Clubbin'

I went to the "Soundstage" club at Kibbutz Yagur last night. There was a concert there by a band called "היהודים." Needless to say, this would never fly back home, whether the band members are Jewish or not. It was a heavy metal concert, which sounds just as bad in Hebrew as it does in English. They went on stage at 2 AM so I had plenty of time for dancing and that part of the night was a blast. The main dance floor was playing Israeli club music, primarily in Hebrew, so we ended up there. If I had ignored the language though, this would have been no different from any club I've been to in the U.S. Hot and poorly ventilated, strobe lights and inflated drink prices, skanky women and creepy men. Call it a little taste of home.

This completely inverts my learned preconceived notions about kibbutzim. Back in elementary school, when we would study the origins of the state of Israel, we learned about the socialist collectives called kibbutzim, where groups of ideologues joined a collective to farm the land and live a simple, Marxist existence. The problem isn't that this definition is wrong, so much as it is hopelessly outdated. Today the kibbutzim exist as small capitalist ventures, selling whatever it is that will help to enrich themselves. For Kibbutz Yagur, this means running a very successful night club. As an aside, I didn't get home until after 4 A.M., with an 8 o'clock Hebrew class waiting for me after daybreak. Baaaaaad idea.

We pulled together my cooking club again last night, and I think it is starting to gain some traction. We had a few more people this time and we've already agreed to stir fry next Wednesday night. I really hope this works out, I love to cook and I love to get together with my friends for dinner. One more class (Arab-Israeli Relations) and then the weekend is here! I've got a lot planned so I'll fill everything in as I go along.

Cooking Club schmoozes after dinner.