A walk through Jeruslaem to the nightlight in Israel; Rhianna.

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Prepare yourselves for a blog of Jerusalem, a walk through history of food, culture, and religion! I am thrilled to finally get myself to Jerusalem on Monday....I took a train there. When I told a few local Israelis I was taking a train there, the reaction was "There's a train that goes to Jerusalem?!" News to them, there sure is. However, it turns out that the train is not the preferred mode of transportation for the locals....bus is the preferred mode and here's why; time. The train takes nearly double the time the bus takes. This is because the train takes a scenic route along the mountainside verses a straight ride down the high way. I enjoyed the train ride on the way there--it was a beautiful view, and a nice way to see Jerusalem from a distance. Upon arrival in Jerusalem I was greeted by Yanir; the very first Israeli to live with our family. He lived with our family 7 years ago....when I was a "wanna-be snobby teenager" (This is a true quote of how he described his memories of me when living with us. I'm glad he's seen big changes in me.) He lived with us when he was 20. Yanir is now 27 and married! I was happy to meet his wife and spend the afternoon with them touring the old city of Jerusalem. Interesting fact for any of you reading this who are familiar with Israeli news channels....Yanir is a reporter for the Kineret news channel. Perhaps you'll recognize him in some of my photos 😉.

I was lucky to be with such experienced tour guides; both of them have had experience leading group tours of Jerusalem. Looks like I had a personal tour scheduled with two professional guides on this day! (Free of charge!) We walked all over Jerusalem through the markets (Jewish and Muslim quarter.) In the market, I tired to work my talk for some deals on souvenirs, but it didn't work so well....but yet again I was lucky to have Hebrew speaking friends with me! When shopping in foraging countries you are able to talk and get deals on souvenirs, but it's very helpful to have native language speakers with you; showing you speak the same language is like a ticket to an automatic discount. It's also helpful because the locals KNOW the right prices for the items; and won't agree to the tourist prices. Besides the market, we went into The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (an important historical sights for Christians/Jesus). The church itself is full of history, and beautiful architecture. I felt as though the rooms in the Church went on, and on, and each room had it's own uniqueness and meaning to it. The room that was most interesting to me is where a handful of tourist were waiting to go into; where Jesus was actually crucified (Note: This statement is out of full respect. The line to get into this room was easily comparable to a line of customers outside of Best Buy on black Friday...) We saw a handful of historical sites along the walk as well, and of course the most important; the Kotel. The Kotel, one of the most sacred sites for Jewish people is full of spirit and prayer. Immediately after going through security for the Kotel, you feel in the air the "powerful silence" this site brings. Separated by male and female sides; you can see the Orthodox males on one side and the females on the other. I noticed a hand full of women very deep in prayer; and learned that this was for an important Rabbi in the community who is currently sick. It's important to go to the Kotel in full coverage. I thought I was in full coverage, a long skirt and a t-shirt, but to my surprise, an orthodox women found my dress offensive and asked me to put a shawl on. A hand full of other tourists were dress similar to me, or less coverage than me. I took the bus back to Tel Aviv, which was much quicker than train.

On Tuesday night I went to the Rhianna concert with Snir and Reuven and their friends. It was an outside concert and a sold out show--55,000 people in attendance for Rhianna. I should say 55,000 angry fans waiting for Rhianna. She was an hour late for her performance because she was bathing in the Dead Sea. In addition to being late on her performance, she was lip syncing some songs, and cut her show short. The media and reviews in Israel (and all over the world) have given Rhianna a handful of negative feedback, and it seems that there's many countries unhappy with her performance. In my opinion, her performance could have been better and I was not impressed that she was late to perform. There was some songs she performed very well, but overall, it was not the best concert I have been to. Nonetheless, we still had a good time. The train system was in operation special for the Rhianna show (usually trains stop around 11:30/midnight) at midnight the train was more jam packed than a New York subway system on a week day.

Yesterday was (perhaps) my last day of volunteering. I say perhaps my last day of volunteering because of my no-apartment in Tel Aviv situation. This was the group of younger students who have higher needs in the class. Although the more challenging group, I have learned a lot from this experience. The most powerful message I learned (or I might say revisited because I've learned this in many college courses) from this experience is that we, as American teachers, needs to take into consideration how challenging it is for a non-native English speaker to learn the language. In most English classes in America we are taught in a common way throughout America to learn English. But, if there is a non-native English speaker in our classroom, we must take this into high consideration and adapt to teaching in a different way. It all ties into cultural differences and how we value and respect that in a classroom, and in overall day to day life. Working with Daniella has been an awesome experience and I am really happy to have been able to work with her. Her curriculum is also now being turned into Russian-English. Yesterday I was helping her brainstorm a simple slogan for the title of her book. One simple idea; "English in a new way." She says it's important to keep the title simple because that is the meaning of her curriculum--simplicity of teaching English. It's simple, meaningful and powerful. What's also very neat about this curriculum is that it's adaptable to all ages (she has many books, so many levels) She has students ranging from 2nd grade all the way to mid-adults. One of her students was actually running for mayor of the city we drive to (Shoham). Israeli elections were held this past Tuesday--voting for mayor of the city.

It's hard to believe that my time has flown by--and it's time for me to check out of my apartment in Tel Aviv tomorrow. Even though when making my travel plans I knew I had to be out of my apartment by October 25, I still chose to have my stay in Israel until October 31. My plan to prevent living on the streets? I have some wonderful people here who will open their house up to me for a few days, so I'll be going to the North of Israel tomorrow after my apartment check out. I'll spend the weekend in the North, and the plans for next week are in the works, and will probably be made up as I go. But, I'm very grateful to have friends in Israel who are willing to open their house to me.

I must go pack up my Dizengoff apartment now, prepare for check out in the morning, and finish my open pack of Tim Tams.

Happy Thursday, and (almost) Shabbat Shalom!

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Comments

[gandg]

Great blog/video and pictures. Shabbot Shalom