Holiday Inn Hotel Ashkelon

... night I've been in Israel. It gets exhausting for an American boy. But the culture here is amazing. Since I've stepped off the plane I've had this intangible sense of being home. Not home like American blue jeans and apple pie which is home in its own right surely. But home, with people who understand where I'm coming from. With the freedom to be who I want to be with unobstructed ease. With MY people, who I've been unable to find in Europe. Oh, Israel.<br> <br>

... the Rocky Mountains bound for the California coast is not exactly "hard work." Where was Danny during all of this you ask? Smoking hash in his living room, of course. After work we sat around with the other few volunteers, ate, talked, read and watched Israeli Survivor (Philippines, in case you are curious) while Danny translated. <br> The next morning my alarm clock went off near the living room couch where I was sleeping. My alarm clock was Danny ...

... her change of clothes. Her pants to be more precise. Aimee was the only one on the dig dressed for Mea Shea&#8217;rim in a long black dress. <br><br>As with the camel trek, my low expectations proved completely wrong. Our guide was an American named Phil. I really nice guy who was well informed about archeology and about Beit Guvrin, but with the most atrocious Hebrew which he used with 2 young Israeli boys who spoke no English. I could tell from their ...

... of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and which is the source of the rockets which regularly rain down upon Israel. But, today, all was quiet, Gaza, from the hillsides upon which we stood, looked like any other city might appear--life progressing normally and peacefully. How could this place before us be the source of so much dissension and unrest? It seemed so paradoxical to us, as we stood there with our Israeli hosts pointing out the spots where the army was positioned, the ...

... i la deixadesa absoluta del centre historic (quin contrast amb Jaffa). No se, em pensava que m'impressionaria mes. El millor de la visita a Tel Aviv son sens dubte les seves postes de sol i la seva vida nocturna. En podria parlar a bastament pero crec que son coses que s'han de gaudir personalment. Una de les coses que mes sorpren despres de passar uns dies a Israel es la diversitat genetica dels seus habitants. Se suposa que tots son descendents d'una ...

... was so sick of Egytpian people lying to me that I had no inclination to be honest about how it broke. The general manager and I got into an argument, where I argued particularly well, even making him admit that he wouldn't make the guest pay in a very similar situation, although it was all on the pretense that I was telling the truth. Eventually he had so little left to respond with that he called my tour manager to try and make me pay for the damage. I still refused ...

... hours leading up to the trip to Petra. 9. 'Petra makes Machu Picchu look like a pile of stones.' quote from New York Times writer - and Skippy's new favorite saying. 10. Our Jordanian tour guide is also divorced (and actively seeking wife # 2) - are we starting to see a pattern? Israel pics: http://gallery.chefwin.com/main.php?g2_ itemId=4571 Petra pics: http://gallery.chefwin.com/main.php?g2_ itemId=5059

... been six missiles fired on this city the day before. I did not know all of this till we got there. We talked, about my travels end everything and she invited me to come and stay with a friend in Sderot, a place I never heard of before. Since she was being really nice and we had not much time talking while waiting for the bus, I agreed. Only when we arrived, she told me where we were and that if an alarm would go off, we had about ...

... visiting a non-Jewish family who'd picked me up in the Negev Desert weeks earlier. The mother lived in a mortar house with a cold, uninhibited living space and no television. Her fifteen-year-old son had curly, ash hair, paralyzing navy eyes, and fingers that played the blues on piano; he took me to a small cliff, which we scaled in order to watch the daylight slip away. The youngest daughter, a redhead who had fearless eyes and yet always yearned ...