"Squeeze the World"

Well, the little boy went through surgery last night, got six plates in his skull. He was doing really well this morning, he woke up and was talking, he was on medication so they didn't know how his eyesight's faring. I spent the night with the kids last night and most of today. The youngest one was in Haifa with her parents, and she and her father came to visit. They're borrowing a friend's car for a couple weeks, I think. Just after he left to go back, he called and said the boy's nauseated and feverish, but he didn't have an IV and is likely dehydrated.

Thanks for your prayers!

I'm in Nazareth right now, but I just heard word about a family back in AQVNT. They're new immigrants and have had non-stop problems since before they even came here. Just today, their second-to-youngest child, a four year old boy, crashed on his bike and an unprotected handlebar connected with his temple on the way down. He and his mother are en route to the hospital in Haifa at this very moment. The father is also on his way (only one could go in the ambulance) and their other five children are back home.

Also, this morning the engine died in the car (the third time since I've been here), so they are also without personal transportation. Most of their immediate means will probably be met within the community, but this family, especially the little boy, really could use all the prayer they could get.

When I got back to the school, I was given a whole new set of responsibilities. Instead of correcting papers, supervising recess, or other gentle tasks, I'm in charge of clearing out a storage room which has been untouched for at least a decade and transporting the contents around the block. I'm not sure how I'll be able to do this yet, but I'm sure it'll work out. My other duties involve clearing off their huge balcony with a gorgeous view of the lake and being the full-time janitor until January. The balcony really is pretty amazing, but unfortunately it overlooks a beach that is frequented by men in Speedos. (pardon me for an immature outburst: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww) It is sad how one of the only good things American fashion is one of the few Israelis didn't adopt.

Hope you're all enjoying the snow!

It's been a great couple weeks and now I'm trying to get back into a schedule. After dropping my parents off at the airport (a sad occasion), we drove straight up to Nazareth to join the NV Americans in their Thanksgiving meal, during which I was in something of a haze. I woke up this morning surprised to be in my own bed just to rush back to Nazareth to help them with a large load of visitors, and all of them wanting meals. Later, I went to the house (actually, I'm still here, using their internet) of two American sisters for their Thanksgiving meal. There were three women from England, Finland and Germany, so we had a fun time talking about different countries and their holidays, and "we don't eat corn in Finland." Actually, they do, but only from cans.

Writing about the whole time with my parents will be quite a challenge, so I'm not sure exactly how to go about it. The whole time was so much fun, and Israel is so pretty in the "winter." We've decided that the weather is more of a spring, summer and fall climate since things are actually blooming and harvested in the winter months.

I had internet for about an hour today, and I tried calling the company, but I'm guessing that both my internet and the company are taking Shabbat off. I don't quite understand it, but so it goes. I hope everyone's Thanksgivings have been wonderful and safe.

There have been some complaints about my lack of updates, so I'M SORRY, GUYS. It's been pretty crazy and I don't have internet so... :( Right now we're trying to help a family make a home network and upload video onto their computer. Not much luck so far.

Anyway, we've been having a great time touring the last few days, and we're heading over to Jerusalem tomorrow. The first day, we went around the lake and saw Capernum, Tabga and Bet Shean, and finished the day of touring with dates and pizza from Kibbutz Kinneret. The weather cleared up nicely on Thursday for our tour on the Golan.

Yesterday, we spent the day at Nazareth Village. Benny Hin or whatever his name is was supposed to make an appearance and slay everyone in the spirit, but he didn't show up. It was pretty disappointing, we even got the goats excited about it. We took the tour and dressed up to entertain the tourists, and it was rather fun overall. Evone said that my dad looked good in a dress and that my mom and I looked like sisters. We picked up some backlawa for Shabbat and got to rest after our day in the sun.

This morning we went to the local Congregation and are going to the Arab congregation in Nazareth tomorrow before we take off. It's been somewhat exhausting, but it's also been a great time together. I doubt that I'll be able to update again until later in the week, but I'll try to make a more indepth entry then. My apologies to my faithful readers, and I hope that you are not destitute in my absence. I promise to return soon.

So I went to Nazareth Village again today and there were sooo many groups. I spent the entire day in costume, either picking olives, watching sheep, wrestling goats, petting goats, passing out bread, the works. One group was from Master's Commission and had a few members from Leavenworth, and an Indian group was paired with them at the last minute. The result was this:

Tourist: Calling all people from Leavenworth, WA!
Me: Well I'm from Cashmere?
Indian Tourist: You're from Kashmir?
Me: Uh... no.

At the beginning of the day, as I was picking olives, several school groups came through and one came directly up to me and wanted to talk to me. I heard the teacher telling them (in Arabic) that I only spoke English, and there was instantly a chorus of "HOW ARE YOU!!" from them all. Just to throw them off I answered "niha, shukron." Then they all went crazy thinking that I knew more than twenty-some words of Arabic. They eventually left, and I thought I had seen the last of them, but some time later when I went to drink some water, I heard my voice called by several voices from the eating area. I ventured in, just to be polite and say hello, but I was sucked into their midst. I found out that Arab hospitality is cultivated at a very early age as several bags of chips were suddenly dumped into my hands as I tried to convince them I wasn't hungry. They kept on asking me questions in mixes of Hebrew and Arabic, and it got intimidating at several times as they would surround me and yell questions- sort of like press conferences without the body guards. I felt like quite the celebrity until they started making fun of my laugh. Then one girl motioned at the huge pile of chips that I didn't know what to do with and said that I was going to be fat. Then there were several choruses of "you thin!!!!" as they tried to repent for her words. It was all very chaotic, and I was very relieved when they finally left.

It was an extremely full day with tourist groups constantly coming. It's good to see the place full after so many months of so few visitors. Hopefully they'll be able to keep up with it all.

I have not been getting an appropiate amount of sleep lately. At the beginning of the week I found out that the nights have become incredibly cold and I had difficulty sleeping because I had to try so hard to keep warm. These houses weren't made to stay warm- more to let the air come through during summer. So I've removed the wimpy covers that weren't helping and piled on some blankets, and so that problem has been partially removed. Of course there's the usual problem of finding so much to do and losing track of time- but then yesterday I went into Nazareth to help out some and go to a staff dinner (scheduled at seven and started at eight) and didn't get back until late. It was a lot of fun, though, and it's always good to see them again. Today I intended to take a nap as soon as I got back from the school, but instead I came home to people picking olives in my front yard, and so I helped out with that and got distracted by not having internet again. I think the company just tried to collect from my frozen card. So, most of this paragraph was created entirely for the purpose of me talking about olive harvest and complaining about internet problems.

My parents are coming on Tuesday! Woohoo! Expect lots of pictures from my dad at his blog (see sidebar) in a couple weeks because he has two cameras!

So I was sitting in the bus station today, waiting for a bus (obviously) and the lady next to me tried to begin a conversation, to which I replied "Englit?" because somehow when it comes to actual interaction, I can't remember vocabulary for the life of me. She asked in an assuming manner if I was a new immigrant, then didn't notice when I answered in the negative. This isn't much to comment on, but soon her friend arrived, who was the most darling little lady I have ever seen. She looked like Grandma Tzitel, only non-ghosty. I had an amusing time watching her talk until I realized that they were talking about me. The other lady apparently told her that I was a new immigrant, so she heaped blessings upon my head and I felt honored and awkward at the same time. Thankfully she returned back to her friend after a bit, and I was able to return the favor by alerting them when their bus came.

In other news, I have pictures from Turkey and a seperate album for Perge uploaded and organized for your enjoyment. Some of these pictures are not mine, but they are from the same trip. Ciao!

But... This could have been me. Fortunately, it was a mere 3 1/2 hour wait at Ben Gurion before we found our luggage. It was really quite an experience.

Back in Antalya, things were slightly confusing, but not terrible. They combined the two flights going to Tel Aviv, so we had quite a delay, then there was chaos with the seating. For example, my ticket told me to sit in row 39. We got onto the plane, looked, and only saw 38 rows. I checked in the back, but those were just toilets. Soon, we started hearing the same complaint from various other people, and we were told to just wait, "we do have a seat for you. However, another bus just came in and we were in the way. So we kept finding empty seats, then got booted as the rightful owners came forth. We were the most passive of the misplaced passengers. Generally speaking, Israelis feel that their opinions and complaints are necessary in every occasion, and express them loudly and at least three times.

This was also demonstrated in the baggage claim. After going through our various interrogators, we came into a room filled with yelling and singing. The yelling was circulating around the information desk, and the singing was off to the side. A large circle of men had apparently been there way too long and were amusing themselves with songs and clapping, one man jumping on his luggage cart to emphasise different phrases.

Half of the carousels weren't operating, and between each were long piles of unclaimed suitcases. We walked through the different lines then joined the ranks sitting around the room with blank faces of despair. We scanned the internet for more news, but my battery was dying so we ate the remaining Turkish Delight. Fortunately, it was announced that we could leave the room and return within 4-5 hours if we showed our passport and boarding pass. We ended up in the "Bye and Buy" upstairs, and after hanging around and eating falafel, went back and wandered more. In time we found our bags, and there was great rejoicing as we made the trip back here.

In all, it was a great trip, and definitely quite the experience. Though Antalya is great, I would probably recommend a different part of Turkey with more available sites of interest, and at a different time of year.

We got to the airport without much adventure, but things are still exciting! There's a worker's strike at Ben Gurion Airport so we're still sitting in the Antalya Airport. I'm glad that I didn't pack my computer in my luggage because we probably would have no idea what's going on if it weren't for internet news.

Yesterday was quite a day. The rain let up for a little bit, so we started making arrangements for Perge, the ruins of a nearby city. As we were conferring with our friend the receptionist, we realized that we didn't have the cash required for the trip. He tried to convince us not to go there since it "wasn't interesting" and recommended some waterfalls instead, which was a cheaper trip. So, we said alright, and started the taxi ride. Both of us still had a longing for Perge, and when my travel-buddy spotted an ATM machine, we decided it was meant to be. That was a confusing process, though, since our driver only spoke Turkish. He pulled up to the "chief" who also tried to talk us out of going there. We were fairly adamant, and since I lent him my pen he gave us chocolate.

So we finally reached Perge and it was great! Other than Bet She'an, I'm pretty sure they're the best ruins I've seen. It was cool wandering around and trying to figure out what each bit was. There were ruins from Hittites, Hellenes and Romans, so we were also trying to decide what would have been there when Paul visited. I'll post the pictures later, they really are amazing. I am still in awe of Ancient Empire engineering. Also, we didn't have any rain there and the sky was even clear for a while! There was a German group when we got there, and then an Asian group walked in and out (a shame, really, they missed a lot), but other than that we were alone most of the time. A flock of sheep were in the distance, and though we couldn't see them we could hear them- it sort of added to the atmosphere.

We stopped along the way at a huge waterfall emptying into the Mediterranean, which I'm pretty sure is standard for the taxi company. I saw some guys with camels and I'm guessing that they have an arrangement with them and the other sellers. We managed to not lose any money there, but it was still a great place to see.

Back at the hotel, and on the way to dinner, we realized that we are WAY too passive. One of the photographers for the hotel stopped us and put us through some ridiculous poses until we finally took off. Ah! A bus! I will write more later.

Though yesterday morning did not promise great improvement in the weather, we decided to take a chance and brave the storm. Since the hotel is a significant distance from daily traffic, we had to take a taxi in a ways before catching a bus. It was a cute little mini-bus, and nobody spoke English, Hebrew or Spanish so we were pretty much at a loss for what to do. We knew the name of the place we were going, but we didn't know how much, when or how to pay for the ride. Thankfully, a woman boarded soon after us and passed her payment up. The driver quite easily took it and made change, then passed it back to her. Several more people boarded afterwards, and it was impressive to see such free and safe money transactions between people.

After the driver told us to get off ("Kalichi?" "kalichi." "KALICHI *point*"), we wandered around looking for the old things that they show in postcards. We ended up in a cool marketplace, which was conveniently covered since the heavens broke forth just a minute after we entered. There were a few glitches in the cover, but the street was engineered well and the water gathered into a tidy river in the middle. That might not seem like a perfect solution, but it's much better than the stagnant floods at the hotel. We ended up talking to a guy selling huge rugs and nomadic gear, and he served us the "famous" yogurt drink unique to Turkey. We decided that it was unique mostly because it tastes disgusting. Of course, we were obligated to buy something, though he drew us in by saying "just look! no obligation to buy!" So I bought a nifty Turkish flute, which I'm actually very pleased with so far.

We left the marketplace after the rain cleared up and found the old things, which were a bunch of mosques. As we were looking around confused and trying to find the marina, a man stepped out of nowhere and started telling us about the mosque and other places around there. He took advantage of our incredible confusion by handing us off to his "brother" who made up a story about a house nearby and managed to corner us into his shop with tea. We made the most of our situation to ask him questions about the culture and whatnot, and tried to have as pleasant of a time as possible. We managed to get out of there before his "father" could display his various perfumes to us.

He had told us before that he was going to show us "Turkish hospitality" and indeed he did. It goes: deception, tea, swindle, ask out, attempt to swindle again. All in a very polite manner, of course.

The marina was really cool, and the mountains were mostly visible. Hopefully it'll be clear enough on Thursday to get a good picture of them. Since the waves have been violent the last couple days, the effect of the place was greatly increased. After a boy tried to sell us Turkish flags (which are everywhere by the way- the guy I bought the flute from said that their Independence day was just last week), we went to a little restaurant for a cappechino so we could employ their clean WC. It also overlooked the water well, but it began to pour soon after and the mountains were lost to us again.

After venturing out again, we managed to find a good Turkish Delight shop and Hadrian's Gate. The latter took about twenty minutes with several conflicting directions to find. Then we managed to find the right bus back, then taxi, then we were able to finally dry off from our adventures.


We aren't exactly sure what to do today. The weather seems even less pleasant than before, but there is another place nearby that we might try out. The novelty of huge lightening crashes is wearing down, but the sea is still amazing.