tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16542361239937383612024-03-20T03:18:50.628-07:00Noa's Trip to IsraelDue to the fact that my dad, Paul Monheimer, received a Fulbright grant; my family and I are living in Israel for the next 3 months. Follow my experiences on my blog!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-61170850677241323622010-03-31T06:40:00.000-07:002010-04-02T05:18:21.926-07:00An Arab Villiage<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRN8jaOMeAyDc76wuVNzF4DStdJkJulTOho7BFKdtmhH89VYHqbDjDHwuljIMtwAubWAAEPvM6Y4N-VvR1kPI-dY5Ew4n50xLtUfBgBDOjBm_Mgrr9daLv6dQQNXGTjNcjaK4buPlpZzp/s1600/DSCN2878.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRN8jaOMeAyDc76wuVNzF4DStdJkJulTOho7BFKdtmhH89VYHqbDjDHwuljIMtwAubWAAEPvM6Y4N-VvR1kPI-dY5Ew4n50xLtUfBgBDOjBm_Mgrr9daLv6dQQNXGTjNcjaK4buPlpZzp/s320/DSCN2878.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455513018016261698" border="0" /></a><br />"Though they won't admit it, Israel's largest problem is the Israeli Arabs." -Ahmad Amer. This quote is the basis for what I saw and how the government treats people in Kfar Qasem. Two nights ago we went to Kfar Qasem, an Arab city/village for a night. We stayed with the Amer family. My dad met Ahmad Amer when he went to Washington D.C. for a Fulbright meeting. Ahmad was one of the Fulbrighters from Israel who went to the U.S. earlier in the year. He, his wife, Manal, and two children, Sayyed age 10 and Fatima age 5, were all very delightful people. Their house was the cleanest house that we'd seen in Israel. The was no clutter anywhere and the floors were spot and dustless! It was amazing! As we drove into Kfar Qasem the scenery completely changed. The roads stopped being paved, the street signs disappeared, and trash started appearing a lot more on the streets. "We (Israeli Arabs) are treated like 10th class citizens." -Ahmad Amer. Even though Arab Israelis are Israeli citizens, they don't get the same services that Jewish Israelis receive. Israeli Arabs pay taxes and do stuff for the country. For example, Mo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolletFnq0y2AGizFD_7tHVLUx1nPgtqGtgyqlr6WwdgttJezYDI_-n7v4x-crd-KY7hD1R16CzYZtc-E77fg7eIwF_g01_kU1_DO-umS_ZAghcft3kXWK86eHhpTuJibrMvHq8zSwDL6a/s1600/DSCN2873.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjolletFnq0y2AGizFD_7tHVLUx1nPgtqGtgyqlr6WwdgttJezYDI_-n7v4x-crd-KY7hD1R16CzYZtc-E77fg7eIwF_g01_kU1_DO-umS_ZAghcft3kXWK86eHhpTuJibrMvHq8zSwDL6a/s320/DSCN2873.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455513141442293282" border="0" /></a>st truck drivers are Israeli Arabs. We arrived in Kfar Qasem at around 3:30pm and talked to Ahmad about what it is like to be an Israeli Arab and his thoughts on Israel. Listening to Ahmad gave me a whole new and different perspective on how Israeli Arabs are treated. I had no idea how badly they are treated. And why? Because they are Arabs. Yes, some Arabs are bad, but for that matter so are some Americans, some Europeans, some Asians, some Africans, and so on and so forth. We talked to Ahmad until we went to dinner at around 8:00pm. I haven't had dinner so late since we were in Africa 2+ years ago! But it is the culture here. People eat lunch and dinner much later than we do in America. When we sat down at the restaurant we went to for dinner, we were quickly served tons of mezze. Mezze is like appetizers. There were many salads, dips, and of course bread. The bread was really good, it was like a pita but flattened out. The hummus was also really good, its consistency was perfect. There was enough mezze that I didn't need any more food. However, after a little while of enjoying the mezze, the waiter came and asked us what we would like to order for our entrees. My parents and I were a little shocked that they expected us<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7-RsBiib_vtm06FTHdSi9ow792wkvgZYvHeJ_ModhX3QVCOVaxNxvcOoFFx_-QW2wRLQN5d9XmH7Iaq218ZtoTh1v3Mjik6YhYLWB5BGigJK2FpXZQRzlfX9zkUTSdUXj3fk4NlFUXws/s1600/DSCN2876.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7-RsBiib_vtm06FTHdSi9ow792wkvgZYvHeJ_ModhX3QVCOVaxNxvcOoFFx_-QW2wRLQN5d9XmH7Iaq218ZtoTh1v3Mjik6YhYLWB5BGigJK2FpXZQRzlfX9zkUTSdUXj3fk4NlFUXws/s320/DSCN2876.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455513284228534466" border="0" /></a> to eat more food, but we still ordered entrees. My parents ordered lamb kabobs and I ordered a chicken kabob. Though shortly after ordering I canceled my kabob because I wasn't that hungry and my mom and I decided to split an order. That still turned out to be more that enough food. The food at that restaurant was really good! It was definitely some of the best hummus I've had here in Israel. The next morning after breakfast, the Amer family took us on a tour of their town. Our first stop was on the "Green Line." The "Green Line" is the line that separates Israel from the West Bank. There isn't really green line, but that is what the border is called. It was really weird being on that line..... Once we were done at the "Green Line," we continued our tour to the Jewish settlement three minutes away from Kfar Qasem. I was in a car with my dad and Ahmad and my mom was in a car with Manal, Sayyed, and Fatima. At the border crossing to get into the settlement, my car passed through with no problem, but the car with my mom and Manal in it got questioned. They stopped the car because they could tell that Manal was an Arab because of her headscarf. The asked why they were going here and asked for my mom's passport. But my mom talked her way in. :) As soon as we got into the Jewish Settlement, the streets were paved, there were street signs, and there was almost no garbage on the streets. The people in the settlement get services. After we came back from a quick walk around the settlement we hung out at Ahmad's house and then had lunch. Lunch was one of the best meals that I have had in Israel. Manal made all of it too! My favorite dishes were these little pastry dough triangles filled with some sort of deliciously seasoned meat, zucchinis stuffed with seasoned rice, and lamb bone cooked perfectly. It was so delicious! Kfar Qasem was one of the most interesting places that we have gone in Israel and I will never forget everything we ate, saw, and learned.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-22304374008762979072010-03-24T02:44:00.000-07:002010-03-24T04:17:01.049-07:00Eilat<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_m_QrTf_B0E8_wrjwhQ-38ImMJxQdERRmFWk-5pOyvMQha7SCGztllF7NLO-dJufDyS2ndy6-NgFjDRJhXyKfFrr3t_55ySOkDbK1pWtQ0afgSpzo2EtB2bov_FOLY9MdgmrVXFIfhNi2/s1600/DSCN2601.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_m_QrTf_B0E8_wrjwhQ-38ImMJxQdERRmFWk-5pOyvMQha7SCGztllF7NLO-dJufDyS2ndy6-NgFjDRJhXyKfFrr3t_55ySOkDbK1pWtQ0afgSpzo2EtB2bov_FOLY9MdgmrVXFIfhNi2/s320/DSCN2601.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452156491816951154" border="0" /></a><br />Over this last weekend we went to Eilat. Eilat is a beach resort place that is on the very southern tip of Israel. Eilat is also on the glorious Red Sea. We were in Eilat for four nights, and we stayed at the Dan Panorama. It was a pretty nice hotel and the Club Room that we got to go to was amazing! The Club Room always had food, but really good food and it wasn't ever crowded because we went during a week when the hotel wouldn't be overly crowded. My mom's and my goal while we were in Eilat was to get somewhat tan so we knew that we were going to sit by the beach and or pool for at least a few hours everyday. We achieved our goal and are now somewhat tan, though<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHRgbvGKUYj9D-Q20rkLpPljze_jmS7u1CUjgFiMvp4O4lbipanbXO8V-vCuLUy_y-uAzTqzkJaPq9mQnD93BlxZ9qlhdjkyhOhxoOO_xUazQeyjGaWUh9patZJIeaZPfqnF5YKnkm4437/s1600/DSCN2589.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHRgbvGKUYj9D-Q20rkLpPljze_jmS7u1CUjgFiMvp4O4lbipanbXO8V-vCuLUy_y-uAzTqzkJaPq9mQnD93BlxZ9qlhdjkyhOhxoOO_xUazQeyjGaWUh9patZJIeaZPfqnF5YKnkm4437/s320/DSCN2589.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452156582017210210" border="0" /></a> I hope the tan lasts until we get back to Portland...... On our first full day in Eilat we went to the Underwater Observatory. It was a little crowded but the fish and other stuff we saw there was really cool! We saw a shark feeding which was okay but my favorite part of going to the observatory was when we went underground (under sea level, but we were in a building) and got to see fish and coral. It was really amazing how they just swam right up to the windows. Though most of our pictures didn't come out because our cameras aren't really made to shoot stuff through gl<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCby9J288_xuptg5EsAtRK0LmeD9qO7KEw-dX-D_9d-UENSEA4jx-j0yk5wLooeARrelHR8STaL9uCLwIDAsjVwCA6XWwKx98QHPvk4AjbSxTc_aEEfVAII7oPZXF07l4CM67dRC5SY22/s1600/IMG_5162.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCby9J288_xuptg5EsAtRK0LmeD9qO7KEw-dX-D_9d-UENSEA4jx-j0yk5wLooeARrelHR8STaL9uCLwIDAsjVwCA6XWwKx98QHPvk4AjbSxTc_aEEfVAII7oPZXF07l4CM67dRC5SY22/s320/IMG_5162.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452156823542927778" border="0" /></a>ass underwater. We also went and saw the rare fish exhibit. Those fish were really funny looking. After we got back from the Underwater Observatory and had lunch in the Club Room, we went down to the pool and sun bathed for most of the afternoon. But of course, I went swimming a little bit too. :) For dinner that night, we went to Giraffe Noodle Bar. The food was really good! I had pad Thai with shrimp!! Shrimp has never tasted so good, shrimp isn't kosher so most restaurants don't have it. The pad Thai wasn't the best I've ever had, though because it had shrimp it was really good. My dad had the Afghan dish, which was chicken, bacon and rice in a soy caramel sauce. I liked <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpJHXNU79C6FQs4TG-uDCqGcbwq_aRzxYdp_2MYdBDnRXvfeV8VquFQHjzGiAF8g5YxsJRyKFsfnVY3oArM-GAV8IRkgpnMzT7IVLFccnz4Ilt0Cby0Mwmqdv2uNRKGN56hgsMCzUUhu05/s1600/DSCN2740.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpJHXNU79C6FQs4TG-uDCqGcbwq_aRzxYdp_2MYdBDnRXvfeV8VquFQHjzGiAF8g5YxsJRyKFsfnVY3oArM-GAV8IRkgpnMzT7IVLFccnz4Ilt0Cby0Mwmqdv2uNRKGN56hgsMCzUUhu05/s320/DSCN2740.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452157114321041042" border="0" /></a>that dish better than my pad Thai so when we went back to Giraffe the next night and our last night I ordered it. We went back to Giraffe three out of our four nights in Eilat. :) On our second full day we took a walk around the non-touristy part of town as well as the touristy sections during the morning and then went back to the pool in the afternoon. For dinner that night we went to a Tapas Bar. The tapas was so good! I loved all of the different types of tapas that we ordered. Though my favorites were grilled goat cheese with red peppers, calamari, and shrimp in a creamy garlic pesto sauce. I haven't had calamari in a while and this was definitely some o<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglxHvmH10-o4vkoFfnEdCM3Yj7KjTaB3pJQlVfMseR4neSqlKYaAK4GNUmscecpVlPFIkW2bb4mzbTm0usuPa_YXfMF2GlR8V6FECgeKlRpyMUewufu0PeJ0IHoDJbvrjbMckjBGKitUOV/s1600/DSCN2739.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglxHvmH10-o4vkoFfnEdCM3Yj7KjTaB3pJQlVfMseR4neSqlKYaAK4GNUmscecpVlPFIkW2bb4mzbTm0usuPa_YXfMF2GlR8V6FECgeKlRpyMUewufu0PeJ0IHoDJbvrjbMckjBGKitUOV/s320/DSCN2739.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452157340651624802" border="0" /></a>f the better calamari that I've had. Also, it was such a treat to be able to have shrimp two nights in a row in Israel. And because I love goat cheese caramelized goat cheese was a special treat as well. I really enjoyed tapas and would gladly eat it again! During our last full day in Eilat we went snorkeling. When we were in Mexico I loved snorkeling, but my snorkeling experience in Eilat wasn't the greatest. When I got in the water and was going out to be able to see the fish, I accidentally kicked a piece of coral and cut my foot in multiple places. When you get a cut and put it in salt w<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcd1MwkGTWI7kgIdOsNbzsDo_3UA_LTec2_o3bKvUbFmoUKfIsTD2WoIiRf6R8p55YFlzTnUKy3SaOezxuVGZMcpuk0yT8oI8RlrztAQ_jAjQDTKkNtheM_svBmRz6DhQ3v9Kboi5zlnVb/s1600/IMG_5307.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcd1MwkGTWI7kgIdOsNbzsDo_3UA_LTec2_o3bKvUbFmoUKfIsTD2WoIiRf6R8p55YFlzTnUKy3SaOezxuVGZMcpuk0yT8oI8RlrztAQ_jAjQDTKkNtheM_svBmRz6DhQ3v9Kboi5zlnVb/s320/IMG_5307.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452157723310529938" border="0" /></a>ater it really stings. Then my goggles started leaking so I got salt water in my eyes which also really stings. Luckily before all this happened I put my head under the water and saw a ton of beautiful fish. The fish basically swim right up to shore so you don't have to go very far out to see the fish. After snorkeling we went out and walked the board walk before going to dinner. It was our last night and my parents asked me where I wanted to go and I wanted to go back to Giraffe for the third time. So we went. And like the second time we went I got the Afghan dish. It was just as good! :) Eilat was really fun and I wish we could have stayed for longer!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-55564249599907478912010-03-17T07:00:00.000-07:002010-03-17T07:58:44.640-07:00Australia in Israel!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZZVC8L72kAPG0Mt9npVO-g0Rk0bazqmcNAwZPlM-N07X2vqJ4s5-ZfvlFgSWlOXyxRqKWbTJnXJ0IsFCvEujGfOwWE1W1mhCf553fFO5kzN5X_6snPDdU3zRU8iSx_ciGbwt97gNjME3V/s1600-h/DSCN2459.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZZVC8L72kAPG0Mt9npVO-g0Rk0bazqmcNAwZPlM-N07X2vqJ4s5-ZfvlFgSWlOXyxRqKWbTJnXJ0IsFCvEujGfOwWE1W1mhCf553fFO5kzN5X_6snPDdU3zRU8iSx_ciGbwt97gNjME3V/s320/DSCN2459.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449613416707066898" border="0" /></a><br />On the way back from the Golan Heights last weekend we decided to stop at "Gan Gagroo," a park that has only animals and plants from Australia in it. It was really cool to see all of these Australian animals, first of all because I've never been to Australia and second because we are in the middle of Israel being able to be around animals that live no where near Israel. We saw kangaroos, koalas, cassowari<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrapit1zmI9So8ywBofXlNcPsXOx1NZ8mPt0k_HTw8jhY7-t5SYlaRyT9y0hKvL7x38NIVcE_VNw40eYMz4SUrGm0JWZpKiohS4scMto4TdAnXiN6EEOZJjVFOCtWFlonglaId7GG4xbbc/s1600-h/IMG_4975.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrapit1zmI9So8ywBofXlNcPsXOx1NZ8mPt0k_HTw8jhY7-t5SYlaRyT9y0hKvL7x38NIVcE_VNw40eYMz4SUrGm0JWZpKiohS4scMto4TdAnXiN6EEOZJjVFOCtWFlonglaId7GG4xbbc/s320/IMG_4975.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449613620978470146" border="0" /></a>es, tons of beautiful bright colored birds, ostriches, lambs, swans, and many types of plants and other animals that I can't remember the names of. I really wanted to be abl<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4tJ_w0lciGLz78wLwQ-z-HXeHYzWyrlao3yv9GhNhOScO6U58TSxNVED4kSJm17XQ32xQr41xQbqk0T7Zv3SIh6aGa0_OvsqeKFeGPZWMnJ3MILzztUPp6Jz9ortXUttUsz84TEZSa4Uz/s1600-h/DSCN2480.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4tJ_w0lciGLz78wLwQ-z-HXeHYzWyrlao3yv9GhNhOScO6U58TSxNVED4kSJm17XQ32xQr41xQbqk0T7Zv3SIh6aGa0_OvsqeKFeGPZWMnJ3MILzztUPp6Jz9ortXUttUsz84TEZSa4Uz/s200/DSCN2480.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449613941029698562" border="0" /></a>e to see a kangaroo jump but we didn't get to. But this made sense to me because these animals are cooped up in small spaces that are not in their natural habitat, so they really see no reason to go bounding around. I'm sure in the wild the kangaroos look healthier because they are free and can go and do whatever they want but here locked up in a zoo type place they can't go and do whatever they want so they all looked rather tired and worn out. They actually looked like big rats with huge tails. The koalas were so adorable! I found out when we w<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ptTicwilEASVfKbfdbl3h2IbpGh96DsBajuqxlSb3aWm5EvEFQjPqyUAc98WV3TzQi2xzDi0T6Hxof7MYHprMgQTRQFTLMd6g0qtBMjAn9Z4_G5db3Ys75vZkxsldjwmoEai6zzRP7CK/s1600-h/DSCN2461.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ptTicwilEASVfKbfdbl3h2IbpGh96DsBajuqxlSb3aWm5EvEFQjPqyUAc98WV3TzQi2xzDi0T6Hxof7MYHprMgQTRQFTLMd6g0qtBMjAn9Z4_G5db3Ys75vZkxsldjwmoEai6zzRP7CK/s320/DSCN2461.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449614186533835010" border="0" /></a>ere there that they sleep around 23 hours everyday, so obviously they were asleep when we were at the park. Though they were sleeping they were still adorable! I really wanted to just go and hug one. :) It is sort of funny how they sleep though, they sleep sitting up stuck between 2 vertical tree branches. The koalas were definitely one of the animals that I most enjoyed seeing. Before we went to thi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyiJ1MOspVUYKkzB9F5IhkbEAyXBHWbUwiteVNPuKA1R6gb0y_BupnfRFuuuLzNDoG4BPATcSnBaOdWvT-3Z-UTi1V99jXSY8jW4Bz9rl3OTgA9KW9Ex0KMeOYL5wWAIPwwzFh0SBhg9Xi/s1600-h/DSCN2498.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyiJ1MOspVUYKkzB9F5IhkbEAyXBHWbUwiteVNPuKA1R6gb0y_BupnfRFuuuLzNDoG4BPATcSnBaOdWvT-3Z-UTi1V99jXSY8jW4Bz9rl3OTgA9KW9Ex0KMeOYL5wWAIPwwzFh0SBhg9Xi/s320/DSCN2498.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449614423235701890" border="0" /></a>s park I had no idea what a cassowary was. I quickly found out though. They are hard to describe so I hope the picture helps. They sort of look like a dinosaur mixed with a turkey mixed with an ostrich with some blue thrown in. We thought that they liked us when we were talking to them because the kept following us when we walked around the cage but then quickly changed our minds when it hissed very loudly at us. We decided that it was time to go see another animal. The birds were some of the prettiest birds I have ever seen. The colors were so exquisite and bright! My favorite bird was this bright green one with a few other bright colors on its neck and head. I had never seen a bird that was so brightly colored! I would love to go to Australia to be able to see these animals in their natural habitats!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8RR_qHT4IVzkmnveIFwpq9MZg_6vqddirK0QE2hNKuapEJsbby3MTVkGSyzq69jQ8MlnF0POoBNrijSQF6jBymQOpWV0WFVVwpioXfIDt3J9eH7Lbf6PmwI6By_cNkLBTovAhWNv_GGOw/s1600-h/IMG_4929.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8RR_qHT4IVzkmnveIFwpq9MZg_6vqddirK0QE2hNKuapEJsbby3MTVkGSyzq69jQ8MlnF0POoBNrijSQF6jBymQOpWV0WFVVwpioXfIDt3J9eH7Lbf6PmwI6By_cNkLBTovAhWNv_GGOw/s320/IMG_4929.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449614774810400738" border="0" /></a>Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-81032981725585896092010-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:002010-03-15T11:00:41.721-07:00An Orthodox Shabbat in the Golan Heights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_pSkdg9XiAVMK86gQ5i3F8yyKugI_AhKZsqYn0HkxJZEifRmOghYI3HPxtmC-un7jXx0NaefXkdeeTPHjy4zFRVegmT2Q7W0ZR5aad3CnWqrEx8HUeNt2GoaZ6wrBp4ptIOOCkv7Rb8fR/s1600-h/IMG_4760.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_pSkdg9XiAVMK86gQ5i3F8yyKugI_AhKZsqYn0HkxJZEifRmOghYI3HPxtmC-un7jXx0NaefXkdeeTPHjy4zFRVegmT2Q7W0ZR5aad3CnWqrEx8HUeNt2GoaZ6wrBp4ptIOOCkv7Rb8fR/s320/IMG_4760.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448908557968079298" border="0" /></a><br />This past Friday we drove up to the Golan Heights so that we could celebrate Shabbat and spend the weekend with my dad's friend, Elaine, and her family. On the drive up drove around the Eastern part of Israel along the Jordanian and Syrian borders. It was very odd to see the border fences of Jordan and Syria. The drive up took about 3 hours and we arrived at Allone Habashan, Elaine's neighborhood at around 4:30pm. When we arrived the family was still cleaning for Shabbat. Elaine's family is Orthodox so they celebrate Sha<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_IqTkhCs5Pb5QuKeCr1G547RNMWsPEhwosXc1e9ibNfFb2oRJT_9M5_twI-6iZaqIti4VpC9apcAQV3e4qXPcheDbxMw3n-8ikCRdq6sXpr_ihGqiCCEQ0Y6rKCIblcgdk-Io9SrP33g/s1600-h/IMG_4761.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_IqTkhCs5Pb5QuKeCr1G547RNMWsPEhwosXc1e9ibNfFb2oRJT_9M5_twI-6iZaqIti4VpC9apcAQV3e4qXPcheDbxMw3n-8ikCRdq6sXpr_ihGqiCCEQ0Y6rKCIblcgdk-Io9SrP33g/s200/IMG_4761.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448908696543330130" border="0" /></a>bbat very differently than I have ever celebrated it. Shabbat is supposed to be a day of rest, you aren't supposed to work or use electricity or anything like that that doesn't happen naturally. For example, Elaine's family does not use their computers on Shabbat and they don't turn on the lights either. They also don't write on Shabbat. Shabbat is a time to rest and not go about your life like every other day in the week. Shabbat starts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. It was very odd to not be able to use my computer or be able to do most of the stuff that I do everyday. Back to our time at Elaine's, not only did we celebrate Shabbat with Elaine's family, we got to celebrate it with two old friends of Chaim, El<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjsjc089P4qbGAhk8DwF8-A50ihcsCqkXkJPP8MxZ0dnhnWUHMuUfpufFEdLjT6ooFnGdPk1IlW0FB-PrZEaAqni5dtdIAsAPp66p_-oWYMQZKVbjoq59lBSJS1v7aknpNnefxeE3xRY1e/s1600-h/IMG_4889.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjsjc089P4qbGAhk8DwF8-A50ihcsCqkXkJPP8MxZ0dnhnWUHMuUfpufFEdLjT6ooFnGdPk1IlW0FB-PrZEaAqni5dtdIAsAPp66p_-oWYMQZKVbjoq59lBSJS1v7aknpNnefxeE3xRY1e/s320/IMG_4889.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448908903776823442" border="0" /></a>aine's Husband. Chaim and his friends are Yemenite and are very interesting people. Chaim spent the first few years of his life in a camp and met his friends, Effi and Zichron, in College. Elaine and Chaim had 6 kids though sadly one of them was killed in a terrorist attack so now their are only 5. We met 3 of the five, Michal, Orit, Avichai. I don't know if Effi has any kids and if he does they weren't at Shabbat dinner. Zichron's daughter Avigal was there with him. At around 6:00pm we went to Shabbat services at the synagogue that is in their neighborhood. Since it is an Orthodox synagogue, men and women must sit separately. Not only do women have to sit separate from the men, women have to sit in the back with a curtain blocking them from being able to see the men. It was very odd to me because at the synagogue that we go to in Portland everybody sits together. After services we went back to <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi789pk22cJqEed74a0Ay48HNeNOFfPMOcTpo_v9h6ogGsPR7IpSdHxZ3Pfl-FxZL6ZHAgVJh5KGqzYitkGViNwvGcmgqMxAkVBlVMqk0CDDxyvcYYs8avFZJnhAmcOVc9xOYB7OxoABzCs/s1600-h/DSCN2362.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi789pk22cJqEed74a0Ay48HNeNOFfPMOcTpo_v9h6ogGsPR7IpSdHxZ3Pfl-FxZL6ZHAgVJh5KGqzYitkGViNwvGcmgqMxAkVBlVMqk0CDDxyvcYYs8avFZJnhAmcOVc9xOYB7OxoABzCs/s320/DSCN2362.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448909346100866946" border="0" /></a>Elaine and Chaim's house for Shabbat dinner, candle lighting, and other blessings. Shabbat dinner was amazing. There was soooooo much food! I can't even remember all of the dishes but there were at least 5 courses! I haven't had that much food in a very long time. There were salads, meat dishes, lots of Challah (Jewish bread for Shabbat), potatoes, hummus and other dips, tons of wine though I didn't drink any, cakes, frozen fruit dipped in chocolate, and so much more. It was like a feast! Dinner went on for around 3 hours because we said prayers, sang a ton of songs (or they did, we couldn't because the songs were in Hebrew), talked and ate. At around 11:30pm my parents and I decided to go to bed, though the rest of the group was still up and eating sweet cakes. The next morning my p<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh79zpDDlEVPpoaoJT-7hwhyphenhyphen2FGzYkUVVM4TslKbv3AIjbrPuQL3owulFzduuoy4pccGssByEngl08xpP3csbpkQj2Z0fRuLH_67i4PRUvod8Q_QZfGLGAhPfzAw61KfwNMmI-SsKoJ37pt/s1600-h/DSCN2348.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh79zpDDlEVPpoaoJT-7hwhyphenhyphen2FGzYkUVVM4TslKbv3AIjbrPuQL3owulFzduuoy4pccGssByEngl08xpP3csbpkQj2Z0fRuLH_67i4PRUvod8Q_QZfGLGAhPfzAw61KfwNMmI-SsKoJ37pt/s320/DSCN2348.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448909587403115698" border="0" /></a>arents and I got up at around 8:00am because we decided that we didn't need to go to services Saturday morning. Because everybody else went to services, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. This "neighborhood" isn't like the kind of neighborhood that we think of in America, it is called a Moshav. A Moshav is a community where families live near each other in a small area and on this Moshav they farmed dairy. We did a few loops around the Moshav and on one of the loops we went and saw the barn with all of the cows. There were a ton of cows, baby cows, younger cows, and huge cows. It sort of reminded me of being in Oregon at Tillamook or in Hillsboro at the farms. :) At around 11:00am everybody came back from services and it was time to start preparing for another meal. Lunch was about as big as dinner the previous night. There were tons of salads, hummus type <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepdw-mJ6mik3VNdCT0LEiVn4xg9BnxSfHY2WOQRVHoAmmElUPJiIGzqs9_Iy4cayoCWYekyuUTI5sD6iU0PU5KlucFTXiCbPS6HsOKMy2LMZUq-n3hLQaC2P1wP3WqXx6OPR2GNWoocr0/s1600-h/IMG_4866.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepdw-mJ6mik3VNdCT0LEiVn4xg9BnxSfHY2WOQRVHoAmmElUPJiIGzqs9_Iy4cayoCWYekyuUTI5sD6iU0PU5KlucFTXiCbPS6HsOKMy2LMZUq-n3hLQaC2P1wP3WqXx6OPR2GNWoocr0/s320/IMG_4866.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448909799737270322" border="0" /></a>dips, fish, macaroni and cheese and another cake. We ate a lot of food over the past two days. After lunch we walked up a hill to see the Syrian border. We stood on an unused Israeli bunker and looked out over Syria. We saw some towns and cars and of course military stations. It was extremely weird and scary to be standing that close to a country that I'm not allowed in and that would like to see me dead. We stood in awe for a few minutes and then walked around the bunker for a l<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34uuLwW3pKsRKRKFrG1mosg9k5fqndPnNsXXxorNgGZDYmqjjdAXJTOdyeY_QPlUHLFgBUeRKE3n7BDrDw6AEl1nDbHyfo2JaRyZvk36R0bkCzcwA6LElIteAt2eJEVe0jYpnqjjuILik/s1600-h/IMG_4875.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34uuLwW3pKsRKRKFrG1mosg9k5fqndPnNsXXxorNgGZDYmqjjdAXJTOdyeY_QPlUHLFgBUeRKE3n7BDrDw6AEl1nDbHyfo2JaRyZvk36R0bkCzcwA6LElIteAt2eJEVe0jYpnqjjuILik/s320/IMG_4875.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448909966993923106" border="0" /></a>ittle while and then proceeded back down to the Moshav. This weekend was a very interesting experience and was something that I never expected to do.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-74401755882406461032010-03-10T02:42:00.000-08:002010-03-10T02:52:54.755-08:00The Beach, Jaffa, and more Tel AvivMy mom and I decided to go to Tel Aviv for a night because my dad would be working all day Monday and Tuesday. We were looking for hotels when our friend, Katherine, who we met on the Fulbright trip, said that we could stay at her place in Jaffa. Jaffa is part of Old Jaffa but it isn't the old part. We took a sherut to Tel Aviv. A sherut is a mini-van that hold around 10 people. They go much faster than the buses so the ride only took like 35-40 minutes instead of 55-60 minutes. Once we arrived in Tel Aviv we took a bus to Jaf<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZJk3hxq5oC6vyv4krlxjHJ3nEcFBHKsJLFXNKy3VPiCfh_FH28vamoB42i7zKz24FsBXkJ0VEX1_Tf5tUU99oIQfVQf3KSLjccrOVai_yNaOJNuN_xiSo_8qy8GLF7ghqNFZhb3jw4R7e/s1600-h/IMG_4745.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZJk3hxq5oC6vyv4krlxjHJ3nEcFBHKsJLFXNKy3VPiCfh_FH28vamoB42i7zKz24FsBXkJ0VEX1_Tf5tUU99oIQfVQf3KSLjccrOVai_yNaOJNuN_xiSo_8qy8GLF7ghqNFZhb3jw4R7e/s320/IMG_4745.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446955889933578354" border="0" /></a>fa. We weren't exactly sure where to get off the bus because we had never taken buses around Jaffa before, but this nice soldier told us where to get off. When we finally arrived at Katherine's place it was already noon and we were ready to get to the beach. Katherine's place was amazing, all the walls were colorful and the tile floor was colorful and had a very cool pattern. Her apartment is like the exact opposite of ours, hers is very colorful and ours is basically all white. Once we had said hello to Katherine and put our bags down we quickly changed into our swimsuits and started to walk to the beach. While we were walking we got very hungry because it was already 12:45<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio55ndxn7tkuezaUHRdGoYjKVe2H8bQpAPEehlMU6bJedA62A47uhsnv4SQZsexKgNT085SJF4UIZmbrpSVKPvz-Z3f5A0xcWTESlRpQKbPr0JzgE_zvtPCYoB5-2-bLxZZcTArYsWTWLd/s1600-h/IMG_4747.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio55ndxn7tkuezaUHRdGoYjKVe2H8bQpAPEehlMU6bJedA62A47uhsnv4SQZsexKgNT085SJF4UIZmbrpSVKPvz-Z3f5A0xcWTESlRpQKbPr0JzgE_zvtPCYoB5-2-bLxZZcTArYsWTWLd/s320/IMG_4747.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446956040031677810" border="0" /></a>pm. We got a falafel, which was very good, and continued our walk down to the beach. The falafel was very hot and crispy and the hummus was good to. Once we got to the beach we put down our towels and sun bathed for around an hour, though every now and then we would get up and go put our feet in the ocean. :) It was not to hot, but still plenty warm so the breeze from the ocean felt very nice. After we were done at the beach we went back to Katherine's to change and take showers before we went out for the evening. After relaxing, we walked up the beach to the north of Tel Aviv and the Tel Aviv port to go to this shop where we bought gifts for some of our friends. But of course we needed to get a gelato on the way. :) We wanted to get a gift for<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMtXhKrBFoINTditDnShwMrSdNXkCCjj-lpl4rRWym0Mxo4dl3252GgbHq_pueRK2cNIycWG9F0SjIbLP4yt5Q9M5Ikwx7SoYn86r9VFyvr-F7pp_fOhsV280L65GWvfbSSZ6qKEDU71Xy/s1600-h/IMG_4718.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMtXhKrBFoINTditDnShwMrSdNXkCCjj-lpl4rRWym0Mxo4dl3252GgbHq_pueRK2cNIycWG9F0SjIbLP4yt5Q9M5Ikwx7SoYn86r9VFyvr-F7pp_fOhsV280L65GWvfbSSZ6qKEDU71Xy/s320/IMG_4718.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446956177632622034" border="0" /></a> Katherine and this shop had good items. Once we had walked around the port and looked at the ocean for a little bit we decided that it was time for dinner. For dinner, we went to my favorite restaurant in Tel Aviv, Benedict. We went to Benedict our first week in Tel Aviv and it has remained my favorite restaurant ever since. I get the chocolate pancakes whenever we go. People in Israel don't eat pancakes, waffles, or french toast a lot for breakfast, they eat salads, bread, and feta cheese. The chocolate pancakes are amazing because the chocolate medallions that are melted on top are very delicious and the pancakes are some of the best pancakes ever. I wish there was a restaurant like Benedict in Portland! At Benedict, our waitress's name was Noa and she told us that two girls at another table were also named Noa so my mom took a picture of all of us. I'd never met so many Noas at once. The name "Noa" is very<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC06D4OT76rm6AwzxUKEAevYqiiQ9IYkAuOMxQt2RlXbIXgvVQ6aOHfklWhgZerhRH_umd-sYK6eq4rZsZx6Ukk3Wq7uZVbbinciRwDOOLWdT2mLRNRNJz4b18BP_OwHH011EDCzNlt7y6/s1600-h/IMG_4734.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC06D4OT76rm6AwzxUKEAevYqiiQ9IYkAuOMxQt2RlXbIXgvVQ6aOHfklWhgZerhRH_umd-sYK6eq4rZsZx6Ukk3Wq7uZVbbinciRwDOOLWdT2mLRNRNJz4b18BP_OwHH011EDCzNlt7y6/s320/IMG_4734.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446956348656739282" border="0" /></a> common in Israel for girls, it is sort of like "Mary" of Israel. After dinner we walked around some more and then decided to go back to Katherine's because it was going on 9:00pm and we don't like staying out late on the streets in Israel. For breakfast the next morning I got to have the other half of my chocolate pancakes from the night before because the portions are huge and I can only eat of it for one meal. The pancakes were just as good the second time was they were the first! We hung around Katherine's apartment with her for most of the morning and decided not to go to the beach that day because it was over 90 degrees and humid with a hot wind coming off the sandy desert. The weather wasn't very pleasant that second day. We did a lot of my favorite activities on that trip to Tel Aviv and I really enjoyed doing all of the things that we did.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-62758730085126090142010-03-05T07:02:00.000-08:002010-03-05T08:46:05.744-08:00The Herzl Museum<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8l7RLUVFBuRFQuUa-u5WTuQu3y-a8JydHR5of1DU9uqL_2gLR-KVFVjysQuDQsbJngPB7ZbyPRzOs9n9riNMaY9COWc3BIwUOG43Kl9RF9dL5nzMaM1Pbltu3L9JrBpB-c1lYyfr1X85w/s1600-h/DSCN1398.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8l7RLUVFBuRFQuUa-u5WTuQu3y-a8JydHR5of1DU9uqL_2gLR-KVFVjysQuDQsbJngPB7ZbyPRzOs9n9riNMaY9COWc3BIwUOG43Kl9RF9dL5nzMaM1Pbltu3L9JrBpB-c1lYyfr1X85w/s320/DSCN1398.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445191801513452402" border="0" /></a><br />Today we went to the Herzl Museum. The Herzl Museum is a museum that explains and shows the story of Theodore Herzl's life. Theodore Herzl was a huge Zionist. (A Zionist is someone who believes that the land of Israel should exist.) He was born on May 2nd, (my birthday!!) 1860 in Budapest, Hungary (or then, the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and died in 1904, at the age of 44, in Edlach, Austria Hungary. He died of heart failure. At the age of 18 he and his family moved to Vienna, where he spent most of his 44 years. Though Theodore Herzl was only dedicated to Zionism for a little less than ten years, he put those ten years of his life fully into trying to get the land of Israel to be a land for the Jews. He planned the First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. He was elected president until he died in 1904. There six Zionist Congress meetings in total, the last one in 1903. At one of the Congresses the delegates came up with the "Uganda Project." The "Uganda Project" was an idea that the Jews would be able to have a state to call their one in Uganda; most of the Jews didn't like this plan and that is why the Jewish state is Israel, not Uganda. Herzl wrote a book, <i>Der Judenstaat </i>(The Jewish State). It was a book that announced why Zionism was needed, it was written in pamphlet-length political program. If you would like to read more about Theodore Herzl's life please go to: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl</a> The museum that told us all of this information was very nicely put together and designed. It is on Mount Herzl (named after Theodore Herzl). The museum wasn't like any other museum I've ever been to, there were a bunch of rooms with movies that our group stopped and watched about Herzl's life. Though the movies weren't typical explaining-history movies, they were movies that showed how a actor who was going to play the part of He<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4nXiHQnpH1a644sDe5CSoOtkKCOie6I0dT1Nlk57h9xyOx7dANVfyQVrygIxIoPgPvwOeUdoxmqTufairfgvEjOEOYIv98zlgIgEOpcsQQRI8VlYNF2sIMUX7FJ0RSsT6NL43BGtE7Gki/s1600-h/DSCN2286.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4nXiHQnpH1a644sDe5CSoOtkKCOie6I0dT1Nlk57h9xyOx7dANVfyQVrygIxIoPgPvwOeUdoxmqTufairfgvEjOEOYIv98zlgIgEOpcsQQRI8VlYNF2sIMUX7FJ0RSsT6NL43BGtE7Gki/s320/DSCN2286.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445191927314256626" border="0" /></a>rzl in a movie learned about his character, Theodore Herzl. Watching that kind of movie was much more interesting than watching a typical-learning-about-history movie. One of the rooms was Theodore Herzl's actual study! It was shipped from Vienna. After we were done with the tour we walked around the grounds that surround the Herzl Museum. On the grounds there are a lot of graves, it is sort of like Israel's version of Arlington National Cemetery. Many famous people are buried there, as well as many soldiers. We saw Herzl's grave as well as Yitzhak Rabin and many other famous Israelis. This cemetery was very beautiful and every grave was well maintained and I could tell that these people were very well loved and will always be remembered.<br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span>Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-54672859528029092762010-03-01T08:14:00.000-08:002010-03-01T10:17:12.591-08:00Purim<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgQFZK3vK-UOj7Sb_pmW5wUwUgZ_dbo2hu6QjFV3SdGPT9KJI1WB8VgWnNNldKZ8jN1Le39cwZI57ScixZDwxgjWWgB38usJvj3ZwgDsnNUBamtZIOT6W2EPORLvflc0kXWjbGytDJmU8/s1600-h/IMG_4453.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgQFZK3vK-UOj7Sb_pmW5wUwUgZ_dbo2hu6QjFV3SdGPT9KJI1WB8VgWnNNldKZ8jN1Le39cwZI57ScixZDwxgjWWgB38usJvj3ZwgDsnNUBamtZIOT6W2EPORLvflc0kXWjbGytDJmU8/s320/IMG_4453.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443730846158885154" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Purim in the U.S., or at least in Portland, is very different than Purim here in Israel. Purim is a holiday that is celebrated annually and recognizes when Queen Esther caught Haman, the evil royal vizer to King Ahasuerus (Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus were married), plotting to kill the Jews. The King replaced Haman and that saved the Jews. As I've see<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinVZc9TG0BRCZrw7lJobWobpan060FdcBlO-_Llym1KPLKWyPTrezPozQTJFJHav_1DJM8k8U3Hkzamp4ZHVMntZrOpw9zVhuKJ12ILEM1bxJhND0EUxgtDkdNyuTNh8btzJbGKIrNzb2C/s1600-h/IMG_4491.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinVZc9TG0BRCZrw7lJobWobpan060FdcBlO-_Llym1KPLKWyPTrezPozQTJFJHav_1DJM8k8U3Hkzamp4ZHVMntZrOpw9zVhuKJ12ILEM1bxJhND0EUxgtDkdNyuTNh8btzJbGKIrNzb2C/s320/IMG_4491.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443729563590477154" border="0" /></a>n Purim celebrated over the years, I've seen the little "carnivals" in temples for the little kids, and there has always been some special food at temple and at places that sell Jewish food, but I've never seen Purim be a holiday that people get more into than Halloween or New Years. But here in Israel, people of all ages get very into costume for 2-3 days! People get way more into Purim then Halloween or New Years, or for that matter the two holidays combined! When we were walking down King George street today (King George str<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61kgLMbbaiss11FyfDMPfrURfDudtIujISC30osIpUVKPYb5clEC6TfyP-WNOcxi7QAzxuWvpZb2XwcWFGlIPl3qK5j1PuK0jt4a1CPFsdIhURWSLN4o9Dk_M11iYluwJzh6DotQIl6DO/s1600-h/IMG_4470.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61kgLMbbaiss11FyfDMPfrURfDudtIujISC30osIpUVKPYb5clEC6TfyP-WNOcxi7QAzxuWvpZb2XwcWFGlIPl3qK5j1PuK0jt4a1CPFsdIhURWSLN4o9Dk_M11iYluwJzh6DotQIl6DO/s200/IMG_4470.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443729786085488786" border="0" /></a>eet is one of the major downtown streets in Jerusalem), we saw this HUGE carnival with towns of "clown" type people on stilts, tight rope, juggling, dancers and many more types of people getting into and preforming at this carnival. It is hard to describe everything that we saw at this carnival and of other people just on the streets so I hope that t<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjBgBL3x80SdwqkMBymk6G8V3L3rYn8pl_3OHCUS6s3Xg-cuSZbovrfLoAvbraX662EZVIR0VVD7CCk_kQJdui3KP5-_83sNwVAE3vRvz9MM2W5Lr7CuhT2utYMt7BePuu7_Bp1ZURDmN/s1600-h/IMG_4497.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjBgBL3x80SdwqkMBymk6G8V3L3rYn8pl_3OHCUS6s3Xg-cuSZbovrfLoAvbraX662EZVIR0VVD7CCk_kQJdui3KP5-_83sNwVAE3vRvz9MM2W5Lr7CuhT2utYMt7BePuu7_Bp1ZURDmN/s200/IMG_4497.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443730018867876642" border="0" /></a>he pictures help. Because this is Israel, every event, big or small, has lots and lots of security. There were even soldiers with big guns on top of buildings! Anyway, after we were done hanging o<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTqsWgOjsOnQBnUFuZNJNw42qt6K_MRkP3Dpb92xcngs11yiem3xO5O0dQzTkohU_Rig1inVueszTWjEn_nMzCtzrjVeZAfZGnKmJ0fiNfND_QRjan0oK3V3zMX_2b3EgXuwg0K3hHK9i/s1600-h/IMG_4525.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTqsWgOjsOnQBnUFuZNJNw42qt6K_MRkP3Dpb92xcngs11yiem3xO5O0dQzTkohU_Rig1inVueszTWjEn_nMzCtzrjVeZAfZGnKmJ0fiNfND_QRjan0oK3V3zMX_2b3EgXuwg0K3hHK9i/s320/IMG_4525.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443730309364386306" border="0" /></a>ut and looking at the acts at the carnival we went to lunch at this fabulous restaurant called Resto Bar. It was amazing! My mom, dad, and I all got the burger. Which was fantastic! One of the best parts was that you could order the burger with cheese because the restaurant wasn't kosher! That made me so happy!!!!! :) It is hard to find cheese burgers in Israel because a cheese burger isn't kosher and most restaurants are. There are many rules to having kosher food but one that makes cheese burgers not kosher is that you can't have meat and dairy together. Not only was <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid75FytJTI0t_QE-uJmh6En9MYIkkXhNBRcTJpFq6atC5sC-vMYz0ElaOV6kOrdaenhZKZjFG0fCj6NcS1lfPNlZ9ADvY_10VwuGh1XgHMfGTKwiFisLjT5rTA3ZjS6p346BeFmU4f_scW/s1600-h/IMG_4505.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid75FytJTI0t_QE-uJmh6En9MYIkkXhNBRcTJpFq6atC5sC-vMYz0ElaOV6kOrdaenhZKZjFG0fCj6NcS1lfPNlZ9ADvY_10VwuGh1XgHMfGTKwiFisLjT5rTA3ZjS6p346BeFmU4f_scW/s320/IMG_4505.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443730571784421250" border="0" /></a>the burger good because of being able to put cheese on it, but the actual burger was fabulous! We could tell that the meat had been freshly ground and was cooked just perfect! Also, the french fries that came with it weren't exactly french fries but they were still amazing! They were large slices of fried potato, were the outside was crispy but the inside was creamy. I would gladly go back to Resto Bar again! Today was a very fun and different type of day.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgARgynEfqr55jFHopvvh1Jds2w3cgwKjEvbySrOSRmsQvSI_2gEz9L6BSmkW57hl4Q1M0w1ULX3RNUbHGH4ZKaN3JQQBTM2OUu8LzVkh4vj_QVjy6b3T7g5Lceb4jud8xqd7jdXI0Erk_K/s1600-h/IMG_4496.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgARgynEfqr55jFHopvvh1Jds2w3cgwKjEvbySrOSRmsQvSI_2gEz9L6BSmkW57hl4Q1M0w1ULX3RNUbHGH4ZKaN3JQQBTM2OUu8LzVkh4vj_QVjy6b3T7g5Lceb4jud8xqd7jdXI0Erk_K/s320/IMG_4496.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443731026174438802" border="0" /></a>Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-53466676214673212312010-02-25T06:40:00.000-08:002010-02-25T08:30:44.088-08:00Over the Past Week......Over the past week or so nothing much has happened here. Today we are 10 days past halfway! :)<br />My grandparents left last Sunday night so we have been getting back into our usual routine. The most major thing that I've done over the past week was audition for HMS Pinafore, the musical which my class will be putting on in the spring. The singing audition was much more difficult then the acting audition for me because I do not like to sing very much. I'm not thrilled with acting either, but acting is much better then singing. A family friend of ours, Avital, happened to be studying in Israel for part of the time that we are here. Avital is an amazing singer and actress, so she kindly offered to help me and gave me some great tips on singing and acting. Thank you Avital!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZnDCcanevuvOpx1l1Soc4nIZzYSi9fk0QGUA6F4_qUAXS27p9hALSMp38Epqv_TyincyPws-UZS3KKHQQw3Aw3JB4XahlYhWW3RkW1dsUwASY9Pk98Y5C9i_bjMx33BZLTnXvNzw9fVt/s1600-h/IMG_4361.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZnDCcanevuvOpx1l1Soc4nIZzYSi9fk0QGUA6F4_qUAXS27p9hALSMp38Epqv_TyincyPws-UZS3KKHQQw3Aw3JB4XahlYhWW3RkW1dsUwASY9Pk98Y5C9i_bjMx33BZLTnXvNzw9fVt/s320/IMG_4361.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442218996068779282" border="0" /></a><br />My mom and I have, as usual, gone for many long walks around Jerusalem. On one of them we were walking down a very busy street when out of the blue I stopped and said, "Oh my god! Look! A turtle!" In the middle of the sidewalk there was a 5 or 6 inch turtle! It was very cool but odd to see a turtle in the middle of the sidewalk. That is definitely not something I see in Portland.... I have also been doing a bunch of school work. Though I'm still ahead of my class in most subjects! :)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw476sZwGIICsLj7JEkhJBiaWlwxHzy2dYU8S2nE5-0slYyrYJFA4Ynp3kxu9vZFB6o36y-0v_whB-w33PG-QXf3mSCcbUya57SZ8RBzUGfGhQs0Sffo07vFSmO2_zCRsyWWQe-JTatvKg/s1600-h/DSCN1615.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw476sZwGIICsLj7JEkhJBiaWlwxHzy2dYU8S2nE5-0slYyrYJFA4Ynp3kxu9vZFB6o36y-0v_whB-w33PG-QXf3mSCcbUya57SZ8RBzUGfGhQs0Sffo07vFSmO2_zCRsyWWQe-JTatvKg/s400/DSCN1615.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442218745524714546" border="0" /></a><br />Over the past week or so, more or less since the halfway point, I have really been wondering what we will do for this half of the trip. We have been to almost everything of interest in Jerusalem and going to the Old City gets old after we've walked around it almost everyday for the past two months. We are going to Eilat, the southern most point in Israel, towards the end of March and I'm really excited for that but I'm not so sure about what we will do until that. When we aren't constantly busy, I really miss Portland and my friends. This evening it was raining and my mom and I were walking home from the grocery store and she asked me why I wasn't wearing my hood, to which I replied, "Because the rain reminds me of home." I've had a lot of fun experiences happen in Portland while it has been raining or pouring and walking home while getting wet from the rain reminded me of them. Anyway, I hope we keep doing exciting events for the remaining 41 days of our trip.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-89880229563823005702010-02-19T07:05:00.000-08:002010-02-19T22:56:37.015-08:00Mitzpe Ramon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPRKemNiQW4gqoLV0Wo8B4jxNcgJmh30mPddRRy6_EIXwCnintaJ0RJGGbUnHRD8gGBlghvn-YIauBGnq21AWwh76PIt1ovQsbIDI27IZ_KD_GgJPwINqHDEnnDOlHKDeMnRPmDjIX5l4i/s1600-h/IMG_4102.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPRKemNiQW4gqoLV0Wo8B4jxNcgJmh30mPddRRy6_EIXwCnintaJ0RJGGbUnHRD8gGBlghvn-YIauBGnq21AWwh76PIt1ovQsbIDI27IZ_KD_GgJPwINqHDEnnDOlHKDeMnRPmDjIX5l4i/s320/IMG_4102.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440029817109350306" border="0" /></a><br />Mitzpe Ramon is a huge crater in the southern part of Israel. People here call it the "Grand Canyon of Israel." That is a bit of a stretch. It is a rather large crater, but definitely not compared to the Grand Canyon in the US. Because Mitzpe Ramon is in the Negev Desert, everything in the crater and around it is all the same dusty, sandy, tan. When we first arrived at the crater the view was quite amazing but quickly lost its amazement because everything looks the same. The rock formations are cool, but once you've seen hundreds of rock formations in less than an hour, they sort of lose their coolness. We arrived in Mitzpe Ramon at around 1pm with my grandparents and their friends, Bonnie and Rob. My grandparents and Bonnie and Rob are neighbors and friends in Burlington, Vermont. Once we settled into our hotel, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEchGnHjmHDugFKDIg0qw8itijY2XsBzLrThQWW8Ii-NFoXdhnYo7-cc6U-CmbC7QRh_Cy0tIrs9_AsGowJ1Gfqzd762_dzgzW8ce_MJNqZO664feVZi5_8KADXfW0_mbx0WJ4dfh8saWj/s1600-h/DSCN2082.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEchGnHjmHDugFKDIg0qw8itijY2XsBzLrThQWW8Ii-NFoXdhnYo7-cc6U-CmbC7QRh_Cy0tIrs9_AsGowJ1Gfqzd762_dzgzW8ce_MJNqZO664feVZi5_8KADXfW0_mbx0WJ4dfh8saWj/s200/DSCN2082.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440030055453601506" border="0" /></a>my parents, Rob, and I went off for lunch knowing that after lunch we would go hike down part of the canyon. Bonnie and my grandparents went off to visit one of my grandma<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr6GFgN8E_iRkeBBrbzNBUtXaqlpKifZADxPfVmgO8IYb9Hey0pWvbHApwNnuQDx1KqFj7BKXH3CJPuGdgcOOtEInWMXyljd5c6ZXrcGW2zb83bRbFxlIBUSECfQYfP7jXVdRAm1NHjeV/s1600-h/IMG_4127.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr6GFgN8E_iRkeBBrbzNBUtXaqlpKifZADxPfVmgO8IYb9Hey0pWvbHApwNnuQDx1KqFj7BKXH3CJPuGdgcOOtEInWMXyljd5c6ZXrcGW2zb83bRbFxlIBUSECfQYfP7jXVdRAm1NHjeV/s200/IMG_4127.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440030168436583426" border="0" /></a>'s friends who lives in the town of Mitzpe Ramon. For lunch we went to the one café in the tiny town of Mitzpe Ramon. The food was very good at the café. I got a Greek sandwich, which had roasted red peppers, super fresh feta cheese, big delicious olives, and baby lettuce in a fresh-out-of-the-oven ciabatta bread. The sandwich was definitely one of the best I have had in Israel. A fact about most Israeli meals is that they<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7Y7qQt690SDk8ul1FejgRiBsDC6ZmhNeFTNvFCvMioKkHnj_Oygx63GAuR4ucSQz3dwQYZe5R8vrMMAMQeWDjTUBDjDRAvcMtw3zIIqZ6fSmOmKYAMIxNTjXOfrcXfnX5rOeQTJ11t8q/s1600-h/DSCN2099.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7Y7qQt690SDk8ul1FejgRiBsDC6ZmhNeFTNvFCvMioKkHnj_Oygx63GAuR4ucSQz3dwQYZe5R8vrMMAMQeWDjTUBDjDRAvcMtw3zIIqZ6fSmOmKYAMIxNTjXOfrcXfnX5rOeQTJ11t8q/s320/DSCN2099.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440030457631613042" border="0" /></a> are almost always HUGE. Appetizers are usually like the size of entrees in Portland. This fact was completely true about my sandwich, when they asked me if i wanted it on ciabatta or whole wheat bread and I said I wanted it on ciabatta I didn't realize that they were going to give me the entire ciabatta! So I only ate half of the sandwich. After lunch, we walked to the visitors center because that is where the hotel said we could pick up a map about different trails. When we got to the visitors center they told us that we didn't have a lot of time because people have to be back on the main road by 4:30pm and it was already 2:30pm. We were a little upset about this but still made our way towards the rocky and<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Bn5efSTAZOz63GTfB9gxVN04a7Gm6hnWtMdooywsbIfKWwCP9S5fMyuHrXCFXLhHSGr5eHqNxG5PlXbpBr-WZKs87rg_KSF4UFrPcF9sUC-4deYXIBAk_RHSRysnKt5bqLLZ0YQ2BSc9/s1600-h/IMG_4123.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Bn5efSTAZOz63GTfB9gxVN04a7Gm6hnWtMdooywsbIfKWwCP9S5fMyuHrXCFXLhHSGr5eHqNxG5PlXbpBr-WZKs87rg_KSF4UFrPcF9sUC-4deYXIBAk_RHSRysnKt5bqLLZ0YQ2BSc9/s320/IMG_4123.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440030807906315874" border="0" /></a> dusty trail that would take us down to the bottom of the trail. We decided that we would walk part way down the trail and do the rest the next day. The trail was very rocky and steep and was very difficult to climb down. It took quite a while to get down the first part, but after a while there weren't as many rocks and the trail got a lot easier and we moved faster. We probably got about halfway down before we decided to turn around because we were getting tired and it was getting near 3:45pm. For my parents it took around as long as it took to get down to get up, I ran up the trail. I don't really know why I decided to run up but it was definitely a great workout. I made it up at least three times faster than my parents did. Once we got back from the hike and had showered, all seven of us went out to the other restaurant in the town for dinner. I got a bowl of soup that my dad and I were going to share and then he would share his chicken with me. The first part worked, but because I didn't like the chicken I ended up eating a lot of bread for dinner. Breakfast the next day wasn't any better than dinner the night before. Br<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbcy5k42sXxfKBx0ube0447DHa5nyBome5Q4TCpUxW4ptXUg_gPTO0_ZsltSMDr1CHHowa7Pd9SG4RUXnkT-Tnf72qKFz4O3PUtN-RYoVnENHUKgO1fs0VZm-tSxDkXavR1MeHuxo9I8gD/s1600-h/IMG_4104.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbcy5k42sXxfKBx0ube0447DHa5nyBome5Q4TCpUxW4ptXUg_gPTO0_ZsltSMDr1CHHowa7Pd9SG4RUXnkT-Tnf72qKFz4O3PUtN-RYoVnENHUKgO1fs0VZm-tSxDkXavR1MeHuxo9I8gD/s320/IMG_4104.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440031150278566338" border="0" /></a>eakfast consisted of very stale bread, wilted vegetables, and some disgusting jam. This hotel definitely wasn't known for its breakfast! But lucky for me, I still had the other half of my sandwich from lunch the day before! That sandwich had never tasted better. :) After "breakfast," my parents and I decided that we weren't going to go down the crater again because my mom's knees hurt and it was already really hot outside. So we decided that we would just walk around the rim of the crater. The walk around the rim looked the exact same as the walk in the crater except that we weren't walking on a hill. The only difference was toward the end of the walk when we saw a group of at least twenty Ibex! The Ibex were so cool to see up close! My dad had gone home to shower so my mom and I were just sit<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKv7VRej6FHPfjdTlYoUdfauRMsf_iJQgeWTgVn9wMY92xJ6FjAlHuQGo4fiZibrdWwAvWrcK1NEmK6hQQEpVLzxjXXmFiYS3LTmbMwo3CQjgSxjpZne2JCI8Nh3htQOL9T_gX1-gL5jHT/s1600-h/IMG_4232.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKv7VRej6FHPfjdTlYoUdfauRMsf_iJQgeWTgVn9wMY92xJ6FjAlHuQGo4fiZibrdWwAvWrcK1NEmK6hQQEpVLzxjXXmFiYS3LTmbMwo3CQjgSxjpZne2JCI8Nh3htQOL9T_gX1-gL5jHT/s320/IMG_4232.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440031296689780290" border="0" /></a>ting on a rock taking a break when I turned my head and said, "Mom! Look! Ibex!" They were just sitting there and when a big tour bus drove by they didn't move. So lucky for us, they weren't scared of humans. This was good because we could get close to take pictures. Mitzpe Ramon was definitely an interesting experience!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-55460634325951762282010-02-13T06:31:00.000-08:002010-02-13T08:02:49.195-08:00Fulbright Trip<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVAyuO1i_uK_xKeyH4VygxJIMKQf90qEb53fjRUZZdgoeK68DiIbIYT6TVgm0ks3S6IAMXrHNyyJ1T08TXPWNevmmXkWvzvSZ8PeYpe48TU_1GYhyphenhyphennmuMAGp5dWdeSp_XHeksfSumHlsJ/s1600-h/DSCN1720.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVAyuO1i_uK_xKeyH4VygxJIMKQf90qEb53fjRUZZdgoeK68DiIbIYT6TVgm0ks3S6IAMXrHNyyJ1T08TXPWNevmmXkWvzvSZ8PeYpe48TU_1GYhyphenhyphennmuMAGp5dWdeSp_XHeksfSumHlsJ/s320/DSCN1720.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437755731662471298" border="0" /></a><br />Over the 9th and 10th of February my parents and I went on a trip up north with Fulbright. Fulbright is the organization that awarded my dad the award that allowed us to go to Israel. My grandparents are also here for the next 2 weeks and because the Fulbright trip was picking us up in Haifa, a beautiful port city in the north, the morning of the 9th we decided to go up to Haifa, with my grandparents, the night of the 8th. My grandparents would then pick us at the end of the Fulbright trip on the Sea of Galilee. On the way up to Haifa we stopped in Netanya, a beach town around half and hour drive north of Tel Aviv, for a walk and lunch. The beach was beautiful. The sea was bright blue in parts and greenish blue in parts. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the prettiest oceans, in my opinion. Once we arrived in Haifa and went to our hotel,<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgvApAlQ95fUT3LGyMAhaeSVEw7YUGLE9JGzP-C4LhQctDtLMaxUNyIslUBhzSpcHvUHjKS3hVU8PGz1fzOacJHlqT6ogHinjmWxjA_4KsjuMFX4DbDgfuChOq94QEf-dMhYFiORHtz-QO/s1600-h/DSCN1767.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgvApAlQ95fUT3LGyMAhaeSVEw7YUGLE9JGzP-C4LhQctDtLMaxUNyIslUBhzSpcHvUHjKS3hVU8PGz1fzOacJHlqT6ogHinjmWxjA_4KsjuMFX4DbDgfuChOq94QEf-dMhYFiORHtz-QO/s320/DSCN1767.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437755862430017794" border="0" /></a> the Hotel Nof, at around 7pm we took a walk and then went to bed because my parents and I knew that we had an early start the next morning. But before I went to bed a made sure to take a nice hot shower!! Hot water is a rarity in Israel and we don't get a lot of it at our apartment. The morning of the 9th we quickly ate breakfast, said good-bye to my grandparents, and met the tour guide and the rest of the Fulbright people to begin our two day tour up north. Our first stop was a Tunisian synagogue near the beach town of Akko. There were a lot of mosaics in the synagogue. They were all amazingly put together and that clearly pain off because they were all beautiful. The one on the back wall was of the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6PD2XAmE3s9LZGsTCDPwi9355dAWI1iw2soLhNqo9K5sc02BgLF6djZC34fereM6AER_kkAZqL5mpPR3CUtaV2iMmEayIDRofeQ5r6YukW5l-XYz150P4Ln4WMhvYsYaxdD4SLk5J46f/s1600-h/DSCN1813.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6PD2XAmE3s9LZGsTCDPwi9355dAWI1iw2soLhNqo9K5sc02BgLF6djZC34fereM6AER_kkAZqL5mpPR3CUtaV2iMmEayIDRofeQ5r6YukW5l-XYz150P4Ln4WMhvYsYaxdD4SLk5J46f/s320/DSCN1813.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437756559203266082" border="0" /></a>town of Akko. However, there were also mosaics on the ceiling and even some on the floor as well. This synagogue was definitely one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. After the synagogue, we went to Akko. In Akko we saw the jail house where prisoners were kept as recently as the early to mid 20th century. One of the neat things about Akko is that when the excavators found it, it was completely buried in sand. Since Akko is a huge town, it was hard to imagine the amount of sand. After exploring the jail, we went to the Knight<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMo9pHPtcc8fQEVSnbVBdmBJsIa5uLrDixJCNJJARuTK0KfFgsCR7y0ut5NJC85p7eqrk-hwChypvA4AOgA1YJgZC3RXTHu_hs4UyxuzVtw0K8Zy5TWl4kMCpCh14TlNSzdB8i-nJQP-L/s1600-h/DSCN1824.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMo9pHPtcc8fQEVSnbVBdmBJsIa5uLrDixJCNJJARuTK0KfFgsCR7y0ut5NJC85p7eqrk-hwChypvA4AOgA1YJgZC3RXTHu_hs4UyxuzVtw0K8Zy5TWl4kMCpCh14TlNSzdB8i-nJQP-L/s200/DSCN1824.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437756719281520802" border="0" /></a>s' Halls. The halls were wear the Roman Knights would be if they were in Akko. The halls were huge and they were all made out of stone, so it got very cold in the halls during the winter. Knights even died from the cold. After Akko, we went to lunch in a Druze village. The religion, Druze, is a form of Muslim though it was made from parts of Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim. Druze cannot marry a person who is not a Druze and nobody can convert to being a Druze. Lunch was made up of pita with many dips and salads, w<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMryoCVpNZncYgC4Wdq-2DNl_MBV2muXwySV-qjTg1wtRrtlxTxhQ2l67W_oLkO9fra9E-A9OG0t9N91Bd-86s2uEptAnzdaIszbCGEeL6ObSXNkCvq4DP8S9-Oy2uJXoohT0kRFlpTYai/s1600-h/IMG_3923.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMryoCVpNZncYgC4Wdq-2DNl_MBV2muXwySV-qjTg1wtRrtlxTxhQ2l67W_oLkO9fra9E-A9OG0t9N91Bd-86s2uEptAnzdaIszbCGEeL6ObSXNkCvq4DP8S9-Oy2uJXoohT0kRFlpTYai/s320/IMG_3923.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437756109815562578" border="0" /></a>hich were pretty good though not the best that we've had. When we thought that the food was done coming and we were all full, they started bringing out pieces of chicken and lamb. The chicken and lamb were very good and perfectly seasoned and grilled, but we weren't hungry anymore so we didn't eat a lot of the chicken and lamb. When very full and done with lunch, we continued our tour to a Circassian village. Circassians are also Muslim though not the typical type. They came from the Ottoman Empire and parts of Russia, though later on some of them moved to the Middle East. The Circassian man that talked to us about he and his people was in Circassian attire. Circassian attire consists of long robes (some with patterns) and tall wide hats. Whenever the man giving us the presentation on Circassians pointed, his sleeves fell over his hands, which made him look like Dopey from Snow White and <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfPcSXGok6egIJA6vXF3qwBWkmfG6KOqk1yKxjXiViA2fcMOGLhArXn-nB7aCx-gW1djIVzi69e4ohUqH_MXkT3dXmUtmpoQAl0OzNf128wE3DaxLN6RONJVhgntxxaF6ErHLh9O9YJxj/s1600-h/DSCN1862.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfPcSXGok6egIJA6vXF3qwBWkmfG6KOqk1yKxjXiViA2fcMOGLhArXn-nB7aCx-gW1djIVzi69e4ohUqH_MXkT3dXmUtmpoQAl0OzNf128wE3DaxLN6RONJVhgntxxaF6ErHLh9O9YJxj/s200/DSCN1862.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437756959603679314" border="0" /></a>the Seven Dwarfs. :) After the presenter mumbled stuff to us (his English wasn't very good), we went to our last stop for the day, Kfar Blum, a Kibbutz hotel in the Hula Valley which is near the Golan Heights. Kfar Blum was much different then Kibbutz Hatzor. Kfar Blum was much more like a place that family reunions would tak<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDYuWiLFeYvSdzNGBN90Foet_biKF4sZTs3x8abCw_n8vGzFE05HSWi37hypO4fW2MMP2koYIsWYrH9wFJ3mQh9839Vl2FZo80ywBR2aPfACq4qpmVA0cAwwUhlQZzjoysJQAsj7LMFsD/s1600-h/DSCN1911.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDYuWiLFeYvSdzNGBN90Foet_biKF4sZTs3x8abCw_n8vGzFE05HSWi37hypO4fW2MMP2koYIsWYrH9wFJ3mQh9839Vl2FZo80ywBR2aPfACq4qpmVA0cAwwUhlQZzjoysJQAsj7LMFsD/s320/DSCN1911.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437757858943839218" border="0" /></a>e place. (It was like a hotel, just the rooms weren't connected to one main building.) Our room was very nice and had hot water!!! It was so nice to take another hot shower! The next day we started early again because like the day before, we had a lot to do and see. Our first stop of the day was a water fall in the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights is the area in the far north east of Israel. It is the part of Israel that borders both Lebanon and Syria. It was sort of freaky driving on the narrow roads of the Golan Heights seen signs saying "WARNING! DO NOT GO BEYOND THE LINE. LAND MINES." When the Golan Heights still belonged to Syria, the Syrians put land mines down to help keep outsiders out. The water fall was beautiful. Though it wasn't very tall, it was still beautiful. When the water splashed at the bottom of the water fall it was picture perfect. After the water fall visit we went to Gamla. Gamla is an area that people can hike, though we didn't have time to. Also, Gamla was<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBY8np4Ry8OARy354d4f0o5V9ozNewwjLE1JyOSp6ZjSIossHha4MrIMl7_f1v-pniKQsblsQr1Cx-8e5KnFNGIrYsYDyHonQmwZAUEhyphenhyphen72egNms3lqS3hcSNNZrBjy_NWsPqnTQHFHgl4/s1600-h/DSCN1928.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBY8np4Ry8OARy354d4f0o5V9ozNewwjLE1JyOSp6ZjSIossHha4MrIMl7_f1v-pniKQsblsQr1Cx-8e5KnFNGIrYsYDyHonQmwZAUEhyphenhyphen72egNms3lqS3hcSNNZrBjy_NWsPqnTQHFHgl4/s200/DSCN1928.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437758796289026498" border="0" /></a> a village on the top of a hill that the Jews fled to when the Romans were coming after them. All that is left now is ruins. For my mom, dad, and I, our next<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Ol1nFNtXlRy8zRCmXqBWCPw7wQ78tBsAORr9mzh485VhSWWWawtKl4VfUnc90fiXh7w7wWf6VSoV1Y-1AQFVIoLQ7FqofR9A6Nhzbyc6nn_TJQpPhXF-hTZt2iUW-OmC16lhrM9xM3SD/s1600-h/DSCN1960.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Ol1nFNtXlRy8zRCmXqBWCPw7wQ78tBsAORr9mzh485VhSWWWawtKl4VfUnc90fiXh7w7wWf6VSoV1Y-1AQFVIoLQ7FqofR9A6Nhzbyc6nn_TJQpPhXF-hTZt2iUW-OmC16lhrM9xM3SD/s200/DSCN1960.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437757271331433986" border="0" /></a> stop was our last with Fulbright. Our last stop was at the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is beautiful; especially the day we saw it. It was calm and a beautiful greenish blue. The sea looked even more beautiful with the sun shining on it. After we saw the Sea of Galilee, we said our goodbyes, especially to the<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMoikjT0ewek7htTsFe195MeIukE7A7tf5blPgPFRY5ApuSa7lFCTR4Ypijw7JXzevMsbC_j4s6lQPWV8DJ7uu_6vaHAEV9LWYDHRlxcAdUYZyZJeZvsZdPptJ-JCm0vBnmQHUsYPCUW5/s1600-h/DSCN1966.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMoikjT0ewek7htTsFe195MeIukE7A7tf5blPgPFRY5ApuSa7lFCTR4Ypijw7JXzevMsbC_j4s6lQPWV8DJ7uu_6vaHAEV9LWYDHRlxcAdUYZyZJeZvsZdPptJ-JCm0vBnmQHUsYPCUW5/s320/DSCN1966.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437757536816905474" border="0" /></a> bus driver, Chaim who we became good friends with, and my grandparents picked us up so that we could continue traveling with them. The two <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6lhFZh_XoJsjMbnqlD_zRi5HZok_7cToEktlrWhavMMza-SDpy_o8cyKBaHw22aBbFvw0zTfWcPAG0a7piyxUDiykP-RFtLVKFRcj3pisI6qG-Sb2DdrjqfLfZfWoAue_wNZheXB7nNpW/s1600-h/DSCN1808.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6lhFZh_XoJsjMbnqlD_zRi5HZok_7cToEktlrWhavMMza-SDpy_o8cyKBaHw22aBbFvw0zTfWcPAG0a7piyxUDiykP-RFtLVKFRcj3pisI6qG-Sb2DdrjqfLfZfWoAue_wNZheXB7nNpW/s320/DSCN1808.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437758186796358946" border="0" /></a>days we spent with Fulbright were very packed with lots of adventures!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-4454524694273050302010-02-07T06:25:00.000-08:002010-02-07T08:05:46.518-08:00The Mount of Olives<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuuAg5JF8Dtyj0jCJSOKCccZm6iM_9yx9gfQGTnVgx0mBnB9el7P80i9L55B2tev-Dw70l7BmuyKbDKhCTDGLlFC4KCRjeALZTOzVykJ5BKwhFroqizpruF-jxtEzG917WDhStcRjXOrf/s1600-h/IMG_3862.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuuAg5JF8Dtyj0jCJSOKCccZm6iM_9yx9gfQGTnVgx0mBnB9el7P80i9L55B2tev-Dw70l7BmuyKbDKhCTDGLlFC4KCRjeALZTOzVykJ5BKwhFroqizpruF-jxtEzG917WDhStcRjXOrf/s320/IMG_3862.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435532810730964322" border="0" /></a><br />Today my mom and I went to the top of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is a large hill (mount) that has huge cemeteries covering its slopes. Most of the cemetery is Jewish, though a small portion at the bottom is Christian. This was the second time we walked up the Mount of Olives. We went up around a week in a half ago with Ellen. This time my mom and I decided to not cut through the Old City to get to the Mount of Olives. We walked around the outer wall of the Old City and then went into the mini-valley that is at the bottom the the Mount of Olives. In this mini-valley we saw a goat herder with at least 50 goats. Some of these goats weren't your typical looking goats; some had spots, some where black, and some were just playing odd looking. After taking a minor break in the mini-valley and watching the goat herd<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrzoh9F4FgPkrkCIQ702SYAMKq1zbZ1TlhtwTYCQ6vfYxhTt0lwy9HsfDFfcy7ln8_9GoyOQIwAfd32KxzLlFEkRrZ1kIGyS6TE_ZKZk-LmtfA2kNSaUh3X_UJA_V5f5wPllia59c00Qg/s1600-h/IMG_3850.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrzoh9F4FgPkrkCIQ702SYAMKq1zbZ1TlhtwTYCQ6vfYxhTt0lwy9HsfDFfcy7ln8_9GoyOQIwAfd32KxzLlFEkRrZ1kIGyS6TE_ZKZk-LmtfA2kNSaUh3X_UJA_V5f5wPllia59c00Qg/s320/IMG_3850.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435532911671831010" border="0" /></a>er, we decided to continue our walk up. This time on our walk up, we decided to go in and walk through parts of the cemetery. We saw a few graves that had blue paint on part of them. We wondered what this meant and walked to one of them. At one of the graves that had a big blue rock on it, there was a Jewish man who was praying and spoke English. We asked him why a few of the graves had blue stuff on them. He told us the people in buried in them were important people. The grave that had the blue rock on it that we were standing in front of was an important rabbi from 300 years ago. We don't know who this rabbi is because he told us his name in Hebrew and we don't understand Hebrew. Once we climbed up to the top, we went to this hotel called the 7 Arches. When Ellen was here and we went up the Mount of Olives with her, we went into the 7 Arches because we needed a break and though it isn't a very nice hotel, it is basically the only place that you can stop at and take<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXrvlyhv1ZvvUapSJbqFoL94_yUSTioIRYBsXkmEWgwrwFwH0hcrkWy8wmu12glCppHHB4hFxDKeOMF8-1E94oNaB4GmO4i24p0FInb_PwUPMRMx4zcclqttZuTomwMwEix5p7NwbJCUm/s1600-h/IMG_3881.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXrvlyhv1ZvvUapSJbqFoL94_yUSTioIRYBsXkmEWgwrwFwH0hcrkWy8wmu12glCppHHB4hFxDKeOMF8-1E94oNaB4GmO4i24p0FInb_PwUPMRMx4zcclqttZuTomwMwEix5p7NwbJCUm/s320/IMG_3881.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435533099676112658" border="0" /></a> a break once at the top of the Mount of Olives. Mom and I went into the 7 Arches today because we wanted a break and because it was freezing outside, and the 7 Arches is heated. After we had had our fun at the 7 Arches, we decided that it was time for lunch seeing as it was already noon and we had to get down the Mount of Olives to get to a place for lunch. On the way back we decided to walk through the Old City. While we were thinking of places we could go for lunch my mom remembered that she had heard about this fabulous restaurant called the Village Green. The Village Green is on Jaffa Street, Jaffa Street is around a ten minute walk from the wall of the Old City. It was difficult to find the Village Green because everybody we asked about its location had no idea where it was. When we finally found it we found out that is was vegetarian and was all like salads, odd soups, and other healthy vegetarian buffet stuff. I really wanted something with meat, so my mom and I<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTch9gfZO23FMZUk00JS316qxYW7ntKrg4K1PVg85OTmL6Eblc08NtfGumihjXtdZFXFcRZP6eWh9h89MNAiddroxnu-2aCbWp8XXbVc4XmdCZjviLrcTQsSPQLqlbqwvxfzBzFymo6xFg/s1600-h/IMG_3857.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTch9gfZO23FMZUk00JS316qxYW7ntKrg4K1PVg85OTmL6Eblc08NtfGumihjXtdZFXFcRZP6eWh9h89MNAiddroxnu-2aCbWp8XXbVc4XmdCZjviLrcTQsSPQLqlbqwvxfzBzFymo6xFg/s320/IMG_3857.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435533288168393122" border="0" /></a> decided to go to the Thai restaurant that we saw up the street. The portions were huge at the Thai place, though the food was good, it was nothing like the Thai food that I'm used to. When we finished lunch, we decided to walk to Mahane Yehuda, the big farmers' market, to buy some food for dinner tonight. While we were at Mahane Yehuda my dad called and said that he was at the central bus station and that he could meet us at Mahane Yehuda in ten minutes, so we got to walk home with dad. Today was a fun day!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-47594184713151237932010-02-02T00:20:00.000-08:002010-02-02T10:58:02.541-08:00Yad Vashem<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeYS6BZJjpYBtiOhYNincLbR7FI82jJuakCwL5B14PSKe2dvdavm4NmnPvfcWzRJybnMAJeSzSvnrwhKeZXuiTjXljG_bHWLAaStFu-k3ckTVcusEzGilkO4HpiZqMUQkd0Td7IRvQvYcI/s1600-h/DSCN1432.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeYS6BZJjpYBtiOhYNincLbR7FI82jJuakCwL5B14PSKe2dvdavm4NmnPvfcWzRJybnMAJeSzSvnrwhKeZXuiTjXljG_bHWLAaStFu-k3ckTVcusEzGilkO4HpiZqMUQkd0Td7IRvQvYcI/s320/DSCN1432.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433579571111892178" border="0" /></a><br />Yad Vashem is the memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem. It is truly an amazing and eye-opening place. The Children's Memorial was the exhibit that got to me the most. When I went inside the exhibit it wasn't like any other museum exhibit I'd ever seen. It was a dark room with hundreds of mirrors and just 5 candles. The candles reflected off the mirrors making the exhibit seem endless. While you walk through the exhibit a narrator's voice is saying the names of children who died, how old they were and where they were from. While my parents and aunt stayed for a few minutes but then were ready to move on, I wasn't ready to go yet. The exhibit really captured my feelings and made me truly realize what pain and fear these children had to feel. And why? Because of their religion. Something that they couldn't choose. Though my family doesn't know t<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSC3kdXJxaEARRDwF4TbgpuIXqFQnc6GasPIVVz-15pgY0E6sgL1FmxuhvDh9Ko3AMATEwuJfN1Fb1xJwzRFLu_NZys57ghDQfHnRRVN0BJABu0tyadOS9m8BhQBWv81RxZi1qbatMVNG/s1600-h/DSCN1441.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSC3kdXJxaEARRDwF4TbgpuIXqFQnc6GasPIVVz-15pgY0E6sgL1FmxuhvDh9Ko3AMATEwuJfN1Fb1xJwzRFLu_NZys57ghDQfHnRRVN0BJABu0tyadOS9m8BhQBWv81RxZi1qbatMVNG/s320/DSCN1441.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433579707986495858" border="0" /></a>he names of our relatives that died in the Holocaust, we know they suffered because of something they couldn't control. Another exhibit that really amazed me was the Valley of the Communities. The Valley of the Communities is a 2.5 acre outdoor space that has 107 tall stone walls, creating room type spaces that connect to one another. On the stone walls are the names of over 5,000 cities that were annihilated during the Holocaust. Walking through the Valley of the Communities was fascinating and shocking. I knew that Jews died in many cities but I had no idea that the number was a high as 5,000. As I walked around the exhibit and read the names of the cities, I recognized a fair number of them. Greece had a wall or two, I had no idea that Hitler managed to have Jews killed all the way in Greece. After we were done with some of the exhibits we walked back to the entry building and talked to a man, named Yehuda, who we later found out was a Holocaust surv<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5RLGS56ZkF84jqsjeTrqdBrVMRKNqY4a6Q86l9SyS9OSg6v4SFoiXgCzGiyZNUiTUS-KedqFwr1Ru76gvk4viYlx6zxakkbLblMWNF3HZumun8Aum8r8Uo4c_QmMAV7pDrKcwhrjmSfeo/s1600-h/DSCN1454.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5RLGS56ZkF84jqsjeTrqdBrVMRKNqY4a6Q86l9SyS9OSg6v4SFoiXgCzGiyZNUiTUS-KedqFwr1Ru76gvk4viYlx6zxakkbLblMWNF3HZumun8Aum8r8Uo4c_QmMAV7pDrKcwhrjmSfeo/s320/DSCN1454.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433579955793061842" border="0" /></a>ivor. He was from Ukraine and managed to make it to Israel right after it had become a Jewish state. Talking to Yehuda really made me wonder what it would've been like living during a time like the Holocaust. Tons of people wanting you and your family dead. I could never imagine having people who used to be my friends, all of a sudden wanting me and my family dead. But that was how it was during the Holocaust. The Nuremberg Laws were passed to figure out who was Jewish. People were considered Jewish depending on what religion their four grandparents were. If a person had three or four Jewish grandparents, they were considered Jewish. But if they only had one or two Jewish grandparents they were considered mixed breed. In the beginning of Nazi Germany, mixed breed people weren't as hated as full out Jews. However, that quickly changed. When walking down to the Valley of the Communities you walk past a train car. The train car was one of the actual "cattle cars" that were used to<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuq-oOJyrNezRtdM_Di6P9mXZ38ILVNq5i_5b2ANBSbfeYbi1NK4LNYqUwsbzRwM3bqwhUiNfEqwiy0ect37PaH0mAsIw-4HrtrJLB-7llRAbuD-3JX3MgmQIEicrNBIto_hAXx-NFm6fK/s1600-h/DSCN1458.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuq-oOJyrNezRtdM_Di6P9mXZ38ILVNq5i_5b2ANBSbfeYbi1NK4LNYqUwsbzRwM3bqwhUiNfEqwiy0ect37PaH0mAsIw-4HrtrJLB-7llRAbuD-3JX3MgmQIEicrNBIto_hAXx-NFm6fK/s320/DSCN1458.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433580133590350578" border="0" /></a> transport the Jews from towns to the concentration or killing camps. Seeing the train was rather horrifying because it wasn't very nice looking and it was flat out tiny compared to the number of Jews that had to fit in it. Jews would have to ride in these train cars for days and nights. On the front of the car is a little platform that is higher than the rest of the car. A German soldier would stand on that platform to make sure that no Jews would escape, if a Jew did try to escape he would shoot them. The train car exhibit was a rather scary one for me. Everything at Yad Vashem is put together very tastefully and with lots of effort. That assures me that though the Holocaust is over, and that the new<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLY2-Fdtm3DqTnEy8cEfYARWJHpoB31qaqal2Ljh8YKoEXkI9t9l0evy7tpvUzx-Ag7-Koyol0liBP9wV9d8Qw2EGshsBCQG02aUhiKleURzN1rR2Z2wax89XeHG9jfYkAmXJQMCVlmYB/s1600-h/DSCN1428.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLY2-Fdtm3DqTnEy8cEfYARWJHpoB31qaqal2Ljh8YKoEXkI9t9l0evy7tpvUzx-Ag7-Koyol0liBP9wV9d8Qw2EGshsBCQG02aUhiKleURzN1rR2Z2wax89XeHG9jfYkAmXJQMCVlmYB/s320/DSCN1428.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433580320160356626" border="0" /></a> generation Germans are much different than the last one, the people and families who died and suffered in the Holocaust are not, and will never be, forgotten.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-29072258534739181392010-01-31T09:19:00.000-08:002010-01-31T11:33:51.310-08:00Kibbutz Hatzor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcGM292PNaXruyWNK-TXVuCkLA7vSzjxgTFMcGLLYIDerSUrGLFQ3bmhmzYYX3SCuxKQThAlj30cYLl309cj_EiI0DJe9L7PmZPiie5WZghtHcEj0zeeVgeIJodKsb6yBCZ9A_egK4_yDn/s1600-h/DSCN1521.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcGM292PNaXruyWNK-TXVuCkLA7vSzjxgTFMcGLLYIDerSUrGLFQ3bmhmzYYX3SCuxKQThAlj30cYLl309cj_EiI0DJe9L7PmZPiie5WZghtHcEj0zeeVgeIJodKsb6yBCZ9A_egK4_yDn/s320/DSCN1521.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432986756373581794" border="0" /></a><br />The last two days we spent at Kibbutz Hatzor with my dad's mentor and his family. A kibbutz is a community that typically works around agriculture. Kibbutz Hatzor has farms but also manufactures metal components. The honey that they make is delicious! Kibbutz life is very different than anything I've ever experienced. It was sort of like living at summer camp. There is a dining hall that we ate lunch and dinner at on Friday. However, the food at the kibbutz dining hall was a lot better than the food I had at summer camp. Partially because it was hot. I made my first Hebrew friend that was my age at the kibbutz. Hila, Jay (my dad's mentor)'s, daughter. She is very nice and lucky for me, she spoke great English! I look forward to seeing her again. Jay and his wife, Tzippi, have three kids, Etan, Nadav, and Hila. Hila told me, children on Kibbutz Hatzor start working in 7th grade. She works in the baby house. A kibbutz has everyth<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDLGwzVHp374zTw0pN34qcnDPjdXgfq42nl5PdhLASOEqYQXKeJgPKp5HNdcoxepqA6R5x4djEtEiBA0O9rBRRRLT2WcnyE2fvsq_ufUtwmyFdkEMDMtht-j6Nrer2BPazdzLDNXKhuK-M/s1600-h/IMG_3978.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDLGwzVHp374zTw0pN34qcnDPjdXgfq42nl5PdhLASOEqYQXKeJgPKp5HNdcoxepqA6R5x4djEtEiBA0O9rBRRRLT2WcnyE2fvsq_ufUtwmyFdkEMDMtht-j6Nrer2BPazdzLDNXKhuK-M/s320/IMG_3978.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432986922683232450" border="0" /></a>ing that a person would ever need, or at least it seemed that way. There was a store to buy food and other necessities, the dining hall which also works for meals, a community gathering area where meeting occur frequently, a gym and many other useful features that I can't think of at the moment. Because we were at Kibbutz Hatzor on Friday and Saturday (Shabbat), the kibbutz wasn't running like it would during the week. On Saturday, mom, dad, and I slept in and had a slower start to the day. But in the afternoon and evening all eight of us went into Ashdod. Ashdod is a town that is about ten minutes away from Kibbutz Hatzor. Ashdod is on the beach but because there was a sand storm going on while we were there, we couldn't really see the beach. Also, it got dark shortly <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuEIhGEmiHbrLDLZBkXAwC02wcb4Gf8b74II8QpNWM6zt0jE_hcpVeEFpiPprmh9nI3zVqrntlz-7nkE2tBYRukhmcnhoQtit9Aj9utDaOZdTGEd_IRBDrbQDCgA38Ytz-2yzJl6Ccv9Pr/s1600-h/DSCN1558.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuEIhGEmiHbrLDLZBkXAwC02wcb4Gf8b74II8QpNWM6zt0jE_hcpVeEFpiPprmh9nI3zVqrntlz-7nkE2tBYRukhmcnhoQtit9Aj9utDaOZdTGEd_IRBDrbQDCgA38Ytz-2yzJl6Ccv9Pr/s320/DSCN1558.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432987178691314722" border="0" /></a>after we arrived in Ashdod. Ashdod is one of, if not the only, city that had everything such as, sewers, telephone lines, other plumbing, and other important foundations laid out on paper before it was built. Now there are lots of big tall apartment buildings everywhere. For dinner, we went to Idi, a restaurant on the marina. I ordered cheese ravioli in an alfredo sauce. It was very delicious! The blend of cheeses was very nice. The alfredo sauce was also delicious. It was definitely one of the best alfredo sauces I've ever had. It was nice and creamy without being to strong or thick. The ravioli and the alfredo sauce combined was a terrific combination and I would gladly order it again! Today, Sunday, we left Kibbutz Hatzor and around 9:30am because we knew we wanted to go site seeing on the way home. Our first stop was at a the Soreq cave. It is a cave that contains stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites drip down and form stalagmites. When the two meet, they form a column. And if the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOcClPr23ulov5MxTLXSfx2WRntBM0qyoZZrO6v8gbc27yHUsyZRLms81o5TvfLNwT5_DnApyncp3uXF80BrNp2z5KNesMVce-QvQtAk5IfO-UT2IwR7zf2C95fFp1yID3Dtc0d_gTxYQN/s1600-h/IMG_3706.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOcClPr23ulov5MxTLXSfx2WRntBM0qyoZZrO6v8gbc27yHUsyZRLms81o5TvfLNwT5_DnApyncp3uXF80BrNp2z5KNesMVce-QvQtAk5IfO-UT2IwR7zf2C95fFp1yID3Dtc0d_gTxYQN/s320/IMG_3706.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432987520811937490" border="0" /></a>column doesn't break, the column gets bigger and bigger. However, this process does take millions of years. The Soreq cave was discovered by accident. Excavators were blowing up the area and came across this cave. It is truly amazing that the explosion didn't blow destroy all of the stalactites and stalagmites. They are very cool to see. For lunch, we went to an Arab village called Abu Ghosh. Abu Ghosh is supposedly famous for their hummus. We have heard from many people that they<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxaVYIAt4U0OGdIIzrmzKqME3c-5b75wNqXMK-96V8Ic8YEhw2xkvBul6haWN5kUFhuqlRKObljGk3tnDSIvRZ4DpJ_JOCYxncWvV130P5PEZYUogIZ8N3ObraEY27MnjGHSuUglCF_5b/s1600-h/DSCN1559.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxaVYIAt4U0OGdIIzrmzKqME3c-5b75wNqXMK-96V8Ic8YEhw2xkvBul6haWN5kUFhuqlRKObljGk3tnDSIvRZ4DpJ_JOCYxncWvV130P5PEZYUogIZ8N3ObraEY27MnjGHSuUglCF_5b/s320/DSCN1559.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432987706197194274" border="0" /></a> have the best hummus in Israel. The restaurant we went to was good, but they definitely didn't have the best hummus in Israel. However, their salads were pretty good. Our meal in Abu Ghosh wasn't the best that I've had in Israel. After lunch, we walked around Abu Ghosh. There wasn't a lot to see though so we left and drove back to Jerusalem. These last few days have definitely been some of the more exciting days I've had so far in Israel!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-91873627139110822992010-01-26T10:51:00.000-08:002010-01-26T11:33:51.477-08:00Tel Aviv!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAFOFnsiJdghSVJOz2XD_bWd0Nw91Co-HA5Y6u1T3fAnmKdm7AQ53c5yIUaXWVK_uQCjD19gtfhO9Z41y7DJjaT-jV_6et07BxuDtitqmEBDbzZMccPEXAKN024KVEwMFjeAOwzJ7r7kK/s1600-h/0125_2610+006.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAFOFnsiJdghSVJOz2XD_bWd0Nw91Co-HA5Y6u1T3fAnmKdm7AQ53c5yIUaXWVK_uQCjD19gtfhO9Z41y7DJjaT-jV_6et07BxuDtitqmEBDbzZMccPEXAKN024KVEwMFjeAOwzJ7r7kK/s320/0125_2610+006.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431132350021170146" border="0" /></a><br />Today mom, Ellen, and I went into Tel Aviv today. My dad would've come with us but he was at a meeting. We used the bus system to get into Tel Aviv today. The bus rides went smoothly and we met this nice gentleman named Ariel. Ariel lives in Argentina but is visiting his family here for a month. Once we arrived in Tel Aviv we wanted to take Ellen to our favorite places from when we were in Tel Aviv four weeks ago. First we wanted to go to the Sheraton because it is a really nice hotel and they have good apples. The word in Hebrew for apple is "tapuach." While we were trying to get to the Sheraton we sort of got disoriented and ended up going out of our way North and sort of walked in circles. While we were wandering aimlessly, we saw this frozen yogurt store. Because we knew that we wanted to have gelato at my favorite gelato store later in the day, we all split a small frozen yogurt with mango, pomegranate seeds, coconut, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLWqkayuywSh-Dzz14MEEAvVZsRaSVsS048Zz5AEakfSS8duj7DY7DFfBy6ZDfeZzR-bc1Il9P6rkdrR8AALU193N1osV1A4bxZOju_1h5roMAYoexCV4J4rC3DzOfLFtI0AXXdJAuW9k/s1600-h/0125_2610+019.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLWqkayuywSh-Dzz14MEEAvVZsRaSVsS048Zz5AEakfSS8duj7DY7DFfBy6ZDfeZzR-bc1Il9P6rkdrR8AALU193N1osV1A4bxZOju_1h5roMAYoexCV4J4rC3DzOfLFtI0AXXdJAuW9k/s320/0125_2610+019.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431132689133473010" border="0" /></a>and diced caramelized pecans. It was very good and the yogurt wasn't too icy. Frozen yogurt is often to icy, which makes it not so tasty. Once we finished our frozen yogurt and got oriented, we decided to walk to Maganda, a restaurant that is supposedly excellent. (My dad went there with work people and said it was fabulous.) Maganda was a good 30-45min walk away from the frozen yogurt restaurant so we started walking right away because it was already 11:15am or so. As soon as we sat down the waiter brought us a basket of fresh and fluffy pita bread, olives and pickles. It was very delicious. But from the menu, we ordered hummus, baba ganoush, and falafel. The hummus was fabulous; on top of it was fresh olive oil and tahini. It was definitely some of the best hummus we have had. I don't like baba ganoush so I couldn't tell you how that was. However, the falafel was amazing. T<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvnAhG1Hp-c3cbvKpDVWyxfyoKVMP8YEIpZO6RIxJu7Q98EJRVWQy4PLVClFp6lqNSHZHeWEEbJB86H3Bb7qiljoZurSJNhm3vmhtR8sU6-ul_ziexc-GnN5wdYtNVbcEi4xzEzUBEpdaP/s1600-h/0125_2610+013.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvnAhG1Hp-c3cbvKpDVWyxfyoKVMP8YEIpZO6RIxJu7Q98EJRVWQy4PLVClFp6lqNSHZHeWEEbJB86H3Bb7qiljoZurSJNhm3vmhtR8sU6-ul_ziexc-GnN5wdYtNVbcEi4xzEzUBEpdaP/s320/0125_2610+013.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431133519440497426" border="0" /></a>he outside of it was crispy and topped with sesame seeds, and the inside was hot, fresh, and had some delicious seasonings as well. Maganda was definitely a plus. After lunch, we walked to Dizengoff Center. The big mall in Tel Aviv. As we were walking through the mall we met Shay Rozolyo. A nice young man, who works in Dizengoff Center. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking to Shay. Once we were done in Dizengoff Center we walked to the Sheraton. It was good being there again. After the Sheraton we walked to Gelato Ice, the gelato place I love in Tel Aviv. It was just as good this time as it was every other time. I got Oreo and Ferrero Rocher. Yum! The sprinkles that they put on aren't like the sprinkles in America. The sprinkles at Gelato Ice are round and very crunchy. They are so delicious. Today was a super fun day!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-61376415321424329952010-01-20T07:56:00.000-08:002010-01-20T10:45:55.478-08:00The Golden Gate<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXrRDXDyX5yt25jRXDGsuEnwu8vlkNFYG1uui9cA8tUW5ugVfM3BDD04S4zLG8HPv446gB8P0ZDl7yxlv87T03wAZHzQNChO8LxtnWbHRl3ejnn2sMil2u-QcVIZuDx9bxUHB6U8pjY-t/s1600-h/012010+040.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXrRDXDyX5yt25jRXDGsuEnwu8vlkNFYG1uui9cA8tUW5ugVfM3BDD04S4zLG8HPv446gB8P0ZDl7yxlv87T03wAZHzQNChO8LxtnWbHRl3ejnn2sMil2u-QcVIZuDx9bxUHB6U8pjY-t/s320/012010+040.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428883298446972386" border="0" /></a><br />Today, after skyping with Gabby :), my mom, Ellen, and I decided to walk to East Jerusalem again. We walked through the Old City to get the Damascus Gate. Because we got hungry when we were around the Damascus Gate my mom took us to the restaurant that she and my dad went to a few weeks ago. The restaurant was called Abo Ali. (Pronounced Abu Ali) The first impression of Abo Ali is sort of creepy. You have to walk down a dirty and grimy set of stairs. But once you make it down the stairs it turns into a normal Arab falafel restaurant. We didn't want to push our luck so we kept our hats on even while we were eating. The food was amazing! The falafel balls were small, but super crispy and hot. The hummus was also really good because they put extra gar<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1afm-OYAjNe141Zb9pcOD6ihcWUuAV2rr5b_gbRG4sMvwb6DYz2_HeHENwYeNxGl_rGTblO-4W5EO6QIMLc6_GIYVO5XRnKDqfGTJp6bd6Bd0saDGIWaFZq2ja5PdTy_p-0Om6UNuG3G/s1600-h/012010+077.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1afm-OYAjNe141Zb9pcOD6ihcWUuAV2rr5b_gbRG4sMvwb6DYz2_HeHENwYeNxGl_rGTblO-4W5EO6QIMLc6_GIYVO5XRnKDqfGTJp6bd6Bd0saDGIWaFZq2ja5PdTy_p-0Om6UNuG3G/s320/012010+077.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428883716405785378" border="0" /></a>banzo beans and olive oil on top of it. The pita was nice and hot and the pickles were fresh. It was definitely one of the best meals I've had here. Though my favorite meal was definitely the burger at Selina! After a good lunch my mom and I wanted to take Ellen to the restaurant we went to in East Jerusalem with the amazing fresh squeezed juice. The apple juice was just as good the second time as it was the first. :) After the juice we wanted to walk to the Gethsemane garden that is right in fro<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpumkssh9VuBE3CmYCXGSP3Rl2BcecFNqVev5EE4u0M-LLv9vVZYrLPKbRFHk33MkbSLqASGkWULj-lpEG4oEOTmKQV5rVae8-ObgoyywUUNJgm6cc2kPCXS3fU9Oh-cBcL3eLIGh0Vdpi/s1600-h/012010+075.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpumkssh9VuBE3CmYCXGSP3Rl2BcecFNqVev5EE4u0M-LLv9vVZYrLPKbRFHk33MkbSLqASGkWULj-lpEG4oEOTmKQV5rVae8-ObgoyywUUNJgm6cc2kPCXS3fU9Oh-cBcL3eLIGh0Vdpi/s320/012010+075.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428884074791378946" border="0" /></a>nt of the Golden Gate. The Golden Gate is the gate where supposedly the Messiah will return. The Messiah is a different person/icon in each religion. The Golden Gate is completely barred up and nobody can go through it, so people can just look at it from the path 15 feet away from it. On the way up to the Golden Gate we walked through the Gethsemane garden. The garden is at the foot of the Mount of Olives and where supposedly Jesus and his followers prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion. It is also where Virgin Mary was buried and wa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikA36IJJMYBILv8-gpNI_JQcFpkjGOWAXpKK2udGlqvfv-ZHmsupnq_mm37K6Osvt-R8A09YQi3ylamwAgCLPsNnhxN9kGL5HA7bUIfmGjk68Bb6FqqdSnElKrb2CPbwn3YjxJXO51GtP7/s1600-h/012010+066.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikA36IJJMYBILv8-gpNI_JQcFpkjGOWAXpKK2udGlqvfv-ZHmsupnq_mm37K6Osvt-R8A09YQi3ylamwAgCLPsNnhxN9kGL5HA7bUIfmGjk68Bb6FqqdSnElKrb2CPbwn3YjxJXO51GtP7/s320/012010+066.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428884994087380802" border="0" /></a>s taken to heaven. Now, Gethsemane is part of a Christian graveyard. Walking through it was very interesting even though we didn't know all of this information about Gethsemane when we were in it. From Gethsemane we walked up to the Golden Gate. Standing in front of the Golden Gate was pretty fascinating because this is what 3 major religions are all about. They are about the Messiah returning, and the Golden Gate is where the Messiah is supposed to return. The Golden Gate isn't really made of gold, or at least the outer facade of it isn't. The way the gate is shaped it looks like a huge version of the Ten Commandments. Something that really got me was the fact that this is one of, if not the most important part of quite a few religions and there is trash and other litter all <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7AJW_TQt6VY1RJj8F9tOYzrLsRyAfEoWaW7pWG9Qf6lMcsi1Fbv0rUGMx6fqq5A8rTOSKuRzBuFGOcPSiagAIYsQTXVi-44J1DO7nhPEAJ_2Y97xy_BsRqjhNBIbzqzRZ-Zf-8sEUrep/s1600-h/012010+081.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7AJW_TQt6VY1RJj8F9tOYzrLsRyAfEoWaW7pWG9Qf6lMcsi1Fbv0rUGMx6fqq5A8rTOSKuRzBuFGOcPSiagAIYsQTXVi-44J1DO7nhPEAJ_2Y97xy_BsRqjhNBIbzqzRZ-Zf-8sEUrep/s320/012010+081.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428885531259227682" border="0" /></a>over the area and the cemetery right in front of and next to this supposedly holy gate. Unfortunately we only brought one camera because we didn't think that we would do all of the stuff we did today. And that camera ran out of battery part way through our adventures today so there aren't a ton of pictures. This was definitely one of the most interesting days that I have experienced in Israel. I hope (actually know) that we will go back to the Golden Gate (with a working camera!) more then once.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-5201814079452543902010-01-17T08:16:00.000-08:002010-01-17T10:53:50.866-08:00The Ramparts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6iRJu7ZUZHgd_To8OnVoBtLDxiCP-BWhWAga8CainG7OBZJMjx1S1gPLXn2R3fAcDiPK5IKJjyspiyHewy-YodlvK-LWNCwq838NIfS2iaJoqtaNKQ87gUber7v3NH1I_LHgmUsIpd1M/s1600-h/011710+wbEB.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6iRJu7ZUZHgd_To8OnVoBtLDxiCP-BWhWAga8CainG7OBZJMjx1S1gPLXn2R3fAcDiPK5IKJjyspiyHewy-YodlvK-LWNCwq838NIfS2iaJoqtaNKQ87gUber7v3NH1I_LHgmUsIpd1M/s320/011710+wbEB.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427783073571065090" border="0" /></a><br />Yesterday night my aunt, Ellen, arrived! :) So today was her first full day in Jerusalem and we wanted to do something cool and fun. This morning my mom, Ellen, and I walked to the big Safeway-like-market to get some food necessities for the week. (That was not the fun part.) After we got back from the market we all walked to Mahane Yehuda to do some more grocery shopping and to show Ellen a huge local farmers-type market. She found it very interesting and took many pictures. Because my wire for my braces came out of a bracket and was kind of barely h<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYh90Y7XySoCl6UnCwLvkA3ABYzeQU8jD5CZWwjj14UsPSUaCPGoGVfjqTYH6_fDngg-hOHcRBHiXuKb7cREER8Wn2odmpcRjYmq6woObM1n4qXRCde5hxOBXZpBFMM6yd_sE3fJBHWSq/s1600-h/011710+Family.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYh90Y7XySoCl6UnCwLvkA3ABYzeQU8jD5CZWwjj14UsPSUaCPGoGVfjqTYH6_fDngg-hOHcRBHiXuKb7cREER8Wn2odmpcRjYmq6woObM1n4qXRCde5hxOBXZpBFMM6yd_sE3fJBHWSq/s320/011710+Family.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427783268298742914" border="0" /></a>olding on, we thought that we should go to an orthodontist, and luckily we asked my orthodontist for a sheet of orthodontists that we could use in Israel in case something like this happened. The orthodontist we went to luckily had an opening at 12:45 today and so we went. On our way from Mahane Yehuda to the orthodontist we stopped at a falafel stand to get some lunch. It was not the best falafel we've had, but not the worst either. After lunch and on our way to the orthodontist, my mom and Ellen went home to drop off the groceries and my dad and I continued on the orthodontist. We said that we would meet up in the Kardo so that we could walk the ramparts. The ramparts are the top of the wall surroundi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdIKMB40PKnmb9ykoFdD7fZzvXx6KqmcGiFtVRqOM2UsTw1sX_2BAZuqofs_ZtLHanhzPfRf7-PA7k-of5azcZIDvQi7UXHsYO8hZYsJPdf9aEhoW00WfbLk237ocwUTHv4VYL5pvI41A/s1600-h/011710+MoO2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdIKMB40PKnmb9ykoFdD7fZzvXx6KqmcGiFtVRqOM2UsTw1sX_2BAZuqofs_ZtLHanhzPfRf7-PA7k-of5azcZIDvQi7UXHsYO8hZYsJPdf9aEhoW00WfbLk237ocwUTHv4VYL5pvI41A/s320/011710+MoO2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427783455112167474" border="0" /></a>ng the Old City, so the view is spectacular. My orthodontist appointment went fine and my braces are now back to normal! Once we met up with mom and Ellen we walked through the Old City and saw some landmarks but not the Western Wall, we knew that we would do that after the first rampart because that rampart ends at the Western Wall. The ramparts walk was amazing! The view was spectacular! Especially of the M0unt of Olives. On the slopes of the Mount of Olives there is a huge cemetery. On the top, there is a bunch of churches and the Mount of Olives Observation. Once we'd gone as far as we could on that side of the ramparts we walked back through the Old Ci<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrrJXBPl-xXCa_lBpymKH74ti0GkCMM-_mQ1gPE_KT1nAs77UuqM98ZdoGyuexHpoFTcGA6X-_gOmxYWqLCCe8kNYTNhU7FmHXwV1NX3DpP0SYuRjUsFOifJmA1ur5dzNDAxdrlBcuU9q/s1600-h/011710+Arab+Qtr+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrrJXBPl-xXCa_lBpymKH74ti0GkCMM-_mQ1gPE_KT1nAs77UuqM98ZdoGyuexHpoFTcGA6X-_gOmxYWqLCCe8kNYTNhU7FmHXwV1NX3DpP0SYuRjUsFOifJmA1ur5dzNDAxdrlBcuU9q/s320/011710+Arab+Qtr+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427783752291116690" border="0" /></a>ty so we could walk on the other rampart that goes into East Jerusalem. Though the look-out-type view wasn't quite as amazing from this rampart, the view of all of the houses and schools and other stuff in East Jerusalem was just as interesting. There was lots of trash, but we could also see how local, not very rich, Arabs live. Almost every house had laundry hung up on the roof. We didn't walk all of this rampart because it was already 4:30pm and some of the gates to get onto the ramparts were closing and we wanted to go to dinner, so that we could get back home soon. Today we walked 32,400 steps, a little over 15 miles!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-84950432693941923102010-01-15T06:09:00.000-08:002010-01-15T09:33:06.882-08:00The Kardo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdY45ZJXDosP43cyCAtfNx40I42HfospSAcXcioCZeaIznHZIc9VB7IhO6mMDsQ-Caf25ZPXnWOEdwwWJV8DG7RU4y_OqRE0ZqfCqyEzh8zdlpVLI9mpM_8W9WApl3I1dRUAXsH5L1OFMR/s1600-h/IMG_3299.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdY45ZJXDosP43cyCAtfNx40I42HfospSAcXcioCZeaIznHZIc9VB7IhO6mMDsQ-Caf25ZPXnWOEdwwWJV8DG7RU4y_OqRE0ZqfCqyEzh8zdlpVLI9mpM_8W9WApl3I1dRUAXsH5L1OFMR/s320/IMG_3299.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426984778294202114" border="0" /></a><br />My mom and I said good-bye to my dad this morning so that he could go to Alon Shvut, a Jewish settlement in the occupied territories. He was going to meet a computer teacher there. My mom and I felt a lot better once we found out that his bus was going to be bullet proof and armored. After that I skyped with Ella and we had a great time catching up. I also emailed with Gabby. While I was skyping and emailing my mom went off to Mahane Yehuda (the big farmers market) to buy some groceries for tonight and tomorrow, because nothing is open on Shabbat. Because I couldn't skype the entire time my mom was gone I also read and did stuff on Facebook while my mom was out. When my mom came back around 11:45am we had lunch. Lunch was pasta with cottage cheese, butter, and mozzarella cheese. It was really good and everything blended together well. I was thankful that we had normal pasta, one time we bought whole wheat pasta instead; it was gross. After lunch, my mom did some work<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ZAwAICkFVOWsguJi_CM-EV9fuVBgWyWxNEhFzvhIuDgRFm8F7DOOxcmeciSr9f75EYgTz1KYXAm1d-w9Agn0rA0RRMF9kdQUGwmddxMJ1oSeN25V0ipuyc4q4x8BAQMAkukflmnZMIFn/s1600-h/IMG_3238.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ZAwAICkFVOWsguJi_CM-EV9fuVBgWyWxNEhFzvhIuDgRFm8F7DOOxcmeciSr9f75EYgTz1KYXAm1d-w9Agn0rA0RRMF9kdQUGwmddxMJ1oSeN25V0ipuyc4q4x8BAQMAkukflmnZMIFn/s320/IMG_3238.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426984974059756050" border="0" /></a> on her computer and then we went for a walk in the Old City. We met up with my dad at the Jaffa Gate (the gate that we usually take to get into the Old City) so that he could walk with us to and so we could show him what we found yesterday. From the Jaffa Gate we walked south so that we ended up at the Kardo. The Kardo is in the heart of the Jewish quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. There are ruin type stones all over it but there is a walkway with lots of shops in it as well, so it has been built up over the years. Thousands of years. While we were browsing through the shops we stopped at a shop that had hundreds of t-shirts. Funny ones, sports teams (mostly American), Jewish ones, and many other interesting categories. Beca<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbsf68mOTxfABHpIL5351DB_3UQDkSVkEPMMctadBg7jg2_gZ4F30fI4nbQVGcyjEqXZ9LZlZzCw0TbgRRue9LVQLbNenBwd8vs8DcgyJnItXSLIyBvdUmfS05_9PReWXz5JR72AGO8O3/s1600-h/DSCN1082.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbsf68mOTxfABHpIL5351DB_3UQDkSVkEPMMctadBg7jg2_gZ4F30fI4nbQVGcyjEqXZ9LZlZzCw0TbgRRue9LVQLbNenBwd8vs8DcgyJnItXSLIyBvdUmfS05_9PReWXz5JR72AGO8O3/s320/DSCN1082.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427020598906608802" border="0" /></a>use they were having a 3 for 100 sheckel deal we bought 3. One for my uncle that says Chicago Cubs in English and Hebrew. One that says Israel with a Nike swoosh and on the back it says Just Do It. And one fo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaN1ifZWIKY-dCEym7n54ic4dEanTJ3nONL1Rtmo70aTKVgders8Uce02yIZtekIjreR0cXCcm-3E1mMC7JfBYcHx7n6YKxKiN53dvqzBWDO3UYsPC-112xQhWzvGxRVNzjrltHkj65gxu/s1600-h/DSCN1064.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaN1ifZWIKY-dCEym7n54ic4dEanTJ3nONL1Rtmo70aTKVgders8Uce02yIZtekIjreR0cXCcm-3E1mMC7JfBYcHx7n6YKxKiN53dvqzBWDO3UYsPC-112xQhWzvGxRVNzjrltHkj65gxu/s320/DSCN1064.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427020848609773586" border="0" /></a>r me, that has South Park characters (South Park is probably my favorite T.V. show) on it and says "Oh my God.... they kild Kenny...." Yes, the spelling of "killed" on the shirt is wrong. Killing Kenny is a joke from the show. After buying the shirts we continued exploring the alleys of the Kardo looking around whenever possible. There is a set of stairs that you can take down to get to a little lookout type point underground. It was cool being down there amidst the rocks, even though we weren't very close to them because of all the railings and stuff. Walking around the Kardo was fun and interesting and I would gladly do it again!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-5915968010661105962010-01-13T05:10:00.000-08:002010-01-13T06:41:45.063-08:00East JerusalemToday, because my dad went off to a two day meeting, my mom and I were on our one. We wandered to East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is the Palestinian side of Jerusalem. Tourists, such as ourselves, typically shouldn't wander to far in, so we didn't. My mom knew where to go because she and my dad had gone to this part of East Jerusalem a few days ago. We walked along the main street for a few blocks. This street was alive and crowded with pe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5ak5QNsEB9YwP8sbkjsCs-paMiOX1QW2-Ws0b94-pbZH9Jqk10U-3Iama0yaqjnlUytF4DjSdcHAoMFD9u0iD-8eur7qgfItxV3BnI0SRZ4UXzfKfSbYS-Ou6me_M11WrB2flj3OsfgQ/s1600-h/IMG_3178.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5ak5QNsEB9YwP8sbkjsCs-paMiOX1QW2-Ws0b94-pbZH9Jqk10U-3Iama0yaqjnlUytF4DjSdcHAoMFD9u0iD-8eur7qgfItxV3BnI0SRZ4UXzfKfSbYS-Ou6me_M11WrB2flj3OsfgQ/s200/IMG_3178.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426228742277496962" border="0" /></a>ople everywhere trying to sell us stuff. We walked past one store called St. Georges Bazaar. We went in, because it said they bargain, and my mom loves to bargain. We saw prices on stuff and they were high if they were in dollars but very low if they were in sheckels (Israeli money). So we asked the man who was following us around the store trying to get us to by stuff if the prices were in sheckels or dollars. He was astounded that we thought the price of his treasures (JUNK) could be so low, and then we left because we didn't like him following us. We walked a little farther down the main d<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHYpKd9fkZIS6WFvNlBWcvMEyH0muwRgoqGBfO6ObClk_1eyIlCM1chpIvSdclXb7kkpWibyrTTeyLtChCewZKddTk08g_kJ11BY7fBYbvmnPi7TqXePDB1HjiKM54CHURzB-nKNKI9RD/s1600-h/ACH.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 96px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHYpKd9fkZIS6WFvNlBWcvMEyH0muwRgoqGBfO6ObClk_1eyIlCM1chpIvSdclXb7kkpWibyrTTeyLtChCewZKddTk08g_kJ11BY7fBYbvmnPi7TqXePDB1HjiKM54CHURzB-nKNKI9RD/s320/ACH.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426229067397668290" border="0" /></a>rag and then turned because my mom wanted to take me to see The American Colony Hotel. The American Colony Hotel is an amazing hotel. It is super luxurious and the gardens are amazing. It is not your typical kind of luxurious hotel but in my opinion, even nicer. It is mostly made out of stone. Even though I didn't get to see the rooms in person (I saw them online), I'm sure that they are spectacular. On<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtd3KlJiCeFG407c4ewqsLXh6nEOzIktiMfD_VV-8uG54AhxqxwHwkEJWLf-FZOdcwvjCdkydBkMuey10I-sUxw-6m5DHlsNLQdXdCaLwafqgA-AsS9jk9YsGF0-7LrYiQHMGOeqRAzO2/s1600-h/IMG_3181.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtd3KlJiCeFG407c4ewqsLXh6nEOzIktiMfD_VV-8uG54AhxqxwHwkEJWLf-FZOdcwvjCdkydBkMuey10I-sUxw-6m5DHlsNLQdXdCaLwafqgA-AsS9jk9YsGF0-7LrYiQHMGOeqRAzO2/s320/IMG_3181.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426229491429669490" border="0" /></a>ce we left The American Colony Hotel we walked around looking for a lunch place. We found a little restaurant called Flavours Grill Restaurant that looked very clean. Lots of places here aren't very clean. We asked for a menu and shortly after loving what we saw, sat down. I got chicken teriyaki in a pita with hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. It was delicious! My mom got the same thing but with a lamb kebab instead of chicken teriyaki. I also got a fresh squeezed apple juice. It was so good! It <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVN4340yrpsXcRrv1qk7KWdg7vKNv58QW8a0BXVRwRymt5jT6nUkl1VG20XZk-BcdITE7BNihnAAeZMM0PBclQP-hKQqDPx28aNuXjvS9yavhA_0ziHoG0DwPjABnrINzeISOdOlTJlYwg/s1600-h/IMG_3185.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVN4340yrpsXcRrv1qk7KWdg7vKNv58QW8a0BXVRwRymt5jT6nUkl1VG20XZk-BcdITE7BNihnAAeZMM0PBclQP-hKQqDPx28aNuXjvS9yavhA_0ziHoG0DwPjABnrINzeISOdOlTJlYwg/s200/IMG_3185.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426229824289433618" border="0" /></a>had apple foam on top which was also really good. I don't know how good Treetop apple juice will taste anymore... The really nice people who owned the restaurant we named Mo and Elona. After lunch w<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4jkpqoEAgUrowjXnmsA3wl6ZAabbqAxiQxYzlwuw4e8dQO7g7VOkEw4sX5hTY8tqtMWwwyOUDzNRK_klX-pN5L1_D1AUV1m8E2fhzAbPsprZQeD_LqtLVAc_7RejXaf4IcsWoExyZrwG/s1600-h/DSCN0745.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4jkpqoEAgUrowjXnmsA3wl6ZAabbqAxiQxYzlwuw4e8dQO7g7VOkEw4sX5hTY8tqtMWwwyOUDzNRK_klX-pN5L1_D1AUV1m8E2fhzAbPsprZQeD_LqtLVAc_7RejXaf4IcsWoExyZrwG/s200/DSCN0745.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426234537769187762" border="0" /></a>e started to head back to the Damascus Gate. The Damascus Gate is a gate to the Old City. To get back to the Damascus Gate we had to walk along another busy street. It creeps me out how wherever I go guys always stare at me. But today, at least eight guys asked me "do you want to go with me?" I didn't even answer and just kept walking with my mom. It scares me and I don't like it. Overall, I had a great day with my mom!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-31898612988115203982010-01-11T09:19:00.000-08:002010-01-11T09:40:05.842-08:00SelinaToday my mom and I walked to a huge market about a mile away from our house. It was kind of like Fred Meyer. A fact about most large super markets in Israel is that they are in the bottom level of shopping centers. We are still stocking up on food for our apartment here in Jerusalem so we bought a lot of groceries. Because we sort of lolly gagged around the mall and bought some stuff and Super Pharm (a store like Rite Aid), we didn't get home till around noon. After a lunch of bagels and cream cheese. The bagels here a really good. They have crisper crust but chewier centers. My mom went off for another walk and I stayed home with my dad and did work. I did a lot of math and that took up most <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0WgixIXUjt_5gaIUzKTjsqCRSAD_TI-jFNU0H5ctbqjZqdPgDZ5YtmGoLlY867qodKpSMwxYFj0mqZCQ49esmiLoqq6II2wbEvazSoc69bXtY4LyHXhgJZROXsyTFW-FDLmtt_o_9ywAL/s1600-h/Selina+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0WgixIXUjt_5gaIUzKTjsqCRSAD_TI-jFNU0H5ctbqjZqdPgDZ5YtmGoLlY867qodKpSMwxYFj0mqZCQ49esmiLoqq6II2wbEvazSoc69bXtY4LyHXhgJZROXsyTFW-FDLmtt_o_9ywAL/s320/Selina+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425538358149628946" border="0" /></a>of the afternoon. When my mom got back we decided that we would go out to dinner tonight and had to pick a restaurant. After much discussion and research of the menus we decided on a restaurant called Selina. One of the qualifications for the restaurant had to be that they served meat because the apartment we are staying in is a kosher vegetarian home, so no meat. :( At Selina, my mom and I both ordered the burger and my dad ordered some wrap with some other type of meat. At first when I ordered the burger I wasn't sure how good it would be because it is not kosher to have cheese/dairy with meat. But I was quickly mistaken because the burger was fabulous! According to my parents it was one of the best cuts of meat that I had ever eaten. The fries that it came with were also terrific thought they weren't the type of fries that are typically served with a hamburger. They were perfectly grilled potatoes. I hope that we go back to Selina!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-46245124165068529852010-01-09T05:20:00.000-08:002010-01-09T05:33:52.550-08:00Letters!Today we relaxed and didn't go anywhere. It was very nice to finally calm down and relax. Even though I didn't go on the long walks with my parents yesterday or two days ago I did a TON of school work. (For example all of my science for while I'm gone.) I woke up later than I usually have, and when I went up stairs to go on my computer I saw a huge envelope. I immediately knew what the package was and ran over to get it. Inside the envelope were the letters that the entire class wrote to me. I was soooooo happy that my dad had finally given them to me because my friends had told me about them and when I asked my dad he said he knew nothing about them and that Holly would probably mail them because he didn't have them. Even though I was starving, I read every single letter before I went down to have breakfast. They were all very meaningful and really made me smile. Some made me think. Some made me laugh. Some made me remember good times. And some just made me smile and think how much I miss Portland but that the experience I'm having is really great and amazing. I'm saving all the letters and will probably end up reading them at least twice a week. :) I miss EVERYTHING about Portland and my friends but the letters really made me realize that Portland and my friends will always be there for me but this experience won't be. Thank you everyone for the letters!!!!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-15475626853298990242010-01-06T04:02:00.000-08:002010-01-06T05:28:13.506-08:00Mea She'arim and Mahane Yehuda again<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_nR-bUw9nStHeRsindI1tjiL-cs-VelL0TyIHwj9dJMAKJACaemvV7G58-w8-06ycD2v-esJN-xzWe7wxgRLKlzGonvFDP6M9lrZ9KlV_oeC0p-mSXfPgHdOkaO4skaDISlWSzUmFVh7/s1600-h/DSCN0705.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_nR-bUw9nStHeRsindI1tjiL-cs-VelL0TyIHwj9dJMAKJACaemvV7G58-w8-06ycD2v-esJN-xzWe7wxgRLKlzGonvFDP6M9lrZ9KlV_oeC0p-mSXfPgHdOkaO4skaDISlWSzUmFVh7/s320/DSCN0705.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423603845178984754" border="0" /></a>Today my mom and I ventured to Mea She'arim, a very religious Jewish neighborhood. It is not a particularly nice neighborhood though. It kind of looks like a nice version of the slums. We only walked the outskirts of it though because we were not wearing skirts and people didn't look extremely friendly. Also, we didn't want to push our luck because in tour books it says that if a person does something that these religious Jews don't tolerate, for example driving on Shabbat, they will throw stones at you. And we were not in any mood to hav<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8IjdlbI1E9Ff9qT5oZsFsu25YnrEXPaX5n2UYcnBglrq-qnUwRxM2oAiJB-BR3dSCiVoSmhJNCSgx1O7vAd_dFjJ7Mi9_aIZtTh-q826h26hg4s8-LCik2sF4Jx7_dZ5sNjoeVlXIQIq3/s1600-h/Pais+boy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8IjdlbI1E9Ff9qT5oZsFsu25YnrEXPaX5n2UYcnBglrq-qnUwRxM2oAiJB-BR3dSCiVoSmhJNCSgx1O7vAd_dFjJ7Mi9_aIZtTh-q826h26hg4s8-LCik2sF4Jx7_dZ5sNjoeVlXIQIq3/s320/Pais+boy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423604888739267154" border="0" /></a>e stones thrown at us. Very religious male Jews wear black suits with white dress shirts and long black trench coats it all. They all wear kippahs and or tall black hats. Most of them also have peyos. Peyos are the curly ques of hair that are long and are right in front of their ears. And on Shabbat they wear fur hats that are very odd looking. Very religious female Jews wear long (almost floor length) black skirts with darkly colored sweaters and loafer shoes. Some women also cover there hair with a thick black hair nets or straight dark brown wigs. Both men and women most be very conservatively dressed and wear their attire year round. It must get extremely hot in the summer time!<br /><br />After sort of being scared away, my mom and I walked back to Mahane Yehuda, the large market, because we were very close and in need of some lunch. We walked around the market and bought some little pastries as a snack until we found lunch because we wanted to wander around the market some more. The market wasn't as crowded as it was last Friday so I didn't feel as claustrophobic. We<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_EaJdsYxjJaaVGgyjyuTUplNKOcXKJwcx7E3nAqAaRCC1FkswZdze_k17dxGUoiI6bY5as6-wEjcGVS_wUDPK5W2YzepOh_ddXZpTyPdB0sLvUFAUrFaTbB8GC8FKj43Ri031pcL9q7cY/s1600-h/falafel.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 143px; height: 111px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_EaJdsYxjJaaVGgyjyuTUplNKOcXKJwcx7E3nAqAaRCC1FkswZdze_k17dxGUoiI6bY5as6-wEjcGVS_wUDPK5W2YzepOh_ddXZpTyPdB0sLvUFAUrFaTbB8GC8FKj43Ri031pcL9q7cY/s320/falafel.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423605378765831634" border="0" /></a> bought some broccoli and bread to go with our dinner for tonight. After we were done wandering around we stopped at a falafel stand. Falafel is fried chick pea batter. Chick peas are garbanzo beans. Falafel as a meal/food dish has sauces and vegetables as well as the fried chick pea batter in it. Instead of bread the dish is put in pita bread. The falafel we had today had the chick pea batter, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus and tahini sauce. It was very delicious!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-34779861720131567832010-01-05T04:05:00.000-08:002010-01-05T07:30:38.007-08:00The Temple Mount<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3LXVbnxAjpX0dgdjnwMypTxHwLhhyphenhyphen6ctk8d_YucfRnDOc7lxArkuESWlS56kCNI0IZjxcBso3dwVHWK5zkMzY1b_SV8eidGeTY81LK2_M_mLG4A1MM55AFbWYxa65R8iyGxhlxody8ITh/s1600-h/DSCN0655.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3LXVbnxAjpX0dgdjnwMypTxHwLhhyphenhyphen6ctk8d_YucfRnDOc7lxArkuESWlS56kCNI0IZjxcBso3dwVHWK5zkMzY1b_SV8eidGeTY81LK2_M_mLG4A1MM55AFbWYxa65R8iyGxhlxody8ITh/s200/DSCN0655.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423277223451520610" border="0" /></a><br />Today we went back to the Old City to see the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount was where the first and second temples were located. The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque are located on the Temple Mount as well. Because of the two buildings on the Temple Mount right now are holy to Muslims, there are certain visiting hours at which the public can wonder. However, unless you are Muslim you ar<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinmS4PZb15uMmoMCl5IULtTviTNGVmRwIIN1fJ3aaV3xZ0khQ4AY618PcRlmPKknR6O9W_q0fPzslS3NNj5XG9hroqm0Gpax7a0xOilDhev7iDFeWHYPNr37cDslhRNBCGTtmDAeugSwWT/s1600-h/DSCN0652.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinmS4PZb15uMmoMCl5IULtTviTNGVmRwIIN1fJ3aaV3xZ0khQ4AY618PcRlmPKknR6O9W_q0fPzslS3NNj5XG9hroqm0Gpax7a0xOilDhev7iDFeWHYPNr37cDslhRNBCGTtmDAeugSwWT/s200/DSCN0652.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423277361912537506" border="0" /></a>e not allowed in the either the Dome of the Rock or the Al Aqsa Mosque. So we couldn't go in either Mosque because we are Jewish, not Muslim. Very religious Jews think that nobody should walk on the Temple Mount because they might on accident walk on top of the original Holy Ark.<br /><br />Walking around on the Temple Mount was quite interesting. The visiting hours today were from 7:30am to 10:30am. (The security guards rushed us out at 10 though.) We arrived at the security point at around 8:45 but didn't get through security until 9:15. It was just like the airport! We thought that we had arrived at the end of the line, but we were quickly in the middle of line as huge tourist groups lined up behind us. Once we got through security and walked onto the Temple Mount it seemed like there were no tourists. It felt peaceful and empty. We took our pictures from the front of the Mosques and then walked to the back of the Al Aqsa Mosque to keep exploring all parts of the temple mount in the hour that we had. We saw an open door on the side of the Al Aqsa Mosque and walked over to it to look in. We stoo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsIKCpHVeAQtNbVTVTb4tMw_66-oMSqCRDF81Tz6uo4SuR_R2ZsuIgcigANfa1ILmeEdUmTMM9whI0hqyKdotEL4_pR29FppRhGAMBlVMk7g7_4I4fEYYB4D-rlvxJ6HT2SOxbOBtiTaM/s1600-h/IMG_2987.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsIKCpHVeAQtNbVTVTb4tMw_66-oMSqCRDF81Tz6uo4SuR_R2ZsuIgcigANfa1ILmeEdUmTMM9whI0hqyKdotEL4_pR29FppRhGAMBlVMk7g7_4I4fEYYB4D-rlvxJ6HT2SOxbOBtiTaM/s200/IMG_2987.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423278019599149266" border="0" /></a>d for about 30 seconds and then a guy came over to put something in the door. We <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibNz1dlCLefsLRfksVirFPCRCNGwVDY62CIkSrGtUDaKNxt9NJY-VXCUOIwob1b4F5mm-oDOAXvJfVXABJWt7ZGvPieg1otJES8xhLvxFd-e4M_wo4GfLnAzhl38OF9eoH-JkoVDLyumW/s1600-h/DSCN0673.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibNz1dlCLefsLRfksVirFPCRCNGwVDY62CIkSrGtUDaKNxt9NJY-VXCUOIwob1b4F5mm-oDOAXvJfVXABJWt7ZGvPieg1otJES8xhLvxFd-e4M_wo4GfLnAzhl38OF9eoH-JkoVDLyumW/s320/DSCN0673.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423278341329853250" border="0" /></a>backed up, because then somebody else shut the door but then shortly after opened it. When he saw we were walking back to look some more, he quickly shut it. Guess they didn't want tourists! After that incident we continued walking around the Walls of the Temple Mount to be sure to look at everything possible. Part way down our walk we heard a guy yelling saying, "get out! get out!" We weren't sure who he was yelling at because it was 9:45am, so it wasn't time for people to leave, and he was pretty far away from us. As we watched him he got continually closer to some people about 20 feet in front of us who were about to go up some set of stairs. When he caught up to them he yelled at them a lot and made them go back to where the rest of the tourists were. We thought that maybe he might come after us next so we walked back up to the beaten path where the tourists were. As we were taking pictures of the D<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GJs_OpdRIfJtO21KUUcjqFybGxL22aHARhLEjp1elDGtVfAK6voxikCtE4s2c5tw4U6jVYjgH7fU_JbURNZhv9SWWqU0kIBZLcf7a-pw_DFg7W4RqJplLpUYPWFDa2vcLOWxtDSL_4aV/s1600-h/IMG_2980.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GJs_OpdRIfJtO21KUUcjqFybGxL22aHARhLEjp1elDGtVfAK6voxikCtE4s2c5tw4U6jVYjgH7fU_JbURNZhv9SWWqU0kIBZLcf7a-pw_DFg7W4RqJplLpUYPWFDa2vcLOWxtDSL_4aV/s320/IMG_2980.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423277608962340594" border="0" /></a>ome of the Rock from a set of stairs that might have been considered off the beaten path, the same man started walking over and yelling at me because I was standing at the base of the steps. I quickly ran up the stairs so that I wouldn't be thrown out or fined or something worse. Though we weren't there for very long, our day at the Temple Mount was just as interesting as our first day in the Old City looking at other holy sites.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-45420555851762399482010-01-02T07:21:00.000-08:002010-01-02T08:48:14.742-08:00The Old City<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5r4jM4_XNJJ-W6g2XMIg0TIIOPmYmCzsKfM70bVwisGsOUKH84_l8a6_2ncpOIonBz4bePJ2vG_BaAX8hhpHB-pn7fMHLWCgyNy5mMxzOfAZdJgBIdt6gYgxPtkGcvdOsf8wU3oqGHdr9/s1600-h/DSCN0550.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5r4jM4_XNJJ-W6g2XMIg0TIIOPmYmCzsKfM70bVwisGsOUKH84_l8a6_2ncpOIonBz4bePJ2vG_BaAX8hhpHB-pn7fMHLWCgyNy5mMxzOfAZdJgBIdt6gYgxPtkGcvdOsf8wU3oqGHdr9/s320/DSCN0550.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422182639046663778" border="0" /></a><br />3 major religions, 1 place of holiness. The Old City of Jerusalem has the most sacred monuments for Jews, Muslims, and Christians. For Jews, the holy monument is the Wailing (Western) Wall. This wall is supposedly the last remaining <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAuYPVLES1FbvUN0WD9QijraS3dRDGSadrRZGhk4mbdIcEj91paWmiTylwPrWu3f-aWwkRz1iIB5uTATIDvvOLZC4UcNs9ahZUDKzWmNz0mh0Rz9vp_CLDiZfhIGj3i9No02_6YJhW_Hh2/s1600-h/DSCN0574.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAuYPVLES1FbvUN0WD9QijraS3dRDGSadrRZGhk4mbdIcEj91paWmiTylwPrWu3f-aWwkRz1iIB5uTATIDvvOLZC4UcNs9ahZUDKzWmNz0mh0Rz9vp_CLDiZfhIGj3i9No02_6YJhW_Hh2/s200/DSCN0574.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422184797865483874" border="0" /></a>part of the Second Temple. For Muslims, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque are the sacred monuments. Inside the Dome of the Rock is the rock where supposedly Muhammad ascended to heaven. Also, that rock is where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac in Judaism. The Al Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site is Islam. For Christians, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most holiest place. It is where supposedly Christ was crucified and it contains the tomb where he was buried.<br /><br />Touring these sites was a very amazing and breath taking experience. I saw the remains and places where most of the information I had ever been taught about the bible had occurred. Because we went on the Sabbath, women aren't allowed to pray at the Western Wall so we just watched some very religious men pray. However, we still got an amazing view of the Wall and of the Mosques at the same time. Being at Western Wall was very meaningful to me because it is the most important object in my religion. I had alw<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ-_BznB8OqPAWOJa_fRswjBVWod244tDx9GwdLkTsaipwtXAlE6jMrcG_MSULYvdMzMvvRxFO1MIJbchvbarzUe5Pr_c1JbV60N-iLHdG0al-MnFkW20S0ae_4OnfqFk1Izp65u2C2rJ1/s1600-h/DSCN0573.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ-_BznB8OqPAWOJa_fRswjBVWod244tDx9GwdLkTsaipwtXAlE6jMrcG_MSULYvdMzMvvRxFO1MIJbchvbarzUe5Pr_c1JbV60N-iLHdG0al-MnFkW20S0ae_4OnfqFk1Izp65u2C2rJ1/s200/DSCN0573.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422183996075405266" border="0" /></a>ays heard about "The Western Wall"and had seen pictures, but to actually be next to it and to see it for myself was very meaningful and exciting. We couldn't go into the Dome of the Rock today because it was the Sabbath, but because we will go back to the Old City many times we will go in some other time. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, people were constantly gathered around the place where supposedly Jesus was set down after he was buried. The church was extremely crowded so we didn't stay in it for very long. In my opinion, as far as churches go, it wasn't a particu<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm47SjewNU8nw2S4_BewOecqEAvvJQGpKPnfoRHvXA-BK6PjBbYPz4ImhU6Ir7QUV06WCWzGJYNLpziFEpQiCf_mn7pMs0dxr7SPvioAKIijQWSe-zXD1U7AFn_khI_eRzCXAMXg8grpBB/s1600-h/DSCN0581.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm47SjewNU8nw2S4_BewOecqEAvvJQGpKPnfoRHvXA-BK6PjBbYPz4ImhU6Ir7QUV06WCWzGJYNLpziFEpQiCf_mn7pMs0dxr7SPvioAKIijQWSe-zXD1U7AFn_khI_eRzCXAMXg8grpBB/s320/DSCN0581.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422185113076625266" border="0" /></a>larly exquisite church. The floor was falling apart as well as were the walls. There were some nice ceiling designs though. Today was definitely the most stand out day that we have had so far in Israel.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-38109863909059981482010-01-01T07:41:00.000-08:002010-01-01T07:58:06.514-08:00Mahane Yahuda<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuIeaK88TPKqhmONUrnTHJzNkhikgiKMx5CWxQ537VRS8I-OV3Sj8Jk0SEUr2X_N79aY5id0VRIXSBfUMWI3DXyz-m-s06cunxEMk2uF9rUveFuj-j8UwCIXrKukG5dWBoPZGwFjsCWfm/s1600-h/DSCN0519.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuIeaK88TPKqhmONUrnTHJzNkhikgiKMx5CWxQ537VRS8I-OV3Sj8Jk0SEUr2X_N79aY5id0VRIXSBfUMWI3DXyz-m-s06cunxEMk2uF9rUveFuj-j8UwCIXrKukG5dWBoPZGwFjsCWfm/s320/DSCN0519.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421801233271777954" border="0" /></a><br />Today was our first full day in Jerusalem. After a simple breakfast of cheerios and a kiwi we walked to a very large market called Mahane Yehuda. Mahane Yehuda was like the Carmel Market, a market that was near the Eden House in Tel Aviv, only about 4 times as large. When walking through the cramped and busy isles of Mahane Yehuda I felt very claustrophobic. I usually don't feel claustrophobic and am fine in areas with tons of people but for some reason today was different. The floor/ground was very filthy, though is to be expected at a market like Mahane Yehuda. The smells of certain types of spices and breads was very nice but the smell of fish and meats made me gag. (But so did the site of the meats and fish.) However, the experience of being at this kind of market and seeing how local people get their food was quite interesting.Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1654236123993738361.post-83848759551704293022009-12-30T10:46:00.000-08:002010-01-01T08:05:16.802-08:00Shopping and RelaxingToday and yesterday we didn't go tour historical/touristy sites.<br /><br />Yesterday my dad had to go to Mofet. Mofet is a research institute that my dad will work with via Fulbright. Since my dad was there, my mom and I walked around some of the shopping districts near the Eden House. At Kookai, the store where I got a jacket and tank top, I got a pair of white capris. We also walked back to Dizengoff Center because it started raining. For dinner we walked north up the beach to the Tel Aviv Marina and Tel Aviv Port. We ate dinner at a beach front restaurant that was only m<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8PhcvMIUZgPm8C5yWxv0cUinVtCb53BHPw0efrFnIqnsQHvUGv_Xxq0PAX7Kt498z3em72aRAWcnAx6maEq_yDitMfXhsdrB1kz1UWPBfydjUD_VbZyKDCvoMEaZc3d9sBS-IvaQqjil3/s1600-h/DSCN0501.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8PhcvMIUZgPm8C5yWxv0cUinVtCb53BHPw0efrFnIqnsQHvUGv_Xxq0PAX7Kt498z3em72aRAWcnAx6maEq_yDitMfXhsdrB1kz1UWPBfydjUD_VbZyKDCvoMEaZc3d9sBS-IvaQqjil3/s320/DSCN0501.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421803079402927218" border="0" /></a>ediocre. My dad and I had lasagna and my mom had an eggplant dish.<br /><br />Today, we walked to Benedicts for breakfast. I got chocolate pancakes and they were really good. The pancakes were very fluffy and had big chunks of chocolate melted on top with powdered sugar and homemade syrup if needed. During breakfast it started pouring out and we sat in the restaurant for a while but then decided that we wanted to get back to the Eden House and took a taxi. When we arrived back at the Eden House, the internet wasn't working so I played itouch games and my parents worked on their computers. After about an hour, the rain had picked up a little and my parents went for a walk. I stayed home and watched Mean Girls. When my parents came back I fell asleep reading Fahrenheit 451. I thought I had only slept for half and hour but my parents informed me that it was now 6pm and that I had slept for two plus hours. Whoops!Noahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02195769611821319294noreply@blogger.com3