Before we made Aliyah, we would take the kids to Tiger baseball games. My oldest, who was 4 when we moved, really enjoyed going to the ballpark and was able to sit through an entire game. Fast forward about 4 years, and he is still really into baseball. Every morning he asks me who won the Tigers game. He is always asking me to either play catch with him, or pitch to him. And now that the kids are on summer vacation, when the Tigers play a day game, I’ll let them stay up and watch a few innings.
I kind of feel bad for him, because other than me, at least in Ariel, he has no other real outlet for his love of baseball. He has cousins from Modiin who are also really into baseball, and play Israeli Little League. His oldest cousin is currently playing in a tournament in the States with the National Israeli Youth Team.
I’ve recently started thinking about what options we have in Ariel. One option is to take him to Karnei Shomron, it’s a yishuv about 20 minutes from Ariel – that has a little league. There are a few downsides to that plan:
That would be his only Chug (after school event), and it wouldn’t be with his local friends,
Shlepping back and forth to Karnei Shomron would probably be a pain for my wifeJ
I was discussing this with a friend of mine here, and he suggested that I start a local Chug, It wouldn’t be a Little League more of a “learn how to play baseball”. There are several issues with this option:
I don’t know how to teach baseball
I don’t have gloves, bats and balls.
There isn’t a good flat area that we can play on.
So that is the (lack of) Ariel Baseball situation I’m curious to see how this all plays out over the next year or two. Ideally more American kids (and their families) they don’t even have to be American, just an interest in baseball, will move into Ariel and we can get a team started here, and join the Israeli Little League circuit.
When I moved to Ariel almost 4 years ago, there was confusion as to what to the call the University in Ariel. Was it a Michlala, (which a lower level college) or a University Center (Which I guess is one step higher). The reason for all the confusion was the School had applied to become a full University a number of years ago, and they were on a probationary University Center status. In the past few months there has been some controversy and news in around Ariel as the temporary status expired.
The other 7 Israeli Universities were against granting the Ariel U full status, whether politically motivated or financially motivated (they didn’t want the money pie cut an 8th way) it seemed like the school wasn’t going to be granted full University status.
But that all changed this week, there was another vote and this time it passed. You can read more about it here or on their Wikipedia page.
The University of Ariel (I honestly don’t know if that’s what it’s called) is officially the 8th University in Israel.
This is viewed as a big plus for the City of Ariel, which now not only has the Cultural Center, country club, promise of a new mall and several new building projects, but now can add a University to her profile. Hopefully this will attract young families who are either getting their first or second degrees at The U (I’m trying out different nicknames here), and want to live close by.
I’d also like to wish a Mazal Tov to Yael Maizels, the Rebbetzin of Ohel Efraim, who just got her Doctorate from Ariel U this week in Biology, she lectures there as well. Her new official title is Rebbetzin Dr. Yael Maizels Ph.D.
This question is asked by just about everyone who comes to check out Ariel. I can remember asking it when we were in Ariel on our pilot trip. We were told by Avi Z.(name not changed to protect his innocence), who was the Ariel Aliyah Coordinator at the time, that we do not need a car to live in Ariel (He still stands by it). So the short answer is no, you don’t need a car. There are a lot of people, both olim and Israeli’s, who have been in Ariel for several years and manage just fine without a car.
There are buses and Haso’ot (transportation vans) that run through the city every 15 minutes and continue on to Rosh Ha’ayin, Petach Tikva, and Tel Aviv. There are also buses that go to Jerusalem, so one can rely on public transportation. Lots of people also “tremp” or hitchhike both to Jerusalem and to the Petach Tikvah/Tel Aviv area.
In my humble opinion there are more factors that go into it than that. I think it really depends on the person and their background. I came from Detroit; I had a car since I was 18 years old and never had to use public transportation. The idea of waiting around for the bus was so foreign to me, that when I got here I preferred walking than waiting for the bus. So for someone from New York, who is used to taking buses and subway and a variety of public transportation, it might be an easier adjustment than for someone from the Midwest who is used to driving everywhere. Also it depends on the number of kids you have, bringing one kid on the bus is easy, but taking 3 or 4 young ones can be tough.
Before we bought a car, we would rent one during vacations and holidays. That was convenient for those times that we wanted the freedom to drive around to visit family and friends and participate in the activities going on all around the country In the long run it was cheaper than owning a car at the time, but it could also be a hassle to deal with picking up and returning the car.
I think what finally gave us the push to buy a car was one evening the wife and I went to a movie in Petach Tikva. After the movie, it was getting late and our babysitter had to get home. We waited by the bus stop for about 45 minutes but what felt like hours, knowing that we really needed to get back. Another 45 minutes on the bus and we were home. I remember thinking myself that this is crazy, we live 20-25 minutes from the mall, there is no reason it should take us an hour and half to get home.
As I think of my friends and people I know in Ariel, there are a good percentage of them that don’t have a car, so one definitely doesn’t NEED a car. It comes down to personal preference and financial flexibility.
Of course, there are always exceptions, what if you have a job in a location that isn’t easily accessible by public transportation or you have family/friends that you plan on visiting often who aren’t easily accessible, or a doctor’s appointment that is out of the way. When that is the case then wherever you live you’d probably need a car, and not specific to Ariel.
This past Friday a group of guys from Ariel celebrated the last day our kids are in school and Gan by going to the Ariel Leadership Development Park (פארק אתגרים) for a guys day out.
The Odyssey
The Park is designed for groups, usually work groups or families, to learn to work together, rely on each other and basically to bond as a group. It looks like a jungle gym for adults.
There are many different structures and things to do at the LDP, our group braved The Odyssey, I’m guessing it’s around 50 feet off the ground, there are two levels – the upper level, and then the really high level. We were divided into 2 groups of six. The group I was in went up to the really high level.
It begins
Our journey started on a simple rope ladder; once we reached the top of the Odyssey we had our “Lobster Claws,” or safety belts, strapped to cables above our heads. Our guide, Shlomo, explained the rules to us. We had to get to next platform, which was 20 feet or so in front of us, walking on a cable wire. There were 3 lanes which we could walk on, and three rows of cables above us, each row having 2 people connected it by their safety belt. In front of us were 7 wooden beams hanging from a cable, our entire team had to grab a hold of the beam before we could move on. There was nothing to hold onto for balance, except our friends, and the wooden beams (once we reached them). There was nothing
Nothing was more terrifying than that first step onto the ropes
more terrifying than taking that first step off the nice solid platform, onto the wobbly cable wire, with no safety net underneath. We discussed our plan of action, figured out how we would maneuver, remember, since we were attached to different rows of cables, it’s not like we could just go from cable to cable, every step had to be coordinated with the other guys.
After we managed to get to the other side Shlomo presented us with out next challenge, once again we had to cross another 20-30 feet of cable wire, this time we were set up so that there were 3 people on each side, and 2 ropes coming down from the cable, through a pulley. Each side had to hold onto a piece of the rope, manage to get across. The trick here was there were several knots in the ropes, Shlomo said that if one of the knots touches the base of the pulley he’d knock everybody down, so we had to manage how hard we pulled on the ropes, and keep a level balance. The closer we got to the end, the farther apart our two sides got, and we had to adjust our walking strategy on the fly. Again, we survived and passed the course with flying colors.
The first two guys reach the wooden beams
The third section was a little easier, all 6 of us sat on a bench and had to pull the bench, buy grabbing ropes and get to the other side. At first it was a breeze, but towards the end, the bench got stuck, and we had to readjust our weight, I was elected to stand up, move to the back of the bench and crouch down over the rope while pulling it, as if I was water skiing. I did as I was told, the bench flew forward and I fell backwards. It was not a comfortable fall, but boy was I glad that the harness held!
A peek at what the other group was doing
The fourth and final level on The Odyssey was to again cross about 10-30 feet, but this time we had to stand on a platform maybe 1 square foot.
You see those little squares way up in the sky, we had to balance 6 people on each square
To be clear, I mean that all 6 of us had to stand on this wobbly little platform without falling. Once everyone got on the platform, we had to, one at a time, get to the next platform, and maneuver around so everyone can get on. Again, the closer we got to the end, the more wobbly the platforms became. Twice, most of the group fell while we were trying to move around on the platform so the next guy could get on. The rule was you couldn’t walk on the cables like in previous challenges; you had to basically stretch your leg as far as possible and with the help of the other guys, get onto the platform.
Taking a zip-line off The Odyssey
When we were done with that, we got to go down with a zip line which was cool.
The last activity we did was the swing. Here we got strapped to a harness again, and the other guys pulled a rope, which raised the swinger in the air. When the swinger was as high as he wanted, he yelled stop, the rope team stopped pulling and the swinger let go off a rope he was holding that kept
Swinging
him up, and basically sent him into a free fall and he started swinging around. It was very cool.
Ariel Anglos 