Kibbutz Hatzor

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 everything 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 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 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 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!

Tel Aviv!

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, 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. The 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!

The Golden Gate

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 garbanzo 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 front 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 was 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 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.

The Ramparts

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 holding 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 surrounding 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 City 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!

The Kardo

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 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. Because 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 for 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!

East Jerusalem

Today, 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 people 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 drag 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. Once 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 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 we 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!

Selina

Today 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 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!

Letters!

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!!!!

Mea She'arim and Mahane Yehuda again

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 have 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!

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 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!

The Temple Mount

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 are 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.

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 stood for about 30 seconds and then a guy came over to put something in the door. We 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 Dome 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.

The Old City

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 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.

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 always 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 particularly 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.

Mahane Yahuda

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.