This week was a blur. For real I have no recollection of anything I did. Which means it was pretty uneventful. One day I went to the pool. Had a quiz. Sorry I cant get mroe specific but that might explain why I havent updated in a while.
One night we went to Herziliyah and a freind's friend's freinds had a barbq..thats israel for you - everyone is your friend! they were interesting and canadians/americans either in the army or studying at IDC - another israeli university. it was fun to talk about our experience here and play jewish geogrpahy - had a couple mutual friends! also i tried a chicken heart..gross
Ben came back in town this weekend which was great to catch up. We went to Rachel and Shimy's for dinner again on Fri night and Rachel made him a birthday cake! Their family is so cute and everyone eruipted during dinner - arguing in Hebrew! Thats an Israeli family for u - they just scream and yell at eachother and then they hug and its all over. haha.
On Sat we went out to celebrate. We were hanging out in a park near Ibn Burell St and a couple improv performers came by handling out flyers. They came over to talk to us and I guess their show is a form of the Odyssey performed in gibberish Italian. They were hilarious and were messing with all of our belongings. They were dropping things just like out of a 3 stooges movie - but it was right in front of us live so it was really funy! Itd be interested in going to their show bvut I'm pretty sure its actually in Italian. We also found a bar to celebrate Ben's bday in - some couple was having their engagement party there! The DJ wound up buying us hummus at the end of the night too and then drove us home. Perfect! haha
Wow life sounds pretty boring right? I def feel like I'm LIVING in Israel. I never have really that funny of stories cuz I never feel out of place. I feel right at home and accepted. Its a really good feeling :) It just feels so normal walking down the street and exploring different areas. Even though I'm curious and in wonder of lots of things: Tel Aviv realy feels super normal. Visiting the Azreli (3 buildings in diff shapes wiht a big mall in teh center) and seeing all the people dressed up in army uniforms - just feels normal. Alot of people come to Israel to find themsevles. They like coming here cuz it helps you chill out..no one cares what you do for a living! I just realize that I'm not at that point in my life right now. I want to work and find a career! So i feel alittle out of place with some of the Americans who made aaliyah to just do somethign with their lives. But I respec thteir deciison and am happy people are here. Its just not my home right now but maybe I'll need that opportunity come later. I'm def realizing alot about myself.
Monday, March 30, 2009
To Suburbia we go
Returning on Monday morning our whole room literally passed out for the whole day! The following week (March 15-20) was pretty slow since I was sick :(
- A semi regular trip to the shook including shopping in a cute fun area around Sheinkin and King George. I found the cutest shoes ever - silver ankle boots that are airy and were only 90 sheckles!
- Thurs in honor of Tel Aviv's 100th birthday MASA in cooperation with TAU took us on minitours of tel aviv
* there were a couple options including Yafo and Neve Tzedek. Me and a couple other people optedto see the "American Colony" which was an interesting but forgotton part of Yafo.
* basically before Tel Aviv was really settled, a bunch of Americans came on a boat to settle the area. Unfort they built camp on an area where all the sick people were buried so almost all of them died. Luckily in the next few years they moved camp to a new area and built pretty houses. We saw that alot of the homes were being rebuilt and restored. Theres a huge hotel with a big park and tree and lots of artists work in teh area: soon it will be up and coming but we saw it in its originality
* theres a famous old church that the german pope or something requested that they build
* a restored meusuem featuring the original settlers. one of the original settlers pioneered the tel aviv and israel travel industry - the first man to take his carriage (brought from the us) down the road to jlem!
*turns out our tour guide is an artist living in the restored museum and we saw his showroom with some beautiful thigns!!
*after they fed us and took us to some club where gaya was playing. too loud.
WEEKEND!
Friday-
My roomate Shaina and I decided to take Rachel and Shimy (who drove me from Jlem to the Eilat busstation) up on their shabbat dinner offer. We stayed at Shimy's and had a delicious Yemenite dinner cooked by his mom! It was a soup with like vegetables and meat, fish and homemade dipping sauces. Everything in the hosue is HOMEMADE - including the pita and matzah..wow! He even had a parrot that spoke hebrew. It would bob up and down and say "lircode..lircode!" (dance! dance!) sooo cute! We got to watch TV And saw videos of Shimy's nephew (Rachel's son) dancing - he was amazing!
Sat-
After services we walked the couple block trail to Rachel's for shabbos kidish. she is also a fantastic cook and me and shaina were so well fed! Lots of people came over and it was really intersting meeting all of their freidns and learning what they had to say about Israel, travel and America. Later Rachel drove us home from Hertziliay which is only like 10 minutes away!
Upon getting home, I ran very quickly to the train station to hop an express train to Ashkelon. The train is so nice! Its comfy and fast and I learned how to navigate there allby myself! I was met at the station by my family friends and got another nice tour of the area. It was so great to be with a family that felt like my own..we were all so happy to see eachother! There are 4 kids - 22, 20, 17 and 12 and a dog ..so it was a croweded, busy house that reminds me of my own.
Sun-
Since Hadar, 17, didnt have school that day we wlaked around and explored attempting to fix my camear. We went to the mall, visited the shooky area and visited her older sister Netta at work at the bookstore. It was really relaxing and beautiful tehre - like any suburb. At night was Hadar's final exam dance performance. Its a small art school so all her classmates came to support her and the other 4 seniors. They did ballet and modern across the floor and bar excercises to piano music. And they did a repertory performance (did someone else's famous peice). All their tecniques and forms were very impressive and you could tell the whole family was so proud. After came the best part: Each girl choreographed a 4 minute routine featuring the other dance majors. Some were alittle creepy but they had costumes and a story line and it was intersting to see them dance with free range of creativity. All of them had a great vision.
Once we got back I hung out with all the kids, watching TV and hanging out - hearing about army life and Israel life etc etc. It felt super comfortable. Then at 6 am I went to the bus station and got home in time to make it to my 830 class :)
- A semi regular trip to the shook including shopping in a cute fun area around Sheinkin and King George. I found the cutest shoes ever - silver ankle boots that are airy and were only 90 sheckles!
- Thurs in honor of Tel Aviv's 100th birthday MASA in cooperation with TAU took us on minitours of tel aviv
* there were a couple options including Yafo and Neve Tzedek. Me and a couple other people optedto see the "American Colony" which was an interesting but forgotton part of Yafo.
* basically before Tel Aviv was really settled, a bunch of Americans came on a boat to settle the area. Unfort they built camp on an area where all the sick people were buried so almost all of them died. Luckily in the next few years they moved camp to a new area and built pretty houses. We saw that alot of the homes were being rebuilt and restored. Theres a huge hotel with a big park and tree and lots of artists work in teh area: soon it will be up and coming but we saw it in its originality
* theres a famous old church that the german pope or something requested that they build
* a restored meusuem featuring the original settlers. one of the original settlers pioneered the tel aviv and israel travel industry - the first man to take his carriage (brought from the us) down the road to jlem!
*turns out our tour guide is an artist living in the restored museum and we saw his showroom with some beautiful thigns!!
*after they fed us and took us to some club where gaya was playing. too loud.
WEEKEND!
Friday-
My roomate Shaina and I decided to take Rachel and Shimy (who drove me from Jlem to the Eilat busstation) up on their shabbat dinner offer. We stayed at Shimy's and had a delicious Yemenite dinner cooked by his mom! It was a soup with like vegetables and meat, fish and homemade dipping sauces. Everything in the hosue is HOMEMADE - including the pita and matzah..wow! He even had a parrot that spoke hebrew. It would bob up and down and say "lircode..lircode!" (dance! dance!) sooo cute! We got to watch TV And saw videos of Shimy's nephew (Rachel's son) dancing - he was amazing!
Sat-
After services we walked the couple block trail to Rachel's for shabbos kidish. she is also a fantastic cook and me and shaina were so well fed! Lots of people came over and it was really intersting meeting all of their freidns and learning what they had to say about Israel, travel and America. Later Rachel drove us home from Hertziliay which is only like 10 minutes away!
Upon getting home, I ran very quickly to the train station to hop an express train to Ashkelon. The train is so nice! Its comfy and fast and I learned how to navigate there allby myself! I was met at the station by my family friends and got another nice tour of the area. It was so great to be with a family that felt like my own..we were all so happy to see eachother! There are 4 kids - 22, 20, 17 and 12 and a dog ..so it was a croweded, busy house that reminds me of my own.
Sun-
Since Hadar, 17, didnt have school that day we wlaked around and explored attempting to fix my camear. We went to the mall, visited the shooky area and visited her older sister Netta at work at the bookstore. It was really relaxing and beautiful tehre - like any suburb. At night was Hadar's final exam dance performance. Its a small art school so all her classmates came to support her and the other 4 seniors. They did ballet and modern across the floor and bar excercises to piano music. And they did a repertory performance (did someone else's famous peice). All their tecniques and forms were very impressive and you could tell the whole family was so proud. After came the best part: Each girl choreographed a 4 minute routine featuring the other dance majors. Some were alittle creepy but they had costumes and a story line and it was intersting to see them dance with free range of creativity. All of them had a great vision.
Once we got back I hung out with all the kids, watching TV and hanging out - hearing about army life and Israel life etc etc. It felt super comfortable. Then at 6 am I went to the bus station and got home in time to make it to my 830 class :)
Istanbul - not constantiople
I cant believe how hard its gotten to keep writing on here..I'm sorry I def want to keep everyone updated :(
I'll try and run thru the past 2.5 weeks in a bullet form. Next up: Istanbul
WED:
- arrive to the airport to heavy questioning, they had to search us multiple times since they forgot to do it at first. so annoying
- at check in, i realize my nose ring is missing..nooo!!
- short flight with yummy food..turkish air is pretty baller. we got a visa and entered the country
- our friend with an israeli passport had to look in the camera at customs even tho none of us did
- found a cab to our hostel..super cheap. love the turkish lira
- realize our israelphones dont work in other countries..oops
THURS:
- begin by taking a tram to the train to get to taxim square on the asia side. the best public transportation freakin ever! so easy and cheap..taxim and iksia street are known as like hte "soho" of istanbul and is very cool
- down the streets are lots of chain stores, boutiques, churches and everything in between. we found a tattoo parlor and climbed (evrything in istanbul is like a spiral staircase) up 4 levels to get me a nose ring. the guy cleaned it and put it in and all was good!
- went alll the way down the very veyr long street- found cool stores with unique handmade sweaters and turkish bakeries with free samples :)
- next street: music stores: littel banjos and drums everywhere along with musical equipment like stereos and radios! on the street we found a popcorn like dispenser full of couscous and chickpeas on the street..uhh weird/yum/gross
- next stop: tram to the Grand Baazar! justt as it sounds - soo many stores and so many thigns i wanted! ha you have to bargain with them hardcore but they have the most beautiful handpainted bowls and pretty scarves, tea sets etc etc. very fun!
- found a cool place to eat that has turkish pizza: boat shaped, thick crust, no sauce
- at night explored the local area and got hookah
FRI:
- stop at the spice baazar, nothing too exciting or far off from the regular shook
- next: to the hagia sofia aka ayasofia aka byzantine church turned mosque turned museum. huge and beauitufl, red exterior and many beautiful mosicas on the insde. combonation of muslim and christian characters - christian library but islamic portraits, doing construction so that sucked
- next: the underground cistrine dating back 500 years - created during the roman empire to store water..now its all lit up in red lights and absolutly beautiful. its 12 rows of 28 columns and extends to the back where you see 2 columsn with medusa heads as bases: no one knows where they came from!
- next: blue mosque..well after several attempts for it finally to be done prayng (5 prayers a day makes it difficult for the public) = one of hte biggest mosques in the world. we had to go thru a separate entrance, take off our shoes and put coverings on our head. then eveyrthing inside was blue! it was beautiful!! def huge and so much to take in at once..would be cool to be able to pray there..its most beaituiful from outside..u can see it from so far awy!
- nighttime: we took the tram down to Taxim to see the nightlife. so crazy - all these side streets had bars and clubs full of turkish people and not that many tourists. we went to a bar on the top roof with a great view. on all the side streets people were selling 4 lira tequila shots haha we then found a cute little pub with live turkish music playing, super cool. then a bunch of us crammed into a cab and it wa s a cheap ride back
SAT:
- rainy day :( on top of how cold we were...start by taking the tram to the bosphorous area - the water btwn the asia and europe sides. 1.5 hour boat ride that took us along the coasts of both to see lots of mosques, churches, castles and the forts of both sides. very beautiful!
- back to the grand baazar to explore and pick up cool souveniers
- i was exhausted and feeling pretty sick but a couple people went to this dance performance that was supposed to be men in the white dresses swirling and twirling around. they said it was pretty stupid and they danced very slow..so im kinda happy i got to sleep instead!
- at night we were back to the tourist area of town where we foudn a couple cool pubs and just chilled to popular music. weve all become huuge fans of the turkish beer: efes!
- ps. this entire weekend: worst service at restaurants ever. in front of some of them were women making pita type breads but seriously it was all about just having you sit there for hours so ur restaurant looked busy..they all ran out of food and wer eso slow. we got pissed a couple of times
SUN:
- spent a good couple hours exploring the Topkapi Palace on the euro side. huuge castle with lots of different rooms. saw ancient sultans clothes and weapons = cool knives! a couple interesting artifacts were there like "moses' staff"..hmm i think prob not but whatever istanbul.
- we went out to a realy nice but actualy not super expensive restaurant in taxim..it was on teh roof of a building and had a great 360 view of the entire city..beautiful! and prob the best meal ill have in months :)
- we took a 4 am cab to teh airport to go back to israel. the airport is so messed up tho and you have to check in based on flight not just airlines..so we had to wait for our ticket counter was open.
still have a couple turkish lira that i cant exchange..haha sweet souviners and a very intersting city!
I'll try and run thru the past 2.5 weeks in a bullet form. Next up: Istanbul
WED:
- arrive to the airport to heavy questioning, they had to search us multiple times since they forgot to do it at first. so annoying
- at check in, i realize my nose ring is missing..nooo!!
- short flight with yummy food..turkish air is pretty baller. we got a visa and entered the country
- our friend with an israeli passport had to look in the camera at customs even tho none of us did
- found a cab to our hostel..super cheap. love the turkish lira
- realize our israelphones dont work in other countries..oops
THURS:
- begin by taking a tram to the train to get to taxim square on the asia side. the best public transportation freakin ever! so easy and cheap..taxim and iksia street are known as like hte "soho" of istanbul and is very cool
- down the streets are lots of chain stores, boutiques, churches and everything in between. we found a tattoo parlor and climbed (evrything in istanbul is like a spiral staircase) up 4 levels to get me a nose ring. the guy cleaned it and put it in and all was good!
- went alll the way down the very veyr long street- found cool stores with unique handmade sweaters and turkish bakeries with free samples :)
- next street: music stores: littel banjos and drums everywhere along with musical equipment like stereos and radios! on the street we found a popcorn like dispenser full of couscous and chickpeas on the street..uhh weird/yum/gross
- next stop: tram to the Grand Baazar! justt as it sounds - soo many stores and so many thigns i wanted! ha you have to bargain with them hardcore but they have the most beautiful handpainted bowls and pretty scarves, tea sets etc etc. very fun!
- found a cool place to eat that has turkish pizza: boat shaped, thick crust, no sauce
- at night explored the local area and got hookah
FRI:
- stop at the spice baazar, nothing too exciting or far off from the regular shook
- next: to the hagia sofia aka ayasofia aka byzantine church turned mosque turned museum. huge and beauitufl, red exterior and many beautiful mosicas on the insde. combonation of muslim and christian characters - christian library but islamic portraits, doing construction so that sucked
- next: the underground cistrine dating back 500 years - created during the roman empire to store water..now its all lit up in red lights and absolutly beautiful. its 12 rows of 28 columns and extends to the back where you see 2 columsn with medusa heads as bases: no one knows where they came from!
- next: blue mosque..well after several attempts for it finally to be done prayng (5 prayers a day makes it difficult for the public) = one of hte biggest mosques in the world. we had to go thru a separate entrance, take off our shoes and put coverings on our head. then eveyrthing inside was blue! it was beautiful!! def huge and so much to take in at once..would be cool to be able to pray there..its most beaituiful from outside..u can see it from so far awy!
- nighttime: we took the tram down to Taxim to see the nightlife. so crazy - all these side streets had bars and clubs full of turkish people and not that many tourists. we went to a bar on the top roof with a great view. on all the side streets people were selling 4 lira tequila shots haha we then found a cute little pub with live turkish music playing, super cool. then a bunch of us crammed into a cab and it wa s a cheap ride back
SAT:
- rainy day :( on top of how cold we were...start by taking the tram to the bosphorous area - the water btwn the asia and europe sides. 1.5 hour boat ride that took us along the coasts of both to see lots of mosques, churches, castles and the forts of both sides. very beautiful!
- back to the grand baazar to explore and pick up cool souveniers
- i was exhausted and feeling pretty sick but a couple people went to this dance performance that was supposed to be men in the white dresses swirling and twirling around. they said it was pretty stupid and they danced very slow..so im kinda happy i got to sleep instead!
- at night we were back to the tourist area of town where we foudn a couple cool pubs and just chilled to popular music. weve all become huuge fans of the turkish beer: efes!
- ps. this entire weekend: worst service at restaurants ever. in front of some of them were women making pita type breads but seriously it was all about just having you sit there for hours so ur restaurant looked busy..they all ran out of food and wer eso slow. we got pissed a couple of times
SUN:
- spent a good couple hours exploring the Topkapi Palace on the euro side. huuge castle with lots of different rooms. saw ancient sultans clothes and weapons = cool knives! a couple interesting artifacts were there like "moses' staff"..hmm i think prob not but whatever istanbul.
- we went out to a realy nice but actualy not super expensive restaurant in taxim..it was on teh roof of a building and had a great 360 view of the entire city..beautiful! and prob the best meal ill have in months :)
- we took a 4 am cab to teh airport to go back to israel. the airport is so messed up tho and you have to check in based on flight not just airlines..so we had to wait for our ticket counter was open.
still have a couple turkish lira that i cant exchange..haha sweet souviners and a very intersting city!
Friday, March 20, 2009
PURIM II
So a real quick recap from Purim in Jlem Tues 3.10
- struggle to find a sherut. We didnt want to go all the way down to the central station so the 7 of us girls - dressed in our 80s/ ballerina costumes - went to a diff bustation. well it turns out all those sheruts go to nitania! we didnt knwo if we should take a bus and then a cab...or a cab to the bus station to find a sherut..finally some sherut told us they would dirve us for 45 sheckles..wayyy overpriced but we were desperate
- the sherut driver was pretty much deaf and didnt understand anything we asked him! of course he didnt speak like any english and since he was used to driving elsewehere he had no idea where in jerusalem to go
- finally we just tell him to stop, that were close enough and we each pay him and get our change. well he stops for a good 5 minutes and starts yelling at us that one more person has to pay! hes yelling at us for 15 minutse that were trying to rip him off - even though we all watched everyone pay and get cahnge! hes counting his money over and over and kept changing his mind about how much was left...we were soo scared but didnt want to fork over more $ than we had to! finallywe just keep asking him to open the door and he finally does and we run away! the sherut stood there for another 15 min im sure, the pooor man just counting over and over..but we just kept running
- so we walk down ben yehuda street n it was deaddd and no one was in costume! were all pretty hungry and we pass a bakery..there were tons of hamantashen in the window! we run in an d ask if we can buy some..the owner says theyre closed..the register is closed. Please! we ask him..we're teh only ppl in costume! and its Purim! We just would like some hamatashen! haha...Well the nice shop owner hands us a couple bags adn we FILL them with these baked goods for freee and run away again. haha they were a bit hard but delicious of course
- finally we meet up with our friend's friend's friends. ha yup. they take us to one of their friend's apartments..uhhh ya luckily they were very nice to us considering how many degrees we were seperated. we kept taking some of the barakas they had laying out hehe.
- i really wanted to go to this one neighborhood where our guy friends wer but they took us to ben yehdua instead. i guess almost everything wasnt that exciting. it was no florentine - thats for sure! lots of young teenagers were scatterd abut the street...it was massive crowds and they kept coming up to talk to us but they were so immature we could tell tehy were all pre-army age.
- as we're walking btwn ben yehuda, all these firecrackers were going off..we were aimlessly wandering to the other side when i hear a loud noise and A FIRECRACKER HIT MY FRIEND IN THE LEG! so the next hour was spent basically hurdling her around trying to find a bathroom / ice for her to cool and clean her wound.
- our stop in max brenners did mean a shot of free whipped cream in our mouths haha
- finally at like 1:30 am we realized jerusalem sucked and the real gettogehter would be in the morning but alll we wanted to do was go home. we found the other crowd of TLVers and crammed all 12 of us into a 10 person sherut which overcharged us as well. The cab raced home, just in time to hear a call taht some girl thoguht we'd left her behind..oyyy.
- passed out by 3 thank goodness haha
- struggle to find a sherut. We didnt want to go all the way down to the central station so the 7 of us girls - dressed in our 80s/ ballerina costumes - went to a diff bustation. well it turns out all those sheruts go to nitania! we didnt knwo if we should take a bus and then a cab...or a cab to the bus station to find a sherut..finally some sherut told us they would dirve us for 45 sheckles..wayyy overpriced but we were desperate
- the sherut driver was pretty much deaf and didnt understand anything we asked him! of course he didnt speak like any english and since he was used to driving elsewehere he had no idea where in jerusalem to go
- finally we just tell him to stop, that were close enough and we each pay him and get our change. well he stops for a good 5 minutes and starts yelling at us that one more person has to pay! hes yelling at us for 15 minutse that were trying to rip him off - even though we all watched everyone pay and get cahnge! hes counting his money over and over and kept changing his mind about how much was left...we were soo scared but didnt want to fork over more $ than we had to! finallywe just keep asking him to open the door and he finally does and we run away! the sherut stood there for another 15 min im sure, the pooor man just counting over and over..but we just kept running
- so we walk down ben yehuda street n it was deaddd and no one was in costume! were all pretty hungry and we pass a bakery..there were tons of hamantashen in the window! we run in an d ask if we can buy some..the owner says theyre closed..the register is closed. Please! we ask him..we're teh only ppl in costume! and its Purim! We just would like some hamatashen! haha...Well the nice shop owner hands us a couple bags adn we FILL them with these baked goods for freee and run away again. haha they were a bit hard but delicious of course
- finally we meet up with our friend's friend's friends. ha yup. they take us to one of their friend's apartments..uhhh ya luckily they were very nice to us considering how many degrees we were seperated. we kept taking some of the barakas they had laying out hehe.
- i really wanted to go to this one neighborhood where our guy friends wer but they took us to ben yehdua instead. i guess almost everything wasnt that exciting. it was no florentine - thats for sure! lots of young teenagers were scatterd abut the street...it was massive crowds and they kept coming up to talk to us but they were so immature we could tell tehy were all pre-army age.
- as we're walking btwn ben yehuda, all these firecrackers were going off..we were aimlessly wandering to the other side when i hear a loud noise and A FIRECRACKER HIT MY FRIEND IN THE LEG! so the next hour was spent basically hurdling her around trying to find a bathroom / ice for her to cool and clean her wound.
- our stop in max brenners did mean a shot of free whipped cream in our mouths haha
- finally at like 1:30 am we realized jerusalem sucked and the real gettogehter would be in the morning but alll we wanted to do was go home. we found the other crowd of TLVers and crammed all 12 of us into a 10 person sherut which overcharged us as well. The cab raced home, just in time to hear a call taht some girl thoguht we'd left her behind..oyyy.
- passed out by 3 thank goodness haha
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Purim Sameach!!
Everyone is so in the Purim spirit, its exciting!
After class yesterday they were giving away masks right infront of our class buildings and selling 2 schekel beer!
Its said that on Purim its a mitzvah to get drunk so you cant tell the difference btwn Mordechai and Haman; basically its the best holiday ever since its like Halloween but Nationally sponsored! No class today!
Everyone bought the cutest outfits and hada big dorm party. Around 1130 we ventured down to Florentine which is a huuge crazy block party! All the cabs were charging excessive amounts for rides but we needed to see it..ppl everywhere jumping on cars and playing songs! All the bars had heavy cover but were selling drinks outside too! It was kind of like Halloween at Madison but no guards or anything preventing mayhem!
We got pushed and thrown aroudn soo much and me and samara lost all our friends! Eventually we found a coupel but couldnt stay out later than 130! It was super cool to see tho!
Today I was walking outside and the Chabad Rabbi was reading the Megillah right infront of the dorm! IT was perfect; there was a small crowd but ppl still rang their gragers whenever you heard Haman. Little kids are walking around in costumes and all the waitresses/ anyone wiht a job is dressed up!
I think were gonna head to Jerusalem at night to see the Hasidic people celebrate then take a 1 am sherut back!
PURIM SAMEACH!!
and dont forget purim is a luckkky day for the jews so you're supposed to say a prayer, etc because whatever you want will supposedly come true! Also this month of Adar is a lucky one so anything that might involve a little risk or reward is worth doing achshav (now)!
After class yesterday they were giving away masks right infront of our class buildings and selling 2 schekel beer!
Its said that on Purim its a mitzvah to get drunk so you cant tell the difference btwn Mordechai and Haman; basically its the best holiday ever since its like Halloween but Nationally sponsored! No class today!
Everyone bought the cutest outfits and hada big dorm party. Around 1130 we ventured down to Florentine which is a huuge crazy block party! All the cabs were charging excessive amounts for rides but we needed to see it..ppl everywhere jumping on cars and playing songs! All the bars had heavy cover but were selling drinks outside too! It was kind of like Halloween at Madison but no guards or anything preventing mayhem!
We got pushed and thrown aroudn soo much and me and samara lost all our friends! Eventually we found a coupel but couldnt stay out later than 130! It was super cool to see tho!
Today I was walking outside and the Chabad Rabbi was reading the Megillah right infront of the dorm! IT was perfect; there was a small crowd but ppl still rang their gragers whenever you heard Haman. Little kids are walking around in costumes and all the waitresses/ anyone wiht a job is dressed up!
I think were gonna head to Jerusalem at night to see the Hasidic people celebrate then take a 1 am sherut back!
PURIM SAMEACH!!
and dont forget purim is a luckkky day for the jews so you're supposed to say a prayer, etc because whatever you want will supposedly come true! Also this month of Adar is a lucky one so anything that might involve a little risk or reward is worth doing achshav (now)!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Down South: TAU style
This past weekend was one of TAU's infamous trips..Ive seen lots of pictures of my friends trips and even though I was sad to miss TLV for yet another weekend (of 90 degree weather!) we knew it was too good of an opportunity to miss.
We were packed and on the bus at 730 am - on the Einstein bus of the other Madrich that we didnt take to Jerusalem - Named Liron who my friends loove. I saw our other dorm friends heading on the other bus and I said..Hmm guys maybe we should get on that bus! It has the cool people (I couldnt do Jerusalem again with all the random annoying kids) but everyone was too settled.
This decision while it shouldnt have - basicalllly effected our whole trip. Ha - the other bus had better hikes, did cooler stuff and had a better bus -- but alas nothing I can do now it was still a great trip.
Still, it really sucks how TAU splits you up on these trips. Despite breakfast, dinner and acouple group activities you really just spend allll your time with your bus - which is split up 2 from each dorms. It makes it kind of hard to make new friends but still I managed to..
FRIDAY
An hour into the trip we stopped by this little stop - not any of the ones I recognized unfort, but this poor little dog drew the biggest crowd! It was so cute but so sick and we all felt really bad for it.
Once in the Negev, our first trip was a "short hike" up a mountain to see a crater -Mitzpe Ramon. When I say up a mountain, I literally mean that at first we were climbing and 5 minutes later I looked up and saw we had about 40 minutes left uphill of this mountain. Uhh..the was no path and we were just climbing rocks and hoping none of them fell. Ha my asthma was going crazy unfort due to the dust and no one (including myself how stupid) had an inhaler. We got to the top and had a really cool view. Our guide told us about the beauty of the desert and evne though we measure things with numbers usually - how many ppl live in it, how big it is, how high it is etc etc - sometimes we just need to look out and see the monstrousity of it.
Our trek down was cool and we had to use some handles etc, ther were points that it was a bit scary but that made it fun.
After they gave us typical sandwhiches for lunch and loaded us on the bus for another short hike. This one was actually pretty short - we just walked straight for a while until we came to a little water alcohov in the middle of the desert. It was cool to see - people jumping in the water - It was soo hot - buttt mostly pointless haha The other group went to Ben Gurions grave..
Finally we got to Kibbutz Masshabi Sabe - which was soo nice! Our rooms were cute and hostely with 4 beds, a fridge, a hot water heater, tea and coffee, tv and ac!! ahhh so happy! We went to to the kibbutz pool but it was indoors so instead we just napped forever! At 6 we got up for dinner. It was really nice and typical Israel/Kibbutz food - bread, israeli style salads, rice, potatoes, shnitzel and chicken soup! At 8:30 they told us we were getting a "surprise" but no one knew what that meant!
Turns out to have been a Drum Show! Which was acutally awesomee...me and a couple people sat on the floor in the front and the main announcer was so impressive. It was a group of 4 men and the main guy played all these foreign instruments while the other guys drummed cracking jokes. The first one up was a "Hang drum" which looks kinda like a UFO - manufactured specially in Switzerland nd has a light Middle Eastern noise - like bells but played like a drum. It was awsome and they all rocked out! Next was the Digeroo - australian instrument that looks like a rainstick. You move your lips and sounds straight out of Lion King! HE brought a couple peole up to try and play these huuge digeroos but of course no one could haa Next were these little istruments - I dont even know what they were but they looked just like vegetable peelers. You put the peeler part in your mouth and flick a the end - it sounds really Australian too - like a kangeroo hopping around! More people couldnt attempt to use it.
Then they switzed to Brazil and were going nuts on the drums rocking out. The lead guy was like "time to use a neat instrument from Japan" and put on an Ipod! haha Turns out these drummers are like circus acrobats! The 2 side drummers started going nuts - breakdancing and flipping around. But not typical American gymnastics. Like the guy kicked his leg up but then competly flipped over backwards. They were so small and skinny it looked like the easiest thing in the owrld! They were hopping up and down upsiddown on their hands and holding breakdance moves - headspins, backflips where they kicked their legs around..on this linelolium floor! WTF!
They were doing htis Brazil dance where you start by shaking hands, then you do a kartwheel together, then you move back and forth just in a grapevine..then one person kicks and the other person ducks and vice versa on and on and on really quickly! ha It was crazy - I swaer someone was gonna get kicked in the face! They brought up a couple ppl to attempt to do the breakdancing it was funny - then we saw that the main announcer could do the same tricks as his young accomplices. SOO COOL - we were all clapping, it was like a circus.
For the next part he brought up (literlaly he just points at you n you go) some TAUers to be drummers. Next a bunch of guys went up and learned a little middle eastern dance. Then hes like "we need belly dancers". This one girl is like a Hip hop teacher and she like was up there in 2 seconds -- she doenst really belly dance but she shakes her butt unbelievably -- actualy its kind of embaressing, its like..reallly hard core booty dancing. So no one else wantedto of course so he just starts point at ppl - this one girl, another one and oh ya - me - of course..not for the drumming but of course for the bellydancing haha.
So we put on these little jingly belts, everyone else did their dance and then it was our turn to "belly dance". OF course HipHop Girl went on a crazy butt shake spree but the rest of us rocked out and actually looked legit! haha Then he sat everyone down, started handing out drums to the audience and said "BALAGAN" (like a good big mess in hebrew) and the whole room rocked out!! So fun! They were acutally reall impessive and Im thining about maybe buying their CD.
Our TAU rules said that no alcohol was allowed on the trip HOWEVER, we were allowed to go to teh kibbutz pub. This poor pub was crammed trying to fit us all in but we prob gave them more business than they get in a month..oh Americans. Ha I really couldnt handle the stereotype (not to mention exhaustion) and dropped by fast enough to see the Drum band and got to hang out wiht my TAU madrichim who were of course drinking beers and smoking cigarettes. haha
SATURDAY
Wake up 730 am..I wanted to slap our Madrich who busted in and drew open the curtains ha. Breakfast started at 8 and we were there by 830ish to eat some cereal and yogurt, eggs, israeli salad (im soo used to veggies in the morn i love it) and bread and jelly. They said be on the bus by 9 but you must remember Israel/Jewish time is 20 minutes later. We took off for another hike in the Negev.
Israel is 60% Negev actually but its been pretty well inhabbited. Ben Gurion thought that by living there and eventually being buried there it would attract a larger crowd. It didnt help too much but you can tell the desert residers are really friendly and live a nice life still.
It was like 87 degrees out (but dry heat) and they told us to expect a 7 km hike. Ok..Petra was 6 km so no big right?
Welll, we start a staright path for awhile and only a small portion was really steep uphill..since it moustly wound up. We got to the top of a moutain and walked a tiny tiny path to a neighboring top. It was so cool we were like on a cliff, one step to the left and we would have fallen! then We took this tiny tiny path to the other side that was like straight out of a movie..you felt like you were on top of the world since there was nothing on either side of you excpet desert! Finally we got to the top of this moutain which is actually flat like a plateau. This part of the Negev is beautiful with so many colors.They told us to spread out and we sat on our own for 10 minutes just looking out, feeling the wind and hearing sparse bird calls. You could see the little white lines on neighboring mountains of paths and erosion. It just went on and on and it was awsome.
We were all feeling pretty good after that rest - we were in teh wind, we were calm and we figured wed prob done about 3.5 km..mm NOT.
WEll the hike down was pretty cool - winding around through rocks..but eventually we got to the base where the sun was pounding down on us!! No more wind and too much light reflecting off the white rocks everywhere. We asked how much longer and they said another hour and a half! What! I was dripping and even though there was hardly any uphill it was just tiring wandering through the desert not knowing where we were or how far we were - talk about a flashback into history ha. We stopped for maybe 5 minutes the whole time and finally finally emerged on a road! YAY WE'RE DONE! Right? Wrong!
We had another 40 minutes back UP to get to our bus! Now had we not already walked for 4 hours it prob would have been ok but we were sweating, our calves were killing and our backs hurt from all the water they made us carry in our backpack. We went up slowly but surely learning that if you look down at your feet you dont think too much about the height or distance you have to walk. I walked with Liron and learned aobut his military service - to him this hike was nothing but then again he had to do 70 km ones! I was super tired but it was just nothing compared to running on the eleptical! Plus not having my inhaler wasnt the best haha
Finally about 5 hours later after our departure we got to the bus - it was for sure a challenging hike but it felt good to really have wandered and learned the desert.
The other group did a cool hike where they walked the path of a dried up river using ropes and repelling nad stuff..oh well..
We got sandwhiches on the busand I think I ate mine in like 7 minutes..Next stop: Alpaca farm
THESE THINGS ARE SOOO CUTE> Theyre like llamas but soo much furrier! I fell in love..Theyre very gentle animals and its funny because they have these border collies (like the kind from Babe) hurding them around n keeping them in their cages. Theyhave the funniest eyes too and we saw them spitting on eachother alittle. Seriusly so cute. We also played with the horses, sheep and donkeys. Donkeys are my new favorite animals. They were beautiful like horses but very gentle. We have like 16 pictures just us nussling into the donkeys - so friendly! We saw sme crazy stuff like a sheep without an eye, donkeys making their "ey aw" noise and alpalcas and llamas getting chased by dogs. Alpacas and llamas can actually interbreed and create a hybrid. If they mate with an alpaca then the chld is an alpaca and if they mate with a llama it will be a llama. Cool.
We got back before the other group adn of course passed out until dinner time. They took us to a bedouin tent which i was soo excited for! However, this one was def not as legit as any one I had been too. The food was still awsome - lafa, hummus, israeli salad, rice and kabobs. But I remember teh tent being without utensils, spicy and lots of lentils! Whatever it was cool and a real ("") bedouin gave us a little schpiel about Bedouin hospitality.
Sunday
Same morning routine as Sat: woken up by madrich, back to sleep, breakfast and bus - but this time we pcked up all our stuff. The day before we were told we werent really gonna get to the dead sea - this paniched our whole bus and we threw a fit. Anway I guess there was a miscommunication cuz we all were gonna get to guy kind of.
Our first trek was a hike. It was not too bad - lots of stairs but we wanddered through the Ein Gedi reserve which is not in the Negev where there was lots of water and trees almost like a rainforest. It was humid tho which sucked! Finally after an hour n half we arrived at a waterfall! Yay! I was all psyched cuz i thought afterwards we were gonna get to go to the Big Ein Gedi waterfall where they take you on Birthright, PIlgrimage, etc but doesnt have a long hike. Of course the other bus went.. sad :(
But we still got in the water whcih felt amazing!! And stood on the wtaerfall and all that jazz. Only down side: the hour and a half hike back - went by faster tho since it was mostly downhill /straight and we had just gotten wet. Played alittle quiz game about the desert too.
After lunch we arrived at the "Ein Gedi hot springs" aka a hot tub and the dead sea. The other buses ahd been there for 2 hours already adn we only had 40 minutes. 3 Years ago this would have been no prob. Unfort the Dead Sea is shrinking at an unimaginable rate - with no steady flow of water and with all the companies that make products, its nowhere near the size it used to be! As a matter of fact, from the bus to the sea - u needed to takea tram! Or else it would have been 15-20 min walk! Wow I didnt even recognize it! WE ddint have the time to walk there or back so I didnt get to go :( Okay however since we did play in the mud and the rinse off stung my skin badly enough. I got in a crazy mud war and I think I'm still pulling some out of my ear.
Finally finally we started heading back to TLV! and the final downfall of our bus: Our airconditiong broke! Luckily with only an hour back but still i was soo overheated!
NOw this week is crazy!
Purim tonight and were so excited! And purim tomorww! and Wed! And Istanbul! look back for more updates and Purim Sameach!
We were packed and on the bus at 730 am - on the Einstein bus of the other Madrich that we didnt take to Jerusalem - Named Liron who my friends loove. I saw our other dorm friends heading on the other bus and I said..Hmm guys maybe we should get on that bus! It has the cool people (I couldnt do Jerusalem again with all the random annoying kids) but everyone was too settled.
This decision while it shouldnt have - basicalllly effected our whole trip. Ha - the other bus had better hikes, did cooler stuff and had a better bus -- but alas nothing I can do now it was still a great trip.
Still, it really sucks how TAU splits you up on these trips. Despite breakfast, dinner and acouple group activities you really just spend allll your time with your bus - which is split up 2 from each dorms. It makes it kind of hard to make new friends but still I managed to..
FRIDAY
An hour into the trip we stopped by this little stop - not any of the ones I recognized unfort, but this poor little dog drew the biggest crowd! It was so cute but so sick and we all felt really bad for it.
Once in the Negev, our first trip was a "short hike" up a mountain to see a crater -Mitzpe Ramon. When I say up a mountain, I literally mean that at first we were climbing and 5 minutes later I looked up and saw we had about 40 minutes left uphill of this mountain. Uhh..the was no path and we were just climbing rocks and hoping none of them fell. Ha my asthma was going crazy unfort due to the dust and no one (including myself how stupid) had an inhaler. We got to the top and had a really cool view. Our guide told us about the beauty of the desert and evne though we measure things with numbers usually - how many ppl live in it, how big it is, how high it is etc etc - sometimes we just need to look out and see the monstrousity of it.
Our trek down was cool and we had to use some handles etc, ther were points that it was a bit scary but that made it fun.
After they gave us typical sandwhiches for lunch and loaded us on the bus for another short hike. This one was actually pretty short - we just walked straight for a while until we came to a little water alcohov in the middle of the desert. It was cool to see - people jumping in the water - It was soo hot - buttt mostly pointless haha The other group went to Ben Gurions grave..
Finally we got to Kibbutz Masshabi Sabe - which was soo nice! Our rooms were cute and hostely with 4 beds, a fridge, a hot water heater, tea and coffee, tv and ac!! ahhh so happy! We went to to the kibbutz pool but it was indoors so instead we just napped forever! At 6 we got up for dinner. It was really nice and typical Israel/Kibbutz food - bread, israeli style salads, rice, potatoes, shnitzel and chicken soup! At 8:30 they told us we were getting a "surprise" but no one knew what that meant!
Turns out to have been a Drum Show! Which was acutally awesomee...me and a couple people sat on the floor in the front and the main announcer was so impressive. It was a group of 4 men and the main guy played all these foreign instruments while the other guys drummed cracking jokes. The first one up was a "Hang drum" which looks kinda like a UFO - manufactured specially in Switzerland nd has a light Middle Eastern noise - like bells but played like a drum. It was awsome and they all rocked out! Next was the Digeroo - australian instrument that looks like a rainstick. You move your lips and sounds straight out of Lion King! HE brought a couple peole up to try and play these huuge digeroos but of course no one could haa Next were these little istruments - I dont even know what they were but they looked just like vegetable peelers. You put the peeler part in your mouth and flick a the end - it sounds really Australian too - like a kangeroo hopping around! More people couldnt attempt to use it.
Then they switzed to Brazil and were going nuts on the drums rocking out. The lead guy was like "time to use a neat instrument from Japan" and put on an Ipod! haha Turns out these drummers are like circus acrobats! The 2 side drummers started going nuts - breakdancing and flipping around. But not typical American gymnastics. Like the guy kicked his leg up but then competly flipped over backwards. They were so small and skinny it looked like the easiest thing in the owrld! They were hopping up and down upsiddown on their hands and holding breakdance moves - headspins, backflips where they kicked their legs around..on this linelolium floor! WTF!
They were doing htis Brazil dance where you start by shaking hands, then you do a kartwheel together, then you move back and forth just in a grapevine..then one person kicks and the other person ducks and vice versa on and on and on really quickly! ha It was crazy - I swaer someone was gonna get kicked in the face! They brought up a couple ppl to attempt to do the breakdancing it was funny - then we saw that the main announcer could do the same tricks as his young accomplices. SOO COOL - we were all clapping, it was like a circus.
For the next part he brought up (literlaly he just points at you n you go) some TAUers to be drummers. Next a bunch of guys went up and learned a little middle eastern dance. Then hes like "we need belly dancers". This one girl is like a Hip hop teacher and she like was up there in 2 seconds -- she doenst really belly dance but she shakes her butt unbelievably -- actualy its kind of embaressing, its like..reallly hard core booty dancing. So no one else wantedto of course so he just starts point at ppl - this one girl, another one and oh ya - me - of course..not for the drumming but of course for the bellydancing haha.
So we put on these little jingly belts, everyone else did their dance and then it was our turn to "belly dance". OF course HipHop Girl went on a crazy butt shake spree but the rest of us rocked out and actually looked legit! haha Then he sat everyone down, started handing out drums to the audience and said "BALAGAN" (like a good big mess in hebrew) and the whole room rocked out!! So fun! They were acutally reall impessive and Im thining about maybe buying their CD.
Our TAU rules said that no alcohol was allowed on the trip HOWEVER, we were allowed to go to teh kibbutz pub. This poor pub was crammed trying to fit us all in but we prob gave them more business than they get in a month..oh Americans. Ha I really couldnt handle the stereotype (not to mention exhaustion) and dropped by fast enough to see the Drum band and got to hang out wiht my TAU madrichim who were of course drinking beers and smoking cigarettes. haha
SATURDAY
Wake up 730 am..I wanted to slap our Madrich who busted in and drew open the curtains ha. Breakfast started at 8 and we were there by 830ish to eat some cereal and yogurt, eggs, israeli salad (im soo used to veggies in the morn i love it) and bread and jelly. They said be on the bus by 9 but you must remember Israel/Jewish time is 20 minutes later. We took off for another hike in the Negev.
Israel is 60% Negev actually but its been pretty well inhabbited. Ben Gurion thought that by living there and eventually being buried there it would attract a larger crowd. It didnt help too much but you can tell the desert residers are really friendly and live a nice life still.
It was like 87 degrees out (but dry heat) and they told us to expect a 7 km hike. Ok..Petra was 6 km so no big right?
Welll, we start a staright path for awhile and only a small portion was really steep uphill..since it moustly wound up. We got to the top of a moutain and walked a tiny tiny path to a neighboring top. It was so cool we were like on a cliff, one step to the left and we would have fallen! then We took this tiny tiny path to the other side that was like straight out of a movie..you felt like you were on top of the world since there was nothing on either side of you excpet desert! Finally we got to the top of this moutain which is actually flat like a plateau. This part of the Negev is beautiful with so many colors.They told us to spread out and we sat on our own for 10 minutes just looking out, feeling the wind and hearing sparse bird calls. You could see the little white lines on neighboring mountains of paths and erosion. It just went on and on and it was awsome.
We were all feeling pretty good after that rest - we were in teh wind, we were calm and we figured wed prob done about 3.5 km..mm NOT.
WEll the hike down was pretty cool - winding around through rocks..but eventually we got to the base where the sun was pounding down on us!! No more wind and too much light reflecting off the white rocks everywhere. We asked how much longer and they said another hour and a half! What! I was dripping and even though there was hardly any uphill it was just tiring wandering through the desert not knowing where we were or how far we were - talk about a flashback into history ha. We stopped for maybe 5 minutes the whole time and finally finally emerged on a road! YAY WE'RE DONE! Right? Wrong!
We had another 40 minutes back UP to get to our bus! Now had we not already walked for 4 hours it prob would have been ok but we were sweating, our calves were killing and our backs hurt from all the water they made us carry in our backpack. We went up slowly but surely learning that if you look down at your feet you dont think too much about the height or distance you have to walk. I walked with Liron and learned aobut his military service - to him this hike was nothing but then again he had to do 70 km ones! I was super tired but it was just nothing compared to running on the eleptical! Plus not having my inhaler wasnt the best haha
Finally about 5 hours later after our departure we got to the bus - it was for sure a challenging hike but it felt good to really have wandered and learned the desert.
The other group did a cool hike where they walked the path of a dried up river using ropes and repelling nad stuff..oh well..
We got sandwhiches on the busand I think I ate mine in like 7 minutes..Next stop: Alpaca farm
THESE THINGS ARE SOOO CUTE> Theyre like llamas but soo much furrier! I fell in love..Theyre very gentle animals and its funny because they have these border collies (like the kind from Babe) hurding them around n keeping them in their cages. Theyhave the funniest eyes too and we saw them spitting on eachother alittle. Seriusly so cute. We also played with the horses, sheep and donkeys. Donkeys are my new favorite animals. They were beautiful like horses but very gentle. We have like 16 pictures just us nussling into the donkeys - so friendly! We saw sme crazy stuff like a sheep without an eye, donkeys making their "ey aw" noise and alpalcas and llamas getting chased by dogs. Alpacas and llamas can actually interbreed and create a hybrid. If they mate with an alpaca then the chld is an alpaca and if they mate with a llama it will be a llama. Cool.
We got back before the other group adn of course passed out until dinner time. They took us to a bedouin tent which i was soo excited for! However, this one was def not as legit as any one I had been too. The food was still awsome - lafa, hummus, israeli salad, rice and kabobs. But I remember teh tent being without utensils, spicy and lots of lentils! Whatever it was cool and a real ("") bedouin gave us a little schpiel about Bedouin hospitality.
Sunday
Same morning routine as Sat: woken up by madrich, back to sleep, breakfast and bus - but this time we pcked up all our stuff. The day before we were told we werent really gonna get to the dead sea - this paniched our whole bus and we threw a fit. Anway I guess there was a miscommunication cuz we all were gonna get to guy kind of.
Our first trek was a hike. It was not too bad - lots of stairs but we wanddered through the Ein Gedi reserve which is not in the Negev where there was lots of water and trees almost like a rainforest. It was humid tho which sucked! Finally after an hour n half we arrived at a waterfall! Yay! I was all psyched cuz i thought afterwards we were gonna get to go to the Big Ein Gedi waterfall where they take you on Birthright, PIlgrimage, etc but doesnt have a long hike. Of course the other bus went.. sad :(
But we still got in the water whcih felt amazing!! And stood on the wtaerfall and all that jazz. Only down side: the hour and a half hike back - went by faster tho since it was mostly downhill /straight and we had just gotten wet. Played alittle quiz game about the desert too.
After lunch we arrived at the "Ein Gedi hot springs" aka a hot tub and the dead sea. The other buses ahd been there for 2 hours already adn we only had 40 minutes. 3 Years ago this would have been no prob. Unfort the Dead Sea is shrinking at an unimaginable rate - with no steady flow of water and with all the companies that make products, its nowhere near the size it used to be! As a matter of fact, from the bus to the sea - u needed to takea tram! Or else it would have been 15-20 min walk! Wow I didnt even recognize it! WE ddint have the time to walk there or back so I didnt get to go :( Okay however since we did play in the mud and the rinse off stung my skin badly enough. I got in a crazy mud war and I think I'm still pulling some out of my ear.
Finally finally we started heading back to TLV! and the final downfall of our bus: Our airconditiong broke! Luckily with only an hour back but still i was soo overheated!
NOw this week is crazy!
Purim tonight and were so excited! And purim tomorww! and Wed! And Istanbul! look back for more updates and Purim Sameach!
Trip down south and that country next door
Long post ahead..Sorrrry its been 2 weeks!! I wrote this all down but never got finsihed submitting it so a couple posts will b up in the next few hours
From last weekend Feb 26- March 1
Thursday
Last day of Ulpan! We found out our teacher Ettie was gonna keep teaching during the semester..shes honestly amazing. And we have a bunch of foreign people in our class including these 40 something man and woman from Romania. They were always helping e/o during class, sharing their book and hanging out during breaks. It was so cute - we all thought they were married. Anyway we found out Anita is this travel agent so she comes to Israel to learn about where ppl should go. Costell has his PhD in like philosophy or palentology or something like that and teaches at a university in Romania so its weird for him to be a student now. anyway - THYERE NOT MARRIED...theyve just been best friends since 1990. So cute and all but this literally broke the hearts of everyone in our class. We were always awwing at them when Anita helped Costell pronounce words or when they shared lunch. Theyre just friends? How sad! Apparently he might be a priest? Like im all for meaningful friendships but it was like our romantic dreams for them were crushed..Anyway this was very notable
- We took our final exams..they were kind of hard. But I later learned that I got the highest grade in the class! Not by alot or anything but still, Ettie was really impressed and happy for me!
- After I quickly finished my exam I loaded up all my stuff and hopped the 27 bus towards the central bus station
Now let me say a few brief words about traveling alone. Its never been something Im scared of. I've navigated alone plenty of times and usually people mind their own business and are caught up in their own life. But in Israel, its alittle more scary. The moment I got off the escalator in the central bus station, some guy walked up to me and asked if I would be his girlfriend..um..No thanks? Israelis arent afraid to catcall..even though they would never DARE do that to Israeli girls for fear of being killed. When you dont respond they start cheering in English. All harmless of course but soemtimes just for fun I would say I only speak Spanish just to throw them off and put them in their place haha.
- So I bought an 8 pm ticket to Eilat and then wandered into the sherut area. 50 minutes later I'm in Jerusalem! Ben's roomate met me at the central bus station and together we found a bus that would take us to Ammunition Hill.
Ammunition Hill is cool because I remember running through the trenches as a little kid. Its a really cool place with alot of history and I think everyone is very honored to recieve their beret there.
Ben's family was there - his brother who made Aaliyah; his mom who was visiitng and some random cousins. It was really happy and was nice to be part of a celebration. It was sooo crowded too and everyone was so proud of their soldiers, Literally it was a packed stadium because atleast 200 guys were receiving their red caps. Families had posters and stuff it was cute.
- At the "tikun" (i think its called?), I met a really nice man and his ex sister in law who "adopted" Ben when they met him after he had surgery 2 years ago. They were so nice and very funny to talk to during the ceremony. I was telling them about my plans when they mentiond that they were going to Herziliyah and had no problem driving me to TLV! Score! They brought everyone some rugalach and berekas to celebrate which was amazing because i was starving!
- I found out that Shimon and Rachel "adopt" alot of people - they were telling me about the amazing food made by Rachel and Shimons mom. She's Morrocan and he's Yeminite and apparently they have the best shabbos meals ever. He told me he can get me free movie tickets in Herziliyah and that if I ever wanted to visit during the week, they'd drive me back to Ramat Aviv! BAsically they were the most amazing ppl ever and I couldntve felt happier that I met them!
- Well they got lost in Jerusalem for a while and had to stop by Rachel's sisters apt since she got married. I met Rachels sister, brother and new brother in law- they fed me chocolate and showed me videos of the prewedding party and Rachel's sons. ha I got to practice my hebrew since they kept encouraging me to speak it as much as possible.
It started getting late and I needed to get to the central bus station in TLV. I felt really bad but I started getting stressed since my bus left at 8 and the next one wasnt until 12. Luckily, I put Rachel on the phone with the bus company and they said I could get on at a different stop since I had my ticket. One of them happened to be closer to us and they drove me to this stop where I got there by 8! We hung otu for 20 minutes or so until the bus came and I hugged them goodbye like they really were my family. Seriously, nicest people ever. I sent them a "toda roba lachem" (thanks TO you) text and throughout the next couple days they called/texted me to make sure i was ok! Wow!
The bus ride is like 4.5 hours long to Eilat and some of the points in the desert gets alittle windy..its scary when ur making a quick turn around a cliff and I didnt have the most comfortable ride. Still, I made freinds with the guy sitting next to me who was about to graduat the army and was very happy to exchange differnces btwn Israel and America with me. I asked him about places to go in Eilat, Tlv etc and I actually knew of some of the things he mentioned!
When we arrived at the bus station, I called my friends and found out (they had all taken a TLV chartered bus down at 2 pm) that our hostel was real close! There were 10 of us staying in this one..5 in one rooma nd 5 in the other. The receptionist let me in to our little bunk and I quickly changed. I explored the Eilat area close to me and found a little 24 hour place where I picked up a thing of hummus adn the guy gave me 2 pitas for 2 sheckles! Just as i was finishing up a late snack, they called me to tell me to come out! I was having the best luck ever! Turns out one of the girls got an extra ticket and I even got to go in free of cover.
I had fun seeing all the TLV kids in a new setting in Eilat but it was really fun at the hostel. We had a shared kitchen and bathroom but it was the total hostel experience! People just ontop of e/o and made me feel like a real traveler!
FRIDAY
- We got up early anticipating a day on the beach. The weather was kind of pitiful at like 69 and cloudy but still we put on dresses and walked the tayellet. There are so many stores its really overwhelming but makes me so happy to be there. On the street are ppl selling everything from icee style drinks, crepes, shoes, sunglasses, beachy clothes, engraved leather stuff, etc etc. Eilat is cool because you feel like you're in Vegas, like these huge hotels and fancy stores - but then you look in the distance and see these HUGE Jordanian mountains. Breathtaking. Also its kinda cool to think about the Red Sea, since its the one that Moses supposedly split.
My friends stopped for food but I kept walking the Tayellet into the fancier/more private area of some of the hotels. Theyre small quiet beaches with palm trees and chairs and is soo pretty. I stopped for some (aka it was huuge) falafel just in time to meet up with everyone on the main touristy chaises. People were acting typical spring breakish with hookah, running into the water, taking pics - excpet all in sweatshirts haha We took a mini nap and everything closed for shabbat! Luckily we found this delicious sushi place! It was the first time most of us had had sushi in a while and we were soo happy haha Apparently half of OSP had the same idea too and we owneeed the restaurant. At night we explored and found that the "tourist center" was the main attraction - not the tayellet. All these clubs were on top of e/o and lit up! Even the hookah lounge was a club. I was too tired to go in anywhere but ti was cool to see.
SATURDAY
Me, and 2 of the girls I was staying with woke up at 6 am to get ready for Petra! Most of the other ones had done the trip before or would be goin later with their family. We had to be at our friends hostel at 730 am cuz we had booked our own tour so we wouldnt be with random ppl! I called the guide at literally 6 am to make sure I could go and he said I was the last spot..phew.
We got picked up in one of those little army hummers and drove to the Jordanian border only 15 away! The proces sto get in took awhile since it didnt open until 8, then we had to get our bags scanned, and wait for a visa. So now I can live and work in Jordan for up to a month haha.
We got our tour guide Alias and hopped a cute little bus.
Soooo..Jordan. Well this country alwaysss looks beautiful from far away so I was very curious to see what it would be like up close. Its not technically a Muslim country like its neighbors but is still 90% Islamic. This country, twice the size of Israel only houses 5 million residents...but its kind of easy to see why. Except for the capital Amman and Aqaba - the city that neighbors Eilat - the country is like inhabitable! Most of it is desert - just like Israel but not pretty in the same way (unless im just biased). There were very few grassy or tree covered areas and most of the 2.5 hour drive looked the same - just dirt and mountains. Sometimes we saw random Muslims covered in head to toe hurding sheep. Since NOOO cars were on the road, our little van drove like 100 mph but the time we drove passed a semitruck, I swear I thought we were gonna tip over!
From last weekend Feb 26- March 1
Thursday
Last day of Ulpan! We found out our teacher Ettie was gonna keep teaching during the semester..shes honestly amazing. And we have a bunch of foreign people in our class including these 40 something man and woman from Romania. They were always helping e/o during class, sharing their book and hanging out during breaks. It was so cute - we all thought they were married. Anyway we found out Anita is this travel agent so she comes to Israel to learn about where ppl should go. Costell has his PhD in like philosophy or palentology or something like that and teaches at a university in Romania so its weird for him to be a student now. anyway - THYERE NOT MARRIED...theyve just been best friends since 1990. So cute and all but this literally broke the hearts of everyone in our class. We were always awwing at them when Anita helped Costell pronounce words or when they shared lunch. Theyre just friends? How sad! Apparently he might be a priest? Like im all for meaningful friendships but it was like our romantic dreams for them were crushed..Anyway this was very notable
- We took our final exams..they were kind of hard. But I later learned that I got the highest grade in the class! Not by alot or anything but still, Ettie was really impressed and happy for me!
- After I quickly finished my exam I loaded up all my stuff and hopped the 27 bus towards the central bus station
Now let me say a few brief words about traveling alone. Its never been something Im scared of. I've navigated alone plenty of times and usually people mind their own business and are caught up in their own life. But in Israel, its alittle more scary. The moment I got off the escalator in the central bus station, some guy walked up to me and asked if I would be his girlfriend..um..No thanks? Israelis arent afraid to catcall..even though they would never DARE do that to Israeli girls for fear of being killed. When you dont respond they start cheering in English. All harmless of course but soemtimes just for fun I would say I only speak Spanish just to throw them off and put them in their place haha.
- So I bought an 8 pm ticket to Eilat and then wandered into the sherut area. 50 minutes later I'm in Jerusalem! Ben's roomate met me at the central bus station and together we found a bus that would take us to Ammunition Hill.
Ammunition Hill is cool because I remember running through the trenches as a little kid. Its a really cool place with alot of history and I think everyone is very honored to recieve their beret there.
Ben's family was there - his brother who made Aaliyah; his mom who was visiitng and some random cousins. It was really happy and was nice to be part of a celebration. It was sooo crowded too and everyone was so proud of their soldiers, Literally it was a packed stadium because atleast 200 guys were receiving their red caps. Families had posters and stuff it was cute.
- At the "tikun" (i think its called?), I met a really nice man and his ex sister in law who "adopted" Ben when they met him after he had surgery 2 years ago. They were so nice and very funny to talk to during the ceremony. I was telling them about my plans when they mentiond that they were going to Herziliyah and had no problem driving me to TLV! Score! They brought everyone some rugalach and berekas to celebrate which was amazing because i was starving!
- I found out that Shimon and Rachel "adopt" alot of people - they were telling me about the amazing food made by Rachel and Shimons mom. She's Morrocan and he's Yeminite and apparently they have the best shabbos meals ever. He told me he can get me free movie tickets in Herziliyah and that if I ever wanted to visit during the week, they'd drive me back to Ramat Aviv! BAsically they were the most amazing ppl ever and I couldntve felt happier that I met them!
- Well they got lost in Jerusalem for a while and had to stop by Rachel's sisters apt since she got married. I met Rachels sister, brother and new brother in law- they fed me chocolate and showed me videos of the prewedding party and Rachel's sons. ha I got to practice my hebrew since they kept encouraging me to speak it as much as possible.
It started getting late and I needed to get to the central bus station in TLV. I felt really bad but I started getting stressed since my bus left at 8 and the next one wasnt until 12. Luckily, I put Rachel on the phone with the bus company and they said I could get on at a different stop since I had my ticket. One of them happened to be closer to us and they drove me to this stop where I got there by 8! We hung otu for 20 minutes or so until the bus came and I hugged them goodbye like they really were my family. Seriously, nicest people ever. I sent them a "toda roba lachem" (thanks TO you) text and throughout the next couple days they called/texted me to make sure i was ok! Wow!
The bus ride is like 4.5 hours long to Eilat and some of the points in the desert gets alittle windy..its scary when ur making a quick turn around a cliff and I didnt have the most comfortable ride. Still, I made freinds with the guy sitting next to me who was about to graduat the army and was very happy to exchange differnces btwn Israel and America with me. I asked him about places to go in Eilat, Tlv etc and I actually knew of some of the things he mentioned!
When we arrived at the bus station, I called my friends and found out (they had all taken a TLV chartered bus down at 2 pm) that our hostel was real close! There were 10 of us staying in this one..5 in one rooma nd 5 in the other. The receptionist let me in to our little bunk and I quickly changed. I explored the Eilat area close to me and found a little 24 hour place where I picked up a thing of hummus adn the guy gave me 2 pitas for 2 sheckles! Just as i was finishing up a late snack, they called me to tell me to come out! I was having the best luck ever! Turns out one of the girls got an extra ticket and I even got to go in free of cover.
I had fun seeing all the TLV kids in a new setting in Eilat but it was really fun at the hostel. We had a shared kitchen and bathroom but it was the total hostel experience! People just ontop of e/o and made me feel like a real traveler!
FRIDAY
- We got up early anticipating a day on the beach. The weather was kind of pitiful at like 69 and cloudy but still we put on dresses and walked the tayellet. There are so many stores its really overwhelming but makes me so happy to be there. On the street are ppl selling everything from icee style drinks, crepes, shoes, sunglasses, beachy clothes, engraved leather stuff, etc etc. Eilat is cool because you feel like you're in Vegas, like these huge hotels and fancy stores - but then you look in the distance and see these HUGE Jordanian mountains. Breathtaking. Also its kinda cool to think about the Red Sea, since its the one that Moses supposedly split.
My friends stopped for food but I kept walking the Tayellet into the fancier/more private area of some of the hotels. Theyre small quiet beaches with palm trees and chairs and is soo pretty. I stopped for some (aka it was huuge) falafel just in time to meet up with everyone on the main touristy chaises. People were acting typical spring breakish with hookah, running into the water, taking pics - excpet all in sweatshirts haha We took a mini nap and everything closed for shabbat! Luckily we found this delicious sushi place! It was the first time most of us had had sushi in a while and we were soo happy haha Apparently half of OSP had the same idea too and we owneeed the restaurant. At night we explored and found that the "tourist center" was the main attraction - not the tayellet. All these clubs were on top of e/o and lit up! Even the hookah lounge was a club. I was too tired to go in anywhere but ti was cool to see.
SATURDAY
Me, and 2 of the girls I was staying with woke up at 6 am to get ready for Petra! Most of the other ones had done the trip before or would be goin later with their family. We had to be at our friends hostel at 730 am cuz we had booked our own tour so we wouldnt be with random ppl! I called the guide at literally 6 am to make sure I could go and he said I was the last spot..phew.
We got picked up in one of those little army hummers and drove to the Jordanian border only 15 away! The proces sto get in took awhile since it didnt open until 8, then we had to get our bags scanned, and wait for a visa. So now I can live and work in Jordan for up to a month haha.
We got our tour guide Alias and hopped a cute little bus.
Soooo..Jordan. Well this country alwaysss looks beautiful from far away so I was very curious to see what it would be like up close. Its not technically a Muslim country like its neighbors but is still 90% Islamic. This country, twice the size of Israel only houses 5 million residents...but its kind of easy to see why. Except for the capital Amman and Aqaba - the city that neighbors Eilat - the country is like inhabitable! Most of it is desert - just like Israel but not pretty in the same way (unless im just biased). There were very few grassy or tree covered areas and most of the 2.5 hour drive looked the same - just dirt and mountains. Sometimes we saw random Muslims covered in head to toe hurding sheep. Since NOOO cars were on the road, our little van drove like 100 mph but the time we drove passed a semitruck, I swear I thought we were gonna tip over!
After a 2 hour drive or so we stopped on the outskirts of a small town with a great view of a mountaintop. I was pretty drowsy still and it was freezing out but from what I could gather – on the mountain is where Aaron, Moses’ brother, died.
We then hopped back in the car and started driving towards the city of
We finally got to the big parking lot right outside the ancient city and got to the entrance. Its so funy it was like a complete 360. All of a sudden we were surrounced by rock formations in the sand and Bedouins were riding around on Arabian horses.
Included in your fee for going to
Its a 3k walk down to the main ancient city and we learned that there are mulitple entrances, but now theyv blocked off the other ones. The ancient people of Petra actually lived off in ahill far away but they built caves for tombs and decorated the exertior, building form up to down. The city was passed through different hands over the course of generations - to the Romans, etc who kept on the tradition of building into the desert. The city went msising for about 300 years when Bedouins found it and not understanding, turned the caves into their homes. Around 1850 a traveler found the city and it reintroduced it to the world.
There are only a few sparse caves within the first 700 km but afterwards u reah the enterance to the rock tunnels. You can see where the gate had once been. The path is a little road surrounded on both sides by the most beautiful rocks - naturally colored from years of erosion etc. Back when it was first becoming a tourist attrction, a flash flood knocked over alot of poeple and things - exavaterors began digging, tryin to build a mote, when they discovered an ancient water mote for the same purpose!
Carved into the rocks were little holes/portraits designed to hold the god/goddess the culture believed in - hoping it would help the enterance stay blessed. There were even some drawings carved inot the rock - like a man leading a camel!
In some areas we were even walking on the origial Roman stones they had placed! Our guide said these stones were found when they excavated further down 25 years ago - but maybe if they kept digging theyd find even older floors!
Finally we came to the end of the tunnel - which is a natural wind tunnel/air conditioner and saw the famous breathtaking sight: "the treasury" - which is what you see in Indiana Jones. Of course like everything else, its just a tomb but its so elaborate and you can even see marks from where scafolding was. Little camels were hanging out at the front of it and you coul take pictures with teh guards!
LIttle bedouin kids were running up to us asking if we wanted to buy a necklace or postcard.
We kept walking and you could see literally1000s of these caves. it was so cold the beduoines were making fires in them, even though they really dont live in them anymore. Our guide had a friend who owned a store. and we sat by the stores fire and alot of ppl ordered sweet bedouin tea. The guy told us how he was born in a cave nearby, has 3 wives and about their community. Our guide could tell we were still cold, so he snuck us into one of the caves. In it there were 4 buriel rooms and it was sooo much warmer!
In Petra there was even an auditorium built inot the rock by the Romans! There were some remnants of ancient columns. We could have wlaked on and on but we were on alimiteed time frame anddd it was freezing! There were some public bathrooms we stopped at that acutally was once a burial cave..woops!
There was a cool man selling a book his mom wrote about how she gave up her New Zealand life to marry a bedouin and live in a cave - i didnt buy it haha
We walked the 3 km winding uphill path in like 30 minutes we were so cold! I wanted to buy a tshirt or scarve but was too busy huddling for warmth instead. Our nice Petra security guard on our trip (cool ho wthey follow u on private trips here too - military guy just like in Israel but wearing a navy blue pantsuit, sweater and beret! very classy!) let us in.
We then went to one of the nicest meals ever! The Jordian food was like Israeli - amazing lentil soup, peta hummu sand misc salads, rice and potatoes and fish, and yummmy deserts! Their fruit is not as nice as ours tho and was really puny.
We then hopped the 2 hour bus backkk to Aqaba where we wandered the city for alittle bit. They very friendly there just like in Israel but the people couldnt help but stareee. For one it was mostly men out in public - the only place we saw women were with their kids hanging out in a park. It was a really funny park since there were barely any green - they acutally set up green lights to give the illusion of green since mostly it was just bushes and shrubs and sand. haha Families were eating dinner and having picnics but mostly - it was just women hanging out and kids running around. You could tell theyve never seen such a large group of white girls before. Some of the little kids were whispering in Arabic. It was pretty crazy. I liked Aqaba tho since it felt the most famillar, but furthurest from my idea of "typical" Middle East - desert, nomads and Bedouins living in caves.
We also stopped by the largest flagpole in the world and took some pics with the setting sun over the OTHER side of the Red Sea.
Our guide had been awsome the whole time and before we left, our bus driver asked us to please take a group picture. He didnt want to be in it but randomly pulled out a digital camera. He was so cute - i think he wanted to show us to his family? On the way through Aqaba he picked up some pantyhose for his wife since she asked him too since Aqaba is a tax-free city hahaha The Jordanians were really nice to us and sent us off feeling like wehad been welcomed - our guide was like "We hope to see you in our lovely country again soon"
But by the time we crossed out of Jordan and walked the 20 feet neutral strip towards a "Welcome to Israel" sign at 7, we were soooo happy to be back in Israel! It had felt like ages even though it was only 12 hours! It really made us appreciate the country and beauty of Israel. Still, I know Petra was a once in a lifetime opportunity and hopefully hopefully Israel will maintain Peace with Joirdan because I think it was a cool experience to get to see the differences between these neighboring countries.
At night after a long nap we went out and walked around. We were in a small snack shop that was linked to a club by a little window. The cover for the club was 100 sheckles but we were talking to the snack guys and the bar people through the window so they gave us 9 free passes! Which means they lost 900 shecks on us! haha We went in for a little but it was so weird! So many drag queens and these belly dancers dressed as peacocks dancing on the table..weird. haha
Sunday
It was cold..sigh :( We had to check out at 9 am and had no where to go except to wander the beach for a little! Eventually we gave up and went to the mall where alot of stores I had been looking for finally seemed familiar! I even stopped by a little kiosk selling turquois jewelry we had boughten from 3 years ago. AND I found muchh needed black flat boots for 89 scheckles! Finally the private group bus that TAU students chartered arrived and we pilled on, quickly sneaking on some snack items for the trip. Our guy friend had bought some DVDs to play but none of them were that interesting and we all slept the 5 hour ride back
The Week
- First week of class - tryin to figure out our schedules
- I think I finally settled on: Hebrew ( i need to or else Ill forget it all! Plus were learnin the past tense!), Israel and the Environment (once a week cool class with field trips, etc), the Religion of Islam (really interesting to see how alike and unalike we are!), Contemporary Jewish Issues (rabbi addresses things like conversion, homosexuality etc) and Jewish Education ( a really neat once a week class that discusses the best methods of teaching Jewish education, takes field trips and offers a potential internship next semester with a conference in Malibu)
- My schedule is nice; I have 8:30 - 12 mon -thurs; with additional mon 4:30- 7:30 and thurs 2:15 -4! Not bad at all! Gives me time to work out, lay out , run to the shook, do hw, etc etc!
- We went to the "clothing shook" to find outfits for Purim! 9 of us are going to be 80s workout girls - which is simple but easy to find!
- Wed we had an interesting class for the Jeff Seidel's "$ for learning" about the "everything happens for a reason" kinda thing and Rivky (our teacher) told us about her story how she didnt get into the right school but it eventually led to her meeting her best friend and husband!
Next up: SOUTH TRIP!!! Give me a little bit to write it up but should b a long one too :)
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