Carly's Adventures in Tel Aviv

A Summer of Amazing: Eurotrip

2009-09-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I can possibly blog about 7 weeks of traveling and adventures around Europe. Maybe if I blogged along the way, it would have been easier, but I kept a journal instead. So, I'm just going to list the cities and sites that I saw & things I did in the order I saw/did them. If you'd like details or my thoughts on a certain place, just let me know. There will be a link to the pictures soon.

Italy #1: Rome & Pisa with Annie & Monica
day 1- Repubbilica Fountain, Via Natzionale, Foro Traiano, ate Italian cannoli (yum!) from a nearby bakery
day 2- Vatican= Sistine Chapel & ceiling, St. Mark's Square, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Palentin Hill, Foro Romano (Whew!)
day 3- Pisa= Leaning Tower of said city, Piazza Duomo (cathedral), back to Rome for pub crawl
day 4- lunch at Trevi fountain, Tempio Adriano, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, souvenir shopping, dinner in Trastevere
day 5- super early morning flight to Madrid, with a stop at our bakery on the way

Fun Annie quotes: "Dude, mopeds here are like Harleys in America." "Nathaniel Bonaparte- oh yeah, his brother...Napoleon. Most people don't know his last name. I don't know his first." "Holy Ramoly!"

Spain: Madrid & Barcelona with Annie & Monica
day 5- Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, Cathedral next to the palace, Matisse exhibit at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Plaza & fuente de Cibeles, tapas & sangria for dinner, partied at a "backpackers" bar & met lots of other travelers from around the world,
day 6- train to Barcelona, tapas dinner
day 7- Boqueria Market, Gothic Quarter & cathedral, Cathedral Santa Maria del Mar, Picasso museum, Barceloneta beach (!!!), pub crawl
day 8- Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Montjuic Park/Castle, Magic Fountain show at Plaza Espanya, bar with new Italian friends we met at the beach (Davide and John)
day 9- Annie & Monica left :( (Final Nun Count: 49!), Casa Batilló, La Pedrera
day 10- Barceloneta beach for 6 hours! Davide met me there after work.
day 11- Park Guell with Davide, bus to Girona airport for flight to Dublin

Ireland: Dublin, Cork/Blarney, Killarney, Galway/Cliffs of Moher with Stephanie
day 12- St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College, UK Trivial Pursuit at the hostel with our new friends Kayla & Ben
day 13- Guinness Storehouse, laundry, movie night at the hostel ("The International")
day 14- 3 hour free walking tour all around Dublin, pub crawl
day 15- bus to Cork, Blarney Castle & grounds, kissed the Blarney stone (I now have the gift of gab!)
day 16- bus to Killarney, lunch at Irish sports bar, learned a bit about Gaelic football, walked around town
day 17- day trip to Galway, bus tour of Cliffs of Moher and the Burren
day 18- horseback ride through Killarney National Park (My first time on an English saddle!), bus back to Dublin
day 19- souvenir shopping, Steph left :(, movie night at the hostel ("The Reader")
day 20- ferry to Liverpool (7 hours!), met another solo backpacker- Matt

England: Liverpool & London
day 20- met Matt & some guys from his hostel for dinner, saw Beatles cover band, The Cavedwellers, at The Cavern Club (!!!)
day 21- Beatles Story Museum, Magical Mystery Tour
day 22- train to London, Hyde Park, Texas Embassy Cantina (yum! Tex-Mex!)
day 23- day trip to Stonehenge, Thames River walk/self guided bridge tour
day 24- free London walking tour, London Eye ride
day 25- British Museum with camp friend, Josh, Abbey Road, Picadilly Circus, pub crawl, bus to airport

Italy #2: Venice with Sean
day 26- flight to Venice, meet Sean, dinner & walk around island
day 27- self-guided Venice tour with roommate, Shibly- Ponte Rialto, Piazza San Marco, Lido island/beach, water bus ride
day 28- San Marco Basilica, got lost in Venice streets, San Giuliano park in Mestre
day 29- flight to Frankfurt

Germany #1: Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen with Sean
day 29- walk along River Main, ate Frankfurters, free pasta dinner at hostel, live music on street
day 30- train to Stuttgart, met mom's friend Sara, chilled at their house, authentic biergarten for dinner
day 31- relaxation day- laundry, playing with a 2 1/2 yr old, mini-skate park for Sean, home cooked meal
day 32- train to Munich, walked around town- Marienplatz, Virtualienmarkt, Hoffbrauhaus
day 33- free Munich walking tour, Dachau Concentration Camp & Memorial
day 34- train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, hiked an Alp for an hour, lunch on the mountain, train to Munich, train to Prague

Czech Republic: Prague with Sean
day 35- souvenir shopping, free Prague walking tour, kielbasa sausage in the Old Town Square, pub crawl
day 36- Letna Park, streets of Prague Castle, changing of the guards, Charles Bridge, found kolaches (finally!)
day 37- museum & Holocaust memorial in Pinkas Synagogue, old Jewish Cemetery, train to Berlin

Germany #2: Berlin with Sean
day 38- free Berlin walking tour, Reichstag building, Potsdamer Platz
day 39- Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp & Memorial, East Side Gallery, Yaam Reggae Beach, long walk to hostel- through Alexander Platz & Bebelplatz
day 40- laundry, souvenir shopping, walk through Tiergarten, saw "Inglorious Basterds" at Sony Center, drank a boot of beer (2L!) at the Circus Hostel
day 41- train to Amsterdam

The Netherlands- Amsterdam, Edam, Volendam, Haarlem with Sean & Stephen
day 41- met Stephen, walk through Red Light District
day 42- free Amsterdam walking tour, met Canadians in our hostel room, Marijuana/Hash/Hemp Museum & Gallery
day 43- Anne Frankhaus, floating flower market, Rembrandtsplein, Belushi's bar w/ new Canadian friends
day 44- rented bikes, I AMsterdam sign & Van Gogh Museum in Museumplein, Vondelpark, souvenir shopping
day 45- Stephen left :(, biked around town, Vondelpark
day 46- returned bikes, day trip to Edam (cheese town), Volendam (fishing village), & Haarlem
day 47- decided against 15 euro Heineken Experience, picnic in Museumplein, ate small Holland pancakes
day 48- walked all over town taking pictures of Amsterdam's Elephant Parade statues, flight back to Tel Aviv!

It was such an amazing trip! This really doesn't do it justice, but the pictures will. They are coming soon, I promise!

A Summer of Amazing, pt 1

2009-09-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

This summer has been incredible beyond words since I last blogged and even before that (w/ graduating & skydiving) it was pretty cool. The week before I embarked on my summer adventure in Europe was a semi-sleepless, fun whirlwind in itself. First, I finished my papers the same day as a friend from camp finished his exams, so I went to Herzliya to join him in celebration. The next day, I taught my last private lesson. As much as I enjoyed the money, this goodbye meant complete vacation! The next two days were spent with Meir, two of his friends and our friend, Alex, from camp on an adventure in the Golan Heights. The first day we drove up there from Tel Aviv and hiked down to the bottom of the Gilabon waterfall to swim and relax for a bit. Afterward, we did a little trespassing on a closed bridge over the Jordan River. Meir set up his ropes and we rappelled down into the river off of the bridge. Very Spiderman like! The first time Alex & I did it from a lower rung on the bridge and it was an awkward start. I accidently ended up upside-down at one point & had to start over! By the next time around, Meir had realized that starting higher would be easier...and it was!
That night we spent the night at Meir's friend's apartment & got up early to embark on a 6 hour land/water/rappelling hike along Zavitan Stream. Essentially, we hiked most of the way down to the stream on land, but then got to a point where we had to wade through a little pond, then swim to the other side. There were 3 waterfalls along the way that we had to rappel down. There was a line at the first one, and it wasn't so high, so we jumped into the pond below. The next two were too high and not a straight shot down. We stopped to eat lunch after the second waterfall. After all that, we had to hike back up a very tall, very steep cliff to our car. It was an exhausting two days and my shirt was filthy at the end, but it was SO much fun!
After a good night's sleep, I went back up north to Tzfat to see my friend Jess (from camp, of course!) who was in town chaperoning a group of high school kids. I hadn't seen her in about 2 years, since I moved to Israel, so it was great to see each other again & catch up. After sleeping on her hotel room floor, I made it back to Tel Aviv. I finally packed for my Europe Adventure, cleaned my room a bit and went to a "Goodbye Israel" party thrown by the 4 of us in our program who were not staying in Israel. This would be the last time we'd all be in the country together! Sad.
So many of my Israeli friends showed up, even Idan, who I hadn't seen all year! It was a great party and Meir & I were the last to leave at 3 am, when he took me to the airport to fly to Rome!

pictures: Golan Adventures

וואו! מה קרה איתי

2009-07-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! What happened to me? I was so good at updating my blog last year...now 2 months & many big event have gone by and nothing! Well, last year, I also wasn't working as hard to get all my work done because I thought I had all the time in the world!
Well, let's see...I'll try to summarize the past 2 months w/ a sentence or two about each event. Let me know if you'd like more detail on anything!

Apr 28- May 10: There was Israeli Memorial Day & Independence Day, but I missed both because a misdiagnosed dental abscess caused an infection that made my face swell immensely and I spent almost a week in bed & then almost another week in the hospital on a antibiotic IV drip to get the swelling down. A few days later, I got the root canal & everything is better!

June 18-June 30: We finished university classes, middle & high school finished teaching & our program officially ended with a "farewell banquet." One of the TASPers wrote a long poem/speech about the past 2 years and another made a very in-depth slide show. We had a huge buffet and an open bar. It was quite a night. Most of us when over to Raquefette's apt...one of the usual group hang outs and played a new fun game: Paper in a Pot or Ghetto Outburst. The next day a few of us went to a bar over looking the Med Sea for a day party. They had 2 above ground pools, a huge, inflatable water slide & a mechanical bull! That night most of TASP reconvened at Raq's for a BBQ and more of our new favorite game. Then the elementary interns went back to work for another week & a half. Most of the time was spent on end-of-the-year festivities and shows, though. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to all those kids that I'd taught for the past 2 years. I gave them all my email address. We'll see how many actually keep in touch!

July 3-4: For the past 4 years, every first Friday in Tel Aviv has meant Water Wars. This was the 5th year. It happens in Rabin Square and people can only use the water from the fountain, which isn't refilled from anywhere, meaning people aren't wasting water. I met some friends there to "observe" for a bit on my way home from the gym. Even if you were standing back from the action, nobody wanted you dry! We just wished we had been armed!!! We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ in Hayarkon Park, in our normal spot, across from Adam's apt (AKA: bathrooms!).

July 8: I went skydiving. What? Yes, that's right. I jumped out of plane, hurling myself to the ground. Actually, I wasn't in control at all. The instructor strapped to my back did all this to us. My friend Stephanie set it all up for us for her birthday. I would have never done it myself! There's 50 seconds of free falling, during which I was truly terrified. Then the parachute opens, your stomach drops as you're ripped straight upwards and you float down for 5 mins. That was nice, though I was anxious about being so high up! The beautiful view of the Med Sea helped, though. (We did it at a beach about 45 min north of TA).)

There was also Student Day at TAU, White Night to celebrate TA and an Jewish holiday (Shavuot). I also helped 4 friends celebrate birthdays, saw 3 friends from camp that were visiting Israel (I hadn't seen one since 2002!), my camp director who was here on business and visited 2 more that are spending the year in J'lem in rabbinic school.

pictures: May --> July 4
Skydiving Israel

Mom's Visit!

2009-05-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been so long since I have updated this blog...well, a long time for me, anyway. So much has happened. I'll try to make it short.

At the end of March, my good friends Laura & Jason went on a free Birthright trip and changed their tickets so they could stay a little longer and visit. I have known them my entire life (our parents were friends), so it was so exciting to have them here and to be able to show them around "my" city. Laura's boyfriend, Joe, also flew over after their organized trip and while Jason had to go back to Austin, Laura and Joe spent the next 3 weeks traveling in Greece, Italy and Amsterdam. They came back engaged!!!

During those 3 weeks, Mom was here visiting. There was some overlap in the beginning- talk about a full house! I planned for us to go all over the country. I wanted her to see everything! My friend Meir, who was spending the Passover holiday in Rome with his family, was so generous & lent me his car for the entire time. We weren't tied down by bus schedules & routes. It was amazing. Check out our itinerary and the pictures. Let me know if you have questions!

Day 1: Mom arrived! Dinner at a cafe on Shenkin (my street!) & live music at a neighborhood bar w/ Mike & Marty (friends from the program)
Day 2: Mom met my interim hairdressers. Explored Yaffo (Arab city south of TA, they share a municipality), walked back through TA's oldest neighborhood, Neve Tzedek
Day 3: Shopped for hours at the artist's market near my apt. Laura, Joe & Jason returned from traveling in the south. Mom had her first Israeli falafel & then we all went to celebrate Laura's birthday early at Max Brenner (chocolate restaurant!)
Day 4: Toured TA's beaches, celebrated TA's 100th birthday in Rabin Square with thousands of other people.
Day 5: Visited Independence Hall & drove 6 hours through the desert to Eilat in the south. Stopped at Mizpe Ramon, the largest non-impact crater.
Day 6: Eilat! Met up with Marty (who was already there) & went snorkeling. Mom didn't feel too great later that day, so Marty & I went out to dinner & then his friend's bar that night.
Day 7: We decided to stay an extra night in Eilat & spent the day walking around & exploring the city.
Day 8: Drove back to TA, made a little Passover seder, just me & Mom from whatever we had in the fridge & our memorized version of the Hagadah!
Day 9: Organized tour of Massada and the Dead Sea at the Ein Gedi Spa. We loved the Dead Sea so much, we were late & almost got left behind!
Day 10: We explored the shuk (open air market) near my apt & had Shabbat dinner at the Tami's (one of the English teachers at my school)
Day 11: Beach Day!
Day 12: Jerusalem-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Museum, the shuk, and part of the new city. Drove home. It's only an hour away!
Day 13: Jerusalem- walked the ramparts of the old city walls, visited the Western Wall & walked through the Jewish Quarter of the old city
Day 14: Organized tour of the North Coast of Israel- Caesaria, Haifa, Acco & Rosh Hanikra. I had been on this tour before, but with a new tour guide, it wasn't boring! Had the most amazing non-kosher seafood dinner at a restaurant on the beach in TA.
Day 15: Drove to Tiberias, a city on the Kinneret (freshwater lake) in the north. Explored town, trying to find a public, free "beach". It was harder than you would think for such touristy place.
Day 16: Drove further north to the Golan Heights & attempted to hike. It was cold & we didn't get very far before it started to rain. So instead, we drove to nearby Tzfat & braved the cold & rain there. Turns out it was the place Mom has literally dreamt about for years. It was an incredible day walking through the old cobblestone streets of the old city. We found many of the old, ornate synagogues & the candle factory, both of which the city is known for. We even found a local cheese shop, with cheeses made from goat & sheep milk!
Day 17: The day was nicer, so we drove back to hike around Gilabon Stream. Saw the 32 ft Devorah Waterfall, ruins of the biblical town of Devorah & the 98 ft Gilabon Waterfall. Pretty incredible. Back in TA, went to dinner with some of my girl friends from the program.
Day 18: Beach Day...but it was a bit cold, so we did a beach walk. Ended at the port & visited my old apt & roomies. Drove to Jerusalem to have dinner w/ Meir & return the car.
Day 19: I had to go to class at the university. As far as I know, Mom did some laundry & then spent the rest of the day on the beach. That's where I met her. :)
Day 20: I had to teach, so Mom came with me, saw my set-up, met some of my kids and the other teachers. After, we spent some more time at the shuk & beach. That night, I took her to the airport & had to say good bye. :( Only about 5 more months, though, before I'm back in Austin for good!

I skied the big mountain!

2009-03-21T02:59:00.001-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted a blog in quite some time. I was so much better about this last year! I guess it just makes them more valuable now, right?

Well, February was mostly uneventful. The Superbowl came & went & I sacrificed sleep for hopefully the last time for football. Even though I won't be home for the first month of Longhorn football next season, I'll be able to sleep in the day after!

National elections were held here for a new prime minister and so I had a day off of school. The kids are so loud & chaotic during the day that instead of trying to control them, they just cancel school. In fact, I just heard that one of our professors told some of our class that after you get your certification here, you have to go to vocal training/testing to make sure you can speak loud enough to command and control your class. But that's another issue...and one tied to one of the main reasons I'm not staying here!

We had a Tu B'Shvat seder with our program. Nothing big. Kind of like Earth Day where you celebrate the trees & such. There are 4 types of fruit or nuts to eat & 4 glasses of wine, of different colors. Good holiday.

We had the university semester break during the month of February, which is less of a break & more of a paper writing time, since everything is due after the break. I don't know where this logic comes from. It burns people out so fast. For regular university students, they have exam time, but there are 2 rounds. If you want any kind of break, you had better do well on the first round! How does that make sense? You, who failed, are frustrated & need a break the most- too bad. Study more!

And the big February event: Ted came to visit!!! He was here for 10 days and it was wonderful! We even rented a cabin and had a romantic getaway in the north, near the Kinneret, even though it rained all weekend, we didn't see the lake & his whole trip was like a romantic getaway because we got so much time together...

March started with weather warm enough for the beach and we all dusted our bathing suits off & got excited, but it didn't last past that weekend. Hopefully soon. I'm tired of the cold...or cool.

University started again and we only have 2 classes this semester- only on Sundays, which means Wednesday is a free day! I'm still trying to get an idea of if I like the classes/professors or not. The first week, I did. The 2nd, I didn't. Technology in Language Teaching and Multilingual Literacies. Should be interesting. Let's see if the profs make them as such.

We also had another holiday: Purim! It's like Halloween, except not paganistic. There are actual religious writings commanding us to dress up and get drunk to celebrate the holiday. Who else wants to be Jewish? (On a side note, one of my students expressed a desire to be American after St. Patrick's Day. "They're so cool. There's a holiday where you wear green. There's holiday where you dress up AND get candy. We get a long break for Passover, but it's still Passover." I asked about Hanukka w/ the jelly doughnuts and week off of school & just got an "eh...") Anyway, we had a 3 day break. One night, after pre-partying at my old apartment with friends, we met up with other friends on the bus (it was a little ridiculous--there was a classroom-full of us) & headed down near my neighborhood to a long street called Floretin. There is always a HUGE street party. Lots of music, and way too many people. There's no way keep up with all your friends. Our group splintered apart, and we were left with about 7 of us. Still, we occasionally lost people. One for an hour. oops. Now that I think about it, why is this fun?
The next night, I went with my friend Amos to Jerusalem to go to a few parties with our mutual friend, Meir. They were fun, but we only stayed a few hours because we were going skiing for Amos' birthday the next day. We left J'lem around 1:15, picked up some of his friends in Herzliya (north of TA) a few hours later and drove up to Mount Hermon, in the Golan Heights. It's a 3 hour drive, which is far for a country that you can drive across (N -> S) in 8.

Now this skiing trip was totally spontaneous. Amos asked me to go less than 24 hours before I was strapped in and on the slopes. I surprised myself when I said yes, because I hadn't been skiing in 14 years and that was the first time! So, he helped me out on the practice slope a bit, reminding me how to turn & stop and then he left to go to the big slopes w/ his friend Gil. The other 2 girls were on snowboards & ended up "hurting" themselves early on. They were lame anyway. There are really just 2 main slopes/ 2 ski lifts, even though there are multiple routes down each slope. I practiced a few more times and then I went on the smaller one. I started out fine, then went around a turn, picked up speed & crashed. I spent forever trying to put my ski back on before enlisting help. I needed a break. Luckily everyone else was taking one, too. I sat on the deck, looking at the slope, trying to map out the best way to go. I hit the slopes again with a new confidence, going down the easiest way. I made it down w/o falling! I tried a few more times, trying a way that was a little steeper at the end. Each time, I got farther down w/o falling, but I never stopped under my terms. On our next break, Amos somehow convinced me to try the big mountain with him and Gil. "I'll stay with you the whole time, guide you down, blah, blah, blah"
That slope was REALLY high. It was gorgeous being "on top of the world" like that. But then we had to go down. Ack! Amos went first & I followed him and copied what he did. I did such a great job, if I do say so myself...until we got to the really steep part. We turned & snowplowed the whole way down to make it "less steep." But really, I turned a few times, fell & repeated. It was really frustrating, but Amos was patient and did stay with me. We finally merged with the part of the mountain that I'd skied before, so I confidently went down, only fell when someone skied in front of me and slowed to a stop on my own at the end! It was amazing! I don't think I'll ever ski a mountain that big again, but I'm glad I did it once!

Check out the pictures: Feb & Mar 09 activities

North Coast day trip

2009-01-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I made a new friend, named Prashanth. He was in Israel without knowing many people. A mutual friend suggested he contact me and asked me to show him around Tel Aviv a bit. The first night we hung out, we clicked immediately. He is a senior at UT, so we started with that connection and built from there. The second weekend he was here, I went with him on a tour of the north coast of Israel. After meeting in Tel Aviv, the tour van took us to Caesaria, which I had been to before, but now I had a tour guide telling me the history of everything. Then we continued north along the coast to Haifa. We didn’t spend long there, just went to the top of Mount Carmel to look out at the bay/port and down on the incredible Bahaii Gardens. After driving a little further north, we arrived in Acco (or Acre). It was originally established by a group of Crusaders and then re-established when the Muslims came to the area. In order to re-establish the city, EVERYTHING was filled in with dirt and built over. There is literally one city on top of another and archeologists are still uncovering the first city. Now imagine any medieval period movie and think of the super high ceilings that the buildings had. Now imagine them filled with dirt. That’s a lotta freakin’ dirt! We got a tour through the old (first) city, walked through the market in today’s Arab city and then went to get lunch at a restaurant just outside of the city. It would not have been my first choice, especially with all that Acco had to offer, but I hadn’t eaten breakfast, so I was too hungry to care at that point. Next, we drove up to Rosh Hanikra, which is on the Israeli/Lebanon border. We saw the fence between the countries and the Israeli observation tower that constantly has at least one soldier in it, monitoring the other side. There’s also a navy boat in the water at all times, watching the “water border”. Yes, there are buoys set up with a rope between them in the Mediterranean Sea, stretching out a few kilometers to mark each country’s waters. Rosh Hanikra also grottos, which apparently is another thing it is famous for. I didn’t know. But, they are incredible! The rock is a soft limestone and so the waves that crash into them with a few tons of force have carved out tunnels and caves. The water is almost unnaturally blue; it kind of looks like formaldehyde. There also used to be a train track that ran through, from the days of British control. It ran from Istanbul to Cairo and was destroyed on “The Night of the Bridges” in 1946 by Jewish underground fighters who were immobilizing Britain’s transportation routes during their quest for independence.
As much as I like living in Tel Aviv, I love traveling outside of the city. I always find something to amaze me. This country is truly beautiful.

Check out the pictures.

3rd grade Gaza conflict discussion

2009-01-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Today, my first class of the day was three 3rd grade girls: Danielle, Amit and Gal. The first two came from NY and this is their first year here. Gal was in my class last year, which was her first time in an Israeli school after being in Hong Kong for a few years. They are all fluent in both Hebrew and English. Amit also talks incessantly, but usually about nothing. The class started normally: they wrote the agenda, we finished some work from the last class and then they started talking about how the school was collecting food and clothes for the Israeli soldiers. There were boxes lining the halls, already full. And then they told me why. The catalyst for this drive wasn't just the war. The father of one of the students in the school had been killed by a rocket fired into Ashdod or Ashkelon (I don't remember which they said.) by Hamas. Several students also have older brothers or sisters in the army, who were currently fighting.
I was about to tie up the conversation and move on with the day's lesson and then came Danielle's question. "Why are they (Hamas) doing this to us? It's not fair." I immediately knew this was not a conversation that any self-respecting educator should stop. (And anyway, they were at least speaking in English.) We proceeded to have a discussion for about 20 minutes about the war. Danielle and Gal were the ones doing most of the talking, I only inserted a few comments- when they really needed some kind of answer. Amit was surprisingly quiet for once.

One part of the discussion, though, will stick will me forever, and that is the reason I am writing. Forgive me if it is not verbatim, but it will be close.
Danielle: "We fought a war a long time ago to be a country. They got their place and we got ours. Why do we still have to suffer? Just because they lost, doesn't mean we should still suffer. They have their place to live."
Gal: "And a lot of it."
Danielle: "Yeah! We're just this tiny little country. What more do they want from us?"
me: "Well, they think this country is holy, too, just like the Jews do. And they don't want us living here."
Danielle: "But they already have so much. And we already had a war about it and they lost and we are living here now and they're still making us suffer. It's not fair."
Gal: "They just want more and more and more. Why can't they just leave us alone?"

I remind you that these are only 3rd graders. The discussion only ended because the bell rang.

Trip to Egypt

2009-01-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

In an effort to make this 5 day trip less daunting for you to read about, I'm going to outline & number the itinerary and then separately provide details about each number. If you just wanna know more about certain numbers, you can just read that & skip the rest. Like some of my other posts, I'll provide wikipedia links, if you wanna learn more about something Pictures are at: Egypt- Dec. 2008.

Sun, Dec. 21:
1) 14.5 hour journey from Tel Aviv to Cairo

Mon, Dec. 22 (CAIRO):
2) ancient capital of Egypt-Memphis
3) ancient capital of Egypt & first pyramid- Sakkara
4) carpet weaving school
5) papyrus plant/gallery
6) Great Pyramids of Giza
7) camel ride
8) Sphinx
9) perfume plant/gallery
10) free night "on the town"

Tues, Dec. 23 (CAIRO):
11) Egyptian Museum
12) Hanging Church
13) Ben Ezra synagogue
14) Old Cairo Bazaar
15) Citadel of Muhammed Ali (not the boxer)
16) Cairo (tourist) market
17) Dinner on the Nile

Wed, Dec. 24 (ALEXANDRIA):
17) Drive to Alex, Quaitbay Fort, finding a personal cabbie for the day
18) Montaza Palace and Gardens
19) Area of 13 Mosques
20) Kom al-Shuqafa Catacombs
21) Pompey's Pillar / driving through the market
22) Bibliotheca Alexandrina / drive back to Cairo

Thurs, Dec. 25:
23) 13 hour journey from Cairo to Tel Aviv

DETAILS
1) My friend, Shari & I met at the tour office at 10 am and got in the van. There were a bunch of other people there, but had just organized transportation to Cairo through the company. We were the only ones that were actually going on the tour. By the end of the ride, though, another couple decided to join us for the first day. They were about our age, maybe a few years older. The guy (Tristan) was from Canada, the girl (Arunima) from India, but both have been living in LA for a while. There was also another guy, Will, who was about 20 years old, had aspirations to do humanitarian work in Northern Africa and was possibly in the Navy. He's also swimming the English Channel next summer. We started talking to him at the first stop in Israel on the way to Eilat because we thought the van left us. But then we saw him and were calmed. It just went to get gas. We spent about 2 hours at the border. FUN! Arunima was having some problems w/ her Indian passport & non-reentry Israeli visa. She got in, but we don't know if can get back into Israel. We stopped in Sinai to eat at a little place in a little, nameless town in the middle of the desert. Shari (from NY), compared the Suez Canal tunnel to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. We got to our hotel in Cairo, the Indiana, at about 12:30 pm. The guy that "helped" us to our room found out we were from the States and proudly informed us that Indiana was a state in the US. Yes. It is. Thank you.

2) We met our tour guide, an Egyptian Christian named Michael, picked up Tristan and Arunima and went to Memphis. Not in Tennessee, which was most likely named after the ancient Egyptian city. Because it definitely is not the other way around. At this point, Shari & I couldn't remember Arunima's name & kept listening closely to Tristan, hoping he'd address her by name. He finally did hours later and Shari quickly & sneakily wrote it down in her journal that she had been taking notes in. Anyway, Memphis was the first capital of Egypt, during the old kingdom (5000 BCE-2500 BCE). It is just outside the city of Cairo and to get there we had to navigate through the 2.5 million cars that are on the roads daily, all traveling together, without traffic lights or noticeable signs/laws. To quote Michael: "We used to have traffic lights..." We drove through a really poor area town that has a few resort-like hotels, because apparently the rich go there to "get away from the city life". Memphis was founded by King Menas, who united Upper and Lower Egypt. Now there is an open air museum there with a lying, feetless statue of Ramses II (found in Luxor) and a small Sphinx and a standing Ramses statue, among other things. Ramses II was king/pharaoh when Moses came to Egypt & he "raised" him. He married 52 women and had 125 children. We were gonna see lots of statues so Michael said the kings were identified by a crown with a cobra on it and a beard. A tall crown was a symbol of Upper Egypt, as was the lotus plant. A round crown and papyrus plant was symbolic of Lower Egypt. And to clarify, since the Nile flows south to north, Upper Egypt is in south and Lower Egypt is north. Clear as mud, right? I'm glad Shari took notes! We also learned some hieroglyphics/ancient Egyptian: ra= sun, (m)ses=son, mo=water, mas=born. SO: King Ramses was naturally the Sun King, Moses was the Water Son and now we know exactly why Christmas is called Christmas. Names, especially of a king, were written in a oval called a cartouche. Also, all standing statues depict the person with their left foot forward (also like some of the Greek statues I saw in Athens), to show that they are reading to step into the afterlife.

3) In Saqqara, Egypt's second capital, also during the Old Kingdom, we saw the first pyramid ever built. It is a step pyramid, with 6 equal sized levels, for Pharaoh Djoser (AKA: Zoches). It took 20 years, about 100,000 workers and 1 million (yes, they were counted) limestone and mud bricks. It's about 65 meters (213 ft) high. The first level was originally used as a very big bench. Nothing was found inside. We still don't know where he's buried. To get to it, you first walk through the Unification Temple/Funerary Complex. There were 22 columns on each side, representing all 44 states in Egypt at the time. Everything was created by a wise man/architect named Imhotep (meaning "in peace"), who was apparently the father of medicine and the first to ever use limestone.

4) In Saqqara, we learned about Egypt's education system. There is not country-wide, compulsory system and so, in Saqqara, a place with many farmers, many kids do not go to school and do not get educated at all. So, Egypt built these carpet weaving schools, that don't cost the families anything. Besides hand-weaving carpets, students learn very basic reading & math skills and also make some money from their efforts. We visited one of the schools. Their fingers FLY on these carpets and the strings are so small. I really don't know how they do it.

5) Next, we visited a papyrus gallery, where we learned how the first paper was made. It was very strong...even more so than today's paper. Ancient books written on it and stored in scrolls and art was painted using raw egg & plant dyes. Now, oil paints are used. We learned about the ancient Egyptian calendar, which was greatly influenced by the Greeks in later times. I aced the "quiz" on it. It is circular and has 4 images like a compass to stand for the directions. The 4 diagonal images stand for the 4 seasons, There are 12 figures, total, around the circle for the month, holding the circle with 24 hands, for the hours in a day. There are also symbols for the 7 days of the week, 52 weeks in a year, all totaling 365 for the days in a year. It's interesting to see how these ancient cultures wanted to symbolically represent time. The Treasury building in Petra, Jordan did something similar.

6) Finally! We got to visit the Great Pyramids in Giza, just outside of Cairo! They're the only remaining monument on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World list. There are three in a row, of decreasing size and behind the last are three small pyramids in a row. The biggest is the Pyramid of Khufu (481 ft, 2.3 million limestone blocks), the middle is the Pyramid of Khafre (471 ft, limestone) and the small one is the Pyramid of Menakaure (218 ft, limestone and granite). The 3 small pyramids are thought to be unfinished and for the queens. The Pyramid of Khafre looks the biggest, because it is on elevated land and is the only one that still has part of its casing stones at the top. Erosion has left the others with just their base stones. Like going to see any world site that everyone talks about, I was worried that they would live up to expectations. But, they were really amazing. It's incredible to think that people built them without machines. I mean each block weighed about 2 tons and there were millions of them! AND they were built just to be a king's tomb. Thousands of lowly civilians labored for 20 years or so in preparation for their king's death. If they died, they just got a regular old burial, without a headstone. They were thought to be paid laborers, even if very minimally, though, and not slaves. In fact, according to Michael and Hadassah magazine (Thanks for the article, Grandma), the Jews did not built the pyramids. Bubble bursted! They were there for at least 1000 years before the arrival of Joseph (the first Jewish slave in Egypt). The Jews, instead, built the ancient cities of Pithom and Ramses.

7) We bargained hard core, with the help of our tour guide to go on a 1/2 hour camel ride behind the pyramids. These 2 young boys (maybe around 10-12) led our camels. Their English was decent for a country that doesn't have a mandatory education system. Probably from all the tourists...I actually couldn't see them having much of a conversation beyond the necessities for their job. This was my 3rd time on a camel, but it was still pretty cool. Very, very bumpy. I took a video that I will try to post, also. They are wider than horses, especially w/ the blankets and saddle. I was sore the next day!

I took a break from writing this & came back & realized how long this is/how ridiculous it is to go through details about everything. Look at the pictures, check out the itinerary above that I linked to Wikipedia & let me know if you have questions or what more details on specific things.

A Weekend of Birthdays (& a b-ball game)

2009-01-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

My roommate, Gal's birthday was on Thurs. Dec. 11 & after I brought home leftover pecan pie from Thanksgiving & found out that it was his favorite, decided to make him one for his birthday. He was super appreciative...as was my other roommate, Matan, who was the first to cut into it to give a piece to his friend. Oh, Israelis...
We went to a bar around the corner that night w/ a few of his friends & there's not much to say, but I thought I'd mention it, since there are pictures.
The next day, one of my friends in the program, Shari, had a birthday. She knew about a rooftop party in Florentin (a neighborhood known for their street parties on Independence Day) from a friend of a friend & invited a bunch of us to go. It was lots of fun...cheap beer & lemonadka (get it? ha). There were also these guys making tacos. And they were amazing. Why? Oh, because they're from Austin. At least one was & he and his friends were piloting their potentially future taco stand business. I vowed to personally keep them afloat as long as I was in Israel. Turns out that there's a whole group of them here, permanently living (for now) from Austin. They went to McCallum HS and know a lot of the same people I do from the temple. Oh, and I also met someone else who knows people from camp, even though he's not even from Texas. I'm very proud of myself for still thinking that meetings like this are cool. They happen so often in this country, that some people don't care anymore. Seriously, think of the last time you randomly ran into someone you hadn't seen in a year, or at least several months or of the last time you found out (not through facebook) that you had a mutual friend with someone you were previously unaware of. Remember that "What-a-coincidence-it's-such-a-small-world" feeling you had & how you told the next person you talked to, "Guess who I just ran into?!" Yeah, that happens to me about once a week. This is such a small country/city.
Moving on to Saturday. My friend Mike (also in the program, lived in the living room of my old apt for the first 6 weeks) has been playing basketball with a local Maccabi league. Maccabi is one of the big sports organizations in the country. They have several lower leagues that people who are good, but not good enough to play on a national or international level, can play in. Mike played in college & was really glad to find a good place to play here that wasn't just at the park during pick-up games. We got him to give us his schedule and a bunch of us secretly planned to go to the game. I think he found out about it, but didn't know how many people were coming & that we'd be armed w/ signs! It was a great, close game & they won, even though the coach didn't play Mike as much that day. We really regretted not making a sign that said "Put Cohen in, Coach!" in Hebrew. We thought about it, but apparently it didn't sound right in Hebrew, so...
Monday was my birthday & I started my day at work, like any other Monday, but with an unusual stomachache. I made it through (Luckily, my last class & my private lessons were cancelled.) & by the time I was on the bus home, I had a full on fever. I don't own a thermometer here, but I'm guessing like 100/101 ish. So, my big splurge on my birthday was a 3-hour nap! I didn't feel so much better when I woke up, but ate a little something and got ready for my party anyway. I drank, deciding it would be a really good idea, or a really bad idea. It actually turned out to be not so bad. We were at a neighborhood bar, with my friend, Keith, as the DJ and being around all my friends really helped. My fever broke in the middle of the party, so there are a few pictures of me w/ a really rosy face. I thought the bar had the heat on at first, but nobody else felt it! Since my program friends all had to teach the next day, most of them got there around 9. A few Israeli friends were there then, too. But, by 11, all my American friends had left and it was just me and a bunch of Israelis! Oh, and the flash on my camera broke somehow. Literally, the bulb was in pieces. So, I ran home (less than a 5 min. walk) & grabbed some of the leftover disposable cameras from last December when my camera broke. I haven't finished them all, but will post the pictures as the cameras get developed.
In case you're wondering, my stomach continued to hurt for the next few days and I ended up essentially taking the week off.

Pictures are at: Various December Events

A Baptism in Jerusalem

2009-01-02T05:31:00.000-08:00

One of the girls in my program is Christian, or as she puts it, a Believer. In her faith, people do not get baptized until they make the decision to accept the religion. Through the church that she attends here, she got the opportunity to be baptized here in Israel. This was a really special moment for her, especially in land that is also holy for Christians. She had been very supportive of our Jewish beliefs over the last year, learning as much as she could and participating in our celebrations of holidays. So a group of us went to Jerusalem to support her on this significant occasion. The service & sermon were in Hebrew, but there was also a Russian translator, a signer and a nice man from Katie's church who translated to English for us. Because it was in Hebrew, though, there were times that I had to remind myself that these people were not Jewish. There is such a connection between the language and the religion in my head. Katie had to answer questions about why she chose to be baptized now and I was very proud that she did it all in Hebrew, because while she knew the questions ahead of time, she wasn't sure which they would ask her. (She's my buddy in Hebrew class.) Though the service was long, it was nice. Katie wasn't the only one being baptized that day. They had a little band and 2 groups of kids (one older, one younger) performed songs for them.
Afterward, we all went to the old city and ate lunch. The hummus place we wanted to go to was too small for all of us (16!), so we just picked the next place we saw, which was an Arab restaurant where we HAD to speak in English because they didn't speak Hebrew. It was a bit of a contrast to the Hebrew speaking Christians we met earlier.

Pictures from the day are at: Various December Events

Thanksgiving in Tel Aviv 2008

2008-12-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

This year, I took Ali's suggestion and decided to have a pot luck Thanksgiving, since last year was so much work. The girls let me host it at the old apartment, since they have a lot of common space and an oven. Last year also taught me that if I wanted a whole turkey, I needed to order it from the grocery store in advance. After some difficulty with that, my roommate, Gal, did it for me. Our Thanksgiving was on the Friday after, since Thursday is a work day here. I went to the apartment in the morning, made my pecan pie & crust (I haven't found pre-made crusts here.) & went to the store to pick up the turkey. 18 pounds!!! It didn't have any insides, but it did have a very disturbing, phallic-looking neck that I had to chop off. I'm glad I had a few hours between that experience and eating. Otherwise, I might have been a vegetarian this year! There was a little hiccup in the plan when we realized that the oven wasn't big enough! Not to despair, though. I am a logical and resourceful...and I also discovered that it wasn't the turkey that was too big, just the aluminum pan. Nothing a bend here and there wouldn't fix. For the next few hours, I waited and basted as the turkey turned a gorgeous golden brown and the air was filled with the delicious smell of the lemon and garlic I stuffed the turkey with.
Ali made a green bean dish with toasted almonds and feta cheese. Allie made sweet potatoes, served in a half a baked green apple and Julie made onion and garlic mashed potatoes. Mike brought a great Americanized Israeli salad. Two of my American friends from camp, DT and Adam, also came. DT brought the cranberry sauce and rolls and Adam made chocolate cookies. Julie's boyfriend, Asaf, completed the dinner by providing all the drinks. It really was a grand feast. (Oh, I also attempted brown gravy, but it definitely didn't work. I will be attending Gravy 101 with my mom when I return to the States.)
DT lives in Jerusalem, so he stayed over at my apartment that night. The next morning, after sleeping in (yea!), he treated me to a good ol' down home cookin' brunch. We had hashbrowns, fried eggs and challah "biscuits" and gravy. (Maybe I should learn from him...) It was delicious, but it's definitely back to healthy eating & working out!
Ted, Ken, Dad: Was this short enough for y'all???

I realized that the link to my pictures didn't work before, so here are new ones: BRUSSELS THANKSGIVING

New Photos

2008-11-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

I ran out of picture room on picasaweb, so from now on, you can find newly posted pictures here:

I've already posted the pictures from my layover in Brussels.

2 Weeks of Laziness

2008-10-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am at the end of my 2 week fall holiday vacation. So sad. Mostly because I have hardly done anything. The weather's been getting cooler, so I haven't even been going to the beach. I spent some more time fixing up my room...right now, I'm just waiting for my roommate to stop being so busy and help me hang up a bar for the last of my clothes. I have spent a lot of time lounging around and watching TV. I've successfully convinced myself that I deserve this little break because once I start working again on Thursday and start university next week, I'll be too busy to enjoy much downtime.
The one thing I did do was spend the Sukkot holiday with my friend Meir and his family. Just like last year, we went to his sister's house in Or Yehuda (just outside of Tel Aviv) and ate way too much great food. He has lots of nieces and nephews (about 10, all under 10 years old) and it was neat to see how they've grown up in the last year. Some of them I'd seen since, but most of the older ones remembered who I was. Back the food...if you've ever thought that Jewish mothers were relentless about offering you food, you've never met an Israel Jewish mother on a holiday. Saying, "No thank you, I've already eaten a piece of cake," even in Hebrew, is a waste of breath. I even think that Meir was an Israeli Jewish mother in training. Any time my plate was empty, he put more food on my plate. He didn't care that it was empty because I had already eaten and I wasn't putting any more food on it because I didn't want any more food! It was a very good time, though...and we ended up hanging out until 1 am!
My plan for the next few days is to actually work on at least one of the two papers like I've been intending to during this break. Wish me luck!

Shana Tova!

2008-10-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year!
I started this Jewish year off by moving into a new apartment, in a new part of town, with new kinds of people. I now live in the very hip, artsy & cheaper area of Tel Aviv, on a street called Shenkin (for those of you that know the area), with two Israeli guys. I've been spending a lot of time setting up my room, which was a living space before, or wondering when my busy roommates were going to have time to help me do things like drill shelves into the wall. The recent holidays, combined with Shabbat closures, have not helped. Once my winter outerwear and dresses have a place to be hung, I will be finished and will post pictures.
I moved in the day of Erev Rosh Hashana (New Year's eve), made sure my bed was set up and just spent the evening relaxing in my new place. The next evening, I celebrated the new year by going to a dinner hosted by three of the girls in my program. There was even homemade apple pie! Yum!
10 days later, the country observed Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement. I cannot express what a special experience it is here in Israel, especially in Tel Aviv. Not only is every single restaurant, store and kiosk closed, meaning that everyone is able to be at home with their families, absolutely no Jewish person drives (except for police and ambulances). In Tel Aviv, where there is a non-existent Arab population, the roads are completely empty at sundown...until people finish eating their last meal for the day. Then the road are packed again, but this time with people on bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, scooters, strollers & feet. School-age kids are rarely in groups smaller than five and are often see at large intersections, happily yelling at each other as they try to set up bike races. Whole families walk or bike with their dogs or young children and there is a lightness in the air that is generally not associated with the holiday. It would be interesting to see what it was like in Yaffo, the Arab populated city immediately to the south.
I walked the 45 minutes north to my old apartment to spend the holiday with Ali and her friend Alana, who came in from J'lem. The next day, we slept in, which is very key when you're fasting, and then Alana and I went to services for about an hour at a nearby synagogue. It was very traditional; the men and women sat separately, with a lace curtain barrier, people brought their own prayerbooks and there was no rabbi, just a cantor who would varied between praying audibly and inaudibly. He was there, it seemed, to just guide the congregation as they prayed on their own. Every once in a while, the congregation would join in or participate in a call and answer routine. Out of the 40ish women, there were only about a handful younger than 40. Honestly, I did more observing than praying, but I'm sure G-d was happy I was there nonetheless. When we got back, the three of us decided to take a walk to the highway, 25 minutes away. It was absolutely unbelievable. Imagine I35 or any other multilane highway completely deserted, outside of the occasional group of biking kids or dog & owner. We just had to walk on it! As we were on the entrance ramp, we saw a sign in Hebrew that said it was forbidden to walk or bike on the highway! After a few more hours of resting or reading, Alana and I went back to the synagogue for the final service and to hear the shofar. It was amazing how crowded it was & how many parents were there with their small children. We sat outside of the room where we could still hear and again I found myself doing more observing than praying. Watching all the kids loudly running around and playing brought me to the conclusion that I think Israelis spend more time training their dogs than their own kids.
The shofar was just one short blow and a little disappointing, but it did signal the end of Yom Kippur and the ability to eat again! Whether you are Jewish or not, I hope this new year proves to be happy and sweet for you.

Austin, DFW Metroplex, Brussels & Tel Aviv in 52 hours.

2008-09-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

I’ll try to make this short. On my way back to Tel Aviv, I had a 12 hour layover in Brussels. Naturally, I got out of the airport to check out the city. I decided to just stay in Brussels and not get to far from the airport, rather than check out some other Belgian cities. I was given many suggestions for what do and see while I was there. (Thank you, Aaron.) Surprisingly, I did it all. I started off by buying a map and sitting in a park to plan out my day a bit. (Cathedral of St. Michel et Ste. Gudule)

Then I went to the Comic Strip Center, which is actually a museum of French/Belgian comic strips. Did you know that Tin Tin and the Smurfs are originally Belgian? Me neither. In fact, this year marks 50 years of Smurfs, so they had a pretty cool display.

Afterwards, I went to check out the Manneken Pis statue. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined and it was almost comical to see all these people there, trying to get a picture with this small statue of a little boy peeing. I got one, too, of course! On the way there, I walked through the Grand Place, which used to be the main town square and is where town hall is today. (Town Hall)

It’s quite amazing to see these huge, old, regal buildings being used for shops and restaurants today.
For lunch, I went to a little stand and got sausage and fries. So many people has raved about the fries and talked about how necessary they were to my trip. They tasted like fries. I didn’t think they were that exciting.
Next, it was Belgian beer time. I went into a friendly-looking bar ordered a Leffe Blonde. My roommate, Allie, loves it, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It was pretty good. More exciting than the fries. The fun part was the bartender who loved that I was from Texas and grabbed a straw hat he had hanging on the wall, put it on, and got goofy. “Yeehaw, Texas!”
Before going to the furthest place on my map, the Royal Palace, I got a waffle, loaded with a thick whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate sauce. Definitely the best thing I ate all day!
I’m glad I fueled up because I got so lost trying to go to the Royal Palace. Every part of Brussels is set up like a grid, except the touristy center. I almost gave up, but finally asked someone instead. I got lost again, but finally found signs that helped me. It took 45 minutes to get there, when it was supposed to take 15. Later, the walk back to the train station took all of 5 minutes. I kinda felt like an idiot. Anyway, the Royal Palace was free, but you couldn’t take in your camera.
They had all the rooms set up with portraits of each of the royal personalities that lived there at some point. It was pretty amazing...and exactly how you’d picture a palace: elegant, ornate, lots of gold. The throne room was the best. It was huge and the throne area was up in a balcony thing, so the king/queen would be looking down at everyone else. I was so exhausted after all of that I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the plane! And now I’m in Tel Aviv and slowly getting back into my routine. In another week or so, everything should be back in full swing!

Wrappin' up year 1

2008-07-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I am on a plane, flying over the Atlantic Ocean. I don’t know where I will be when I post it, though. I think I had mentioned that for the last month, I hadn’t been doing much teaching with my 6th graders. Rehearsal for their end of the year show took priority, not just over my class, but over pretty much all of their classes. Well, they finally had that show. It was on Thursday night and was such a production! First they had each of the three classes walk across the stage, graduation style, shaking the hands of all the teachers they’d had for multiple years. The last one was their homeroom teacher who had moved with them from 1st grade all the way to 6th. As many problems as I can find with the Israeli school system, there is definitely something to be said the the connection that is made when a class stays together with one teacher for 6 years.
After that ceremony, the show started. It was literally a musical play. Though I didn’t understand everything, I knew it was a fictional story about their end of the year lock-in party and a girl who was faced with a moral dilemma about being nice to someone that no one in her group liked and inviting him to go (maybe even with her...I can’t be sure). I think most of it was part of her dream as she was thinking over her decision. That’s where the singing and dancing came in. The songs were definitely pre-recorded, but it was still the kids singing on the recordings. They were good! The acting was pretty convincing, too. I am so glad I went; my students were very happy to see me there. Now they’re on to 7th grade and I’ll miss them...most of them. :)
Friday I met a Scott Hertz (a camp friend who now works for the URJ in NY) for lunch. He was chaperoning a trip and they were in Tel Aviv for the day. As I was on the bus to meet him, I realized that he was with my camp kids my first year as Melachim unit head. It was very fun to see them again, though they were pretty confused at first as to what I was doing there!
Saturday, I got one more beach day in and while I was in the water, I got stung on my neck by a random floating jellyfish tentacle. The creature itself was not around, but apparently, even detached, the tentacles are dangerous. It felt like a fire ant bite that didn’t stop stinging...for hours. Now I have a mark on my neck that kind of looks like I burnt myself with a hair straightener or something. Nice.
Sunday, Jen and her friend Ashlie came back to Tel Aviv from Europe and we went to the market, where I only spoke Hebrew, even if the merchants spoke to me in English. They met up with Idan for dinner while I went to Ulpan. Afterwards, we all hung out at his place for a while before we left Idan to go to the movies at 10 pm. The cab (that I called and ordered for all in Hebrew, by myself, even though Idan was there) was picking us up to take us to the airport at 3:30 am, so we were doing what we could to stay up. :) It worked, and I was actually able to get a little sleep on the plane!
I’ll be at camp for most of July, but if you’re in Austin in August...give me a call!

Home for the summer in T -10 days!

2008-06-20T02:23:00.000-07:00

I’ve been very busy lately with teaching, studying, tutoring, working out, waiting for the bus, and laying on the beach. Ok, so that last one doesn’t sound so bad…
This past weekend, my camp friend Jen was in Tel Aviv for the weekend with a few of her friends. They are from Canada and in med school. They had been in Eilat, observing and helping in a hospital and touring around the south through some Canadian Jewish organization. Jen extended her trip to visit Idan and me in Tel Aviv, so her friend Ashley and her stayed at my apartment. Friday, we met up with Idan and took a mini-walking tour of Tel Aviv. He was a great little tour guide. I was surprised by how much he knew about the histories of the streets and the different architectures. After Idan went to work, Jen, Ashley and I found a new (to me) shwarma place. It was one of the best I’ve had so far! That night, while he was working, we walked around the port and ate an Israeli dinner of lafa (huge pita), hummus and salads. Then we went to one of my favorite bars. Ashley got hit on by a 45 year old so we moved to a different side of the bar to “meet some friends”. Then, some very trusting random dude that had been eyeing us asked us to watch his wallet, phone and keys while he went to the bathroom. We left as soon as we finished our beers! I don’t know if it’s my favorite place anymore.
Saturday morning we had a huge, delicious, cheap Israeli breakfast at “Sandwich Place”. (It’s really called Bar Gurion & they definitely have more than just sandwiches there, but that’s what it’s called around my program.) Then we went to the beach, which Jen and Ashley both said was better than Eilat. Our friend Gal came...with popsicles! We waded out to a natural rock levee and found some cool looking crabs. Good day. That night, we met up with another one of Jen and Ashley’s from their trip and went to a club that has a pool in the middle. The bartenders actually stand in it and serve drinks from there! Allie, Ali and I know the guys that promote the party line there on Saturday nights, so we got in easily and had a ton of fun!
Sunday (my last day of class!), Idan was already at the apartment with Jen when I got home from class and Doron came over soon after. Nice surprise! After hanging out for a while and taking some fun pictures on the couch, we met up with some other camp friends (Gal, Kelly and Heather) for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Noam had told me about it months and months ago, so I was glad to finally try it out! Jen and Ashley left super early in the morning to travel around Europe for a few weeks. They’re coming to Tel Aviv on the 29th, so we get another day to hang out before we all fly out on the 30th (them back to Canada, me to Texas). Their flight is only an hour after mine, which means we get to share the cab fare!
Wednesday, Cohort 11 went on our end of the year trip. Well, 8 out of the 18 of us went. 2 have already gone back to the States and 2 had previous engagements. The other 6? Yeah...they had no excuses! Lame. Those that went, had a GREAT time, though. We took a hike around Ramat HaNadiv, which is a nature preserve on the Rothchild estate. We did a 3.5-4 hour hike in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Probably best that we had a smaller group! Afterwards, we got to spend some time in the gardens before we went to a little town called Zichron Ya’acov for lunch and free time. It reminded me of Salado or Fredricksburg in Texas, with the little restaurants/cafes and shops. And it wouldn’t be a Cohort 11 trip without a visit to a winery. We went to the Carmel winery down the road from Zichron. I’m becoming an expert on the wine making and tasting process. Ask me anything!
My pictures have been updated: http://picasaweb.google.com/cpasses

3 Important Days

2008-05-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

May 1st was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). One of the fifth grade classes at my school led a ceremony. They sang a few songs, did a few dances and read some things in Hebrew that I didn’t really understand. The part that really had an impact on me, though was the beginning. At 10:00 am, exactly, a siren went off for a minute. Everyone was already standing and quiet, ready for it. Remember, this the country where nothing ever happens exactly on time. And this large school was on time. The second the siren sounded, every single kid (even the 1st graders!) and teachers put their head down. The incredible part about this is that a siren was sounding in every neighborhood around the country. For that minute, every single person in the country (except maybe the Arabs) was standing silently. Even on the highways, people had pulled over and gotten out of their cars to stand for the siren. Imagine doing this in America. There would be absolutely no law that could pass that could make everyone in the country do the exact same thing at the exact same time, even if it was in remembrance of something. The impact of this minute was intense. I had chills. However, the rest of the day, at least at school, was normal.
The next week were two abnormal days. In fact, I had off from Wednesday to Saturday! Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) was Wednesday the 7th, but like all Jewish holidays, it started the night before. In the States, Memorial Day equals shopping at sales and barbeques because most people are not directly connected to or effected by losing someone that was in the military. However, in Israel, since everyone has to serve in the army in a country that is rarely in a completely peaceful state, every person has had to experience the loss of someone. It is an actual day of mourning. There was a ceremony at Allie’s school down the street, so the three of us went. At 8:00 pm, to start the ceremony, there was another minute-long siren and again, everyone was already standing and ready. In the morning, at 11:00 am, there was a two minute-long siren. We were standing in our apartment, looking out our open window waiting for it. Below us on the street, busses and cars stopped. People got out before the siren and stood silently when it sounded. Luckily, we are on the third floor and people did not look up to see that I was disrespectfully taking a video of it on my camera for 30 seconds.
That evening the entire tone of the country changed from mournful to joyous. May 8th was Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Independence Day). Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, but since all Jewish holidays follow the Jewish, lunar calendar, sometimes the date on the secular calendar is different. The government purposely scheduled Yom HaZikaron the day before so that the country can remember why and how it exists and have that contrast. We hung an Israeli flag outside our living room window that faces the street to add one more to the thousands up around the country. At about 9pm, there was a HUGE celebration in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, full of singing, dancing, fireworks and other excitement. We had a pretty large group of and went down to the street parties on Florentin in very south Tel Aviv. Of course, it’s hard to keep up with that many people and most of the night was spent finding each other. Later, I met up with Keith and Mike (from TASP) and their friends at a reggae party on a rooftop. After, we took a very scenic walk back to kinda south Tel Aviv and I continued my walk home to the old north of Tel Aviv as the sun was coming up. The next day, some people from TASP got together for a potluck BBQ/picnic in the large park in north Tel Aviv. I truly feel like I got the whole experience of the holiday and have a whole new appreciation and connection to this country.

There is no title great enough to describe this...

2008-04-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

I got back from 2 weeks in Austin on Monday and have been messing up my sleeping and eating schedule ever since. The jetlag definitely just works one way. I didn't feel like this in Austin. I also finally got my big suitcase back from the airline who decided that a big pink & white polka dot suitcase with an "OUT OF ITALY" tag on it wasn't obvious enough.
I won't recap every detail of the trip, but here are the highlights. Lauren, Ken, Dad: you're welcome.
Sat 12th-- breakfast at Kerbey Lane with Mom and Ted
Laura's birthday party at the lake
Sun 13th-- Express baseball game with Dad and Ted
steak dinner at home. yum!
Mon 14th-- dinner at Trudy's with a bunch of Jews and Lauren, Corey and Helen
Tues 15th-- pedicures with Mom
lunch with Mom, Dad & Corey
shopping with Mom!!!
Happy Hour at the Domain with Mom, Dad & Dawn
Wed 16th-- lunch with Mom...more Mexican food...mmmmmm
UT baseball game with Dad
Thurs 17th-- visit to Pillow. It was great to see all the teachers & see how grown up the kids have gotten in a year!
Happy Hour at El Arroyo...got to finally see Sean & drink 99 cent margs!!!
Kelly & Thom's gig at Patsy's Cowgirl Cafe
Midnight Rodeo...more cheap drinks :)
Fri 18th-- lunch & sunglasses purchasing with Sean on the Drag
movies with Annie, Lauren & Sean
Sean's family birthday dinner at Sullivan's...mmmmm
Downtown barhopping with a ton of friends...very, very fun!
Sat 19th-- Sean's 24th birthday!!!
Reggae Fest...long lines, sun, chill music & good people watching!
Adult Spelling Bee downtown to cheer on Annie :)
Sun 20th-- lunch at Guero's (can't get enough Mexican!) with Lauren, Dan & Ken...who paid, btw ;)
17 person Passover seder at the house which included an "under 30" table. I think we had too much fun. :)
Mon 21st-- lunch & visiting with Rabbi Folberg and his wife, Saundra & their daughter, who I babysat in college. She's 6 now...it's amazing how fast they grow up!
dinner with the 'rents
Tues 22nd-- lunch with Mom and Dad at the Frisco Shop while it was still in it's original location
manicures, tennis shoe shopping and Amy's ice cream with Mom
sushi happy hour dinner at Kyoto with JMCS, my girls from camp, minus our vowel :( Oh yeah, and more Amy's ice cream.
Wed 23rd-- drive to camp to discuss this summer (ok, and to visit!)
kept driving to Arlington to visit Sean and see the house he's living in now. Even went to Walmart...glad I went all the way up there for that. :) It was pouring. We got wet and then made stir-fry for a VERY late dinner.
Thurs 24th-- drive back to Austin
visit Annie at work...she loves her job...makes me happy!
Happy Hour at Serrano's...seriously I'm surprised I'm not having lack of Mexican food withdrawls right now.
Kickball game with "Your Mom"...new team, first game, got to pitch. :)
Downtown with Annie. Craziness ensued, even though we stayed on 5th St.
Fri 25th-- Lunch at Kerbey Lane with Ted, Alit and later, Scott
Katie's wedding shower...got to see Pillow people again.
dinner at Matt's El Rancho with the crew. WAY FUN! Started to pour & hail on the way home...somehow, we fit Ted's car in the garage.
Sat 26th-- Annie met Ted and me at the airport to see me off. :)
Flew to NY, ate at a kosher Indian restaurant with a large family group
Saw Abby & Donnie & had fondue at my aunt's house...yummmmm

I was super busy, but it was amazing being with so many friends and my whole family. I could not have asked for a better trip.

Hopefully I will get my brain to follow my body back into my routine soon. There are a few memorial days and an independence day coming up here-- look for reflections on them in the coming weeks.

A "take shelter" drill-- Israeli style

2008-04-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Today all schools around Tel Aviv, there was a "take shelter" drill.
In the States, these days, that drill is for hurricanes or tornadoes. Here, in Israel, we practice taking shelter from bombs. The kids don't go into a window-less room or hallway and kneel & cover their heads with their hands. They go into a bomb shelter. I think this might have been the first one they've done this year, but that still doesn't explain the mass chaos that took place during this drill. With the exception of the 1st graders, they've all done it at least once before.
In the States, drills are taken seriously, like the emergency is actually happening. The kids are quiet, listening for instructions, walking from place to place, albeit quickly. In Israel, kids/people don't have quite the same respect for order or authority. (Apparently this is supposed to change when they go into the army, but it seems that they forget all their respect & order training within 10 years afterward.)
2nd period was cut short so that the kids could have recess before the drill. When the bell rang, the kids were supposed to go back to their rooms and get under their desks, for about 5 minutes, until the siren sounded. 2 6th graders with a roll list were "in charge" of each class and met the teacher in the room. Seriously, I directed my questions about what was happening to them because they knew more than my cooperating teacher. This under the desk business just meant play time to the kids. They didn't get quiet longer than 30 seconds for anyone asking for it. They were partially under, partially under, no kneeling, just hanging out. A few even got up & switched spots to go be with their friends.
When the siren sounded, we waited 2 minutes to let the other hallway go down the stairs first so it wouldn't get too congested, as if in a real emergency we wouldn't use the other stairwell that was only slightly farther away from the bomb shelter. When we left, I looked out the hallway window and saw herds of kids full speed running across the school yard to the shelter. No order, no sight of any teachers, who were most likely, walking slowly behind, talking to each other. When we got to the stairs, the class in front has been stopped for whatever reason. This was as far as we got and even the 6th graders "in charge" had no idea why. We sat the kids on the stairs and waited 10 minutes until it was over. The noise from the 2 classes was deafening. I actually covered my ears as I sat at the top of the stairs and they were still ringing for a while after. At least my cooperating teacher thought this whole situation was as ridiculous as I did. As we sat there, she turned to me and said, "As if the roof won't fall in if there's a real bomb?"
I wouldn't say I'm still experiencing culture shock, but I am occasionally still shocked by this culture.

Sinai, Egypt

2008-04-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

I just got back yesterday morning from spending 4 days in my 2nd Arab country. A few weeks ago, when spontaneously touring Caesaria with Meir, he asked if I wanted to go to Sinai with him for a snorkling/diving trip. Apparently, some other friends kept backing out. Well, luckily, last week, I didn't have university on Wednesday and I took off work on Thursday because the English teacher I work with wasn't going to be there, so I wouldn't have anything to do anyway.
We hopped on the midnight bus from TA to Eilat on Tuesday night and arrived about 6 hours later, having slept very little. We talked to 2 other guys going into Sinai and shared breakfast and a cab to the border with them. Since we had no idea where we were staying, we took their word on a northern village called Terabin, near the town of Nuweba. It was right on the water (like most of the towns in Sinai are) & very deserted and quiet. We spent 2 days there sleeping (in the sun or shade by the water) reading, playing cards and backgammon, and battling mosquitoes. The 2nd day we walked along the water for about 20 minutes to see the action in Nuweba. Apparently, it's still the off-season.
2 days was enough quiet, though. We needed some things to do, so we decided to move south about an hour to Dahab. Friday morning, we walked back to Nuweba to catch the 6:30 am bus, which came closer to 7:15 and then broke down when it tried to go up a hill. Good thing we had sunflower seeds & the "-tion game" to pass the time. We got into Dahab around 9 and began looking for a cheap (but nice-ish) place to stay. We found it at the Bish Bishi. We ate breakfast and then...slept outside. (All these places have pillows set up all around tables, so you can just stretch out & relax.)
Later, we walked around and explored the town and priced snorkeling and scuba diving trips. I got molested by a guy that Meir wanted to buy a shirt from. The guy wanted to sell me wrap around pants & put them on me. Outside of that and eating dinner, we didn't do much. We were going to leave with a group from the hotel at 11 pm to go on a night hike to watch the sunrise at St. Catherine's monastery, neat Mount Sinai, but um, didn't. If we had, the next day wouldn't have worked out so perfectly.
The fourth day, we were determined to do something, so we got up at 7:30. Meir is an experienced diver and said that the best time to go is early in the morning. However, Dahab didn't wake up until about 9. We ate breakfast, found a snorkeling trip at the famous Blue Hole leaving at 11am and signed up for a dive at Moray Gardens for whenever we got back. Besides the super cold water & the pretty purple jellyfish that had long tentacles, I thought snorkeling was awesome! The water was so blue and clear and fish were so beautiful. Meir thought it was ok, but he knew what was to come. I didn't.
We got back a little later than we thought we would, but everyone is very relaxed, so the dive center was cool with it. We got our wet suits on and I got a quick lesson on what to do and expect from the instructor (Andy), who was going to have a hand on me the whole time in the water and would regulate my air for me. (What a relief!) We drove 10 minutes outside the town to a more secluded part of the reef & put everything else on: fins, BCD vest (w/ which you pump in or let out air to control how you ascend or descend), weight belt, tank, face mask. It was extremely heavy on land. I don't know how I managed to walk to the water. Once in the water, the instructor had me practice 2 skills: how to get water out of your face mask and how to put your mouthpiece back in if it comes out...both underwater! I apparently mastered them the first time & we were off!
I never thought that I would ever go diving and I am so glad I did. The fact that I didn't have an underwater disposable camera with me just means that I'll have to do it again! I literally thought I was in the middle of "Finding Nemo". We even saw 2 squid! Every new fish I saw was my new favorite. Snorkeling in the Red Sea was pretty cool, but not as cool as diving in the Red Sea. I was worried that Meir wouldn't get such a cool dive because he was just accompanying my introductory dive, but since we went outside the town and were under for 45 minutes, it was better. He was really happy with it, too.
Andy told me after the dive that I only went through half the tank, which is less than some more experienced divers use. I told Meir later & his response was, "Yeah, you were really calm." I don't know how they or my body thought I was calm, though, because my mind was a frantic mess. I kept worrying about breathing and popping my ears (the 2 most important things), not using my arms to swim, keeping water out of my face mask, keeping my mouthpiece in my mouth AND taking in all my surroundings and looking at things. In fact, my face muscles used for jaw clenching are still sore from trying so hard to keep the mouthpiece in!
When we got back, we changed super fast to try to catch the bus to Nuweba at 6:30 pm. We were trying to get back to Eilat to catch our 9:30 bus. It was late. We majorly bargained with a cab driver who took us and 2 other girls. We dropped them in Nuweba and continued onto Taba, where the border is. On the way, we realized that the time change was not working in our favor. Egypt has not changed their clocks, so Israel is an hour ahead.
We ended up missing our bus. We didn't want to pay another 60 shekels to catch the midnight bus, so we convinced ourselves that there wasn't enough room and started to try to hitch hike back to Tel Aviv. The first ride was almost into the middle of Eilat from an empty charter bus who had just dropped off a group at the border. The second was an empty army transport bus who was extremely nice. The driver told us not to thank him when he got out. He wanted to thank us for letting him help someone out. He dropped us off about an hour north of Eilat in Yotvatah, a famous dairy kibbutz with a 24 hour store. We got some chocolate milk and hung around, waiting for drivers. Our next ride was in a semi, with a driver who had moved here from the Ukraine and who Meir thought talked too much. I don't know what they were talking about exactly, but I got the idea the driver was telling his life story and all his plans for the future. After about another hour, we got dropped off again at a junction where we could hitch a ride in either direction and get back to TA. We preferred going toward Be'er Sheva because our friend Noam lives there and worst case, we could crash with him. Also at the intersection were 2 Hasidim (really religious Jews), also trying to hitch. I think having 4 people there was hurting our chances of getting a ride. That and the fact that all the semis were headed to the factory down the road. Eventually a bus came by and we surrendered and got on. It had obviously picked up a bunch of others along the way, because it was packed! With so many people laying and sitting in the aisle, we stood near the front for an hour before the bus took a break. Some people got off and we were able to sit...on the stairs. The bus dropped us in Herzliya, NORTH of Tel Aviv. After unsuccessfully trying to get a ride, we got on a sherut (cheap taxi van) which took us into Tel Aviv & then we took a city bus that stops almost in front of my apartment. It was 6:15 am.
Shower, rest my eyes, went to class. What an adventure!

Spontaneous Day!

2008-03-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why I didn’t blog about this earlier, but I had a very fun, spontaneous day a few weeks ago. I had been thinking that I needed to break out of my routine and go explore this country more, but homework and class was preventing that. And then one Saturday (the 15th, I think), my friend Meir, who lives in J-town, but comes to TA often because his brother lives here called me around 1pm. He asked what I was doing.

Me: Not much.
Him: Are you going to be doing anything in the next few hours?
Me: Just reading for the university, but it’s no big deal, why?
Him: I want you to go to this birthday party with me. How long will it take you to get ready?
Me: about 30 min, maybe
Him: How about 10? I’m at Ben Yehuda and Nordau. (literally 2 blocks away...so much less than 10 mins away)
Me: Um...ok. Then let me go so I can get ready!

Exactly 10 minutes later, I was downstairs & getting into his car. Now, I had assumed that this party was in TA. I was wrong. It was in a little kibbutz-like place called Pardes Hana, near the ancient Roman town of Caesarea, which is now a national park. It’s only about a 30-40 minute drive, but in a country this small, that’s about equivalent to driving from Austin to San Antonio for a party. The party was small, just people hanging out in a backyard. I knew a few of Meir’s friends that were there, including the “birthday boy”, Amos, but I always have to concentrate really hard to understand what’s going on because they think I know more Hebrew than I do & so they don’t translate much for me. In reality, these are exactly the kind of situations I need to be putting myself in. Meir’s definitely the most patient of my Israeli friends. He asks me questions or will tell me little things in Hebrew and wait for me to answer in Hebrew. He also doesn’t mind me saying, “Ma?” (“What?”) all the time, he’ll just say it slower or in English.
Anyway, after being at the “party” for about an hour, Meir and I left and took a little detour to Caesarea. It was a Roman port city and a very ritzy beach town has developed around the national park. In fact, if you just say you’re going to go to the restaurants, you don’t have to pay the national park entrance fee. (We were honest.) There are parts of the ancient city, like the aquaduct, that you can visit without paying because it’s just on the beach. Israelis hang out on the beach like they’re not in the shadows of history. I suppose it’s difficult to live in a history-laden country like this, though, and always be impressed.
We didn’t take any kind of tour, just grabbed a few maps and explored for about an hour and a half. It was so interesting seeing all the ancient structures in ruins and just next to the sidewalk without being roped off. I made a comment to Meir about how it because it was so different than what I saw in Greece. He bluntly reminded me that Israel has had a few more wars here and that the Jews here didn’t care as much as the Greeks about preserving Roman Christian artifacts. In fact, the ancient theater now has seat numbers on it and is a pretty hip concert venue.
Afterward, we drove back into TA (which took a long time because there was major traffic) to go eat dinner at the restaurant where his friend, Evyatar worked. I still didn’t want to go home and do homework, so I took him up on his invitation to go with him and Evyatar to their friend Inbal’s boyfriend’s apartment to watch Israeli Survivor. I had met and hung out with them all before, so I knew I would be comfortable. After driving around Givatayim (a suburb of TA) for about 45 minutes because of bad directions, we arrived! It was fun and I was impressed with my ability to figure out what was going on in the show. Granted, all these reality shows are the same and Meir had to tell me about the relationships between some people, but I was happy with myself nonetheless.
We dropped Evyatar off at his apartment first and then Meir drove me home. I got out of the car at 11 pm- literally 10 hours later! Luckily, I don’t have to leave for class until 9:30 on Sundays, because I got up in the morning to finish my reading! That day totally reenergized me about living here. I had becoming semi-negative because of my routine. The next weekend, though, was Purim, a holiday similar to Halloween, but with a very different story and history, but I got sick before the weekend and missed out. Since then, I’ve had 2 non-consecutive totally headache free days. Now, I’m congested with a sinus headache. I can’t wait to go home for the Passover vacation. 12 days...12 days...12 days...

(pictures of Caesarea will be up once I finish my disposable camera & develop it.)

A few thoughts...

2008-03-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted anything. Here's what I've been doing: work, university, Hebrew, homework, going to the gym, waiting for buses. I went to J-town 3 weekends in a row for a camp reunion dinner, an Israeli politics seminar, and an Idan Raichel concert (check him out...pretty cool, ethnic/rock music). Oh, and there was a week in there that I had a mild case of the flu and missed work and university. Fun stuff. :\
I went to another seminar this weekend on Israel and the Diaspora and their relationship. It was really interesting. We talked a little about the attack & it was weird (for me) in light of the bombing in Times Square this week (Tues or Wed, maybe?) to think about how my connections have changed a little bit. I felt more affected by what happened in Jerusalem than I did by what happened in NY. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that no one was hurt in New York, but I think a little of it has to do with where I am...
This was the first beach weather weekend! Luckily, the first part of the seminar was outside at a national park and my discussion group at the hotel kept meeting outside. I put my space heater away and pulled out my fan. I can't tell you how excited this makes me!
I don't remember if I've posted this or not before, but the bats in Tel Aviv are HUGE! I did a little research and found out that they are Egytpian fruit bats, which is "a fairly large 'flying fox' type bat with an intelligent looking face. They are particulalry fond of ficus sycamore trees, a tree which is especially common in certain parks and boulevards in Tel Aviv." Apparently there are smaller bats in other parts of the country. Only we get the huge, scary ones. They may have an "intelligent face", but I've only had the scary experience of them swooping around me as I'm waiting for the bus or getting out of ulpan.
I'll be home in 34 days to visit!

Jordan, 2 Canadian backpackers & the Superbowl

2008-02-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

Thursday, after work, I finished packing my new intense, perfect-for-traveling backpack (Surprise! It's orange!) and left with Allie for the bus station. 6 hours later, we were in Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel. We met our other travel companion (one of the TASP girl's brother's friend) at the hostel and went out to grab a beer and get to know each other. His name is Mike and Allie had met him once. He was in the middle of doing some world traveling and jumped on the chance to have some companions to Jordan. We were very glad to have a guy coming with us, so we wouldn't be harassed or taken advantage of.
Friday morning we got up and found out that the road to Petra was closed because of the weather. It had snowed in Jerusalem, Petra and everywhere in between on Wednesday. Since it doesn't snow often, these places aren't equipped to deal with it. Good thing we were going to Wadi Rum first! Crossing the border was easier than expected, probably because of the weather in Petra. There, we also found out that it wasn't the road that was closed, but Petra itself. hmm...
We took a taxi to the Wadi Rum visitor's center, literally in the middle of the desert! We signed up for a 5 hour tour, picked out our guide and jeep & took off. We saw some pretty cool rock formations, like natural bridges that we actually got to climb up and a secluded small canyon. We saw Lawrence of Arabia's old house, or what was left of it and drawing of camels on a rock wall dating from his 1500-2000 years ago depicting which way the caravans were going. We hiked up a huge red sand dune & filled our shoes with sand as we ran down. We drank delicious Bedouin tea and listened to our guide play the oud. Luckily, we stopped for lunch with our guide's friend & his group. They had a lot of extra food they shared with us. We had stupidly just brought a bunch of snacks instead of figuring out some way to make & pack sandwiches or something. The most amazing part, however, was just standing in the middle of the vast stretch of desert, with huge colorful mountains on either side and a perfect clear blue sky above. It was a good place for life pondering & trouble forgetting.
At the end of the day, our guide hooked us up with a cab driving friend who drove us to Wadi Musa, the city right outside Petra. The day had be gorgeous and warm enough for everything to open up by this point. Our cab driver, Muhammad, was a blast! He was dancing in the car, teaching us some of his moves. We stopped on the side of a road at at a little stand and he bought us tea & took a picture with us. He made sure to point out everything we were passing, like the farm of goats that were all imported from New Zealand and King's Highway, which was up the side of the tallest mountain in the country that you could drive up. At the top of it, he pulled over to let us take pictures of the sunsetting behind the still snow covered (or spotted) mountains. Allie and Mike were the only ones with cameras (By the way Sean, what's the status on mine?) and Muhammed pulled me behind the car and we started covertly making snowballs with the thick snow on the side of the road. We launched them as they started walking back. I learned that I am a terrible snow ball thrower, which is confusing because I can throw a baseball. Anyway, I think Allie got pictures.
In Wadi Musa, Muhammed pointed out his house and the clothing shop where his wife works. We were almost sad to part ways when we got to our hostel-- it was the best cab ride I've ever had! We got his number, though, so he could drive us back to the border the next day. We were staying at the Cleopetra...haha...and bargained our way into the same deal that our friends got the weekend before, even though we only stayed for 1 night & they stayed for 2. Only 7 dinar per person. That's about $9.80. We got situated and then inquired about where to get dinner. Mousla, the guy that ran the hostel pointed us to a place down the street called Alarabi & we were instructed to let them know he sent us and to give us "the deal". Another, older guy named Gregor joined us. He was from Vancouver, had been traveling alone for a few months now and had just come from Egypt. We shared a bunch of dishes-similar stuff to Israel: hummus, pita, grilled meat, falafel, chopped salad. In the end, it was a total of 13 dinar ($18.20) for 4 people!
It was dark when we got back to the hostel, but it was only about 8pm. There was a decent sized living room and about 15 people staying there were hanging. We joined and ended up playing cards for a while with 2 other guys (Dustin & Kevin) from Vancouver who only knew Gregor because they happened to meet in Egypt. What a small world! They had about a week left of traveling and were planning on going back to Egypt because they were flying out of Cairo, but weren't crazy about spending another week there. Allie and I were talking to each other about making it back for the the Super Bowl on Sunday. Dustin & Kevin were much more excited about that, though weren't sure about traveling to Israel for just a few days. We opened the invitation to our apartment hostel, even though we thought we had finally shut it down after the winter Birthright season.
Saturday was the perfect day for Petra. Mild weather & another cloudless sky. We tour a 2 hour tour through the canyon that leads into the heart of the city, learning all about the history. Did you know that there is a new list of the 7 Wonders of the World? Well, the pyramids are out & Petra is in! It is an entire ancient city inside a ring of mountains. Instead of cutting and hauling rocks around to make buildings, the ancient settlers carved the buildings into the mountains! It was literally stumbled upon by a Swiss explorer in 1812. There is one structure called the Monastery, named by the Crusaders, that was the main pilgrimage site. I can imagine that it was traveled to often because you have to climb 800 steps and several uphill ramps to reach it. Mike, Allie & I did it, though, with only one short break & in 35 minutes. The grueling hike was all worth it when we came around the corner & saw this intense carved building. We sat, ate and stared for a while. There is a bell shaped ornament at the top and we noticed 2 guys walking around on it, quite high up. Mike wanted to see if he could go up there, too. I said why not & joined him looking for how to climb up. We went back the way we came and realized that wouldn't work. We went to the other side and saw the reason "why not". There was a big sign that said NO CLIMBING. That was enough for me, but Mike wanted to explore more. So, I sat with Allie until Mike came back, also claiming defeat. The guys at the top were being stupid, jumping from one building section to another and walking on the small ledges on the sides of the walls. That's when we decided to walk back down, before we witnessed a death.
On our way out of the ancient city, we bargained (very well!) to just ride a camel in a little circle, long enough to take pictures and say we did it. We got the guy down from 20 dinar each for a walk to the end of the road (not too far) to 1 dinar each. At first he wasn't budging, but we walked away and didn't look back. We got about 20 feet away when he realized we were serious and caved. Victory!
After our day in Petra, we said goodbye to Mike, who was taking a bus to Amman to continue his world travels and we had Moula call Muhammed to get a ride back to the border. Sad news, though, he couldn't come. He sent his cousin, though. He was friendly, but didn't speak as much English. We did stop at his house, though, and he invited us in for tea. It was neat to see the inside of a Jordanian house, but it was so awkward. His wife and 4 daughters were there (his son was at work) and I highly doubt they had ever seen anyone like us because they just sat there and stared.
We had made reservations for the 9:30 pm bus from Eilat to Tel Aviv, but got back to Eilat sooner than we thought. We were hanging out at the Eilat mall (There's not much to do in Eilat in the winter!) & decided to change to the 8pm bus, which would get us home about 2 hours earlier. We found out that Dustin and Kevin were at a bar in Eilat & had decided to join us in Tel Aviv. They met us at the bus station and snatched the last few seats on the bus. It was a very eventful bus ride, full of an argument about D&K being in the wrong seats (They're assigned here.) Since it was their very first experience in Israel, they were very confused about what was going on, but Allie was strong and argued back in Hebrew. Kevin ended up laying on the floor, like one of the soldiers on our way to Eilat on Thursday and Dustin had to sit with the girl that started it all. After we stopped for a break, the girl magically managed to find another seat and the guys were able to sit behind us again. Woah. We finally got home at about 3 am.
Needless to say, we all slept pretty late on Sunday & then I took D&K to the laundromat while Allie was a good student and worked on a paper. The guys made dinner for us that night & had it ready when I came home from Hebrew class! The Super Bowl started here at 1:30 am. We got to Mike's Place about an hour before kickoff and were shocked to find a place to sit. It is a very American bar, actually next to the American embassy on the water, with huge TV's. It was as packed as I would imagine any sports bar in America would be. I think the only Israelis there were the ones working! We got home from the game in time for me to get ready for work! The guys left Tuesday morning after another mostly sleep filled day. They didn't see much of Tel Aviv, but we made them go spend the day in Jerusalem, at least, before heading back to Cairo.
And now, after two exciting weekends, it's back the grindstone and paper writing. I think I'll finish just in time for the next semester to start on the 17th!
(Pictures will be up as soon as I steal them from Allie.)

An hour in complete darkness

2008-02-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday (the 30th), I got my 2nd non-Mom haircut. I went to a place called Highlights nearby. Allie had gone and so had another girl from the program. The guys that own it/work there are from South Africa, though they have lived in Israel the majority of their lives. They do, however, speak perfect English. Allie loved them, and though they were more expensive than the first place, I figured being able to communicate exactly what I want and get it was worth it. Well...I was right! I am still growing out the bulk of my hair, but I got fun new long bangs and layers to spice things up! He (Jonathan) even straightened it for me. I don't think it's ever been so straight- I don't have the appropriate straightener or patience. I didn't wash it for 3 days, just to keep it!

That evening, I went with some girls from my program (Dina, Shari, Stephanie & Jen) to a town about 30 minutes south of Tel Aviv to the children's museum because they have a Blind Exhibit. You are given a cane and led through complete darkness by a blind person. Talia was our leader. I don't know how they did it, but your eyes never adjust! There are several rooms you go through, each set up with objects, smells and sounds of real life places, like a pond, a cabin, an outdoor market, a harbor (where we "rode" on a boat), a city street, and a cafeteria. In each room, we had to feel and listen around, exploring and trying to figure out what was there. As I was passing a fence on the city street, a dog started barking. I actually jumped! We were told to bring some change ahead of time and we bought snacks at the cafeteria. We had to bring change so that we could feel the different sizes and figure out how much we were paying. On the way to the table, I dropped my bag of chips and Talia picked it up immediately. I was pretty amazed! We sat and discussed our experience and asked Talia questions about her life as we snacked in the darkness. Talia said that when she first started working there, it only took her a few minutes in each room to learn her way around. I don't think I could have done that. I felt like I was fumbling around the whole time, proud of myself when I found something new on my own that no one else pointed out. The whole point was to, for at least an hour of your life, not just imagine, but actually experience, what life would be like without the gift of sight. It was a very mind-opening experience.

As clumsy as I am, I rarely fall.

2008-01-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

Today, I fell. I fell hard. However, I think I will have one small bruise. It hasn't even started to appear. It's confusing though, since I bruise so easily because of so much less. For example, I have a noticeable bruise on my wrist now, so something so insignificant, I don't even know what it's from.
Before I get into the funny story about this fall, let me give you a look into the demented brain of a klutz. Anytime I trip over something (or nothing, as is often the case), especially in public, I imagine what might have happened if I had not recovered from the trip and had actually fallen. What I imagine is often pretty bad and involves blood. The demented part is that I laugh- sometimes out loud.
So, back to today. Ali and I were walking down near the shuk (market). It was super crowded and we were weaving between people to get to store so Ali could pick up a dress that had been repaired. Ali sees an opening and zooms through it and starts crossing the street. I don't want to be left behind, so I take off, too. I don't think to look down, though. On the curb, there is a knee-high cylindrical barrier about 6 inches in diameter. They are lining the sidewalk, with a few feet between each one. Most are a little taller and they are rarely in front of a crosswalk. As you can guess, I walked into it. Direct knee-barrier contact. I was walking so fast, though that that impact didn't stop me- it sent me flying forward. I landed sprawled out in the middle of a little side street. I heard the water bottle I was holding land somewhere else. I abandoned it, jumped to my feet, grabbed Ali's arm- who had a quite shocked look on her face- and rushed off. She kept asking if I was ok and all I could do was nod my head because I was laughing so hard.
Ali said I landed so hard and everyone behind me gasped so loudly that she thought a baby stroller had fallen over, until she turned around and saw me on the ground. She was impressed with how fast I got up. We walked another block before we investigated my injuries. The top section of my left ring finger and my left palm were sore and I thought they would bruise, but that soreness has past. Also, my left knee (the one that hit the barrier) was and still is a little sore, but still no bruise. I'm shocked- and very happy- that I'm ok.
It was definitely more funny than anything else. In fact, I had trouble typing this because I started laughing all over again!

The culprit:

(Those dents were there BEFORE I came in contact with it!)

אני מצטערת

2008-01-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

Translation: I am sorry.
It has been way too long since I have written a blog. However, I don't feel like I've been doing much to write about. It's the end of the semester, which means there is a lot of work to be done. All of my papers and assignments are due in the next few weeks, or in the middle or at the end of the semester break. There is even one final paper that isn't due until March! Next semester, as soon as we get the syllabi, I am making due dates throughout the semester for myself. That way, this evil thing called procrastination will be less likely to overcome me.
Besides schoolwork, I have gotten to visit friends that have come in on various trips. The best part is that I only had to go to Jerusalem once. All the rest had nights off in Tel Aviv! My friend Aaron, from California and his sister and another friend are going to be here this week on a non-student Birthright trip. They are staying at our apt (which has been so much like a youth hostel the last few weeks w/all the visitors, we're naming the place Nordau 57, modeled after an actual hostel in TA) for a few days. Luckily the weekend they'll be here is my first weekend off from university, so I'll have a lot of time for them.
Also, the first night they're here, some Israeli friends are coming over for dinner. It was supposed to be a "business" meeting (long story) and that was the only night that it could happen, but now, because of several reasons, it's going to just be a fun meeting. So, between the Israelis, my roommates and my guests, I'm going to be cooking for 9 people. I invented a good recipe yesterday that I may use. I might need to buy a new pan, though!
I'm getting better with actually speaking Hebrew, instead of keeping it in my head, and try to say at least one sentence at the beginning of every phone conversation with my Israeli friends. My ulpan (Hebrew) class is almost over, which means I'll be moving up to the next level in a few weeks. Woo!
Gotta go plan lessons for tomorrow!

My birthday & Santa hats

2007-12-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

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!"

Pictures on the web!

2007-12-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Beware: This is long!

2007-12-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

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)

A Defining Moment

2007-11-24T03:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Flush beats a Straight

2007-11-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

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. : \

mmm...chocolate

2007-11-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

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. :)

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

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 really live here!

2007-10-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

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!

Beach Hike & More

2007-10-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

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!

Sukkot break

2007-10-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

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.

My new friends

2007-09-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

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. :)

3 Fall holidays down, 1 to go

2007-09-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Another holiday...

2007-09-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

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.

An educational trip to J-town, a migraine and Indian food.

2007-09-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

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’.

Rosh Hashana in Jerusalem

2007-09-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

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!

Shana Tova

2007-09-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

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!

New pictures

2007-09-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

I added some pictures to some of the other posts. Hopefully when my internet is a little more stable, I will start putting the pictures in with the posts at the same time. :)

First week of school

2007-09-07T11:53:00.001-07:00

I felt pretty comfortable going to school for my first day on Monday, since I had been there before a few times. However, since I don’t know many of the teachers and many are not comfortable speaking in English, the teachers lounge was a little awkward as I waited for one of the teachers I am working with to get there. Her name is Michelle and she teaches English to the 6th graders and 2 other the 5th grade classes. I am also working with another teacher, Meirav, who teaches 2-4 grade and one of the 5th grade classes. This week, I was just with Michelle, because Meirav wanted to get the younger ones adjusted before I showed up. The Israeli classes are very departmentalized and even the elementary schools have different periods. This school has six 45 min(ish) periods, but the kids stay in their rooms and the teachers change. They also have 2 breaks during the day, 1 longer one in the morning for a snack (most of the kids don’t eat at home, but bring breakfast of some sort to school) and recess and a shorter one in the afternoon for recess. The school (and most others) doesn’t serve lunch. The kids just eat when they go home.
I observed each class once the first two days (Mon & Tues) and then took my small group the second time I was with the 6th grade classes. Michelle needed to test the 5th graders on their English abilities to know who would be in my group. I’m doing mostly enrichment with native speakers (those that have one or both English speaking parents) and students doing really well in their English class. I read "Where the Wild Things Are" to them and then we made class rules “together” so they wouldn’t be ‘wild things’ during the year. I let them make name tags for their desks and interview each one to find out where they were from and/or how they knew English. The majority have relative in America/Canada or have traveled to/spent significant time in English speaking countries. Tuesday, I got to go to school at 10 am because I have Meirav’s classes in the morning. Thursday, I tested 2 5th grade classes on their reading comprehension and verbal communication. I still need to speak to a few of the kids, but one group already has 11 while the other will only be about 5. I also met with one of my 6th grade groups for the 2nd and 3rd time. We had a class discussion about what they would like/need to learn/do and played 20 Questions. I also had them start on making the calendars that will go on the walls. These first few weeks will be pretty easy while I am still subtly observing them to find out what will and won’t work for each group. This week, there was no 6th period, so I got home pretty early.
My schedule is:
Monday Tuesday Thursday
8:00-8:50 6-1 4-3 5-2
8:50-9:40 6-3 3-2 5-3
9:40-9:50 snack snack snack
9:50-10:15 recess recess recess
10:15-11:00 6-2 5-1 6-1
11:00-11:45 5-3 Off-period 5-1
11:45-12:00 recess recess recess
12:00-12:45 6-1 6-2 6-1
12:45-1:30 6-3 6-2 6-2

I also took my Hebrew Placement test this week and I placed in the 3rd level (A plus plus), but it doesn’t start until October after the holidays, so I opted to be in the 2nd level (A plus). I also went to one class. It is freakin’ hard! The teacher only speaks in Hebrew, unless she has to define something she can’t explain in Hebrew. I feel like most of the other people also speak a lot more Hebrew than I do. I haven’t taken a Hebrew class in 5 years and think end of level A would have been a better place for me, but that doesn’t exist. I’ll have to do a lot of studying. I’m kicking myself now for not bringing all my Hebrew textbooks from college. I especially miss "501 Hebrew Verbs". My bags were already heavy, I should have just brought them. Oh well. Maybe I can find a bookstore here that will have it.

Israel= balagan

2007-09-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

A balagan is a mess. A big one. Nobody focuses here. The banks take forever because the tellers answer their cell phones and everyone talks to each other and asks questions and helps each other. (Which is fine, but it would just be easier if they learned how to do their jobs.) We met with the lawyer and the landlord today to sign the lease. Took 2 HOURS! It was freakin’ ridiculous. My futon was supposed to be delivered at 7pm today. I rushed home from the lawyer’s office to be there and waited. I understand that time isn’t something people worry about here, but at 7:15 when there was no sign of a truck or anything, I called. The first guy I talked to tried to tell me that it wasn’t supposed to get here until tomorrow. Luckily, I wasn’t speechless. In the store, we had a big discussion w/ the delivery guy about coming on Sunday or Monday. I knew it was Sunday and told him so. I talked another guy that said something about Shimon (the main delivery guy) and the hospital. I had no sympathy anymore. I just demanded to know why I wasn’t called. I don’t care what the country’s custom is. If you’re not going to make an appointment or delivery, say, what someone is planning on sleeping on that night, have some common decency and call the person that is waiting on you. Ok, I’ve said my piece.
I never wrote about Thursday or Friday. Thursday, Ali, Allie and I took a bus to Yaffo (just 10 min outside of TA, to the south). It’s a poor city and there are lots of shops there that you can bargain in and little market areas where people literally spread out their junk. We were searching for kitchen stuff (plates, cups, silverware, pots/pans, etc). We didn’t accept any first prices and we got almost everything, including some new things like our knife set for about $35 total!
We also met my friend Nati for lunch at Dr. Shakshuka. Shakshuka is a dish that is a tomato/onion-y mixture (like spaghetti sauce almost) w/ sunny side eggs on top. You can add different things. I put mushrooms in mine. It’s really good, even though it might sound weird.
Friday I spent the day at the beach with Allie, Mike, Raquefette and Evan. It was kinda cloudy, and it made laying out in the heat bearable. Every once in a while, we’d go into the ocean. I loved just floating in the water. It still amazes me that I can be in water up to my shoulders and still see my feet on the ground. I can’t wait to get a raft/float thing and hang out in the water all day or lay with it on the beach and not get super sandy! The weather is warm enough that I can go to the beach (in my bathing suit) through October, at least. I am going to love the weekends!

Move In Day

2007-09-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last night, we went to a bar on the beach (literally sitting in the sand!) and were planning on not being out so late, just having a few beers. Mark and Nili (a 2nd year student) joined us and we got wrapped up in conversation and stuff going on around us. We got home at 4:30 am. Needless to say, we slept until noon.

(Allie, me, Ali)

Packing didn’t take nearly as long as we had anticipated and soon went out to eat lunch. Our landlords weren’t going to be ready for us to move in until the afternoon. We tried calling them and got no answer. So, we went back for our last group rest time in the hostel. They finally called around 4:15 pm and tried to get us to move in on Monday because they haven’t had a chance to clean and some things were still not ready, renovation-wise. Allie told them that we had to move out of the hostel (and we did, just not until 10am Sunday), so they let us come. We lugged all of our stuff down to the lobby, where it took up quite a lot of space. I had 2 suitcases and 3 carry-on sized bags, Ali and Allie each had about 3 suitcases and a few other bags. In addition, we had 7 Ikea bags and about 5 smaller bags from the market in Yaffo, where we bargained for kitchen supplies (we only spent about $35 total). It was pretty ridiculous. The front desk called for 2 taxis, but refused to take us when they got there, saying that they are taxis not trucks and they carry people. It took a while to get a hold of some drivers that would take us and all our stuff to our apt, which is only a 5 min. drive away. The guys that came were really nice and didn’t charge us nearly as much as we thought it would. We are technically on the 3rd floor, but in reality, it’s like the 7th. After every 10 steps is a landing with an apt, but they alternate with the back and front of the building. We stationed ourselves a few landings apart and relayed the bags so we didn’t all have to keep walking up and down the whole way. We were still dripping with sweat when it was all over, though. Good thing our AC works well! My friend Alona, from camp, came over to visit for a bit and when she left, we each attempted showers without a curtain. Luckily we have a handheld shower head, so we just sat in the tub and showered sitting down.

Oh yeah, and we have no internal doors, just a white mesh curtain where the bathroom door should be. Fun! Some of Ali’s friends came over to visit for a bit also. It was nice to hear other ooh and aah over the place. We were going to meet them at a bar later, but first had to eat and get cash. After stealing some internet from the corner coffee kiosk, we headed out, walking toward the bars, looking for cash. There are banks all over this town, but somehow, not any on the street we were walking on. We got to Dizengoff Center (about 20 min. away) before we found an ATM (caspomat in Heb.) and then just ate at the mall. We met Leeba at a bar on the boardwalk (tayelet) because Ali’s friends didn’t know what we were doing. The waitress was really annoyed because all we got was water and made us get it in bottles. Leeba and her roommate, Becky, had had a long day as well and we all called it a night relatively early. The next task is to try to get the 1st Texas football game on the internet. Go Horns!

The Holocaust in Ikea

2007-08-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Monday, we took a TASP field trip to Yad V’shem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem (affectionately known as J-town). The last time I had been there was in 1999. A new part was built 5 years ago and the old museum was closed, so I was strangely excited to go. We went on a guided tour, which is not how I usually go through museums. While I heard a lot of things that I’m sure were not written on the displays, I discovered that I am not fond of guided tours. I would rather go through at my own pace, able to read everything that I want. I’m going to have to go back at some point in these next 2 years. I think I can squeeze that in.
Afterward, we went on a winding bus ride through the hills to a boutique winery (that means they produce less than 100,000 bottles a year). They gave us loaves of good bread, dishes of soft cheese and olives. A woman taught us about how wine is made, the differences between reds, whites and roses and how to properly taste wine. We had a sauvignon blanc and a cabernet sauvignon. Both were delicious! They also have honey in the gift shop from all the bee hives they have to pollinate the grape vines. I got a jar for Rosh Hashana, which is in a few weeks.
When we got back to Tel Aviv, Allie, Raquefette, Julie and I went to Marty’s to hang out. We bought the beer and he provided some good music and food...chicken kebab and mini burgers, hummus, babaganush and tehina. Mmmm…
The only thing to note about Tuesday is that Allie and I met up with my friend, Roy for dinner. He took us to a small hummus restaurant. Everyone gets their own bowl of hummus (I got a hard boiled egg sliced on top, too.) and it’s served with pita and Israeli salad. Yum!
Wednesday, I went to school to meet some other teachers and start decorating my room. I was only there for a few hours, but it was plenty of time to prepare for the first week of my classes. My room is the bomb shelter, so it’s underground. I felt a little dirty when I left.
I got back to the hostel and Ali, Allie and I walked to get lunch (falafel!) and hopped on a bus headed for the train station. We took the train (only 6.5 sheks- approx: $1.50) to Netanya, where Israel’s Ikea is.

Turns out we got off one stop too late, so we grabbed a cab for the short ride there. Things in Ikea started out pretty well. We were really excited to be there and were so amazed with everything there. We had to ask a few people before we could get help in English about how to get the big things, like a futon to use as a couch and beds. So many of our first choices were out of stock, including the futon I wanted for my room. There’s a futon store on Ben Yehuda St. in TA, though, so we’ll go there to get it. In the living room section, we were reminded of Yad V’shem by some pillows that shared an uncanny resemblance to concentration camp uniforms. We vetoed those! Helping Ali and Allie pick out mattresses was fun! Selecting sheets was surprisingly confusing. Had anything been in English, it would have fine. However we had to rely on deceiving pictures. We finally realized the sets were just comforter covers and pillow cases, but the measurements were bigger than the beds (so they can hang over). That’s right, measurements. Not easy words like ‘full’ or ‘queen’. Then came the sheets. Of course, they were not labeled with ‘fitted’ or ‘flat’ (not even in Hebrew). We had to open a package to find out what was going on. It was fitted, but all the other pictures were the same. I don’t even think they sell flat sheets, so we didn’t get any. Comforters, towels and hangars calmed us down. And then we entered the warehouse. This is where we were to pick up all our big stuff. I can’t even begin to explain the frustrations of trying to get all the pieces of a large futon when everything is in another language and no one speaks English.

Some of Allie’s bed wasn’t even on the right aisle. They had to get lift to get it down. Luckily, Ali can communicate enough in Hebrew to convince people we’re not completely idiotic with our hand gestures. The check out line was ages long, it took 30 minutes to get their mattresses, (Ikea has food, so we ate hot dogs and fries for dinner then.), and then we had to attempt to get everything delivered. Luckily, that woman spoke English and it was fairly easy. We still had 7 bags to carry of “little” things that Ikea won’t deliver. The next counter was to get the stuff built once it’s delivered. She didn’t speak English and literally ignored us while we stood and stared at her for at least 20 minutes. I don’t know what compelled her to pay attention to us, but the Hebrew was basic enough for Ali and Allie to take care of business for us. Heading back to TA was an ordeal, of course, also. We took 1 sherut (a van that follows bus lines) in the wrong direction even though the driver told us it went to the train station. The other one went straight to TA, and we got off kind of close to our hostel, carrying all of our bag, including one with a broken handle. The boys were nice enough to let us store our stuff under their beds because they have so much more space and then we collapsed on our beds. I really hope we don’t have to ever go back. 7 ½ hours was enough for a lifetime.

My school visit

2007-08-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday (8/26/07)
The English Inspector from the Ministry of Education in Tel Aviv (the titles sound so much more intense!) and a middle school teacher came to talk to us today in orientation. A lot of time was spent on talking about the Bagrut, a standardized test the high schoolers have to take for each subject to exit high school. There is a lot of frustration, just like in the States, from teachers wanting to teach more creatively and based on their students’ needs rather than teaching to the test. However, there is much less verbal dissent about it and both were very hesitant to answer how they truly felt about the tests.
Afterwards, I took a taxi with Marion to my school. It is called Tzahalah and is in a very wealthy area in NE Tel Aviv. It is a very large school- more than 600 kids, 1st-6th grades. I met with the principal (Irit), the 4th-6th grade English teacher (Michelle) that I will be working with closely and the secretary (Eyal) that will be the one to answer all of the questions Michelle can’t. In Israeli schools, the principal is a very administrative position and is not expected to be very hands-on, with the students or the teachers. I am told that I will probably not see very much more of her and should direct my questions to the teacher and secretary only. She’s a warm, friendly person, but has too many other things to deal with. She met with me today just to find out who is going to be in her school and then is just going to trust that Marion and Michelle make sure I do a good job. Even so, Mark says, just like any principal, she always knows what is going on throughout her school. Somehow, she has her ways. Michelle is very friendly also, though a tough teacher. Marion says she is very independent and will sometimes say things in front of Irit, even though she is planning on doing it a different way. For example, she said I will spend the 1st few days to a week observing, but Mark and Marion have both said that I will be teaching the 1st day. We’ll see. :)
For dinner, Allie, Ali and I met another girl in our program, Molly. She lives 2 blocks from our new place. We went to a Thai restaurant where for 15 shekels ($4.75) you can get a 1/2 kilo (1 lb) of noodles & veggies! They have a lot of other, cheap dishes that are also that big. Great for 2 meals. And...sushi! I think I'll be there a lot- at least when I'm not eating hummus and falafel!

Do you like it hot?

2007-08-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

So the last few days have been brutally hot...more so for my roommates from the Northeast than for me. We walk outside and they immediately mention the heat. By that point, I haven't even noticed it yet. I notice when we've been walking around for 20 minutes and I start lightly sweating. It is at those moments that I am thankful I am from Texas and worked outside all summer! :) I posted some pictures in the other entries, so scroll down. I need to figure out how to put them inline with the text, though, so they are near what I am talking about, instead of all at the beginning.

Thursday (8/23/07)
I met with Mark after orientation to grill him about the school and teaching situation. He answered all of my questions and more. He even gave me a list of kids I will have and told me what they needed the most help with! He told me to invite all the people in the hostel to his apt for a Shabbat dinner the next day. That evening (Allie, Ali and I) had our meeting with the landlords of the dream apt...it's ours!!! Their lawyer is out of town, so we didn't have the official lease, but we wrote up & signed a temporary agreement that included most of the terms the lease will have. They emailed us the contract, so we're printing it out and showing it to our program's lawyer to make sure it's ok, because it's all in Hebrew. That night, we went to meet one of my Israeli friends at a bar in South Tel Aviv. We (Allie, Ali, Leeba and I) took a cab to the area, but couldn't find the bar. We stopped in a convenient store and asked where it was. One of the guys, a customer, said he didn't know, but that we should come to "his" bar. We were a little taken aback, but followed him, and got in free (apparently there was a cover)! It was a pretty cool place, similar to what I was used to. They were even playing some American music. I was the only one of our group drinking beer & not liquor. Allie and Leeba also started dancing, so the bartender I guess thought of me as the "responsible one" and kept handing me the bill or telling me how much a drink that someone else ordered was. I got paid back, but it was pretty funny. My friends kept calling me "Mommy Carly." My Israeli friend, Roy, stopped in to say hi, but didn't want to pay the cover, so didn't stay long. His friends were still outside. I might have recruited him to drive us to Ikea this week, but it'll be a real undertaking, so we'll see. :) We didn't get home until 4 in the morning and we slept until 12:30 pm- just like our first night!

Friday (8/24/07)
When we got up, Allie and I got ready for the beach. Ali wasn't feeling so well so we left her in the hostel. Allie and I walked to the beach, found a restaurant and shared an Israeli breakfast for one. It was very large! There was a loaf of good bread, a large bowl of Israeli salad, and a tray of tuna salad, olives, feta cheese and cream cheese, all in their each sections. It also came with OJ- fresh squeezed and delicious! We went to the part of the beach that was nearest to the restaurant. I twas between 2 levees, so it was kind of secluded. That's the first time it really felt brutally hot. I spent some significant time in the water. It is gorgeous! Green and clear- I was in water up to my waist and could see my feet! I decided I need to get a little blow up raft...and a beach towel. We've been using an extra hostel sheet. I've got to also figure out how the Israelis sit on the beach without sweating or getting sandy at all. This sand is so much more fine tan on the Texas beaches and it just clings to you! The heat kept us from staying too long- only a fe hours, but I still got a little darker. :) (Don't worry, Mom, I'm using sunscreen. SPF 34!) Before we left, we got some ice cream to cool off and then headed back for some showers. Ali and Allie went to find a cafe to use the internet and I took a good nap!
That evening, 7 of us from the hostel went to Mark's for dinner. It was a little hard to find, because each side of the street had a different name and we were walking on the "wrong" side. We found it, after calling, and invading his room because it had AC. Mark custom made quesadillas for us. :) Mark even had Corona! I felt so at home! About midnight, Mark, Allie, Dina, Shari and I walked to the namal (That's the port. It has many clothings shops, restaurants and bars.)- with beers in hand!- to meet my friend Lauren who was in town from HUC in Jerusalem for the weekend. We caught up for a bit, mostly with camp stuff, before she left and I sat with the rest on a couch at a bar called Speedo for quite some time. It was a lot of fun getting to know my new friends over beers! Turns out you find out more than in class or over coffee. :)

Saturday (8/25/07)
Slept in again...decided we didn't want to brave the heat at the beach...walked to the namal for food & internet...back to the hostel to meet Leeba @ 5:30. The 4 of us walked to Dizengoff Center (kind of like a mall w/ lots around it, too- 30 min walk away) to go to a movie. The selection was limited, but we chose one called "Love and Other Disasters" with Britney Murphey. It was a British film and if it comes out in the States- don't go see it. It's not worth your $8. That was our weekend & I went to bed early so I could be well rested for orientation the next day and my school visit afterward.

Finding the dream apt...

2007-08-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

There was a break through in the apt hunt today. We saw a place that is currently be renovated- it will be ready next week, when we have to move out of the hostel (perfect timing!). It is fully furnished (stove/oven, fridge, closets, etc) except for 2 beds and a couch. We'd each have to only by 1 piece of furniture. Rent is a little on the high end of our range at $1500 a month, without the city tax or utilities, but the tax is only $50 a month (split 3 ways) and there are so many windows - one HUGE one in the living room- so we wouldn't have to use much electricity during the day. It's beautiful!!! (Or definitely will be, once it's done.) They wanted a family and for it to be a long term lease, but we let them know we'd be there for 2 years and they seemed to like that. We also tried to impress upon them that we're responsible people, going to school for education and would really take care of the place, not trash it. We were apparently the first people to look at it. They'll be calling us tomorrow, so hopefully they think we're a perfect match for the apt, too. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
In orientation today, we talked about the Israeli school system. A lot of parts are very different than the American system, but there are some similarities, like standardized tests in HS. Again, like the banking, it's complicated, but let me know if you'd like to know more & I'll tell you. I took ample notes! :) The academic director, Marion, also told me today what my teaching assignment will be. It's a little unfair to other people that they are already placing some, before they finished all the interviews, but it works out for me. They haven't told anyone else about their specific placements, just gave some people a general idea of age group or location. I will be working in the same school as the guy, Mark, that had graduated the program and came to talk to us the other day. It's a very wealthy school and has a English room. So, I'll have my own classroom, with my own key, that I can decorate. I will be essentially be left alone to do my own thing and the only people checking up on me will be Marion and Zvi from TASP. I pretty much start teaching right away! I wish now that I had brought more than just a few books & Texas posters and maps. :) I am meeting with Mark tomorrow to ask him a thousand questions about how to get started and get an idea of what my classroom should look like. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday are designated for school visits- that's when everyone else finds out their placements. I get to go to my school & meet the principal on Sunday!
I was totally cool w/ working in the school system before, when I knew we'd have some time to sit and observe. I'm really nervous, now that I have start immediately! Hopefully, meeting with Mark tomorrow will calm me down.
I miss everyone & will hopefully post pictures soon. I am using free internet at a cafe now, which means my laptop is not plugged in and it's losing juice quickly. SO, once it's charged & I can come back to get free internet, pictures will go up! :)

My first few days in Israel

2007-08-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm still catching up with this blog. When I'm doing keeping up with it more consistently, it probably won't be so long. Oh, who am I kidding? It will always be long and detailed!

Friday (8/17/07)
I woke up at 10 am with someone banging on my door. Apparently, we had to move out then and then recheck into new room at 2 pm. I was so groggy, so I just got dressed and went with one girl from the program to eat.
Then I just hung around, paid for internet to contact the family, and fell asleep in the downstairs lobby (even though there was a program going on in the rec. hall next to it). When I woke up a little later, I went to the courtyard to get some fresh air and fell asleep again on the bench. I woke up at 2:05, discovered my legs had been eaten by mosquitos and went to the front desk. I was to just check 2 rooms upstairs the girls in the program were in to see where the extra beds were. One room had 3 people and 1 tope bed left. The other had 1 girl and 2 bottom and 1 top beds. I went with the latter room! Allie, from NY, was in there. We got to know each other a bit, then each took showers to clean traveling off of us. :) Soon after, Ali (from Baltimore) showed up. They had been keeping in touch through Facebook, but I got along well with them, too. We walked toward the beach in search for some food for dinner. It was closer than I thought-only 15 min. away! I got so excited at the sight of the white sand that I ran to just put my toes in it. The girls called me crazy, but came to feel the beach underfoot also. :) We found a restaurant where we could watch the sun set into the Mediterranean Sea. I had a delicious Greek salad. I know I should have had some Israeli food, but I needed something light after all that eating during my travels. We walked back slowly and went to bed, excited to go back to the beach the next day on Shabbat.

Saturday 8/18/07
We all slept about 13 hours-until 12:30 pm! We didn’t really get out of the room and on our way to the beach until 2:30. We took a different way this time and stopped on the way to eat. I had a salmon toast. A “toast” is essentially a grilled sandwich and is usually very flat. I should mention that Ali and Allie spent a semester and summer of their Junior year in college abroad here. Ali was in TA at Tel Aviv Univ (TAU) and Allie was in Haifa at the Univ. of Haifa. So, they can speak some Hebrew and are helping me around a bit.
We found a good spot on the beach and soon, an Israeli guy came up to us, first speaking in Hebrew & then in English when he discovered we didn’t understand him. He was saying that he worked for a radio station that was offering a prize to people that got sunburned. It took some time for both parties to understand that he meant suntanned! The prize was “AC in the sea.” I said, “Is that possible?” and he said, “Sure,” and reached into his pants. Luckily, he pulled out a fold up fan! What a pick up line! We asked him if the prize could be an apt. (We decided we liked each other a lot and could live with each other!). His friend apparently knew of one and he brought him over. The apt wasn’t in the area of town we were looking in, but he and Allie exchanged numbers, so we could meet up and they could help us look online the next day. It’s all in Hebrew and though Ali and Allie know some, it always helps to have an Israeli on your side! (The original guy was Uri and his friend was Elad.)

We left a little later to go look at an apt. It took longer to get there than we thought and the people weren’t there. Someone else that knew about the place said to come back the next day because he didn’t have the key. On the way there, I tripped over nothing (surprising, huh?) and broke my flip flop. I walked 1/4 of the way with one shoe! Dizengoff Mall was very close, so we went to get a new pair. We stopped 1st at a kiosk at the entrance of the mall to get Ali and me cell phones. The 2 main companies are called CellCom and Orange. Allie had an Orange phone and said the process was super easy. I liked the name, so that’s what I went with! Since I don’t have an Israeli ID, I couldn’t get a real plan, so I got a choice of 4 different prepaid phones, 2 were 600 shekels/ $150, one was 350 shekels/ $87.50 and one was 300 shekels/ $75. I went the middle one because it was cheaper & would actually last the 2 years. I put 150 shekels/$37.50 on it and got a little more than 200 min outgoing. They gave me 100 free text messages and all incoming calls are free! The phone is also capable of calling America. There are 3 calling codes to choose from, each with different rates. I’m going to use Skype, though, so I can talk for a while and not worry about how much it’s costing me! :) After getting a new pair of flip flops, we stopped at Aroma Cafe (It’s a chain around the country.) I couldn’t read a thing, so I pointed to a picture that looked good and got a margarita pizza on a croissant. On the walk home, I discovered I don’t like new flip flops-they gave me blisters! :(

Sunday 8/19/07
We woke up about 8 am to get ready for “school.” It was our 1st day of orientation! We made it downstairs in time for the hostel’s breakfast. It’s offered 7-9 am. That’s where we met up with the other 6 interns staying in the hostel and hopped on the bus to TAU. We started “class” at 10 am and got our schedule for the next 2 weeks. We have orientation every day, except Friday and Saturday until 2 pm, with a trip to Yad V’shem (the Holocaust museum) and a winery tour in Jerusalem next Monday. We visit the little town next to TA (Rishon Le Zion) and our school at the end of next week. Then we each gave a little presentation/introduction of ourselves. There are a total of 20 interns; about half are right out of college, and the rest are 24-28, with various levels of life experience. Some of their experiences are just mind boggling! One girl (the first one I met, Katie) has a Master’s in Music Ed. and plays the organ. She’s taught English in the Netherlands for the last 4 years. One guy (Keith), has spent several years traveling Europe and Asia and has taught English in Korea over the last year. He flew in from Bangkok mere hours before orientation started with a laptop, a large bag and another small bag- that’s it...all his stuff! Another girl (Molly) taught high school in Los Angeles, in a part of the city with a lot of gang violence and had several days in a row the school was on lock down. Security was not an issue for her when coming here! A few people have 1 (or both) Israeli parents or have just fallen in love with the country and made Aliyah anywhere from weeks to years before starting the program. The rest of the seminar was pretty boring- just an overview of the program, its history and who’s who in it. I don’t think I drank enough water during the day and got a headache. I stayed at the hostel while Ali and Allie went to look at a few apts.
Monday 8/20/07 Today’s seminar was all about apt. hunting. They (Zvi and Marion Dank, the Director and Academic Director) took us through a map and explained the cultures and key points (traffic, attractions near by, etc) of each neighborhood and showed us the apt search websites, explaining the Hebrew and what everything meant in the context of what is meant to the Israelis posting in, not what in meant to the Americans reading it. Two other people were there also- 1 that had graduated the program and 1 that was starting the 2nd year- to tell us about their experiences with teaching and living in TA. Each of the interns has a 10-15 min. interview with one of the Danks today, Tuesday or Thursday to talk more intimately about our Hebrew level, what age group we want, our strengths and weaknesses and how we feel about working with advantaged vs. disadvantaged kids. Working with disadvantaged younger kids (4th-5th gr.) may not happen for me because of my Hebrew level. Those kids don’t have nearly as much English as the other demographics because they don’t get it at home since there’s not an immediate need. They don’t travel the world on breaks like the wealthy kids do. I said I was willing to try new challenges of teaching older kids and wanted different experiences each year. There is a school with a lot of kids of immigrant workers which “might be really interesting” for me (to quote Zvi). So, we’ll see! After orientation, Ali, Allie and I went to go look at a few more apts. Technically, we shouldn’t be looking at them together because we shouldn’t be living together because the Danks don’t want apt issues to carry over into class & such or for us to get sick/annoyed with one another. We feel that we’ve lived with enough other people to know what kind of people we can live with as long as we all have our own rooms and can have “alone time,” we’ll be fine. We’re also all independent enough and have groups of friends here so we don’t always have to depend of each other for a social life. We also made a deal- I’ll cook if they will do the dishes! I’ll be a real chef by the time I come home. :)
The 2 apts we looked at were in good, central-north locations, but one only had 2 bedrooms (A thing we learned is that to Israelis, 3 rooms could mean 2 bedrooms and a living room/kitchen.) and the other, though it had a view of the beach was completely unfurnished- it didn’t even have a fridge or oven/stove!
Allie and I went out that night with our new friends, Elad and Uri, from the beach. We met at “Mike’s Place,” a bar near the beach that a lot of Americans go and I’ve been told that as long as there’s not a soccer or Pro American sport on, I can ask them to show a UT football game! :) Most bars in Israel aren’t the stand around kind with high tables to pt drinks on with stools might sit on. They are just pretty much like restaurants- you can order food, but after a certain time, most people just order alcohol. There’s apparently a very distinct difference with a club, but I have yet to experience it. I drank a local Israeli beer called Goldstar (it’s a medium-dark beer) and just had 2 and got a little tipsy. I think there’s more alcohol by volume here.
Tuesday 8/21/07
Today’s seminar was fine. A bank representative came in to talk to us about banking in Israel. There are a lot of things that are very different than banking in America. It is kind of complicated, but if you would like to know more, I’d be happy to try to explain it to you. Other than that, we just went over our handbook and the dates of breaks and such. Then, Allie and another intern, Leeba and I explored the campus book store while Ali was in her interview. We waited to buy anything until we have our student IDs and can get a discount. I did find some children’s books in Hebrew that I have the English versions of. I am actually thinking of buying them as language study aids. Leeba left and Allie & I laid on the grass under a tree until Ali walked up and we went to the Ramat Aviv mall. It is very upscale! I don’t think I’ll ever be dressed appropriately enough for it. Ramat Aviv is a wealthy suburb north of TA and is where the university is. At a store outside of the mall, I got an adapter for all of my electronics finally! I can now stop borrowing Allie’s. Oh, and I’m speaking Heblish now- all English, except for the Hebrew words I know! :)

Getting to Israel

2007-08-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Note to the reader: This is going to be long...give yourself time to read it.
8/18/07-Sat.
Wednesday's flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful. Then I spent 2.5 hours in the airport, bought postcards and popcorn, found a place to plug in my laptop and paid for internet. I talked to the other guy sharing the plug, but decided I didn't want to be seat buddies with him. I was one of the last to board in order to avoid it. I sat next to a guy from Chicago going to NY for business and then to the Hamptons with friends.
I struggled getting my bags off the conveyor belt, but found Aunt Alice easily. What did we ever do without cell phones? The front pocket of my new pink bag was torn a bit. :( We (Aunt Alice, Grandma and I) went to pick up Michael and his girlfriend, Kim, and then went to eat at a kosher deli. Very yummy! I had a pastrami sandwich and a potato knish. Then we went back to the house, Michael fixed my bag with safety pins and Aunt Alice gave me some chocolate biscotti.
When I got to JFk, I stood in the super long Delta line with my huge bags. When I got the front, I found out that I was at the wrong place. I was on the Delta flight but it was operated by AirFrance. I was supposed to be at the counter of the flight operator. I had to take a van there. That took forever because I had to go to a desk to check in, then to another desk to pay for my heavy bags and then go back to the first desk. Then, the line for security was super long and I was randomly selected to be searched. That line was so long, too, and by this time, it’s 15 minutes till boarding time. I put my bags on the belt and walked through the metal detector and they had me stand off to the side and called for a “female secondary”. I had to turn towards the wall because I was tearing up. JFK had been so stressful so far. At this point, I had 2 minutes till boarding time. I went through a machine that puffed air all over. I don’t how that checked anything, but at least I didn’t get a pat down. Then they had me find my bags to search those. I couldn’t find my laptop, but luckily they had just taken it off the belt and put it off to the side. Fortunately, I was fine-I knew I was, though. When I got the gate, I found out that the flight boarding time was 40 minutes late as it was. So I had time to make a few calls. :) When we finally boarded, we sat on the runway for at least an hour. I think I fell asleep...
Dinner on the plane was like a 4 course meal on a tray-with real silverware! It was the first airplane meal I’ve had that was actually good. Then I slept for a while, woke up and there was breakfast! We got into Paris at 10:45 am, and my connecting flight to Tel Aviv was at 11:00 am. Someone from the airline met us at the bottom of the airplane stairs (Yes-just like in the movies!) and took the 5 of us that were in the same situation to the transfer desk because we couldn’t get on our next flight and needed a new one. We were put on a flight at 7:10 pm, given a 10 minute phone card and a sandwich & drink coupon. I called Dad, forgetting about the time difference-it was 5 am there, 12 pm for me-oops! Then I got euros and went with 2 others (one Israeli, one American becoming and Israeli) to hop on a train and go explore Paris! We found our way to the Eiffel Tower, took a ton of pictures and went to find the Arc de Triomph.
We didn’t go up or into anything because we didn’t have the time. It took an hour each way to get between the city and the airport. The last thing we did was find a small, corner cafe and had coffee and crepes. How French! We noticed it was across the street from Le Maison du Chocolat. I had to go! I didn’t now what the euro was worth, so as it turns out, with train tickets, coffee, chocolates and stuff at the airport, I spent 65 euros. The exchange rate, I learned later, is 1 euro is $1.30, so I really spent $84.50!!!

The plane ride to Tel Aviv (TA) was pretty uneventful. In fact, before we left the runway, I fell asleep. I thought we were still on the ground when I woke up. :) I ate my free sandwich which was good because this airplane food turned out to be not so great. Oh, but I discovered on European airlines, you can get a small bottle of wine for free! I didn’t this time, but now that I know this, I will next time. :)
We got into TA at 12:40 am and it almost took my breath away to see ‘Welcome to Israel’ in Hebrew when I stepped off the plane. I stood in the Passport Control line and this huge Russian family kept trying to get to the other part of their family that was closer to the front. Every time the like moved, they they tried to push past me. It was really annoying-especially at 1:15 am! There were so many people in this line and if they can’t be smart enough to stay together as they walk through the airport, they don’t deserve to be together in this line. They should have to wait for each other on the other side. FInally we got close enough to the front of the line that I could go around the rail to the next line that only had one person in it. One of the Russian women came and stood in frontish/to the side of me, maybe to get out of her family’s crowd, but I got mad and said, very firmly, “No. I was here first.” I lied to the passport person, saying I was here visiting friends for a few weeks because I don’t have a student visa yet. Again, I struggled with my luggage and found a guy offering a taxi. There were going to charge me too much (170 shekels/ $42.50), but it was 2 am, I’d been traveling way too long and I just wanted to go to bed. He helped me with my bags, but I didn’t tip him because I felt like I was going to die when he drove and he overcharged me. (I found out later, it’s not normal to tip taxi drivers.)
As was going to my room at the hostel, I found a guy who was in the program smoking hookah with friends and he helped me with my bags up the stairs. I got up there (quietly-there were people in the room asleep) and immediately took off my shoes. I changed into PJs and when back to the lobby use a phone to call home. It was 4:45 pm there/1:45 am here, so I thought it was perfect, but the security guard at the desk said it was only available from the morning to 6 pm. I went back to the room to brush my teeth/wash my face (finally!) and just stood in the bathroom and cried! After the long, stressful day of traveling, I was finally able to breathe a little and all I wanted to do was talk to my parents before I went to sleep. I got in bed and just laid wide awake and cried for quite awhile. I just couldn’t stop. Finally, I fell asleep. I don’t know what time it was, but definitely after 3 am. Not counting time changes, my total time of travel was 37 hours!

I'm here!

2007-08-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Howdy from Israel! It was a long journey to get here, but here I am, in Tel Aviv! I got in on Thursday and have been partially keeping a journal that I will use when posting. Conveniently, I don't have it with me, so this is just a test blog, I guess. Check back tomorrow (keep in mind I am 8 hours ahead of Central time), and there will be a better entry! :)