Friday, August 18, 2006
Just a quick update today.
We've made plans with some classmates and in just over a week we are on our way to Spain for 5 days! We'll be in Costa Brava, which is supposedly less than an hour from Barcelona. I really wanted to go to a big city and do some fun exploring. But, on this side of the world, the resorts are much cheaper. So we went with the best of both worlds: A very reasonable packaged trip to a resort very close to a big city. And I checked the weather and it's only 78!!! Compared to our current conditions, I may need a winter coat.
I'm really excited to get out of here for a few days and do something else. It has been a very strange time in Israel. I'm learning to get along in this very conservative place. It's really strange though. Today, in the shuk, there was a hassidic man jumping up and down and singing, trying to entice people to take his literature and try teffilin (bands you wrap around your arm and head to pray). I don't know about you, but acting like a mental patient isn't what convinces me to try something new.
There's not really any other news, other than the "war" is over and we clearly lost due to not recovering any soldiers, not disarming Hezbollah and not accomplishing any goals at all really. No one's very happy here about it.
I'll leave you with some more strange religious stuff: Do you know what the Kotel is? It's the Western Wall where Jews pray (It's the last remaining piece of the 2nd great Temple. It's actually not even from the Temple, but part of the retaining wall around the Temple.) Anyway, Jews go here to pray and they put little notes into the cracks in the wall. But, luckily with modern technology, you don't even need to go to the wall! You can email the Kotel and you can fax the Kotel! The email is run through a non-profit, aish.com at http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Place_a_Note_in_the_Wall.asp. However, the fax is run by the Israeli government. 02 654 0877!!! Oh it's all so strange. I'll also put the link on the righthand link section so that you can get live feed of the Kotel any time. I know you're all dying for it...
We've made plans with some classmates and in just over a week we are on our way to Spain for 5 days! We'll be in Costa Brava, which is supposedly less than an hour from Barcelona. I really wanted to go to a big city and do some fun exploring. But, on this side of the world, the resorts are much cheaper. So we went with the best of both worlds: A very reasonable packaged trip to a resort very close to a big city. And I checked the weather and it's only 78!!! Compared to our current conditions, I may need a winter coat.
I'm really excited to get out of here for a few days and do something else. It has been a very strange time in Israel. I'm learning to get along in this very conservative place. It's really strange though. Today, in the shuk, there was a hassidic man jumping up and down and singing, trying to entice people to take his literature and try teffilin (bands you wrap around your arm and head to pray). I don't know about you, but acting like a mental patient isn't what convinces me to try something new.
There's not really any other news, other than the "war" is over and we clearly lost due to not recovering any soldiers, not disarming Hezbollah and not accomplishing any goals at all really. No one's very happy here about it.
I'll leave you with some more strange religious stuff: Do you know what the Kotel is? It's the Western Wall where Jews pray (It's the last remaining piece of the 2nd great Temple. It's actually not even from the Temple, but part of the retaining wall around the Temple.) Anyway, Jews go here to pray and they put little notes into the cracks in the wall. But, luckily with modern technology, you don't even need to go to the wall! You can email the Kotel and you can fax the Kotel! The email is run through a non-profit, aish.com at http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Place_a_Note_in_the_Wall.asp. However, the fax is run by the Israeli government. 02 654 0877!!! Oh it's all so strange. I'll also put the link on the righthand link section so that you can get live feed of the Kotel any time. I know you're all dying for it...
