The Merits of a real bathroom

Too much fun in the real world means no motivation to write about it in the cyber world.

So once again I've waited way too long and done too much in a short period of time to remember everything, but I'll try!

We're down to a little less than 4 weeks here in Jerusalem..well, I guess closer to 3 weeks now it's Tuesday but the city is actually starting to feel like home. It was refreshing to come back here from the Dead Sea and recognize places, even people- to know where I was going and how to get around and have people recognize me too! You never realize how comforting that is about the city you're living in until you're constantly walking around like a confused tourist and everyone around you knows it.

I'll be sad to leave here, even with the frustrating aspects like ultra-orthodix men who hiss at me for wearing shorts or not being able to get a coke and snickers on Saturdays.

So, what else have I been up to exactly? well, I thoroughly mortified one of the poor staff in our hostel, that's for sure. There's no air conditioning in our rooms and we were at the peak of the day, around 97, and even with the window open and the fan on to generate a breeze it was still hellishly uncomfortable in our room. Being that it's just Andie and I, it seemed completely within my rights to just wear a sports bra and some shorts so I wasn't dying of heat without even moving..
For those that aren't familiar with the ins and outs of bra wearing, good sports bras are extremely comfortable and sometimes you forget that's all you're wearing, because you feel covered. My mistake- when 1 of our buildings maintenance men came in on a mistaken call about a ceiling fan (it was the next room over) opening the door and sitting back on the bed didn't seem like such an issue, and I kept wondering why he was fumbling around and turning slightly red... until about 5 minutes after he left the room in a rush.
He still won't look me in the eye.
Oops?

I guess that doesn't help the impression around this city that American girls are easy.

On a different note, Andie and I took the tram up to Mount Herzl National Cemetery with our fellow hostel resident Heidi and spent some time wandering around, snapping pictures- we ran into a high school tour group too...

Oh my god I love Lady Gaga! SHE'S MY IDOL

 2 of the students were way more interested in talking to us than they were in a tour of famous dead Israelis, and really wanted to know our opinions on Lady Gaga and Pretty Little Liars season 1.
That's America for you- Military aide, crazy pop stars and trashy teenage soap operas.

SPEAKING OF FAMOUS DEAD ISRAELIS....

Herzl

SPEAKING OF ABRUPT TRANSITION SENTENCES
The Dead Sea is AWESOME! Even if they trick you by filling the beach with red sand so you cant dig out free mud.
But the bagged mud was super cheap! So i bought 2 bags. maybe I'll coat myself in it and run around fayetteville like the creature from the black lagoon when I get back....

but no really, that was maybe one of the most relaxing weekends ever, and I cannot thank Andie's mom Kristie enough for being kind enough to put us up in such a wonderful hotel. Seriously thank you thank you!!

I have no pictures...because I forgot to bring my camera with me to the cafe I'm at so I have no proof to show you I was there or how awesome it was... BUT I WAS THERE I PROMISE. and I'll just edit this with pictures later so stay tuned. 


--UPDATE--- PICTURESSS

BROWN TAN HOORAY

from our window. i mean seriously how awesome is this?

best pool ever. also taken from our window..see the beach there? PRIVATE FOR US

You never realize how awesome beds are until you go from a crappy one to this one..

ALSO: I know I didn't take a picture of the bathroom but trust me and the above picture, it was super sweet. I cried a little inside when we got back to jerusalem and our tiny divided wc :(


We also went to Masada, this large mountain top fortress...palace.. both.. built by Herod and then used as a last point of defense during the Jewish rebellion against the romans.
There's a miniseries about it.
with PETER O'TOOLE!

Again..pictures later. promises.

IT'S LATER HERE THEY ARE.

cable cars..up to the top.. dear god.

Look of amused TERROR

Andie went downstairs to the scary dark room!

i didn't.

it was hot. the bus took a while so we took a cheaper cab. everyone wins.

Today I finally got all of my surveys printed and I am READY TO GO. technical difficulties have all been sorted finally though.

well...now there's a small toddler accosting me and his parents are glaring at me rather than their MONSTER CHILD THAT IS DROOLING FROM BOTH MOUTH AND NOSE... so I feel it is time to end this post and GTFO.

maybe I'll get some Gelato...

Ma'Salaama!

PS.. I realize that the title of this post makes no sense whatsoever, but when I post pictures of our awesome Dead Sea Hotel you will comprehend.

Blame it on the Fat Man.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Beach, Burns and Travel Mishaps

Well, we've been here a week now! with..oh I dunno, 8 more to go I guess?
Andie and I have made it to Jerusalem and have settled into our hostel here, but I'll probably do a separate post about all of that later..many many posts considering how long we'll be here.
FIRST- the remainder of our stay with Pavel's parents in Kfar Malal!
On Saturday, they took us to Caesarea, where something-something-PontiusPilate-something-Jesus-Something happened.
But we got to see a really cool roman amphitheater and hippodrome

They hold concerts here now- hence the speakers and chairs.

Hot, shirtless Israeli men setting up for the concert. Alhamdulillah!

Hippodromes are for Horse races. unfortunately not for hippos.

It was a fun day, though I burnt my scalp pretty badly.. eh.. I should get used to it yeah?

Traveling on weekends here is difficult, as the Jewish Shabbat means that transportation, restaurants, etc. are closed from sundown Friday (or more like 4pm) to sundown Saturday (8pm) so without a car you can find yourself stranded with no food pretty easily.

Sunday however, is the Israeli Monday, everybody goes back to work. So the trains were operating fine (ha..see the irony of this in a later paragraph) so Andie and I decided it was a great day for the beach.

And it was GLORIOUS. 

Jealousy is both accepted and encouraged people.

Clear blue skies, nice breeze..maybe in the high 70s, low 80s. The sand is this lovely beige/white color and it's so smooth there isn't a rock in sight. Water is the perfect temperature and you can wade out several meters and still be comfortable standing.
BEST.BEACH.EVER.
Andie and I actually fell asleep in our chairs for a good bit, so we got a tad burnt..well I got a tad burnt, Andie was less lucky...thank you lebanese heritage for protecting me from the super burn.

From there we met up with Taylor Mills, our grad school friend who's been in Israel since early May and will be here after we're gone (lucky). [Taylor doesn't get a picture because I forgot to take one. My bad Taylor] He's living in Tel Aviv, so we got to catch up and grab some falafel from a rather abrasive female waiter (they're all like that..not rude..just....not polite) and then began the comedy of errors..or..well... yeah let's just go with that.

[if you skipped down for that Irony I mentioned, look no further!]
Andie called Svetlana (Pavel's mom) to see what time she thought we should head back to Kfar Malal, she suggested 9...it was around 815, so we decided we should hurry back to the station since we were a ways away. The clock said the train to Kfar Malal would be coming at 9:08..it was 9, so we thought 'great, just in time'...only to walk down the stairs and see the train speeding out of the station- we'd missed it.
But no fear! The friendly digital board said another train would be coming at just 9:30, so we sat and waited..and waited..and waited a teeny bit more, before Andie went upstairs to discover that, SUPRISE, that was the last train back, and we were stranded.
A cab would have been obscene, so we thought..alright..what do we do? Calling Svetlana, she suggested another train route that would get us half way to them, so that they could then pick us up.. but the lovely station operators informed us that apparently at night, the trains don't stop at those little stations because THOSE PEOPLE SHOULD BE IN BED BY NOW, JESUS.
So the next option was the bus...which we were walking to before we discovered that it was going to be kind of sheisty, and Svetlana was worried we would get lost (me too) so we headed back to the station and bought tickets to Tel Aviv University, 2 stops up from where we were, where our lovely and kind hosts agreed to meet us to take us home.
Only...SUPRISE AGAIN! that train wouldn't be there for at least another 30 minutes, our hosts were already maybe 10 minutes away, and they would be waiting for us for 20 minutes.
Did i mention Svetlana works in Haifa, so she has to be up at 5am every morning to be ready and on the train in time? yeah...we're awesome.
So we went back up the stairs, passed the exacerbated, bemused and, lets be honest, highly amused operators who'd helped us, with our hands in the air like 'oh fuck it' and got a cab to the University, where we were picked up and taken back to Kfar Malal to completely pass out.

So our wonderful wonderful beach day was kind of skewed by all that mess..but now we know.. Just don't try the train thing after 830...just make a decision, stay where you are or go home early.

The next day (monday..or yesterday...whatever) we left our hosts and Kfar Malal for the biggest leg of our journey, our stay in Jerusalem where both of us will be doing research. But i'll post about that later.

Ma'a Salama!

Electric Avenue

So we're here! One unpleasant black hole of a flight in which I had to restrain myself from throttling the snooty blonde family in the row in front of us, and we've made it to Israel. As it was my first overseas flight, there are a couple things I learned.
1- for the love of god, bring some sort of pillow or neck rest
2- don't eat the food. just don't. unless it's honey nut cheerios..you can eat that.
3- sleeping on planes is highly overrated (in the sense that it's awesome and if you can do it I hate you because I can't).

but in the grand scheme none of that matters because WE MADE IT!
and it's really super freaking pretty.

see what I mean? Seriously, come on.

So Pavel's (Andie's boyfriend) parents are kind enough to host us for the first couple of days of our trip, and his step dad Johnny picked us up from the airport..which was not as stressful as I was expecting, to be quite honest. It seemed to get a little tense when we told the immigration officer we wanted stamps on a separate sheet, but she did it anyways and we moved through without a problem.

1st thing I confirmed when we got outside? Chuck all your ideas about some blistering hot country, because there is one hell of an awesome sea breeze constantly flowing around here.

2nd thing was just how close everything is to each other... I mean it really is a tiny country, and it puts all of the tension and conflict in a new light. These aren't areas 13 hours away from each other that it's easy to forget about. They're right there next to each other- in each others eyesight constantly. 

Annnyways. We got back to their house in Kfar Malal, which is a small community about 20 minutes from Tel Aviv that is one of the oldest Jewish cities in Israel- in fact last night they were celebrating the 100th year anniversary and we got to go and watch performances (all in Hebrew, so it was fun to try and interpret what they were saying). It was absolutely beautiful outside.

After that we stopped by this small gallery of local artists from the community. 

considering how small the community is there is a LOT of talent

Today we went into Tel Aviv and explored Old Jaffa (FREAKING SWEET), visited a souk and got some tasty falafel, checked out the after party of the massive gay pride parade and got to walk along the beach before we headed back to their house.

STREET ART! It's pretty prevalent and awesome around here so expect lots and lots of these.

The whole jet lag thing has thus far been pretty difficult- mostly because I was a dumbass and consumed WAY too much caffeine yesterday so by the time i was trying to get to sleep I was wired to hell... but the lack of sleep paid off in the form of complete exhaustion today, so hopefully I'll just pass out tonight and be done with it.

Nothing other than that to report..so I'm just going to leave off with more pictures!

I'll miss you mom!

heaven.

IT'S A PARADE! EVERYBODY DANCE.

(ps: If you've never heard Electric Avenue sung in Hebrew... get on that quick because it was pretty awesome)

Setting out...

Welp..it's about that time! Tomorrow morning I'll be making the big flight overseas to start my summer in Jerusalem! Though I'm pretty positive it's not really going to sink in where I'm going until I'm on the plane.
I'll be gone 2 months, until August 7..most of the time we'll be in Jerusalem, but our first stop is Tel Aviv, and we'll be swinging through Petra, Amman, and hopefully Beirut and Zahle along the way!
The last week has consisted of packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, feeling like a total impractical, hysterical woman for all the things I wanted to bring, tossing half of it and repacking...and yet I still end up with 30 pounds of duffle that I'm sure I'm going to enjoy lugging around for the next 2 months. but what can you do eh?
Hopefully this whole blog thing will plan out the way I hope and I'll be able to update it every few days or so with pictures and stories for anyone interested...

SO! Next entry? Arriving in Tel Aviv (at least..maybe more or less depending on how lazy I'm feeling)

Masalama!