Josh and Dawn in Israel

2010-05-31 More Peter Pictures

2010-06-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Peter Donald Archey, born April 10, 2010

2010-04-20T02:58:00.000-07:00

On April 10, 2010 at approximately 8 pm IDT (Israeli Daylight Time), our son Peter was born. See pictures here.

Peter Donald Archey Born 10 April 2010

Josh's World Travel Blog

2010-04-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

For up to date information on the latest in air travel, please see my dedicated blog for that purpose:

http://makingairtravelfunagain.blogspot.com

Josh

Still waiting for Baby

2010-04-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Dawn is three days overdue and we are still waiting for Baby.

Getting Ready for Baby

2010-03-05T06:44:00.001-08:00

Dawn returned a few days after I did from the U.S. Once she was over her jet lag, final planning for our son's arrival began in earnest. We are now nearing the end of our pre-birthing classes with the doula who will help Dawn and me through labor and delivery. We have read many books (Dawn in particular) and watched several birthing and labor videos together. We have a bag packed for the trip to the hospital. I am nearing the end of the third round of revisions to my MA thesis. Hopefully, the third time's the charm.

The upcoming week will be extremely busy. My advisor is organizing a conference that will happen this coming week, 30 Years of German-Jewish Studies, and we meet Sarah, our doula, for a fourth and final pre-birth session. Dawn will also be doing a technological on campus interview over two consecutive days with a university back home. We are less than a month away from the due date (April 4th).

Jetting Around the World

2010-03-05T06:16:00.001-08:00

Well, only a third of the way around the world... Less than two weeks after our trip to northern Israel, Dawn left for the AMS / MAA Joint Meetings in San Francisco, where she had several preliminary interviews and gave a short math talk January 13th-16th. Then, it was off to Lewis Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho for an on campus interview. Having already changed her ticket to fly back to Israel from Idaho, she then decided to extend her trip again in order to have the chance for more on campus interviews, should they arise. She concluded that she would not be able to fly back to the U.S. for more interviews later in the calendar before the baby is born.

Dawn also had a preliminary interview with Valparaiso University (Indiana) on campus in the week or two that followed. Since she had extended her trip a second time, I ended up leaving on my own trip to the States before she returned. I attended MIT's European Career Fair Jan. 29th and 30th in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Though I did not receive any interviews (most companies were looking for scientists or engineers), I was impressed by how many companies from German-speaking countries were represented.

During my three and a half days in the Boston area, I re-connected with friends from high school and college. A great time was had by all, but I didn't have my camera with me on all the occasions that I wanted to. Oh well. Bright (or dark?) and early on Jan. 31st, I headed for Boston Logan International once again, planning to surprise my grandma with a brief visit to her and Richard in Huntsville, Alabama. Richard forgot that it was to be a surprise though, and asked her Saturday evening if she knew I was coming. Still, they were both happy to see me, and we enjoyed a wonderful church potluck and old fashioned southern hymn sing at Richard's church Sunday evening after my arrival. I also took the opportunity to begin catching up on my sleep.

Monday I visited with Grandma, Richard, and the breakfast bunch (Grandma's Somerby, errr... Brookdale Place friends) and prepared for my return to Israel. The requisite Target trip was made, to buy some necessities that are either unavailable in Israel or prohibitively more expensive, in preparation for our son's arrival. Then it was early to bed for my early return flight to Boston to catch my international flights from Boston back to Israel. I had built in plenty of time, but my jet lag started to show in Boston, when I forgot to ensure my frequent flier number was added to my itinerary. In all, four flights later and twenty four hours after leaving Huntsville, I arrived back in Tel Aviv and took the train to Be'er Sheva. What a whirlwind six days! (I arrived in Boston Wednesday, flew to Huntsville Sunday, and returned to Israel from Huntsville Tuesday, arriving back in Israel Wednesday).

New Year's in Haifa and northern Israel

2010-01-13T04:12:00.000-08:00

Over the New Year's weekend, Dawn and I went on a "Babymoon" to Haifa and northern Israel for 3 nights. We toured the National Science Museum in Haifa, where Josh also saw the Body Worlds exhibition. We also toured the impressive Bahai Gardens, terraced gardens in the middle of Haifa spreading up the western slope of Mt. Carmel. I think the gardens are more impressive as a whole than when you are walking in them, but maybe if you didn't have to go down 700 steps just to go from the top level to the middle level, more attention could be paid to the garden itself. We were with a large group as well. Nonetheless, the gardens are beautiful. We also visited Stella Maris Monastery, near Elijah's Cave, and returned to sea level via the cable car at sunset. Beautiful. On our last day, we took the train to Akko (Acre) and toured the underground Crusader city and a mosque built by "the Butcher," the cruel Ottoman ruler in Akko of the late 1700s. Akko was the Crusaders most important port during the Crusades, and the city was successfully defended (with British assistance at sea) from Napoleon's attempted invasion in 1799.

From Akko, we took the bus to Nahariya, and a taxi from there to the grottoes at Rosh Hanikra, on the Mediterranean coast and the border with Lebanon. During the British Mandate period, a train line went from Europe through Palestine to Egypt. During Israel's War of Independence, the tunnel was sealed by Jewish resistance fighters of the Hagana Brigade. The grottoes themselves were narrow with low ceilings and there is definitely the potential to get wet, especially if the winds pick up. One of the rock formations looks like an elephant trunk.

We stayed at St. Charles Guest House, also known as the German Guest House, run by an order of Catholic nuns, who are amazing. The guest house has a large garden with benches and numerous orange trees. We even had fresh squeezed orange juice!

It's a Boy!!!

2009-12-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Dawn found out at her comprehensive ultrasound this week that we will have a boy! We are happy to know what we are having, though we both agree that what we most want is a healthy baby. We also toured the local hospital, Soroka Regional Medical Center, the major medical center for all of southern Israel. More babys are born at Soroka than at any other hospital in Israel. We were pleasantly surprised. Depending on when the baby comes, they may or may not have their new maternity ward open. It is slated to open in late March or early April, and will feature all private rooms. Our new arrival will land on or around April 4, 2010 (Easter Sunday).

Getting Her Kicks

2009-11-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

Dawn felt the baby kick, or punch, or something similar, yesterday for the first time! She said it felt like being elbowed from the inside. We're still waiting to find out if it will be a boy or a girl. An ultrasound is scheduled in about a week. Thanksgiving party planning is underway. It will be a joint party with our new American-Israeli neighbors. They have a two year old named Zowie. I had a productive day yesterday writing on my thesis (over 5 pages) and hope to have another one today.

Another Country Heard From...literally

2009-10-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

During late September and October, Dawn and I had the chance to return home to visit our families and attend the wedding of Dawn's sister Ruth and her fiance (now husband!) Hector. It was a beautiful wedding, and we were honored to both be part of the bridal party, Dawn as Matron of Honor, and me as a groomsman. There was even a rainbow after a brief rain shower on the way from the wedding to the reception!

We also enjoyed spending time with friends in and around Eugene, Oregon, and I had the chance to visit some good friends in Austin, Texas for a day or two, including my best friend during my elementary school years, Mark.

Dawn and I also embarked upon our "Grandmothers Tour 2009" and enjoyed spending time with each of our grandmas and our extended family. At the end of our 9 day "tour", we had been from Michigan to Chicago to Alabama and back again, with over 1500 miles driven! We also enjoyed a fun afternoon and late lunch with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, who all converged on the Lansing area for a great get together. Thanks to all the aunts and uncles who hosted us overnight on our trip, and to our friends in Eugene and Austin for providing a place to stay during our visits!!

Finally, we began planning in earnest for our new arrival, with shopping for baby items and strategizing on what we would need and wouldn't need over in Israel. Many thanks to our parents, especially Dawn's mother, for her tireless efforts on our behalf to help prepare us for our new adventure! Besides the USA, another country will be heard from along about April 2010 when our new bundle of joy arrives!

If you would like to hear more about our adventures in the U.S., please e-mail me.

October 2009

2009-10-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

No travels to report in Israel over the last couple months. Check back in another month for more!

Israel 08/19/09, by Joshua Archey

2009-08-19T10:47:00.001-07:00

I'd like to share my York photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

MA Thesis is Drafted!

2009-08-11T00:42:00.001-07:00

After my parents returned to the U.S., and I had recovered enough from our adventures to continue working, I set to work on finishing the draft of my MA thesis, which will become the first chapter of my dissertation on the Thesis make-up track. (I did the non thesis option at the University of Oregon, hence the need for an MA thesis). By August 2nd, I was up to page 37, from page 17 when my parents arrived for their 2 week visit. By Sunday, August 9th,I had reached the end: page 51! Now, the draft has been sent to my advisor for review. Next up is a 10 page paper for my advisor's seminar, Contemporary Topics in Literature. After that, it's back to the dissertation.

Meanwhile, the med school student led Bible Study is slowly getting going again. Nadine, a good friend from Germany I worked with in the German Studies Center is back in town for the 6 week Deutsche Sommer Universitaet. Our Austrian friend Sonja, meanwhile, is preparing to leave us to return to Austria, after spending the last two years in Be'er Sheva at the university teaching German. Last night, we enjoyed a farewell dinner in her honor at Pitput, a nice but overpriced restaurant in the BIG shopping complex. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring our camera along!

Pictures of vacation with Josh's parents

2009-07-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

See the slideshow here (the first half dozen pictures are from our friend Bryanna's birthday party):

July 2009 Update, Josh's parents visit

2009-07-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the long lapse in communication. My Hebrew class ended June 28th, followed immediately by the arrival of my parents for a 2 week visit. They left late Monday night and arrived back in Kalamazoo last night. I worked very hard in the weeks leading up to their arrival on my dissertation, and after a 2 week "vacation", I need to get back to work. The Graduate School is moving offices this week, to where I don't know, and my advisor and I are once again confused by what I do and do not need to do as far as a make-up MA thesis on the road to the dissertation. I also have a 10 page seminar paper I need to write within the next month, in addition to the end of August deadline set by the Grad School for submitting what I need to submit. We have also had to say goodbye to several friends in the Medical School here who headed back to the U.S. after completing their 3rd year of med school. They'll be back in January, and in the meantime, we wish them well on their rotations around the U.S. The 4th years celebrated graduation in May, and are now also gone from Be'er Sheva. Friends of ours, David, a 3rd year med school student, and his wife Daria gave birth to 6.8 pound Lily Danielle, and will also be heading back to the U.S. in the near future. Our other friends are also in a period of transition, as Andreas, a post-doc in chemistry from South Africa, whose parents emigrated there from Austria, is spending 6 weeks this summer at Stonybrook in New York. Sonja will br returning home to Vienna in August. Nadine will come back to Israel from Germany for a 6 week Ulpan (language course in Hebrew) in August and September.

The following is a brief overview of my parents 2 week visit:

5 nights in Tel Aviv, during which time they recovered from jetlag, toured Old Jaffa, and visited Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, we explored the Mt. of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Church of Mary Magdalene, Church of the Holy Sepulhere, and the Western Wall. Dad did not enjoy driving or parking in Jerusalem...next time, the bus!

2 nights in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee: Visited Mt. of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Galilee Boat, Jordan River Baptismal site, and the ruins of Jewish Korazim, chastised by Jesus in the Bible.

3 nights in Be'er Sheva. Toured the Old City, showed them around the university, did laundry, took Dad to the Israeli Air Force Museum.

3 nights in the Sinai peninsula of Egypt. Stopped at the Dead Sea on the way down to Eilat. It was very hot. The wind felt like a heater blowing on high. We took a day tour to St. Catherine's monastery and Mt. Sinai. Enjoyed the pools at the hotel, and on the last morning, Dawn took me out to the coral reefs. (The hotel had a beach on the Red Sea.) Saw a spectacular sea green fish, almost fluoresent, a purple and yellow fish, and a school of little white fishes. I also finished my 900 page Tom Clancy novel during these 2 weeks, Rainbow Six.

1 last night in Be'er Sheva. Stopped in Mitzpe Ramon Crater on the way back. Parents packed, napped, and showered ahead of their 24 hour journey back to Michigan. 2 airlines, 3 changes of planes (because they stopped to visit friends in Germany on the way to Israel, they had to return through Germany).

I will post the link to the vacation photos on Picassa when available.

May 2009 Update

2009-05-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well, life continues here pretty much at a steady, predictable pace. I finished the last (for now) of the stack of books I had collected (about twice as many as I started out with in April), around 10 for those who are keeping track, and was able to create an outline for my dissertation today AND write two and a half pages, all in one day (the book was finished yesterday)! Hooray!! There was a nice potluck and Bible Study last night at Vina's. Bryanna read from a book that was titled something along the lines of "The Final Conflict", which deals with a battle between God's Army and the forces of Satan. It reminded me of what I have read of Revelations, yet have yet to finish. Then we played a name game where evenly divided teams were handed out little pieces of paper with our name on them in random order and the goal was to get one team off the couch and your team on the couch by remembering who had what name. (Every time you called a name, you switched cards with the person who held the name you called on their card). The group met on Wednesday night because of the Shavuot holiday that started today. Shavuot marks 7*7, or 49 days, since the end of Passover, and is evidently the last holiday for quite some time (Maybe even September?). I'll have to check. The weather has cooled off to a more comfortable range this week after being in the mid-90s most of last week. One more month of Hebrew class left to go. As much as I struggle (and a good part of the blame must fall on me for putting my dissertation ahead of spending more hours learning Hebrew/doing homework), I have come a long way since November.

Dawn is currently presenting at 2 conferences in Canada and the U.S., COSY (Canadian Operators Symposium) in Regina, Saskatchewan, and GPOTS (Great Plains Operator Theorists Symposium) in Boulder, CO. I hope her talks go well. Recently, she found out that one of her papers was accepted for publication in the Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics. Hopefully, she will receive similarly good news with the second paper she submitted, though the approval process usually takes several months.

Finally, I have been enjoying the NBA playoffs online at NBA.com. (I paid for a subscription, I was in such basketball withdrawal). Unfortunately, the two teams I have little to no interest in, the LA Lakers and the Orlando Magic, look poised to head to the NBA Finals. Oh well, whatever happens, it should make for exciting games. The first four games of the conference finals (2 Western, 2 Eastern were separated by a combined 7 points!!! (Two one point games (Cleveland-Orlando), a two point game, and a three point game (LA-Denver). Hopefully Denver can come back and win their series, but in reality, I expect an LA-Orlando NBA Finals. Cleveland has almost no chance at this point.

Pictures from Germany Trip

2009-05-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

Please see the following link:

Germany and Israeli Independence Day

(The first several pictures are from Easter egg coloring with Dawn and her student Hannah, and Dawn's aborted trip to the zoo with Hannah and her family, which ended up at the Negev Brigade Monument). Pictures then follow in chronological order, beginning at Tel Aviv Airport (refer to post on trip to Germany for specifics).

Dissertation Update

2009-05-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

Since I returned from Germany, I have been busily reading and brainstorming on my doctoral thesis. The Berlin conference (see previous post) gave me several intriguing ideas to pursue. Following a meeting yesterday, Thursday, May 7th, with my advisor, I am happy to report that I now have a topic! It still deals with Stefan Zweig's novellas and novels, but now it is more concrete.

Specifically, I will be researching Stefan Zweig's philosopy of freedom as expressed across several of his novels and novellas, and comparing them to the views of some of his contemporaries, probably including Rudolf Steiner. For those that are wondering what books they should read of Stefan Zweig's, I recommend:

Clarissa
The Royal Game (or Chess Story) Original: Schachnovelle
The Post Office Girl (published for the first time in English in 2008) Original: Rausch der Verwandlung

Trip to Germany April 15th-26th, 2009

2009-05-08T04:32:00.000-07:00

OK, I've been slacking off on the blog. I'm trying to focus on research to get as far as I can in the PhD before we leave Israel in August 2010. I was also in Germany for 11 days in April.

On Wednesday, April 15th, I flew to Germany to visit friends, and most importantly, attend an international Stefan Zweig conference co-organized by my PhD advisor along with another Dr. from the university in Potsdam. What followed was an exhausting yet rejuvenating 11 1/2 days. I took the train to Kaiserslautern when I arrived in Frankfurt, and spent 3 relaxing nights (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) in Rodenbach, the village near Ramstein Air Base where I lived with my family from 1983 to 1986. Peter and Edith, the couple with whose son Marco, I went to kindergarten with, were wonderful hosts as usual. I also saw Heiner and Ilse, another couple who are good friends of my family's. It rained most of the time, but I was able to get a fair amount of Hebrew done and rest for a change.

On Saturday, April 18th, I took the train from Kaiserslautern to Augsburg to visit Sabine and her boyfriend "Sigi" (Sigfried). Sabine and I met during my junior year study abroad in Erlangen in 2000-01. On Sunday, they took me to the cloister of Oberschoenenfeld where some 21 nuns still reside, along with a restuarant, a religious-themed gift shop, and a beutiful 1700s era church. Also on the site is an 18th century recreation of a straw-roofed house. We also visited Sabine's parents nearby on their beautiful old farmhouse in the country.

On Sunday evening, April 19th, I left Augsburg for Erlangen, where I stayed the next 2 nights at Christina Hein's, one of the tutors from our junior year program and now the Director of the Erlangen Kalamazoo College exchange program. On Monday, I had lunch and chatted with "Mutti" Stark, Mom's host mother from her Kalamazoo College days at her retirement community, and had Kaffee und Kuchen with Christina, her friend Julia, and Britta (the other junior year tutor) and her 1 yr. old daughter Nerea in the afternoon. I also found time to visit Kaufland and pick up the requested varieties of chocolate and some Multivitaminsaft (juice) for the train the next day.

Tuesday morning, April 21st, I left on the train for Chemnitz to visit Nadine, her boyfriend Herbert, and Nadine's parents, Karin and Frank, who had invited me. Nadine and I worked together in the German Studies Center at BGU here in Israel, and her parents visited with her in February after the Gaza War ended. Tuesday afternoon, they took me to Miniwelt (Miniworld) in the countryside some 25 km. from Chemnitz. In the evening, we had an amazing variety of grilled meats for dinner and sat by a large fire in their backyard afterwords. Their backyard also had several fruit trees, as well as a sizable garden plot ready and waiting for planting.

Wednesday, April 22nd, after a large, late breakfast, we packed up and Karin drove Nadine and me to Berlin for the Zweig conference, where she also had a work related meeting Thursday afternoon. From 6 pm Wednesday evening until Friday at 4 pm, was one long series of lectures on Stefan Zweig. Thursday evening I took the subway almost an hour to the FU Berlin, where I checked out what resources the library there had on Zweig until the library closed at 22:00.

Friday afternoon, April 24th, I walked to the DDR Muesum (Deutsche Demokratische Republik... the former East Germany) across from the Berliner Dom on the Spree (pronounced Shpray...the "h" is intentional) before heading back to the hostel to get my stuff and walk the "15 minutes" (more like 30) to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) for the ride to Goettingen and Julia and Joerg Meyer's. I met Julia in Bonn in 2002-03 and Joerg and Julia came to our wedding. At the time (2006), Joerg was a finishing his PhD in physics while working at Fermi labs near Chicago. He is now a post-doc at Uni Goettingen.

Saturday, April 25th, after a large, late breakfast, we went downtown and they gave me a brief tour of Goettingen's Innenstadt, including the St. Jacobi Kirche, the Gaenseliesel Fountain, which tradition has that newly minted PhDs must come to bestow a bouqet of flowers to the statue upon successful defense of their dissertation. The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 70s, as it had been since four days of rain ended Saturday, April 18th. We enjoyed fancy ice cream desserts in an outdoor cafe, before heading back to Julia and Joerg's for another "Grillabend" of delectable steaks and and homemade potato salad.

Sunday, April 26th, I said goodbye to Julia and Joerg at the train station and took the 11:17 ICE (InterCityExpress...Germany's fastest and coolest trains) to Frankfurt/Main Hbf, where I switched to the 13:10 ICE to Koeln/Deutz and the 14:30 RE (Regional Express) to Bonn Hbf, where I arrived on time at 14:56 and met Jan and Wilfried, both current PhD students whom I had met in 2002-03 in Bonn. Jan successfully completed a half-marathon in Bonn's annual marathon earlier in the day, and we settled in to a nearby outdoor cafe to watch the last of the marathoners finish the race. Then, it was 5 minutes back to the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof) for the 17:01 RE to Koeln/Deutz follow by the 17:40 ICE to Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport), where I checked in for my 20:45 Swiss Airlines flight to Zurich and connecting flight to Tel Aviv. (There's a non-stop Lufthansa flight, but my frequent flier ticket made me change planes on the way back rather than fly non-stop both ways, as I did on April 15th from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt.

After perusing the duty-free shops in Frankfurt, both flights went off without a hitch and we arrived on time at 3:30 am Monday morning in Tel Aviv. Swiss Airlines even handed out little swiss chocolates to every passenger on the Frankfurt-Zurich flight. Once I was back in Be'er Sheva, around 8 am, I wrote and prepared 4 pages to give a short presentation that afternoon in our Contemporary Topics in Literature Seminar on Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky. Whew, what a trip!

Josh's dissertation

2009-04-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

In response to a request for more information on this subject, I am tentatively writing a dissertation which will compare and contrast the Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig's long and short fiction. Much has been written about his novellas, with comparatively little about his novels, which were largely published after his death in February 1942, some of them remaining unfinished. Zweig was the most widely read and translated German-language author during the 1920s, and continued to remain widely popular in exile in England, the U.S., and finally Brazil. Zweig, who suffered from life-long depression, commited suicide along with his second wife in Brazil in 1942, unable to wait and see if Hitler would be defeated, and unwilling to start anew after having lived through World War I, when Austria was also a defeated power.

Pictures from the parents' visit

2009-04-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

1st picture: The Dome of the Rock
2nd picture: On the shores of the Sea of Galilee
3rd picture: On approach to Tel Aviv/Ben Gurion International
4th picture: Animals at Ein Gedi Nature Reserve

Dawn's parents visit

2009-04-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

A few days after my St. Patrick's Day post, Dawn's parents arrived for an 8 day visit. We had a great time, but we were all thoroughly exhausted by the end. They arrived on Sunday, March 22nd, and Dawn met them at the airport in Tel Aviv.

On Monday, the 23rd, we visited Tel Be'er Sheva National Park, the ancient site of modern Be'er Sheva's predecessor, and one of two sites in the area claiming to be the location of Abraham's Well. Then we showed them around the campus of Ben Gurion University, followed by a "Meet the Parents" party Monday evening at our apartment.

On Tuesday, we headed to Jerusalem, where we were greeted by rainy, windy weather with temps in the low 50s. Boy, did I feel bad about my weather predictions for their week in Israel! We visited the Museum at David's Tower/The Citadel and cozied down in our youth hostel for the evening after an economical but tasty dinner at an Old City restaurant.

Wednesday we headed to the Western (Wailing) Wall, followed by the Dome of the Rock, which was closed to the public for interior viewing, but we got right up to the mosque itself. Jewish law forbids Jews from visiting the site, which is on the Temple Mount. Following the Dome of the Rock, we visited the Church of St. Anne (mother of Mary), and walked over to the Church at the Garden of Gethsemane, taking time to ascend part way up the Mt. of Olives for the view of the Old City. After a lunch of cheese sandwiches, we caught a taxi back to the bus station and returned to Be'er Sheva, arriving back home shortly after 4 pm.

Thursday morning, Dad and I picked up our rental car while Mom and Dawn finished packing our food and provisions for our Galilee adventure. We left about 9:30 in the morning, navigating through Tel Aviv with just a couple wrong turns. We stopped about 1:00 pm at Meggido National Park, where the ruins of the ancient city on the border of Egypt and Assyria stood. According to the Revelations, this site will be the site of Armageddon, the final battle between Good and Evil. It was also the site of the first recorded battle in history. Then we proceeded on to Tiberias, with a stop at Yardenit, the baptismal site of Jesus on the River Jordan, before arriving at our hotel shortly after 6 pm, checking in, and then finding a good, yet not expensive restaurant in downtown Tiberias to have dinner at, where Dad tried the famous St. Peter's fish, freshly caught from the Sea of Galilee.

Friday we stopped along the shore of the Galilee to dip our feet in the water, before continuing on to the Mt. of Beatitudes. Then, we had lunch at the Capernaum Restaurant (there's only one), where our table overlooked the Sea of Galilee and we once again enjoyed St. Peter's fish. (Mom and Dawn had chicken kebabs). Then, we visited Capernaum, followed by a stop at Tabgha, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. All along the way, Mom and Dad picked up souvenirs to take home with them.

Saturday morning we checked out of our Tiberias hotel and drove to Nazareth, where we toured Nazareth Village, a living history village that is supposed the re-create Nazareth as it was during the time of Jesus. Then, having used up most of our energy over the previous days, we headed back to Be'er Sheva, arriving around 4:30 in the afternoon.

Sunday, March 29th, we had a leisurely morning at home, before setting out for the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi National Park just after 11:30. After stopping at a pull-out to enjoy Mom and Dad's first glimpse of the Dead Sea, we continued to Ein Gedi, where we enjoyed our picnic lunch of hummus and pitas, and various fruits and snacks, before setting out on our hike through the oasis past flora, fauna, and waterfalls. We emerged from our hike around 5 pm, and returned to Be'er Sheva.

Monday morning, March 30th, was spent packing up for their trip home, followed by lunch at home, before we set out for the Maine Friendship House in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. Yoni, the overseer of the house, which was restored by Americans interested in preserving the history of Jaffa's American Colony (Jaffa is some 4,000 years old, while Tel Aviv was first founded in 1909), took us on a two and a half hour walking tour of Old Jaffa, passing several interesting art galleries along the way, as well as the outdoor/indoor markets. Along the way, he described the history of Jaffa, before bringing us back to the Maine Friendship house for a tour there. Yoni is a young Israeli artist who utilizes the basement of the restored 1860s house as his art studio, where he paints oils on blackened canvases. The American couple who bought and restored the house belong to the same church as Mom and Dad Ashley, whom they had met at a church world conference some years before. After a wonderful tour, Yoni found us an inexpensive place to enjoy Mom and Dad's first Israeli falafel for dinner, before heading to the airport for their return flight to the U.S.

March 2009 Update

2009-03-17T04:31:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Strangely enough, we will be having a friend from Ireland and her fiance over for dinner this Thursday, Serena from my Hebrew class, and Vitaly, a mechanical engineering student in his last year of undergraduate studies.

Dawn's parents arrive for a visit in less than a week. We are both looking forward to their coming! No adventures to report as of late, unless you count mattress shopping for the parents, and dental fillings. I did finish the last of my 5 Stefan Zweig books this week, and look forward to meeting with my advisor in the next few days to decide on a thesis topic for my MA thesis/dissertation. I need to get going on Hebrew homework (no surprise there). We are invited to a potluck birthday party this evening at Jacob and Tiffany's, friends from Bible Study. Plans are pretty well set for our adventures next week with Mom and Dad Ashley. The weather is gradually warming up, with some days pleasant, some days a bit too warm, and some days kind of chilly. So the weather can't quite decide what season it is!

Flying off cliffs in Norway

2009-03-04T01:16:00.000-08:00

This has nothing to do with our goings on in Israel, but it's a very neat video of wingsuit jumping off the cliffs of Norway sent to me by a good friend at the Air Zoo. With all of the traveling Dawn and I will be doing this year, we don't plan on using this mode of "transportation"!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Reading, writing, and Hebrew surviving

2009-03-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Dawn is now walking again, more or less normally, and without crutches, though not for super long distances.

On Feb. 16th, we enjoyed the musical Guys and Dolls (in English) by the Light Opera Group of the Negev, including our friend Jacob playing the lead character, Sky Masterson, and his wife, Tiffany, in the chorus as part of the "Save a Soul Mission". See

http://www20.brinkster.com/lightopera/index.html

for more info. We also enjoyed meeting Nadine's parents on their recent visit to Israel. Nadine was an intern in the German Studies Center during Fall Semester. She left early for home about a week after the war started, but came back with her parents as originally scheduled at the end of the semester. I recently went to see Slumdog Millionare (English with Hebrew subtitles) at the movie theater downtown in the mall with some friends from Bible Study. Hebrew continues to frustrate me, but I continue to do the homework and learn a few new things each class. I have now read 5 of the 6 Stefan Zweig books I set out to read on my dissertation advisor's instructions. I also recently enrolled on the thesis make-up track for the second semester, which starts April 16th.

Andreas (a friend of Sonja's and a chemistry post-doc) had a birthday dinner at a nice but casual restaurant in the BIG shopping center (yes, that's its name) last Thursday evening. The amount of brainpower among the 20 or so people must have been staggering. From post-docs in chemistry and physics to foreign exchange students from Ohio State and Indiana University, there was quite an array of people. Unfortunately, Dawn stayed home sick with a stomach bug.

Saturday night we had Jenny (a Hebrew classmate and fellow Foreign Lang and Lit PhD student from China), and her husband Max, a chemistry post-doc, over for dinner. Sunday night I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Andreas and Sonja and some of their friends at the campus movie theater. It is almost half the cost of a regular theater (19 NIS = $4.75 instead of 35 NIS = $9). Sonja, our friend from Austria, recently introduced us to Andreas, a post-doc in chemistry from South Africa whose parents are Austrian born. He attended German-speaking schools in South Africa, so he is fluent in both German and English. Today, we enjoyed our weekly lunch with Sonja, Andreas, and their friends Silke (from Germany, a chemistry PhD student who is here doing lab work for 2 months), and Silvia, from Italy, a post-doc in biotechnology, but by training a physicist. Andreas and I have plans to go see Valkeryie, the new movie with Tom Cruise as Col. von Stauffenberg, who attempted to assasinate Hitler unsuccessfully.

Airfare Searching, travel planning

2009-02-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

Recently, both sets of parents decided to make plans to come and see us in Israel. We are excited! But this has meant that is has been hard for me to set aside my penchant for searching for good airfares constantly. My mom hopes to find a more reasonably priced airline ticket to Germany this summer (the Israel portion is already taken care of), but it is proving frustrating, not to mention time consuming. As is my lack of motivation to struggle onwards with my Hebrew homework. Dawn's ankle is slowly improving. She's started physical therapy and has started using one crutch. (Around the house she walks without them). Hopefully by the time our parents come in March, she will be up to trekking (or at least walking) around! I need to start the next Stefan Zweig novel and get to my Hebrew homework. We're looking forward to the opening performance of Guys and Dolls by the Light Opera Group of the Negev (LOGON) Monday night, starring a friend of ours, Jacob. Last week we went to a jazz concert in the auditorium on campus. It was a youth jazz orchestra, with 2 singers alternating as soloists. They were quite impressive. Computers are both a gift and curse. Recently, the latter has been true for me! This marks my staying away from my computer for a few weeks, except for e-mail (I hope)!

Dissertation prep and ankle sprains

2009-01-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

No exciting news or travels to report, but 2 weeks ago Wednesday Dawn fell off a curb on the way to school and badly sprained her ankle. So, she has been taking a taxi to and from campus a couple times a week since then, as well as to our Friday night Bible Study group. She also has crutches. This has meant an increase in the amount of work I've been doing around the house. I've also been reading, reading, reading, in preparation for finalizing a topic for my MA thesis/chapter of my eventual dissertation in Foreign Languages and Literatures (German), and slogging through my Hebrew class after 4 weeks of no class during the war in Gaza. On the urging of my PhD advisor, I'm attending a conference at the Uni Potsdam from April 22nd to 24th, and purchased my airline ticket and rail pass this week. Dawn will stay behind here to focus on her research. I will go to Germany a week early, in order to visit friends and probably do some research while there as well. My dissertation topic will deal with the novels and novellas of Stefan Zweig, an Austrian writer of Jewish heritage during the first 4 decades of the 20th century and avowed pacifist and believer in European integration. He lived from 1881-1942.

Escape to Eilat and tour to Petra, Jordan

2009-01-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

When last I wrote, I tried to give a view of things as they are seen by Israelis, as best as I can determine. I realize the current war in Gaza has stirred many emotions, large protests, and the loss of civilian life on both sides is tragic. I won't go into that any more here, except to suggest reading the Jerusalem Post at www.jpost.com for the Israeli perspective, and reading papers from multiple other international sources, and if you can find it, an Arab newspaper.

To get away from the sirens and incoming rockets in Be'er Sheva (pronounced "Bear" Sheva), sometimes written as Be'er Sheba (the Hebrew letter for "b" and "v" is the same), Dawn and I escaped to Eilat, the Israeli resort town on the Red Sea for four nights last week. Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel and Israel's only access to the Red Sea. From Eilat, you can see 4 countries: Israel, Egypt to the south and west, Jordan to the east, and Saudia Arabia to the southeast, some 27 km/15 miles distant. You can view photos from our trip at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/airzoojosh/EilatIsraelAndPetraJordanJanuary2009?authkey=-fp9Pizd1JU#

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and walked along the North Beach, in front of many high rise hotels and vendors selling everything from clothing and toys to ice cream. Eilat enjoys 359 days of sunshine per year, and year-round water temperatures between 70 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of the time of year. Eilat is a tourist town extraordinaire. There are 40-50 hotels within the city of 70,000 people. Our hotel was across the street from the Eilat downtown airport, where charter and commercial flights arrive carrying vacationers from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a 4-4.5 hour drive north. Larger planes from Europe and Russia must use the larger Eilat airport 25 miles north of town, though I was surprised that a 757 managed to land at the downtown airport. Our hotel room overlooked the runway. Planes must back taxi on the runway to reach the terminal, as there are no taxiways. (Sorry, I'm an avid aviation buff and long-time Air Zoo volunteer!).

On Friday, Dawn and I met up with Jenny and Max (anglicized names), a Chinese couple we know from the university. Jenny is in my Hebrew class and working on her PhD in Russian Jewish Literature, while her husband Max completes a post-doctoral fellowship in the chemistry department. We spent the better part of the day at the Underwater Observatory and Marine Park, where we saw the sharks and sea turtles get fed, enjoyed a movie in the Oceanarium, saw countless fish of all colors and sizes, and (the highlight for me!), the coral reefs and the amazing variety of sea creatures from 6 meters (about 20 ft.) below the surface of the water in the Underwater Observatory.

On Saturday, we went snorkeling at the Coral Reef Marine Reserve, an Israeli National Park one bus stop before you get to the Underwater Observatory (coming from Eilat in the north). I didn't feel strong enough to go out into the deep water, but was able to see a few fish among the corals closer in to the shore. Dawn made two trips out into the deep area, as the current carried her swiftly along the reef from the northern pier to the southern pier. Saturday is Shabbat, the Sabbath day, but buses still run in touristy Eilat, unlike other Israeli cities. Don't let the taxi drivers tell you otherwise. They are best ignored. If you go though, be advised that buses do stop running for the day sometime between 3 and 4 pm on Friday (the Sabbath Eve) and Saturday (the Sabbath).

We were originally going to return to Be'er Sheva on Sunday, but decided to stay one more night so we could take a day-long tour to Petra, Jordan. This involved packing up and leaving our hotel at 7 am, as we could not extend for an extra night without doubling the cost of the room per night. So I found another hotel on the opposite side of the airport and north of the North Beach for the fourth night. We were picked up at 7 am and taken to the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing, where they had to cancel my long-term tourist visa, as I had not thought to get a re-entry visa before leaving Be'er Sheva. A re-entry visa costs $45, and so does the long term tourist visa, so in reality, I didn't lose any money. It's just a hassle. After about an hour, and payment of the border takes of $45 per person to leave Israel, enter Jordan, leave Jordan, and return to Israel, we got on a mini-bus and headed for the ancient Nabotaen city of Petra.

Our guide's name was Ali. His English was quite good, except that he said "governmental" and "economical" when he should have said "government" and "economic". Half of our group fell asleep while he was talking on the way there, as many of us had gotten up very early, or even, in the case of a law school student from D.C., taken the 1 am bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat. After a quick drive through Aquaba, the Jordanian port city opposite Eilat, which is much less developed, we had a 2 hour ride to Petra. Then we walked about 1.5 km (.9 miles) through the Siq (gorge) until we arrived at the Treasury. The Treasury was actually the burial chamber of a Nabotean king, but legend has it that the Naboteans buried their treasure in the rock, so people have shot at the rock, hoping that treasure would spill out. Along the way, one can see other burial caves carved into the rock, the ancient Nabotean water system, which is being studied by researchers today to improve water usage in the desert. The population of the Naboteans at their height was several times that of the current population. They controlled the trade route from Yemen to the Mediterranean on the ancient Spice Route, and were experts at guiding the caravans across vast stretches of desert. No one else at the time (3rd century BCE-2nd century CE) had this knowledge. The Romans did not conquer the Naboteans until 106 AD, due to the many natural fortifications that the surrounding mountains provided. Carved into the stones are images of camels and men heading in both directions.

After leaving the Treasury, we continued for another 1/2 kilometer to see the Roman Amphitheater and a re-created Nabotean market, along with more caves which used to be used as houses, though most caves we saw were used as burial sites. Then, it was an hour walk back uphill to the entrance. You can ride a donkey, horse, or a cart pulled by a donkey or horse, but the Bedouins expect a tip of $5-$10 for this "included" service. (The entrance to Petra National Park is 21 JD (about $30 USD). Our $159 per person ($140 for students) day trip included transportation to and from our Eilat hotel, assistance at the Israeli/Jordanian border, a buffet lunch, the entrance to the park, all taxes and tips, but NOT the $45 per person border entry and exit fees. We had lunch around 2:30 pm, and returned to the border crossing about 5:45 pm. The border closes each night at 7 pm.

What happened to the Naboteans? They continued to exist after the Roman conquest in 106 CE, but the trade routes gradually moved north of Petra, and two earthquakes in the 4th and 6th centuries destroyed what was left of Petra, which had gradually fallen into decline with the decline of Petra's importance on the ancient Spice Route.

The View from Israel

2009-01-04T01:59:00.000-08:00

Dear family and friends,

Dawn and I are both safe, and staying largely in our apartment, as instructed by the Israeli Homefront Command. No rockets have landed in Be'er Sheva since Thursday. Other cities, however, closer to the Gaza Strip, continued to be hit on Saturday, with a total of 35 rockets striking targets in Ashkelon, Ashdod, and other towns.

It seems that the U.S. is the only country supporting Israel's right to defend itself at the moment. For the latest news in English from an Israeli perspective, visit the Jerusalem Post at:

www.jpost.com

Starting back in Summer 2008, Egypt brokered a 6 month truce between Hamas, labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S., and Israel. Hamas, elected in democratic, internationally monitored elections in 2006, controls the Gaza Strip, while the internationally recognized Palestinian government (Abbas and the Palestianian Authority) controls the West Bank. The West Bank is actually on the eastern border with Israel, as it gets its name from the West Bank of the Jordan River. The Gaza Strip is a small strip of land bordering the Mediterranean and Egypt, and sharing its eastern border with southern Israel. (A World Atlas may come in handy here right about now).

Hamas, it turns out, used this truce to re-arm with longer range rockets supplied by Iran and Syria, and smuggled into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt. Hamas' avowed goal is the destruction of the State of Israel. Before last Tuesday night, Be'er Sheva had never been targeted by rockets from the Gaza Strip before. Israelis had not thought it possible, though in an article around Dec. 21st or 22nd in the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli Intelligence Arm warned that Hamas now possessed rockets with the range to strike Be'er Sheva. Hamas also uses Gaza civilians as human shields, and stores rockets and munitions inside of mosques. The people of Gaza are dependent upon humanitarian aid, which Israel has continued to allow in during the crisis. Meanwhile, Hamas spends its money on weapons and training, some of whom go to Iran to train with Iran's elite forces.

Tuesday night, an empty kindergarten in Be'er Sheva was hit, and last Wednesday, an empty high school, on the opposite side of the university from us.

Ask yourself, if towns on the U.S. Southern Gulf Coast found themselves the recipient of rockets launched from Cuba, would the U.S. military stand by and do nothing? Then, I ask, how can European and Arab governments expect that, having endured hundreds of rocket launches on it's southern towns, Israel's military is unilaterally supposed to cease-fire, while rockets are still being launched towards Israel from the Gaza Strip?

The situation, in a nutshell, is not as simple as a cease-fire by Israel. Mechanisms need to be put in place to prevent the re-armament and re-supply of Hamas by Iran and Syria, thus (hopefully) bringing a sustainable peace to the region. Israel has called for international observers to be placed in the Gaza Strip following cessation of hostilities to ensure that future truces aren't
merely opportunities for Hamas to re-arm. The U.N. Security Council Resolution condemning the Israeli air and ground assault was blocked by the U.S., as it provided no such assurances. Israel has vowed to continue the offensive until no rockets are being launched at Israel.

Christmas and Jerusalem Photos

2008-12-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

We are safe and at home in Be'er Sheva. Apologies for the very long journal entry about Christmas and our trip to Jerusalem. You may view the photos from our trip online at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/airzoojosh/ChristmasDayAndJerusalem2008#

I recommend following along with the blog while looking at the pictures of the trip (See entry immediately prior to this one). We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays back home!

Josh and Dawn

Christmas Day Brunch and Trip to Jerusalem

2008-12-30T07:23:00.000-08:00

By now, everyone has heard of the Israeli airstrikes against Hamas government and military targets in the Gaza Strip. We are relatively safe in Be'er Sheva, on the very outer edge of the 40 km. range of Hamas rockets. Be'er Sheva has NEVER been hit by a Hamas rocket, and we both hope this trend continues! All the same, I have never experienced the feeling of being near a war zone before, and it is not one I relish, needless to say. Security has increased at the university. They now check everyone's bags by hand.

On Christmas Day, last Thursday, we enjoyed a wonderful brunch at the apartment of David and Daria Byron, with eggs, waffles, pancakes, and real bacon, bought at a large Russian supermarket in the BIG (yes, that's its name) shopping complex. There were also hashbrowns, scones, and the stollen (German Christmas bread), which Dawn made. Afterwards, we enjoyed the first half of It's a Wonderful Life, with James Stewart. We left to go to campus to make several phone calls to our parents and grandparents back home via Skype. We also purchased tickets for our parents (OK, they paid for it, but I found a great price and did the booking!) to come visit us at the end of March! We are looking forward to it already!

Friday morning, Dec. 26th, we left for 3 nights in Jerusalem, expecting our water-leaking, wall dampening bathroom to be all fixed upon our return. Well, it turns out our landlord got the date wrong and now we have to make plans to be away from our apartment for 2 days at the end of this week. We won't be able to use the toilet, shower, or sink, while the tile floor is torn out and replaced. Anyway, back to Jerusalem... We arrived at 11:30 am at the Central Bus Station and took Bus #18 towards Yoav and Hilla's house. Yoav had forgotten his cell phone, and we were on the bus and he was not answering his phone! But he retrieved it and told us where to get off and picked us up in their car about 12:30. Lunch was not on the menu, as it turned out, so Dawn and I each had a falafel outside the Lion's Gate, one of 7 gates to Jerusalem's Old City, and made it to the meeting point in time for the weekly tour by priests of the 14 Stations of the Cross. It turns out, however, that they take the week of Christmas off, so there was no tour on Dec. 26th! I had bought a guide booklet in Be'er Sheva and we found most of the Stations on our own, except several at the end in the Church of the Holy Sepelchur and Station 8, but we were close! Yoav picked us up and we had a veritable Hannukah feast put on by Hilla (pronounced He-la) for us and 3 friends, one a couple with a 3 year old boy. And this was just Friday!

Saturday, December 27th (Happy Birthday Mom!), Yoav and Hilla slept late as it was the Sabbath, and we had breakfast around 10 am. Then, Yoav put Imri, their 11 month old son, and us in the car and drove us (minus Hilla, who had to do revisions to her MA thesis) out to the Mt. of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. Some places were not open between the hours of 12 and 2 pm, but we still saw quite a lot. I was especially moved by the Grotto of Gethsemane, the very spot where Jesus was betrayed by Judas. The Basilica of the Garden of Gethsemane also had a very holy aura surrounding it. We also saw what is reputed to be the burial site of Mary, and we climbed up the Mt. of Olives for a wonderful overlook of Jerusalem's walled Old City and the Dome of the Rock. I can imagine how beautiful it is at sunrise and sunset, as the guidebooks say. We got back to Yoav and Hillas around 4 pm, and Hilla was nearly in tears. The Israeli offensive had begun shortly after 12 pm, and Arabs were protesting in and around the Old City, parts of which we passed through on our way back from East Jerusalem. Yoav had had his cell phone on silent and thus did not hear the repeated phone calls. After everyone had calmed down, we enjoyed a relaxing evening at home, while keeping abreast of the news on the Israeli offensive on TV.

Due to the Arab protests, Yoav suggested we visit the Israel Museum and avoid the Old City on Sunday. He dropped us off and went to go study. The main exhibition halls of the museum were closed for renovation, but we still saw the HUGE model of Jerusalem as depicted just before the Jewish Revolt in 66 CE, complete with the Second Temple and individual houses, palaces, everything. The model took a team the model builder and an archealogist 4 years to build. It was completed in 1965, two years before Israel regained control of East Jerusalem and the Old City, where the Temple had stood. Then, after surveying the modernist Sculpture Garden, we went inside the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient Biblical texts are on display, as well as artifacts from the 1st century BCE - 1st century CE from the Qum'ram site, where the Essenes lived (the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls). Next at about 1 pm, we took a taxi to Yad Vashem, the Israel Holocaust Museum. Admission is free, and it was PACKED. But first we had a nice lunch in the Museum cafeteria.

After lunch, we spent the next two and a half hours going through the Museum. No pictures were allowed inside. I have visited the Berlin (Germany) Holocaust Museum, but the Israel Holocaust Museum was much more disturbing, much more powerful. We sped past the last 2 years of the war (there was that much to read), in order to see the Hall of Remembrance and some of the other exhibits not in the Historical Museum. Picture multitudes of Nazi propaganda memorabilia, Jewish artifacts, furniture, photos, and numerous audio-visual stations with first-hand survivor accounts. Seeing the bodies being thrown into pits upon the liberation of the camps, and the emaciated survivors, thousands of whom did not survive in spite of the Allied liberation, was overwhelming. If you are not choked up upon exiting, something is not quite right.

Yoav and Hilla had arranged for us to go on a Hannukiot (a Tour of the Hannukah Lights) in the Old City, and judged it was calm enough to do so. The tour was in Hebrew, technically only for students of Hebrew University, but Hilla had gained permission for all 4 of us. Yoav translated for us here and there, but we all left the tour early as they judged the guide not to be very good. We were all very hungry also. (The tour started at 5:30 pm). Sunday was also Yoav's 30th birthday. We treated them to dinner out at a restaurant at the Cinemataque art theater that Yoav's friend Hanan and his girlfriend had chosen. There was quite a mix up with our orders, but the food was good. Monday we came back to Be'er Sheva on the 11:30 am bus, arriving around 1:15 pm at the downtown station.

Christmas Cookies and Caroling

2008-12-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

Once again, it has been 2 weeks since I last wrote. I have been very busy, among other things, considering beginning a PhD in Foreign Languages and Literatures, struggling onward in my Ivrit (Hebrew) bakitah (class), reading and attending for Prof. Gelber's Current Topics in Literature Seminar, researching for the Stefan Zweig annotation project for the German Studies Center, which Prof. Gelber heads, and of course, tutoring English. Add to that the Young Voices Magazine proposed project, and, well, you get the idea!

Tonight is Christmas Eve, but as we are in Israel, it is of course a regular work day, though we are in the midst of Hannukah, there's no sign of outward festivities here in Be'er Sheva. Once again, I must emphasize that we are in the Jewish State. Christmas is only evident in cities that are holy to Christians (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, etc.) It is thus not "a wonderful experience to be in the Holy Land at Christmas", not unless one is in one of the cities where pilgrims frequent. The observed holiday for the 8 day Hannukah holiday is Sunday,December 28th, when we don't have my Hebrew class for a change. There is a Christmas Eve service tonight at the Catholic Church, but my Hebrew Ulpan meets from 5-8 pm. There is another service on Christmas Day, but I don't know if we will go. David and Daria, another med student and his wife, are hosting a Christmas Day brunch at their apartment tomorrow. (The American med school students get Christmas Day off, but ONLY Christmas Day).

A week and a half ago (Saturday, Dec. 13th), Sonja, from Austria, and Nadine, from Germany, came over to our apartment for some Christmas cookie baking. After about 4 hours of prep work and baking, everyone was ready to call it a day (we took a break for dinner... I think we had spaghetti and salad). The Christmas music of the King's Choir of Cambridge which I had downloaded from ITunes was playing, and I even found some German Christmas songs on YouTube and other sites, including our favorite of the day, "In the Weihnachtsbaeckerei" (In the Christmas Bakery).

Last Friday night, December 19th, we made our weekly trek to the med school student-led Bible Study, (a 40 minute walk... There are no buses on Shabbat) for a couple hours of Christmas Caroling, food, fun, and fellowship. Jacob looked like the Fonz from Happy Days, with his hair slicked back, as he led with the piano, while Ryan and David accompanied him with their guitars to all the favorites: O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and some fun songs, like Rudolph and Walking in a Winter Wonderland, just to name a few. Spiced hot wine, similar to Gluehwein, hot apple cider, and prayer in 2 and 3 person groups served to round out a wonderful evening. I'll attach pictures of the cookie making and baking, and of the Christmas Caroling.

Christmas is Near

2008-12-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I've been keeping busy with my various projects. Last week on Wednesday when I returned home from my Hebrew class, Dawn had a surprise waiting for me... a 4 ft. tall Christmas tree! She found it at a Russian store downtown. (Be'er Sheva is home to a large Russian-speaking population from the former Soviet Union). Being in the Jewish State, there are no outward signs of Christmas here. For that, one must travel to Nazareth, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or one of the other Christian Holy Sites. So, for those of you who wrote me saying, "What a wonderful thing to be in the Holy Land at Christmastime!," well that's not how it is unless we make our way up to Jerusalem or Bethlehem, etc. On the contrary, the lack of decorations and festivities makes me all the more homesick, for Christmas, for family, for some wonderful Michigan snow. (Yes, I know it's a pain to drive in sometimes, but I'll take a White Christmas over others any time!).

We are considering visiting Bethlehem around the holidays. We'll have to see what the current security situation is in the West Bank, where Bethlehem is. Here, I must emphasize that Israel is quite safe. It is the border towns on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and those communities WITHIN the West Bank, that are unstable. Be'er Sheva, on the other hand, is far from either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

Last Friday after our weekly Bible Study with the American med school students from Columbia University, Yuri and Kiong (two of the guys) hosted a Christmas Party complete with champagne, hot cider, cookies, cakes, and other yummy food. Yuri's parents also sent him an assortment of classic Christmas films on DVD: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Burl Ives' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A fun time, and the first time (other than the Christmas tree Dawn brought home) that I was reminded that Christmas is near. Tree and Party pictures attached...

Thanksgiving in Be'er Sheva, Israel

2008-11-28T07:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-08T03:14:00.000-08:00

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

Ben Gurion's home, Avdat, Mitzpe Romon Crater

2008-11-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T05:56:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T04:56:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

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).

My Kiwi Torte for 8 NIS (about $2.25)

2008-10-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

I'm limited to 5 pictures per post, so here's the close-up of the kiwi torte I bought at the bakery. It can also be seen in the glass case of the bakery with the other tortes on the previous post.

Our neighborhood in northeast Be'er Sheva, Dalet

2008-10-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a while, one, because I've been quite busy with a German-English translation of a dissertation summary, tutoring, and other projects, and two, because I thought that since we haven't been traveling outside Be'er Sheva recently, there wasn't much of interest to friends and family back home to write about. Turns out, I was wrong on that last count. With this post, I'll include some pictures of the immediate 2 block area around our apartment, directly east of the the BGU campus. There are at least three supermarkets, a great bakery for my friend Paul to visit should he come to Israel, a fruit and vegetable market, a florist, a post office, and a school supply store. I splurged on a Kiwi torte at the bakery after I had waited 20 minutes for hot out of the oven (and they were HOT!) pitas for our taco pita dinner the other night.

We have also found the only Christian church we know about in Be'er Sheva (or know where it is, anyway) and have been twice now. It is a Catholic church, and 98% of the service is in Hebrew (everything except for the Gospel reading), but they have Order of Mass books in English that help us follow along more or less. I do not have pictures to show, as I did not think it was appropriate to take pictures, but maybe if I arrive early one Sunday, I will. The congregation meets in a converted house, about 30-40 people, and it is completely full. As Sunday is a workday/weekday in Israel, church begins at 6:15 pm, which barely gives Dawn enough time to come there from the University. By bus and foot, it takes about 35-45 minutes to get there from our apartment, about 20 minutes from the University.

This week's pictures include the grocery store across the street from us, the produce market, and the bakery on the corner. My next post will detail next week's trip to the region around the Sea of Galilee, including Tiberias and Nazareth. I'm looking forward to having a rental car for a week and the freedom that will bring. Though it's a bit unnerving to know that more Israelis have died in traffic accidents than have died in fighting all of Israel's wars combined.

Ben Gurion University

2008-10-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

Ben Gurion University (BGU) is where Dawn is completing her post-doc in mathematics. It is named after Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, who proclaimed that the Negev region (this area) held the key to Israel's future prosperity. Today, BGU is home to about 18,000 students and is one of the most prestigious universities in Israel, and the pride of Be'er Sheva.

Here, finally, are some pictures to let everyone at home know what the campus looks like where Dawn and Josh spend much of their time. The space-age, large, boxy, stair-step building is the university's central library. The small creek, palm-like trees, and grasses are some of the landscaping, though, this being desert, there is more concrete than anything else. The Student Center (entrance pictured) is where the bookstore, cafeteria, and several university services are located. Adjacent to and part of the larger Student Center is our bank.

Heading east across the next driveway is the long, seemingly continuous building that houses physics (near end) and mathematics (far end), though they are actually two separate, but connected buildings. When it is hot, and often at other times too, we duck inside at the far end of the physics building and walk the rest of the way to the Deichmann Building (math) indoors. The Deichmanns are German benefactors of the university who donated the money to build the mathematics complex in 1997-98. BGU is a relatively small campus area-wise, about 1/3 the size of the UO's campus, yet has almost as many students. The buildings are concrete and glass structures that average four stories tall and are spaced close to one another. The large amount of sidewalks, concrete, and pavement cuts down on the need for expensive watering and landscaping. This is my hypothesis, anyway. We always appreciate hearing from friends and family back home!

Israeli Air Force Museum 5.10.2008

2008-10-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, October 5th I got up at 5:50 am (we had gained an hour by "Falling Back" Saturday night, so it was really 6:50 am), and caught the 7:15 am bus to the central bus station in Be'er Sheva, followed by the 7:40 am Bus 31 to Hazerim and the Israeli Air Force Museum. The bus was about 10 minutes late leaving, and we arrived at the museum at 8:15. I watched the 15 minute film about the Israeli Air Force in the Museum's Boeing 707. Then I started to make my way around some of the more than 100 planes. There were many F-4 Phantoms, the type which my dad flew in the U.S. Air Force, which made me wonder if the mayor of Be'er Sheva, a retired Air Force general who also founded the museum, flew F-4s as well. I was amazed to see 5 F-4s in a row, interrupted by the lone F-15. There was also a big Boeing Stratocruiser, a PBY Catalina flying boat, and a CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter (aka Jolly Green Giant), as well as numerous French Mirage fighers, and one example each of the MIG-15, 17, 21, and 23. Too many to mention here, but despite the heat, I enjoyed the visit very much. (Almost everything is outdoors in the desert heat, except a small building with displays on search and rescue and Israeli Air Force history since 1948. One noticeable thing is that no current planes in the inventory are on display, except an early model F-15A. I am definitely taking Dad here when he comes to visit!

Whirlwind trip to Jerusalem, Rosh Hoshanah

2008-10-04T02:46:00.001-07:00

Monday, Sept. 29th at sundown through Wednesday, Oct. 1st at sundown was Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year. In the early afternoon on Monday, Ilan and Daniel, the two operator algebraists Dawn is working with, took us to Jerusalem. That wasn't the plan originally. but the national park 20 minutes north of Be'er Sheva was closed, and Ilan was headed to Jerusalem anyway to spend the holiday with family. But, since we were invited for a special Rosh Hoshanah dinner Monday evening with a Jewish History professor and his wife, Bob and Adina, and since bus service would cease for 2 days for the holidays, we had to make sure we made the 16:30 (4:30 pm) bus from Jerusalem back to Be'er Sheva, a 1 hr. 45 minute ride.

We arrived in Jerusalem just before 3 pm, and headed straight for the Old City. We entered through Jaffa Gate, and made our way through the marketplace to where we had a view of the rooftops. We could see the Dome of the Rock in the distance. On the way into town, we also caught a glimpse of the Knisset, the Israeli parliament. On the way back to the car through the market, we stopped at the Church of the Holy Sephulcher, where Christ is believed to have been crucified and buried. We barely made our bus back to Be'er Sheva!

The evening meal was fantastic, but unfortunately, I did not ask if it was OK to take pictures, and so I don't have pictures to post. It is customary to wish "a sweet New Year", and many foods (bread, apple slices) are dipped in honey. Even the barbecue chicken was basted in honey! Yumm! The downside of the holidays and the Sabbath here is that EVERYTHING shuts down. We are trying to adjust, and I just found a great English-language web site with more information on Be'er Sheva: http://my-negev.co.il/show7.php?idp=128&id_new=1583

22.9.08 7 hours in New York City

2008-09-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

With a 10.5 hour layover in Newark on the way back to Israel, I took the opportunity to take the NYC shuttle from EWR (Newark Intl) into Manhattan. I walked through Times Square, down Broadway and 5th Avenue, was on set at NBC's Today Show, and took the elevator to the 67th floor and the escalator to the 69th floor for a view of NYC from the "Top of the Rock": Rockefeller Center. I then managed to make my way out to the Statue of Liberty for a very brief visit. This was my first time outside of the JFK or EWR Airports. NYC is amazing!!!

Pete and Katherine's wedding: 20.9.2008

2008-09-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I returned to the U.S. for a wedding of some very close friends this past week. I will plan on posting a couple pictures here. I was honored to stand with Pete and Katherine as a groomsman. Rev. Ann Bowersox officiated. It was beautiful, and it was wonderful to catch up with friends!

Arrival in Israel August 2008

2008-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Israel at the end of August 2008. For the next 2 weeks, every day was hectic and stressful, as we tried to arrange our life here for the next 1 to 2 years. After just one week, we were able to sign the lease on an apartment in Be'er Sheva, where Dawn is a post-doc at the University. I will soon begin giving private English lessons. Be'er Sheva is a hot city in the middle of the Negev desert of about 200,000. We have yet to travel anywhere, but I now know which bus to take to the nearby Israeli Air Force Museum! My hope is that this blog will give friends and family back home a window on our lives here.