A Hallo-WEAK night and Jerusalem

Just as the title of this post suggests, Halloween in Eilat was a bit lackluster. I wasn’t upset or saddened by this, it just did not meet my expectations. Next to nobody was in costume, my group aside. We went to Mike’s Place, an American-themed bar. Almost all the waitstaff were dressed in costumes but the patrons were not. 

We got a lot of stares and I had at least 15 people ask me what I was supposed to be. However it was quite obvious… wouldn’t you agree???

I am a pumpkin - DUH! Later on I added some twigs to my bun...

Prior to spending the night on the town we had our first Shabbat celebration together as a group. We built a table at the hotel where we have been eating and said the blessings with a local rabbi. Since we all have had pretty varied religious upbringings it was special to share the evening together. 

Raluca and Rami are missing from this picture :(

The next morning we set out on a bus to spend the day in Jerusalem. From Eilat the ride was about five hours (we did make two stops totalling to 50 minutes and went a longer route since the driver felt it would be safer for us not to drive through the West Bank). We shared the bus with another group that is posted in Eilat - a Russian-speaking group in which the participants are learning to become scuba instructors. Maybe if an English version of this program were offered I would have opted to learn the ins and outs of scuba! In another life…

After arrival to Jerusalem we headed to the old city and had a tour of the Jewish Quarter. I would have loved to have seen the other areas (mainly the Christian) as well so hopefully I will be able to make another trip to do that. Here are some pictures from the tour:

Getting an explanation from our tour guide of the different empires of Jerusalem

Underneath the city lies an even older city...

Meow!

See sign below.

You can see the old Jewish cemetery (the Mt. of Olives) in the background.

Along the way we got to meet the CEO of the provider that organized my program. Binyamin Halevi GanOr (that’s his name!) was an extremely sweet man and his English was impressive after having been studying for just one year. He shared with us a little bit of his background story as well as a personal struggle he has been facing the past three years. He is an inspirational person - he has neither an esophagus nor a stomach and has to sit up when going to sleep at night. Upon meeting him you would not believe it. He has a very relaxed and positive demeanor and is a high example for all to aspire.

He even gave us his personal phone number should we have any problems or just want to talk.

But a trip to Jerusalem with a tour group would not be complete without a visit to the Western Wall, so obviously we did that too! I had already been twice and made a conscious decision not to touch the wall. Instead I decided to look onto the men’s side of the divide. 

Men on left, women on right. From the photo, the two sides looks like they are of equal size however the mens side is probably about two times wider.

It bothers me that the men’s side is so much wider than the women’s side and that it has nicer chairs. Is this supposed to be a message to women that they as a gender are inferior to men?

From the old city we took the light rail to some kind of big conference center where we attended a concert/ceremony for all participants that are currently partaking in Masa programs in Israel. Brazilians, Argentinians, Russians, Australians, English, Canadians and the list goes on… 

The light rail was really cool!

The security at the event was the tightest I have ever witnessed preceding any event. Probably even stricter than at the 1996 Olympics. It makes sense considering the PRIME MINISTER of Israel came to speak to us! That’s right! Benjamin Netanyahu came to welcome us to his country and to ask that we defend Israel worldwide to people who are misinformed. We also got to see performances from one of Israel’s top music groups - the Idan Rachel project. Our guide says they are comparable to U2. I have heard of them and heard some of their music before but quickly got bored with the event.

Here is a snippet of Bibi's speech, the quality is not amazing (sorry):

The ceremony would have been great had we not already had behind us a five-hour bus ride and long day in Jerusalem. We were all a bit tired and just wanted to head home to Eilat. I slept the ENTIRE bus ride home, which, if you know me, is rare.

Goodbye for now :)