133 יום

Coming back to Israel proper from Bethlehem was really interesting. I've heard so much and read so much and talked so much about checkpoints and the wall. Well here they are:

Seriously Obama, You're o.k. with this?

Merry Christmas to the World from the Bethlehem Ghetto

132 יום

First of all Merry Christmas to everyone!!! I'm just getting used to saying it. Of course just  in time to not need it anymore. Obviously, the phrase isn't of much use in Israel.

After 126 days (If I counted correctly) living in Tel Aviv, I am home. It's been a long time since I wrote anything. Don't worry, that doesn't mean I'll overwhelm you, at least not in this entry. Pretty much what happened was when December hit, I could count the days I had left. You know me; I am always thinking ahead. AKA I couldn't keep it out of my consciousness that I was leaving in X number of days. So, honestly, I didn't want to use the time to write. I tried to spend as much of my last three weeks exploring, sitting in cafes, going out, as often as I could with my Israeli friends. So, really there's not much to say about these last weeks in terms of what I did. I'll get to thoughts later. For know I'll put up some pictures from my last excursion: The Temple Mount and Bethlehem, Palestine.

Nitya in front of the Dome of the Rock (site where Abraham laid Isaac to sacrifice him to God)

The Modern town of Bethlehem

The Altar marks the supposed spot Christ was born

Outside the Church of the Nativity

106 יום

So this past weekend was phenomenal. Since September, I've been thinking about Thanksgiving, which is probably my favorite American holiday. We've been planning for about a month now trying to figure out where we could do it (we don't have kitchens and needed to be able to fit 30 people potentially) and we finally figured it out . . . pretty much the morning of. Guy got a friend of his to let us use his apartment, we spent all week getting everything we needed (cranberries and canned pumpkin turned out to be unfindable), and cooked the turkey in the hostel (definitely not normally allowed). We had to wait til we finished classes (like 3 pm) and then scrambled. I can't believe we pulled it off! Here's how it turned out:

 And after this one, I did another for my Israeli friends. Again, great fun and it was of course new for them, so that added to the excitement of it. They're now huge apple pie fans. I spent the afternoon shopping in the Shouk which was the funnest way to grocery shop, buying one thing from this vendor and that from the other. May I add that turkey is not easy or cheap to get. Our kosher turkey cost 215 sheckels or $60. And I had to order it in advance. I can whole-heartedly say it was worth it though!

105 יום Part ב

So I also want to mention a short experience I had in Turkey that really affected me. Our tour group on the second day had people from all over the world in it: Italy, Switzerland, the UK, us, India, and a Lebanese girl. I was really interested in asking the Lebanese girl about her country. It was the best I could do since I didn't get to go. So I asked her about politics and society and it was really interesting to hear her talk about all the religious divisions we talked about in class. Apparently they are very real. What really hit me though was when when she asked me "So your family has Jewish friends?" I had told her we were studying in Israel, so I guess that's why she asked. I told her of course, that Jews are some of my best friends. She told me she could never be friends with a Jew because you can't trust them. She told me there is this proverb in Lebanon "Eat at the house of a Jew, sleep at the house of a Christian" AKA, you can't trust Jewish people enough to let your guard down in their house. So I asked her if this is the general feeling in Lebanon. She said definitely among Christians (She herself is Christian) because the Jews killed Christ.

We've talked a lot about anti-Semitism in English classes growing up, reading Anne Frank and Elie Weisel's Night, In history classes talking about the Holocaust, and in my History of the Yishuv class here. That was the first time I stared it in the face.

105 יום Part א

So I want to throw in some short little posts to give you a wider scope of my time in Israel. So, as you all know how much I love music, I want to throw in a few of the songs that I will forevermore associate with this trip.

These first two I heard at least 5 times a day for the first month we were here. Apparently, lots of people abroad did, so maybe it's just an everywhere-but-America thing. Neither is Israeli, but to me they will always be the Israel songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkjljBNTLs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Z3YrHJ1sU

This next one is Israeli, specifically Mizrakhi (AKA. Middle Eastern Jewish, think of it as thee Arab Jews. Yes they do exist, although most of them live here now since their countries kicked them out when Israel was established.) Most of my Israeli friends hate this stuff, but it plays everywhere all the time, so maybe it's just them. I LOVE IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvBIz9rJDm0&feature=related

This last one is a song from one of the movies we watched in Israeli cinema called Yossi and Jagger. I was obsessed with it for about a week.  It's a cover by Ivri Lider of a song by Rita, a Persian Israeli who represented Israel in the Eurovision song contest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BtK9cSjAiY

The last ones are some local TLV talent whose concerts I went to see this semester.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY5eJi79sOI&feature=related
http://www.myspace.com/igotthehotties

100 יום

Wow, day 100. I just counted and realized. I suppose it is appropriate that after 100 days of living in Israel I have many little experiences that I haven't included that I want to throw in. First, I'm going to throw up some pictures for you of my trip this past weekend of the north and share with you what I experienced there. I'll get to the rest after this post. Our trip took us through Galilee to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Kibbutz Degania (the first world's kibbutz), and Capernaum and then through the Golan Heights to Nimrod's Fortress past Mount Hermon along the Lebanese Border to Tel Hai and then to Acco (Acre in English).

Galilee

Today's Nazareth

The 4th Grotto commemorating the Annunciation

The house of St Peter

The Sea of Galilee (where Jesus walked on water)

Israel and Lebanon

Lebanon at nightfall

The Arch Cave

Acco

So that was my trip. I think I win my own prize for brevity this time. Unfortunately, there is more to it that this.  There were two experiences I had this weekend that really affected me.

The first was when we stopped by a kibbutz in Tel Hai literally on the Lebanese border (the picture of Lebanon at night was taken from there). We met with an American who made Aliya many years ago to this kibbutz. This whole time, I've wanted to meet someone very right wing. I didn't come to Israel to preach or to have my views reaffirmed. On the contrary, I came to have them challenged. Well that has finally happened. I realized this guy was not your typical politically correct American when the muezzin started calling and his response was "Don't worry, that's just their evening prayers. They think it helps them but it really doesn't." From there he told us a bit about his story coming to Israel and falling in love with his kibbutz and defending it in 2006 when Hezbollah attacked from just across the fence. I knew it wasn't going to be fun or easy, but I had to ask him "why". Why did Israel need to be its own country? Why don't the Palestinians deserve a state? What right did Israel have to become a country in 1948? Did the UN have the authority to do so? It's not that I didn't have answers to these questions; I just wanted to know what his answers would be. He proceeded to tell me that the Jews have always been in Palestine, that the Jewish National Fund had legally purchased much of the land settled, that the Palestinians are a made up ethnicity and that they are really Syrian, that they didn't want peace or a state, that's why they didn't accept Camp David in 2000, that now that Israel exists, there are no more pogroms, that he will do anything to ensure Israel's continued existence, and that he is so frustrated and angry at the Palestinians that while he would've let them have the territories in 48 or even 67, now, he isn't interested in giving them back. 

A lot of what he said is true, but not exactly all. Even though I had wanted to hear this, I was very bothered by what he said. I think there are two reasons. The first one took me a while to figure out. This man was so incredibly sure of himself and of what he believes. I am not. When someone has this kind of certainty, it shakes me. Instead of questioning them, my automatic assumption is to question myself and my beliefs. My consideration of his extremist views was shocking - to the point where I would call it an ideological crisis. Have you ever questioned your beliefs to a point where you almost can't bear it? Where you feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you and you've landed smack on your face and you don't know how to pick yourself back up? He had a response to all of my questions - a justification for everything he believes that I could not contradict. On some level, I can understand where he is coming from. When I imagine myself growing up in an anti-Semitic area with the trauma of the Holocaust in my immediate past and a present where my very existence is under threat and where I fell I've tried to make peace and have only gotten intifadas in return - I can imagine thinking as he thinks. I have never been able to understand the Zionist perspective until now and it is shaking everything I have thought about this conflict. I guess I got what I wanted. I finally understand this conflict better, not on an academic level, but on a human level.

I think the other thing that bothered my was that I felt like he labelled me, personally, as part of the enemy. He said things like "I will make sure that you do not take this away from me." Now, while he most likely did not mean me personally (the results of the English Universal "you" being the same word as the 2nd person "you"), the fact that he said you and with such aggression, it felt personal. He turned me into an enemy of the State of Israel, a place I have come to love, a place I have come to feel where I might finally belong. He took that away from me. I wanted to tell him that I'm not trying to take anything from him, that I just wanted to understand. But I couldn't get him to see that, or if I did, I couldn't tell. Any of you who know me well, know that I don't deal well with aggression. I kind of just shrink away and freeze. I haven't felt that threatened in a long time and it was more than I could handle. I left that experience just wanting to disappear, leave my mind behind and float away.

The other experience I had that impacted me was on our last day as we were in Acco. We were supposed to have a guided tour around the city, but as always, were were running late. Most of us would've been fine with getting back a bit late to Tel Aviv. But of course, there were those that disagreed. They were the minority, probably 6 out of 25. But they were also the squeaky wheel. So we left early and didn't have the tour. I couldn't believe it. We had come here to see the city, to experience Israel, or at least that's what I thought. Apparently, not everyone had that as a priority. It was unfathomable that not only did those kids not want to see the country they bothered to come 7000 miles to live in for four months, but that they didn't care in the slightest that the rest of us did want that. I couldn't believe Guy let them win. But in the end, I couldn't believe I let them win. Those of us who wanted to stay said nothing until it was too late, until the decision had already been made, and those who spoke won. I've never been good at standing up for myself. I'd rather avoid the confrontation. I realize now that some fights are worth having.

So that's what I have to say about this trip. It was a very emotionally draining one, but I learned a lot - about myself and about other people.

91 יום

So I just finished putting up the pictures from my last post, but I really need to put this up to vent/remember how this went because it's the kind of moment that is really coming to influence me here. To be honest, I'd also be interested to see how you react to this also.

So yesterday at breakfast, we were trying to figure out what a group of Israeli children that's been here 2 days is doing here. Someone guessed that they may be a religious Jewish group. But that was quickly ruled out because one was taking pictures and it was shabbat (the religious don't use electricity). One girl on our program didn't know about that, so I explained it to her. "That's silly" was her immediate reaction. Now to be honest, I get that, but I tried to explain to her along with a few other people that it's historically important to have a day of rest and even in a modern context that it can be nice to spend a day not worrying about the mundane (FB, cell phones, laptops, etc) worries of the rest of the week and spend time doing what you usually ignore during the week(ie read, spend time with family, play a sport or game, etc). But all she could do was go on about how it's silly to impose rules upon yourself like that. "No you don't understand" I said.  Her reaction "I'm not having this conversation that starts with 'you don't understand'" and she gets up in a huff and leaves.

Here's my question: why is it easier for the left wing to understand a man who blows up a bus full of innocent people because of what he believes in than to understand a man who takes a day of rest because of what he believes in?

90 יום

Ok, get ready for another long one. I've got Istanbul to tell you about, plus the last two weeks. I think it's gonna involve more pics than words though for Istanbul. Really, my words cannot possibly describe the incredibly beautiful city I went to. To see all my pictures, check out my FB. (Unfortunately, once again, the internet sucks so I'm gonna have to wait to put up the pictures) (Yay! It works now :)

So, we caught a 4 am flight from Tel Aviv and got to Istanbul around 7. Israeli security is apparently more fun leaving the country than entering (I know, weird, right?). Anyways, we caught our shuttle to the Agora Hostel which is right in the historic part of the city a few blocks from Haghia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Blue Mosque. It was raining hard all day and it was around 50 degrees, so needless to say, we were not prepared considering Tel Aviv weather. I went with Abby, Jaya, Nitya, and Sruti. The girls decided they wanted to go to the Turkish bath due to the rain, but I felt like seeing the city, so I spent the day walking around by myself in the rain (I know, I'm growing up :). I walked along the tram way and eventually into the Grand Bazaar.

Haghia Sophia

Blue Mosque

Random Street

Kebab Mmmmmm

Grand Bazaar

We had set up a meet up time, so around 4 I headed back to the hostel. They ended up coming at around 5 so in the meantime I met some of the people at the hostel. I met a Spaniard and an Italian, so I got to practice my languages (Yay for actually being able to understand a foreign language!) and I also met Australians, Brits, and Japanese. Eventually, they got back, we took a nap and we headed out for dinner and a Nargileh (Hookah) bar.

The next day, we had arranged for a tour of all the major sites. A gentleman by the name of Abdullah Er (who we dubbed Abduller) took us around. His English was rather entertaining. Every time we we going to see something new, we were discovering it and everything was "very interesting by the way" and when we went off on our own, he asked us to "keep in touch". We had a lot of fun adopting his phrases. We went to the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia, Lunch at a Turkish kebab place, the Topkapi Palace, and to a carpet sales pitch.

Inside the Blue Mosque

Inside Haghia Sophia

View of the city from Topkapi Palace

When we got back that night, we headed to the end of the tram way to see the fireworks for Republic Day, the anniversary of Ataturk's declaration of Turkey as a democratic republic. SO AWESOME!

After that, we looked for a restaurant, which took a while because we needed somewhere with vegetarian options for Abby and Sruti. Turkey's not so good about that. The place we picked ended up being really shitty and the waiters didn't really speak English, but I guess it's a funny story now.

The next day we spent with a guy named Enrique (Chileno) who we met in the hostel and was in the city by himself. The Colombian-Belgian couple I met introduced me to him. We went to the spice market, took a Bosphorus cruise, went to this amazing (famous) baklava place called Guloglu and then went out to Taksim, which is the nightlife area. It's also the square that was bombed about 6 hours after we left. Gooooooood times.

Tea and souvenir vendor at the Spice Market

"This shop is recommended by Obama"

The city from the boat

Connecting Europe and Asia

Baklava and Salep!

I felt kind of bad for Enrique because I wasn't sure how much of our English he caught, but either way, he seamed to have fun with us, so. Enrique was too tired to come out to Taksim with us, but we went out with the Italian, Japanese, and Dutch to Taksim. Best conversation ever:

Japanese girl: I'm from Japan
Us: O cool, where in Japan?
Japanese girl: I think you'll know know it. It's right near Hiroshima.
Us: O . . . (awkward silence) . . . yea, sorry about that.
Luckily, she held no grudges and of course, everything goes away over a drink :)

It was really fun that night. the area was crazy crowded. It took us a while to find a place that wasn't full. Eventually, (thanks to my bladder) I went into this place that by coincidence had a rooftop bar from which you could see the entire city. OMG, so incredible!

Next day, we started at the Basilica cistern (huge and really cool) and then we walked along the Golden Horn to a neighborhood called Balat. The walk was beautiful. It was finally a gorgeous, sunny day (after day one, it stopped raining, but it was still cloudy and cold). The city looked so different. Along the way, we left the tourist traps and walked with the Turkish people. Fisherman, families taking walks, mothers pushing strollers, kids playing on the playground. It's the part of a city that's most exciting - the real part. Balat, is not wealthy, but it is incredibly charming, the views were breathtaking, and the people were so welcoming and happy to have us in their shops (we ate a little of just about everything we saw) even though we couldn't say anything more than thank you to them. Such a great day.

Enrique, Abby, and Jaya in the Basilica Cistern

My girls - Jaya, Abby, Sruti, Nitya along the Golden Horn

Playground, almost at Balat (Note the cotton candy salesman!)

Baklava Shopkeeper, such a kind gent

Sweet lady who owns a bakery we went to

Balat

Balat, the Golden Horn, and Beyond

That night we caught dinner one last time together and had one last nargileh before the girls caught their plane back to Tel Aviv. I stayed an extra day. Very glad I did. I spent that night hanging out with this British girl Jackie just talking over a few beers. The next day, she came with me to see the roman walls that once protected the city. then we split up and I went to Dolmabahce Palace (which turned out to be closed) and then walked up the Bosphorus to a neighborhood called Orakoy, just off the Istanbul map. Very different from Balat. Pretty and much wealthier. I climbed up some of their hills and got great views. I ended up getting lost on the way back, so I had to take a cab and I went back to Taksim Square to walk down Istiklal Street, which is the big boulevard with tons of designer and nice shops and cafes. Then I passed the Galata Tower and headed back to Guloglu for one last baklava. I also got another fish sandwich. There are guys selling then for 4 lira ($2.75) right next to the river. Delicious and very fresh. From there, I took my turn at the Turkish bath. Not exactly relaxing as you'd imagine, but it was definitely an experience. A fat, middle aged man scrubs you down and likes to pop your joints and contort your body. If nothing else, it was definitely a story. After all this, I headed back to grab my luggage, but first, just sat in between Haghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque staring at their incredibleness (without a doubt, the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen) while having one last salep (this creamy milk drink with vanilla and cinnamon). Finally, I said good bye and caught my shuttle back to the airport.

The Roman Walls

Dolmabahce Palace

Orakoy

Security is definitely funner leaving countries. Turkey questioned me leaving, but Israel didn't say anything when I got back. My flight was at midnight and when I got to the train station, I had just missed the 2 am train back to Tel Aviv. I waited an hour for the next train, then missed my stop in Tel Aviv (I got a little confused), and then had to wait another hour in Netania for the next train going back to tel Aviv. By the time a got home, it was 6:30 and I had Arabic at 8:30. Fun stuff.

The last two weeks, I've spent in cafes working, catching up from 5 days of doing no work. It's actually kind of stressful when you've got 2 languages to learn and one of the worlds most complicated conflicts to understand. I'm finally back on track, but I really need to work hard on Hebrew because the professor from NYU will be here in a week and I need to prove to her that I'm at a level that I can jump into her class even though I taught myself. Arabic is moving really fast now because we moved really slow through the alifbaa (alphabet) so to stay in pace with NY, we're moving quick. I hope I manage to absorb everything. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is really interesting still, but I kind of feel like we're getting too much of the Palestinian side. Part of me coming to Israel was to understand the point of view of the people here. I've started to get some from the people I've met, but I also want to read in class about what the government's thinking has been. Instead, I think we're mainly exposed to Palestinian society along with the history and explanations for why they don't accept compromise and how Israel has screwed them over. It's not that those things aren't true, but it's only part of the story. I'm sure of this since we finally saw a segment showing Yasser Arafat preaching jihad and imams telling their followers to kill the Jews wherever they find them. Of course, we didn't really talk about it and I don't know how much credence the class gave it. Anyways, I'm going to watch the  rest of that documentary on Youtube and we'll see if things get more even handed (they won't).

Archaeology took us on a field trip last Sunday. We when to a prehistoric settlement, Megiddo (biblical site that supposedly will host Armageddon), and Ceaserea (built by King Herod). The last one was incredibly beautiful.

Pre-historic site, cave people and all

Megiddo

The area below is where the king of the east and the king of the west are supposed to meet for Armageddon

Ceaserea

Last Friday, I went back to Josh's. He hosted another dinner and then we went to another friend's birthday party, Roni. It was fun and I ended up talking to Josh and a new friend Dante, who graduated from NYU and now lives in Jaffa, about Israeli society until like 6 am. I'm really starting to feel like a part of this group now, which I'm really happy about.

Last Thursday, I found out my uncle Rick had fallen into a coma and had severe brain damage. He passed away the next day at the age of 36, leaving his four children between ages 5 and 14 and my aunt. It was so sudden and when I think about my family and what they're going through, I almost cry. It's kind of brought made me a bit somber this week, but I've tried to keep it from showing because I didn't really feel like a bunch of condolences. I really didn't know him well enough. That happens when you live 2000 miles apart. But he had this incredible smile (I'm a sucker for a good smile) and he always made you feel happy and could lighten situations. Such a goof ball. He liked to call me Josue and I would teach him random words in Spanish. He really wanted to learn. It was so funny to see him put together sentences with the few words he knew. I remember when we went camping one year and he was talking about going fishing at 6 am. So I woke up at 6 am so I could go with him and my uncle Ryan. They didn't wake up at 6. It was more funny than it was disappointing somehow. Here I ago, feeling like crying again in public . . .

Sorry to put in that downer.

This Thursday, I went with my friends Emily and Laura to meet up with Josh and a friend of his in Neve Tzedek for a bottle of wine. It was the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv and has a small alleyways charm that the rest of the city doesn't. It was really nice. It's November and I'm still going out in shorts! We then went to Josh's sister Uriah's apartment in Florentin and hung out with people and then went back to Perla for the first time in a while.

Yesterday, I went with Guy to this bar that was having a music festival. 12 hours, 12 bands, 12 shekels ($3.50). Great music and the people could have been transplanted to the East Village or Williamsburg with no problem. Kind of funny. After, we went to the cafe in front of it and got the macaroni and cheese. O. My. G-d. So incredible. I then proceeded to go back to Bnei Dan, have some dinner there and then met Josh again for sushi (let's face it, sushi isn't filling. I needed the appetizers). I haven't had sushi since leaving, but now that my big expensive trips are over, I'm relaxing a bit with money. So glad I am. I've been missing out. We then went back to Uriah's where she then served my a salad with Roquefort cheese, chestnuts, and balsamic vinegar and a plate of carpaccio. I'm so spoiled. Officially my new favorite people.

Ok, so I think that's everything interesting about the last two weeks. I'm so failing at this writing more often thing . . .