Blogs from North District, Israel, Middle East - page 18

I have now been in Jerusalem for four days and its been a strange experience. It's nice being with Carly and Derek. Most of the people are great and the Rabbis are nice, friendly and open to question and doubt. My two roommates at Kibbutz Lavi, Heather and Amanda, are lovely and entertaining people. Day 1: This turned into Day 2 with 30 hours of traveling for everyone and probably a total of 4 hours sleep for me. It was a very, very difficult, long and tiring day of travel. It made me realize what I was really getting into. This is hardcore study of Judaism. After 14 hours on a plane, the time in layover, check in, check out, customs, waiting for buses, traveling on buses and then activities to 'introduce and unite', we definitely ... read more

It was a sick twist of fate that my first day of kitchen duty came just a few hours after Pub Night. Pub Night, here at kibbutz Baram, is taken very seriously. The pub is open Tuesday and Friday nights and is one of few organized social activities offered to both members and volunteers. Unless you're banned from the pub for missing your pub cleaning duty, everyone shows up for Pub Night. And though I wanted to be fresh and ready for my 5:45am kitchen call, I knew that if I missed out on my first Pub Night, I risked being socially ex-communicated. I managed to stay for only one beer, but as the Pub doesn't open until 10pm, I was out later than I would have liked. I did have the good sense to leave ... read more

Come with me, on a trip thru a beautiful country,Israel. This is where it all began. There is a lot of history here,people are great,food super. Great spot to visit.... read more

Hello again!!! (lol...I know I just sent out an e-mail like 30 minutes ago). This weekend my friends Aidan, Leslie, Aly, Kelly, and I traveled to Jerusalem and Nazareth. I am planning on writing a long blog entry about all my trips to Jerusalem together so I will just update you on the day we spent in Nazareth. We arrived on Friday the 7th right before the start of Shabbath and checked into the Sisters of Nazareth Convent for the night. We were trilled to have heat as it has gotten rather cold at night and it was raining. We spent about 30-40 min. wondering around the city at night trying to find Tishreen, a medieval style, restaurant. Aly, Kelly, and I decided to spend the rest of the night reading and going to bed as ... read more

Today was a day of adventure. We started with a fun and bumpy 2 hour jeep ride through the Golan Heights, basically a barren mountain range. It was particularly interesting to travel into the area that was held by the Syrians until the 6-day war in 1967. Overlooking the Israeli settlements in the green valley below, we could really understand the strategic importance of the Golan Heights, especially considering we could see Lebanon on the other side of the valley. Next we traveled to the Mystical city of Safed, one of the 4 holy cities according to tradition and the birthplace of Kabbalah.. Kabbalah is a mystical branch of Judaism (recently made famous by Madonna). We strolled through the narrow, cobblestone streets, visited two ancient synagogues, and shopped at the local artisan workshops - no Madonna ... read more