Still around
Ahahaha, as soon as I get into a sort of lifestyle which allows me more internet access I resume my crappy posting habits. I FAIL AT LIVEJOURNAL, HOORAY!
But I have been feeling bad about leaving anyone who may want to read incoherent ramblings with nothing to do besides follow the American elections. Sarah Palin is a creationist psyco hunter and she scares me. But that's about all of my opinion on that.
So, what have I been doing? Well, since I last wrote I've speant some time with my mum's other brother and his family, most of whom don't speak English very regularly. So I spent a few meal times staring into space and smiling vaguely. It was nice to be there though. Everyone is so kind, and they all want to feed me...
Speaking of food, or the lack thereof, I spent Yom Kippur with them. And I kind of fasted. I know, I know, I said that I fasted when we spoke on the phone, but that was because there were always relatives in earshot when I was talking to you. In truth my total food for the 24 hour period was:
1 butterscotch lolly,
1 handful of crappy kosher imitation cocopops,
3 M&Ms
It's fasting for me. I usually would've eaten two lollies and four M&Ms.
I didn't go to shul, so I spent most of the day sleeping. And finishing the slightly scary book on Jewish inbreeding genetics that Eve lent to me. Oh, and playing that Rush Hour game. The puzzle thing with the little red car that you have to get out of the maze of other cars. I played it for about 2 hours straight. Did 29 of the damn things, and then felt my brain leaking out of my ears.
What else did I do? I went to the zoo in Jerusalem. The Biblical Zoo, full of red pandas and siamangs and prairie dogs and kangaroos and other such animals that are not in the bible. It was a good zoo though. Very pretty grounds. Really nice exhibits too. They had a rainforest aviary walkthrough with two Victoria Crowned Pigeons, which I thought was pretty brave...I wonder how many visitors get bashed by them? Maybe Wewak is just making a really bad name for his species.
And then, of course, it was Shabbat, and I couldn't do anything again. It's been Shabbat, festival, Shabbat, festival. I think I'll blame my bad posting habits on that.
Yes, that is totally the reason I haven't posted in so long.
I caught the bus from Rosh Tzurim to Yad Vashem all by myself and didn't get lost. I was quite proud of that. I ended up spending five hours in just the museum part of Yad Vashem...and I still feel like I rushed it. I might go back again if I get the time. Hopefully I will.
What else is news? I spent Succot here in Rehovot, and yesterday I went with Graham and Eve into Jerusalem to do a tour under the Western Wall. That was fun. It's amazing how huge it was, how far down it goes. Most of the length of the surviving wall (which is a retaining wall, remember that for my next point) is buried under the Muslim quarter of the city and the general rubble of ages. It was three times taller and lots and lots and lots of times longer. We got to see the largest brick in the whole thing, a massive lump of stone about seven meters across. It was an amazing tour.
Now here's a thought. If you're reading this, you're probably Jewish. You may even be a Jewish Studies teacher. So you may know of a lovely shiny childrens story about the construction of the Second Temple. It's a beautiful piece of biblical fanfiction, where the different sections of the returning Jewish community each build a different wall to the Temple. And because the Western Wall is the one built by the poor people, who sacrifice everything they have in this act of faith, pouring their sweat and tears into its construction, it is this wall that the angels protect when the Romans are burning down the Temple.
But this is crap! Because the Western Wall isn't part of the Second Temple...it's part of the retaining wall built by Herrod because he wanted to flex his Romanised architectual muscles and expand the Temple grounds. So why was I lied to as a child?
WHHYYYYYYYY?
Just something for you to ponder as we get ever closer to the Great Holiday of Lying To Your Children (Christmas).
Today I went to Tel Aviv, by bus. I wouldn't recommend it. We actually Wiki'd Tel Aviv bus station last night, and not only is it the largest bus station in the world, it is a synonym in the world of design for "bad planning". It's a horrible labyrinth thing. The reason that I went to Tel Aviv was to go to the craft markets, which was fun at least. I wandered around there for a bit, and around the general pirated-goods-and-general-crap markets. I had a good day out. Then I tried to get back to the central bus station only to find that the map I had printed was wrong, and that there were no street signs and no one knew how to get there. How can you not know how to get to your central bus station? I had to ask an American tourist. He was the only person who had any clue.
Quiet day tomorrow, I'm going to help Eve out with Shabbat preperations. Yay, Shabbat. We're having a lot of people over, so it'll be busy. That'll be good at least.
But I have been feeling bad about leaving anyone who may want to read incoherent ramblings with nothing to do besides follow the American elections. Sarah Palin is a creationist psyco hunter and she scares me. But that's about all of my opinion on that.
So, what have I been doing? Well, since I last wrote I've speant some time with my mum's other brother and his family, most of whom don't speak English very regularly. So I spent a few meal times staring into space and smiling vaguely. It was nice to be there though. Everyone is so kind, and they all want to feed me...
Speaking of food, or the lack thereof, I spent Yom Kippur with them. And I kind of fasted. I know, I know, I said that I fasted when we spoke on the phone, but that was because there were always relatives in earshot when I was talking to you. In truth my total food for the 24 hour period was:
1 butterscotch lolly,
1 handful of crappy kosher imitation cocopops,
3 M&Ms
It's fasting for me. I usually would've eaten two lollies and four M&Ms.
I didn't go to shul, so I spent most of the day sleeping. And finishing the slightly scary book on Jewish inbreeding genetics that Eve lent to me. Oh, and playing that Rush Hour game. The puzzle thing with the little red car that you have to get out of the maze of other cars. I played it for about 2 hours straight. Did 29 of the damn things, and then felt my brain leaking out of my ears.
What else did I do? I went to the zoo in Jerusalem. The Biblical Zoo, full of red pandas and siamangs and prairie dogs and kangaroos and other such animals that are not in the bible. It was a good zoo though. Very pretty grounds. Really nice exhibits too. They had a rainforest aviary walkthrough with two Victoria Crowned Pigeons, which I thought was pretty brave...I wonder how many visitors get bashed by them? Maybe Wewak is just making a really bad name for his species.
And then, of course, it was Shabbat, and I couldn't do anything again. It's been Shabbat, festival, Shabbat, festival. I think I'll blame my bad posting habits on that.
Yes, that is totally the reason I haven't posted in so long.
I caught the bus from Rosh Tzurim to Yad Vashem all by myself and didn't get lost. I was quite proud of that. I ended up spending five hours in just the museum part of Yad Vashem...and I still feel like I rushed it. I might go back again if I get the time. Hopefully I will.
What else is news? I spent Succot here in Rehovot, and yesterday I went with Graham and Eve into Jerusalem to do a tour under the Western Wall. That was fun. It's amazing how huge it was, how far down it goes. Most of the length of the surviving wall (which is a retaining wall, remember that for my next point) is buried under the Muslim quarter of the city and the general rubble of ages. It was three times taller and lots and lots and lots of times longer. We got to see the largest brick in the whole thing, a massive lump of stone about seven meters across. It was an amazing tour.
Now here's a thought. If you're reading this, you're probably Jewish. You may even be a Jewish Studies teacher. So you may know of a lovely shiny childrens story about the construction of the Second Temple. It's a beautiful piece of biblical fanfiction, where the different sections of the returning Jewish community each build a different wall to the Temple. And because the Western Wall is the one built by the poor people, who sacrifice everything they have in this act of faith, pouring their sweat and tears into its construction, it is this wall that the angels protect when the Romans are burning down the Temple.
But this is crap! Because the Western Wall isn't part of the Second Temple...it's part of the retaining wall built by Herrod because he wanted to flex his Romanised architectual muscles and expand the Temple grounds. So why was I lied to as a child?
WHHYYYYYYYY?
Just something for you to ponder as we get ever closer to the Great Holiday of Lying To Your Children (Christmas).
Today I went to Tel Aviv, by bus. I wouldn't recommend it. We actually Wiki'd Tel Aviv bus station last night, and not only is it the largest bus station in the world, it is a synonym in the world of design for "bad planning". It's a horrible labyrinth thing. The reason that I went to Tel Aviv was to go to the craft markets, which was fun at least. I wandered around there for a bit, and around the general pirated-goods-and-general-crap markets. I had a good day out. Then I tried to get back to the central bus station only to find that the map I had printed was wrong, and that there were no street signs and no one knew how to get there. How can you not know how to get to your central bus station? I had to ask an American tourist. He was the only person who had any clue.
Quiet day tomorrow, I'm going to help Eve out with Shabbat preperations. Yay, Shabbat. We're having a lot of people over, so it'll be busy. That'll be good at least.