walking the green line

06:00	Leaving Jerusalem for Mt. Gilboa – the most northern part of the Green Line. During the trip explanations will be given and material will be distributed.
08:30-09:30	Breakfast overlooking the Green line by Kibbutz Mairav overlooking the Palestinian village of Jalboun
09:30-12:30	Walking along the Green Line and the Separation Wall overlooking the Palestinian village of Faqua and the gilboa forests.
12:30-14:30	Lunch (if raining we will travel to Um el-Fahem; otherwise we will picnic in the forest by Mt. Barkan on the Gilboa
14:30-16:30	Walking on the Green Line by Mt. HaGiborim until Sandalah
Evening	Driving to hotel in Nazareth. Evening meeting with politicians.
Day Two: Friday, May 30, 2008
07:00-07:30	Hotel check-out, pack equipment in the bus, and breakfast
07:30-11:00	Driving to Uhm al-Fahem – if visibility is good, we will go to the Sheikh Eskander lookout. Otherwise, we will travel directly to the Um Rechan Nature Reserve and walk to Barta'a.
11:00-11:30	Free time in the Barta'ah market
11:30-13:30	Lunch in the village and meeting the mayor.
13:30-14:00	Traveling to Baqa al-Gharbiyeh
14:00-15:30	Meeting with Israeli Jewish and Arab social justice NGO’s (Shatil)
15:30- 16:00	Walking along the Separation Wall between Baqa al-Gharbiyeh and Baqa al-Sharqiyeh
16:00-18:00	Traveling to Bil'in and meeting with activists.
18:00-19:00	Traveling to Bethlehem hotel check-in
20:00	Dinner in a Bedouin tent – meeting with Palestinian politicians
Day Three: Saturday, May 31, 2008
07:30-13:00	Walking from Batir to Wadi Fuqin - meeting with residents of Wadi Fuqin and neighboring Tzur Hadassah
13:00-14:00	Lunch in Jerusalem – meeting with Jerusalem experts
14:00- 17.00	Traveling to Abu Dies – walking along the wall, meeting in Al Quds University with staff and students
18:00-20:00	Dinner and meeting with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists
20:30	Returning to the hotel in Bethlehem. Summary discussion and farewell

Above was the itinerary. I put it there so I can remember what happened and thus be able to write about it. (there is also a webpage- walkthegreenline.org)
We had a group of 15 people overall, being joined by people here and there along the way. Our group consisted of Sue from Cleveland, who is active in Muslim-Jewish dialogue groups there, Jethro and Leo (father and son) from New York, Patrik from Sweden who is writing a book for teenagers on Israel, David from Boston with a daughter also named Naomi, Amoreena from Oregon who is interning with IPCRI (the organization) and living in Bethlehem for the summer, my friends Alyssa and Leah from my program, Riman and Hann'a from east Jerusalem, Gershon and his daughter Elisha, a journalist named Daniella from New Jersey and Scott from Iowa, a pastor. Along the way at various points we were joined by wounded Israeli soldiers, a Palestinian politician and professor, and an activist from Bil'in. We were in a million different places, and I saw most of the West Bank, which I had never really been to before. I saw Al-Quds University, the barrier wall, agriculture, villages, schools, social actions centers; ate the most delicious food and had hookah in the Bethlehem tent restaurant, thought and thought and thought some more. I played at the Al-Quds interactive science and math museums, tasted freshly grown zucchini from a resident of Wadi Fuqin, passed through many checkpoints, walked on Mt. Gilboa and looked out at the land, hiked, drove, took the Arab bus, talked, thought some more.

i have learned many things,

about pitching tents and health insurance and all the different things to put on your pita,
about buses and how jerusalem stone is just SOOO last 2000 years ago,
about academic values and loneliness and independence,
about airports and national holidays and extended family,
about taxi drivers and prayers and exchange rates,

about myself,

i think it is time to go home,
at least for a little while,
and look at the bay while the sunlight shines,
and then again at night,

and breathe a little bit
and learn some more.

so i was in cairo

yes, ladies and gentlemen, last weekend i was in, well, Cairo. Hamdul'lah!
After a mayhem-filled experience getting to the plane I finally boarded an Air Sinai flight where the flight attendants looked straight out of the 1950s. There was a crying baby on the flight and everyone banded together to calm the baby down and I was sitting next to a fascinating and friendly Palestinian woman and her daughter who was my age. They ran a theater in Ramallah and both of them were in university and they invited me to an Egyptian wedding (alas I didn't make it, but that would have been quite an experience). I arrived in Cairo around 1:30 in the afternoon and met up with Elie and after buying my visa we took a taxi back from Heliopolis, where the airport is, to his neighborhood. I can't really say it was in downtown because there really is no such thing. Cairo is HUGE. And when I say huge I mean it is one of the biggest cities in the world, both physically and population wise. There are tons of people and they are everywhere at all times. At 4 in the morning the traffic and people on the streets aren't quite as intense as they usually are, if that gives you any idea. We went to his apartment to put my stuff down and the boab (the doorman, every Cairo apartment building has one, they get paid 7 dollars a month by each tenant to drink tea and do nothing) was mightily confused by this white female presence (which got more hilarious with each day as the next day another girl was entering the building with us and the second day there was a 3rd girl so the boab probably thought Elie was running a harem; but it's Egypt). Both of us were feeling a bit hungry so I had my first taste of fuul falafel which was tasty and then we did the most Cairo ; we went to a cafe for tea and sheesha. The sheesha cafes are absolutely prolific. Every street you walk upon you can see men in either secular dress or a galabiya puffing away at their water pipe and imbibing a nice cup of tea or some fruit juice. (Remember it is a Muslim country, alcohol is technically verboten but that doesn't stop most people, you can buy cheap knock off brands in sketchy corner stores or go to a hotel if you can afford it. But mostly people drink a lot of tea and coffee.)
Following this we went to the Ibn Talun mosque. It's one of the biggest mosques in the world and it is in the Islamic part of Cairo. We took off our shoes and were promptly charged money for Allah but whatever, and then we went to the very top of the minaret. Getting up was extremely "Vertigo" but once we were at the top we had spectacular views of Cairo and the mosque is stunning. Then we walked through Islamic Cairo, through alleyways of the souq where everything is sold. In Cairo, there is a shop for every item one can imagine. There is the egg shop. Then there is the pickle shop. Then the chair shop. Then the roasted nut shop. And so on and so forth. Specialization to the MAX! I particularly liked the chair shop. This guy sits out in front of his shop weaving chairs all day. All shops are mostly open 24/7 (except during prayer times on Friday and such) probably because, like in Greece, no one really seems to work. It's a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern thing, what can I say. I would probably do the same, I suppose. Also many shops will have 5 or 6 people doing what one person could easily do. At one point we had to buy baby powder and this woman just followed us around, reading aloud the names of the baby powder brands.
We went over to Elie's friend's house where her boab taught me how to count to ten in Arabic. Arabic is somewhat similar to Hebrew so the numbers weren't too hard and I could pick up other words here and there. Mostly though my Arabic knowledge is limited to a vivid slew of Allah-related phrases and "no," "thank you", "where" and "yes." Then we all ate yummy food at a Yemeni restaurant where we were the only non Egyptians or Yemenites there. Clearly we were such an oddity that everyone stared at us the entire time and one guy even took our picture. (I particularly stood out a lot in Cairo in many parts often being the only white, secular girl around). And for such a delicious meal it was super cheap; being a foreigner in Egypt works in your favor in terms of the exchange rate. Later that night i got to see Makan, where Elie is shooting his film. It's a cultural center for traditional Egyptian music and it's a pretty cool place.

The next day we were planning to go to the Museum of Islamic Art but alas it was closed for renovations. But no matter. We went off to the Citadel. The first thing we saw there was the mosque of Mohammed Ali. (No, not the boxer!!) Again, another gorgeous mosque. Some woman put a cape over me because I guess I wasn't being modest enough. I love the shoe removal thing. I think every time I enter any building I would like to take my shoes off, but I don't think people would understand. There was another great view from the balcony outside the mosque; you could see the pyramids in the distance. Then we saw the Military Museum which aside from Prague's National Museum (funny in a different way) was the most hilarious museum I've ever seen in my life, mostly due to the English "translations" of things. We paid a stop at the most famous bazaar in the city and at one point in a rather surreal manner as we were walking through, buying chickpeas, suddenly we were the only foreigners for the rest of our market stroll. It was incredibly bizarre. The tourists literally disappeared; it was like some invisible wall had been crossed.

We met up with Elie's friend Aisha for some more sheesha and a delicious fruit shake. Fruit in Egypt is scrumptious, particularly the melons. Every street has a juice stand where they will make any fruit into juice. I tried sugarcane juice and really enjoyed it. Later on the other friend, Grace, joined us and we all went out to a fancy and scrumptious Indian meal. Luckily being Egypt, it wasn't very expensive and it was my first Indian meal this entire semester. YUM. After hanging out with Elie's friend Mahmoud, who was quite the character, we finally went to sleep.
We woke up earlyish the next morning because it was pyramid day. Getting there was quite the adventure. We took a taxi to the metro--taxis worldwide are always a crazy experience--then took the metro to Giza and walked to the pyramids at Giza. This year has definitely been a year of seeing all this architecture I have learned about my whole life and it's always very different to see something in person. It was a bit trippy to see the pyramids by that reasoning. We even went inside of one, Khufu's pyramid (I apologize to Elie because I know Khufu is some Anglicized pronunciation). Inside the pyramid it was cramped and humid. It was my favorite pyramid at Giza because of its white cap. The Sphinx was striking to see in person too. So many tourists though! It's funny, because though I am a tourist, I guess I never actually feel like one. The only time I really felt like a tourist was in Petra. Hmmm, something to contemplate.

Then we had another crazy adventure getting to Saqqara. First we walked the long path to where the microbuses go. (Yes, microbuses. No, not minibuses. MICRO. Yes.) Then we boarded a microbus. Ah, the madness of Egyptian driving. Ah, the Middle East. Allah u akbar. I love it. Eventually we got somewhere that pointed to Saqqara. The drive was beautiful, filled with agricultural landscapes and plenty of donkeys. (Seeing donkeys, camels and horses walk in the streets is now incredibly non-exotic in my eyes.) We ended up walking two miles or so to the Saqqara site and finally made it to the step pyramid. Gorgeous! I actually liked it better than Giza. We went inside 2 tombs, one with old style hieroglyphics and pictures which was very cool to see. The other was the Titi Pyramid. Unfortunately, I am still too immature not to laugh about its name, but it was also fun to see. The sand was like sand on the beach. I like pyramids. Elie and I talked about how concerned the ancient Egyptians were with the afterlife and compared it to modern religions today. Jews-not concerned, Christians-concerned, Muslims-concerned, Eastern religious a different story altogether. There were a lot of good conversations about religion, definitely a topic thrust into my face all year.

After some bargaining and further escapades we made it back to Elie's apartment and rested a bit, had some more cafe time with Aisha and went to do the koshari thing. Koshari is Egypt's unofficial national dish, sort of like falafel in Israel. Koshari is lentils, chickpeas, pasta, fried onions and tomato sauce mixed together and you can put chilli oil and lemon juice on it too. Filling and cheap. We ended the weekend with felucca, which is ingenious. A felucca is a small catamaran you rent with some other people and go out on the Nile. It's about 40 pounds overall for an hour, which is basically renting a boat for 7 dollars total. It's very chill and relaxing and seeing Cairo at night was great. Our boat driver blasted the usual Arabic pop music and we shared our drinks and snacks with him and just had a nice time. Though Cairo is loud and polluted and insane, I really liked it a lot and it was great to spend quality time with a good friend and be in another country. I was sad to leave, but that's always a nice indicator of time well spent. Salaam and good night.

greece is the word and matzah is everywhere

More details on Greece, then. Basically when in Athens I really did get to see (and know) the city. The central part of it is small enough to be highly navigable. I have gone from the girl who got lost all the time and couldn't read the map to showing up in a brand new city and taking buses and walking everywhere and it all just working out all right. Athens, though maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing city, does have a lot of character to it. Athenians like to go out drinking and partying at night in the Psyrri district and the men spend hours in front of the kafeneios (coffee houses), talking and smoking and drinking coffee. There are lots of museums and we can't forget the Acropolis and the Agora and lots of Roman ruins in between. The Plaka district was pretty touristy but still quaint and adorable. I did really enjoy the taverna thing; eating platters of mezzedes washed down by the house wines that come in large wooden barrels. Everyone I interacted with was very friendly, something I've definitely learned to appreciate as a traveler. It was really nice spending time with Rory, too.
The day trips I had were mostly great. Sounio was particularly stunning, even the bus ride there. The Temple of Poseidon is atop a hill covered in green grass and wildflowers overlooking the ocean...actually, the hill is really more of a cliff. The views are spectacular, and Lord Byron even graffitied his name right onto the Temple. Way to go, Lord Byron. I always knew those Romantic poets were all good-for-nothings.
Nafplio was a long bus ride, nearly three hours, and it passed by ancient Corinth, Mycenae and Argos. I didn't make it to the temple of Epidavros unfortunately, but oh well, guess I'll just have to go back to Greece. Nafplio is sort of a tourist sea-town, but the tourists it attracts are mostly just Greeks and a few Scandinavians and Japanese (everywhere I have traveled this year there have been Japanese tourists, literally everywhere!). First thing I did was climb the Parampali fortress which was built a few hundred years ago, I think during the Ottoman era. One thing I learned about Greece is it isn't just the "ancient" stuff, there's the Byzantine and Ottoman stuff too that's also everywhere. Really great views and I literally met the only other American tourists during my entire trip-it was a family from Spokane taking a ten week vacation. (I know, ten weeks?) Greek teens obviously never go to school because they were everywhere I went and it was definitely not vacation time for them. Ha. I saw some crazy costumes at the Peloponnesian folk art museum and tried to go to the archaeology museum but it was closed. I walked around the wharf and visited the worry bead museum and tried to find an elusive gelato place Rory told me about.
Aegina was sort of a dud- I took the ferry from Piraeus, not a very attractive city, and unfortunately the weather wasn't that great and I didn't make it to the temple on the other side of the island but at least what I did see was nice; ruins of an old synagogue and some Ancient Stuff and took a nice walk and ate dolmades. Aegina is famous for pistachios. Hmmm.
All in all a rather wonderful trip. Passover was nice, I had two seders even though I'm in Israel, both drastically different from one another- got through the Haggadah in 10 minutes on the first night and then in 2 1/2 hours on the second, so there you have it between Israelis and Americans! On Monday Elie and Arielle and I journeyed to Abu Ghosh, which was lots of fun and yesterday I saw Scarlett Johansson's latest film. Pretty awful but I still love Scarlett. Friday and/or Thursday I will hopefully be at Rainbow Gathering!

greece is the word (first part)

so after another visit from the hospital I am ready to write about Greece! (don't worry, it's all good now. Oh, and happy Passover and soon-to-be-Greek Easter.)

Here is the rough itinerary of stuff I did. I'll put it here and break it down.
Day 1: arrived in Athens, met Rory's friends, ate true gyros for the first (but definitely not the last) time in Greece though mine was sans meat
Day 2: Monastiraki, Psyrri, introduction to the magic of Greek bakeries
Day 3: Saw the Parthenon and the Plaka district, big taverna dinner as a going-away pary for one of the CYA kids
Day 4: Visited the Agora and a Byzantine church with one of Rory's classes
Day 5: Explored the Temple of Poseidon at coastal Sounio
Day 6: Rode the bus to the idyllic seaside Peloponnesian town of Nafplio
Day 7: Took the ferry boat from Piraeus to the island of Aegina and ate at the cutest taverna ever


Here were some highlights among many (I'll write more about stuff in the next post):
-the yayas aka Greek grandmothers
-the ridiculously blue and beautiful ocean
-Greek food: saganaki, tzatziki, eggplant salad, dolmades, fluffy pita, baklava, souvlaki, need I say more? Oh and bakeries and pastry shops and street vendors...
-old Greek men fiddling with their komboloi (worry beads)- I even went to a worry bead museum in Nafplio
-the views from Sounio and Nafplio
-walking peacefully along the coastline of Aegina
-actually getting to see the Parthenon in all its glory after endless discussion of it in AP art history back in my high school days
-Greek clothes ( a welcome relief after the eurotrash styles of Israel)
-taverna dining (and the wine)
-the Athens metro...so clean, so pretty, so efficient
-I'm not sure if this was a highlight, but constantly getting lost in the sketchy Botanical Gardens and "zoo"
-Greek Orthodox churches
-um and ICONS...I am such a sucker for Orthodox iconography
-the blooming wildflowers
-seeing people get ready for Easter
-Greek coffee (if you call it Turkish coffee they might shoot you...also, it's Greek delight, not Turkish delight)

more to come!

springtime my friends

I'm in Tel Aviv right now in my cousin Gershon's apartment as I write; tonight is Tom's 21st birthday party.
Backtracking in time a little:
Back to the acupuncturist. I really like it.
Wednesday: after environmental science class we went on a field trip to a climate change conference at the Notre Dame Hotel (a hotel owned by the Vatican!). The conference was being sponsored by an Israeli-Palestinian organization that works towards peace, cooperation and resolving environmental issues within the country, and an Israeli and a Palestinian speaker each spoke about the affects of climate change in the world but specifically the Middle East-- where of course the effects are particularly harsh; desertification, food shortages, water crises, you get the idea. Actually, I'm writing an article on the environment for the j., so more on that later, I think. I'm not sure when the actual article will be published but I'll let you know.
Yesterday after Hebrew class, Riki and Alyssa (two of my friends from the program) and I went on what turned into a Christian-pilgrimage-adventure in the Old City. We walked through the Muslim and Christian quarters, stopping at Al-Jafar's for some khabbiyeh, down Via Dolorosa where we saw some of the stations of the Cross and walked to the roof of the Austrian Hospice where you can basically get the most amazing view of the Old City. The Dome of the Rock was so close that it looked small. Then we walked out the Lion's Gate to hike up the Mount of Olives. Passing by the massive Jewish cemetary we headed first to the Church of All Nations where there was a Coptic service taking place. To be honest, the church is really cool-looking from the outside, but the inside was kind of strange. We passed through the garden of Gethsemane where there were groups of pilgrims from all over the world. Alyssa is Catholic so she gave us short rundowns of the meanings of all these places.
We tried to walk up to the Russian Orthodox church but it was closed-- some other time, I guess. Our final stop was at the church shaped like a tear drop, which was very peaceful and had another amazing view. I saw so many monks, so basically I am set for life (I give myself twenty points every time I see a monk and I get ten bonus points for Armenian priests). From there we walked all the way back to Hebrew U, passing through residential east Jerusalem.
After a nice lunch at Giraffe with Gershon I think I'm ready for a nap or something like that. This weekend, alas, will be spent mostly working on/studying for midterms. My very first college midterms. Ah, Sarah Lawrence and the lack of midterms...kind of spoils you...now I've kind of forgotten how to study for tests.
Next time I update this I'll be in Greece!

stuff you can do while here

first thing you can do: go to the hospital
step one: wake up at 2 in the morning and not be able to move your face. panic a little bit. step two: then have your housemate very kindly go to the hospital with you. step three: get pumped full of antihistamines and steroids and then go home the next day.
second thing you can do: have awesome dance hour with autistic kids
step one: put on music for half an hour. step two: rock out.
third thing you can do: spend time with lovely friends of your grandparents
step one: go over to the ein kerem neighborhood near the israel museum. step two: eat fresh artichokes and other delicious delectables. step three: have an enlightening conversation. appreciate them.
fourth thing you can do: tmol shilshom
step one: meet up with riki from vancouver and micah from florida. step two: go to tmol shilshom, the israel answer to praha's literarni kavarnas. be surrounded by books. step three: eat shakshooka and bread with tapenades. step four: talk for hours.
fifth thing you can do: go to the mall
step one: hate it. step two: yuck. i hate the mall. step three: eww.

rekafot

Purim:
went to an ulpan party with Aurora on Tuesday and befriended Ruth, dressed extravagantly as a peacock. Lots of costumed small children roaming the streets, haredi children smoking their first cigarette, drunken yeshiva boys and mishloach manot, gifts of wine and snacks. Too many oznay haman/hamantaschen. Hard to find the ones with the poppy seeds--halva, chocolate and dates much more popular. (Why? Poppy seeds are the proper way to do it.) Two-year-old Anat with red hair dressed as a queen.
Playing with the first graders at the school I work at, singing the morning song, having six-year-old Renana (high functioning Asperger's) tell me that in a few year's time she would become a cat. Really speaking Hebrew. A lot of it.
Went to Haifa to stay with the Nirs. Visited a kibbutz where the wildflowers grow. My favorite flower in Haifa: the one native to the Carmel, it's lavender and blooms on trees. Homemade wine and labbaneh. Driving through Daliyat, the Druze village; the roadside stands with olive oil and Druze pita for sale. Rummy and bridge. Turkish coffee. (The caffeine addiction cannot be cured, especially not here.) People who used to live in Palo Alto, where the Israeli exodus descends.
Soon: Greece with its temples and the poet who makes leather sandals in the agora, and Egypt, with pillaged pyramids, mezze and merrymaking.

seeing and being et cetera

Went to Netanya yesterday with Leah, David, Carol and Alan; (that makes four Americans plus one Argentinian) to an illegally built golf course on a kibbutz. There are only two golf courses in the entire country and this is one of them...an illegal one that is probably going to get shut down in September. Leah was writing an article about this golf course for the Jerusalem Post. The owners of the course gave us a free game of golf- I just caddied about because I don't know the first thing about golf. (I'm pretty good at mini-golf though.) It is such a Posh sport with a capital P that I don't think I could ever become any sort of player.
Then it was on to Tel Aviv University to see a...professional handball game, which David needed to write an article about. Yes, I am serious: professional handball. What a bizarre sport. It's like if bowling, football, soccer and dodgeball mated together and had a child. A very strange child.
It was off to the tayelet to join up with a bunch of Tel Aviv hippies on the beach having a drum circle, where we rocked out and watched fire jugglers and people living it up with djembes. I definitely got my hippie groove on. The night was ended with shakshooka and gelato and the sketchiness of sherut (shared taxis) and the nightmarish concrete acid trip that is the Tel Aviv central bus station.
Internship has definitely been improving my Hebrew but is challenging and draining. We studied the effects of religion on environmentalism this week as well as the effects of Zionism on the environment. Hooray for learning about fascinating concepts. On Monday, our architecture class is taking its first field trip: Hezekiah's Tunnel. I am pretty psyched to wade through cold water in a dimly lit underground tunnel. Sweet. And guess what is this week? Purim. You gotta love Jewish holidays. Purim? "Let's dress up as crazy characters, drink lots of wine, make noise, eat triangle-shaped cookies and read from a scroll!" The question is, what will I dress up as for Purim? It's still unclear.
Today I had Indian food and appreciated the sunshine.
An alphabet of Israel:
A is for Attempting to speak Hebrew in an American Accent
B is for Bargaining with street vendors and taxi drivers
C is for Churches that are really awesome
D is for the Dollar of America which does badly in Israel these days much to my Detriment
E is for Egged, the bus company
F is for Fresh fruits and vegetables
G is for Galgalatz, the terrible radio station that absolutely everyone listens to
H is for Hasidic Jews that are everywhere and also H is definitely for Hummus
I is for Ibexes, the little goat-type animals that frolic in the desert
J is for Jerusalem stone that blinds you
K is for Karaites because I didn't know what to write for K and Karaites are Kool
L is for Laid-back
M is for the Muezzins in the Mosques that call you to prayer 5 times a day
N is for Nargila in a hookah
O is for Olive trees that make Olive Oil
P is for Pita which is best when fresh and Piping hot
Q is for Questions of which I often have many
R is for Riding on camels which people do here especially the Bedouins
S is for Shabbat where in Jerusalem everything Shuts down and you can walk in the Street without fear of getting run over by a car which is usually the way life is
T is for Tramping which means hitchhiking
U is for Umm Kulthum
V is for Very awful Israeli pop music
W is for Water, always a controversial issue in the Middle East
X is for X marks the spot where maybe some ancient Israeli pirates potentially buried their treasure...
Y is for Yeshiva boys who are so cute with their glasses
Z is for Zed which is the way French and Canadian and British people and basically everyone but Americans say the letter "Z" and there are a lot of French and Canadian and British people here

city streets and kibbutz quiet

I really want to start this off by saying something obvious: I HATE THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT. It is really one of the most tragic and stupid things going on in this world right now. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. Stop the hatred and the anger and the racism and the...I don't even know. It's just such a mess. It sure puts people on edge here, I can tell you that. Okay. But enough.

I spent the weekend in Tel Aviv with my family there. It involved lots of delicious food, of course (one of my cousin's wives is Brazilian and she made flan!), good company, spending the day on the kibbutz Sde Yoav and seeing the wonderful cows, going out on the town with my cousin Tom and his friends, walking on the tayelet (the promenade) by the beach at night, nargila in old Yafo (that's Jaffa),a swanky Asian restaurant that you can't get over here in Jerusalem, and mostly a lot of pleasant weather and relaxation. Basically it's really key to get away for the weekend and being with family is so nice.

My classes are in full swing now. I put in eight hours a week working with autistic 5th-grade boys in a school near Hebrew University. They have their own class but the school itself is integrated. The boys are all very challenging and intense but lovable. Hebrew is getting easier and easier, and I really like architecture of Jerusalem and environmental science of the Middle East. Next week we're starting our Jerusalem field trips for architecture class. Outside of school I always enjoy my yoga/pilates/dance classes. It's starting to get mad warm here. Today was "hamsin," i.e. hot and a bit humid.

Happy exciting news: for the first week of spring break I'm going to Greece! I'll be staying with my good friend Rory from school. We're going to try and go to a smaller island for the weekend and then I'll spend the week exploring Athens and hopefully beyond too. Crazy crazy!

vagabonding amongst donkeys and old russian women

Last weekend, I could've sat around watching movies on the computer, or bummed around in cafes drinking cup after cup of coffee, but really I didn't want any of that. So naturally, the only alternative was to go to Jordan. (Obviously.)

Aurora and I planned it all ahead during the week and on Friday we were set and raring to go. We took the bus down to Eilat--a very scenic route that passes by the Dead and Red Seas, respectively. We got there in the late afternoon and the sun was pleasantly shining, so we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and went to the beach for some swimming time. Not only did we swim, we did some calisthenics with some old Russian women, who might just be my favorite kind of people in the world, because they are prepared for everything. They bring around all sorts of items and devices in their giant foldable bags and wear big golden necklaces and have oddly dyed hair and speak loudly in Russian with voices as thick as the sour cream in the borscht they often eat. Anyways, I am getting a little sidetracked. After eating pizza and getting carded at several different seaside cafes, we retired pleasantly at an early hour to prepare for our epic Tomorrow.

We arose in the wee hours of the morn and were picked up by a jeep in the parking lot, along with two other girls who happened to be from Hebrew University and a German guy. We were driven to the border crossing to meet up with the rest of the tour group, which included a bunch of Norwegian Presbyterians, Italians, French, Israelis and Canadians, and we met our guide, Ali, who was probably actually Borat because he looked and sounded just like him. After the shenanigans of the Jordanian border crossing we drove through Aqaba to Petra and saw the most amazing desert landscape I've ever seen and probably will ever see. I felt like I was on Mars because it was that surreal and beautiful. Jordan is definitely a pretty poor country though, which could get a little depressing at times.

Finally around noon we arrived to Petra. The first part involved walking down to the siq where Ali talked about the ancient Nabateans who built the city and the Romans and the funerary places as well as the aqueducts. The rocks are golden and spectacular but they keep getting more spectacular as you walk towards the siq, when they start turning red. Suddenly you turn a sharp corner and arrive at the treasury, which is rather jaw-dropping because it is built right into the red stone. You could see current excavations going on all around us, and we only saw a fraction of the city of Petra, all things considered. We ate a nice Jordanian lunch and walked back (some people rode donkeys or camels) to the entrance at our own pace. We all really lucked out with the weather, which was perfect, and it wasn't tourist season, so nothing was all that overcrowded. The only negative part is all the little Bedouin kids who try to hawk you cheap goods, which is also pretty sad.

We got back to Eilat in the early evening. Aurora and I went out for some British pub food and checked in early again. It was back to Jerusalem the next day for another scenic ride. My classes have been going pretty well now so far. I love my environmental science and my architecture classes and I'm starting my internship tomorrow working with kids in special education. I also had dinner tonight with one of my former camp counselors which was quite nice.

I miss and love you all. I'm sorry it's been taking me a while to get letters and postcards out but I promise they are coming!

sipurim sheli

As of when I last wrote...

on Saturday, Aurora and I walked around the Old City. We went through every quarter. In the Armenian quarter we saw part of the Armenian monastery which is gorgeous. I'd like to go back. There is an Armenian museum (I think it's about the genocide) and we saw a few monks (score twenty points). Then it was off to the Muslim quarter where we wandered through the souq, which is very intense because of all the raw meat hanging on hooks in narrow, damp quarters. I could smell pickled turnips, fava beans, all kinds of mezze, lemons. Wandering over to the Christian quarter, at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre I ran into one of my Micah campers, there with her parents because her dad is a rabbi and was leading a congregational trip to Israel. Small world, really. The church is beautiful and haunted and full of conflict and shrines and pilgrims and candles. I want to go on a pilgrimage. This country makes me wonder about spirituality; what is it that makes people feel so intensely about an ideology, a dogma? I see so many people who outwardly show their religious practices with the way they dress and the way they sit on the bus fervently muttering prayers under their breath from small worn books. I watch them buy cheap modest clothes from streetside stalls and discount loaves of bread and think and think. On Sunday I went a photography exhibition of an alternative magazine, Eretz Acheret. The exhibition was called "Mashiach Lo Ba" which means "The Messiah Isn't Coming." It's a parody on all the Lubavitch Hasidic posters that say "Baruch Haba Melech HaMashiach," meaning "Welcome, the King Messiah." I started classes this week. Well...sort of. I may not even be in 2 of my classes because the school is so disorganized. All I've had so far is Hebrew. Tonight I had a really nice dinner with our family friends, the Brautbars. We went to a great classic Middle eastern restaurant with oven-fired pita and lots of babaganoush and baklava to go around. People here sure know how to eat. I love the freshness of the produce. Well, hopefully tomorrow I'll have my environmental science class and get my internship interview. More to come, probably post-Petra...

kefi kefi

Shalom, and also salaam, after returning from the picturesque Arab village of Abu Ghosh 20 minutes outside of Jerusalem. Our friends Shavit, Gozlan and Haim picked up Aurora and I and we drove to a hummus joint called Abu Daoud where we reclined on cushions like kings of old and feasted on tea, coffee, pita, hummus, khabiyyah, and a hookah full of apple nargilah. We also checked out this cool baklava and halvah bakery. Last night, Aurora, Ilai and I baked an amazing pie. We're not sure how or when, but it was baked, and it was good, (in the words of Aurora: "Vayehi pie, tov me'od"), and we watched Across the Universe which we loved. Tomorrow we are going to do a walk in the Old City, probably the Armenian Quarter. I hope we see lots of monks.

Thursday was my last day of ulpan and we had a small party and a high school marching band came and played. My classes start on Monday. And, exciting news, next week I am going to Jordan-- to see the city of Petra for the day! (and also spend a bit of time down in Eilat. ) Adventures will be had, I'm sure.

sheleg sheleg al ha col

Ulpan ends on Thursday, classes start next Monday, hooray! We were supposed to go on an archaeological tour today with class but for some reason it didn't work out which was quite the bummer. Oh well. i got myself a pair of Naot today- I've been wearing them for the past several years of my life and they are so comfy. They're kind of like Israeli Birkenstocks and last for quite a while and are of course cheaper here then back in the USA. I got them on an adventure to the mall with my friend Leah from ulpan and it started snowing/raining/ish on our way back. Tomorrow, therefore, will be a snow day. Nothing as extreme as in Canada where I learned that sometimes the army is called in to shovel snow (thanks Seth) but the whole city kind of shuts down because Jerusalem doesn't know with itself in any kind of "extreme" weather (even if "extreme" involves like an inch of snow).

Events of last week...hmm. I went to Aryeh's army- unit-end-of-a-certain-time-period-that-i-don't-know-the-name-of party in Rishon Letzion which was a bit disastrous because apparently Israeli men cannot hold their liquor very well. Let's just say "gross" and leave it at that. But at least Aurora and I got really good gelato. That tends to make things better. Then on Saturday I got to spend quality time with my Israeli cousins at Modi'in. It was my cousin Noey's birthday party so the whole extended fam was there and we ate lots of delicious barbecue and other delights and I chatted with my awesome cousin Gershon and his sons Avidan, Omri and Uri. Gershon lives on a kibbutz so I plan on visiting him there sometime and my cousins from Tel Aviv also nicely invited me to spend a weekend sometime with them. Also I got to play the keyboard with some of our friends which was a good time.

pictured below: my new naot

i decided to teach myself the polish language

Bardzo mi miło! I'm quite serious about the Polish (I hope). There is a Polish girl who is teaching me a little.

some notable events of past days--

food related, I ate at Hummus Abu Rizek, an amazing and cheap Arab-run pita-and-hummus joint in downtown. nice spicy homemade hummus and fluffy pita. YUM. i have also become addicted to kumquats. they're really bizarre but somehow delicious. also: date spread. mm mm.

riding the bus to school can be kind of a drag, but the views from the bus are pretty impressive. i pass through most major streets of downtown, all these intriguing-looking cathedrals, the Old City with all the gates and I can see Al-Aqsa from the bus, the British military cemetary and my personal favorite, Naomi Street. I really need to go take a walk down my street one of these days. The architecture in general is most awesome. i do hope i get into this architecture class which goes on lots of field trips including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which I have always wanted to see.

Other places to check out that I have viewed from my bus and from Hebrew U: the Russian Orthodox church, opulent as they always come, the Mormon university, the Italian Jewish museum and the Great Synagogue. plus i need to get over to the old city to do some slick bargaining for Armenian pottery. i was going to go to the shuk (the big crazy marketplace) today but we did a rain check because well, it was raining. hopefully i'll go tomorrow to get the best halvah in town. also, this Ethiopian Jewish woman gave us a talk today about the Ethiopian trek to Israel. basically the Ethiopians are the coolest. i aspire one day to be as cool as they are.

this saturday I am going to Modi'in to visit the Israeli extended fam for a birthday party. (Historical interlude! Modi'in is Hanukkah Town, basically. that's where the Maccabees rocked out. Wouldn't it be crazy if it was Hanukkah there all year long? you would eat latkes and sufganiot every day! everyone would be fat and happy and gamble with dreidels all the time and have melted wax all over the windowsills year round, and presents every day...alas no. it is apparently extreme suburbia now. But still.)

i'm not going to lie, i am getting kind of homesick, having been away for the majority of this year. Israel is such a politically-and-otherwise charged place which makes it ridden with emotional rollercoasters. but i am mostly very glad to be here. and i really appreciate getting mail from all you superstar letter writers out there. take care of yourselves.

Also, I've got some photos, you can see them here:
http://slc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015773&l=004aa&id=28601169

mishenichnas adar marbim b'simcha...hopefully

So I went to Caesarea today and saw the Roman ruins. Man, the days when they had gladiator fights and chariot races--that's what it's all about. The Mediterranean is pretty great too. I do miss the ocean living in J-Ru (Aurora and I have, Bay Area style, taken to calling Jerusalem that). The rest was pretty touristy and we had to eat overpriced food, but such is life.

Ulpan is still long and boring--five hours of Hebrew every day can really eat you up. To be fair, though, I am learning stuff, and the teachers are nice and I like some of the people in my ulpan. I joined a gym, but not to use the gym stuff, more so I can take lots of yoga and dance and use the sauna. Last weekend we celebrated Aryeh's 21st birthday with a board game about his life.

The weather has been sunny and pretty nice as of late, so I hope that keeps up. It sure beats the bitter cold. I've been enjoying some rather Israeli delights such as halva spread, 3% milk, yummy pomegranates and dates, and marzipan shaped like challah (I know, amazing, right?). The classes I'm hoping I get are a class on environmental policy in the Middle East, a class on the architecture of Jerusalem, and an internship class where you meet twice a week to learn about the sociology of the workplace and then do 8 hours per week of the internship. I either want to work at the center for autistic kids or do this sociology project interviewing Palestinian teens in J-Ru. In the words of dear old Theodor Herzl, im tirtzu, ein zo agadah. If you will it, it is no dream. Ah yes.

Some places I'd like to visit in the upcoming weeks: Tzfat, Abu Ghosh, Beit Jaan, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Akko, Ein Gedi. If you have any must-dos let me know.

Shavua Echat

Hello friends and family. I've now been in Israel for almost a week now and let me just say that it is currently SNOWING here (so classes are canceled for the day); unfortunately, it's also raining, so that's no good. In any case we are having a fun snow day though. I woke up really late and Abi and Aurora and I made hot chocolate and waffles with our nifty waffle maker and maybe I'll even do some...gasp...homework. Who knows? School might be canceled again tomorrow too.

So far ulpan (immersive Hebrew) has been pretty good. I'm in advanced Level Bet so I think it's a pretty good level for me, it's intermediate-ish and a lot of it is grammar which I am terrible at to begin with so it's good for me to actually learn it. I understand everything the teacher says though. We had an extremely intense experience yesterday when a large blond Israeli woman came in with a piano to have a Hebrew singalong with some of the classes. She was very dramatic and played lots of the songs lounge-style. Oh, Israel. I'm getting pretty good at taking the bus (except, well, I'm only taking one bus, so it's not that complicated yet). Sometimes I get confused with money because I think that shekels are agurot and vice versa and it's also obnoxious that the American dollar keeps dropping as it has been doing all year. Sigh. I've also been meeting some nice people from ulpan. It's mostly Americans with a bunch of Canadians, a handful of Russians and South Americans, and a couple Japanese students for good measure. I might be starting yoga and/or dance classes sometime this week which should be fun. Also there is an ulpan trip to Caesarea next week- that sounds fun too. Stay warm, all of you. I miss you.

Brucha Haba'a

Shalom y'all, I'm now in a land flowing with milk and honey (I have a small river of cream in my room just now...ha....not really...but I do have AURORA sitting next to me!) The plane ride itself was long but without event except that I sat next to my dear friend Sarah G's cousin and her boyfriend and I beat the airplane computer at backgammon on the "hard" level. Finally we arrived in Tel Aviv, where luckily my luggage had arrived. Cracked out and jet lagged, we were somehow transported to the Hebrew University student dorms, where I don't live, which I finally was able to communicate and explain to the madrichim in charge, so eventually I stumbled down a hill with my luggage and asked these guys if they were in fact the shuttle drivers to the Rothberg school where I had to register. They shrugged and smoked their cigarettes and told me "Lo meveen" (I dunno) so I stood around awkwardly for a while until a guy came down and told them to drive me to Rothberg, which they eventually did. I did all the registration and spent way too much time at the school until 4 o'clock when Abi picked me up. (I haven't seen Abi since 2001 but I recognized her by her unforgettable hair).

Our apartment (myself, Abi and Aurora) is in the Bak'a neighborhood of Jerusalem, right by Emek Refaim. The place is gorgeous. We each have our own room and there is a living room, kitchen and bathroom. It's very cozy and intimate but yet spacious and "slightly luminous" (Aurora's term). Today Aurora showed me around the neighborhood and we did some shopping for Shabbat and an upcoming Tu Bishvat celebration with pizza and empanadas. The weather was quite nice, a little cold but very sunny, and the neighborhood is scenic and charming with a diverse population (I sound like I'm writing a travel brochure). There is an orientation sort of thing on Sunday but otherwise my classes don't start till Monday. Then I have ulpan (Hebrew immersion) for a month and then academic classes start in March. On Sunday Aurora and I were thinking of going to the Israel Museum since neither of us have been, where we will immerse ourselves in decadent culture and stare at the Dead Sea scrolls for a long period of time. At this moment, I'm sipping tea and unpacking, and of course, writing this entry.

I hope you are well. I should have a phone by Monday at the latest. I'd love to hear from you all; write me a letter (ask me for my address or ask my parents or facebook) or email or whatever because I really like letters. A lot.