I figured it was about time for another udate. I don't have much time for this right now... Unfortunately it has fallen on the list of priorities since I don't have such regular internet access. Last week as yesterday I wrote a couple of things that I will copy and paste below. Things here are going well here. Aside from the frustration of not yet knowing what I'm going to be doing for my last three months here, things are settled down and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with my surroundings (I think my incremental improvements in Hebrew help). As of now I've been living in Tel Aviv for about two months. I have about another month left. Then I'll be in Jerusalem for three weeks studying Jewish texts until I start my internship (which will hopefully be for a Municipality somewhere in the center of the country). While I'm in Tel Aviv, I'm volunteering at a few different places, mainly with different after-school programs. There is also a program called "Cafe Europa" that is every Sunday. They also have one in LA (LA-Tel Aviv Partnership puts it on). We go there to talk and dance with the participants, who are all survivors of the Holocaust. It's a nice social gathering to sing and dance (and of course eat pastries). Most of the kids I work with come from underprivileged homes, with either less than adequate money or abusive parents. We usually just play games with them and do our best to communicate (their Hebrew is better than ours). It's nice just being able to have a lot of time to spend here and get to know the country and the people... and as always, times are interesting. We got here the week of the pullout, and now we've seen Sharon go down, the Palestinians elect their leaders, and I'll be here for Israeli elections, as well. There's never a dull moment here.
Anyway, here are the two things I typed while I didn't have internet:

-22/1/2006:
-Today I’ve decided to continue documenting my time in Israel. I should be sleeping already, since I have ulpan in the morning (and more studying to do), but I had two experiences that I felt were very unique to being Jewish and being in Israel. The first happened at my volunteer site. It’s a place called “Café Europa”, which is a weekly social gathering for Holocaust survivors. There is always singing and dancing and a lot of eating of cakes. Anyway, today the guy that usually makes us (Tami and I) sit at his table wasn’t there (he was in Eilat). So today I sat with another woman who has been friendly with us since we started going. She hadn’t been there for the last several weeks, because as it turned out she had bronchitis. She speaks very little English, so my conversation with her was mainly in Hebrew. I understood a lot of it – enough of it. She described herself as a “Sabra” (a term used for people who are native Israelis). She said her family had lived in Jerusalem for many generations (apparently she went to this weekly event because her late husband had survived the Shoah (ie, Holocaust)). We were talking about a lot of different things, and had a very nice, serious discussion about her family and various topics concerning the Jewish world. She proceeded to tell me a story about her grandmother. She was living in Jerusalem a long time ago, and when this woman’s father was a baby, they lived in a mixed Arab/Jewish area. She said that when her grandmother was nursing her father, there was also an Arab baby that she used to nurse (I couldn’t understand why). That Arab baby grew up to be Haj Amin Al Husseini, the British appointed Grand Mufti (Muslim leader) of Jerusalem. This is a man that spent World War II in Berlin as Hitler’s guest of honor. When I was in college I wrote a paper on the relationship between the Mufti and Hitler, so I think I am more familiar with this character than most people my age. Anyway, I mentioned that I have long been frustrated that there is never any mention of the Mufti’s role in the Nazi’s plans during WWII and how the relationship between Nazis and Arabs developed. She shared in her lack of understanding of the ignoring of this seemingly important part of history. I mentioned that I had been to Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust museum) and did not see one thing mentioning the Mufti (which of all places I figured would have something!). She replied that she needs to walk down there and tell them her story and tell them to talk about it. I still have no resolution as to why the world shies away from this Arab Nazi and his relationship with Hitler. Is it because of a fear of Arab backlash? I’m really not sure, and neither was she. Despite all the failed efforts of both the Mufti and the Fuehrer, we proceeded to stand up from the table and dance the horah (a Jewish folkdance) with the rest of the survivors of the Shoah that were there that night.

-After my volunteering, I went to Diezengof Center (a popular mall in Tel Aviv), because I wanted to check the internet while I was out. I had my laptop with me and was hassled by the guard. I was cooperative with showing him everything in my bag, and he insisted I show him my passport (which I don’t usually carry around). I proceeded to show him my volunteer card, after which he still double checked my bag and then waved his magic wand to search me for weapons. I had my camera in my pocket, which he made me take out and show him. Five minutes of waiting, while he lets other people go by with a brief wanding to check for weapons (so that a crowd – target for bomber – didn’t grow outside the entrance). What a hassle just to get into the mall, right?
On my way home, I took bus line 32. It happens to pass through the street that the old Central Bus station is on. That old bus station happened to have been the site of the most recent suicide attack against the nation of Israel. As we drove by, I became grateful for the extra time I was checked at the mall and realized it was a sad reality we lived in. I looked around to see if I could find the restaurant that was bombed. I assumed that since the attack occurred only three days earlier there would still be police tape or a broken store or something. There wasn’t. There was one place that was a little different, though. A Shwarma restaurant (the type that was bombed) had about ten men working in an empty restaurant. They weren’t cooking food – there obviously wasn’t any. They were building, painting, fixing lights, countertops, recreating the restaurant as it once was. These people were working at eleven-thirty at night to restore as quickly as possible a place that was the pride of its owner and the target of self-destructive hatred. These men were restoring this restaurant and this community back to normalcy… normalcy for Israelis, at least.

-29/1/2006:
-I really should be going to sleep now, but I think the Turkish Coffee I had 4 hours ago at the soccer game is keeping me up. Hopefully writing a little will help me get more tired. Let’s start with today…
• Brent and I went to El Gaucho (Argentinean steak restaurant) for their “business lunch” (which goes from noon-5). It is really one of my favorite restaurants, but usually it’s too expensive. This lunch is a great deal, though. I got a 250g sirloin steak, a 0.5L bottle of water, a half a baked potato, a salad, and a meat empanada for 69 NIS! That’s about 15 USD. Usually this meal would be at least 140 NIS if not more. What a deal. The food was amazing. We had a weird waitress that had a weird sense of humor. We couldn’t tell whether she hated us or liked us… I think sometimes it was a little of each. I can’t afford to go to El Gaucho all the time (even for lunch), but with this deal, why go for dinner?
• I went to Café Europa, as usual. This week for some reason we were in a smaller room than we normally are. Anyway, it was nice even though it was a little cramped and stuffy. One of the guys we usually sit with (Yehuda/Steve) gave Tami and I gifts today. He said he liked us because we were good people and wanted to give us something. He gave each of us different “State of Israel Medals”. They’re like big coins. He gave me one that says “Am Yisrael Chai” (in Hebrew) and under it, it has the English translation “The People of Israel Live”. He said he gave it to me because I wear a kippah, and he feels that I will contribute to helping keep the Jewish people alive by being traditional. The other side has a picture of a burning bush and it says underneath (in Hebrew and English) “The bush burned, but it was not consumed”. It’s a famous passage from the Torah used to describe the Jewish people’s existence in the Diaspora. It’s very nice.
• After Café Europa, we met up again and headed to Yafo to watch a soccer game. No one here calls it soccer, they call it “cadur regel” (literally “ball-foot” or “football”, as the rest of the world calls the sport). Anyway, I was excited because it was my first “professional” soccer game, ever. It was Macabbi Tel Aviv against Israel’s only all-Arab team from the north. As we got to the stadium, I noticed a trend: people were either wearing yellow and blue (Macabbi Tel Aviv’s colors) or red and white (the Arab team’s colors). There were Arab fans dressed in kafias, and even one guy with green “Hamas” headband and neckerchief (what are you going to do? He’s just supporting his brethren’s government). Anyway, like I remember from High School, they had “home” and “visitor” sections. This definitely seemed like a good idea (maybe it could reduce violence in the stands at professional sports in the States). Fortunately we were surrounded only be people wearing blue and yellow… even if they were juvenile delinquents. The game commenced and we opened the bag of sunflower seeds (I really think Israelis would love baseball… 3 hours to eat sunflower seeds instead of 1.5). Anyway, the players were pretty rough with each other, and the game was… well, it was soccer. Macabbi Tel Aviv ended up winning 2-0. I bought myself a Macabbi Tel Aviv scarf that I will probably wear one more time (when I go to the team’s basketball game) and then put up on my wall for a year or two. I think it’s pretty nice, though. There were some other things I found more exciting/interesting about the game, though. It was very different than I felt in the States. There were a lot of people with Israeli flags, wearing them like capes or waving them around. From what I understand it’s because the team often plays international opponents, so they’re representing Israel sometimes, not just Tel Aviv. Another thing was how Jewish everything was. This is something that I feel is obviously not religious, but is still very Jewish in its own sense. There are not many secular things that I feel are still very Jewish… however, this is different. I feel pride in thinking that these players are in a Jewish soccer league in a Jewish nation. It really shows me a (partial) success of the early Zionist leaders, which was to normalize the Jewish people. Well, here we are in 2006 with a Jewish soccer team in a Jewish soccer league (playing an Arab team) in a Jewish stadium in a Jewish country with Jewish fans waving Israeli flags, singing HaTikva (Israel’s national anthem), wearing Macabbi Tel Aviv paraphernalia (which includes a Magen David). On the other hand, I get a little down, because even though it is so Jewish I still cannot eat the hot dogs, because the vender is not kosher… so much progress, yet so much more to be made. On a side note, I also bought a key-chain. It was really funny to me. It was a Chamsa (hand… it’s a Jewish (Middle Eastern) sign of good luck). I thought it was funny because they were selling a professional soccer teams logo and colors in the shape of a Chamsa… never thought I’d see that growing up in the States (especially before I ever knew what a chamsa

Hopefully I will update again before March.

These updates are getting tough to do... usually I have a limited time to use the internet, so I don't have as much time to update... with every passing time I don't update, the amount I should be writing grows. Unfortunately I can't keep up. I'll update when I can, but the updates will likely be far less than adequate to describe what I have been doing...

Hopefully I can try to keep track of more concrete ideas to type in a short amount of time for the future.

I finally got some access to the internet, so here's a quick update about what I've been up to...

I'm getting settled down in Tel Aviv. Our neighborhood is nicer than I expected. We've pretty much solidified our volunteer schedule.

Here are some highlights from the week:
-Last Sunday we went to "Cafe Europa" which is a social time for Holocaust survivors. They go and have tea and coffee and cakes and listen to music and dance. I talked with some people who spoke English and danced with several ladies four times my age. They were all very nice, and even though I can't dance and don't enjoy it, they were stronger than me when they pulled me towards the dance floor...
-Tuesday we volunteered at an afterschool program in Jaffa called the "Jaffa Institute". They take in kids who are at risk and often don't have a good environment to go back home to. They get hot meals and additional things like various types of therapy, computer time, help with homework, etc. I was supposed to be helping a kid with math, and instead he decided to give me a Hebrew lesson. He was a pretty good teacher...
-Wednesday I went to a school to help teach English. It's part of the Jaffa Institute also. They take about ten kids from the school and have group time and then one or two kids with a volunteer teacher. I worked one on one with a "problem child". He was one of the Arab kids and said some things in Arabic that I didn't understand (and I'm sure weren't nice), but overall he was cooperated... The director thought it went well.

It turns out there's a downside to living in "Sheltered Housing for the Elderly". Over last weekend, our nextdoor neighbor passed away. There have been people sitting shiva all week, and three of us went over there for a while to sit.

On a lighter note, I went to my host family's house for Shabbat last weekend. Their daughter is getting married at the end of February... it's about time (she's 19). They've been busy making preperations and everything. She seems happy, which is what her mother explains is the important thing. I'm going back to my host family for Shabbat tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll get more time in the near future to update my journal.

I know there is a lot I haven't updated, but I don't have convenient access to the internet since moving to Tel Aviv. I am going to try to keep a list of major things going on and post them all on here about once a week.
Anyway, I moved to "Schunat Hatikva" (Neighborhood of Hope) in south-eastern Tel Aviv. It is one of the most famous poor neighborhoods in Israel, often compared to Harlem (although I doubt few Israelis have ever been to Harlem). So far the place is nice. We have two apartments for four of us in an apartment building for old people. The old people have been very nice and welcoming so far. The neighborhood seems relatively poor, but we feel safe there. There are actually more kosher restaurants than not (not common in the secular Tel Aviv)and a really nice shouk (nicer than the one in Be'er Sheva). We have been exploring the area and looking into volunteer opportunities to fill out our schedules. Hopefully the next time I update I can discuss those further.
I am going back to my apartment soon... I'll post here later.

I have fallen too far behind in my updates to go day by day and write most of the things I would have if I had written that day... due to this, I am going to try to do a general summary-type catch-up that will hopefully allow me to continue fully detailed updates from when I finish catching up. We'll see how it goes...

After the holidays were over, it was time for things to get back to normal in Be'er Sheva. Two days after Simchat Torah, we had another education day... this day was my birthday also. The night before my birthday I was trying to go to sleep. At a little after midnight a bunch of people from my program busted into my room while I was in bed and sang happy birthday (and I was lucky enough for a couple of guys to hit me 22 times). It was a nice gesture, but I think I offended some people when I asked "can't anyone get any sleep around here?" It's tough for me to talk a lot of the time when so many people on our program lack a sense of humor. I really don't think celebrating something like birthdays is all that exciting or important. People go out of their way to be nice for one day out of the year when all I would rather have is for them to be decent to me most of the time. During the day people sang to me on the bus again and had a cake for me (Brent actually organized most of it, which was really nice of him). There were balloons (they only had Barbie apparently) and they gave me a card... The card was in Hebrew and turned out to be a love card from a guy to a girl, but the group gave it to me for my birthday based on the astetically pleasing cartoon (they really didn't know what it said). It was also mail day, and I got a package from my parents. I got a few of my books from home... now I have to read them.
Anyway, that morning we left for our education day towards the south. The focus of the day was on "social justice" in Israel, which really ended up being a tour to witness social "in-justice" in Israel. We went to a Bedouin village where there was a women's movement. We heard from one of the women there about their culture, the history of their nomadic tribes settling into towns in Israel, and the emergence of empowered women in their village. They did needlework and sold things at different markets throughout the country... I bought a book mark.
After that, we went to what we were told was an unrecognized Bedouin village, meaning it's not recognized by the Israeli government. This turned out to be false, since this village was recognized (although fairly recently). It was interesting hearing about the problems the Beouin community faces in Israel, mainly stemming from cultural differences. Coexistence is tough when the needs of the communities are very different.
Later we went to Yerushan (sp?), which is a small Jewish city in the central Negev. We heard the story about the city and why it's always viewed as such a failure, and how no one wants to stay there.
The education day was frustrating on a lot of levels. One of them being the fact that we were shown very similar things, just in different locations. It seems like there are other social injustices that I have heard about in the country that we could have also learned about. Also, there is a lot of social injustice in Israel, and it reminds me a bit of the US in some ways. The problem I had with the education day also is the fact that I know there are a lot of social action programs in Israel that were not mentioned even once. There are a lot of problems, but there are also a lot of great things going on here, and I thought it was really one sided the way we learned about things. I'm not sure why it was the way it was.

After the Sea to Sea hike, I came back to Be'er Sheva with Brent. I did my laundry and rested. The next day was Monday (24/10/2005) which was when Simchat Torah started (last day of Sukkot). I took the train up to Tel Aviv to spend the holiday with my host family. It was nice going to see them again, and it seemed like I'd been there more than just the one time before. That night we went to services and then had dinner.
Tuesday we went to services in the morning... The only other time I had been to services for Simchat Torah was exactly a year before, when I was at school in Irvine. That service was Conservative, and this Traditional. The service was so different. This year we danced with the torahs (a lot of times) and sang songs and it was very festive and full of simcha (happiness). It was nice to see a different side to the holiday and hear different stories that helped me understand different traditions better. During the day my host mom's family came over for lunch (her parents, brother and his wife and son -- a baby). Her father speaks Hebrew, some English, some Spanish, and apparently about half a dozen other languages. He was talking to me in Hebrew, but going real slow, and explained to someone that he needed to talk like duing ulpan class so I could understand him -- I think he was right. Maor, my adoptive brother, turned 16 that day, so there was a cake and celebration and everything. Since it was my birthday in two days, they put my name on the cake also, which was very nice. In Israel, they don't say "happy birthday" (or its Hebrew equivalent), they say "mazel tov" (literally "good luck" but used like "congratulations"). It's like saying "congratulations on making it to another birthday"... it's funny to me coming from an American culture.
The day went on and Simchat Torah ended. My host family got me a birthday gift, but didn't write a card, because their writing in English isn't so good. My host mom and I sat down, and she told me what she wanted to write in English... and I wrote the message to myself. She copied the message in her own writing, in both English and Hebrew. They gave me a book with blessings for Shabbat and festivals that should be used during meal times. It's a nice book with a lot of artwork, and it's in both Hebrew and English. They also gave me some good fudge that Orit (my host mom) made.
I took a train back down to Be'er Sheva with my fudge and chicken with potatoes that Orit insisted I take for later. That was it.

Day 7 of our Journey (Saturday, 22/10/2005)...

Shabbat day we just took it easy... ate, slept, studied Hebrew, smelled cow poop...


When Shabbat ended, we took a cab to Tiveriah to catch a bus out of town. Brian headed to Jerusalem to stay with his family, and Brent, Jeff, and I headed to Tel Aviv. Jeff was going to stay there with a friend, and Brent and I ended up going back to Be'er Sheva that night.

The adventure was over.

Day 6 of our Journey (Friday, 21/10/2005)...

This morning we woke up in the hostel in Tzefat and had to pack and head towards Tiveriah (Tiberias). We hiked to the bus station and took a bus down to the Kineret (Sea of Galilee). This bus driver was nuts (like most Israeli bus drivers). The ride was really rough, and he was taking curves down the mountain faster than he probably should have... he also passed a bunch of cars on two lane highways. We made it safely (although a little sick) to Tiveriah (Baruch Hashem). We took a cab from the bus station to Poriya where we were staying. Poriya is about 2 KM south of Tiveriah, but it's up a mountain, so it takes about 20 minutes. We finally got up to the hostel. We had a reservation for 2 nights, but after the additional costs due to rain, we decided to stay only 1 night, since it was expensive. It was a really nice view...

...and after seeing our rooms, it turns out the view is what we were paying for. When we got into our room, there was a cat on one of the beds...



We chased it out. The rooms were pretty tiny compared to the other hostels, but we were only there for one night, so we could deal with it. It was early afternoon at this point, and since daylight savings time, Shabbat had been coming in at about 430 in the afternoon. We decided just to take it easy. We had Shabbat dinner downstairs at the hostel. It was a good meal. Then we went to sleep.

Night 5 of our Journey (Thursday, 20/10/2005)...

This was the night we were staying at Chabad's Assent Jewish Hostel in Tzfat. We were all kind of tired from our hike earlier in the day, and weren't sure if we were going to take the Lubavecher's offer to go down stairs for singing and dancing. Brent went down before the rest of us... Jeff, Brian, and I could hear the music from our room and someone said it would be so funny if we heard Brent on the microphone singing (I think the fact that we all saw it as a very real possibility didn't detract from its level of humor). After not too long Brent came back up to the room (beer in hand) and told us he's having a great time and we have to join him. The three of us decided we had nothing better to do and went downstairs...
When we went into the sukkah we were immediately shown to the alcohol. We had old Chassidic men telling us that we didn't have enough vodka in our glasses...

The night went on, and we drank and were soon pulled into the dancing cirlce. Our Austrailian friend, Binyamin, that we met earlier in the day (who invited us to his sukkah for lunch) was there and was sure to dance with us...


Before long, we informed a few of the guys there that Brent wanted to sing (just what we needed for a good time). They had no issue, of course singing could lead to becoming a baal tshuva (someone who becomes religious after not growing up that way). The band started playing the "mashiach" song. Brent made it into a somewhat heavy-metal version with his screaming into the microphone of "mashiach" both when the song called for it and other times he felt like it...



The best part was Brent's freestyling... "I can really feel the ahava (love) and the simcha (happiness) in this room tonight"... "Who here thinks the mashiach is coming TONIGHT?!" (all shouting). Of course this was a group of Chabadniks... about half the group was looking around like "this kid is nuts" while the other half of the group cheered in approval (I'm still not sure if it's cause they agreed with him or they were trying to encourage him and make him feel good... maybe it was that if he was calling for mashiach, he'd become religious that night... I don't know)...

It was definitely one of the highlights of the night. After that song they actually started playing "I want to be a baal tshuva now" and since we were all drunk at this point, we were singing and dancing along with no reservations... it didn't matter what we were singing...




Things continued on like this for a while (I really don't know how long)... At some point Jeff and Brian went up to the room. I grabbed a big bottle of water and made my way up to the room. As legend has it, I sat on one of the open beds (there were 6 for 4 of us) and stayed there until some point in the middle of the night when I woke up, changed, and drank more water.
I ended up being fine and feeling good in the morning. I think it'll be a long time before we forget about our night with Chabad in Tzefat...

Day 5 of our Journey (Thursday, 20/10/2005)...

This morning we slept in (til about 8 I think) and had the "free" breakfast at the hostel. It was pretty good, but the cafeteria was packed with soldiers. We got the weather report from about 10 different sources (because it's never accurate, so we tried to get an average). We heard there was potential for more rain, so we decided to stay in Tzefat for another night. We packed up and hiked across town to the Ascent hostel, since it was cheaper and offered more food, and a much better view. On our way over there, an older Chassidic man stopped us (because we looked American) and invited us to his Sukkah later, if we were going to be around. We would've gone, but we heard about a hike that was scheduled, and if we couldn't backpack, we at least wanted to get out and hike a little. We checked in and got some hot tea and cookies, and then we were going to go on the hike they had scheduled. Due to the weather, they cancelled the hike, but it looked nice outside, so we decided to go anyway. We were going to hike to Har Maron (Mount Maron), where we were supposed to have been earlier. It took us a while, but after some time we were able to get instructions on where to go and how to find the trail. On our way down there, we found the "Mosiach Mobile" (Moshiach means messiah)...


...if you look at the symbol on the hood, it has a crown and says "Moshiach" in Hebrew. We were definitely in Chabad territory. Anyway, we hiked down the side of the mountain, then saw some cows. I think Brian got a little too close to the cows, but as he said, they're just cows...

...we kept hiking down the hill and crossed the highway. We kept on going down the valley, and after a couple of hours after we started, we made it to the spring at the bottom, where there was a crossing of a few different trails, including the Israel trail (it's a trail that goes from Israel's north to its south). The spring was really nice looking...

...even though there were lots of scantily clad Israelis...

... there were people in their underwear, young and old. The interesting thing was to see that there were also a lot of religious people there (but they had their clothes on). We stayed there for a while and had a snack, just because it was so nice and relaxing. After a while we decided to head back. On the way back up we stopped to take some pictures...

...it was a really nice hike, even though it was a little challenging. We only had day packs with us, and realized if we had gone as according to plan, we would have hiked up that trail to get to Tzfat, but with our full backpacks. As much as we wished we could have hiked, I think we all agreed it was nice not having to haul them up the valley. Just after we crossed the highway, we realized we still had a long way to go to the top, but here is a picture I took of where we hiked down...

...it might be hard to see, but all the way at the bottom is where we hiked down to. We didn't make it to the mountain (we took a different way, I think), but the hike was great.
We made it back up to our hostel and decided to rest, since we were tired from the hike. We were told there was a party with dancing and singing in the sukkah that night and that we should come. We weren't sure yet what we were going to do, so we got some pizza (from the good place, of course) and ate it while we tried to decide. I'll finish this day in the next update. Until then, here's a view of the valley, during sunset, from our hostel...

It's been too long since I updated last, so I'll try to catch up.

Day 4 of our Journey (Wednesday, 19/10/2005)...

We woke up in our flood control channel at about 430 AM with hopes of continuing our hike that morning... we all went back to sleep and by the 5th or 6th time the snooze was pressed, we got up. Brian and I were going to trek up to the gas station to get something hot to drink and ask if they knew where the trailhead was. When we were almost out of the tunnel, it started raining pretty hard, so we decided to come back. At the same time, Brent and Jeff were yelling from the other end of the tunnel, because the water was starting to come in (I guess those Israelis know how to build drainage systems that work). We had to save all of our stuff from being soaked, so we ran back and picked up as much as we could (sleeping bag was top priority, of course). We managed to put our stuff next to piles of garbage, because the garbage redirected the water and left a dry spot...
...we were never so happy to have so much garbage around us. Anyway, after a little while, we were able to repack all of our stuff and put the essentials in plastic bags. We waited a little while until the rain subsided and then hiked a little up the street to the gas station. We got there and put our stuff under a canopy next to the station...
...which looked like it had almost enough water on top of it to burst (look above Brian's head). We asked around to find out if people knew the weather forecast, and collectively decided it was in our best interest not to hike any more that day. We needed to find a way to get to Tzfat (Safed), since that would keep us on our schedule of places to sleep each night. We asked about a bus, and they said it came twice a day... 730 AM and 730 PM. The only problem was that by this point it was about 8AM and we didn't think sitting in a gas station outside of Horfeesh for 11 and a half hours sounded like a good idea. We ended up calling a taxi (we got them to send a van to manage all our stuff) to take us to Tzfat. They charged us NIS 200, which is more than we expected to pay to get to Tzfat (we were going to hike), but wasn't unreasonable considering the distance we had to go.
Once we got to Tzfat we got another cab to take us to Beit Binyamin (House of Benjamin) Youth Hostel (the only one on the official list). We went to the counter to talk to the lady, and she said it was NIS 101 per person, per night, which seemed ridiculous... again more than we were planning on paying to sleep that night (we were gonig to camp somewhere). We were already there, and needed a place, so we did it. It was still only about 10 in the morning, so we put our stuff away in our room. We hung out and rested a little, then we walked around to try to find some food. We went across the street to a Super (market) and looked around, but didn't really find anything... we saw rotiserrie (sp?) chicken that looked ok, but we wanted something else. We walked around a little more, and as time went on and our stomachs grew more hungry, the chicken sounded more and more appealing. We got 2 whole chickens for the four of us. We brought it back to our rooms and split them each between two of us. We started out using utensils, but it ended up being finger food...
...it was one of the best meals I've had so far in Israel (you can tell by the picture that Brian enjoyed it, too). It was hot (it was pretty cold outside), fresh, juicy, and tasty. After we ate, we left the carcases on the table and floor, and took a nap for a while.
Later on, we ventured out to the old city. It was a bit of a walk, but it was nice, nonetheless. We went to a pizza place that I ate at when I was in Tzfat during birthright... the pizza there is really good. After that, we went across the street and had some stir-fry at this "Chinese" place. It was ok food, but there weren't many options, and it was a little too greasy. Since it was Sukkot, we ate our food in Sukkot...
...here are Jeff and me enjoying our food (that's the good pizza). Brent's ankle was feeling pretty bad, so he wanted to check out a hostel that he saw a sign for, incase he had to stay in Tzfat another night. There was a sign next to stairs pointing down, so we went down. Once we were there, we didn't know where it was, so we asked someone and he ended up leading us there. It was another 15 minute walk, making all kinds of turns and going down different roads (the sign was useless, basically). It was called the "Ascent Jewish Hostel" and it was run by Lubavechers (Chabad). They said it was NIS 80 a night (since it was a holiday it was more expensive), but that included classes and meals. We left and went back to our hostel to retire for the night.

Day 3 of our Journey (Tuesday, 18/10/2005)...

This was a big turningpoint in our journey. The day started off amazing. We woke up in our fort, packed up our stuff, had some granola bars for breakfast, and started on our way. We checked out the map and decided to hike up the rest of the hill, then down the other side, back into the valley. That way we'd pass a town and be able to stop to replentish our supplies. So we started hiking up the trail, and it was pretty steep and high. It was a great trail, though. We passed the town without really realizing it. We saw a couple of houses, but figured we'd pass a more town looking part. We knew there was supposed to be a spring at the bottom of the valley, so we weren't worried about refiling our water (we had iodine tablets to purify the water). The trail was going up and down a hill a lot, and there were a lot of trees. There were these trees that had spiral, red, smooth trunks (see a picture on my kodakgallery). They were crazy looking. They reminded us a little of manzanita trees, but they weren't them.
We made it to the bottom of the valley in really good time, and it was a nice hike. We found the spring and filled up some of our water bottles, then added the proper amounts of iodine tablets. We had to wait 30 minutes... and our water was starting to turn brown. It was a nice place, but we kept moving along. We were hiking along the stream and finally stayed on the trail as it went up the hill a little. After a little while, we ended up near a water treatment plant, where there was a parking lot and a lot of people. The trail markers looked like they led up to the road (there was a road and a riverbed), so we hiked up the road a little. We realized, though, that the road was leading up to the town, and the map showed we needed to stay in the valley. Once we realized we should've probably stayed in the riverbed, we decided to go back down. We rested a while, too, so we wasted at least an hour. Once we got down, we weren't sure if we were supposed to hike in the riverbed (it was really rocky) or if there was a trail we were missing. The thing was that there were no trail markers, and up until that point, the trail had been really clearly marked. So after looking around for markers for a while, we decided to stay in the riverbed... either way the map showed it would end up where we needed.
Hiking in the riverbed was really tough and not fun, considering we weren't sure if we were going the right way or where we would end up. There were lots of low trees and high rocks, so there was a lot of ducking and climbing involved, which under normal circumstances wouldn't have been so bad, but we all had our heavy packs on. After a couple of hours of hiking, we sat down for a while and noticed a house up on the top of the valley hill (probably at least a quarter of a mile almost straight up). We decided to try to figure out what we were going to do there, because we were also running out of water and didn't know where there would be more water. We thought we knew where we were on the map, and if we were right, we hadn't gotten very far. After about twenty minutes, a Russian guy and his girlfriend came across our trail (the first people we'd seen on the trail besides the people near the parking lot a while back). They didn't really speak English, and we had to use whatever Hebrew we had to communicate. This guy looked kinda nuts... he had a long pinky fingernail (for what exactly, we're not sure), a tatoo of something on his forearm, and a huge knife in a sheath on his belt. He turned out to be a really nice guy, and him and his girlfriend told us to follow them up the hill to their apartment. We hiked about twenty more minutes through the riverbed, then up a really steep incline for about an hour, with our packs, through thorny bushes (briar patches?). We were all getting scratched and sore and everything, but the thought of their apartment and water sounded better than the uncertainty of what lied behind us in an empty riverbed with little water. We finally made it up, and they took us in. They gave us water, juice, chocolate, and even offered us showers (which we politely declined). By that point they had known our plans, and Leon (the guy) offered to drive us to Horfeesh, where we were planning on sleeping that night. We were in the car for about 25-30 minutes thinking that this ride was longer than the 10-15 minutes we expected. After about 45 minutes, we passed a place we all recognized and asked what was going on. Leon told us he thought it would be nice to give us a tour of the area, and that we'd be in Horfeesh in 5 minutes. This guy was really nice.
We made it to Horfeesh (which is a small Druze town next to Har (Mount) Maron). We were walking down the road, looking for a place to eat, and some guy called out to me (I was wearing my Dodgers hat), "Hey you guys from LA?" Good thing I was wearing my hat. This guy was wearing his UCLA sweatshirt, and told us he'd help us out. We ended up eating at the same restaurant as him. He lived on a kibbutz in the area, and moved there 30 years ago. Now he's got 5 kids (I think) and an Israeli wife. He made an interesting comment that he goes skiing in Syria during the winter... when we questioned it he said he was talking about the Golan heights (which is controlled by Israel... google it if you want). Interesting comment, but aside from that everything was cool, and he was really helpful, too. He helped us find a place to sleep... we had only a couple of demands: free, covered (we heard a rumor of rain that night), and near the trailhead. He recommended a bridge on the outskirts of town, and he took Brent to check it out. We ended up parting ways and hiking down there after dinner. We found a nice, flat, covered place in a flood control channel under the bridge (see pictures). We made our camp and got to sleep.

The story will continue later, until then, check out all the pictures from Sukkot break:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=rweggi1.ih2rppp&x=1&y=-o75unx

Day 2 of our Journey (Monday, 17/10/2005)...

This morning we woke up at 4:30AM to get a full day of hiking in (since it starts to get dark at around 4:30 in the afternoon). We put on our packs and left the hostel, heading due west, towards the beach. Once we got to the beach, we took the road up a couple miles until we cut across to the main highway. When we got to the highway we were looking for a road to take across to another highway that our trailhead was off of, but we hiked about 3 miles out of the way. Luckily when we went to a gas station to ask for directions, we met a nice, British, avocado transporter named Michael. He took us back the few miles to where we got on the road and helped us figure out our way. We hiked another couple miles through a banana farm... those things are weird looking when they first bud on trees. Anyway, we got to the other main road and found the street we needed to take to get to the trailhead.
After we got up from taking our first extended break right after getting on the trail, my hips were really sore. I think it was a combination of having too heavy of a pack, and a pack that was too big for me (I borrowed Jeff's extra one). I was really having trouble the rest of the day with the pack on my hips.
We hiked for a while and during a stop figured that if it aws going to rain (as we heard it was supposed to), we would need shelter, since we were ill prepared to sleep in rain (ie, no tents or rain fly). We saw a fortress on our map and decided that it would be a good distance to stop if it looked like a good place to sleep. We ended up finding the fortress and hiking up a huge hill to get to it. We put our stuff under one of the archways. We kinda explored up there a little and hung out on the top. There were some Israeli guys up there with a guide book, and they said the fortress was built by the crusaders, and mainly as a fortress just to protect the people living there. The whole time we were there, we were in awe of the fact that we were sleeping in a fortress built by crusaders... by people who conquered this land centuries ago... and now we were camping there, freely as Jews. Besides that, there was an awesome view. We had our tuna and salami for dinner, and made a big fire at night. The whole night, there were tons of jackels howeling all over the valley, all around us. Luckily we were up on a hill, and I think they were too lazy to climb up to us. That night was pretty cold and windy, but we survived to suffer other cold nights...

I think the best way for me to recount my Sea to Sea "adventure" is to do it day by day... here is Day 1 (Sunday, 16/10/2005):

This morning we had ulpan, and decided to leave right after. We went to the super(market) near where we live to get the food. We got tuna, a couple of logs of salami (pepper and tea), nuts and granola to make trail mix, some parve chocolate spread, pita, mustard, as well as a few other things. After we got the food, the four of us got going (me, Brent -- my roommate from LA, Jeff -- a guy from Philly, and Brian -- a guy from Boston). We took the train from Be'er Sheva (the station furthest south) to Naharia (the station furthest north). It was a nice ride, but it would've been better if it wasn't night, cause I hear there's a great view north of Haifa. Once we got up there, we started walking around town with plans to find a place to eat and camp on the beach. Before we could accomplish either, it started pouring, which ended our first hope to sleep on the beach. We ate at a good dairy restaurant named "Daniel's". It was a pretty new looking place, and the food was hot and good. After that, we walked down a street at the suggestion of our waiter... we didn't find the hostel he told us to go to. We went into a convenience store to ask the guy if he knew where we should go, and instead of him pointing us in the right direction, another customer offered to take us to a place a few streets down. Anyway, we got to the place and the guy tried to charge us around NIS 350 for 1 room... he said there were 4 of us and we should pay a lot more and get 2 rooms. We talked to him for a while and convinced him we weren't the rich kind of Americans, but we were the poor, post-college, volunteer kind of Americans. We ended up getting a room with 4 beds for NIS 200 for the night (about $45US).

After we put our stuff away, we decided to check out Naharia a little, so we went to a new bar called "Lemon Chello" (I think). It was empty, I think because it was early, so we talked to the waitress most of the time. When we were done, we went back to the hostel to try to get an early night's sleep, considering we had a long week ahead of us...

Here is a link to a set of pictures. It should be up to date with the narrative of this post. There will be both more pictures and more posting in the near future: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=rweggi1.11z6lua5&x=1&y=-n4j930

I've returned to Be'er Sheva from my time up north... I'll write about that after I catch up on a few things from before.

For Yom Kippur, our entire group went to Jerusalem for a seminar and for the holiday. In the morning we went and heard a speaker. I think his name was Dr Rabbi Phil Hartman. He founded the Hartman institute in his father's name. Anyway, he had some good things to say about Yom Kippur. I don't remember all of it, but I want to write what I do remember. He said it was a time of change. It's a gift we receive that we have the opportunity to begin the new year with a clean slate, a fresh start. It's important to repent for our sins, especially towards others. He said one of the most important gifts we can give to people we're close to is the ability to change, and the acceptance of change. It's a time of introspection and a time to improve ourselves. He said a lot of times people want to change, but they're afraid to or don't want to because of external social pressures, both from family and friends. A lot of times people are afraid or concerned about what others will think of their change, and don't focus on what will be most beneficial for themselves in their lives to help them be who they want to be, and ultimately be a better person. It's an interesting notion of why it's difficult to change ourselves. People usually treat us like our "old selves", regardless of who we feel we are inside.
After that speaker, we went to our hostel, which was across the street from the David Citadel Hotel (good location). We had a couple of different discussions, and I participated in one about Jonah. It was interesting, but I don't think the lady ever really said anything, she just lead us to say things and agreed with that... that's ok in some respects, but if we're supposed to learn it can't just be from what we see, if there's more to learn from the story.
I purchased a Machzor (prayer book) for Yom Kippur, since I didn't have one and most synagogues usually don't have enough. We got ready for Yom Kippur and ate our last meal.
Kol Nidre (that night) I went with a bunch of people to a conservative congregation called "Kedem". I was very unimpressed, and very much did not enjoy the service. There were a lot of reasons why, but it's been too long to remember most of them. I think the major part was the fact that the woman who was the chazan had weird melodies and went slow, and hardly anyone in the congregation participated. It was a very low energy service. Aside from that, it's not what I have grown to feel comfortable at, in terms of being surrounded by women during the service. There was another thing, too. I don't necessarily have a problem with women wearing tallit or kippot, but I don't like it when they wear a men's style. Part of the argument that orthodox Jews have against women wearing them is that women are not supposed to wear men's clothing (and visa versa), which the tallit and kippot have traditionally been considered. I think this is the reason why many of the conservative and reform Jewish women who I have seen wear tallit and kippot have ones specifically made for women and ones that look more feminine. If these people want to do what they were doing, then I'm not going to stop them, but I don't think it's a congregation for me.
The next day I went with just Aron to a traditional service at a place called "Yakar". It was about a 30 minute walk through Jerusalem. Walking around Jerusalem during Yom Kippur was one of the most amazing experiences I have had in Israel. The traffic lights are turned off, all the shops and restaurants and everything are closed, the streets are closed... the only cars are the occasional police car or ambulence. There are constant flows of people walking through the streets, not paying the usual attention the the boundaries of the sidewalks or crosswalks. The city literally stops for a day. Anyway, we got to the synagogue at about 8 in the morning, and they had already started. I think it was a very Anglo (English speaking) congregation. The women's section was behind the men's, and both sections were faily filled up. Everyone who was there was so into the service and what we were doing, that it created a energy I had never felt on Yom Kippur. Everyone was davening (praying) on their own, but also in unison with everyone else. When the times came to sing, everyone was on their feet being as loud as they could. I think one of the most amazing parts was the man who lead the Mussaf service (I think it was that service, it's all kind of blurred together now). Aron and I figured out he didn't have a full tongue. Either it never grew full length or it was cut short, but he couldn't make the sounds that you need to put your tongue in the front of your mouth for. Even though it was hard for us to follow his Hebrew (because he wasn't exactly pronouncing all of the letters clearly), he davened (prayed) with so much ruach (spirit) that I think he really made everyone around him want to pray better. Aron and I stayed at the synagogue for the daytime services from about 8-330 in the afternoon. Afterwards, we dropped our stuff off at our hostel and made our way to the kotel (western wall). On our way, we ran into an religious American family whose son had left his machzor (prayer book) at the kotel plaza. Since it was yom tov and we couldn't write or anything, we couldn't get their phone number. Aron talked to them and told them his name and where we were staying and that if we found it, we would have it at the hostel. They said they would check after yom tov. We made our way to the kotel for the final 3 services of the day. First, though, we found the guy's machzor. Then we found a group of guys who were going to start davening, so we grouped up with them and found a few more to get a minyan (10 man group necessary for prayers). The entire outer and inner plaza areas were filled with several thousand people, at least. There were tens of minyans all over the men's side of the inner plaza. It was amazing the look around and see so much diversity. There were Jews who were literally from all over the world, davening the same services, and praying the same things. At the end of the first service we're supposed to blow the shofar. Once it got to a point where the first minyan finished their service, there was a shofar blowing at least every five minutes for a pretty long time. There was a guy in our minyan who said he could blow a shofar if we could get one, so they went and got one from the group next to us, and we had our own sounding of the shofar. We proceeded to do Ma'ariv, and then Aron and I split off and found another minyan to do Havdallah (the seperation) to mark the end of Yom Kippur. As we were leaving the plaza, there was a group of a few hundred yeshiva boys singing and dancing in a circle in the outer plaza. When they started to march in a massive parade towards the kotel, Aron saw one of his friends in the group, and we joined in. We ended up back at the kotel, but them quickly left to get back to our hostel to break our fasts. The fast was relatively easy, since we weren't at home and didn't have food laying around, not to mention there was nowhere to buy food even if we wanted to. It was fine, especially because we were so busy all day and preoccupied with prayer, which I suppose is more or less how it's supposed to go.
After we had our break the fast meal, Aron and I met up with my friend Omri and his friend Becca. We put our stuff in Omri's car, then ate at Burger's Bar. It was delicious. It was nice to see Omri and catch up a little, since I hadn't seen him since I went to Santa Cruz in February. After we ate, Omri drove us all up to the dorms at Hebrew University. Aron was going to stay with his sister there, and I was going to stay with Mike Onufer. Omri and his friend stuck around for a little while and then left. I got to see my friend Sasha who I hadn't seen for at least 3 years. She was leaving for France the next morning, so I didn't see her too much. Mike lives in the dorm with his friend David (Linder), who I met last winter when Mike and I stopped at UPENN on our way to New York.
Friday morning Mike and I took a cab downtown and got some soft ice cream... it was good. Later, we got some good, cheap Shwarma (NIS 12 -- that's cheap!) and walked around a little. I went to a shoe store and finally bought the sandles I wanted. I liked being in Jerusalem, but it was annoying how many American high school-aged yeshiva kids there were. I personally think it's great they're all here studying and everything, but it's tough to try to avoid hearing so much English and being around so many 14-17 year olds. After we were there, we met up with one of Mike's friends and went to the souk (open air market). We got food for Shabbat dinner.
We went back to Mike's and rested a little and then cooked dinner. I made some chicken noodle soup, and David and their other friend Josh made some BBQ chicken, which was really good. Just the four of us ate together, and the food was really good. That night and the next day, we played some cards. They play this game called "Guillutein" (sp?), where we act as French executioners. It was described by one person as "Old Maid" for boys, but I don't remember how to play Old Maid, so I really don't know if that's true or not.
Once Shabbat was over, Aron and I met up and took a cab down to the central bus station. Once we were there, we met up with Erin Springer and Brent... we all went back to Be'er Sheva.
Sunday morning we had Ulpan, and then our Sukkot vacation started... that's where I'll pick up my next post.

It's been a while since I've had the chance to update. I will try to catch up when I can, but with Rosh Hashana, then Yom Kippur, and now Sukkot, I'm not around enough. I'll be gone during Sukkot, doing the Sea to Sea hike across northern Israel. Hopefully after that I'll have some good pictures and some things to write.

I'm almost caught up with my updates. Anyway, today Feivel was nice to us and let us sleep until 9. We went to a place south of Be'er Sheva in the middle of nowhere. It's the first of ten planned student villages. New Zionist pioneers decided to settle the Negev. They're building villages from the ground up, and they're populating them with students. Apparently there are 30 people living there, and they had 5,000 applicants. They're offering free tuition and subsidized housing, and the residents have to work with kids in the Negev for 10 hours a week. It sounds like a good deal. Apparently the only prerequisites for applying are either army or national service.
I helped lay the electric lines for about 7 houses there. We had to measure the tubing, then cut it and feed the electric cable through, and then screw it into the side of the wall under the electric box. I think I was in the sun for too long, but it was good work.
Afterwards we came back to Be'er Sheva and I did my laundry and went grocery shopping. Now I'm here and I'm hungry. I think I'm going to make some food now, after Erin (the short one... but not "Shorty". There are a lot of short girls on the trip) stops making fun of me for typing that I did my laundry.

Anyway, keep me posted on how things are going in the States.

Rosh Hashana is the only 2 day Jewish holiday that is celebrated for 2 days in Israel (most are 1 in Israel and 2 in the diaspora). Anyway, the day started off basically the same, including services and lunch. It was a smaller lunch, though, with just Debbie, Marty, Connie, Nadav, and one friend of their family. I ate a lot again.
Later, Nadav took us to his new house in Herzeliya (about 15 minutes away). It's shaped like a golf ball (a white sphere). I can't imagine who would build something like that, but when you're inside, it's a pretty nice place.
It was really nice to be able to spend the holidays with people I knew. I think even though I would've liked to have observed the holiday a little more traditionally, it was worth it at this point to spend the time with them and celebrate the holiday on their terms.
After that, we went back to Debbie's and relaxed. A friend of mine from my trip, Rachel (we call her "Shorty"... cause she's short) was with her family in Ranana, so her cousin picked me up and took us to the bus station in Tel Aviv. We made it back to Be'er Sheva before the trains even started to run. It was nicer travelling with someone than the way up there when I was alone.

This morning, Marty and Connie (Liat's grandparents) picked me up from Debbie's house. We drove to a conservative congregation that met at a high school gym. It was an interesting experience, since it should have been most familiar to what I grew up with. It was ok, but it wasn't very "homey". There were 3 seating sections. One for men, one for women, and one for "families" (traditionally, in Judaism, men and women sit seperately and are seperated by a mekhitza. Traditions vary as to how the congregation is set up). Anyway, I understood the idea of giving people the option to sit seperate or with people of the opposite gender. The thing I didn't understand was that the men and women's sections didn't have any seperation and were facing each other. From what I understand, the reason there is a seperation is so the men don't get distracted from praying, but this seemed to defeat the purpose. Of course someone dedicated to prayer should be able to focus on what they're doing, but obviously we're not all perfect and historically there has been a need for seperation.
After services, we went back to Debbie's and had lunch. There were a couple of other families there, and even though it wasn't a religious meal, it was more traditional (we actually wore kippot and said some of the blessings before we ate). It was another nice meal, and I ate a lot of food.
Afterwards, we rested and then went to dinner. We went to Debbie's next door neighbor's house. It was us, them, and another family. They're religious, so we had a more traditional meal. Again, it was a nice time, and I ate a lot of good food. It was really interesting to be in 3 very different types of meals within 24 hours. It's interesting to see the difference in how people celebrate/observe the Jewish new year, but I think the thing that stands out most to me is that they all do.

So Monday morning we got up and had our complimentary breakfast at the hostel. It wasn't bad for what we paid (NIS 50). We got toast, butter, jam, and tea. I had 2 offers of people to pay for a cab ride to where I was going in Ranana (about 20 minutes away). My friend took the same cab to the train station and then I went alone to Ranana. It was 90 total, and I paid 65, which isn't bad... it's about $14, which is about the same I paid to get from John Wayne Airport to my apartment in Irvine (which is literally 2 miles).
I went to Liat's aunt Debbie's house, where I went to spend the new year. Her aunt is really nice. Her late husband started a really great organization called Save a Child's Heart (http://www.saveachildsheart.com/) which brings children from all over the world, whose families can't afford surgery to fix a heart defect, to Israel to have surgery and rehabilitation for free. The surgery costs somewhere around $85,000 in the US. From what I understand, now they're also bringing doctors from some of these countries to train them to do the surgery so more children's lives can be saved. It's a great charity to contribute to.
Anyway, Liat's grandparents came over and then took me to their in-laws' apartment at a hotel in Natanya (about 20 minutes away). It's on the 14th floor, and it's right on the beach, so there was a great view (when I put my pictures up, there will be a few from the balcony). I decided I was going to study a little, so I sat down with my book... instead I got a good nap.
That night, we went back to Ranana and then went with Debbie and Liat's cousin, Nadav, to a friend of the family near Modi'in. It was a very secular dinner, but it was still very clear that it was Rosh Hashana. I ate a lot of good food.