The Last

Dear All,

I am almost at the end of what I would like to call part one of my Israeli adventures. I am saying part one because I intend to make it back to this Kibbutz before too long… This is the first day of our final performances also. The show is absolutely colossal! It is two hours in length and the most cardio-vascular intensive performance I’ve been involved in! We have four performances followed by loads of clean up and final goodbyes. Thursday evening, I’m headed to Tel Aviv to catch my 1am flight and then I’ll be back in NYC by 5:40am on Friday morning! New York, here I come!!!

Though these past few weeks have been filled with lots of ‘lasts,’ they’ve also been filled with many firsts. Last weekend, I took a trip to the next kibbutz over – a mere 30-minute walk – to the top of an ancient fort/ruin and watched the sun go down over the Mediterranean. You could see for miles in every direction; it was absolutely gorgeous. Following that, I went to Shabbat dinner at Ophra’s house. Ophra works costumes for KCDC and has been around the kibbutz for ages. Her house is an amazing collection of unique odds and ends that have been acquired over time. Among other things, I noticed that she had a music stand set up with a book of flute and piano duets by Handel! So after telling her that I played piano, we set up a date to play together. Yesterday – a week later – we finally got into the studios together to play. I had such a nice time! She has a really sweet tone and I managed to keep up by sight-reading things.  I just went to the office to try to photocopy the rest of the book so that we can try to find another time to play before I leave. Again, too bad we just started playing now and not several months ago. Better late than never, though!

Yesterday morning, we had a run and a half of the show  (we didn’t have to do it full out) followed by warm – up class and then two shows virtually back to back. I was relatively confident that I wouldn’t be able to make it through the second show, but by some miracle, I did! I can’t say it was my strongest run in the world, and half-way through I thought I was actually going to vomit, but I did it! I fell into bed last night after eating a hardy meal and passed out for 10 hours - which could have easily turned into 12 if I had had the time…

…July 1 – I never got around to finishing that last post. The last few days on the kibbutz were a total whirlwind. I’ll try to summarize the past events since I last touched my blog post:

The second evening of performances went quite well. It is absolutely amazing how quickly my stamina improved. I was able to make it through both shows and not feel completely dead. The last show, which was my hard show, went better than I thought. I didn’t make any errors in the choreography and for the first time I completely let go and enjoyed myself. Though I do enjoy doing KCDC repertoire, I often find myself thinking that it’s like little kids and spinach. You may not want to eat it and rarely do you have fun doing so, but it’s the best thing for you and so you should eat it with gusto. So I through myself into the rep, but didn’t lose myself in it until the last two performances where I caught myself actually having lots of fun! I spent so much time working and stressing about choreography and how I looked performing the material and would the artistic director see me and was I on the right counts in the right spacing…but when it came to the final shows and I knew that I had worked as hard as I could and would and that it was my last chance to dance with my friends, I had a ball. It wasn’t the greatest technical performance, but my enthusiasm for the show was enough to make me very happy! What an accomplishment!

We then spent the last few days wrapping things up. Two nights ago, we had a final potluck dinner. It was odd to have spent so many hours together in the studio or casually hanging out in our apartment complex and suddenly all gather to celebrate the end in a formal setting. It initially made me quite uncomfortable and I wished we were all around a camp fire in our pajamas. That being said, though, our final dinner was phenomenal. There was food for days! We celebrated our leaders and our time together. A few of my friends made a really beautiful video for the artistic director, Mika, and the administrator/our surrogate mother, Roni. We enjoyed that, had a final brief improvisation jam in our high heels and then gathered in a circle for one last time to say a few parting words. I surprised myself by turning into a waterfall of tears as soon as people started speaking. I cried so much that I was actually unable to compose myself long enough to say anything in our closing circle. I did, however, spend a lot of time nodding my head in the affirmative…

I am glad that after our dinner I had a day virtually to myself on the kibbutz. In the morning, Elleka and I moved out of our room and in the early afternoon the majority of my friends left for Haifa leaving me to my thoughts. At first this made me even more upset, but then I realized it was quite fitting. In many ways, I ended my journey as I came. I was one of the first to arrive and though it was quiet and very empty feeling, it gave me time to find my bearings. I spent my time hanging in the café and with kibbutz friends and accompanying Roni to the pool to watch her kids swim, share thoughts and gossip for one last time.

At 7:30 in the evening, Tessa – the girl I traveled to Israel with – and I got in a taxi, said our last goodbyes and made the trek down to Tel Aviv. I honestly couldn’t think of a better travel companion than Tessa! I remember the two of us being so shy and tentative when we first arrived. Though we lived in the same building, we never really spent any time together. I watched her grow immensely, however and I felt myself change. She is the sweetest and most thoughtful girl. It was so fitting and felt so right to share the last leg of my journey with her. We have both grown so much and it really was a pleasure to be with her.

Here I am now, in the last hour of my flight. Leaving is so bittersweet. I cannot articulate how beside myself I was to leave such a magical place. Every experience I’ve had has been meaningful and beneficial in some way. I made the most amazing group of friends, was dancing to the best of my ability always and was consistently exceedingly happy. Now that the program is over, however, part of me knows that it is not the place I am meant to be. Though I am worried about being completely overwhelmed by my return to the city, I know I have plenty of doors that are open to me in New York. The other part of me knows that I will be back to Israel for what is hopefully an extended period of time.

I met so many inspirational characters: Roni, who was a surrogate mother to us all, who organized our lives and told us unabashedly which end was supposed to be up. Renana, who changed the way I dance and gave me insight on how I could view the world. Yuko who was the most caring and beautiful person with the largest of hearts and helped me to see the simple beauty in things; Sharon - whose mind and body works in the most amazing ways; Ophra, who I only really knew for a little bit, but is fabulous in her own right as an artist, musician and person; And most certainly Mika – insightful, honest, brutal and truly amazing; she is truly the most phenomenal artistic director I have ever met!

Thank you to every one of my friends and advisors. This has been the best journey I’ve ever taken! I will be back!

With love, Marissa  

Nearing the End

We’re nearing the end, folks! We just finished a crazy week which included four shows of student choreography, Shavuot, final feedback meetings, extra rehearsals and one last trip to Tel Aviv. It was quite a whirlwind and I’m sure that that pace will not slow until the end of the program. There’s less than 3 weeks to go!

The shows went really well! Tech went quickly and while there wasn’t enough time – in my humble opinion – to really find the right lighting and experiment with certain technical elements, I think every piece really rose to its full potential. With the help of my pilates teacher and friend, Renana, I think I was able to bring my solo to fruition and was quite happy with the theatricality that I managed to showcase. I am hoping to expand it and bring it to NYC. My group piece went extremely well! My dancers got progressively funnier and funnier and by the end of the shows, they really brought the piece to another level. I was extremely pleased!

Here are the links to the two pieces:

Poor Boy (group piece): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwMBmmRZaUk

Foreword (solo): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-40UVIEeog&feature=related

I had one close call in the evening between the first and second day of shows. Due to lack of sleep and a technical mishap, I was very disappointed after one performance and went stomping from my house to the café to grab a beer and cool off before I went to bed. I decided to walk on slightly uncharted territory and rolled my foot rather violently on a pinecone. It hurt a lot at the moment, but I was able to walk from the rest of the way to the café and then back to my house. The real trouble came at about 1:30 in the morning when I awoke due to a throbbing pain in my foot. It wasn’t swollen, but I was unable to put any weight on it at all. I ended up hopping around my room and building trying to find out of anyone was awake. Unfortunately I was alone and quite scared. I ended up icing it, massaging it and elevating it and then went to bed. In the morning I went to the PT who told me that I would be able to dance; I had sprained the outer part of my foot and it wasn’t that bad. He did a little electrotherapy and gave it a good massage and I was 70% back to normal. By the evening I was a little frightened, but still ready to dance and then by the time that I went on for my solo, I was so concentrated, warmed and ready that I completely forgot about my foot and performed better than I think I ever have! Amazing! Sadly I didn’t get that time on video, but you have to trust me it was pretty fabity fab!

My dancers performing my piece "Poor Boy" during the Shavuot festivities

I was lucky enough to have my piece selected to be performed at the Kibbutz Shavuot festival/celebration. There is an annual performance on the main lawn in the kibbutz every year for Shavuot that includes lots of white flowers and dances by the women and children. The kibbutznicks take the opportunity to showcase all of the agricultural activity that happens in and around the kibbutz. There were heaps of avocados and bananas and baby chicks among other things. They also celebrate all the new members of the kibbutz by inviting all the babies born in the last year to be brought in front of the community. Very cute!

I also took a final trip to Tel Aviv this past weekend. I didn’t do anything too eventful beyond hanging out with friends and visiting the café I’ve been meaning to visit for months. It was so excruciatingly hot and oppressive that I ended up leaving earlier than planned and collapsed on the ride home. I slept a record 12 hours (something I haven’t done since I got here). It was much needed!

Today we got casting for our final show! I am in everything except for one small part, which means that I will be dancing for about an hour and a half straight! Wish me luck. We are performing the shows twice a day! There is one small section which we rehearsed today in which I literally feel like I’m having an asthma attack post execution. I decided it’s time to try to improve my cardio, so after rehearsal I went on a short run. Let’s see if I can make any improvements before we go up in 2 weeks! Dunno about that one…

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to go unwind before I tuck myself into bed. Sending love to you all and I will see you very sooooooonnnnnn

Summer Is Here!

Dear all,

It is officially summer in Eretz Yisrael! I took my first dip in the Medeterranean yesterday afternoon, got my first real tan, am completely covered in bug bites and I can’t stop sweating. For now, I am loving it, but I am sure in a few weeks time I will be ready for air conditioned rooms and arctic temperatures again.

In other exciting news, we are one week away from our first big show! Tomorrow we have a run-through of all the pieces to determine an order and so that we can finalize special technical aspects of our show. My group piece is (and has been) done and should be pretty funny. Though it’s silly, it feels like a completed, cohesive story, and I’m proud of it! I am most excited to show my solo. Originally I saw it in my head as a piece all in white, but with the help of my pilates teacher and friend Renana, we’ve slowly turned my piece into a crazy vision in red. I will now have a balloon chandelier hanging from the ceiling and will be wearing a red corset and short petticoat. I finished sewing my costume yesterday and am super stoked to get it on-stage! Renana has also helped me with my hair sculpture (I want to call it a sculpture because it really is very exciting looking!) A few days ago, the two of us sat in the café and played hairdresser for over an hour. I really wish you could have all joined in the fun. It was very amusing!

I also discovered this week that you can find a load of piano sheet music online for free. Obviously it is only the music that is considered public domain. Thankfully, the music I enjoyed playing most would be that of Chopin and Beethoven! I found the music at 11pm on Thursday night and even though I was completely exhausted and already in my pjs, I was so excited by the prospect of playing music that I put my clothes back on and snuck into the studios to play the piano. I cannot tell you how much I’ve missed it! My friends now want me to play for the final dinner or something, so I am going to try to work up a Chopin nocturne or something.

Besides the exciting things that have been happening for me this week, these past few days have actually be particularly rough for me. I think I am getting ready to come home. Seeing as I am done with auditions here and am mentally preparing to jump full-force back into my life at home the prospect of having to wait to start my New York life is making me quite antsy. Besides that, I’m not quite enchanted by some of the modern classes we have here. These modern classes have been the toughest part of my day recently. I have found myself to be particularly stubborn in class and fighting to keep my usual positive attitude going…

Other than that, everything is going beautifully! I’ve become the absolute master of making Challah! Wish you could have tasted one of my four perfect loaves from this past Shabbat. Okay – off to do a few things before bed. Lots and lots of love to you all. Happy Spring and Graduations etc, Marissa

2 Weeks 'Til Showtime, 6 Weeks 'Til Home!

Well, all – I never thought I’d say this, but we’re almost one month out and I am excited about coming home. I have realized that while this place is absolutely phenomenal in many ways, once this program is over, it won’t seem as much like Paradise as it currently does. I have loved this isolated and quiet life, this program, and my friends. It has been a really great opportunity for me to focus on my dancing and reconnect to myself and to my thoughts.  I have recently rediscovered, however, that where I really thrive is in a city where there is always something new to explore and be a part of.  Oddly, I also crave the anonymity that a city provides. I like that I can be surrounded by friends at one moment, but then choose to go into a café and disappear into my own bubble and thoughts. Here, as much as I love everyone, I don’t feel that I can find time totally to myself and it has recently be making me a little crazy! Despite these things, however, I will be really sad to leave this place. I have had so many good times here…

This past week was full and hard! At the end of this week, we go into tech week for our choreography show “Nitzotzot” (which means sparkles in Hebrew). At the top of this past week, we had showings throughout the day. During the evenings, choreographers would scramble to find time in the studios so that they could implement their corrections. There was quite a bit of head butting between choreographers due to shared dancers and lack of space, but so it goes. This is why I get super organized from the get go. At the end of this week, we’ll be ready for show time!

This past Wednesday and Thursday Sharon Vaisvaser came to the kibbutz to give us the 3^rd of 4 workshops/rehearsals that will culminate in a half-hour piece for our show at the end of June. I love her movement – which is contorted, grotesque and theatrical – but these rehearsal days with her are really testing. The first day we had class at ten followed by rehearsals until 9pm. The second day, we were only in rehearsals until 7:30pm, but by that point, we all felt like our muscles were melting off our bones and our brain was sliding out from our ears. Tough. Day. Despite this, however, the days went pretty fast and if we can all get our stuff together, the piece will look pretty cool. Here’s a link to her dancing. You should check it out because she is absolutely beautiful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLFM6id9Iao

As if my week wasn’t full enough, I decided on Friday to travel to Tel Aviv for yet another (and most likely my last) audition. The exciting thing about this trip was that I saw my first Israeli sunrise! In order to get there on time, we decided to leave the kibbutz at 4:40 in the morning.  What we didn’t take into account, however, is that Nahariyya is not exactly a bustling town and therefore we didn’t consider that there wouldn’t be taxis available at 4:40am. I tried 4 different cab numbers to no avail. Luckily, everyone was in great spirits despite the hour, and we all sat on the steps and laughed hysterically at our fate as we watched the sunrise. By some stroke of luck, or perhaps madness because I think we all would have much rather been in bed, one of our crew decided to try another number again. This time, someone answered and in a fit of fury we ran to meet the taxi at the gate, barely made our train and arrived to the audition on time!

I really dislike mass auditions. It is so impossible to see everybody. Not only that, but most likely in these large things, choreographers are looking for something very specific which the auditionees are usually unaware of.  Unfortunately, I got cut after ballet so I didn’t even get to learn repertoire, which was a bit surprising to me. If I had been able to learn some of their choreography, I would have deemed my excursion worth my while. Sadly, I cannot control things like this, so I would have never known that this was the way it was going to turn out. I strongly believe that if something is meant to be, however, everything will align and one of these cattle calls will work out in my favor. Until then, I will find other ways!

Okay, all! The flies have taken to calling my skin home and it’s getting pretty irritating, so I am going to wrap this up. I have some exciting things brewing back in the city, which I may or may not tell you all about later! These little brewing ideas are part of what are fueling my enthusiasm for coming back to NYC! There are so many exciting things that I can finally take advantage of and I cannot WAIT! I hope you are all well! Please do drop a line to let me know how things are going. Love and miss you all, Marissa

Holidays and Memorial Days

Dearest Friends-

So much has happened since I last wrote, but then again it has also been some weeks since I actually took the time to write… I feel like every other day I am saying Chag Sameach. The spring is full of holidays/memorial days.  First there was Pesach, which I wrote about. Shortly after that was the Holocaust Memorial Day.  There was a televised service at the Ghetto Fighter’s Museum (the Holocaust museum of the north), which we participated in. I couldn’t understand what was being said, but it was a very visually pleasing ceremony.  Technically, there were a lot of faux-pas which made our section a little bit dangerous to perform, but on television, it looked quite cool. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R979p-C5ZO8

A few days later a memorial day for the soldiers who have died for the state of Israel was observed. There was a really touching ceremony for the 4 soldiers who have been lost in the history of the Kibbutz.  The service commenced as the air raid alarms were sounded. I don’t know if any of you have had the unfortunate experience of hearing the things sounded, but it really is terrifying. The alarms are extraordinarily loud and all at slightly different pitches from one another which make your ears feel like they are about to explode. What is really terrifying is how life seems to stop for the minute they are sounded in memory of those lost. Cars stop in the middle of the road and people stop talking and moving all together. Everything is frozen. It’s eerie! The actually ceremony was a compilation of video archives, musical interludes and dance. I choreographed a short dance for a bunch of women. It turned out to be really beautiful and everyone seemed to appreciate it!

The following day was Independence Day.  The evening before there was a huge bonfire as well as fireworks and burning sculptures which were really very epic. If you can, you should try to picture a giant, spinning menorah in flames and firey words zooming through the air on zip-lines. It was crazy! The next day, the Kibbutz smelled like one large BBQ. I went to a BBQ at which I consumed more meat than I have since living here.  As a consequence of my gluttony, I spent at least an hour in bed with a severe stomachache. It was completely worth it, though! We are almost done with holidays. I think we only have Lag B’Omer left and then the state of Israel will be holidayed out!

This week we’ve been having showings of our pieces for the first of two major performances we will be producing.  The first show is completely comprised of our own choreography. My showings both went really well and I cannot wait to see them on stage. I am really proud of what I am producing.  I will be sure to post links to the final products.

I am kicking off this weekend with a second (of many) epic pizza nights!  Last time we made 4 pies, but tonight I think we’re aiming to make a 5^th! It’s an excellent, hard earned reward. Tomorrow, I am off to Tel Aviv to hopefully enjoy the beach (though it’s supposed to rain) and city life and see a show of independent Israeli choreographers. I have been looking forward to the show for quite a while.  Supposedly a good number of the employees of the train system were fired/arrested so we’ll have to try to find an alternate route to get there.  It’s always an adventure here…

I’m off to the studios again. Sending my love as usual! Hope all is well. Love, Marissa

Ps: For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing my video, you should check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht2BYIEraFQ  It’s clearly nothing serious, but a product of a bored evening/ me sharing my special talents with all of my friends. Enjoy!

Pesach Adventures by Car

Potluck Seder

I am wrapping up my fabulous Pesach vacation with a little rest and relaxation. The past few days off have been full of venturing to new parts of Israel via a tiny rental car approximately the size of a pea. We took to the road on Thursday morning and traveled west of Nahariya towards the Sea of Galilee until we hit the little town of Tsfat. There we visited what used to be the Arab part of town. Today, it is a small artist colony. We wondered through the ancient streets and in and out of small galleries stopping for a brief lunch during which my friend Hali was set up with an apparently wealthy and handsome young man via his Israeli aunt. This hilarious woman played matchmaker using Facebook as her method of introduction. We are all excited for their future wedding and toasted to their happiness.

Tsfat- Artist Colony

Unfortunately, we took too long looking at galleries in Tsfat and were unable to make it to any Synagogues before the whole town closed for Shabbat. So we trekked back to our car and decided to drive an hour south via a route by the Sea of Galilee to the town of Nazareth. Nazareth apparently contained beautiful churches, so we decided it would be worth the extra driving to fit a second town into our day. The drive from Tsfat to Nazareth was honestly the most beautiful drive I have ever made. Though it was quite overcast, the sun managed to spill onto the Sea making it sparkle through the mist. The mountains were also covered with the most beautiful little yellow flowers! I’ll include a photo, though I don’t think my photos do the scenery any justice.

After driving for a little over an hour, we reached Nazareth. Oh, what an unfortunate disappointment Nazareth was. It is a very modern looking, dirty town which was immediately unsatisfactory. We tried to follow a few signs to churches, but managed to find none. The signs all seemed to be totally wrong, so we decided to park to car and traverse the city by foot. We started by following a sign for a church of Mary that pointed uphill. We started walking in the direction indicated and within a city block, the road stopped. There was no church to be found and we were in a completely residential area. On our walk, we were able to see a fantastic church and golden mosque perched high on a hill. So we walked back to our car with the objective to follow the signs – a horrible idea – to these places of worship.

Side of the road Sea of Galilee

As I am sure you can guess, we failed miserably. Just as soon as we started following the signs, all trace of them disappeared. We were left winding through ally-ways that became progressively smaller as we climbed higher. We found some promise, however, when we began to see hoards of tourists heading in one direction. At this point, we decided to find a parking spot and join the masses. Due to the size of the allies, we obviously had some trouble finding a spot. After making it through a herd of senior citizens, I thought we were finally about to find something when I drove around a corner and found myself in the middle of the Shuk or central market place. Everyone in the car found this moment particularly hilarious. One of the vendors, however, looked at us like we were crazy and began to motion at us to get out. Though we had a small car, this proved a difficult task. I managed a slick 72-point turn and eventually got us out of the situation. Nazareth- we all decided – was not meant to be. So we ventured down the hill and made our way back to Nahariyya for a delicious dinner before turning in for the night.

Our tiny car

Day two was just as odd-ball, yet successful as day one. Our original plan was to go on a 4-5 hour water hike in a nature reserve about 1.5 hours away. We were supposed to head out at ten, but realized at 9:45 that the car’s battery died because one of its doors was left open over-night. Joy. So by the time we made it out of the kibbutz, it was already 10:45. We decided to stop at an Arab market on the way to pick up some fruit for our adventure. As soon as we got into the market, it started to downpour and we turned back to the kibbutz. All was not in vain, however, because we managed to take a trip to a phenomenal Druze supermarket where we bought all our groceries for the week.

Sunset at Rosh Hanikra

Cave at Rosh Hanikra

After a siesta, the clouds parted and it was absolutely gorgeous outside! So a few of us hopped into the car and made a short drive up to the Lebanese border to see some costal caves at Rosh Hanikra. It was absolutely beautiful! When you were on the top of the cliff you could see for miles and miles souh! We also got the chance to walk inside the caves and watch a little informational movie. It was a solid end to the car adventures for the day. Post sunset, we all drove home and made a massive sushi dinner - I think we made about 15 rolls of the stuff – and then dyed my hair red! Surprise!

Red hair!

Our final half-day, we checked out a small kibbutz/village between Ga’aton and Nahariyya that contains a little B&B, some local organic foods, a small goat-cheese factory and a little French café. Ruby and I had a delicious ham, cheese and mushroom crepe (first time I’ve really seen ham around here!) and then continued to town where we returned the car and lounged on the beach for a few hours before heading home!

Woohoo! So here I am attempting to be a vegetable before the dancing resumes. I’ve had a lovely vacation! Chag Sameach everyone! I hope you had tremendous Seders. I’m off to eat some food and enjoy the sunshine. Sending love as always, Marissa

Pesach Israeli Style

Last night, I went to the program organizer’s best friend’s house for a massive Seder.  I think it was hands down the most exciting Seder I’ve ever been to. The grandmother and grandfather have 6 grown children who each have 3 kids of their own who span from ages 8 to 22. Most everyone in the family was present and was crammed around two small tables.  From the moment I entered the house, everyone was shouting and laughing and dancing around.

To commence the evening’s festivities, the grandfather walked to the head of the table, poured himself a glass of wine and shouted the first blessing. It seemed like no one was listening, but as he finished the last words of the brucha, everyone shouted ‘Amen!’ and the epic Seder began! There were enough Haggadot for everyone and as soon as they were passed out, the speed-reading of the Seder began. You had to be on your toes because as soon as someone finished reading a section of the Hagaddah, a different name would be shouted and that person had to continue reading. Occasionally, the Seder was interrupted by one of the son’s who would butt in by beating his drum and then there would be a few minutes of ruckus song. At one point, the youngest girl, Shirai, began the typical four questions by shouting “Mah!” at the top of her lungs, at which point her father picked up the drum and everyone joined in singing the rest of the questions at the top of their lungs. It was crazy time in the house, but it was so much fun.

Celery, salt water, wine, matzo, maror, charoset and many blessing were almost literally thrown around the table while the story of Passover was being sped through. There was laughing and clapping and loads of merriment. When we reached the halfway point of the Seder, the books were shoved in a corner and the food was put on the table. There was enough food for nearly 3 times the amount of people present. There were easily 10 different types of salads from your traditional potato salad to baba ganoush to Swiss chard salad to pickled veggies. Then there was the meat. There was what I believed to be matzo stuffed with liver, fall off the bone lamb with veggies, chicken stuffed with some other type of meat, potato knish type things with ground beef inside… I was told I needed to try everything, so I did. (Worry not, I dressed appropriately in a billowy dress and had preemptively taken a Gas-X and an anti-acid. So besides being completely stuffed, I felt excellent!)

After dinner, the plates were cleared quickly by a few of the women, while everyone else lounged on couches or the floor. Within 15 minutes, half the kitchen was cleaned and cleared and the desert was presented. The women insisted that I have every desert on the table. I obliged and they watched me eat. Post consumption and at the beginning of what is bound to be a week-long food coma, the drum was brought out again and thus commenced a dance party. We sang traditional Passover songs and then the women danced in a circle in the small part of the kitchen that had been cleared. It was so much fun!

Smadar, the woman who brought be to the Seder, brought me home after that and said I was welcomed at any time. I will certainly be taking them up on that offer and will be making them something delicious as a thank you. I decided upon arriving home that my next Seder is going to be modeled after that one. Obviously, I will be translating it into an English version, but it’ll be just as chaotic and full of love and craziness as that one!  You are all welcomed to my crazy Israeli-style Seder next year. What wonderful people they all are and what a phenomenal Israeli experience! I wish I had pictures and videos to show you!

I hope you all had lovely Seders and are enjoying full bellies! Sending lots of spring love, Marissa

Akko

Well all, it feels like July over here in Israel. I realized this as I awoke in an actual pool of my own sweat. Currently, I am in my room wearing a light dress with the fan going at full speed and I still feel like it might be a problem getting to sleep in the heat. This wouldn’t worry me if it were in fact June or July, but it’s April and what’s worse is that just a few days ago, I needed a sweatshirt and scarf when going outside at night. What will May and June be like?!

Good news is that it is Pesach and I have a few days of rest and relaxation before we go into what is bound to be a completely hectic home stretch of the program. We have 5 more working days before we have a big performance at a Holocaust memorial ceremony of sorts and we don’t even know the structure of the piece we will be performing. I also have to get kicking on my pieces for our performance in early June. I have quite a ways to go. It’s good that I have a chunk of time to rest and re-organize myself because I can definitely feel my body telling me that I need it!

The Shuk in Akko

Earlier today to celebrate the start of our holidays, a few of us went to the neighboring Arab town of Akko. Akko is apparently home to the best humus in all of Israel. Let me tell you, my friends: according to yours truly, this rumor is completely true. I had the best humus ever today for lunch. I can’t even describe it. I can say that it tastes pretty much completely different from regular humus. It is so unbelievably fresh and tasty. For desert, we went next door where they sold bars of fresh nuts and honey. I got a triple layered chunk of goodness that had sesame seeds at the bottom, pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts in the middle and unsweetened coconut on the top. A little slice of heaven in my mouth! The Shuk (or market) was home to fabulous textiles, chachkes, spices and best of all fresh fish! I wish I could have bought some fish to take home, but it would have spoiled in the heat. Next time! … For the other chunk of time we have off from dancing, a few of us were contemplating renting a car and taking day trips to the Golan and Tsfat among other places. We’re getting together to discuss cost tomorrow.

View of Akko from the harbor

This week, I have decided to cut myself off from all forms of chat on my computer including Skype. I have also decided not to email many people unless it is necessary. I am doing this because I recently realized that I have been too tied to the computer and haven’t been present enough around the kibbutz. I re-recognized that this time is supposed to be for me before I delve into the ‘real world’ - as it were - and I need to be living in it as much of it as possible. Most recently, I have been too concentrated with home and my future. It’s amazing how much I have done in the few days that I have gone without these things.  I started and finished a book, took a long walk by myself, wrote lots in my journal, had several meetings, am currently writing my second blog posting. My mind feels much clearer already and I am thinking that I’ll try to keep a simplified version of this plan for the rest of my stay. Sorry all. I’ll continue to write blog posts.

I am off for now! I am going to clean up a bit before I go to a massive Passover Seder. Can’t wait. Sending love and Chag Sameach to all! Xx, Marissa

April

It has been a while since I’ve last written and I’m sorry about that. So much has happened – as it always seems to – in the past two weeks, that I don’t even know where to begin. This most recent week held two unfortunate auditions and some very long days. The outcome of this means that I am indeed going to be traveling back to the states on July 1^st and becoming a true New Yorker. The very prospect has left me completely overwhelmed. I must say that I will be very sad to leave this place and it may take me a while to get mentally back into the swing of things. I really love the little bubble that I have been living in these past 2.5 months. I shouldn’t mope too much, though, for I have another 2.5 glorious and full months before I board the plane back to the states (where many great things also await!!).

Two weekends ago, I felt like I took a trip to another planet entirely. I explored an incredibly vast, barren and completely unreal landscape as well as a strikingly still body of aqua water whose beaches were lined with crystallized salt rocks. What I really did was take a trip to the Negev - or the desert - in the south of Israel. The desert looks legitimately like Jupiter. Its dunes extend to what seems like the end of time when in reality, if you drive two hours north, the steep cliffs and gigantic dunes turn into rolling, lush and fertile hills. This country is amazing.

We started our trip with a workshop at the Kamea Dance Company in Beer Sheba. We took ballet and modern technique classes followed by a repertoire workshop and a brief showing.  I really did not enjoy my experience there. The artistic director was a big diva of a man who seemed to be attempting to sell his ‘fabulous’ company to us. In my humble opinion, if a dance company is a good one, its greatness will speak for itself.  It also seemed to me like he was throwing one terrible sales pitch the whole day. It also didn’t help that his sense of humor was poor, his choreography quite juvenile, and his knowledge of the dance world seemingly deprived. Oh well. At least it made me thankful for where I am…

We finished the trip by taking a hike through awesome dunes and cliffs and descending to a fresh-water spring. The hike took 5 hours and was beautiful (I’ll post some pictures on this blog post). After the hike, we took a dip in the man-made part of the Dead Sea. Did you know that scientists believe the Dead Sea is actually the embryo for a huge sea!? Pretty cool if you ask me. I wish I could stick around another few million years to see if that is really the case. The next day, we took a quick hike up and down Massada followed by another dip in the actual Dead Sea. The second day at the Dead Sea, I swam parallel to the shore until I found a load of Dead Sea mud, which I treated myself to. My skin was so soft! Wish you were all there to feel it! My roommate, Elleka, took some mud back in a plastic container, which is now sitting in the bathroom.

Onto this week…Sunday was the second of the auditions for KCDC, which I managed to get cut from. This was obviously a bit on the disappointing side of things, but I also know that this is not the ideal company for me so I wasn’t completely devastated. Tuesday, we had a fabulous workshop with a man from Inbal Pinto Dance Company where we learned two chunks of repertoire from a current and a past show. That same day I made an impromptu decision to travel to Jerusalem that night to dance at the Vertigo Dance Company’s studios. Traveling and finding a hostel was stressful to say the least. Even more nerve-racking was when I stepped into the studios the next morning only to be informed that what I was actually attending was not open class, but a legitimate audition. Due to whatever otherworldly state I was in, I was axed pretty quickly. Not only was that a bit of a bummer, but financially speaking, it made a bit of a hole in my pocket. Then we trekked back up north and spent another 4 hours in the studio on the kibbutz catching up on the bit of the workshop we missed in the morning. Yesterday, we had day 4 of this fabulous workshop in which we learned tons of choreography. (The result of this workshop will be a 30-minute piece that will be performed in June.) My brain is a complete mess and is totally full!

And now, my fine friends, I am going to start making pizza dough for our pizza night. Thank you Susie for the Fillion recipe! Sending my love to all!

I am the Hulk.

At the same time that I feel a bit stifled and antsy by living on such a remote kibbutz, I feel for the first time in a long time that I can be completely free here. Though my cuticles are an absolute mess in anticipation of the future, I actually feel calm and confident. When I feel like singing, I sing. When I am frustrated I say so. When I have something to say no matter how silly it is, I have - for the first time since I can remember - no problems saying what I need to. It is an emancipating feeling. This is one of the reasons why I don't want to go back home. Some of the others being that Israelis are wonderful people, this country is beautiful, the food is so fresh and I feel like I am living the life I should live. I feel healthier here than I have anywhere else!

That all being said, I do miss New York and if a job opportunity does not arise in Israel, I am excited to get back and start my life there again. I have so many plans for myself that I am so looking forward to that it is hard not to be animated! If I go back to the city however, I know my chaotic lifestyle will resume. I can only hope that I will be able to maintain some semblance of my lifestyle here on the kibbutz.

This is the dress I made out of plastic bags for Purim!

Anyhow, as for this weeks happenings… Two weeks ago was an absolute killer and I feel like I spent most of this week trying to recover from it. At this point, I am pretty confident that I am a walking zombie. I am totally sleep deprived and my body is about maxed out, but I am still happy as a clam. Yesterday evening, after a full day of classes, I went to my bi-weekly and semi private pilates lesson in the fabulous bomb shelter called “Studio Randy.” Due to the fact that we were the last clients of the day, she kept us on the machines for 2 hours. It was exhausting and I was trembling from head to toe, yet it was an exhilarating way to end the day. At the end of our lesson, she told us she wanted to open up a special class for us this weekend for yoga/personal training so that when we leave, we can have some tricks up our sleeves. This class – which she told us would take 2 hours – will take place on Saturday and will be back to back with my hour-long pilates reformer lesson. When I informed her of this and asked her if I could move the reformer lesson, she insisted that I stay in that time slot and that not only would it be really good for me, but she’d also take care of me. For whatever reason – perhaps because it was 9 in the evening and I hadn’t had dinner yet/ I wanted to leave – I agreed to leave everything the way it was. So I am going to have 3 hours of intense fitness training on Saturday before a full day of dancing on Sunday. Huzzah! I am going to be the Hulk - I know it. Just wait until I come back looking like a body builder!

It seems like bombings in the South of Israel have stopped this week. I am thankful for that, for we are taking a 3-day trip to the South starting Wednesday. It looks like we’ll have a one day workshop with a dance company down there followed by some camel riding, Dead Sea floating and desert hiking. It will be really nice to get away from the Kibbutz for a bit and do something else. Then we get back to the kibbutz in time to rest for a day before the second of the KCDC auditions (the rumors and anticipation are killing me…). Then it’s back to the grindstone. Did I mention that we have quite a few performances coming up in the near future? The first one is on May 2^nd and is part of a Holocaust memorial ceremony. Apparently we are going to perform a section from the piece Aide Memoir which will take place on a multi-leveled stage. Because the stage is so large and complex, we are going to begin rehearsing for it on the tennis courts outside…The next few are spattered throughout May and June. I think at this point we have about 10 before we leave if not more. Tre cool…

Okay, all! I am off to the studio to work on more choreography and then soak up more of the sun! Sending my love to all!

Marissa 

Safe

Dear all,

Just wanted to let you know that I am safe. I have obviously been hearing about what’s going on in the south of Israel and it scares me a little, but know that I am not only in good hands, but in a secure location. If there were to be an emergency, alarms would sound and I would be helped into one of the many bomb shelters on the kibbutz. Not only that, but just a few short miles from the kibbutz is the Western Galilee Hospital, which is well equipped for times of war. It is possible for the entire hospital to relocate to underground, bomb safe rooms. The whole hospital did successfully go underground a few years ago and everyone was totally safe.  It sounds scary and I am sure I would be terrified if anything happened, but at the moment I feel confident of my safety.

I actually feel extraordinarily safe when I travel throughout Israel. You cannot enter a bus or train station without someone scanning your bag and checking your passport. The same story goes generally for some supermarkets and malls. There seem to be security checkpoints everywhere. As well, if a bag is left unattended, it will be reported right away and incinerated on the spot by a small robot. These Israelis have their bases covered! Israelis tend to operate under the general principle of be smart, but don’t let your life be governed by fear. I completely agree. So, life goes on.

I did get a very interesting email from a company I was supposed to audition for this past weekend. A rocket had dropped there several days before the audition and a bomb had exploded in Jerusalem, which I would have been passing through. The day before the audition, I received this email:

“I just wanted to make sure that you were indeed planning on coming to the audition tomorrow, Friday March 25. I'd like to assure you that, in general, Beer-Sheba is quite a safe place, despite the recent falling of a missile 2 days ago, and that in the rare possibility that an alarm is sounded while you are at the audition, we have a very large safe room which can accommodate everyone.”

A few friends of mine did go south and they were completely fine, but I opted to stay home and celebrate Purim on the kibbutz with my friends. Over all it was a good choice for me.

Okie dokie – That is all I have to write this evening. Just wanted to assure you of my safety and send my love! Happy Spring Break to those of you who are enjoying a little vacation! With love, Marissa

I am tired.

Hiking above the stream

Ksiv stream

I made this little loaf of bread in my shoebox oven!

Oh, geeze! Yesterday was an incredibly long day. I don’t know how I am going to make it through this one. So far this week, we’ve had the audition for KCDC 2 (I made it past the first audition and will continue on to the 2^nd one on the 10^th of April) and then we took an epic hike along Ksiv stream. Yesterday, I had an eleven-hour day! I had 4 classes, a rehearsal and a pilates lesson.

Upon entering my third class yesterday, all I wanted to do was collapse. Our teacher said that she would certainly take under consideration that we were all really tired, but that seemed not to be the case. I was told on multiple occasions that I was marking the combination and that she needed more from me. I absolutely do not deny that I was marking quite a few of the combinations. I legitimately tried to give more, but actually could not. I was totally frustrated by this and I ended up leaving the class and sat in a patch of sun for fifteen minutes, which noticeably improved my mood!

The rest of my day went well. Rehearsal went smoothly (I cleaned up a lot of things for our showing on Sunday).  Comp class was relaxing and then I finished my day in the best way possible: I took a pilates class on the reformer with Renana. Renana has taken a small bomb shelter – yes, bomb shelter – and turned it into a beautiful pilates/workout studio. She gives brilliant semi private one-hour pilates lessons. The past three classes I’ve had with her, I go into feeling skeletally  un-aligned and run-down and leave feeling strong and calm. My pelvis has actually realigned itself every time as well. We also focus a great deal of our time on deep breathing which is very relaxing. After my lesson yesterday, she invited me to hang out and watch the others begin their lesson. Even though it was late, she gave me an apple and sage tea and I ended up sitting there watching people work out and listening to jazz music for a good 25 min. It was lovely!

As time wears on and I become progressively more tired and worn down, it is hard to remain as positive as I have been. Recently, I have seen the negativity factor increase significantly in daily conversation. It has been really hard for me to separate myself from it and not succumb to it, but I am determined to do so. I have so many positive things to say about this program and about the dancing here even if it isn’t the kind of dancing I want to be doing for the rest of my life. So my challenge for myself for the rest of this program is to attempt to separate myself from those who are excessively negative and to turn everything negative that either I say or someone else voices into an affirmation. One of my friends was talking about doing this and I think it’s a fabulous idea. I used to make affirmations about my piano playing and my performance improved dramatically.

Okay, I am off to start my day. We have class from 10am to 9pm. We’re having a special workshop with this amazing dancer who is setting a piece on us! Cannot wait. When she dances, it looks like all the bones in her body have turned to taffy. I’ll try to find a link to share here. Enjoy pictures I’ve taken of our hike the other day!

With love, Marissa

Food for Thought

Dear All,

The sun is out and the weather is absolutely perfect! Yesterday, we had a Purim performance for all the kibbutz kids and then I lapped up as much sun as I could (I lathered on the sunscreen). I lay in the park on a blanket for a while and then retired to my room where I made a huge batch of oznay haman (or hamentaschen) for our Shabbat dinner. Dinner was also held outside for the first time and there was fresh challah and loads of fresh veggies. It was a good end to a good week!

At dinner last night I was talking to some friends about how I usually write a blog post every Sunday. They suggested that this week, instead of writing a detailed account of my week, I should write down all the recipes I’ve used thus far. I thought that was an interesting idea, so I am going to go ahead and share a few:

Humus:

1 cup dried chickpeas

1 cup tahini

1 lemon (juiced)

2 cloves garlic

Cumin, coriander, salt and pepper to taste

Soak the chickpeas over night. Cook them for about an hour and a half until they are soft and then let them cool in the refrigerator for an hour. When the chickpeas have cooled, put all the ingredients together in a bowl and blend them together. The end! Short and sweet! Enjoy the humus within a few days.

Shakshukah:

½ onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1 pepper chopped

1 can of roasted/diced tomatoes (or fresh roasted and diced tomatoes)

Cumin, coriander, paprika, salt and pepper to taste

2 eggs

Put the peppers in a pan and sauté in olive oil. When the peppers begin to soften, add the onions and garlic as well as salt and pepper. When onions start to turn golden, add the tomatoes, cumin, coriander and paprika and let simmer for a wee bit. When things get all bubbly in the pan, take a spoon and clear a little hole in the center of the sauce. Crack two eggs in the center and cover the pan with a lid until the eggs are cooked. When the eggs are cooked, take the pan off the stove and enjoy immediately (in the pan) with a piece of pita.

Yogurt with Eggplant:

2 scallions

1 medium-sized eggplant (about 3/4 pound)

2 cups plain yogurt

1 clove garlic, peeled and mashed to a pulp

3 T. minced fresh mint

3/4 t. salt

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Cut scallions into thin pieces. Put in a bowl of ice water and refrigerate for an hour. Cut the eggplant in thick slices and coat them in the olive oil (you may need more, I find) and cook on the stove until limp. When finished, peel the skin away from the flesh and mince the flesh. In a bowl, combine the eggplant flesh and the rest of the ingredients (including the scallions, which you should drain and dry). Mix well and (in my humble opinion) let everything sit in the fridge for a little bit before serving so all the flavors blend together. Serve on top of your lamb or on a pita or whatever. This dish is delish!

That’s all the recipes I am going to write out for now. Perhaps next time, I will go add Oznay Haman and Challah and a few more! We’ll see!

Before parting, I just wanted to say that I am still doing well. For a few days there, I felt like a chicken with its head cut off. There was a lot of choreography I didn’t know very well; I didn’t know how I was doing in class; I didn’t know if I wanted to stay in Israel and if I was, how I was going to go about doing that etc, etc.  To remedy all of this, however, I have taken to videotaping repertoire and myself and have started talking to people about dance in Israel among other things. To top it all off, I have started taking pilates lessons on reformer machines. I have had three classes and can already feel the change in my dancing. Yes! Sooo now I feel a bit calmer. Here, by the way, is a clip of my most recent little adventure in the studio – sorry for the 20 second intro of me doing nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUtAd047hI

Okay all, until next week! Sending love, Marissa

Challah, Auditions and Bomb Shelters

Here I am at another end of a full week. As seems to be the usual, I am pretty content. This week I participated in an audition, took a dance workshop and some normal classes, put together a solid chunk of choreography, made some decisions about how I am going to spend my time in Israel and partied in a bomb shelter.  Not. Too. Bad.

Let’s start with the audition. The audition, as I mentioned in a previous blog posting, was for my favorite company ever, Inbal Pinto. If you ask me, Inbal Pinto’s works are the pinnacle of artistic excellence. Every element of her pieces contributes beautifully to her concepts, which are ultimately strange and otherworldly. In each of the shows I’ve seen, I have been transported into an absolute dream-land. If you get the chance, you should either check her company out on youtube or if you are lucky enough to catch them while they are on tour, you should see their performances live. They are a real treat.

The audition itself was a very efficiently run event.  I got cut from the audition rather early in the game, but there are no hard feelings here. I understood before I went into the audition that they were not only looking for something specific, but they had to choose from so many people. I also had no connections to the company and am not Israeli etc, etc. I was, however, quite thankful to have had the opportunity to have learned a bit of Inbal’s repertoire and have danced in their studio. Post audition, I emailed them to thank them for the opportunity and asked if I could take classes with them in the future. The answer was affirmative, so I hope to make it to Tel Aviv for a chunk of time before I leave to take them up on their offer!

Also, while I was in Tel Aviv last weekend for the audition, I managed to take my first swim and get my first Israeli sunburn! The water was so beautiful and so warm! I can’t wait to go back with a boat-load of sunscreen and a picnic!

Other than that, I’ve been taking class as usual this week. We had a workshop from a former Batsheva dancer. The teacher, Eldad, was an extremely lovely man who is was very down to earth, kind and pretty hilarious. His warm-up class was based on the Gaga technique – a technique used by the Batsheva Company. It was full of fabulous imagery and humor. The material he presented to us was also quite interesting. The simple goal of attempting to complete small ‘tasks’ generated Eldad’s movement. For example, one movement was an attempt to describe the inner and outer edges of a circle using the blade of your hand, or another was to create a hole for your arm and then to subsequently snake your arm out of the hole and replace it with another part of your body. Following? For a very visual learner, like myself, his method worked quite well. It also had a very non-performative aspect to it. You were supposed to simply fulfill the task and move on to the next. It was very bare-bones, but for those who are used to presenting themselves, it was very difficult. 

Last night I made my first two loaves of Challah since landing in Israel. I brought them to our weekly Shabbat pot-luck dinner and they were a hit, though I must say I’ve made better. Because it was cold and rainy yesterday, the bread didn’t exactly rise to its full potential. I also cooked to loaves in ovens the size of a shoebox so they were an unfortunate shade of brown/black on the top, but the inside still tasted delicious. I think next week I’ll make hamentashen for Purim! Aha! Last night, I also went to a party in a bomb-shelter. That, in my opinion, is something to write home about. It was pretty exciting and actually a perfect place to have a party. We could play the music as loud as we wanted and you couldn’t hear anything from above ground. It was a good time…

That is all for now. As usual, I hope you all are well! Please send me little updates on your lives as I am sure (and for some of you, I know!) much has happened since I took off from the States.  I am sending all my love! Xx, Marissa

Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

Boker Tov! I am writing you all from my little kibbutz room on a Monday morning after a night of fitful sleep. I cannot tell if my lack of sleep is simply due to the fact that I went to bed to early or due to the fact that I am auditioning for my favorite company on Sunday and haven’t yet worked out the logistics of where I am going to stay and when I am going to go! I am assuming it is the later seeing as my cuticles are in terrible shape. My right pointer finger looks like it went to war with a paper cutter. Oh geeze…Other than that, I am well!

I have finally decided what exactly I am going to choreograph for the show here at the Kibbutz.  I started off with the idea that I would expand a piece that I’d previously choreographed so that by the time I got back to New York, I had something hefty to present places, but seeing as we have a time limit of 5 minutes, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Then I thought I’d make a satirical commentary – through movement obviously - on kibbutz life. I certainly feel a certain way about them, but I don’t know how that would be received. So, in the end, I have decided to throw away deep meaning and am going to tell a funny and entertaining story through movement and Slavic music. This was my original idea for my senior project, so I feel good about my decision. Honestly, whenever I think of ideas for my piece I start giggling to myself and get super excited. I can’t wait to show you all the final project. I start my rehearsals tomorrow afternoon.

This past weekend I ventured to Jerusalem with a tour guide and then broke off with a few friends to continue on to Tel Aviv for another two days. I had such a fabulous time!  Jerusalem is really a gorgeous city! Unfortunately, the tour guide could have been better and we all lost momentum and started dragging before the end of the first day. I decided that I definitely have to go back on my own or with a few friends and take time to soak everything in.  There is so much to see, learn and appreciate that you really cannot be rushed. We managed to see the Kotel (Western Wall), walked around every Quarter, had dinner on Ben Yehuda, walked down the Mount of Olives stopping in a bunch of churches along the way down, went to the super fabulous and crowded shook (market), and finally went to the church of Jesus Christ. Very exciting, but way too much to soak in in less that two days time.

Tel Aviv was really fabulous! 6 of us checked into a small hostel on Ben Yehuda street about 3 blocks away from the beach. The weather was pretty great so we went everywhere by foot! The first day, my friend Moses took us all to a fabulous place for breakfast called Benedict. We ate like kings and consequently missed the dance class we had set out to take. We walked through the Tel Aviv shook and then I met up with Assaf – a good friend of mine from college who was visiting home for a few days. He took me to the old city and we ate lunch on the beach before he took me on a driving tour of the city and to his parent’s house. I had a little chit-chat time with his family and exercised my incredibly limited Spanish speaking skills, as his mother, Batya, spoke Spanish and Hebrew. It was really nice to be in someone’s home with family! 

In the evening, we all went for yet another fabulous dinner (I had roasted goose with winter veggies) and then went to see the Inbal Pinto show in the Susan Delall center. Let me first start by saying that the Susan Delall center is incentive enough to be a dancer. When you walk up to the center, it is like you are walking onto a tropical dance island. There is this beautiful building, which holds the theater and a small café that opens up onto a courtyard with palm trees and a humble fountain. If you travel back beyond the theater, you get to a smaller courtyard with citrus trees and stucco buildings that hold dance studios for Inbal Pinto and Batsheva (and others, I think)…Anyhoo – that evening we saw the Inbal Pinto performance of Rushes. It was easily the best dance performance I have ever seen. I felt like I had crawled into Inbal’s head and lived in her dream for an hour. Everything was perfectly seamless and beautiful and though it was sometimes random, it made perfect sense – like a dream. I could watch the show over and over again and not get bored. Sometimes I felt like I was watching a perfected version of Monica Bill Barnes’ work. So amazing… After the show, I introduced myself to Inbal who looked like an older version of a hipster. I said something along the lines of, “Slichah (excuse me), My name is Marissa. I think you are fantastic. I’ll see you next weekend.” ….Well, actually I think I said something more than that, but I was a little too star-struck to say anything substantive. I did tell her I was dancing in Israel and I thought she was brilliant and I would be in the audition this up-coming weekend. Good.

The rest of the time in Tel Aviv was good too. The second day we went for yet another fabulous breakfast and then took a walk along to the beach to the old city. We explored for a little and ate even more and then walked to the train. I was home by 9 in the evening and hit my pillow instantly. It was a full weekend!

So now my roommate, Elleka, and I are planning our trip back this weekend. I am excited. Friends, family, everyone – I just want to let you know that I think I could stay here for a few years. Just getting you prepared. If the opportunity arises/I get a job over here, I think I will take it. So, that means I am happy and you can all start planning your vacations to Israel now – haha, but seriously.

Okay – off to make breakfast. Sending lots of love to all of you!

Photo opp just before we went down into Jerusalem

Church of Mary in Jerusalem

Susanne Delall Center

Xo, Mernie/Marissa