Randoms

Here's an update on some more of what I've been up to the past few months:


-Visited the Supreme Court and Knesset (Israeli Parliament).

Small court room at Supreme Court

-Went to the Jerusalem Bird Observatory

Josh setting a bird free after the guy at the observatory tagged and documented the bird

The bird observatory tracks the birds that get caught in a net (not harmful) and have found that birds come to the same exact spot each year during their migration.  

-Attended my friend Sari's Bat Mitzvah.  She didn't have one growing up so this was her first time reading Torah.  She's a Cantorial student at Hebrew Union College.

-Saw Play It Again, a movie shown in the Eco Film Festival at the Jerusalem Cinemateque.  Here's the trailer:

Seeing this film made me realize how much technology has really taken over our lives, especially that of children and teenagers.  Though I myself am guilty of constantly being on the computer, phone, sending text messages, etc., all of this had not really consumed my life so much when I was younger.  I read books and spent time outside whether at day camp or girl scout camp, or just riding my bike around the neighborhood.  I even remember when using a typewriter to write a paper in elementary school was a big deal.  Now schools require kids to use a computer for their assignments.  Also, I only recently joined the world of smartphones when I bought my Blackberry in May (though I don't use it here in Israel).  I see how technology has affected youth these days.  At Crossroads, where I am interning, there is an extensive library of English books.  Since I started working there in October, I only saw 1 kid reading a book.  The rest are more into watching TV and using the computers for email, facebook, and youtube.  Just something to think about...

-Visited Ajami, a neighborhood in Jaffa/Yafo (outside of Tel Aviv).  Learned about the conflicts there by watching the movie of the same name.  This neighborhood is made up of Christians, Muslim, and Jews.  We had a tour led by classmates of Nir (our program coordinator).  One of his classmates was Jewish and the other was Muslim so we got both perspectives on life in Ajami.  We were supposed to meet the main character from the movie (the movie starred actual residents of Ajami who weren't actors) but we didn't have time to see him.  While grabbing a bite to eat in Old Yafo, I found an amusing ice cream label: 

Apparently there's a new ice cream flavor in town... SNEAKERS!

-I've been taking a weekly Israeli Cinema class.  I've watched lots of great movies and at the end I will list them all.  

-I've been attending classes on various topics in Judaism.  Rachel Goldberg is our educator and she is amazing!  She has a wonderful way of relaying all of the information to us.  I'll share some of what I've learned towards the end of the program.