Blogs from Golan, North District, Israel, Middle East

Gerade habe ich versucht in der Dusche das Wasser kalt zu stellen. Erfolglos. Handwarm ist die maximale Ausbeute, die sich eine, nach Erfrischung gierende, Deutsche erhoffen kann. So schlimm, wie anfangs gedacht, ist die Hitze hier aber gar nicht. Tatsächlich scheint so mancher meiner israelischen Freunde sogar mehr zu schwitzen als ich. In Folge dessen werden auch, sobald das Haus betreten, alle Fenster und Türen luft-, wärme-, moskitodicht verschlossen und am hellichten Tag das Licht angeschaltet. (Bäh!) Am Wochenende war ich auf Liors Jungesellinnen-Abschied. Wer sich jetzt einen Haufen quietschender End-Zwanziger mit rosa Häschenohren auf dem Kopf und einem Spirituosen-befüllten Flecht-Korb in den Händen vorstellt, liegt aber falsch. Zum Ersten: Israelis quietschen nicht, sie Kulululu-len! Dabei schlägt die Zunge, flügelflatternd (und gemeint ist Kolibri, nicht Schwan ... read more

Woke up on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and stepped out the door to partake in a humid, sweat-filled run along the bike path and roads north of Ein Gev. The air is so thick here, you could choke on it. Even the wind this morning just pushed the soupy mess past me. Still, it felt good after a day off, and this was shortly followed by the best cappucino from a machine that I've ever had. Today our class started out at a preserved Talmudic village named Katzrin. The original village would date from the 5th-6th c. AD and would have housed a community of Jewish interpreters of Jewish thought and law. We discussed their methods of construction, using thatching sealed with clay for their ceilings (which of course required re-sealing every ... read more

So this last weekend I headed to the north to experience some of great outdoors. Since I've been here at the university studying at the ulpan here, I've had the amazing opportunity to meet fellow students like myself from all over the world. So on this adventure I teamed up with two ladies from Germany (Anne & Aleine) one from Sweden (Corrin) and another from France (Sara). I liked the odds I must say. The ladies decided to rent a car and we all took off Thursday afternoon. They asked if I would drive and I happily said "yes". As we left the dorms trying to head toward the highway somehow within the second block I got us all lost . . . ha, it was a great way to start the road trip. Oh my ... read more

The first stop of Thursday was a nature reserve called Tel Dan. Tel Dan is actually a stream that comes from a massive spring, and is a tributary of the Jordan River. We hiked through the forest, seeing many interesting sites, including an old temple and the Syrian border. The vegetation was very thick, and we saw several lizards, and a venomous snake. We then drove up to the Lebanese border, seeing the perimeter fence and an old tank, now broken down. When we were there, we saw a number of UN vehicles patrolling the Lebanese side of the border. We went to tour an army base, though that was kind of a flop, as our guide got called away early in the tour, and we had to leave very soon. However, we did get to ... read more

In my first weekend during the Ulpan we had a one day hike to the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights are situated in the north on the border to Syria. The description of the trip was as followed: "This is a typical Golan hike with gorges and waterfalls to swim under. The trail includes the Deborah and Gilabon falls, a bat cave and ancient ruins." I didn't see a bat cave, but the Gilabon falls were amazing. 35 metres tall falling into a pool of nice and cold water. The hike itself was about 4-5 hours long. Personally I think it was a little to hot for hiking, I hope to do another hike up there in a cooler time of year. We had an excellent tourguide giving us a lecture about the Golan Heights. Internationally ... read more