So my 25th birthday came and went a week and a half ago. I had a party Friday night (the 14th) at my apartment and scared my roommates by inviting 80+ people on Facebook. However, I reassured them that I had thrown many parties before and if you wanted a good number of people there, you had to invite a lot more than you could ever want. Sure enough, we had the perfect amount of people coming and going throughout the night. There was definitely a strong camp representation from both the Israelis and Americans here. TASP and related folks were not so proportionately represented and so it turned out to a big GFC reunion of sorts. Absolutely no complaints here! There was some dancing, a few "it's a small world/country" incidents and a lot of new friendships formed or old friendships strengthened. It was a very successful and fun night. :)
The next day, some Israeli friends asked what I wanted to do and I responded with "not make decisions." So they planned for me! These friends: Idan, Meir, Doron and Noam, also happen to be my favorite Israeli guys. They took me to lunch and embarrassed me with the whole singing and dessert bit. As weird as it sounds, even with all the people tell me "Happy birthday" the night before, it didn't really feel like my birthday until that moment.
After lunch, I went to get a massage. Back at home, my wonderful roommates had made me a cake, complete with Reese's Cups, which I still have not seen in this country. They swear they exist at certain stores, but even after eating them, I am not convinced. They even bought me a fun apron (I cook a lot here.) with the statue of David on it, with the head missing. It's really funny to wear!
Since then, I've been working hard and keeping more than busy with grad school work and learning Hebrew. I've started to force myself to use the language more. I now write text messages and emails in Hebrew (when I can) to Idan. He responds in either Hebrew (to help me) or Spanish (to help himself). Also, many people are visiting the country in the next month on various programs. I'm meeting one of my best camp friends in J-town tomorrow night for dinner and another will be in TA this weekend. That's just the beginning of 9 visitors! I can't express how excited I am to get to see friends from home!
Oh, and Thursday night, I'm going to a $25 Christmas Party, with unlimited drinks and sushi. Apparently, it's pretty VIP-- should be celebrities there, too, though I will be shocked if I know who they are! The concept of Christmas here is really skewed. My students had trouble understanding why we weren't celebrating it like we did Halloween or Thanksgiving. I feel like this idea of it being an American holiday instead of a Christian one has permeated throughout the country. There are security guards sitting outside of bars wearing Santa hats. I suppose I can accept their embrace of the "Hallmark" aspects of the holiday, as long as I don't see a nativity scene outside of Bethlehem.
There are full albums on http://picasaweb.google.com/cpasses of my unexpected trip/layover in Paris, the beach hike I mentioned before, random trips to J-town and my recent trip to Greece. Check them out and let me know if you would like to pictures of other things I've written about.
From all of my students here in Israel, "Merry Christmas!"
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Pictures on the web!
I've uploaded all my pictures to the web. You can find the album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/cpasses/
Right now, they are caption-less, you it's up to you to guess what everything is! I'll label them soon. I'm planning on uploading other albums, here, also, of past & future events. I'll post here when I do, so you don't have to have two pages bookmarked to keep up with me.
Right now, they are caption-less, you it's up to you to guess what everything is! I'll label them soon. I'm planning on uploading other albums, here, also, of past & future events. I'll post here when I do, so you don't have to have two pages bookmarked to keep up with me.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Beware: This is long!
Being in a Jewish state means different school vacations. More important/longer holidays equal longer breaks in the school year. I think it’s going to take more than two years to get used to the new rhythm of the school year. Not having few days off at the end of November was so difficult, even though the school year started later than in the States. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been following the rhythm of the American school system for 19 years. So, today is the last day of my week long Hanukkah break. The public school system doesn’t have another break until mid-April, but luckily the universities have about a month between semesters starting in mid-January, so I’ll have long weekends to take advantage of.
I spent my Hanukkah break in Athens, Greece. I have so much to say about it, I don’t know where to start. I will try to limit the "overexcessive" details (keyword meaning there will still be some details) and instead include Wikipedia links to many of the things I saw. Athens is only an hour and half away from Tel Aviv by plane, and we (Ali and her friend Aviel) left in the evening on Wednesday, after the TASP Hanukkah party and my private English lessons. We just checked into our hotel and went to sleep the first night. At the airport in Athens, I was designated the navigator and then realized, as I looked at the map on the train to the hotel, that I can actually read enough Greek to figure out where I am and where I need to go. (For example: ΑΘΗΝΑΣ says Athens.) I thank the Greek fraternity and sorority system that I was not a part of at Texas for this.
After sleeping in, we set out on our first day in Athens. We found a smoke-filled little cafe/bar to eat breakfast in. Almost every establishment in this country could have the words “smoke-filled” in front of it. I am beginning to wonder why we don’t hear more about the European lung-cancer rate. I’d be surprised if it’s not extremely high.
After breakfast (nothing special), we went to a little shopping area in the center of town called the Plaka. We were expecting a little more than an abundance of souvenir shops, and were told by one of the shop owners about the market in Piraeus, a port city, on Sundays. More walking around led us uphill, through lots of cute Greek houses toward the Acropolis (or that’s what the handpainted signs said). They did not lead us to the main entrance, but to a great view. When we found the gate, it was too late in the day. Same for the Roman Agora that we found afterward. So we noted that the archeology sites closed at 4:30 and headed back to the Plaka, where we discovered Starbucks. Seriously. Out of all the coffee shops in Israel, Starbucks is not one of them and we were very cold, so in we went. Prices were about the same as in the States, but in Euros, so it was more expensive. Having a cafe mocha just the way I like it was worth it, though. :)
We ate dinner at a very popular and crowded restaurant. I had beef moussaka & was happy to find that Dad’s is very similar, though not quite as good. If there weren’t so busy, I might have asked for the recipe for him…
Friday, we woke up early and took the metro to Piraeus and got on a fast boat to Aegina, which is the closest island** to the mainland (40 min away, 1.5 hours on the slow boat). We did a lot of walking around and exploring while deciding what to see. Then we hopped on a bus to go to the other side of the island and see the Temple of Aphaea. It was incredible. I was amazed that such a huge sanctuary would be built for one of the gods that wasn’t one of the “main characters”. I couldn’t wait to see one built for Zeus. For lunch, we started walking downhill toward the marina to find a restaurant. Jokingly, Ali stuck out her arm for a ride as a car drove past. It actually stopped!!! The guy was so friendly and gave us his card to call him if we were going back to the port in 2 hours and he’d give us a ride. He also directed us to one of the only open restaurants. Not much is open in the winter season, when only 10, 000 people live there. During the summer season, the man said the island has 50,000!
We sat at a table overlooking the water and ate delicious fish. Afterward, we took a little walk on the beach. We decided to wait for the bus instead of calling our new friend because we had already bought the ticket, but we were misinformed about the time. No one at the marina seemed to have the same answer. At this point, we had an hour and a half to catch the last boat leaving the island. We started walking back to the main road to see if we could find a cab, this time seriously sticking out our arm for a ride. One very helpful man stopped and offered to take us back to the marina where he would call a cab for us. There was actually one already there, waiting to take one person to the port, so we hopped in, too and got to the boat with about 10 minutes to spare! It was the slow boat and we were very hungry when we got back. Upon recommendation by a random person at the metro station, we ate at a restaurant in the Monastiraki neighborhood. I had a Greek salad, which contained a big slab of the best feta cheese I’ve ever eaten and souvlaki, which is just a chicken & tomato kebab with rice or pita on the side. I also had a Greek beer: Mythos. It didn’t taste too much different than a decent light beer, like Amstel Light.
Saturday, Ali and I left Aviel to entertain himself and went to Piraeus again to try to go to another island. We got there a little too late for the morning boats. They run constantly in the summer season, but only at certain times in the winter. We went back to Athens and decided to check out the National Archeology Museum. It was huge! I couldn’t believe how many artifacts and statues had been found. There were a lot of partial statues, but so many were whole and very large. It’s a wonder that they had been preserved so well for so long. There was also a display case of ancient medical tools. Many looked so similar to today’s tools that it made me reflect on what a truly advanced society they had. After eating at a cafe that made us wonder how much “American” stuff the country had before the 2004 Olympics and how much just stuck around afterward (ex: potato chips, Starbucks), we went back to the hotel and took a little nap. We ate in a neighborhood called Peristeri on the hotel’s recommendation. I think our waitress was the only one who spoke English and she was embarrassed by it. But she was extremely helpful in translating the menu, because that was also not available in English. I ordered something they didn’t have so she brought me something that was apparently similar. I don’t know what it was called, but it was turkey and some veggies roasted inside foil. Pretty good!
Aviel learned that the Acropolis, which is normally 12 Euros, is free on Sundays, so that is where we went that morning, before going to the Parliament building to see the special Changing of the Guards. The hill took us a little longer to walk up than we thought, and we stopped to look at the Theater of Dionysus, who was the god of wine, among other things. We didn’t have a ton of time, but we had enough to take plenty of pictures with the Parthenon and the other buildings like the small Temple of Athena Nike outside the Propylaea (the entranceway) and the Erectheon (for Athena, Poseidon and some lesser known gods). The view of Greece was amazing up there! The Parthenon is currently undergoing a restoration project to reverse damage of previous restorations in the late 1800’s and 1930’s, so there was a lot of scaffolding holding it up. It’s still a pretty inspiring sight. The thing that got me about all these temples and ancient structures was the size of all of them. The Greeks didn’t have the motorized machinery we have now and didn’t use metal products. We got to the Parliament just in time to see the Presidential Guards doing their routine with their funny outfits. After the two new guards were in place, we were able to take pictures with them. They are not allowed to move or speak and I was very good and resisted the temptation to take advantage of the situation. Maybe if there weren’t as many people standing around, watching and waiting for their turn. I found out that they get relieved by new guards, without ceremony, every hour.
Because of the rain the night before and in the morning, I was beginning to get what I could tell would be soon be a bad headache and my cold I’d started getting the day before we left Tel Aviv had reached it’s high point, I decided to go back to the hotel and nap with meds instead of going to the market at Piraeus. Turns out I didn’t miss much and I woke up feeling much better.
We got another hotel recommendation for dinner and went to a restaurant nearby called Arta. They were very friendly and the food was delicious. I had pastissio, which is similar to moussaka, but with pasta. We also had dolmas: rice wrapped in cooked olive leaves. At the end of the meal, since this was our last dinner, we each ordered baklava. We should have just ordered one. It looked like we had large pieces of pie on our plates. Ali and I wrapped most of ours up to take back to TA. (It actually lasted and was a nice reminder of the trip when I ate it later!)
Monday, we packed up our stuff, left it behind the lobby counter in the hotel (Don’t tell airport security!) and set out to explore some more archeological sites. Ali and Aviel did a very good job humoring my need to see lots of structures that looked very similar. We went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and got a whistle blown at us as we ignored a rope and tried to get closer to a fallen column for a great photo. My companions found a coffee shop while I explored the Ancient Agora, which was the city center of Athens, with government buildings, temples and a long road that led to the Acropolis. The road, which hosted many actual chariot races, was kept up even through the Roman rule of Greece and beyond. In the agora is the Hephaestion, the most well preserved Greek temple today. It is dedicated to Hercules (his 12 labors were displayed on the front of the temple) and Hephaestus, the god of metal work and another god who presides over pottery.
We realized we were in the same neighborhood as on Friday, so we ate at the same restaurant. I got stuffed (with rice) peppers and fried meatballs, which are not as bad as they sound. :) Aviel really wanted to find the Jewish museum that a fellow Israeli had told him existed near the agora. Most people we talked to claimed it did not exist, including one woman who had “lived and worked in the this area for 7 years”. She and Aviel actually got into an argument about its existence. We finally asked the right person who directed us there perfectly. Unfortunately, it had closed a few hours before we got there. Who closes a museum at 2:30? It wasn’t even Shabbat! We headed back to the hotel and played cards in the lobby until it was time to go to the airport.
When we got there, we were told that we were not on the flight! Apparently, our travel agent at ISSTA (Israeli Student Travel Agency) had originally booked us to leave on the 12th, but changed it to the 10th when she found out the first date didn’t work for us. Problem was that she told us she changed it, but had forgotten (or something!) to validate the change in the computer. Changing the flight wasn’t actually as expensive or difficult as we thought, except for the fact that the check in counter and the flight changing counter were at opposite ends of the large hall and we were running out of time. Now, we just have to bring our receipts into the travel agent and make her fix her mistake by paying us back! (She knows she screwed up because she called me early the next morning to ask me where I was. I was too sleepy to mention anything. We’ll do it in person!)
We got into TA at about 1:00 am and were lucky enough to have Aviel’s brother and sister waiting to drive us home. I will post a link to all the pictures as soon as Aviel comes over to transfer them from his camera, since my is broken. I took some with disposable cameras; hopefully they turned out well. This short trip to Athens left me with a desire to go back and check out other cities on mainland Greece and some more islands. Anyone want to join me???
**There are about 1400 islands of Greece, of which 227 are inhabited (or maybe just 169 as quoted by the Greek Ministry of Press and Mass Media from a 1999 survey quoted in 'About Greece'). Only 78 islands have more than 100 inhabitants. (source: Wikipedia; Greek islands)
I spent my Hanukkah break in Athens, Greece. I have so much to say about it, I don’t know where to start. I will try to limit the "overexcessive" details (keyword meaning there will still be some details) and instead include Wikipedia links to many of the things I saw. Athens is only an hour and half away from Tel Aviv by plane, and we (Ali and her friend Aviel) left in the evening on Wednesday, after the TASP Hanukkah party and my private English lessons. We just checked into our hotel and went to sleep the first night. At the airport in Athens, I was designated the navigator and then realized, as I looked at the map on the train to the hotel, that I can actually read enough Greek to figure out where I am and where I need to go. (For example: ΑΘΗΝΑΣ says Athens.) I thank the Greek fraternity and sorority system that I was not a part of at Texas for this.
After sleeping in, we set out on our first day in Athens. We found a smoke-filled little cafe/bar to eat breakfast in. Almost every establishment in this country could have the words “smoke-filled” in front of it. I am beginning to wonder why we don’t hear more about the European lung-cancer rate. I’d be surprised if it’s not extremely high.
After breakfast (nothing special), we went to a little shopping area in the center of town called the Plaka. We were expecting a little more than an abundance of souvenir shops, and were told by one of the shop owners about the market in Piraeus, a port city, on Sundays. More walking around led us uphill, through lots of cute Greek houses toward the Acropolis (or that’s what the handpainted signs said). They did not lead us to the main entrance, but to a great view. When we found the gate, it was too late in the day. Same for the Roman Agora that we found afterward. So we noted that the archeology sites closed at 4:30 and headed back to the Plaka, where we discovered Starbucks. Seriously. Out of all the coffee shops in Israel, Starbucks is not one of them and we were very cold, so in we went. Prices were about the same as in the States, but in Euros, so it was more expensive. Having a cafe mocha just the way I like it was worth it, though. :)
We ate dinner at a very popular and crowded restaurant. I had beef moussaka & was happy to find that Dad’s is very similar, though not quite as good. If there weren’t so busy, I might have asked for the recipe for him…
Friday, we woke up early and took the metro to Piraeus and got on a fast boat to Aegina, which is the closest island** to the mainland (40 min away, 1.5 hours on the slow boat). We did a lot of walking around and exploring while deciding what to see. Then we hopped on a bus to go to the other side of the island and see the Temple of Aphaea. It was incredible. I was amazed that such a huge sanctuary would be built for one of the gods that wasn’t one of the “main characters”. I couldn’t wait to see one built for Zeus. For lunch, we started walking downhill toward the marina to find a restaurant. Jokingly, Ali stuck out her arm for a ride as a car drove past. It actually stopped!!! The guy was so friendly and gave us his card to call him if we were going back to the port in 2 hours and he’d give us a ride. He also directed us to one of the only open restaurants. Not much is open in the winter season, when only 10, 000 people live there. During the summer season, the man said the island has 50,000!
We sat at a table overlooking the water and ate delicious fish. Afterward, we took a little walk on the beach. We decided to wait for the bus instead of calling our new friend because we had already bought the ticket, but we were misinformed about the time. No one at the marina seemed to have the same answer. At this point, we had an hour and a half to catch the last boat leaving the island. We started walking back to the main road to see if we could find a cab, this time seriously sticking out our arm for a ride. One very helpful man stopped and offered to take us back to the marina where he would call a cab for us. There was actually one already there, waiting to take one person to the port, so we hopped in, too and got to the boat with about 10 minutes to spare! It was the slow boat and we were very hungry when we got back. Upon recommendation by a random person at the metro station, we ate at a restaurant in the Monastiraki neighborhood. I had a Greek salad, which contained a big slab of the best feta cheese I’ve ever eaten and souvlaki, which is just a chicken & tomato kebab with rice or pita on the side. I also had a Greek beer: Mythos. It didn’t taste too much different than a decent light beer, like Amstel Light.
Saturday, Ali and I left Aviel to entertain himself and went to Piraeus again to try to go to another island. We got there a little too late for the morning boats. They run constantly in the summer season, but only at certain times in the winter. We went back to Athens and decided to check out the National Archeology Museum. It was huge! I couldn’t believe how many artifacts and statues had been found. There were a lot of partial statues, but so many were whole and very large. It’s a wonder that they had been preserved so well for so long. There was also a display case of ancient medical tools. Many looked so similar to today’s tools that it made me reflect on what a truly advanced society they had. After eating at a cafe that made us wonder how much “American” stuff the country had before the 2004 Olympics and how much just stuck around afterward (ex: potato chips, Starbucks), we went back to the hotel and took a little nap. We ate in a neighborhood called Peristeri on the hotel’s recommendation. I think our waitress was the only one who spoke English and she was embarrassed by it. But she was extremely helpful in translating the menu, because that was also not available in English. I ordered something they didn’t have so she brought me something that was apparently similar. I don’t know what it was called, but it was turkey and some veggies roasted inside foil. Pretty good!
Aviel learned that the Acropolis, which is normally 12 Euros, is free on Sundays, so that is where we went that morning, before going to the Parliament building to see the special Changing of the Guards. The hill took us a little longer to walk up than we thought, and we stopped to look at the Theater of Dionysus, who was the god of wine, among other things. We didn’t have a ton of time, but we had enough to take plenty of pictures with the Parthenon and the other buildings like the small Temple of Athena Nike outside the Propylaea (the entranceway) and the Erectheon (for Athena, Poseidon and some lesser known gods). The view of Greece was amazing up there! The Parthenon is currently undergoing a restoration project to reverse damage of previous restorations in the late 1800’s and 1930’s, so there was a lot of scaffolding holding it up. It’s still a pretty inspiring sight. The thing that got me about all these temples and ancient structures was the size of all of them. The Greeks didn’t have the motorized machinery we have now and didn’t use metal products. We got to the Parliament just in time to see the Presidential Guards doing their routine with their funny outfits. After the two new guards were in place, we were able to take pictures with them. They are not allowed to move or speak and I was very good and resisted the temptation to take advantage of the situation. Maybe if there weren’t as many people standing around, watching and waiting for their turn. I found out that they get relieved by new guards, without ceremony, every hour.
Because of the rain the night before and in the morning, I was beginning to get what I could tell would be soon be a bad headache and my cold I’d started getting the day before we left Tel Aviv had reached it’s high point, I decided to go back to the hotel and nap with meds instead of going to the market at Piraeus. Turns out I didn’t miss much and I woke up feeling much better.
We got another hotel recommendation for dinner and went to a restaurant nearby called Arta. They were very friendly and the food was delicious. I had pastissio, which is similar to moussaka, but with pasta. We also had dolmas: rice wrapped in cooked olive leaves. At the end of the meal, since this was our last dinner, we each ordered baklava. We should have just ordered one. It looked like we had large pieces of pie on our plates. Ali and I wrapped most of ours up to take back to TA. (It actually lasted and was a nice reminder of the trip when I ate it later!)
Monday, we packed up our stuff, left it behind the lobby counter in the hotel (Don’t tell airport security!) and set out to explore some more archeological sites. Ali and Aviel did a very good job humoring my need to see lots of structures that looked very similar. We went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and got a whistle blown at us as we ignored a rope and tried to get closer to a fallen column for a great photo. My companions found a coffee shop while I explored the Ancient Agora, which was the city center of Athens, with government buildings, temples and a long road that led to the Acropolis. The road, which hosted many actual chariot races, was kept up even through the Roman rule of Greece and beyond. In the agora is the Hephaestion, the most well preserved Greek temple today. It is dedicated to Hercules (his 12 labors were displayed on the front of the temple) and Hephaestus, the god of metal work and another god who presides over pottery.
We realized we were in the same neighborhood as on Friday, so we ate at the same restaurant. I got stuffed (with rice) peppers and fried meatballs, which are not as bad as they sound. :) Aviel really wanted to find the Jewish museum that a fellow Israeli had told him existed near the agora. Most people we talked to claimed it did not exist, including one woman who had “lived and worked in the this area for 7 years”. She and Aviel actually got into an argument about its existence. We finally asked the right person who directed us there perfectly. Unfortunately, it had closed a few hours before we got there. Who closes a museum at 2:30? It wasn’t even Shabbat! We headed back to the hotel and played cards in the lobby until it was time to go to the airport.
When we got there, we were told that we were not on the flight! Apparently, our travel agent at ISSTA (Israeli Student Travel Agency) had originally booked us to leave on the 12th, but changed it to the 10th when she found out the first date didn’t work for us. Problem was that she told us she changed it, but had forgotten (or something!) to validate the change in the computer. Changing the flight wasn’t actually as expensive or difficult as we thought, except for the fact that the check in counter and the flight changing counter were at opposite ends of the large hall and we were running out of time. Now, we just have to bring our receipts into the travel agent and make her fix her mistake by paying us back! (She knows she screwed up because she called me early the next morning to ask me where I was. I was too sleepy to mention anything. We’ll do it in person!)
We got into TA at about 1:00 am and were lucky enough to have Aviel’s brother and sister waiting to drive us home. I will post a link to all the pictures as soon as Aviel comes over to transfer them from his camera, since my is broken. I took some with disposable cameras; hopefully they turned out well. This short trip to Athens left me with a desire to go back and check out other cities on mainland Greece and some more islands. Anyone want to join me???
**There are about 1400 islands of Greece, of which 227 are inhabited (or maybe just 169 as quoted by the Greek Ministry of Press and Mass Media from a 1999 survey quoted in 'About Greece'). Only 78 islands have more than 100 inhabitants. (source: Wikipedia; Greek islands)
Saturday, November 24, 2007
A Defining Moment
I knew I could cook, but for some reason, cooking a Thanksgiving meal, with all the shopping for ingredients, the day before prep and expectation of guests, is a different beast. I did it...in a foreign country! I'm a little proud of myself. :) Granted, I had to ask my parents how for their recipes for everything, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? I didn't have a whole turkey. Apparently, you have to order it in advance here. I had, as weird as it sounds, turkey parts. I think a thigh and a breast. I made gravy, which started out disastrous, but turned out really well. I also had green bean casserole, for which I had to make my own fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. Neither exist here. Well, the soup came in a powder form, but I had to guess how to make it because I couldn't understand the directions without looking up every word. I also made sweet potatoes- changed some stuff from my mom's recipe and made them my own. :) The cranberry sauce had to come from a can, because you can't get fresh cranberries here, but it was still good. Ali got a loaf of bread and I also made a salad, which was so pretty and colorful. Dad even noticed when I showed the family around my dinner on Skype. My guests brought the dessert and wine. Ali and her cousin Geneve were here and my camp friends Lauren and Adam were, too. Adam baked amazing peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and Lauren brought rugela (a delicious, Jewish dessert) from a famous bakery in J-town.
I graduated college 2 1/2 years ago and have been living on my own, with a "real world" job/ in a new country, but sitting and eating this successful Thanksgiving meal that I made myself far away from home finally made me feel like an adult.
My camera is broken, but Lauren took pictures, so when I get them from her, I'll post them here.
I graduated college 2 1/2 years ago and have been living on my own, with a "real world" job/ in a new country, but sitting and eating this successful Thanksgiving meal that I made myself far away from home finally made me feel like an adult.
My camera is broken, but Lauren took pictures, so when I get them from her, I'll post them here.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Flush beats a Straight
I need to start making it a habit of writing my blogs when I get back from Ulpan on Sunday nights. My brain is fried by then, so I’m not going to be doing homework anyway. Ok, so last week’s recap:
Wednesday, the 14th, one of the girls in the 2nd year of the program (cohort 10) was having a birthday party at a nearby bar. I stopped by for a bit. There turned out to be a lot of TASPers there, even though we all had to work the next day. I came home at midnight, though, so I could get a full 5 hours of sleep. Woo! Oh, and Israel is becoming more like many places in the States. You can no longer smoke in a bar or place that serves food. So exciting!!!
Thursday, though I was tired, I went to the gym before going home to nap. That made 4 gym visits for the week. The most consistent I’ve been since I got here! After my nap, I joined some people from cohort 10, Mark (graduated, from cohort 9) and some of their friends for some Texas Hold ‘Em with a 60 shekel ($15) buy-in. It was my first time to play and let’s just say I did not have beginner’s luck. I was nervous and folded a lot. I could have won some hands I gave up on too early. I did walk away with money for a load of laundry (not drying), though. I’ll practice my poker face before I go back. I’m sure it’ll look a lot like my ‘I’m trying to be serious even though you are being hilarious’ teacher face. Afterward, Mark and I met up with Nili (cohort 10) for a beer- on Mark, who won more than me!
Friday, I cooked enchiladas for Shabbat dinner. In addition to Allie and Ali, Ali’s friend Aviel and Mark came. This dinner was really for Mark to repay him for the dinner he made the folks staying in the hostel the first few weeks we lived here. It was good, got rave reviews, but tasted more American than Mexican. I think it was because I had to use flour tortillas instead of corn. I never thought it would make that big of a difference, though I don’t think anyone else was able to tell. If you’re wondering what to send me…
Mark and I wanted to go out, but the rest of the group did not. We tried to go to Cerveza to get some affordable American beer, but it was way too crowded. We went to a restaurant called Hashdera 34. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but it has really good food with big portions and both the food and drinks are really cheap. We sat at the bar and had a few beers. This Asian woman, sitting next to Mark, started a conversation with us, in English. She worked there, but her shift was over and she didn’t want to leave. She wasn’t Jewish, just loved the country and has been here for 7 years. She made us a drink on the house and kept telling us to come back, especially on the weekends when she worked. She even asked for my number, I guess so she could let me know when she’d be there. Interesting...
Saturday, Allie, Ali and I actually went out on a school night again, though this time it was university-school. Geneve, Ali’s cousin, and her roommates were having a party at their new apartment. Lots of new Israelis to meet, fun times, left at midnight to get enough sleep to survive the class-filled day to come.
Normally, I don’t write about Sundays. I’m in class all day and there’s not really anything interesting to say. However, this Sunday, something so exciting happened, I was speechless for a moment. I saw my friend, Idan, on campus! Idan lives in J-town and has been commuting to school while he was looking for and finalizing an apartment (he moves in tomorrow!). Our class schedules kind of overlap, so we hadn’t gotten to meet up yet. Now what is so special about Idan, you ask? If it weren’t for him, I would not be here. (I’m sure some of you are reading this and not liking him very much. I miss you, too!) He was the one that told me, at camp- summer 06, about MASA and showed me all the different programs in the organization. When I found TASP, he’s the one that pushed me to do it now & not put it off for a few more years, when I would be “too old,” as he put it, “Who knows what will be going on in your life then. Do it now before it’s too late and you can’t do it.”
Enough back-story, here’s how I was struck speechless: I was walking towards the stairs during the hour between classes and there are a few people walking toward me. It wasn’t until they were almost past me that one didn’t just look familiar, I knew him! Here’s where my brain stopped functioning. I just grabbed his arm and when he spun around, all I could muster was, “I know you!” After the initial shock of randomly being grabbed, he gave me a big hug and I found my voice. He was in the building early, hanging out with a friend. I can’t believe we’ve had a class this close to each other all this time and didn’t know it! I’m going to hang out with him tomorrow. Yea!!!!
Winter has officially started. We always joke that Texas doesn’t have seasons, but compared to Tel Aviv, we do! Fall was 2 weeks of weather that dropped down to 70-80 degrees. Then one day, it started raining. Some days it only rains once, for a few hours, other days, it’s an on/off all day event. With the rain, came the cold. Granted it’s mainly the opinion of a winter-hating Texan, but the Israelis are wearing jackets and winter clothes, too. Being a wet cold doesn’t help either. My feet were wet for most of the day today because of the large, deep, 97% unavoidable puddle outside the bomb shelter/my room at school. Thoughts of fire places, hot chocolate and blankets are dancing through my head…
Oh yeah, and in Hebrew, Carly literally me ‘it’s cold to me’ or ‘I’m cold.’ I forsee hours of winter fun. : \
Wednesday, the 14th, one of the girls in the 2nd year of the program (cohort 10) was having a birthday party at a nearby bar. I stopped by for a bit. There turned out to be a lot of TASPers there, even though we all had to work the next day. I came home at midnight, though, so I could get a full 5 hours of sleep. Woo! Oh, and Israel is becoming more like many places in the States. You can no longer smoke in a bar or place that serves food. So exciting!!!
Thursday, though I was tired, I went to the gym before going home to nap. That made 4 gym visits for the week. The most consistent I’ve been since I got here! After my nap, I joined some people from cohort 10, Mark (graduated, from cohort 9) and some of their friends for some Texas Hold ‘Em with a 60 shekel ($15) buy-in. It was my first time to play and let’s just say I did not have beginner’s luck. I was nervous and folded a lot. I could have won some hands I gave up on too early. I did walk away with money for a load of laundry (not drying), though. I’ll practice my poker face before I go back. I’m sure it’ll look a lot like my ‘I’m trying to be serious even though you are being hilarious’ teacher face. Afterward, Mark and I met up with Nili (cohort 10) for a beer- on Mark, who won more than me!
Friday, I cooked enchiladas for Shabbat dinner. In addition to Allie and Ali, Ali’s friend Aviel and Mark came. This dinner was really for Mark to repay him for the dinner he made the folks staying in the hostel the first few weeks we lived here. It was good, got rave reviews, but tasted more American than Mexican. I think it was because I had to use flour tortillas instead of corn. I never thought it would make that big of a difference, though I don’t think anyone else was able to tell. If you’re wondering what to send me…
Mark and I wanted to go out, but the rest of the group did not. We tried to go to Cerveza to get some affordable American beer, but it was way too crowded. We went to a restaurant called Hashdera 34. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but it has really good food with big portions and both the food and drinks are really cheap. We sat at the bar and had a few beers. This Asian woman, sitting next to Mark, started a conversation with us, in English. She worked there, but her shift was over and she didn’t want to leave. She wasn’t Jewish, just loved the country and has been here for 7 years. She made us a drink on the house and kept telling us to come back, especially on the weekends when she worked. She even asked for my number, I guess so she could let me know when she’d be there. Interesting...
Saturday, Allie, Ali and I actually went out on a school night again, though this time it was university-school. Geneve, Ali’s cousin, and her roommates were having a party at their new apartment. Lots of new Israelis to meet, fun times, left at midnight to get enough sleep to survive the class-filled day to come.
Normally, I don’t write about Sundays. I’m in class all day and there’s not really anything interesting to say. However, this Sunday, something so exciting happened, I was speechless for a moment. I saw my friend, Idan, on campus! Idan lives in J-town and has been commuting to school while he was looking for and finalizing an apartment (he moves in tomorrow!). Our class schedules kind of overlap, so we hadn’t gotten to meet up yet. Now what is so special about Idan, you ask? If it weren’t for him, I would not be here. (I’m sure some of you are reading this and not liking him very much. I miss you, too!) He was the one that told me, at camp- summer 06, about MASA and showed me all the different programs in the organization. When I found TASP, he’s the one that pushed me to do it now & not put it off for a few more years, when I would be “too old,” as he put it, “Who knows what will be going on in your life then. Do it now before it’s too late and you can’t do it.”
Enough back-story, here’s how I was struck speechless: I was walking towards the stairs during the hour between classes and there are a few people walking toward me. It wasn’t until they were almost past me that one didn’t just look familiar, I knew him! Here’s where my brain stopped functioning. I just grabbed his arm and when he spun around, all I could muster was, “I know you!” After the initial shock of randomly being grabbed, he gave me a big hug and I found my voice. He was in the building early, hanging out with a friend. I can’t believe we’ve had a class this close to each other all this time and didn’t know it! I’m going to hang out with him tomorrow. Yea!!!!
Winter has officially started. We always joke that Texas doesn’t have seasons, but compared to Tel Aviv, we do! Fall was 2 weeks of weather that dropped down to 70-80 degrees. Then one day, it started raining. Some days it only rains once, for a few hours, other days, it’s an on/off all day event. With the rain, came the cold. Granted it’s mainly the opinion of a winter-hating Texan, but the Israelis are wearing jackets and winter clothes, too. Being a wet cold doesn’t help either. My feet were wet for most of the day today because of the large, deep, 97% unavoidable puddle outside the bomb shelter/my room at school. Thoughts of fire places, hot chocolate and blankets are dancing through my head…
Oh yeah, and in Hebrew, Carly literally me ‘it’s cold to me’ or ‘I’m cold.’ I forsee hours of winter fun. : \
Thursday, November 8, 2007
mmm...chocolate
The concert in J-town was a lot of fun. Our program's block of seats was in the first 2 rows! We discovered that all the other programs are way more excited to be a part of MASA (the blanket organization that hosts all they programs). Apparently, MASA even has a song. We were unaware of it, but everytime it came on before the show, they went crazy- jumping and singing it at the top of their lungs. At first we attributed their behavior to their age. Since we're one of the only graduate programs, everyone else is most likely between their senior year of high school and their senior year of college. However, I know people this old and though they have the ability to go crazy over certain things (as do I), they would refrain from acting like fools for something like this. When the show started, some of these people thought it would be a good idea to start mosh pits and crowd surf with the 3 rows of people between the stage and the first row of seats. Maybe I'm being too judgmental, but I had to prevent too many of them from falling to refrain. Know your surroundings, people and be appropriate. (I heard my Dad's voice as I typed that!) Anyway, the songs were all in Hebrew, but I recognized a few from hearing them at camp. The music had a great beat and was very upbeat and energetic, so it didn't matter if I couldn't understand the words!
Afterward, most TASPers headed back to TA. I met up with Meir and a few of his friends at a restaurant/bar. They spoke in Hebrew and I actually followed the conversation and participated (though in English) at times. Meir was very impressed (as was I) because they changed topics a lot. I stayed at his place (AKA: his parent's apt) and in the morning, we made (or he made and I tasted) a fruit salad and we took it and yogurt on a breakfast picnic in the forest near his place.
Up the hill from us was where the soldier and cemetery and important person cemetery is (think: Yizhak Rabin and Theodore Herzl). We went walking through it afterwards, which is not so weird as it seems. It is really pretty and is more like a park with lots of memorials in it. There was a new one for the Ethiopian Jews that died on their way to Israel.
I was planning on leaving after that because it was Friday and the buses stop running around 3 pm, but Meir had to babysit his nieces and nephew and asked if I wanted to stay. Hmm, let's think..yes. His nephew (1.5 yrs) was asleep when we got there and the girls (about 4 and 6 yrs) were at school. We went to pick them up later and all went over to Meir's parents place to play. Luckily, kids' Hebrew is elementary enough to follow and smiles and gestures go a long way. The 4 yr old, even cuddled up with me on the couch and almost fell asleep at one point...and she made me a picture!
When they left, Meir and I met up with his friends (some I had met and some I hadn't) at the top of a mountain above the Sataf Spring just outside J-town.
Everyone brought different snacks and someone had a little camping cooking flame thing to make Turkish coffee. Some of the people had just gotten back from traveling and this was their first time to all be together in about a year, so there was a lot of Hebrew, but again, I was able to follow and once they caught up with each other, they switched to English more often. 
I had to leave after that because I didn't have clothes to stay for Shabbat and another night, so pockets full of treat from his mom, I caught a sherut back to TA.
Saturday night, there was a peace rally in honor of Yithak Rabin. He was killed on Nov. 4th, but they usually have the rally on a Saturday around the date, so more people can come out. There were 150,00 people there!!! In between the speeches, singers would perform. It was hard to understand the gist of everything being said, and it was almost 2 hours long, but the crowd was worth it. Seeing middle school and high school kids there on their own accord was pretty powerful, but then I was blown away seeing groups of them holding balloons and wearing shirts in support of one of the political parties (There are literally a countless amount here.) blew me away. Where else would you see something like that? These flags (there were also shirts) say: Shalom Achshav- "Peace Now"
This banner says: Olmert (the Prime Minister) the time has come to choose. Pretty powerful.
Sunday, after Ulpan, I went with Allie and her sister, Sara, who was in town for the weekend from Prague, to Max Brenner. It's an Israeli restaurant but there are locations all over the world, including one in NYC. It's not a normal restaurant though. They have a limited food menu. Everything else is chocolate in some form. I got a dark hot chocolate to drink and the 3 of us split the 'sharing dish', which had a little of everything, including fondue and a crepe, and a chocolate pizza.
Luckily, I hadn't eaten dinner. Allie and Sara were much more stuffed than I was!
And that was my weekend. Then I had a normal school and work week and now we're back to the weekend. :)
Afterward, most TASPers headed back to TA. I met up with Meir and a few of his friends at a restaurant/bar. They spoke in Hebrew and I actually followed the conversation and participated (though in English) at times. Meir was very impressed (as was I) because they changed topics a lot. I stayed at his place (AKA: his parent's apt) and in the morning, we made (or he made and I tasted) a fruit salad and we took it and yogurt on a breakfast picnic in the forest near his place.
Up the hill from us was where the soldier and cemetery and important person cemetery is (think: Yizhak Rabin and Theodore Herzl). We went walking through it afterwards, which is not so weird as it seems. It is really pretty and is more like a park with lots of memorials in it. There was a new one for the Ethiopian Jews that died on their way to Israel.
I was planning on leaving after that because it was Friday and the buses stop running around 3 pm, but Meir had to babysit his nieces and nephew and asked if I wanted to stay. Hmm, let's think..yes. His nephew (1.5 yrs) was asleep when we got there and the girls (about 4 and 6 yrs) were at school. We went to pick them up later and all went over to Meir's parents place to play. Luckily, kids' Hebrew is elementary enough to follow and smiles and gestures go a long way. The 4 yr old, even cuddled up with me on the couch and almost fell asleep at one point...and she made me a picture!
When they left, Meir and I met up with his friends (some I had met and some I hadn't) at the top of a mountain above the Sataf Spring just outside J-town.
Everyone brought different snacks and someone had a little camping cooking flame thing to make Turkish coffee. Some of the people had just gotten back from traveling and this was their first time to all be together in about a year, so there was a lot of Hebrew, but again, I was able to follow and once they caught up with each other, they switched to English more often. 
I had to leave after that because I didn't have clothes to stay for Shabbat and another night, so pockets full of treat from his mom, I caught a sherut back to TA. Saturday night, there was a peace rally in honor of Yithak Rabin. He was killed on Nov. 4th, but they usually have the rally on a Saturday around the date, so more people can come out. There were 150,00 people there!!! In between the speeches, singers would perform. It was hard to understand the gist of everything being said, and it was almost 2 hours long, but the crowd was worth it. Seeing middle school and high school kids there on their own accord was pretty powerful, but then I was blown away seeing groups of them holding balloons and wearing shirts in support of one of the political parties (There are literally a countless amount here.) blew me away. Where else would you see something like that? These flags (there were also shirts) say: Shalom Achshav- "Peace Now"
This banner says: Olmert (the Prime Minister) the time has come to choose. Pretty powerful.
Sunday, after Ulpan, I went with Allie and her sister, Sara, who was in town for the weekend from Prague, to Max Brenner. It's an Israeli restaurant but there are locations all over the world, including one in NYC. It's not a normal restaurant though. They have a limited food menu. Everything else is chocolate in some form. I got a dark hot chocolate to drink and the 3 of us split the 'sharing dish', which had a little of everything, including fondue and a crepe, and a chocolate pizza.
Luckily, I hadn't eaten dinner. Allie and Sara were much more stuffed than I was!And that was my weekend. Then I had a normal school and work week and now we're back to the weekend. :)
Monday, October 29, 2007
Happy Halloween!
This country is really fond of strikes. Currently, the Coffee-to-Go place next to TAU has a lot of workers on strike, because they have to share their tips with upper management. Some of the high school teachers are on strike, too. The people in TASP in high schools have been relocated or only have to teach half the time. This has been going on for 3 weeks. Also, all the university professors that have doctorates in the country are on strike, for more money, I guess. So, Israeli students are going to only some of their classes, those taught by people without doctorates. This and the coffee strike just started last week. I am in a special program, however, so I have class. I really hope the bus drivers stay happy with their jobs...
I’m in my second week of university classes and it’s weird to think that it’s midterm time at schools in the States. On Sundays, (I know, weird, too.) I have 3 classes: 8:30-10 am= Linguistic Models (theoretical views of language knowledge, processing and acquisition), 11-1:15= TESOL Methods (how to teach English to speakers of other languages), 2-4:30= Qualitative Research Methods (understanding and using the connection between qualitative methodology and the field of education). On Wednesday, I have just one class: 9-12= TESOL Practicum- We visit lots of different kinds of schools every other week and then discuss them and the current controversies around teaching English the alternate weeks.
The classes that sound intense (ie: Qualitative…) are and the ones that sound interesting and fun (ie: Practicum) are, so far. Sunday is a really tough day and it’s hard to concentrate on methodologies and theories at the end of the day. Oh, I can’t forget that also on Sunday, I have Hebrew Ulpan from 6-8:30. I’m going to have to get into the habit of planning my lessons for each week before Sunday, so I can just come home and crash at the end of the day. That’s all I want to do then!
This week, since it’s Halloween in the States, I’m celebrating the holiday with my students. I brought them all candy and I’m reading/telling spooky stories in the dark (with flashlights!) with the 5th and 6th graders. Some of them were really scared! I brought a bunch of my clothes to school and the younger kids are having costume fashion shows, where they have to tell the class what their partner is wearing. (We still have to practice English, after all!) If I see the kids more than once in the week, we’re doing a Halloween mad lib (Yea for parts of speech!) that I wrote, based loosely on my Halloween experiences as a kid. I’ve done only one, so far and it was so funny, I had trouble reading it at some points. Here’s an excerpt: “Dad waits on the sidewalk with the other fairies.” I’m still laughing at that one! I’ll post other worthy lines if they come up with my other classes.
I was just about to post this when Allie asked if I wanted to join them on a trip to Ace Hardware (Yes, there is one here.) I needed a locker lock for the gym and lightbulbs, so I went. Now, this place is only 10 minutes away, but when we realized that we’d have to get Ali and Allie’s boxed desks and chair home, it seemed much further away. If you remember from my move-in story, we were going to have a hard time getting a taxi to take us with our stuff. So, we thought of ways to take the carts home without getting caught. As we were leaving, the security guard stopped us and asked us where our car was. Allie, exaggeratedly pointed across the parking lot to somewhere really far away. Luckily, all we had to do was give up an ID and we could take the carts. Was not so easy as we thought. Heavy cart + tilted/uneven sidewalks + curbs = difficulty + much laughter. I was pulling the cart Allie was pushing. Ali had a lighter cart and didn’t need extra help. I got ran over a few times and probably have a few new bruises. It was hilarious to watch people on the street react to us. If only I hadn’t thought it would be a little trip, I would’ve brought my camera!
I’m in my second week of university classes and it’s weird to think that it’s midterm time at schools in the States. On Sundays, (I know, weird, too.) I have 3 classes: 8:30-10 am= Linguistic Models (theoretical views of language knowledge, processing and acquisition), 11-1:15= TESOL Methods (how to teach English to speakers of other languages), 2-4:30= Qualitative Research Methods (understanding and using the connection between qualitative methodology and the field of education). On Wednesday, I have just one class: 9-12= TESOL Practicum- We visit lots of different kinds of schools every other week and then discuss them and the current controversies around teaching English the alternate weeks.
The classes that sound intense (ie: Qualitative…) are and the ones that sound interesting and fun (ie: Practicum) are, so far. Sunday is a really tough day and it’s hard to concentrate on methodologies and theories at the end of the day. Oh, I can’t forget that also on Sunday, I have Hebrew Ulpan from 6-8:30. I’m going to have to get into the habit of planning my lessons for each week before Sunday, so I can just come home and crash at the end of the day. That’s all I want to do then!
This week, since it’s Halloween in the States, I’m celebrating the holiday with my students. I brought them all candy and I’m reading/telling spooky stories in the dark (with flashlights!) with the 5th and 6th graders. Some of them were really scared! I brought a bunch of my clothes to school and the younger kids are having costume fashion shows, where they have to tell the class what their partner is wearing. (We still have to practice English, after all!) If I see the kids more than once in the week, we’re doing a Halloween mad lib (Yea for parts of speech!) that I wrote, based loosely on my Halloween experiences as a kid. I’ve done only one, so far and it was so funny, I had trouble reading it at some points. Here’s an excerpt: “Dad waits on the sidewalk with the other fairies.” I’m still laughing at that one! I’ll post other worthy lines if they come up with my other classes.
I was just about to post this when Allie asked if I wanted to join them on a trip to Ace Hardware (Yes, there is one here.) I needed a locker lock for the gym and lightbulbs, so I went. Now, this place is only 10 minutes away, but when we realized that we’d have to get Ali and Allie’s boxed desks and chair home, it seemed much further away. If you remember from my move-in story, we were going to have a hard time getting a taxi to take us with our stuff. So, we thought of ways to take the carts home without getting caught. As we were leaving, the security guard stopped us and asked us where our car was. Allie, exaggeratedly pointed across the parking lot to somewhere really far away. Luckily, all we had to do was give up an ID and we could take the carts. Was not so easy as we thought. Heavy cart + tilted/uneven sidewalks + curbs = difficulty + much laughter. I was pulling the cart Allie was pushing. Ali had a lighter cart and didn’t need extra help. I got ran over a few times and probably have a few new bruises. It was hilarious to watch people on the street react to us. If only I hadn’t thought it would be a little trip, I would’ve brought my camera!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
I really live here!
Last week, I got a bunch of cards with my picture and name in Hebrew. Sunday, I got my student visa in my passport and my gym membership card (I'm going for the first time tomorrow!). Wednesday, I got my Tel Aviv University student ID (My name's in English, but what are you gonna do?), and my student bus pass. I paid up front for the year and now I can ride an unlimited amount of buses an unlimited amount of times! Now, I don't have to figure out how to get somewhere using only one bus. Those 3 cards and my bank card (that I already had)looking at me in my wallet really make me feel like I live here. I feel like I'm getting used to the nuances of the culture, too.
My friend, Noam, drove me around on Monday to show me good restaurants and bars. He concentrated on one street and once I go to all those, he'll take me to a new section of town. So, when everyone comes to visit, I'll be ready to show you around!
Wednesday, some people from Cohorts 10 and 11 got together for a dinner at a restaurant at the namal (port). A new one for me...yummy, too! Thursday, after school, I went to get my haircut. Evan came with me for moral support and to take pictures (mother's orders!). I went to a salon recommended by one of the English teachers at school. I've got to admit that my first haircut with someone other than Mom, especially with someone who didn't speak much English (her daughter translated) was a little intimidating. I had to remember to breathe. It was very fast and turned out a little shorter than I wanted, though apparently no one can tell but me. I got through it, though. Next time, I'll try out a place that Lenore (in my program) has recommended.
Evan thinks I look terrified in this picture, exactly what I was feeling inside:
Loui, (my camp director) was in Israel and was kind enough to fund a dinner for some camp folk, mostly repeat staffers, in Jerusalem that night. Noam picked me up and then we sat in traffic- think Friday afternoon- on our way to pick up Doron and Lior and then sat in more to get to Jerusalem. Once we got there, we weren't really sure where to go, none of us being from there. Luckily, Meir was walking there and we picked him up and he directed Noam. We were very late...
Dinner was Italian, delicious and full of good conversation. For some reason, maybe it was all the Hebrew in the car, I was in the mood to speak Hebrew. Loui was impressed, but disappointed I was drinking wine. He said I have been out of Texas too long if I was choosing that over beer. Doron and Noam were quick to let him know that wasn't the case. They succeeded more in embarrassing me rather than convincing him.
After we had dessert at a waffle cafe/kiosk type place, we drove back, with Josh F and Lauren. Doron and Lior went with Aia and Erez, who were going more in their direction. Josh F's program was going on a trip the next day from TA, so he was crashing on the couch (Mike moved out!) and leaving in the morning. Lauren was taking a break from J-town and spending the weekend with me. The slept on the way back and Noam had a great conversation in Hebrew. There was a little Spanish (He's spent time in S. America.) and English worked in, but mostly Hebrew. Noam was very patient and gave me time to formulate my sentences before correcting me if he needed to. We had a long drive, so he had nothing else to do. It was my first real conversation outside of my head and was very good for my speaking confidence level!
Lauren went to the artists' market and food/wares shuk (outdoor, cheap market). I got some pots and pans for the apt because we have gas & a working stove now! I also got a challah for Shabbat...my first attempt at celebrating it since I've been here. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting navigating through all the people.
When we got home, we had a Grey's Anatomy season 4 marathon to catch Lauren up before watching the new episode. For dinner the two of us and Allie went to a restaurant on Noam's list. It was fancy Asian & affordable. They also had an amazing dessert named 'Chocolate!!!' Later, after a little rest time, we tried one of the bars on his list. He was too tired to meet us, but Lauren and I had a good time. Allie was getting a cold and so she stayed home. The bar is called Hashachen (the neighbor) and resembles a living room. Not only is it cute, but it's very close!
Today, I started university classes. I had 3 today and then Ulpan (Hebrew class). There were decent breaks between classes so I wasn't nearly as exhausted at the end of the day as I thought I would be. The building we're in also has a nice grassy hill outside of it, with some trees for shade, like the Education building at UT. It was a very nice place to eat lunch and spend time between classes.
Now, to bed. Teaching tomorrow!
My friend, Noam, drove me around on Monday to show me good restaurants and bars. He concentrated on one street and once I go to all those, he'll take me to a new section of town. So, when everyone comes to visit, I'll be ready to show you around!
Wednesday, some people from Cohorts 10 and 11 got together for a dinner at a restaurant at the namal (port). A new one for me...yummy, too! Thursday, after school, I went to get my haircut. Evan came with me for moral support and to take pictures (mother's orders!). I went to a salon recommended by one of the English teachers at school. I've got to admit that my first haircut with someone other than Mom, especially with someone who didn't speak much English (her daughter translated) was a little intimidating. I had to remember to breathe. It was very fast and turned out a little shorter than I wanted, though apparently no one can tell but me. I got through it, though. Next time, I'll try out a place that Lenore (in my program) has recommended.
Evan thinks I look terrified in this picture, exactly what I was feeling inside:
Loui, (my camp director) was in Israel and was kind enough to fund a dinner for some camp folk, mostly repeat staffers, in Jerusalem that night. Noam picked me up and then we sat in traffic- think Friday afternoon- on our way to pick up Doron and Lior and then sat in more to get to Jerusalem. Once we got there, we weren't really sure where to go, none of us being from there. Luckily, Meir was walking there and we picked him up and he directed Noam. We were very late...
Dinner was Italian, delicious and full of good conversation. For some reason, maybe it was all the Hebrew in the car, I was in the mood to speak Hebrew. Loui was impressed, but disappointed I was drinking wine. He said I have been out of Texas too long if I was choosing that over beer. Doron and Noam were quick to let him know that wasn't the case. They succeeded more in embarrassing me rather than convincing him.
After we had dessert at a waffle cafe/kiosk type place, we drove back, with Josh F and Lauren. Doron and Lior went with Aia and Erez, who were going more in their direction. Josh F's program was going on a trip the next day from TA, so he was crashing on the couch (Mike moved out!) and leaving in the morning. Lauren was taking a break from J-town and spending the weekend with me. The slept on the way back and Noam had a great conversation in Hebrew. There was a little Spanish (He's spent time in S. America.) and English worked in, but mostly Hebrew. Noam was very patient and gave me time to formulate my sentences before correcting me if he needed to. We had a long drive, so he had nothing else to do. It was my first real conversation outside of my head and was very good for my speaking confidence level!
Lauren went to the artists' market and food/wares shuk (outdoor, cheap market). I got some pots and pans for the apt because we have gas & a working stove now! I also got a challah for Shabbat...my first attempt at celebrating it since I've been here. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting navigating through all the people.
When we got home, we had a Grey's Anatomy season 4 marathon to catch Lauren up before watching the new episode. For dinner the two of us and Allie went to a restaurant on Noam's list. It was fancy Asian & affordable. They also had an amazing dessert named 'Chocolate!!!' Later, after a little rest time, we tried one of the bars on his list. He was too tired to meet us, but Lauren and I had a good time. Allie was getting a cold and so she stayed home. The bar is called Hashachen (the neighbor) and resembles a living room. Not only is it cute, but it's very close!
Today, I started university classes. I had 3 today and then Ulpan (Hebrew class). There were decent breaks between classes so I wasn't nearly as exhausted at the end of the day as I thought I would be. The building we're in also has a nice grassy hill outside of it, with some trees for shade, like the Education building at UT. It was a very nice place to eat lunch and spend time between classes.
Now, to bed. Teaching tomorrow!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Beach Hike & More
This is way overdue. Our cohort took another trip on Wednesday, the10th. It was a beach hike from Habonim to Hof Dor in the north, near Haifa. It took about an hour and a half, with some stops for history lessons along the way. It’s not a completely sandy beach, mostly rocky because of the way the water currents flow. Tom, our tour guide, explained it better and I would probably would have been able to remember it better last week. Anyway, it was GORGEOUS!!! Afterwards, we went to Tishbi winery. I think it was better than Tzora. They gave us bread and huge platters of veggies and cheese. They also kept refilling them. At that point in the day, I was paying much more attention to the food than the wine! Their riesling was really good. Here are just a few pictures from the trip: 
That Friday, Ali and Geneve (her cousin that is starting an internship here and also living with us now until she finds her own place) were up north with Geneve’s family for the weekend, and Mike went to a family friend’s daughter’s wedding in Herzliya, 20 minutes outside of TA. So, Allie and I checked out some new restaurants online and went on a date. We found a fish restaurant near our apartment that I can’t pronounce. It’s Shtsupak. You try! There are no menus and when you sit they bring you bread and a bunch of different salads. They give you time to munch and then come to ask if you want fish or seafood. Both of us got fish, so they told us our choices and asked if we wanted it opened and grilled or fried. We got one of each. They literally bring you a whole fish...head and tail and everything. I ate it all:
On our way home, we got ice cream. It’s all more gelato style here and it has all been pretty awesome. Later in the night, we met up with Mike and his friend Jay (formally Josh T, but he’s working on changing his name) at Raquefette’s and then went with them to a new bar to meet up with Mark and Nili. We didn’t really get the fully bar experience because we sat outside, but I’ve heard it is a great place. I’m sure I’ll go back at some point.
Saturday evening, Meir called and said he was staying at his brother’s place in TA while he was out of town. He invited me and whoever was at the apartment with me over for dinner. So, Allie and I went and joined him and his friend Dafna. He made pasta, burekas and salad. Afterward, we were going to go to meet some of their friends at Max Brenner, but apparently the kitchen was backed up and so we could sit but not order anything. We went to a little cafe behind it. I was so full from dinner, but the conversation was good. Also, while we were standing outside Max Brenner and Meir saw Rinat, one of Dafna’s best friends, who happened to work at camp with in ’06. I love these crazy coincidences that keep happening here!
That Friday, Ali and Geneve (her cousin that is starting an internship here and also living with us now until she finds her own place) were up north with Geneve’s family for the weekend, and Mike went to a family friend’s daughter’s wedding in Herzliya, 20 minutes outside of TA. So, Allie and I checked out some new restaurants online and went on a date. We found a fish restaurant near our apartment that I can’t pronounce. It’s Shtsupak. You try! There are no menus and when you sit they bring you bread and a bunch of different salads. They give you time to munch and then come to ask if you want fish or seafood. Both of us got fish, so they told us our choices and asked if we wanted it opened and grilled or fried. We got one of each. They literally bring you a whole fish...head and tail and everything. I ate it all:
On our way home, we got ice cream. It’s all more gelato style here and it has all been pretty awesome. Later in the night, we met up with Mike and his friend Jay (formally Josh T, but he’s working on changing his name) at Raquefette’s and then went with them to a new bar to meet up with Mark and Nili. We didn’t really get the fully bar experience because we sat outside, but I’ve heard it is a great place. I’m sure I’ll go back at some point. Saturday evening, Meir called and said he was staying at his brother’s place in TA while he was out of town. He invited me and whoever was at the apartment with me over for dinner. So, Allie and I went and joined him and his friend Dafna. He made pasta, burekas and salad. Afterward, we were going to go to meet some of their friends at Max Brenner, but apparently the kitchen was backed up and so we could sit but not order anything. We went to a little cafe behind it. I was so full from dinner, but the conversation was good. Also, while we were standing outside Max Brenner and Meir saw Rinat, one of Dafna’s best friends, who happened to work at camp with in ’06. I love these crazy coincidences that keep happening here!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Sukkot break
Most of the Sukkot holiday has been spent at the beach during the days and hanging out at our apartment or Raquefette’s with friends. Monday, October 1st was my self-mandated day to start working out again. I went running with Mike’s friend Josh (now to be known at Josh T) in the park. We found a bicycle festival of sorts. There were competitions and vendors and food. We kept running, but came back later with Allie and Mike. The boys were playing basketball but Allie and I walked around to check things out and ate dinner. The weirdest thing happened when we were watching the bike jump competition. I thought I saw Sean! I did a double take and then still stared at his profile until he turned and I saw his full face. I think my parents are withholding information about our family history, because this guy was Sean’s long lost twin!
Tuesday, Ali, Allie and I went to meet Meir and Josh F (from camp) in a town between J-town and TA, called Shoham. There was a festival there with a free concert by Idan Raichel. We had quite an adventure getting there. We had no idea where we were going, but the Superbus was taking us there! While we waited for the boys, we grabbed some food, which turned out to be more difficult than you would think because Israelis don’t understand the concept of a line. Meir brought his friend Rivkah and we found a spot on a field to watch the show. There were a ton of people there! Lots of sleepy kids, too. :)
Meir drove us back to Tel Aviv and after dropping Ali and Allie off at home, he took Josh F and I out to a bar in south TA. Gal met us there and we had a ton of fun. It was a very good night.
Wednesday morning, Josh F and I left at about 11:30 for the Kinneret. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to Tiberias in the north and then we waited for another bus to take us near the hostel we were staying in. We had scrapped the camping idea when we found out that our knowledgeable Israelis couldn’t come. While we were waiting, a cabbie offered to “help us” and charge us 70 shekels to take us right to the hostel. He was pretty pushy and annoying. We stuck with our plan to take the bus. It would drop us on the highway, but the walk to the hostel would be short. The bus driver was a little unsure of where we needed to go, but dropped us where he thought was pretty close. We walked in the direction we thought we needed to go, found it was wrong, but talked to a security guard who told us the “right” way to go. After about 20 minutes of walking, we decided to call the hostel. They didn’t answer at first, but when they did, we discovered that we had been walking in the opposite direction. Oy vey! So, we turned around and started the right way. At this point it’s about 5:30 pm and the sun is setting, so as we are walking, we stick our arms out to try to hitch a ride. There were lots of cars that pass us, but then, gloriously, we see a car slow as they pass us. They go around a curve and don’t stop right away. We are disappointed until we go around the curve and see 2 young women waiting at the first place they were able to pull over. They are super nice and speak English really well, AND they dropped us off right in front of the hostel!
The hostel is the nicest place I’ve seen since I’ve been here. It’s hard to believe it’s part of the same chain as the hostel I stayed in in TA. After dinner (huge, delicious buffet!), we went to check out the water. We couldn’t really see anything because it was so dark, but we pulled some chairs over and sat with out feet in the water, listening to the sounds of the people camping on either side of the hostel property. When the fish started biting, we went inside and to sleep pretty early. We got to the breakfast buffet, again huge and delicious, at about 9 am and then out to the water. We found a place to lay out and joined the masses of kids and families in the water when we got too hot. I love the beach, but swimming in fresh water is so much better. I wish I had deflated my raft and brought it. The Kinneret is the perfect place for that! It’s ok, I will be back, hopefully to camp. After eating lunch in their little concession/cafeteria thing (and getting a bottle of wine for later), I took a nice, midday nap. The sun was setting when I headed back outside, but Josh F and I hung out in our chairs in the water until it got too chilly. After dinner, we found a TA soccer game on TV. Our original plan was to drink the wine while sitting with our feet in the water, but we felt we needed to watch this game, so the wine got opened early. Halfway through the game, Josh F got a call from Ofir, one of our camp friends. It was the first time he had heard from him since getting to Israel. He was excited he was in the north and said he’d come to take us out after picking up some friends. We showered and got ready quickly and found out when he got there that he lives outside of Haifa...45 minutes away! He took us to a Kibbutz bar and we had a great time. His friends are hilarious! I couldn’t believe how well this trip was turning out to be. In the morning, after breakfast and checking out, we got some more sun and water time in. It started getting cloudy at about 11:30, exactly when we needed to get ready to go. We changed in the hostel’s bathrooms and walked to the closer bus stop that Josh F saw on our way back from the bar. It was literally at the end of the road that led to the hostel! As we were waiting for the bus, we decided to try to hitch back to Tiberias, at the least. We’d take whatever came first. As it turns out, the bus came first..and it was a bus that would take us all the way to TA. There were many stops along the way, and we didn’t get back to my apartment until about 5 pm, but at least we didn’t have to switch busses and deal with cabbies trying to “help”.
I talked to Noam (another friend from camp) when we got back Friday afternoon. He had just come back from traveling in South America the week before and was finally over jet lag, functional and ready to be social. Doron came into TA to hang out with him for the weekend. So they came over to see my apartment and Josh F and I went out with them. Noam grew up in TA and promised to take me out during the week to show me some good restaurants and bars, so I can get away from cafes! On our way to a bar, Noam suddenly remembered his favorite ice cream place that he hadn’t been to since he got back. It was delicious! The bar was fun, too. They had really good music, both American and Israeli. N & D rank pretty high up there on my list of favorite Israelis, so I would have had a blast no matter what we had done!
Saturday, Ali, Allie, Josh F and I headed to the beach. N & D and Lior (another camp friend) were hanging out and stopped by to say hi. They were wearing clothes, though, because they claimed that it’s winter now and too cold to go to the beach. I guess that I was unaware, along with the other hundreds of people there, that 80 degree weather is too cold for the beach. And here I was thinking it was perfect. How silly of me! :)
That night, Raquefette had party for her birthday which is today. Most of the people from the program showed up and lots of her cousins and other friends were there, too. It was the perfect ending to our long break. Now, I need to plan lessons for school tomorrow. I will post pictures when Josh and I exchange ours. Dad, I’m sorry this is long.
Tuesday, Ali, Allie and I went to meet Meir and Josh F (from camp) in a town between J-town and TA, called Shoham. There was a festival there with a free concert by Idan Raichel. We had quite an adventure getting there. We had no idea where we were going, but the Superbus was taking us there! While we waited for the boys, we grabbed some food, which turned out to be more difficult than you would think because Israelis don’t understand the concept of a line. Meir brought his friend Rivkah and we found a spot on a field to watch the show. There were a ton of people there! Lots of sleepy kids, too. :)
Meir drove us back to Tel Aviv and after dropping Ali and Allie off at home, he took Josh F and I out to a bar in south TA. Gal met us there and we had a ton of fun. It was a very good night.
Wednesday morning, Josh F and I left at about 11:30 for the Kinneret. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to Tiberias in the north and then we waited for another bus to take us near the hostel we were staying in. We had scrapped the camping idea when we found out that our knowledgeable Israelis couldn’t come. While we were waiting, a cabbie offered to “help us” and charge us 70 shekels to take us right to the hostel. He was pretty pushy and annoying. We stuck with our plan to take the bus. It would drop us on the highway, but the walk to the hostel would be short. The bus driver was a little unsure of where we needed to go, but dropped us where he thought was pretty close. We walked in the direction we thought we needed to go, found it was wrong, but talked to a security guard who told us the “right” way to go. After about 20 minutes of walking, we decided to call the hostel. They didn’t answer at first, but when they did, we discovered that we had been walking in the opposite direction. Oy vey! So, we turned around and started the right way. At this point it’s about 5:30 pm and the sun is setting, so as we are walking, we stick our arms out to try to hitch a ride. There were lots of cars that pass us, but then, gloriously, we see a car slow as they pass us. They go around a curve and don’t stop right away. We are disappointed until we go around the curve and see 2 young women waiting at the first place they were able to pull over. They are super nice and speak English really well, AND they dropped us off right in front of the hostel!
The hostel is the nicest place I’ve seen since I’ve been here. It’s hard to believe it’s part of the same chain as the hostel I stayed in in TA. After dinner (huge, delicious buffet!), we went to check out the water. We couldn’t really see anything because it was so dark, but we pulled some chairs over and sat with out feet in the water, listening to the sounds of the people camping on either side of the hostel property. When the fish started biting, we went inside and to sleep pretty early. We got to the breakfast buffet, again huge and delicious, at about 9 am and then out to the water. We found a place to lay out and joined the masses of kids and families in the water when we got too hot. I love the beach, but swimming in fresh water is so much better. I wish I had deflated my raft and brought it. The Kinneret is the perfect place for that! It’s ok, I will be back, hopefully to camp. After eating lunch in their little concession/cafeteria thing (and getting a bottle of wine for later), I took a nice, midday nap. The sun was setting when I headed back outside, but Josh F and I hung out in our chairs in the water until it got too chilly. After dinner, we found a TA soccer game on TV. Our original plan was to drink the wine while sitting with our feet in the water, but we felt we needed to watch this game, so the wine got opened early. Halfway through the game, Josh F got a call from Ofir, one of our camp friends. It was the first time he had heard from him since getting to Israel. He was excited he was in the north and said he’d come to take us out after picking up some friends. We showered and got ready quickly and found out when he got there that he lives outside of Haifa...45 minutes away! He took us to a Kibbutz bar and we had a great time. His friends are hilarious! I couldn’t believe how well this trip was turning out to be. In the morning, after breakfast and checking out, we got some more sun and water time in. It started getting cloudy at about 11:30, exactly when we needed to get ready to go. We changed in the hostel’s bathrooms and walked to the closer bus stop that Josh F saw on our way back from the bar. It was literally at the end of the road that led to the hostel! As we were waiting for the bus, we decided to try to hitch back to Tiberias, at the least. We’d take whatever came first. As it turns out, the bus came first..and it was a bus that would take us all the way to TA. There were many stops along the way, and we didn’t get back to my apartment until about 5 pm, but at least we didn’t have to switch busses and deal with cabbies trying to “help”.
I talked to Noam (another friend from camp) when we got back Friday afternoon. He had just come back from traveling in South America the week before and was finally over jet lag, functional and ready to be social. Doron came into TA to hang out with him for the weekend. So they came over to see my apartment and Josh F and I went out with them. Noam grew up in TA and promised to take me out during the week to show me some good restaurants and bars, so I can get away from cafes! On our way to a bar, Noam suddenly remembered his favorite ice cream place that he hadn’t been to since he got back. It was delicious! The bar was fun, too. They had really good music, both American and Israeli. N & D rank pretty high up there on my list of favorite Israelis, so I would have had a blast no matter what we had done!
Saturday, Ali, Allie, Josh F and I headed to the beach. N & D and Lior (another camp friend) were hanging out and stopped by to say hi. They were wearing clothes, though, because they claimed that it’s winter now and too cold to go to the beach. I guess that I was unaware, along with the other hundreds of people there, that 80 degree weather is too cold for the beach. And here I was thinking it was perfect. How silly of me! :)
That night, Raquefette had party for her birthday which is today. Most of the people from the program showed up and lots of her cousins and other friends were there, too. It was the perfect ending to our long break. Now, I need to plan lessons for school tomorrow. I will post pictures when Josh and I exchange ours. Dad, I’m sorry this is long.
Friday, September 28, 2007
My new friends
There was a request for pictures of all the people in my program that I talk about in my blogs, so here they are & then some (in case I mention them later):
Julie & Stephanie:
Adam & Evan:
Keith:
Ali, Leeba, Allie, me:
Lenore, Marty, me:
Mark (graduated) & Nili (2nd year):
Mike (living on our couch...still):
Raquefette & Allie:
(front to back, left to right) Shari, Stephanie, Jen, Dina, Lenore, Allie, Mike, Ali, Adam, Keith Ya'ara, Raquefette, Evan, Julie:
If you would like to know who anyone else is, just let me know and if I don't have a picture to post of them, I'll try to take one. :)
Julie & Stephanie:
Adam & Evan:
Keith:
Ali, Leeba, Allie, me:
Lenore, Marty, me:
Mark (graduated) & Nili (2nd year):
Mike (living on our couch...still):
Raquefette & Allie:
(front to back, left to right) Shari, Stephanie, Jen, Dina, Lenore, Allie, Mike, Ali, Adam, Keith Ya'ara, Raquefette, Evan, Julie:
If you would like to know who anyone else is, just let me know and if I don't have a picture to post of them, I'll try to take one. :)
3 Fall holidays down, 1 to go
So this past Wed-Thurs was Sukkot, a Jewish harvest festival that commemorates the 40 years of walking in the desert. One of my Israeli camp friends (Meir) invited me and another camp friend (Josh) to his sister's house for dinner Wednesday night. The eve of every holiday usually involves some sort of traditional meal. This one is eaten in the sukkah. 
Meir is the youngest of 5 and his whole side of the family and his sister's husband's side was there. The table extended pretty far out of the sukkah. There was so much delicious food and everyone made us feel so welcome. Meir joked that we had to keep our plates filled, but seriously, every time there was space made, someone else offered us more! 
After the meal, we sat around outside, digesting and watching the kids play. Later, Josh, Meir, one of his brothers (Yoni) and his girlfriend (Yael) and I went to south TA to some clubs. Yoni and Yael were meeting friends for a birthday and Meir took Josh and I to a place called Bordel. It was packed and they were playing a kind of heavy metal trance music. Meir tried to volunteer me for a drinking contest. Luckily, he was joking and I got out of it. Next, we went to -1, which is underground and designed to look like a parking garage. This is where Yoni and Yael were. This club was playing more fun songs. One was even from camp and we all did the dance. I told Meir that I thought all the Israelis at camp said they don't ever do these dances. He told me that they only do them when they are goofing around. I was under the impression that most Israelis didn't even know the dances...I have discovered their secret! After a bit, we went to a place called the Breakfast Club. Loss of house type music. Had a weird encounter at the bathrooms where no one really stands in line. Some girls asked if I wanted to go in with them. Thinking this was the only way I was going to get in, I took them up on the offer, until their guy friends started walking in too. Meir wasn't standing too far away, got a little protective and we left to go back to -1. We actually didn't go to bed too late (2:30 am), so we were able to hit the beach by noon on Thursday. 
We had our biggest group yet with 7 people: Ali, Allie, Josh, Raquefette, Evan, Adam and me. Spent some time in the water on the raft with Ali and a lot of time hanging out on the blankets getting coated in sand by the wind.
I'm going camping next week, so look for a blog about that later.
Meir is the youngest of 5 and his whole side of the family and his sister's husband's side was there. The table extended pretty far out of the sukkah. There was so much delicious food and everyone made us feel so welcome. Meir joked that we had to keep our plates filled, but seriously, every time there was space made, someone else offered us more! 
After the meal, we sat around outside, digesting and watching the kids play. Later, Josh, Meir, one of his brothers (Yoni) and his girlfriend (Yael) and I went to south TA to some clubs. Yoni and Yael were meeting friends for a birthday and Meir took Josh and I to a place called Bordel. It was packed and they were playing a kind of heavy metal trance music. Meir tried to volunteer me for a drinking contest. Luckily, he was joking and I got out of it. Next, we went to -1, which is underground and designed to look like a parking garage. This is where Yoni and Yael were. This club was playing more fun songs. One was even from camp and we all did the dance. I told Meir that I thought all the Israelis at camp said they don't ever do these dances. He told me that they only do them when they are goofing around. I was under the impression that most Israelis didn't even know the dances...I have discovered their secret! After a bit, we went to a place called the Breakfast Club. Loss of house type music. Had a weird encounter at the bathrooms where no one really stands in line. Some girls asked if I wanted to go in with them. Thinking this was the only way I was going to get in, I took them up on the offer, until their guy friends started walking in too. Meir wasn't standing too far away, got a little protective and we left to go back to -1. We actually didn't go to bed too late (2:30 am), so we were able to hit the beach by noon on Thursday. 
We had our biggest group yet with 7 people: Ali, Allie, Josh, Raquefette, Evan, Adam and me. Spent some time in the water on the raft with Ali and a lot of time hanging out on the blankets getting coated in sand by the wind.I'm going camping next week, so look for a blog about that later.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Another holiday...
This is almost a week over-due, but here is my recap of Yom Kippur in Israel. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, a day where Jews all over the world go to synagogue and fast all day to repent for their sins. At least, that’s what I learned in America. Here in Israel, where people don’t have to go out of their way to prove that they’re Jewish, it’s a little different. First off, EVERYTHING is closed, starting about 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm the next day. Also the only motorized vehicles on the roads are emergency vehicles. At sundown, people pour outside to meet friends and bike and walk in the middle of the street. Kids are everywhere, racing each other down the long, now safe and obstruction free streets. I went with Allie and Ali to meet my friend Alona. Every year, all her old high school friends come home for this holiday. They all meet at the same place and time to see each other and catch up. Another camp friend, Nitzan, who was in town came by with her boyfriend also. It was the most interaction I’ve had with Israelis at one time. I didn’t even mind that spoke to each other in Hebrew some of the time. It was just one more of those “Wow, I really am in Israel.” moments. I got home at about 1:00 am and slept in as much as I could. I fasted from food, and electronics, not water (because of my migraines) and read a lot during the day. We didn’t go to synagogue because the ones we were interested in (as in: not orthodox) were across town and we didn’t want to do that much walking on a day without food. Judging from the people outside and from what I’ve heard, at the beach, not praying is pretty common. Allie had made a wonderfully huge chopped veggie salad with tuna and cheese that we ate at dinner before the fast and again for our break the fast. Pretty good experience overall.
On another note, we found a new, small bar called Cerveza. I’ve only been once, but I’ll go back.
On another note, we found a new, small bar called Cerveza. I’ve only been once, but I’ll go back.
Friday, September 21, 2007
An educational trip to J-town, a migraine and Indian food.
This post has a lot of link to Wikipedia articles in it. I didn't want to go into all the history of everything we saw. If you want to learn more, just click on the link!
We met on the TA University campus at 8:30 Wednesday morning and got onto a small bus. It was not nearly as big and luxurious as the bus we took on our first trip to Jerusalem...we did not have our own seats. It’s a good thing we like each other. :) Marion and Zvi met us in J-town by the Jaffa Gate leading into the old city. They led us to meet our tour guide and guard. We took a quick bathroom break and I only mention it because I thought it was weird how close the men and women’s bathrooms were to each other in a city with so much separation of the sexes. We literally were standing in one line to go the left or right. They even shared the same sink.
We walked on the walls of the old city, marveling at how large the steps were, especially since people used to be shorter and they probably had to run around the walls when defending the city. We were peering out the spaces in the wall at the modern city of Jerusalem. The stark contrast between the history we were standing on and touching and the new, bustling life we were looking out at was breathtaking. Or maybe it was all the walking in the heat.
I found the back of HUC, where I spent Rosh Hashana 
and our tour guide, Tom, pointed out the famous King David Hotel
, the Mount of Olives, the largest, oldest and holiest cemeteries in the world, 
and the Dome of the Rock. 
We stopped at a semi shady spot and sat and listened to Tom give us the biblical and archeological history of the old city. He was so animated and dramatic; listening to him was really fun and it was easy to be interested and take in what he was saying.
Just outside the city walls is the City of David and we heard a little about the excavations they were doing
and went underground to walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which redirected the water source down the hill. 
Afterwards we went to the Davidson Archeology Center to see a computerized reconstruction of the Second Temple. When we walked outside again, we were taken to a non-public section of the Western Wall that we saw inside. It is where the keystone of a huge arc stairway fell when the Romans destroyed the Temple. It is amazing that something so old had been preserved underground, so in tact.
There is so much tangible history under this city that has not yet been discovered. People build and renovate right on top of it! The city laws only allow home expansions downward and people have to pay for the archeological excavations themselves if they find something (and report it!), so most of the time, concrete is just poured over it!
After finally getting to eat lunch at 3:30 pm in the Jewish Quarter of the old city, we went to visit the public prayer section of the Western Wall. It is the closest, remaining thing to the old temple, so even though it used to just be a surrounding, barrier wall it is now the holiest place for Jews to pray.
The women’s section of the wall is so much smaller than the men’s, and it was very crowded and hard to get to the wall. I finally did and said a little prayer for my family, friends and myself. I didn’t have any paper to write on to put in the wall, but I’m sure I’ll be able to go back and do that at some point in the next 2 years.
When our whole group was finished praying, we said good bye to Tom and boarded the bus to go to dinner at the house of one of the guys on the TASP board of directors. My head hurt, but it wasn’t until I sat down to eat that I realized how nauseous I felt. I ate a little, but the weird lighting on the patio where we were eating was not helping my head. I went inside to sit on a comfortable chair near the bathroom. Everyone that walked by was so concerned. Though it was not nice to have a migraine so far away from my bed (or at all, really!), it was nice to know that I was taken care of, even a half a world away from home. Before we got on the bus to go back to Tel Aviv, my friend Evan gave me ½ of a Tylenol 2 and he reached over the seat and rubbed my head the whole way home. It definitely made the trip bearable. Ali, Allie, Lenore (who was spending the night) and I split a cab home from the university so I didn’t have to deal with another bus. 15 minutes later, contacts out and Imitrex in, I passed out!
Thursday, I woke up feeling so much better and ready to teach. When I got home, I wrote a thank you email to my whole cohort for all their concern. Later that night, for dinner, Ali, Allie and I met up with some of the girls from the 2nd year, took a bus to south TA to a vegetarian Indian restaurant. We had to take off our shoes and we sat on cushions with tapestries over them at the table. There were essentially 2 plate options: Special and Classic. Most of us got the latter, which is only 27 sheks (approx. $6.75) for a large sectioned plate of brown or white rice, lentils, 2 vegetable dishes and a flat pita type bread. Ali and I also each got a samosa. The food was delicious! However, when our waiter was clearing our plates, he spilled them all over Allie! He felt SO bad, kept apologizing and offered to hug her. She was very cool about it & we all were laughing, especially when she said that she thought he was the one that needed the hug!
He brought over a variety plate of desserts and chai tea for everyone “on the house” and sent someone else over to clear the rest of the plates. When we were leaving, we saw him telling the story to someone else, almost reenacting it. Hilarious!
Oh and here is a picture of graffiti in Israel. It says ‘Am Yisrael Chai’, which mean ‘The Jewish People Live’.
We met on the TA University campus at 8:30 Wednesday morning and got onto a small bus. It was not nearly as big and luxurious as the bus we took on our first trip to Jerusalem...we did not have our own seats. It’s a good thing we like each other. :) Marion and Zvi met us in J-town by the Jaffa Gate leading into the old city. They led us to meet our tour guide and guard. We took a quick bathroom break and I only mention it because I thought it was weird how close the men and women’s bathrooms were to each other in a city with so much separation of the sexes. We literally were standing in one line to go the left or right. They even shared the same sink.
We walked on the walls of the old city, marveling at how large the steps were, especially since people used to be shorter and they probably had to run around the walls when defending the city. We were peering out the spaces in the wall at the modern city of Jerusalem. The stark contrast between the history we were standing on and touching and the new, bustling life we were looking out at was breathtaking. Or maybe it was all the walking in the heat.
I found the back of HUC, where I spent Rosh Hashana 
and our tour guide, Tom, pointed out the famous King David Hotel 
, the Mount of Olives, the largest, oldest and holiest cemeteries in the world, 
and the Dome of the Rock. 
We stopped at a semi shady spot and sat and listened to Tom give us the biblical and archeological history of the old city. He was so animated and dramatic; listening to him was really fun and it was easy to be interested and take in what he was saying.Just outside the city walls is the City of David and we heard a little about the excavations they were doing
and went underground to walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which redirected the water source down the hill. 
Afterwards we went to the Davidson Archeology Center to see a computerized reconstruction of the Second Temple. When we walked outside again, we were taken to a non-public section of the Western Wall that we saw inside. It is where the keystone of a huge arc stairway fell when the Romans destroyed the Temple. It is amazing that something so old had been preserved underground, so in tact.
There is so much tangible history under this city that has not yet been discovered. People build and renovate right on top of it! The city laws only allow home expansions downward and people have to pay for the archeological excavations themselves if they find something (and report it!), so most of the time, concrete is just poured over it!
After finally getting to eat lunch at 3:30 pm in the Jewish Quarter of the old city, we went to visit the public prayer section of the Western Wall. It is the closest, remaining thing to the old temple, so even though it used to just be a surrounding, barrier wall it is now the holiest place for Jews to pray.
The women’s section of the wall is so much smaller than the men’s, and it was very crowded and hard to get to the wall. I finally did and said a little prayer for my family, friends and myself. I didn’t have any paper to write on to put in the wall, but I’m sure I’ll be able to go back and do that at some point in the next 2 years.When our whole group was finished praying, we said good bye to Tom and boarded the bus to go to dinner at the house of one of the guys on the TASP board of directors. My head hurt, but it wasn’t until I sat down to eat that I realized how nauseous I felt. I ate a little, but the weird lighting on the patio where we were eating was not helping my head. I went inside to sit on a comfortable chair near the bathroom. Everyone that walked by was so concerned. Though it was not nice to have a migraine so far away from my bed (or at all, really!), it was nice to know that I was taken care of, even a half a world away from home. Before we got on the bus to go back to Tel Aviv, my friend Evan gave me ½ of a Tylenol 2 and he reached over the seat and rubbed my head the whole way home. It definitely made the trip bearable. Ali, Allie, Lenore (who was spending the night) and I split a cab home from the university so I didn’t have to deal with another bus. 15 minutes later, contacts out and Imitrex in, I passed out!
Thursday, I woke up feeling so much better and ready to teach. When I got home, I wrote a thank you email to my whole cohort for all their concern. Later that night, for dinner, Ali, Allie and I met up with some of the girls from the 2nd year, took a bus to south TA to a vegetarian Indian restaurant. We had to take off our shoes and we sat on cushions with tapestries over them at the table. There were essentially 2 plate options: Special and Classic. Most of us got the latter, which is only 27 sheks (approx. $6.75) for a large sectioned plate of brown or white rice, lentils, 2 vegetable dishes and a flat pita type bread. Ali and I also each got a samosa. The food was delicious! However, when our waiter was clearing our plates, he spilled them all over Allie! He felt SO bad, kept apologizing and offered to hug her. She was very cool about it & we all were laughing, especially when she said that she thought he was the one that needed the hug!
He brought over a variety plate of desserts and chai tea for everyone “on the house” and sent someone else over to clear the rest of the plates. When we were leaving, we saw him telling the story to someone else, almost reenacting it. Hilarious!Oh and here is a picture of graffiti in Israel. It says ‘Am Yisrael Chai’, which mean ‘The Jewish People Live’.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Rosh Hashana in Jerusalem
Wednesday I slept in, packed a bag and headed to the bus with Leeba, Allie and Mike. We took the bus to the train station. Mike got on a train to visit his family in Haifa. Leeba, Allie and I got on a bus to go to Jerusalem. This is not as easy as it sounds, because you buy your ticket on the bus and everyone is crowding and pushing their way on to get a seat. It’s ridiculous though, because these busses were leaving every 12 minutes. Allie was going to visit her mom’s friend, Leeba was visiting her cousins and I was going to visit my camp friend Lauren, who is going to HUC. After the bus, I took a quick cab ride with a very friendly cabbie to Lauren’s very nice place! Things are cheaper in J-town and they got really lucky with this place, too. We hung out and watched TV for a while (my first time in 2 weeks!), then walked to HUC for services. HUC stands for Hebrew Union College and the campus in J-town is where all the Reform rabbis, cantors and educators to be spend their first year of their respective program. Then they spend the rest of their time on a campus in Cincinnati, NY or LA. When I was here 8 years ago, our trip spent a lot of time in J-town and every time we stayed at a youth hostel called Beit Shmuel. I discovered Wednesday that HUC and ‘The Shmu’ are connected! Services were really nice and then the students and their guests had a catered dinner. It was so delicious- the best I’ve eaten since I’ve been here! After dinner, we had a camp-style song session, but without all the kids or dancing! We were there pretty late and so just went to bed when we got back to Lauren’s.
In the morning, we went back to HUC for services...which lasted 3 ½ hours. I remembered why I’ve been leading the youth services for the last few years! We had lunch at Lauren’s, hung out and watched more TV. Grey’s Anatomy was on one of the English channels! (Does anyone know when the new season starts? I think I’m going to download them on iTunes.) We went back to HUC at 4:00 for tashlich, the symbolic washing away of sins by emptying the lint in your pockets or tossing bread crumbs into flowing water. We were lead by Outreach coordinator guy to the only natural water source in Jerusalem. It was a good 40 min. walk around the walls of the old city
and down this monstrous hill. I couldn’t help thinking about the fact that we’d have to walk back up it. Along the way, we stopped a few times to get biblical and historical explanations of things were were passing or seeing in the distance.
When we got to the water, which is just a little stream, it was amazing to see ALL types of Jews there. There was a span from the Reform in short sleeves and knee length skirts to the fully covered Orthodox, all praying next to each other and tossing their sins away. The area of town we were in was near an Arab community and there were many police officers patrolling. Before we left, 2 Hassidic Jews (super, ultra Orthodox) came. They were the men, of course and in their High Holy Day attire. Satiny, black, long coats and pants and tall, circular fur hats. If it had not been inappropriate, I’d have taken a picture. Maybe I’ll see some in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur and be able to. On the way back, we went a different (slightly easier) way back to learn more about the area we were in. For dinner, since restaurants and stores were still closed, Lauren and her roommate’s girlfriend made a yummy pasta dinner. Another friend came over to join us and everyone sitting around a homemade meal had a nice, family feeling to it. I can’t wait till we have gas for our stove...it’s coming soon!
Luckily, the sherut (van that runs bus lines) was running back to TA Friday morning. It was iffy being the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana and the morning before Shabbat. If it hadn’t been running, I would have to stay until the end of Shabbat Saturday evening and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. Friday night, Allie and I met up with Gal, a friend from camp ’06, at a bar on the port. It was his friend’s birthday and we got in for free! This bar actually reminded me of the bars at home, with stools around the bar, some couches on the walls and dancing space. Allie and I did a little dancing. It was fun, but the techno beat they add to the songs is very repetitive and I got bored with it. We felt kind of lame for leaving “early” by Israeli standards, but we also went out early, so it was time to retire.
Now, I’m off to spend the day at the beach, floating in the Mediterranean on my raft!
In the morning, we went back to HUC for services...which lasted 3 ½ hours. I remembered why I’ve been leading the youth services for the last few years! We had lunch at Lauren’s, hung out and watched more TV. Grey’s Anatomy was on one of the English channels! (Does anyone know when the new season starts? I think I’m going to download them on iTunes.) We went back to HUC at 4:00 for tashlich, the symbolic washing away of sins by emptying the lint in your pockets or tossing bread crumbs into flowing water. We were lead by Outreach coordinator guy to the only natural water source in Jerusalem. It was a good 40 min. walk around the walls of the old city
and down this monstrous hill. I couldn’t help thinking about the fact that we’d have to walk back up it. Along the way, we stopped a few times to get biblical and historical explanations of things were were passing or seeing in the distance.
When we got to the water, which is just a little stream, it was amazing to see ALL types of Jews there. There was a span from the Reform in short sleeves and knee length skirts to the fully covered Orthodox, all praying next to each other and tossing their sins away. The area of town we were in was near an Arab community and there were many police officers patrolling. Before we left, 2 Hassidic Jews (super, ultra Orthodox) came. They were the men, of course and in their High Holy Day attire. Satiny, black, long coats and pants and tall, circular fur hats. If it had not been inappropriate, I’d have taken a picture. Maybe I’ll see some in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur and be able to. On the way back, we went a different (slightly easier) way back to learn more about the area we were in. For dinner, since restaurants and stores were still closed, Lauren and her roommate’s girlfriend made a yummy pasta dinner. Another friend came over to join us and everyone sitting around a homemade meal had a nice, family feeling to it. I can’t wait till we have gas for our stove...it’s coming soon!
Luckily, the sherut (van that runs bus lines) was running back to TA Friday morning. It was iffy being the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana and the morning before Shabbat. If it hadn’t been running, I would have to stay until the end of Shabbat Saturday evening and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. Friday night, Allie and I met up with Gal, a friend from camp ’06, at a bar on the port. It was his friend’s birthday and we got in for free! This bar actually reminded me of the bars at home, with stools around the bar, some couches on the walls and dancing space. Allie and I did a little dancing. It was fun, but the techno beat they add to the songs is very repetitive and I got bored with it. We felt kind of lame for leaving “early” by Israeli standards, but we also went out early, so it was time to retire.
Now, I’m off to spend the day at the beach, floating in the Mediterranean on my raft!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Shana Tova
Progress on the apt (since move in):
-Curtains on doors
-Curtains on big living room window
-AC in Ali’s room.
-Shelf mounted in my room
-Outlets in kitchen (We can use the microwave!)
-Shower head mounted
-Shower curtain
-Futon/Allie’s bed/stools built
-Tub leak fixed
Last weekend, we hung out w/ my Israeli friend, Nati, at the apt Thursday night. Friday, Mike, Allie and I went to the beach. I bought a yellow raft! The waves were monstrous. Mike had a blast getting body surfing and getting tossed around. I laid on my raft right at the edge of the water. So nice! That night, Allie and I went to a sports restaurant/bar where a lot of Americans go, called Mike’s Place. I met Lauren and her friend there & then another camp friend, Erica, showed up randomly with her friends. Very fun! On Shabbat, I met up with an Israeli, Tal, that worked at camp in ‘02, ‘03 and ‘05. We went to a hummus restaurant for lunch. If you think hummus is good in the States, you don’t know what you’re missing. I hadn’t talked to Tal in a few years, so we sat and talked for 3 hours!
Sunday, I spent the morning at the bank getting the bank guarantee for the apt and then the elementary interns met to share ideas. I feel much better about teaching older kids than I’m used to now. Allie, Ali and I took our laundry to be done. For a little more than $10, they will wash, dry and fold up to 13 lbs. of clothes. They even separate lights and darks. I get them back today. The do-it-yourself machines can get pretty pricey, especially because the dryers aren’t so good. At least this is what I’ve heard. So, this is a pretty good deal. There are even places that will pick it up and drop it off. I may look into that! Then we went to city hall to get the city tax on the apt and water put into our name. Ulpan seemed easier than the first time. Maybe it wasn’t so overwhelming after I knew what to expect. I didn’t try to understand everything that was said, just the gist of things. I also realized that the people who I thought knew a lot, don’t really. I bought some frozen schnitzel (pretty much breaded chicken), cucumbers, a tomato and more pita on the way home, added hummus and had my first real homemade dinner here!
Monday, I met more of my kids and got to know some of the other classes better. I still don’t know what I’m doing after the holidays (when we’ll start the more academic lessons and units), but I’m looking forward to work more. After school, I met with a woman that Mark connected me with. Her family might be moving to Houston in a few months and she wants to make sure her younger kids (5 and 8 years old) will be ready for school in the States because they haven’t had much exposure to English yet. I get to do what I love and teach them the basics! We’ll start after the holidays. The extra money will be very nice.
Today started out really well. I observed a 4th grade class and worked with 3 boys from the 3rd grade. Tuesday mornings are going to be lots of fun! The principal is also thinking about having me work with 2nd graders at some point during the day. :) The last 2 periods, I have one 6th grade class. I had seen Michelle earlier in the day and she said she was leaving and Tami was teaching for her. Tami is the computer teacher and recently became certified to teach English. She has one class of her own and helps with the others. When I saw her in the middle of the day, she was angry that she was "just being thrown into the class." Anyway, I get to the class to take out my group and there is no teacher. I wait 15 minutes, all the while trying to keep them in the room, to stop kids (girls, too!) from fighting & yelling and sending a kid to try to find the substitute or the principal. I finally realized I'm going to have to do something with the kids. After about 10 minutes of just trying to get them quiet enough to play a game, they are still yelling at each other. I would get them almost quiet and then someone would yell out translations of what I was saying and then there would be chaos again. Someone had gone to the bathroom and I walked over and closed the door a little too hard. That finally got their attention, and then another teacher walked in. She made a deal with me. I took her calmer class and she took mine. But that was only for the 1st of the 2 periods. She stayed a little later, but I still had 30 min. with these disrespectful, boisterous kids. Finally 7 min. till the end, I gave up playing a game with them and made them work in their books. After school, I waited half an hour for the bus and then it broke, after going 2 feet. We all waited another half hour for another bus. I am so glad it's the holiday and we have off until Sunday. Shana tova!
-Curtains on doors
-Curtains on big living room window
-AC in Ali’s room.
-Shelf mounted in my room
-Outlets in kitchen (We can use the microwave!)
-Shower head mounted
-Shower curtain
-Futon/Allie’s bed/stools built
-Tub leak fixed
Last weekend, we hung out w/ my Israeli friend, Nati, at the apt Thursday night. Friday, Mike, Allie and I went to the beach. I bought a yellow raft! The waves were monstrous. Mike had a blast getting body surfing and getting tossed around. I laid on my raft right at the edge of the water. So nice! That night, Allie and I went to a sports restaurant/bar where a lot of Americans go, called Mike’s Place. I met Lauren and her friend there & then another camp friend, Erica, showed up randomly with her friends. Very fun! On Shabbat, I met up with an Israeli, Tal, that worked at camp in ‘02, ‘03 and ‘05. We went to a hummus restaurant for lunch. If you think hummus is good in the States, you don’t know what you’re missing. I hadn’t talked to Tal in a few years, so we sat and talked for 3 hours!
Sunday, I spent the morning at the bank getting the bank guarantee for the apt and then the elementary interns met to share ideas. I feel much better about teaching older kids than I’m used to now. Allie, Ali and I took our laundry to be done. For a little more than $10, they will wash, dry and fold up to 13 lbs. of clothes. They even separate lights and darks. I get them back today. The do-it-yourself machines can get pretty pricey, especially because the dryers aren’t so good. At least this is what I’ve heard. So, this is a pretty good deal. There are even places that will pick it up and drop it off. I may look into that! Then we went to city hall to get the city tax on the apt and water put into our name. Ulpan seemed easier than the first time. Maybe it wasn’t so overwhelming after I knew what to expect. I didn’t try to understand everything that was said, just the gist of things. I also realized that the people who I thought knew a lot, don’t really. I bought some frozen schnitzel (pretty much breaded chicken), cucumbers, a tomato and more pita on the way home, added hummus and had my first real homemade dinner here!
Monday, I met more of my kids and got to know some of the other classes better. I still don’t know what I’m doing after the holidays (when we’ll start the more academic lessons and units), but I’m looking forward to work more. After school, I met with a woman that Mark connected me with. Her family might be moving to Houston in a few months and she wants to make sure her younger kids (5 and 8 years old) will be ready for school in the States because they haven’t had much exposure to English yet. I get to do what I love and teach them the basics! We’ll start after the holidays. The extra money will be very nice.
Today started out really well. I observed a 4th grade class and worked with 3 boys from the 3rd grade. Tuesday mornings are going to be lots of fun! The principal is also thinking about having me work with 2nd graders at some point during the day. :) The last 2 periods, I have one 6th grade class. I had seen Michelle earlier in the day and she said she was leaving and Tami was teaching for her. Tami is the computer teacher and recently became certified to teach English. She has one class of her own and helps with the others. When I saw her in the middle of the day, she was angry that she was "just being thrown into the class." Anyway, I get to the class to take out my group and there is no teacher. I wait 15 minutes, all the while trying to keep them in the room, to stop kids (girls, too!) from fighting & yelling and sending a kid to try to find the substitute or the principal. I finally realized I'm going to have to do something with the kids. After about 10 minutes of just trying to get them quiet enough to play a game, they are still yelling at each other. I would get them almost quiet and then someone would yell out translations of what I was saying and then there would be chaos again. Someone had gone to the bathroom and I walked over and closed the door a little too hard. That finally got their attention, and then another teacher walked in. She made a deal with me. I took her calmer class and she took mine. But that was only for the 1st of the 2 periods. She stayed a little later, but I still had 30 min. with these disrespectful, boisterous kids. Finally 7 min. till the end, I gave up playing a game with them and made them work in their books. After school, I waited half an hour for the bus and then it broke, after going 2 feet. We all waited another half hour for another bus. I am so glad it's the holiday and we have off until Sunday. Shana tova!
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