Back in Boston, sans luggage.
I'll be making a trip back to the airport around 8pm tomorrow in hopes that my bags show up.

For now... SLEEP. Finally.

Goodbye Middle East

Or "Cood Bye" as the Egyptian Taba border crossing might say...

I'm leaving momentarily for the Ben Gurion airport. My journey back to the United States begins with a 5am flight from Tel Aviv to Zurich, then onward to Boston. Around 7pm tomorrow, EST, I'll be back in my own country, living amongst native English-speakers once again.

And, although I'm looking forward to the semester as I always look forward to each semester, I honestly don't want to leave the Middle East.

More stories of my travels are still yet to come, so stay tuned at least for the next week or so as I update with a week filled with over a dozen transportation options.

<3, sep

That Time We Went to Petra and Cairo and other places

Internet is scarce, and updates follow suit.
Time is also scarce, and pyramids trump blogging!

But, dear readers, I can copy and paste. Here's the e-mail I just sent my parents:

I hope you haven't been worrying too much. We haven't had internet for a few days, so I haven't been able to update.

On Wednesday, we left Israel for Petra, Jordan. We parked our car at the border, walked across, and took a taxi for the two hour ride to Petra. (En route, I got mauled by a camel, but that's a story for a different day!) We checked in to a hotel that our friend Zack had stayed in the night before, and then went to "Little Petra" and returned for the evening.

On Thursday, we went into Petra (with a free ride from the owner of the hotel :-)) and walked around and hiked all day. Literally from 9am - 5pm. Then we ate a cheap dinner, and took a cab through Wadi Rum and down to Aqaba, Jordan. We wandered around the city looking for cheap hotels, and settled on one with AC, as our hotel in Petra had been excessively hot.

On Friday, Sam left to go back to Jerusalem with the car, leaving Mike and I on the journey ourselves. We took the ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba, Egypt, then a bus from Nuweiba to Cairo. The ferry is a story in and of itself... it was supposed to leave at noon and take an hour. All said and done, we ended up getting to the bus in Nuweiba around 7:00pm. Wowz. The bus took about 6.5 hours, and we got to Cairo really early in the morning, enjoyed tea at the bus terminal, then took a cab to the center of the city. Finally, as per recommendation of Lonely Planet guide to Egypt (which we borrowed from some English-speaking friends from Denmark to copy down info on the ferry...) we found a hostel that is really cheap but very clean and also has free breakfast!

Now, it's about 8am here. Our plan is to be showered, dressed, breakfasted by around 9am, then head off to see the pyramids of Giza. We're probably staying at Cairo another night, possibly at this hotel.

Tomorrow, we're going to take a bus/train to Alexandria, see the library and ancient Greco-Roman stuff, etc. bus/train it back to Cairo, take a late bus to Taba, Egypt, cross the border to Israel, etc.etc...

Anyway, that's all for now!

We're having an amazing time, and I have many stories to share with you. I'll update if I can the next few days, but if not, expect to hear from me on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, when we'll be back in Jerusalem.

<3
Sal

Mini-update

It has been awhile since I've posted, and much has happened. Things that have been neglected...
-Final projects
-A trip to a Tel Aviv beach with the students
- Curriculum wrap up stuff
- A visit to the Temple Mount in which I wore a head scarf
- WallE and go-karting with our project group winners
- MEET graduation
- An overnight drive to Masada
- Hiking up Masada and watching the sunrise
- Hiking in En Gedi
- A very long and tiring drive to Eilat

I'm currently in Eilat, the southern most tip of the country. Within short drives, and sometimes within eyeshot are both Egypt and Jordan. I'm staying with other MEET instructors and staff at the Reef hotel on the southern beach of Eilat, and we have this hotel for two nights. After that, I'll hopefully be traveling to both Petra and Cairo, then back to Jerusalem to pick up bags from the apartment, then to Tel Aviv for a 5:30am flight leaving on August 27th.

I'll be living out of a small backpack, and I didn't bring my computer, so updates will be infrequent if at all. However, when I get back to the US, I'll write about all of my journeys in the few days I have before school starts. Also, I'll have pictures!! Jon was kind enough to loan me his camera until I get back to Boston. (My camera got some sand in the lens or something, I think...)

So, that's all for now. The hotel has a computer with free internet... but I don't plan to be using it.

And now, after about an hour of sleep since 8am yesterday, I'm going to wander on the beach, eat free dinner, and collapse in my room.

Retroactive Posts

I retroactively posted a few posts from two weeks ago. You can see them here:

07.28.08
07.29.08
07.30.08

That Time I Didn't See a Kite Festival

During the MEET day, my students began to write code for their final projects. One group had a working AI and a functional GUI, while the other group had neither. We shall see how much they are able to accomplish by the end of tomorrow...

After MEET, Mike and I went to see a Kite Festival at the Israel Museum. The admission to the museum was more than we wanted to pay, but we found our own free entertainment at the Knesset, the Wohl Rose Park, and Gan Sacker Park. Only pictures for you today, because after all, I need to save some stories for the real world.

Next Post: That Time the Kids Finished Their Final Projects

That Time We Did Something non-MEETy

One of the downsides of MEET is that pretty much everything we do is MEET-related. Either we're teaching at MEET, working on materials for MEET, or going on MEET trips. Other than the occasional trip for dinner, we're somewhat caged into the MEET world. Today, we broke out of that box a little bit.

We had a free day today, due to the observance of Tishah B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning the destruction of the temples. Hebrew University was closed due to this, and therefore, we certainly couldn't hang out in their computer labs! Instead, I slept in really late, and in the afternoon, I wandered around the Old City without agenda or purpose.

Meanwhile, back at the house, several instructors folded 100 paper cranes. Max's birthday falls conveniently during the last week of MEET, and they decided to give each student a crane to give to Max on his birthday. Pretty sweeeeeet.

In an e-mail to all the instructors, Kim suggested that we go with her to a peace lecture. A woman from her church had once heard a man named Rami Elchanan lecture in the region. Like us, he works with an organization that tries to bring Israelis and Palestinians together based on common ground. In our case, we use Java. In the case of The Family Circle, they use tragedy of violent conflict. She said it was a phenomenal lecture, and that we should go join Rami's discussion at the Mt. Scopus Hotel.

Being the enthusiastic young people that we are, many of us decided to join the discussion, and we headed off to the Mt. Scopus Hotel. After discovering that it was run-down, walking in the wrong direction, and climbing up a hill covered in broken glass (while wearing sandals of course!!), we discovered that we were in the right location, but the lecture had been moved. Instead, we were at the St. Peter Cathedral, much closer to our home. Only a block away in fact.

We entered the church, but into the part that was actually a hotel, and met a few of the other people at the lecture. We discovered that it was not a lecture, but in fact a round-table discussion with a small group. There were 7 of us who decided to attend the lecture, plus about 8 of the other group, who were a random collection of people participating in a summer public policy program in the Middle East. Including the two men leading the discussion, there ended up being less than 20 people sitting around the table.

Then the story began...

"My name is Rami Elchanan. I am a Jew, and I am an Israeli. But above all, I am a human being."

Those were some very moving words. But not as moving as the rest of his story. He is the son of a holocaust surivivor: His father was "a surivivor of the Auschauwitz school" as Rami said. He said that his story would begin and end with Yom Kippur. (Yom Kippur is the holiest day in Judaism, the "day of atonement".) The beginning was him serving in the Israeli Army during the war of 1973, which began on Yom Kippur. The story continued through Yom Kippur of 1983, when his daughter Smadari was born. And the story ended on Yom Kippur of 1997, when Smadari was murdered by 3 Palestinian suicide bombers on Ben Yehuda Street (a large pedestrian area in the center of Jerusalem) along with several of her friends. Rami had all the reasons in the world to hate the Palestinians, to seek revenge instead of peace. But instead, he worked with his wife to found an organization which brings victims of the conflict together.

You can read the full story here.

Then Mazen Fara began his story. Rami has introduced Mazen as his Palestinian brother. They are not related by blood, but united in a cause with is stronger than that which should divide them. Mazen's story began a little bit further back. He talked of his father, who fled with his family from a Palestinian village in 1948 at the age of six. They fled to the Daheisheh Refugee Camp, and both Mazen and his father grew up in the camp, with promises that one day they might be able to return home. Mazen spent three years in the Israeli prison, along with some of his brothers. One served a five year sentence, and died shortly after of cancer. But the most tragic event for Mazen was the death of his father. His father was shot by an Israeli soldier, while carrying groceries back to his family.

Mazen had all the reasons in the world to hate the Israelis, to seek revenge instead of peace. But instead, he joined the organization, and he works to bring Israelis and Palestinians into a dialogue of peace.

Some of Mazen's story can be read here.

Rami and Mazen tell their stories at high schools around the region. And for many of the students, it is the first time they have met someone and actually listened to someone from "the other side". And they see one Israeli and one Palestinian together, each sharing themselves and their lives and their pain. Two men who are friends, who are brothers in a sense. Some learn from this, some cling to their ideals.

More of what The Parent's Circle does is explained at their website: http://theparentscircle.com/

The round table discussion brought to light the suffering on both sides of the argument, and also helped to bring to light some of the history of the region that needed further clarification. It was an amazing opportuntiy to get an inside perspective, especially from two people who have such a positive outlook of hope.

Though I have found that conversations about the region with people from here, (or even sometimes not from here) are sometimes painfully difficult, Rami and Mazen have reinstilled in me the hope that eventually these strong views will be abandoned in hopes of peace and compromise. They've recharged me for another week of fighting the good fight, which is something that I really needed.

That Time We Swam in the Jordan River

We awoke after a comfortable sleep, and headed down the hill to get some breakfast provided by the hostel. It was a surprisingly nice spread, and I even took some vanilla pudding for the road.

We had several long drives during the day, and generally only Humberto, Mustafa, and I remained awake. I took the opportunity to view the changing scenery and reflect on my time here in the region, thinking about the conflict and about how different life in the US is. Several of my students gave me a brief history of Israel on Thursday, which wasn't fully digested until these long car rides.

One of the many cool things about this region is the availability of fresh squeezed fruit juice. Fruit stands dot the streets, and fruit juice in restaurants is also fresh squeezed. One of the fruit stands in Nazareth offered a wide range of fruit options.

Nazareth is an important city in the Christian faith. It is where Joseph and Mary are from, where an angel announced to Mary that she would be carrying the son of God, and also where Jesus grew up. We visited the Basilica of Annunctiation, which is a Roman Catholic church built in 1969 by Giovanni Muzio. The church is the largest church in the Middle East and stands on the site where Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce her pregnancy. The church contained mosaics of Mother Mary from all over the world, but my camera seemed to be more captivated by the stained glassed windows.

As well as a house behind the church.

After visiting the Basilica of Annunciation, we continued to head East towards the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is fed by the Jordan River and serves as the main source of Israel's water supply. It's name is actually a misnomer: it is not really a sea, but a freshwater lake. In fact, it's actually Lake Kinneret in Hebrew. Like the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is below sea level, 209 meters in fact.

Here's an interesting quote from the Lonely Planet guide book:

The blue eye of this corner of our country... Lake Kinneret is no ordinary landscape or even a corner of nature. It is the site of a people's destiny. Here, our past winks its thousand eyes and rocks us in its thousand lips.
-Rahel, On the Shores of Lake Kinneret.

We stopped first to get some food at "Fish Restaurant Kfar Nahum" which was overpriced and not very good. But c'est la vie. It was all-you-can-eat, so we took advantage to prepare for our hike.

Then, we went down to put our feet in the sea.

After lunch, we headed down to the wet hike. En route, I took a picture of the hills surrounding the Sea of Galilee. In the autumn, winter, and spring, these hills are probably lush and green. However, in the summer, many areas that aren't irrigated turn golden.

We went to the Bet Zayda Nature Reserve to the Daliyot Lagoon, which is the delta of the Daliyot Stream. (According to the sign, this is called the Majrasa, but I couldn't find any more information about this name.)

The signs (and Abeer!) warned us that we might get a little wet during the hike. However, we weren't really prepared for HOW wet!

And, my favorite picture of the wet hike....

Afterwards, we took some time to dry off

Then we convinced our tour guide to take us to swim in the Jordan River. The Jordan River is one of the most sacred rivers in the world. Among many other important events, it was the site of Jesus's baptism. The actual baptism took place in Jordan in Bethabara; however, there is a representative baptismal site in Israel. We went to this site, and instead of going to the actual site, we went around back.

There was a sign which said "Swimming is Prohibited". And in the river, there were a bunch of people swimming. So, we did the only logical thing... we joined them! A handful of us jumped into the Jordan River in our clothes and joined the locals. We swam around, and then decided to try out the awesome rope swing. I obviously didn't take any pictures of any of this because it was so much fun, but Jon stayed on the shore:

Hanging out in this river was one of my favorite trip moments in MEET thusfar. And being a little bit wet on the way home was totally worth the hour we spent in and around the river.

After returning to the cars, we went to the closest gas station to change into dry clothes. The gas station had a restaurant with a free observation tower, so we climbed up the 80ish steps to get a great view of the sea.

Also, I'd like to say a big hello to Kim's family members!! She says that many of you have been reading my blog in addition to hers. So here is a picture of Kim just for you! Yay roommates!

Next post: That Time We Heard An Awesome Lecture

That Time We Headed North

If you've been following this blog, you've noticed that each weekend, we take a trip to a different part of the region. This weekend we traveled to "the North", ie the northern region of Israel, including Haifa, Akko, Nazareth, and the Sea of Galilee.

For all the traveling that we've done, we have encountered very little trouble. Other than me running into the back of the van once, little road chaos has occurred. Today... we ran out of gas. Mike and crew returned on Thursday evening without filling up, and though we told Mustafa this fact as soon as we got in the car, we sputtered to a halt several km away from home.

I took this opportunity to wear the safety vest included with our car.

And Mike ran up the hill to see what there was to see,

while Mustafa drove the other car to get gas.

Our multi-hour drive to the north became that much longer due to this incident, but I did get a Hippo at the next gas station. (picture of that next time...)

The first stop of the trip was in Akko. And our first stop in Akko was the restaurant with the "Best Hummus in Israel" according to our tour guide, Avihai.

We were skeptical at first, of course. EVERYONE always tells us were to go to get the "best" hummus. (And usually, they are related to the owner!!) But this time, I had to agree with the tour guide. The hummus was the best I've had since coming here. Humberto, Kim, both Mikes, and I each ordered a different kind, and we shared them all. (We decided that next time, the number of plates needs to be at least n-1, maybe even n/2.)

Hummus rankings:
1. Restaurant in Akko
2. Lina Cafe in the Old City
3. Restaurant in Abu Ghosh

Akko Hummus rankings:
1. Meat
2. Mushroom
3. Chickpea

We stuffed ourselves full of the usual Middle Eastern fanfare: pita, pickles, onions, tabolleh. And we sat amongst the chipping ceilings of what used to be the main thoroughfare of Akko. According to our tour guide, the shops used to face inward onto this street. However, eventually the city grew larger, the street became an alleyway when the stores turned their fronts outward to other streets.

Akko, Akko, what is Akko anyway? Akko, or Acre as some say, is a small but important port town a short distance north of Haifa. Like Jerusalem, it is a walled city that had undergone many changes of possession. In the more recent years, it belonged to Arabs starting in 636 until the Crusaders seized the town during the Third Crusade. In 1291, the Mamluks completely destroyed the city, leaving it in ruins while the inhabitants escaped to Cyprus. 450 years later, an Albanian mercenary named Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar rebuilt the city (more on him in a bit). The city remained in the possession of the Ottoman empire until 1917 when the British captured it, and finally in 1948, it came to it's current possessors.

Our first stop on the tour was the citadel. The structure, built in the 18th century, is well know for two things. The first is the imprisonment of Baha'ullah. (More on this, and the Baha'i faith later) The second is the imprisonment of Jewish resistance fighters and leaders of underground movements, and their successful escape. We didn't go into the citadel, since it cost 40+ NIS, but we looked on longingly.

Alice even picked up a cat!

En route to our next stop, we passed the Al-Jazzar Mosque. According to our tour guide, it holds a hair of Muhammad. Once a year, the hair gets taken out, and a large parade and celebration is held in Muhammad's honor.

I'm also secretly trying to top Jon's door pictures.

We went to the Hamman El Basha next, aka the Turkish Bathhouse. The bathhouse was built in 1780 by Al-Jazzar (more on him in a moment), and remained in use until the 1940s when Akko was reconquered.

We began our strange tour outside of a door with a 3 minute countdown. While most of our tours have been given by a tour guide, the tour of the bathhouse was actually a video tour with handheld sound devices. Although it felt a little silly, and the humor of the movie was excessively corny, it actually did have the effect of bringing the bathhouse to life.

The story was narrated by the real life son of the last bathhouse attendant. The bathhouse was closed in the 1940s, and the last bathhouse attendant died in 1982, so this was pretty feasable. The son, in conjunction with flashbacks of his father and some friends told the story of the bathhouse, and the types of people who came to wash up. In the steam room, a face was projected on a statue...

I've mentioned Al-Jazzar a few times already, so now, a few more tales. Al-Jazzar helped to rebuild Akko after it had been left in ruins for four and a half centuries. During his rule, he built the Al-Jazzar mosque, as previously mentioned, and also defeated Napolean Boneparte during his seize in 1799. But more interesting than this history is Al-Jazzar's nickname: "The Butcher". He got this name by being ruthless, and the video told a few stories to confirm his ferocity. The most compelling was about his 37 wives. Al-Jazzar had 37 wives, as any proper ruler in the 18th century would have. One day, he heard that one of his wives had cheated on him with another man. The evening, he came home, and he tried to figure out which wife had done the deed. He lined up all of his wives, and looked them in the eye, but could not determine who was guilty. So, he murdered all of them just to be sure!

The bathhouse itself was pretty cool, especially the ceiling with holes in it to let out the steam.

And the crazy statues of people

I still have not yet been to a bathhouse, but I hope it is as enjoyable as the movie made it seem. After the bathhouse movie watching, we headed down toward the port, via some side streets and the shouq.

We stopped off in this old structure, which I cannot remember the story behind, other than it was used to store horses for some time.

Then, off to sea. Akko, like Tel Aviv and Haifa, sits on the Mediterranean Sea. We still have to continually convinve ourselves that it is a SEA, not an ocean.

I tried a few times today to capture people rather than taking random snapshots. Here are a few of my favorites:

On the way back to the car, a pigeon on the mosque tower made it look strangely like a face.

Back in Haifa, we viewed the Baha'i gardens. We were unable to actually go inside because they were closed by the time we arrived, and because non-Baha'is need to book a (free) tour to visit. However, we did get to see the gardens, both from below and above.

The pictures don't even come close to capturing the true beauty of these gardens. Now, a bit of explanation of Baha'i! I first encountered the Baha'i faith through Dorri, and have learned most of what I know from her, and now through my guide book as well. The Baha'i faith is one of the newest religions, as it was formed within the past 200 years. It's main goal is to unite the world, by uniting all religions, by speaking a language everyone can understand, by encouraging interracial marriage, etc. It was initially form by Ali-Muhammad, who declared that he was the Promised One and changed his name to Bab, because it means gate in Arabic. He said that someone was coming soon "whom God would make manifest." The Bab was arrested for heretical teachings and executed in Tabriz. His remains were placed in the Shrine of the Bab, the dome structure in the pictures above. This site remains a Holy site for the Baha'i believers.

However, the Bab didn't do the bulk of the work. Instead, a man named Mizra Hussein Ali claimed to be the promised figure to unite all the world together. He too changed his name, to Baha'ullah. Like the Bab, Baha'ullah was persecuted for his beliefs, and in the end, he served 25 years of prison in citadel of Akko, where he had plenty of time to write the important texts of the religion. Baha'ullah was eventually released, but remained close in Akko for the duration of his life, eventually dying of natural causes. The shrine of Baha'ullah is the holiest place for the Baha'i religion, while the shrine of the Bab is the second holiest.

One interesting fact about the Baha'i religion, according to our tour guide, is that you cannot become a Baha'i in Israel. Anywhere else in the world, you can convert to the faith, but in Israel, it is forbidden.

It was pretty awesome to see the Baha'i gardens, even though we weren't able to go inside. Even if we had been able to go inside, we would not have been able to walk up the stairs, only down. Walking up the stairs is considered a pilgramige, and all Baha'is must make this pilgrimage at least one in their lives.

After seeing the Baha'i gardens, we drove through some Druze markets, and then returned to the Mount Carmel National Park to view the sunset. The druze are yet another faith group that was begun in the Middle East. I know a little less about them, but will share a few of the cooler points. One cannot convert to the religion. The religion was closed to converts around 1036, and to be Druze, you must be born of two Druze parents. Conveniently, the Druze believe in reincarnation, so no new Druze souls are ever created in this manner.

The Druze believe in seven precepts, which according to Wikipedia are:

1. Veracity in speech and the truthfulness of the tongue.
2. Protection and mutual aid to the brethren in faith.
3. Renunciation of all forms of former worship and false belief.
4. Repudiation of the devil,and all forces of evil.
5. Confession of God’s unity.
6. Acquiescence in God’s acts no matter what they be.
7. Absolute submission and resignation to God’s divine will in both secret and public

They are split into two groups, the al-ˤUqqāl (the Knowledgeable) and the al-Juhhāl (the Ignorant). The al-Juhhal do not have access to the religious texts of the Druze, while the al-Uqqal do and lead much purer lifestyles. Of the al-Juhhal, a small percentage become Ajawīd, the religious leaders of the Druze.

Enough about Druze, and more about sunsets. (Sorry Jon)

After the sunset, we walked around on the beach for about an hour, then went to dinner in the German Colony of Haifa in a restaurant called Garden. During our trip, we've seen a lot of terrible English translations on signs and menus and such, but Garden certainly one for the most ridiculous translations, including "Beards of Pray", which had an entry for "chickeno".

But, the restaurant was actually really delicious. I got "Garden sheep" with one of the "souces", and shared some of Mike's trout, or "catfish" as the waiter kept saying.

After dinner and a few sign-squashing mishaps, we made it to our hostel. The hostel was really upscale, especially since I was expecting something similar to other hostel experiences, like a bathroom shared with random people down the hall. But we had none of that. Not that it would have mattered much anyway, as I immediately fell asleep.