Israel

Currently living in Beer Sheva, we cool American kids like to call it, B7. "Beer" in Hebrew means "well", "Sheva"means "seven". I think the name came from Abraham taking his seventh rest here drinking water on his way from Egypt.

The entire country of Israel from the north to the south is just about a six hour drive. For those of you who always like to know numbers, the total Israeli territory is 22, 072 square kilometers. This figure means absolutely nothing to me, but what it does mean is that to the north, there is Lebanon, east Jordan, and southwest, Egypt. Those places, you see constantly in the news, are all within 1 or 2 hr bus rides away and in this small area in the middle, called Israel, you can go ski in mount Hermon, surf in the Mediterranean Sea, flow in the Dead Sea, and ride camels in the Negev dessert, not to mention the charming city of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are must visits.


When you stand upon the hill, over looking the whole city of Jerusalem, you get a sense that history, religion are under your skin, and you feel the spiritual presence in the air. Each story has taken place here and each place here has its story.


I found it untrue that the media portrays the middle east to be a place where one does not tolerate the other. At least in Israel, and especially Jerusalem, the same church can even be used to hold services for multiple religions. A service in the morning for Russian Orthodox, noon for Christians, and evening for Muslims...etc. Although I am not knowledgeable enough to tell you the differences between each religion specifically, I respect those who practice or not practice their rights to believe or not to believe.
Traversing through the "old city", you will cross 14 passing's of Jesus and end up in the Holy Sepulchre Church, where Jesus' tomb is.



Of course, all around the year, people come from thousands of miles to pay a visit here, showing respect, praying for families, making a wish, confessing for forgiveness, or simply_ taking a picture.

To visit the remains of the Second Temple, which has so much significance in Jewish history, also known as the "wailing wall", you have to pass through an entrance that separates gender. The left is for man only and the right one is for woman.

Inside, people are dancing, singing, celebrating their heritages.

I find the Jews to be a very admirable race. Even through thousands years of being outcast from their land, generations of spreading all over the world, even massively murdered during World War II, they have always kept their strong identities, heritages, culture, and language. Each generation keeps the traditions, teaches their kids Hebrew even if they are completely assimilated abroad, and everyone is taught to always remember Jerusalem. For example, today July 30th, Jews all over the world are fasting because it is the day when the Second Temple was burned down in 70CE (more than 2000 years ago!) by the Romans. They do not eat anything starting from sun down for 24 hours to remember that Jerusalem was conquered and to never forget that suffering.

Today, the outer wall of the temple is the only thing left.
. Again, praying is also separated by gender. The left section is for man, and the right section is for woman. To take a picture with the holy wall, a woman came up to me and put a shawl so I wouldn't be showing too much of my arms.

This may all sound like it's a super conservative country, but in fact, I was told in Beer Sheva, where the student population is about 18,000, Israelis often are very showy with their fashion. Thongs, bikinis...etc. although I have not yet seen that because school hasn't started for them. By the way, I think Israeli girls are seriously gorgeous with dark hair, and bright bright eyes. (ok, I know you guys want to see pictures, but I am working on it alright?)


Before all the Israeli students get here, we are put in Hebrew classes to catch up. Here is an exotic graffiti even though I can hardly pronounce let alone decipher what they mean yet, I think that one is actually in Arabic.


Here is one in Hebrew. It is harder than all the languages I have had to "learn" so far (Chinese being the one that I don't have to "learn"). Old Hebrew was the language of the Bible, and is still used mostly in written forms and for religious purposes only. The modern Hebrew spoken today is much revised. Despite your normal frustrations in crossing the language barrier, the problem with Hebrew (and Arabic also) is that first you learn the two systems of alphabet (one in print, and one cursive), which both can be similar and just different enough to confuse you. Then, you learn how adding a dot here, and a dash there to the alphabet can change the sound. Okay, alright, so far still doing o.k. But then in real life, all words are written without vowels. Can you imagine reading English without vowels? Yeh, that's where I am at in Hebrew right now. As I always like to say though, nothing is impossible. Right?


Outside the wall while I was waiting for the bus with my mom, there was this group of Israeli boys who spoke perfect English and Hebrew. They were so curious of us because we looked different. Somehow they were also learning Chinese and they were practicing with my mom here! =)


OMG, they are so cute!

And another Israeli tax driver insisted on buying us ice cream even though we didn't want to take the taxi. He just shoved the ice cream into our hands and drove away! The Israelis like to describe themselves as a cactus fruit. Thorny and hard on the outside, but all smoochy and soft inside. I find it to be very true that they are warm, extremely generous, but also crafty in getting what they want.
I was invited to a dinner on Sabath (friday night dinner) to a host family. They were a nice couple so in love who will be getting married in about 1 month. Here I will give you an example of how generous Israelis are. I ended up not only with delicious food in my stomach, but also bags to take home. The moment you say you like something, they just offer you all that they have! This happened on more than one occasion and they don't understand why you don't want to take everything!

Night life in Jeruselum are so vibrant. Young people here are very fun.

The following day, we ended up accidentally crossing the border to Palestine without even realizing it. Here is the wall diving the two countries and forget what the media say about conflict, just look at this wall and see how friendly people are here.

In Palestine, an Arabic woman taught me how to put on the head scarf. I later learned that the meaning is for married woman to reserve "hair", a feminum and beautiful part of their body, to only their husbands. Isn't that idea romantic?

My hair was still showing here, but I am not married, so technically, it's OK.


Everyday, there is more surprising things to see, to encounter, and to discover. I am slowly coming out of my shell and bubble of comfort, ready to be wowed, to see how similar humans are despite culture, race, gender, and to appreciate also the different ways people live their lives. All I can say is, I am very happy to be where I am at.