Shabbat in Carmel and Volunteering

This weekend we went up to the Carmel. We had a really nice hike, which was only for about an hour instead of our usual three. We then went to Usfiya, a Druze village nearby. We went to a Druze house where someone talked us about the Druze religion and Druze in Israel and then they fed us some great pizza and zaatar pitas.

We then went to a small museum about the Israeli Druze. After that we went to a nearby shuk, which really was just a bunch of tourist shops on a street. Not so exciting.
We stayed at a beautiful Kibbutz right on the sea. They had great food and we even had a minyan for Friday night. After dinner we all went to the beach and just hung out on the rocks over looking the sea. It was amazing.

The next day I slept late, which was wonderful. We had a really relaxing day of hanging out on the many hammocks, eating and sitting on the beach again. When we finally got back to Be'er Sheva, I picked up Shoko at Tamar's friend's house and he was so excited to see me, he peed.





Yesterday I got back my first paper for Benny Morris' class. I did well, so I was pretty happy about that. I'm going to meet with him tomorrow to discuss my idea for my final paper, so hopefully he'll like it.

Today I didn't have classes so I spent the beginning of the day going over PhD applications. Then in the afternoon, I went over to the local high school where we made Hanukkah candles with a group of ninth graders. They were the same kids we are teaching English to, but I'm a little confused as to why we did this program instead of tutoring. It seems like our mission there is a little unclear.

Towards the end I got to talk with two of the guys from the group. They asked me about America and were surprised that I was going back. But at the same time, one of them told me that he wants to move to America; but only after he joins the IDF, serves in a combat unit, goes to college here and gets a master's degree here. Granted, he is only in the ninth grade, but it is still very interesting to hear about how he can be so sure he wants to not only serve his country, but serve in a combat unit, while at the same time planning to leave it. It is difficult to understand how someone would be willing to put their life on the line for a country they don't plan on staying in. It wouldn't be so interesting if he was the only one, but this seems to be a common thought among Israelis and it would be interesting to look into why.