Passover Rules

Passover was not exactly conducive to blogging...so theres a lot to catch up on.

So. My mom’s trip was great over all (at least I think so). On her last day here we took a trip to Jerusalem. I was really impressed with Jerusalem's landscape. I always knew that there was an area named Temple Mount, but it had never really registered that the Dome of the Rock and the surrounding city is actually built on and around a mountain. It makes for amazing scenery.
The day my mom left my friend Theresa arrived. We also had a great time. While she was here we explored Jaffa, enjoyed the beach and Tel Aviv’s night life, experienced out first Seder, saw the Bahai gardens in Haifa, and took an amazing road trip to Jerusalem, the dead sea and Masada. The weather was great for most of her trip and I definitely looooooved the dead sea area. We played in the mud and floated in the salt water and soaked up the sun. Sigh. It was really nice.

After Theresa left Tam’s family came to town and we headed down to Eilat and Petra. Also awesome. The weather was even warmer than its been in Tel Aviv – the best part being that it stays warmer in the evenings – and we had a great time. Eilat itself isn’t that special. Its very touristy and mostly hotels. We went to the underwater observatory which was surprisingly impressive. Half the observatory is a lookout over the red sea above the water and the other half is under water along the reef. It was really cool. We also went snorkeling along a coral reef. Tam has an underwater camera and we took a bazillion pictures. The water was a little chilly, but we had a great time.

Petra was…wow. I found it more impressive than many of the places we’d been to in Egypt. Its just so big and impressive. The buildings are carved right into the side of the mountains and the natural colors of the rock are incredible. Later in the day, we rode donkeys up to a monastery at the top of a mountain. We were really annoying, bumping people and stuff with the donkeys – and I am pretty sure my donkey tried to step off the edge of a cliff several times – but the view from the top was great.
Passover is now over – sad – and we’re back in classes – sadder. We’re starting to realize that our time left here is pretty short. In fact, Tam and I leave a month from now. Wow. So for the next few weeks I guess we’ll just try and enjoy the city as much as we can!

View from the top

Today mom and I planned to go to Akko...but I slept in :)
Instead, we went for a leisurely breakfast and wandered up King George - somehow managing to avoid buying anything. We then went to the Azrieli Centre and went up to the observatory to get a 360 view of Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas. It wasn’t the clearest of days, but the view was still pretty great. The picture above shows the coastline and right in the middle by the water, the building that you can barely tell has sort of an angled bottom and a square top, is right up the street from where we live.

After taking in the view we walked up Ibn Gvirol and mom got her eye brows threaded - how very middle eastern! Then we walked to one of the northern beaches and had a beer and some fries in the dimming sun.

We're pretty bagged now, but tonight we're going out with some of the exchange students to dinner at a restaurant called Havana and then maybe to a wine bar in neve tzedek. The rough life continues.

Oh yeah...its now Passover break for the exchange students. We don’t have class until April 7. Amazing.

grrrr...

So I had written a nice post and it crashed, so heres a quick version:
1. Every party in Tel Aviv turns into a street party. Like St Patty's day for instance. We went to a party at a pub called Molly Blooms, but the interesting part was the street out front that was full of people. Not the greatest picture ever, but you get the idea.
2. My mom is here! Its been a good visit thus far, even though I’ve been absent for a bit of it to work on an exam (darn school). She’s here until Friday and we're hoping to see more of Tel Aviv and head to Jerusalem. Tonight we ate at a great restaurant named Cafe Noir - definitely a food recommendation.

3. On Sunday my international humanitarian law class went on a field trip to a military court in the occupied territories. We got to listen in on the trial of a Palestinian accused of selling an uzi to another man. It was a bit of a circus, as language barriers required that a translator do simultaneous translations into Hebrew for the prosecutor and into Arabic for the defence attorney, the witness and the defendant. On top of this, the translator was making comments to one of the soldiers so he could translate into English for us. It gets crazier, but its just too hard to put into words. Literally a bit of a circus - hopefully people are actually receiving justice.

Another succesful weekend

Another great weekend is over – and there's a lot to report.

First, boot camp was a good decision. We've had it twice now and I definitely think its going to help us eat more pastries. Its pretty much what I expected – we run around and in between running around we get yelled at (although are instructor is little and cute and I could totally take her) and do push ups and sit ups. Its a really good small number of people too. We had it this morning and then again Wednesday and Thursday. We're going to be buff before we know it.

Aside from working out, we've been eating and drinking and dancing. Friday, there was a street party on Rothschild – wow. I have no idea how many blocks along this street were full of people and djs and food and drink stands. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, and apparently it happens every couple of months. This video (I have no future in film...) gives you a little idea of how loud and busy it was. It sounds like we were in a club – but this is actually like 3:30 in the afternoon in the middle of a street. Nuts!

After the Street party Tam and I were lucky enough to be invited by our roommate to Shabbat dinner at her friend's house. The food was great and hopefully we made some new friends (who will invite us over for more delicious Shabbat dinners!).

Saturda,y we exceeded all of my expectations and made it to a yoga class at a place called Yogini. So awesome. I was still pretty tight from our first boot camp class and really needed the alignment and stretching that the yoga teacher focused on. After class we went for brunch at Dalal – a restaurant in Neve Tzedek that I think I have mentioned before. I tried to branch out from the Israeli breakfast which is my new favourite thing, but only managed to agree to share the Israeli breakfast and shakshuka with Tam. We spent the rest of the afternoon digesting on the beach.

Finally, today – which technically isn't the weekend – we were delighted that our only class was cancelled. This allowed us to go to boot camp, take a leisurely lunch and then run some errands. We're majorly tuckered out from all the fun and it was great to have a day to get some things done (like clean up my disaster of a room and buy groceries).

This week we have a tour of Jaffa/Yafo and Neve Tzedek and I'm sure there will be some kind of a celebration on St. Patty's day. We also need to try and get some school work done because we have a couple exams before the Passover break and, more importantly, my mom comes at the end of the week!

Current Temperature: 25°C (at 11pm)

Boot Camp – Day 1

No, we have not joined the army. But, if you've been following the blog at all you will have noticed that a large majority of what we have been doing while we've been here has had to do with eating - and its starting to show. One of the exchange students from Canada had heard about a girl who had great results from attending these boot camp work outs on the beach. So a group of about 6 of the exchange students decided it would be fun if we gave it a go. We'll be going twice a week for the next 6 weeks or so – give or take a few sessions because of Passover and friends and family visiting. Today is day 1...

Also...I can't believe I've been neglecting to put up the temperature lately...its been beautiful.

Current Temperature: 20°C

Cats

Today it was around 30 degrees and we didn't have class until 3, which can only mean - Beach Day! Nothing more I can really say on that except that I love the beach. Love it.

Managed to make it to class despite the weather (we DO go to class) and were entertained by a cat in our class. Like Egypt, there are stray cats all over Tel Aviv - especially on our campus. Apparently the cats there are taken care of by the biology department and have free run of the place. They look pretty healthy and I am sure there are lots of suckers (ahem...me...) who will feed them and pet them etc. One of these cats is always around the law school building and today it wandered up to the second floor and into our intellectual property class. It walked around looking for attention and food. Every once and a while it would meow and eventually - sensing that I am one of those huge suckers - jumped up on my chair and laid down in the space between my back and the chair. Ha! It only stuck around for a bit because I couldn't pet it as much as it would have liked and eventually it was chased out of the class by the proof. Funny stuff (and definitely more interesting than what we were learning).

Tonight, while others are going out, I am heading to bed to rest up for another day at the beach tomorrow!

New friends, good food, sun and dancing...what more could you ask for in a weekend?

The past weekend was pretty fantastic. The weather was nice. We ate at several delicious restaurants. We (finally) went for a much needed run. And we discovered a few new and fun clubs in Tel Aviv.

Wednesday night we went to a bar called the Apartment. It was a nice place and Tam randomly got her hair trimmed, because a hari salon was celebrating its birthday there. Despite being cut to dance music in a dark bar, her hair still looks good!

Thursday night we went to a club called Rothschild 12. When we got there we thought we had the wrong address because it looked like an abandoned building. Turns out the bar was around back...It was a pretty small and trendy place, but it played some pretty fun music. From there we decided to head around the block and see if we could find another bar to try out. We ended up in a Georgian (like the people...) bar - but I have no idea whats its called. We thought it was a gay bar at first, but it turns out older Geirgian men just really like to dance on speakers. Who knew.

Friday was lovely. We gought up at a decent hour and walked down the beach to a neighborhood called neve tzedek where we went to a restaurant called Dallal for brunch. I LOVE ISraeli breakfasts. This place served up something similiar to what I described from Max Brenners (minus the chocolate) - with lots (tons) of fresh bread, cheese spreads, tuna, salad and eggs. So good. From there the girls I was with decided to do some shopping while I met some others at the beach. It wasnt a scorcher this weekend, but the beach was still great.

Once it cooled off we decided to walk down the beach towards Jaffa. On the way we stopped at a place called the Dolphinarium where they had this big drum circle. Pretty sweet.

Saturday we went for a run down the beach front path to Jaffa and back. Since it was shabbat, the path was full of people out walking and enjoying the sunshine. Once we were done, we decided to counteract the calories we had just burned by trying out a gelato shop called Tita. They have a ton of crazy flavors with cute names like Hanzel and Gretel and Snow White etc. Also delicious.

After spending some time relaxing at the beach - and trying not to adopt the cutest puppy that a guy wanted to give to us for free - we got cleaned up and walked back down towards Jaffa to a restaurant called Manta Ray. They have these crazy deliciously crazy mezzes that I would definitely go back for. The restaurant itself is located right on the water and lit up by candle light as the sun went down. Very nice.

We ended the weekend with a bang by heading up to the port area to a club called Chin Chin. This is definitely my favorite dance bar so far. Good fun people and great dance music made for a fantastic time.

All in all - great weekend.

Galilee and the Lebanese Border

Yesterday Tam and I skipped school (gasp!) to head up north with some friends. We slept over night at their house (which was so nice and quiet!) and then joined a group of 17 and 18 year olds from a village north of Tel Aviv for a tour of the Galilee region. This area borders Lebanon and we spent most of the learning about the 2006 conflict from soldiers who witnessed it.

This region doesn't appear to be dangerous - right now (although our guide did carry a hand gun)- but in 2006 it was the center of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Because of the proximity of Lebanese villages housing Hezbollah members and supporters, the area has a noticeable military presence. We visited a military base that sits right near the border and is just down the hill from one of the Lebanese army's bases (um, strategic disadvantage much?!). From here we could see one of the UN bases - which serve to act as a buffer between the groups and are supposed to prevent Hezbollah from building up weapons stocks and getting too close to the border. Apparently, according to the region's head of intelligence (who came and spoke to us), the UN is having little effect and Hezbollah has become aligned with the Lebanese army and is 3 times stronger than it was in 2006.

I tried to go into the talks during the tour with a healthy bit of skepticism against the Israeli military. I assumed that they would bash the enemy and spout army propaganda for the kids we were with who are going to be starting their mandatory service in a year or two. And while there was definitely some, like the video they showed us about the special service team doing all sorts of crazy missions, I also came away thinking that Hezbollah is a serious and scary threat for Israel. It seems like its not a matter of whether they will do something again, but when.

I have to admit that I have not been very concerned with terrorism or security issues so far in Israel. Yes, theres security checks when you go into malls and even to get into our campus, but living in Tel Aiv makes you forget that this country has many enemies. This trip was actually the frist time since I have been here that I got a scare...and it turned out to be silly. We were sitting near the military base listening to a soldier speak about the 2006 war when there was a loud bang. My heart nearly stopped and I was ready to dive to the ground. Turns out it was just a car backfiring or a firecracker set off by someone celebrating the end of purim. But it definitely caused some wide eyes and nervous chuckles from most of the people on the tour. I did notice though that the soldiers and our guide, who have all served in the region, barely jumped, becsause they said that the souns wasnt nearly loud enough to be gun fire. Sounded loud enough to me!