Rewind: Miscellaneous Adventures

So I've been here 6 weeks now which is about a quarter of the way through my stay and the longest I've been in Israel in one sitting (same as during the summer of 2000).  I'm slowly but surely catching you up on my adventures thus far.  Here are a few more highlights of the past few weeks...

עיר דוד CIty of David- Check out the website for more info about the City of David: http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/index.html

Me in the City of David

The highlight was walking in knee deep water in the dark through Hezekiah's (very narrow) Tunnel.  Who is Hezekiah, you ask?

<When the city was defending itself from the approaching Assyrian army in the 8th century bce, King Hezekiah decided to protect the water by diverting its flow deep into the city with an impressive tunnel system.  "Hezekiah also plugged the upper watercourse of the Gihon waters and brought it straight down to the west side of the City of David.  And Hezekiah prospered in all his works." (Chronicles II, 32:30)
This engineering feat was accomplished by  digging a 1,750-foot (533 meter) tunnel into the mountain.  An ancient stone carving found near the entrance describes this incredible operation.>

Hadag Nahash concert- http://hadagnahash.com/?lang=en

A bunch of us went to this hip hop/funk concert at a nearby awesome music venue.  It was amazing.  I realized I saw them a few years ago back in NYC at Jewzapalooza, a Jewish music festival held in Riverside Park.  I was only familiar with some of their songs, but was so impressed with their musicality.  I fell in love with one of the band members who sang, rapped, and played saxophone, flute, some sort of electric oboe, and more.  And boy could he move! I've never seen a guy make playing the flute look so sexy!  Someone told me where he hangs out in town so I am on a mission to make him my husband!  Wish me luck!

That's my man in the yellow shirt!

Seminars on Jewish History, Zionism, Israeli's Political Parties, Israeli Culture, & the Arab-Israeli Conflict- We really only touched upon some of the aspects of each of those topics but it was enough to put some things in context and incite some questions that we will all continue to think about during our time in Israel.

Machane Yehudah Shuk- I've ventured to the amazing market quite a few times now.  This is a place where you get great prices for fruit, vegetables, desserts, etc.  It's usually pretty crowded but we've figured out the better times to go so it's not so overwhelming. We also spent time there for part of the Israeli culture seminar when we "visited" 4 different countries.  We had Iraqi Kubbeh (minced meat in torpedo shaped fried bulgar shell), a delicious vegetarian Indian dish with dipping sauces, chocolate and cheese bourekas (puff pastry) from a Turkish place, and holistic beverages and remedies from Uzi Eli (Yemenite).

Ethan's reaction after tasting Uzi Eli's medicinal substance as Danit looks on

Dance classes- I checked out a local dance studio and took Hip Hop (with Denise) and Belly Dancing (with Denise, Nicole, and Olivia).   Both were lots of fun but we haven't had a chance to go back yet.

Family- I finally met my grandmother's first cousin, Menachem, and his wife Sara, who live in another neighborhood in Jerusalem. They had me over for lunch and it was really nice getting to know them. Menachem and my grandmother lost touch over the years and I am now putting them back in touch!

My visit with Menachem, my grandma's first cousin

Hebrew Ulpan- We had 3 weeks of intensive Hebrew classes (Sun-Thurs 9am-12:30pm).  Somehow I was placed in the Intermediate level ג Gimel/3.  We are only allowed to speak in Hebrew and our teacher only speaks in Hebrew.  It was really challenging for me because it has been over 5 years since I last took a Hebrew class.  We even took some field trips during which we learned about a place in Israel but only by speaking, reading, and listening to Hebrew.

Rachel, Amy, Denise, Me, Dina, & Avi on our Ulpan trip to Armon HaNatziv

Tolerance Monument פסל הסובלנות Armon Hanatziv nearby United Nations headquarters and between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods 

Somehow I got through the 3 weeks and a lot of my Hebrew came back to me.  I understand a lot of Hebrew but it is still very difficult for me to come up with sentences on my own.  I know I need to try more but it's intimidating.  We graduated and now I am in Level ד Dalet/4.  Now we only have it once a week for 2 hours and will have 2 more weeks throughout the program where we have the intensive hours again.  I have been avoiding doing my Ulpan homework for tomorrow's class all week so I think it's time for me to go to sleep so I can work on it before my internship tomorrow.  I'll discuss my internship in a later post as it's still in the early stages of development.

More to come soon!