Tiyul LiHaSafone (trip to the north!)

This weekend, my program took us on a trip to the north of Israel. I had been to the golan heights during birthright and done some hiking and stuff there but since being in Israel this time, I havent made it north of Akko- which is a shame because the north of israel is SO beautiful! so we left early friday morning and drove up the coast to the northern galilee. we spent the day in the mountain doing random activities like blind folded trust walks and some ropes work -pretty day-campy but alot of fun. after a day of driving and playing, we went to our hotel which was a kibbutz in nahariya. the kibbutz was right on the beach and we got to hang out there for a little (and nap) before dinner and bedtime at the kibbutz...other people went to the pub at the kibbutz but i was too tired :(
the next morning we woke up early and headed to see the caves at rosh hanikra. rosh hanikra is located right at the border of lebanon (like u can see lebanon) right at the north western tip of the country. we took "the worlds steepest cable car" down to the caves which were soo beautiful. there was some mystical spiritualness happening there but i just thought it was pretty. after we went up to the israel/lebanon border control which is the only place where people can pass through the border..but not even people just UN personel and soldiers (the only other way to get back and forth is to fly) here our tourguide spoke to us about 2 soldiers that were kidnapped many years ago and after much negotiation their bodies were brought back through that border. this transitioned into a discussion about Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped 4 years ago by hamas and has captivated the country and been the subject of many failed peace discussions. after our time at rosh hanikra, we went to a hike in the valley of kizev- a gorgeous valley the top of which is the village where gilad shalit is from. once down in the valley, there was a stream that continuously got in our way and most of the hike was us perfecting the art of not falling into the stream as we jumped from rock to rock to get across the stream. i was one of few people who did not fall into the water. success. the hike was so gorgeous and along the way we stopped for discussion with our tourguide about the history in the north of israel and also about gilad shalit. after the hike, we returned to the kibbutz for some rest and dinner. that night we were supposed to go to the town of rosh pina but we couldnt :( so we went into nahariya instead and got fro yo...yofi.
on sunday, we awoke and drove an hour or so east towards the golan. we did another hike through the amud stream/valley which was beautiful as well- we were a "bit" sore from our hike the previous day so it wasnt as joyous a hike but it was still beautiful. after this hike, we drove to the yarden river to go rafting!! it wasnt the most intense rafting but it was alot of fun and i was lucky to not fall in or die while hitting a tree/rock which was what my boat did the majority of time. after some rafting we changed clothes and started our three hour bus ride back to tel aviv..of course with a quick stop for some FALAFEL! yumyum
the trip was quite exhausting but it was so much fun! my bus was basically a largeeee group of my girlfriends and we got to have lots of bonding time while sweating and getting to see some beautiful parts of Israel. next up, is another 3 days of school before jetting of to EGYPT! this is the big trip i've been waiting for allll semester and i am sososoo excited its finally here! its getting more and more evident how little time we have left in israel which is really sad but also making us concentrate on making the best out of the 5 or so weeks infront of us! i know it has sounded like im never leaving but just so everyone knows i do have a flight home and i will return to the states on may 30th!
thats all for now! xoxoxo

Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut

Shalom! What a weekend of ceremonies and celebrations!
So i just had a veryyy long weekend: a thursday-wednesday weekend! only in israel :) after weeks away from our sunny home of tel aviv, we took this weekend as a time to do one thing and one thing only: go to the beach and tan. sadly i must report most of us have developed what is called "tanorexia"- a disease in which one craves the need TO BE TAN. once you get a little color, the fading of tan lines and the changing of skin tone makes you depressed! its a problem. or is it? a weekend of napping on sad, splashing in the med. sea, and eating fro yo sounds pretty damn good to me! Other highlights of thursday-sunday included having a big girls dinner at our favorite 24/7 breakfast place benedicts and having a sushi dinner with arielle and ethan at my fav sushi place moooon (followed by fro yo)
sunday night at sundown marked the beginning of yom haZikaron- the day of rememberance for fallen IDF soldiers. unlike memorial or veterans day at home which are marked by long weekends and BBQs, yom hazikaron is one of the most somber days in israel. on sunday we went to a ceremony at noon on campus. the minister of defense spoke and a few stories and songs were shared. a list of names was read of graduates of tlv university who have died in war as well. at night, emma and i went with our friend Jonathan to his high school's ceremony in tel aviv. at 8pm the siren sounded all across israel (like on holocaust rememberance day) which began the ceremony. jonathans school is the high school in israel with the most alumni killed in war and they put on a beautiful ceremony including monologues and songs and a slideshow of all fallen soldiers from the school. after the ceremony, emma and i went down to jerusalem and stayed the night with arielle and ethan. in the morning we woke up early and went to har herzel - the military cemetery in jerusalem. har herzel is a beautiful ceremony (for lack of a better word)- there tons of trees and flowers and it is moving just to be there any day; however, on yom hazikaron it was especially moving to see all of the families of fallen soldiers out by the graves as well as tons of soldiers standing standing arond telling stories and remembering their friends.
after walking around har herzel a bit, we went into the ceremony at the top of the hill. for the most part i did not understand what was going on at the ceremony but of course it is the sentiment that is the most important. another siren sounded throughout the country at 11am which commenced the ceremony and prime minister nentanyahu gave a speech as well- he told a story from his own army service in which two of his friends died during war, one right in his own hands. after the ceremony, i met arielle in jerusalem for lunch and some hanging out before going back to tel aviv to begin the yom ha'atzmaut celebrations.
celebrations? yes a quick of mood between sunday and monday because monday night marked israeli independence day- 62 years ! the big thing to go to on yom haatzmaut is the street party in florentine (an area of tel aviv)- ive heard alot about this street party from a lot of different people ever since i arrived. first we went to jonathans apartment and hung out with his friends on his roof (drinking and eating). one magical thing that happened here was for the first time in three wholeeeee months we made ISRAELI GIRLFRIENDS - big news since all the other israeli girls ive encountered have been scary but jonathans friends were really ncie and inclusive. around 12:30ish we headed from jonathans roof to the florentine street partyy. it was absolutely insane!! soooo many people just running around ,dancing and drinking in the streets, and celebrating! we stayed out until 4ish whcih turned into 5ish because lack of cabs forced to walk for a longlong time before returning home. however it was a REALLLY fun night!!!
so thats a holiday weekend for ya! we didnt have classes on tuesday and now its finally back to school....for a 2 day week! this weekend my program is heading up to the north of israel for a trip of hiking and rafting which im really excited about - the north is such a gorgeous piece of israel and i am happy to be getting there again. AND one week from tomorrow i will be flying to EGYPT!!!
thats it for me! xoxoxo enjoy some pics from the weekend!

beach- sums up my weekend

prime minister netanyahu speaking at har herzel ceremony
yael, me, halley, and emma on yom haatzmaut (notice blue/white dress)
florentine street party :)

BiBaiyit Sheli :)

Back in action!! Back in Tel Aviv!!
sunday night after returning from Greece, we all ventured out to have dinner at our fav 24/7 breakfast place- benedicts. it was closed. and sooo was everything else. lamah?
Monday was Yom Hashoah - holocaust remembrance day. there are three "secular" holidays for which the entire country shut downs-literally there is a law that all businesses must close 7pm the night before the holiday-and yom hashoah is one of them. alot of ceremonies took place on sunday night including one at yad vashem (the holocaust museum) that arielle went to and the prime minister of israel gave a speech at the kotel (in hebrew). there is also the traditional siren at 10am on yom hashoah. my hebrew teacher, Eti (love her), took us out of class early so we could be outside on the street for the siren. at 10am the siren blew and everyone stopped moving and talking. cars and busses stopped in their places and all drivers and passengers got out into the street and stood for the moment of silence. it was very moving scene to be a part of. another interesting part of the siren was watching the arab students - many were respectful of the siren and stayed silent but many also kept walking and talking loudly which my teacher had warned us would happen. it was hard to watch and understand the message they were trying to send by ignoring the siren.
most of my professors acknowledged yom hashoah and dedicated a good portion of classtime to speaking about it and discussing the future of the day.
aside from yom hashoah, not too much has been going on aside from getting back into the normal swing of things. on wednesday i had to register for classes for fall semester at tufts for my SENIOR year! ahh! and thats about as close to real life as im getting!
in great news there are two more holidays right around the corner and i have very little school in my near future- today is thursday and i wont have class again until wednesday! first on sunday is yom hazikaron - the day of rememberance for fallen IDF soldiers- and then on monday is a much happier day, yom haatzmaut -israeli independence day! there are going to be lots of celebrations and fun parties! very excited to get to be here for all of this!!
coming down to about 6 more weeks in israel which is so sad (i officially have a flight home on may 30th) but excited for all the great times ahead! xoxoxo

Yamas!!

Well hello hello! its been a longlong time! and lots of travel for me! so the journey begins in tel aviv per usual where i packed up after mom left and then woke up at 330am to get to the airport for our 7am flight. before i could do this i fell down a flight of stairs while carrying my suitcase (mom i didnt tell you that..but im ok)..it was a bad start to my trip but actually at 330am it was like it didnt even happen. so we got in our cab- backtrack: i travelled to greece with three other girls from my program: Dana, Halley, and Yael (yes another Dana). all three girls go to michigan and are also in ChiO (my sorority) there. so we got in our cab headed to ben gurion and set off to Athens! (newsflash: this is going to be a long post so get some coffee now)

We arrived in athens reallllly early, got to our hostel, and hit the road for FOOD..and by food i mean FETA. we had lunch at an adorable taverna and got a bunch of greek dishes- my fav part of eating in greece was how much sharing we did. every meal we ordered a bunch of small appetizer dishes like eggplant salad, stuffed grape leafs, greek salad, etc and then shared them all! so much fun! during lunch, i ran into a few people from tufts who were studying abroad in spain and also on spring break in greece and made plans to meet up with my girlfriends who were also there later. after lunch, we went to the ACROPOLIS! it was very crowded there as it was the day before easter but it was a very amazing site! the view of athens from the top was so gorgeous. after the acropolis we went to the acropolis museum to see all of the things that have been excavated from the site and it was really unbelievable. after the museum we walked around and explored the neighborhood of plaka where out hotel was located then we took a very needed nap. after waking up we went to dinner at an adorable restaurant with lots of feta and food and then met up with three of my girlfriends from tufts at a bar. it was so fun to see them and stroll down memory and talk about next year/senior year ahh! we left the bar before midnight so we could walk to find the easter midnight ceremonies. we stumbled into a huge square with a gorgeous church that was overflowing with people and candles. the flame of the candle is actually flown over from JERUSALEM from the church of the holy sepulcre where Jesus died and resurrected and then is passed to people throughout the streets and at churches. it was a very interesting ceremony part emotional and part celebratory.

day 2 in athens was EASTER! we slept in knowing lots of things were going to be closed and took the day to stroll around and explore the neighborhoods of monstariki and excharcia. we went to the national gardens near parliament and hung out in the sun for a while as well. then we went to the tomb of the unknown soldier which is a memorial for unidentified remains of soldiers. the tomb is guarded 24/7 by guards in funny and every hour on the hour they do a "changing of the guards" ceremony with lots of fancy footwork. theres only 2 guards so its not exactly buckingham palace but it was pretty cool. for dinner, we went to a restaurant about 25 mins away from our hostel and we got to see the university of athens and the public library which were gorgeous. already on feta and meat overload we opted for a pasta dinner with lots of eggplant included!

day 3: we got up before the sun and took a flight to Crete. we landed in heraklion, crete only to realize our final destination of Chania, Crete was a three hour bus ride west..o well the bus ride was gorgeous! our hotel in Chania was an adorable studio apartment, family run style. this is a very common thing in greece - we had a patio overlooking a beautiful little alleyway and a huge jacuzzi bathtub! our first stop in Chania was food (theme) and then we walked around to find the beach! forgot to mention this but the weather in athens was gorgeous! not hot like tel aviv but low 70s high 60s and perfect weather for sightseeing and walking around. Chania was a bit warmer and we were very happy to have some down time on the beach. unfortunately in the process of this beach day, my blackberry got stolen :( which caused a bit of stress and many calls/emails with mom and verizon but no worries all is well! no use crying over spilt milk, we went back to the apartment and took a nap (theme). then we went out for what turned into the best dinner of our lives. earlier in the day we had been propositioned by a tan greek man to eat at his restaurant later that night- he offered free wine and free dessert (sold). we returned and were greeted with a bottle of wine and nice albanian waiter named christian who took an interest in "presenting us" (giving us presents/alcohol for free). this culminated in ouzo - licorice nastiness that people like to take shots of. gross. but when in greece. we went back to our apartment and we were greeted by three boys from Chania- their bff is the son of the hotel owner and they come to play with her and watch her tv cause hes in the army. we said hi and had a brief engleek convo (english/greek) and went to our room. next thing we know the phone rings and the three boys invite themselves up to hang. we chatted for a few hours and had a lot of fun swapping stories and just getting to know each others cultures..and trying to explain why we are studying in israel. we then went to bed but made plans to go out with them the next night.

day 4: HIKING. Crete is a great place to hike so we wanted to make sure we took advantage of this. in the morning our "guide" valerie picked us up and we drove an hour or so to the agia irni gorge. the hike was beautifu and the weather was perfect. Valerie was a bit of a failure at being a "guide" but we still had a great time. our hike ended at the med. sea and we had "lunch" and relaxed before heading back to Chania for a nap. we went out for dinner and were propositioned again by the same restaurant but we decided we needed to try a new place- big mistake as the place we went to had NO EGGPLANT and tried to charge us for wine (trust me, they failed at that). we headed back to the hotel and met up with our greek friends from the night before. they took us for coffee- a pre going out greek ritual. i thought they were lying until we came to streets that were lined with only coffee shops and filled with young people drinking coffee. we sat at coffee for a few hours before heading out to a club - we were pretty exhausted from hiking with Val so we didnt stay out late but it was really fun getting to meet some locals
day 5: we arose early and bussed back to Heraklion. our hotel was in the suburbs of heraklion in Chernoissos but unfortunately it was realllllly not in season to be there so there was not too much to do. then we did the best thing ever: went to the aquarium. aquaworld is the first aquarium in crete started by some rando scottish man. they had lots of turtles and fish and snakes. the girls held the snakes.. i pretended to for the sake of pictures. after the aquarium we headed to dinner at a place called new york bar and got burgers. sometimes you just gotta go home!
day 6: already halfway through we awoke early and took a ferry from Crete to the island of Santorini. we were picked up at the port by papa stelios and brought to our apartm
ent place in perissa beach. we had some lunch and then wanted to lay out on the beach but the weather was cooperating so we decided to adventure around the island. in great news, one the of popular ways to do this in santorini is to rent ATVs! so we rented two ATVs and ventured to the red beach -a beach with gorgeous red sand and rocks (due to lavaaaaa). after the red beach we went to the lighthouse of santorini which has gorgeous panaramic views of the sea that seem to go on forever. we returned to the hotel to shower then hopped on the ATVs for a 30 min ride into the city of Thira where we had the most delicious meal at "mama's house" - the food was traditional greek food but "mama" made the night she was the most adorable woman and told us we were pretty..i like. we ATVed back (a little cold) and went to bed
day 7: we went back to the port via bus. little did we know after the bus it was a 30 min walk down to the port (down a mountain). not only was the path down a montain but in the course of this walk we encountered 100s of DONKEYS and their poop. grossss. we all were moving soo quickly holding our noses and dying the whole way down. we made it! Santorni was formed/ruined by a volcanic erruption and the volcano is a popular site to visit. from the port we went on a boat to the volcanos. we did a short hike there and saw active and non-active craters. after the volcano we took the boat to the "hot springs". the boat was "not able" to pull up very close (miles) to the hot springs so we had to jump in the med sea and swim to the "hot springs". med sea was FREEEEZING! but we toughed it out for the sake of experience and made it to the "hot springs" which by my quotation marks im sure you can figure out were merely warm..awkward cause we swam in an ice bath to get there. o well still was awesome! we boated back and headed for lunch at mama's house. mama wasnt there though so we were sad cause papa didnt remember us :( after lunch, we showered and napped at the hotel and then headed to the airport with papa stelios. we had a 9pm flight to athens and returned to our original hostel for a nights sleep
day 8: we woke up early and athens and went on a tour of ancient delphi/the temple of apollo. the day started with a three hour bus ride to delphi with a group of 20 and a very chatty tour guide. we went to the museum of delphi first and saw all the amazing statues and things that have been excavated from the site it was amazing. next we walked around the ruins of delphi and learned more about the history and the excavation. our company then took us for lunch at a cute greek restaurant and then for a tour of a little village which was really a ploy to make people buy carpets at some shop. we werent fooled. the tour description mentioned wine and cheese which was a real motivation for us to join but that did not end up being a part of the tour and that was sad but nonetheless it was an amazing day and such a cool place to end our time in greece! after delphi we headed back to athens, took a long hangout break in a coffee shop and had our last round of feta at a greek taverna in plaka. we then headed to the airport and flew back to tel aviv landed at 5 am this morning!

basically the trip was amazing! i hope to go back to greece very shortly- it is a beautiful place and the people were so friendly and hospitable and the food was GREAT! there are so many places to see and so much history that it would be impossible to get it all done at once! it was a really successful trip and i felt way too adult to have planned an entire weeks vacation in there different locations! now my adult self is back in tel aviv for some good ol relaxation in the sun and o yea, a return to classes!
here are some pictures from greece!! i have sooo many more that id be happy to send to any of you! more updates to come! xo

street of tavernas where we ate the first night in athens

parthenon

first greek salad!

the four of us with the view of athens from the acropolis

hiking in the gorge
renting ATVs in santorini
red beach in santorini

the four of us at the ruins of delphi

Hag Pesach Sameach and Happy Easter!

Shalom Shalom- hag pesach sameach! hope everyones passover is going well- having trouble staying away from bread and curbing those cravings for pasta? come to israel! why? because EVERYTHING here is kosher for passover! a few days before passover the country died and when it came to life again there was no chamatz (evil non kosher for passover foods) to be found! you think im exaggerating???? nono. i have had everything from rolls, ravioli, and wine that are all kosher for passover. even the huge coffee chain here (aroma) shut down and came back in full passover force. and everything actually tastes good to which is a nice change of pace from what i usually eat around this time.
So for passover we went to seder at my cousins house in Jerusalem- 4 out of 5 cousins were there and we had lots of yummyyummy good and a lot of fun. i definitely missed being at home for the holiday but since my mom was there, it felt like being at home anyway. moms last couple of days in israel were spent lounging around the pool of the hotel and strolling through the old city culminating in a glorious visit to the biblical zoo of jerusalem. ma ze? the zoo has one of each animal mentioned in the bible! its awesome. ANDDDDd noahs ark is there. legit.
Now mommy is back home :( and I have been taking advantage of some gorgeous weather spending endless hours at the beach and the pool. i am finalllllly about to start packing for greece because we leave veryvery early in the morning! aka our cab comes at 4am!!! eek.
i'm sosososo excited for greece! the weather is looking really nice there and we have a lot of fun hikes and excursions planned for while we are there.

cant wait to share pictures and stories from greece!
xoxoxox