Thanksgiving in Be'er Sheva, Israel

Thanksgiving, of course, is a purely American holiday, but as we are far from friends and family back home, it was important to Dawn to have Thanksgiving here. So, each of us invited a few people. I invited three friends from the German Studies Center, and Dawn invited our next door neighbors, math department advisor, another professor, and Zach, another post-doc. A few people weren't able to make it. Including Dawn and myself, there were seven of us: Ilan, Daniel, Sonja, Nadine, Zach, Dawn, and me. We had trouble finding turkey, so instead we had chicken. Also, Dawn was afraid that if we did have turkey, it wouldn't fit in our rather small oven. Rather than pumpkin pie, we had squash pie, but I couldn't tell the difference myself. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, chicken, and deviled eggs as an appetizer. Nadine brought a yummy tuna salad-tomato appetizer, and Sonja brought an amazing Greek salad. Unfortunately, none of the pictures really show good close-ups of the food. Daniel is pictured in the left-most photo, followed by Ilan. Zach is in the bottom photo. Everyone seemed to have a good time, with lots of laughing and talking. Even without music, fun was had by all. Dawn also made an apple pie, so we had both apple and "pumpkin" (squash) pie! Yumm!!

Hebrew Ulpan at BGU

An "ulpan" is the Hebrew word for an intensive course in Hebrew to bring prospective immigrants or long term residents up to speed on the official language of Israel. Actually, Israel has two official languages, Hebrew and Arabic, but according to our teacher, and according to what I've seen, most non-Arabs do not take learning Arabic all that seriously. She told us that young people are much more likely to know English than they are to know Arabic.

Our first class was Sunday, November 16th. Classes meet on Sunday and Wednesday evenings from 5-8 pm. This is less than a traditional ulpan outside the university, which generally meets 5 days a week, for 4 to 5 hours a day. I was very impressed with our teacher, "Mrs. Hannah". She was born in Argentina, and moved to Israel 41 years ago. I would guess she's somewhere in her low to mid 60s, and I believe her claim that she has lots of experience teaching non-natives Hebrew. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and Hebrew, and also knows some Russian. I was quite impressed. She didn't do anything fancy, but the 3 hours went by quite quickly. We learned how to say Hello, my name is.., what's your name, etc.., as well as the expression for to like or not like something, that we are learning Hebrew, and that we speak any number of languages. In my case, that would be Anglit (English) and Germanit (German). The class has about 20 students, many from Russia or Ukraine, and also from Thailand, China, Canada, Peru, and of course, the U.S. We did not have class Wednesday evening, as Hannah told us that her grandson had just been born 4 days ago, and the 8th day is the traditional day for the circumcision ceremony, barring any medical complications that postpone the circumcision. Wednesday happened to be that day.

In a future post, I'll try to list some Hebrew phrases. The hard part is going to be not the speaking, but the writing, as not only do they write from right to left, instead of left to right like Europeans, Americans, and many others, but the Hebrew alphabet is a series of lines, dots, curves, and dashes. The alphabet has 22 letters. I have my work cut out from me, but it will be great if I can say something other than "Anglit??" or "Shalom" (Hello) or "Todah!" (Thanks!).

Update on Life in Be'er Sheva

Most of our time is spent here in Be'er Sheva, not on the go, as previous posts might suggest. On a daily basis, Dawn works diligently to solve vexing theoretical mathematical problems, while I do several things such as tutor English, volunteer in the German Studies Center on the BGU campus, and work as a volunteer on promoting a magazine called Young Voices, which is the idea of an 83 year old American-Israeli Jew, Sam Silver, to be written in English by teenagers in Israel. In the German Studies Center, I am helping with the preparations involved in annotating a German-language European edition of Stefan Zweig's Die Welt von Gestern (The World of Yesterday).

Next week, when the semester finally starts (a strike by the faculty last year delayed both the end of the previous academic year and the start of this year), I begin a twice-weekly, three hour per class, Hebrew course on the campus of Ben Gurion University. Dawn and I also had the good fortune to recently find a Bible Study group, largely made up of med school students here at BGU, and all native speakers of English. Slowly but surely, we are coming into our own.

Pictures of Mitzpe Romon Crater

Pictures of Mitzpe Romon Crater (See post titled "Ben Gurion's home, Avdat, Mitzpe Romon Crater)...

Ben Gurion's home, Avdat, Mitzpe Romon Crater

Monday, November 3rd, was our last full day with our rental car. Once again, we headed out about 8:30 am, heading south on Highway 40, the highway that winds its way through the desert from Be'er Sheva to Eilat on the southern coast. Highway 90 (See Dead Sea and Masada Post) is straighter, but that requires driving 1 hour east before turning south, and we weren't going all the way to Eilat anyway, just about half way, to Mitzpe Romon. First, we stopped after about 60 km. at Ben Gurion's home in Sde Boker. It is here that he "retired" to this kibbutz in the middle of the Negev desert. Even at nearly 80 years old in 1963, he insisted on working beside the laborers for 4 hours every morning. David Ben Gurion is the namesake of Ben Gurion University, among other things. He was both Israel's first prime minister, and also Defense Minister, serving from 1949-1953, and after a 2 year self-imposed sabbatical to recuperate from the stress of the job, came back, serving for another 8 years, from 1955-1963. He died at the age of 87 in 1973. His dream was that Israel's future lies in the Negev, which covers 2/3 or more of Israel's land area, yet comprises less than 10% of Israel's population. His read voraciously, as his library on his homestead demonstrates. He and his wife also lived very modestly. No pictures were allowed inside the house, unfortunately, so I can't show what it looked like. There was a living room, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, only one of which had a bathtub, and his library/office. He and his wife slept in separate rooms. His will decreed that the house remain exactly as he had left it, but Israel has added an adjacent museum, and, further away, a very small gift shop and wine tasting room. Surrounding the homestead is the active Kibbutz.

Next, we stopped at Ben Gurion and his wife's tomb, less than 5 km. further south, which afforded magnificent views of the surrounding countryside, as well as numerous ibexes, antelope-like animals. Then, we continued another 20 km. or so to Avdat National Park, the ancient Nabotean town, taken over in the 3rd century CE by the Romans, and repopulated briefly by the Byzantines from the 5th-7th centuries. It is an amazing site, one of several inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site which mark the ancient Spice Route from Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea at Gaza. It includes ruins of 2 Byzantine era churches, which have been determined to have been monostaries as well, a Roman fortress, remains of foundations of houses, a Roman watch tower, and several caves, as well as a burial ground, and the ruins of a Roman villa. Seeing everything requires the better part of a day. We were there about 2 hours.

Finally, we drove another 20 km. or so south to the Crater at Mitzpe Romon. This crater is an ancient inland sea, now dry, that is some 35 km. long by 25 km. wide. I imagine it is similar to the Grand Canyon, though I've never been there. An excellent Visitors Center offers outstanding views of the crater, as well as displays and a short film in English. After leaving the Visitors Center, we drove another 5 km. down into the crater and climbed up for another vantage point from the Carpenter's Trail, so named because the stones sort of look like 2x4 pieces of wood sticking straight up. Dawn's goal was to watch the sun setting, which we achieved, setting out for our return trip to Be'er Sheva at 5 pm, which was now 100 km. to the north and a 1 hr. 15 minute drive back.

Back in Be'er Sheva, we enjoyed excellent hamburgers at an American style hamburger place at BIG, the local strip mall of gigantic proportions. (Black's Burgers is not fast food, but premium burgers, a little like Fuddrucker's, but without the do-it-yourself toppings. We had a choice of 5 or so sauces to put on our burgers (ketchup, mustard, BBQ, Thousand Island, Chipotle), and added fried onions to our burgers as well as the standard fixins. No cheeseburgers, of course, though! I had a spinach-walnut-beef burger called a Green Burger. Huge!

Bedouin Museum and Tel Be'er Sheva National Park

On Sunday, November 2, 2008, after heading downtown to pay my 100 NIS ($28) parking ticket (See "Driving in Israel is an Adventure"), we packed a picnic lunch and drove north 18 km. to the turnoff for Lahav and the Joe Alon Center (Bedouin Museum). Joe Alon was an Israeli Air Force colonel and the Israeli military's attache in Washington, D.C. when he was mysteriously murdered outside his Annapolis home in 1973. He was a pilot of great renown, and was instrumental in founding Hatzerim Air Force Base, just outside Be'er Sheva, though he was not a Bedouin at all, but immigrated to Israel from Czechoslovakia. The complex has several small museums, but only the introductory film, main museum building, and the Jewish National Fund exhibit were open, which was a disappointment, as there was no discount in admission, which was 25 NIS ($7) per person. The gift shop, art museum, and cave museum were all closed, or in the case of the cave museum, did not have the lights on. The Bedouin Museum however, was extremely interesting, and displays were described in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. There were displays showing a traditional Bedouin camp, Bedouin home, Bedouin dress, and Bedouin camels, among other things.

Next, we stopped at Tel Be'er Sheva National Park on our way back home. We were both tired, but I thought it might be tough to get there with the bus. Highway 60 that the bus takes to Metar is 3 km. from the national park. As it turns out, touring the ruins of Tel Be'er Sheva, the ancient town prior to the current Be'er Sheva, and the disputed site of Abraham's well (Some claim it is the well in downtown Be'er Sheva, while others claim it was the one at Tel Be'er Sheva, 4-6 km. to the north), only took about an hour. The 70 m. deep well and the accompanying passages that served as cisterns were very impressive. The settlement there stretches back many thousands of years.

Masada and the Dead Sea

On Saturday, November 1st (after a day to "recuperate" from the Sea of Galilee and Nazareth adventures), we left Be'er Sheva around 9 am and drove towards the Dead Sea. At Highway 90, which borders the Dead Sea and runs from Jerusalem all the way down to Eilat, Israel's southernmost city, we turned south for 10 km., to the site of Lot's Wife, a pillar of salt (or several pillars) just off the highway. Next, we made our way to Masada, the legendary fortress palace built by King Herod (reigned 37 BCE-4 BCE), and inhabited by the Jewish Zealots during their last stand against a Roman legion some 15,000 strong in 73 AD. The mountaintop is much larger than one first expects. We only covered about half of the area (but 2/3 to 3/4 of the sites) in the 2 hours or so we were on the mountaintop. I thought it was fantastic, but to Dawn, all the ruins started to look the same after an hour or so. Most impressive were the elaborate cool, tepid, and hot bathhouses Herod had constructed. It was amazing to stand at the point were the Romans breached the nearly impenetrable fortress, and imagine that yes, at this point the slope wasn't quite as steep, and they could put their ramp up to the gates. At first, however, the wind blew the fire the Romans were trying to set to the gates towards the Romans, but as fate would have it, the wind switched from a northerly (hurting the Romans) to a southerly direction and the Zealots knew that the next morning at daybreak, the fortress would be breached. It was then that they committed mass suicide, rather than submit to a life of slavery under the Romans. Some 970 Zealots perished. The last 10 men left drew lots to see who would kill the other nine first, before turning the sword on himself. The men had already killed their wives and children. Pottery shards with their names have been found and are thought to be the "lots." Today, the newest inductees into the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) swear an oath here that, "Masada shall not fall again."

I can also say that I too "fell" at Masada, as I fell and skinned a knee on the concrete at the top of the mountain. Later, at En Gedi, where Dawn tried her hand at swimming in the Dead Sea, I realized that I had forgotten my bathing suit, and reflected that that was OK, because I did not want the Dead Sea water with a 30% salinity (instead of the normal 3% salinity of ocean water) to touch my cut knee or my cut fingers (from chopping vegetables earlier in the week). I entertained myself watching Dawn and a large group of 20 something German tourists float in the Dead Sea, and looking through the pictures of the last several days.

An amazing fact about Masada: The Roman legion, 15,000 strong, laid siege to Masada for 8 months before determining that the Zealots had too much food and water to wait it out any longer, and they would instead attempt to attack. Evidently, the supply lines fortifying the Roman legion took a great amount of resources!

Nazareth, Thursday, October 30, 2008

We checked out and left our hotel at about 9 am on Thursday. When we got into Nazareth, it was difficult to find our way to the downtown area without a map of the city, at 70-80,000, about the size of Kalamazoo, Michigan, my hometown. But with Dawn's navigational help, we found our way to the Church of the Annunciation. The murals, from countries all over the world, were the most impressive for me. Also, we saw part of a Mass taking place when we were there. The Church of the Annunciation is built over the site where the Angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would give birth to Jesus. One hundred yards or so from the Church of the Annunciatin is the Church of St. Joseph. This small church was also a moving experience for me, as there were paintings of Jesus with Joseph and Mary as a boy of about 11 or 12 years old, and of Joseph as he lay dying with Mary and Jesus at his side. After a stop at a couple shops to get (guess what?) more postcards and a gift for Hector, as well as the Tourist Info, where we got the long sought after Nazareth map, we made our way back to the car and had a hodge podge lunch from our snack foods and leftovers from our previous day's meal. At 2 pm, we headed for home, not thinking how bad Tel Aviv would be at 4 pm, but wanting to get through Tel Aviv before dark. Suffice to say, we arrived safely back in Be'er Sheva around 6 pm.

Circling the Sea of Galilee

On Tuesday, October 28th, I picked up our rental car in Be'er Sheva and we headed for Tiberias. It was after 11:30 am when we left Be'er Sheva. Dawn's supervisor had told her there were 2 options to get to Tiberias after leaving Tel Aviv, one way by going part way up the coast and cutting across on a diagonal to Nazareth, and one by staying on the expressway along the Mediterranean as far as Haifa, and then going east to Nazareth from Haifa. We chose to go through Haifa, which was a mistake, because the expressway turned into the main street through Haifa (not apparent from the map) and became a very slow affair. By the time we got to Nazareth, I just wanted to find our hotel in Tiberias and save the Church of the Annunciation for our return trip to Be'er Sheva on Thursday. This, in fact, is what we did, although we did drive past the church going through town. Nazareth is not built for the amount of tourist traffic it has, which made it almost as stressful as Tel Aviv during Rush Hour on Thursday. (In fairness, I did not think about Rush Hour when we left Nazareth Thursday at 2 pm, because I wanted to find our way through Tel Aviv before it got dark at 5 pm). I think I'll choose the darkness next time.

In any case, we found our hotel, the Berger, in Tiberias, just before it was completely dark on Tuesday. The owner of the hotel showed us to a large room with a balcony on the 3rd (top) floor of the hotel. This is a budget hotel recommendation of Frommer's and we recommend it to anyone not wishing to spend $300 per night at the hotels on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, or the Waterfront Promenade, as it is called in Tiberias. We paid 250 NIS per night, including breakfast (about $65 per night). The owner said the best restaurants were a 15-20 minute walk down to the waterfront, but as we were tired, he recommended a very good pizza place 2 blocks from the hotel. It was great, as cheese, milk, and dairy products are expensive here, and we seem to crave cheese and milk. When I get back to the U.S., I'm going to have lots of milk and ice cream!

On Wednesday, we drove around the circumference of the Sea of Galilee beginning in the north, stopping at the Mt. of Beatitudes, where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, first. It was very beautiful, but filled with tourists, especially Germans. We kept pace with a German tour group throughout the first part of our day, and I was able to listen in once in a while. Prices at the gift shop were in U.S. dollars, and they gave us a poor exchange rate for our schekels. I had some dollars in Be'er Sheva, but who knew I would need them in Israel? Recommendation: Buy only a couple postcards here. Souvenirs are cheapest at Taghba (Church of the Loaves and Fishes Miracle).

The mosaics at the Church of the Loaves and Fishes are really cool. After stopping there, we drove to Capernaum, where Peter lived, and Jesus attended synagogue there. The church in Capernaum has seating in the round, with a glass floor in the center with the ruins of Peter's house directly below it. Then, we stopped at Kursi National Park, were Jesus made the demons go into the swine, who then drowned themselves in the Sea of Galilee. Next, we stopped at En Gev Kibbutz and Fish Restaurant for the famous St. Peter's Fish, caught fresh in the Sea of Galilee. Even though we asked for our fish without the head, Dawn was still turned off by the appearance. (It looked like a fish, with skin and tail). It was expensive (about $20), but the fish and the sides were excellent. Our meal came with cole slaw, pita bread, and potato or sweet potato. We even had a seat next to the water!

After lunch, we continued driving around the lake after buying yet more postcards. After a brief stop at the Tourist Information on the south side of the Sea, we stopped at Yardenit, where Jesus was baptized by John. For me, this stop was the most spiritually moving of all the stops we made. The water was calm, the trees and the Jordan River were beautiful. The rain had stopped. People were entering the water to bless or baptize themselves with the white, nightgown length T-shirts provided for rent for $10 from the gift shop. We did not rent shirts, but Dawn went in the water up to her ankles, and I dipped my hands in. After leaving, we returned to Tiberias and walked along the Waterfront Promenade just before sunset. Dawn made her way down to the shore to touch the (dirty) waters of the Sea of Galilee.

Driving in Israel is an Adventure

During our recent trip, we rented a car for one week. In an effort to keep this blog appropriate and family friendly, I will just say that, upon reflection, Israeli drivers are aggressive and self-centered. Fortunately, I upgraded to a car with automatic transmission, so I did not have to simultaneously master a manual transmission and drive safely. With this post, I will include a couple pictures of our car, a Peugeot 206. The seats were not comfortable for several hours of driving, but the gas mileage was outstanding, and the trunk area was roomier than the pictures suggest.

Back to Israeli drivers: 1. They love to honk! If they think you are not leaving the stoplight fast enough, not driving fast enough, or just feel like you're in their way, they honk. 2. They tailgate. Some of this can be attributed to the short areas in which to pass on a 2 lane road. If you move to one side or the other to show them the line of cars in front of you, they are somewhat appeased, but even when I could see 12 cars ahead of me on a straightaway, a car or two would pull out to pass and get past me and perhaps the car in front of me, before darting in again. 3. Police and ambulances with sirens on and lights flashing are paid almost no heed. One example that really got my blood boiling: I was waiting to turn left (actually, to make a U-Turn to head back to the highway I had missed) and an ambulance was weaving its way through cars stopped at the light in the other direction. If I had turned left OR made a U-Turn when the green arrow came, I would have driven directly in front of the ambulance. So, I waited, and got honked at for not moving when the light turned green. I motioned my arm towards the ambulance less than 100 yards away and the driver put 2+2 together. Another time, during Rush Hour in Tel Aviv, I let a car zipper onto the highway in front of me, but the car behind him tried to get in as well, even though he was even or a little bit behind my car!

So, my advice is this: 1. Don't get bent out of shape 2. Show the other driver why you are not driving faster than you are (e.g. by pulling slightly to the right to let them see the traffic), or 3. Let them pass. The problem with letting them pass though, is that there are always more cars, so as long as I was traveling as fast as the vehicles in front of me, I usually stayed put. 4. Pay attention to signs noting curves ahead, especially yellow signs that say "dangerous curves." Israelis are serious with their switchback curves, especially on the road from Be'er Sheva to the Dead Sea. 5. Never drive faster because of someone behind you. There is always a crazy trying to pass you and the 11 cars in front of you on the short straight aways. 6. Always pay the parking meter! It doesn't matter if it's broken or not. If it is broken, find another place to park where the meter does work. Fortunately, my Be'er Sheva parking ticket was only 100 NIS ($28).