First: Haifa! should be the title to a musical. preferably an arab jewish romance in the late 1940s culminating in the epic 1948 war. Natalie Portman as a young zionist from Eastern Europe. and now I am going to go look up hot arab actors to find her counter part. suggestions are welcome.
Ok, but seriously: I am in Haifa! It's green! Yay!!! Haifa has been on my to do list for ages. Before, I had only been to the port of Haifa. as in, I came in on a boat, looked up onto the city...and got on a bus to stupid big youth event welcoming us to israel (youth programs....gotta love their priorities).
So: i arrived on Sunday. What a crazy day. here's what happened.
1) woke up at 630 am. to allah akbar continuously singing, calling the men to prayer. this is an unusual call because it was Eid Aladha Mubarak. This holiday celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrafice Ishmahel (think the almost sacrafice of Isaac, but switch Isaac with Ishmael, from whom muslims trace their connection back to Abraham).
2) cleaning the house (again)
3) Men go to the Mosque to pray
4) the sacrafice of sheep. Each family sacrafices a couple of sheep. This happens outside, near the house, back yard etc. The sons of the family taught how to kill the sheep. They hold down the sheep, cut the throat, and let the blood drain. I watched. It was freaky, I won't lie, but I wanted to see it. I needed to. And I think, that on the whole, I should avoid meat. Something about killing animals just freaks me out.
5) they skin and remove the organs of the sheep (also watched this) and prepare breakfast.
6) Eat
7) hang out with friends and family for the rest of the day. and eat sheep.
So I did this with both my first and current host family, and then rushed off to Ben Gurion University because I thought I had class. Went to the proper room and everything. no one was there. grrr. now i will have to harass the university. or cancel the request and spend the money on learning Hebrew. which would probably be more useful.
Positives:
-got a free ride to the city/got there early
-left for Haifa early
so let's focus on that instead
So, took the train up, got off at Haifa. My host picked me up and took me to his place (thank god cuz otherwise i have no idea how i would have gotten here). I was a bit of a zombie from exhaustion/sickness and went to bed early.
Saar: super nice guy. Early 30s, has an apartment up on Mt. Carmel. He has a cat named Tigre, a beautiful and nice cat. she likes to play with my scarves. plus she's warm, which is nice at night. He works a lot, so I don't see him much, but he's nice, has an amazing collection of movies and tv shows, and has been super chill about me crashing at his place. so it's a good deal.
Monday: got up and decided to just get going. why waste time. so in 8 hours I:
1) saw the Bahai Gardens/burial place of one their important figures
2) climbed the 1000 stairs. twice.
3) saw the german colony.
4) visited 3 museums
5) walked the Louis Promenade
6) walked for nearly 6 hours.
This was all by 430. My feet were killing me, so i came back, and watched tv for the rest of the day. I felt like they balanced each other out.
Today: I woke up, and realized i could have a lazier day, since I saw most of Haifa yesterday. so I chilled with Saar. We made each other watch youtube videos. He was shocked I hadn't seen Labryinth the movie, so I watched it. Then I got ready and left. I wanted to see Elijah's cave, the carmelite church, and Chagall's hosue. Instead:
1. made friends with an old lady at the bus stop waiting for the bus to go to the church
2. made friends with the bus driver going to the church.
3. Saw the church.
4. Took a cable car ride down the mountain. met an American woman travelling. She had an Ipad 2, it was sweet. She was cool, to talk with, just travelling around for a month.
5. Elijah's cave. Where Elijah supposedly fled during his time in the wilderness. It was where he finds God in the still small voice. Especially special to me because it was part of my haftorah portion* for my batmitzvah. got some free cookies too.
*For non Jews: Because of persecution, Jews could not always read the Torah. To get around this, and still have something to read for services/bar mitzvahs they paired other sections of Jewish holy writings (from the TaNaKh) with each torah portion.
6. Found out there are stairs that connect the monastary to the cave. climbed them up and down.
7. Walked along the beach. found out they have strength training machines that use your body weight.
8. Wandered through neighborhoods, passed a military base.
9. Made friends with an Israeli guy who had moved to Finland, but had come back for a few weeks to open a restaurant. Israelis.
10. Met up with someone from couch surfing to hang out for coffee. turned into an epic 6 hours of chatting, including sushi dinner and a ride home. wiiin.
Moral of the story: travelling has made me far more outgoing because being by myself all day can be crazy lonely. but now i'm wiped from hanging out with people all day. sigh.
so tomorrow: Acre (or Akko in hebrew). And probs meeting more people for drinks in the evening.
I highly enjoy this city. It's a great mix of things to see as a tourist and the laid back feeling of a town that people actually live in. It's a city that doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. I like that.
Anyways. I'm gonna go enjoy some tv. I'll catch y'all later. Love
KAS
Ok, but seriously: I am in Haifa! It's green! Yay!!! Haifa has been on my to do list for ages. Before, I had only been to the port of Haifa. as in, I came in on a boat, looked up onto the city...and got on a bus to stupid big youth event welcoming us to israel (youth programs....gotta love their priorities).
So: i arrived on Sunday. What a crazy day. here's what happened.
1) woke up at 630 am. to allah akbar continuously singing, calling the men to prayer. this is an unusual call because it was Eid Aladha Mubarak. This holiday celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrafice Ishmahel (think the almost sacrafice of Isaac, but switch Isaac with Ishmael, from whom muslims trace their connection back to Abraham).
2) cleaning the house (again)
3) Men go to the Mosque to pray
4) the sacrafice of sheep. Each family sacrafices a couple of sheep. This happens outside, near the house, back yard etc. The sons of the family taught how to kill the sheep. They hold down the sheep, cut the throat, and let the blood drain. I watched. It was freaky, I won't lie, but I wanted to see it. I needed to. And I think, that on the whole, I should avoid meat. Something about killing animals just freaks me out.
5) they skin and remove the organs of the sheep (also watched this) and prepare breakfast.
6) Eat
7) hang out with friends and family for the rest of the day. and eat sheep.
So I did this with both my first and current host family, and then rushed off to Ben Gurion University because I thought I had class. Went to the proper room and everything. no one was there. grrr. now i will have to harass the university. or cancel the request and spend the money on learning Hebrew. which would probably be more useful.
Positives:
-got a free ride to the city/got there early
-left for Haifa early
so let's focus on that instead
So, took the train up, got off at Haifa. My host picked me up and took me to his place (thank god cuz otherwise i have no idea how i would have gotten here). I was a bit of a zombie from exhaustion/sickness and went to bed early.
Saar: super nice guy. Early 30s, has an apartment up on Mt. Carmel. He has a cat named Tigre, a beautiful and nice cat. she likes to play with my scarves. plus she's warm, which is nice at night. He works a lot, so I don't see him much, but he's nice, has an amazing collection of movies and tv shows, and has been super chill about me crashing at his place. so it's a good deal.
Monday: got up and decided to just get going. why waste time. so in 8 hours I:
1) saw the Bahai Gardens/burial place of one their important figures
2) climbed the 1000 stairs. twice.
3) saw the german colony.
4) visited 3 museums
5) walked the Louis Promenade
6) walked for nearly 6 hours.
This was all by 430. My feet were killing me, so i came back, and watched tv for the rest of the day. I felt like they balanced each other out.
Today: I woke up, and realized i could have a lazier day, since I saw most of Haifa yesterday. so I chilled with Saar. We made each other watch youtube videos. He was shocked I hadn't seen Labryinth the movie, so I watched it. Then I got ready and left. I wanted to see Elijah's cave, the carmelite church, and Chagall's hosue. Instead:
1. made friends with an old lady at the bus stop waiting for the bus to go to the church
2. made friends with the bus driver going to the church.
3. Saw the church.
4. Took a cable car ride down the mountain. met an American woman travelling. She had an Ipad 2, it was sweet. She was cool, to talk with, just travelling around for a month.
5. Elijah's cave. Where Elijah supposedly fled during his time in the wilderness. It was where he finds God in the still small voice. Especially special to me because it was part of my haftorah portion* for my batmitzvah. got some free cookies too.
*For non Jews: Because of persecution, Jews could not always read the Torah. To get around this, and still have something to read for services/bar mitzvahs they paired other sections of Jewish holy writings (from the TaNaKh) with each torah portion.
6. Found out there are stairs that connect the monastary to the cave. climbed them up and down.
7. Walked along the beach. found out they have strength training machines that use your body weight.
8. Wandered through neighborhoods, passed a military base.
9. Made friends with an Israeli guy who had moved to Finland, but had come back for a few weeks to open a restaurant. Israelis.
10. Met up with someone from couch surfing to hang out for coffee. turned into an epic 6 hours of chatting, including sushi dinner and a ride home. wiiin.
Moral of the story: travelling has made me far more outgoing because being by myself all day can be crazy lonely. but now i'm wiped from hanging out with people all day. sigh.
so tomorrow: Acre (or Akko in hebrew). And probs meeting more people for drinks in the evening.
I highly enjoy this city. It's a great mix of things to see as a tourist and the laid back feeling of a town that people actually live in. It's a city that doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. I like that.
Anyways. I'm gonna go enjoy some tv. I'll catch y'all later. Love
KAS
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