Transylvania

Romanian is sooo cool. It has so many different backgrounds and influences that when I listen to it, almost sounds like a mixture of languages. That is definitely a generalization, but let me give you some examples. Thank you is “merci” (same as French); potato is cartolfen (same in German) yes is “da” (same in Russian). There are Latin and Slavic roots all over the place.  There is a lot of Latin based because the Romans colonized Romania in the 1^st century B.C., A German king later ruled Romania in the 14^th century, Russia had it’s influences too.

Transylvania is SO pretty. There is a huge mountain range and tons of really cool medieval castles and towns. The air is fresh and things are completely beautiful no matter the season. There are a lot of ski resorts that I would say are almost equivalently cool as in the mountains of Utah.

There are two stereotypes that I have heard a lot of people have about Romania, neither of which are true: 1: Everyone is a vampire here. 2) Romania is full of gypsies.

If I say Romania, is the first thing you think of a vampire? Well pop culture has made vampires seem like the dominant characteristic of Romania. This came from the Book “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and was later made into a movie. It was a myth based off of Vlad the Impaler- who used to impale and torture his enemies (the Turks from the Ottoman empire who were invading at the time). He would try to make their death as long and agonizing as possible. This story was somehow exaggerated and shifted to Dracula the blood-sucking vampire. Even the castle that he allegedly lived in pleasantly wasn’t as touristy as I would have expected- there were only a couple of shops selling vampire products and there was only one room in the castle that mentioned Vlad the Impaler and the book Dracula. Maybe I should read the book to see what all the hype is about. In reality, Transylvania is just a really pretty place. I got to go see three castles while I was there: one of which is the castle imaged as the castle that was “Dracula’s”.

The other stereotype I think is mostly only popularly known in Europe. When gypsies are seen in Western Europe people automatically think they are from Romania and vice-versa, if a person if from Romania people assume that they are a gypsie. I thought that being a gypsie was the title of the profession, like someone who begs. Wrong. Gypsies are an ethnic group that is stereotypically beggars. Most people think it would be dangerous to go to Romania because of the association with gypsies. I met some girls at the hostel I was staying at last night who are teaching English in Spain, they said that everyone they told that they were going to Romania for vacation told them that it is really dangerous and scary (even though they had never been there). When I was in Spain last summer I heard a lot of bad talk about Romanians. A lot of Romanians are really annoyed with this stereotype because gypsies make up a small proportion of Romania and even then not all gypsies are thieves or beggars. When people in English say “You got Gyped”, it is referring to gypsies- which can actually be thought of as racist considering it is an ethnic group. Roma is the preferred and more politically correct title.

Be-Seder

                 

Warning: I posted this a few days after I wrote it. Passover Started Monday night (25th of March).

My Haggadah at the start of the seder

Last night Passover started, meaning that it began with a Seder when the sun went down. I think it is interesting because when someone in Hebrew asks how you are doing “Mah-Knee-Shmah”, you reply with “Bah-Seder” if you are doing well. Beseder literally means “In order” and Seder means order. The family I had Seder with told me it is called that because everything must be done in order. Silly thought: The only moment you can use beseder and have it mean two things at the same time is during a seder. It could mean : I’m in a seder, or it could be the answer to “how are you doing” in order.

I was surprisingly invited to a lot of Seders. Almost every guest lecturer in our nursing program invited us to come to Seder with her (our instructors so far have only been women). From the beginning of the semester I had planned to go to a Seder with one of my roommates and her extended family. The family she chose to come to is from her Dad’s side and live on a Kibbutz  in the North. Before I came to Israel I knew that Israelis were really into farming, but my vision of what a kibbutz is was a little different. I knew that Kibbutzim (plural of Kibbutz) were communal and practiced socialism, but I thought it would be a group of people who only grew food. The kibbutz we stayed at for Passover is one that specializes in pipe making, everyone in the community either works in the pipe factory or in another position that helps the community as a whole (nurse, teacher, etc.). No one owns his/her own land and there is some sort of sharing element. Some kibbutzim require that all money and resources are communal, but this specific kibbutz is only partial. The money that is taken out of salaries to go into the community goes towards school, or events like religious parties- this Kibbutz used to have completely communal food, but has since changed. It is a nice environment, little kids can run around anywhere they want without the community being afraid of “strangers”, wifi doesn’t need a password, and everyone feels like they are a part of something. For some reason I assumed that a kibbutz would be a closed society, like it would be restrictive of freedom or something. It is definitely not like that at all. I felt like this kibbutz was more of a gated community, it reminded me of my grandparent’s retired-gated community in Arizona. The biggest similarity I saw between the two is that everyone drives golf carts to get around the neighborhood.

Roomie and I on the kibbutz for Seder

The Seder was SO nice, it is always nice to spend time with an actual family on a holiday. It was especially nice that someone was asking to make food for me all the time and do my dishes. I keep hearing this reference everywhere to Yiddish mothers who are always worried and want to make sure their children are always eating. I felt like that over this break. “Do you want anything else with your breakfast?” Me: “No, I am reallllly full”, “ Okay, I’ll cut you a tomato”.  It’s like in my Big Fat Greek Wedding: “You’re a vegetarian? Okay I’ll make lamb”.

Part of the Seder. Hitting each other with onion. Read link below if you have never been  to a Seder and don't know the rituals, etc.

http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm   Scroll down to "The Pesach Seder"

I want to be the kind of person/have the kind of family that is super hospitable. The kind of lady that invites people over a lot, cooks for everyone, and facilitates bonding. They treated me like family and were really hospitable about everything, even that I don't drink alcohol.

In other news, I went on a school trip called “Yam al Yam”, which means “Sea to Sea”. It was a hike from The Mediteranean to the Sea of Galilee. Turned out we didn’t end up hiking the whole thing and it was kind of more of a tourist thing, but I got to see a lot and we had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures!

Neanderthal Caves with remains dating back forever ago, I'm not an archeologist :)

In the North of Israel. Past those mountains is Lebanon.

           

Now I have almost two weeks of Passover break, it will be delightful. I'm off to Romania.

Vomit and other pleasing stories

One thing that translates exactly the same from Israel to the U.S. is what a nursing student’s scope of practice is. It is like there is a sign posted to my head that everyone can see that says, “Need a sponge bath? Giving sponge baths is my favorite activity!” or “Is that vomit on the ground? I’ll clean it up!” We normally get a lot of dirty work. Cleaning up vomit is character building at least, right?

On a better note, kids are cute all around the world. Today was our first day of Pediatric clinical and hanging out with kids 12 and younger is SO much fun. Sometimes when I get bogged down with lectures and sitting all day I think I don’t want to be a nurse, then the next day I’m in clinical and I have a blast. It is funny how the actual schooling of nursing is the most boring.

I hit my 2-month mark here in two days! Time has flown by so fast, it is crazy! After this week we have 2 weeks off for Passover and then April will already be here. I finally finalized my Passover plans: I’m going on a hiking trip from the Mediterranean to the dead sea over the first weekend, going to my roommate’s family Seder on a Kibbutz, and then I am going to Romania for a week (couch surfing and the likes).

Everything that has happened here has turned out way better than I could ever wished or asked for. I am really lucky. I am now looking at staying here for the summer- maybe trying to get an internship or volunteering job in the West bank. On Sunday I went to church in Bethlehem again and hung out with a friend from church, it made me have a hunch that I might end up there for the summer. Anyways, we went to the church of the milk grotto-, which is holy to a bunch of different sects of Christianity (I had never heard of this story or site growing, so I don’t think Mormons think about it the same way). It is a church that is considered holy because while Mary was trying to flee to Egypt because of King Herod’s decree to kill all babies under two, she was breastfeeding and leaked some milk on a rock nearby. Now it is a place that some women think will bring them fertility or healthy lactation. 

Picture of Mary breastfeeding. I could see it being used as a PSA for breastfeeding

Bethlehem

This weekend I also went to a screening of a movie called “5 Broken Cameras”. It is about a man who lives in a town in the West Bank that is right next to the dividing line between the West Bank and Israel. It is all about his and his community’s struggle to peacefully protest the building of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank (It is illegal for Israeli’s to go into the West Bank, let alone build houses there) and to stop the building of the “security fence” which is really a concrete wall. The creator of the movie goes through 5 cameras, all of which are destroyed by Israeli soldiers at protests. It was a really interesting view of the conflict that I hadn’t ever seen before. I think it is so important to see both sides, no matter what community you were born into. Of course, we all need to take the information we receive with a grain of salt. It is important to try to see something for yourself and not someone else’s depiction of what is going on. After the movie there was a Skype Question/Answer session in with the creator Emad Burnat. After the whole gathering was over a bunch of kids from my program got together and talked about it. It was constructive and enlightening to see how both sides viewed the film.  Here is the link to the trailer- the movie gave me a lot to think about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XID_UuxiGxM

Room-wide Skype with Eman Burnat

The checkpoints to get to the West Bank are really kind of eerie. I know it is different, but it reminds me a lot of the Berlin Wall.  Palestinians are not allowed to go into Israel/Jerusalem without a permit, which will very rarely be given. The security at the checkpoints is also really intimidating. All soldiers at the checkpoints have huge guns. I am spoiled because I can get through checkpoints so easily because of my American passport, most people do not have that privilege or ability.

View from the International School at Hebrew University. If you look hard enough you can see the wall, about 2/3 of the way up in the center of the photo

It is hard. So many people associate being critical of Israel with being anti-Semitic. I hope this is never how I am perceived. I came here with very neutral thoughts and I am trying to see both sides, which includes seeing depictions of both sides. By no means am I anti-Semitic. I feel very Pro-everyone and anti-hate, I just wish people could listen to each other.

Obama is coming to Jerusalem on Wednesday; he is also going to Ramallah in the West Bank. I am really interested to see what will happen. Hebrew University gave away three free tickets in a raffle to hear him speak For security measures, every street that he will be driven on will be closed and security checked for at least an hour before he travels on them. It's gonna get interesting!

A Baby Story

This post is about all things woman in Israel, since international woman’s day was last week and I am entering my OB (Women’s Health) clinical rotation this week. I have learned a lot of new and fun facts about women’s health in Israel.

Most of our OB Professors are midwives who got their PhDs in the U.S. and had either already lived in Israel before and moved back after finishing school, or made Aliyah (the process of moving permanently to Israel if you are Jewish). Our lectures this week have been a lot of birth videos, reading books, and baby talks. A crowd pleaser was called “The Dance of Birth”.

Some fun facts about Israeli/Jewish law and Women’s Health (according to my professors):

•  In certain Jewish Orthodox communities all teenagers are tested for carrying certain deadly diseases like Tay-Sachs Disease, Caravan Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, etc., they are given a blood identification number, and before they even go on a date with someone they contact the screening center and give their blood identification numbers. If both are carriers for a disease, the screening center will tell them they are not compatible. The screening center won’t release which person is a carrier, or what diseases they carry for. This is an especially common practice in communities where matchmaking in prominent. It is illegal to donate eggs in Israel, it is however legal to donate sperm. In Orthodox Judaism, religion comes through your mother. This means that if your mother is Jewish then you are Jewish.
•  Abortion is legal throughout a pregnancy, but before an abortion is performed it must be okayed through an ethics committee.
•  The national health Insurance covers IVF (In vitro Fertilization) for up to two children. According to Jewish law, every woman has the right/it’s a commandment to have at least two children

In Israel, a constitution was never created when Israel was declared a state. There are a lot of laws pertaining to healthcare, but the former British Medical system is still implemented here (The British Mandate was between 1917-1948). Like most of the world, Israel mainly only uses midwives in childbirth (unless there is a high risk pregnancy, a cesarean section, etc.). It is interesting the difference between how midwives in the States are viewed versus everywhere else in the world. Most women are delivered by a midwife outside of the U.S. and midwifery seems like a normal profession. In the states I get the feeling that midwives are perceived as “hippies,” “crunchy”, or “granola”.  I want to understand why that stereotype stands.  After this semester I should have the feeling if I want to go into women’s health after I graduate or not. So far I think it is really cool. What can I say? I haven’t even seen “The Business of Being Born” yet.

Another fun fact: The Red Cross in Predominantly Muslim countries is called The Red Crescent”. Isn’t that cool?