Winding My Way Through the Old City

I'm currently sitting in my apartment looking out the window at a very abysmal night. In the past hour it's been freezing rain and hailing. It was the first time I've seen any type of percipitation since getting here let alone hearing any thunder. Thus, it's the perfect time to recount my wonderful exploration of the Old City yesterday and today. Our grand plan was to go to the Old City after going to the Shuk Friday morning to go to this amazing hummus place called Lina's that my friend Anna had told me I needed to go to, after which we were going to the Kotel to experience shabbat and try to get invited back to dinner with an Orthodox family. We got to the Kotel probably an hour and a half before sunset, but most of the shops were closing down. It was weird walking through the different quarters, not really knowing which one you were in because all of the doors were closed and locked and it just felt like an empty stone alley-way. Lina's was unfortunately closed but at least I knew where it was. We wove our way up and down on the stone "streets" and eventually made it to the Jewish quarter and the Kotel. There were a bunch of birthright groups at the Kotel, one particular group was from Argentina. They boys were in one large circle and the girls in the other, dancing around and singing basically every song in Hebrew they knew. Our group consisted of four girls and one boy so we designated a meeting time (because you can't use your phones at the Kotel) and went our separate ways. The wall was basically as I had remembered it from my trip two years ago. The women's side was probably 1/4 the size of the men's. Most of the women were wearing black although there were a lot of tourists dressed in pants, but moderately dressed. There was a group of women from somewhere in Africa along with some high school groups from within Israel. One of the women who was at the wall was dressed completely in white. I presume she was dressed as the "sabbath bride" or it was just the way she dressed when she came to the wall. We were probably there for about an hour. The women didn't really pray together, they mostly did their own thing, but the men on the other side were in large groups dancing around together and singing the same prayer loudly together. I've never really liked the idea of the mehitzah (the wall that separates the women's side from that of the men's), but then again I don't feel at home with most of the more religious groups so perhaps it was better for me to just be with the people I came with. I sang a few songs with my friends but for the most part I just watched and observed. I had forgotten that when walking away from the wall it was appropriate to walk backwards in order not to turn your back until you were a fair distance away. I obliged and followed suit with what most of the women were doing in order to be respectful. It was unfortunately a chilly Shabbat so we left earlier than we wanted and didn't end up finding anyway to take us back for a meal, but I came back and made a delicious Shabbat dinner with two of my friends here so it all worked out in the end.

Today was a lazy day which started at 11:30 with french toast with the roommates and then we went with our Arab-Israeli roommate, Nardin, to the Old City. (Nardin and her boyfriend while we were waiting for the Arab bus) Because it was Shabbat, none of the regular buses were running, so we took one of the Arab buses (much cheaper than the normal buses!) to the central Arab bus terminal right by the Damscus gate (one of the entrances to the Old City). It was so hectic with all of the vendors on the street that I almost forgot it was the sabbath in one of the holiest cities in the world. As we were walking down towards the gate we saw a group of Arab-Israelis demonstrating with signs that said "Free Gaza" and we passed by a little boy hanging over a railing holding a cap gun in his hand. I wanted to take a picture but we were winding in and out of crowds and I didn't think it would have been the most appropriate thing to do. We made our way through the Muslim quarter on Via Delarosa to the border of the Christian quarter and Lina's were we walked up a small set of stairs and settled ourselves in. The food was absolutley incredible!
The 8th station of the tour where Jesus supposedly fell down the second time with the cross


The place specializes in all kinds of hummus. Between five of us, we ordered masabaha (hummus with chick peans, tahina, olive oil, and corn), hummus with pine nuts and hummus ful (with fava beans). We also got an Arabic salad, which really just turned out to be the same as an Israeli salad which consists of diced up tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion. They brough piles of pita and we dug in. We ended up taking a container home for us to share. It was definitely well worth the find and will be on the list of places to go back. Right after we ordered, a man came bounding up the stairs and made his way towards our table. He was a dark man dressed in a heavy sweater and jacket. He was introduced as Nardin's friend (our Arab Israeli roommate) and our tourguide. His name was Abed and he is fantastic. He took us from station 8 of where Jesus walked with the cross through what is now the Arab quarter all the way back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the holy site for many sects of Christianity. On the way to the Church we stopped off at the place where Jesus was held while awaiting his trial, where he supposedly fell the first and second time on his walk through the city, where he met his mother, and ending of course where he was crucified, his body anointed, and buried. One of the stops was what is now a hostel/hotel. The destination at this stop lay at the top of many flights of stairs but it was well worth the climb. From the roof you could see from the Mountain of Olives to the Dome of the Rock and the mosque to the Church and the Jordan Valley. The groupof us on top of the roof of the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family (the hotel/hostel)
Views from the roof

It was a spectacular view and Abed gave us the most detailed overview of the history of the city from the time of Jesus to the present day. He was the best tour guide I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Not only is he fluent in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Hebrew (and I think Russian as well) but he never falters when he makes a stop and points something out. He knows every detail inside and out and he has a great sense of humor. The best part of this tour was that it was free because Nardin knows him. He offered to lead us around the Jewish Quarter when it wasn't Shabbat, because it deserved a day in and of itself. Nardin also told us that he may be willing to take us to the Dead Sea and give us a tour there as well. It's been great living with her, not just because of these opportunities, but because it's nice to have a different perspective from that of our collective western ideals.
Today I was led through parts of the Old City I don't think I would have ever had the opportunity to explore otherwise. At one point Abed took us through some back passages through the Arab area to get to a coffee and tea place that he wanted to take us to. On Shabbat there are more armed soldiers than usual and they block off particular parts of the Arab quarters to Israelis and Tourists. The coffee place was in one of these areas, so we had to take a back way to get around them. It was well worth the detour.

We had tea with nana (a type of mint leaf), which was the sweetest most delicious drink I've had. Another thing about Abed is that he knows EVERYONE in the city. It seemed like every shop owner we passed by, every guard or person sitting at the entrance to a site of interest, knew Abed and he would stop and say his hellos as we went by. I'm looking forward to going on another tour with him. Apparently he's the tour guide everyone asks for :-). Eastern Orthodox part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Not a very good shot but it was goreous.
Nardin's boyfriend decided to play soccer with some kids in the street

The rest of the day was spent lounging around, eating and recovering from 3 1/2 hours of walking. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of the same: resting, homework, and hopefully I'll get myself out at some point. I need to make sure to get everything done before tomorrow night because we're going to watch the Super Bowl over at the student center at 1 am. I don't know if I'll stay the whole time, but I feel like I owe it to myself to go watch the beginning. Monday I have a session to sign up for my classes with my advisor, which I'm both nervous and excited about. I need to take a minimum of four classes, one being Hebrew, and the other I really want to and need to take for my major at home is Archaeology of Jerusalem. Other than that, I'm thinking of doing some kind of academic internship- although I'm not sure where I'd want to do it- so that leaves me with one class to choose. There are a lot of options but right now I'm leaning towards one called Iran: Its formation and Reformation. It's a topic I've never really explored before so it might be interesting to take. We shall see what I decide on Monday.
Next weekend is the ski trip to Mt. Hermon, although it hasn't snowed much there. Tentatively, our schedule is to go rock climbing, ATV'ing, and repelling along with visiting a winery before shabbat starts, after which its relaxing and mingling. I'm highly looking forward to it. It's getting late so I better turn in. Hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. Kristen אני עדיין פה I'll try to let you figure that one out :-)

An Inauguration Overseas and Some Pretty Awesome Scenery

It's been pretty busy and low-key here these past few days so this entry about the inauguration is coming a bit late. We went over to the local student center which is right around the corner from the student village where I live to watch it. They had two tvs showing the CNN coverage of the inauguration. It was amazing to be surrounded by Americans...and some Canadians who had in interest in American politics... to watch what turned out to be a fantastic representation of, hopefully, the change to come. First off, Aretha Franklin singing was great, as was the quarter that played the piece composed by John Williams. Obama's speech was breathtaking, powerful, and everything that it needed to be- not to mention the shema made it into the speech somehow! There's something about the way he speaks, the way he pronounces every word, the emotion he evokes when he talks. He is not over the top, nor does he take what he says lightly. He says everything with vibrance and strength and I am greatly looking forward to what is to come for the US in the next few months. I haven't been checking up on the daily news but probably should get accustomed to browsing through NYt.com if I have any hope of really knowing what's going on. I'm also not quite up to speed with what's going on here, but the last time I heard, the soldiers in Gaza had pulled out to just surrounding the borders and there had been no fire back and forth. Hopefully this will keep up as I want to travel to the south to visit friends and because there are some pretty great places in Israel that around Gaza and further south from Gaza.

Yesterday two friends of mine and I ended up in downtown Jerusalem hoping to join the practical tour that had been filled, but we ended up doing our own thing and just wandering around Ben Yehuda street, walking all the way to where we could see the temple mount and the old city, then all the way towards Talpiot and Emek Refaim. We were probably out for about 3 hours or so but it was a great experience just wandering around, finding some of the cool hidden shops, eating amazing crepes, and getting a sense of where I am in relation to everywhere else. We stumbled upon an old Russian church by the police station that was unfortunately closed, but looked as if the architecture inside was promising. We also ended up finding a playground and a great park/sculpture park with a few basketball courts, soccer "courts", shesh besh tables (which is like backgammon), an amphitheater, and a great sculpture of a half-submerged alligator with half of its snout and head, back, and feet coming out of the ground. Definitely a place worth returning to, that is if I can find it again. After coming back last night, I made some food with a friend, throwing together what we had and producing a random assortment of foods to munch on. Tonight we're going out to celebrate a friend's 21st birthday and tomorrow to celebrate another (both are on the same day but we're celebrating one as it turns to Friday and the other one tomorrow evening). Emily, whose birthday we're celebrating tomorrow night, and I are getting together with a lot of our Israeli friends from camp, which is really exciting because I haven't seen a lot of them for a year or two. Tomorrow we're going back to the shuk for our weekly shopping trip which I desperately need. My pita molded after a few days so perhaps I'll buy less this time but I think I might buy some meat and Josh, a friend of mine, and I are going in together to buy sweet potatoes for sweet potatoe fries and the big cartons of eggs that they sell- I think about 36 for 22 shekels (equivalent to about $5.70)- because everything is cheaper on Friday at the shuk right before Shabbat starts.
Here are a few pictures that I've taken in the past couple of days. I keep forgetting to take my camera places but I assure you all there will be more pictures to come in the future. Hope everyone is well! If any of you have skype (and if you don't you should get it!) search for me and we should skype some time :-). Until next time!

P.S. Kristen I'm still alive :-)
The view from my apartment window

A few pictures from my walk around campus with my friend Josh today. Great weather, clear blue skies...

Another Chilly Day in Jerusalem

I'm starting to feel as if I'm getting the hang of things around here. I'm slowly getting acquainted with my surroundings, how to get places, where I am physically in East Jerusalem. I started ulpan this morning bright and early at 8:15, but got up an hour earlier to make sure I was on time. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to force myself to get up that early, but I was definitely tired walking to class. It doesn't really feel as if I'm a college student here. It's more like I'm on a vacation, hanging out with college kids my own age, and taking hebrew classes a few days a week... that is until real classes start the 3rd week of February.
It's been pretty chilly here, probably around the lower to mid fifties, maybe hitting 60 a couple of times. At least it's warmer than home. On Shabbat we went to the Regency hotel for dinner which was nice but nothing spectacular. I think I'm either going to be travelling on most fridays or exploring different Shabbat opportunities around Jerusalem but also with friends who are in Israel. I've also decided to take every opportunity I'm offered to travel somewhere. So far I've signed up for a ski trip in February on Mt. Hermon in the very north of Israel, despite my dislike for skiing. Bunny slopes here I come! I've also planned to do a sea to sea hike some time in the future, travel to Tel Aviv, and get to Haifa by doing couch surfing. I've got an amazing country at my fingertips and definitely don't want its resources to go to waste. For the time being though I've just been getting acclimated, going, playing a lot of card games with some pretty great people, and getting excited for when I can travel.
Hope all is well in the states. Let me know how you guys are doing! :-)

P.S. Kristen I'm still alive

It's only been 48 hours?

It's still hard to realize I've only been in Israel for about two days. The first flight I took from Newark to London was fine, but when I arrived in London everything began to fall apart. We were delayed a bit in landing because the whole ground was covered in fog. It was gorgeous to look at from the sky but it made what followed extremely aggravating. I followed the signs in Heathrow to transfers for Virgin Atlantic (what I had flown to London) and when I got there and tried to get my boarding pass, I was told that Virgin doesn't fly to Tel Aviv and that I was actually taking a bmi plane (British Midland International) which was one of their associate airlines, so I had to take a bus all the way from terminal three to one. The first trip wasn't so bad but when I got to the bmi desk, they told me that Virgin had canceled my reservation and I wasn't even in the system. They informed me there was nothing they could do about it because I had been booked through Virgin so I needed to go back to Virgin and have them fix it. By this time I was getting pretty frustrated not to mention I was exhausted from jetlag and just wanted to be on my plane. It's pretty annoying going through security each time and having to take my shoes off, unload everything, wait in line, and put everything back on. When I approached the woman at Virgin again and told her what bmi had told me, she looked in the system, made a few phone calls, and it turned out I was still reserved to fly and she told me to hurry as fast as I could to get back to the other terminal. Trip number four was the worst. By the time I got back to the bmi counter I just wanted to be done with the running around. I relayed the information and the woman still told me my reservation was canceled but I pushed further and told her that someone from the Virgin desk had just called. After about 10 minutes of her speaking to someone in the back, she returned with a boarding pass, proceeded to give me a 5 pound food voucher, and told me the plane was delayed until 3 from 11:55. I ended up picking a spot on the benches in the main area with the gate board and fell asleep for about an hour and a half. By the time I had woken up, my gate was posted so I picked up my food and headed to the gate. Long story short, the plane was extremely delayed and we ended up not taking off until about 4:30 London time, which got me in around 11 pm Israel time. The pilot told us the reason for the delay was both the fog and the fact that the plane had been delayed in Tel Aviv before and they needed to do 2 1/2 hours of ground work before they could let us fly. Rumors were flying around that the original pilot hadn't wanted to fly the plane so we were wasting time waiting for a new one. It all seemed a bit fishy to me but it was nice to be on the plane and finally on my way. I ended up sitting near someone who was going on the program as well, from Muhlenberg (Joe if you're reading this his name is Ira and apparently he once called you for help on a paper) and a student from London who missed going to his cousin's wedding because of the delay. The flight was uneventful except for the fact that my tv screen didn't work so I ended up finishing the Nicholas Sparks novel I picked out to read on the plane. I snoozed for a bit but woke up as we were ascending into Tel Aviv. Flying into any city at night is beautiful and it was particularly breathtaking because we had just been flying over water so the view from my window went from complete darkness to the twinkling lights of Tel Aviv. (fuzzy but still cool) The next thing to go wrong, which I should have seen coming, was that only one of my bags had made it to Tel Aviv and it wasn't the one with all of my clothes. I filed a report with the lost baggage claim and took a Shirut to the student village (kfar studentim) where I met up with a friend of a friend of mine who had been here last semester. By that time I was completely out of it, angry about my luggage, and just wanted to go to sleep. That was two days ago. Yesterday I got up pretty early to walk with her to the campus so I could find my own way later on and registered, came back to the kfar studentim to get my room. Yesterday was great. I met a ton of people who have connections to people I know and most of them have been from New Jersey (go figure that's who I end up hanging out with). Last night we went to downtown Jerusalem to a bar and a dance club with Shoshi (the girl who I stayed with who has been here for a semester already) leading the way. It was nice because the bar wasn't full of Americans. I found it interesting that they served chickpeas instead of salty peanuts but other than that it was great. We stayed out pretty late and I was woken up this morning by a phone call from the airport saying that my bag had come on the next flight from London to Tel Aviv and the driver would drop it off. It came about about 11:15, perfect timing before Shabbat, because everything stops running at around 2-3. A group of us went to the Shuk today (Mahaneh Yehudah) to buy groceries because it's the cheapest place in the area. It's such a fascinating alley to wander down. You have store owners yelling at you from all directions trying to get you to buy what they have. Everything is cheaper on Fridays right before Shabbat because they want to get rid of what they have before things close down. There was everything from towels, pots and pans, dried fruits of all sorts, nuts, cheese, hummus, pita, fruits and vegetables, chocolates, candies, you name it they had it. On the way back to the bus stop we stopped by the famous Marzapan place that has the best chocolate ruggelah in town. Since we got back I've just unpacked and been lounging around becuase it's pretty chilly and dreary out. Tonight we're going to the Regency hotel for Shabbat dinner which I'm looking forward too. Over the course of the past two days, I've also found a bunch of other people interested in playing Ultimate while they're here which makes me happy to know I'm not the only one. We'll see how that ends up turning out. For now that's all. Shabbat Shalom.

P.S. Kristen, I'm still alive :-)

Peace in the Middle East Through Ultimate Frisbee

My trip to Israel just got a little more exciting. I recently found out through a friend about a program called Ultimate Peace that's going to hold it's first major event in Tel Aviv in April of this year. I got in contact with the woman who is helping to facilitate the program and it looks like I'm going to be able to help out by getting sponsors, maybe assisting with coaches, and even getting a chance to play in the HAT tournament with some of the best players in the world. I don't know how well I match up to them, but even if I don't play, I'm definitely going to go watch. According to their website, http://www.ultimatepeace.org/about/, their mission is to build bridges of friendship, understanding and fun for youth from different social and cultural backgrounds around the world. What an incredible opportunity for Palestinian and Israeli youth to be able to play not just any game together, but a game that is built on principles of Spirit of the Game, where each and every player is a referee and is responsible for maintaining the true spirit of frisbee on the field. It's like a microcosm of the world right on the field, but instead of using weapons and throwing words of hate back and forth across battle lines, words are used to work things out and the game goes on. I'm really excited Ezra told me about this because I think it's going to make my experience that much more interesting now that I have something to work on and really look forward to while I'm there.
I still haven't begun packing yet and it's getting close to departure time. Knowing my luck, the weather tomorrow is going to delay my flight and I'll miss my connecting flight. Ah well, such is life. I'll just hope for the best and whatever happens happens.

4 Days and Counting

And thus begins my journey into the world of blogging. One of the few things I took away with me from the information session Hebrew University held in NYC was to document my trip, whether it be through a journal, blog, or photographs... so here it is. A blog. About my 4 1/2 month trip of a lifetime to Jerusalem. Not much to detail now. I leave on Tuesday the 13th at about 6 pm and will be crashing at a friend of a friend's in the student village. Then I get to find my own way to registration the next day and thus will begin my semester abroad. I must say, I'm pretty excited to leave and know I will enjoy every moment of my trip. Especially when babka will be involved.