Hi, my name is Thomas and I'm from the south of Germany and went to Israel
because I didn't know what to do after my final school exam. I knew that I
didn't want to start my studies right after school but didn't want to spend all
my hard earned money (I was driving for a huge laundry company. Really disgusting
work if you work with butcher's cloths ) just on travels. So I came up with the
idea of living (and working!!!) in a kibbu(t)z (I still don? know how to write
this word!). Now I know that this decision was one of the best I took in my
live.
Just arrived at Ben Gurion Airport (11pm) I found myself in a (for me!) new world. I needed to find a place to sleep and the next day a way how to get myself to my kibbu(t)z.
The k.(I'm not going to write kibbu(t)z all the time) was a disappointment the first week (and only the first week!). I didn't know one person and our volunteers leader was an introverted Israeli girl looking on the floor the whole time. I was thinking what is best expressed with the words of a famous German poet 'Tel Katzir, Tel Katzir, what the hell I'm doing here!!' But I think it's impossible not to make friends (very fast!) at a k.. You are together with the group the whole day (working, eating, partying or just talking). As soon as I felt familiar with the people everything changed. I even started to like my (banana) work (I'll come back to this topic later) and I loved the k.. Not that they were doing anything for us (everybody going to a k. should know that he or she is going to be exploited) but I just loved all the volunteers.
Afterwards (I wasn't informed at all when I went there) I read in several guide books that a k. is not a good place to travel around the country and explore it. I can't remember the arguments but I definitely do not agree with them. I think a k. is a quite good place if you consider it as a home. There were only three paid holidays per month but theoretically we were able to take as many unpaid days of as we wanted (and actually: Who really cares about the 4 NIS in this case). There is only one thing. If you are too lazy to leave for your travels you'll become stupid ('cause of the work and the Israeli 'International' newspaper), bored (because after two days you saw the whole k.) and very thin (because of the delicious food).
Whoever reads this and is thinking about going to a k. (let me use these famous word ): JUST DO IT
Just arrived at Ben Gurion Airport (11pm) I found myself in a (for me!) new world. I needed to find a place to sleep and the next day a way how to get myself to my kibbu(t)z.
The k.(I'm not going to write kibbu(t)z all the time) was a disappointment the first week (and only the first week!). I didn't know one person and our volunteers leader was an introverted Israeli girl looking on the floor the whole time. I was thinking what is best expressed with the words of a famous German poet 'Tel Katzir, Tel Katzir, what the hell I'm doing here!!' But I think it's impossible not to make friends (very fast!) at a k.. You are together with the group the whole day (working, eating, partying or just talking). As soon as I felt familiar with the people everything changed. I even started to like my (banana) work (I'll come back to this topic later) and I loved the k.. Not that they were doing anything for us (everybody going to a k. should know that he or she is going to be exploited) but I just loved all the volunteers.
Afterwards (I wasn't informed at all when I went there) I read in several guide books that a k. is not a good place to travel around the country and explore it. I can't remember the arguments but I definitely do not agree with them. I think a k. is a quite good place if you consider it as a home. There were only three paid holidays per month but theoretically we were able to take as many unpaid days of as we wanted (and actually: Who really cares about the 4 NIS in this case). There is only one thing. If you are too lazy to leave for your travels you'll become stupid ('cause of the work and the Israeli 'International' newspaper), bored (because after two days you saw the whole k.) and very thin (because of the delicious food).
Whoever reads this and is thinking about going to a k. (let me use these famous word ): JUST DO IT
