Christmas Eve

The strangest thing about Christmas in Jerusalem is how normal the day felt. Stores were open, people were all around. No Christmas lights, or Silent Night on an endless loop. To be honest, it didn’t feel like Christmas at all.

Since Chinese food is hard to find, and the movie theater is far away, we decided to fore go the usual Christmas Eve festivities.  So what to do instead? Well, Jess and I ended up doing different things, but in the same line of though. So what did we do? Well…we went to Midnight Mass. Ironically, in Jerusalem it seems like a cool thing to go to Midnight Mass and see how Christians celebrate. In the states, I would probably never go to Mass. Figure that out?

Well, Jess went with her friend Nikki (grew up Catholic and converted to Judaism about 4 years ago) to a service in the area, while I went with a few people to Bethlehem to see how Christmas is celebrated in the city where Christ was born.

I’m not sure what I expected in Bethlehem. First off, it’s in the West Bank. We needed to bring our passports and go through a security checkpoint to get in. Once across the fence, the entire landscape changed. We went from nicely paved roads, nicer buildings, and Hebrew signs, to very rundown, dirty, and Arabic signs. It was a bit of culture shock, and it was only about 30 minutes from where I live!

We got there a few hours early and they had this whole concert set-up. The weird part of it was, they had a lot of the groups were singing in Spanish. Huh? They would say all of these pro-Palestinian lines at the end, but again it was in Spanish, so nobody was really listening until they said something like ‘Viva Palestinian!” and then everybody would cheer.

Around midnight, we tried to get into the services, but tickets had been sold out for weeks. This is the service that a lot of the big wigs show up to. Supposedly Abbas was there. Outside of the building were a ton of dignitary limo’s with flags from all different parts of the world represented.

We were able to go into the Church of the Nativity by entering the ‘Door of Humility’. Basically it’s a door that is about 4 feet high, so you have to bow to enter or exit. From there, we were able to go to an alcove and listen in to the services, which we did for a few minutes. Unfortunately, we had no clue what was going on, so it wasn’t that impressive.

The most interesting part was just walking around and watching the people. Palestinians were walking around in Santa outfits handing out pro-Palestinian rhetoric. People were there to celebrate, others were there for the free music and festive atmosphere. It was a cold night, and tons of people were walking around selling two from what looked like the tea kettle from their house.

Jessica on the other hand, went to the entire midnight mass, and probably had a much more interesting experience since she was able to get the play-by-play.

New Year’s Eve

So one of the students organized a New Year’s Eve celebration for any of the students that wanted to join. She rented out a bar, organized the open bar, decorated the place, and bought snacks. The theme? Prom. So you know what this means? In the mighty words of Barney….SUIT UP!  So everyone got all gussied up in the finest clothes that they brought to Israel.

Ever weeks of trying to get up the courage, I finally was able to ask the girl I was interested in if she wanted to go to Prom with me. Thankfully, she hadn’t been asked yet and said yes. So Wednesday night finally came along, and I showed up to pick up my date in my finest suit. There was much dancing and hanging out with friends, and midnight came and went.

Overall, a very fun evening. To top off the evening, we caught up with almost all of Jess’s family on Skype.

Packing and Finals

So this week is Finals for Jess. She has had 2 ten page papers to finish, one oral exam in chanting Torah, and 4 additional tests. Needless to say, she has been a bit stressed. As of right now, she is over half done as she handed in both papers, took both the oral exam, and one of the written exams. I’m just tired thinking about all of the work she is doing. Right now, her and a friend are studying Hebrew in the main room.

We are also leaving for Africa late Thursday night (Jess’s last final is Thursday morning). So this week, I’ve been finishing up work and trying to remember where I placed all of the things that I want to make sure to bring with us to Kenya and Tanzania.

This will probably be the last post for a little bit. If we have the opportunity, we’ll try and post while we are traveling, but if not…there will be a long post when we get back with hopefully a ton of pictures!

Jess and I would like to wish everyone a happy Hanukkah. We were out for a walk tonight and got to see the large menorah’s being lite around the city. Near Ben Yehuda (the big tourist street), there was a large menorah with loud speakers blaring jewish music as they were lighting the menorah.

Tonight is bittersweet for us. We always knew that we would have to say goodbye to friends we made because they were going to be going to one of the other campuses. Tonight, one of our good friends is heading back to the states. She decided that she wanted to pursue a different career path then being a Cantor, which we are definitely supportive of her decision. On top of that, she had a family emergency, so needed to head back to the states 3 weeks before she had initially planned.

So a joyous night, yet at the same time bittersweet.

Chag Semeach (Happy Holidays),

Chad and Jess

Yup, we’re going to Kenya & Tanzania! We’ll be spending 10 days on safari, followed by a couple of days relaxing on the island of Zanzibar. Our trip starts on January 9th and we will be back on Jan 23rd. Sadly, we will miss Obama’s inauguration, so hopefully I’ll be able to find an online source to watch it.

I’ll be posting pictures and travel journals to this blog, so keep checking back. We’re bringing both cameras, so hopefully we’ll get some great pictures and hopefully we’ll get some good video to put on the site also.

Thanksgiving

While it was hard to be away from the family for Thanksgiving, it was nice to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Some of the students organized a ‘potluck’ dinner that had all the traditional elements including 4 turkeys, lots of stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, etc. It was definitely a fun night with lots of food. Some of the students even recorded one of the football games and showed it after dinner (although we had already headed back at that point, since we had house guests.

Speaking of house guests, we got to celebrate Noam and Valerie’s engagement the night before Thanksgiving and then get to hang out with them after Thanksgiving and had a game night.

Jess lead Services at HUC

Each week one or two of the Rabbinic students work with a cantor and lead services. Last week, Jess was in charge. The weekend before, Jess was incredibly busy being that we had houseguests for the full weekend, she had 2 papers due, homework assignments, and also needed to work with the Cantorial student to prepare for the service. Needless to say, she was busy, but in the end did a great job leading services. From what I’ve heard, the negative/constructive feedback was on more trivial details while the overall feedback was very positive.

I must say on from the outsiders perspective, that after 5 months of being in school and learning hebrew, and about Israel, it was really nice to see Jess in the role as a Rabbi. It’s sometimes easy to forget that is why she is studying (for me at least…).

Rachel’s Birthday

After people die, I like to try to honor their life on their birthday. This may include telling funny stories, or eating their favorite food, etc. Last year, our friend Rachel died, and her birthday was on Dec. 3rd. Rachel’s favorite thing to do was to go to Ben & Jerry’s (no matter how much snow there was) and eat a vermonster with her friends.  Well, the Cleveland crew were getting together to head to Ben & jerry’s and we were quite sad that we could not be there also.

Instead, we invited our friends over to our house and picked up a bunch of pints of Ben & Jerry’s. Not quite the same thing, but the spirit was there.

Hiking with HUC

Well, it wasn’t really hiking with HUC, but with a few of Jess’s fellow students. The head of the choir is a very avid hiker, and often times organizes hikes that any of the HUC students (and friends) can join in on. The hikes range from easy day hikes to multi-day backpacking adventures. This past weekend, we had a 2-day camping trip about an hour outside of Jerusalem. During the day we hiked, and at night we had a primitive camping experience, which is car camping, but without the facilities.

One of the amazing things about the hikes is that you’re always coming upon ruins. We kept running into fences that were from the Ottaman era, or the Byzantine era, or this cave that has pigeons holes…but they’re not sure how old it is, etc. History is everywhere, just waiting to be found. You can just look down and pick up pieces of pottery shards.

The hikes were on the easier side, but still enjoyable to get out and stretch the legs. Jess and I haven’t had a chance to get out and go hiking in quite a while, and we haven’t gone camping in a really long time. So it was nice to spend a weekend away from Jerusalem, away from the honking, away from homework, and the computer, and the internet. It was nice to just hang out by the campfire, play cards with friends, and talk.

Dad’s Birthday

So after commenting on Rachel’s birthday, I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what to do today to honor Dad. In some ways, it’s weird to think that he’s been gone for almost 4 and half years. It’s weird to think how much of my life has changes since he died. None of those thoughts really help me honor his life.

So here is my question for you…if you knew Dad, what are you doing to honor his life?

Our hike started at the Dead Sea. For those that remember, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth at 420meters (1377 feet) below sea level. Needless to say, it is very bizarre to hike up the side of the mountain, and get to this amazing beautiful viewpoint of the Dead Sea, and you’re still below sea level. Hiking in the desert is a beautiful experience. The harsh beauty is something that everyone should get to see. Although, everytime I’m in the desert I keep wondering, why people are fighting over this land. it’s beautiful and all….but I’d rather be fighting over a beautiful lush land with mountains and valleys, with rivers, and not a desolate wasteland. It also amazes me that people live and survive in the desert.

So the first day we hiked 10 miles and that hike was okay. The second day, we hiked 15.5 miles and it was much more intense. We gained 800meters of elevation, ending up on a peak with a beautiful panaromic view of the desert. From the peak, we could also see Jerusalem. It felt like we could have just walked there instead of back to the bus.

Overall, the people were good. I ended up hiking out with my friend, her boyfriend, and one of their friends. Her friend was gracious enough to translate what the guide was telling us and they were also nice and spoke in English for my benefit. Most of the rest of the people on the hike spoke hebrew, although would say things in Englsih to me. It was a good experience, and definitely a great way to see a different part of the country. Now that my body has recovered, I’m ready to go again….

Jessica + Chad Update

On the home front, Jess and I are both recovering from being sick. Jess got sick, and then a few days later I also got sick. It’s been going around HUC, so it was our turn. Jess also just completely a big Second Temple history test that was stressing her out. Their first big test, the teacher kind of blind sided them with all of this information that they were supposed to know, and it was very stressful and people were very upset. So, everyone was stressing that this test was going to be similar. Instead, the teacher said what was on the test, and that was what was on the test. So everyone (including Jess), felt much more confident and in better spirits after this one.

Throughout the year, the Rabbinic students and the Cantorial students pair off to lead Monday morning services. Jess’s service is on Dec 1, and she has been actively preparing for that. You think, it’s just a service, but there are a lot of prayers that they do here that we didn’t learn in our reform synagogues back home. Guess Reform Judaism is becoming more observant.

Another one of my friends was in from New York, so we got to see her for dinner. It’s always nice to see visitors who know a different part of Jerusalem then we do. It seems I always learn about a new spot, or meet some new people because of it.

Two weeks ago, my old co-worker Noam and his girlfriend, Val, came to visit. They were riding on a Jerusalem-Eilat bike ride. Well, I’d like to congragulate them, because along the way Val got a huge surprise when Noam proposed to her! On Wednesday, they are arriving back in Jerusalem, and all of the Israeli Teva-niks are getting together to celebrate their Simcha (Joy!).

We also got to spend shabbat with some other old friends from when I was working at Teva. A few years back, a bunch of co-workers made aliyah, became Israeli citiznes, and are now living in and around Jerusalem. With Noam in town, we decided to all get together for Shabbat. It is amazing how things can change so much in 6 years, yet remain the same. Shabbat included 3 kids running around, yet the Teva-niks were still the same amazing people.

A nice thing about having Noam around is that he knows Jerusalem pretty well. So he took us into the Arab shuk, market, for some delicious dessert that I can’t remember the name of. We went to this place that is called ‘The Little Wall’. Basically, the Western Wall where Jews pray is a small part of the overall wall that the Orthodox run and manage. The ‘Little Wall’ is a stretch further north that is not run by the Orthodox. So it has the advantage that men and women can pray together and you can also pray in your own way without feeling like you’re going to be harassed by the religious Jews.

Football

Football went a lot better this week. We still got killed, but at least we scored a touchdown this time. As for me, I can actually walk today, and my muscles aren’t as sore as they were last week.

Hiking

This weekend, I’m going on a two-day intensive hike with an Israeli hiking club. I know one other English speaker, also a former Teva-nik, on the hike. Unfortunately, none of the HUC students could join us this time.

Google Translate

One of the difficulties I keep running into is all hebrew websites. For instance, the registration form on the hiking club’s website is all in hebrew. How do I fill out the form, if I can’t read it. Then I discovered that Google Translate now does Hebrew to English. You can either copy or paste the hebrew in, or you can direct the program to a specific web page, and it translates it for you. It’s not perfect, but takes a lot less time then going to the Hebrew-English dictionary. Here is the above registration form in english. Not bad, huh?

A Jessica update

Most of the updates have been about me, so here is some info about Jess. She’s busy. Between school, homework, her community service projects, and the community choir that she is a part of her time disappears quickly. On top of it all, HUC encourages them to go to a bunch of other programs during their free time. So this Friday (while I’m on my hike), she is going to be busy with HUC programs pretty much the entire day.

As for school, she is still enjoying it. She describes it as ‘High School’. School starts at 8:30 and normally goes to 4:30. They have different classes with different teachers. They have lockers and a cafeteria. Everyone takes out in the quad between classes, etc. Like High School, there are some classes and teachers she likes better then others, but is still learning a ton.

Hopefully, Jess will have some free time and be able to give an update of her own…but until then…you’re stuck with me.

Overall, the bar had probably 50+ people there and a ton of photographers. I just did a bit of searching, and found this article. In the main picture is my friend Ann that was with us at the bar last night. I was at the bar from 4am till Obama’s speech at 7:15am.  Through the night the group of HUC students that I was with went from 8 to 1 and the crowd generally thinned out a bit.

Another highlight occurred while we were just sitting around talking. We had 2 Virginians, 2 Ohioans (apparently I’m an Ohioan now…), 1 Floridian, and 1 New Mexican. All states that voted red and went blue this year. All of us were so excited every time our respective state was announced.

I filmed when CNN called the election for Obama, but haven’t had a chance to upload it to YouTube. As soon as I post it, I’ll add it to blog.

On a more personal note, it’s great to have a glimmer of hope again. For 8 years, I’ve disagreed with the direction our government has taken. I’m sure I can find a couple of times where I actually agreed with legislation that was passed or the direction that Bush was taking us,  but those times are few and far between. I’m not such an idealist that I believe that Obama is just going to start in January and everything will magically get better. He’s got a huge up hill battle, but I feel that he is the right person for the job. I also know that he’s not the candidate for everybody, but his policies, hope, and optimism are all qualities that I greatly admire.

Football

To add to the fact that I’m completely exhausted as I got about an hour and a half of sleep last night and another hour and a half this morning, I’m also completely sour. For some reason, I decided to join the HUC flag football team. Thought it would be fun to get out of the house, hang out with some of the other students that I normally don’t hang out with, and get some exercise. Well, I’m definitely doing all of that and realizing that I’m not in the shape that I once was and I’m definitely not as young as I once was.

See, most of the players on the other team were probably of college age. MOst of them play sports a log. Our team? We’re in decent shape, just not necessarily sprint..stop…sprint..stop kinda of good shape. Me? I can hike 10 miles, but walking today is a bit painful.

Oh…and the score? 35 - 0. It was only our second time playing with each other, and our first gaming learning their rules.  Our goal next game? Score 1 touchdown.

The cool part about this is that I’ve been noticing other websites using my (our) pictures, and have gotten email requests to use pictures in flyers and brochures. An environmental organization in England used one of the pictures that Scott took in Antartica in their brochure. Another one of our (although we think Scott took this one also) pictures has made it onto Wikipedia.

I just received a PDF for a travel agency that used one of my pictures for their brochure. Although it was only sent out digitally, it’s still really cool to see a photo that I took being used in a professional light.

The Art and Archeology of Israel

I took the photo that is on the first page of the Dome of the Rock.

Ironically of all of the pictures that I’ve posted….the photo that has had the most hits is this one:

I’ve also heard that some people are having issues seeing the photos. If you are, please email me and let me know what browser you are using and what version.