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.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
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
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
Sunday, March 9, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, March 3, 2008
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!
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!
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