Today is the last day of work and yesterday was last of class, crazy how things like this go by so fast.
But last weekend a couple of us decided to go up to the north to see the christian sites and a few other things that we are not covering on the Northern Israel tour next week. Instead of busses this time we rented a car- which is a great feeling being able to drive again. First day we went to Mt. Megido(site of armageddon) over to Mt. Tabor (Mt. of transfiguration) beautiful views of the surrounding with alot of turn to get up and very steep arab city below. Then out to Kibbutz Degania (first Kibbutz and also site of important battle during the war of independence, and finished the day out on the East side of the Kinneret(Sea of Galillee) where we slept on the beach in sleeping bags and also went for a late night swim under the stars in the waves.
The next day we went to alot of churches -Tibga/bread and fish church, capernum (sat on shore for a while also), orthodox capernum, Up to the Mt of beattitudes-amazing view of the sea of galilee. After lunch on the shore near Tiberius went to Nazareth and saw many more churches-Basilica of Annunciation (huge orthodox church, very impressive), Orthodox church of annunciation, church of adolescent jesus, sisters convent, synagog church, st josephs church and marys well. It might sound like alot, but the city is very small just like the rest of jerusalem. It was interesting to see the differnt culture of the north which is primarily christian and arabs and not seeing a single kippah for the trip made it feel like it was almost not a part of the israel i have experienced before. Since we still had time we went out to visit Mt. Gilboa-on the boarder of the west bank and apparently where saul and david died in battle-with a outlook tour of the west bank and finished up eating good food up near there.
On tues we visited the Diaspora museum in Tel Aviv then had free time afterwards where we ended up going to a mexican restaurant-ive been craving mexican-and it was alright i guess for israel, but didnt satisfy the craving, looking forward to green chili back in NM.
Yesterday on a kinda sporadic trip, 5 of us went with a guy from the next door kibbutz who wanted to take a group down to see Sderot. If you dont know Sderot is about a mile from gaza and has been hit the hardest during this fighting. It is very evident when walking through the city with filled in rocket holes on the street and a bomb shelter on every street corner and all the building are built like bomb shelters. The town itself felt so strange with hardly any activity for a city its size and just thinking how these people have to live with the fear of a rocket attack at anytime-there are still a few a month. Another disturbing thing is when going by any of the playgrounds, bomb shelters are built next to and part of the playground itself. Definitly worth spending the hour there and taking 6 hrs of busses there and back.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
So last week, week of July 29th, I had planned on skipping the Aliya (jewish options for moving to israel) but was forced to go anyway even though the trip had no bearing on me whatsoever. But i went anyway and tried at first to have a good attitude but that started to fail by the end of the trip. During this day trip we went to two colleges, Hertelia and Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mt. Scopus (which was really beautiful) and then went on to a lecture on Aliya down in Jerusalem. Afterward we had a little free time in Jerusalem to shop, so the time was at least partially enjoyable, and i ended up going to Nazareth this weekend anyway, which in the details we figured out worked much better than our original plans would have worked.
The next day there was a seminar on Jewish Identity. It was a lady who was super orthodox-you would have to ask me about the experience, hard to describe, but very zealous about jewdaism, which even though she was extreme her base values were actually close, but still she was pretty far out there. After that shocking conversation with her, it turned out she was an actor and also showed how the life style and thinking of a jewish woman that lived in a settlement in the West bank, a liberal kibbutz member, abnd an arab christian. After our initial shock wore off it was very interesting to learn about these different peoples identities in jedaism expressed in israel.
That shabbat Annie and i endedup traveling out to netanya in the morning since we had heard about a messianic congregation there and would be interesting to visit. It took a bit of time with the cab to get there, but we were eventually dropped off right by a group from holland that was visiting the same church also, so that was a blessing having found it fairly easily. It was interesting the music being in hebrew and trying to read along in hebrew, but they also had the wordsspelled out in eglish as to follow along easier, and the repition in the songs helped with trying to read the hebrew. The teaching for the day was on what the temple meant to us, since the 9th of Av had just been observed by the jews (fasting in memory of the destruction of the temples and other events taht happened on that day. Afterward we were trying to figure out how to get back since we were stuck in S. Netanya away from everywhere, when an older gentlman endedup coming and talking to us and volunteering to drive us up to the main beach. NOt only did he and his wife do that but they took us out to lunch, and got to hear how they had ended up in israel since neither of them were jewish and both from the states. After that we spent pretty much the day on the beach, and when the busses started running we headed back. That night i started to knit a hat, which i actually finished the next night, i was pretty excited about that.
Durign this last week the ulpan went on a day trip to tel-aviv to visit the old and new city. We started off in joffa and heard about the culture from turkish ruling times to more modern israel before tel-aviv was built. There was always a feud between the christian and muslims on who dominated the skyline so the minaret had been built higher many times as well as the belltower on the church. Also dont trust a jewish tourguide on christian facts, they always get things messedup, but did look up what peter did did in the city and the church is there in memory of him having his vision about eating unclean food. Even though we werent alowed in the churhc we snuck in anyways. After Joffa, we traveled towards the city and went the the jewish settlement in the middle and then eventually worked our way to independence hall to hear about the starting of the state of israel.
The free time was very interesting, Instead of going and shopping with everyone else, Annie and i went to meet up with an old lady that she had met on the beach in tel aviv the first day she was here. It was an experience getting to the ladies house, but people are very hospitable in israel, and the man that ended up giving us direction also invited us in his shop and got us something to drink. After we arrived at the ladies house (80yr old holocaust survivor) we had only 45min to talk to her, but it was amazing hearing about the holocaust and seeing pictures of her family before and after and the things she brought back from the camp. Really interestign story, almost got shipped to Auswitz a couple times but barely was turned back. She was amazing to listen to and was still full of energy. She has written a book, that is being translated, and hopefully she will send us a digital copy so that we can learn more about her story.
The next day there was a seminar on Jewish Identity. It was a lady who was super orthodox-you would have to ask me about the experience, hard to describe, but very zealous about jewdaism, which even though she was extreme her base values were actually close, but still she was pretty far out there. After that shocking conversation with her, it turned out she was an actor and also showed how the life style and thinking of a jewish woman that lived in a settlement in the West bank, a liberal kibbutz member, abnd an arab christian. After our initial shock wore off it was very interesting to learn about these different peoples identities in jedaism expressed in israel.
That shabbat Annie and i endedup traveling out to netanya in the morning since we had heard about a messianic congregation there and would be interesting to visit. It took a bit of time with the cab to get there, but we were eventually dropped off right by a group from holland that was visiting the same church also, so that was a blessing having found it fairly easily. It was interesting the music being in hebrew and trying to read along in hebrew, but they also had the wordsspelled out in eglish as to follow along easier, and the repition in the songs helped with trying to read the hebrew. The teaching for the day was on what the temple meant to us, since the 9th of Av had just been observed by the jews (fasting in memory of the destruction of the temples and other events taht happened on that day. Afterward we were trying to figure out how to get back since we were stuck in S. Netanya away from everywhere, when an older gentlman endedup coming and talking to us and volunteering to drive us up to the main beach. NOt only did he and his wife do that but they took us out to lunch, and got to hear how they had ended up in israel since neither of them were jewish and both from the states. After that we spent pretty much the day on the beach, and when the busses started running we headed back. That night i started to knit a hat, which i actually finished the next night, i was pretty excited about that.
Durign this last week the ulpan went on a day trip to tel-aviv to visit the old and new city. We started off in joffa and heard about the culture from turkish ruling times to more modern israel before tel-aviv was built. There was always a feud between the christian and muslims on who dominated the skyline so the minaret had been built higher many times as well as the belltower on the church. Also dont trust a jewish tourguide on christian facts, they always get things messedup, but did look up what peter did did in the city and the church is there in memory of him having his vision about eating unclean food. Even though we werent alowed in the churhc we snuck in anyways. After Joffa, we traveled towards the city and went the the jewish settlement in the middle and then eventually worked our way to independence hall to hear about the starting of the state of israel.
The free time was very interesting, Instead of going and shopping with everyone else, Annie and i went to meet up with an old lady that she had met on the beach in tel aviv the first day she was here. It was an experience getting to the ladies house, but people are very hospitable in israel, and the man that ended up giving us direction also invited us in his shop and got us something to drink. After we arrived at the ladies house (80yr old holocaust survivor) we had only 45min to talk to her, but it was amazing hearing about the holocaust and seeing pictures of her family before and after and the things she brought back from the camp. Really interestign story, almost got shipped to Auswitz a couple times but barely was turned back. She was amazing to listen to and was still full of energy. She has written a book, that is being translated, and hopefully she will send us a digital copy so that we can learn more about her story.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The south trip was now a while ago, so im finally getting to it.
On the first day we went to some ruins, im bad and dont remember exactly where they were, and also visited caves taht had been quarried out and lived in. Also we visited the place where a fortress usually was on a hill to the west of Jerusalem, the only real way to go from the sea to Jerusalem. That night we ended up staying at a bedouin camp and learning a bit about their culture, and hospitality-where visitors are very welcome-they have great coffee and tea and ways of preparing it. In the afternoon we went on a camel and donkey ride up to a viewpoint where we could see quite a bit of israel, and took the bus back down to the bedouin village. Since i wrote about dinner before, i neednt remind you, but the dinner there was an actual feast, with lamb and chicken rice pita, and all you could eat-probably the best/fullest meal i have had here in israel.
Breakfast in the morning would also count as a real meal with eggs, and of course a couple cups of the bedouin tea. That day we were able to travel up to Mesada, but were in a rush since we were unable to head down the opposite side-snake path- and thus had a shortened tour-but the fortress itself was very impressive with its view over the dead sea. After this we went to the Ein Gedi-possibly one of the most beautiful places to hike in all of israel, with a stream and a small waterfalll at the end of the hike. HIking and swimming in the water on the way up was nice, with the constant heat of the day. The dead sea was the last stop of the day, and it was an experience floating on the dead sea. How hard it is to try and not fload, and then piling rocks on a friend to see how many it would take to make him sink. Also i had cut open my elbow the day before so the very warm salty water was great fun in there. The hostile we stayed in that night was a short drive and had a beautiful view over the dead sea facing east.
Because of the beautiful view, i decided to get up at 530ish in the morning to take pictures of the sunrise-which was a view to behold-but sleep might have been nice also. In the morning we went on a short hike through some canyons and saw a spot where the second rambo film was shot. Yehudit had been there when it was filmed and made them stop while thye toured the canyon apparently on th trip a long time ago. After this we visited Timna Park-a place where egyptians mined for copper. We ended the day with a jeep tour of the southern mountains and then a free night in Eilat.
The last day we went snorkling in Eilat in the morning and then quickly took off to see a crater in the north on the way back to the kibbutz. Me and a couple others were dropped off afterwards in Be'er Sheva to make our way to Jerusalem for thurs-sat. That night after some much needed nourishment and finding a hostel near the joffa gate, we started to wander the old city. A couple times we tagged along with tour groups for the fun of it even though they were not in english, it was still entertaining. Ended up of course near the western wall which was quite empty and then visited the bazzar on Joffa street, where there was a small band playing mexican music and i ended up doing some salsa dancing, didnt end so well but figured i could make a fool of myself in a foreign country. The hostel we stayed in was alright, the only iffy thing was the shower, where it was in the same rooom as the toilet and sprayed from waist height onto the toilet, good adventures always showering.
In the mornign after the hostile 'breakfast' we went to another place for a little more food. And we saw bacon on the list, so of course had to order it. It was raw bacon served with lettuce, olives, and tomatoe. Guess i learned my lesson about trying to get bacon in israel, but i ate it anyway. Throughout the day we wandered through the different quarter-and ended up in the 'first church' with the upper room(actually 2 stories below) in here they had a middleages style painting of Jesus that was actually painted by Luke-the only one to have the real face of jesus and mary. The lady that let us in was really sweet and told us all about the recent miricle done-healing cancer, speaking in tounges to a man who spoke russian, and the most recent visitatin of jesus, about 6 months ago. We ended up at one shop twice in the christian quarter and the man was a bedouin, and made us tea and we had the chance to talk to him for a while, also he made some earings for Anne for free, it was interesting seeing the bedouin hospitality mentioned above in practice still in the city although they do it also to try and sell you more stuff.
To make my dad proud, we visited the bethseda pool, marys birthplace(which was cool and 2 stories underground) church at the second station, herods gate,lions gate, damascus gate, then went over to the mt of olives, garden of gethsemanae, and there saw many churches including the Basilica of Agony, Dominus Fleavit(great view of the old city/dome), up to the top of the mt of olives to dome of ascention(not worth seeign and too a while to get to) before heading back and meeting up with the rest of our group at the western wall for shabbat. The Western wall on shabbat wasnt as crowed as i would have figured, but was a scene to behold.
Still we had another day visiting the Church of the HOly sepluchure(wasnt great since lots of people taking and taking pictures) enjoyed the garden tomb way better that we went to later on which was very scerene and also said it was only a place where Jesus could have been killed on one side then buried on the other, but was there to at least give a visual of what it was like-i appreciated it alot that there was that disclaimer. After this we treked across jerusalem to the newer part and went by the great temple and lower hebrew university campus for adam, and made our way to the Israel museum to see some dead sea scrolls and their other exhibits which werent that exciting to me, but there was a mask display-ah the story of the first mask, good stuff.
SInce it was shabbat it took a few hours to find food, but ended up a a little place where i got some good turkish coffee(for some reason i was craving it) and pork ribs in bbq sauce. The busses started running at 9 so we made our way back to the kibbutz after that, and a very nice man helped us out by interpreting with a lady on what stop we needed to make, most people look out for each other very well in israel and are always willing to help even though they are a very loud culture.
On the first day we went to some ruins, im bad and dont remember exactly where they were, and also visited caves taht had been quarried out and lived in. Also we visited the place where a fortress usually was on a hill to the west of Jerusalem, the only real way to go from the sea to Jerusalem. That night we ended up staying at a bedouin camp and learning a bit about their culture, and hospitality-where visitors are very welcome-they have great coffee and tea and ways of preparing it. In the afternoon we went on a camel and donkey ride up to a viewpoint where we could see quite a bit of israel, and took the bus back down to the bedouin village. Since i wrote about dinner before, i neednt remind you, but the dinner there was an actual feast, with lamb and chicken rice pita, and all you could eat-probably the best/fullest meal i have had here in israel.
Breakfast in the morning would also count as a real meal with eggs, and of course a couple cups of the bedouin tea. That day we were able to travel up to Mesada, but were in a rush since we were unable to head down the opposite side-snake path- and thus had a shortened tour-but the fortress itself was very impressive with its view over the dead sea. After this we went to the Ein Gedi-possibly one of the most beautiful places to hike in all of israel, with a stream and a small waterfalll at the end of the hike. HIking and swimming in the water on the way up was nice, with the constant heat of the day. The dead sea was the last stop of the day, and it was an experience floating on the dead sea. How hard it is to try and not fload, and then piling rocks on a friend to see how many it would take to make him sink. Also i had cut open my elbow the day before so the very warm salty water was great fun in there. The hostile we stayed in that night was a short drive and had a beautiful view over the dead sea facing east.
Because of the beautiful view, i decided to get up at 530ish in the morning to take pictures of the sunrise-which was a view to behold-but sleep might have been nice also. In the morning we went on a short hike through some canyons and saw a spot where the second rambo film was shot. Yehudit had been there when it was filmed and made them stop while thye toured the canyon apparently on th trip a long time ago. After this we visited Timna Park-a place where egyptians mined for copper. We ended the day with a jeep tour of the southern mountains and then a free night in Eilat.
The last day we went snorkling in Eilat in the morning and then quickly took off to see a crater in the north on the way back to the kibbutz. Me and a couple others were dropped off afterwards in Be'er Sheva to make our way to Jerusalem for thurs-sat. That night after some much needed nourishment and finding a hostel near the joffa gate, we started to wander the old city. A couple times we tagged along with tour groups for the fun of it even though they were not in english, it was still entertaining. Ended up of course near the western wall which was quite empty and then visited the bazzar on Joffa street, where there was a small band playing mexican music and i ended up doing some salsa dancing, didnt end so well but figured i could make a fool of myself in a foreign country. The hostel we stayed in was alright, the only iffy thing was the shower, where it was in the same rooom as the toilet and sprayed from waist height onto the toilet, good adventures always showering.
In the mornign after the hostile 'breakfast' we went to another place for a little more food. And we saw bacon on the list, so of course had to order it. It was raw bacon served with lettuce, olives, and tomatoe. Guess i learned my lesson about trying to get bacon in israel, but i ate it anyway. Throughout the day we wandered through the different quarter-and ended up in the 'first church' with the upper room(actually 2 stories below) in here they had a middleages style painting of Jesus that was actually painted by Luke-the only one to have the real face of jesus and mary. The lady that let us in was really sweet and told us all about the recent miricle done-healing cancer, speaking in tounges to a man who spoke russian, and the most recent visitatin of jesus, about 6 months ago. We ended up at one shop twice in the christian quarter and the man was a bedouin, and made us tea and we had the chance to talk to him for a while, also he made some earings for Anne for free, it was interesting seeing the bedouin hospitality mentioned above in practice still in the city although they do it also to try and sell you more stuff.
To make my dad proud, we visited the bethseda pool, marys birthplace(which was cool and 2 stories underground) church at the second station, herods gate,lions gate, damascus gate, then went over to the mt of olives, garden of gethsemanae, and there saw many churches including the Basilica of Agony, Dominus Fleavit(great view of the old city/dome), up to the top of the mt of olives to dome of ascention(not worth seeign and too a while to get to) before heading back and meeting up with the rest of our group at the western wall for shabbat. The Western wall on shabbat wasnt as crowed as i would have figured, but was a scene to behold.
Still we had another day visiting the Church of the HOly sepluchure(wasnt great since lots of people taking and taking pictures) enjoyed the garden tomb way better that we went to later on which was very scerene and also said it was only a place where Jesus could have been killed on one side then buried on the other, but was there to at least give a visual of what it was like-i appreciated it alot that there was that disclaimer. After this we treked across jerusalem to the newer part and went by the great temple and lower hebrew university campus for adam, and made our way to the Israel museum to see some dead sea scrolls and their other exhibits which werent that exciting to me, but there was a mask display-ah the story of the first mask, good stuff.
SInce it was shabbat it took a few hours to find food, but ended up a a little place where i got some good turkish coffee(for some reason i was craving it) and pork ribs in bbq sauce. The busses started running at 9 so we made our way back to the kibbutz after that, and a very nice man helped us out by interpreting with a lady on what stop we needed to make, most people look out for each other very well in israel and are always willing to help even though they are a very loud culture.
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