The Golan

Hi!


So last Thursday we decided to go hiking on Friday. Doing anything involving public transportation is tricky on Fridays--buses shut down in the afternoon for Shabbat, so you're left with these mini-bus type things called sherutes and taxis as get-home options. We decided that we would do our hike, and then get on the very last bus.


Then, the next morning, we missed out first bus. Oops. Also, not my fault. It was fine though--we waited half an hour for the next bus. People bought pastries, which are sold at almost every kiosk in the Central Bus Station. Fun was had. Anyways. We made it on to the bus, finally, and were off to Tiberius. Tiberius was 2 and a half hours away.


In Tiberius, it turned out that we'd missed the connecting bus we'd been aiming for, and were going to have to wait. (For two hours). The next bus was leaving at 12:05. We considered: we weren't going to get to our hiking destination until 12:25 at the earliest, and the last bus back to Tiberius was at 2:30, and there wasn't another bus until Saturday evening.... Clearly, the only option was camping on the beach!


That decided, we went and bought supplies from a dollar store across the street and from the bus station vendors. I got sunflower seeds and a towel (the hike was supposed to be through creeks and ponds, which made the camping idea even better: one set of clothes? check. getting clothes wet? check. sleeping outside? check and check). Honestly, I was all for the camping idea. Adventures are fun, plus, if it happened to be colder than expected, I thought that I could go do something else. Like sit-ups. One night of very little sleep wouldn't kill me, right? And if it happened to improve my abs, so much the better.


The bus took us and dropped us off next to a fence that ominously declared that we were by an army base where they practiced with live ammunition and getting shot could totally happen. Across the street: our destination!  Yehudiya!



View Hiking Trip in a larger map


[Hopefully the map shows up properly. It's supposed to mark Tel Aviv, Tiberias, and Yehudiya, so possibly zoom out if it doesn't. Technically incompetent? Me?]


Anyways, once there we discovered that they would not let us sleep there without tents, which is probably wise of them. So back up plan: sleep on the beach or find a hostel.


Finally, the hike! Which was sort of a failure as a hike. You know how there are always springs or waterfalls that you can walk down to at parks? And it is a pretty steep walk, but it only takes like 10, 15 minutes? That's mostly what this was. On the positive side, it was beautiful, and I saw the youngest ruins I've ever seen before.

So there it is. 


The water was beautifully murky, and the waterfall was great. I also saw the biggest crab I've ever seen in nature, and also a lot of fish. Altogether, the pool was a good time. Then it started to sprinkle a little, and the group decided that it was an excellent idea to see if we couldn't make the 2:30 bus after all. Which we did. So that was good.


It was pretty much freezing on the bus back to Tel Aviv, so I was very glad we hadn't spent the night, and I was even more glad that I had ridden my bike to the bus station--none of that taxi nonsense for me. Buses almost invariably make me feel like motorized transportation was the worst idea ever. Bikes are brilliant. Also, camels and elephants.


Anyway, it was a fun little misadventure that took us across half the country, and we were still home in time for Shabbat dinner!

Sderot, Part II

The questions:

Nora said...

Is Sderot an old city? Is it interesting (besides the bombs & the concrete)? Does it get hit solely because it's close enough? Is Sderot unusual in being so active on the p.r. front (glancing at Wikipedia, I gather a Sderot-ite wrote it)? How was the pastry?

September 23, 2011 2:19 AM 

I don't know much of anything at all about the history of Sderot. The focus of the tour was mainly to convince us of the severity of the psychological damage of feeling perpetually at war. In terms of demographics, Sderot is very homogenous compared to Tel Aviv or to Ramla, which makes me think that it is probably a relatively new city, but I am feeling like not googling it. 

Is it interesting? Well, I wouldn't call it a destination city. It's a poor place. I think that there's some manufacturing, although I couldn't tell you of what. It is interesting if you are interested in people--like any inhabited place is interesting if you are interested in people. If you like blocky architecture, this is your place. If you are really into adrenaline surges, you could do pretty well here. If you like parties, or clubs, or nice bars, or shopping at high-end stores, this probably isn't your place. The view of Gaza from a hill on the edge of the city is gorgeous, but I can also see how the aesthetics of the place where the rockets originate might interest city inhabitants a little less than they interest me.

On media and such things: according to the quite obviously biased media center people, Sderot is not very publicized at all. I don't really know what to tell you on this one--I was aware that something happened sometimes down south before I got to Israel, but my personal ignorance or knowledge doesn't really speak that much to the overall efforts of p.r. people...

The pastry: pretty solid, although I desperately wish that it had been a huge amount of green chile or salsa instead. :)

Other Sderot things:

First up, Qassam rockets.

Often, materials used in the construction of the rockets include lamp poles and fertilizer 

Apparently, groups paint the rockets different colors to make it clear who was responsible for each one.

This rocket is from Al Qaeda.

I was surprised by the difference it made to me personally to know the origins of each rocket. Our guide explained that green meant Hamas, red meant Islamic Jihad, yellow meant Fatah, and black meant Al Qaeda. I am generally able to look at the leftovers of violence somewhat dispassionately--a shell is not a person crying, it is a reminder of the lengths people will go to when they want to destroy each other. But knowing what the black on that rocket made me much more emotional than the green, or the red. Those colors were interesting; all they signified was pride in causing suffering. The black... I have never been able to touch something created by Al Qaeda before, but their existence has been a huge part of the American mentality throughout most of my life. I'm not explaining this very well. It's just very very strange to be confronted with a local reality that includes the evil of my childhood years.

On to something else.

No architectural awards here. Concrete safehouse? Check.

Bus Stop Shelter outside a school.

This is one half of a shelter. It's there for kids getting off the bus on their way to school. There is not enough room for more than about 10 adults standing more or less on top of each other. Pee covers the floor--apparently from people loosing control of their bladders out of terror, as well as from people using the shelter as a public restroom. Once the alarm sounds, everyone has at least 15 seconds to get in to a shelter.

Shelter at a playground.

This is one of 3 really big shelters at a public playground. To be honest, the face on this giant worm creatures is liable to haunt my nightmares. Look at those huge, vacant human eyes on this chimeric, horned worm. shudder. It's no wonder no one was at the park when we visited (from about 3-4 in the afternoon). Also, there's this:

I almost wonder why they bothered making the park "safe" from rockets when the play structure was apparently being routinely lit on fire and never repaired. That blue melted plastic? That's from the bottom of a tube suspended around 15 feet above the ground. Are my imaginary children playing on that? Possibly. If I'm sure they're big enough that they aren't going to fall through the hole in the play structure, and also if I'm in a good mood and they've been well behaved recently. Park trips are a privilege.

Gaza

Trash

I spent all of 3-ish hours in Sderot, but my main impression was not that it was a city besieged by rockets so much as that it was a city besieged by the poverty caused by them. The people behind the rockets might hope that the constant terror will drive Sderot inhabitants away, but it seems more likely that the barrage will only make it more unattainably expensive for people to leave.

Next up (probably--unless I decide to talk about lightbulbs and energy conservation, which is totally on the list of things I intend to talk about) adventure to the Golan!

Sderot

Today my journalism class went on a field trip to Sderot. It takes a little over an hour with light traffic to get there from Tel Aviv, but it feels much further away. For one thing, Sderot is much cheaper--we bought pastries for well under a US dollar. For another, Sderot has rockets falling on it.

We were taken on a mini-tour of the city by a person from the Sderot Media Center, a center that describes itself as devoted to balancing out what it sees as an unfairly pro-Palestinian media attitude. I do not think it is possible for anyone to have an unbiased opinion on anything, so I appreciate it when people are up front about their perspectives.

Anyway. Sderot is a strange place. Bomb shelters are everywhere. The schools are domed by huge concrete arches. According to our guide, it's better not to wear a seatbelt in the car so you can get out faster if the siren goes off.

I'm supposed to write a short feature type thing on Sderot, so once I do that I'll probably through it up here. Let me know if there's anything specific you're curious about.

Since Will Got a Bicycle

Will got a bike, and so I present to you a list of advice that he won't need at all since he's someplace completely different.


1. Avoid window-shopping while riding your bike, as obstacles appear suddenly, and that dress is too expensive anyway
2. Watch for cats because they are everywhere, and they don't really do backwards
3. Watch out for dogs
4. Watch out for dogs with an evil, thin rope connecting them to their owners. Owners using these devices purposefully encourage their dogs to walk on one side of the sidewalk, while they walk on the other. This danger has been called "the clothesline"
5. Be aware of strollers and the elderly. (Oops.)
6. Lock your bike up against anything stationary, including bike racks, sign poles, trees, and sturdy-looking people
7. Use the two phrases in Hebrew you know: "excuse me!" and "thank you!" Nonsense phrases and crazy eyes are equally effective
8. Notice that if you are going to go over a bump, it is best to do so straight on, because wheels don't work sideways. The next innovation in cycling: magnetic spherical "wheels" that would allow the rider a fuller range of movement. Also, the wheels are super awesome, so you can go up walls with them. This provides an excellent workout, as you must then hold yourself on to the bike
9. Curbs exist. You will go off them. Remember not to lock your elbows
10. The single biggest threat is a small child. They will not move aside for you if they see you, and you are less likely to see them due to their diminutive stature. Should you spot one, abandon your bike and run the other way as quickly as possible. These creatures tend to travel in packs called "families," and are often accompanied by ferocious little beings known as "siblings."


Finally, bikes are the best. For reallies. 

Ballet!!!!

I went to my first ballet class in two weeks on Saturday!! It's amazing how much more flexible I get when I let my muscles completely disappear--all of a sudden it's like there are no muscles connecting my bones. What? Hamstrings? Totally not there at all. So yay for that.

I asked for help in finding a studio about a week ago, but I ended up just googling a place. It didn't look like a ballet place so much as a pilates/yoga/spiritual place that also offered ballet classes. Anyways, I figured that I would try it out. And I did.

The bike ride down there was fairly exciting! Because I feel over! Which made me happy. Because I've been waiting for it to happen, and then it did, and I totally didn't hurt myself. Although I need to practice falling--I totally went for the hand-ground-first-thing, which is silly if one likes the bones in one's hand (as I do). Anyways. Glad that's done with. It was kind of embarrassing though--I was right across the street from the studio at the time. Oh well! Embarrassment is useless. Right. Ballet!

So, this studio is in an area of Tel Aviv that looks a bit sketch on a Saturday evening--people aren't really around, and appears less affluent than other areas. The studio was up a narrow, cracked flight of stairs that opened up on a broad, sunlit room with couches to one side, and a desk with a computer to the other. A silvery teapot sat surrounded by cups on a low table in the center of the ring of couches. It felt very welcoming, although empty. The only person in the studio was a young-ish man in one of two studios.

I knocked, looked blank for about 2 minutes while he talked incomprehensibly to me over the music, then I realized he was speaking Hebrew, then I felt stupid for thinking that I just wasn't hearing him. Oops. He actually spoke really excellent English once I explained that I know exactly two things in Hebrew (excuse me and thank you).

It turned out I was twenty minutes early (which has never, ever happened before. I factored in extra time for when I got lost, but I was never even slightly confused. It was a seriously excellent bike ride). So, I stretched, and met the studio cat (yay ballet cats!)

The class itself: it turned out the guy I met first was the teacher, and there were only a couple of other students there that day. I was wearing the most ballet-ish clothes of anyone there (this has also never happened to me before. Ever. I even had my hair up all the way, since I had twenty minutes to kill before class. Although I didn't even bother bringing hairpins, so it was a pretty slapdash bun. But still. Leotard, tights, bun...ballet shoes. It was crazy).

It was really excellent to be in a class again, although it was something of an odd class. I am pretty positive that we did more forward cambres than plies. Also, there was not a single releve. Also, there was a distinct feeling of crazy arms. I didn't even know where to throw my arm to next. But it was a fun class anyway. They need to put a new floor in there, though. It is in this tiny tiny studio, and the floor is not even a little bit flat. Plus there are sinkholes. Grand allegro was way exciting--that'll teach me to have some awareness of where I am in space.

Some of the other students gave me the name and address of another studio to try out, so I'm excited for that. I got the feeling that it is a more ballet-oriented place (they apparently have a pianist).

Hopefully I won't get completely out of shape this fall! Actually, hopefully I'll get more in shape. I suppose that's always the goal. Especially if it doesn't involve running in straight lines just to run in straight lines.

Re: Last Post

Thank you to my grandma for emailing me the word "Intinction," and to my uncle for telling me why it is, in some areas, less common: people became more conscious of germs and such things.

Fairly unrelated, but: I personally tend to be of the "let's eat dirt to improve our imune systems" field of thought (exaggeration, but I do actively disdain chemical hand sanitizers. It's all about the soap) (sidebar: the people on this trip have crazy allergies!) (too many parenthesis? Could there ever really be too many?) (yes? Umm. Okay. I'm done).

Where I was going. It seems like there's a conflict between the value of herd immunity theory and the cost of autoimmune diseases, extreme allergies, and asthma.* We have this idea culturally that bleaching everything will keep us healthy, but I really do not think that's true... Our bodies are systems that are made to include foreign life. (Cool thing link (also, I fully admit that I only read the abstract. Apparently it is from researchers at Tel Aviv University though, so that's cool).) Also, here.

Sorry this is kind of really rant-y. Mostly I just don't like how hand sanitizers smell, so I like to talk about crazy super evil bacteria.

I'd love to hear thoughts, especially if you disagree. I tend (as do most people) to reinforce my own beliefs, so I appreciate it when people point out what I have ignored.

*I'm not saying the all, or even most, of the increases in these issues are due exclusively to an absence of germs. At all. Plus, because I'm writing this casually, I feel perfectly comfortable that this is an example of the worst statistics ever. Mostly I'm just linking to places with more information, and completely failing to back up my points.

Bicycles and Beaches

Hey hey!

I bought a bicycle two days ago, and can I just say that bicycles are the best thing ever. Seriously. It is so wonderful to be able to get around the city quickly without getting on a bus or paying for a taxi. And, I have a basket! It looks a little bit silly, though, since the bike is sporty. Also, I love the clickety sound it makes when I don't pedal.

Yes, it's a guy-style bike. But I don't think that you would ever see me on a bike in a dress anyway. Plus,  I'm all about the triangles. Also, is the basket not the cutest?

Things about biking in Tel Aviv: everybody is always on the sidewalks, which are wider than in the US. Bicycles don't do streets here. I really like it because I am intimidated by cars, but I also need to develop my steering skills. I am going to break my face while trying to avoid a head on collision with a Moped and a motorized scooter. But really, I feel like alertness is seriously important for cyclists here.

Speaking of cyclists, there aren't any serious cyclists. People mostly seem to use bikes as transportation, more than anything else. Actually, much of Israel is making an effort to become a more bike-as-transport-friendly place. See here.

Feel like commenting on the awesomeness that is my bike? I know I would. :)

Today, my bike and I went for an excellent adventure to Jaffa. The plan was to go to an Arabic-language mass at St Anthony's.

I copied out directions to myself, but then I forgot my map, so when I thoroughly missed the second turn of the trip it was an exciting adventure. More or less, anyway. I knew where the church was, and I knew where I was, it was just a question of finding a sidewalk to take me there. It ended up being the most circuitous route that anyone not driving with me or my mom has ever seen, but it was fun to be able to connect places I had visited from a bus to each other. Plus, I was only 10 minutes late to mass. The whole spire thing helps.

The church is beautiful, set back in a small green courtyard behind a high wall. Inside, marble pillars obstruct the view from the side pews in a way that is very homey. It gives the feeling of being a tiny cathedral, with arching ceilings and long stained glass windows. The grandeur is somewhat impaired by the oscillating fans attached to the walls and standing in the aisles.

As I said, the mass was in Arabic. I understood a word here and there, but I didn't catch a single complete sentence. I did find that even though the language is different, the rhythm, the cadence, of the words and phrases are almost identical. Apparently, the Nicene Creed sounds like the Nicene Creed in any language.

The music struck me. It was so much better (to my ear) than the music in most other masses I've heard. There wasn't a choir, only a nun, sitting on the left side of the church in the front pew, playing a little electronic organ type instrument. But everyone sang fantastically, even without the (sometimes distinctly off-key) choir help that I am accustomed to.

I was most surprised by communion. I had assumed that it would be the most instantly familiar part of the mass, but that honor was taken by a beautiful rendition of "Alleluia" (I was really excited because I totally knew the single word in that song. Be impressed). Instead of having a priest giving the wafer and a deacon or other qualified person giving the wine, the priest dipped the wafer in the wine before putting it in the person's mouth. I was very, very glad that I was looking at the person in front of me. I can just picture myself putting out my hands, and the priest holding this dripping wafer, wondering whether I actually want it in my hands... it would have been embarrassing, and something of a break from the reverence one ought to have. To those who might know: is this style of communion common? I've never seen it before.

Anyways, I was glad to make it to mass, and very excited to hear it in Arabic! There were a few minutes there on the bike ride over where I thought that I might possibly get there just as it was getting out. Here is St Anthony's from the outside, because I tend to feel a little bit weird about taking pictures of churches from the inside:

St Anthony's in Jaffa

Final thing: pictures from the beach. Here's a couple. I'm sure that I will take more over the course of the semester.

View of Jaffa Port and Tel Aviv skyline

One of the many beaches of Tel Aviv

Street Art

Hi!

So the other day we went to a museum that was exhibiting street art.
Some of it was lovely, some disturbing, and some very cute (see if you can guess which adjectives I am using for each of the pictures below! I know this is a challenging activity, but don't give up!)

Some of the art in the museum was graffiti that had been appropriated for the museum. Much of it looked like it had been commissioned by the museum. None of it was tags, or anything that couldn't have been successful in a more traditional museum/gallery setting.

Somehow, though, all the art felt less effective for being in a museum setting. I know that not everyone appreciates street art because it is a violation of private property in many cases (and there were a fair number of things in the museum that skipped along the edge of my general sense of what Americans consider to constitute indecency) but I usually love street art. It often brings a sense vibrancy to public spaces.

But "street" art in a museum... Meh. I would've loved much of what I saw in there, had it been anywhere else.

Opinions?

[http://www.tamuseum.com/about-the-exhibition/inside-job-street-art-in-tel-aviv, should you care. I didn't  record the names of the artists. Should you find them on the internet, let me know. Thanks thanks]

Demonstration in Tel Aviv

Yesterday (Saturday), one of the biggest demonstrations in Israeli history took place. General consensus is that over 400,000 people took part. This number sounds slightly less than overwhelmingly impressive in American terms (for reference, consider that Comedy Central's rally to restore sanity drew over 200,000 people, and that wasn't exactly protesting anything except unreasonable partisanship). For reference, the population of Tel Aviv is 3.219 million, and the population of Israel is 7.473 million (CIA World Factbook). 400,000 people is a fair percentage of the populace taking part. I think. Disagreements, other perspectives? I haven't been to that many protests ever... It seemed like a lot of people, anyway.

The demonstration was comprised of a march followed by a sort of rally. We skipped the march segment of the night--we were very close to the rally location, and it made much more sense to go straight there rather than try to fight our way across a city congested with protestors. Leaving Bnei Dan, we saw a few more people on the street than usual, but not so many that I would instantly have known that something big was happening. As we got closer and closer to the event, the street--filled with pedestrians instead of cars--became more and more crowded. It became harder to stay together as a group, especially as some of us stopped to take pictures of the madness.

Looking North on Weizman St

I was (stupidly) surprised to see police as we neared the area. They weren't there to control the crowd--they were there to provide security, to protect the protestors. There were also ambulances on hand.

We slid our way through the crowd in a long conga line, hoping that we didn't lose anyone along the way. Smoke from cigarettes wafted visibly overhead, adding to a night-time haze born of light pollution. People smiled, laughed, and tried to start chants in little groups of 3 and 4. They carried signs with words on them (sorry, that's the best I can do. Words. Actually, all I can tell you with 100% empirical knowledge is that the letters on the signs were arranged into lengths suggestive of words, but what do I know?). Huge screens displayed photographs of the tent cities. My favorite photo was of a tent being lifted into the air by a cluster of oversize helium balloons (for something unrelated, but awesome and adorable, click here).

It wasn't long before the marchers arrived, and the protest began in earnest. We had been comfortably arranged, standing within solid barriers of personal space, but soon the crowd closed in tight. Movement through it became a question of skill and willingness to knock people over. Chants, speeches, and live music inflamed the crowd. We clapped politely and tried not to bring down the energy of the crowd, even though we were there mainly as spectators. I am not the best person to describe the content of the speeches (for reasons I'm sure you'll guess), but I can say that they were passionate and well-received. I was surprised by how much I needed explained to me--at one point, everyone in the crowd was suddenly gesticulating with three fingers, apparently accompanying a well-known song about a tri-corner hat that has been given new lyrics to demonize a famous individual with 3 homes (or I could have completely misheard/misunderstood. It was loud. If you know anything about this, send me info. Embarrassing thing: being publicly wrong. More embarrassing thing: being publicly permanently wrong on the internet).

I have a couple of clips. If I were you, I wouldn't watch the video because it's a good way to become nauseous. I'm that good.

Okay, these next couple aren't videos (I know!!! I'm glad too! :) ). There were a couple of things being passed around the assembly. The first was a banner with the movement's logo painted on it. It was exciting to see it being unrolled in front of us; we weren't sure what it was, but it looked like fun. It unrolled to that all of us could just grab an edge, and then everyone gently pushed it backwards into the crowd, over our heads.

Then there was the pyramid sign! Which I liked. Except that when it came over to us, we almost dropped it on a nearby guy because he didn't see it coming and it started to overbalance. But we didn't! Go team!

Okay, one last video, and then I will try never to trouble you with my absolute inability to hold a camera up.

Throughout the protest, people watched from the balconies of their expensive apartments. I was fairly surprised at their interest. They have these magnificent homes, and are still spending 4 hours of their lives watching a demonstration demanding social justice and affordable housing. 

As the demonstration came to a close, people slid out from the mass, leaving after they heard the speakers that they had come for, or leaving because they could not stand on their feet another minute. As it happens, I was quite tempted to become a member of the later category. At this point, it was 11:40. We had left Bnei Dan at 8:40 or so. Also, speeches that one can't understand are slightly less engrossing than speeches that one can understand.

After the demonstration was fully over, and the crowd cleared out, I was shocked by the trash on the ground. It was absolutely covered in debris. Empty water bottles, napkins, papers, signs, plastic--everything you could think of. The ground practically crunched. It was fairly appalling. Here was a group of people demanding all sorts of progressive reforms in everything from housing to hospitals, and we, as a crowd, couldn't manage to find our way to a recycling bin, or even a trash can. I felt very disappointed. Tel Aviv tends to be a visibly green city--solar panels, huge cages for plastics recycling on every corner--and its people dumped $1000 (totally pulled that out of the air) worth of clean-up on the city, while simultaneously demanding social benefits. I should have taken a picture, but I was a little too annoyed at the whole thing. It was worth staying until the end just to see the mess that that mass of people abandoned to the responsibility of another.

Just to end on a positive note: you know CapriSuns? They have grape drink here that comes in silvery packs like those, but the straw goes in the bottom and they drink them upside down. My mind was blown. Culture shock like mad. Not really, of course, but it was fun to see a bunch of people drinking from the wide part of the little pack.

Finally, my favorite picture. No, I don't know that person.

First Day

Today was my first full day in Tel Aviv.

We had some short meetings, and then our RA took us on a bus to the city center. Vendors lined both sides of the street, selling everything from handmade puppets to carved logs. It was a very familiar scene, reminiscent of every market everywhere with its crafts, jewelry, and soap. The streets felt different, though, than other fair-style venues I've visited. It was not comprised of a single block, or even a couple of blocks, on a single street. Street-side vendors were everywhere, on what seemed like most of the central streets.

Also, there was this:

Okay, yeah--little glass figurines are available all over, but I have never seen one being made before, and I have never seen glass worked outside, on the street. It was fun to see blobs of glass slowly pulled into new shapes, to see long colored rods lend their tips and their shade to a little bird. Altogether, good stuff.

Other things that happened today: I learned that my roommate and I might be the entire Arabic class. I went to see the sea.

Things that happen tomorrow: Going to the beach to swim. Going to watch a demonstration.

Things that could happen eventually: Bicycle!

Israel

I've safely arrived! The tiny bit of Tel Aviv that I have seen so far is lovely.