Wednesday, November 26, 2003
First of all, my apologies for the long time between updates...last week was absolutely crazy, between my dad's visit, catching a "stinking cold" (as Zoe would say), a Hebrew midterm...but things have calmed down slightly this week.
Dad's visit was great. We had dinner with really old Kutz friends on Wednesday night (we're talking people who worked there in the mid-80s) and lunch with much more recent camp friends on Thursday after my not-so-great midterm (have you ever tried to take a foreign language exam while on heavy cold medicine? I wouldn't reccomend it.) Thursday afternoon we played tourists and drove north from Haifa to see the museum at Kibbutz Lochame ha-Gettaot (The Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz). There are some very interesting Holocaust exhibits there, including a fairly new children's memorial that was really moving. We continued on to Akko, walked around the shuk (market) there and stopped for some hummus, then came back to Haifa so Dad could get to the airport on time. It was a short trip, but I'm really glad he was able to come.
Friday was another great Overseas Studies trip. This time we visited the holy city of Tzfat (well-known by anyone who's been a tourist here as the place with the candle factory). We walked around the old city, ran through the artists' colony, and visited two of the bigger synagogues there before heading to the nearby Nahal Amud for a hike.
Saturday I went to one of the nearby Druze villages with one of my roommates, her boyfriend, and my friend John to walk around the shuk there. It was packed with people, and we had fun bargaining and eating really good shwarma in Druze pita.
So ends the update of the "fun stuff I've done lately." We've hit the halfway mark in the semester here (strange, since everyone in the states is almost done!), so things are picking up slightly in terms of work, exams, etc. But there's still plenty of time to travel and enjoy being here. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone who's coming on Birthright/Hillel trips next month!
Time for the language lab - everyone's least favorite activity in Hebrew class. More soon...
Dad's visit was great. We had dinner with really old Kutz friends on Wednesday night (we're talking people who worked there in the mid-80s) and lunch with much more recent camp friends on Thursday after my not-so-great midterm (have you ever tried to take a foreign language exam while on heavy cold medicine? I wouldn't reccomend it.) Thursday afternoon we played tourists and drove north from Haifa to see the museum at Kibbutz Lochame ha-Gettaot (The Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz). There are some very interesting Holocaust exhibits there, including a fairly new children's memorial that was really moving. We continued on to Akko, walked around the shuk (market) there and stopped for some hummus, then came back to Haifa so Dad could get to the airport on time. It was a short trip, but I'm really glad he was able to come.
Friday was another great Overseas Studies trip. This time we visited the holy city of Tzfat (well-known by anyone who's been a tourist here as the place with the candle factory). We walked around the old city, ran through the artists' colony, and visited two of the bigger synagogues there before heading to the nearby Nahal Amud for a hike.
Saturday I went to one of the nearby Druze villages with one of my roommates, her boyfriend, and my friend John to walk around the shuk there. It was packed with people, and we had fun bargaining and eating really good shwarma in Druze pita.
So ends the update of the "fun stuff I've done lately." We've hit the halfway mark in the semester here (strange, since everyone in the states is almost done!), so things are picking up slightly in terms of work, exams, etc. But there's still plenty of time to travel and enjoy being here. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone who's coming on Birthright/Hillel trips next month!
Time for the language lab - everyone's least favorite activity in Hebrew class. More soon...
Monday, November 17, 2003
Blogging from Jerusalem...
I spent the weekend here after a very nice tour of the Old City on Friday with my lovely Overseas Studies classmates. Even though i'd been to all the places we went, it was nice to visit them again and have someone explaining all of the historical significance, etc. Plus, I really like the Old City in general.
Karina, one of my classmates who's actually from Denmark, stayed with me and "the girls" for Shabbat. We went to services and had a delicious dinner (thank you, Zoe :) ) and spent most of Saturday relaxing. It was definitely fun to have a guest - and definitely fun to sleep on a non-institutional mattress!!
The big news in Jerusalem this week is the United Jewish Communities General Assembly (UJC GA), which is being held in Israel for the first time in a long while. There are about 3500 North American Jews in the city right now, so they've basically taken over everything. It's great for tourism (they're filling numerous hotels, eating in restaurants, renting tour busses...it's a nice influx to the economy in those areas), but slightly obnoxious in terms of getting around. Also, many of the participants choose to wear their nametags at all times (apparently it gets you discounts in stores, restaurants, etc), which of course makes them even more obvious. Again, it's really a good thing that they're here, but I'm also quite glad to be leaving Jerusalem today...
The best news is that my dad is here visiting this week! He's participating in the GA (I made him take off his nametag when we left the convention center last night) until Wednesday afternoon, then coming to Haifa for a day and a half once the convention ends. It's so nice to have him here, even for such a short time.
So this afternoon I head back to Haifa for a busy few days of class, exams (Hebrew midterm - agh!), dad's visit, etc., rounding off with a trip to Tzfat on Friday. Reports will be forthcoming :) In the meantime, I'm off to make some breakfast...L'hitraot! (see you soon!)
I spent the weekend here after a very nice tour of the Old City on Friday with my lovely Overseas Studies classmates. Even though i'd been to all the places we went, it was nice to visit them again and have someone explaining all of the historical significance, etc. Plus, I really like the Old City in general.
Karina, one of my classmates who's actually from Denmark, stayed with me and "the girls" for Shabbat. We went to services and had a delicious dinner (thank you, Zoe :) ) and spent most of Saturday relaxing. It was definitely fun to have a guest - and definitely fun to sleep on a non-institutional mattress!!
The big news in Jerusalem this week is the United Jewish Communities General Assembly (UJC GA), which is being held in Israel for the first time in a long while. There are about 3500 North American Jews in the city right now, so they've basically taken over everything. It's great for tourism (they're filling numerous hotels, eating in restaurants, renting tour busses...it's a nice influx to the economy in those areas), but slightly obnoxious in terms of getting around. Also, many of the participants choose to wear their nametags at all times (apparently it gets you discounts in stores, restaurants, etc), which of course makes them even more obvious. Again, it's really a good thing that they're here, but I'm also quite glad to be leaving Jerusalem today...
The best news is that my dad is here visiting this week! He's participating in the GA (I made him take off his nametag when we left the convention center last night) until Wednesday afternoon, then coming to Haifa for a day and a half once the convention ends. It's so nice to have him here, even for such a short time.
So this afternoon I head back to Haifa for a busy few days of class, exams (Hebrew midterm - agh!), dad's visit, etc., rounding off with a trip to Tzfat on Friday. Reports will be forthcoming :) In the meantime, I'm off to make some breakfast...L'hitraot! (see you soon!)
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
I have fun stuff to write about!
First of all, a report on last weekend: I took the train to see my family (always a nerve-racking experience, but so much better than the bus) and spent Friday and Saturday with them. haya kef meod (It was very fun). On Friday night we went to their friends' house for dinner and made sushi! Who would believe that I'd learn to make sushi in Israel of all places? Strange, but true. Saturday we went to a national park called Appolonia. It's the remains of a crusader fortress and Roman villa on the Mediterranean coast and has a beautiful view of the sea. Then we went to my uncle's office building and had a picnic in the park there. I love this country.
Sunday was uneventful; I'm still getting used to the fact that it's a weekday here, though we don't have classes, so it's a great day to get things done (library, computer lab, etc) - or not :)
I realize that I haven't written about one of the most interesting things I'm doing here. The Overseas Studies program has a long-standing community service project of tutoring Ethiopian children in English. There's about 12 of us who go every week to an Ethiopian neighborhood called Sha'ar Aliyah (Gates of Immigration) where we're matched up with students who we tutor for an hour or so in their homes. It's a great opportunity to learn about the Ethiopian community here and to get to know some really fun kids.
The girl I tutor is named Glanesh. She's 16 and her family moved to Israel from Ethiopia about 6 years ago. She's very Israeli; speaks perfect Hebrew, always has her cellphone like every other teenager around here, dressses very Israeli, etc. She doesn't like to speak English, and my Hebrew is very slow, so communicating can be interesting, but we're working on it. She actually has a very good understanding of English, though of course she's way behind her Israeli classmates who've been learning the language most of their lives. One of the reasons they matched me with her is that she also wanted help with math (I know, why am I the one to help with this?! But I used to tutor Algebra in high school, so they figured I was better than nothing.), so last night we spent most of the time going over exercises using the quadratic formula - oy! Math is tough enough when you speak the same language as the person you're trying to explain it to. So you can imagine what we were going through last night - lots of pointing, drawing and "Hebrish," as I like to call it. But I think it was OK. Anyway, I'm really enjoying working with her, and I think she's opening up a lot more. I'm trying to find her some better stuff to read that what they gave her at school: a book about Singapore. How do they expect someone who's just learning English to read "Kuala Lumpur?!" Yikes.
On a really positive note, I got my first Hebrew test back today, and I did really well. Yay! Now if I could only speak more...
So that's my story. This weekend I'm heading back to Jerusalem (so excited to sleep in my nice, non-institutional bed!) to do some touring with the other Overseas students, hang out with my J'lem roomates, and see my dad (big yay :) )
More soon...
First of all, a report on last weekend: I took the train to see my family (always a nerve-racking experience, but so much better than the bus) and spent Friday and Saturday with them. haya kef meod (It was very fun). On Friday night we went to their friends' house for dinner and made sushi! Who would believe that I'd learn to make sushi in Israel of all places? Strange, but true. Saturday we went to a national park called Appolonia. It's the remains of a crusader fortress and Roman villa on the Mediterranean coast and has a beautiful view of the sea. Then we went to my uncle's office building and had a picnic in the park there. I love this country.
Sunday was uneventful; I'm still getting used to the fact that it's a weekday here, though we don't have classes, so it's a great day to get things done (library, computer lab, etc) - or not :)
I realize that I haven't written about one of the most interesting things I'm doing here. The Overseas Studies program has a long-standing community service project of tutoring Ethiopian children in English. There's about 12 of us who go every week to an Ethiopian neighborhood called Sha'ar Aliyah (Gates of Immigration) where we're matched up with students who we tutor for an hour or so in their homes. It's a great opportunity to learn about the Ethiopian community here and to get to know some really fun kids.
The girl I tutor is named Glanesh. She's 16 and her family moved to Israel from Ethiopia about 6 years ago. She's very Israeli; speaks perfect Hebrew, always has her cellphone like every other teenager around here, dressses very Israeli, etc. She doesn't like to speak English, and my Hebrew is very slow, so communicating can be interesting, but we're working on it. She actually has a very good understanding of English, though of course she's way behind her Israeli classmates who've been learning the language most of their lives. One of the reasons they matched me with her is that she also wanted help with math (I know, why am I the one to help with this?! But I used to tutor Algebra in high school, so they figured I was better than nothing.), so last night we spent most of the time going over exercises using the quadratic formula - oy! Math is tough enough when you speak the same language as the person you're trying to explain it to. So you can imagine what we were going through last night - lots of pointing, drawing and "Hebrish," as I like to call it. But I think it was OK. Anyway, I'm really enjoying working with her, and I think she's opening up a lot more. I'm trying to find her some better stuff to read that what they gave her at school: a book about Singapore. How do they expect someone who's just learning English to read "Kuala Lumpur?!" Yikes.
On a really positive note, I got my first Hebrew test back today, and I did really well. Yay! Now if I could only speak more...
So that's my story. This weekend I'm heading back to Jerusalem (so excited to sleep in my nice, non-institutional bed!) to do some touring with the other Overseas students, hang out with my J'lem roomates, and see my dad (big yay :) )
More soon...
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Happy Thursday, all!
"But Caryn," you ask, "Why is Thursday so happy?"
Why? Because Thursday means the end of the week around here :) And on this happy Thursday, I've officially gotten through my first Hebrew test of the semester and my weekend will begin in a few hours. Yay!
It's been a pretty uneventful week around here. On Sunday a bunch of us went to a sushi place for dinner - so yummy - and on Tuesday I saw Real Women Have Curves, also very enjoyable, but that's pretty much it. I had LOTS of reading for my classes this week, including all of Theodore Herzl's The Jewish State, which I found out was a lot longer and more boring than the version we read in religious school.
In any case, that's the quick update. The weather here is still gorgeous, and apparently they're predicting that it will stay that way for a while. Yay for 80-degree days in mid-November!
A quick shout-out to all of the people at Biennial right now: I wish I was there! Actually, I more wish that you were here ('cause I like it here a lot better than Minnesota. I'm guessing, at least). I hope you have a great time with all of those crazy Reform Jews. And mad props to those of you who will be visiting next month - I can't wait to see you!
L'hitraot :)
"But Caryn," you ask, "Why is Thursday so happy?"
Why? Because Thursday means the end of the week around here :) And on this happy Thursday, I've officially gotten through my first Hebrew test of the semester and my weekend will begin in a few hours. Yay!
It's been a pretty uneventful week around here. On Sunday a bunch of us went to a sushi place for dinner - so yummy - and on Tuesday I saw Real Women Have Curves, also very enjoyable, but that's pretty much it. I had LOTS of reading for my classes this week, including all of Theodore Herzl's The Jewish State, which I found out was a lot longer and more boring than the version we read in religious school.
In any case, that's the quick update. The weather here is still gorgeous, and apparently they're predicting that it will stay that way for a while. Yay for 80-degree days in mid-November!
A quick shout-out to all of the people at Biennial right now: I wish I was there! Actually, I more wish that you were here ('cause I like it here a lot better than Minnesota. I'm guessing, at least). I hope you have a great time with all of those crazy Reform Jews. And mad props to those of you who will be visiting next month - I can't wait to see you!
L'hitraot :)
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Blog: the desert edition...
OK, so I'm actually back from the desert. But my random tanlines and severly aching muscles are continuously reminding me of the last two days, so I still kind of feel like I'm there. Just humor me.
Right. If you haven't guessed, I spent the last two days hiking in the Negev Desert (which basically encompasses the entire southern half of Israel). We stopped at the shuk (open-air market) in Beersheva (the biggest city in the Negev), visited Kibbutz Sde Boker, (the home of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion), hiked in the desert under the kibbutz, visited Ben-Gurion's grave and the town of Mitzpe Ramon and camped out at a Bedouin tent with 600 Israeli scouts. This was all just on Friday.
On Saturday we set out on an incredibly strenouous (but also incredibly beautiful) 15-km hike through Machtesh Ramon, a huge canyon/crater formed by erosion. It was pretty cool to hike in 85-degree weather in November, though I think we would have all preferred if it was a bit cooler.
The Bedouin tent was an awesome place to stay - remarkably comfortable, considering we were in sleeping bags on mats and cushions - and we made a big fire and dinner for Friday night, complemented by rounds of Bedouin tea. We would have undoubtedly slept quite well, owing to our early start and very long day, but the 600 scouts seemed to think that sleeping was a silly idea and chose instead to yell and bang drums all night long. Why do I want to work with teenagers?? Oh well. I suppose I should get used to not sleeping, in that case.
Now we're back in Haifa, gearing up for another week of classes. More soon, after my muscles recover....
OK, so I'm actually back from the desert. But my random tanlines and severly aching muscles are continuously reminding me of the last two days, so I still kind of feel like I'm there. Just humor me.
Right. If you haven't guessed, I spent the last two days hiking in the Negev Desert (which basically encompasses the entire southern half of Israel). We stopped at the shuk (open-air market) in Beersheva (the biggest city in the Negev), visited Kibbutz Sde Boker, (the home of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion), hiked in the desert under the kibbutz, visited Ben-Gurion's grave and the town of Mitzpe Ramon and camped out at a Bedouin tent with 600 Israeli scouts. This was all just on Friday.
On Saturday we set out on an incredibly strenouous (but also incredibly beautiful) 15-km hike through Machtesh Ramon, a huge canyon/crater formed by erosion. It was pretty cool to hike in 85-degree weather in November, though I think we would have all preferred if it was a bit cooler.
The Bedouin tent was an awesome place to stay - remarkably comfortable, considering we were in sleeping bags on mats and cushions - and we made a big fire and dinner for Friday night, complemented by rounds of Bedouin tea. We would have undoubtedly slept quite well, owing to our early start and very long day, but the 600 scouts seemed to think that sleeping was a silly idea and chose instead to yell and bang drums all night long. Why do I want to work with teenagers?? Oh well. I suppose I should get used to not sleeping, in that case.
Now we're back in Haifa, gearing up for another week of classes. More soon, after my muscles recover....
