Women at the Wall reading the Megillah at the Kotel

                                                          Purim!

                                                           Marissa, Allison, and Lisa ran the Jerusalem half marathon

Llamas, goat cheese, and hiking to Mordor

Last weekend we went on another uber exciting Tikkun Olam excursion. We went to the Negev, to Ramon Crater, which isn’t actually a crater…no alien space rocks in the Negev. It’s more like a canyon.

We started off our trip with a visit to a llama and alpaca farm. We learned about the differences between llamas and alpacas and got to play with them. There were quite a few that were wandering around the farm and not in pens. I got to feed them too, and almost got spat on. I definitely like llamas and alpacas better than camels. Camels are mean and ugly. The llamas and alpacas we met were pretty friendly and they have lots of personality. All camels seem to look the same, but all of the llamas and alpacas looked different and silly in their own way.

Next we went to a goat farm and tasted some yummy goat cheese and yogurt. There was a sheep there that had a baby about an hour before we got there. It was super tiny.

We spent the night at a Bedouin tent camp site. We made delicious polke (like stew on a camp fire) and chocolate fondue. It was really cold, but the sunset was beautiful.

In the morning we started out on our 7 hour hike. The weather was gorgeous. We hiked up the mountain then down it. Lots of sliding down on my butt.

Towards the end of the hike we headed towards a mountain that was made of volcanic rock. We had to get to Mordor to throw the ring in the volcano to save the world.

The desert is really beautiful. It is always amazing to see so much open space in such a small country. It’s easy to forget that Israel is only the size of New Jersey when you hike through the desert and there is nothing but rocks as far as the eye can see.

Dialogue in the Dark

Monday evening we went to the Children’s museum in Holon. They have an exhibit called Dialogue in the Dark there. The exhibit is meant to give the visitor a brief taste of life without sight.

 Once we were divided into groups of ten we were sent into the dark. “Meyer, I’m sending in a group of ten.” “OK” came a voice from the dark. We walked into the darkness hoping there would be someone out there to guide us through. It was literally pitch black; I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. So we started our tour, with one hand on the wall and one held out in front of us to warn of approaching objects.

The exhibit takes you through 7 rooms, where you experience different things in the dark. We were required to rely on our guide, Meyer, and our other senses to guide us through the maze of darkness. We followed Meyer into the first room, which was a garden. As soon as I walked in (well shuffled to keep from falling on my face in the dark) I could hear frogs, birds, and running water. Since I had no idea where the room ended I just kept walking until I couldn’t anymore. This led me to bump into someone. Not sure who it was, but we ended up doing a hug-dance thing while exploring our surroundings. We experienced the garden for a bit then stumbled into the next room which was a beach house. The waves were crashing outside the window, and someone left a pair of shoes on a hook. Luckily the shoes weren’t smelly, because I walked right into them. Next we stumbled onto a boat. How did we find the boat and not die while getting in? We groped each other a lot and followed the soothing sound of our guide’s voice. It was kind of like a Disney ride, and we sang a round of Row Row Row Your Boat. We went to a market, listened to the sounds of people haggling, and tried to figure out what the vegetables in front of us were. I definitely had to rely on my other senses. The last part of the tour through the dark was the literal “dialogue” of Dialogue in the Dark. We sat in a café and talked to our guide, Meyer, about what it’s like being blind. Meyer has been blind his whole life, but he doesn’t let it keep him from living a full life. Since he’s been blind his whole life, getting through the exhibit in the dark was a piece of cake for him. We had a really interesting chat and listened to his friend Yehuda play the piano beautifully. Yehuda is also blind.

I was surprisingly not as disoriented as I thought I would be. Special awareness was really hard/impossible, which was a little off-putting. However, I found that if I closed my eyes I was much more comfortable. Everything is just as dark with my eyes open and closed, but when my eyes were open they were constantly trying to focus, which was impossible. I tried to close my eyes and trust our guide and my other senses.

It’s amazing how much we take our ability to see for granted. Sight is the more dominant of our sense it seems, and for the most part we have no idea how to cope without. We do have 4 other senses though. Without being able to see you have to rely on them more. You are forced to listen better. Sight also tends to affect our other senses. We assume that pretty food will taste better, we see the lightening and know the thunder is coming and are ready for it. I always knew all of this in theory. My mom is practically blind, but she hears everything. Dialogue in the Dark gave me the opportunity to truly understand the importance of sight and how lucky I am to have it, but also the importance of using my other senses.

Mom and Dad in Israel

 Zelda, our GPS guide

 Dad sitting on some ruins

 Cesarea

 Dad sitting in an ampitheater

 Matzo in a box in Tsfat

 Me and mom in the Mediterranean

 Mom putting a note in the Kotel

Camel Land!!

I went to Camel Land with Amy and Emma on Sunday. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds! With Amy’s beautiful driving skills and Emma’s amazing navigational expertise, we made it to Camel Land safe and sound in the morning. Camel Land is near Be’er Sheva in the Negev Desert. It’s real, non-American Tourist name is Negev Camel Ranch. When we got there it was deserted (and in the desert hehehe). Ours was the only car in the parking lot and there were no signs telling us where to go, and no people around. We wandered a bit looking for information and worrying we had come all that way to a closed camel ranch. In desperation I asked a camel for help, but camels are not very communicative. Finally we found real people and I was designated the person to ask strangers for help (a running theme in our adventures). “Excuse me, is this Camel Land? Are you open? Ok good, we want to ride camels!” We each got our very own camel and headed out into the desert on an hour long tour. Our guide Shai told us all about our camels and where we were walking. We walked along the incense road, called that because they transported incense on it during Roman times and before. Did you know camels don’t actually store water in their hump? That’s what some one told me, but it’s not true. A camel’s hump is all fat. Shai told us all about the history of the area. He also said that camels sway back and forth when they walk because of their legs. Their legs are really long so they walk both right feet then both left then both right etc. That’s why their whole bodies sway back and forth when they walk. That explains Dippy too I guess. She walked the same way. Her legs weren’t as long as camels’ though.

At the end of our camel tour we had tea and watched a large group of religious boys get on the camels for a tour. For some reason watching a bunch of religious boys no more than 14 getting on camels in the desert was extremely entertaining.

After our delicious tea we headed into Be’er Sheva and had some yummy all you can eat Indian food. All in all a great day!

Adventures with Zelda (aka Mom and Dad do Israel)

1. Zelda was our GPS for the week. She "helped" us avigate Israel. In the end we were successful and didn't end up in Jordan or anything, but we got lost quite a bit. She also is terrible at Hebrew. I think she learned Hebrew in Wyoming. Nachalat Binyamin became Gilligan's Island. She had us turning down streets that didn't exist, and at one point in Jerusalem we ended up driving on the new light rail tracks. Zelda sure did keep us laughing.

Mom and dad got to Israel Friday afternoon. We had dinner at the old train station in Neve Tzedek and then ended up walking down some slightly sketchy streets in search of Rothchild Blvd. We had super yummy gelato at Iceberg and got wet in the rain.
Dad also had his first experience with coffee outside America. People outside the US don't drink drip coffee like we do. Everything is either instant or espresso based. Even McDonald's didn't have "real" coffee. In the past week he has tried just about every espresso drink possible.
Saturday we walked around the Old City in Jaffa. Mom and dad saw the Mediterranean for the first time and mom and I put our feet in. It was cold, but still warmer than New York. :) We had lunch at the Tel Aviv port in North Tel Aviv (the wealthier part of town), and walked around. We saw some guys dressed in ice cream cone costumes, but the ice cream was dirty and they looked like turds. We went to Rabin Square and for dinner dad had pizza with crust so thin it was like matzo.
Sunday we headed out of town, north to Cesarea. We walked around the ancient city, saw lots of old stuff, and almsot got blown away by the wind. We also went to Dreidle world and saw some pretty cool dreidles. We had lunch in Haifa and saw the Bahai gardens. We didn't walk through, it was closed for the rain, and mom and dad took one look at all the stairs and laughed at the thought of climbing them. We headed towards the Galilee, but got lost in the outskirts of Haifa. The guide book called the area where we got lost "drab satellite towns of Haifa".
Our hotel on the Galilee was in the middle of nowhere, but we found awesome chinese food in Tiberias.
Monday we got up early and went to Tsfat. We found the city ok, but Zelda got really confused in all of the tiny streets and we got pretty lost. We finally found a place to park and got to check out all of the cool old synagogues etc. We also went to the world famous candle place. When we got back to the car we discovered that we really weren't supposed to park where we did...we got a parking ticket. Not sure how to take care of it, I guess we'll figure it out.
We went down to our hotel by the Dead Sea. We got upgraded to the spa hotel! Mom and I went for a dip in the warm salt water pool after dinner, then to the sauna. We tried the wet then the dry one. We're not sauna people...too hot!
Got up in the morning and went to the Dead Sea. It was raining, and cold, but we had to go for mom and dad's first time in Israel. When we got there, there was a group of South Koreans covered in Dead Sea mud, warming up by running up and down the beach and doing jumping jacks. They tried really hard to coax us into the super cold Dead Sea. We finally did get in. We floated for about 3 minutes then ran back into the hotel and warmed up in the warm salt water pool. After showering off the Dead Sea we headed to Masada, in the rain. It was cold and wet, but walking around Masada was cool. As we drove to Jerusalem we dried off and got warm. Zelda had trouble with Tsfat, but Jerusalem was worse. There are no straight roads in the whole city. It took us a while (surprise surprise), but eventually we found the hotel and went to dinner at a yummy burger place. Dad was happy to see "American" food.
Wednesday we got up early and headed to the Old City. Once again we had trouble finding where we were supposed to go. However, that wasn't Zelda's fault, dad left her at home. We got a tour/history lesson at David's Tower (a fortress that's thousands of years old). Then we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcar and the Western Wall (Kotel in Hebrew). Unfortunately we couldn't go to the Temple Mount because it is only open to tourists a few hours a day. We had really good lunch (we've eaten really well all week!), and walked around the Old City for a while. We also saw the King David Hotel, which is a really nice old, fancy hotel. We got lost once again on our way to dinner (that was when we ended up on the train tracks). We finally found the restaurant we were looking for and it was quite tasty. Dessert was especially great. I wanted ice cream, chocolate ice cream. The waitor said one scoop or three and I asked for two. He said no. Then he said I can give you one scoop twice. Isn't that two scoops? Very confusing. Mom got three scoops. He brought me two small cups with one scoop in each....one scoop twice! Silly Israel.
For the first time since leaving Tel Aviv, we were dry all day!
Today we went to Mount Herzl (the military cemetary), then to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum). Then mom wanted to see the Chagall windows at Hadassah hospital. Huge hospital that we of course had trouble navigating. You have to go through a whole shopping mall to get to the hospital, then walk through the whole maze of the hospital to get to the basement where the synagogue is. There are 12 small stained glass windows that depict the 12 sons of Jacob. Good thing there was an echoing audio description of them, otherwise we never would have known what they were.
We got back in the car and headed back to Tel Aviv. There was traffic. A little taste of New York. So we got back to Tel Aviv and had to have dinner right? We found a restaurant in Jaffa, near the flea market. Easy right? Ha! The streets in Jaffa might be smaller and more windy than Tsfat. Zelda was not happy. It took quite a while to find the restaurant. We were determined though, and finally found it. Yum! Best food I've eaten in five months. Living as a volunteer I never eat in fancy places...rarely ever even eat indoors.
Tomorrow is their last day in Israel. We'll see what kind of adventures we can fit in to the last day.

Last Trip of the Semester....Eilat etc

The first semester is coming to a close and this weekend we went on our last overnight trip. We headed out early Thursday morning (and on time….unusual for our group) and made our way South to Eilat. On the way we stopped at Sde Boker, the kiibutz where Ben Gurion retired to and eventually died. He and his wife are buried right next to a cliff overlooking an amazing view of the Negev. We hiked through Ein Avdat national park then stopped at the ancient city of Avdat. Avdat was home to the Nabataens (the same people who built Petra). We learned a bit about the history then got a chance to wander around the ancient city. I LOVE history and ancient stuff!!

We headed to Kibbutz Ketura for dinner and a good night’s sleep. Ketura is where we stayed for our orientation week in September. It was nice to go there at the end of the semester too. As always we made some delicious food for dinner. For a group of twenty something recent college grads, we are really good cooks!

On Friday we went on another hike through some absolutely beautiful desert scenery. The Negev looks a lot like the Southwestern part of USA and the hike we went on reminded me of the Grand Canyon. We even got to see some Ibexs. We watched one jump off a rock ledge onto another really small one. It was amazing that he didn’t fall to his death. Ibexs are super cool! After the hike we headed down to Eilat and stopped at the beach. I swam in the Red Sea for the first time. It was really salty, kinda like the Dead Sea, and floating was really easy. I also got a chance to do some snorkeling. I saw some really beautiful fish and lots of funny-shaped coral. We made another delicious meal and slept wonderfully in the comfort of a hotel.

Saturday we went to Kibbutz Lotan. Lotan is known for its ecological features. They have small houses made out of mud, solar ovens using nothing but reflective surfaces and the desert sun, and composting toilets. You do your business, pour in some straw, and everything goes into a tank below. In about 5 months it all turns to dirt. I hate science, but it was pretty awesome! They also had a sweet playground, which of course brought out the children in all of us, especially the giant twister board. After that we went to Timna, which is basically a huge rock amusement park. There was one boulder that was shaped like a mushroom after millions of years of erosion.

Two of our fellow participants, Katie and Nate, are getting married in two weeks when they go home for the semester break. We decided to celebrate their wedding by putting together a collection of good wishes etc from the whole group. We also decorated our hands with henna, which is a traditional wedding activity in many Middle Eastern cultures.

Overall, our last trip of the semester was pretty spectacular.