The Love Shack

Our room is the only one that does not have a plain white door. It has quite the opposite in fact. On the outside it is blue with a heart on it, hence the name "The Love Shack", and on the inside, it is painted red with black Hebrew lettering. Some day I hope to be able to read and understand it. I love our room. It is not like the pictures online showed. Those are the hotel rooms that the spoiled American high schoolers from the NFTY program stay in. Ours are more like little cabins. I have two roommates. One is from Boston, Michal (25), and the other is from South Africa, Kerri (22). They are both Olah Hadasha, new immigrants. The three of us get along really well and have had a lot of fun together so far. Our room seems to have become the hang out room where people always come to see what's going on. I think it's because we're the coolest and we made our room nice and homey. 

Pictures:

1st: The Love Shack

2nd: Our kitchen. It consists of a toaster oven, sink, electric hot water pitcher, refrigerator, and little cupboard.

3rd: Bathroom

4th: My bed and clothes cupboard, note my bedside table. It is made from a huge piece of bullet proof glass and has a bullet hole on the underside, apparently it really is  bullet proof.

5th: Our room, Kerri

Kibbutz Tzuba!

I have now been living on the kibbutz for almost one week and I love it. Tzuba is in the foothills 10 kilometers west of Jerusalem.  It is a very beautiful kibbutz.  They run a factory that makes bullet proof glass, a hotel, an amusement park for kids, and orchards.  I work in the hotel with one of my new pals from the Ulpan.  There is also a hill on the kibbutz, which they call a mountain, with ruins from the Crusades on it. Some of us walked up it the first day and it was amazing. There are beautiful views of all the surrounding areas and Jerusalem.  I really like it here so far. Class and work are both fun. I will be posting pictures and information about the other aspects of my life here. 

Pictures:

1st: Lobby of the hotel

2nd: Some of the rooms of the hotel. I clean them!

3rd: The main road in the kibbutz. At the bottom is the glass factory. The hill just behind that is the one you can hike up with the ruins on it. 

4th: View from the courtyard of the hotel.

5th: Tennis courts, soccer field behind them. 

At the Wall

After we checked out what the Christians were doing on Good Friday, we went to the Western Wall.  There's always plenty of people there Friday afternoon.  At one point, there was a sudden flurry of activity and excitement that included several cars, complete with a police escort, driving right in the courtyard.  A bunch of Hasidim ran over to the cars and out stepped a wise looking old man and a couple middle aged guys.  They hurried him down to the Wall as if he were late for something.  Based on the reaction he drew from the Hasidic crowd, he was very important. Some of the boys even tried to run up and touch him, only to be thwarted by the guys on either side of him.  It was quite an event. 

Dad sat next to a Hasidic teenager on his flight and learned a little bit about the dress code. We had noticed that some of them wear long silk jackets that are black, and some wear white.  Apparently they are just carrying on the traditional dress of their grandfather's grandfather's grandfather. It depends on what your family has been wearing for generations. Also, some men wear round fur hats, which intrigued us.  It turns out that depends on marital status. Married men often wear them on Shabbat, when they perhaps get a little more dressed up.  They are often a present from the bride's parents. 

Pictures: A taste of people you see at the Wall.

1st:  The closest shot I could get of the men's side. Dad is to the left of the ark, close to the Wall, with the blue kippah.

2nd: The important man arrives. Notice the man sticking his arm out to block the kids.

3rd: Cute matching outfits

4th: Look at those red payos! 

5th: Cute Orthodox girls

Good Friday

On Good Friday, I was very curious to see what the Christians were doing in the Old City. It's interesting to be in another religion's holy place for a major holiday.  We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be the location of the crucifixion, death, and tomb of Jesus, and also walked along Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus walked in his final hours after being condemned to death.  Both were packed with people. There were many parades of people singing and carrying huge wood crosses through the street.  Inside the church was also extremely crowded.  Upon entry, you see the Stone of Anointing, which is believed to be where the body of Jesus was prepared for burial.  There was a line of people waiting to touch it, kiss it, and pray at it.  We followed the flow of the crowd into the room that houses the Holy Sepulcher, the tomb of Jesus.  We then joined the crowd waiting to go upstairs to Calvary, also known as Golgotha, believed to be the site of the crucifixion.  Underneath the alter is a hole where the cross is said to have been raised.  There was a long line of people waiting to go under the alter and kiss the star that marks this spot.  I loved seeing what goes on in the Old City during such an important time for Christians.  It was a very interesting experience. 

Pictures:

1st:  Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Commissioned by Constantine and completed around 335 C.E.

2nd: Stone of Anointing, where the body was prepared for burial

3rd: Sepulcher believed to house the tomb of Jesus

4th: Calvary/Golgotha, where the cross was raised

5th: One of the many parades on Via Dolorosa

Tennis

Dad brought our tennis stuff with him when he came.  We played three times while he was here, once at a tennis club in Tel-Aviv, and twice at the club in Jerusalem.  The club in Jerusalem was really nice and we met some friendly people.  After we played the second time, a guy came to ask Dad if he wanted to play doubles. We figured he meant that Dad would be the fourth, but he meant for Dad and me to play him and his partner (Zacharia and Moshe). Luckily, I eventually remembered how to put a serve in and we smoked them, 6-2, 6-0.  They were very impressed with how good Dad was.  After one particularly nice point, one of them asked how old he was. They were shocked to find out he was 60. They were 50 and 45.  As one of them put it, "We are old but with ambition." Maybe next time guys. 

Pictures:

1st: #1!

2nd: Zacharia and Dad. Zacharia got Dad's information so next time he comes to Israel Zacharia will set him up with someone his level. 

3rd: The outdoor courtyard, Teddy Stadium in the background is where the soccer is held

4th: Snack bar

5th: View of some of the courts from the lobby sitting area

Drive Through the Desert and West Bank

It was tricky planning the route to get to Ein Gedi.  Unless you go way down south around the West Bank, you'll end up having to drive through it for at least a little while.  None of the locals we talked to thought it necessary to do that, in fact, some told us to just drive the whole way from where we were up north, straight down through the west bank.  Dad wasn't comfortable doing that so we went southeast to Tel-Aviv, then east through Jerusalem and into the West Bank.  We got through the checkpoint easily. I guess a white American guy and his daughter in a bright yellow rental car that says Hertz on it doesn't set off too many red flags.

Pictures:

1st: checkpoint coming

2nd: checkpoint

3rd: Those little shacks are Bedouins, we passed a bunch of little villages like that along the side of the road.  Just beyond that is the wall that was recently built on the border of East Jerusalem to cut down on terrorists attacks in Jerusalem. Apparently it helped a lot. 

4th: Camel along the road. There were quite a few.

5th: Jericho, I think Joshua did something there. Lowest permanently inhabited place on earth. Also perhaps the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. 

Dead Sea

After hiking around Masada, we went for a dip in the Dead Sead.  It was another event that I had been looking forward to doing again and that Dad was really excited to experience for the first time.  He thought the sensation was very familiar because it felt exactly like floating around on a pool mat.  Only no mat!  We both noticed that our skin felt great later.  There was a large group of Muslim women there while we were and we were interested to see how they enjoyed the Dead Sea.  I figured they wouldn't go in the water because of the swimming suit issue. It turned out they just went in with clothes on.  Another interesting thing is that the beach at this point of entry was made entirely of salt crystals. It would have been very painful to go in without shoes. The Dead Sea is, unfortunately, drying up, and anywhere water evaporates from is left covered in salt. 

Dad Arrives and Masada

Dad came to visit! We spent the first two nights of his visit in Tel-Aviv. He arrived on Shabbat so there wasn't much open that night or the next day.  The tennis center, however, was one of the things that was open, so we hit for a couple hours on Saturday.  We spent the rest of the day walking around Jaffa, an old port city where Jonah left from before his run in with the whale.  We went out for a delicious meal and then watched some fireworks that were part of the celebratory events of Tel-Aviv's birthday weekend.  The next morning we headed up north where we spent the day walking around Tzefat and exploring a town called Rosh Pina, which is apparently a vacation destination for many Israelis. We spend the night in a tiny gated town called Amiram.  One of the men who worked at the front desk at our hotel in Tel-Aviv recommended a place to stay that we would never have found otherwise.  The Levine family rents out rooms in their home as well as a couple guest cottages on their property.  We stayed in one of the cottages, which were awesome. They were very friendly and it was a unique experience. 

The next morning we headed south to a place on the Dead Sea called Ein Gedi. We stayed on the kibbutz there. It was a really nice place and was surprisingly green and beautiful for the desert. The meals were also delicious. We headed to Masada in the morning.  I love showing Dad around. It was also fun to walk around wherever I wanted since we had to stay with the group on Birthright.  I loved going for the second time and Dad loved seeing it for the first time. 

Pictures:

1st: Dad arrives! I love the Happy Passover sign.

2nd: On top of some ruins on Masada

3rd: Ruins, Dead Sea, Jordan on the other side

4th: Furry Masada creature

5th: Dad

On the Streets of Haifa

I just thought I'd include a few more shots of Haifa.

1st: This is walking down the street I lived on, about 6 blocks from the Port Inn. The funky      looking building in the distance makes it into a lot of pictures of the Haifa skyline. 

2nd: Ben Gurion Street.  This is one of the main tourist streets. It is full of cafes and  restaurants.  Directly behind me is the bottom of the Bahai gardens.  

3rd: I don't know what this business is, but their name does not work as well in English.

4th: These signs are everywhere. This is how they warn people not to climb towers with wires  on them.  

5h: A flavor of Magnums they didn't have in Australia. Chocolate, chocolate, and more  chocolate. 

My last day in Haifa I met up with two Australian brothers I met at the Jerusalem Hostel.  They are staying with their Grandma in Haifa for a while.  I took a bus to the mall to meet them and we went bowling.  I kicked butt and beat both of them.  Then they took me to their Krav Maga class that they attend weekly.  Krav Maga means "close combat" in Hebrew and is a form of hand-to-hand combat.  It emphasizes neutralizing the threat quickly and works with real life situations where losing could potentially be fatal.  Some of the people at the facility were learning moves to use if someone is pointing a gun at you.  The class was pretty intense. There were about 20 guys and 3 girls. It started with a warm-up of light jogging and stretching. Then we did 40 push ups, 40 sit-ups, and 40 crunches, repeated 3 times.  Then we did some kicks and punches followed my some knees and elbows.  It was all in Hebrew but the instructor and his assistant (not guys you'd want to mess with) also spoke English so they came around and helped if we needed it.  For the most part, it was pretty easy to just watch and do what they do.  We practiced a couple scenarios where someone would choke you from behind, or push you against a wall, and you had to try to escape and injure them.  When the instructor came around to watch he told me that I picked it up fast and asked if I'd taken any type of martial arts before.  I guess I'm just naturally good at kicking butt. For the last 10 minutes we practiced blocking and punching, although we just tapped them instead of punching.  I had a lot of fun and it definitely was not something I would have found if the boys had not brought me.  I also got to do the lesson for free as a first time trial.  

The Port Inn, Haifa

While I was in Haifa, I stayed at a very nice hostel called the Port Inn.  For the first and third nights I was in the dorm room, and the second night I stayed in a private room.  The dorm room was surprisingly nice and extremely clean.  There were also only 3 other people in it besides me, so it was not crowded at all.  I had some interesting roommates.  One night there were two German ladies. The other night there was a girl about my age from Congo, who currently lives in China, who was on her 9 day Bahai pilgrimage.  There was also a Muslim girl who asked me for help on her English homework.  She left before I woke up the next day but she left me a flower next to my bed. 

The staff at the hostel was awesome.  The main guy at the front desk was full of information and helpful advice about how to get anywhere in the city.  The woman in charge of breakfast was really nice and since I showed up 10 minutes before breakfast closed on the first day, we had a running joke about me trying not to be the last one down in the mornings.  One night I hung out in the sitting room and watched a movie and ate popcorn with one of the girls who worked there. 

I met some nice guests at the hostel as well.  One night I went out with an American girl and two American guys.  We went down the street to a bar where a band was covering various American hits by the Beatles, Elvis, and other well known folks. We ran into the man from the hostel so we sat with him and his friends and got to taste some of the bar snack food they got.  It was not the typical nuts and tortilla chips you might find at home, but chopped liver and sliced bread with an assortment of spicy sauces and crushed garlic.  It really complimented the flavor of the Goldstar (one of the most common Israeli beers).  Overall I was very pleased with my hostel experience in Haifa.  

Pictures:

1st: The entrance, the dog to the left of the door belonged to the owners and was very friendly.

2nd: The dorm room, it had its own bathroom which was also very clean!

3rd: The private room I had for a night, it felt more like a hotel

4th: The breakfast room, the breakfasts were very good and there were always people to sit and chat with, one day I wasn't the last person.

5th: The sitting room, there is a patio just outside which was a very nice spot to hang out during the day.