Tuesday, January 09, 2007

masada....because you gotta

we woke up bright and early to get out of jerusalem and on with our journey. though it wasn't too bright yet. in fact while waiting on the bus for late people (they hadn't been woken up, eeep!) i got to see the sunrise out the back window. and this bus ride was pretty unfortunate; in general - because of people being sick and missing things, and having 8 israeli soliders with us, suddenly there were no longer ANY extra seats. i had been the middlest person on the bus, so i ended up grabbing the last 'window' seat (so i would have a place to lean) but it was the back left corner. so there wasn't actually a window, and there wasn't really any leg room so i ended up feeling pretty squished and not able to sleep. but any uncomfortableness i went through this morning was NOTHING compared to this afternoon.

anyways, so we drove into the desert, i was trying my best to look out the window and see everything i could, but when we got off the bus, it was incredible. just a breathtaking view, some palm trees, the dead sea, the dessert, other mountains and masada. our favorite and best 'tourguide' Michael was back and so we did another circle of name, place & something special (the two i'd used in prior circles were my hives and my love of raw garlic) and so i informed everyone about my preparedness for the day (snacks, chocolate-covered espresso beans & sunscreen).

i failed to mention the other 25 pounds worth of unknown stuff in my bag, or even to realize how bogged down i'd be eventually, but at this moment it was fine. but not for long, about halfway up the mountain i started getting tired, and i'm out of shape - but not that bad! and then about 2/3rds of the way danny grabbed my bag, gasped at the weight and proceeded to laugh at me for being such a fool. Babs had even offered to switch bags earlier and i refused. so i continued my madness and made it up the whole thing, i was practically the last person up. but it was good practice for the big hike the next day!

at the top of masada we got a mini-lecture from Michael, and i'll be honest i had heard the word 'masada' before, but i knew pretty much nothing. this just made all the information new, though also a bit over my head. someday when i'm a scholar of Masada i'll tell you everything, but that day is not today.

we went over to the southern cistern (we actually did a lot of cisterning while in israel) and it was pretty incredible. besides the amazing beauty of the place, we happened to be there at the right time for the sun to be streaming in thru the holes in the top, and it cast an awe-some light. all the better for Tamar and Mati to put on a hilarious fake meeting between King Herod and Eleazar ben Simon ( i think? someone correct me if i'm wrong!). either way, it was an informative but mostly funny argument.

then dave taught us all about pigeons and doves and dovecoats. we also got to see the ramp that the Romans had built up to the side of the mountain in their eventually winning attempt to topple the jews there/here. and seeing the ruins of roman camps is just kind of insane, especially for an ex-latin student, i know way too much about the romans. this was also the first day of Michael pimping ol' Josephus and his book the Jewish Wars (which is on my reading list now). apparently he is the only source for a lot of jewish history. going anywhere with Michael was like having a history book with us, he would tell us story after story about things that had happened to the jews, and you all know how i love history classes, it was pretty much sitting in an amazing place and hearing the stories about what had happened there, exactly where we were, but thousands of years before.

then after some free time to walk around, we all met back up, and recieved an amazing performance.

Monday, January 08, 2007

all sad rememberences

this was the day we did all the somewhat sad type things. and also lunch was bad and we had to wait so long.
but don't worry there wasn't any complaining... since we had just gone through Yad Vashem (The Holocaust Museum).

Our tour guide was a little bit rough and very conscientious of time, but overall it... well its hard to type about here. especially since i usually try and be light, humorous and a little witty (if possible). and it really isn't the joking kind of day. but there were a lot of moving moments for everyone (i think).

we followed this up by going to Mt Herzl, which was also an interesting history lesson.

We (those of us there weren't dying of the plague) then went to Tel Aviv!
One of our Israeli Soliders - Shai led us on a tour, since he lives there. There was a lot of Bauhaus Architecture there, apparently besides Gropius (who moved to Massachusetts and whose house i've seen), they all moved to Tel Aviv and built lots of stuff.

Then they took us to a mall, and we were told we could wander around the area. Babs, Danny and I decided to check the mall out first. The lack of cool stores led us to a pizza place, and we had some nice thin pizza by the slice. Then we ran into Tamar and Yifat and I was able to get descriptions on all the candy in the candy store, and get some good stuff.
They introduced us to our new security guard Emile (he was only with us for 2 days) and since he was a Tel Aviv native i asked him about which way to head. we didn't find too much, besides a sex shop, a crazy fountain, gelato and some weird sculptures. But that's not too shabby either.

The bus ride back was really nice actually. Ben, Tamar, Yifat and I all talked in the middle of the bus, while pretty much everyone else slept.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

maybe the most disconcerting day on the trip

on Sunday we started off running late, since they hadn't been sure if this man was or wasn't coming to talk to us. But he ended up coming, and it was one of the most interesting and disturbing talks we had. It was a newscaster for Israeli news. I didn't actually absorb that much, from being sleepy, but also because one of the first things he told us was something involving Israel bombing Iran, with some low-yield nuclear weopons! Which i think is CRAZY talk! no one should be using nuclear weapons. They think they need to use them to STOP Iran from their work on their nuclear weapons.

But then we finally finished, which took longer than necessary because some people kept asking questions, even though they tried to get us to stop! Because it was time to meet our 8 Israeli soldiers! then onto the bus for community service. I deicided to work in the Soup Kitchen, where we started off with a somewhatn meladramatic orientation video. the founder of this kitchen had once been a homeless child, and there were some kids playing the roles of him and his sister, and lots of extremely dramatic music. Then i ended up peeling potatoes. for two hours. I didn't even get to serve anyone, or not peel anything! When i tried to switch jobs i just ended up peeling cucumbers. so now i am an expert peeler.

then we had lunch at a falafel place, and then did some grocery shopping, which was lots of fun and full of hilarious stuffs. I brought back some hilarious israeli foods for people, don't worry! Then time to prepare for THE MEGA EVENT. about which there were really only two good things.
1) Yifat saying mega event in the funniest voice ever, all day
2) seeing Rachael (Sarah's sister)

danny and i also got tested to be bone marrow donors (which was the best part of the event) there were just so many people screaming, and too much craziness and obsession with all of us moving to israel and making jewish babies. After the event we met one of the men that especially sponsors our trip, and he asked us if there was any romance on the trip. And he told us if any of us married each other he would give us a "honeymood beyond our wildest dreams"

being at the mega event was the first time i actually missed my apartment! I can't wait to cook some good food, drink tea, watch TV and sleep in my green room!

Oh also, the president of Israel spoke at the event, and earlier in the day the news guy was telling us about the scandal involving him. and that the rape charges were dropped. WHAT? oh dont worry, the rape charges were dropped, just sexual molestation. He had some hardcore body guards with him. The host of the program was some israeli woman/celebrity. who has been in TWO movies. (they told us in her introduction). Mostly to me the whole mega event was a big awkward joke. There were also lots of crazy australians running around, i didn't know there even were jews in that county.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

shabbat!

so friday comes, and in some of our preparations for shabbat we go to the Shuk, an outdoor market! it was by no means a smashing success, but it was full of some hilarity, like a crazy juice man who shoved some stuff up my nose, down my throat, and sprayed something on my face! he also had some very good and interesting juices, like etrog juice! and i got a cup of kambucha! danny and i tried to find cool stores and my chocolate bar, but had some trouble. Eventually we found cool clothes, cheap falafel and wine for our family lunches on saturday.

Then back to the hotel to shower, and get pretty and dressed up for shabbat. Unfortunately any preparations were washed out a bit by the extensive amount of rain. we rode the bus to the old city, and walked thru the rain to a back-alley, alarmed, sketchy door. which led to our shabbos locale! we also made a trip to the Kotel/western wall. which because of the rain was not crazy crowded. Then more praying, singing, dinner, more singing, etc. We had to walk back to the hotel, which was kind of unfortunate because of the rain. but we all survived, and then oneg-ed it up for a bit.

the next morning we continued our rainy escapades and walked to a very cool part of town, where one of our leaders, Yifat, used to live. Her cousin has her old place, so that was our base of operations. We then had lunches with local familys. Mine was with the Rabbi's family (along with 3 other chevre) and it was great. Best meal so far, and hilarious kids.

Afterwards everyone met up, and we went to the shul for the third meal, which meant delicious pastries and stories. Then havdalah, singing and dancing. Afterwards we went into downtown Jerusalem and explored the streets. It had mostly stopped raining and it was nice to finally get a chance to see the city more on our own, than from the window of a bus! even though it is raining, its cool to people watch and get some cheap internet access

Friday, January 05, 2007

too much for one entry!

or trip! its hard to keep parting about things that happened a week ago - but i will try my best!

the second day of our trip we went for our first "hike" which was really more of a walk thru a kibbutz, and then back up and talking and then across a road and to an old farming area, where we got to see some pretty cool irrigation canals. We also talked a bunch about olives, almonds, grapes, wheat and other flora of israel.

then we had a big spread for lunch, we were denied our first taste of BAMBA and we sang happy birthday to mike. Then back on the bus and onto a bit more walking, then CAVES. really really really cool man-made caves that the jews hid in during some revolution against the romans. we also drove past the field where david fought goliath. which is pretty cool to think about.

on a side note this day was a bit of a struggle - but i peed when i woke up, and then i didnt pee again til we got back to the hotel! thats about 10 hours. which i know is probably bad for me, or whatever, but i do not like to pee outside, and i didnt have to!

the caves were super cool though, they actually were made from the water cisterns that the jews had beneath their houses and then connected thru little tunnels, and Michael (except pronouced the jewish way, duh!) called the big meeting room "the JCC", which was in the center of a bunch of tunnels and make shift living spaces.

then we got back, had dinner and then met for Shabbat preparations. but that started off as a meeting, which i slept thru (uncomfortably squished on a couch with 4 other people) and then almost went to bed. BUT I DIDNT! hooray!

because i was tired i decided to go with the singing group because i figured it would require a lot less work than the skit group and the d'var torah group. and the singing was AMAZING! the songs were so nice and we were singing in this wonderful group led by Pesach. and i know it sounds very unlike me, but it was just so fun, and lively! we sang a lot of these crazy songs called either Ni-Ni's or Niguns. and i can try and sing them for you when we get back, but i cant promise they'll be tuneful.

then i was tired ( oh so tired!) but i couldnt handle missing any more songs so i told everyone the time ELEVEN FORTY TWO! and everyone wanted to go to bed too, but Pesach said stay for just one more song, and since i'm a huge pushover i did. and then he sang a song by Rabbi Jon Bon Jovi (as opposed to the other rabbi songs we had been singing) and then we all sang living on a prayer!

THEN we went to take the elevator from our room in the basement up to our floor (the 6th) and in my elevator we all started singing on the way up, and even kept singing when the doors opened in the lobby (everyone stared at us) and then when we got to our floor more of our chevre (group/friends) were there and then we all kept singing more! and of course it was still nice and beautiful. but people kept telling us to keep it down and be quiter, so i decided that the time had finally come...BED!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

jerusalem!

so far Kate is the only person i KNOW is reading - but i cannot just target it to you dearest, i will give you all the intimate details when i get home with many gifts for you on your birthday!

alright- so at first it was jujst sort of surreal that we could actually BE in another country! we exchanged our moneys, and got colorful bills and plenty of coins. the shekel is about 4 to the dollar, so i felt a bit rich. until i realized that a candy bar cost about 7.50! ew.

there are about 45 people traveling with me on general basis, 39 participants, 3 madrichs, 2 livnot leaders, 1 tourguide, 1 bus driver, and 1 security guard. i will have plenty of stories about all of them when i come home.

we started off by going straight to the old city of jerusalem. we finally all offically introduced ourselves, saw the dome of the rock, the moon rising over the city and the western wall. then we went to kotel and went to the caves beneath it, and walked past the holy of holys (holies?) and was lectured by a woman who reminded me of ariel (abra's sister). Then finally back to the hotel, dinner and rushed room picking and then sleep!


more to come!

back in action!

I'm back in my world traveler shoes! though in actuallity i am wearing much more waterproof ones this time around. I got some nice hiking SHOES at sports authority and so far they have pretty much been a blessing. kind of a christmas one if you think about the reason for the sale.

but anyways- and onto much more jew-y topics...I'M IN THE HOLY LAND!

though this whole journey started out with an epic car drive, that involved two sunrises, a crazy rest stop, big bags of fritos, lots of musicals and lots of other typical blair-ness from me.

arriving at danny's trailer was a bit of work, new jersey was sunny- and danny was there, otherwise i would have hated the state on account of US-9. but it all worked out (besides following Mr. Joe Kahn's advice and not packing my waterbottle). And then we were at the airport and then there was a huge group of people that i hadn't seen before, and ofcourse some of my typical social anxiety snapped in, i got a big hyper and freaked and felt the need to learn, meet, and remember everyone's name and figure out who they reminded me of ( which every time i cant quite place sometime [all the time] i miss Abra like CRAZY!).
we had time to bum around the airport and play guitars and be jewy at the gate. the flight was ok- not as hilarious or as calm as Virgin Airlines, also it was more confusing and full of hebrew! I did get to see The Departed, for a full 2nd and part of a 3rd time. that was nice, since i've just been telling Alain what a great movie it is.

ANYWAYS- i'm sure the reason you are all even reading this is to hear about israel! but i have to go, this instant to meet people to go back to the hotel and also to try and find ice cream! yay!


oh, so far no amazing candy stories, but i have had some great pastries. more to come!