First Week

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So the plan was kind of to do posts a lot more often, but really, I don't feel like spending my time here in Israel, so once a week will do! Course, we're doing so much it's really not enough. We flew into Tel Aviv Monday afternoon and went to Neot Kidumim, which is nature park that is designed to mimic what the area would have been like doing modern times. It was pretty cool. You could look over and see a Arab village across the valley. And a firing range right under it (Israeli of course) that was raising a whole lot of smoke. And then we drove to the Galilee area to our Kibbutz and had a great dinner and slept like the dead! Morning brought a slew of things to do, most memorable being a roman ruin with incredible mosaics. And the churches. And the first time we saw the Sea of Galilee. Man, really there was too much to decide. And I forgot my journal at the room, so I can't verify all the things. My favorite visits in the area were: the visit to the Golan Heights, "Cruise" on the Sea, a visit to the church of Neocatism (I think that's mispelled), eating St. Peter's fish on the shore, the Church of the Anunciation (a gorgeous Franscican monastary) and watching the last bit of the Football (Soccer, duh!) in the kibbutz pub, and then going out to float in the pool with two friends and the lifeguard and stare at the stars. And then we went back to his place and talked until 4 in the morning about politics and art with the two Edohs. His friend does really nice sketches and watercolours of the area. Ok, then Thursday we drove to Jerusalem through the West Bank, which was incredible, and very different form the area we'd been in. They don't have the irrigation so its all desert. We drove past Bedouin herders and camels and ghost towns. So incredible. Then I went to the Wall for evening prayer. The energy and intensity is completely inexplicable. I was high for hours after, which was unfortunate, since we got up at 3 in the morning to watch the beginning ceremonies of Shavu'ot, which started at King David's tomb and ended back at the Wall. The next day we had a tour of the Christian quarter from a woman (Hannah) whose runs a program that tries to reconcile differences between the Jewish and Christian arabs. Really interesting. And we ended the tour at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was extremely complicated as far as interfaith communication. And then I went shopping in the market morning of the next day, and went to Synagogue that evening, which was awesome. Lots of singing! Went out to dinner. I’m running out of battery, so I’ll be quick. We did Holocaust museum (Really intense!), Hezekial’s Tunnel (half a kilometer under ground in water), and a meeting with a dude from the Foreign Ministry. We are headed to Haifa tomorrow morning! Sad to leave here though, it is amazing.

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