Finally Starting to Realize I'm in a Country with Conflict

Hey everyone!

So I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I've updated my blog...with classes and work finally under way, it's been difficult finding time to sit down and update.  So let's recap the last two weeks...I'll try to remember as much detail as possible! (so I apologize for the fact that this entry is going to be REALLY long!)

Wednesday two weeks ago was a LOOOONG day of classes.  I was still trying to figure out exactly what classes I was taking, so I had to go to 4 classes, even though I ended up dropping one of them.  I went to Hebrew in the morning, then Israeli Legal System, which I have now added as a class.  After a two hour break, I had Israeli Foreign Policy (which I have no dropped in order to solve the conflict between that class and Arab-Israeli Conflict and picked up Israeli Legal System instead), and then went to a three hour class on Modern Iran, Shiism, and the Iranian Revolution.  It was an unbelievably long day, and I'm just glad my normal Wednesday schedule is a bit better than that, with a four hour break that allows me to go home. 

The one highlight of the day, though, was that I finally booked my Spring Break tickets.  We have a week off plus Passover, so I am going from Friday, April 11th until the following Thursday morning to Athens, Greece!  I'm really really excited, especially because I have always wanted to go to Greece.  I'm going with my friends Amanda and Jordana, and am really looking forward to it.  After Athens, I am flying an unbearably long series of connections to Tuscon, Arizona, to spend Passover with my family, and then come back to Israel the end of April to finish off the semester.

Thursday was a nice relaxing day.  I had decided since I hadn't stayed in Jerusalem since the first weekend we got here that it was time to stay in Jerusalem again for the weekend.  So, after Hebrew class, I spent the day relaxing, and then went out downtown with a couple of my roommates and some other friends.  Thursday, though, was also the day that the conflict in Israel finally hit home.  For those of you who haven't been following the political situation here, Hamas in Gaza had been shooting Kasam rockets into the nearby Israeli city of Sderot for some time now.  It has recently gotten more frequent, but that Thursday they started firing rockets on Ashkelon, where my roommate Roi lives.  First of all, this meant that Hamas now has longer range rockets, but also worried us greatly because Roi was home that night.  We called him to make sure he was ok, which he was, but later we found out that his family had definately been affected by the rockets.  Apparently the windows in his family car had been blown out, and later that week, his brother was 15 meters away from a rocket when it landed.  He also said that when he got home, there were rocket sirens going off, but because he had just arrived he didn't have time to go into the bomb shelter with his family.  Basically, we got really scared, and this sparked a whole range of debates in our apartment for the next week or so.  It was interesting to hear everyone's opinions, especially Guy and Roi's perspectives as Israelis (and even more so because they had just recently served in the army), and to hear Jessica's perspective from an economic view. 

 

Since then, Israel has gone into Gaza, and after being condemned by the US and the UN Security Council, they went out, under the assurance from Hamas that rockets would stop.  While for a while they stopped shooting at Ashkelon, rockets continued to be fired into Sderot, and last night, they started again in Ashkelon.

Anyway, on to happier things.  That Friday, since we weren't going anywhere for the weekend, I finally got to sleep in which was very nice.  After that, Jordana, Amanda, and I went to the Shuk to get produce and wine and dessert for our shabbos dinner.  It was lots of fun as always, and it's amazing how good the produce is for so cheap!  I got a bunch of vegetables to make salad as my portion of the potluck dinner we were having later, and they were really really good and really cheap, which was nice.  Probably the highlight of that trip to the Shuk though was the really cool cab driver we had on the way back to the Student Village.  We were driving and I saw a really cool looking building, and I asked if he knew what it was.  He started going into this whole historical discussion of all the buildings in the area, who used to own them, which ones were Russian Christian Monasteries, etc.  It was really interesting, and we all agreed after that he was way too knowledgeable to be driving a cab.  It was really cool though, and a very enjoyable ride.

Dinner on Friday was a lot of fun!  Both Guy and Roi were also staying for the weekend, which is rare because apparently Israelis go home every weekend.  We had a potluck dinner in our apartment, with me, Amanda, Jordana, Guy, Roi, and a bunch of Guy and Roi's friends.  It was a LOT of fun, and it was cool that we got to sit around and listen to everyone speaking Hebrew.  Often when a few Israelis are over they will speak English for our benefit, but when there were a dozen Israelis and three Americans, they obviously were going to speak mostly in Hebrew.  After dinner, a few of the guys took out guitars and had a little jam session, which was also really fun.

Saturday was a nice relaxing day.  Amanda and I had considering walking pretty far to go see some sights on the other side of Jerusalem, but in the end decided that it was better that we relax.  It was supposedly beautiful outside, as it had been for the day or two before, so we were planning on going to lay out and read outside in the Student Village.  Well, by the time we went out, it was pretty cold and windy, so we ended up just reading and hanging out inside until the evening.  After Shabbos was over, we went out to dinner at Luigis (again, the amazing Italian restaurant downtown) and then went out for a little while before heading home.

Sunday was my first day spent in the library, which was not so fun.  Classes here have readers instead of books, which are basically coursepacks composed of photocopied articles.  Well, for some reason, one of my readers didn't actually include the reading for the first week of class in it, so we had to go to the library to take the books out there.  After the library (during which I greatly missed my GW library group) I had class in the evening, and then I quiet night at home. 

Sunday was also when I finally had my class schedule totally figured out, so I guess it's time I discuss my classes a little bit.  I have Hebrew for 6 hours a week, for an hour and a half in the mornings Monday-Thursday.  We have two different teachers, and while they are in some ways better than my Ulpan teachers, they have their faults too.  We had our first quiz earlier this week, and as my roommate who had my teacher during Ulpan had warned me, the quiz didn't really test what she claimed it was going to test.  We had been given a list of verbs in a certain form to learn their meaning and everything, and then she threw in a LOT of words that weren't on the list, which was weird since she had told us to learn that list.  It is nice to only have an hour and a half day of Hebrew class though, rather than the five hours we had during Ulpan.

My first honors class is the Arab-Israeli Conflict, which is called "The Middle East: Rapprochement and Coexistence."  It's a really interesting class, taught by Dr. Meron Medzini, who apparently has been teaching here since when my friend Amanda's mom was abroad at Hebrew U.  Every so often in class he'll throw in random statements explaining what it was like when he was there for EVERYTHING, except that he won't directly come out and say why.  For example, yesterday in class he was talking about the 1977 election, and how he was in line for the polls behind his neighbor, current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who his daughter used to babysit for.  Another day he was talking about a hostage situation by the PLO in which over two dozen students were killed, and then will randomly say "I've never seen so much blood in my life."  Amanda and I look at each other and just wonder "HOW WAS HE THERE TOO??"  It's crazy!  So last night I finally found a bio of him, in which we found out that after working for a few years in the Israeli Embassy in DC, he served as the Head of the Government Press Office under Israeli Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol Golda Meir, and Yitzhak Rabin.  That helped explain a lot how he was everywhere - obviously Head of the Government Press Office would have to be everywhere.  Anyway, the class is really interesting, and I'm enjoying it.

My other honors class is on Modern Iran.  It's three hours on Wednesday nights, which makes it kind of difficult to concentrate.  Luckily though, Amanda and my roommate Jessica are both in the class, so between the three of us, I'm pretty sure there is someone paying attention at all points, so we should be ok later on.  What I can pay attention to is interesting, and I'm looking forward to getting to more current times like the Iranian Revolution (right now we are in the 1500s which can be a little dull at times).

The Honors program also requires us to go to a 1 credit honors critical reading group.  It's still kind of unclear what it's actually going to be, but it's definately not my favorite time of the week.

My last class is Israeli Legal System, which is interesting in theory and the readings are interesting, but the class moves at a pretty slow pace.  He tends to repeat himself a lot and go off track, but we do go over current events a decent amount which is kind of cool.

Anyway, Monday was the start of week two of classes.  It's also my earliest day besides Thursday, so I'm done at 2:30 which was nice.  After class I came home and rested until it was time to go back to campus to meet with my Chevruta at Hillel.  We had decided to try to actually go there this week since we had been meeting at my apartment mostly.  But when I was about to leave, my roommate Jessica had come back, and she was going to go straight from class to Hillel, but decided to come home instead because there had been a big protest outside the gate to campus earlier that day and there were still a lot of police cars.  Apparently the Israeli students had taken position on one side of the street while the Palestinians were on the other side.  Both Courtney and Jessica said it was really scary, where Guy came in to the apartment jokingly shouting things like "war!" which definately freaked us Americans out.  I'm pretty sure the protest was because that was the day that the Israeli army withdrew from Gaza after retaliating for a few days from the attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon.  Anyway, it was pretty scary to think about, and I'm glad I didn't go (though I did see pictures from my roommates).  So, I ended up meeting with my Chevruta here, which is always fun.

I don't have class until 10:30 on Tuesday, but I woke up early to go into the Jerusalem MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) office.  I interned for them in DC last semester, and I'm able to intern for the office here too which is a great way to make a little extra travel spending money.  So I went into their office to meet the President, and I'm actually really excited about it.  Because their office is downtown and I don't take busses, getting into their office every time I have 4 hours between classes isn't financially logical, so I'm doing most of my work from home and then going in about once a week.  What I'm working on right now is going through this whole list of journal articles related to the Middle East from various publications and summarizing them so that the President can read the summaries and doesn't have to spend hours reading through hundreds of pages of journal articles.  He also took me down to where they do the tv monitoring and translating of the clips, which was really cool to see because that's one of the major things that MEMRI does.  He told me that I'm going to help them with the translations, which I'm really excited about.  Basically, all the translators are Israelis who know English, but because they aren't native speakers they don't really know about the "flow" of the language, so I'm going to be helping to make sure that the translations work well.

After the meeting with MEMRI, I went to class, then went back to the shuk with Courtney and Jessica, and then had another class.  Overall the rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but I was really excited about the internship so it put me in a good mood.

Wednesday was a pretty long day of classes, but we had a fun night because we had a party in our apartment.  Basically between mine, Jessica, and Courtney's friends from the International School and Guy and Roi's Israeli friends, we constantly are having people over, so we figured it was about time we had an actual party.  It was a LOT of fun, and there were a ton of people there, many of whom have been here before but a lot of whom I didn't know too.  It was really cool, and it ended up being more Israelis than Americans (and more guys than girls) because a lot of Guy and Roi's friends came.  It was funny because I guess when we asked them about having the party Guy had misunderstood and thought we only wanted a small gathering of like 10 people, and we had been making fun of him because there are usually close to 10 people here anyway.  But there ended up being a lot more than that, obviously, and Guy and Roi both had a great time.  He's now asking us when we are going to have another party, so it's definitely going to have to happen again.

Thursday after Hebrew class, Jessica, Amanda, and I took a bus to Tiberias for the weekend.  Tiberias is up north, near the Golan Heights, along the Kinneret, or Sea of Gallillea.

After  we arrived, we dropped our stuff off that the Hostel, which had a gorgeous view of the Kinneret, and then rushed over to Pagoda, the best Chinese restaurant ever.  I went there with my dad four years ago, and still remembered it.  Plus, it was in both Jessica and Amanda's guide book, and Amanda's guidebook has kind of become the source for all things good.  Dinner was amazing!  We got rice, pad thai, sesame chicken, and beef with cashews and vegetables, and tea.  Everything was so yummy - just as I had remembered.  Also, it was really late, so we were really hungry, and therefore enjoyed the food that much more.  After dinner, we went for a walk, and then to dessert at a restaurant along Tiberias' Pedestrian walkway.

Jessica, Amanda, and I at Pagoda

Dinner would have been perfect, except that we found out some pretty terrible news at the beginning of dinner.  For those of you not up on world news, there was a shooting at a Yeshiva in Jerusalem called Merkaz HaRav Kook.  A Palestinian from East Jerusalem came in and shot hundreds of bullets into the main study room, killing 8 and injuring others.  The terrorist was later killed by an Israeli soldier who was living in the area, and it was later confirmed that there was no other accomplice on the loose.  We didn't get all the details very clearly at first, as it was still going on, but it was really scary.  We all immediately took out our phones and called our parents to make sure they knew were were okay, and far away from Jerusalem.  It was really scary because it was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel in 2 years, and the first attack in Jerusalem in 4 years.  The first month or so that we were here, it was pretty easy to forget that there is conflict here, but between the rockets in Sderot and Ashkelon, and now this, we've begun to worry a bit, and realize what it's like to be in Israel in times like this.  Hopefully nothing else happens, and peace will come soon.  I later was told that the Yeshiva was very much connected with the settlement movement and religious Zionism that has been fighting to keep Israel as it is supposed to be according to the Biblical borders.  Because of this, there has been a lot of conflict between the people of the Yeshiva and the government, because the Yeshiva is telling the government not to come to the Yeshiva and the funerals of those killed because they feel as though they are fighting the battle to keep Israel together, and the government is willing to give land away.  I definitely understand both sides of the issue, but it still seems sad that there is conflict at a time like this among the Israelis, and they can't just all join together in times of tragedy.   I also later found out that it was the Yeshiva that my cousin Sarah's husband studies at, but luckily he wasn't there.

Anyway, Friday was a brand new day, and it was REALLY hot outside (in the mid-80s!).  On our way to being touristy, we stopped in some shops on the streets downtown, and I got my first pair of Naot sandals! (They are like Israeli Birkenstocks that mold to your feet, and they are really comfortable!)  After shopping around a bit, we went to Maimonidies' tomb, which was really cool, especially because his Yarzheit (Hebrew anniversary of his death) is the same as my Papa's.  There are also a few other graves in the area, like Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai, who snuck out of Jerusalem when it was under siege by hiding in a coffin.  After that, we had lunch along the Pedestrian Walkway, then ice cream along the water.  Then we went to Hamat Tiberias, which is the location of natural hot springs (which weren't as impressive as we had hoped) and the ruins from a 3rd-5th century synagogue.  The synagogue was really cool, especially the mosaic floors.  They were gorgeous, and covered in various Jewish and pagan symbols.  It was interesting that there were pagan symbols, and it was explained that it was because Judaism was not threatened by Paganism at the time, so they felt it was ok to incorporate Pagan symbols into the synagogue artwork.

The view from our hostel of the Kinneret

The view from our hostel on the other side

Maimonidies tomb complex

The tomb of Yochanan Ben Zakai

Maimonidies Tomb

The Kinneret/Sea of Gallilee

The Kinneret/Sea of Gallilee

Amanda, Jessica, and I in front of the Kinneret

Mosaic on the floor of the Synagogue at Hamat Tiberias

Another part of the mosaic on the floor of the Synagogue at Hamat Tiberias

After that, we went back to the hostel to pick up our stuff, and then met up with Amanda's family friend who we were staying with for Shabbat.  The parents of the family had gone to college with her parents before they moved to Israel, and they have 6 kids of varying ages, only 3 of them were home for the weekend.  The father, Yossi, drove us up to the Moshav where they live, about 15 minutes outside of Tiberias.  We drove through the Swiss Forest, which is a forest on a hill that had an absolutely gorgeous view of the Kinneret.  I was really tired, but forced myself to stay awake so I wouldn't miss the view.  After arriving at their Moshav, Moshav Hazoreim, we got ready for shabbos, and then basically all passed out and took naps before shabbos.  We thought the hot sun had just warn us out, but I think the long week of classes and actually having to do homework might have had something to do with it as well since we pretty much slept all Saturday afternoon as well.  After dinner, which was really nice because we haven't had home-cooked food really the whole time we've been here (except for what we've made ourselves which isn't the same as what a family has for shabbos dinner), we all went to sleep and slept very well.

The front yard of the house we stayed at in the Moshav

More of the front yard

Birds of Paradise flowers plant in the front yard

The view from the backyard of their house

More view from the backyard

Saturday as I said we got LOTS of sleep!  We had lunch, and then Jessica, Amanda and I went for a walk around the Moshav which was really nice.  After that we had a loooong reading/nap time.  After shabbos, we had a light dinner, and then took the bus back to Jerusalem, which was much more crowded than the way to Tiberias has been followed, and for some reason the heat was on ridiculously high to the point that the side of the bus actually burned my foot when I touched it.  But we came home, watched the Project Runway finale on YouTube (how Christian won I don't know...) and had a nice relaxing evening at home.

Sunday we were going to go the Old City but decided to be more careful and wait because of the attack on Thursday.  So I basically relaxed until class my class at 4:30, then went to hear the former Chief of Staff of Israel speak at a lecture he was giving for the international students.  It was actually a lot more boring than I had anticipated, and was pretty disappointing.

Monday I had class, and then a two hour break during which I did work for my internship in the library.  It was really exciting, because one of the articles I was summarizing had a lot about an article I had read in one of my classes last semester, so it was cool because I felt as though what I am learning in classes at GW is actually worthwhile, which is always a good feeling.  After another class, I had lunch with Rabbi and Leah Fradkin, the Chabad Rabbi from San Diego who are good family friends.  They were in Israel for a few days, so went to this meat grill restaurant that was really good. They also brought a special present from my Nanny - every year for Purim she makes my family a cake in the shape of Haman (the villian from the Purim story), which is a German Jewish tradition that was passed on from my Great-Grandmother.  For the last few years she's been sending them to me at school, but I figured I wouldn't be able to get one here because shipping is really hard.  Well, she sent it with the Fradkins, which made me really happy and excited for Purim. Later that evening, I actually went to the place on campus for Beit Midrash to meet with my chevruta which was cool.

Yesterday and today were both pretty uneventful.  Basically it was just class with some breaks during which I did work.  Nothing too special, except we went to a lecture during my Iran class that was about Islam but didn't talk much about Iran so our teacher was kind of disappointed. 

Anyway, tomorrow after Hebrew I'm going with Courtney, Jessica, and Amanda to Tzfat for the weekend to stay at this mystical hostel.  They are having a special program that weekend, so that should be a good weekend.

Hopefully it won't take me so long to update again!  Love from Israel, and I promise I am staying safe!

<3 Leah

End of Ulpan, Beginning of Class, and Everything in Between!

     

Shalom LeKulam!

It's definitely been an academic week, with the end of Ulpan/Ulpan final, and the beginning of class.  But never fear, there's been plenty of fun in between.

Wednesday was the last day of class, and they had this weird "end of Ulpan" concert, that was actually a high school band playing Alladin, Fiddler on the Roof, and various other random music.  Basically, it allowed me to leave early, because instead of having the concert in the auditorium down the hall, they had us all crowd in the elevator lobby of the floor.  It pretty much made no sense, and there wasn't a lot of room, so I went back home.  After a pretty decent amount of procrastination I finally studied for my Ulpan final, and luckily despite my extreme lack of desire for studying, I got my best grade of the semester on the final, which is good since it counts for 35% of my grade.

After the final, I went out with my roommate Jessica to Ben Yehuda to celebrate being done with Ulpan.  We went back to Luigi's, the Italian restaurant I had gone to with my friend a couple weeks before.  I was really proud of myself, because it was the first time I went downtown without someone who really knew their way around, and I was able to, pretty quickly, find the restaurant.  Now, anyone who has ever had me drive them or direct them somewhere knows my directions are not the best, but the Saturday night before one of my friends had tried to explain to me the layout of the area, so I was able to find it on my own.  I was proud. 

Anyway, lunch was fabulous and we got a special deal for the "business lunch", so we could get a salad, an entree, and a drink for 45 shekel, which is about $12-$13.  Then Jessica and I went shopping along Ben Yehuda.  We found a really pretty skirt store, and I'm thinking it might need to be a stop made for Passover clothes.  I also bought a really pretty Chamsa necklace made by Adaya, an Israeli jewelry artist that uses beads.  We also bought these really good roasted peanuts. 

After we came back, I packed my bags, and got ready for my weekend away.  We took a cab, then a bus, then a train, and then another cab, and finally made it to our hostel in Akko near the Old City gates.  Akko is a city in the northwest part of Israel, along the coast of the Mediteranean, approximately an hour south of the Israel-Lebanon border and half an hour north of Haifa.

The hostel was, shall we say, sketchy.  We were a group of six in a six person room...without a key.  So, basically we had to carry our valuables with us, which was fine because I obviously didn't bring much that was valuable.  I had brought a towel and shampoo and stuff intending on showering, but since the shower was bathroom (ie the bathroom was a room with a toilet and a nozel above the floor with the ever-famous Israeli squeegy to move the water into the drain in the ground), we passed on the showering until we got home Saturday night (we smelled awesome, let me tell you).  Also staying in the hostel was a very large group of Young Judea Year Course students, whose rooms literally surrounded us (there were 10 of them on the right, a bunch on the left, and more stampeding upstairs) that for some reason had the ability to be loud at ALL hours of the day and night.  Between that, and my friend who snored, squeeked, and made other various wierd noises in his sleep, I didn't sleep much that weekend, but we still got to enjoy much of the city and surrounding area.

After we got there, we went to a really cool local Turkish coffee and hookah bar, and I enjoyed my fabulous Turkish coffee while we waited for the rest of our group to get there (a few people had to stay in Jerusalem later, but some of us didn't want to have to travel so late at night, and had no reason to stay, so we went up earlier).

Me and Aynsley at the Turkish Coffee Bar

We woke up early the next morning to take a train back to Haifa to go on a tour of the Bahai Gardens.  In case Israel being central to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam was not enough, apparently Haifa is the world center of the Bahai faith.  The founder of Bahai is buried in Haifa, and these gorgeous gardens cascade down the Carmel mountains to the Bahai Temple.  I'd seen it from far away before during a lunch stop over in Haifa when I came with my dad, but never up close, and I'm really glad I got a chance to see it, even though we weren't staying in Haifa.

The Bahai Gardens

View of Haifa from the top of the Bahai Gardens

Bahai Gardens

Bahai Gardens and Bahai Temple

Amanda and I at the Bahai Temple

 

After the tour of the gardens, we had lunch at a restaurant in Haifa's German colony.  We also went into a couple of shops, and I bought a really pretty Israeli dreidel with pomegranates that I'm very excited about.

Me and my fruit shake at lunch in Haifa

We caught the last train before shabbos back to Akko, and then went to the shuk to buy some last minute things for shabbos dinner.  After a much-needed nap, we had a nice shabbos dinner in the hostel, and then hung out before going to bed.

The next day we spent exploring the Old City of Akko.  We saw the Crusader ruins and the Knights' tunnels and halls, an art museum with works from a local artist, tunnels used by the Templars, the lighthouse and port of Akko, and the Al Jazaar Mosque (the third holiest mosque in Israel).  After a LOT of walking around and touring the city, we waited on the beach until shabbos ended, had some dinner of pita and various Middle Eastern pita-dipping things (I had Lebana cheese and zatar), and I even got a can of Diet Coke written in Arabic which I was very excited about and am keeping to put with my Hebrew coke bottle collection at home.

Me, Sarah, and Dana with the cannon by the Old City wall

Knight's Hall

The Entrance to the Al Jazaar Mosque

We had another long journey back to Jerusalem, and then had a nice night in since we didn't get back until very late, and today was the first day of classes.

My first day of classes was reasonably uneventful.  I had Theories of International Relations of the Middle East at 9am, which I really enjoyed, but because it is on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings, it really messes us traveling, so I am going to sit in on another class this week to see what I think about it and consider switching so I'm actually able to see the country.  After a four hour break (including a much needed grocery store trip), I had Arabic, which, despite my excitement about going back to studying Arabic after seeing all of the Arabic signs in Akko, I was severely disappointed.  I really didn't like the book they used, the teacher was mediocre at best, and it was wierd because of the class had been here last semester and so they were exactly where they were supposed to be, where I was behind in some ways and ahead in others.  My last class was Rapprochment and Coexistence, which is basically a class on the Arab-Israeli conflict.  The teacher seems really good and is an organized lecturer, which is good because I have him from 4:30-6:15 Sunday-Weds (I also have Israeli Foreign Policy with him).

After class, I went out with my friend Amanda to an AMAZING sushi restaurant downtown.  We ordered a bunch of really cool things and split it all, and while it was on the pricey side for what we've been paying for food here, it was VERY reasonable for sushi in US terms and was amazingly delicious.  It's definatly not an every day place, but I am going to have to go back there in the near future.

Monday was a pretty long day, with Hebrew at 8:30 in the morning and then no class again until 4:30.  After Hebrew I came home and took a nice nap, then walked back in the POURING rain, and had to sit at campus for 4 hours soaking wet which was not fun.  I had Israeli Foreign Policy with the professor who teaches Rapprochement and Coexistence, and he said that you aren't allowed to take both classes.  Basically I had a freak out, and spent some time sending emails to advisors at Hebrew U and GW and trying to figure out what to do.  I've since slightly figured out what to do, almost, so hopefully it'll all be worked out.  After sitting around the building for a couple hours, I had a meeting for the Middle East honors program, in which they attempted to get 25 people and a teacher to figure out a time that they can all meet every week - def doesn't work.  Basically it was a disaster, and there was this one girl who was totally obnoxious and trying to get us to meet at 6:30 on Thursday nights, which is the equivalent of a Friday night class in the US...basically, not happening.  Also, it was supposed to be groups of 10, not the whole program, so we were all saying they should put it back like that.  I came home late and was exausted, so just had a relaxing night at home.

Today was another day of classes, and I had my second Hebrew teacher at 10:30.  Then I had another break again until 4:30, and had my second Rapprochement and Coexistence class.  I was supposed to meet up with my Beit Midrash partner today because I couldn't meet yesterday because of the meeting, but we ended up rescheduling for Thursday afternoon in between classes.

Anyway, off I go...more updates later!

Lehitraot,

Leah

Yet another snow day means I actually have time to update!

Hey everyone! It's been a little while since I've had time to update my blog, but luckily we had another snow day today, so I have a nice free day :-) More on that later, but for now, I'll try to remember as much as possible about the last week.



Monday after Ulpan I met up with my cousin Sarah and her two kids, three-year-old Bracha Tehilla, and 8-month-old Akiva Tuvia, in the Old City. We went to the Temple Institute, where Sarah had done her national service after moving to Israel. It was really interesting to see where she had worked, and also to see what they do there - basically they have been working to recreate all the tools, etc. from the Temple so that they can be used when the third Temple is built. After that, we met up with my friend Becca, who goes to Hebrew U with me and also went to school with Sarah and my cousin Joseph in Maryland. It had taken us a long time to go through the Old City, and Sarah had to catch a bus home, so she quickly took Bracha over to the Kotel for her birthday, and then we headed back to campus.



Grandma Barbara and Aunt Michelle...enjoy:

Bracha taking a break from our long day, eating a cookie

Sarah and Akiva

Me and Akiva in front of the Kotel


Bracha, Sarah, Becca, and Akiva

Later that night, I went to dinner at this REALLY good Italian Restaurant downtown called Luigi's with one of my friends. It was an amazing restaurant, and I definately plan on going back there again. Then we went and met up with my friend's Israeli roommates at a club called Constantine, where a bluegrass band called Holler was playing. They were really good, though not entirely my style. After that we met up with my roommates and a bunch of our friends and some of their friends at another club called Layla, where they apparently have big parties for Rothberg (the International School at Hebrew U aka my program) every Monday night. I never really thought of Monday night as a going out night, but there were tons of people there. It was pretty crazy, and I wasn't feeling very good, so I didn't have the best time, but I'm sure we'll go back some weeks.

Tuesday we went to Me'ah She'arim, a very religious neighborhood of Jerusalem. There are lots of stores to buy Jewish books and other Judaica, and we walked around a bit. The weather was pretty rainy and gross though, so we didn't stay for too long, and I didn't find the book I was looking for (I got a siddur there last time that was really nice and I got my name engraved in it, and I wanted to get a matching Tanach but I couldn't find the right color). I'm definately going to have to go back another time.

Me'ah She'arim

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty uneventful. Wednesday I spent hanging out, and then studying for my Ulpan test on Thursday. Thursday we were planning on going out, but after a LOT of napping since we hadn't slept much all week, the weather was still pretty gross and rainy, and definately not going out weather. So, we forgoed our singles Valentine's Day dinner and a night out in Jerusalem for a quiet night in.

Friday morning we left bright and early at 6am for Mitzpe Ramon with about 90 other people from the program for the weekend. Mitzpe Ramon is in the southern desert of Israel, so we were expecting much warmer weather than Jerusalem. It wasn't really hot, but it was definately beautiful. We started off in Sde Boker at Ben Gurion's grave. There was a gorgeous view, and we hung out for a while taking pictures and learning a little bit about the Negev (the southern region of Israel).

Mike (as the map of the state of Israel), Jacob, Sarah, Jessica, Me, and Courtney at Ben Gurion's grave

We were originally supposed to then go on a hike to the ancient city of Ein Ovdat, but because of the rains that had been all over the country (not just Jerusalem apparently!) the day before, they were worried about flooding. Apparently any siginificant amount of rain in the desert can cause some flooding because the sand in the desert doesn't absorb the water well. So, they had to have us do a different hike where there was less risk of flooding, but they still wanted to show us the view from where were going to hike, and the ruins of the ancient city. So we went to an overlook for another fabulous view, and then to the ruins of Ein Ovdat.

Me, Jordana, and Jessica sitting in the cliff of the viewpoint



Courtney, Jessica, and I overlooking the abyss

The gorgeous view

Me at the ruins of Ein Ovdat

The rest of the day/weekend was fun. It included a hike through the desert, another hike to a some beautiful outlooks over the Ramon Crater, an archery course (they don't do golf courses here because it uses too much water, so instead they do long term archery), and shabbos. The Ramon Crater, or Ramon Machtesh was absolutely gorgeous, and the views were just continuously phenomenal. Basically what happened was, thousands of years ago, there was a lot of water there, and it slowly eroded into a huge "crater". Technically crater is a misnomer because it only refers to things created by meteorites or earthquakes, and these types of craters created from water erosion only exist in Israel and the Sinai, so there is no English word for it, just the Hebrew word Machtesh.

Anyway, it was beautiful. some people got up to watch the sunrise over the crater, but I didn't go because it was really cold and I needed at least one morning to sleep in, but I at least got to watch the sun set over the crater twice which was beautiful.

Me overlooking Machtesh Ramon

Archery

After Shabbos ended, we came back to Jerusalem. The bus came in just in time for us to go out, so a few of us went down to Ben Yehuda Street. First we went to this cool bar that seemed to be mostly Israelis, and played a mix of Israeli and American music. It was a bit too loud there for us to hang out and talk, so we went next door to a bar called Mike's Place, which is a very touristy American bar. We hung out there for a little while, then headed home.

Sunday was the beginning of the last week of Ulpan, which we are all anxiously awaiting the end of. After class I went to the shuk at Machaneh Yehuda with a few friends, and stocked up on lots of fruits and vegetables.

Yesterday (Monday) we had class, and then I went with two friends to the Museum on the Seam, an art museum on peace and coexistence. It was really interesting, and some of the art was really cool. At night, I had my first session with my Chevruta (study partner) for the Torah study program I am doing through the Hebrew U Hillel. The weather was starting to get really gross, so my chevruta, Atoosa, agreed to come study with me in the dorms instead. She was really cool, and it was a fun environment to learn in with everyone hanging out in our room (and Courtney and Roi singing their snow day song as snow was expected that night). We were able to get through the first two parts of the portion we are learning (Korach, my papa's bar mitzvah portion), but I did find myself longing for my BDB (a biblical lexion that we used at JAMD in high school, which came to really be our best friend as our teacher told us it would be). After I finished studying with Atoosa, I went with my roommates's over to one of their friends apartments. We had a poker tournament, and I came in third (which made me the last one to not win any money...oh well!). The game lasted a really really long time, and we were all counting on their being a snow day, so I came home about 3am (yikes!). Well, thank god we actually had a snow day, otherwise I would have been SO tired this morning. They sent us a text message around 6:15am telling us that classes would start at 9 instead of 8:30, which seemed VERY lame, and then at about 8 they texted us again saying classes were canceled. We were all very excited, and I slept in really really late. This afternoon we cleaned the apartment, and then we are talking about going downtown for dinner seeing as there's barely any snow on the ground (gotta love Jerusalem's reactions to snow). It's funny though because apparently it never snows more than once a season, and this is the second time it's snowed (even though it was in the 50s all week, and even earlier yesterday). Oh well, pretty crazy weather here!

Anyway, I guess that's all for now. More updates to come later!

<3 Leah

6 days a week we wait for shabbos...

Shalom Lekulam!

So, it's been a long time since I blogged last, or at least it feels like it! This has been a crazy jam-packed week, and it feels like I've done so much since I got back from Tel Aviv last Saturday night. Monday I had my first Ulpan quiz, which went well. We had two others this week to make up for what we missed from the snow last week, and while I've had to do some studying for them, it hasn't been too bad. Monday evening I went to the opening for Hillel's Beit Midrash program (where people get paired up with a volunteer to study a text of their choosing). I'm studying my Papa's bar mitzvah portion in his memory, and am hoping to study it in depth with commentary and stuff, with a nice flashback to my Jewish Academy Mr. Grossman days.

Tuesday after class, I went with some of my friends on a walk around campus. We went to the Hebrew University amphitheatre, which is famous for its view. One of my friends told me that the balcony from the synagogue had a better view, so we went there, and they were definately right. You can see the entire city, including the Old City. It was really cool how we could see the wall all the way around the city, and even kind of figure out which quarter was which based on the landmarks.

View from the balcony of the Hecht Synagogue of Jerusalem

It was such a gorgeous day, and it was great to walk around and enjoy the sunshine and the slight breeze. Later that evening, a bunch of us girls went to the Jeff Seidel Student Center (yes, Kate, I know you warned me, and you were right but I mean, free food, come on!). It was Rosh Chodesh (the beginning of each month of the Hebrew Calendar), and the student center has a special women's dinner every Rosh Chodesh. Basically, Rosh Chodesh is supposed to be a women's holiday, partially because of women's connection to the month (think: monthly cycle) and also as a reward for refusing to give the men their gold during the building of the Golden Calf. So, they had a yummy Italian dinner followed by chocolate fondue with lots of different fruits and other goodies to dip.

Later that night, we went to the Kfar Bar (The Village Bar - where we live is called the Kfar Hastudentim, or the Student Village, so the Kfar Bar is the Bar in the lobby of one of the dorms...yup, in Israel they have bars in dorms). There was supposed to be Karaoke night that night, so all 5 of us roomies (including the boys), one of the guys' friends, and one of the girls next door went to the Kfar Bar for Karaoke night. Well, the Karaoke was all bad Israeli music, the bar was packed and smokey, and the Israelis in our group kept telling us that the bar in Reznik (a dorm on main campus) is much better, so two of our friends that we found at the Kfar Bar joined us, and we headed down to campus. As usual, they were right, and we had a really fun time hanging out and talking until they closed. In retrospect, staying out until 2am is not the best idea on a Tuesday night, but ce la vie. When we got home, the Super Tuesday results were starting to roll in, so I stayed up for a little while getting the returns on a few states before I went to sleep for way too few hours.

Wednesday after class we went to the Old City. We walked through the Armenian Shuk, and I got my much needed Hebrew U sweatshirt! I also got a really pretty scarf, and ordered a necklace from the Hadaya Jewerely store (the place in the Old City that makes the banged jewelery with the quotes engraved in them). We went to the Western Wall, and I had a bit of an emotional moment, as for some reason when I go to the Kotel is the only time I let myself really deal with my Papa's death. It was tough, but definately necessary. We were going to try to make it to the market at Machaneh Yehuda after, but we took so much time going through the Armenian Shuk that we really didn't have time after, so we came home instead.

Jessica, Sarah, Me, and Jordana overlooking the Western Wall and Dome of the Rock

After class on Thursday I went on my first non-mall related excursion with the Office of Student Activities. Included in our tuition we get a "package" of 12 points, which also includes some trips that we don't have to use points for, like the trip to Mitzpeh Ramon that we are going on this weekend (free weekend - I'm definately there!). Basically, they have all these trips that are usually 1-2 points each, with each point valuing about $15-$20. You can use points to select which trips you want to go on, and then if you run out of points, you can always pay.

On Thursday we went to Caesaria, an ancient town on the Mediteranean, north of Tel Aviv, that has seen many different empires and has a lot of history. I had been there before when I came to Israel with my dad, but I figured going on a tour would probably teach me about the site things that my dad didn't necessarily know (as my dad told me, he can't show me everything!). It was really cool learning about the ruins, and all the different empires that ruled over the area and effected its history: Roman, Byzantine, Muslims, Crusaders, and modern time.

Jessica and I at the Caesaria Amphitheatre, which is still used for famous performances

After an interesting tour and some multimedia presentations, we got free time to hang out around the ruins and the water, and to grab some dinner. A bunch of us sat by the breakwater and watched the sunset. The water and the sun was beautiful, and though it was a little bit hazy out, we still got to see a pretty sunset into the Mediteranean.

Michael, Jessica, Rosie, Zack, Me, Mike, and Courtney waiting to watch the sunset


Sunset at Caesaria

Now, normally in Israel, weekends are Friday and Saturday. That way, Muslims and Jews can both celebrate their Sabbath, and the Jews have time to get ready for shabbos. EVERYTHING is closed on Fridays, and what is open closed early. Well, clearly us Americans were going to demand our money back if we missed two days of Ulpan, so they made us make one of them up on Friday. So basically, we had 6 days last week of 5 hours of Hebrew a day. Now, that doesn't just mean that we have to sit through class 6 days this week, but also means waking up at 6:45 6 days in a row...and for those of you who know me enough that, well, you should be reading this blog in the first place, you should also know I am not a morning person. So basically, I couldn't wait for Shabbos (there's the entry title for those of you who it hasn't clicked for yet). The other problem was that I was supposed to go on a trip to Tzfat this weekend with study abroad students from all over Israel, but it was leaving very early Friday morning. But, since I had Ulpan, including a test, on Friday, I had to cancel. I was very upset, especially since I'm not going to get a cheaper trip to Tzfat (all expenses included for $56), but I was able to make other plans for shabbos, so it wasn't a total loss.

After another way too early morning of Ulpan was over, 9 of us packed into a sheirut that was cutting it way close for shabbos, and headed over to the Moshav Mevo Modiin, otherwise known as the Carlebach Moshav (Moshav = settlement for all you non-Hebrew speakers). Basically it was a little settlement with really hippy Chasidic Carlebach loving people, most of whom, from what I could tell, were Americans who had moved to Israel. It was a great shabbos to say the least! There were a bunch of staying at one house, the house of Rabbi Trugman, who does some work at Hebrew U (he told us at the Beit Midrash orientation about their home stay program). There were 8 of us that came together from Hebrew U, another guy from Hebrew U that we hadn't met yet, 2 girls who are at Hebrew U for the full year (since they have been here they don't need to do Ulpan now, so they are on break), a guy who is doing Ulpan at Hebrew U and then at yeshiva part time, another guy who is at yeshiva right now, a man who did the Hebrew U study abroad program 10 years ago with his wife and two adorable children, and 2 girls who are here on a gap year program...including none other than Molly Mardit from JAMD! I told her she won the award for my first random JAMD run-in: I walked up, following the rest of my group, to the house we were staying at, and all of the sudden heard someone say my name. I look up, and there was Molly, jumping up to hug me. We ended up staying in the same room for shabbos, and it was really nice to see a familiar JAMD face. We talked about the changes taking place back home with sadness, and remembered what JAMD used to be like in the good old days.

Before Shabbos, we all sat on the porch of the house while the Rabbi played from this instrument, that I honestly can't describe any better than a string keyboard. It sat on his lap, and was definately a string instrument, but he played it kind of like it had buttons, but it didn't. Whatever it was, it was really interesting, and played beautiful music. After that, we had time to go put our sutff away before going up to the roof for a GORGEOUS view with some pre-shabbos snacks.

The view from the roof of the Trugman's house

Me and Molly Mardit...JAMD love

Anyway, after candlelighting, we walked over to the center of the Moshav to the synagogue, which was really pretty despite its lack of a total structure. The men's section was basically a building with the back cut out, and then attached to it was a very strong tent-type structure for the women's side. Nevertheless, there were beautiful wall paintings and tapestries, and the Carlebach melodies were even more beautiful. It was a great Kaballat Shabbat, despite my exaustion and nearly falling asleep during the sermon because of my long week. After services, we went back to the Rabbi's house for a 4 1/2 hour long dinner, filled with delicious home cooked food, lots of singing and story telling. We finally went to bed a little after 11 (keep in mind, Shabbos started around 5), while some went for walks around the Moshav. I pretty much passed out, and while I had fully intended on going to shul the next morning for part of it at least, as had my entire room, we all ended up staying asleep until the shul-goers came to wake us up for lunch (I know, shocking right?).

Lunch had more singing and story telling, and then we had a few hours free before minchah. A bunch of us went for a walk in the nearby woods, which were beautiful (sadly, I couldn't take pictures due to shabbos), and even found a great overlook out onto the nearby city of Modiin. After our walk, we found quite places around the Trugman's backyard to read and just enjoy the GORGEOUS weather. After mincha, we had a song-filled seudat shlishit at the house, and the singing once again made it phenomenal. The boys went back to shul for Maariv while the girls started cleaning up and packing our stuff together. When they came home, we went to a community musical Havdallah, complete with hippy Chasidic men playing guitar, tambourine, bongos, and, yes, the recorder. After about 5 different versions of Eliyahuh Hanavi, all of which were in tunes I didn't know, we broke into a rounding rendition of "Mishenichnas Adar" (there is the idea in Judaism that once for the entire Hebrew month of Adar, the month that the holiday of Purim is during, you are supposed to be happy, so the song is "From the entrance of Adar, we are filled with happiness). Adar and Purim are super special this year, firstly because it is the Hebrew leap year, which instead of just an extra day gives us an extra month of Adar (ie twice as long to be happy), and, because we are in Jerusalem, we celebrate Shushan Purim (an extra day of Purim for cities that are gated, as Jerusalem is). But, because Purim is a Thursday night/Friday day this year, and Shushan Purim can't be on a Shabbat, Shushan Purim moves to Saturday night/Sunday day, which makes it a three day Purim in Jerusalem. For those of you who don't know, it is actually Jewish law that you are supposed to be so drunk on Purim that you can't tell the difference between the hero and the villian of the Purim story. So, basically, it's going to be a crazy Purim Meshulash (triangular Purim - the term for a three day Purim, as this year is). Anyway, the song Mishenichnas Adar has special significance when we get two months of happiness and 3 days of Purim craziness, so it was a fun song.

After Havdallah was over, we found 9 other people who were also going to back to Jerusalem, so we ended up getting to Sheiruts back to Jerusalem. After some freshening up, a group of us went downtown to the Ben Yehuda street area for a night on the town. We started off at a really cool bar with half priced drinks for students before 11 (where I enjoyed my Diet Coke - Israel hasn't changed me that much :-p) and then headed out to a club. After a while at the club, a few of us moved on to another bar/restaurant to hang out and talk over a VERY delicious bowl of french fries (or chips as they call them here). After a little while, one of my friends Mike, who had stayed with the group at the club called me to tell me he was meeting up with his friend from Young Judea Year Course who I had known he might have plans with. Why did I care? Well, it just so happened to be Ilit, one of my mefakdot (commanders) from Gadna (another JAMD shout out!). When she saw me she knew she knew me from somewhere, and when Mike said Gadna, she was like "Oh my god! Of course I remember you!" She asked how I was doing and how the rest of the grade was doing, couldn't believe we were already juniors, and was sad to hear that I was the only one who made it to Israel this semester. It was cool seeing her, and she is apparently studying medicine at Hebrew U. Mike and her are supposed to be hanging out later in the semester, especially because she has a break coming up soon, so I'm sure I'll see her again.

Amanda, me, Jessica, and Courtney ready to go out, joined by Rosie and Marissa, who live next door, on the ends

Me and Ilit (Ken Hamefakedet!)

And, of course, it was not fun this morning when my alarm went off. But, after a one day weekend, we were off to another week of Ulpan. One of the other classes at my level shares one of our teachers, and both of our classes' second teacher was sick, so we had a 30 person class today with one teacher for 5 hours. It was, well, interesting, but at the very least more lively than more normal very subdued class.

After class was over, I went on my second Office of Student Activities trip, to Eretz Bereshit (Genesis Land). It was about 20 minutes outside of Jerusalem, and is a place that they do camel rides! Since I've never done any Birthright or Federationy trips, I've never gotten to do that before, so I decided to go. It was a really fun experience, and the view overlooking the valley and Jordan was absolutely breathtaking. I got to ride the camel twice, because the first time my friend that I was with was really scared and screamed the whole time, and since our group was too big and we had to take turns along the trail to let everyone have a turn, and there was one camel that could only take one person, they let me go on again so I could actually enjoy it the second time.

The view from one of the places we stopped along the path to switch riders and learn about the area and the camels

Me with Luba, the second camel I rode

After we got to our final destination, we went into "Abraham's Tent", where a man who was supposedly Abraham invited us into his tent so he could fulfill the mitzvah of inviting guests. He told us some corny cutesy version of Abraham's journey and life, and then gave us a "feast". Seeing as we were all starving, and the food was phenomenal, we definately ate a lot. "Abraham" told us to eat until he could see we were satisfied by the glow in our eyes, and I think our eyes were definately all glowing by the end.

Me and Jordana with "Abraham's Feast" (like the outfits? They made us wear them so Abraham would recognize us since our modern clothes were confusing)

Anyway, like I said, it's been a long week. I apologize for the long entry, but let's just say this is why I'm not sending out update emails. Read at your leisure, and feel free to leave comments!

Shalom Al Yisrael,

Leah

Being Snow Birds to Tel Aviv

Shalom to all my blog readers!

So I finally got a real live internet connection...yaaaay! That means I can update hopefully regularly, and, more importantly, I can skype now, so skype me!

The last few days have been a lot of fun. We had another snow day on Thursday, which was partially warranted (at least more so than the one on Wednesday), but the roads were still perfectly clear for our trip to Tel Aviv at 11am. We (Me and my roommates Jessica and Courtney, most of the JTS group - Becca, Sarah, Jacob, and Mike, Jordana - whose grandparents's apartment we stayed in, and Amanda) took a sheirut (group taxi) to Tel Aviv, and got there early afternoon. It was amazing to see the difference in the weather after only driving for an hour. We went from snow to beach and palm trees, and it was fabulous!

Jordana and I in the Sheirut

The apartment we stayed in was pretty fabulous, and by fabulous, I mean completely decorated from the 1970s, as Jordana had warned us it would be. There were egg crates on the wall, a box with gas masks and injections, crazy orange chairs, and a pretty fabulous 70s style wall (to name just a few things).

The Dining Room wall...yup, wall

Thursday afternoon, we played on the beach for a while, and then went and hung out at the mall (Israeli's do love their malls!) which obviously meant more Michal Negrin. :-)

The girls on the beach in Tel Aviv (From Left to Right: Courtney, Becca, Jordana, Jessica, Amanda, and Me!)

The beautiful sunset at the beach

Thursday night was a big mess. Basically I learned that when you are with a huge group traveling, you either have to have very defined plans, or just be ok splitting up into groups. We did go out for a little while in Tel Aviv, but apparently you really can't go out until like at least midnight, or you'll be the only ones in the club/bar (as we experienced). We also met up with a couple of Courtney's friends, who are studying at Tel Aviv University, and are both Phi Sigs at Syracuse! It's about time I had some LITP lovin in Israel!

Friday was a lot of fun, with lots of fun touristy stuff. We got up early and went to Jaffa, which had a cute little market/flea market, and a beautiful old city with a fabulous view of Tel Aviv and the Mediteranean Sea. Then we went back to downtown Tel Aviv to Nachalat Benyamin, which is a street in the center of the city that has a HUGE artisan fair every Tuesday and Friday. I bought a hand blown glass mezuzah and a gorgeous piece of art with the song Eli by Chanah Senesh on it which I'm really excited about - it was definately a good investment and I'm sure I'll have it in my home for many years to come.

Courtney, Jessica, and I overlooking Tel Aviv on the bridge to the Old City of Jaffa

On the outskirts of the Old City of Jaffa

Friday night mommy Jordana made us a yummy shabbos dinner, and we all sat around talking and laughing (while Sarah spontaneously fell asleep and fell off of things). It was a really nice, relaxing, fun evening. On Saturday, we all slept in, and then after breakfast on the mirpeset (balcony), we walked to the beach near (and by near, I mean about 2 miles from) the apartment. We played in the sand and the water until we were tired, then went back to the apartment for a late lunch. Then we packed up the apartment and came back to Jerusalem.


Today we had Ulpan again (finally! I almost forgot what going to class was like again), but my level only had the first hour and a half of class. After a fifteen minute break, all the level Gimmel students went to the archaeological dig that I went to with JAMD on my senior class trip. It was amazing to see how much it had changed! It's definately open for bigger groups now, and much more organized. They had everyone from level Gimmel working in partners going through buckets. It definately brought back some good class trip memories :-)

Sifting through artifacts from the Temple Mount

I have my first Ulpan test tomorrow (it was supposed to be on Thursday, but because of the snow days, it got moved)....more updates later!

L'hitraot,

Leah