EDIT: 10/15/09: I started this post about a week after the previous one, May 25 as the blog states but I left it empty and just now finished it, as it didn't feel right to not wrap up my adventures..I stil miss Israel like crazy and luckily can recall enugh of the information to conclude my blog. I couldnt be happier to have this blog as an homage to my wonderful semester...
In btwn the **s is the original post...
***
While this blog was originally designed to track my travels and activities - I'm grateful for the opportunity its given me to track my feelings as well. Here and there I've written what it feels like to be studying abroad in the Holy Land. My moods have changed from quiet contentness to raging desire to do as much as possible. This is one of the most remarkable aspects of my abroad experience. Each month is a completely new experience, bringing new people, experiences and discoveries into my life.
As my last 2/3 weeks approach and pass, I've found all my energy restored. The life I've created here is something I'm so sad to leave. My friends in the dorm, the Israelis/ soldiers I've met, families that have taken me in, etc. These variety of people have taught me so much about what it means to be in Israel. What it means for ME to be in Israel. I've been making the most of this last bit so that I'll leave reengerized, ready to teach the States what I've learned and challenge myself to be the strong, openminded person I am here.
That said, I hope you can understand why this week was so fantastic:
Mon: ASHLEY, my sorority sister - one of a couple Jews in Alpha Phi, came on Birthright for her first visit ever! I woke up early in the morning to surprise her when she landed at 8 am. There were atleast 5 different Birthright trips on her plane, and everytime I saw a huddle of Americans I kept searching for her and asking group leaders to see their roster. Finallly after so many other groups and an hour of jumping around, she walked out of the gate! I jumped out and she screamed and was so happy! Israel has only one main airport, and one terminal so its one of those places you just want to be met at the airport at. Her Birthright group seemed really cool and they played a couple introductory songs/ games for the kids to get them hyped up. I joined in of course. I never did Birthright so I was so excited to be a part of it. The feeling of being around new visitors was so refreshing. They reminded me of my own excitement to be in this amazing country. And they came on teh best day - it was like 90 degrees.
Tues: After some gift shopping, I wandered over to the beach to read a little by myself. In Israel, though, you're never alone. I made atleast 3 different groups of friends. Anytime I heard English or picked up a conversation, I kinda jumped in. Playing Jewish Geography and joking around with different Seminary kids. They laughed at my audacity to come to the beach by myself - but like I would ever miss catching some rays, NBD. A couple of the younger seminary kids were hilarious, and kept telling strangers my stories. We agreed to maybe meet at the beach next week. I think they were pretty desperate to talk to girls - haha- a year in Yeshiva will do that to you. The other people I met were from Ramat Aviv, doing a separate seminary. I like talking to Yeshiva kids because the way they see Israel is often different from mine. We talked about the secular/ religious spectrum of Israel - its 2 extremes. They favored Jerusalem, while I amm much more connected to TLV. It was a really good feeling to just jump in and talk to people form around the world. I even made a friend at the gym that day.
Wed: Ashley's birthright group was in Tel Aviv for the day/night and I couldnt miss an opportunity to hang out with one of my good friends in this playground of mine. Around 9 she called me to tell me she was going to oneof the hookah/bars on the beach. So I hopped on the MOST CROWDED bus I've ever been on and met her. OF course I decided to get off early cuz it was so packed but then I took a long path and it wound up being a bit of a Ballagan. But I made it anyway and we reunined very joyously. Hanging out with the Birthright kids was so much fun! It made me feel like my USY days all over again - all these Jews strangers at first, but within 3 days already sitting on each other's laps and swapping personal information. Basically exactly what it felt like to be on Wheels. And without even questioning who I was, they included me. I came back to the hotel with them and we sat around the hallways, joking around, eating and drinking. I knew they had a long day ahead of them but I didnt want Ashley to go to bed early. I could tell how lucky she got of the people she was on the trip with - I wanted to stick around! Everyone was pretty impressed with my knowledge of Israel, TLV and Hebrew. It was really cool to be someone who "lives" in Israel and not just a tourist. The Israelis and I were swapping stories. It got late so I slept at the hotel and wandered out before their breakfast (unfort) at 6 am. The Israelis almost convinced me that I could just hop on and tour with them, but I know thats not fair. The bus was so crowded for 630 am..everyone going to class! Obviously though I was exhausted and just laughing at the absurdity.
Thurs: However, despite my exhaustion, thurs was HUGE celebration day! IT was Yom Hastudent - this huge celebration on campus, where people come from other campuses too! There were food stands - pizza, burgers, falafel, icecream; and drink stands - beer and shots; and game booths - we played this game and won paddles! At 12:30 Hadag Nachash playd right on our quad! We all went crazy..it was amazing. ONe of the most popular Israeli bands, playing so close to me - on MY campus! You couldnt even recognize the campus, there were so many people and booths and people selling special souvieniers/ clothes. Best Day party ever. Unfortunentally it was also the same day as the last day of class for my Jewish Education course. Our teacher had a last activity for us so we had to leave the festivities early (and right before a band we wanted to see) in order to take a tour of the museum on campus. Even though it sucked at the time, looking back it was very lucky we got to go to the Diaspora Museum, as it is one of the only in the world. It focuses entirely on Jews around the world and discusses how each culture is different and how we've moved and even is alittle hopeful that one day everyone will return to Israel. One of my favorite parts was seeing an exhibit on different synaggogues. There were models of temples from around the world, some that are still standing and some that were destroyed. There were famous synaggogues from America, Russia, Italy, Denmark, South Africa, Egypt and other countries I could never imagined boasting a temple. Each model had a story of how it was created and how (if) it was destroyed. We also looked through a database to see if we could find any information about our Jewish lineage. Even though it was a great exhibit and we got to go for free, many of us were still antsy for missing the party.
AFter the museum tour, our teacher wanted to host a "wrap up" party. Some of the kids in my class ditched out, but I felt guilty considering special guests were coming. Our teacher brought in pizza and Samara and I still had to present our "teaching project' since she was gone during the actual day. Afterwards, the heads of the Lainer Internship program showed up and gave a talk about the future of Jewish Education. It was probably the most interesting conversation we had in class, and I think most of us wished that we had discussed it during the semester. We basically discussed how the Jewish education system has failed and why Jews are not connecting in Sunday school. Jews who have been to Israel or who went to private school feel a connection but one day a week classes actually makes it more likely for Jews to intermarry. The leaders we talked to were inspiring and just as hesitant as we are. It was a cool look into the future and really made me wonder what my part will be.
Finally the class wrapped up and my friends went to meet everyone else not in the class. The day was beginning to wind down, around 5 or so, and mostly everyone was lounging on these imported mattresses smoking hookah. I took the time to visit all the shops and buy some special souveniers. Even from my dorm I could hear the blasting music. However, there was a small break until 7 pm when a very popular Coldplay-eque band took stage. I wandered back onto campus (having to need someone "pass back" their student ID - i never got one) and was amazed to see the MOST CROWDED audience ever. It looked like a showing at Alpine Valley - there were students, visitors and Israelis in every inch and corner, since everything had been cleared out. I was feeling exhausted after my Wed night so I let my friends enjoy the show but I couldnt help but feel a great sense of pride for going to school on such an incredible campus.
****
Fri - my original plan for this weekend was to join Samara's Hebrew U friends down in Eilat for one last hoorah, however our plans fell through so I decided to take the opportunity to see my family in Ashkelon one last time. Luckily, I made it to the train station in time for the 3:15 train. It was also exciting because my "cousin" who is in the army was returning home after a week on base so we met on the train as it passed through the city of TLV and rode together. My "uncle" picked us up at the trainstation and we went back to their apt. Although they are not a religious family, we still had a very nice Shabbat meal before everyone went their own ways - or basically to watch the Israeli Survivor finale. I had a book I really wanted to read and was going back and forth between my book and the hebrew show. My two girl cousins and I also decided to see a late night movie, the American "Sunshine Cleaning". I was happy to just hang out in Ashkelon because it's not very often i get to see my family, especially the whole crew, and they take such special care of me. I know I didn'tmiss too much in Tel Aviv because everyone was exhausted from Yom Hastudent.
Sat - My girl cousins, Netta and Hadar, and little boy cousin, Eli, took a walk with me through downtown Ashkelon and the beach. I had no idea the Madnicks had an apartment literally 5 minutes away from the beach! If I had known I would have laid out all day! It's funny because since the Madnicks are half American and half Israeli, they get pretty burnt and don't like tanning. However, it was especially my goal to get super tan while I was there!
Unfortunentally, the next week meant my last week of class and therefore a lot of homework assignments were due! Upon returning to Tel Aviv, I had to sit down and finish big assignments!
First I stayed up pretty late Sunday night finishing my group 10 page paper for Israel and the Environment. It was quite stressful since my group wasn't sure what to write about! Thankfully we finished just in time.
After turning in the paper on Monday, OSP had a White Party to look forward to. A bunch of girls from Canada decided to throw a fundraiser for a charity they support at home. For 20 sheckles or so, we took a nice bus downtown and took over a bar. It was fun being with everyone, but my friend Rachel had a friend visiting so we decided to explore. We went out looking for a different bar and on the way met a man who was giving away free pizza. At the next bar, these American men bought us all drinks! We were soaking up the free life.
Tuesday - I had another take home final to turn in :( Also this was our last "fun" day in Hebrew, since Wed would be our final exam. Even though I was hesitant at first I know my experience would not have been the same if I had not taken Hebrew. Etti, our teacher, taught us so many little tricks about Hebrew and life in Israel in general. She was a patient, amazing teacher. She even made our last day fun, playing pictionary and giving us her email. I loved my hebrew class and the ridiculous stories at 830 in the morning. Even though it was so hard at first to wake up for class, once it began warming up, I was so happy to be in Hebrew. I would be ready to hav a full day after 830 and the sun sparkled me up and was even sweat worthy. Tues night I spent some time studying before the final on Wed.
Wed - our last official day of class. I couldn't believe my semester was coming to a close. I couldnt even believe I took class, it all happened so fast! I rocked the Hebrew midterm and couldn't think of anything too memorable in my other classes. Mostly everyone was just excited because Wed night was our OSP END OF THE YEAR PARTY..and Lila Levan! Although bittersweet, it was super exciting getting dressed up adn partying together. We all rushed around the dorms getting ready before piling onto the bus. OSP took us to "Mini Israel" and even though it sounded kinda silly at the time, we were all thrilled once we got there to walk around and reminice about our memories at each place. Mini Israel is just as it sounds, a little park where you can walk through and see models of famous Israel spots such as the big Eilat hotels, the Dead Sea, the Tel Aviv Opera House, the Kotel in Jlem, the mountains in the North and Haifa Bahai Gardens. We all took pictures and rushed through, being happy to be together.
Then OSP took us upstairs to a party deck where we feasted on a super nice buffet (all the left over budget money). Then our staff played some funny slideshows featuring a quiz with inside jokes. (When will the bus leave for a North or South trip? A. On time B. Accoridng to Liran "in 5 minutes.." C. Whenever Rebecca finally wakes up, shell be here in 10 minutes, promise .....etc) Sooo funny because it was a reminder for all the crazy things that happend and all the stories that made OSP Spring 09 unique. Then there was a picture slideshow with all the popular music. We also got goodbye packets from the staff and TLV tshirts.
Then the big party began and we started dancing. Not club dancing. FULL ON BUST IT DANCING. I went ridiculous, thrashing and going nuts with everyone. We even started lifting people in chairs, dancing "Jew style" and singing Ruach songs. I had soo much fun and just felt so close to my whole program.
Around midnight or so, the night was over but the buses were taking us to Lila Levan. This is a huge holiday in tel aviv called "white night" where basically everything stays open all night and no one sleeps. The bus took us to the Azreli towers so wehad a couple of blocks to walk to Rothchild street. Luckily, we stopped in some macholets on the way and started our pregame. Rothchild street was packed! There were random street performers, Beatles music, people in trees, drunk Israelis, families, everything! Our group traveled up and down the streets, picking different areas to go into until we arrived at the beach. We then stayed up by the bonfires until sunrise so happy to witness the celebration. We then caught a cab back around 7 am and slept all
day.
MY LAST/ FINAL WEEK IN ISRAEL....
This Thursday was probably close to U of I's "reading day" in that there were no classes and a break to study for finals. but it was also the Jewish holiday of Shavuout. After going to Rivki's for a "goodbye sushi party", my roomate and I tried to go out. Turned out cabs weren't offering less than 60 sheckels. Instead we went to a friend's place downtown, brought our bathing suits so we could wake up and beach it
Friday - laid out on the top level pool of the Sheraton hotel then went to the beach. Warm day, got ice cream and played in the waves. Very sad that it was our last full weekend in Israel. Went to a friend's friend's place downtown on Allenby to pregame. Saw pictures of them during the war, invading houses in Gaza. Very scary stuff. Then went to Artemis and danced on the bar as usual, making some new friends and having an amazing time with Shaina and Samara.
Sat - went to the beach in Herziliyah which is one of the nicest in the country! Got to finish my next book! Unfort after Shabbat ended, it meant the start of FINALS. UGhhh. I spent Sat night up late studying for my Israel and the Enviro exam which would be on Sunday :( We formed a study group and my guy neighbors and I traded notes and stayed up late.
Sun - Took the Israel and Enviro final at 1. Guess I couldn't complain for trying to study so hard considering it only met once a week for 3 hrs, didn'thave a couple classes and I didnt go to many either. Unfort the exam I had to take on Monday would be even harder. This was Intro to Islam and it didn't depend on going to class but rather on memorizing 5 pages of definitions and stories. Uhhh..another night up late with my guy neighbors and cramming before the exam.
Mon - exam at 10 am. I sat in the back next to my friends, one who had a blackberry and one who had an I touch. They both had their studyguides uploaded and were cheating by copying so I just cheated by copying off of them. I have never so blatantely cheated but I guess it worked out since the final was the only grade of the class and I got an A. After this exam, I went to the beach to finally relax. One ofmy guy friends was visiting before traveling Europe so we met up on the beach and hung out, introducing our friends to each other, talking about school and Israel. It was nice to have another piece of home there. That night we ventured to Clara, which is a popular beach front club. It was my roomate Rachel's 21st bday so we bought Arack, which is a very potent Israeli liquor. We then cabbed it to Clara and met up with some OSP and Hebrew U kids. Everyone was dancing and lounging at this club which looked straight out of LA .
Tues - Realizing this was my last full day unplanned, my friends from Hebrew Allison and Lauren and I went to Jerusalem. We caught an early sherut and had a full expedition. We went shopping in the shook and bought lots of presents and items we needed (like bracelets and side purses!). We had so much fun bartering and using our hebrew and exploring Jerusalem for the last time. Then we went tothe wall to say our goodbyes, taking pictures with it. As the sun set, we walked down through a nice shopping center to Ben Yehunda, grabbed falafel and caught another sherut back to Tel Aviv. Went out that night to Cheech Beach, another bar with couches right on the beach. It was a lot of OSP and overwhelming but still fun to hang out with everyone and show off our tans.
Wed - did more gift shopping and day exploring, trying to soak up the city and buy any last minute souveniers. one of these souveniers included getting a dred put in. almost all of the girls on my program had gotten one and while I thought they were weird, I kind of liked the idea of having something from Israel. It was small with a gold bead and sat underneath my hair. But I do know it was a good week and I went to teh beach everyday attempting to get very dark. We would sit at the beach all day then hang out at our friend Dave's place right off the beach before hopping the bus back. Had a final thurs so my crew of about 8 girls split up the study guide and helped eachother study before the exam
Thurs - exam at 10 am for Contemporary Jewish Issues. FINALLY DONE WITH CLASS AND FINALS! Went to the beach and sat in the Sea for hours just letting the waves roll around and talking about Israel with the crew. As I was leaving I got a call saying my guy friends were finally done with Birthright and hanging out before they went to Europe. I went to meet up with my pledge dad and older U of I guys, so happy to be able to tell them about Israel. I had too many ideas for them to do but was mostly just happy to be able to share my love of the country. Alot of my girl friends were going to eat a last nice dinner but I was late and unshowered after seeing the boys. I was also growing more and more panicked and fearful of leaving, even plotting to stay an extra couple of days. I decided last minute to run into the mall and get my belly button pierced. It was something I always watned and even though I didnt know what I was doing, I just decided to get it. I alsso stopped by the "rice store" we discovered and bought food. That night was another unofficial last OSP party. This was in downtown hertziliyah and the bar was packed! This was a fantastic pregame with everyone I cared about, since it was our Hungarian friend's last night. We bought Arak and cheers to her having to leave at 5 am. The bar was crazy full of Israelis and OSP and I think everyone was going nuts for their last day. WE all took pictures, I started a dancin on the bar trend and created so many memories before Rita had to leave. I was up late chatting with everyone about how amazing our trip was.
Friday - woke up early, very hungover, but determined to have a great day because this was MY LAST DAY IN ISRAEL. It was hectic and amazing at the same time! I went to one last Nachalt Benyamin and finished by gift shopping before hustling down to the beach to hang out with all my friends. My pledge dad and guy friends stopped by. On our bus ride home around 4, everyone was saying "wow this our last bus ride" - I wanted to cry (but I didnt because I cried on the bus alone on thurs). I tried to capture every moment in my head and remember each beautiful place in Tel Aviv. We had a last night dinner at a restaurant across from Brodetsky and relived all our memories. I finished packing and donating my stuff before splitting a bottle of wine for my last night out. We went to Attarah, which is the same bar we went to our first night and the first bar I went to in Israel. In the bathroom I ran into an Israeli friend I made months ago who wished me well and Ben came to say goodbye to me. I tried to have a good night and liveitup but I was stressed and sad. Another soldier friend came to meet me to also send me off and I felt so special that everyone was celebrating for me, but so sad since I was the first of me good friends to leave. If only I could have stayed one more day I kept thinking..
People started going their own ways and I still never managed to get a goodbye with some people. I made my rounds in the dorm at 4 am and coerced my neighbor and roomates into helping lug down my bags. I had to sprint to the ATM to get enough cash to cover the cab to the airport and cried as I said goodbye to the people I spent all semster with. I cried harder as the security guards "the Shlomeys" sent me off and helped me get settled int hecab. I wished I wasnt alone.
The sun was rising for a hot and amazing day as the cab sped towards the airport but i was too tired from my night out and not sleeping and last minute packign and saying goodbye to make convesration. I was dead tired in the security line and passed out on the floor of the airport while I waited to board. 4 hours and some snacks later, I was in London. For a 6 hour layover. London SUCKS for layovers. I accidentally got stuck in the wrong terminal and bought internet so I woudlnt feel so lonely. London was rainy and I kept thinking about the sunny day that was starting across the sea in the Middle East.
Finally I boarded for another 7 hour journey, landing in Ohare and grabbing my suitcases, which somehow managed to fit everythign without going over! I had to go through a special security since I had come through the middle east but it worked out. My family met me at the airport and told me I looked tan and nice. I was just tired of being in transit and more than anything wanted to either be at home in bed or in Israel..but mostly Israel.
Everything in Buffalo grove was as I left it...but I was different.
I will always be different after this experience. Even reading the events now, 5 months later, I remember it all so vividly. My mind takes me back to my easy going lifestyle and the friends that changed me life. it was more than the beach and the tan and the skirts. It was the friendly atmosphere and the easy going attitude. The way everyone helps their neighbor.
I feel so so fortunate to have had this experience and I know I will carry it with me always. It was something so special that I wish I could grant to everyone. I know I needed to finsih this blog because one day I wont remember each event. The memories are fading, but the feeling in my heart will continue to last.
Thank you all for following along my adventure. Bechatzlacha and lots of love to you all.
Mel
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
A month in Review
There's so much I've realized in the past month while being abroad. I've rediscovered a lot of both inner and outer strenghth. The real kind that comes from overcoming obstacles. I've also learned to just appreciate the present while I'm here. Sometimes I think about stuff back at home or stuff thats gone by or I worry about the future; but thats no way to go about being here. Today the temperatures was 95 degrees and it was so hot at the beach. The only bareable way to be outside was to sit and wade in the Mediteranean sea...it was fantastic. I spent atleat an hour just floating and being still. Theres nothing like wading in the Med to put life in perspective..oh and to get a great tan :) I think everyone is a little worried about coming home after abroad and I was alittle anxious about returning home in 3 weeks a couple days ago. But now I've realized, my fun adventurous side that I've picked up here will last on. Theres more experiences to be had in Chicago and I will embrace that. Plus I'll be entering the real work world with a part time internship. :)
So more recap frm the month:
- Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron: Holocaust and Memorial Day. They were a week apart from eachother but unlike you can experience anywhere in the world. A siren goes off at 10 am throughout Israel and the whole country stops! Cars stop, people at stores stop, no one walks, no one talks everyone just gets out from wherever they are and stand still. Its an amazing thing to witness adn something I've learnd since Hebrew School. It was great to be part of - to see eveyrone stand respectfully as they remember those who were lost. Incredible. No one disobeys and the whole country stands in silence.
OSP actually put on a program for Yom Hazikaron - as well as there was one in Rabin Square - about the silence. And there were testimonials that said even though you remember, nothing can bring the loved ones back. It was really moving and there were beautiful songs. I'm glad our program did something.
- Earth Day: The day mom arrived, I picked them up from the airport and checked in, grabbed dinner etc and when they walked me back to the bus stop on Rabin Square we saw a huge concert! Since it was EArth Day, everyone turned off their lights across teh city and there was a free concert in Rabin powerd by natural energy! It was lit up so cool and the band: balkan beat box was fantatsic! So many ppl were dancing and hanging out!
- Yom Haazmauot: ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY! Following Yom Hazikaron, we had both days off of school and everything was closd for both holidays which is both respectful and a tad annoying. Everyone has bbqs ( "mangle" in hebrew) and blows e/o with foam. There were little club parties. But the big gathering was again on Florentine street. and this time it was even bigger than Purim! So many ppl crowding the streets, dancing on cars, yelling from balconies, it was so packed that the cops blocking off the streets stopped letting ppl in! The crowd was alittle hard to manage but all around fun. However, as we were leaving Florentine the BEST thing happend: Nachman Jews!! Nachman Jews are the Hassidic Jews that run around blasting hebrew cool music, dancing on cars, exciting the crowd. So there they were, driving parrarel to Florentine, very slowly so that a huge crowd danced around these moving cars - just celelbrating Israel's existance! We ran up and danced with them, its hard not to be excited when u see them - all ages just jamming throughout the streets! It really is a very special holiday to Israel. The country is still very young and many know a someone who fought in one war or another to presever this country. You can tell how precious it is to so many ppll..including me. When I heard Hatikvah - I've never felt so moved.
- Exploring: Especially with moms visit, there was lots of reason to walk the streets. Even now when theres nothing goin on in Ramat Aviv (everyday) I head out to Allenby and walk around, window shpping or try to find cool things. One day I walked from TLV Univ to the Namal (the docks) to the main beach; or from the beach to the Azreli Towers and back; or walked down all the way to Yafo. Friday I was having a relaxing day so I took a nice strol from the Shook on Allenby down the same path the bus takes me home, all the way to the dorms! Thats like an 1.5 hr walk. TLV is a small little city but thats why its so fun and easy to learn!
- On the bus one day I had a great conversation with an adorable little old couple. They started taking to me when they got on the bus but I dindt understand. The great thing is that it was ALL IN HEBREW. I found out that he moved here from Budapest 61 years ago to fight in the Independence War; after his parents died in Aushwitcz. She moved here 60 years ago with her family from Romania and they met! They have 2 kids and 6 grandkids. Their son studied in NY for alittle. She told me to be careful while in the sun. It was the happiest conversation I've ever had and I was really proud of my hebrew..I tried really hard.
- As i was leaving the bus from saying goodbye to Mom, I was walking towards the dorm when I recongized this cat: Charles - cuz hes black and white like Charlie Chaplin. Charles is a stray cat with a bit of a princess attitude. All day you'll find him always hanging out in front of Einstein D dorms (ours) sunning himself. And at night he roams into everyones rooms - literally if ur door is open, Charles will stop by to see wahts up! Well Charles wasnt in his typical spot so I waited for him to come out of the bushes and he recognized me! He even followed me home, on my heels! Eveyrone was saying "u know that cat is following u?"..he was just rubbing against me..it was so cute. He followed me upstairs so I told the kitty to wait outself. I grabbed alittle tuna and sure enogh when I opened the door, there he was! Waiting. What a cute little smart cat, I figured he deseved some food and honeslty I've never seen a kitty eat so fast, poor little one. He scarfed it down and purred the whole time!
- Theres also new baby kitties. A mama gave birth to the 3 most ADORABLE kittens youve ever seen. They're stray like all of Israel but I can tell who the fathers are since about 20 or so kittens live around the Einstein dorm areas. haha. the kitties are more afraid of humans than their mama but they are so cute and ive captured some really cute picstures of them..
- Another day it was 90 degrees and we went to the beach -- all of Israel was there! I was like..does no one have work? But it was such a fun environment! Im aiming to be so tan by my return :)
- Lag B'omer: the day Rabbi Akivas students stopped dying as well as the day the founder of Kabbalah died. Since he knew when he was gona die, he wanted it to be a celelbratory day - and he studied torah all day and night and very late at night he died. So you celebrate his honor among other things by having bonfires all over the country! Apparnetly Israelis just used to burn stuff like benches, so now the City Hall gives away lumber for free so theres no property damage. Kids are allowed to stay up late too. ("kumsitz" is bonfire in hebrew cuz it sounds like yiddish "come, sit!" haha) We went to the beach to see what was going on. On the way we caught a couple bonfires but the beach was littered with teen-aged kids. Everyone was camping out on the beach with food and tents! we even got some free food from some of them. it was really cool to see eveyrone just laying out at night on the beach - a part was watched over by security so u knew it was all ok
- Sat: We saw signs for a spring festival adn right in Ramat Aviv these Israel Scouts (boy scouts) hosted a little festival with crafts and music!
- Tongiht outside there was a little gathering to celebrate all the ppl in the dorm living together - namely the Arabs and Jews. There were some protestors cuz i think today used to be a mourning day for Arabs about the loss of Palestine. It was all kind of confusing but btwn 8- 11 right outside my window, in the courtyard there was a dj, slideshow, cotton candy, hotdogs, drinks, corn and dancing. little balloons. It was a cute little celebration and everyone was gettin pretty into it. Me and a Chicagoan showed everyone our "cotton eyed joe" dance. It was pretty humid tho and led to a pretty intense ashtma attack. sucks that its getting unbarebly hot..tho I wont complain just yet :)
- The thurs before the north trip, me and roomies finished our hebrew exams and took an expedition to Haifa/ Akko. The train ride to Haifa was about 40 min and we we saw the cool center, the university and then walked around the "paris square". we got falafel and stopped at this exotic meats shwarma place. basically u could put all these kabobs or hamburgers into a pita. After food, we found the only subway in Israel and let it take us up to the top of the Carmel Mountain. The man running the counter gave us a 3 sheckle dicsount each. The top was the last stop of course and by the very end we were on suchhh a diagonal it was a little scary. This one human ran trolley underground, very intense. very happy to get offf. the top of the carmel mountain was so fun and beautiufl. many shops and cafes and a gorgeous view of all of the haifa bay and harbor. its one of the biggest and most ancient ports. we could even see akko on the other side. then we walked down to the Ba'hai Gardens. Luckily one of the men working there was from NY, doing a volunteer year service at the World Ba'hai Headquarters. He told us a tour was starting in 15 min - which is the only way to get fuly inside. So for some of our first times ever, we got to be INSIDE the gardens! They are gorgeousss gardens and the Haifa location is special because its where the leader is buried. He had spent many years imprisoned in Akko and this felt like his home. Something of that sort. The tour was in Hebrew so it was a bit of an excercise to understand, but all in all we dint really hear or learn much, just felt happy to be inside. AT the bottom, an hour later, we walkd out and saw a couple take marriage pictures. If you could call it that. She was dressed in a seethrough lace top and a fluffy skirt with knee high stilettos. He was wearing a grey suit and a beret. Haha. We decidd to navigate our way back to the train station which was fun because we got to see more of the city and it was easy to find since next door is a very tall landmark. 25 min later we were there. We grabbed ice coffees and died cokes before our train to Akko arrived. We knew the walk to get to the ancient part pretty explictely and the modern city is rather cute. There were many little dress shops and it looked like Ashquelon a little. We arrived at the old city, everyone used to rave about Akko's beauty. However in the past couple years, riots have totally looted the city. Its no longer pristine and each special alleyway was dripping with dirt, litter and other things we were quite sure of. It held us back from appreciating some of the fun activiites, like seeing the synaggouge, mosque, tunnels and bathhouse. Still it was cool to see the transformation. Very tired and sore, we made our way back to the trainstation and arrived back to TLV content with our mini trip.
Field Trips:
- Jerusalem trip with my education class: Did a cool game tour of Nachalot - seeing, finding and searching out ancient artifacts and learning about the area. We did an interactive part about teaching on the Tayelit. For lunch we went to restaurant style soup kitchen. You sit down like in a restaurant and the food is pretty good. But you dont have to pay - at the front theres a donation box and u can give at the end as much as u want or as little as you can afford. I really liked that idea. Then at the end we heard a panel of Jewish Educators doing fellowships in Israel. It waspretty inspiring and I cant say I'm not ruling out the idea of learning how to teach in a Dayh school. One program is 2 years and you even get a stipend for the first 3 years with an agreement that you'll teach at a school in Day School in the states. All the educators were super cool and interesting to listen to. Plus we had deliciosu food liek bagels and toppings as well as fruit platters ..yumm
- Desert Jeep trek with Israel Environment class - we were picked up AT the dorms in these 10 person old school jeeps and then taken on a day long trek. We stoped in Jerusalem to see the water line where on one side its all green, and then slowly it becoems deserty. We went into the West bank. Did a hike to see a cool hidden oasis where the water fluckuates. We saw the streem where all Israel's sewage travels down! Its converted and cleaned and reused..We also so from far away an old monk monistary and all the caves next door where they used to study. Those caves are even referenced in the Torah. We saw beduions on donkeys and the coolest - these bedouins that looked Europeans. We went to the cliff where all the Jews' sinns used to be burnt on a donkey on Yom Kippur during times of the Temple. Its like "mt. hell" or something. there were lots of ancient artifacts still there. the town across the area tired europeans to do their artisan work 100s of years ago- these slaves from Russian provence areas.but over time the Europeans assimilated and married the Middle Easterners. Now, their kids look Euroopean (wiht red hair, freckles, light skin) but they're bedouins! SO COOL! We also saw the dead sea from far away and saw the sad receding line. We found these plants that sprouted during water fall only. So they never know theyre in a desert. We sprinkled water on them and SAW tHEM SPROUT! Then they;d shed their seeds and die. They have a very short life but it was cool to see them grow before our eyes. The food was awsome and we did a cool rock climbing hike where I walked down teh smallest little path - cuz we didnt know how to get off I swear I could have died. It was sooo narrow I was hugging the rocks whith all my might. We also tried to see animals at night, but it was too quiet since the water was still in other places. It was a bit of a bumpy ride - doing all this overoading in these squishy old jeeps. But whatev we made it work.
- North Trip!! Cool hikes around the Golan and the Galillee, hiked next to Tzfat, went to the hot springs, went to a camp for a bonfire where we could make our own pita! One night OSP threw us a party but you could tell it was totally for the staff since they wre dancing and enjoyin it more than us! haha they also gave away balloons. The kibbutz was pretty nice to stay on but rather buggy. We watched TV for the first time like ever and discovered random funny shoes like this South African drama "Life Is Wild". We also went thru a cute kibbutz "shomer shabbas town" and througah a national park. they took us to all the borders with Syria and Lebanon and some sad graveyards - some soldiers only recently having died. We learned about Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy that was excuted in Lebanon but who did so much good for the army. We also went rafting down the Jordan River, which was a little messy but AWSOME. I got soaked haha.
Overall this past month has been the best yet. i find myself constantly amused and excitged. i love it so much here. I think its only gonna get better
So more recap frm the month:
- Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron: Holocaust and Memorial Day. They were a week apart from eachother but unlike you can experience anywhere in the world. A siren goes off at 10 am throughout Israel and the whole country stops! Cars stop, people at stores stop, no one walks, no one talks everyone just gets out from wherever they are and stand still. Its an amazing thing to witness adn something I've learnd since Hebrew School. It was great to be part of - to see eveyrone stand respectfully as they remember those who were lost. Incredible. No one disobeys and the whole country stands in silence.
OSP actually put on a program for Yom Hazikaron - as well as there was one in Rabin Square - about the silence. And there were testimonials that said even though you remember, nothing can bring the loved ones back. It was really moving and there were beautiful songs. I'm glad our program did something.
- Earth Day: The day mom arrived, I picked them up from the airport and checked in, grabbed dinner etc and when they walked me back to the bus stop on Rabin Square we saw a huge concert! Since it was EArth Day, everyone turned off their lights across teh city and there was a free concert in Rabin powerd by natural energy! It was lit up so cool and the band: balkan beat box was fantatsic! So many ppl were dancing and hanging out!
- Yom Haazmauot: ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY! Following Yom Hazikaron, we had both days off of school and everything was closd for both holidays which is both respectful and a tad annoying. Everyone has bbqs ( "mangle" in hebrew) and blows e/o with foam. There were little club parties. But the big gathering was again on Florentine street. and this time it was even bigger than Purim! So many ppl crowding the streets, dancing on cars, yelling from balconies, it was so packed that the cops blocking off the streets stopped letting ppl in! The crowd was alittle hard to manage but all around fun. However, as we were leaving Florentine the BEST thing happend: Nachman Jews!! Nachman Jews are the Hassidic Jews that run around blasting hebrew cool music, dancing on cars, exciting the crowd. So there they were, driving parrarel to Florentine, very slowly so that a huge crowd danced around these moving cars - just celelbrating Israel's existance! We ran up and danced with them, its hard not to be excited when u see them - all ages just jamming throughout the streets! It really is a very special holiday to Israel. The country is still very young and many know a someone who fought in one war or another to presever this country. You can tell how precious it is to so many ppll..including me. When I heard Hatikvah - I've never felt so moved.
- Exploring: Especially with moms visit, there was lots of reason to walk the streets. Even now when theres nothing goin on in Ramat Aviv (everyday) I head out to Allenby and walk around, window shpping or try to find cool things. One day I walked from TLV Univ to the Namal (the docks) to the main beach; or from the beach to the Azreli Towers and back; or walked down all the way to Yafo. Friday I was having a relaxing day so I took a nice strol from the Shook on Allenby down the same path the bus takes me home, all the way to the dorms! Thats like an 1.5 hr walk. TLV is a small little city but thats why its so fun and easy to learn!
- On the bus one day I had a great conversation with an adorable little old couple. They started taking to me when they got on the bus but I dindt understand. The great thing is that it was ALL IN HEBREW. I found out that he moved here from Budapest 61 years ago to fight in the Independence War; after his parents died in Aushwitcz. She moved here 60 years ago with her family from Romania and they met! They have 2 kids and 6 grandkids. Their son studied in NY for alittle. She told me to be careful while in the sun. It was the happiest conversation I've ever had and I was really proud of my hebrew..I tried really hard.
- As i was leaving the bus from saying goodbye to Mom, I was walking towards the dorm when I recongized this cat: Charles - cuz hes black and white like Charlie Chaplin. Charles is a stray cat with a bit of a princess attitude. All day you'll find him always hanging out in front of Einstein D dorms (ours) sunning himself. And at night he roams into everyones rooms - literally if ur door is open, Charles will stop by to see wahts up! Well Charles wasnt in his typical spot so I waited for him to come out of the bushes and he recognized me! He even followed me home, on my heels! Eveyrone was saying "u know that cat is following u?"..he was just rubbing against me..it was so cute. He followed me upstairs so I told the kitty to wait outself. I grabbed alittle tuna and sure enogh when I opened the door, there he was! Waiting. What a cute little smart cat, I figured he deseved some food and honeslty I've never seen a kitty eat so fast, poor little one. He scarfed it down and purred the whole time!
- Theres also new baby kitties. A mama gave birth to the 3 most ADORABLE kittens youve ever seen. They're stray like all of Israel but I can tell who the fathers are since about 20 or so kittens live around the Einstein dorm areas. haha. the kitties are more afraid of humans than their mama but they are so cute and ive captured some really cute picstures of them..
- Another day it was 90 degrees and we went to the beach -- all of Israel was there! I was like..does no one have work? But it was such a fun environment! Im aiming to be so tan by my return :)
- Lag B'omer: the day Rabbi Akivas students stopped dying as well as the day the founder of Kabbalah died. Since he knew when he was gona die, he wanted it to be a celelbratory day - and he studied torah all day and night and very late at night he died. So you celebrate his honor among other things by having bonfires all over the country! Apparnetly Israelis just used to burn stuff like benches, so now the City Hall gives away lumber for free so theres no property damage. Kids are allowed to stay up late too. ("kumsitz" is bonfire in hebrew cuz it sounds like yiddish "come, sit!" haha) We went to the beach to see what was going on. On the way we caught a couple bonfires but the beach was littered with teen-aged kids. Everyone was camping out on the beach with food and tents! we even got some free food from some of them. it was really cool to see eveyrone just laying out at night on the beach - a part was watched over by security so u knew it was all ok
- Sat: We saw signs for a spring festival adn right in Ramat Aviv these Israel Scouts (boy scouts) hosted a little festival with crafts and music!
- Tongiht outside there was a little gathering to celebrate all the ppl in the dorm living together - namely the Arabs and Jews. There were some protestors cuz i think today used to be a mourning day for Arabs about the loss of Palestine. It was all kind of confusing but btwn 8- 11 right outside my window, in the courtyard there was a dj, slideshow, cotton candy, hotdogs, drinks, corn and dancing. little balloons. It was a cute little celebration and everyone was gettin pretty into it. Me and a Chicagoan showed everyone our "cotton eyed joe" dance. It was pretty humid tho and led to a pretty intense ashtma attack. sucks that its getting unbarebly hot..tho I wont complain just yet :)
- The thurs before the north trip, me and roomies finished our hebrew exams and took an expedition to Haifa/ Akko. The train ride to Haifa was about 40 min and we we saw the cool center, the university and then walked around the "paris square". we got falafel and stopped at this exotic meats shwarma place. basically u could put all these kabobs or hamburgers into a pita. After food, we found the only subway in Israel and let it take us up to the top of the Carmel Mountain. The man running the counter gave us a 3 sheckle dicsount each. The top was the last stop of course and by the very end we were on suchhh a diagonal it was a little scary. This one human ran trolley underground, very intense. very happy to get offf. the top of the carmel mountain was so fun and beautiufl. many shops and cafes and a gorgeous view of all of the haifa bay and harbor. its one of the biggest and most ancient ports. we could even see akko on the other side. then we walked down to the Ba'hai Gardens. Luckily one of the men working there was from NY, doing a volunteer year service at the World Ba'hai Headquarters. He told us a tour was starting in 15 min - which is the only way to get fuly inside. So for some of our first times ever, we got to be INSIDE the gardens! They are gorgeousss gardens and the Haifa location is special because its where the leader is buried. He had spent many years imprisoned in Akko and this felt like his home. Something of that sort. The tour was in Hebrew so it was a bit of an excercise to understand, but all in all we dint really hear or learn much, just felt happy to be inside. AT the bottom, an hour later, we walkd out and saw a couple take marriage pictures. If you could call it that. She was dressed in a seethrough lace top and a fluffy skirt with knee high stilettos. He was wearing a grey suit and a beret. Haha. We decidd to navigate our way back to the train station which was fun because we got to see more of the city and it was easy to find since next door is a very tall landmark. 25 min later we were there. We grabbed ice coffees and died cokes before our train to Akko arrived. We knew the walk to get to the ancient part pretty explictely and the modern city is rather cute. There were many little dress shops and it looked like Ashquelon a little. We arrived at the old city, everyone used to rave about Akko's beauty. However in the past couple years, riots have totally looted the city. Its no longer pristine and each special alleyway was dripping with dirt, litter and other things we were quite sure of. It held us back from appreciating some of the fun activiites, like seeing the synaggouge, mosque, tunnels and bathhouse. Still it was cool to see the transformation. Very tired and sore, we made our way back to the trainstation and arrived back to TLV content with our mini trip.
Field Trips:
- Jerusalem trip with my education class: Did a cool game tour of Nachalot - seeing, finding and searching out ancient artifacts and learning about the area. We did an interactive part about teaching on the Tayelit. For lunch we went to restaurant style soup kitchen. You sit down like in a restaurant and the food is pretty good. But you dont have to pay - at the front theres a donation box and u can give at the end as much as u want or as little as you can afford. I really liked that idea. Then at the end we heard a panel of Jewish Educators doing fellowships in Israel. It waspretty inspiring and I cant say I'm not ruling out the idea of learning how to teach in a Dayh school. One program is 2 years and you even get a stipend for the first 3 years with an agreement that you'll teach at a school in Day School in the states. All the educators were super cool and interesting to listen to. Plus we had deliciosu food liek bagels and toppings as well as fruit platters ..yumm
- Desert Jeep trek with Israel Environment class - we were picked up AT the dorms in these 10 person old school jeeps and then taken on a day long trek. We stoped in Jerusalem to see the water line where on one side its all green, and then slowly it becoems deserty. We went into the West bank. Did a hike to see a cool hidden oasis where the water fluckuates. We saw the streem where all Israel's sewage travels down! Its converted and cleaned and reused..We also so from far away an old monk monistary and all the caves next door where they used to study. Those caves are even referenced in the Torah. We saw beduions on donkeys and the coolest - these bedouins that looked Europeans. We went to the cliff where all the Jews' sinns used to be burnt on a donkey on Yom Kippur during times of the Temple. Its like "mt. hell" or something. there were lots of ancient artifacts still there. the town across the area tired europeans to do their artisan work 100s of years ago- these slaves from Russian provence areas.but over time the Europeans assimilated and married the Middle Easterners. Now, their kids look Euroopean (wiht red hair, freckles, light skin) but they're bedouins! SO COOL! We also saw the dead sea from far away and saw the sad receding line. We found these plants that sprouted during water fall only. So they never know theyre in a desert. We sprinkled water on them and SAW tHEM SPROUT! Then they;d shed their seeds and die. They have a very short life but it was cool to see them grow before our eyes. The food was awsome and we did a cool rock climbing hike where I walked down teh smallest little path - cuz we didnt know how to get off I swear I could have died. It was sooo narrow I was hugging the rocks whith all my might. We also tried to see animals at night, but it was too quiet since the water was still in other places. It was a bit of a bumpy ride - doing all this overoading in these squishy old jeeps. But whatev we made it work.
- North Trip!! Cool hikes around the Golan and the Galillee, hiked next to Tzfat, went to the hot springs, went to a camp for a bonfire where we could make our own pita! One night OSP threw us a party but you could tell it was totally for the staff since they wre dancing and enjoyin it more than us! haha they also gave away balloons. The kibbutz was pretty nice to stay on but rather buggy. We watched TV for the first time like ever and discovered random funny shoes like this South African drama "Life Is Wild". We also went thru a cute kibbutz "shomer shabbas town" and througah a national park. they took us to all the borders with Syria and Lebanon and some sad graveyards - some soldiers only recently having died. We learned about Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy that was excuted in Lebanon but who did so much good for the army. We also went rafting down the Jordan River, which was a little messy but AWSOME. I got soaked haha.
Overall this past month has been the best yet. i find myself constantly amused and excitged. i love it so much here. I think its only gonna get better
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Last 3 days of Spring break
Chapter 6: Barcelona: Lots of seeing, but we never went in
Ariana is going to Unversity of Barcelona for the semester - taking classes in pure Spanish and living in a "residencia". Its 20 people in suites/singles with little shower rooms and house maid that cooks and cleans. But no visitors are allowed! So I became her little Anne Frank. Immediatly upon my arrival her house maid was making sweeps around the house so she put my stuff in the room and we began our day in BcN (I still havent changed or showerd since before the train ride to Milan at this point..told you it was the dirtiest day of my life).
Oh. And it was Easter. So everythign was closed. Still..as she explained the city's layout to me she explained Gaudi - who was a very very intersting and brilliant architect who sprinkled beauty around BCN. His designs feel like the piccasso version of architecture to me. I decided that after being uber-tourist in Italy, I wanted to be relaxed, local in BCN. We toured the city center with another cool church and all these windy streets with funky cafes and shops. We decided to stop in an offbeat Tapas restaurant and wound up hanging out there for like 2 hours. We split potatoes with spicy sauce and an omlettle bocadillo. I tried cafe con leche at the end and we just chatted and caught up. Finally as it got later, we snuck me back into her dorm, took a shower and got some much needed rest.
In the morning I was on hididng duty. Luckily Ariana's dormmates are really cool and dont like the residencia rules either and helped sneak me around. Because of the Easter holiday, there were so many tourists around Barca! We started off with a sushi buffet lunch..OMG soo cool and good..sushi and the like come by on a rolling tray (staright out of movies) in the center and you just take what you want. I tried diff sushi, ate fruit, salmon, fried veggies, all diff kinds of asian food. soo fantastic. Then we were off to do mini sight seeing. We saw the Sangrada Familia a very pretty castle/ church. It was the last thing Gaudi was working on but is still unfinished. I refused to go in alone since Ariana didnt really wanna pay to go in again..I'm so over churches anyway. Then we went to Parc Guell - a huge famously designed park in Bcn and took lots of goofy, non-touristy pics. haha. Our legs were still sore from the Cinque and the babiest of stairs were hard to take. I learned pretty quickly how to navigate the BCN bus/ train system..it goes so many places its very well organized. I can see why so many ppl like to study there - its very urban but friendly to Americans. The city is very clean and very organized. Its just kinda..easy. At night, I went to visit my friend Ari in his nice apt by the ocean and we caught for a while. Then we checked out a local BCN club and met up with some U of Iers downtown. Called it an early night for BcN standards (those siestas make everythign so late - dinner is at 9!)
My last day we ran into some trouble in the residencia. I always had to be super quite whenev we were hanging out in her dorm so her maid didnt suspect a visitor. But every day she takes out the trash. So she knocked to take out the trash while I was there! Luckily one of ARiana's dormmates were there too and I ran and hid UNDER HER DESK! I really was a little hidden girl. After the maid took out the trash we all burst out laughing.
The day was spent visiting Ariana's campus - very grand old fashioned Harry Potter styled buildings, flying kites on the Barceloneta beach, trying veggie paella, visiting Ari's campus which used to house prisoners and seeing the old 1880s World's Fair grounds followed by the Olympic's areas flags and the Arc de Triumph. We attempted to go to Gaudis very famous house to wach the sunset, but we missed the closing by 10 minutes :( AT nighttime I met up wiht even more Uof Iers who I was soo happy to see! Imagine 3 months wihtout seeing anyone..they were so surprised and happy to see me. BCN clubs are very funny..while techno music plays, they have these violin players come out on stages and rock out. Everyone goes crazy...as if they were pole dancers..but theyre just playing the violin. Its very funny.
Chapter 7: the Return
My flight to TLV (connecting in Rome) left at 5 so by 3 am I gave Ariana a very sad and rushed goodbye and hopped on a night bus; collected my bags and was off. My layover in Rome sucked!
First of all, obviously I was exhausted. The Roman airport IS cool and there is soo much shopping! Like Lamborghini, Gucci and other designer stores just right in the airport. I had lots of fun going through the tourist shops looking at shotglasses, calendars and other memorablia. THEN our flight was delayed. For like 40 minutes while we waited in an awful gate with no seats. AND they changed the airplane so our seats were invalid and it was a "free for all" seating..awkward. Since they got a bigger plane (cuz the other one wasnt worrking, freaky) you could just sit anywhere. Uh this isnt a cheap flight! Whatever, I secured a window seat and all was ok.
However, by the time I got back I had forgotten that it was the last day of Passover and therefore a holy day and therefore no public transportation. Cabs were trying to charge an extra 20 shex for the holiday which I didnt want to pay and I just wandered around really lost on what to do. My exhaustion was totally breaking me down. Finally 2 nice Americans returning from Istanbul were going to Ramat Aviv cuz they were med students and said I got hitch a ride. Thank goodness people in Israel are so nice! That made everything better.
Finally I was home and ready to see what Israel had in store for the next 6 weeks
:)
Amaazing break..had so much fun and was so happy to see freinds from home! Though even better was the reunoin with TLV kids...more cooming soon. Sorry its taken soo long!
Ariana is going to Unversity of Barcelona for the semester - taking classes in pure Spanish and living in a "residencia". Its 20 people in suites/singles with little shower rooms and house maid that cooks and cleans. But no visitors are allowed! So I became her little Anne Frank. Immediatly upon my arrival her house maid was making sweeps around the house so she put my stuff in the room and we began our day in BcN (I still havent changed or showerd since before the train ride to Milan at this point..told you it was the dirtiest day of my life).
Oh. And it was Easter. So everythign was closed. Still..as she explained the city's layout to me she explained Gaudi - who was a very very intersting and brilliant architect who sprinkled beauty around BCN. His designs feel like the piccasso version of architecture to me. I decided that after being uber-tourist in Italy, I wanted to be relaxed, local in BCN. We toured the city center with another cool church and all these windy streets with funky cafes and shops. We decided to stop in an offbeat Tapas restaurant and wound up hanging out there for like 2 hours. We split potatoes with spicy sauce and an omlettle bocadillo. I tried cafe con leche at the end and we just chatted and caught up. Finally as it got later, we snuck me back into her dorm, took a shower and got some much needed rest.
In the morning I was on hididng duty. Luckily Ariana's dormmates are really cool and dont like the residencia rules either and helped sneak me around. Because of the Easter holiday, there were so many tourists around Barca! We started off with a sushi buffet lunch..OMG soo cool and good..sushi and the like come by on a rolling tray (staright out of movies) in the center and you just take what you want. I tried diff sushi, ate fruit, salmon, fried veggies, all diff kinds of asian food. soo fantastic. Then we were off to do mini sight seeing. We saw the Sangrada Familia a very pretty castle/ church. It was the last thing Gaudi was working on but is still unfinished. I refused to go in alone since Ariana didnt really wanna pay to go in again..I'm so over churches anyway. Then we went to Parc Guell - a huge famously designed park in Bcn and took lots of goofy, non-touristy pics. haha. Our legs were still sore from the Cinque and the babiest of stairs were hard to take. I learned pretty quickly how to navigate the BCN bus/ train system..it goes so many places its very well organized. I can see why so many ppl like to study there - its very urban but friendly to Americans. The city is very clean and very organized. Its just kinda..easy. At night, I went to visit my friend Ari in his nice apt by the ocean and we caught for a while. Then we checked out a local BCN club and met up with some U of Iers downtown. Called it an early night for BcN standards (those siestas make everythign so late - dinner is at 9!)
My last day we ran into some trouble in the residencia. I always had to be super quite whenev we were hanging out in her dorm so her maid didnt suspect a visitor. But every day she takes out the trash. So she knocked to take out the trash while I was there! Luckily one of ARiana's dormmates were there too and I ran and hid UNDER HER DESK! I really was a little hidden girl. After the maid took out the trash we all burst out laughing.
The day was spent visiting Ariana's campus - very grand old fashioned Harry Potter styled buildings, flying kites on the Barceloneta beach, trying veggie paella, visiting Ari's campus which used to house prisoners and seeing the old 1880s World's Fair grounds followed by the Olympic's areas flags and the Arc de Triumph. We attempted to go to Gaudis very famous house to wach the sunset, but we missed the closing by 10 minutes :( AT nighttime I met up wiht even more Uof Iers who I was soo happy to see! Imagine 3 months wihtout seeing anyone..they were so surprised and happy to see me. BCN clubs are very funny..while techno music plays, they have these violin players come out on stages and rock out. Everyone goes crazy...as if they were pole dancers..but theyre just playing the violin. Its very funny.
Chapter 7: the Return
My flight to TLV (connecting in Rome) left at 5 so by 3 am I gave Ariana a very sad and rushed goodbye and hopped on a night bus; collected my bags and was off. My layover in Rome sucked!
First of all, obviously I was exhausted. The Roman airport IS cool and there is soo much shopping! Like Lamborghini, Gucci and other designer stores just right in the airport. I had lots of fun going through the tourist shops looking at shotglasses, calendars and other memorablia. THEN our flight was delayed. For like 40 minutes while we waited in an awful gate with no seats. AND they changed the airplane so our seats were invalid and it was a "free for all" seating..awkward. Since they got a bigger plane (cuz the other one wasnt worrking, freaky) you could just sit anywhere. Uh this isnt a cheap flight! Whatever, I secured a window seat and all was ok.
However, by the time I got back I had forgotten that it was the last day of Passover and therefore a holy day and therefore no public transportation. Cabs were trying to charge an extra 20 shex for the holiday which I didnt want to pay and I just wandered around really lost on what to do. My exhaustion was totally breaking me down. Finally 2 nice Americans returning from Istanbul were going to Ramat Aviv cuz they were med students and said I got hitch a ride. Thank goodness people in Israel are so nice! That made everything better.
Finally I was home and ready to see what Israel had in store for the next 6 weeks
:)
Amaazing break..had so much fun and was so happy to see freinds from home! Though even better was the reunoin with TLV kids...more cooming soon. Sorry its taken soo long!
Spring Break Part Who knows
Chapter 4: Jews take Rome Part II
Wed, back in Rome, I resumed heavy touristing - wanting to check out sights missed before. As a break, we went to Apertivo in Trestevre. Tresevre is a cute neighborhood with all these windy streets, each one with little bars and restaurants and typical Italian eateries. Appertivo is kind of like Happy Hour; for 6 or 7 euros you get a drink and a buffet of food. After the stop, explored more of Roma and called it a night.
Thurs aka SEDER!! I came knowing it was passover, and knowing I needed a seder. Chabad offered one for $40 but why go when you can make one? So I made my very first seder (hence the title Jews take Rome). The afternoon was spent looking up recipes and shopping.
In the end I made a nice seder plate by improvising with shot glasses, charoset and bought maror, brought matzah from israel and came with haggadot sent from home by mom; made a festive meal with matzah pizza, soupish and salad and gelato - so italian. A couple IES rome study abroaders came over and we ran through the process alhtough none of them wanted to continue on after the Shulchan Orech (festive meal). Ha I was still happy leading and everyone told the tidbits of info they knew. All in all I was very proud and washed up and cleaned up at the end.
CHAPTER 5 - Cinque Terre
Wake up time was 7 am for me and my friend to hop a train up north. This Italia 4 hr train passed through many famous sites including Pisa which I realllly wanted to see. It was a packed train, unlike the one to Napoli, maybe because it was Friday. We were bombared with old people (who in Italian explained how it was funny that we wanted the window open because we were young) and later, a large Italian family. Very cramped ride. After arriving at the main station in La Spezia, a smaller train was needed to guide us through the Cinque Terre aka "5 villages" linked off the Italian Riviera.
Everyone says its one of the most beautiful places - and it is! It was different than Capri's quaint beauty and instead felt so unique. It was very very touristy but for obvious regions - people of all ages from all around the world come to Cinque Terre because you can hike btwn villages and the outside mountains, lay on the beach coast or sight see the cool aspects of each town.
We took the train alll the way to the last village (each train ride is only like 10 minutes max btwn - some shorter than others). Upon docking at Monterroso del Mar we started looking for a hostel, since we decided to just do the backpacking thing. only 3 minutes after getting off the train..who shows up? ARIANA AND HER 2 FRIENDS!! Turns out they had extra room in their hotel so we could stay! PERFECT!
AFter buying a train/ hike pass, we went back to Riomaggiore aka the 1st village, checked our luggage and began the hikes. The first path btwn Riomaggiore and Manarola is only 20 minutes long and is notoriously easy. Its dubbed the "Via del Amore" for its nice paved coastal path and beautiful surrounding flora. However, it was littered with graffiti which made it so sad for me considering its a "World Heritage Site". Couples had sprinkled initials ON cacti or walls..it took away from the natural wildlife. We ventured on for the next path btwn Manarola and Corniglia. While it was still paved, it was alittle harder and had bits of uphill. Still off the coast, it was beautiufl to look at and only took about an hour to get between. After doing 2 easy little hikes, we were looking for adventure and hoping to find it in Corniglia.
Unfort this 3rd village is situated on a mountain and the only way to get up really is to walk up 366 stairs! Soooo UP we went! Finally at the top of the city we walked around, grabbed some water and searched out a beaten path into the mountains. Finally we found it hidden btwn alleys: 7a. We prob should have read the sign that said it was ranked "Difficult". But we didnt!
So UP more we went! UP and UP and UP. So many stairs winding us up the mountain, away from the villages. While the view was fantastic, the sun was beating down on us and we couldnt help but sweat and huff and puff. It never seemed to end either..When the stairs part ended, the uphill ramps began. Big step ups over fallen trees and OK OK it was a fantastic hike but it was a brutal 1.5 uphill hike that totally kicked my butt! We kept encountering backpackers walking down, so clearly we had gone the wrong way. FInALLY we came to the part were 7a split E and W...we decided to say Byeee to 7a and hello to path 6D!
6D was a very strange path. After a little more uphill, we just came back to a long plain of straight..thankfully. it took us through cute little water collecting homes and finally we left the forest and found ourselves treking through people's farming! There were little machines that climbed the mountains, picking lemons and grapes. It was so cool..we were walking through people's property. It was a gorgeous view where you could see straight down to the sea, but no sign of either of the neighborborhing villages. UNTIL..we started walking into people's HOMES! I'm not kidding, part of our hike took us around someone's backyard where they were doing construction. We waved and continued to take the path through their vegetable garden..through their sheep farm. Talk about surreal - you cant get any more authentic Italian village than that! IT was a nice spin from the touristy Cinque Terre towns but after already 2.5 hrs of hiking, we were getting alittle sick of this mountain. Finally we found ourselves at the end at a town called Volastra. Small and cute located at the top of the mountain, close to Manarola. A quick walk through the town brought us to the continuing end of 6D...another hour of DOWNHILL.
So now that our calves had the workout of a lifetime, it was time to give our quads a go.
It was basically straight stairs down - if you can call them stairs. They were landscaped grass outlined by stone and each one slanted in each direction. To walk quickly, we had to walk on the stone part and not the center grass..but the unevenness started to hurt our feet after 20 minutes. It was def a good 45 minutes to get allll the way down, walking on a couple city roads along the way. We honestly had no idea what to do excpet just keep walking down and hoping it would end! ITs funny to imagine that thats the path people might have to take to work or school or visitng their friends house. UGH.
FINALLY FINALLY we were in the center of Manarola..our legs shaking alittle. We strolled through the city, grabbed a gelato sandwhiched in sweet rolls..great way to end the hike! A train ride back to Riomaggiore and we found Ariana waiting for us!
Exhausted, we were unfort in store for more hiking. Riomagiorre is ALSO located on the top of a hill..I guess every town is? So here I am, lugging my huge suitcase up a veryyy slanted street. And her hotel was located literally at the top of a huge hill in the middle of nowhere. We walked up so many flights of stairs and even if they were alittle shallow, the grueling hikes before made it that much harder.
I've never taken a more relieving shower. The hotel was so funny. It was a attic of a little cabin decorated in red and white with a slanting ceilings and heart pillows. OUr neighbors were a bunch of loud drunk Americans. Whatever atleat the view was good.
Cinque Terre is also well known for its pesto..and the 5 of us agreed that was not something to miss. Our meal consisted of pesto bruchetta, pesto lasagna and pesto noodles. Fantastic. In midst of our meal, we heard a procession. IT was GOOD FRIDAY! All these people dressed in Priestal garb were parading down the main Riomaggiore street, holding a speaker where someone was reciting Italian/Latin? verses. Atleast 200 people were marching, holding candles. But then I saw 2 weird things: one was a stretcher with a statue of Jesus lying in it. The other was a platform carrying a Statue of Mary with knives in her heart? Very strange. They spoke for a while then turned around and walked back towards the church. Only in the Christrian holy land.
We were all sooo tired and passed out early, laughing at the absurdity of our day. The 24 hrs ish: Saturday - Sun I'd like to refer to as the dirtiest day of my life.
Woke up at 9 am since Ariana had to check out, they were headed to Milan early while we were staying for another half a day. Its actually impossible to eat salads or fish in Italy. I was so surprised. Especially for a kid on a budget..the cheapest thing you can find is pizza. No restaurants sell salads! I demanded a banana for breakfast, my body felt so deprived after months of Israeli food = always fruits and veggies.
So we checked our luggage again and decided we wanted some easier hikes. Our orig plan was to take the train to Corniglia and hike to Monterroso. Unfort we missed the train and did the same first 2 paths: Riomaggiore - Corniglia..in prob about an hr. It was much harder this time and our muscles ached. Luckily the train came in Corniglia and we finalllly made it to Vernazza, the 4th town. Our intention really was for an easy hike. Ooops. Ariana told us the day before about the "accidental mountain climb"..Well that would be the Vernazza to Monterrosoo hike. All of a sudden, I'm climbing stairs, rocks about 40 minutes straight uphill. Def needed a couple pauses after the day before. Sweating, we embarked on the rest of the hike. It was a 1.45 hr hike but some of it was crazy! the paths were so narrow! One person could barely walk across and there were no warning signs..Parents carrying babies were walkign across, dogs! Everyone! And if you slipped, it was a good 20 ft down to a cliff..crazy. It was a very pretty hike and we walked next to water and pretty forestry. I found out later that my friend Jason had actually slipped on a couple of wet stairs and fell and badly hurt himself. Seriously THAT is how ridiculous this hike was..it was just not safe to not have any warning signs. Needless to say we were alittle pissed we didnt have any forewarning about it. It did feel great to conque ANOTHER mountain! We were alittle giggly about the people at the base of the mountain who were huffing and puffing about a couple of stairs -- "like goodluck buddies". We kept meeting European families or couples who were just not dressed for the occasion - in like street pants and button downs. Seriously Europe needs some warning signs.
After a great sweaty hike, we ruled out any more. Grabbed pesto lunch at a Monterroso restaurant and slept on the sandy beach for about hour. Changed into street clothes and grabbed some Cinque souveniours like Limoncino (Lemoncello's counterpart) and pesto of course! Around 6 our train for Milan came and we secured our own compartment thank gosh. Italian trains have Harry Potter style compartments where its 6 ina room and a door to the outside. We slept and snacked thankfully. Around 9 or 10 we pulled into Milan. Once again wihtout plans. While we knew people staying around, we were having a very hard time securing a place to put our luggage so we could go out or do something. The train stations luggage compartment opend at 6 am and we though that would be bad timing when having to catch an 8 am flight to Barcelona. Soooo...we slept in the train station! In one of those "waiting terminals". IT was so dirty/ wierd/ there were lots of travelers and homeless ppl sleeping. We managed to each find a bench to oursleves away from the more smellier areas. It wasnt the best sleep I've ever had..at all. But what can you do? Very backpackerish. I awoke at 430 am with a man sitting next to me. I almost kicked him I was so startled. It was at that point that I realized I could not wait in that terminal anymore and left to go outside, find a bathroom (the train station's were closed until 6!) and find the bus.
We grabbed the earliest bus to the airprot at 5 am and basically the next 3 hours were a blur btwn sleeping on the bus and sleeping on the plane. At 10 am we landed in Barcelona and I decided to check my big bag at the airport and just carry around a duffle since it would make everything just easier when sneaking around. I said goodbye to my friend - who was off for more out of country adventures, took a bus to the city square and prayed me and Ariana would be able to meet up ok without phones. An hour later she showed up and thus began my next chapter....
Wed, back in Rome, I resumed heavy touristing - wanting to check out sights missed before. As a break, we went to Apertivo in Trestevre. Tresevre is a cute neighborhood with all these windy streets, each one with little bars and restaurants and typical Italian eateries. Appertivo is kind of like Happy Hour; for 6 or 7 euros you get a drink and a buffet of food. After the stop, explored more of Roma and called it a night.
Thurs aka SEDER!! I came knowing it was passover, and knowing I needed a seder. Chabad offered one for $40 but why go when you can make one? So I made my very first seder (hence the title Jews take Rome). The afternoon was spent looking up recipes and shopping.
In the end I made a nice seder plate by improvising with shot glasses, charoset and bought maror, brought matzah from israel and came with haggadot sent from home by mom; made a festive meal with matzah pizza, soupish and salad and gelato - so italian. A couple IES rome study abroaders came over and we ran through the process alhtough none of them wanted to continue on after the Shulchan Orech (festive meal). Ha I was still happy leading and everyone told the tidbits of info they knew. All in all I was very proud and washed up and cleaned up at the end.
CHAPTER 5 - Cinque Terre
Wake up time was 7 am for me and my friend to hop a train up north. This Italia 4 hr train passed through many famous sites including Pisa which I realllly wanted to see. It was a packed train, unlike the one to Napoli, maybe because it was Friday. We were bombared with old people (who in Italian explained how it was funny that we wanted the window open because we were young) and later, a large Italian family. Very cramped ride. After arriving at the main station in La Spezia, a smaller train was needed to guide us through the Cinque Terre aka "5 villages" linked off the Italian Riviera.
Everyone says its one of the most beautiful places - and it is! It was different than Capri's quaint beauty and instead felt so unique. It was very very touristy but for obvious regions - people of all ages from all around the world come to Cinque Terre because you can hike btwn villages and the outside mountains, lay on the beach coast or sight see the cool aspects of each town.
We took the train alll the way to the last village (each train ride is only like 10 minutes max btwn - some shorter than others). Upon docking at Monterroso del Mar we started looking for a hostel, since we decided to just do the backpacking thing. only 3 minutes after getting off the train..who shows up? ARIANA AND HER 2 FRIENDS!! Turns out they had extra room in their hotel so we could stay! PERFECT!
AFter buying a train/ hike pass, we went back to Riomaggiore aka the 1st village, checked our luggage and began the hikes. The first path btwn Riomaggiore and Manarola is only 20 minutes long and is notoriously easy. Its dubbed the "Via del Amore" for its nice paved coastal path and beautiful surrounding flora. However, it was littered with graffiti which made it so sad for me considering its a "World Heritage Site". Couples had sprinkled initials ON cacti or walls..it took away from the natural wildlife. We ventured on for the next path btwn Manarola and Corniglia. While it was still paved, it was alittle harder and had bits of uphill. Still off the coast, it was beautiufl to look at and only took about an hour to get between. After doing 2 easy little hikes, we were looking for adventure and hoping to find it in Corniglia.
Unfort this 3rd village is situated on a mountain and the only way to get up really is to walk up 366 stairs! Soooo UP we went! Finally at the top of the city we walked around, grabbed some water and searched out a beaten path into the mountains. Finally we found it hidden btwn alleys: 7a. We prob should have read the sign that said it was ranked "Difficult". But we didnt!
So UP more we went! UP and UP and UP. So many stairs winding us up the mountain, away from the villages. While the view was fantastic, the sun was beating down on us and we couldnt help but sweat and huff and puff. It never seemed to end either..When the stairs part ended, the uphill ramps began. Big step ups over fallen trees and OK OK it was a fantastic hike but it was a brutal 1.5 uphill hike that totally kicked my butt! We kept encountering backpackers walking down, so clearly we had gone the wrong way. FInALLY we came to the part were 7a split E and W...we decided to say Byeee to 7a and hello to path 6D!
6D was a very strange path. After a little more uphill, we just came back to a long plain of straight..thankfully. it took us through cute little water collecting homes and finally we left the forest and found ourselves treking through people's farming! There were little machines that climbed the mountains, picking lemons and grapes. It was so cool..we were walking through people's property. It was a gorgeous view where you could see straight down to the sea, but no sign of either of the neighborborhing villages. UNTIL..we started walking into people's HOMES! I'm not kidding, part of our hike took us around someone's backyard where they were doing construction. We waved and continued to take the path through their vegetable garden..through their sheep farm. Talk about surreal - you cant get any more authentic Italian village than that! IT was a nice spin from the touristy Cinque Terre towns but after already 2.5 hrs of hiking, we were getting alittle sick of this mountain. Finally we found ourselves at the end at a town called Volastra. Small and cute located at the top of the mountain, close to Manarola. A quick walk through the town brought us to the continuing end of 6D...another hour of DOWNHILL.
So now that our calves had the workout of a lifetime, it was time to give our quads a go.
It was basically straight stairs down - if you can call them stairs. They were landscaped grass outlined by stone and each one slanted in each direction. To walk quickly, we had to walk on the stone part and not the center grass..but the unevenness started to hurt our feet after 20 minutes. It was def a good 45 minutes to get allll the way down, walking on a couple city roads along the way. We honestly had no idea what to do excpet just keep walking down and hoping it would end! ITs funny to imagine that thats the path people might have to take to work or school or visitng their friends house. UGH.
FINALLY FINALLY we were in the center of Manarola..our legs shaking alittle. We strolled through the city, grabbed a gelato sandwhiched in sweet rolls..great way to end the hike! A train ride back to Riomaggiore and we found Ariana waiting for us!
Exhausted, we were unfort in store for more hiking. Riomagiorre is ALSO located on the top of a hill..I guess every town is? So here I am, lugging my huge suitcase up a veryyy slanted street. And her hotel was located literally at the top of a huge hill in the middle of nowhere. We walked up so many flights of stairs and even if they were alittle shallow, the grueling hikes before made it that much harder.
I've never taken a more relieving shower. The hotel was so funny. It was a attic of a little cabin decorated in red and white with a slanting ceilings and heart pillows. OUr neighbors were a bunch of loud drunk Americans. Whatever atleat the view was good.
Cinque Terre is also well known for its pesto..and the 5 of us agreed that was not something to miss. Our meal consisted of pesto bruchetta, pesto lasagna and pesto noodles. Fantastic. In midst of our meal, we heard a procession. IT was GOOD FRIDAY! All these people dressed in Priestal garb were parading down the main Riomaggiore street, holding a speaker where someone was reciting Italian/Latin? verses. Atleast 200 people were marching, holding candles. But then I saw 2 weird things: one was a stretcher with a statue of Jesus lying in it. The other was a platform carrying a Statue of Mary with knives in her heart? Very strange. They spoke for a while then turned around and walked back towards the church. Only in the Christrian holy land.
We were all sooo tired and passed out early, laughing at the absurdity of our day. The 24 hrs ish: Saturday - Sun I'd like to refer to as the dirtiest day of my life.
Woke up at 9 am since Ariana had to check out, they were headed to Milan early while we were staying for another half a day. Its actually impossible to eat salads or fish in Italy. I was so surprised. Especially for a kid on a budget..the cheapest thing you can find is pizza. No restaurants sell salads! I demanded a banana for breakfast, my body felt so deprived after months of Israeli food = always fruits and veggies.
So we checked our luggage again and decided we wanted some easier hikes. Our orig plan was to take the train to Corniglia and hike to Monterroso. Unfort we missed the train and did the same first 2 paths: Riomaggiore - Corniglia..in prob about an hr. It was much harder this time and our muscles ached. Luckily the train came in Corniglia and we finalllly made it to Vernazza, the 4th town. Our intention really was for an easy hike. Ooops. Ariana told us the day before about the "accidental mountain climb"..Well that would be the Vernazza to Monterrosoo hike. All of a sudden, I'm climbing stairs, rocks about 40 minutes straight uphill. Def needed a couple pauses after the day before. Sweating, we embarked on the rest of the hike. It was a 1.45 hr hike but some of it was crazy! the paths were so narrow! One person could barely walk across and there were no warning signs..Parents carrying babies were walkign across, dogs! Everyone! And if you slipped, it was a good 20 ft down to a cliff..crazy. It was a very pretty hike and we walked next to water and pretty forestry. I found out later that my friend Jason had actually slipped on a couple of wet stairs and fell and badly hurt himself. Seriously THAT is how ridiculous this hike was..it was just not safe to not have any warning signs. Needless to say we were alittle pissed we didnt have any forewarning about it. It did feel great to conque ANOTHER mountain! We were alittle giggly about the people at the base of the mountain who were huffing and puffing about a couple of stairs -- "like goodluck buddies". We kept meeting European families or couples who were just not dressed for the occasion - in like street pants and button downs. Seriously Europe needs some warning signs.
After a great sweaty hike, we ruled out any more. Grabbed pesto lunch at a Monterroso restaurant and slept on the sandy beach for about hour. Changed into street clothes and grabbed some Cinque souveniours like Limoncino (Lemoncello's counterpart) and pesto of course! Around 6 our train for Milan came and we secured our own compartment thank gosh. Italian trains have Harry Potter style compartments where its 6 ina room and a door to the outside. We slept and snacked thankfully. Around 9 or 10 we pulled into Milan. Once again wihtout plans. While we knew people staying around, we were having a very hard time securing a place to put our luggage so we could go out or do something. The train stations luggage compartment opend at 6 am and we though that would be bad timing when having to catch an 8 am flight to Barcelona. Soooo...we slept in the train station! In one of those "waiting terminals". IT was so dirty/ wierd/ there were lots of travelers and homeless ppl sleeping. We managed to each find a bench to oursleves away from the more smellier areas. It wasnt the best sleep I've ever had..at all. But what can you do? Very backpackerish. I awoke at 430 am with a man sitting next to me. I almost kicked him I was so startled. It was at that point that I realized I could not wait in that terminal anymore and left to go outside, find a bathroom (the train station's were closed until 6!) and find the bus.
We grabbed the earliest bus to the airprot at 5 am and basically the next 3 hours were a blur btwn sleeping on the bus and sleeping on the plane. At 10 am we landed in Barcelona and I decided to check my big bag at the airport and just carry around a duffle since it would make everything just easier when sneaking around. I said goodbye to my friend - who was off for more out of country adventures, took a bus to the city square and prayed me and Ariana would be able to meet up ok without phones. An hour later she showed up and thus began my next chapter....
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
100 days of life in Israel!
The third leg of my Israel trip has passed without a post..Im guessing you guys are alittle antsy for it then. This past month has been the shift, I feel, from just studying abroad to feeling like i'm living in and being a part of Israel. All the things that made Israel feel temporary now make it feel like home and even though I miss alot, I am truely having the time of my life.
The easiest way for me to recap is to just go by "chapters" rather than by days. So the next couple Chapters I'm going to devote to Spring Break:
Chapter 1 -- Getting to Italy
My flight left Thurs at 3 pm, getting to Rome by 6. However, my morning was: Hebrew at 8:30 and midterm at 10. I was hoping the midterm wouldnt go the complete time until 12...but it wasnt really short. After writing aloott of essays about conversion, circumcision and Reform vs Orthodox (did I mention its a Contemporary Jewish Issues class), I ran to the grocery story to pick up a few snacks to show Italians what Israeli food is about. I packed poprock chocolate, a bag of freshmade pita and some barackas into little crevises in my suitcase so they could go through.
But I was still running late..so I hopped in a cab but lucky for me Haim was not only a speedy driver, but he had the nicest cab ever and he was very very freindly. He actgually gave me 10 of my sheckles bakc cuz he liked me! haha We talked alot in Hebrew and English. So I get to the airport with some time to spare and have the easiest time getting through security that I've had yet (all 2 flights..). Still the lady just let me straight through without having to go through my bags. Waiting in line for tickets I was joking around with hte man in line in front of me. He knew Hebrew, English and Italian. Finally on the plane, I was seated next to a Parisian orthodox family - very interesting and I tried to sleep on an Alitilia plane which isss not easy haha.
Italy is a very green country. Flew over sooo much green. Alitalia's chairs were green! So i'm happy butt I land in Rome and my phone doesnt work! Turns out that while Verizon has capitable carriers in Israel; it has NONE in Europe..so I had no connection to the outside world!!!
Luckily again, while waiting in line for my baggage I saw my friend from the ticket counter, Deddy. He was Israeli born but moved to LA and spends alot of time in Italy. Basically a great person to talk to and he showed me to the train and helped me buy a ticket since "Jews stick together" haha. He also let me call my friend so I could actually meet someone and not wander the huge Roman trainstation aimlessly.
Chapter 2: Jews in Rome Part I
So I got into Rome and back to my friends apt just fine..getting a mini tour of the area and how to travel it like a true study abroader. We went out to watch the game and I ran into a friend from TLV!! we had a very long 1.5 hr walk home --- did I mention that Rome is HUGE? We passed alot of diff sights - including one we thought could have been the colleseum (it wasnt..it was the jewish quarter) and St. Peter's Basilica which looks amazingg at night!
So Friday my SB team is quadroubled by the addition of more SBers visiting Rome. A team of a bunch of spanish study abroaders from school unload their stuff in the apt too; happy reunion; then we're off to see Rome. Stops: Pantheon, nice shopping district, the different piazza with fountains and painters (too many similar ones), Trevi Fountain (where we stopped to sit, throw in sheckles and sip on a beer) nd Piazza del Popolo which has a fantastic park onto of all these staris with some good views that we just chilled on. So the group of us are getting Gelato at the best place in Rome ( 2 euros - 3 flavors) and I was upset alllll day cuz my best friend Ariana is in Italy and I cant meet up with her cuz my phone doesnt work...when all of a sudden she calls one of the guys phones! I left her lots of messages and we agree to reunion for dinner...happiest reunion ever!! Yummy pasta dinner and I get to meet her girls from Study Abroad in BCN.
The group of us go out together and I slept at the girls sweet hotel.
Saturday -
Woke up and got delicious pizza outside the Vatican - its cool because in Italy they just cut off slices from abig piece and weigh it to get the price. We met up with a group of U of Iers and dub today what I like to call "The day 8 Jews went to the Vatican". We went to the Vatican museum and were prob a little clueless about some of the things we saw. However- some of the paintings were amazing and we learned alot by following english tour guides haha. There was one mummy that was open faced so you could see the small little dark body - very creepy. Also - we learned that the average ancient roman was only 5 ft tall and lived till 37. One tour guide told her tour (and us?) about Michaelangelo's relationship with the Vatican and all the pain he went through painting.
So then it came-- the Sistine Chapel!! I was really excited to see it..but you have to be silent and whenever people would talk the security guards would sush everyone - it kinda ruins the atmosphere. It also looked different than I always imagined. Still ..how lucky am I to get to see it up close?
After leaving the Vatican a couple hours later, we saw it was drizzling a little around Rome. So we took a hike up to a great look out point and saw the whole city. Then it was our friend Halley's turn to show us HER fav gelato restaurant and we ate dinner in the Trestevre area of Rome, seeing really authentic and local food places and bars. After, we went to Campo de Fiore which is a bunch of cool restaurants and bars surrounding a square. Alot of Americans hang out there and we ran into even more friends. After was the NBA playoff game which we watched in an Irish Pub..followed by late night karoeke. Rome has so many hidden little spots which are so cool to discover, its a huge city!
SUN-
Colleseum and Forum. We opted for a guided tour which proved to be helpful. Our guide in the Forum had a voice IDENTICAL to the man from "Vh1's Fabulous Life" so everytime he talked or enunciated something, we burst out laughing. Both were awsome to see though I wish I could have seen it all lit up at night. We took anice walk and saw the green area which used to be the ancient prison/ where they killed people. We saw the "wedding cake" aka tomb of the lost soldier and finally arrived at the Jewish ghetto. Everyone raves about the food in the Jewish ghetto so we tried a meal there..but it was nothing too spectacular I think. Then again I'm living in Israel haha Everyone was absolutely exhausted from a busy and funfilled weekend so we went to a local restaurant for dinner. Though it turned out that they forgot about us and put all our orders in for 2 hours! All the food was really burnt and we all passed out, defeated.
CHAPTER 3: Ladies take on the South
All visitors dispersed monday morning - towards florence, or like me - down to Amalfi coast. Since I didnt have a phone I hoped that me and Ariana would be able to meet outside of the train to Naples. Luckily I found Ariana and her 2 girlfriends and we all boarded the train for a 2 hour trip. Some people say Napoli has the best pizza and is something not to miss..others say its the dirtiest city. We didnt see too much since it was just outside of the trainstation to a bus..but it was like a crack street; very disgusting. We got really lost and confused searching for the bus but once we arrived our luck changed! We needed to take a bus to the port and then a ferry to the island of Capri. On the bus, we met a nice man who was a police officer in Capri and he told us which stop to get off of and which ferry to board.
Upon boarding the boat, we tried to go outside but the security told us that we cant go out there until the boat leaves the dock. We're sitting on nice seats watchign the water when all of a sudden the man comes to us and tells us to follow him. He then opens up a rope and leads us UPSTAIRS to the ViP section of the boat - where no else could go!! We met the captain of the boat and took us into the cockpit where everyone was steering. What were they doing in the cockpit? Listening to Snoop Dogg! haha what else would you listen to when driving a boat? He also took us out on the deck so we could see everything - Mt.Vesuvias, Sorrento, Capri, Naples - gorgeous!! We were very lucky!
Capri is the island but our hotel was located on the innerland on Anacapri. While Capri looks like a typical beachfront, Anacapri is very authentic. We took this tiny shuttle bus up the windy mountains. There is no way it could be legal in America. There were 20 of us crammed in the bus - working our muscles and holding on for our life as this little cab nearly missed other buses and people walking. Still it was beautiufl to look down on the water. Anacapri is very quaint and authentic. When we arrived the clouds were so low it was foggy! We explored and picked up the side roads quickly. The hostel was the cutest thing ever..decorated in Grecko design with baby blue and gold and lots of greek statues. The owner gave us a map and told us main sights to check out. We wandered up and down checking out the side cafes and touristy shops and desided on a restaurant. One of the guys working there was really cute but an older lady was our server instead. Baked pasta I soon realized is THE thing to get in Italy - the way they bake the cheese is irreplacable. Towards the end of the meal, our server (who spoke English pretty well) told us that her nephew (the guy) was new in town and would we mind going out with him later and exploring the city? Sweet! So we waited for the shift to end and met up with Johnny (the nephew) and his friend (who knew more English). It was kidna of hard to speak to eachother but we explored the city anyway - they took us to see a really nice panorama view of the city from the top of a church. Turns out everything closes in this sleepy Italian town so even though we saw where the one Anacapri club is, it is only open on the weekend. We wound up just sitting overlooking a good view and attempting to make conversation. Communication wasnt so easy so us girls spoke Spanish and hoped it would be similar enough to Italian. On our way back to the hotel, we were escorted home by a dog - who we fondly named "Chello" - after the Lemocello drink native to Italy. Unfort it was so dark that none of us to this day remember what Chello looked like - some say he was light..other that he was dark. So for the rest of our Anacapri trip, we called every dog we encountered, Chello.
In the morning on Tuesday we decided to check out some famous sights. Me and the girls were waiting for the shuttle bus to take us down to the west coast when we saw a car roll passed and stop. IT WAS OUR POLICE OFFICER FRIEND FROM THE BUS! even though he just came from the direction, he picked us up and took us down to the Grotto Azura. He was telling us how safe it is in Anacapri - no problems, no crime. The coast was gorgeous and so blue..of course so was the Grotto Azura aka the blue cave. Though 10 euros was a bit of a rip off, we got taken into this cave where the water GLOWED! It was so bright blue! After our boat trip, we hiked the coast and found some rocks to lay out and sun on. A couple Italian locals had the same idea and were cliffjumping. Was so fun and free. Back in the town, Anacapri had turned froma sleepy town to tourist central! It was intersting that we got to see the same streets in 2 different persecptives and just added to the interesting factor. We lay out on the deck of our hotel, which happened to lay over a field of sheep! How much more peaceful and isolated can you get? At night we watched the sunset from a local neighbor's lemon grove. EVen though the family came home, they didnt mind us sitting on their stoop. The sun set over the water, with lemons in the background - it was seriously the most relaxed I've been.
Wed - we checked out of the hotel and decided to see the rest of the coast. Ariana and her friends had a midnight train to the cinque terre and I was headed back to Rome. Unfort, the first shuttle bus we took took us to the center of Capri, not the port..so we squished onto ANOTHER death cab down to the beach. Still, these little buses gave us the best views of the island and I really feel like I saw alot of it. Our oceanliner back to Sorrento wasnt as eventful as the way there, but the town of Sorrento was so cute! It looked straight out of Disneyworld - pastel houses, lots of porches, the cutest little vilalge. Unfort we climbd so many stairs to get onto the mainland! Ariana and crew wanted to catch a bus onto the beach but I was worried about time and needless transportation so I bid them goodbye and hustled onto a train from Sorrento to Naples. While it was a dirty, weird train it yielded the best observations. I people watched Italian locals - including lots of Italian teens. I also saw the Italian green countryside and Pompeii and Vesuvious up closer. Finally after an hour I arrived to Naples and took the train back to Rome, trying to sleep as much as possible on the way.
-----
Wooah quite the catch up but more to come!! I just figured maybe everyones eyes might need a break :)
The easiest way for me to recap is to just go by "chapters" rather than by days. So the next couple Chapters I'm going to devote to Spring Break:
Chapter 1 -- Getting to Italy
My flight left Thurs at 3 pm, getting to Rome by 6. However, my morning was: Hebrew at 8:30 and midterm at 10. I was hoping the midterm wouldnt go the complete time until 12...but it wasnt really short. After writing aloott of essays about conversion, circumcision and Reform vs Orthodox (did I mention its a Contemporary Jewish Issues class), I ran to the grocery story to pick up a few snacks to show Italians what Israeli food is about. I packed poprock chocolate, a bag of freshmade pita and some barackas into little crevises in my suitcase so they could go through.
But I was still running late..so I hopped in a cab but lucky for me Haim was not only a speedy driver, but he had the nicest cab ever and he was very very freindly. He actgually gave me 10 of my sheckles bakc cuz he liked me! haha We talked alot in Hebrew and English. So I get to the airport with some time to spare and have the easiest time getting through security that I've had yet (all 2 flights..). Still the lady just let me straight through without having to go through my bags. Waiting in line for tickets I was joking around with hte man in line in front of me. He knew Hebrew, English and Italian. Finally on the plane, I was seated next to a Parisian orthodox family - very interesting and I tried to sleep on an Alitilia plane which isss not easy haha.
Italy is a very green country. Flew over sooo much green. Alitalia's chairs were green! So i'm happy butt I land in Rome and my phone doesnt work! Turns out that while Verizon has capitable carriers in Israel; it has NONE in Europe..so I had no connection to the outside world!!!
Luckily again, while waiting in line for my baggage I saw my friend from the ticket counter, Deddy. He was Israeli born but moved to LA and spends alot of time in Italy. Basically a great person to talk to and he showed me to the train and helped me buy a ticket since "Jews stick together" haha. He also let me call my friend so I could actually meet someone and not wander the huge Roman trainstation aimlessly.
Chapter 2: Jews in Rome Part I
So I got into Rome and back to my friends apt just fine..getting a mini tour of the area and how to travel it like a true study abroader. We went out to watch the game and I ran into a friend from TLV!! we had a very long 1.5 hr walk home --- did I mention that Rome is HUGE? We passed alot of diff sights - including one we thought could have been the colleseum (it wasnt..it was the jewish quarter) and St. Peter's Basilica which looks amazingg at night!
So Friday my SB team is quadroubled by the addition of more SBers visiting Rome. A team of a bunch of spanish study abroaders from school unload their stuff in the apt too; happy reunion; then we're off to see Rome. Stops: Pantheon, nice shopping district, the different piazza with fountains and painters (too many similar ones), Trevi Fountain (where we stopped to sit, throw in sheckles and sip on a beer) nd Piazza del Popolo which has a fantastic park onto of all these staris with some good views that we just chilled on. So the group of us are getting Gelato at the best place in Rome ( 2 euros - 3 flavors) and I was upset alllll day cuz my best friend Ariana is in Italy and I cant meet up with her cuz my phone doesnt work...when all of a sudden she calls one of the guys phones! I left her lots of messages and we agree to reunion for dinner...happiest reunion ever!! Yummy pasta dinner and I get to meet her girls from Study Abroad in BCN.
The group of us go out together and I slept at the girls sweet hotel.
Saturday -
Woke up and got delicious pizza outside the Vatican - its cool because in Italy they just cut off slices from abig piece and weigh it to get the price. We met up with a group of U of Iers and dub today what I like to call "The day 8 Jews went to the Vatican". We went to the Vatican museum and were prob a little clueless about some of the things we saw. However- some of the paintings were amazing and we learned alot by following english tour guides haha. There was one mummy that was open faced so you could see the small little dark body - very creepy. Also - we learned that the average ancient roman was only 5 ft tall and lived till 37. One tour guide told her tour (and us?) about Michaelangelo's relationship with the Vatican and all the pain he went through painting.
So then it came-- the Sistine Chapel!! I was really excited to see it..but you have to be silent and whenever people would talk the security guards would sush everyone - it kinda ruins the atmosphere. It also looked different than I always imagined. Still ..how lucky am I to get to see it up close?
After leaving the Vatican a couple hours later, we saw it was drizzling a little around Rome. So we took a hike up to a great look out point and saw the whole city. Then it was our friend Halley's turn to show us HER fav gelato restaurant and we ate dinner in the Trestevre area of Rome, seeing really authentic and local food places and bars. After, we went to Campo de Fiore which is a bunch of cool restaurants and bars surrounding a square. Alot of Americans hang out there and we ran into even more friends. After was the NBA playoff game which we watched in an Irish Pub..followed by late night karoeke. Rome has so many hidden little spots which are so cool to discover, its a huge city!
SUN-
Colleseum and Forum. We opted for a guided tour which proved to be helpful. Our guide in the Forum had a voice IDENTICAL to the man from "Vh1's Fabulous Life" so everytime he talked or enunciated something, we burst out laughing. Both were awsome to see though I wish I could have seen it all lit up at night. We took anice walk and saw the green area which used to be the ancient prison/ where they killed people. We saw the "wedding cake" aka tomb of the lost soldier and finally arrived at the Jewish ghetto. Everyone raves about the food in the Jewish ghetto so we tried a meal there..but it was nothing too spectacular I think. Then again I'm living in Israel haha Everyone was absolutely exhausted from a busy and funfilled weekend so we went to a local restaurant for dinner. Though it turned out that they forgot about us and put all our orders in for 2 hours! All the food was really burnt and we all passed out, defeated.
CHAPTER 3: Ladies take on the South
All visitors dispersed monday morning - towards florence, or like me - down to Amalfi coast. Since I didnt have a phone I hoped that me and Ariana would be able to meet outside of the train to Naples. Luckily I found Ariana and her 2 girlfriends and we all boarded the train for a 2 hour trip. Some people say Napoli has the best pizza and is something not to miss..others say its the dirtiest city. We didnt see too much since it was just outside of the trainstation to a bus..but it was like a crack street; very disgusting. We got really lost and confused searching for the bus but once we arrived our luck changed! We needed to take a bus to the port and then a ferry to the island of Capri. On the bus, we met a nice man who was a police officer in Capri and he told us which stop to get off of and which ferry to board.
Upon boarding the boat, we tried to go outside but the security told us that we cant go out there until the boat leaves the dock. We're sitting on nice seats watchign the water when all of a sudden the man comes to us and tells us to follow him. He then opens up a rope and leads us UPSTAIRS to the ViP section of the boat - where no else could go!! We met the captain of the boat and took us into the cockpit where everyone was steering. What were they doing in the cockpit? Listening to Snoop Dogg! haha what else would you listen to when driving a boat? He also took us out on the deck so we could see everything - Mt.Vesuvias, Sorrento, Capri, Naples - gorgeous!! We were very lucky!
Capri is the island but our hotel was located on the innerland on Anacapri. While Capri looks like a typical beachfront, Anacapri is very authentic. We took this tiny shuttle bus up the windy mountains. There is no way it could be legal in America. There were 20 of us crammed in the bus - working our muscles and holding on for our life as this little cab nearly missed other buses and people walking. Still it was beautiufl to look down on the water. Anacapri is very quaint and authentic. When we arrived the clouds were so low it was foggy! We explored and picked up the side roads quickly. The hostel was the cutest thing ever..decorated in Grecko design with baby blue and gold and lots of greek statues. The owner gave us a map and told us main sights to check out. We wandered up and down checking out the side cafes and touristy shops and desided on a restaurant. One of the guys working there was really cute but an older lady was our server instead. Baked pasta I soon realized is THE thing to get in Italy - the way they bake the cheese is irreplacable. Towards the end of the meal, our server (who spoke English pretty well) told us that her nephew (the guy) was new in town and would we mind going out with him later and exploring the city? Sweet! So we waited for the shift to end and met up with Johnny (the nephew) and his friend (who knew more English). It was kidna of hard to speak to eachother but we explored the city anyway - they took us to see a really nice panorama view of the city from the top of a church. Turns out everything closes in this sleepy Italian town so even though we saw where the one Anacapri club is, it is only open on the weekend. We wound up just sitting overlooking a good view and attempting to make conversation. Communication wasnt so easy so us girls spoke Spanish and hoped it would be similar enough to Italian. On our way back to the hotel, we were escorted home by a dog - who we fondly named "Chello" - after the Lemocello drink native to Italy. Unfort it was so dark that none of us to this day remember what Chello looked like - some say he was light..other that he was dark. So for the rest of our Anacapri trip, we called every dog we encountered, Chello.
In the morning on Tuesday we decided to check out some famous sights. Me and the girls were waiting for the shuttle bus to take us down to the west coast when we saw a car roll passed and stop. IT WAS OUR POLICE OFFICER FRIEND FROM THE BUS! even though he just came from the direction, he picked us up and took us down to the Grotto Azura. He was telling us how safe it is in Anacapri - no problems, no crime. The coast was gorgeous and so blue..of course so was the Grotto Azura aka the blue cave. Though 10 euros was a bit of a rip off, we got taken into this cave where the water GLOWED! It was so bright blue! After our boat trip, we hiked the coast and found some rocks to lay out and sun on. A couple Italian locals had the same idea and were cliffjumping. Was so fun and free. Back in the town, Anacapri had turned froma sleepy town to tourist central! It was intersting that we got to see the same streets in 2 different persecptives and just added to the interesting factor. We lay out on the deck of our hotel, which happened to lay over a field of sheep! How much more peaceful and isolated can you get? At night we watched the sunset from a local neighbor's lemon grove. EVen though the family came home, they didnt mind us sitting on their stoop. The sun set over the water, with lemons in the background - it was seriously the most relaxed I've been.
Wed - we checked out of the hotel and decided to see the rest of the coast. Ariana and her friends had a midnight train to the cinque terre and I was headed back to Rome. Unfort, the first shuttle bus we took took us to the center of Capri, not the port..so we squished onto ANOTHER death cab down to the beach. Still, these little buses gave us the best views of the island and I really feel like I saw alot of it. Our oceanliner back to Sorrento wasnt as eventful as the way there, but the town of Sorrento was so cute! It looked straight out of Disneyworld - pastel houses, lots of porches, the cutest little vilalge. Unfort we climbd so many stairs to get onto the mainland! Ariana and crew wanted to catch a bus onto the beach but I was worried about time and needless transportation so I bid them goodbye and hustled onto a train from Sorrento to Naples. While it was a dirty, weird train it yielded the best observations. I people watched Italian locals - including lots of Italian teens. I also saw the Italian green countryside and Pompeii and Vesuvious up closer. Finally after an hour I arrived to Naples and took the train back to Rome, trying to sleep as much as possible on the way.
-----
Wooah quite the catch up but more to come!! I just figured maybe everyones eyes might need a break :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)