Even though I'm now back in the States, I still have enough material for a few more blogs. I will try to get them up as soon as possible (I'm going for one a week, so keep checking).
A couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends and myself hiked down to the beach. Let me explain and put it in perspective: The University is at the top of a mountain, approximately 480 meters above sea level, and even though the bus takes the roads to the beach, it's about a 20 minute bus ride. To that same beach, it took about 3 hours and 40 minutes, walking through the canyon that runs next to the side of the mountain. We left at 7:30 in the morning and since we had to guess the way down to the beach, we made a couple of wrong turns and encountered a heard of cows, some of which had long horns and there was a calf that started challenging us by stomping its' hoof and staring at us (we got out of there really quickly). Overall, it was a beautiful hike and I'm just sorry I didn't do it a few more times.
Also a couple of weeks ago, I went with two friends to Daliat Carmel, the Druze village that is not far from the University. I had realized that my time in Israel was starting to run short and that there were still a bunch of things I had to do and see. I really went for one reason: to get more pants. Needless to say, my trip was successful as I purchased a white, shorts version of the fisherman pants as well as the Druze pants, also often known as “Aladdin pants” because they are pretty much identical to the pants worn by the Disney character. An Israeli friend told me that the reason the pants hang so low is because the Druze believe that someone will give birth to the Messiah and the pants are there to catch him. I'm not sure if that's true, but I have doubts about its authenticity. Other than really cheap, awesome pants, the shook (marketplace) is a vibrant collection of shops that sell different sizes of backgammon, fabrics, paintings, drums, cooking tools, and, of course, hookah.
Observations:
1. I finally gave in to all of the pressure and wanted to try something people rave about in Israel: small bags of chocolate milk, 225 ml to be exact. Dairy products in Israel are kind of a big thing. They're actually a brilliant snack – not only does chocolate milk have a sufficient amount of calcium and protein, it is just the right size for a snack. It's not too big and it's not a teaser. And it's delicious.
2. I noticed that my conversational Hebrew was improving as I could hold conversations with people in malls, trains, etc., as I needed to. Sometimes, I didn't even have to use English at all. However, when I became extremely tired, I would simply ask in kind of a sorry manner if they could switch to English, most likely because my head hurt from trying to think of vocab, conjugations, grammar, etc.
Pictures are of the inside of one store in Daliat Carmel (the Druze village), near the beginning of our hike down to the beach, and me with an infamous chocolate milk bag.
-AZ
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