Blogs from Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel, Middle East - page 29

Everything is ready I don't have an apartment anymore - I moved everything today. It's a funny feeling that I have no apartment key on my key chain. Well, from tomorrow I won't have a key chain anymore. The last two days were so unbelievably hard and tiring. But now it's behind me. So this is my last post from Tel Aviv Kisses kisses kisses to all my family and friends, those that I managed to see and those that I missed (my lousy flu last week :-( Try to have fun here too (and in Europe & USA, wherever you are)... See you in my next post - hopefully from Hong Kong. ... read more

I am very excited to see all my subscribers :-) So I am adding this post to welcome you all... Still at home, very busy, very excited and counting down. 6 days to go!... read more

After a 10 hour flight, we finally arrived at Ben-Gurion International at sometime between 8 and 9 am. I didn't get any sleep on the flight, so it promised to be a looooong day. Our first stop was the ancient city of Yafo, or Jaffa. This ancient seaport has been in use since the time of greek myth and legend. It is here that Perseus slew the Kraken, as legend tells. One of the first things I noticed were the cats. There are cats everywhere. The reasoning behind this goes that when Israel first became a nation, nearly 60 years ago, there was a major rat problem. To deal with this, cats were released into the environment. Well, the cats proloferated at a prodigious rate, and I haven't seen a single rat to speak of. Maybe ... read more

Our plan had been to visit Beit Hatfutsot (the Diaspora Museum) this morning, but we had to reorganize when we arrived only to discover that it is now closed on Thursdays as a cost saving measure. Instead we had a discussion about collective identity and how this relates to our next unit, the competing voices in contemporary Israel. We then had lunch in the university cafeteria. In the afternoon, we met with Dr. Nimrod Aloni, an education professor and son of former MK and education minister Shulamit Aloni. Dr. Aloni is a committed secular humanist, and offered his perspective on contemporary Israel. We then went to Kikar Rabin for a discussion of the effects of Rabin's assassination on Israel. David, Shira, and Shirel each offered their memories and perspectives on the events, which was fascinating to ... read more

Most of the group went to see family or friends for Shabbat, so I didn't see anyone else from the group until after Shabbat. I slept in on Friday before going out to run a few errands. I davenned at the minyan at the hotel that evening (a Sephardic minyan) before dinner in the dining room. I also davenned there Shabbat morning, and spent most of the rest of Shabbat napping and reading. It was very restful. After Shabbat, Sean and I went to the Azrielli mall for a bite of dinner and then to see Matrix Reloaded. The effects are great, although it was a little weak in terms of plot.... read more