August 31, 2013

So I am sure you have heard all the news about the USA and Syria and Israel and the potential bomb threats and chemical weapons being used. It has been kinda scary in Tel Aviv because for the past few days, we have all been waiting to hear what decision Obama was going to make about “invading” Syria and sending missiles into Damascus. Over the past few days, I have never watched and read so much of the news. Due to everything that may be happening in the next few days or weeks in Tel Aviv specifically, my dad and I thought it would be the best option for me to come home for the next 10 days. This way I can be home, with family, get to see some friends before they leave for abroad or college, and be safe for sure! If something does end up happening in Tel Aviv and it is unsafe for me to go back to school, I will be able to go back to DU (the University of Denver). If ultimately nothing ends up happening in Tel Aviv or Israel, I will only be home in Chicago for about 10 days and will still leave on September 9^th to go on my Europe trip and then back to Tel Aviv for the start of school in October. So currently I am writing this blog post sitting on the plane, somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with four hours left until landing in New Jersey!

August 30, 2013

So I know I have not posted on my blog in a while, but I have not done too much lately, I have taken relaxation to a new measure! I have gone to the beach and pool a lot. In the beginning of our program, we were not able to find the close, walking beach, but now that we know how to get there, we spend a lot of our time at that beach. It is so convenient because it is about a 30 minute walk! I am proud to say that I am finally starting to get my tan on and have built up a good base. My friends and I also discovered Dizengoff Street. We have walked down the whole street and are starting to get our bearings around downtown Tel Aviv. I feel like I could figure out how to get to a specific area downtown easily! I am starting to feel more like a local!

August 21, 2013

I had another great week here in Tel Aviv! Other than my usual, everyday Ulpan from 8:30am to 1pm, and the beach or pools and meals and going out, I did a little touring and sightseeing. Last Monday, my friends and I went to the Ramat Gan zoo. Although I not really a zoo and animals person, I did have a really fun time at the zoo/ safari. We saw lions, tigers, and bears Oh My! haha :) We also saw tons of wild cats, elephants, monkeys, camels, tropical birds, goats and lamas, and even penguins! It was really funny seeing the penguins because they are meant to live in the arctic in extremely cold temperatures, not in the Middle East, where is it extremely hot. The penguins were huddled in front of three full-blast fans to cool them off! It was a really funny thing to see! It was a lot of fun to walk around the zoo and see tons of animals and their natural habitats and be able to get really close to them (not like in the USA). As we were walking past the petting zoo, we saw a bungee jump and all decided to do it. I am terrified of heights, but wow, it was awesome! It wasn't a really intense bungee jump, I was just strapped into a harness that was connected to a bungee and I jumped on a trampoline. It was cool to be able to jump so high and see the whole park from a birds eye view!

The next day, on Tuesday, after Ulpan, we went on a field trip to Caesarea. It was a beautiful city and apparently one of the wealthiest and nicest towns/ cities in Israel now. We toured the old city which had Roman ruins and a Roman amphitheater. This city was considered to be one of the starting locations of the Roman Empire, outside of Rome. We saw the amphitheater, remains of King Herod's palace, the water, and the old city. We had some time to walk around the city by ourselves, after our mini tour. My friends and I went to a really good sushi restaurant overlooking the sunset and the sea. It was some of the best sushi I have had since I have been here and for the nicest atmosphere! It was a perfect night in Caesarea because there was a concert going on there soo, so all the locals came out and sat out on the lawn, listening to the music. There were also tons of street vendors selling jewelry and their artwork, and a bunch of food trucks. Overall, I thought that Caesarea was absolutely breathtaking and historically very interesting!

August 11, 2013

Last weekend was amazing! After class on Thursday, my friends and I took a little day trip to Jaffa (Yafo as the israeli's pronounce it.) Jaffa is a the little, old, city next to Tel Aviv. It used to be the only port city on the West coast of Israel. It was the only port in Israel from the Mediterranean Sea. When you go there today, there is the old city, the artists city along the shore with famous graffiti artwork, the Arab city with all the markets and  restaurants, and the boardwalk along the sea. We got there around 6pm, so we went straight to the original Abulafia bakery. Apparently it is the famous Arab bakery in Israel and the original location was/ is the one we went to in Jaffa. It was a rally interesting experience because as we were ordering at Abulafia, the waiters only knew Arabic, not even Hebrew. Also, my friends and I all got mean looks and we were pointed at and were called names because we were not covered up. My friend Alona speaks some Arabic so she was able to understand what they were saying to us and calling us. Other than that interesting experience, the food was incredible. We got a little nervous walking around this Arab section of Jaffa, so we went over to the boardwalk and the artists section. This was a whole new experience in itself. As we walked along the boardwalk, there were graffiti paintings and murals all over the walls. Apparently, a few years ago, there was a graffiti competition and graffiti artists from all over the world came to Jaffa to graffiti the walls of the city. There was also an area with artists selling their artwork and jewelry and sculptures, and art and jewelry galleries along the shore. It was really fun to walk along the boardwalk and see the whole Tel Aviv skyline and the different beaches. Once we walked the whole coastline from Tel Aviv to Jaffa (probably a 20 minute walk) we walked up a huge hill and tons of stairs to the old city of Jaffa.  The views from up there were incredible! We happened to be up there just in time to watch the sunset over the sea and beach. Unfortunately, the old city of Jaffa has become a major tourist place and now looks very touristy. It was still nice to walk around it and take some cute pictures of the four of us with the city of Tel Aviv in the background! We left Jaffa around 9pm and came back to campus to get ready and go out. We were planning on going to a fun Israeli bar but ended up going to La Mer. We got some wine and sat out on the beach, listening to pop Israeli music and hearing the waves slash against the shore.

After a long and tiring but awesome Thursday, I went to bed late and woke up late Friday afternoon. I woke up at about 1pm but didn't actually get out of bed until 2pm or so! It was a beautiful day so we decided to go to the beach. On our way to the beach, we passed an Israeli famous breakfast restaurant that is open for breakfast food 24/7. We have been waiting to try it since we got here, so we went in. The menu had international breakfasts, Israeli breakfasts and American breakfasts. The other weird thing about the menu is that every meal comes with your choice of an iced coffee (more of a coffee smoothie), juice, a hot drink, or a champaign cocktail. We all decided to get mimosas and it was a great choice! The food was really good and it was a fun and cute place! Although we got a late start on our day, we got to the beach at a perfect time! It was not too hot (which it typically is) and not too cold and not too crowded! We were able to lay out towels down really close to the water, so it made it easy for us to run in quickly to cool off. We left the beach after we saw another beautiful sunset. Because we had a late lunch, we were not too hungry, so we went to Tamara frozen yogurt for dinner. I have now had it twice and it is absolutely the most incredible frozen yogurt I think I have ever had! Friday night was another night to go out! We have heard of this place called Roof Top, so we wanted to try it! It was a club/ fancy bar on the rooftop of a building overlooking the whole city. It was so much fun because there was a really good DJ, fun people to talk to, a really cool light and smoke show and awesome views. In fact the theme of Friday night party there was an ice party and they were handing out popsicles to everyone. It was a great night, great day, and great weekend!

August 8, 2013

I have not posted in a few days now or from last week (oops!) Sorry about that haha! This week was pretty much the same old, same old. I had Ulpan everyday and then basically went to the pool or the beach everyday and relaxed there. Last Friday, Sarah and Paige and I went to the shuk downtown and saw all the jewelry and art. There were some really pretty necklaces, bracelets, and rings. I found a really pretty Hamsa necklace (the hand) that I bought. It was fun bargaining with the dealer and trying to get a good price. I think she realized that I was American because as soon as I started speaking, she changed the price for me and said the necklace was actually more expensive than the original price. Sarah got a really cool Hamsa necklace too! I want to go back to this shuk because I loved everything there! That night I went to dinner with my cousin Abra. We went to a really good sushi restaurant called FU and then we walked around downtown on Dizingoff street. There are a lot of really cute stores there and I want to go back and go shopping there. The next day I went to the beach with Paige, Sarah, and Alona. Before the beach, we went to a really good restaurant on the sand called London. After the beach we discovered the best frozen yogurt we have ever had in our lives! It was called Tamara and was just incredible; great froyo with great toppings. The rest of the day and the weekend I just relaxed and hung out with friends a lot.

Hebrew is getting really really hard. I have had a very  difficult time learning the language and actually understanding it. This week my class finally finished learning the Hebrew alphabet, all 26 or 27 letters. We also learned a ton of verbs and how to conjugate them in the masculine form, feminine form, singular form, plural form. I had a test last Monday and it was basically impossible (i did terribly!) Today we learned about irregular vs. regular verbs and how to conjugate and recognize them. This Ulpan has been sooo hard for me and I do not understand Hebrew at all. I cannot wait for this Ulpan to be over haha! It is so annoying because I wanted to become fluent after the Ulpan and living here for 6 months, but as of now, I feel like that is not even possible and not an option!

August 1, 2013

Today was an amazing day! We did not have Ulpan today and instead went to Jerusalem for the day as a whole-school OSP (over seas program) field trip. I woke up this morning at 7:15am and had to be ready and at the bus at 7:30am. It was an early morning because we had a lot to see and do in one day. Everybody was so tired on the bus ride and was just sleeping and relaxing. We stopped for breakfast at the Castle. It was an independence war and historic site. It was in the hills/ mountains of Jerusalem. "The Castle" was used as a lookout and watch point, to protect Jerusalem from the Jordanians and Arabs. It was on the "green line." I was able to get some great pictures of the outskirts of Jerusalem and the road into the city. Our next stop was the Israel museum in the city of Jerusalem. The museum had Israeli art, general art, an Italian temple, modern art, costumes, Jewish art, and a famous scribe from 2000 years ago. Although i don;t really like museums, this one was not too bad because there was such a mix of art and history. After the museum, we got dropped off at the shuk for an hour for lunch and to walk around. I loved this part of the day because it was really fun and nice to walk around the market and see the different types of products and foods and everything that they sell. All of the food is so good and fresh there because it is all local and made or cooked on the spot or brought in from a local farm. We stopped at a little falafel stand in the shuk and i think it was for sure the best falafel I have ever had! We also stopped at one of the dessert stands and bought a bunch of different Israeli desserts, like rugula and marzipan and cookies and other things. I tried a little bit of everything and realized that I did not really like rugula, even though everyone talks about how much they love it. Oh well! After the shuk, we went to the old city of Jerusalem and walked around it. There was another shuk and market there but it was very different than the one we went to for lunch. This shuk was all art and goods, no food and the most interesting part about it is that there was an Arab section, Jewish/ Israeli section, Christian section, and I think one or two other religion's sections. Then we went to the famous old city area and saw the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was very very old and very beautiful! We could only stay there for a few minutes because our next stop on the trip was to talk through the water system tunnels. I get claustrophobic easily and don't like dark, enclosed, crowded areas. The tunnels were the wrong place for me, but I did have a lot of fun seeing them. We walked through the Jerusalem water system tunnels for 40 minutes. They were filled with water mostly to our ankles but at some points it was almost up to my hips. I was really scared in the tunnel because it was pitch black, nobody could see anything, really crowded, very tight and small, and we were walking through a lot of water. The history behind the tunnels was really cool though! Once we finally made it out of the tunnel, we got to dry off a little and had to change into our modest clothes for the wall. All of the girls put on maxi dresses and cardigans or sweaters, and the guys put pants on. Because of the holiness of the Western Wall, out of respect, women have to wear clothes that are modest enough to cover their knees and elbows and men are supposed to wear pants and something to cover their head, like a hat or yamica. Once everyone changed into their modest clothes, we walked over to the Western Wall and had a few minutes to look at it and experience the holiness and pray there. I was really intrigued and went over to the wall and it felt really powerful touching it and feeling it and seeing so many women praying to it and standing right in front of it, reading from a mini Torah, and getting really emotional and crying. Although I did not have this emotional feeling, standing at the wall, It was so cool to see how important it is to so many people! There were so many soldiers standing around the wall guarding the area and making sure nothing happened or happens in general. These men all have machine guns at their waste and just "hang out." It was so weird seeing this and realizing that it is such a normal and common thing in Israel. After the Western Wall, We went back on the bus and the whole OSP TAU students group met up at an Italian restaurant for dinner and then we headed back to the university of Tel Aviv. It was a really long day bit so interesting and fun!i am excited to go back to Jerusalem and walk around and tour more!