Goldar Netanya

... an epic bacon cheeseburger (in a country known for being mostly kosher, oops!) and visiting a friend I had made on an island off the Panamanian coast.
With the kibbutz being pushed back, I was in need of a place to crash until I was placed somewhere. My friend Jon was traveling to Egypt and did not need his pad or his laptop any longer. In one prosperous night, I inherited a mac laptop and an apartment. His apartment was four blocks ...

... morning, they took us to see a tunnel, which could have been blown up by the Israeli army at any moment. We also went on a fishing boat and rode out about 2 miles, toward Israeli navy boats who fire at Gazan fisherman daily and nightly. It was hard to take their caution seriously. Our taxi driver dropped us at the souk and was nice enough to walk around with us (most people spoke good Arabic so we could manage). In the middle of nowhere we ...

... with tremendous training facilities and the best cafeteria we had eaten at yet. The lessons were conducted by certified athletic trainers. Among other things, we engaged in an assortment of beach wrestling games. In one, two people had to fight to take off the left sock of a third person, another time the belt. There were also one-on-one competitions where the wrestling was done on the knees and the goal was to get the other person onto his back, and another where one person had to do ...

... now to retype) Also, mom sent me a box, but it hasn't arrived either. APO is nice, but apparently not reliable. I think I still trust it more than sending something via fedex or other. Our schedule changes every couple of days, so sometimes sleep is hard to get and other days, I can't get enough sleep. We work for seven days straight then have a two day break. Once a month we get a three day weekend. So, last weekend was our three day weekend and five of us from my team rented a ...

... sev**al oth** kind people who made sure that two oth** "tourists" and I got on the right trains in the right direction. It's not a t**ribly us**-friendly system. So I'm h**e at my hotel, ready to crash. I found my group easily and we had a sup**b dinn** and brief meeting. Tomorrow, I get to begin discov**ing this amazing place. Th**e is just a feel about this land. It's amazing. Tomorrow we have visits to the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, to Jaffa, and to Caesarea. Should be fantastic.

... especially right outside the dorm, where it's very well possible your sandals will drift away about ten feet down the road if you insist on wearing them in that weather--which I obviously do. Anyway, the political system differs remarkably from what I would expect from this type of democracy, but after having it explained to me by my Italian colleague at his house for dinner, along with his Israeli girlfriend and visiting friend from Italy, I finally came to ...

... to, as they used to often visit Yehuda's mother Freda (my great aunt) in Sydney until she recently made aliyah, and his son Ron has lived in Sydney for the last few years while studying and coaching krav maga. Yehuda is the coordinator of the Jerusalem metro currently under construction, running years behind schedule (it doesn't help when major artefacts are found each time there's digging), and with many lanes and streets closing while work's been done. My ...

... She asked me a ton of stupid questions, what I do in my free time in Amman, why I'm studying Arabic, why Americans in general study Arabic, etc. I am finally called over and told that I have failed my security check and that my bags and I will now be searched. They THEN ask me why I have no Jordanian stamps on my passport (since I had told them I was living in Amman), and I explain they are in my other passport. The guy's jaw drops in shock and he says ...

I'm writing this straight from my travel journal from the trip! On the plane to Tel Aviv--took the E train from midtown manhattan to the Air Train.  The Delta terminal is under construction at JFK.  You have to carry suitcases a long way to gate 6 - which is the gate the flight to Tel Aviv always leaves from, so they told me.  The security line took 10 minutes, the ticket line 30 minutes, and then another screening before ...

... we left.    Lunch was going to be with some of their friends in the spice and nut market so back in the car we went and Eddie found another great parking spot!  The next part was to actually find this restaurant!  It had moved so there was a "tussle" as to where it had moved to but we found it. It was a Persian restaurant that tasted like I was back in Shiraz. There was sabzi, kebab, and the really good saffron rice with tart cherries/pomegranate ...