A Slice of "Suburban" Tel Aviv Life

It has been a pretty packed week and a half! We will discuss only my most recent Tel Aviv trip in this post and leave the rest of my shenanigans for tomorrow :)

Last weekend I jetted off to Tel Aviv just for a change of scenery; the previous weekend I visited Jerusalem.

I stayed not in Tel Aviv but instead in nearby Giv'at Shmuel. (Side note: If Israel had "suburbs," Giv'at Shmuel would be its prime example.) Envision frolicking children, plenty of parks and people walking their dogs every 10 feet. A friend of my cousin set me up with her former college roommate, Paula.

Sometimes it pays to put a wire out on Facebook ;-)

Paula moved to Israel about 20-or-so years ago and now has four Israeli kids of her own and an Israeli husband and cat to match! I felt so grateful to them for welcoming me into their home <3 Thank you Paula and Avi!!!

Paula even prepared for me some special vegan food!

In Tel Aviv I met up with a few friends- a friend from college who moved to Israel within the last couple of years, a friend I made at the Masa Israel Leadership Summit I attended a couple months ago, and also with my Birthright tour guide. It was good to see some familiar faces in a not-so-familiar place :)

The highlight of my trip, believe it or not, was the few hours I spent babysitting for the family I stayed with, and then my walk to the bus station to set me Eilat-bound.

Left to right: Lahav and his friends- twins Gabrielle and Dotan (hopefully I got everyone's name correct!).

I've realized the best way to get a slice of life in a foreign place is to interact with the children. Let me preface what I am about to say next by saying this: I have done A LOT of babysitting. A LOT. I've been babysitting for more than 10 years. Looking back though I'm not sure why parents trusted me to look after their kids back then when I, myself, was a kid at age 13...

Anyway, I've noticed that Israeli children aren't as shy and awkward as American children and, physically speaking, they're a heck of a lot more active. And don't you worry, I've come up with potential causes of these variations.

Theory number one: social disposition. Perhaps because people in Israel live in much smaller quarters than in the U.S., the children are forced to interact more with other people and hence they gain the social skills that most American children (including myself back in the day) lack. The individual family size in Israel is larger as well. More siblings = more social interaction.

Theory number two: activity level. Perhaps because Israel is a military country, (everyone [both men and women], with circumstantial exceptions, is conscripted at age 18) its population in general is more physically fit. After graduating from the army the practices of exercise stay with the former soldiers and when they go on to have children, they continue these practices. Since kids take after their parents- they see the exercise behavior and they then copy it. 

The three children I babysat--I think they were around age 8 (whoops I forgot the exact age!)--couldn't have been cuter. They played soccer, walked a neighbor's two dogs and ran around the playground like little monkeys :)

Monkey Lahav the bilingual bouncing boy! 

After our playdate at the park I began my voyage back to Eilat.

The day was a Saturday. Saturday in Israel is just called "Shabbat." In order to catch my plane (yep, that's right, I sprung for a flight) in time back to the Land of Sunshine, I had to take the earliest bus after the busses began operating again following the Shabbat day of rest. The bus I had to catch was in the ultra-orthodox neighborhood B'nei Barak bordering Ramat Gan. Paula drove me just to the periphery of the neighborhood since cars are not allowed inside of B'nei Barak during Shabbat. 

The streets were literally blocked off with gates.

No cars are gettin' in to here!

Or here!

Walking through B'nei Barak I discovered a whole different world that I never really realized existed. I've heard about these religious communities before, but I've never seen them with my own naked eyes. I was the only woman in sight waking around in pants. (In more religious sects of Judaism women are required to wear long skirts.) I felt like I was in a parallel universe.

It is needless to say that I felt a bit out of place. Though I was raised Jewish, my family's Jewish was a very different kind of Jewish, where the religious aspect of our lives did not govern everyday life. I must say though that I do respect those who choose to live their lives following such specific standards. It is difficult and requires a lot of discipline. 

Also, I just remembered as I was writing this and am unsure of where to add it in, I went to Shabbat dinner at the house of some cousins in Modiin, a "suburb" of Jerusalem. This was the real highlight of the trip! It was so nice to be with family, even though I only just met some of them that night. One of the daughters who is a few years younger than me made for me vegan challah (it normally has egg), vegan cookies, vegan chocolate cake and vegan sachlav, a milk-based traditional Arab dessert drink that usually is accompanied with coconut and cinnamon.

I wish I took pictures with the cousins and of the food but I was so in the moment that I neglected even to think of this blog.. eek.

On that note... not to end too abruptly or anything... here is a picture of some cool statues carved out of bushes in Giv'at Shmuel:

**Cue ending credits here.**

Up and Running Again (Pun Intended!) - Petra, Christmas and New Years

After a month and a half of doctor-ordered rest, I went running again today for the first time. Stress fracture no more :)

I'm back in my right mindset! And motivated more than ever! In this post I will provide a recap of everything that's been going on since Hanukkah... I'll go in reverse chronological order. Sit tight, because it'll be a long ride.

My dear old ma and pa were here in Israel for a few weeks while my mom attended a work conference. I went to visit them for a weekend in Tel Aviv and the following week they came to visit me in Eilat. And then together, we went to PETRA!!!

In front of the most well known of Petra's surviving ruins: the Treasury building. Carved out of a mountain!

For those who don't know, Petra is in Jordan. The climate is similar to that of Jerusalem's, which is similar to that of Atlanta's (I think...). It was cold! Petra is one of the modern-day Seven Wonders of the World.

Basically Petra is a historic village carved out of mountains - no bricks, no mortar, no stones - just mountains as building materials. It is really quite amazing. But what amazed me the most was finding out that it wasn't discovered by the Western world until the 1800's.

The government in Jordan purchased the land from Bedouins [I think] sometime within the last few decades on the condition that the only people permitted to earn employment there would be Bedouins from that particular tribe.

My mom: Ellen the excavator!

My dad: Leon the legendary!

This man on the right offered to make a trade with my dad: nine camels for me. It's a good thing my parents don't have that big of a backyard!

The worst part of the trip for me was to witness the abuse in Petra of camels, donkeys and horses. I had to hold myself back from crying while I watched as a camel nearly collapsed as it was lowering itself to let an overweight male passenger off of its hump and back onto the ground. I looked into this camel's eyes and never before have I seen such a look of desperation and sadness. It was truly depressing.

Then as we were exiting the site I saw some signs that helped me again find the light at the end of the tunnel.

It reads: "John should've thought about his size and the animal's welfare before taking a ride." Damn right he should have.

We got back from Petra to Eilat at about 7:00 p.m. Crossing the border back into Israel took a little bit longer than crossing into Jordan, since there was more security. I showed my parents where I live, they met my roommates and then we bid one another farewell.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention: our tourguide Nizar (pictured right) left a man in our tour group (pictured left) in Petra. He was not happy!

REWIND to New Year's:

In the U.S. we refer to the time period of Dec. 31 - Jan. 1 as New Years, since you are beginning a new year. In Ghana they refer to it as Pass Over, since you are passing over to a new year. In Israel, they refer to the same as Sylvester. The reason is one I didn't know until this week.

Since I feel the Internet can explain to you better than I can the reason for this title, I will copy and paste a passage a few paragraphs a website:

Silvester or Sylvester (also spelled szilveszter, sylvester or sylwester) is the day of the Feast of Pope Sylvester I, a saint who served as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 314 to 335 and oversaw both the First Council of Nicaea and Roman Emperor Constantine I’s conversion to Christianity. The feast day is held on the anniversary of Sylvester’s death, 31 December, a date that, since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, has coincided with New Year’s Eve.

As a result, many Europeans call New Year’s Eve “Sylvester.” When European Jews started to emigrate to the Land of Israel starting in the nineteenth century, the new year in their new country was, of course, Rosh Hashanah. But they still wanted to mark the changing of the secular year as in their old countries, so they continued to celebrate “Sylvester.”

Over time, the practice grew in popularity – especially after the aliyah in the 1990s from the former Soviet Union, where Christmas was banned and everyone celebrated Sylvester instead – to the extent that Sylvester parties are now held in many bars, clubs, restaurants, and peoples’ homes each year. As more and more Israelis consume American and European popular culture, they have also become more familiar with other holidays such as Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.

Though there's no ball that drops here in Israel, the new year is still celebrated, but I didn't feel it on as large a scale. At work we made special flower arrangements to decorate the big dining room in the hotel.

I resolve in 2015 to smile every day!

REWIND to Christmas and my voyage to Tel Aviv:

Even though I am Jewish, spending Christmas in Israel felt a little bit unnatural. I am so accustomed to the culture of Christmas that you can even say I missed it! There were still some little signs of Christmas peeking out of the curtains here, but no Christmas songs on the radio :(

The hotel handed out Christmas candy to all of the employees. Side note: a good chunk of the employees are Christian and not Israeli. Many are African refugees, or are from Russia, Ukraine or other countries.

This restaurant has Christmas decorations since it is not Kosher.

Look closely, a menorah lurks in the background!

On Christmas day I rode the bus from Eilat to Tel Aviv to spend some time with my parents. It was lovely. My dad and I toured the shuk and I was able to find a few vegan delicacies! I felt like I was in the Mecca for vegans.

Vegan cashew cheese burekah!

Vegan Krembo! 

Vegan sufganiyot!

Vegan shwarma! It was so tasty!

Vegan donuts!

The only thing I was missing was another vegan person to appreciate all of this greatness! 

Thanks dad for joining in even though I know you weren't as inspired by it all!

I should also mention it seemed like there there were animal rights activists on just about every corner. We saw people with dogs from a shelter trying to find them homes right on the streets. We saw three pamphleteering booths within half a mile of one another. We saw a fake cardboard garbage can filled with fake little chicks in order to show onlookers what is happening in factory farms.

It was my kind of scene.

One of the evenings my parents and I spent Shabbat dinner with some recently discovered Israeli cousins on my mom's side of the family. I had already met them but my parents had not. Dinner was delicious, and it was like the closing of the circle for my mom to meet these people.

I snuck a picture for you all!

After dinner, cousin Roy kidnapped me and took me as a hostage at a Christmas party in Jaffa. He said he didn't think I would have gone had he told me in advance! (He is probably right... eek... note to self: I've got to stop being so boring!)

Ho ho ho!

Never did I dream I would see so many Jews in Santa hats...

They contracted Santa to be the DJ!

 The next day my parents and I met MORE cousins. It always seems like we have an endless stream of cousins popping up all the time. The hosts live just north of Tel Aviv and prepared for us an incredible luncheon. I can't even begin to explain how amazing the tomatoes stuffed with rice were!

Here we are! 

These newfound cousins couldn't have been nicer. They welcomed us like we had been family and known each other for years, and extended offers to me to come and stay with them at their homes. What a warm feeling :)

This week begins a two-week vacation in my program. I'm not sure what adventures it will bring or to where I will be traveling but my hope is that I will have some great new material for this blog! Hasta la vista baby!

The traffic circle: a pedestrian's heaven on Earth

Constantly I find myself comparing Israel to the U.S. Most individuals who move to a new place would probably also compare their new homes to their formers. Good old America definitely wins in the ‘Bigger’ category, but there is not doubt that in my mind Israel gets first place in the ‘Intersection Efficiency and Innovation’ category.

More specifically what I am talking about is traffic circles.

The irony depicted in this picture - where to begin!!! It's as if the city went to an artist and said, we want you to design a  model for the circle at XYZ intersection that gets everyone involved in the joke of the stupidity of traffic lights. And hey - let's also not neglect to mention that my finger snuck into this picture. As I said, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way here! (I took this picture myself on my run this morning in Eilat.) y

If you were not already aware, Israel, in comparison the the U.S., hardly has any traffic lights. Instead the intersections are built around traffic circles. I’ve decided that the use of traffic circles to direct the flow of traffic is a lot more sensical for three main reasons:

1 - Going, going, going. Everyone is constantly going. It's much more fair to everyone involved in the intersection. Traffic circles provide the right of the way to whoever comes first. This way, you’re not stuck at an intersection wondering how many more minutes before the light turns green. And it’s bad enough if you’re trying to make a left and you are behind a long line of cars. You may have to wait for a few different cycles of lights to make that sanctified left turn. In Israel, there’s no waiting, you just go! 

2 - Power outage? No problem! I can’t tell you just how many times the power has gone out in and around my parents’ house in Rockville, Md. Way too many to count. Most of the time a few, if not many, traffic lights go out as well. Usually this’ll happen in summer after a big thunderstorm, or perhaps in winter after a big snowstorm. Heck - it even happens in fall and summer. And since there is no electricity flowing to the lights, they don't even flash red lights to indicate to cars that they need to stop. Instead the intersection inherits imaginary stop signs and every car must stop before proceeding through the intersection. If the power goes out in Israel, no problem! The traffic circles are not affected since they do not require a single volt of electricity. Motor vehicle life can continue as normal. (And more dollars/ shekels are saved since there is no need to hire personnel to direct the flow of traffic.)

3 - Win/ win for walkers ;-) I know I said the traffic circles help cars to continue going, going and going, but… there is one exception to this: pedestrians! As a pedestrian (most of the time, anyway) in Israel myself, I LOVE traffic circles. I can go for longer runs and not have to wait, idiotically jogging in place, for the ‘WALK’ light to commence its flashing. I can just go! I feel so powerful! The cars have to stop for little old me :) It’s like I can stop traffic solely with my presence. You also don’t have to factor in wait times for crossing the street if you are in a hurry to get somewhere. You’re only obstacle to getting to your destination in time is your own pace. 

Now after nearly finishing writing this post I am remembering my long walk through Tel Aviv and how the city has MANY traffic lights. So instead of internalizing this entry in your brain as a summary of intersections in the State of Israel, you can instead internalize it as a summary of intersections in the City of Eilat.

I find the infrastructure here quite fascinating and hope to babble some more later on other road/ water/ energy - related topics. If you have any ideas or questions, let me know!

It all begins here- new faces, new places

A tiny tidbit: I wrote this post sitting on the bus with my group as we descended from Tel Aviv down to Eilat two days ago. 

__

My program has started!

It feels a little bit like a model United Nations conference! We met just two days ago but between the jet lag and extremely closed quarters it seems like much longer! We are 14 people ranging in age from 19 to 29. We are from the U.S., Ukraine, South Africa, Romania, France and Georgia (the country!).

Between all of us there are probably at least six or seven languages spoken. Our guide Rami is originally from Ukraine and he speaks fluently in Ukrainian, Russian, English and Hebrew. Being around so many people from non-English speaking countries has really opened my eyes. Languages build bridges between nations, civilizations and between humans. With language we have the power to tie the world together. I am convinced that if everyone spoke the same language, there would be less violence in the world (though this is just a theory!).

That night we went out as a group to an American-themed bar called Mike’s Place. It was open mic night and two people from our group performed! Not to mention there was a crazy man who got on stage shouting profanities as if he had some kind of agenda to dominate the bar. That man needs a good therapist, maybe an hour or two with Oprah and he’ll be all set! I wish I had a picture of said crazy person... but instead, just these crazy people ;)

The next morning we had breakfast and then headed to Haifa! This trip was especially exciting for me because on neither of my two earlier trips to Israel did I go to Haifa. We learned from a tourguide, Natalie, that Haifa is a symbol of the world’s ability to practice coexistence. In Haifa exists the Bahaii gardens and a Bahaii shrine, the second holiest site for the Bahaii religion. The Bahaiis believe in uncompromising world peace and beauty in nature. They are pacifists. Some Bahaiis also practice other religions. To me it seems the Bahaiis should practice veganism… I would just think that if they are interested in achieving world peace, they need to also acknowledge that humans are not the only beings of the world. But hey, I could be wrong.

View of Haifa from above the Bahaii gardens.

People come from all over the world to see the Bahaii gardens.

Artsy shot of Bahaii Gardens in Haifa

After touring the gardens we learned the port in Haifa is a very old port and was involved in the African slave trade a few hundred years ago. During a single moment everything for me came full circle - I have now been to Charleston, S.C., to Accra, Ghana and to Haifa; all three were involved in the African slave trade. It is so baffling to think people would trade other people as commodities. Going back to my earlier theory - perhaps if they had spoken the same language the oppressors would have seen there was no difference between one man and another, regardless of skin color. 

This artwork is plastered on the side of a building in Haifa. It is a symbol of the city's unparalleled coexistence.  The boy on the left is Jewish and the boy on the right holding his hand is Muslim.

Random view in Haifa Arab neighborhood.

We then went to hear a member of the Islamic Ahmadi community share with us his sect’s views on how the Qur’an has been misinterpreted by millions of people who proclaim themselves Muslims. Omar, our discussion leader, said that jihad is supposed to be a holy war within one’s mind and NOT an interpersonal battle. After a less-than-heated debate with the discussion leader on a few tenets of the religion, we got lunch and visited a small market in an Arab neighborhood. After only five minutes I was able to see the entire market and took advantage of the time to study my Ivrit!

Market in Haifa - such a colorful array of fruits and veggies!!!

The building where we had a discussion with the Ahmadi leader. We were not allowed to enter the actual mosque due to our dress.

Max, Costa, Luca, Dima, Rami, Nata (None are American!)

The Ahmadi sect's mosque in Haifa.

The group peaks into the doors but not all were permitted to enter.

When we arrived back to Tel Aviv three people from my program and I went into the city, had dinner and explored before settling into a popular bar on Dizengoff Street. We met a few German travelers and I got to share my knowledge of how to say 555 in German ;) They wondered why I knew how to say this and not even to know how to say “hello.”

Restaurant we ate at had a vegan menu!

This is my dinner, it was SCRUMPTIOUS!

Vegan gelato labeled in green! Wow!!!!

Navigating through the city was difficult because there was a NEVER ENDING stream of participants in the 10 kilometer Light the Night run. It was a pleasure to see so many physically fit people in a city that is smaller than the one to which I am accustomed.

Yikes!

Eventually we made our way back to the hostel and met up with the rest of the group. Together we ventured to a nearby bar where I learned a few Ukrainian words and phrases from the Ukrainians in our group! Ex. How are you: Yak teh?; I’m good: Klows-no. Hello: Pree-veet. It is really a pleasure to get to interact with people from completely different backgrounds and upbringings. We are all so different and yet at the core we are all the same.

The next morning we woke up, took a guided tour around Tel Aviv and headed out for our breathtakingly beautiful voyage through the desert! 

A Tel Aviv man has transformed his home into a Matkot museum. Matkot is an Israeli sport played on the beach. It is like ping pong but without the table and net.

To be continued...