Back to Reality (if this is reality...)

I am back in Kiev. What a week I had! Crimea is a beautiful place…well the natural scenery is very beautiful-rocky mountains plunging into the Black Sea. Unfortunately, the landscape is punctuated by a lot of rather ugly Soviet architecture. Crimea is often called the “Russian Riviera.” This is exactly what it is. A beautiful place where people go to vacation in the sun, but the hotels, restaurants, tourist sites and other such vacation-y activities have not quite caught up with the West…

I guess I’ll start at the beginning (a very good place to start). This lager, camp or retreat was a joint endeavor (the first of its kind here) between Hillel and Soxnut. Soxnut Jewish Agency for Israel is an organization that operates both in Israel and in the diaspora to educate people about Judaism and about Israel, and encourages and assists with resettlement in Israel. I couldn’t find their website, or info about it online...It was emphasized repeatedly that this was neither Hillel nor a Soxnut lager, but rather a Jewish lager. There were 150 participants from all over the FSU (all over Ukraine, Moldova, Minsk, I even met a boy from Petersburg) ages 17-25ish. As far as I know, it was a free trip for everyone! We paid just $10, I’m not sure for what exactly, but transportation, hotel, food and activities were all paid for. The theme of the lager was The Jews of Crimea.

We met at Soxnut on Tuesday afternoon. We were supposed to meet at 5, get on the buses and leave at 5:30. Yeah right. We met at 5, got on the buses around 5:30 and didn’t leave until 7:30 because one of the buses was broken (we were in 5 buses)…Once we finally got on our way, we hit maybe the most unbelievable traffic I’ve ever seen (in general here the traffic is horrific). 2 of the buses got separated, so we pulled over to wait for them for half an hour….Around 8:30 we actually got going. 16 hours, many “toilet” stops (going on the side of the road, in a field, behind a truck with a group of strangers in the dark and cold), and very little sleep later, we arrived in Yalta. This time I really vowed that after the return overnight bus ride, I WILL NEVER DO A LONG OVERNIGHT BUS RIDE AGAIN! I think my max will be 8 hours in the future. There really is not a less comfortable way to travel.
Our hotel, the Preberezhny Pancionat (ocean side boarding house), was a Soviet style all inclusive place…The rooms were fine; I shared mine with two girls, Lera from Sevastopol and Nastya from Simforopol (both cities in Crimea). Sadly, we were not on the ocean facing side of the building, but if I craned my neck around our balcony, through some trees, I could see the ocean. The hot water was turned off a couple of times a day for several hours, and some times there was no water at all. We ate fish at almost every meal.

Accommodations aside, the lager really was amazing. The thing that impressed me the most, over and over again, was how well organized, well run, and well lead everything was. There was a group of about 20 midrachim (counselors or group leaders), Hillel and Soxnut people. Sasha and her friends were all midrachim. We were organized into groups that did excursions and activities together throughout the week, they called them obshinas, communities, of about 10 people, each group had 2 midrachim. These kids were all really fabulous leaders! Energetic, engaging, outgoing, always smiling. I was so so so impressed by them. I already knew that Sasha was wise and mature beyond her 20 years, but this was a characteristic of all the midrachim. Mine, Lena and Polina (best friends from Soxnut), were only 19. I didn’t learn that until the last day, I had thought they were my age or older the whole time!

Throughout the week we had excursions to Yalta, including a very rocky boat ride; Sevastopol where we saw the ruins of an ancient Greek town, Hersones; Chuf-Kale, a monastery built into the mountainside, ruins of an ancient Jewish town, and Jewish cemetery; and Evpatoria where we wore trash bag raincoats and visited a re-built synagogue (this excursion was a little lost on me…I’m not sure exactly what we were seeing…and there was lots of talk of Tartars as many of them lived/live here)

We had lectures at the hotel on topics like, history of the Jews of Crimea, Crimea during the holocaust, history of Crimea, and my favorite, Jewish cemeteries and how to read the gravestones. This was particularly cool because we got to visit an old Jewish cemetery. This lecture was also particularly taxing because it was delivered in Russian, notes on the board were being made in Hebrew and Russian (as it is Hebrew on the gravestones), but I still mostly think and process in English…

We had night activities like a scavenger hunt all over the hotel property where we had to do different tasks like make a salad while we were all tied together and the salad components were on different sides of the room, see how many candies someone could fit in their mouth and still say a specific phrase after adding each piece (like Chubby Bunny…), and answer trivia questions about Judaism; a Jeopardy like game show; watching the movie Uzhpihin (Guests, an Israeli movie, a comedy (?), about the misadventures of a Hassidic man during Sukkot in Jerusalem…yes this is the same movie I watched during my day at the Rabbi’s house for Yom Kippur…)
We also had several times where we met with our obshinas to discuss something, like Shabbat, the movie we had just watched, or a time to give feedback about the lager at the end of the week. Every time I was so impressed (sensing a theme here?) by not only how great my group leaders were at leading the discussion, but at what great participants everyone was in the discussion. Everyone was an active participant, offering interesting, thoughtful, and personal input.

Shabbat was really something. The meal and Kabbalat Shabbat service were incredible! Everyone got all dressed up. The dining hall was arranged into 4 long banquet tables jointed at one end by a row of tables where the midrachim, Osik (the director of Central and Western Ukraine Hillel’s, based in Kiev, Sasha’s boss), Aaron Goldberg (the international director of Hillel, American, based in D.C. visiting for the week) and I sat. Brief side-note about Aaron: My mom has actually known him for a couple of years so it was funny for us to meet here in Ukraine. He brought me Claritin (damn cats). It was wonderful to have some American company for a few days! Great to share our impressions and experiences about this lager and this group of people.

Back to Shabbat. The spread was ridiculous. Many kinds of fish (so sick of fish), veggies, salads, stuffed peppers, challahs, stuffed chicken breasts, potatoes, fruits. Yum yum yum. The Midrachim lead the service by putting on a sort of skit about welcoming Shabbat. There were many songs throughout the meal. I was a little surprised, I think, to see that many of the people knew all of the prayers and songs-some better than I did.

Saturday was spent mostly lounging. There were some lectures, but most of us opted for the beach instead as it was 70ish degrees and sunny! We did Havdalah on the beach which was really cool. It ended with fireworks…and an Israel Party! This Israel Party was basically like a crazy middle school dance/bar mitzvah where you don’t know anyone and don’t know any of the moves to the endless number of choreographed dances…Ukrainian and Israeli versions of the electric slide, cotton eye Joe, and Macarena…the music was mostly Israeli pop and rap…again, not something I am so familiar with, but everyone else seemed to be. And, as I have said before, this kids are really good dancers! I am not…Aaron and I were commiserating about how hilarious/nightmarish this was, and then one of the girls invited him to dance. He is a very good sport, and a very good dancer! Obviously I snapped some pics.

The week ended with another awesome bus ride home. Overall, the week was a good one. It was definitely hard for me at times as I didn’t really know anyone (any one I knew was busy working…) and everything was in Russian. Once I got over my social awkwardness (its endearing, right?) and some of the language barrier, I definitely had people to at least sit with at any given time, if not carry on a long, “normal” conversation. I understood pretty much everything that was going on in the lectures and activities, even if I didn’t get every word, or wasn’t able to participate as much as, or in the way I might have at home. I think what was most valuable for me is what I got out of the lager as more of an observer than a participant. It was so interesting, and very important, for me to have the opportunity to get to know this demographic: Young Jewish adults in the FSU. I learned so much about what they think about being Jewish, being Jewish in Ukraine, Israel, and just how they are with each other as people, friends and peers.

Here are my pictures. Lots of landscapes, and of me, alone...

I have to say, when we arrived back in Kiev, despite it being gray, cold and raining, I felt like I came home. Strange.

In other news, I found an apartment! Moving within the next couple of weeks. It is pretty centrally located (about as far as I am now, but in a different direction), next to one of the city’s large concert venues, and across the street from a huge outdoor market. It’s an old apartment that hasn’t been renovated…but JDC is getting some new appliances for me and we’ll spruce it up a bit. Its one big room, a sizable kitchen (for here) and a bathroom. It is actually the exact same lay out, exactly the same, as the place I’m in now, but with the two additional rooms cut off. Creepy. I am very excited to move.

Also, my parents are coming next week! YAY! I’m incredibly excited about that…I’m actually a little worried about how depressed I might be when they leave…luckily Melanie, Mirsi, Evan, Nanny and my aunt all have plans to head over. Any other takers?