Friday in Tel Aviv

In Israel, the weekend goes Friday-Saturday instead of Saturday to Sunday. This shift accommodates the Jewish Sabbath, which starts Friday night. One interesting aspect of Israel is that the entire country shuts down on the shabbat (the sabbath). According to traditional code, Jews are forbidden to do any type of work on shabbat. Today this includes a whole arena of activities including spending money, using electricity, driving a car, playing an instrument, or even writing.

More than half of all Israelis are secular. Still, the entire country shuts down on shabbat (to different degrees). All public transportation comes to a halt late friday afternoon. Most stores close early on Friday and reopen Saturday night. More and more restaurants, bars, and clubs stay open on Shabbat. Still, it is strange to have so much shut down around you. In some ways, I suppose, it is peaceful. Everyone relaxes because even if they want to be productive and run errands on Saturday, they physically can't.

I went to Tel Aviv for the third time this Friday to meet up with two friends from my training course- Avital, who is stationed in Tel Aviv, and David, who is stationed in Beer Sheva. It was great to see the two of them! They were definitely the people I bonded with the most in Jerusalem, and I've missed being able to hang out together. We went out to a great Italian restaurant before the main event: the Nahalat Benyamin market. Every Tuesday and Friday, Israeli artists set up booths in this street and sell their goods. The market was crowded, hot, and exciting. There were vendors left and right selling all sorts of beautiful things- handmade jewlery, crafts, little statues, etc. I ended up buying 2 pairs of earrings, a silver star of david necklace, and two beautiful photographs to put up in my room in the fall. I love knowing that everything I bought was handmade and unique, and I will think of this summer and Israel every time I look at or put on the purchases.

My great day was followed by a fun and relaxing evening in Ashdod. The girls in the absorption center cooked a very impressive and tasty Shabbat meal and invited me over to join in. We had a great time all sitting together and enjoying Friday night. One of the things I miss the most at Penn is friday night dinners. At my house, friday is the one night we all sit down together for a meal. My mom lights candles, my dad says the blessing over the wine and the challah, and we all take some time to enjoy eating as a family. Having a dinner like that in Israel was definitely a treat.

After dinner a few of us went out to a pub with one of the girls' Israeli friends. It was nice to sit and relax there, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations of going out in Israel. I've realized that going out in the "real world" has some disadvantages to going out in college. During the year, I always go to parties where I already know people, and they all introduce me to their friends. It is very easy to go out and have a good time, because it is easy to meet new people and there is a certain established comfort level. Outside of college, going to a bar basically means going to a building full of strangers. Unless there is some secret strategy of which I am unaware, it seems like there is little else to do but sit with the few people you came with and have a drink. It's odd to be surrounded by so many fun people but not to be able to meet them. Maybe I have to get used to bars/clubs to have more fun at them- who knows? I guess I'll wait another year in the US and figure it out!

Avital and David in front of an artist's stand at the Nahalat Benyamin market.

All the girls at our Shabbat dinner
Lauren and I at a pub on Friday night. I wasn't a fan of my (overpriced) drink.

Shifts So Far

I am determined to at least somewhat keep up with this blog, so I thought I would generally describe what the past two weeks of shifts have been like.

There are two shifts open for the international volunteers: 7am-3 pm and 11 pm-7 am. They always want 4 volunteers in the morning and 3 at night, so we try to figure out a shift schedule that works for all 9 of us. I haven't decided yet which shift I like better. The morning shifts get lots of calls, but they are all boring and you are too busy to bond with the drivers (usually). I felt like I was taken more seriously on the night calls and had more learning opportunities, but for every night of 6 calls there are several nights of 1 or 2. I did all morning shifts this week, but I will try to do more night shifts next week and see if I get anything cool.

Most of the time, you are on an ambulance with a driver and another volunteer. The driver is the one in charge, and the volunteer is most likely very experienced and Israeli. The quality of the shift depends on two factors: the people you are with, and the calls you get. In terms of calls, we all quickly discovered that medic life is nowhere near as exciting as it may seem. 90% of the time, all one is required to do is take vitals and transport someone (usually elderly) to the hospital. Basically, we are glorified taxi drivers who can save you if your heart happens to stop beating on our watch. I've had one cool call, which I will describe later. Other than that, the most I ever get to do is take blood pressure and pulse.

The drivers can often be a challenge. Some speak English, but most don't. Almost all prefer to interact with the Israeli volunteers than with us. Unless one speaks up, it is easy to spend an entire 8 hour shift standing in the corner at calls and sitting in the ambulance, ignored and not doing anything. Luckily, I've been learning to really push and make my presence known. Success at the station is like success in any competitive social situation. You have to know when to be aggressive, when to speak up, when to ask and when to just act. You also need either the driver or the other volunteer to really like you. I had a great driver and a great volunteer today, so I got to take vitals for every patient and fill out forms. That might not sound like too much, but it actually meant alot to be trusted with doing even those small tasks.

Yesterday I had a tough volunteer to win over. The driver liked me, but most of the time the calls only require one volunteer. The other volunteer has to consciously hand over tasks to me that he could easily do himself- otherwise there is nothing for me to do. The volunteer on my ambulance was named Natalie, and she felt no need to involve me in any of the calls. I tried to take inititative at one point and started measuring pulse, and she proceeded to start measuring blood pressure on the same arm (thereby cutting off the pulse, and my attempted measurements). I stood up for myself though and asked if I could do more in the future. By the end of the day, she had warmed up to me and even encouraged me to take part in the calls.

I'll write about my one interesting call in the next post- hopefully, I will have more to write about in the future!