Wandering in the Desert

Passover (or Pesach) in America is two nights of two hour long seders, lots of food, and large family time. But in Israel, the expectation of an even longer, more detailed seder was greatly mistaken.
I spent my Pesach at my family friend's house, the Levins (I have discussed them in a previous blog). I went to their house, helped with setting the tables, and awaited the guests. At home there are anywhere from 20-40 people at the seders I attend. However, this seder was quaint, with only 13 guests including the family. Beginning the seder, I was very intimidated. The hagaddah was all in Hebrew, and I thought I would be spending the next two hours being lost in translation. Once again, I was mistaken. You see, in secular Israeli society, some things are more important than holidays. Like football (soccer) games. The game started at 9:45pm, so we needed to be done with dinner by them. It was really quite humorous. To quicken the seder Shuki (the father) and his brother would start reading along with their father and eventually read instead of him. They would read very fast, so we only ended up filling one glass of wine for the prayers somehow, we never made a Hillel sandwich, somehow we skipped half the plagues and all in all, our seder lasted a whole 15 minutes. That's right, 15 minutes, I surely am the envy of many young Jews. the dinner was good, and dessert even better. What I loved the most about the seder was the fact that for the first time in about 14 years, I didn't need to do the Four Questions. For once, I was not the youngest, the 11 year old Michal did them wonderfully. Though she got shy and I had to help but still, it was different.
The next day I went to feel what it was like to be an Israelite leaving Egypt in a way. I embarked on one of the funniest journeys on EIE, Yam L'Yam (sea to sea). This was a five day hiking trip without showers, toilets, and sometimes hiking without adult supervision. These circumstances led to a smelly, enjoyable hike through the beauty of Israel's North. We hiked the second highest mountain in Israel, Mt. Meron. Everywhere we went was exquisite.
EIE was split into three groups, and from those three groups we were split into another three groups. My group was made up of 10 people, and I didn't originally know them all well. It was a great bonding experience, and I'm proud to say we didn't get lost. We called ourselves "Chipotle" in memory of the great burritos we miss so much. Not that burritos are kosher to Passover. Another great thing about Israel is that it is illegal to sell "chametz" (bread) during Passover. Every candy, snack, entre, etc, is made kosher for passover, so there's no way of breaking it. We spent five days hiking with basically matzah and chocolate spread to fill us up. Not ideal, but it didn't get old either. My Pesach in Israel was such an immense transition from the darkness of our Poland trip to the happiness of our Sea to Sea. We ended in the gorgeous city of Haifa, and then returned to Tzuba. Being away from Tzuba for two and a half weeks seemed surreal and it was so nice to return home. We got new roommates and new rooms (though I ended up in the same room which I didn't mind). My new roommates are amazing, and I'm lucky enough to be rooming once again with a Canadian. My two other roommates are from Boston and New York, and we all bonded with Chinese food our second night together. We knew that spending the last two months with each other was going to be amazing, and so far, it has been.