Loooong entry is loooong. Makes up for barely writing for two weeks y/y?
Is it just me or was Yoko Kanno very heavily, um, inspired by various other composers when she wrote the Macross Frontier OST? I mean, 'Frontier 2059' takes some parts directly from Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Sheherezade' and 'Big Boys' sounds like a lost track from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' OST and 'The Target' sounds like 'Duel of Fates' (but since 'Duel of Fates' sounds like 'One Winged Angel', this doesn't really mean anything). No, seriously! That doesn't mean the OST is bad, on the contrary, I love it! I just think that at least Rimsky-Korsakov should get a honorable mention in the booklet XD
The past few days were quite horrible because of all that studying day and night and I'm not sure it paid off because I still confuse asynchronous, three phase induction motors and other funny things but I think it should be a decent mark. Unless I got other things totally wrong that I'm not aware of. Which is, of course, definitely possible.
The airport of Tel Aviv is very much different from how I remember it. They did a lot to improve it since I was last there in 2002! And, surprisingly, entry procedures only took about half an hour. In the old times it took about two *lol*. The weather was nice and sunny but not overly hot. The wind was constantly coming from the Mediterranean which also meant that the water wasn't really that warm, warm enough to swim but not warm enough to spend more time in it. And in Jerusalem it was downright cold! But more to that later, first off: Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv, officially Tel Aviv-Yafo, is the second-biggest city in Israel and certainly the most modern city between Athens and Bangalore. It's rather new (officially founded in 1909) but Yafo is very old, even by eastern Mediterranean standards (founded some time around 2,000 B.C.) which makes for an interesting mix. My father was working and so we didn't have a car which means we only were in Tel Aviv and went to Jerusalem twice by sherut. Sherut are some sort of mini-buses that only run when they are full and in Mexico I'd call them 'colectivos'. I don't know if there is an English name. They cost as much as a normal bus but are much more convenient.
Tel Aviv (known to its inhabitants as T.A. *g*) is a great city, and I love it. It's very lively and people are very hectic but this is simply an Israeli thing. I don't know why. I think this is what makes Israel so fundamentally different from other countries in the region such as Greece or Turkey - it is never calm, there is always someone running, jogging, talking on the mobile, whatever. It's more like some sort of European country dropped into the Arab world... which is exactly what happened, I suppose.
I have to add that I also love Israel, even if most people seem to hate it for whatever reason, particularly certain self-proclaimed left-wing philantropists. I have little patience with idiots and that's why I rarely discuss this topic with anyone in Germany. I also still think that Germans should keep their mouth shut when it comes to criticising Israel because the whole mess is their fault in the first place. Which is also my problem with the Arabs. They cheer the Germans because they killed so many Jews but they don't seem to be able to comprehend that the whole disaster at Gaza and the Westbank is the German's fault. However, if it comes down to it I judge countries according to how I, as a westerner and a woman are treated. And in Israel I get treated like a human being, like a person with rights and with a brain. In Arab countries (at least in Jordan and Syria, which are the ones I visited and also the Westbank, where I visited when it was still possible before the second intifada) I get treated like either some twit they can sell stuff to or like an animal somewhere between a horse and a dog. Sorry, I know there are women who like it but I don't. And that's all I'm going to say about this.
Everyone speaks English (or German) but the folks at Tel Aviv are hectic and loud but actually rather relaxed and tolerant when it comes to other matters, such as religious. There are many restaurants in Tel Aviv that don't serve kosher food and while between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon Jerusalem seems practically dead (the Jewish parts at least) in Tel Aviv this is the time when people are out, having fun, with millions of people at the beach, in the restaurants and in the malls. We were lucky and had a hotel just two minutes to the beach (the problem was crossing Hayarkon Street because there is always a lot of traffic and only one set of traffic lights), ten minutes to Opera Tower (a mall) and ten minutes to Ditzengoff Center (another mall) and so we could also go to the restaurants at the beach. My mother particularly loves the London Café because they don't care for shabat and kosher food =P.
We went to Jerusalem twice and let me tell you - I don't want to insult anyone but I think I have never seen more weirdos and religious fanatics all my life. I don't remember it being so bad O_o. But everything was full of people trying to convert you to their idea of God. After a while I just glared angrily at all those smiling girls who would come to you, asking "Have you heard about Jesus?!". Seriously. And me telling them that I was, in fact, NOT Jewish didn't really faze them. Oh, and then there were the "Jews For Jesus" guys, also trying to snare clueless people (aka my mother). And the Ultra Orthodox Jews who told me I was in denial about being Jewish (they simply ignored me telling them that I look the way I look because of being half Mexican). And the constant "What, you're German? You don't look German." would have annoyed me if I hadn't known it was true. It's not so much that I look out of place in Germany, it's just that I look sort of 'universal' so that from Portugal to Israel people think I'm a native. I got everything from Spanish beauty-brochures to special sale advertisements in Italian to political manifests of various parties in Greek handed out on streets from Huelva to Thessaloniki. But that's beside the point ^^;;
I still hate the souks and bazaars of Jerusalem because I can't stand narrow, confined spaces where lots of people run around but there is no other way to get to the Old City. Also, we couldn't get to the Dome of the Rock (hands down, the most beautiful religious building in the world) or the Al-Akhsa mosque because the Israeli authorities didn't let anyone up there who wasn't muslim. But I've been there twice and I rather stayed in the new old city. I think it has a name but right now they call it the Jewish Quarter. What I find fascinating is that they built it exactly the way it used to be 2,000 years ago, just thoroughly modern. It's very clean and tidy and, actually, sterile, but it gives you an idea what it looked like in Roman times. Although I think if you want to know what it really was like you should rather go to the Arab part. Or, to an extend, Yafo.
Which brings me back to Tel Aviv because I haven't talked about Yafo yet. It used to be a separate city but now it's part of Tel Aviv. When you look at it from the beach, particularly in the evening when the sun sets, it's shining in the distance, looking like a fairy tale city out of 1001 Nights. Most of its inhabitants are Christian Arabs. Some are still fishermen but most own the restaurants and cafés now - yay, no kosher food! Though I have to admit that kosher food isn't actually bad. I've heard horrible things from my Jewish friends about the European version but Israeli food can be very yummy! The only thing that I really dislike is that you don't get a coffee with milk after your meal in a kosher restaurant, even if you didn't eat anything with meat ~_~. However, you get mayonnaise for the fries that come with your chicken. Technically, this should also be un-kosher, shouldn't it? If the rule is no milk with beef and sheep of all kinds there should also be a rule against anything containing eggs with chicken, right? Because this is at least as unethical!
I've already uploaded the photos of Tel Aviv and Yafo (starting with Munich airport *lol*). You know the drill - they are in order, so you just have to click on 'next picture'. I've got tons of Jerusalem, too, that I have to sort. I hope they're good ^_^.
I also bought CDs but most are, um... Greek ^^;; No, seriously, many shops there have a great selection of Greek music that I can't get here and since I can read Greek but can't read Hebrew - well, I decided better now than never. But I also bought the new CDs of Sharit Hadad and Stalos and Oren Chen. Damn, that's Greek, too...
And I've got a Winamp skin to finish and, once again, lots to study - such as German (hate hate HATE that teacher! ~_~), American studies and British studies. But I won't lift a finger for school today. I just... can't :(
The past few days were quite horrible because of all that studying day and night and I'm not sure it paid off because I still confuse asynchronous, three phase induction motors and other funny things but I think it should be a decent mark. Unless I got other things totally wrong that I'm not aware of. Which is, of course, definitely possible.
The airport of Tel Aviv is very much different from how I remember it. They did a lot to improve it since I was last there in 2002! And, surprisingly, entry procedures only took about half an hour. In the old times it took about two *lol*. The weather was nice and sunny but not overly hot. The wind was constantly coming from the Mediterranean which also meant that the water wasn't really that warm, warm enough to swim but not warm enough to spend more time in it. And in Jerusalem it was downright cold! But more to that later, first off: Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv, officially Tel Aviv-Yafo, is the second-biggest city in Israel and certainly the most modern city between Athens and Bangalore. It's rather new (officially founded in 1909) but Yafo is very old, even by eastern Mediterranean standards (founded some time around 2,000 B.C.) which makes for an interesting mix. My father was working and so we didn't have a car which means we only were in Tel Aviv and went to Jerusalem twice by sherut. Sherut are some sort of mini-buses that only run when they are full and in Mexico I'd call them 'colectivos'. I don't know if there is an English name. They cost as much as a normal bus but are much more convenient.
Tel Aviv (known to its inhabitants as T.A. *g*) is a great city, and I love it. It's very lively and people are very hectic but this is simply an Israeli thing. I don't know why. I think this is what makes Israel so fundamentally different from other countries in the region such as Greece or Turkey - it is never calm, there is always someone running, jogging, talking on the mobile, whatever. It's more like some sort of European country dropped into the Arab world... which is exactly what happened, I suppose.
I have to add that I also love Israel, even if most people seem to hate it for whatever reason, particularly certain self-proclaimed left-wing philantropists. I have little patience with idiots and that's why I rarely discuss this topic with anyone in Germany. I also still think that Germans should keep their mouth shut when it comes to criticising Israel because the whole mess is their fault in the first place. Which is also my problem with the Arabs. They cheer the Germans because they killed so many Jews but they don't seem to be able to comprehend that the whole disaster at Gaza and the Westbank is the German's fault. However, if it comes down to it I judge countries according to how I, as a westerner and a woman are treated. And in Israel I get treated like a human being, like a person with rights and with a brain. In Arab countries (at least in Jordan and Syria, which are the ones I visited and also the Westbank, where I visited when it was still possible before the second intifada) I get treated like either some twit they can sell stuff to or like an animal somewhere between a horse and a dog. Sorry, I know there are women who like it but I don't. And that's all I'm going to say about this.
Everyone speaks English (or German) but the folks at Tel Aviv are hectic and loud but actually rather relaxed and tolerant when it comes to other matters, such as religious. There are many restaurants in Tel Aviv that don't serve kosher food and while between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon Jerusalem seems practically dead (the Jewish parts at least) in Tel Aviv this is the time when people are out, having fun, with millions of people at the beach, in the restaurants and in the malls. We were lucky and had a hotel just two minutes to the beach (the problem was crossing Hayarkon Street because there is always a lot of traffic and only one set of traffic lights), ten minutes to Opera Tower (a mall) and ten minutes to Ditzengoff Center (another mall) and so we could also go to the restaurants at the beach. My mother particularly loves the London Café because they don't care for shabat and kosher food =P.
We went to Jerusalem twice and let me tell you - I don't want to insult anyone but I think I have never seen more weirdos and religious fanatics all my life. I don't remember it being so bad O_o. But everything was full of people trying to convert you to their idea of God. After a while I just glared angrily at all those smiling girls who would come to you, asking "Have you heard about Jesus?!". Seriously. And me telling them that I was, in fact, NOT Jewish didn't really faze them. Oh, and then there were the "Jews For Jesus" guys, also trying to snare clueless people (aka my mother). And the Ultra Orthodox Jews who told me I was in denial about being Jewish (they simply ignored me telling them that I look the way I look because of being half Mexican). And the constant "What, you're German? You don't look German." would have annoyed me if I hadn't known it was true. It's not so much that I look out of place in Germany, it's just that I look sort of 'universal' so that from Portugal to Israel people think I'm a native. I got everything from Spanish beauty-brochures to special sale advertisements in Italian to political manifests of various parties in Greek handed out on streets from Huelva to Thessaloniki. But that's beside the point ^^;;
I still hate the souks and bazaars of Jerusalem because I can't stand narrow, confined spaces where lots of people run around but there is no other way to get to the Old City. Also, we couldn't get to the Dome of the Rock (hands down, the most beautiful religious building in the world) or the Al-Akhsa mosque because the Israeli authorities didn't let anyone up there who wasn't muslim. But I've been there twice and I rather stayed in the new old city. I think it has a name but right now they call it the Jewish Quarter. What I find fascinating is that they built it exactly the way it used to be 2,000 years ago, just thoroughly modern. It's very clean and tidy and, actually, sterile, but it gives you an idea what it looked like in Roman times. Although I think if you want to know what it really was like you should rather go to the Arab part. Or, to an extend, Yafo.
Which brings me back to Tel Aviv because I haven't talked about Yafo yet. It used to be a separate city but now it's part of Tel Aviv. When you look at it from the beach, particularly in the evening when the sun sets, it's shining in the distance, looking like a fairy tale city out of 1001 Nights. Most of its inhabitants are Christian Arabs. Some are still fishermen but most own the restaurants and cafés now - yay, no kosher food! Though I have to admit that kosher food isn't actually bad. I've heard horrible things from my Jewish friends about the European version but Israeli food can be very yummy! The only thing that I really dislike is that you don't get a coffee with milk after your meal in a kosher restaurant, even if you didn't eat anything with meat ~_~. However, you get mayonnaise for the fries that come with your chicken. Technically, this should also be un-kosher, shouldn't it? If the rule is no milk with beef and sheep of all kinds there should also be a rule against anything containing eggs with chicken, right? Because this is at least as unethical!
I've already uploaded the photos of Tel Aviv and Yafo (starting with Munich airport *lol*). You know the drill - they are in order, so you just have to click on 'next picture'. I've got tons of Jerusalem, too, that I have to sort. I hope they're good ^_^.
I also bought CDs but most are, um... Greek ^^;; No, seriously, many shops there have a great selection of Greek music that I can't get here and since I can read Greek but can't read Hebrew - well, I decided better now than never. But I also bought the new CDs of Sharit Hadad and Stalos and Oren Chen. Damn, that's Greek, too...
And I've got a Winamp skin to finish and, once again, lots to study - such as German (hate hate HATE that teacher! ~_~), American studies and British studies. But I won't lift a finger for school today. I just... can't :(