My Life in Haifa

Two months ago I moved from Eilat to Haifa. What an amazing two months it has been. It's needless to say that I can feel, in a big way, the upside of living in a lush green paradise over the dry, quiet desert that is Eilat. 

Prior to moving to Haifa I’d only ever visited the city one time, for a couple hours, and barely even got a taste for it. My logic behind choosing Haifa as my new home was this: I want to learn Hebrew as quickly as possible. I should enroll in Ulpan Etzion. The Ulpan Etzion in Haifa starts the soonest after my program in Eilat finishes… I’ll go there!

And so here I am.

I live with two “native” Israelis in a three bedroom apartment that stands atop 115 steps (yes, I counted…). We have an incredible view of the surrounding areas and our neighborhood for the most part is familial and quiet. If I walk one block over I have an amazing view of downtown Haifa and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Everyday I wake up and feel like I’m a character in an adventure. 

During the week (Sunday-Thursday) I attend Ulpan (modern Hebrew language class) for five hours in a class that is, for the majority, comprised of Russian speakers. Three days a week after Ulpan I babysit for the children of the cousins of my landlord. (A connection like this is common in Israel.) On the other two afternoons following Ulpan I usually go to the shuk (the produce market) or study. On the weekends I try to mix it up - going to bars with friends, exploring Haifa’s hiking trails or taking a day trip somewhere. 

Since Haifa has historically been a labor city and is a mixed-faith city the busses run on Shabbat/ Saturday. This makes inner Haifa more accessible for its residents than other cities in Israel.

The lush neighborhood where I live.

My two biggest trips outside of Haifa thus far have been a day trip to Akko, and a four-day-long hike to complete the Yam L’Yam trail. 

The old city of Akko was quite amazing to see. I almost felt like I was in the movie Aladdin where at the beginning you see the marketplace. We ate some spectacular hummus and I found some freshly pressed sugarcane juice. But the best part of Akko, for me, was something we couldn’t have planned.

As my friends, Brooke and Aimee, and I were walking through an alleyway Aimee stopped and peered through a small opening in a doorway of what looked like at one time may have been some kind of large gathering house. Within less than a moment, one of the residents, Eddie, a 60-something-year-old petite man with poor oral hygiene, invites us in to see the view. We took turns getting our picture taken with him and got a rooftop tour of the surrounding scenery.

More recently (this past weekend), with my friends Aimee and Leon, I hiked from the Mediterranean Sea on the coast of Nahariya to the Kinneret at the town of Ginosar. This hike is about 80 kilometers (~50 miles). (For us it ended up being about 5-10 kilometers more since we took a few detours.) The hike is called Yam L’Yam, which in English translates to “Sea to Sea,” a name very fitting for journey. 

We spent three nights in tents, coexisting with all the sounds of crickets, cows and coyotes. I can’t even begin to explain the calm serenity of living outside. That is, until the last day of the hike when the sun was beating down on us like a sledgehammer and it was near impossible to find shade. 

We also encountered a decent handful of Israelis (and one German tourist) who didn’t hesitate to offer us lodging or rides, just out of the goodness of their hearts. There is certainly something to be said for this- you decide what that something is!

The nature of the hike was a first for me as I’ve never backpacked to anywhere. It was a real test of both my patience and my endurance. I’m proud to say that I passed my self test and I’m ready potentially for another: the Israel Trail! The Israel Trail takes about two months to complete and takes you from the lowest latitudinal point of Israel to the highest. It’s safe to say on this trip I definitely got bit with the hiking bug…

Moving on… my friends in Haifa are more than I could have asked for. Prior to moving here I did not know a single person. And now, two months later, I feel like I’m a part of a tight knit little community. The majority of my friends in Haifa are U.S. citizens but I also have many other friends from England, South Africa, France, Australia, Uruguay, Canada, Chile, Ukraine, Russia and of course Israel. 

It’s difficult to ever feel like you are alone when there are so many other young folks without nearby family in the same boat. We look after each other. We are one unit. You never have to worry about receiving an invitation anywhere, you can always assume you are welcome anywhere. 

I feel so thankful to get to live here in Haifa and to be able to experience what feels like the ride of a lifetime. The only thing I could wish for is for mango season to start ;-)

Sorry for the lack of pictures- my phone/ camera was consumed by nature on the hike and I didn't feel comfortable stealing friends' pictures from Facebook. Until next time… see ya later!

Hello from the Bahaii Gardens! A short walk from my apartment.

Destination Israel in the Desert

This past weekend my program organizer, Destination Israel/ Israel Way, coordinated a group trip to the Negev Desert for all of its current participants on its programs.

Left to right: Maks, Brielle, Dima, me, Kostia

Most of the participants were American. But not all. There was a pretty large faction of French participants. All of the program instruction was in English. This presented a problem...

There were a few times during scheduled programming where some of the instruction was translated into French, but most of it was not. If it were me who didn't speak English, I think I would feel a bit slighted, especially since their programs are for French speakers. Being in a foreign country where the national language is not your mother tongue you expect to feel lost a lot of the time. But when you are inside of your safety net in the keep of your organization you expect to feel a sense of familiarity and not distance.

Being that I only speak about 15 words of French I didn't actually speak to any of the French participants about this issue. However it was obvious that there was a sense of separation between us, the English speakers and them, the French speakers.

The best part of the trip for me was the first hike we did since we were able to bridge the gap a bit. A hike can present many a challenge - people have all kinds of different abilities. Some feel invincible against heights, some have spider-like rock climbing skills, and some have the strength to push on for miles and miles. And then there are others who have never hiked a day in their lives.

I was excited to have the opportunity to help those that were struggling at the end of the group - most who were French speakers. It gave me the chance to work on my nonverbal communication skills and to show that we are more the same than different :)

That night we slept at a Bedouin campsite - I'm not sure of the name of it. We ate an "authentic" Bedouin meal and then slept in rows of sleeping bags in a large tent. A couple interesting tidbits from the host of our dinner: Unmarried Bedouin women wear all black so that men know they are single and are not allowed to approach them. A Bedouin man may have up to four wives.

It wasn't exactly that stimulating...

The next morning I woke up EARLY to go on another hike.

The bus ride was maybe two and a half hours. We saw the Egyptian border from the bus. There is a pretty hefty fence separating Egypt from Israel that did not exist until recent years. Our tour guide told us the Israeli government built this fence for a two main reasons: 1) The Sinai peninsula is not currently policed by Egypt and it is important that independent militants don't cross over. 2) Refugees from countries in Africa other than Egypt have been entering Israel illegally for years via the Egyptian border.

This second hike was a bit more challenging than the first and was just a hop and a skip outside of Eilat. From the top of the mountain we climbed we were able to see all of Eilat and Aqaba (in Jordan), and our tour guide also told us that some mountains we saw in the distance were in Saudi Arabian territory. This means that in one day I saw four different countries.

The mountain we climbed is called Mt. Solomon and it is the second highest mountain in all of Israel. It took us about four and a half hours to climb up and then descend back down.

The view from the top was INCREDIBLE!

And... at the end of the hike we of course took a group picture!

The rest of the trip was in Eilat which wasn't extremely exciting for those on my specific program since we already live here. But I must say it was nice to have some new faces around. I even like to think I made some new friends :)

The Iron Dome is in My Backyard!

Having a stress fracture of the foot in Eilat has been quite challenging considering I have to use public transportation to get anywhere (my dear car, how I miss you!), BUT I would say I am now 85% of the way to being fully recovered from my injury with just a two to three weeks to go until I can kick back into running and hiking.

Speaking of hiking... this week my group went on an organized hike of one of Eilat's tallest mountains, which just so happens to be directly behind my apartment building. I had to sit out :( However, rest assured that I made sure to find some sort of adventure. I waited for the group at the base of the mountain. And this mountain wasn't just any old mountain. This mountain houses the IRON DOME!!! That's right, the Iron Dome is in my backyard!

That small brown square on the bottom left base of the mountain is the Iron Dome. There are about 12 of them spread all over Israel. Eilat has two.

So while my group climbed, I sat about 100 feet away from one of Israel's most famous defense devices. Is this real life?

The soldiers who guard this particular Iron Dome battery told us we could not take any pictures of the machinery from up close, otherwise I would have posted a much better picture! Up close it looks SO COOL! For the hour or so that my group hiked I sat and conversed with one of the soldiers in Hebrish/Engbrew about what life is like for him now that he is in the army. He has been in the army for about a year, so I would guess he is 19 years old. Let's call him "Shmuel."

Shmuel's diet while on base consists mainly of bread, cheese and boxed tuna. Shmuel stands guard for four hours, and then has eight hours off, and then repeats this schedule again and again. Shmuel has never left Israel despite having family in a a couple other countries. Shmuel gets bored quite often because his post is not frequented at all, with the exception of occasional hikers. Shmuel and his fellow soldiers like to give the hikers a small scare, [harmlessly] questioning them and their motives, when they get close to the guarded area, since he said it is so boring to stand guard all day. I laughed but told him I wouldn't find it very funny if I was on the other side of the joke... Shmuel couldn't remember the word in Hebrew for "cable car" despite being a native Israeli - I knew it though! It's: Ra-kev-el :)

There they go!

They are as small as ants up there!

Some cool facts about the Iron Dome here.

You can now all rest assured knowing I am neighbors with the Iron Dome and that my neighbor is protecting my friends and I 24/7 from any and all airborne threats that could potentially be posed. Because that's the reality of the situation...

Goodnight from Israel 8-)