Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Shalom, Israel! Sveiki, Latvia/Merhaba, Istanbul!

Post-Birthright Israel was outstanding!  I'm really sad to have to say goodbye to all of our friends in Israel, new and old.

For the first two days, we stayed in Haifa with Omri's family.  His family was so great and hospitable, not to mention Omri's mother is an amazing cook.  I slept well for the first time in weeks, and we did a lot of chill stuff.  We went to the mall, connected to all of our Sachlav friends on facebook, and ended up taking that day trip to Akko.




We were slated to see the Shwedels in Jerusalem after Haifa, but we got stuck on a train for an hour!  It would have been too late to make the two hour bus ride to Jerusalem (where the Shwedels were), so we changed plans around and booked it down to Tel Aviv to stay in the apartment that Sachlav-ers Toby, Shlomo, Will, and Michael Jordan rented.  We got there just in time for gorgeous dinner made by Shlomo, Shirli and Tal.  Dan and Rebecca also joined us for this lovely family dinner.

Then we went out to a nearby bar with live music.  Because our friends refused to accept money from Marco and me to stay in the apartment, we showed them our appreciation by icing them.  Mightily drunk, we walked in the sands of the Mediterranean to our next destination:  Lima Lima, a gay club with amazing music for dancing.  To my mystery Israeli dance partner who could lift me up and swing me around:  I hope we meet again someday.





That brings us up to this morning, where we headed to Jerusalem to meet up with Danny, Kenny, and Tete Shwedel for lunch.  We went to Danny's home to meet his wife Miriam and his two gorgeous boys, Avraham Zvi and Akiva.  We only got to spend a little less than an hour with Danny's nuclear family, but you could just feel the love and warmth that they feel for one another.  Mazel tov, Danny and Miriam!




Now, Marco and I are at Ben Gurion Airport waiting to board our flight to ISTANBUL!  We have a six hour layover in Riga, Latvia, so we might try to head to the center of the city for breakfast.  I hope it works, but I definitely won't risk missing my connecting flight just to have spent the morning in Latvia.  I'm certainly crazy tempted to do so because the story would be hilarious, but this blog post kind of spoils it.

SHALOM!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Post-Birthright

Marco and I are currently staying in Haifa with our friend Omri.  The uninterrupted sleep was unreal, although I'm still unable to shake this cold that everyone on the trip got.

Omri's gonna show us around Haifa today, and we might go to Akko, a city at the north of the Haifa Bay which seems to have an interesting history.  From there, we are going to stop back in Jerusalem to meet up with Danny Shwedel and his family, where will get to meet Miriam and their two boys!  We'll also get back to Tel Aviv to soak up some more nightlife with friends from Birthright.  We're going to a gay club, which should be a total blast.

Here are some pictures from Haifa from the beginning of our trip - can't wait to see more today!




Saturday, January 28, 2012

Part I: Birthright

Birthright has been both a terrific and challenging experience - probably way too much for one blog post.

Big picture highlights:
-  free trip
-  outstanding hearts and minds to share with
-  finding out that I still know how to make friends
-  getting to chill and travel with Marco
-  meeting wonderful and passionate Israeli friends
-  seeing the physical beauty of the landscape of Israel
- learning more about current and historical conflicts that have shaped the region
-  respectful debates
-  fun party opportunities
-  not a religious trip

Big picture lowlights:
-  not getting to learn enough about the Israeli government/the conflict between religious and secular populations
-  the Birthright agenda (i.e. "have Jewish babies")
-  guided processing, rather than having time to reflect alone or  in small groups
-  some questions being ignored or selectively answered
-  implicit messages equating Judaism and/or spirituality with Zionism

I'll throw some pictures up on picasa post-haste - can't wait to talk and write more about my experience in Israel with all of you.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

T minus 9 days

The dates aren't official, but the rough itinerary is:

- Israel
- Petra
- Istanbul
- Paris (if there's time!)
- trekking in Nepal
- volunteering in Kathmandu
- Leh/trekking in northern India

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS.