Challah From Tel Aviv

the last of the challahs

2010-05-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

thats right. its time for the last of the challahs from tel aviv. the last few days have been spent mostly eating and hanging out in obsencely large groups of girls. when i say mostly eating i mean only eating and sometimes sleeping. most of this food i speak of has been fro yo or sushi. yes sushi. we've had lots of outdoor picnics since its pretty hard to fit 25 people into a restaurant but this morning we ventured to benedicts- the best breakfast place in tel aviv- and got a table for 16! lotsss of food! tonight a lot of my good friends are leaving which is going to be really sad and then a group of us who are still here are going to out for SUSHI. yup.
tomorrow (sunday) we'll get up, have some more food, turn in the last of our exams, and head to the airport. hard to believe.
thanks to everyone who has read my blog. its actually been pretty fun keeping this thing updated and i know im going to value having all my experiences written down. cant wait to see everyone at home and show off my tan!
xoxo
dana
pics below: leaving the beach for the last time. and the group of us at our goodbye picnic dinner.

Studying Abroad

2010-05-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

Studying abroad..indeed i finally am. Classes finished up Thursday and we had an of the year banquet thrown by our program! We went to a place called "mini-israel" which is exactly what it sounds like- a miniature version of israel. the place has replicas of all the major sites in israel, but tiny, and you walk through and get to see/remember all of your favs! after our tour "through israel" we had a delicious buffet dinner and at our tables, we received tshirts, a cd, and letters from the madrichim (staff leaders of our program). the tshirts were unexpected and so great...except there is no hebrew on them! but still a nice thing! the madrichim prepared a slideshow for us that had tons of pics and videos from our time in israel- really cute! after the "ceremony" we had a party- dancing and free beer for the whole night.
now we move into finals period- i got a beach day in on saturday but sunday/monday have been spent working on take home finals and studying for exams. i have two exams on tuesday and will hopefully finish up my papers on wednesday and get to spend my last few days on the beach of course!
the fosters landed this morning and i cant wait to see them!!!
below is a pic of mini western wall, all of my friends at the banquet, and our tshirt!
xoxo

The Beginning of the End

2010-05-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe but it really is the beginning of the end. Currently i have only 12 more days in israel. this past week was a pretty normal one- classes and enjoying the hothothot weather. wednesday i got to meet emma's grandmother who came to israel to visit the family which was really fun! thursday i decided to spend the day in jerusalem shopping around the city for gifts and things to take home with me. my cousin jay and i planned to have lunch and when he picked me up from the bus station, he had his motorcycle with him! so i spent the day riding around jerusalem on a motorcycle- first we had lunch, then drove up to the mount of olives for a view of the city, heading into the old city to do some shopping, and then to ben yehuda street where i continued to shop! it was a long day but i got some gorgeous things and it was really nice to spend a day with my cousin.
Saturday i had a great day! My environment class (israel and the environment) went on a jeep trek through the judean desert aka the west bank. i admit i first drawn to sign up for this trek because then i got to say i went to the west bank...not because the environment or "trekking" in a jeep interests me BUT it was an AMAZING experience. we began the morning at the mount of olives (o wait i had been there 48 hours before) and had brief history of Israel. we then ventured in our jeeps out to the desert- sand, benduoins, and goats made up most of the landscape but it was absolutely beautiful. we came across a few water springs as well which were gorgeous. eventually we came to the top of mountains which overlook the dead sea and there were the most beautiful views of the dead sea with the jordanian mountains reflecting the water. for dinner, we set up came in the desert and had boiled hot dogs and corn! delicious. we then started a fire and roasted marshmallows! so cute! we ended the day with a night safari searching for animals...fairly unsuccessful but still a good time. on our way back to jerusalem, our jeep broke down- woops. there wasnt enough room for all of us to go into the second jeep so halley and i had to hitchike across the jerusalem checkpoint so another car could pick us up...ok semi lie. we were told we were going to hitchike...sadly we arranged for a taxi to take us across the border which was disappointing to us as we envisioned an epic tale about our smuggling through the border but alas we got through. on the other side, i discovered a container for cheese which was none othe than brand name DANA!!!!! it was so great- turns out i am the name of a processed cheese from egypt! i should invest in stocks!
sunday, i spent the day "studying" with friends and then headed down to jerusalem for a final dinner with Ethan and Arielle...WHAT. crazycrazy but in fact arielle and ethan's time in israel is over shortly as well. they left for a three week trip to morocco today and when they return to israel, i will no longer be here! we hung out at arielle's apartment and then headed for dinner at cavalier. turns out netanyahu's father eats at the restaurant EVERY night and was at the table behind us! celeb sightingggg!!!! aside from that, the food was absolutely delicious and we had an amazing last night together in israel. Arielle's being in israel has enhanced my time here in a way i cant even explain - we have had so many great times together and having her with me has made my time in israel even more special than it was already.
back in tel aviv: monday i had my last hebrew class/final exam- thats right im done learning hebrew. its bittersweet of course but im really proud of how much my hebrew has improved and i hope i get to keep learning more and i also hope shir doesnt hate me next year when i try to speak to her in hebrew all the time!! today at sundown marks the beginning of shavuot (the holiday which recognizes when Gd gave the torah to the Israelite nation at mount sinai- thanks!) so we dont have classes today or tomorrow! today, i slept in and then went to the shuk with emma, halley, and her friend from school to shop around for gifts and fun things to take home. i got a lot of tel aviv university clothing and some other stuff! i think im pretty shopped out and have just enough great things to remind me of my time here!
So thats pretty much whats going on! thursday is the official last day of classes and next week we begin final exams. Jaclyn and the foster clan come to israel on Sunday which im SO excited about!!!! and then the packing and goodbye dinners must commence :( its going to be so hard to leave but good to say goodbye at an all time high!
Below are some pics from my jeep trek through the desert- the last is me and my cheese..that yes i picked up off the street :)
xo

We Go To The Beach Everyday

2010-05-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. So "Nile Flu" as it has been dubbed afflicted all 7 of us throughout last week. I wont share details since I try to keep this blog PG but its been a pretty rough week for all of us. Now, most have recovered and those who arent 100%, including myself, are on antibiotics to rid our bodies of Egypt! Early last week, when the "Nile Flu" was just emerging and quite ugly, I of course opted not to go to my classes. After two days of this, I started to get used to it- no waking up early, no walking in the heat, no being bored- the "good life" as Kanye would say. So wednesday, when all my friends went to the beach, i skipped my two afternoon classes and went also!!! The weather is absolutely perfect here - i mean its too hot for my liking but its perfect for obtaining a deeeep dark tan, my only goal in life. We spent the day hanging out, swimming in the Med, and enjoying yummy smoothies from my fav place on the beach. On Thursday, I was still under the influence of the "Nile Flu" and skipped class again! im such a disappointment! But on thursday i have more an excuse because one of my guy friends from Tufts came to visit Israel and we got to have lunch and hang at the beach for the day. I also got to see Arielle and her friend Nani for a while also! Thursday night marked the beginning of my friend Halley's 21st bday so we went out for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in Tel Aviv and then to a small bar for her first legal drink. The next day, I didnt go to the beach...believe it or not...in the morning, my art class went on a fieldtrip to a museum in petach tikvah which featured video art that focused on the holocaust. afterwards, we went for a bday brunch for Halleys bday and then rested and headed out for more 21st bday celebrations- my friend from tufts also came which was fun! Saturday we had another beach day, of course! The weather was hothothot and we were in the water constantly- no complaints. My friend joined us as well - loved showing off my beach/home! Saturday we had a low key night at home.
Sunday was mothers day but not in israel..still important!! In honor of my mommy, i got a manicure and pedicure! what a great daughter! Monday (today) marked the beginning of another week of classes, which I have decided I will attend. Today in my Islam/Terrorism/Politics class we began our discussion about the emergence of Hezbollah. We went quickly through the history of Hezbollah and spent most of the time speaking about the present situation between Israel, Lebanon, and Iran. Recently, this topic has been coming up more and more with Israelis and soldiers- and its clear that a serious war is going to break out. Our conversation in class was very direct, without fluff, and it was really the first time it hit me that I am living in a country in the midst of war- i know it sounds strange..i've been living in Israel this whole time (even my birthright trip was during the Gaza operation in 2009) but for the most part, my time here has been calm. now, tensions are rising and israelis, my professors, and friends are beginning to speak of the situation with a more serious tone and more uncertain perspective on the future. It will be hard to go home and watch the conflict unfold from a far -really knowing people in israel, knowing soldiers in the war, and knowing the places i will see on TV.
So there you have it - beach time and war? interesting combination but somehow it feels like home. :)
more updates to come!

EGYPT! :)

2010-05-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Ok so im feeling muchmuch better and ready to report about my amazing weekend in Egypt!
We left Israel on thursday morning and flew "air sinai" to cairo. upon arrival we got a really cool visa which definitely is the best thing in my passport and were met by a company representative named Islam. sidenote: i traveled with 6 girls from my program. Islam lead us to our bus which drove us through cairo to giza where are hotel AND THE PYRAMIDS were located. the pyramids were honestly located across the street from our hotel! unreal. we checked in and immediately got lunch poolside at our hotel. after lunch, we spent the day laying out by the pool, reading, and tanning until our next meal and then bed.
830 friday morning we met Islam in the lobby of the hotel and he introduced us to Amir, our tourguide, and our security guard!! hardcore. we started the day by driving to Memphis to see the famous Ramses statue which is ENORMOUS! there are lot of other sculptures and artifacts at memphis but the Ramses statue was unreal. next we drove to Sakkara to see the famous step pyramid. also in sakkara we got to go inside a pyramid and see the inscriptions and hyrogliphics which was really cool. after Sakkara, we visited the "oriental carpet school" in giza. for many families, school is too expensive so they send their children to carpet school where they learn to make carpets and get paid a little when things sell from the store. about 10 little boys around age 9 showed us how they hand make each carpet. it was really cool to see but also really sad to see how poor the children were and they kept begging us for money. after the carpet school, we went to a papyrus store and got a demonstration about how to make papyrus paper. after this we headed to the hotel for lunch and anxiously awaited our visit to the great pyramids!
after lunch, we drove into giza to visit the great pyramids! theres not too much to say they are just amazing and it was pretty surreal getting to see them - and you can sit on them, who knew! we drove a little to a spot thats great for panoramic shots and got to take some amazing pictures. next we went to the sphynx which i was really excited about. Amir talked to us the whole time and gave us lots of info and history! after the pyramids, we went to a perfume shop (something egypt is very famous for)- we got to smell lots of different perfumes and i bought one for myself to put in the perfume bottle arielle got for me on her trip to egypt. after a longlong day we headed back to the hotel for some relaxation, dinner, and hookah (very egyptian!)
830 on saturday we met amir again in the lobby of the hotel and our new security guard who was much more friendly- in fact it turned out his wife's name was Dina which he couldnt decipher from Dana and so he took a great interest in me and at the end of the day tried to adopt me as his child. nice. we began our day in the koptic area of cairo - meaning the christian area. we first visited a few churches and amir gave us the history of the christian people in egypt and about the different denominations found. next we to a SYNAGOGUE- direct quote from amir: then we will go to a synagogue...a jewish temple..you know what is?. the ben ezra synagogue is very small and not an active temple but has my illegally taken pictures show it is really beautiful. there is an active synagogue in egypt but we didnt get to go there. after this, we left the koptic area and went to the citadel, where the important mosques of cairo are located. the mosque was built after the famous blue mosque in istanbul so it was cool to see since we had visited that mosque when we were in turkey. next we went to the egyptian bazaar/market. our security guard helped us bargain our way through in arabic and everyone got some really nice stuff. im really sick of bargaining though its just a pain- i bought a scarf for 50 egyptian dollars and he first offered me 150 egyptian dollars...no fun bargaining him down to that price- im ready for fixed pricing again. after the bazaar we ate in a local restaurant and headed for the egyptian museum. how to explain this place? well there are over 160,000 pieces in the museum and apparently, the collectino stored in the basement puts the total at over 200,000. the museum is a mess- things are scattered everyone and info is legit handwritten on index cards but aside from this it is UNREAL. they have so much stuff that has stayed in unbelieveable conditions. and its all SOOOO OLD. the best part of the whole museum was the mummies! real bodies, bones, hair, teeth, nails- it was disgusting and amazing at the same time- and they have a good amount of personal info on each mummy that they have. it was too cool. they also had a mummy room for animals which was interesting but the people room was awesome! no pics allowed but i do have some on my phone of course! its too cool not to share! after our trip the museum we returned to the hotel for some rest and pool time.
saturday night however we skipped dinner at the hotel and went on a NILE CRUISE! Islam and my security guard father brought us 20 mins away from the hotel to the nile and to our boat which had pharoah on the front! we set sail and had a delicious buffet dinner followed by bellydancing shows and other random performances. it was so much and the city was much more nice looking in the dark. dont think i mentioned this before but Cairo is a veryvery poor city and it was scary and pretty unreal seeing the conditions that people lived in- such a contrast to the rich history that survives in the country.
after our nile cruise, we went back to the hotel, got some sleep, and woke up in the morning to return to tel aviv. it was a good feeling coming home but i really enjoyed my trip to egypt and hope to go back some day to explore other parts of the country like alexandria and luxor. also coming back made us realize that it was our last trip out of israel and the next time we leave, we wont return for a long time which is really sad. may 30th is approaching faster than i ever thought possible but i think the next four weeks will be some of the best!
below are some pics from egypt!! enjoy and let me know if you'd like the link to my entire album!
xoxoxo

all of us sitting on the great pyramid

me in front of the great pyramid! cant even get the whole thing in!

me in front of the sphynx and another pyramid

all of us in our modest robes supplied by the mosque at the citadel

a woman wearing a full burka outside the egyptian museum

EGYPTTTTTTTT :)

2010-05-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

so currently i am dealing with illness :( egyptian food did not agree with me.
in this state i cant do a blog entry about egypt justice but i didnt want you all to think i forgot about you or had given up on my blogging! i will be back for a detailed blog about my trip once im feeling better but i will say it was an AMAZING trip - met expectations and exceeded them veryvery much!
xo

Tiyul LiHaSafone (trip to the north!)

2010-04-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-21T00:52:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2010-04-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-04-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

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

Mommy Rides a Camel!!!

2010-03-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

Helloooooooo- I'm back in tel aviv just for the night and want to give everyone an update about what mommy lane has been doing here in israel. first things first, we are eating ALOT - as i have said before israelis love salads and so does ellen lane so this has worked out veryvery well. aside from salads we are having lots of hummus and falafel! so what have we done:
friday-shabbat at arielles. delicious food and good people. saturday we had brunch at the hotel with our cousins in jerusalem and we saw invanka trump and her husband!!! and we talked to them! very pleasing. sunday we drove down to masada and the dead sea! mom floated and we got all covered in mud (and salt!). on the way back mom rode a camel on the side of the road!! unlike in petra, this camel was veryy friendly and we had a lot of fun and as you can see, mom was fearless!

monday we toured the old city which included a tunnel tour, falafel in the muslim quarter, and lots of walking throughout the city. tuesday i returned to school (i do actually have classes haha what) and mommy and arielle went to the south for the day. wednesday we were in jerusalem at the shuk and also visited mea shearim. this is a veryy ultra orthodox community that is very isolated, very conservtive, and they dont have tvs!! there is a history of violence in the area actually from the orthodox throwing rocks/harassing non-orthodox people that come to the area to see it...like tourists..like us...so its best to dress very conservatively. see my very frum mother and sister below (i wore pants...):
thursday mom and i went to the temple mount and i finally got to see the dome of the rock (see below). it is absolultey beautiful. the colors and the size are really unbelievable to conceptualize except for when standing right there. it is really amazing looking. after, we drove to yad vashem, the holocaust museum in jerusalem. i had been to yad vashem on birthright but i dont think one can go too many times. it is such an extensive museum that is a real indepth look at the history of the holocaust with real personal and individual focus. the museum has done an unbelievable job identifying the names of people lost in the holocaust and continues to work to piece together the history of all people lost. definitely one of my highest recommendations to all- you cant visit israel without going.

friday we woke up and drove up the coast to akko- the old port city of haifa. it is a mostly arab village and still very genuine in its representation of the old city despite being built up. the day was so gorgeous and you could see right across the water to haifa. of course we had yummmmy falafel and hung out at the port.

after akko, we drove to haifa to have shabbat dinner at the mellers. again, we had a feast that im still having stomach pains over! we spent the night at the mellers and then today we drove up to the druze village in haifa to visit with arielles friend from seeds and her husband. the druze religion is so interesing and raya took us around the village, to the shuk, and to her parents home. we had a delicious/huge meal at raya's and then we drove back to the mellers for more food. so much food!!! heres haifa from the bahai gardens!

now im in tel aviv for the night and tomorrow ill be back in jerusalem for some more relaxing days with mommy and then seder with our cousins.

more updates to come!

xoxoxo

ima sheli biyisrael :)

2010-03-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

Thats right! The eagle has landed- and this is the view from her hotel room so i dont think shes ever leaving!

Mom arrived tuesday night and we had a nice dinner with arielle and ethan. yesterday (weds) we toured around the city and jaffa with my cousin Jay and then mom took me and a few friends out to dinner. today, i showed mom all the cool spots i always talk about like the nemal and the popular roads of the city as well as my shuk. we had lunch right at the port and then hung out on her balcony overlooking the water. tonight we are off to dinner with arielle and ethan again and then tomorrow we will head to jerusalem for the weekend. there, we will have shabbat at arielles, lunch with cousins, and on sunday go to the dead sea and masada. we'll tour jerusalem on monday and have dindin with emma's fam. next week mom's doing lots of things around the country and thursday we had up north to stay with the mellers in haifa. after the weekend we return to jerusalem for pesach with our cousins. its going to be an amazing two weeks!
heres a pic of me and mommy!

XOXOXO

well right now i'm in israel but i just spent the day in jordan

2010-03-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

shalom! so eilat and petra. thursday after class the 6 of us "scampered" over to the bus station- scampered? lies. actually what happened is the bus took forever to get to our bus stop, we hit TONS of traffic, and all desperately looked at our watches as we arrived to the central bus station with 5 minutes to retrieve our tickets and find and board our bus. 5 minutes wasnt enough...2 girls missed the bus. Thankfully there was a 2nd bus going at the same time and they managed to stowe away on that bus until we met up at the first rest stop. adventures already.
we stayed at the eilat youth hostel and guest house..my first first hostel and it was a success. once we arrived (around 830pmish) we strolled the boardwalk for a place to eat- boardwalk was sooooo jersey shore. we had dinner at a kinda shanty place but it was good and then we all passed out and went to bed! we woke up promptly at 830am and headed to the beach for a full day of mid 90s weather on the beach! it was amazingggg but sososo hot. instead of lounge chairs we went to the beach that has mattresses its like being in bed on the beach they were amazing and the only reason we moved all day was to cool off in the RED SEA and reluctantly to get food. then we went banana boating around 430- large mistake. the guys running the "ship" were young beach bum israelis who spent the entire time trying to make us fall into the water- thankfully they failed- but my arms and legs are still sore from fighting to stay on. then we returned to our hostel and got ready for emma's bday dinner! we went to this amazing tapas restaurant where we ate an insane amount and variety of food and i got a delicious passion fruit margarita. after, we got emma her first legal shot at midnight and went to a club for a little bit- sounds lame but were quite exhausted from the heat and also anticipating our 630am wake up the next morning for petra!

petra: we arose at 630. hurts. we got our boxed lunches and were picked up in a van by our tour company. our group was only 20 and consisted of a american/japanese fam with little girls and grandparents, travelling alone man with camera, three ppl in israel for a conference, and two kibbutzy type girls that left the group half way into jordan...and never came back...20 in total very nice. we got to the border of jordan at 7am...it opens at 8am. but it was all in the name of being the first at the border and the first to cross. and first we were! once inside the border (seems not make sense but there is an inside) we made friends with the jordanian shop ppl and one specifically who made the sand in the bottle stuff (ya know what i mean? designs made by colored sand in bottles?) i got one that says my name in arabic and has camels. once the company processed our passports and stuff we crossed the border into jordan. here is a picture of the 6 of us at the border:

next we drove for 2 hours through "jordan" aka mountains and desert. it was absoutely beautiful. there were tiny villages perched so high into the mountains with the most beautiful views and random "flocks" of sheep and goats everywhere. eventually we made it to the center of petra and began our tour. our walk was three hours through the silica quarries. essentially it is a bunch of rocks but a longlong time ago used to be a booming civilization. there are lots of tombs and distorted rocks that were clearly columns or houses. everything is HUGE and minerals in the rocks have brought out some gorgeous colors. naturally things have changed over time and some of the rocks have even taken on new shapes like this elephant below:

this big site of petra is at the very end and is called the treasury. it is the most well preserved piece in petra, is enormous, and gorgeous. when looking at pictures u must notice the size of people compared to the treasury but its really impossible to see. heres another pic of the 6 of us hanging during the walk

at the end of the tour there were two camels chillin. obvs we needed pictures. unfortunately this fly started attacking my camel and the camel got really angry and tried to eat the fly/me. this is the picture that was captured during my near death experience with the camel:

after our three hour tour we had a few options of how to return to the beginning and opted to go on a donkey ride through a benduoin "village". lies we went up lots of hills and mountains but didnt see a village. but thats ok. our donkeys were sweeeet and their cushions were made from kids blankets so they had spiderman and barbie on them. loved it. our guides were two young benduoin boys who were hilarious and everytime they got tired they awkwardly jumped on our donkeys and rode along with one of us. heres me on my donkey :

*note spiderman blanket on the nose

after the donkey ride we went to back to the bus and got lunch with the group. i also bought a tapestry- its gorgeous and a good jordanian souvenir! then we started our 2 hour drive back to the border, went through again and said bybye to the sand man, and returned to eilat. in sum: petra was amazing. its really hard to explain but the whole place is sooo beautiful and such a surreal site. i guess its why its one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. being in jordan was a cool experience as well- theres arabic all over israel but theres also hebrew with it and there was certainly no hebrew in jordan but it was a different feeling than being in turkey. i would definitely be curious to travel further into jordan to amman and other cities but i dont think i'll be doing that anytime soon.

back to eilat: we returned to eilat and went to dinner at this chic japanese place. then we passed out. we once again arose early in the am put our packed bags away in the storage room of the hostel and headed to the beach. thankfully there was a breeze on sunday so less getting up. we even had lunch on the beach to maximize our time. wanting no more adventures we left the beach early, got fro yo, and headed to the bus station with plenty of time to spare. we boarded our bus and finally arrived back in tel aviv around 1030pm. it was exhausting!

so thats about it! it was such an amazing weekend- i loved travelling to a new place in israel and getting to soak up the sun in 90 degree weather. travelling in and out of a different country in one day was a cool thing as well and getting to be at an ancient wonder of the world was a really cool experience. it was so relaxing just to travel with us 6 girls and i really couldnt have asked for a better weekend!

next up on the agenda: mommy comes to israel!!! tomorrow!!!! i cant wait! i'm so excited to show mom around her first time in israel (probs not her last since im never leaving...oops did i say that out loud!) and after mommy i will be "going to greece" as long the whole country isnt on strike- dont they know i booked my flights already! rude!

p.s. if you want to see all my pictures from petra (gorgeous) email me and i can send you the link

xoxo

off to eilat!!

2010-03-11T02:36:00.000-08:00

shalom! we are off to eilat for the weekend - finally! i feel like i have been looking forward to this trip for so long! it is just 6 of us girls which will be lots of fun and relaxing. this week has been soso hot so i think im prepared for the weekend of low 90s temperatures before me. the beaches in eilat are gorgeous and there are lots of snorkeling places and also a place to swim with dolphins! of course, it wont be all beaches since on saturday we will be sweating the day out in petra but that will be amazing too! never thought i'd go to jordan!! also emma's birthday is saturday so we will get be celebrating all weekend in the beautiful weather!

back on sunday and my mommy comes tuesday! the greece trip is shaping up well and i went to the travel agent this week to get more details on egypt...officially happening the last weekend of april/first week of may. fingers crossed. below is a picture of me, emma, and amit with two friends from tufts who are studying in florence for the semester. they are visiting for the weekend but since emma and i are going to eilat, we hung out and grabbed dinner with them last night- love tufts reunions!
have a good weekend! xoxo

Fam, Friends, and Food!

2010-03-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

I know i've been a little quiet lately-dont worry i'm not losing steam on my blogging. the truth is i'm finally settled into a normal routine where life isnt so crazy and unpredictable. i wake up and go to hebrew, go to the gym, make lunch, go to class, have dinner, and do some reading. dont get me wrong i'm not bored- i just have a life, a real life. and i love it. the suns getting warmer and my hebrews getting better- i couldnt really ask for more :)

This week I celerbated Arielle's 25th birthday. I went down to jerusalem after class and Arielle, Ethan, and I went out for dinner with Josh and Nani (Josh is a rabbinical student as well and Nani is his fiance). I gave Arielle a turkish tea set that i bought for her at the grand bazaar and then scampered back to tel aviv. amazing how quick and easy it is to go back and forth between our two homes.

On wednesday, Emma's friend Alex arrived from Paris to visit for the weekend. We decided sushi would be a fun dinner and we went to MOON! I must challah at Shir because once i decided to go abroad to tel aviv, Shir always told me i had to go for sushi at moon because it is AMAZING and she is soooo right. The food- fish and veggies- were soo fresh and the menu was so extensive. Alex is really fun and it was great getting to talk to someone about israel- i really found myself feeling like i had a place here and i had things to say about the arab-israeli conflict and the future of the country. i feel so genuinely attached and a part of the country.

friday i took the train up to haifa to stay with the mellers for shabbat. (when arielle did seeds of peace she got very close to this israeli Hilla and the mellers are Hilla's family). The train was less than 40 minutes and i got picked up at the train in Atlit, the town where they live outside haifa. When i arrived i was greeted with freshly made kooogel. then we a nap and then came down for shabbat dinner. when i came down, the table was covered with different israeli salads- fresh beets, avocados, three kinds of babaganoush- it was amazing! Anna (the mom) comes from a moroccan family and we had delicious moroccan fish with israeli couscous. Anna also had meatballs and rice and i was force fed that as well. AND for dessert we had homemade chocolate cake- amazing!
In the morning, Anna made eggs and toast- with HOMEMADE CREAM CHEESE WITH OLIVES AND HOMEMADE ORANGE MARMALADE- she is amazing! Then Anna and I went out to the Druze village up in the mountains of Haifa. we met up with a friend of Arielle and Hilla's from seeds named Raia. Raia took us through the village and to the Druze market. I didnt know much about the druze but it was really interesting talking to Raia and seeing the druze people in their traditional clothing.

after, Anna and I went for a walk on the beach (see bel0w) and then anna took me for "the best falafel in haifa" and let me know tell you, it might be the best falafel in israel. it was called falafel michel and it was deliciousssss. yumyumyum. then i took the sheirut back from haifa to tel aviv and took a shower and met up with the girls to go out.

so ya, as you see life has been pretty normal. today we went to the beach all day and just relaxed! this week- real life continues with classes and such. weather is supposed to get summerly hot so much of my week will be spent laying out at the pool (did i mention my gym has an outdoor pool with lounge chairs???). on wednesday, three boys from tufts who are abroad in florence are coming for the weekend so we will get to see them. and on thursday we (6 of us) head off to eilat for a weekend of sun and relaxation! and a daytrip to petra!

about to head out for more sushi at Moon!!! xoxoxoxo

Hapoel Hapoel / Purim Sameach / Jumbos!

2010-03-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

Just started Week 2 of classes today- its definitely strange to be doing classes here because the past month has been so casual and free- just hebrew in the mornings and exploration all afternoon and all night. but nonetheless, i guess thats what i came here to do. this weekend was SOOOO rainy! every israeli keeps saying the winter (aka rain) is done and then more and more rain...hopefully its done now.

thursday night we went to a hapoel soccer game- hapoel played russia in the POURING RAIN and we were there and we were POURED ON! despite the rain it was really exciting to see a soccer game in israel- its a big sport here- and we loved some sweet hapoel cheers/songs

Friday night began the purim celebrations! Purim is a hugeee holiday here because its essentially their halloween. its a mitzvah to get extremely drunk on purim (for real) and everyone dresses up and has huge parties and parades in the streets. of course, the rain was a bit of a downer and many celebrations were cancelled :( but i still managed to dress up twice (once as a devil and once as a cat) and we had alot of fun. apparently its "tradition" that it rain alllll purim weekend and that it did. it was certainly my most relaxed weekend here, involving alot of indoor/bed time, but cant complain about relaxation! i think my father became concerned with he skyped with me at 4:30pm my time and i was still in bed in my PJs.

sunday night we organized an ADORABLE/AMAZING tufts dindin. while all of us have made our own friends, we are all saps for being tufts jumbos and cant resist getting together and strolling down memory/professors row lane. its so much fun! there are 6 of us studying in tel aviv and we also had a visit from another Jumbo who is studying in be'er sheva at ben gurion university. we went out for turkish food (which i half missed half wasnt ready for) and it was delicious! Highlights for this upcoming week include: my sisters 25th bday tomorrow!!! (challah to my mommy's whos bday was this past week!) i'll be going down to jerusalem after class to hang/go out to dinner with arielle and ethan. also this week a friend of emma's who is studying in paris is coming to stay with us from wednesday to sunday which will be really fun to play tourguide and hopefully go to the beach assuming the weather clears up. also this shabbat i will be going to haifa to stay with our family friends for the night and also hopefully get to the beach! (i think you see a theme here).

mommy gets here in two weeks! and my trip to eilat/petra is the week before! so much happening and i'm so excited!!

xoxo and hag sameach

bi-universita ani lomedet...

2010-02-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the first week of classes is over and i'm here to report what i am studying! normally in israel people take classes sunday-thursday instead of monday-friday because of shabbat. however, for us overseas students, we are only in class monday-thursday- odd but amazing as this means i have long weekends every single weekend. perfect for travels and beaching galore!

i'm continuing with my hebrew studies EVERY day 830-10 - yes 830 am. what? i havent willingly taken an 830 class since i was a freshman- yes there are have the occasional ELS or religion classes i had to take earlyearly but i HAD to but i did not expect the same in the fake world of abroad classes. but yes, even in the midst of palm trees and sandy beaches, there is class at 830. aside from hebrew i am taking 4 other courses....again i expected to take 4 classes TOTAL meaning hebrew +3 but nonono again fake abroad world has failed me. no more complaints i'm taking some sweet classes, and they are:

1. Islam, Politics, and Terror in the Middle East: yes terror. this class looks at the emergence of radical islamic movements as political forces in the middle east such has hamas, hizballah, iranian revolutionary regime, and al-qaida. we will be focusing on the conflict in israel but also the larger arab-israeli conflict in the middle east and what an islamic government looks like. my teacher told us "his favorite" was hamas as if hamas was a flavor of ice cream but he also has been specifically studying iran for many years which is very relevant right now so should be an interesting class. of course, taking this class while living in israel is a very different thing than taking it at home. we arent removed from the conflict here- of course, being here, i dont feel that i'm in the midst of a war or that i am in danger but there is not the same sense of separation found in an american classroom while studying hamas or discussing the future with iran

2. 20th Century Israeli Art: Art. So i'm not gonna lie, I'm taking this class because it completes my art distribution at Tufts..shameful i know. but i am not ashamed! and i'm actually happy to be taking the course. my teacher is this really cute israeli woman but she has a british accent so i think she lived out west. she very passionate and very commited to us learning art terms and understand the emergence of israeli art.

3. Israel and the Environment: Again, I'm taking this class because it completes my natural science distribution at tufts and after a very difficult semester with bio sophomore year, i vow to never take science at tufts again! so ya my teacher is this chill guy who made studied abroad at tel aviv when he was my age and has now made aliyah. hes really cool and israel actually has a very interesting environment situation (or lack there of as he says) - for a place as small as jersey israel's environment is very diverse and o ya theres no water here. lots to learn. we also take this sweet field trip which consists of going to the west bank (for real) and getting to see some hot springs or rocks or something idk i stopped listening after west bank...cause i really want to go.

4. Israeli Politics: yes, politics. This was my i'm a big girl/dork class. so tufts is a biggg politics and international relations school. i'd never dream of taking politics there because i'd feel SO dumb, seriously. so i've decided to take the opportunity here, where basically school doesnt matter, and take a politics class. good news, israel is a little baby state so even though theres a lot to learn, theres only a very short lived political system to learn about.

so thats what my semester looks like. i'm pretty excited although as we all keep saying "it feels weird to be doing school here". it just doesnt feel real. i've also never taken a pass/fail class and since tufts only accepts not grades from tel aviv, all my classes are pass/fail. very different academic semester than what i'm used to...and the library closes at 730pm. interesting.

on another note, our trip to eilat has been booked! just 6 of us will be taking a little girls weekend away the second weekend of march. eilat is gorgeous beaching and weather is consistently in the 90s. so pleased. of course we wont just be tanning though- eilat is a very short ride away from Jordan so we'll be doing a day trip to Petra one of our days down there.

also, its Purim!!! exciting weekend ahead- essentially a second halloween! hag sameach!
xoxo

hoi poloi

2010-02-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

so hoi poloi is the only phrase i can dig up from my 2 years of taking ancient greek but in good news i have 5 weeks to brush up on these phrases before I GO TO GREECE FOR SPRING BREAK! yay! today i booked my 8/9 day trip to greece! Our spring break is officially from march 26th-april 11th (soo long) but of course the beginning of this is passover so I will be in israel (with my mommy!) for the seder and beginning of the holiday. On April 3rd i will depart to Athens with three others girls who all go to michigan and are also chios. We will spend two days in Athens (including Easter..might get tricky with tourist things but also very excited to see greek orthodox celebration of Easter- its going to be so cool to be there at that time) Then on April 5th we will fly over to Crete for three days of hiking and exploring. Then we will take a ferry from Crete to Santorini for a day of relaxation and cotinued exploration and finally on the 9th we will return to Athens for one more day (probs more tourist things because Easter will be over) and then earlyyy on the 11th, we will return to Tel Aviv. We are also planning to do a daytrip to Delphi during our first two days in Athens!
Of course, having studied latin for 8 years and greek for 2 i'm really excited to get to greece to see so much of what i have studied in classics classes. and greece was always one of the top three places i planned to visit while in israel (top 3: egypt, turkey, and greece- so just one more to go after this!) sadly, its not the best weather to be in greece but i am happy to have a vacation focused on seeing the history, hiking, and exploring rather than just beaching (we certainly arent lacking beaches in tel aviv so no need to fly and live in the euro for a week just to beach). besides classics, i'm super excited for the food!!!
our trip to eilat is also in the works for the weekend of Emma's birthday and of course Egypt will be coming soon!

so excited!

Pictures from Turkey! (see post below for actual words)

2010-02-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

amazing pistachio crusted lamb chops at mikla!

no shoes and modest skirts provided by the blue mosque

inside the blue mosque

view of the bosphorus bridge from rummeli fortress - i'm in europe and you can see asia!
the whole group of us (16) before our private boat tour

I would make the title of this blog something cute in turkish but i learned no turkish in istanbul :(

2010-02-22T09:13:00.001-08:00

Soooooooooo I went to Istanbul, Turkey!!!!!! It was the first trip i've taken since being here and i'd say it was a success! Where to begin: we took our final tests in ulpan and headed to the airport. We (8 of us..and 5 more came later) flew turkish air and the plane was nearly empty...i guess flying from israel to turkey isnt that popular. the only people on the plane were in fact americans on my program- turned out going to turkey this weekend was THE thing to do. We landed around 630ish turkish time and scampered to the carlton hotel- an alleged 4star hotel that looked glamarous in pictures and not so glamarous upon arrival: tiny room, closet shower, no drawers, two outlets, crap hairdryer, turkish only speaking concierege. that night our concierge suggested/made our reservation at a restaurant called hamdi (we did learn that "reservation" was a favored word of our concierge). we arrived at hamdi and had a table all set for us full of delicious salads and dips (very israel..but the hummus was bad). after a difficult convo with the waiter we were brought giant platers of "mixed meat" kebab (this turned out to be lamb, beef, and chicken). the lamb in turkey was AMAZING and they are in love with pistachios so we had lots of delicious meat mixed with pistachios. soso yummy. that night we tried and failed to go out due to lack of english communication with cab drivers and our lack of knowledge about where all the hot spots were.

no matter: we woke up the next morning and hired a private boat to take us on a bosphorus cruise. 16 of us boarded the boat and jetted off into the sea. our "captains" were a little quiet so we didnt know much about what we were seeing but we were sure we were seeing both asia and europe (the point of the cruise is to claim that uve been in asia and europe at the same time) and we did our best with a variety of guidebooks to understand what we were seeing. during our stop in europe we went to the fortress of rumelli - an ancientttttttt (constantine) fortress that is huge and beautiful - we climbed manyyyyyyy manyyyyyyyy stairs and had gorgeous views of the bosphorus and the asian side of istanbul. next we continued cruising and stopped in asia (people were realllly amped to be in asia..until i reminded them that israel is in asia soo thats where we live...) "in asia" we visited a beautiful mosque but there was a funeral being held and things got awkward quickly so we boarded our boat and headed back to sea. after docking we had a little cab mishap but ended up at a cute little lunch place for more salad and more meat. mmm meat good.
after lunch, WE WENT TO THE TURKISH BATHS!! capitalization doesnt do it justice! so turkey is famous for their ancient and luxurious baths. we went to cemberlitas - so first we went into separate womens area. in the locker room we changed into just black undies and a towel. we then went down into this huge room with a giant stone that was reallllly hot and steamy. we all laid on the stone until a scary turkish woman in a black bikini motioned at us to come. then she ripped away our towels and gave us our own little area on the stone. then we got washed and scrubbed! she used some hard scrubby thing and then dead skin just starting accumulating- she washed it off then put soap alllll over. then she lead me into a little room and bathed me like a puppy..legit there were buckets of water poured on my head and shampoo was in my hair. then we went into the hot tub room AND since we splurged on the "luxurious package" we then all got oil massages! my skin still feels like a babys bottom- it was the most luxurious thing ive ever experienced and soo authentic! so many turks were there as if it was a daily routine to hang out on the hot stone and drink pommegrenate juice!! what a life
after the baths, we were all exhausted and in a very zen state so we went for a little dinner nearby. our second night out we actually made it to a club that was extremelyyyyyyy posh and way too fancy for us! they were too cool to dance there so i disliked.
day 2: we started the day at 9 with a half day walking tour...our tour guide had the best accent EVER and kept referring to us as "the 11 group". we were actually late to the tour because we couldnt find where it started and people were not helpful. so i cant really say where we started but it had to do with ancient things from egypt? unclear. next we went to the blue mosque! we had to take off our shoes and carry them in a bag- those of us in leggings (not jeans) had to put on skirts provided by the mosque. the inside was beautiful- not as blue as i expected but HUGE and very detailed. next we went to the hagia sophia. this was the most interesting place to me as a visible intersection between christianity and islam is seen. the building was originally a church but through crusades eventually became a muslim building- dispute over the building occured and in the early 1900s it was declared a museum rather than a religiously affiliated building. mosaics and paintings of christ and the virgin mary are seen right next to huge paintings of the names of muslim leaders and imams. very cool. next we took a bus to this turkish rug place- essentially the tour company and the rug place have a deal where teh tour comes to the rug palce and they try to seduce u into buying a turkish rug..they are $$$ but we enjoyed learning about how they are made and learning some tricks of the turkish rug trade.
then our tour ended and we went to the grand bazaar (the enormous market in istanbul) there are over 4,000 shops in the bazaar and it is crazy overwhelming! bargain bargain bargain. everything u read about the bazaar says never accept a price higher than 50% of the original offer. bargaining is hard stuff but i had lots of success (one failed bargain of mine was for a shot glass and eventually he took it out of my hand and wouldnt let me buy it) i bought a few things including a small ceramic bowl that says istanbul in it and a small lamp - there were soo many lamps that were so colorful and beautiful we had to get them. i also got one more thing but i cant talk about it because its a gift for someone! and its awesome!
next we went to lunch (apparently since salad bars arent meat/kebabs turkey hates them and we got a beautiful salad bar for 5.50 lira...thats like 3 dolllars) next we rounded out the day by going to the topekai palace which was gorgeous and had so many ancient pieces like swords, armor, caftans, baby craddles, etc. then emma and i went off to the galata tower, an ancient tower (with multiple purposes) that has a beautiful 360 view of istanbul. sadly, it was hazy but we still got some gorgeous pictures
that night we went out to celebrate our friends 21st bday dinner at a restaurant called mikla. it was a very highly rated restaurant at the tippy top of a gorgeous hotel in istanbul- the view is amazing and the food was delicious!!! most of ordered pistachio crusted lamb chops and there was hot chocolate lava cake for desert! after that, we went out to celebrate alex's bday and again found ourselves at a wayyy to posh club (tables were 4000 lira!) but we still made the most of it and had a great time.

well thats about it on the turkey update!!! flew back on sunday and am so happy to be back "home". being in turkey i realized how spoiled we are here in israel that everyone speaks english and that israel is so warm and welcoming to its guests. it was a very different way of life to not wear our chamsa necklaces and jewish star rings, to not tell people we came from israel, and to not speak hebrew. of course, we knew that israel and turkey dont have a loving relationship but being there it was so clear that jewish people really arent any interest to turkish people and israel isnt a place they care about or care for. so i'm happy happy to be back.

other updates: we started classes today- i'm signed up for too many so once i solidify my schedule i'll update you on what i'm learning. i'm also in the works of planning a weekend to eilat/petra (beach vacation slash day trip to jordan) and also my spring break trip to greece! very exciting!

pictures from turkey coming next!
xoxoxo

Some Pictures From My Birthday!

2010-02-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

me and daddy at dinner
me with the birthday cake

girls at dinner at coffee bar

me with my table of goodies!
arielle and i at dinner on my actual bday!

Yom Huledet Sheli

2010-02-18T01:37:00.001-08:00

Shalom! I'm about to head off to the airport to go to Istanbul but I wanted to give a quick update about the past week!
So daddy traub was here and i spent lots of time in jerusalem with him and arielle. Sunday, emma and i went down to jerusalem after ulpan and explored the old city. After that we had a lovely valentines day date with daddy, arielle, and ethan. on monday arielle and dad came to tel aviv for lunch and i showed off my beautiful apartment. we had dinner in jerusalem - basically i've spent A LOT of time on buses between jerusalem and tel aviv this week.
Tuesday, daddy arrived in tel aviv and we hung out at his hotel. then the bday celebrations began! I have been pretty unsure about what turning 21 in a country with an 18 year old drinking age would be like but it was amazing birthday! tuesday night (the 16th) dad took me and 11 girlfriends out to dinner in tel aviv. after we went over to a club in the nemal-we hung out at our table and got ready for the night! At midnight i was surrounded by friends and cheersing with champange to an amazing year- it was perfect! i danced (and yes drank) the night away and had an AMAZING time!
the 17th (my actual bday) was a rough day - i was guilted into going to hebrew class because my teacher baked me a cake. unfortunately i was feeling the pain from the night before and couldnt eat my cake. then i took a longgggggggggg nap until i got a phone call from my mommy! (also, my mom had balloons, flowers, strawberries, chocolate, and champange delivered to my dorm! so cute) Dad, arielle, ethan, and i went out to a calmer dinner and had delicious foodies! i got some amazing gifts from everyone and having my daddy here was very special!
then i had to say goodbye to my daddy :( but now i'm off to turkey!!!!!!
cant wait to give updates on istanbul! im so fascinated to go - this is the first muslim country i will ever be in and of course the turkish baths are calling my name!

pictures to come upon return! xoxoxo

my boyfriend's dad is a cabbie?

2010-02-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

Not gonna lie- this update was probably going to be reallllllly boring- beach, daddy arrives, and sister cooks (again)..thankfully, i took a cab home from the central bus station and spiced things up - more on that later.

Soooo on Thursday we finally had the MOST beautiful day since i've been here. temp was in the 70s..maybe even low 80s for a little bit. Now, many of my programmates (stole that term from jaclyn) have been to the beach numerous times since our arrival. but siiiiiiiiiince it really hasnt been beach weather i've been less than thrilled by the idea of sitting in sand in sweats just for the sake of being on the beach in january so i have withheld. BUT on thursday there was only one thing on the brain...BEACH!!!!!!!! after ulpan, i rushed home and was in a bathing suit before emma even got home. we "took the bus" (loose term as we potentially did it wrong but thats ok) and met up with a small group at frischmens beach...technically the beach goes from one end of tel aviv to the other but there are different names...to be confusing/idk. so we sat/tanned and played some amazing 90s pop songs - people kept asking us if we thought it was summer or winter..aka why are you a crazy american who sits on the beach in february...but there were israelis on the beach too so i still felt local. heres my beach...in feb:

ok that was a mean thing to blog about considering i know all of you back home are knee deep in snow and even my friends in italia experienced some flakage this past week. but i do know one connecticut resident that is not buried in snow and that is MY DADDY!!!!!! daddy traub arrived yesterday (friday) just before shabbat (as he planned it..) and we all went to arielle's apartment in jerusalem. arielle had made another amazing meal of salmon and yummy salads and CHALLAH and i ate tooo much. we played a game of trivial pursuit and to the shock of everyone Team ETHAN/DANA beat Team Daddy/Arielle!!!!!!!!!! success!

This morning we went to services at Ethan's school where Ethan gave his d'var torah (the sermon that a rabbi gives about the torah portion that was read that week). Ethan discussed the place of politics in the synagogue and a rabbi's role in discussing politics from the pulpit which was very well received. After services, arielle and ethan hosted 9 members of Ethans class for shabbat lunch- arielle made two quiches and tons of other stuff (CHALLAH) and there was bagels and lox! yum!!!! i even had my almost first legal drink of mimosa's (just practicing!) here's arielle/ethan's shabbat lunch table:

like i said this boring - beach, daddy arrives, arielle cooks. BUT WAIT THERES MORE!! i took a sheiruit (shared taxi) from jerusalem to tel aviv (just mere moments ago) and then i got in a cab from the bus station to the dorms. Once in the cab the taxi driver and i discussed what i was doing in israel in half hebrew half english (just to make clear taxi drivers are veryyy friendly here and its not creepy at all for them to talk to you). he then asked me if i had a boyfriend and when i said no he said well i have a 27 year old son and a 23 year old son. he explained what they did in army/life and then essentially asked which one i wanted. i said 27 was too old for me and then he CALLED HIS SON and explained to him he was with an american girl studying at tel aviv (whos really pretty) and then we spoke on the phone about me/studies/army. then my mom called and kinda ruined the whole set up (just kidding mom I KNOW I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME...bad timing). but then when i hung out with mom he said that his son wanted (or he wanted) my number to give to his son (so we could get married)..and guess what, i gave it to him! i knooooooooo you are all shrieking and calling my mom to smuggle me out of the country now that a cabbie has my number but fear not, ONLY IN ISRAEL. the father was SOOO pleased with himself although clearly upset that i hadnt gone for the 27 year old..i guess they are sick of him. i'll let you all know where this promising arrange marriage leads.

xoxoxo

Some Tamonot

2010-02-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share some more pictures with all of you!

This is me and rachel and maya- two girls from my ulpan class
A group of us getting ready for the night- i'll be travelling to turkey with most of these girls

just guns chillin

gorgeous view of the western wall and the dome of the rock at night

the five tufts students studying abroad at tel aviv this semester - Emma, Sam, Matt, Amy, and me!

Shulha vihasida (the fox and the stork)

2010-02-09T00:46:00.000-08:00

What do parents say when their kids ask where babies come from? Thats the first question i got asked in ulpan on sunday morning...panic spread across the room: we cant even use the past tense and we are going to learn terms for making babies!?! Finally someone came forward with "the stork" which lead us to a story in our workbook about a stork and a fox. Odd i know. but true, i am in kindergarten hebrew where we must use stories with talking animals to engage us. success- its my new favorite story!

So on sunday i thought id have a lazy day but then a group of girls decided to go to the shuk at jaffa..and by a group i mean 15! o my. israelis on bus 25 that day dont need movies like mean girls and clueless to let them know whats up with american girls today...they got the whole picture from us. oy! but finally we made it to jaffa and explored the shuk that had some gorgeous jewls, scarves, rugs, etc. I didnt buy anything but i must challah (i forgot bout those) to all my friends who used their bargaining skills with the shuk men. Turns out its shuk 101 to get prices to go from 200 to 100 before "walking away" and ending up with 30 sheckels as a final price. tov.

After the shuk, emma and i took the bus to rabin square to meet Amit for dinner. Amit is a junior at tufts also studying in tel aviv for the semester but he is originally from israel and therefore is enrolled directly at tau not in our program for "special overseas people". Amit took us for koobe! I had never heard of it before but turns out its an israeli staple so we were really glad to try it. Koobe is meatballs in dough served in soup with a side of rice..and by side i mean whole plate for each person! It was very different from anything id had before but SOOO delicious!

Monday: day trip to jerusalem with the program! SLASH birthright.
We boarded buses early in the morning and "went" to jerusalem..i use the term loosely because this 45 minute ride took us basically two and a half hours between random stops at gas stations, traffic, and an unclear bus switch. Finally we made it to our first viewpoint in yemin moshe..where i had been with arielle just 48 hours ago..i felt so local! Then we went to a "time elevator" where we watched a movie and our chairs moved "through time" and we "experienced" israeli history from jesus to the 6 days war. it rained on us..so essentially it was a disney ride for history.
Then we went to ben yehuda street for free time and lunch! I took the girls to this falafel place i had been to on birthright that was delicious! again, i felt local. then we walked around and look at lots of judaica, jewls, tshirts, etc and got froyo. After that, we got to the old city! we took a tour of the ruins of the second temple and then went to the western wall for some freetime there. we then went through the jewish quarter and ended at the tower of david with the "light spectacular". maybe it was the freezing cold or extreme exhaustion but we didnt really get it..i wouldnt put it on your list of to dos. We boarded are bus again and headed for "dinner at a kibbutz"...turns out it was the most amazing kibbutz ever and we had the best feast i've had since i got here! delicious israeli salads, hummus, brisket, chicken, rice, soup, dessert! yumyumyum!!

lots of more excitement on the way! highlights include a visit from HARRY TRAUB aka my daddy this friday! plus the most exciting day of my year/life- my 21st birthday next wednesday! and then a little scamper over to turkey next thursday! and then finally starting classes!

Pictures below:
1. GORGEOUS sunset at jaffa
2. koobe dinner with amit
3. view of jerusalem from viewpoint- gold thing the middle is dome of the rock
4. falafel on ben yehuda
5. me, emma, leah, dana, yael, and halley at the kotel

ma koreh sweetheart

2010-02-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

SHALOM! I dont have too much time but I just wanted to give a quick update about my 24 hour stay in Jerusalem! On Friday (AFTER I BOOKED MY TRIP TO TURKEY!!!) I took the bus all by my lonesome down to Jerusalem. It was so quick and easy and then I hopped in a cab to the old city. Of course, I had been to the old city when I went on my brithright trip but we only stayed in the jewish quarter so I've been really excited about getting to see the other places within the city. I walked throughout the muslim quarter (and by walked throughout i mean i got lost and tried to blend in by looking at different items to buy...) Eventually a "nice stranger" asked me where I wanted to go and directed me to the jewish quarter. I went to this jewlery store called hadaya. Hadaya makes gorgeous one of a kind pieces with hebrew engravings. I got a silver ring with an engraving on the outside that says "btzelem elohim" which means "in the image of Gd" - The quote comes from genesis and marks when Gd created man "in his likeness". And on the inside it says my name in hebrew.
After that I met Arielle, Ethan, and Ethans friends at the shuk. Their shuk was amazing -so much more extensive than the one in tel aviv. After that, Arielle and I went to her apartment to prepare shabbat dinner! Her apartment is so cute and very homey! We made salmon, salad, quinoa salad, challah, and dessert! Very impressed with my sister, per usual. Two cantorial students plus a boyfriend came for shabbat dinner and we ended the night with scrabble.
This morning we took a walking tour of yemen moshe which was very interesting and definitely a unqiue place i wouldnt have gotten to. From the top of the hills you can see the walls dividing east jerusalem and the west bank..and in the distance you can see the mountains of jordan.
After the tour we took a walk through the old city and had delicious falafel in the muslim quarter. We went to the church of the holy sepulcre and also went to a few of the stations of the cross (the path that jesus took before the crucifixion.) The church was gorgeousssssssssssssssssssssss! I'll add more pictures soon!

Also, I have lots of pictures on facebook so if anyone wants the link to them, let me know.
Below are two pics: one of the kotel and the dome of the rock. and the other of arielle and i with the old city walls in the background.

xoxoo

yashar yashar and the coming of the messiah

2010-02-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

So i met the MESSIAH....but more on that later.
Ok so I wanted to just fill in some gaps on some thangs that people ask me about. So israel potentially isnt the safest place per se. But really, being here, security really isnt on my brain. A few things that are different here than at home: 1. there are security guards everywhere...supermarkets, malls, stores, shuks, pharmacies, school gates, restaurants, clubs, everywhereeeee. Mostly, security entails opening your purse before you enter any of these places- at first I had to stop and be reminded to do it and now its like second nature to walk up to a building and open my purse for the security guard. 2. Guns everywhere is norm. Many soldiers have their weapons even when they are home so seeing soldiers in the mall or street with guns (like legit big guns) is totally normal. Certainly thats a big change of scenery from home but again, its something i think very little about.
Other: THE MALL: so turns out Ramat Aviv, which is the suburb of Tel Aviv where I live, is a nice/wealthy suburb. Our mall is also really nice. its about a block away from school and has tons of great shops and more importantly, great food! Highlights include froyo and falafel!

So this week: After exploring jaffa (the old city) on saturday, Emma and I had dinner with Arielle and Ethan at this asian noodle place in tel aviv. It was sooo delicious! and so much fun to see my sister- I still can't get over that we are here together. Its definitely a unique part of abroad to be able to run to a quick chinese dinner with your sister before she goes to a show with her boyfriend.

Tuesday: Emma and I finally went to the shuk with a few girls from our program. The shuk hakarmel is the shuk that is right in tel aviv and is there everyday. Tuesdays they have a special section with jewlery and crafts and also tons of stands of fruits, veggies, spices, baked goods, meats, clothing, and accessories! The shuk was pretty much the first destination everyone on our program went to so it was exciting to finally get there!
Of course the biggest highlight of the shuk was THE MESSIAH!!!!!! When exiting the shuk we came across this man with longlong hair and weird beard thing with long robes and a lovely book with hebrew in it. He was sitting cross legged on the ground answering questions for people slash "communicating with Gd"...and he had a nice poster that said he was the messiah...of course, the sign was in hebrew and since i was so proud to discover that i knew it said messiah i screamed "omg its says hes the messiah!"...awk. so ya, i guess its time to leave israel now that i've been a part of this historical experience.

Alright- so long blog. but just had a few things i wanted to update! Couple of pictures below:
1. THE MESSIAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Pomegranate from the Shuk
3. Array of candy at the Shuk
4. Scene from the Shuk
5. Picture from the separated beach at tel aviv indicating which days are for men and which days are for women.

Ani Ohevet Salat Yisraeli

2010-02-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

Shalom! Ani Ohevet Salat Yisraeli = I love israeli salad! I'm not sure I've talked enough about food in this blog and I feel thats pretty important. Of course, I've had falafel - not tons..very important to only eat the best of the best..I read there are amazing falafel stands outside the entrance to the dome of the rock so I'm holding out for when I'm in jlem. So israeli salad = cucumber, tomato, onion. Thats it. beautiful. Israelis LOVE freshfresh veggie salads. With any meal you order, you always get 10 dishes of hummus, cucumbers, beets, tahina, corn, etcetc! Its delicious- you could live off the salads here! I certainly am having the opposite experience of many of the european abroad friends when it comes to food.

So this week- we spent shabbat exploring a different area of ramat aviv and had a casual dinner with emma and our suitemate mandy at this cute cafe called cafe hillel. Then saturday i went with a group of friends to tel aviv jaffa...the oldold city of tel aviv. i had been to jaffa on birthright so it felt exciting to finally feel like i knew a place. we went to this delicious restaurant with lots of falafel, israeli salads, and other yummies. Then we walked around and did a bit of shopping at the booths set up. My favorite thing at jaffa was the wishing bridge which was also my favorite thing during birthright. Its a gorgeous bridge with all the zodiac signs on it. "Legend has it" that if you face the face the sea while touching your zodiac sign and make a wish, the wish will come true. beautiful beautiful beautiful.

Sunday meant back to ulpan where i found out I got an A on my first exam! very pleased since the jump from C to E was a big one!

Nightlife: So i havent really mentioned the activities of the PM. the nightlife here is pretty amazing. We go out alot at the nemal (the port) but also throughout the city of tel aviv. israeli men at bars are pretty forward and often tell you they have loved you from the moment they saw you...flattering yet potentially creepy. Its very fun dancing the night away with a group of girls and just getting to meet lots of new people/israelis while we are out.

more updates to come!!

xoxoxo

Ani Gara Bi-Tel-Aviv.

2010-01-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

WOW! We've been here about two weeks (although it feels like forever) and we just completed our first week of ulpan! So when we took the placement tests for ulpan, I hadnt written or really spoken hebrew for soo long so I placed in level C. Within a few hours of ulpan (which we have sunday-thursday 830-1), everything started coming back so I asked to move up to D. My teacher made a little mistake and moved me up two levels to E...woops. It was to pretty overwhelming at first but I've decided to stick with this level. Thankfully, Tufts doesnt accept ulpan for credit or for a grade so really this is just an opportunity to learn hebrew- I think it is better to struggle through this level and hopefully come out having learned more hebrew. I can already see after how a week how my writing has become more natural and reading without vowels is normal. Even in everyday activities like ordering at a restaurant, taking cabs, or talking to Emma's cousins I find myself feeling more comfortable asking questions in hebrew. Certainly, listening to hebrew conversations has been really beneficial as well. So three more weeks of Ulpan to come!
Since ulpan is from 830-1, we have all our afternoons free. The weather has been pretty good this week so on monday I went into tel aviv with a few friends via bus which we are just now starting to conquer- and i bought a bus pass..so local. We walked all around the city center and through the good shopping on shenkein street- even with a 4:1 sheckel us ratio we still had to refrain from doing lots of shopping. We ended up walking around for 6 hours which was tiring but really fun.
Emma and I had lunch with my cousin Jay this week as well. Jay and his family made aliyah in the early 1990s and live in Jerusalem but Jay was in tel aviv for business. We went to the ki-kir medina which Emma and I hadnt seen or heard of. It is a huge rotary with tons of shops and restaurants. We had lunch in a cute cafe' and then walked around the rotary...we certainly wont be shopping there- Prada, gucci...etc. for a second i thought we were abroad in paris!
Today (friday) we went to a street party on Rothschild street. My friend Yatir (a soldier on my birthright trip) told me about it and we got an email from our program advisors talking about it as well. We assumed it was going to be street party slash flea market but nono it was just a street party- Tons of DJs, beer, food, dancing it was insane! There were soo many people there just hanging out with friends and dancing away.
Below are two photos - one is the street party and one is a dinner emma and i made. We have been trying to be real people and cook so we dont waste money on restaurants. thus far we have mastered frozen chicken, beans, and corn...with hummus on the side.

xoxoxoo

shmi dana

2010-01-24T05:13:00.000-08:00

Shalom!
manish ma? Ok well theres my fancy fancy hebrew for you- clearly i'm essentially a local now. Soo saturday i got to see my sister! we met up on the port (you may have gathered its one of the few places we've discovered and love lots). Weather was gorgeous again and the boardwalk was veryvery crowded. We had some delicious lunch and some froyo that reminded me of berryline (how i miss me some berryline!). Arielle baked me a challah with sesames that was delcious and i have already almost had half - very yummy - good news, i think this means when we are older we can do the jewish holidays and shabbat dinners at arielles house and i'll get to skip out on the cooking thang...phew!
Last night we hung out with these israelis that we met the other night- we went to their apartment in the city and sat out on their rooftop eating chinese food and playing darts- very american minus the gorgeousgorgeous view of tel aviv. at night, tel aviv looks just like miami with palm trees and gorgeous buildings and beaches - i love it.
Today we had our first day of Ulpan! (the intensive hebrew course we are taking) I have about 26 people in my class (a few of people i know but lots of people that i havent met yet which is great!) My Mora (teacher) is named Leah and is super nice and very good about making sure we are all on board. We started with reviewing the alphabet and writing in script and print -some of my bi-cultural knowledge came back but definitely good to have this refresher. like all good first days of class we had no homework! yay! i'm so excited and cant wait to get better at my hebrew!

well thats about it for now- finally getting into the swing of things with ulpan starting and everything. no more fantasy world of just going to markets and beaches all day. but still of course loving every minute of being here. we have so many israelis who are taking us around and showing us a real israeli experience! its amazing! love it!

below i took a picture of my first day of work for ulpan! notice lots of kindergarten activities such as writing letters in between the lines lol. also i took a picture of harry potter in hebrew that i found at our friends apartment! so fun!

xoxoxo

Genesis Continued...

2010-01-22T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hello Again!

So basically it feels like i have been living here forever! I know they say they saw there are four stages people go through during abroad and the first one is shock and awe and obsession type reactions to the place and culture. But truthfully things have been so comfortable and relaxing here in tel aviv that it feels like a second home. Heres what my gorgeous second home looks like:

Yes i know its january and it is gorgeous! Lets see- so yesterday (thursday) we had an orientation activity where we went bowling like 20 minutes away- I was actually pretty good despite a poor showing at my last bowling attempt in florida with the prusoffs. After that, Emma and I explored the surrounding area of the dorms by walking around for like an hour in different directions- we pretty much gathered theres not much around us (its very residential) but there are cute shops and cafes everywhere and a huge park a little further away. We had dinner at a place near the mall and they served us a plate with 10 different israeli salads -it was sooo delicious!

Today, we went to the shuk at the namal (port) in tel aviv. Being friday and being the best weather day we've had so far, it was soo crowded with ppl prepping for shabbat and just enjoying the weather along the boardwalk. Emma's cousins have a stand at the shuk where they sell organic fruits and veggies and homemade breads which are delicious. We tasted passion fruits which were sooooo amazing - kinda sour but sweet and juicy and tropical! We then walked around the port and met up with a friend of ours from Tufts little sister who is studying in jerusalem for the year. Being at the namal during the day was great- Israelis are soo relaxed and just spend their fridays really enjoying the day. Now we are off to have shabbat dinner at a family friends of Emma's! We are so blessed to have Emma's family so nearby in tel aviv - they have really been able to give us a real israeli introduction to tel aviv. Tomorrow I get to see Arielle which i'm so excited for!

Hope everyone is well! xoxoxo also i'm putting some more pictures at the end- the first is me and Emma when we arrived (looking pretty good for a day of travel!), a picture of us and our suitemates Mandy and Liat, some groceries at a market, and the passion fruits from the shuk!

B'reishit (In the beginning..)

2010-01-20T05:54:00.000-08:00

Shalom!

I have arrived! The plane ride was long but thankfully i had a 6 hour benadryl induced nap and some episodes of entourage to pass the time. When we arrived, we got onto buses that took us to Ramat Aviv which is where the university is located and we got our dorm assignments. thankfully, the dorms are brand new -never been lived in! This was amazing news because i had heard awfulawful things about the dorms which hadnt be redone for centuries!
I am living with Emma - who is also a junior at tufts (we requested to live together). We've been prepping and getting so excited/anxious to get here so its sooo amazing its finally happening. So our bedroom has two beds, desks, and closets. We then share a bathroom and kitchen with two other girls. Everything is totally new so no complaints minus a somewhat tiny bathroom.
Yesterday (tuesday) after unpacking, we napped for a while and then walked to Emma's cousins' house who live less than 10 minutes away. They have the cutest babies so we played with them- they were very helpful for advancing our hebrew since we are almost on the same level as 4 years in that subject. There were three boys dressed as spiderman, superman, and a ninja turtle so mostly we learned things having to do with killing things with swords and pirates. We had a delicious israeli dinner of salad and omelete and then headed back to campus.
We went out to the "namal" (the port) -I'm unclear about what is down there cause it was really dark but the clubs were alot of fun and very crowded. our makeshift hebrew failed us as we tried to find a club that was called lehman brothers...but it was a fun night and we ended up at a very crowded club so i'm assuming its "the place to be".
This morning we had an orientation meeting for the whole group which is about 170 students. We then took hebrew placement exams so that they can place us into appropriate levels of ulpan which begins on sunday- ulpan is an intensive hebrew course that we will be taking sunday-thursday from 830-130 for the next four weeks - I'm really excited to learn some hebrew and hopefully be able to talk to people more easily - most everyone speaks English but there are many people who dont and many people who find it quite challenging so i'd really like to work on my hebrew.

sooooo so far so good!! so excited to be here- I'm also trying to meet up with the israelis we met on our birthright trip and hoping they can show us what israelis all about!
also- there is a girl on the program who i went to bi-cultural with! She recognized and she said she remembered i had a dog named tax and a missing toenail! amazing memory!
xoxo

Shalom and Shalom

2010-01-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

Shalom!!
In just 36 hours I will be making my way to Newark airport to leave for tel aviv! Its been one year since I was in Israel and ever since then I have been waiting to return. But this time, instead of 10 days of bus trips and lack of sleep, I will be studying at Tel Aviv university (slash beach). Why Israel? Well thats what I plan to find out. My 10 day birthright trip was one of the most significant experiences I have ever had - but a whirlwind it was. This time, with 5 months ahead of me, I cant wait to actually live in tel aviv, travel thoroughly around the country, and explore some neighboring countries.

This blog will hopefully serve as a journal (holy scripture, if you will) of my time in Israel and also inform "all of you" of my adventures and life in tel aviv. So CHALLAH at me :)

Also- one little CHALLAH! I want to say a big shalom to my big sister (the dna kind, sorry stef!) Arielle (who is also currently living in Jerusalem). I am so excited that Arielle and I are going to be in Israel at the same time- I know I cant even begin to imagine the good times we will have and how much having my sister nearby will enhance my time in Israel. (she already came up with the title of my blog so we are off to a good start).

SHALOM & Challah at me!
Dana