, breathing city. Incredible. What really got me was the wailing wall. Walking up to it as part of the small women’s section (a third of the size of the men’s section), I felt an incredible weight on me. It gave me really heavy boots, thinking of all the blood in those walls. 

The next day we took a bus down to Masada, another incredible historical story on top of a huge mountain. We had met this sweet older woman named Mary Anne in our hostel the night before and invited her to come with us, which she did. And she was a trooper - hiked all the way up and down the mountain, no complaints whatsoever. On the way back up we stopped in Ein Geddi to swim in the Dead sea. What a cool feeling! When I got in the water I immediately started giggling, I had no control over my body, the salts just pushed it to the surface. Absolutely surreal. It was such a magical day. We continued the majesty with a hike up the Mount of Olives for sunrise the next morning, which was well worth it. I was a little grumpy at 6am and sore from the hike on Masada, but with a little urging I made it up the mountain, and was so happy I did. It overlooks the entire old city and houses one of the oldest cemeteries, which was certainly a sight to see. 

After that we hopped on a bus to Tivo’n to visit our friend Aviv (yet another GA) at his house. It was a lovely house in a lovely town, with 3 beautiful women living there comprising his mother, aunt and sister. We ate good food, had some good drinks, went on another walk in a Wadi today in the gorgeous weather, and then planted some seeds in his new permaculture garden nursery. Now we’re in the car with another GA friend named Gaby, heading to her place on the Mediterranean Sea. 3 seas in one week, traversing nearly the entire length of Israel, being with amazing people and doing amazing things. Yes, life is an adventure, and an amazing one at that. “Be cool and you’ll be alright - that’s rock and roll religion.” Rock on. 

Exposure

Wow. End of the green apprenticeship. I am now a certified permaculturist! What an amazing couple of months. It truly feels like a blur, though. 7 weeks just felt like no time at all, but I am so lucky to have experienced it. I know I keep talking about all the people here, but that’s what has made the most impact on me. I have been exposed to an unbelievable amount of new things, from languages to  new age methods of therapy to arts and crafts.

Just on the kibbutz, I’ve heard conversations in loads of languages - Hebrew, of course, but also Spanish, Swiss, Swedish, Norwegian, Thai, and German. It’s really interesting to sit with a friend and when he picks up his phone I suddenly can’t understand a word he’s saying. But I learned to count to 10 in Hebrew the other night! It was actually difficult for me because the alphabet and sounds are just so different. Little by little…

Other new things I’ve done lately: watsu! It’s a kind of water massage, where someone basically pulls you about through water and just makes you feel completely relaxed. I felt like I was flying - what a lovely sensation. I also did some EFT (emotional freedom technique) with a friend here, which was actually quite healing. It’s basically form of talking therapy, with a stress on self- acceptance. And I went tree climbing! That was great fun, especially since I’ve only ever done that one other time in my life, in Costa Rica. It’s funny that when I look at trees now I judge them by how easily climbable they are. I also started carving a spoon out of wood, which was super difficult but incredibly satisfying. On top of that, I painted a mate shell, and of course sculpted and painted our mud bench. It’s still not entirely finished, but boy was that project fun. It was a fantastic lesson in what you can do with trash and tires and mud (one man’s trash is another man’s treasure). I’ll be sure to post pictures when I upload them. The sculpting and painting turned out really gorgeous, which made us really proud. Also it was literally outside our rooms, so it was something we had to look at every day, and really cared about. 

And now I’m off to my new adventures. The end is the beginning is the end. I’m incredibly happy I decided to come live in this strange place in the desert with all these strange and beautiful people. I know I’ll never experience anything quite like it again, but I’ll always be glad to have done it. 

Permaculture (paradise) circus

Well these weeks just continue to fly by. It’s so crazy how time moves here - as my friend Jessi says, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I only have two more weeks left on the kibbutz! These last five have simultaneously been the longest and shortest of my life. Recent highlights have included the continuation of our awesome mud bench/wall - more on that when it’s done - seed propagation, loads of gardening, this awesome video called The Power of Community, and the beginning of my permaculture design project. Also, I had a Skype interview for the Master of Sustainability program at Chatham University, which went remarkably well, I think. And I bought my ticket for the next part of my trip! It’s funny to realize that I have a whole other amazing adventure to look forward to after this, because the vast majority of my time is spent thinking about what I’m doing on this course with this people. After the program is over, I’ll spend 2 weeks traveling in Israel (hopefully involving some sort of permaculture blitz project), then I head to Berlin on the first of March. After that, Prague with Lori! Life is great. 

For now though, I want to write about this past weekend in the bustan (our Eco-hood). As always, it started with a fantastic potluck with fresh veggies from the garden on Thursday night. Friday was really when the fun began. One awesome thing about my friends in the program is all the awesome people that come to visit them. We had a lovely Canadian wanderer and a super cool Israeli permaculturist join us for the weekend. It was a beautiful day upon waking Friday morning, and I knew it would be a good one when I walked out of my dome to hear Harvest Moon by Neil Young playing on the speakers in our outdoor living room. 

We spent the whole day outside, slowly working up to an epic jam session/ circus performance from about 10 people for at least 3 or 4 hours. There was a hand drum, 2 guitars (including a 12 string!), one ukulele, a set of harmonicas, a flute, several natural percussion sections made from dried beans in their pods, a funky little string-based mouth instrument called a juice harp, and some permaculture rice shakers (in the containers we bought them in). Other festivities included some serious hula hooping, juggling, yoga, frisbee, and lots of yummy snacks and herb tea. 

We all partied - and danced-  pretty hard Friday night, but Saturday was more of the same. As an added bonus, an incredible wandering Italian man heard the music playing and came to join us for the week as an Eco volunteer. He brought another percussion section made up of a mix between maracas and juggling balls. He didn’t know he was going to find us when he walked onto the kibbutz, but he sure fit right in. Saturday afternoon also brought an awesome hour long acrobatic yoga act, and then a long bonfire once the sun set. After an hour or two at the fire (and the ceremonial burning of a broken wicker chair), we got our act together and cooked a whole meal on the open flame. We grilled zucchini, eggplant and radish, and made a lentil/rice/cauliflower dish in a big pot, which was all communally shared at the fire. Then one of our friends brought out a secret stash of weird Israeli flavored marshmallows which we roasted for dessert. The best part about all of this is that absolutely nothing was planned, it all just happened organically and communally, shared and enjoyed by all of us equally. Talk about community based sustainable living. We are a true example of it, us green apprentices and our friends at Kibbutz Lotan. Happy February. 

Potlucky/Beautiful People

Last week was another wonderful blur of intensity. We worked some more on our mud bench (adding just a bit of homemade concrete to the rocks on the bottom of it, which was interesting and a bit scary to make and work with, but kind of awesome as well), as well as a whole lot of gardening - more compost, sowing seeds, rooting plants, and my favorite, harvesting! There were more eco design lessons that are kind of over my head but interesting nonetheless. We also have these intense lessons/discussions on global issues of sustainability, which can be kind of depressing, but mostly just makes me optimistic for all of the things I’ll be able to do to help. Not to mention all the other people who are here for the same reason. I truly feel lucky to be with this group of people - we’re all so different, but really have the same passion for change and gardening. And permaculture!

Whoa, permaculture. An incredibly simple concept that is the answer to all the world’s problems. Basically it’s just a local-driven way of life in which you observe nature to replicate it as much as possible in whatever environment you’re in. This includes growing your own food, composting, building with local and sustainable materials, and really working with nature to produce as little waste as possible with the most and best results. It’s about using what you have around, rather than buying new and unnecessary items that will become obsolete within a few years anyway. Really exciting stuff; I’ll be starting a permaculture design project this week that will help me delve deeper into the root of it. Hoorah!

And we’ve started really cooking in our little communal kitchen, with just superb results. It’s a vegetarian neighborhood, which is alright with me - I’ve been almost entirely vegetarian since I got here anyway. Thursday night we had a potluck that might have constituted the best meal of my life. First of all, we picked about 80% of the food from our garden. Also, the chefs were all incredible. We had a chick pea/chard soup; homemade pita bread and wheat bread; a yogurt/cucumber sauce called raita; roasted sweet potatoes/potatoes/onions/radishes; roasted broccoli and cauliflower; steamed swiss chard; a fresh salad with baby greens, the first of the tomatoes, turnips, walnuts, and  goat cheese from the kibbutz; fresh pesto; pasta with fresh veggies; freshly squeezed pomelo/orange juice; and a vegan chocolate cake that tasted like real chocolate cake. We fed 25 people, and, wow, was it all delicious. It was almost entirely cooked on our rocket stoves or an open flame, which made it even cooler. We did another amazing meal on Saturday night with much fewer people, but without sacrificing taste. It truly is an accomplishment to not only harvest food from your garden and cook with it, but for it also to come out so. freaking. good. 

It all comes down to the people I’m with.  Although I was deeply saddened by the loss of a wonderful woman last week, the sweet Linda Lou Nash, I felt truly at home, loved and comforted by my new friends here. We may have only been here 3 weeks, but I feel like I’ve known them for years. As my friend Arielle has said, it’s so clear that while I’m here for the formal course, I’m learning far more than only what’s in my curriculum. Beautiful people have beautiful stories and incredible dreams, and we’re all getting there together. 

Dust and deliciousness

This week has been a whirlwind of awesomeness. Jam packed to the brim, but I loved every second of it. I had a lot of fun outside of class, thanks to a salsa lesson and interestingly enough, a session of EFT (emotional freedom technique) with a fellow apprentice. There were two talks this week from amazing people, one about the mud girls of Canada, and one about permaculture in an extreme northern climate, from this amazing man Jan Bang. 

Our class time focused mostly on gardening and ecobuilding, with a whole lot of composting thrown into the mix. Sheet mulching, batch compost, and composting toilets, I now feel like an expert in all of them. Making the sheet mulch was the most fun, and we now have a pretty spiral that will eventually decompose itself into a perfect garden bed. How cool. Eco (green/ environmentally friendly) building is really interesting as well, though a little harder to wrap my mind around. There’s a whole lot of chemistry, physics and math to deal with, as well as the theoretical issues. 
But we started making our first real mud project! We’re building a food preparation structure in the middle of our neighborhood, which should help block the wind and sun in the summertime. Our first step was creating a bench out of trash and tires. It’s kind of unbelievable to see the vast amounts of waste people create, but also uplifting to know that there’s something useful we can do with it, and then actually do it. 

Yesterday I learned a lot about the history of kibbutzim in Israel, and kibbutz Lotan in particular. That was incredibly interesting, especially because this is one of the only religious (more or less) kibbutzes in the country, but at the same time it’s one of the most ecologically progressive communities around. I myself have opted out of the religious aspects - hence my blog updating instead of being at Shabbat services - but I suppose it’s nice for those who want to be a part of it. 

Now I feel like trying to explain what it’s really like to live in an Eco village. The first thing specific to this kibbutz is all the dust and sand. It is literally all over everything all the time. I sweep our room daily and the dust still seems to never go away. It’s on all of my clothes, leaves a film on my glasses, and makes me sneeze like crazy. My allergies are terrible! 

Besides that, I pretty much live outside. My dome is entirely enclosed, but still not quite warm enough - parties in the dome don’t seem to help too much. The bathrooms are less rooms and more just tiny, un-insulated structures  with only the composting toilet inside. The sinks are outside in the open air, in front of the toilets. And the showers are un-insulated too, although they are at least fully enclosed. It’s still kind of chilly to use them even if the water is hot, because the shower heads aren’t attached to the wall, so we have to hold them throughout the whole process. It’s just wild to go through my daily routine under the open sky (which has been spectacular these last few nights, what with the thousands of stars before the just-passed-full moon rising orange over the Jordan mountains), and the cold open sky at that. There may be gorgeous days (today was just perfect; I wore shorts! In January!), but the desert sure lets the warm air escape at night. Washing my face is the hardest part of my day, morning and night. Brrrr

It’s really not that bad though, all things considered. I think of it more like a social experiment with the other bustan-mates, and it’s only for seven weeks, after all (two of which are already gone, whoa!). Another awesome part of this experiment are all the different cooking methods. Tonight we pooled our resources and made an amazing lentil/sweet potato/barley dish with the parabolic cooker and rocket stove, and I grilled some eggplant on an open flame. We have some coconut chocolate custard for dessert chilling in the freezer right now, thanks to the rocket stove as well. Our gas isn’t working for the stove in the kitchen, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem. It seems that creativity and innovation is more important here than convenience, and I’m certainly okay with that.