NO SEMEN

 Supposed to say NORSEMEN, but I don't believe Callin when he says that. This is one of the only pictures I got from saturday's daytrip. We visited several religious places - where Jesus walked on water, made a lot more fish and bread, the river Jordan, then we went to Kibbutz Ngev by the Sea of Galilee, which was awesome. The water was great, and just sitting out on a raft with my friends... Life was excellent right then. Then we also got on a boat, just enjoying the ride, taking some pictures and dancing.

 The day after, Diana and Brenda left. Didn't hang out with them a lot here, but you still miss the people that have been here since you got here, simply because you expect them to be there.

And everyone posing for a group photo right before they leave.

 Took my camera to work, seeing if I could find anything interesting. Took a few pictures, but none of them good. Except this and one more. Here's Callin looking fly as always.

And a group picture, since it was Tami's last day of work at the orchards - she's leaving in a few days. In order - me, Shaun (the boss' son), Tami, Leben (some guy that just showed up today, don't know him yet), Daniel (the boss), Ohri (awesome guy, keeps us in check when working), The Debbienator (great trilingual girl), Charlie (currently kicking Callin for reasons unknown, but he likely deserved it. Damn southafricans.), Marcella, and below we have Zivan (another worker, also really nice), and Callin again.

THANK YOU SIMON. All credit for the following pictures go to him.

 Domus Galilaeae, the part of the building they keep formal meetings and some prayer sessions. They also have a special room where there's always someone praying, 24/7. Incredible.

 I'm feeling naked without my camera, but at least Callin is still photogenic. Hanna, Daniel (Col), and Howard as well here, by Mount Beautitude.

 The place where Jesus supposedly walked on water, or somewhere around there, at least. It didn't work for me, or Windzer for that matter, who we think is at least 2/3 Jesus.

 The River Jordan, it's a beautiful place. Not much else to say.

 The place a lot of people visit every year to get baptized, and where most say John baptized Jesus, though it's actually way up river, closer to Jericho, but it's a pain in the ass to get there, so...

 The boat from the final part of the trip. The wind, the waves, the dancing... Perfect ending of an awesome day.

Life is good.

I've learned a lot this week. I've also been injured. I've learned how to play Backgammon (kicked ass playing at the pool with Nicolai), checkers (winning a lot of the time) and considering playing bass again, stealing Rain's guitar to practice.

Work has been pretty rough. Since last time, I've had to work one day sticking plastic knives in the ground to show where we're going to plant the next patch of trees, and it was really hot, with no shade at all. The day after I fell on a ladder. 3 feet, and no lasting injuries, but everyone knows me for three things by now. The tie, my cap, and my limp. I always seem to hurt my left foot, but never the same way twice. The day after, I got bitten by a spider or something after bathing in the Jordan River, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't lethal. Then I played basketball, and Windzer is ridiculously fast. Accidentally tackled me, so now I have scrapes on my elbows and knees. And yesterday we worked in 35 degree heat, it was ridiculous. Some of the plastic boxes we used melted.

The same day, everyone except me and Christina played beer pong, and everyone had a great time. No one drank that much, but everyone agreed it was awesome. Five of us slept outside, which was really nice apart from the mosquitos. I didn't have a drop of alcohol, but I went to sleep there, woke up in my own bed, and I have no idea how I got there.

It has been an interesting week, but not a lot more to say. I'm just... Gonna go party now. Take care! Moar pics later!

That sudden realisation when you've not been wearing underwear for 8 hours.

Yesterday was really nice. I realised I shouldn't always blog that early, since things happened afterwards. Not much to say about the rest of the day since you had to be there, but partied until 4 in the morning. It was great. But I realised I dance about as well as a drunk moose locked in a fridge if I'm supposed to be dancing with someone. Then I slept for 4 hours and went on a hike.

 We got out of the main gate, and then got back in through the back gate, which took us about 3 hours. We started as 13, but Amal and Charlie got ahead, and Nicolai hitchhiked the last part of the trip. It took him about 30 seconds in a car, so it was the shortest hitchhike to date here.

 Wonderful nature around here, and it was really hot too. By the end of the hike, my shirt was soaked through. Also, given away in the picture here, I am not responsible for many pictures today. Tami is. Blame her.

 We kept to the road the last bit, but before that, only dirt roads.

 Group picture! Mike and Luck are to the right in the image.

 And this is Luck currently not admiring the beautiful view.

 An old watchtower, where you can see for miles, it was wonderful. Especially good was to take a break there, you get tired and thirsty like that here.

 Seems Tami is quite the photographer, unexpected photo, given the view, but I like it.

EVERYTHING IS GREEN AND PRETTY.

And Tami deciding that in the middle of the road is the best place for a break.

When we finally made it back, we were just too late for lunch, but took some anyway, everyone were starving. Then we went to the pool, and spent the afternoon there. We needed that. After that, I made french toast, using 2 whole loaves of bread. The people present then now love my french toast. Given that it's Shabbat, and dining doesn't have any proper food then, it felt right. I ate that, and pretty much just vegetables. While eating in the common room, we watched Insidious. It was flippin' terrifying. I highly recommend it. All in all, it was a good day today. But now I need to sleep, I am back in the orchards tomorrow. Tata!

"Oh Alex, you're so silky smooth! It's creeping me out!"

I've heard better compliments, but... Yes. It was Callin who commented, at the pool, which has finally opened. It's so nice there, shining sun, perfect temperature, good friends. Today was a good day, all in all. I even got to sleep in, didn't have to wake up until 5 today. And then I only had to actually work in the orchards for 2 hours. So nice. What more has happened? Right, Shavuot. Fairly big thing, just not that big around here. It's a harvest holiday, and the day Moses got the 10 commandments on mount Sinai, according to the stories. It was really nice, free pizza, popcorn, cake and of course good company. The volunteers had a stall with a small game for the kids - match countries with their flag and how you say hello in their language. At the end of the day, 3 kids and about a dozen adults had played, and faired equally well.  Yesterday was a good day at the orchards, then we got home, relaxed, people left, then we watched some of A Good Day To Die Hard, but soon lost interest.

It's been odd, watching people leave like that. People I've gotten to know since I got here, and miss now. Chung, Zinnia, Liisa and Suzan. Camille and Vilde are off too, as are Helga and Lasse. Lots of people are missing, and more will leave soon. By now, I have to realise I am a veteran, and it sucks when people leave. But we'll always have the memories, at least. On the plus side, we've gotten more new people - Luck [Luke] from the Netherlands, and Mike from Manchester. They seem like nice people. Well, I have people to rub up against, things to do, ties to tie, so I'll be off now. Take care!

Get out of jail free card.

I think I recently spent mine. Had to take a sickday, but didn't follow proper procedure... Lena was fairly annoyed at me. I'm off the hook for now, as long as it doesn't happen again, though.

I'll make sure it won't.

What's happened lately? We've gained 3 people, but lost 2. Luan the south african, and Iannis the french guy had to go home. They were on their last warnings, and got in a fight, apparently. It's a bit iffy on the details, since there's a dozen rumors flying around, and no two are the same. I'll miss them, both. Luan's presence was one of those things I didn't think I'd miss all that much until he left. He was loud, made bad jokes, and left a void after he disappeared. Same with Iannis. He was just great having around - a bit insane, pyromantic, and I'll definitely miss him. It just feels really strange, all this.

The new people are 2 koreans, and the first japanese person I know has visited, Emma and... Some name I can't pronounce for the korean guy, and Sanshiro. They all seem fairly interesting, but I've not gotten to know them properly yet. They just arrived, and everyone's been talking to them, and I'm in my room getting healthier.

Yesterday was kareoke night, and we did everything from Slim Shady to Hakuna Matata. It sounded terrible. :D But I have even more respect for the people here now. Some showed that they're even nicer than I thought, and everyone just went nuts. Singing Barbie Girl, and everyone loves it, joins in, and cheer at the end. If everyone makes a fool out of themselves, then I guess no one is a fool by comparison. And it takes a fool to remain sane...

Getting to know the new french girl, 10 minutes later, I need a pubic wig. And a dress.

Thursday was the first time in quite some time I've just gone for a run. Swedish Daniel convinced me, 3 kilometers around the kibbutz is pretty nice. Needed something to do. 5 people are down touristing around the Dead Sea, 2 people are off in Tel Aviv, and by then, 6 people were in Haifa, and 8 people were off to the festival nearby. So few people left here on friday, and half those that were were hungover. So on my freeday, I worked down in the orchards. 6 hours, not too bad, but no one I knew besides Chung there, so I couldn't talk as much as usual. At the party in the evening, I got to know the new girl better though. Wilde, norwegian girl, seems pretty nice, and as most people on the first party night, she got really drunk. Of course, all the nice volunteers here made sure she made her way back to the volunteer buildings nice and safe. I also got an unintentional music tip (because of one of the girls, I started thinking about "Underwear" by Royal Republic, for no particular reason) and then, we unintentionally named someone else "Master of penes" (yes, that is the plural of penis. I checked.), but she's currently only the local champion. Don't ask me how it happened.

Today, we went hiking to Mount Meron, the highest mountain within the official borders of Israel. 11 people, used to be 15, but then hangover happened. Anyway, it was great once we started walking.

Martin, Lily, Nicolai, Jacob, Camille, Wilde, Jelena, Callin, Pernilla and Christopher, just before the hike started.

 And here everyone is at the top, after we'd conquered the mountain. Good lunch that Martin had carried all the way for us, and just 2 minutes later, it started pissing down. Not for long, but still, unexpected.

 Enjoying the view...

 It's so lovely, almost always great views. Except when we went through the forested parts, and Nicolai walked in front of me.

 Marting looking badass on the top.

 Nicolai ruining the moment...

You can see so far from the summit, it's just... Amazing. The mountain didn't look that high from the bottom.

Then we got back, thanks to Eliran, awesome person. We didn't do much for the rest of the day. I made french toast with Martin and Camille, then we and a few other people watched Zero Dark Thirty, the story about finding Osama Bin Ladin. Interesting film. Now, sleep, have to lead the new volunteers to the Orchards in the morning. :P

I can't be racist, I play basketball!

A war's started between Syria and Israel. Apparently, Israeli fighters flew in Lebanese airspace and bombed a weapons transport in Syria. Missile defenses have been moved north, and Liora has told us that the bombshelter must be prepared to be used at any given time. I've not noticed a thing, except heard about it on the news. Still, it is a bit alarming, even though Kibbutz Bar'am is not really a high-priority target (unless they want a fuckton of apples).

Anyway! On to the better parts of this - working out in the orchards is great. Sure, you start at 5, and have to get up at 4, but you are finished by 2. It's really nice, and time flies by until breakfast, when like half the day is finished. Coworkers are nice, apparently Windzer loves my topics of discussion, and we can just talk about whatever, unlike the apple factory where it's all too loud. We've gotten new volunteers, Lilly from Ecuador and Camille from France. They seem like nice people, can't wait to get to know them.

We've played basketball, was a ton of fun. Lilly appears to be awesome. Hurt my ankle, though, so today I've been resting instead of sporting all afternoon. It's been really nice. Also, I'm being interviewed by a newspaper on thursday, they're looking for 2nd generation kibbutzniks, and it appears I'm the only one around here. Will be interesting, to say the least. Ah well, now I'm off to party for a short time before I have to sleep... Bye for now! :D

The apple is sharper than the printer.

Yesterday I worked at the Dfus, printing. No papercuts, unlike when I was working at the apple factory. It was really nice - the foreman made me take longer, more frequent breaks, and I could get up an hour later and still end at the same time, and by the end I got told I'd still helped a lot. Win-win for everyone. Really good day, there. Then we played tennis, I was horrible as always. Then we had Ethnic Night. The brazilian, french and dutch people cooked for everyone - Lucas the brazilian made some sort of meat-and-bean stew with rice, can't remember what it was called. I had the vegetarian version, and it was still great. Next, Suzan the dutch with something called "poorcookies", made from the crumbs of all sorts of cookies, and covered in delicious creamy... Something. Then the pyromaniac french guy Iannis set his Créme Brulée on fire. All in all, a very good night.

I also found out I'm going to work in the Orchards instead of the apple factory - changing it up after three weeks, even though that position seems highly sought after, and some have been here for months without getting promoted. I'll be working out in the sun, cutting branches, and... I don't know. But I look forward to finding out!

Today... Not much has happened, played tennis, saw a film, made a ton of bad jokes. There were meringues in the common room. :D Fuck yes. Well, have to sleep some time! G'night!