Changes

I really can't believe that we're going in just 4 days! I feel excited about going, about seeing all the new things, but I also don't want to leave here. I...I wouldn't say I feel at home here, and I think that's because of the language gap. I think that if I spoke Hebrew fluently, I could feel at home here.

But the excitment's not over just yet for me before boarding the plane for Thailand! Orit and Simon are taking us out to the desert again before we leave! We will drive out on Thursday night, and come back Saturday afternoon. Batiyah and Shir may be coming with, but we're not sure. I'm going to miss Shir. He is so funny sometimes!

Note: I'm going to be off-line for a week to ten days starting tomorrow, since we don't have a house in Thailand yet. But keep checking, since we're going to try to get a house and internet as fast as we can. Don't forget about me!

Thanksgiving

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We had our own Thanksgiving here in Israel. We cooked a 15-pound turkey along with some potatoes and yams and brought it to the Sabbath dinner. Too bad no one really ate it, they're all vegetarians. We're still trying to get rid of it!

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and a good winter! You know, while I'm on the subject of winter, Dad and I had an interesting talk a bit ago. We realized that it's 70+ degrees here, and we're all bundled up and freezing! If it was 70 degrees in Iowa, per say, we would all be running around in our shorts and t-shirts!

Have a great holiday.

P.S. I've noticed that sometimes the picture don't show up on the blog, I'm really sorry, but there's nothing I can do.

The trip day 1

Hi! Boy, do I have a lot to tell you about!! I think I'll start with Yad Vashem... Well, the trip plan was this: Day 1: go on bus to Jerusalem and see Yad Vashem (Yad Vashem is the monument of remembrance to the Jews of the Holocaust.), and then go on more buses until we reach the Dead Sea at around 7:00 pm. Day 2: Swim in the Dead sea and go to Masada.

Yad Vashem was very hard on me. In the states we don't even know 1/1000 of the things they went through. It was horrible... the Nazis starved them, killed them, and tortured them. I'm not going to tell you the details because I'm still trying to take it in myself. If you e-mail me with specific ideas in what you want to hear, I might be able to tell you.

Something I really liked about Yad Vashem is that there is a park where they honor all the Christians who helped and saved the lives of the Jews. They honor them by planting a tree for them. That really touches me. Also in that garden are some pretty scary sculptures. You can see one above. First it looks like just a lot of wire twisted together but then you realize that it is actually human bodies that have been tortured. (Shudders) Ok, enough of that stuff. Time to move on.

For the rest of the day we rode on buses- borrring!!- until we got to the Youth Hostel that we were staying in.

The trip day 2

Like I mentioned earlier, on the second day we were going to the Dead Sea and Masada.

The Dead Sea was awesome! You just float in it, the salt content is so high. My feet kept floating higher than my torso, so it was a little weird. Well, at least the fish don't bite- wait there are no fish!!!! Hahahah! (In the Mediterraneans, the fish sneak up on you and bite you- eergh.)

After the Dead Sea, we went for a walk in the Ein Gedi National Park. And we saw some Ibex there! They look sorta like goats, except they have these huge horns that curve backwards. It's amazing that they can keep their head up! We also saw a Rock Hyrax, an animal that looks like an overgrown guinea pig :) They're supposed to be related to the elephant through something crazy like the footbone.

After the park we went to Masada. Masada is a huge rock formation, that has sharp, almost vertical cliffs all around the flat place at the top. When the Romans were conquering Israel, the rebel Jews fled here and made their home on the top. It withstood the Roman army for years, but when the Romans were finally going to conquer it, the Jews did a surprising thing: instead of going into slavery, they all committed suicide- all but seven who lived to spread the news. Ten men were chosen to kill the others. Then one was elected to kill the other nine men and then kill himself. But they did it out of choice, not by force. I think that is a very honorable thing to do.

We took the cable car up, and then walked down. it was really cool. Afterwards we took some buses back home. Our trip to the Dead Sea, although short, was very exciting. I'm glad I went.

Note:

I just wanted to let you guys know that I will be gone Wednesday and Thursday to the Dead Sea! Just don't forget about me, ok? Good. And expect some good reading on Thursday or Friday!

-Rachael

Rain, rain go away, come again some other day...

BOOM! Wow, either that's thunder or the Israeli Air Force! It's been raining really hard today. No lightning, though. Oh, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Dad and I are going to got a turkey and have it at Friday night dinner! All you kids out there, I want to tell you how lucky you are for getting a Thanksgiving break! I mean, I don't get one! :(

There are people coming over these days to look at the apartment because in two weeks we're going to Thailand! Yay! And Simon and Orit are going to rent out the apartment when we go, so that's why all the people are coming over.

Sigh, gotta go now and finish up school... have a happy holiday!

The beach, the church, and the story

Hi, everybody. It has been suddenly very hot here lately- so hot that we have been going to the beach! Imagine that- going to the beach in November! We went on Friday- when it was like 70 degrees.

I wore my new goggles. And I totally freaked out! I could see the fishies. I suddenly got really scared of them- maybe it's because they bite you and it hurts. :P But I had a fun time, I just went in and layed on the blanket and read. Yay, happydance! (I know that happydancing has nothing to do with this, but I'm a little crazy right now and so I wanted to put that in there :) )

The next day we also went somewhere cool. Simon had recommended that we go to the Stella Maris church, a 10-minute walk from here. So we did! The church was beautiful! It had all these intricate murals on the walls and ceilings, and it was just so beautiful!

After the museum, we went down the ramp that led to the cablecars. Too bad they weren't running, because it was Saturday, and therefore the Sabbath. But we will, someday! We also saw these really cool birds that turned out to be kestrels! They just hovered in the air. At first we thought that someone had their toy kite out, but then it went and swooped away, so we knew it was a bird. (Miss. Mchard, I hope you're reading this!!) All in all, the past few days have been fun.

P.S.- I have published part of a story I have written on the web, so if you want to read it you can find the link in the sidebar!

Tel Aviv and Jaffa with Itzhak

Good morning, everyone! On Monday Dad and I toured Tel Aviv with Itzhak. It was really fun. We met up early with Itzhak, and went to the train station, where I spotted a sign that said Bus from Haifa-Amman, which is exactly what we need on the day we go to Thailand! Well, anyway, we took the 1 hour train ride to Tel Aviv.
We toured Tel Aviv for a while. There were all these cool old buildings, which Dad loved. We even went in a building's courtyard which had one of those really old elevator shafts on the outside of the building. It was really cool. We went to another building that had a lion in front of it :) We went to a whole lot of places like that.
At around 11:00 we went to the neighboring town of Jaffa. There we went to the visitors center, where we saw a show about the history of Jaffa. Then we went and ate lunch at this Mediterranean food place that was really good, with a lot of courses. Then we looked around a bit more, and went home. And I got ice cream at the train station! Yay! At home we just lazed (or I lazed, Dad had to work :( ) around for the rest of the day :) (I AM OBSESSED WITH SMILEYS YAY!!!!!!) Well I'd better go and work on school. Bye!

Saturday

Hi, everyone! Sorry I haven't written in a while, there's not been much to write about. But I thought I'd write about Saturday because it was interesting. Saturday is the Sabbath here.
I woke up at around 9:30, and promptly invited Shir over to my apartment. At around 10:00 he came over, bringing a milkie! Yay! A milkie is a dessert that is chocolate pudding with artificial whipped cream on top- oh, the artificial goodness! Shir and I played on the computer until lunch, when we went over to Shir's for lunch. In the afternoon came the really exciting part- Dad, Orit, Sleel, and I went on an hour or so long walk through the woods! And because on Friday there was the first rain of the season, it smelled so nice and everything was green... oh, it was so cool! And guess what we saw? We saw both a live and a dead coyote!!!
I was the one who spotted the live coyote. I saw something moving on top of the hill. At first I thought it was a small mammal (I really need to get new glasses), and it turned out to be a coyote scratching it's ear! It looked right at us, and then got up and slunk away. A little while along the path, I saw some white stuff under a bush which turned out to be a dead coyote's teeth! Ew, the poor thing. You know, Saturday was the first time I had ever seen a coyote. They really have a resemblance to wolves, I was surprised. We finally got home when it was just getting dark out.
Saturday was a exciting day, don't you think?

A sprained ankle, a museum, and a cat.

Hi! Guess what I did on Monday? Well... lets see here... oh, I managed to go out on the hottest day ever, trip on the curb, get scratched up, and sprain my ankle. Isn't that wonderful?

Well, it started out like this: Dad and I got up really early to try to go to the Science Museum. We got out the door and discovered- what luck?- that the Hamsin (ham-see-n), the really hot wind from across the Arabian Desert was blowing especially hard. And, before I got 10 feet from the apartment complex, I tripped and fell on the curb. My list of injuries were this:

1 bruised elbow

1 scratched-up knee,

and 1 sprained ankle.

Well, we sure wouldn't be going out that day- I could barely get to the pharmacy down the block on my bum leg. My elbow and my ankle still hurt- 2 days later! Oh, well.

So Monday we stayed home and Tuesday we went to the Science Museum... but that is another story.

P.S.- the cat in the title has nothing to do with anything, I just threw it in there for fun!

A Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Hi, peeps, sorry I haven't written in a while. Yesterday was one of the worst days in my life.
Dad and I went to the Science Museum, with a notebook to write things down in for school, and backpacks- the whole bit. We stayed there for a while, and then went to the bookstore because I had been running low on books. We got back in the afternoon 'cause Dad had to work. And when I went on the computer to Google some of the stuff that I wrote down in the notebook we discovered that I had left it!

Also, I forgot to mention that Dad's work notes were in that notebook. Dad then totally lost his temper, shouting and cursing and stuff. Don't get me wrong- he had a right to do that- he has a report to write using those notes. I, of course, was crying. He made me go out and go back to the Science Museum, which I gladly did. But I got lost on the way there, and by the time I did something about it, I was pretty much crying again! I am glad that I asked this woman walking by to show me where we were on the map because she not only did that, but she walked with me all the way there- she was very nice. You know, now that I think about it, I never got her name!

Well, eventually I did get there. I didn't find it. I was so scared about what Dad would do when I got home without it! He really scared me earlier. But everything worked out and he wasn't that mad at me after all! He apologized to me, too, and it broke my heart. It turned out that he wasn't yelling at me at all- he was yelling at himself. Yesterday was so emotionally and mentally hard on me. but today is better, and it even rained for the first time! Yay!

Well, I hope I won't be doing that again, and from now on I'll try to be careful.
Amen.

A day in the life of...ME!!!!

Part 1
On a normal weekday, I usually wake up at around 9:30. I get dressed, have breakfast, and start school (Ugh...). I usually do my blog and anything else that can be done on the computer first. This usually takes about 2 hours. Then I do my math for 1 hour or so. By now, it is probably around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Then Dad and I go over my work, and I either have some down time, or we go out to the beach or downtown.
In the evening I take a shower, write in my diary, play my flute, and anything else that has to be done. Then I do more of whatever I want. Lastly, I go to bed at around 10:00 or so. That is what I usually do on a weekday, if I'm not out at Jerusalem or something.

Part 2
On a normal weekend, I get up at around 10:00 or so. I get dressed and have breakfast. By that time Shir has usually called about 5 times to see if I could play, so I go and play with him for most of the morning. Sometimes I have lunch over at Roni and Amnon's house, too. In the afternoon I usually go home and do whatever.
In the evening I again take a shower, write in my diary, play my flute, and anything else that has to be done. I also call my BFF Kali and talk for a couple hours. I go to bed at around 10:00. That is a normal weekday in my life.

~I know, I know, this is an incredibly cruddy and short post, I'm sorry but I was bored and don't want to do math quite yet...

Jerusalem 2

Yesterday, (Halloween, except that they don't celebrate Halloween here) Mom, Dad, and I went to Jerusalem. There is a two-hour bus ride to Jerusalem, during which I read my book Dune, which I highly recommend.

When we got to Jerusalem, it was "wow" all over again. After you got past the Jaffa Gate, there was a road. The entrance to the alleys and the shops was narrow, though I don't see why. Once you go into the opening, you enter a world of color and sound. It is so nice, although everything was overpriced. I was hoping to buy Christmas presents there, but Dad said to wait until we got to the night market in Thailand where everything is really cheap. So if you do get a present from me, it might be a little late- sorry.

We walked around for almost the whole day in Jerusalem, from around 10:00am to 6:00pm. (I got to see the kitty that I met last time! She was so cute!) I saw The Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was originally built by the mother of Emperor Constantine in 330 A.D. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher commemorates the hill of crucifixion and the tomb of Christ's burial. It is so dark and gloomy, just like I imagined a church would be like. It was all made of stone, with these beautiful murals on the walls and altars and stuff.

We also went to the Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb is believed by many to be the garden and sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea, and therefore a possible site of the resurrection of Jesus. It is a quiet place preserved for worship and reflection. There are lots of trees and flowers planted there, and so many birds that it sounds like a rainforest-except the weather is cooler.

Lastly we went to the Western (Wailing) Wall. The Western Wall is the retaining wall of the Second Temple, the only part of it left since it's destruction. The Jews go there to pray and relieve their sorrows. The tradition is to write a wish on a scrap of paper and put it in the cracks on the Wall. The young girl next to me at the Wall was reading in her prayerbook and crying. I cried, too. I also wrote a poem about it:

It holds the people's hopes
and the people's dreams.

It holds sorrow,
hope, and anger.

It holds the prayers of people
from many generations,
of many countries.

It is what the people depend on
to help them.

It is what they cry on,
and thank if they're prayers
are answered.

It's name
is the Western Wall.