Day trips

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy with the start of all my classes, getting to know Tel Aviv, my dad coming to visit, and planning my travel for the semester. I've been in class for two and a half weeks now-- I'm taking Hebrew III, History of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Diplomacy & Negotiation in the Middle East, and Religion, Politics, and the State in Comparative Perspective. Pretty much all of my classes (except for Hebrew) are dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict right now but all three are coming from different perspectives. In Diplomacy & Negotiation we are looking at the conflict as a sort of model for all international conflicts. The History of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict class is taught by a woman who has spent her life doing research on Palestinian refugees and the professor of the Religion, Politics and the State class is a Jewish-Israeli who focuses more on theological and political differences between the groups. 

Anyway, I also took two trips to Jerusalem this week (it's about an hour away from Tel Aviv) and had really great experiences both times. The first time I went just for the day with my Dad and the second I spent one two days and one night in Jerusalem with two friends from my Tel Aviv program. --I also went to Haifa and Caesarea with my dad but didn't have my camera with me. I'll get pictures for those up later when I can get them from Dad. Here are some pictures from this week with short explanations (most are from Jerusalem). 

Dad and me in Yafo (just south of central Tel Aviv). 

This is an Israeli dessert. It's like panna cotta with peanuts and sweet rose syrup. 

 View of Tel Aviv from Yafo. 

 Sunset in Yafo. 

More Yafo... 

This is me and Tamar. She is studying to be a tour guide so she showed us around Yafo for the evening. 

Me and Dad at dinner. 

Dad in the Old City of Jerusalem drinking chocolate milk from a bag (everyone says that this chocolate milk is the best). 

Dad in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the church on the spot of Jesus' crucifixion. Ridiculous amount of Jesus stuff in there. 

 Inside the church. 

 Stone of Unction, where Jesus' body was prepared for burial. People come to touch it and to put their belongings on the stone... hence this (now holy?) sweater. 

The church also is the center of the world according to some christians. This is me in the center of the world. 

Dad in front of Jesus' tomb. 

Dad in front of the walls of the old city. 

Tamar told us about Israel's "Seven Species" (agricultural products that the hebrew bible says are special to Israel). These are them.  

 This is the Dome of the Rock. 

Israel on the way to the dead sea with Dad and Eric. 

The Dead Sea!!

Me and Eric floating. (We got there late so the pictures are a little fuzzy...) 

Me and Dad showing our hands and feet at the same time. 

Eric and me playing checkers in the Dead Sea!!! We could do it because it's so floaty!

View from the Dead Sea. The lights across are lights from Jordan. 

View from Hebrew U. 

Right by Eric's dorm there is this falafel place, best falafel I've ever had. Actually, all the falafel here is the best falafel I've ever had. Turns out pita and falafel in the US is really gross. 

Man making falafel. He did it very fast!! 

Israel museum. It was actually very cool. Lots of stuff. But I couldn't take pictures of most of it. 

This guy. 

My friends, Ari and Carolyn in front of the building (weird white thing) that houses the dead sea scrolls exhibit. 

Model of the Second Temple. 

Ari and Carolyn in the Old City! Very exciting. 

Eric came to meet us in the Old City. Here they (Eric, Carolyn, Ari) on top of a building in the old city. 

The Western Wall. Very powerful experience seeing so many people praying so emotionally. Feels like something that everyone should see if they can. Really amazing. 

Lots of pomegranates and pomegranate juice here. 

The view from the top of our hostel!! We ended up sleeping on the roof. It was beautiful and we woke up with the sun and the first call to prayer. Also, the woman working at the front desk graduated from NYU last semester so we spent some time talking to her and getting recommendations. That experience gave me the largest burst of NYU pride/affection I've had.