Hey Everyone,
Last time I checked in, I was explaining how incredibly fun our Southern Tiyul was and beaming with excitement as I was writing it from the Kibbutz. I didn't actually tell you anything about the Kibbutz, though since I was waiting for this post. Here it is: WEEK ONE ON THE KIBBUTZ! And the funniest part is the very end.
On Wednesday, we had some time to say goodbye to our friends in the other Nativ groups, and then we got on a bus which took us to our respective destinations. We showed up to Kibbutz Ein Tzurim only to see something that I haven't seen in months: grass. The Kibbutz is green, beautiful, rainy (even though Israeli is in a drought), and massive. But little of that actually mattered on our first day as the majority of it was spent finding our bags and unpacking into our new rooms. On Wednesday night, the majority of the group wound up in our common room playing board games and hanging out. It was very low key and very fun, and I thought to myself that if this was to be my night time activity for the next four months, I would be more than OK.
On Thursday we had a very open day. We woke up for t'fillot, had breakfast, and then had the rest of the day to unpack. After lunch, a group of about 15 of us decided to go to the local shopping center in order to buy more storage space and various things for our room and were hit in the face with the realization that we aren't in Jerusalem, a major metropolitan city, anymore.
We walked out of our Kibbutz onto the main road knowing that any bus going in a certain direction would take us to the place, and we naively assumed that a bus would come very often as this bus stop had a sign for Jeruslaem, Tel Aviv, and Be'er Sheva, three major Israeli cities. We could not have been more wrong. After over an hour of waiting, a bus finally showed up, and we piled on en route to what would become a very successful shopping trip. I know that this doesn't sound that exciting or that dramatic, but believe me: after months of walking outside of our building and being half a block away from a station that has buses running every two minutes, this was quite an eye opening experience. The shopping center itself wasn't that exciting, but I can tell you that a few rooms left with pet fish.
We unpacked some more that afternoon, and then at night, I played some basketball with some friends and played some more board games in the common room. You'll notice this pop up as a trend.
On Friday, I woke up to do Zumba (a latin dance workout), had lunch, finished unpacking, and then got ready for Shabbat. Throughout the day, All I could think about was just how low key and laid back life on the kibbutz seems to be. Everything is so chill. After a very nice Kabbalat shabbat and dinner, we played some more games during the evening. It was a great way to begin the first Shabbat on the Kibbutz.
On Shabbat we woke up, had services, and then a few of us got to meet our host families for lunch. I was one of the lucky few who (along with another girl) is to be hosted by this woman named Rivka for the next few months. Lunch on the Kibbutz is early, so we got to her home at about quarter to 11. We left at quarter after five. Let me explain why: Rivka is an Australian firecracker in her mid 60s whose nearly 90 year old mother lives across the street on the kibbutz. She has four grown children, has done/learned everything in her lifetime, and still teaches English both in private lessons and to Autistic kids in a nearby town of Ashkelon. She was SO cool.
We went straight from lunch to dinner. Oops...
On Saturday night, we met and learned where we would be working for the next few months and which various committees we would be on. It was a surprisingly tense room when they announced which jobs we would be doing. I got exactly what I asked for: a job in the fields. However, since farming doesn't start until mid march, I was assigned to do various busy work around the gan (preschool) for the first month. Afterwards, we discussed Kibbutz group committees, and I joined the BBQ va'ad (committee) and the green va'ad.
On Sunday, we started work. I was raking and cleaning the area around the 1-2 year olds. Every time I walked by the kids, I started playing with them, talking to them, and making them laugh. The teachers asked us if we wanted to go on the walk around the kibbutz with the kids, and obviously, we joined them. These children are SO cute. One boy had started walking a week prior and I was helping him; one girl's nose was constantly dripping all over everything and every time I touched her face with a tissue she giggled; all of the kids jumped around in puddles as though it was the first time they had ever seen water. It was SO FUN. When the teachers asked me why I didn't ask to work in the gan, I didn't know the answer. Sure enough, later that day, I asked to be perminantly switched into the gan, into the same class of 1-2 year olds since they were amazing and I had so much fun with them.
I got off of work at around noon, had lunch, and went straight to a nap since I was going to wake up at 1:30 am to watch the Superbowl.
When I woke up on Monday morning, I looked at my phone to see that it was 6:45 and was FURIOUS at myself for missing it. My alarm went off, but I didn't wake up to see the game. I was upset, but I got over it since I was off to work with small children all morning.
After breakfast, I went to the gan and was greeted by the teachers with hugs and many of the students with hugs as well. Some of the kids were deathly afraid of me (since they hate strangers and hadn't gotten to know me the next day), but over the course of the day they got used to me. I left them after putting them down for the nap and was done for the day.
The funniest (but most frustrating) part of the week came when we had to do laundry. While the kibbutz is mostly privatized, laundry is still done by laundry workers, but we had to sort it to allow for them to do it the way they wanted to. First, we had to label every single article of our clothing with our specific number: every sock; every pair of of underwear; every Hanes white tee; everything. Then we were told that we had to sort everything into two bags: socks/underwear and whites, with everything else going into a separate big bag to be sorted later. When we got to the laundry, we put everything into large buckets only to be informed that we had done it completely incorrectly, and we were forced to do it again. Though frustrating, it was kind of funny.
Upon leaving the laundry, me and 2 other BBQ va'ad members began prepping and cooking for the BBQ. Though it took us about two hours to get food on the table for everyone, we were able to grill in the rain and make some VERY good chicken. After dinner, we watched the Superbowl episode of Glee (which was incredible), and then went to bed.
This morning we had an introduction to what Tuesdays would look like, and now I'm off to Jerusalem to meet with the Director of Ramah California and see some Nativers from other groups.
That's it for now,
Becca
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
A Week in the Desert (POSTED FROM THE KIBBUTZ!!!!!)
Hey Everyone,
Last time I checked in with you all, I was preparing to leave Jerusalem, something that I never thought would actually happen. We spent a week in the south of Israel, and that is what I am going to talk about now.
On Thursday (a week from today), we woke up at the crack of dawn, prayed, and headed off to the area around Ein Gedi (a beautiful spring next to the Dead Sea) and did a hike down there. The hike was uneventful, but pretty anyways. Here is a picture.
From there, we drove over to a Bedouin tent where the group spent the night. When I say that we went to Bedouin tent, I am misleading you heavily, because all of these Bedouin tents are set up for tourists who want to get the ‘real Bedouin experience.’ Since Bedouins now live in villages and no longer wander (at least in the south of Israel), that experience isn’t really possible. It was a fun night anyways. It started off with us taking a camel ride. Though I thought it was quite fun, the boys among us did not stop complaining for the most part since apparently it was not very comfortable for them. My partner and I named our rebelious camel ‘Uncle Buck’ since he was constantly trying to buck us off his back. It was terrifying, but quite amusing. Say hi to Uncle Buck.
After our camel ride, we had a delicious dinner, a fun bonfire, and then we went to sleep. The highlight of my night was the walk a friend and I took out of the tent area and down the road a ways in order to look at the beautiful stars. It was a cloudless and clear night, and as we were lying on the desert ground, we saw a comet that appeared to move in slow motion across the sky. It was AMAZING!
The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast, and got ready for another hike. I don't remember what it was called, but it was a really pretty hike somewhere in the desert in the south. It involved a lot of climbing over rocks and there were a few places with ropes and ladders, so it was really fun. Here is a picture, but to be honest, to you, it's going to look virtually the same as the pictures from every other desert hike I've showed you pictures from.
After the hike, we went to Kibbutz Ketora in the beautiful Arava valley. People assume that everything in the south of Israel is a part of the Negev desert, but the Arava valley is actually the desert that is parallel to the negev desert. The kibbutz is incredibly close to the borders of both Egypt and Jordan.I'll take this time to mention that despite the events going on in Egypt right now, life in Israel has continued normally as though nothing is going on.
When we got there, it was roughly an hour before Shabbat began, so we had a mad scramble to get showered, dressed, and out the door. To say the least, getting four girls showered and dressed up in an hour is a virtually impossible task. We (mostly) succeeded though, and after a tour of the kibbutz, services, and a really good dinner, I went to bed, completely exhausted.
On Saturday, we woke up, went to services, and then took a walk to the Kibbutz's date tree grove. They have about 2,000 date palms (if I remember the number correctly) surrounded by a large number of donkeys which eat the dead leaves and fertilize the area (in addition to runoff from the cow area). After lunch and a series of games of the incredible game Set with a friend of mine, we did havdallah and then set off for what would become one of the most awkward (yet awesome) activities I have ever participated in: Shitsu Wholistic Massages at Kibbutz Lotan, a neighboring Kibbutz.
It was a roughly 45 minute long partner massage activity in which, without warning, we were instructed to massage people in ways that really seemed to invade all of our privacy. While it was entertaining to watch a group of 18 year olds pretend to take the activity seriously, it was frustrating since when taken seriously, this type of massage can actually be very relaxing (once you get over the initial awkwardness). When we got back to our Kibbutz, the game of soccer between a group of Nativers and some teens from the Kibbutz was still going, so I jumped in and played a bit. We got demolished, but it was fun to get back on the field anyways. The game ended at roughly 11:30 when the sprinklers went off.
On Sunday morning, we took a beautiful hike behind the kibbutz. It had a crazy uphill, but it led to some beautiful views. NOTE: If these pictures don't appear in the email version, click this link and read it from the actual blog site. http://www.beccarosenthal.blogspot.com/
Before I say what we actually did there, I'm going to mention that on our schedule, it said that we were going to be 'frolicking' in the dunes. To say the least, that's what we did. After getting lost on our way there (since every mountain in the desert looks the same and we hiked up one too early) we arrived at a massive dune with the softest sand I have ever encountered in my life. Though I had been there once before (when I was in Israel in 2008), it was incredibly fun. We spent a good two hours frolicking, wrestling [friendlily (I think that's a word) of course], running, rolling, burying ourselves, and having a general fun time. After leaving the dunes, we were surprised by a massive bonfire complete with my guitar (which I had put in a Kibbutznik's car without knowing why I was putting it there, s'mores, and a beautiful desert sunset. When we got back from the dunes, we had a BBQ dinner at Ketora's pub, and had another very low key night. Here are some pictures from the dunes and the sunset. Unfortunately, I didn't get any at the bonfire.
The next morning, we packed up and left Ketora en route to a beautiful hike in the Eilat mountains. Though I could say that it looked like every other hike in the desert, realistically, it was a little bit different. Instead of the mountains being primarily limestone, the mountains were mostly granite, so the color was a bit darker. The hike provided us with a view overlooking the city of Eilat, the Red Sea, the Jordanian City of Akoba (with its MASSIVE Jordanian flag blowing in the breeze), part of the Egyptian Sinai Desert and a lot of haze that blocked the view of Saudi Arabia. We also saw some marks left by Nativers before us. Here are some pictures from the hike.
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| You can see how the granite and limestone mix within the mountain range. It's quite beautiful. |
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| All of the kibutzniks who did the hard hike of the day. |
After a delicious post-hike-lunch, we got ready to go to the beach in Eilat where Nativ had set up for us to enjoy some water sports in the Red Sea: tubing, paddle boating, kayaking and Banana Boating. While it was by no means a beautiful day for water sports as it was foggy and cold, we had a total blast playing in the very salty warm water. We then had dinner back at the hotel and a free night in Eilat.
What made this night significant was that it was our last night together as a 91person program (or at least last one for a long time) as the next day we were splitting up into our three groups. It was a very fun night. It started off with a friend and I getting ear piercings (because we had been talking about it for a long time), and ended with me and two of my best friends standing in the wake on the shore with our feet in the sea talking about life. It was a great way to both end the tiyul and end our time all together.
Wednesday morning was weird. We packed up and gathered in the lobby as a group of 91. While we all knew that eventually we would be splitting up and that eventually we would be volenteering in really cool other places, very few of us actually internalized that this would all mean leaving some of our closest friends behind in other places. It was a very intense and huggy half hour as we all said our "See you later" goodbyes, and then we were all on three seperate busses.
One bus drove about two hours to Yerucham.
One bus drove about 7 hours to Karmiel
My bus landed about 3 hours later at Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, the place that I will be calling home for the next four months.
I'm going to save talking about the first few days on the kibbutz to my next post as this one has taken me a total of three days to write, but until then, have a great Shabbat, and be aware that I have a lot more time this semester to talk, email, skype, and generally communicate with people (though who knows what that's going to mean for blogging).
Shabbat Shalom,
Becca
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
My Final Week in Jerusalem
Hey Everyone,
I posted a few days ago saying that I would post about the weekend and the stuff I've done this week, so without further ado, here it is.
I spent my post-dig weekend with Rachel Heinstein, an old teacher of mine from Tehiyah, her husband, and Emily Pascal, a former classmate from elementary and middle school who is also taking a gap year before going to college. To say the least, we had a fantastic time. It is always fun to catch up with people whom you haven't seen in a while, and since Emily had just spent 3 months in South America, there were many stories to be told. We ate delicious food, slept a lot, talked about everything, took a really nice walk to a viewpoint in Talpiyot that overlooked the entire old city of Jerusalem, and enjoyed a very restful weekend. It was a great way to spent my final weekend in Jerusalem (until the last weekend in May which will be my last weekend of Nativ).
This week on Nativ included a three day 'Israel Today Seminar' in which we went to places and talked to people that showed us different aspects of Israeli society, culture, politics, art, and everything in between. Each day we had a few choices of where to go, and all of the options were great.
On Sunday, the group I went with was focusing on the oh-so-controversial settlements. We first went to Gush Etzion, a place that is the name of a group of settlements that were originally built by pioneers before the establishment of the State of Israel in Judeah and Samaria (the West Bank). I found it quite amusing that the bus we took to get there was bulletproof. We saw a movie about the place that was built in the late 1920s but destroyed by Arab Riots in 1929 and 1936. Eventually, during the war of Independence, everyone who lived in the place was killed by the Muslim armies that had laid siege to the settlement. We didn't really get to talk to people who lived there, but we did get to see a museum that talked about the initial settlements from that region and their hardships.
We then went to the City of Efrat to talk to "Settler Bob," a man who lives in the settlements. He talked about the relationship between the Jews and the Arabs in Judeah and Samaria (making a very specific point to not call it the West Bank) and about the complex relationship between them. He spoke very critically about the Palestinian Authorities' government and their inability to help improve the lives of their citizens; he spoke about the dangers posed to Palestinian people if they are perceived by their government to be too friendly with Israelis. I could talk for days about him and his fascinating stories about life in the settlements, but what he repeatedly stated is that peace will only be possible if both sides realize that the other has a right to exist AND that the other must use the other in order to succeed. He saw the settlements as places that bridge the gap between Israel and Palestine, not places that separate the peoples.
That night, we went to see a performance put on exclusively by people who are both blind and deaf. I honestly can't describe it, so here is the link to their website: http://www.nalagaat.org.il/hazon.php
On Monday, the the was Israeli Society. The day started in Mea Sha'arim, a Chareidi (black hat ultra-orthodox) neighborhood in Jerusalem, meeting a Chareidi man who showed us a school and then did a Q and A with us. In our neighborhood here, we have seen multiple protests against the Chareidim and their lack of participation in large-scale Israeli society ranging from the Army to not going to Israeli schools and still getting money from the Israeli government. It was nice to hear his perspective on the whole thing. Not surprisingly, I didn't agree with many of the things that he said but he most certainly did help show us the complexities in the society and the system.
We went from their to a town near Tel Aviv called Lod, which is a very poor immigrant town with large amounts of issues with their (lack of) municipality, racism, crime, and more. We talked to a former Nativer who is volunteering for an organization that helps people in the city realize that they have rights that they aren't getting from the government (such as access to housing and jobs) and helps them to get those things.
On Tuesday, I spent my day in Tel Aviv talking about the old and new Tel Aviv. We started off by going to the first Jewish neighborhood that sprung up outside of Jaffa (the original port city in Israel) and checking out some of the sights there. We then went to the Shuk (market) and spent about 45 minutes walking around this massive place. The highlight was meeting the Messiah, a very nice man who was sitting on the pedestrian walkway with his wife. I'm not joking. This man legitimately spends his time sitting on the ground of a busy walkway in Tel Aviv explaining to people that he is the Messiah. Though he was smoking a cigarette and awkwardly combing the hair of the woman sitting next to him (again, not kidding), I think that he might be the real deal. The honestly funniest moment happened when I asked our guide why he didn't come to Jerusalem to try to convince the masses that he is the real deal, but she mentioned that the last time that happened, the potential messiah got killed. When I asked her when, she replied, "Jesus." We then went to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Tel Aviv to look at the gorgeous view of the city--from the 50th story of a building.
That night, we did among the coolest things I have ever done and went to an exhibit called "Dialogue in the Dark." It is basically a museum in pitch blackness that takes you through normal day to day scenes in your life without the sense of sight. It was fascinating. The museum simulates a forest, a cabin, a market, a boat, a street, and a cafeteria. I can't explain the sensation. I can say that it was really cool.
Today was orientation and packing day, our final day in Jerusalem until the very end of may when we come back for the end of the program. It was nice to finally hear about next semester, figure out rooming (which included a lot of drama for the non-kibbutz groups), and get a chance to reflect on the past semester. Without boring you all too much, I figured that I would just share a bit of my thoughts about Jerusalem as I prepare to leave it.
The city has many levels. On the surface, there is the level for the tourists. Everything is perfect, everything is beautiful, and everything is magical, everything is holy. Behind that, though, there is the complexity that makes up a modern yet ancient city. I won't go into it now, but after four months of living in Jerusalem, I can honestly say that it is NOTHING like I expected it to be.
I don't know what my role in Jerusalem was. I don't think that I was a tourist, since a tourist doesn't live somewhere for four months. I don't think I was an Jerusalemite, since I am by no means one (I figure I don't need to explain this). I think I was somewhere in teh middle at a place that allowed me to understand a lot of teh culture while missing a lot of the nuance. I conclude by saying that I can't wait to spend more time here.
Thanks everyone for reading this post. I am now off to the South for a week where I won't have internet, and next Wednesday, I will be on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim.
Until then,
Becca
I posted a few days ago saying that I would post about the weekend and the stuff I've done this week, so without further ado, here it is.
I spent my post-dig weekend with Rachel Heinstein, an old teacher of mine from Tehiyah, her husband, and Emily Pascal, a former classmate from elementary and middle school who is also taking a gap year before going to college. To say the least, we had a fantastic time. It is always fun to catch up with people whom you haven't seen in a while, and since Emily had just spent 3 months in South America, there were many stories to be told. We ate delicious food, slept a lot, talked about everything, took a really nice walk to a viewpoint in Talpiyot that overlooked the entire old city of Jerusalem, and enjoyed a very restful weekend. It was a great way to spent my final weekend in Jerusalem (until the last weekend in May which will be my last weekend of Nativ).
This week on Nativ included a three day 'Israel Today Seminar' in which we went to places and talked to people that showed us different aspects of Israeli society, culture, politics, art, and everything in between. Each day we had a few choices of where to go, and all of the options were great.
On Sunday, the group I went with was focusing on the oh-so-controversial settlements. We first went to Gush Etzion, a place that is the name of a group of settlements that were originally built by pioneers before the establishment of the State of Israel in Judeah and Samaria (the West Bank). I found it quite amusing that the bus we took to get there was bulletproof. We saw a movie about the place that was built in the late 1920s but destroyed by Arab Riots in 1929 and 1936. Eventually, during the war of Independence, everyone who lived in the place was killed by the Muslim armies that had laid siege to the settlement. We didn't really get to talk to people who lived there, but we did get to see a museum that talked about the initial settlements from that region and their hardships.
We then went to the City of Efrat to talk to "Settler Bob," a man who lives in the settlements. He talked about the relationship between the Jews and the Arabs in Judeah and Samaria (making a very specific point to not call it the West Bank) and about the complex relationship between them. He spoke very critically about the Palestinian Authorities' government and their inability to help improve the lives of their citizens; he spoke about the dangers posed to Palestinian people if they are perceived by their government to be too friendly with Israelis. I could talk for days about him and his fascinating stories about life in the settlements, but what he repeatedly stated is that peace will only be possible if both sides realize that the other has a right to exist AND that the other must use the other in order to succeed. He saw the settlements as places that bridge the gap between Israel and Palestine, not places that separate the peoples.
That night, we went to see a performance put on exclusively by people who are both blind and deaf. I honestly can't describe it, so here is the link to their website: http://www.nalagaat.org.il/hazon.php
On Monday, the the was Israeli Society. The day started in Mea Sha'arim, a Chareidi (black hat ultra-orthodox) neighborhood in Jerusalem, meeting a Chareidi man who showed us a school and then did a Q and A with us. In our neighborhood here, we have seen multiple protests against the Chareidim and their lack of participation in large-scale Israeli society ranging from the Army to not going to Israeli schools and still getting money from the Israeli government. It was nice to hear his perspective on the whole thing. Not surprisingly, I didn't agree with many of the things that he said but he most certainly did help show us the complexities in the society and the system.
We went from their to a town near Tel Aviv called Lod, which is a very poor immigrant town with large amounts of issues with their (lack of) municipality, racism, crime, and more. We talked to a former Nativer who is volunteering for an organization that helps people in the city realize that they have rights that they aren't getting from the government (such as access to housing and jobs) and helps them to get those things.
On Tuesday, I spent my day in Tel Aviv talking about the old and new Tel Aviv. We started off by going to the first Jewish neighborhood that sprung up outside of Jaffa (the original port city in Israel) and checking out some of the sights there. We then went to the Shuk (market) and spent about 45 minutes walking around this massive place. The highlight was meeting the Messiah, a very nice man who was sitting on the pedestrian walkway with his wife. I'm not joking. This man legitimately spends his time sitting on the ground of a busy walkway in Tel Aviv explaining to people that he is the Messiah. Though he was smoking a cigarette and awkwardly combing the hair of the woman sitting next to him (again, not kidding), I think that he might be the real deal. The honestly funniest moment happened when I asked our guide why he didn't come to Jerusalem to try to convince the masses that he is the real deal, but she mentioned that the last time that happened, the potential messiah got killed. When I asked her when, she replied, "Jesus." We then went to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Tel Aviv to look at the gorgeous view of the city--from the 50th story of a building.
That night, we did among the coolest things I have ever done and went to an exhibit called "Dialogue in the Dark." It is basically a museum in pitch blackness that takes you through normal day to day scenes in your life without the sense of sight. It was fascinating. The museum simulates a forest, a cabin, a market, a boat, a street, and a cafeteria. I can't explain the sensation. I can say that it was really cool.
Today was orientation and packing day, our final day in Jerusalem until the very end of may when we come back for the end of the program. It was nice to finally hear about next semester, figure out rooming (which included a lot of drama for the non-kibbutz groups), and get a chance to reflect on the past semester. Without boring you all too much, I figured that I would just share a bit of my thoughts about Jerusalem as I prepare to leave it.
The city has many levels. On the surface, there is the level for the tourists. Everything is perfect, everything is beautiful, and everything is magical, everything is holy. Behind that, though, there is the complexity that makes up a modern yet ancient city. I won't go into it now, but after four months of living in Jerusalem, I can honestly say that it is NOTHING like I expected it to be.
I don't know what my role in Jerusalem was. I don't think that I was a tourist, since a tourist doesn't live somewhere for four months. I don't think I was an Jerusalemite, since I am by no means one (I figure I don't need to explain this). I think I was somewhere in teh middle at a place that allowed me to understand a lot of teh culture while missing a lot of the nuance. I conclude by saying that I can't wait to spend more time here.
Thanks everyone for reading this post. I am now off to the South for a week where I won't have internet, and next Wednesday, I will be on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim.
Until then,
Becca
Monday, January 24, 2011
A Week in a Mudpit (AKA Archeological Digging)
Hey Everyone,
Last time I checked in, I reported on my incredible winter break and mentioned that I would be going on an archeological dig up in the north of Israel for a week. I got back from the dig on Thursday, and since then, I've either been too tired or too busy to post about the dig. Sorry that it's been so long, but here it is anyways.
On Sunday, a group of 16 Nativers along with one of my staff members hopped on a bus to Tiberius in order to dig. We had a brief orientation about the site that we would be digging on (which I'll talk about more in a bit when I actually describe the digging process), and then we went to find a place for lunch on the Kineret (the Gallalee). We took our sandwiches off the bus and walked down to the shore expecting to plop down right there and eat--but no. Instead, we had an impromptu water hike to our lunch destination. Though people complained about the process of getting their shoes soaking wet and stepping on very sharp rocks in order to get to our final stop, when we got there, we understood: we had arrived at a beautiful waterfall. We all assumed that we would just be eating there, but without warning, our staff member ripped off his non-swimming gear and entered the warm water spring. Though no one other than myself as dumb enough to join him at first (especially since I joined him in jeans and a T-Shirt), eventually, a total of four of us went swimming. Here are some pictures.
After a low key night and a good night's rest, we woke up at the crack of dawn to daven and then dig. Before I talk about the dig itself, I'm just going to show you some pictures I took of the view from just outside of my room (and at breakfast) since it was absolutely beautiful.
Instead of going day to day in this post, I'm just going to explain the general structure of the day and use that framework to explain what we did. On all four of the days that we dug, we dug in the morning and then went on some sort of tour in the afternoon. I'll talk about teh digging first, and then I'll talk about the afternoon trips
The story of the excavation that we got to participate in is pretty interesting. The Vatican bought a large piece of land up near the Kineret near the place where Jesus did all his miraculous stuff in order to build a beautiful hotel for Christian pilgrims. In Israel, in order to get a building permit, archeologists have to go into the site and excavate just to make sure that they aren't building on top of any ancient ruins. When they started the salvage excavation on this land a few years ago, they found an ancient Roman synagogue which was identifiable since there was a stone with a Menorah engraved into it. This discovery was a big deal not only because it showed that Judaism was up in the North of Israel during the Roman period, but also, this menora was the first one ever found outside of Jerusalem. Because of the significance of the discovery, instead of just taking pictures and then building the hotel over it, the Vatican (and the Israeli Antiquities Association) decided to change the plan to include a large hotel directly adjacent to the to-be-excavated ancient Roman city. Our role was to begin the excavation of the area directly next to the synagogue.
When we learned that we would be starting an excavation directly from scratch, we were all really excited, but upon learning what that really meant, we didn't quite think the same way. Excavating isn't what we thought it was going to be. It isn't sitting in a nice quiet little cave picking up ancient ruins and lightly dusting them off; it isn't an instantly gratifying process in which every moment is filled with exciting discoveries; it isn't a fast process that just lifts ancient things magically out of the ground. It is a labor intensive process of moving mud from one place to another. When I say that, I need to be clear: when I say moving mud from one place to another, I truly mean that we spent our hours moving mud from one place to another.
We started with a pick-axe to turn the dirt floor into smaller chunks of mud. We then took a hoe and hoed the newly freed mud into buckets. We then threw the buckets in to a pile that grew significantly over the course of the day. It is painful; it is difficult; it is exhausting; it feels like you get no where. On the first day, I was having a blast, but many of the people around me weren't as thrilled. Here is a picture of what the project looked like at the beginning, what the work looked like, and of the attitudes of some of our participants on the first day.
The funniest moment of the digging itself occurred when we met a group of Chilean boys who were volunteering on this dig for a month. They were as unenthusiastic about it as we were, and so we spent a lot of time talking to them while pretending to work. I started talking to one of them about his travels and he mentioned that he had come from Spain. When he mentioned that he was in Madrid over New Years Eve, we quickly realized that we had both spent New Years in El Sol, the main square that I talked about in my last post. We were trying to figure out if we had seen each other, so I thought of the only activity that night that would have set my night apart from that of any other person in the square: the Macarena in the middle of the street.
When I asked if they had seen a group of people dancing the Macarena in a side street, they laughed hysterically for a while and then told me something that truly blew my mind: THEY HAD STARTED IT! I didn't remember them, and they didn't remember me, but we all had a funny time dancing in the streets of madrid a few weeks before the dig. It's a small world...
After the dig each day, we took a different trip. The first day, we went to Akko, the second day we looked at some still unpublished archeological sites (including a really cool Roman theater) in Tiberius, and the third day we did a hike where we walked down a massive cliff called the Arbel. Though it was all really cool, I'm really tired of writing so in my most normal fashion, I'm just going to show you some pictures. I can't show you pictures of the unpublished stuff since we were explicitly told not to, I can show you a lot of other cool stuff that we got to see and some gorgeous views.
Here are some pictures from Akko:
Here are some from Tiberius
In my next post, I'll talk about the weekend and this week, but until then, I hope you enjoyed this post!
Becca
Last time I checked in, I reported on my incredible winter break and mentioned that I would be going on an archeological dig up in the north of Israel for a week. I got back from the dig on Thursday, and since then, I've either been too tired or too busy to post about the dig. Sorry that it's been so long, but here it is anyways.
On Sunday, a group of 16 Nativers along with one of my staff members hopped on a bus to Tiberius in order to dig. We had a brief orientation about the site that we would be digging on (which I'll talk about more in a bit when I actually describe the digging process), and then we went to find a place for lunch on the Kineret (the Gallalee). We took our sandwiches off the bus and walked down to the shore expecting to plop down right there and eat--but no. Instead, we had an impromptu water hike to our lunch destination. Though people complained about the process of getting their shoes soaking wet and stepping on very sharp rocks in order to get to our final stop, when we got there, we understood: we had arrived at a beautiful waterfall. We all assumed that we would just be eating there, but without warning, our staff member ripped off his non-swimming gear and entered the warm water spring. Though no one other than myself as dumb enough to join him at first (especially since I joined him in jeans and a T-Shirt), eventually, a total of four of us went swimming. Here are some pictures.
After a low key night and a good night's rest, we woke up at the crack of dawn to daven and then dig. Before I talk about the dig itself, I'm just going to show you some pictures I took of the view from just outside of my room (and at breakfast) since it was absolutely beautiful.
Instead of going day to day in this post, I'm just going to explain the general structure of the day and use that framework to explain what we did. On all four of the days that we dug, we dug in the morning and then went on some sort of tour in the afternoon. I'll talk about teh digging first, and then I'll talk about the afternoon trips
The story of the excavation that we got to participate in is pretty interesting. The Vatican bought a large piece of land up near the Kineret near the place where Jesus did all his miraculous stuff in order to build a beautiful hotel for Christian pilgrims. In Israel, in order to get a building permit, archeologists have to go into the site and excavate just to make sure that they aren't building on top of any ancient ruins. When they started the salvage excavation on this land a few years ago, they found an ancient Roman synagogue which was identifiable since there was a stone with a Menorah engraved into it. This discovery was a big deal not only because it showed that Judaism was up in the North of Israel during the Roman period, but also, this menora was the first one ever found outside of Jerusalem. Because of the significance of the discovery, instead of just taking pictures and then building the hotel over it, the Vatican (and the Israeli Antiquities Association) decided to change the plan to include a large hotel directly adjacent to the to-be-excavated ancient Roman city. Our role was to begin the excavation of the area directly next to the synagogue.
When we learned that we would be starting an excavation directly from scratch, we were all really excited, but upon learning what that really meant, we didn't quite think the same way. Excavating isn't what we thought it was going to be. It isn't sitting in a nice quiet little cave picking up ancient ruins and lightly dusting them off; it isn't an instantly gratifying process in which every moment is filled with exciting discoveries; it isn't a fast process that just lifts ancient things magically out of the ground. It is a labor intensive process of moving mud from one place to another. When I say that, I need to be clear: when I say moving mud from one place to another, I truly mean that we spent our hours moving mud from one place to another.
We started with a pick-axe to turn the dirt floor into smaller chunks of mud. We then took a hoe and hoed the newly freed mud into buckets. We then threw the buckets in to a pile that grew significantly over the course of the day. It is painful; it is difficult; it is exhausting; it feels like you get no where. On the first day, I was having a blast, but many of the people around me weren't as thrilled. Here is a picture of what the project looked like at the beginning, what the work looked like, and of the attitudes of some of our participants on the first day.
The funniest moment of the digging itself occurred when we met a group of Chilean boys who were volunteering on this dig for a month. They were as unenthusiastic about it as we were, and so we spent a lot of time talking to them while pretending to work. I started talking to one of them about his travels and he mentioned that he had come from Spain. When he mentioned that he was in Madrid over New Years Eve, we quickly realized that we had both spent New Years in El Sol, the main square that I talked about in my last post. We were trying to figure out if we had seen each other, so I thought of the only activity that night that would have set my night apart from that of any other person in the square: the Macarena in the middle of the street.
When I asked if they had seen a group of people dancing the Macarena in a side street, they laughed hysterically for a while and then told me something that truly blew my mind: THEY HAD STARTED IT! I didn't remember them, and they didn't remember me, but we all had a funny time dancing in the streets of madrid a few weeks before the dig. It's a small world...
After the dig each day, we took a different trip. The first day, we went to Akko, the second day we looked at some still unpublished archeological sites (including a really cool Roman theater) in Tiberius, and the third day we did a hike where we walked down a massive cliff called the Arbel. Though it was all really cool, I'm really tired of writing so in my most normal fashion, I'm just going to show you some pictures. I can't show you pictures of the unpublished stuff since we were explicitly told not to, I can show you a lot of other cool stuff that we got to see and some gorgeous views.
Here are some pictures from Akko:
Here are some from Tiberius
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| Yes, these are bats on the top of a cave that we walked into. Apparently, this was the site of the place that we were going to excavate before it started raining. |
Here are some pictures from the Hike:
Becca
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Greatest Two Weeks Ever: Spain and Italy
Hey Everyone,
Last time I checked in, I was getting ready to go on a two week long trip to Spain and Italy. I outlined my travel plans and stated my excitement and expectations for the trip to be a lot of fun. The trip didn't meet my expectations. It exceeded them so much that I honestly don't know if I will ever have any sort of vacation this fun again in my life.
The problem is that I took this amazing two week long trip, and I have no idea how to effectively communicate to you just how fun it was. No one wants to read a 25 page essay (which is what I've written myself outlining this trip), but I don't want you all to feel gypped as though you didn't get a chance to hear about my adventures. Therefor, I'm going to compromise a little bit. I'll tell a few stories that I found particularly interesting, and then I'll just upload a lot of pictures and use captions to explain where I am. I think that's a good balance.
Story number one is a summery of New Years Eve. I spent my New Years in Madrid, and it was among the most fun nights I've ever had in my life. The night started at Shul and Chabad, and I wound up in El Sol, the central square in Madrid, when the clock struck midnight. I’ll talk about Chabad first.
Chabad in Madrid isn’t big enough to have a shul of its own, so we went to shul at Beit Yakov, one of I believe four synagogues in Madrid. It was quite an interesting experience. I’ll list a few of the more interesting things about it.
1) The shul was very hidden, and there was a cop car outside. The door of the synagogue had a Jewish star on it and a very big mezuzah, but aside from these obviously Jewish symbols, there was nothing that would give away the fact that this is a jewish building. Furthermore, security to get into the building was intense. They needed to see our passports, they asked us why we were there, they tested our Judaic knowledge, and overall they did not create the welcoming environment we were hoping to find in a shul across the world. It was also funny since there was more security to get into the shul than there was to get into the country.
2) The siddur was in Hebrew and Spanish, not English. Also, the transliteration had a ‘j’ instead of a ‘ch’ to make the throat grinding ‘chet’ sound that many people can’t pronounce.
3) While the men and women were separated (as they are in pretty much all orthodox shuls), the siddur had a bit in it about the meaning of shabbat where it mentioned that watching TV as a means for celebrating shabbat is appropriate. This means that the shul is VERY liberal
4) Kabalat shabbat services were led by a cantor who was sitting in the back of the shul. I don’t know if is
traditional in a sephardic shul or not, but it was something different than anything I am used to.
5) Most of the melodies were the same as those that we use in Ashkenazi shuls. I was actually a bit disappointed by this fact since I was curious about Sephardic melodies.
6) WE COULD FOLLOW THE ENTIRE SERVICE! We were able to pick up a siddur in a different country and particiapte in their service. It was a really exciting discovery.
7) The kiddush had meat served. Furthermore, I am not sure if the meat was kosher or not because I don’t know if they have a kosher butcher in Madrid or not.
We then went to dinner at the Chabad Rabbi’s apartment, and as always with Chabad, it was an interesting experience. There were four different languages spoken at the table (English, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish), and a very interesting mix of people from a very interesting mix of places. The highlight of the night was when the Rabbi invited all of us to his daughter's wedding in New York City at the end of January. Who cares if none of us know the bride or really know this Rabbi? We're all welcome to come to the wedding (and I'm sure you are too). But alas, I won't be able to attend.
From the Rabbi's house, we darted back to our hostel to get changed and sprinted over to the massive square in Madrid which housed an energy unlike anything I had ever seen before. There are two unique traditions for New Years in Madrid.
1) Everyone wears brightly colored or ridiculous looking wigs or hats. Here is a picture of my group and our hats at night and earlier that same day (after we had purchased them at what can only be described as a farmers market looking place for strictly wigs).
2) When the clock chimes midnight, the bell at the bell tower on teh square chimes 12 times. At each ring, people eat one grape to celebrate the new year. We came prepared, and though we didn't eat all of the grapes since we didn't hear all of the bells, we still thought it was a cool tradition.
Before the new year rang out though, the energy in the square was out of this world. There were SO MANY people. If you've ever seen any sort of show when they show a live feed of Madrid and they show a massive square, you will know where we were, since we were right smack dab in the middle of that square. here's a picture of the crowd looking to one direction. You can sort of see some of the hats too.
By far, the highlight of the night occurred after we had left the square when my friends and I saw a group of about ten Spaniards standing in the street singing the Macarena and dancing to it Bar Mitzvah Party style. Naturally, we joined in. It was the most unexpected thing I have ever been a part of, and though we all felt like idiots, we had a blast with it.
Story number two has to do with a game of Jewish Geography I played in a synagogue in Cordoba that truly reflected how all Jews know each other. My friends and I were in this building that had formerly been a synagogue during the Golden Age of Spain. It is one of three synagogues that still stands in the entire country, so we had to see it. My friend decided that she wanted to pray there, so she whipped out her pocket size siddur and davened mincha (the afternoon service). After she finished, a couple with Australian accents walked up to us and asked us if we were Jewish. We got to talking with them, and they told us that they were from Melbourne, Australia. After my friend identified a program that both we and the Australians knew of, I took a chance and threw out the name of the only Australian I know (who just so happens to be Jewish), and asked them if they happened to know the Efron Family.
I met the Efron family back when I was at Tehiyah. Their son, Noah, was the first person I ever played music with, and is a good friend of mine. John, the father, is a Professor at UC Berkeley. Sure enough, The couple that we met in the synagogue in Cordoba knew teh Efron family well to the point that they had been at Noah's Bar Mitzvah where he and I had performed together. The wife even has a video of that performance (and therefor, of me) somewhere in her house. We laughed about the small size of the Jewish world for a while, and now, whenever I go to Melbourne, I have a place to stay for Shabbat. Here's a picture of us and Vicki and Michael Factor.
The final story has nothing to do with Judaism, and everything to do with random comic events that happen to a group when in Rome. My friends and I were outside of the Colosseum in Rome looking at sunglasses being sold by those lovely vendors looking to rip you as they sell you terrible products. We were slowly bargaining him down from 10 Euros for a pair of sunglasses to 5, and I was working on 2 Euros when out of no where, while both me and one of my friends had glasses on our heads, our salesman folded up his table and sprinted away along with about five other men who had been selling stuff without a permit. A cop car had come up behind them, and they were running so they wouldn't get arrested. My friend and I thought that we had wound up with two free pairs of glasses since he had run away, but he tapped us on the shoulder and frantically said that we could get two pairs for five euros. He was so nervous as he took the money from us, and we all had a good time laughing at this ridiculous incident. Here's a picture of the group of us with our glasses at the coliseum.
I literally could share stories for days, but this post is already really long and I want to get to the pictures. So without further ado, here is a very small sampler of the pictures I took.
And now we go to Rome...
If you read this entire post, I'm glad, since I spent about 2 hours on it in total.
This week, I'm going on an archeological dig in the North, so I'll let you know how it was after I get back!
Until then, have a great week,
Becca
Last time I checked in, I was getting ready to go on a two week long trip to Spain and Italy. I outlined my travel plans and stated my excitement and expectations for the trip to be a lot of fun. The trip didn't meet my expectations. It exceeded them so much that I honestly don't know if I will ever have any sort of vacation this fun again in my life.
The problem is that I took this amazing two week long trip, and I have no idea how to effectively communicate to you just how fun it was. No one wants to read a 25 page essay (which is what I've written myself outlining this trip), but I don't want you all to feel gypped as though you didn't get a chance to hear about my adventures. Therefor, I'm going to compromise a little bit. I'll tell a few stories that I found particularly interesting, and then I'll just upload a lot of pictures and use captions to explain where I am. I think that's a good balance.
Story number one is a summery of New Years Eve. I spent my New Years in Madrid, and it was among the most fun nights I've ever had in my life. The night started at Shul and Chabad, and I wound up in El Sol, the central square in Madrid, when the clock struck midnight. I’ll talk about Chabad first.
Chabad in Madrid isn’t big enough to have a shul of its own, so we went to shul at Beit Yakov, one of I believe four synagogues in Madrid. It was quite an interesting experience. I’ll list a few of the more interesting things about it.
1) The shul was very hidden, and there was a cop car outside. The door of the synagogue had a Jewish star on it and a very big mezuzah, but aside from these obviously Jewish symbols, there was nothing that would give away the fact that this is a jewish building. Furthermore, security to get into the building was intense. They needed to see our passports, they asked us why we were there, they tested our Judaic knowledge, and overall they did not create the welcoming environment we were hoping to find in a shul across the world. It was also funny since there was more security to get into the shul than there was to get into the country.
 |
| This is what the door looked like |
2) The siddur was in Hebrew and Spanish, not English. Also, the transliteration had a ‘j’ instead of a ‘ch’ to make the throat grinding ‘chet’ sound that many people can’t pronounce.
3) While the men and women were separated (as they are in pretty much all orthodox shuls), the siddur had a bit in it about the meaning of shabbat where it mentioned that watching TV as a means for celebrating shabbat is appropriate. This means that the shul is VERY liberal
4) Kabalat shabbat services were led by a cantor who was sitting in the back of the shul. I don’t know if is
traditional in a sephardic shul or not, but it was something different than anything I am used to.
5) Most of the melodies were the same as those that we use in Ashkenazi shuls. I was actually a bit disappointed by this fact since I was curious about Sephardic melodies.
6) WE COULD FOLLOW THE ENTIRE SERVICE! We were able to pick up a siddur in a different country and particiapte in their service. It was a really exciting discovery.
7) The kiddush had meat served. Furthermore, I am not sure if the meat was kosher or not because I don’t know if they have a kosher butcher in Madrid or not.
We then went to dinner at the Chabad Rabbi’s apartment, and as always with Chabad, it was an interesting experience. There were four different languages spoken at the table (English, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish), and a very interesting mix of people from a very interesting mix of places. The highlight of the night was when the Rabbi invited all of us to his daughter's wedding in New York City at the end of January. Who cares if none of us know the bride or really know this Rabbi? We're all welcome to come to the wedding (and I'm sure you are too). But alas, I won't be able to attend.
From the Rabbi's house, we darted back to our hostel to get changed and sprinted over to the massive square in Madrid which housed an energy unlike anything I had ever seen before. There are two unique traditions for New Years in Madrid.
1) Everyone wears brightly colored or ridiculous looking wigs or hats. Here is a picture of my group and our hats at night and earlier that same day (after we had purchased them at what can only be described as a farmers market looking place for strictly wigs).
Before the new year rang out though, the energy in the square was out of this world. There were SO MANY people. If you've ever seen any sort of show when they show a live feed of Madrid and they show a massive square, you will know where we were, since we were right smack dab in the middle of that square. here's a picture of the crowd looking to one direction. You can sort of see some of the hats too.
By far, the highlight of the night occurred after we had left the square when my friends and I saw a group of about ten Spaniards standing in the street singing the Macarena and dancing to it Bar Mitzvah Party style. Naturally, we joined in. It was the most unexpected thing I have ever been a part of, and though we all felt like idiots, we had a blast with it.
Story number two has to do with a game of Jewish Geography I played in a synagogue in Cordoba that truly reflected how all Jews know each other. My friends and I were in this building that had formerly been a synagogue during the Golden Age of Spain. It is one of three synagogues that still stands in the entire country, so we had to see it. My friend decided that she wanted to pray there, so she whipped out her pocket size siddur and davened mincha (the afternoon service). After she finished, a couple with Australian accents walked up to us and asked us if we were Jewish. We got to talking with them, and they told us that they were from Melbourne, Australia. After my friend identified a program that both we and the Australians knew of, I took a chance and threw out the name of the only Australian I know (who just so happens to be Jewish), and asked them if they happened to know the Efron Family.
I met the Efron family back when I was at Tehiyah. Their son, Noah, was the first person I ever played music with, and is a good friend of mine. John, the father, is a Professor at UC Berkeley. Sure enough, The couple that we met in the synagogue in Cordoba knew teh Efron family well to the point that they had been at Noah's Bar Mitzvah where he and I had performed together. The wife even has a video of that performance (and therefor, of me) somewhere in her house. We laughed about the small size of the Jewish world for a while, and now, whenever I go to Melbourne, I have a place to stay for Shabbat. Here's a picture of us and Vicki and Michael Factor.
The final story has nothing to do with Judaism, and everything to do with random comic events that happen to a group when in Rome. My friends and I were outside of the Colosseum in Rome looking at sunglasses being sold by those lovely vendors looking to rip you as they sell you terrible products. We were slowly bargaining him down from 10 Euros for a pair of sunglasses to 5, and I was working on 2 Euros when out of no where, while both me and one of my friends had glasses on our heads, our salesman folded up his table and sprinted away along with about five other men who had been selling stuff without a permit. A cop car had come up behind them, and they were running so they wouldn't get arrested. My friend and I thought that we had wound up with two free pairs of glasses since he had run away, but he tapped us on the shoulder and frantically said that we could get two pairs for five euros. He was so nervous as he took the money from us, and we all had a good time laughing at this ridiculous incident. Here's a picture of the group of us with our glasses at the coliseum.
I literally could share stories for days, but this post is already really long and I want to get to the pictures. So without further ado, here is a very small sampler of the pictures I took.
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| This is the Museo del Jamon in Madrid. All of those hanging things are hams. The amount of pork available in Spain truly blew my mind, and as I was traveling with a vegetarian and a girl who kept kosher, finding food without pork in it was always a challenge. |
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| This is the Feminist Book Store. We found it on our Rick Steve's walking tour of Madrid, and we spent about a half hour inside looking at books either about or written by women. They had translations of lots of books I've read (including Persepolis, a graphic novel) into Spanish. |
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| In Plaza Major on New Years Eve Day, there was a carnival of sorts. Tons of families with young kids were out. Our favorite spot had two guys making massive bubbles. Here's a picture I took of one of them. Take a look at the really cute kid in the background. |
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| This is the Royal Palace in Madrid. Unfortunately, we couldn't get inside since we had planned on seeing it on January 1st, and we didn't think about the fact that museums are closed on Holidays. The outside was pretty though... |
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| This is a picture of Dave, Tamar, and me next to a really pretty set of arches in Madrid. They were right outside of a 300 acre park behind the Prado museum (that we also didn't see because it was New Years Day). We had a nice shabbat picnic in the park though. |
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After our picnic, we found this really cool tree hollow by the lake...so naturally we took a picture
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| This is a picture of the Cathedral in Seville. The outside is beautiful, and the inside was equally amazing. The following picture is from the tower on the right hand side of this picture. |
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| This is the view from the top. The round thing is the bull fighting arena. The 360 view from the top of that tower was actually out of control. We had to climb about 40 flights of stairs to get there, but it was totally worth it. |
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| In Seville, so much of the culture revolved around bull fighting. While this picture was taken in the Museum, many restaurants, bars, and other buildings had bull heads on the wall as decoration. |
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| This is a picture of our group around the Maimonides statue in Cordoba. The Jewish quarter was basically a shrine to him. |
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| This seal was on the ground in two different places in Cordoba. While most people most likely didnt' even see it, I happened to spot it out of the corner of my eye. For those of you who can read Hebrew, see if you can spot the word "sepharad," which means Spain. Also note how the shape of the seal is that of Spain (including Portugal) |
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| Here is a picture of the three of us with a Roman bridge and the Mesquita in the background. We spent a good half hour under this bridge just taking really cool looking pictures as the sun set. Below is one of my personal favorites. |
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| I took this picture, and I'm sort of obsessed with it. |
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| This is the bell tower of the Mesquita. We didn't get to climb it, but we sure enjoyed looking at it. It is BEAUTIFUL! |
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| This is a T-Shirt we saw in Cordoba. For those of you who can read Hebrew (or Arabic), you'll notice that the lettering is backwards and thus, it just reads as gibberish. However, the vast majority of tourists who buy this shirt just see Hebrew lettering. |
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| We found this tree in the Garden behind the Alcazar in Cordoba. It was SO cool. |
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| The Mesquita is a massive building, but the arches were designed to subdivide the space and make it feel really intimate. |
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| This is the Alter in the Misquita, which was the main mosque in Cordoba during the Golden Age. |
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| This picture really sums up Spain. The food you see is Churros con Chocolate. You've all seen Churros before, and the stuff in the cup on the right is chocolate bars melted into boiling milk. The rick Steve's Spain book is why we had so much fun. If you ever travel Europe, DO NOT GO WITHOUT RICK STEVES! |
And now we go to Rome...
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| All over Jerusalem, you see signs recognizing Gilad Shalit and asking for the government to fight to get him back from Lebanon, but I never expected to see one in Rome. |
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| We got to the sistine chapel right as it was closing, so everyone was pushing and shoving their way in. This was the crowd I was greeted by upon entering the glorious cite. |
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| This is the Last Judgment painting inside the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Though it is illigal to take pictures in the room because of copyright issues, I was able to sneak quite a few. The paintings were magnificent. |
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| This is a photo of the Hand of God section on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. |
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| Here is a picture of four out of the five of us in Rome outside of the coliseum. |
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| I watched the sunset from on top of the Dome atop St. Peter's Bascilica. It was among the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. It was also accentuated by the fact that I was having a conversation, in Hebrew, to two Israelis that we ran into on the top of this Catholic relic. |
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| This is the view of St. Peter's Square from the top of the dome. It was one of the most incredible views I had ever seen. |
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| This is Titus' arch at Palatine Hill. It was exciting to see it up close as I studied it in my Junior Year art history class. |
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| We took a picture of the five of us in a Roman metro station to show off our glasses, but a train came right as the picture was taken, so it looks really cool. |
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| Fun fact: ancient rome was heavily influenced by Egyptian culture. As a result, one king wanted to be buried in a giant pyramid in the middle of Rome. His wish was granted. |
This week, I'm going on an archeological dig in the North, so I'll let you know how it was after I get back!
Until then, have a great week,
Becca
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