גיון בישראל - Semester in Israel

2009-12-14T01:15:00.000-08:00

It's crunch time. These past two weeks have been rather busy and the next two weeks are turning out to be busy as well. I so many papers to write that I'm not sure there are enough words in my head to fill up all the pages. I've decided to take a break from all my work and write a much needed update.

About two months ago I made a trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. It was a great trip except for the fact that we left at 2 in the morning to make sure we got to the top of Masada to watch the sunrise. Although it was way too early to be up, it was totally worth it.

After a two hour bus ride we finally started up the side of the mountain. Our destination? the ruins of Masada.

We made it! And now for a brief history of Masada. Not many texts have survived about what happened at Masada but it is believed to be the site of a Jewish revolt/resistance against the Romans. They held them off for quite some time, but with enough Roman soldiers anything is possible. When the Romans reached the top they found everyone dead. The Jews occupying the territory decided it was better to die by their own hands, than become Roman slaves.

Looking across the Dead Sea at the sunrise over Jordan.

Another picture from the top. Off in the distance you can see the Dead Sea and way out there is En Gedi. Trust me, the picture may not do it justice, but it was a long way down.

Swimming, or should I say floating, at the Dead Sea. Notice the man in the picture floating. No hands or feet required. You would probably die of all the salt and other minerals before you drowned.

Just a picture of the rocks on the shore to show the immense amount of salt build up.

Now, we jump six weeks forward to Thanksgiving. Don't worry, even though I was out of the country definitely made sure I celebrated Thanksgiving in style. By that I mean with three Thanksgiving dinners.

Dinner #1. Not too shabby.

Enjoying Dinner #1

Dinner #2. This time we had an actual table. Serve it up family style.

Cleaning dishes. Nice job David and Austin.

And although I don't have pictures, you'll have to trust me when I say that the very next day I had yet another Thanksgiving dinner.

Fast forward to the present. Christmas is just around the corner and I'm blessed enough to have my Dad and my sister visit me here in Israel. Not to brag, but yeah we're going to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. It should be a pretty good week with them here as long as I don't have too much work to do. Unfortunately, I still have three more papers and two exams to finish before I leave. Gotta love the end of a semester.

Hope to see you soon. Take Care.

2009-10-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this one is long overdue. Get ready, it's another long one. But trust me, this one is worth it.

After Egypt, Ryan and I made our way to Jordan. My good friend Andrew is studying in Amman and we were going to be visiting him along with a few other friends. Jordan was so much better than Egypt and it was great to see Andrew. He took us around and showed us the city the first day. I gotta say, I really like Amman.

Jordan was having a big parade to celebrate their 100th birthday and we were lucky enough to be there. Here are just a few pictures from the parade.

Yep, camels in the parade. Classic.

We had decided that for the next two days we were going to rent a car and head south to visit Wadi Rum and Petra. We had some trouble finding a place to rent a car but eventually we found a place. After stocking up on bread and water we were off.

On the open road heading down to Wadi Rum and Petra in our rented Kia.

I love fresh markets. The colors were so bright and vivid.

After our quick stop we got back on the road and our next stop was Wadi Rum. We had planned on doing some desert camping in Wadi Rum but didn't want to the pay the fee to enter the camp sites. So, what did we do? We just turned off the road at a spot that looked promising and took off into the desert in our tiny rented Kia.

Yeah, so we may have gotten the car stuck in the sand.

Well it's not the car was going anywhere. We ditched the car and decided that we could at least try to catch the sunset from the top of a nearby mountain.

At the top. There's a tiny black dot in the middle of the picture. Yep, that's the car. You can also get and idea of how far off the road we were.

Looking the other direction from the top. It was only after we had climbed to the top that we discovered yet another mountain that was blocking our view of the sun set.

That's the mountain we had just conquered. Meh, it's more of a giant rock hill but "mountain" is also a pretty good name for it too.

After come down off the mountain we started to head back to the car. It was a pretty far walk and we weren't really looking forward to the job ahead of us. As we approached the car, we began to devise a way to get our car out of the sand and up onto solid ground. By this time it was dark so all we had were the head lights of the car, which we left one during our sunset hunt. Oops, at least the battery didn't die on us.

We began by gathering as many rocks as we could to reconstruct a new and improved road. After digging the sand out from underneath the front of the car, we realized that the ground became relatively solid a foot underneath the loose sand. Our plan was to remove as much of the sand as we could to get down to the solid stuff and then to begin building our road about 5 feet in front of the car. this was tough work but none of us wanted to mess it up like we did the first time and have to do it again. We took great care in burying the "road stones" as deep and as firmly as we could. The engineering of our road was flawless and we had full confidence that this would work.

We as finished about 2 feet of road when a small white pickup truck came driving in toward us from the road. It slowly came to a stop next to our car and a Bedouin man stepped out and with a grin on his face started walking over to us. Andrew, being our Arabic expert, greeted the man but they had difficulty understanding each other because the Bedouin Arabic is slightly different than the Arabic that Andrew is familiar with. We learned that his name was Ahmed and he wanted to help us get out of the sand. Using hand motions, we finally understood that he wanted us to put all the sand back that we had just removed and that he would then drive our car out to solid ground. Needless to say we were a bit frustrated that we had to put all of the sand back but we knew it was a good idea to listen to this guy. Ahmed circled our car and began to let some air out of our tires. I can't believe I forgot about this, I mean I've had cars stuck in the sand before but for some reason I just blanked. As we were putting the sand back, another truck full of Bedouin drove up and got out to see what the stupid Americans had done. Ahmed got in our car and the rest of us got behind the car to push. With a burst of energy and some luck, Ahmed took off through the sand and pulled our car up on to solid ground about 30 feet away.

Success! Many thank you's were exchanged and as quickly as they came, the Bedouin left and we were finally able to relax and enjoy the falafel we had gotten earlier. We grabbed the food and took off into the desert to find some soft sand to sit in while we ate. We finished eating and were enjoying the unbelievable view of the stars when we saw Ahmed's truck pull up beside our car. Andrew and Ryan decided to go check it out. Turn's out, Ahmed is a mechanic in the the nearby town and some how hooked up an air pump to his engine. He came back to refill our tired with air. What a super nice guy. If that weren't enough, he invited us back to this tent to stay the night. Of course we said yes, I mean come on, this is a once in a life time opportunity to spend the night in a Bedouin tent.

The tent was rather small but at least we a place to stay. Ahmed introduced us to Abu Ali and offered us a place to sit in the tent. It wasn't long before they made a pot of tea and the five of us were all enjoying some of the best tea I have ever had. Two pots of tea later, they brought over a fried chicken and began to pass around various chucks of meat. Guaranteed that chicken died specifically for us. That's the way Bedouin hospitality works. Their home is yours. It wasn't the best chicken, but hey it's not like we could refuse. These guys didn't know a word of English so all the communication happened through Andrew, although, my Arabic started coming back and I was able to understand about 50% of the the things that were being said. Three pots of tea later we were all getting tired and decided to call it a night. We decided to forgo the tent and sleep outside. Nothing like sleeping under the stars in the middle of the desert.

Here's a picture of what I woke up to the next morning. That's Ryan still fast asleep.

At about nine in the morning we had all woken up and enjoyed a few more pots of tea with Ahmed and Abu Ali. Unfortunately, we had to get going. Petra was waiting for us. We said our final goodbyes and thank you's and carefully made our way out of the desert and on to the open the road.

An hour or so later we were getting close to Petra and stopped at an overlook. Just a typically morning in the desert. No big deal

We finally made it to Petra at 11am, paid the entrance fees and began our very long day of hiking around on mountains of rock.

Andrew has a thing for birds and wanted me to get a few pictures of some of them. I really have no idea what kind of bird this is but I hope you enjoy.

We followed the path for about a mile to get to the Treasury and the whole time the trail looked like this. So awesome. Really you should just visit to get the full experience.

Here are some close ups of the rock face thanks to the digital macro setting on my camera. The colors were unreal.

I usually edit my pictures to bring out the best color, but this one is untouched. I really couldn't believe it came out this clear and vivid.

Andrew being Andrew.

We're getting close. I can feel it.

Yeah, the signs said no climbing but we just couldn't resist.

The Treasury. I'll be perfectly honest. I had no idea this was here. Sure I had heard of Petra and I had seen Indiana Jones find the Holy Grail, but I just never put the two together.

After the Treasury we took a hike up the mountain to the sacrificial high place. You could see the majority of the sights from up here.

Looking down to the main trail

We came down on the opposite side of the mountain for a quicker route to the Monastery. A quick stop for some pictures.

We had finally made it down off the mountain but weren't really sure which way to go to find the Monastery. We wandered around a little bit and decided to climb a mountain to see were we were. We found ourselves and headed toward the trail that would take us up to the Monastery. We had basically taken the longest route possible to find the trail but I wasn't surprised given our previous experiences in the desert.

The trail up to the Monastery took forever. I thought we would never make it. Almost there... almost there...

What a nice little donkey. They tried to offer us rides up the mountain but there was no way we were paying a donkey to do something that our own legs could do.

The Monastery. If you look close you can see Andrew doing a hand stand in the door way.

Just in front of the Monastery was a hill top that looked out over Jordan and into Israel. We climbed up and Andrew just had to have another hand stand picture.

This little guy followed us up the hill top from the Monastery. Don't let his looks fool you. He bits pant legs and won't leave you alone once you start playing with him.

A view of the Monastery from the hill top.

Looking west from the hill top over Jordan and into Israel.

We came down off the hill top and wouldn't you know it that little puppy started following me. He followed me all the way down the trail. Luckily I out ran him, used a few moves and was able to escape. It was getting late so we ran down the trail, literally, and made our way back tot he car. It was about a 3 mile walk back to the car from where came down from the monastery. Needless to say we were exhausted when we got back to the car. After the two hour drive back to Andrew's, we crashed for the night and slept in the next morning.

Jordan was great. It was so good to see Andrew and spend time roaming around the country and in the desert. Ryan and I safely made it back to Jerusalem and since that time we've had our first week of classes. Today I took a trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. Look forward to some pictures from that trip sometime in the future.

I hope you enjoyed the stories and pictures. Until next time, take care.

2009-10-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

An Engineering Marvel.

It was a long day yesterday. So much to see and barely enough time to see it all. Our first stop was of the pyramids. Here you can see two of them emerging from the smog of the city. Needless to say we got more and more excited as we got closer.

This man almost ate pavement. We were cruising along and he walked out in front of our car. Good thing our driver was paying attention otherwise we would have had a mess on our hands.

The Great Pyramid is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still This particular pyramid took 15 years to build and was 147 ft tall but after 4000 years of exposure to the elements it's down to 137 ft. The average weight for one of the stones is about 4 tons. I'll spare you the rest of details. If you're really interested, google it or something.

The four of us on the Great Pyramid. I wish I could have climbed all the way to the top.

This is the second pyramid at Giza built by Khafre. Yes, we had a chance to actually go inside this pyramid. Very small narrow tunnels.

A view from inside the second pyramid. It was a tight fit, especially with people passing one another.

Saddle up. After some debating on whether or not we wanted to fork out the money to ride some camels, we figured it would be worth it.

Move out.

Not bad. It was a pretty bumpy ride but we made it out to where you could see all three of the pyramids. While there, a man on a donkey came galloping over and offered us drinks. Sure, why not, I love riding a camel around the pyramids while sipping an ice cold beverage.

Heading back. I tried to get a picture of our guide without him noticing. I'm pretty sure he figured out what was going on.

The other guys on there noble steeds. No big deal. It's just a desert. Good thing we had camels.

A camel family enjoying the sights and munching on some greens.

Classic tourist shot. Couldn't leave without it.

Ah, the sphinx. It was carved from one giant rock, or at least that's what we were told. Either way it's pretty amazing.

Sorry ladies.

Visiting the pyramids took up most of our day, but we had time to stop by a few other sites. One of them being a carpet making school. Yeah, I know, it doesn't really relate to the pyramids but it was still pretty cool. They said it can take up to a couple months to complete one square meter of a carpet depending on the type. I bought one. I needed it for my room back in Jerusalem. I'm sure it will turn out to be a good buy.

Just a few days left in Cairo and then on to Jordan. Keep checking back for more updates.

Take care.

2009-10-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, we got the visas. It's been very busy the past few days. Mostly traveling but at least things have been going smoothly. This is going to be a fairly lengthy post, but it should be worth so hang in there, we'll do this together.

For starters here are a few pictures of our 4 hour bus ride through the Negev. Not much to look at but it was still pretty interesting.

We made it to Eilat and quickly found a taxi to the border crossing at Taba. The military stopped our taxi just before we got to the crossing saying there was a "suspicious" obeject and that we had to wait for everything to be cleared. After a 15 minute wait we continued through security and found ourselves in Egypt. It was at this point that I wished I knew more Arabic. If I had known more Arabic maybe we wouldn't have gotten hosed on our ride from Taba to Dahab. Although we paid more than what we would have liked to, we were just glad to get to Dahab.

Once in Dahab, we were greeted with a warm welcome and a free drink. If you can picture a place right by the shore where people don't really do anything but relax, that's Dahab. One of the hostel employees, Eminem, was super nice. He's our age and we had a few chances to just sit and chat with him. In general, people at the hostel were great.

Now for some pictures. This is a view into the desert from our window.

And this was out our other window; the Red Sea.

Ah, dinner by the shore. Trust me, the black abyss of nothingness is actually the Red Sea. This was such a nice place to relax, especially after our visa troubles and traveling.

From Dahab we boarded a bus for Cairo. Desert. Desert. Desert. 10 hours of desert. But at least we were able to catch the sunset on the other side of Sinai. You can just make out the Red Sea in this picture. Yes, the same Red Sea that Moses parted all those years ago. I can't imagine coming up out of the parted sea and seeing the desert. There is literally nothing but sand and rock.

Cairo is a mess of a city. 25 million people. After breakfast at the hostel we headed out with a tour guide to visit a few places in the city. First, the Egyptian Museum.

You'll have to excuse me for the poor quality of this next picture. They wouldn't let us take our cameras into the museum, so what did I do, took pictures with my phone. I present to you the mask of King Tutankhamun.

No, we didn't see the mummies. That was a separate fee and I wasn't eager enough to spend $20 to see dried up dead people. There were plenty of other things to see.

Right outside the museum.

Next we went to the Citadel to visit the mosque of Muhammad Ali. No, not the boxer.

This where you would wash your hands and face before entering the mosque.

Pictures will never be able to capture the grandeur of this building.

The domes were absolutely unbelievable.

Ryan admiring the architecture, or at least pretending to.

This was the view from outside the mosque. This is only one of four pictures that I'll merge into a panoramic view of the city. We were able to just make out the pyramids in the distance. It's much too smoggy to make it out in this picture but you can try. They would be on the left side. Good luck.

A view of the market. Tons of souvenirs. Very similar to the Old City in Jerusalem.

The tour guide took us to one of her friend's shops to do a little souvenir hunting. He was a good dude, but man could that guy bargain. I'm sure he's really good at ripping people off but he gave us a "good deal". They always say that so I'm not sure how good of a deal I got. Oh well, I'm not too concerned because Egypt is cheap either way. Take for example our dinner; 2 large pizzas and 4 drinks. The total cost was $16 making the meal $4 per person. What a steal!

Tomorrow, the pyramids. Get ready for tons of pictures.

Take care.

2009-09-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Let the adventure begin.

Let me start by saying that I'm really not fond of Tel Aviv, but our trip there today was necessary in order to get our visas to Egypt. After taking a bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, we hopped in a taxi and soon arrived at the Egyptian Embassy. We thought that we would be in and out because we had already filled out visa forms from the internet.

How wrong we were.

First, we needed real passport photos for the application. We were anticipating this but had no idea how long this would actually take. After getting some advice from a couple British guys at the embassy we took off in search of a photo place. We walked about 5 blocks and asked for some assistance and were told that we needed to walk 10 blocks back the way we just came. After about 7 blocks we checked the time, 10:10, and turned our power walk into a jog. Oh, did I forget to mention the embassy was only open from 9 am - 11 am?

Yeah.

It was 10:20 and we had our pictures in hand. Frantically, we ran back to the embassy and handed our papers in only to be confronted with several more obstacles. We had to fill out another form, looked just the like one we had already filled out, and we needed a photo copy of our passports and Hebrew University student cards. It was 10:45, but luckily there was a place on the corner to make copies. After paying a ridiculous price for copies we shoved our papers to the Arab man in the glass booth. He had one more hoop for us to jump through. Along the side of the application he wanted us to write down our university and what we were studying. 10:58 and finally we had meet all the requirements and just needed to pay. With cash everywhere, I just grabbed the largest bills in front of me and handed it to the Arab man in the glass booth. In return he handed me a little yellow ticket and said, "Come back tomorrow to pick up your visa." 11:00. Slam. He shut the blinds.

What. You have got to be kidding me. We ran up and down the street to find pictures, meet all of the outrageous requirements, and you want us to do what?!?

Come back tomorrow.

So tomorrow we are going back to Tel Aviv, getting our Visas, and this time tomorrow we should be in Egypt. This story was much more stressful in real life, but I hope I was able to convey how crazy of a day it was. I'll try to keep this updated during the trip whenever I can get online so keep checking back.

Until next time, take care.

2009-09-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

Finally. A new post. Get ready, this is going to be a long one.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Hebron in the West Bank. We were visiting various tombs that are in the area and let me tell you, it was quite an experience.

Yep, this is normal in this area. The road was surrounded with concert walls on both sides and Israeli military was everywhere.

This is inside Rachel's tomb. Many Jews come here to pray and for the longest time the tomb was closed because of the danger. Shootings were once a daily occurrence but now the tomb looks more like a fortress and is protected by the military.

Our next stop was the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This dude means business.

As we walked up to the tomb entrance I tried to be as candid as possible. Success? The building is actually half mosque and the other half is devoted to the tombs. Needless to say, things can be pretty tense sometimes.

Once inside, we made our way through a few halls and came to central location with the tombs. The actual tombs were originally found underneath the building, but supposedly the current location of the tombs are directly above where they were first discovered. As we were walking around a little Israeli man started speaking to me in Hebrew. I had no idea what he was saying other than he mentioned "blessing". He then prompted me to light a candle and then asked for money. As crafty as he was, I told him I didn't have any money and walked away.

Praying at the tombs.

At this point of our visit we made our way through the streets to visit a few synagogues and a center were they study the Torah. Here a few pictures from the streets.

Ridin' bikes.

This building is devoted to studying/learning Torah. People come here in there free time to learn and we were here to go to the roof to get a better view of Hebron.

You know, hanging out on the roof. The view was fantastic and we were up there just as the sun was setting, which made it all the more beautiful.

A view from the roof.

I was explaining to Ryan how to take good pictures. I mean it's not like you can ever take a bad picture of me, but you understand. Here I'm explaining the finer points taking pictures when you're on a roof. Actually, I have no idea what I was talking about.

The following weekend some friends and I went on a hike in the hills just west of Jerusalem. Here's a view from the start of our hike. We would then spend the rest of the day hiking to the hills you see in the distance.

No, we didn't go alone. We had a tour guide, Mickey, and here he is explaining something about nature.

Another picture of our guide explaining something about nature. Trees perhaps?

The guide asked us to bring flashlights and shoes to get wet and that can only mean one thing. Fresh water springs. That dark entrance is actually an entrance to fun.

One by one we made our way into the tunnel.

Some climbing required.

This semi-cave was completely black, but thanks to a few headlamps and flashlights we were able to explore a little. Unfortunately is was only about the size of classroom.

Time to leave. More tunnels ahead.

The next spring tunnel we explored was much different than the first. Mickey warned us to take only our flashlights. Why? Because we had to wade through waist deep water to find the end of the tunnel. Imagine a space the size of a small walk-in closet. Now make the ceiling 4ft and add water up to your waist. We had about 12 people in this space listening to Mickey tell a love story. Good times, good times.

Some pictures of the view on the last leg of our journey.

We made it and after our long hike we came to a picnic area and made pita from scratch. This is some pita cooking action. It was delicious and now I'm making my own pita back at the apartment. In fact last night for dinner had chicken ad veggies wrapped in homemade pita. Delicious.

All of us were dead tired and I spent the rest of the day sitting around and resting. This past weekend I went on Shabbaton (vacation-esque trip for shabbat) to the Galilee region. It was much different than I was expecting, but I still had a great time. We ended up visiting a kibbutz (collective community, it's hard to explain, hit up wikipedia) and took part in the prayers for shabbat. It was different, but I really enjoyed it. The food was great and when we weren't praying or having little learning workshops, we were hanging out by the pool. No, I don't have pictures. Sorry, but I'm sure you can imagine me laying by a pool. It's not too hard.

I know, this post was long overdue, but thanks for hanging in there and reading the whole thing. Ulpan is almost over, which means our big traveling trip is almost here. I'll have tons and tons of pictures from that and I'll most definitely be better at keeping this updated.

Until next time, take care.

2009-08-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend.

5h Annual Jerusalem Beer Festival!

Let's just say it was quite the experience. Each year the beers of Israel gather together for one giant festival. So naturally, we decided to check it out. I tried (tried = sip) about 5 different kinds of beer, none of which I found very impressive. They had a big concert later in the evening. Everything was in Hebrew, but whoever the band was they must have been pretty well known cause all the Israelis knew the words.

Ryan and Marissa at the beer festival.

The beer festival was Thursday evening and Friday morning we (7 total) were off to Tel Aviv for the rest of the weekend. After many long bus rides we eventually found our way to the hostile. We dropped our bags and went out to explore the city. Tel Aviv seems to be like any other big city on the coast. Cities like that are nice to visit, but I'm glad I don't live there.

That evening we ate at a sea side bar and grill. Hands down the best meal I've had since I've been here. Mmm cheese burger.

And this was our view as we enjoyed our meal. This was the first sunset over the water I had ever seen. Wow, was it beautiful.

Later that night went to the beach to just sit and chat. We took the evening pretty easy cause we had a pretty big day planned for Saturday. Ryan, Josh and I were up before the girls and we were off to Jaffo (Joppa). It was about a 30 min walk from the hostile but it was totally worth it.

Here is a picture looking back to Tel Aviv as we walked to Joppa.

Yes, this is the same Joppa that is in the Bible. Jonah was swallowed by a whale here and Peter had a vision. Nothing like that happened to us while we were there, but we still had a good time exploring and such.

That's Joppa right on the coast and the tower is part of St. Peter's church.

Here's the inside of St. Peter's church.

Not a lot was happening in Joppa because of Shabbat, but that just gave us more privacy to roam around where ever we wanted.

Josh and Ryan as we made our way down to the port of Joppa. As you can see, it's very similar to the architecture in the Old City.

After walking back to the hostile we met back up with the girls and had lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and lying around on the beach. Eventually we made it back to Jerusalem and I'll be honest, I feel more at home here in Jerusalem than I did in Tel Aviv. I guess it's a good thing I picked Hebrew U.

Take care.

2009-08-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Another trip to the Old City.

This past weekend Ryan, Marrisa and I went to the Old City for some more exploring. Trust me, there's so much to see in this city. Sometimes I wonder even if an entire semester will be enough to see everything that Jerusalem offers. Not to mention the rest of Israel of even the surrounding area.

Now to the pictures. This is the other dome inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Next, we took a short walk over to the Church of the Redeemer.

After paying the price of 5 shekels ($1.25), we were able to climb to the top of the tower and look out over the entire Old City. The spiral staircase was incredibly tiny and it took forever to get to the top, but it was totally worth it.

Here you can see the two domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from the outside. Yes, it's really buried that deep within the city. It's architectural beauty is definitely found on the inside considering you can't really see the outside.

If you look closely on the left side of the picture you're able to see my apartment complex on the horizon. And on the right side is Hebrew University. Yes, I walk that every day.

This is to hopefully put the Western Wall in relation to Dome of the Rock. In case you were wondering, Dome of the Rock is that big shiny gold dome. If you follow the line of trees coming out from the right side you will see a blue roof. Right next to that is the Western Wall.

I hope you've enjoyed this round of pictures. Ryan and I have so much more exploring to do. Garden of Gethsemane, David's City, Western Wall Tunnels, David's City Tunnels, just to name a few and that's only Jerusalem. Many more pictures are yet to come, so be ready.

Take Care.

2009-08-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

This post will mostly be about my 12 hour adventure exploring Jerusalem, but first I would like to introduce you to Chocolate Pillows cereal. That's not the official name but look exactly like little pillows filled with chocolate. How this made it onto the shelves for parents to buy for their kids? I'm not sure, but I am sure that they are delicious and make a perfect snack food.

Now onto the 12 hour exploration. Yesterday Kyle, Ryan, and I decided to get lunch together but we had no idea what kind of adventure we were getting ourselves into. We walked to the nearest bus station and took a bus to downtown Jerusalem to eat at the Ye Olde English Tea Room. It's nothing earth shattering, but it was interesting to eat pancakes knowing that the people there considered them to be a "foreign" food.

After lunch/breakfast we walked over to the Old City. After passing through the new outdoor mal we arrived at the Jaffa Gate and headed over to Christ Church. It was the first Protestant Church in Jerusalem and much of the church resembles a Jewish synagogue. Louis, a Christ Church historian, showed us around and gave us a brief history of the church.

After visiting Christ Church we headed through a maze of streets and found ourselves at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Yeah that's it pictured below. The entrance wasn't what I was expecting but looks can be deceiving. This place is huge on the inside.

This dome is much more incredible when seen in person. Pictures just can't do it justice.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what this is a picture of. There was a line of people waiting to kneel in front of this. Please, if you know what this is let me know.

Now don't get me wrong, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was pretty outrageous, but there weren't any tour guides or signs so we didn't really know what anything was. It seems to be a very Catholic place and me not knowing anything about Catholicism didn't help.

Next, we left the Old City and hopped on over to the Garden Tomb. This is one of the places where it is believed that Jesus was buried after He was crucified. Wait, "places" you ask? Yes, the actual site of Jesus' tomb is unknown and all can go off of are best guesses, but this place has a pretty compelling argument. You should visit to learn more.

From the Garden tomb we walked all the way to Ben Yehuda St. and bought some very delicious challah bread for super cheap. And after the bread it was Back to the Old City. Did I mention we did a ton of walking? Below is one of many narrow streets lined with shops in the Old City.

And here are my two fellow explorers. That's Kyle on the left and Ryan on the right. No, they didn't know this picture was coming so please forgive them for not smiling.

But wait there's more! We headed over to a top secret hang out location that is on the roof of one of the buildings in the Old City. We spent some time sitting and talking before we left for Rabbi Mordecai's house. Every shabbat Rabbi Mordecai opens up his home to anyone and everyone to come and celebrate shabbat. He and his family provides a meal each and every week for about 30-40 people. From where we were in the Old City it should have taken us about 15 min to walk to Rabbi Mordecai's house, but we got a bit turned around and found ourselves in a very orthodox neighborhood. Let's just say we were a bit out of place, but after another hour or so we found Rabbi Mordecai's house and enjoyed a wonderful meal. There is a very good chance that we will become regulars to his shabbat gatherings.

We left around midnight and I got back to my apartment about 1:00 am. It was a very long day, but it was totally worth it and I'm sure I'll have similar stories in the future.

Take Care.

2009-08-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

This is just a sampling of the beauty in Jerusalem. Although we traveled to the Old City, we weren't there very long. I'm sure I'll be back though considering I'm here for five months. These pictures aren't spectacular or anything but seriously how could you not want to visit a place like this.

After class I headed over to the amphitheater to take a few pictures. Yes, that's the desert on the horizon. The university sits on Mt. Scopus which basically means we can see all of Jerusalem and then some.

Ah yes, Dome of the Rock and just below that you can see the Western Wall (ha-cotel). I'm not sure how close to Dome of the Rock I can get but we went to the Wall and prayed.

Here's a better picture of the Wall. Before coming to Israel I had heard stories of how people will write prayers on pieces of paper and put them in the cracks of the Wall. As we walked closer it was very clear that every crack within arms reach was filled with thousands of prayers.

Hopefully these aren't too disappointing as I realized that I may have talked up some excitement for these pictures. And as mentioned before, I'll be back to take more pictures. Perhaps some with me in them since I was told that those are the ones that I'll wish I have when I'm older.

It seems hard to believe that I'm able to live here for five months. I know this is only the beginning of a great semester.

As always, until next time, take care.

2009-08-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some new pictures for your enjoyment. I'm hoping to have tons more after I go to the Old City tomorrow afternoon.

The view from the window in my room. Although it's not the Old City, it's also not a brick wall.

Here's some kessef (money). Funny story. I spent my first in Jerusalem without any shekels. I couldn't find anywhere to change my money over and the ATM wouldn't take my card. Luckily the mall we went to had a place to change money over and I ended up spending a fortune calling my bank back in the US to tell them that my card was being used overseas. All that to say that I know have access to money while I'm over here.

Now for a few pictures of the apartment. Hopefully you can get an idea of what it's like.

The meetbach (kitchen)

The hedar sha-li (my room). You'll have to PhotoMerge these together in your mind.

That's all I have for now. More to come later. Just a side note, foreign outlets are such a pain. I foolishly plugged my alarm clock into and adaptor and then the wall and in about five minutes is over heated and was dead. Needless to say I learned from that experience and bought an Israeli alarm clock.

Take Care.

2009-08-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

I got my camera back from Mike and although my Israeli phone isn't anything special, I decided to post pictures any way. It's your standard Nokia flip phone and the only thing makes it semi-cool is the Hebrew. Enjoy.

2009-07-28T12:29:00.001-07:00

I know it's not much to look at right now, but in time I'm hoping to fill this various pictures and maybe even a few stories.

In other news, I'm trying to get a list together of those that would like to receive more in depth updates via email. If you are one of these individuals that would like to read my lengthier updates please email me at mcfarlj3@muohio.edu

Maybe I'll post a picture of my Israeli cell phone once I get my camera back from Mike.

Take Care.