TravelStream™ news feed for member danieldomb on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/danieldomb en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 29 May 2006 09:16:57 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1148906220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1148906220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1148906220/tpod.html Mon, 29 May 2006 09:16:57 -0400 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Tiberius, Israel

And thus is was so that at some point during the fifth month that Philip of Britian asked Daniel if he wanted to go to Nazareth and Haifa for a weekend in the very near future. As it transpired that was to be the weekend following their discussion. And so on Friday morning a couple of weeks ago, I got up at the frighteningly early hour of 7.30 after going partying the night before to meet Phil, Sam and Tali at the Bus Station. We purchased our tickets, got on the bus, changed at Afoula and eventually arrived in Nazareth. Initially, I'd agreed to go on this trip because I thought that Phil, the instigator of the excursion, was somewhat of an adventuer and a prolific organiser. This was not the case. Due to the last bus leaving for Haifa was at 3.30ish we only had two hours in Nazareth which meant we had to do everything we wanted to do but ultra mega fast. Nazareth is a Christian Arab town and was thus very different to a lot of other places I'd been here. We went to some interesting churches including one where Gabriel apparently told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. I took a photo of it. After that we went in search of the best Baclava shop in the world (well as the tour guide book led us to believe). We found it and indeed it was the best Baclava shop in the world. We indulged in top quality Turkish sweet eating like we'd never done before. After this we did the most stupid thing you could possibly do in Israel. No it wasn't doing anything that could be seen as culturally insensitive or dangerous, oh no, we went to a Jesus theme park. It was so stupid that I am not saying anything else on the matter. Then realising we needed to get to the bus station to get to Haifa pretty immediately we started looking for the bus station. We couldn't find it. Oh no. We ran around for about half an hour with no luck. Eventually we stopped an Egged intercity bus in the middle of the street and got on, while simultaniously enraging all drivers stuck behind the bus.

We eventually made it to Haifa where we met up with Swiss Dave from Hebrew U. We stayed in a great Hostel called the Port Inn. The Hostel had a guestbook, which funnily enough some guests had signed. I had a read through it to see that a whole load of people I knew had stayed there before on their own years out over the years. I left my own message and left one for future Brits - advising them to eat loads of Humous. The next day we hiked up a huge mountain to go and see Elijah's cave. The views at the top were great - I say this, but who ever really goes up a mountain and says the view was crap? Anyway, after going forth up the mountain we followed the signs to Elijah's cave which lead us down the moutain right to the bottom. After climbing a great big bloody moutain in the boiling heat to find the cave was at the bottom I was rather annoyed. This was a fine example of Phil's organisational non-prowess. It's not like the cave was inconspicuous or anything - there was a huge sign saying Elijah's cave HERE - with an arrow. It was closed anyway. And it came to pass that Daniel was annoyed.

Midweek, the Office of Student Activities organised an end of year beach party on a private beach. It was a great party. Nice beach, barbeque, loud music and obviously scantilly clad girls. No real stories to tell here except that our bus left first from campus and arrived at the party last because the half wit of a driver got lost. After the party we had a Pimms party at British Phil's flat.

This last weekend I went forth to the Kinneret/Galilee/Lake Tiberius - call it what you will and had a brilliant time. A friend who I have met here, Joel from England (going to Bristol next year), had organised a weekend away for about ten people. We took a whole bunch of food with us and stayed in a Kibbutz made into a Hostel/Hotel which was situated right on lake Tiberius. The views were amazing. The weather was stiflingly hot. We had an excellent Friday night dinner and just hung around beachside on Friday. Saturday was spent sitting in the sun while studying for my Hebrew Oral. It was so hot all day long and I loved every second of it. British Phil came with once again and he can speak Arabic pretty well which is always helpful round these parts. The staff at the Hostel/Hotel loved him as he could speak their language as they were all Arab guys. One even gave him his phone number and invited him around to dinner. This guy genuinely appreciated it so much that Phil spoke Arabic. Also at the Hostel was a big group of Canadian Birthright kids. We hung out with them on Friday night and they were very excited about my accent. It is fantastic being British, so much attention given to you (especially by girls) just because I talk correctly. Brilliant.

'Tis all for now,

Daniel
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1147800960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1147800960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1147800960/tpod.html Tue, 16 May 2006 14:39:16 -0400 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it was so that on the 16th day of the fifth month that Daniel, son of a bald man, resembled his father. I write this with a haircut not too dis-similar to that of the standard required of US Marines. I also look somewhat like a chav. Never again will I say "Just cut it off." (It's not too bad - I quite like it). I do however, look hard for the first time in my life. Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been brilliant.

Classes have been going nicely and it came to pass that I achieved A- grades in each subject in which I took a midterm. Quite pleasing considering the little work I did the night before.

The second weekend I spent back in Israel was at a reform shabbaton. This was a good oppertunity to sleep in a comfortable bed and eat some hotel quality food. The prgogrammes written for the event were okay and I really didn't learn much as I was barely there (went to other random places nearby). I didn't join the for Friday night services as I went to the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem. Everyone thinks that it's such an amazing shul, but really it's just a big version of Edgware with some bonus frummers. The weekend after this, I went on a UJS (the Union of Jewish Students in the UK) pre-campus seminar. This was so much fun. It was basically a weekend in a nice hotel with amazing food all at a subsidised price. It was a really useful seminar and it was great to spend some time without the constant drone of the American accent.I met a couple of people going to university with me which was very nice and I had an amazing night of sleep in a bed ten times comfier than that of the previous weekend.

This section may seem a little vulgar to the sensitive reader, so if they are of such a disposition, I suggest they skip immediately to the next paragraph...Since arriving in Jerusalem, I have been attempting to do a poo at every five star hotel that exists. This has been such a quest of mine that while in town a couple of weeks ago, Nick suggested that I go to use the Kind David's (fanciest Hotel in the city) facilities when I told him we needed to stop for a bog break. Even other people are helping me out with the fulfilment of this monumental task! Nick made use of the luxurious toilets himself, so a good time was had by all.

And it reached the time of year that Israel remembers and celebrates. For Yom Hazikaron (rememberence day for fallen soldiers), alnost everyone from Hebrew U went to the Kotel for a ceremony. The mood was sombre. The President of Israel spoke and there was some soldier marching displaying Israel's military clout. A huge rememberence flame was lit with a guard of honour standing by it. Afterwards, I went to hear an Israeli soldier speak about his experiences somewhere near the Kotel. The next day, Maximum, Deb, Nick and I went to Har Hertzel which contain Hertzel's tomb and the tomb's of Israel's leaders. It's also a military cemetary and the some of the things we saw were very moving and sad.

The next day, that night actually was Yom Ha'atsmaut (Independence Day). It was so much fun. The night started out with me, Leanne, Sam and British Phil going to a street party in Amek Rafaim. I didn't want to go to a massive club party because I can do that any time and wanted to do something authentically Israeli. Shame the party was ful of Americans and Brits who had made aliyah. Nevermind. It was a great party. Quality barbeque and nice desserts. What was interesting was the guest of honour there. His name was Max Warner and he is the ex-state governer of Virginia. He is also second in the running for the democratic nomination for the Presidency. Of course I introduced myself saying "Sir, it would be an honour to meet you and say that I've shaken your hand." He put his hand out and asked me my name. Very arse likcing I realise, but I can now say I've met him and it will be very cool if he is in power in a few years time. After the party, we and Tali (ex-pat Brit) who we met at the party went into town to a bar. On the way we saw some amazing fireworks taking off from a hotel. Town was packed. There was a huge amount of people, loud music and general going nuts. We danced with some Yeshiva boys and waved flags while people we drinking and having a top notch time. The next day I went to an amazing barbeque in the Old City. I walked there from the campus with Jeremy and Alex. It was a great lunch. Loads if meat, salads, and roated marshmallows. Having absolutely stuffed ourselves, we went to the Kotel and then walked around the Muslim quarter of the Old City. It was an amazing day. An interesting observation: It was amazing to see the way in which Israel goes from a day of mourning and rememberence to a day of celebration and euphoria.

Yesterday was Lag Baomer and most of Hebrew U went to Latrun for a huge event. The event was for all people on long term programmes in Israel and I saw everyone from England/JFS there. There were fireworks and live music, but the best part was when Prime Minister Olmert spoke to us. He did't just ramble on about some policy issue but addressed the us all directly. It was a bit of a propaganda fest - ie him telling us to pack up and move to Israel as soon as we get back to our home countires. Anyway, that's another leader to add to my list of statesmen that I've met. After the speeches we had a big bonfire (as is traditional on Lag Baomer) and ate a load of Baclava. Very fun.

Until next time,

Daniel
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1145806800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1145806800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1145806800/tpod.html Sun, 23 Apr 2006 12:34:25 -0400 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it was so that I flew home for the Pascal feast. I arriived at the airport three hours before I needed to check in due to a slight overestimation in how long it would take me to get there. I eventually checked in and made my way to the departure lounge where strangely enough, I lounged. After some world class lounging around I got on the plane. It was full of black hatted frummers making a fuss and what not. They finally settled down and I took my seat to find that I had no leg room whatsoever. My knees where tightly pressed against the seat in front. Most uncomfortable. Dinner was served about an hour into the flight. It came with a festive chocolate easter bunny (not an ELAL flight), not just any bunny, but a tasty Lindt one. As all the meals were vegetarian and not certified kosher none of the frummers ate theirs. So I formed a cunning plan and after I finished mine asked the cabin crew if there were any spare bunnies (I knew there would be plenty). I ended up walking back to my tiny seat with no leg room, but with a sumptuous repast of a whole load of Belgian chocolate bunnies of exceptional quality. Other eventful news from the flight was the bunch of Mancunians I got talking to. They were all first and second year uni students who had just been on some sort of leadership training course.

The flight back was less eventful. I did have the bonus leg room seat this time however, which meant that I had respsonsibility for the emergency door. I mention this because you have to be at least fifteen to have the seat in question and the air steward had the cheek to ask me how old I was. He looked about twelve years old himself the smug git. Once I arrived back, I went to spend the weekend in Tel-Aviv at Zoe's. I did a hefty amount of sleeping after the night flight, had an amazing dinner at her friend's house on Friday night and went to the beach a couple of times. The weather was so hot. It was great.

I arrived back in Jerusalem in my dorm about ten on Saturday night. I gave Maximum his present from England - a tub of extra stong hold Brilcream and a playstation controller. He was most pleased. I asked him what was going on. He informed me that he, Phil the Academic (his roommate) and Leanne were going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to watch the Greek Orthadox Easter ceremonies for Easter Sunday/Monday (which in Greek Orthadoxy happens a week later than it does for others). He told me to join them so I did. We walked to the Old City from the Campus, through Damascus gate, through the Muslim Quarter to the Church. The Church is huge, amazing building and has been constantly rebuilt througout the ages. It is full of really ornate amazing artifacts, paintings etc. The place was packed. Full of worshippers, tourists and police. After some exploring around the church (including Jesus' tomb - didn't go in it)we went to the chapel bit to watch the service which started at midnight. We left after about forty five minutes (it goes on to 5am) to discover that there were millions of people outside watching. We pretty much had a great position in the church and loads of other people who this actually meant something to were mushed outside in the crowds. I felt quite guilty but enjoyed the experience.

No blog is complete without an humorous anecdote from a bar. A couple of weeks ago I was in a jazz bar with some friends. An American guy named Micha and I were having a great laugh doing our German accents for everyone. Anwyay, this Russian bloke comes over and asks if we're German, we say no. It turns out that he's drunk and starts being larey and sits on our table. To cut a long story short, on finding out that Maximum is English he goes "ENGLISH!!" and smacks his fists on the table and it splits down the middle. He wants to fight, but the bar staff threw him out. Drunk pratt. We could have taken him though.

Until next time,

Dan
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1144237620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1144237620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1144237620/tpod.html Wed, 05 Apr 2006 08:28:17 -0400 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it came to pass that I returned to Israel. Two things took me by suprise. Number one: It's sunny in Jerusalem! Finally, after two and a half months of freezing weather I can wear T shirts with aplomb and lie out on the grass in the heat. Great. Number two: Israel has bird flu. B*llocks. Seeing as I don't eat red meat this was a particular blow. The government say it's okay to eat though so I'm taking their word for it, but making sure that everything I eat has been cooked to oblivion.

And so it happened that on the 28th of the third month, that Israel had its general election. It was pretty mad here. All the parties were canvassing for votes on campus and giving out free stuff. Kadima had the best stickers by a long shot which might have been something to do with their victory. At Hebrew U, they ran a pretty professional mock election with real voter registers etc. A student gave me my ballot paper and I complained that there were about twenty five parties, to which he proudly replied "Welcome to Israel." Election day here is a national holiday so we had the day off of lessons. I went to Independence Park thinking it would be somewhat symbolic going somewhere commerating independence on election day. It was boring. There are a bunch of huge rocks and no swings or slides. We just played football and ate Bisli. The truely interesting part about the election was our foriegn policy lecture the next day. The teacher, who has held some very high profile positions (head of the government press office among them) gave us a summary of the results and the domestic political implications in terms of coalition possibilities etc. It was very interesting and I counted myself extremely lucky to be on this course, with such informed lecturers, at such an interesting time.

The other day for our Rashi class, we went on a field trip (that's on "outing" in proper English) to a nature reserve where they rebuild the biblical landscape of Israel. It was a nice excursion and the weather for it was great. We made our own Zatar and ate mustard flowers and saw pommigranits actually growing on trees. I tried my absolute hardest to find a money tree, but to no avail. Maximum Humous cooked some wheat on a fire like our ancesters would have. Everyone liked it except me. I thought it tasted of burnt. No disrespect to Maximum's cooking, just who eats cooked wheat grains?

Last Sabbath I went forth to Yehuda's Yeshiva to spend Friday night and the day there. It was an interesting experience. It wasn't as frum as I thought it would be because it was mainly people about my age just sitting around and eating because we'd cooked dinner ourselves (well Yehuda had cooked for all of us) and we just chatted. However, there was plenty of talking about Judaism and singing as well. I met a guy there from Rochester NY who knew of Camp Seneca Lake (I worked there about eighteen months ago) who said if I ever work there again (which I hope to do) that I can go and spend Shabbat round his whenever I like. I thought that was very cool and will take him up on his offer.

Classes are going quite well. I wrote an essay for Arab-Israeli conflict about whether there was a missed oppertunity for peace in the period 1917 to 1937. I did a reasonable amount of work for it but didn't try too hard. I still achieved full marks though (not many other people did) which I was rather pleased about. DISCLAIMER: This paragraph may seem big heahed. It is. That makes this not a disclaimer then....oh well.

I have more to write, but I'm afraid that will make this all too long and if I tell you about it now, I will have nothing to talk about on my final return.

I'll stick up some pictures later - I have loads!

Until next time,

Daniel
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1143101400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1143101400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1143101400/tpod.html Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:41:01 -0500 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

It had been a while since Daniel updated the blog and thus he felt it necessary to finally do so. After spending roughly ten days in exile in the land flowing with tea and chavs, I returned to the Promised Land. However, seeing as I have missed out a couple of weeks worth of news, I'll briefly fill in my loyal readership.

On the 22nd of the second month, the final day of Ulpan arrived and with it came a final exam. The test was fine and contained an amusing text about one man and his dog on which we had to answer questions. Sadly, it was only a few days after the end of Ulpan that the Wing Commander grabbed his wings and departed for a far off land known as New Zealand. He shall be missed. After the final exam, all my friends here split up and went to dwell in various parts of the area for a four day break. I went up to a Kibbutz near Haifa to stay with family. They took me to a snow park up a mountain. I went on a ski lift right to the peak of one mountain, where the view was stunning. I also went on a bobsleigh type ride which you control the speed of by using breaks or no breaks. Other notable news from the Kibbutz was that a giant wolf of a dog attacked me. I had always wondered what I'd do if a huge dog did that and now I know - I ran away. I couldn't really kick it in the head or anything - it was someone's pet.

After returning from the Haifa region, it came to pass that I went up to the fourth floor of the International School to get my Ulpan result. 90%. Job done.

Since arriving here I have become an even bigger fan of humous than I ever could have imagined. What I've noticed is that humous is not just an Israeli delicacy or a traditional dish, but a diet staple. People pop down to the shops to buy milk, eggs and humous. Anyway, we have definately indulged in eating loads of humous. Infact, Jacob the Brit of Cambridge single handedly eats several litres of humous a week. Due to his outstanding achievements in dip eating, I have renamed him and he shall be known henceforth in this blog as MAXIMUM HUMOUS. On the subject of nicknames, I am considering calling Nick Farmer Giles from now on...something to think about.

Now the semester has well and truly stated and most days I go to lessons mainly on Israeli politics, but also some on classical Jewish texts which are very interesting. I'm not going to bore you with the details of that so I'll tell you about a friz-bee game we played. Gabe, Evan, Avi, Adina (all from North America) and I were walking to a local sports field to throw a friz-bee around. On the way we heard a couple of shots go off. We turned around and legged it. So we played in one of the dorm car parks. The funny part was when I wasn't watching and was hit in the back of the head by the friz-bee. Yes, it hurt. Yes, everyone else laughed. I did not find it funny.

Before departing to England, I stayed at my cousin Zoe's in Tel-Aviv which meant I didn't have to get up at three in the morning to get to the airport. I arrived at Zoe's mid afternoon, thus she was out. I decided to go for a walk and explore Tel-Aviv. I walked right into the centre of town and had a look around some of the really cool shops. I went into a huge guitar shop in the Dizengoff centre to check out the prices of various guitars, hoping they would be cheaper than at home. Alas, they were more expensive because they have to be imported further - although one of the salesmen tried to convince me otherwise and tried to sell me a nine hundred quid guitar. In Tel-Aviv there are millions of shwarma bars and although it was four in the afternoon and I'd only eaten lunch an hour before, I decided that as I was going to be away for a week and a bit, that I'd need, yes need for the sake of my well-being, a nice tasty shwarma. So I had one. The best one I've ever had in Israel in fact. I also decided that Tel-Aviv is great and I am definately going to spend some more time there.

It's good to be back! (in Israel that is)

Daniel
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1141126740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1141126740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1141126740/tpod.html Tue, 28 Feb 2006 06:56:49 -0500 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it was so that I had loads of new photos. So I've put them up for your viewing pleasure!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1140445680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1140445680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1140445680/tpod.html Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:29:52 -0500 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

Daniel went forth to the computer room to wrtie the next installment of his journal...

I can't remember what order things have happened in in the past week and a bit so I'll fill you all in with what I remember.

A couple of weeks ago on Thursday night we had a great time. Wing Commander McQuitty and I went to an all you can drink Goldstar evening. It was basically all the beer you could drink for fifty sheckles and live music. We were so excited about it that we didn't even care that some prat of a cab driver completely ripped us off. We had a great time and it was very funny to see some of the Americans get totally drunk.

Not this last Friday, but the one beforehand, I was rudely awoken by Nick who had called my mobile. He said something about going to the Supermarket to buy stuff to make dinner with. After struggling to get out of bed, I met him and Sarah (from the USA) by the roundabout at the bottom of the dorms and we went to the shops to get food. Annoyingly, shopping baskets do not seem to exist in Israel, so unless you want to shlap around a huge trolly, you have to carry everything - which we did. We bought a whole load of stuff so that Sarah could make a recipe her mum had given her. We ate it for dinner - it was amazing. Before dinner, we went to the Kotel for Friday night services (frum huh?). Although it was possibly the frummest thing I've ever done it was an experience that I'm extremely glad I have under my belt.

I don't really like clubbing, but I've been to a few here. There is one club called Layla which is tacky and rubbish , but very cheap. Everyone goes there so although the club is rubbish, you're pretty much guaranteed a good night. However, there is one club in the German colony called Haoman Shvah Esreh which is amazing. It's a trance/techno place which is very expensive to get into but worth every penny. I went on Thursday night, danced with random Israeli girls (oh yeah!) and had a great time. There were even scantilly clad female dancers on podiums in weird costumes. I couldn't believe that there was such an irreligous, decedant place here - it was mad.

Football has become an ever more trecherous sport. This may have something to do with the fact that the ball we play with resembles a football shaped brick. Nick smashed a big toe nail up while taking a penalty (the blood seeped right through his trainer - rank) and Jacob managed smash his foot so hard that he ended up in A&E - nothing broken thankfully. I also tackled a Russian guy so hard that he had to stop playing (oops). The inevitable happened this week and we had our first punch up. I don't know how it started but the two guys went mental at each other, so we had to split it up. It's so much fun.

A cool thing about the city is the Jewish market. I went there for the first time with Melissa a few days ago. It's a great market which sells loads of freshley baked bread, pastries and all the Jewish and middle eastern foods you can imagine. We went there again for Tu Bishvat a few days later because there were various celebrations taking place. I myself celebrated the birthday of the trees by eating a very cheap and tasty shwarma in the market.

Until next time,

Daniel (hopefully I'll have some more photos up).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1139400900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1139400900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1139400900/tpod.html Thu, 09 Feb 2006 07:31:24 -0500 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it came to pass that Daniel was feeling full and bloated, probably to do with the fact that he'd just eaten his bodyweight in schnitzel for the second time in a week...

So I've been eating many a snhitzel. This is because they have a really cheap meaty cantine on campus that make these amazing shnitzels that are roughly twice the size of my head. It's a very cheap eatery and I often choose the healthy option of munching rice and various salads with my monumental shnitzel. (This paragraph is primarly for the benefit of my grandma so that she knows I've been eating enough!).

It has been a fan-bloody-tastic few days. Ulpan is going really well. We had our mid-term (as the Yanks call it) test the other day. I thought I'd screwed it up. Turned out that I got 95%. I was reasonably pleased. So the Hebrew is coming along well.

On Thursday afternoon the Office of Student Activities organised a trip to Yad Vasham. I'd never been there before and had no idea what to expect. I thought the build and the layout of it was amazing and visually brilliant. However, in terms of a museum, I thought that the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC was much better in terms of the history of the Holocaust. So, by the end of the museum I was of the opinion that DC was better than Yad Vasham. Then, however, they took us into the hall of rememberance which was just awesome. It was quite humbling. I think the thing that I was most amazed by was the forms for Holocaust survivors to fill out. It contained questions like "What camp were you in?" and "Were you involved in any resistance movements?" The fact that these questions are today still asked of living people who survived the Holocaust made it seem more real than ever.

On Friday we had ulpan lessons. This was annoying because we never usually have lessons on a Friday which is supposed to be the weekend. Anyway, I thought seeing as I volunteered for this course I shouldn't complain and the whole thing is like one big weekend anyway. After ulpan, I headed down to Tel Aviv to spend the weekend at my cousin Zoe's. I sat on the bus with American Eric. At the Jerusalem end station we bought hot dogs for six sheckles with two sausages in them. HOW CHEAP IS THAT!!?? That's under a quid for a kosher hot dog. It was really tasty and I'm sure it was filled with loads of crap that's bad for you, but I still loved every single bite of it. I finished it in ten seconds. On the way to Tel Aviv it rained with the force of a hurricane, which reminds me, on Thursday night it hailed so hard with huge stones it was like the ten plagues had hit. On Friday night, Zoe and I went round to some of her freinds for dinner. Sophisticated chat followed which was great and as most were ex-pats I understood every word of what was being said for once! On Shabbat morning, I went to Shul for the first time since arriving (poor show eh?). It was a great service - really really fast with English tunes. Excellent kiddish. I finally duchened in Israel which was also very cool.

So Sunday came around again, and instead of playing football, a whole bunch of us went to see Beitar Jerusalem play at home to Ashdod. The standard of football was poor - like watching Leyton Orient vs some other rubbish team (Arsenal for example). The atmosphere was great though and the fans were supremely yobbish - more so than in England. It was top fun. We all bought scarves and I have worn mine non stop. We've adopted Beitar as our new team and we are planning on going to a few more games because it's so cheap. The best part of the night was teaching the Americans some football chants. Their favourite being "The referee's a w*nker!" It was quite hilarious.

Until next time,

Dan

PS. I'm having my photos put onto CD right now, so I should have them up tomorrow!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1138624440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1138624440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1138624440/tpod.html Mon, 30 Jan 2006 08:15:39 -0500 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it was that I had been dwelling in the Land of Israel for two weeks...

Sunday night at Hebrew University is football night and we play with a whole load of other international students at the Learner Sports Centre. The facilities there are brand spanking new and are pretty amazing. We play from eight until ten in the evening and it is absolutely freezing. This however, does not stop us wearing shorts and sporting our various England football shirts. Anyway, the way it works is that we play an all England team (with a German or Argentinian guy thrown in)against teams from other countries. First game first week, we beat the Russians...then got thumped by everyone else (mostly really hard guys from Eastern Europe). The same happened last night. The games are extremely physical and I am still aching all over today. Great fun though.

The intensive Hebrew lessons are going pretty well. We had our first big test on everything we have done so far. I rinsed it. 96%. Get in! The lessons do get a bit boring however when we have six hours of it a day. I stop concentrating and that is always when the teacher asks me a question! Very Frustrating.

Last weekend was pretty boring. Most of the friends I had made went to the Kinneret on a trip that I put my name down too late for. I spent Friday afternoon watching "The Office" on DVD. Then the Wing Commander and I had Friday night dinner with some American friends of ours which was very fun - it was an evening of sophisticated chat. During the day on Shabbat I sat bored senseless. Although most of the weekend was dull, Saturday night was brilliant. It started off with the Wing Commander and I having coffee and cakes in a huge coffee shop in town. Then I met Uncle Yehuda (yeah he's only six months older than me and not related but I call him unlce becuase I think it's funny)in town for dinner. We did a bit of a running hug which would have been very funny except that it resulted in me smashing Yehuda's nose with my shoulder. He thought it was painful, I thought it was hilarious. Then Yehuda, Wing Commander McQuity, Avi Grayeff and I had a great dinner (halumi salads) in a brilliant dairy place. After that I saw Elise in town which was very cool indeed. The rest of the night was spent in various bars with live music and beer.

The bars here are great and we have a couple of regular haunts, but one of my favourute eateries is a Mexican place called Bocadillo which does a great spicey chicken breast in Ciabatta sandwich. Speaking of food, the Shwarma count is quite low - only eaten three, but on the bright side, the student union shop sells Dr. Pepper!! Yay!!! I also forgot to mention another great food serving establishment - Burger's Bar. Does amazing burgers and chips that are crisps. Wow!

I shall leave you with a quote from an American chum of mine (keep in mind that there are no lessons on Friday and that Thursday is students' night).

"You know what Thursday night rhymes with???? Shots!!" (pronounced "shaaaartz")

- He was very drunk that night.

Pictures coming soon....

Until next time,

Daniel
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1138116120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1138116120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danieldomb/hebrew_u/1138116120/tpod.html Wed, 25 Jan 2006 06:20:15 -0500 The Daniel Testament (my Israel travel blog)

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Jerusalem, Israel

And it came to pass that Daniel named this entry "Adam and Evan." This was for no other reason than to sound clever and old testamenty. The only things I have done to do with Adam and Evan were to meet an American guy of that name and I spoke to Adam on the phone today (Tuesday).

Wow it's been a great few days. Thursday afternoon was spent doing nothing in particular, but Thursday night was amazing. It started with drinks at an empty pub for a bit of a FHU (that's Friends of Hebrew University) social. This was great becuase the first round of drinks was on them. This was a nice chance to meet the English people I hadn't met yet - Melissa, Michael and Wing Commander McQuity. We call McQuity (first name Jonathan) Wing Commander because he's so incredibly British and was in the RAF Cadets. After that bar we moved on to another and saw loads of people from Hebrew U and chatted to some random Australians and some blokes from London. The bars here are amazing because they play all the music I love. At one point they played some Metallica and I almost spilt my pint and made a right prat of myself by singing along.

Unfortunatelty, the next day we had to get up early for a tour around the old city. I really didn't want to miss this, but the after the night before I couldn't be bothered to get up. However, I forced myself from the comfiness of my bed and got myself ready. The tour was great. We went to the Kotel (I put on tefillin) , saw loads of amazing archeological sites (many from the Roman era) and walked through the underground shopping areas. It was all very Middle Eastern. The highlight of the tour I was obviously the Kotel, but coming in at a close second was the huge bagel that I shared with Eric from America. This was exactly the kind of Israel experience I was looking for (that's the cultural bit, not the food). When I arrived back at my dorm I did some Ulpan work, then just sat around until Friday night dinner at the Hiatt Hotel. I thought it would be great and it was. I sat next to the Wing Commander and some American girls for dinner. During dinner, for the millionth time we had the discussion about the ways America is different from the UK. Of course it ended with a girl asking "Daniel, can you teach me to speak Briddish this semester?" To which I replied "Sure, first thing is British has a T in the middle not two D's."

The best thing about Friday night was after dinner a whole load of people went back a someone's apartment and had nargilah and various drinks. It was like being at a US college gathering/party (all Americans and us couple of Brits). It was so much fun and I couldn't believe my luck for all the fun stuff that had been going on. It was a brilliant night.

Shabbat (that's Saturday usually, but everyone calls it Shabbat here so I'm going to aswell) was cool. I didn't go to Shul (I probably should have done) but I managed to get in a good twelve hours of sleep. The weather on Saturday (Shabbat!) was beautiful - the sun was shining - unlike the rest of the week. I wonder if it had anything to do with it being the Sabbath. Anyway, Eric, Nick (a Brit) and I went for a long walk around and about which was nice - mainly because I could wear my highly cool sunglasses - but it also got us up and about.

More to follow,

Daniel
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