and then we spent the night cooking over a fire and camping in a large tent on a high plateau over the desert. At one of the sights that is popular with tour groups I ran into my guide from three years ago!! I am a big fan, so it was very exciting for me, and I got to take my picture with him, and convey greetings to him and from him back to friends in the states. :)
I had my first experience making pita bread, which I was overjoyed with, and it was fun to get to know some of the students that are not in any of my classes.
Saturday we head out early and split into two groups. The moderate hike was up a wadi, with some river stomping and an option to swim under a waterfall. The more difficult hike was from the desert floor up to the top of the En Gedi plateau. It was a fun day with beautiful views, interesting fun facts from our guide, and some—my favorite—rock scrambling. :-)
As we made our way back down to the valley we saw some Ibex (they call them deer, sometimes) and rock rabbits (they look like groundhogs). We head back to the sea for a bit and then back north to start a new week.
I do not really recall much of between then and now. Classes and my project are going well, and my Hebrew and ISL are coming along. It was interesting to me the other day in ISL class. We were reviewing vocabulary for family members, and the professor used Abraham and Sarah’s family to draw a family tree on the board. He wrote Abraham’s name, and then signed, “What was his wife’s name?” Then he moved on to “How many children did he have?” “What were they’re names” and so on, down through two generations to “How many children did Jacob have? Nono, 13—12 boys and one girl.” It was striking to me that first of all, this was a very normal choice for curriculum, and second that everyone in the class knew this family tree in detail. I cannot imagine it would have played out the same in America, and I thought the difference was so interesting.
Two weeks ago we had a large forest fire in Haifa. We were evacuated from the university, and I hosted one of my friends who could not be in the dorms. MASA asked for articles from students that experienced it, so you can read mine on their blog if you’d like: http://www.themasaisraelblog.org/2010/12/13/ruin-recovery-and-rebuilding/
It was during Hanukkah, and there was some dry humor regarding it being the festival of lights and the mountain being on fire. Thankfully it did not mean we could not observe the holiday, and my friends and I light the hanukiah each night, ate our share of sufganiot and latvas, and sang songs (I clapped along and hummed the best I could) in Hebrew, and in English (“Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay…” And I did make a dreidel out of clay at Shema. :-D
Some friends and I had planned to visit Jerusalem that Sunday to see it decorated for Hanukkah, but we cancelled it because we knew we’d just be distracted by the fire happening at home, and wouldn’t be able to enjoy the trip. But we went this last Monday and had a great time. We had wanted to go to the zoo (It’s called the Biblical Zoo because it only has animals mentioned in the Bible, apparently), but the weather was bad. So we decided to go back in the spring, and instead visited some indoor and underground sites (Zedekiah’s tunnel was great fun for me because one of my favorite fiction characters, Mary Russell, solved a crime there in one of the books!).
Then it was home Monday night to Haifa, class in the morning, and off to Tel Aviv that afternoon and evening for a few meetings there. I went to the association that does a lot of advocating for Deaf Israelis and got to hear about the interpreting community and customs here, the challenges and solutions going on in the Deaf community, and a bit more of the history to both. Then I met with a man whose company is developing a product to encourage children to read more. They want to produce the product in multiple languages, including American Sign Language, so I am working with them to find a Deaf American they can hire as a storyteller for their product. Then I joined the rest of the Fulbrighters for a dinner where we caught up a bit (I was thrilled to have another get together so soon after Thanksgiving because at each gathering we only get to catch up with a few of each other, so it was delightful to sit by a different group and hear more from these few) and heard from a professor at Tel Aviv University about the political situation in and around this country.
I arrived home after midnight and tried to settle back into normal life, where I am in Haifa all week and only venture far out there on weekends. My roommate came back from the states last weekend, so it’s been quite an out-of-the-ordinary week with her home, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. But this weekend I am going on a hike with another classmate and then next week should be back to normal. :)
I had planned to continue the Shvil Israel this weekend, but my friend who is joining wanted to hike “The Jesus Trail”—it is from Nazareth to Capernaum, and he leaves in January, so I decided to postpone the next section of the National Trail to another weekend.
Wow! Did I just catch up on my blog?! That feels great—it only took two months. :-P Better than three. ;-)
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