My travels so far...

World travels

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US Travels

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Europe

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Asia

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South America

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Wandering Jews: Neveh Tzedek Photos

Michele and I went to Neveh Tzedek today. We took lots of photos, which you can see on Facebook, but here are some of my favorites. You can click to embiggen and make a slide show. 

Carrots and eggplants. They must be tags since they're EVERYWHERE! I must document them all!

I'm not sure what these are, but they're also pretty common. 

 

I love these squared off cartoon people!! 

What a wonderful quote!

Neveh Tzedek might just be one of the prettiest places I've been! I love shooting there!

I was overwhelmed by this particular graffiti. It's so brutally honest and speaks volumes to the population. It's in a touristy part of town, but brings such focus to the fact that you don't think about the current events since you feel so safe here in Israel. 

Simple, sweet, and understated.

Quite possibly the best funny graffiti I've seen. I love it!

A mantra for all. Be awesome!

 Of course, a trip to Neveh Tzedek requires pictures of the iconic old homes and the sculptures they're covered with...

They include art in all the places they can in Neveh Tzedek. This is also the only cat Michele likes.

 Even when there isn't art, Neveh Tzedek is artful. The colors of the street pop out at you and make the neighborhood a photographer's dream.

Using existing structures is one of the best things about Neveh Tzedek's artwork. Don't forget to look for the mice!

Some things need no caption.

Love can be found in many places.

 This "Stolen artwork" stencil is all over. I love the simplicity, but also the implication that everything is art.

 Israel has lots of cats. Neveh Tzedek has lots of friendly cats.

I want this planter. there's nothing else to say.

Even on cloudy days, the colors pop, the weather's nice, and Israel is where I want to be. Where do I sign to live here forever? 

Ulpan is Over!

Well, today was fun. My brigadeiro seemed to be a hit, even if it was a little chewier than I planned... The test wasn't bad, but I misspelled "achav" (meaning now) for the fourth time (out of four tests...).

After class, Michele and I planned to walk to Neveh Tsedek, but we ended up being a little sidetracked and only made it about halfway there. We walked down Diezengoff, which is one of the main shopping streets. There are SO MANY wedding dress shops, it's kind of ridiculous.

One of the stores had some really nice sweaters, so we stopped in and we ended up each getting one, but the real benefit was that we started talking to the shopgirl, and she's a promoter for a club and a bar.  We asked her about a chill bar, and she recommended one with live music that's relaxed and not clubby.  It's called Muddy Waters, and I think we'll be going back. But I'll talk about that more in a minute.

Walking down Diezengoff is really interesting since it's half touristy, half local. We were hungry, so we started looking at menus, but we didn't really see anything we liked. Then there was a cafe with no name, nothing in English, and it looked incredible. They let us try their soups, and then we also got some of the best hummus in all of Israel.

Sweet potato, lentil, vegetable, bean, split pea
All delicious!

I had an interview, so we headed back after wandering some more.  My interview went well; it's for the internship class I'm taking. When I get back to the States, I'll also have a job!

After my interview, we headed down to Muddy Waters and had a chill night to celebrate the end of Ulpan. Michele did my makeup and Nessa joined us. It was a nice night.

Lilah tov!

Study, Study!

Tomorrow is our final exam in Ulpan. I've decided to continue my Hebrew classes, so my schedule now looks like this:

I'm super excited for my classes!

So Michele and I studied all afternoon, with various breaks, but we feel pretty confident in our test tomorrow. First, she came over while I made lunch (mmm homemade hamburgers!) and then brigadeiro for our "party" tomorrow.

Mmmm, brigadeiro! It's hard to make on an electric stove, though!

Tomorrow's party will consist of reviewing our videos that we had to record of us ordering in Hebrew, final review, and food. I'm sure the video will be amusing, but I don't think any of us want to see it, much less letting the rest of the class see it.

We then checked out the Kakao Cafe on campus, which was good, before we gave up and went to bed. We're tired of studying.

Lilah tov!

Tuesday... Booze day?

Ulpan is winding down, as evidenced by our class's inability to focus or learn much of anything anymore. We've started on the past tense and it's super easy... once you figure out what the stem is.

So Hebrew's a really interesting language. Every word has a root/stem (the two words are interchangeable) that has to do with a particular concept. So SDR goes to "seder" and "siddur", and KDSH (SH being one letter in Hebrew) goes to "kiddush", "kaddish", "kadosh", "kidusha". The former has to do with order, and the latter with holiness.

This is all a side note.

Present tense Hebrew has four conjugations: boy singular, boy plural, girl singular, girl plural.

Past tense Hebrew has ten conjugations: me, we, you boy, yall boys, you girl, yall girls, he, them boys, she, them girls.

Also, Hebrew is utterly confusing when it comes to masculine and feminine. Masculine "you" ends in "ah", but nouns that end in "ah" are feminine. Verbs and adjectives also end in "ah" when you're talking about something feminine, but the past tense masculine you says "ah". So basically you can't actually tell.

Last bit of Hebrew ranting: you don't possess anything. You say "There is/isn't (whatever) to (whomever)."

So "I have a brother" is literally translated as, "There is a brother of me." Because THAT'S not complicated. Or, the most popular comment between Michele and me: "Ain li kesef." - "There is no money to me." I.e. I'm broke.

Anyways.

After class, Michele and I headed down to the beach to study.  We sat and order nachos while reviewed....

Nachos in Israel are not what we expected... First of all, we couldn't identify the flavor of the chips until we had eaten nearly all of them.  They're BBQ Doritos. The sauces were pureed avocado with no seasoning, straight hot sauce, and cream cheese. It was very interesting...

When we got cold, we headed towards campus and stopped at a little cafe for coffee and tea. I haven't spoken to the coffee here in Israel. They don't have American coffee. They have "American" coffee - which is an Americano. Which is still not right. What I end up getting is called a cappuccino, which is what I would call a latte in the States - espresso coffee with steamed milk. Actually, this chart is a better representation:

Point is, they don't have drip coffee. Which is a pain because the coffee here never tastes right. But I have become somewhat addicted...

The absolute best thing is Iced Cafe - or iced coffee with lots of milk and sugar that has been blended into a slushy sort of thing. I like to compare it to Starbucks' frappuccino, but it's much better. It's like a coffee slushy. And I'm sure absolutely terrible for you, haha. =]

Halley had some friends over and a bunch of us went out to dinner together. It was six girls and one guy. Some of them went to a club, but Michele, Yasmin, Tal and I headed back to campus. Tal and I ended up talking for a long time. He's a history major, studying modern Jewish history (i.e. Tel Aviv, since it's only 100 years old) and how the writings of history have influenced the community.  It seems like a really interesting way to study history.

Tomorrow is review for our final exam in Ulpan, which is Thursday.

Lilah tov!

Back to School Sunday and Mellow Monday

There are two days in this post because not that much happened. I know I'm being awful about keeping up with things, but I'm working on it!

Sunday was chill. I am having a hard time with missing home and my friends.  So many people have snow days and birthdays and parties and stuff that I wish I was home to spend time with them.

Anyways, class, blogging, a phone call home, and then I went to a comedy show. The guy was really good and really funny. He made aliyah and knew exactly how to speak to his audience of American college students in Israel. I was having a bad day, so I went running, and I came across a little shopping plaza about 10 minutes walking from campus.  They have a Dominos, Burger Bar, Israeli pizza, sushi, some grocery stores, a pharmacy and some liquor stores. It looked interesting, but was too late to stop.

Today was not much of anything, either. Just class and a really long nap. I then went over to the plaza I found and got an amazing burger from Burgers Bar. It was really good!

Lilah tov!

A Day of Jewish Culture

Well, this girl is intrigued, mystified, and excited to be here in Israel.

I cannot express the feeling I have being here, because it's so much more than a few things.  Being Jewish in the south has had its issues. Now's not the time for story-telling, but I have a strong connection to my congregation and my religion, even if I don't keep kosher or Shomer Shabbat, and that's been called into question, criticized or caused problems.  Here in Israel, I'm amazed at the feeling of not being in the minority. Somehow, being here has felt comfortable, and even though I'm still learning the language, people are welcoming and I've been able to meet people and make connections.  They teach me Hebrew and answer my questions. There's already a rant about learning, so I won't rehash that, but I feel able to ask questions, and, for the most part, I get answers.  Today is a perfect example.

I got up and headed over to Inge's apartment since she was invited to lunch at a friend's house. (Don't ask me all the various relations to these friendships... Michele and I have made it a running joke that Inge knows everyone in one way or another.)  She wanted to walk on the beach first, so we walked from her apartment down to the tayellet, or boardwalk. In particular, she wanted to see the Israeli folk dancing, which is very much like square dancing and/or contra. It's absurdly complicated, but looked like fun.  We were watching for a while and she kept trying to get me to go out and dance.

Now, if anyone who knows me has ever seen me dance, you know I don't just have two left feet, I have two left feet of a highly un-coordinated elephant who trips over air... Especially when it comes to something as complicated as taking a step. And this was pretty complicated steps.

So, Inge asked one of the guys who was pretty much killing it if he was a teacher, and he said he just helped out, but he would be happy to show me the steps.  I was pretty much dragged onto the dance floor, and stumbled my way through a song or two. They gave me some claps for trying, though, and invited me to their weekly class at TAU on Thursday nights... So look out for updates once those start.

From there we went to her friend's house. I had asked what to wear, and Inge told me jeans and a tee would be fine, that her friend had nine kids and I would be playing with them and stuff.  Turns out her friend is part of Chabbad, her husband is a rabbi, and this was their Shabbat luncheon with about twenty something people, not including the kids.

I was wearing skinny jeans and a v-neck short sleeve tee. 0.o

Nevertheless, the family was very welcoming.  Mindy (the mother), was very nice and answered my questions, even helping me with the prayer for washing hands and answering some sensitive questions about booze.  (I'll get to that part in a second.)

So, I walk in to a room of men and women in very Orthodox conservative clothing.  Black hats and suits for the men, elbows and knees covered for the women, and most of the women wearing wigs.  (If you're not familiar with the wigs part, ask me and I'll explain more.) Inge is not particularly religious (as in, not at all), and I explained a few things to her, or rather, did them and she asked me why. I felt extremely out of place, not speaking the language and having never been to a Chabbad... well, anything, really.  The men were davaning and singing in the very particular way that Orthodox Jews do. I don't want to call it wailing, but it is a rather long, drawn-out sort of collection of notes and you really don't hear them draw breath. They had the table set and we started almost when we got there.

The first thing is washing hands.  I remember from when I was little part of the procedure, but Mindy helped me remember the rest of the prayer and directed me a bit, which was nice. Maybe it was because I asked, but I didn't feel like an idiot or like a bad person for not knowing and she was so happy to help.  Later, when I asked why they had bottles of Johnnie Walker Red and Absolut on the table, she explained that Chabbad wants there to be love at the Shabbat table, and liquor helps. I was a little nervous to ask, but she was very nice about explaining. She also gave me the recipe for her tehina, which was INCREDIBLE.  (Her secret is adding honey.)

There was one thing that I was really frustrated/put off by, and that was the separation and elevation of the men.  The men led the prayers (often with the women doing their own thing and not paying attention) and were served first from nicer dishes and things.  In particular, the challah was blessed and cut for the men, and then the "scraps" were passed down to the women.  Every dish was served like this - first to the men, then to the women, in separate dishes.  It was almost like they were a course ahead the whole time.

There were tons of children running around, of course, (Mindy has nine!) and the women were tasked with cleaning, serving, and taking care of the kids, but in more of a "men do their thing, women do theirs" separate-but-equal sort of way. The men talked and stuff and the women were free to do what they wanted. It was interesting, and I don't think I'm expressing myself very well, but I didn't see the difference as oppression as much as freedom from listening to a lecture/sermon and stuff. Mindy was in and out taking care of this child or that, and then the other women (girlfriends or friends or something, I didn't really figure it out) were helping out, talking, doing their own thing.

It was most certainly an interesting experience, and I've been invited back, and I hope that I can make that happen. Next time I won't wear skinny jeans. =]

Lilah tov!

A Day of Shopping

Today's post is 90% pictures. It's sort of self-explanatory. If you have questions, let me know!

First, we go to the artists' market: 

And then we go to the food market!

The shuk has amazing food and is reasonably priced.  Not as cheap as the market in Jerusalem that we went to, but on par/cheaper than the supermarkets here in Tel Aviv. And it's all fresh and amazing!

After shopping, I went over to the apartment because I was grocery shopping for Inge, and then we ended up going to her friend Hilda's for Shabbat dinner. She lives in a very nice old age home, and they had a lovely dinner for us.  Her son, Selvin, drove us and ate with us, and it was a good night.

Dinner was... abundant. First we had Israeli salad (diced cucumbers and tomatoes with different seasoning and sometimes addition of garlic, bell peppers or some other things), fresh challah, and then a selection of egg salad, gefilte fish and smoked salmon (all of which I politely declined... but I did taste it!).  Then came chicken noodle soup with crackers.  The main course was baked chicken or tongue with four sides: mashed potatoes, rice, baked fingerling potatoes, and cubed, sauteed pumpkin (or something...). Dessert was non-dairy cream pie (because of the meat - the whole meal was kosher) and applesauce.  It was really good, and I was stuffed by the end.

So that was my Friday.  Shabbat shalom!

Lilah tov!