Blogs from Israel, Middle East - page 157

Today, I joined my Uncle Robert in the ranks of "participating in extreme sports that may or may not send my mother to an early grave." I went skydiving. And...I LOVED it. Now, I have to start this out by saying that skydiving has never really been on my list of "101 things to do before I die." My general theory has always been "Why would I ever voluntarily jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" It seemed to be tempting fate...laughing in the face of whatever physics god keeps planes in the air, with me safely in them. However, when the opportunity presented itself...well, I have never been one to say no to an extreme sport (except bungee jumping. I put my foot down on that one). My father's friend from 1st grade, and ... read more

Hope this publishes...the internet is giving me problems. I miss everyone, especially my prof, but I am having so much fun with Shaunie. Amsterdam was interesting for a day, but Israel is amazing. In Amsterdam I palled around with a guy I met on the train named Milton, he was very nice and it was fun to see all the acceptable weirdness of Amsterdam, it ain't Kansas. Landed in Tel Aviv at 2:30am, immediately going thru Customs, Shauna calls me...tells me to hurry, like I have any control with Israeli security and the process. The security guard in Passport Control asks me lots of questions, very abrupt...then she asks the nature of my visit. I start to cry, saying I am here to see my daughter. I explain how Shauna is here alone as a ... read more

They have a lot to say, the Doom Merchants, when you tell them you’re planning a trip to Israel. They overflow with warnings. Why Israel? I was consistently challenged. Well, I’ll tell you why… Picture the scene… floating in the sea under a cloudless sky. Eyes closed against the sun… Jordan in the haze on one horizon, the West Bank on the other. All is calm. All is peaceful. Idyllic? Absolutely. That is, until you decide enough’s enough and you get out of the water. Crunch time. This for me was one of the most revolting, wonderfully revolting, experiences of my life… …Welcome to the Dead Sea. Not only is your skin saltier than beef jerky, it's also smothered beneath a fine layer of what feels like snot. Yes. All over. In fact, this 'body bogey' ... read more

I apologize for not keeping everyone updated about the wedding weekend, but there was shabbos and wedding hoorahs and other biznass with which to deal. So it turns out that the night before the wedding i was poisoned at a restaurant and spent the entire night blowing chunks and shitting water. I say i was poisoned because my friend rachel and i sat at the same table and Rachel was kinda giving the waitstaff a hard time because they were doing a shitty job. Anyway, the thing is all 14 of us ate at the restaurant, and rachel and i were the only ones to get food poisoning----neat. So i spent the day of the wedding curled in a ball in a dark room, trying to drink water and not throw it up, and somehow ... read more

Hey all, sorry for the extreme delay in any posts. I've just been busy a lot in general. Obviously really busy since I'm writing this in Aug 7th. Anyway, this site crashed recently so most of my old stuff was lost. Sorry bout that. Enjoy what I give you though! There'll be lots more to come in future days, and some really great pics. July 4th, 2007, There's a place called Mike's Place in Tel Aviv that is basically a straight up American bar. It's filled with American tourists and everyone speaks English. I don't really like it there too much, but I went there celebrate my independence the best way possible...by getting really drunk. U.S.A.!!!!!! G-d bless America, Marcus Velelis... read more