The Temple Mount

The Dome of the Rock behind some trees after we entered the Temple Mount.

Me in front of The Dome of the Rock.

The Dome of the Rock.

Not the main entrance of The Dome of the Rock (I think), but it is a very cool looking handle and door.

Another image of the door. It was quick tall.

This was a little prayer area (I think that is what its function is) next to The Dome of the Rock. Very beautiful architecture.

I liked the texture and color of this column.

The Dome of the Rock, along with the sun above it.

To make this one look better I had to mess with the colors, and now it almost looks like a weird mid-day sunset. You can tell the colors have been messed with if you look at the edges of the buildings.

A nice image of three domes as we were exiting the Temple Mount.

Here is a panoramic that I stitched together. 

Ash Wednesday in the Old City

I went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was Ash Wednesday.

Above is the Mosque of Omar, which is right next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I saturated the colors a little bit, but the lights on the minaret are actually green. 

Some candle holders in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I toned down the color in this photo, bring it closer to black and white.

This is when I just decided to do a completely black and white photo of a close up of some candles. This area is above Golgotha and you can donate some money and then light some candles. 

Again, to help this picture actually look well I had to mess with the colors. It is very hard to get the photos to turn out well in this part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I feel slightly bad already taking pictures while people are praying, and I would feel 10 times worse if I was using my flash, just so I could have a picture where everything is in full color.


Now for the story.

Yes, I realize that Ash Wednesday was a while ago, and I realized that I had posted these photos on my Facebook page, but I had not posted them on my blog.

To begin, most of us forgot about Ash Wednesday until about 2 days prior to it actually occurring. We thought, "Hey, why not go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Ash Wednesday for a good ol' ashing." Someone got the times for the service and we heading into the Old City after our Hebrew class was finished that day. Three words on the Old City on Ash Wednesday, "Holy tourists, Batman!" They were everywhere. I realize that I am not an Israeli citizen, but I no longer feel like a tourist, and we all secretly love speaking the very minute Hebrew we know around them.

We got to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and there were so many people. We wedged our way through the tour groups and made our way into the sanctuary. We perused all the things, but at a much slower pace due to all the people. When we were above Golgotha a service started and we had front row seats. One problem. It was a Greek Orthodox service. Don't get me wrong, it was super cool, but I didn't understand a thing. I once heard "nike" (NEE-kay), which is "victory" in Greek I believe. I also heard a few "kristos" in there too. However, one of my friends particularly wanted to get ashed today, and Greek Orthodox do not do ashings, at least not at this one service.

We wandered back downstairs and found someone who knew about the services. She showed them her iPhone with the times on it. It was then that we realized that the service that we thought started at 6:30pm, probably in fact happened at 6:30am. That's military time for you. Yup, no ashings for us. However, we can still say that we got to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Ash Wednesday. Luckily, there are palm trees everywhere here, and if we really wanted to we could've ashed each other.  Regardless, we had a fun time. There is never a dull moment in the Old City.

Reflections on Ulpan

Ulpan in now over. It is a mixed bucket of emotions. I really enjoyed my class and the people that were in it, and it is a bummer that we will probably not be in the same class once semester starts. For those of you who don't know what Ulpan is, it is a 4-week immersive Hebrew course. We had Hebrew class for 5 days a week, for 5 hours a day. 

Yes, it was a LOT of Hebrew to take in, but it was probably the best way to learn it. Our teachers avoided speaking English whenever possible, and we would have to figure out what they were saying. I signed up for the intensive Hebrew course for the semester, but I am also going to try and do more Hebrew, because I would like to get somewhat fluent in another language, and not just have some foundations in one. I will have to wait and see how everything pans out. 

We have a 5-day break now before semester begins. It is also Purim weekend, so we are going to Tel Aviv again for Saturday and then we will be coming back to Jerusalem for the Sunday night festivities. Some people are going on the Jesus Trail (where you walk the trail of Jesus). Some people are just herp-derping in the city for the 5-days, seeing the things they didn't have time to see during Ulpan. 

Hopefully there will be some more to blog about after this weekend. 

Tel Aviv Festivities

It is official. I have FINALLY left Jerusalem. A few friends needed to get away for Shabbat, so we went to Tel Aviv. Overall it was fun.

If you have been following then you know what Shabbat is all about; there is food, family, and whatnot, and more importantly a day of rest. It is fun to just wind down with friends, but all of us being from America are used to different things on our days off. We like to go to malls, if only to just look at things to get away from our home. We were feeling really cooped up and we needed to breathe a little a bit. Jerusalem is different than Tel Aviv. There is a much higher population of secular Jews in Tel Aviv, so Shabbat is very different there. As some people here say, “When you are in Tel Aviv, you kind of aren’t in Israel.”

We got to Tel Aviv at about 2pm and we walked to our hostel. It was a very nice hostel. There was a very large living room, kitchen, and backyard area. It was about $25 for the night. The room that we slept in had about 9 sets of bunk beds, and they were all full that night. It was a good experience to run into people from different places that are all in Israel for different reasons. Some were stopping through for vacation and some had just stepped on the plane and were hoping to pursue a dance career at a company there. After we dropped of our belongings, and pocketed the items that we didn’t want to risk being stolen we headed out.

It was extremely windy the day we went to Tel Aviv. The beach was a very cool sight, but the waves were huge. We didn’t go swimming or anything, but we stood on the shore and felt the sea mist on our faces. We walked along the boardwalk and just soaked up a different pace of life in Israel. Despite the wind and chill we still had a good time. Anywhere can be an awesome place with the right people. We found kept walking and went to a gelataria. Yep, on such a cold day we still had gelato. The gelataria was attached to a larger shopping area and we could see all the things that were up for sale. None of us bought anything, because everything is much cheaper at the Shuk (when it comes to food) and the Old City (when it comes to everything else). 

A friend and I went to a sushi place for dinner. We got a couple plates of sushi and just relaxed and soaked in the atmosphere. It was about 9pm, so everything back in Jerusalem was a closed and the city was still. This was not the case in Tel Aviv. People were all over the streets going out for their evenings. The statement was really true: “When you are in Tel Aviv, you kind of aren’t in Israel.” In a land where East meets West I felt like I was right back at home on a Friday evening. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Do I need that every weekend? No. We were talking that even when we are home we don’t always do something on the weekends, so we kind of observe a Shabbat of sorts, but everything is open on weekends in case we want to do something. Having a weekend where almost everything was open was a nice feeling.

We went back to the hostel and slept and slept in the next morning. We finished our time in Tel Aviv with a much-needed breakfast. Yes, I found some bacon in Jerusalem. Real bacon, none of this beef that tries to disguise itself as bacon. Yes, I love bacon, and yes, I was missing the option of having bacon. After we were sufficiently coffee-d up and fed we made our way back to the central bus station in Tel Aviv. We asked a couple of guys how to get there and then two blocks later they offered to take us, since it was about 2 kilometers away. It was a very interesting time trying to stuff 4 grown people into the back of a compact car, bags and all. We caught the cab back to Jerusalem, and even jammed out to some American top 40 with the driver. We got home and did a little bit of studying, because school was the next day.

The one-day excursion was just enough to stretch our limbs and feel back at home. Another thing that was nice was the release of the stress of living in Jerusalem. The city itself has a tense atmosphere, and sometimes you just need to get away from it all and breathe. We needed to take a nice breath. Overall, Tel Aviv was a success.  

All Shuk Up

In Jerusalem, there is a wonderful place called The Shuk. What is at the Shuk? Well, almost anything that you can think of. Think of a 4-lane road. Now think of that road with no cars on it, small shops lining the edges, and tons of people getting food and stuff. That is the Shuk. We usually go there to get our fresh produce, because it is so much cheaper than in the stores. However, the Shuk is a magical place, and you can get more than produce. You can kitchen supplies, socks & underwear, spices galore, and even a quick bite to eat. The Shuk has it all. If you're willing to withstand people constantly bumping into you and fighting to pay for your goods, then you would probably like the Shuk. I know I do. 

Well...It Has Finally Happened

And so my body finally feels at home (Yes, I just started a sentence with “and.” English majors, you will have to accept it.). I am sick. Yes it sucks, but it is also good. Like in Greece, my body feels at home here and it is saying, “sickness, take me.” Boy did sickness listen. I have had about 6 cartons of fruit nectar in the past 2 days and I am currently on my 5^th cup of green tea (I have a strict “get better” regime). I took 3 Tylenol pm yesterday to knock me and proceeded to sleep for about 12 hours, only to wake and STILL hit my snooze. Yes, it is THAT kind of sickness. But my sore throat is nearly gone and I am now plagued with the sniffles, what fun.

On the plus side, I have finally purchased some Tupperware containers and can now bring my lunch with me to school. I have adapted to spaghetti. It is crazy easy to make, easily refrigerated, also easily reheat-able, and tasty. Now I don’t have to spend so much Shekel on getting food at school (even though I will still treat myself to Falafel or Shawarma every now and then). I can’t have any mochas right now, because they are fraught with milk, and dairy and sickness do not mix well. Also, the instant coffee I got is nasty, and I only have it on weekends. I have yet to find a to-go mug for morning teas and whatnot. It is on my “to get” list.

For now, I am going to crawl into bed and sleep until morning. Hopefully I will feel even better then. We plan on doing a little more exploring this weekend, so who knows, maybe there will be some more pictures. 

A Shabbat to Remember

You're all probably thinking, "Why is he writing another post about Shabbat?" Well, because last nights Shabbat was particularly fun. Here is a photo of everyone present:

A couple people got cutoff, but I think this was taken with a camera phone, so it turned out pretty good. Anyways, we had a potluck Shabbat dinner, so there was tons of awesome food to be consumed, and there was about 20 of us all crammed into one room. We temporarily commandeered two tables from other flats on the floor. We had everything from homemade mac n' cheese to quinoa. From chicken in lemon sauce to bread covered in Israeli Nutella (which is about 30 times better than brand name Nutella).

Once we were sufficiently engorged with food we relaxed for about an hour, and then about 75% of us went to the Old City. It is a much different place at night, so it was fun to go. We went to the Western Wall for about a half an hour to pray, meditate, watch, pay our respects, etc. (since not everyone was Jewish). We then attempted to find Robinson's Arch, which is a located at another part of the wall that men and women are allowed to pray together. For those of you who don't know, the Western Wall is divided into two sections. Women are only allowed to pray in a small section along the wall. If you look at my post with all the pictures, you can make out the divider. This causes some tension, as women are not allowed to be Bat-mitzvah-ed at the wall. Once a month, a group called Women of the Wall put on their prayer shawls and bring their Torahs to the Wall and pray. This too is met with tension.

Since Robinson's Arch was closed for the evening we continued on our meandering of the Old City at night. We eventually found ourselves in the rooftops on the edge of the Christian Quarter. It was very cool. You could see The Dome of the Rock, a synagogue, and a church. They all seemed like they were only 3 blocks away from where we stood. We all just relaxed on the roof, stargazed (with what stars you could see. I was only able to see Orion and the Little Dipper), and talked about how our time in Jerusalem had been so far, etc. However, at about 1:00am we thought it would be best to start heading home.

By this time the city was dead. The light-rail was done running (One, because it stops running at midnight. Two, because it stops running at about 4:00pm on Shabbat.) so we decided to just walked along the tracks to get back home, since our student village is right off a stop on the light-rail. Walking takes a little while, so we didn't get home until about 2:00am, where I proceeded to fall into my bed and sleep until 10:00am this morning. Now I am sitting blogging and washing my laundry, enjoying a calm Shabbat in the student village.

It's Been a While

Well it has been a while since I have made a post, but that is because I am getting settled in. Life is starting to feel like home, but I just happen to be in Jerusalem. Sitting down and budgeting for the next 5 months threw my plans into perspective. Although it would be nice to travel to different places in Israel, and Petra in Jordan, it would be better to have that money for groceries, and food. The blog posts may become mundane, but I think it is a matter of perspective. The Old City is no longer some awesome sight, it is part of my life. I have been there 3 times, and we don't need a special occasion to go. I will bring my camera every now and then to snap a few pictures.

I also have gone to the Shuk, which is a giant market area. If you are only in Jerusalem for a day, then yes, this is something that you should see. The reality for people who live here, it's where we shop for groceries and can haggle prices. We have finally started learning numbers so we can actually haggle more effectively. 

We essentially walk almost everywhere, and when we don't walk we usually take the light-rail. The light-rail is 6.60 NIS every trip (not even 2 dollars). We don't have a pass yet, since they don't issue 5-month student passes until the beginning of the new semester. We are in a sort of J-term scenario right now, so we would have had to just get a one month pass and then buy the 5-month student pass. 

As for right now, I am doing what I came here to do. I am learning. My Hebrew class is good and I am studying in Beit Midrash groups and Talmud groups to learn more about Judaism. Once semester begins my schedule will be much different, but I will be able to figure out destination plans. We are looking at going to Tel Aviv for one weekend for sure, and also to Eilat over another weekend. There are many places that I can go to all over the place, but I probably won't be spending money on a plethora of museums and whatnot. 

Something we were told by an American who moved to Israel 5 years ago, that we met while waiting for the light-rail, he said that is Israel is a wonderful place to spend a short vacation in. It can be an expensive place to live though. When you are only here for a finite time it is easy to spend money one museum, because you will be gone in about 2 days. It is hard for me to cough up the shekel every time I see a museum here because there are so many, and I would be broke extremely fast. The cities here themselves are museums, so that is how I have convinced myself and rationalized not spending the shekel on going to a bunch of museums (not to say that I will never go to any). 

There is a strong difference of eating in Israel too. Back home I would spend money and eat at school, but I can't do that here. I can't work while I am here and make a living, so (right now) it is a lot of Tupperwares of Cheerios (since I have found no plastic bags Ziploc bags here). I can't justify spending money on food at a fast food stop type in the Forum, when I know that I don't have any form of income that support this. This will change once school really starts, because then I will tons of time between classes and I will be able to come back to the village (which is about a 15 minute walk to the school - hence why I can't come back during my Ulpan classes). We shall see where the semester takes me for packing lunches and museum tours.

Peace and a Settled Life

Glimpses of the Old City

So now comes the time when I will post some pictures from the Old City. We went at about 3pm today and just relaxed in the city. After just one other trip there, we can now navigate through the Muslim Quarter and get to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, so that is pretty cool. But here are some pictures.

Here are some candles in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I wanted to catch a person lighting a candle, and thankfully I did. 

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was actually started to drizzle when we went in, and by the time that we had come out it was no longer raining. It was a very nice surprise. You can also tell how buildings can be so tucked away in the Old City. For the two times that I have been here we have come from the Muslim Quarter, so the routes are lots of turns and alleys. 

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was actually extremely dim inside this church, but luckily a few of the pictures turned out and you can see the amazing architecture of the building.

Another candle shot. This one was mostly to get all of the candles in one shot. The church people were also starting to close the church, so I had to get this picture before they started taking all the candles out of the sand.

The dome from the inside. You can see the top of the church within a church. In this little church is the tomb of Jesus (sorry, no pictures of that sight). 

A doorway in the church. It's actually only a lightbulb on the other side of the door.

Another picture of the dome. It is huge and awesome.

This is me, having fun with my camera. So I just did zoom stuff. I had it open for two seconds and then zoomed in. This is the result.

I personally think that this Jesus looks a little angry. I have called it the "Jesus is not impressed" face.

Some lanterns hanging in the church. Some of the only light that could be found in the church.

The Dome of the Rock. The sun was setting, so Shabbat was ending. It was a very beautiful evening.

This is a picture of the locks on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They are pretty intense.

A nice bank of clouds coming into Jerusalem. Again, a very beautiful evening.

I really enjoy this picture because you can clearly see two faiths. The Western Wall is clearly in the middle, and then the sides have two mosques. You have the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Very interesting.

Here is a random street in the Jewish Quarter. I liked it better in black and white. This is when we were just wandering through the city. We would come to split and then say, "Left or right." It took us to some really cool sights, this being one of them.

Peace and Photography