The last day in Israel and the trip home

Well this is the last post of mine dealing with my trip to Israel. At least this trip to Israel. So Friday we woke up with Alia and the boys. We discussed possible events for the day but eventually Alia and the boys had to leave for work/school and grandma, mom and I stayed at the house. Alia, Yusef and Ibrahim were supposed to get home around 1 but at 1:30 we decided that if we didnt go to Appollonia then we were goning to get cabin fever. So we walked about 40 minutes to Apollonia, which is a fortress on the coast in Hertzilya (the town that they lived in). We got there at like 2 and the guard was closing the gate, things close early in Israel on Fridays because of the Sabbath. Sabbath is the Jewish holy day, for those who dont know, and I'm not sure about the details but it starts sometime Friday and ends sometime Saturday I think. Anyway, so the guard tells us that he is closing at 3. So we wander around to see this fortress, which is really cool. It was built on a cliff near a natural harbor. It was REALLY windy, REALLY windy, but fun and interesting. Not much to report other than it was windy and we saw lots of ruins, which was intersting.
After seeing Apollonia, Alia picked us up and we went to the beach. The beach was fun and I can now say that I have set foot in the Mediterranean Sea. Pretty cool. But it was very windy and cold and so we didnt get very far!! It was rough, which apparently is very unusual in Tel Aviv, or so Alia says. She says that its usually smooth as glass. So after stepping into the Med. Sea we decided that we would like to do a little shopping but it was Friday and the start of the Jewish sabbath. And Israel is a Jewish state, therefore pretty much everything was closed. It was worse than Sundays in the states. So after a half hour of driving around we decided to just go home and hang out with Alia and the boys before flying home.
Alia cooked a dinner of potato/chicken soup, rice and turkey legs. I wasnt going to eat anything but they started laughing and said that just once they would like to see me eat something. So I ate some rice, to which everyone cheered. But apparently that too was too plain and too similar to bread. So I decided what the heck, and tried soeme of the soup. I dont believe that I have eaten soup in 2-3 years, not even chicken noodle. So on the last day I tried something new, and it really wasnt that bad. Maybe just maybe I will start trying new things more.
After dinner, grandma, mom, Alia, Ibrahim and I sat around the table and just talked. It was laid back and easy and fun. Then we took pictures and at a wuarter til 9 headed to the airport. We checked in and went through minimal security, like our checked luggage got thoroughly checked and then we were going to do some shopping before we went through human security. Alia and Ibrahim came into the airport with us for a while. And then after several minutes of discussing exchanging money and buying things we said goodbye. Two rounds of hugging and through security we went.
On the other side of security there were LOTS of duty free stores. And since we had kind of a lot of money left we spent it!! :) It was fun. But after a while we got tired of shopping and went to our gate. The plane ride was fairly uneventful. It was pretty empty on account of it being sabbath and so we got to spread out a little bit. It was a long flight and luckily I got to sleep through some of it! Once we got to New York, JFK and we learned that there was a tornado in Atlanta, where we were supposed to go. SO mom and grandma tried to get us on a direct flight to Louisville but it didnt work. So we took our chances. We got to Atlanta fine but getting out of Atlanta was another story. We loaded the plane to go to Louisville fine and we were out on the runway but then air traffic control shut down the WHOLE airport on account of more weather coming in. So we sat on the runway through a hail storm. NOT fun. But between the storms we were able to take off and we got home around 6pm, a full 24 hours after we started coming home.

Well thats the end of the trip. It was fun and I miss Israel but I am also glad to be home. Now I just have to do all the homework that wasnt done on the trip!!

Ok, the days I missed. Wednesday and Thursday

So Wednesday we were very lazy. We all just sat around the house and did nothing at least til 4pm. Then the boys got back from school and we conned Ibrahim into walking around Herzilya, the town where their house is. We spent a couple of hours just walking around, first we went to a castle thingy but it was closed and then we tried to go to the beach but it was not easily accessible. So then we headed back to the house. We stopped on the way back to get fruit that I would eat... things like Kiwi and Apples. And Ibrahim made fun of me because he thinks that kiwis are about as weird as you can get and he was totally surprised that I will eat them. So we get back to the house and Alia is sitting in the car waiting for us. She wants to take everyone to Caesarea for dinner. Well I was tired and didnt want to go, she asked mom to go for her and so mom, grandma, and Yusef went with Alia to dinner. ibrahim and I stayed at the house and just hung out. First we ate, which for me was some bread and a few kiwis and for him it was half a chicken and some curry and such!! He was shaking his head the whole time we were eating! Kinda funny if I say so myself. At that point I got on him for never replying to emails and he told me that he hadnt gotten one from me on just over a year. To which I told him that was bull and that he should check his email! So he said that he would prove it to me. Therefore we checked his email and what do you know there are 252 UNREAD emails. He laughed and I showed him about 7 that I had sent in the course of a year that he hadnt read. He said that he was sorry, he doesnt do well with the whole email/internet thing, he runs out of things to say. He told me that he was better at talking when he can see peoples faces so I should get a webcam so that we can talk over Skype. I also showed him facebook and conned him into getting one, not that he ever checks it but hey hes got one!! lol. I also showed him all my friends at Transy- I used the pic of Megan's birthday party. So then we cooked snails. This was a really long process, we started at 8:45 and didnt finish til 11:30. First we dumped all the snails out. Then we made sure that they were all alive- this by far took the longest. In order to make sure they were alive we had to make sure that they were moving, some of them didnt want to move! Then after making sure they were moving we cleaned them, scrubbed them really, and rinsed them. After that we put them in boiling water to kill them. And then put them on the cake pan type thing and smothered them with butter and garlic, and stuffed them in the oven to cook. I did not try any of the snails but I had fun cooking them. Ibrahim and I also had some good conversation throughout this whole time.

Thursday- The Dead Sea and Massada.
Thursday we woke up REALLY early and I set off the alarm by going out of my zone before it was turned off. OOPS!! But once it was turned off we were all good. So we got ready, went to The David International Hotel and caught our tour. The man that was our guide was very knowledgable and has even published two books, so I look forward to reading one of them when it is printed in English. Once we were picked up we drove to Jerusalem to pick up other people on our tour. We had 2 people from Chile, one from Spain, 4 from Canada and 3 from California. From Jerusalem we went to Massada. The way to Massada was beautiful. We saw some Bedouin people hearding their sheep and that was really neat. We then drove through the West Bank, but we were never fired at nor did anyone in our group get killed! From the West Bank we drove along the Dead Sea, which was BEAUTIFUL. During this drive we also saw the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, talk about interesting. I remember seeing these caves on the TV when there was news about them, and now I have seen them in real life! Then we drove past a real desert Oasis, we didnt get to see it but Ibrahim told us that it was amazing. Still it looked neat as we were driving by. And finally we arrived at Massada. Massada was the place where the Jews lived and the romans came and took three years to get to and then the Jews killed everyone the last night. I remember seeing a movie about it in Mr. Music's AP European History class I think, one of Mr. Music's classes anyway. :) Anyway it is like a plateau but really high and kind of hard to get to. I dont really know how describe it so people will just have to wait for pictures or google it! Anyway to get to it we had to ride a cable car. That was a new and interesting experience for me. I wanted to rock the cable car but my mom told me I couldnt. :( So we spent an hour on top of Massada and visited the first EVER synagogue. We even saw a boy celebrating his Bar Mitzvah. After that we went back down via cable car and had lunch and shopped. We got some fun dead sea mineral cosmetics. EXPENSIVE but hey we are only gonna do this once so why not! lol. After lunch we went to the Dead Sea. We went to a place called Mineral Spa or something like that and swam- or rather floated- in the Dead Sea. First we got in, and it was really cold!! Then we floated for about 20 minutes. Amazing really, but we had to be careful not to get it in our mouth- it tasted bitter- or eyes- it REALLY stung, or our ears- no problem. As you can see, me being me, accidentaly got it in every place your not supposed to! Ok so after floating we got mudded. It is said that the Dead Sea has healing powers especailly the minerals in the mud. So we put mud all over our bodies- mom and I did. EVEN IN OUR HAIR!! And the mud was BLACk- so we looked like black people. We waited for 15-20 minutes while the mud dried and then washed it off. It didnt come off very easily! We then went and floated in a hot spring pool that fed the dead sea but it wasnt in the dead sea, it was something different. It was VERY nice and warm, and sulfer-y. After spending some time in the sulfer hot water where we floated, just like in the sea itself. We took showers and got ready to head back. As we were driving back our guide let us off to take pictures of the 4 Dead Sea Scroll Cave, the library where the found a map of all the caves. That was pretty darn interesting. Anyway, our trip back to Tel Aiv was long because we hit rush hour traffic in Jerusalem. But once we got back I was pretty tired and just about fell into bed.

Today I think we are packing and taking it easy. We will walk to Appolonia which is a fortress on the coast I think. Apparently its really cool, and its close by. I will write about it when we get home to Louisville. I have had a good time and I dont really want to leave!
Anyway... off to breakfast- see I told you writing this would be the first thing that I would do today!!

update

Ok, well im really tired and probably wont write much tonight but i just wanted to say that i havent forgotten about my blog. I will update it tomorrow before or in between our events for the day. I will write about yesterday- which doesnt consist of much, we didnt even leave the house til 4pm, but I did have a new experience- like cooking snails- which took forever. And then I will also write about todays adventure to Massada and the Dead Sea- both were really interesting. Plus our guide let us stop and look at the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, very interesting. So I will write about everything tomorrow. Sorry to keep people waiting, if anyone is actually waiting that is!
Goodnight and i will write in the morning.

Jerusalem

So today was interesting. We went to Jerusalem. We first got up REALLY early like 6 am which is 12 midnight back home, and we went to a hotel in downtown Tel Aviv so that we could catch our little van, and tour guide. We went on this tour with two other groups of three people each. One group was two Canadians (saying eh? a lot) with a Israeli friend of theirs and the other group was a couple from Texas and the husbands younger brother. They were all very friendly people. Anyway we make our way to Jerusalem and I've got to say the way people drive around here is totally INSANE!! I dont understand it, i dont understand how there arent more wrecks here. The drivers are NUTS, anyway so we are driving to Jerusalem. We drive through the area that is around the West Bank, where all the fighting is but we were safe. There is a wall that is similar to the Berlin wall that separates the Palestine from the Israeli parts of this country. Its all very confusing but there is a wall that separates these two fighting nations. Ok, so we then went to Mount of Olives. It has an amazing view of Jerusalem, the one that people normally see. So we are looking at the view and then look up and theres a CAMEL!! And it has a saddle of sorts on it. And they are selling rides on the camel!! So we got on and went on a camel ride. It was AMAZING... SO fun and interesting. We just went around a circle a little bit, and then the man had him jogging. It was just so fun and it totally made my day!! It was a wonderful way to start the day. We then went down some really steep hills that they compare to San Francisco. And we pass the Garden of Gethsemane which is where Jesus was betrayed. And then we went inside the old city of Jerusalem itself. We started at the Western Wall, something that I had to cover my head for. It was really moving. And yes I wrote down a wish of mine and put it in the wall. I must say that being in Jerusalem, a place that Jesus was over 2000 years ago was VERY moving, and im not a religious person. So after the Western Wall we walked around more of the old city of Jerusalem and saw the stations of the cross. We saw nine of them anyway, i thought there were only nine but grandma thinks that there are twelve, but we saw nine. Then we went to where Jesus was crucified. We followed the path that he carried his cross on, talk about interesting and moving. Then we went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is on the land where he was crucified. This church was very ornate. Lots of detail and many fine things around this place. After seeing the place where he was crucified we went to the cave where he was buried. We actually went inside, it was really dark and kind of creepy, really small and just amazing. There were pieces of paper which i assume were prayer notes like the ones that people stuff into the Western Wall. After that we went shopping and had lunch, which for me was a piece of pita bread and a sprite! After lunch we went to the place where the Last Supper took place. Now its just an old mostly empty building but walking into it, I got a sense that something important happened there. We then went to drop off part of our group so that they could go to Bethlehem while we went to the Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial. We had to go through a check point in order to drop off the part of our group. It was kind of interesting because Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestines and Israeli's are NOT allowed to visit. So, our tour guide could NOT take these people to Bethlehem, we had to meet up with someone who could take them there. Well after they were headed to Bethlehem we went to the Holocaust museum, it was interesting. And there were a great deal of Israeli Army there. In Israel EVERYONE has to serve in the army, women for 2 years and men for 3, starting right out of high school. So these army people are my age and they are carrying around HUGE rifles! No in the museum but as they were leaving they all were attached to a rifle. This is just mind boggling to me. I mean I understand it I suppose but im not used to it yet. And honestly a lot of the guys here arent that bad to look at! Especially when they are in uniform, just had to say it, sorry everyone!! :) Anyway from the museum we met up with the people who went to Bethlehem and then came back to Tel Aviv. We havent done much since getting back and in fact i think everyone is asleep or getting ready to go to sleep. I dont think anyone has really gotten anything other than a glimpse of Ibrahim since we got back. Yusef says that he turns into a bear, so other than a weak attempt so see what he was up to we have left him alone!
Tomorrow is our day of rest! We are going to hang around the house and maybe visit some close by things. Nothing real big or exciting, but I will keep everyone posted.

Oo, one thing that I forgot to mention. While walking around in Jerusalem today I got a sunburn. This is after the guide was making fun of me because I am so white. He asked me to please go to the sea and get some color, I tried to explain to him that I just dont tan. And now I have proof that I just dont tan. We werent even out and about in the sun THAT much but I STILL got a sunburn, and because I was wearing the head scarf it is only sunburned on my left side... quite interesting. But my face didnt get sunburned. It got a nice healthy Tan!! :)
So til tomorrow... goodnight!

Oops, forgot to mention

So there have been some very funny times in the last couple of days and i shall reflect on those now. The first one was when we were going through security in Louisville. So the person looked at moms ticket and passport and then grandmas ticket and passport then looked at me and said "So i guess that makes you Jessica" to which i responded with a happy "I sure hope so" and then later realized i probably shouldnt joke about my identity with the security people at the airport.
Second... going through security again... grandma packed some yogurt, its not allowed but the head security guy asked about our destination and when he realized that it was FAR away he took the yogurt- that was still sealed- and scanned it for explosives... not really a funny story but something noteworthy.
Third, we had gotten to Atlanta, and mom was saying that she hoped the plane from Atlanta to Tel Aviv was larger than the one from Louisville to Atlanta. And i told her that it was.. she could even see the proof outside. I described the front of the plane as a dome and told her it was the dome over there and i pointed out the window. To which grandma says is it inside or outside? I looked at grandma and said "well grandma, planes are usually outside". A funny moment we had there. Sadly usually when we laugh on trips its at grandma's expense.
Fourth- on the plane from Atlanta to Tel Aviv... the headphones. hopefully everyone knows about standard airplane headphones, they curve around your ears and the plug into the seat. Well i look over at one point during the flight and mom is fighting with her headphones. So i put them on her ears. Then shes still struggling, well the headphones come with a one prong and a two prong, the two prong can come off depending on what kind of flight you have. So mom is trying to get the two prong and plugging it into the one prong that is on the seat. i carefully show her what shes doing wrong, and she starts laughing hysterically. all this happened with NO words exchanged!
i suppose thats the only really funny things here so far. But theres another mentionable piece of information. I am a VERY picky eater. Its something that my family knows how to deal with and so they basically ignore me and expect me to fend for myself. But other people cant bring themselves to ignore me. So they go out of their way to try and fix me foods that i might eat. Perfect example was tonights dinner. Ibrahim cooked chicken curry and realizing that i probably wouldnt eat it he made plain rice and peas and carrots. Which would have been fine. BUT he decided that i would need something more than that so he also cooked me hotdogs. But i dont eat hotdogs either!! Needless to say... i do just fine on my own, and people dont need to go out of their way to make me food that i will eat, because it may not work out the way its expected to! And with that i am gone. Til tomorrow!!

Israel- Flight and day 1: Jaffa

Well the flight over here was a little iffy. First we got a big snow storm at home which piled 12 inches of snow on the ground the day before we left. So we go to the airport a little earlier than usual just to make sure that we can still leave. Turns out our flight from Louisville to Atlanta was the only one that hadnt been cancelled for the enitire day. We were lucky and apparently meant to go on this trip. But we werent totally out of the clear. The plane was delayed about 2 hours. Which could have been a problem for our connecting flight but we had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta and so we were able to get food and sit in Atlants for a few minutes before we had to board. So it all worked out really well. The 11 hour plane flight was LONG.. REALLY LONG. Everyone had their own individual television screens and was able to choose to do several things like watch movies, play games, listen to music, or watch an episode of a television show like House or Eureka. So I first watched Enchanted. Love that movie. Then I tried to sleep but that didnt work out well on account of mom getting really sick. She was sick for about an hour but once she vomited she felt a lot better. Sorry for the gory details! Before mom got sick we had dinner, there was choice of pasta, chicken, bread and butter or cheese and crackers. Mom had the pasta, grandma had the chicken and i had the bread and butter! I think that we eventually all got some sleep, but not much and it was very crowded on the plane. They had breakfast which was like self serve bananas and muffins. Pretty good actually. I actually first looked at the clock when we were five hours into the flight. So after that i tried to sleep more and ended up watching The Game Plan. During that movie is when i got my best sleep on the plane! After watching The Game Plan we were served a lunch of sorts, they offered pizza but mom, grandma and i just ate the fruit that they gave us. Then we made it to Tel Aviv. Actually we were 30-45 minutes early in arriving and Alia was not yet at the airport, so we were able to exchange money and kind of just cool for a few minutes. Alia picked us up and took us around a dark Tel Aviv. Interesting but really at that point i was ready to kind of sleep!! But was glad for the tour this morning. We had dinner and hung out and then slept.

This morning, we were all woken up by the burglar alarm which was set off by grandma. She didnt realize that the downstairs living room type thing was out of her zone. But it was not a terrible wake up call! We had breakfast and loaded 6 grown people into a small VW Jetta. We were squished. Grandma was sitting on my lap. So we went to drop Ibrahim and Yusef off at school and Alia took us to a hotel so that we could see about tours to Jerusalem. She then went off to work and we booked our tour and walked from Tel Aviv to Jaffa. It wasnt a long walk and it was along the Mediterranean Sea which was nice. It kept looking like it was going to rain but never did, yay. On the way to Jaffa we stopped at a small museum which honestly i still dont know what it was about but it was a nice stop. Once in Jaffa we mostly just looked around and went up and down streets. We went to a flea market which kind of stunk really bad and it was just people selling things that they didnt want anymore. And we also went to a few shops. Apparently you are supposed to barter here but none of us are really good at it so we just ended up spending the asked price! We saw a shop that sold Hookas (spelling?) and so we took our picture there! We had lunch at a little place where the waiter didnt know ANY english so other patrons translated for us. Mom and grandma ate weird food and I ate pita bread and drank sprite! After lunch we felt as if we had seen all of Jaffa so we just found a place to sit and hang out while we waited for the boys to get out of school. We met up with the boys at around 2:30 and were going to just ride with them in their cab home but had trouble because taxi drivers cant take more than 4 people. it is a serious crime and their licenses could be taken on the spot. So mom, grandma, Ibrahim and myself rode in the taxi home and i think that Yusef just walked home. But we got back to Alias and mom and grandma crashed. Ibrahim fixed some tea and we did homework and then i crashed. I woke up at 5:30 and just kind of relaxed some more. It is now 7pm and mom and grandma are still asleep, while i am writing this. I assume we will have dinner in a little while, Chicken Curry i am told. OOH almost forgot... they have orange trees right outside their house here and they are very good but leave my lips burning after i eat them!
So I suppose that is it until next time, hopefully tomorrow. The game plan is Old and New Jerusalem tomorrow!