Tuesday, November 2, 2010

take a look around


so I am currently in Ashquelon, Israel-where Neek is living for the time being…

My last day in Thailand was awesome...I hung out around Khao San rd (the backpacking district) in Bangkok for a while and ended up going on this temple tour in a tuk tuk (small 3 wheel taxi). 

I paid 20 baht total for the whole tour which is less than $1!! My driver was such a nice guy-he had his daughter who was about 2 on his lab the whole time we were on the tour...she was absolutely adorable and ended up sitting with me for a while in the back!



But...apparently the government pays for the gas if the tuk tuk drivers stop at certain establishments. I did not really understand this when I first started the tour, but by the end and my 2nd tuk tuk trip I kind of got it...

So, I was first dropped off at a jewelry factory spot...my driver told me to go inside for a little while...here I was looking around still kind of unsure as to what was going on...but I walked around the area looking at various types of gold/silver/white gold etc. I tried some rings on and continued looking for about 20 minutes and walked out to find my driver and his daughter waiting for me...

Next, we stopped at one of the temples-due to the national holiday, many of the temples were decorated and open to the public...the Buddhist temples in Thailand are much different than those in Korea...they are kind of thrown into a mix of buildings and look sort of out of place. As I walked around the temple, I could see families in their homes and people just come and go as there is nothing sacred or significant about the grounds. I found it kind of odd, but that just seems to be how everyone acts?



Continuing on my tour, our next stop was another government sales establishment. At this point I kind of got the point of why I was being taken to these places, so I played the part. This one was for getting a tailored suit/dress/jacket etc. I waltzed in the door and immediately asked the man for a booklet on the designs that they make. My tuk tuk driver explained he needed about 15 minutes to fill up, so I had to make it last at least that long. I had the staff measuring me, showing me different cloths, flipping through magazines to show me styles and so on...after about 15 minutes of this, I asked them how much it was going to be and they said 5000 baht...I threw my hands up very dramatically and said absolutely not and stormed out. In reality 5000 baht is less than $200 for a tailored made jacket and skirt...definitely not outrageous. But none the less i marched out hopped back on the tuk tuk and was off to another temple...


I know this is going to sound like such a generalization, but as meaningful as each temple may be, they all kind of blend together in the end. Not trying to put it in black and white like once you've see one you've seen them all, but maybe once you've seen one in a certain country, there isn't as much of a need to see another...the 2nd temple was similar to the first...tucked away within a residential area and laid out almost identically. And now after being in Jerusalem and seeing the holiest place on Earth and the basis of all Western religions, I find it hard to find as much significance in seeing multiple temples. 
Soooo after this I ended up taking the tuk tuk to the Grand Palace where it started to absolutely down pour. This place was absolutely fantastic-a huge gold building set in the middle of a chaotic city. After a quick “glauser” tour (which means a quick walk through just long enough to see everything) I headed back to Khao San road in the tuk tuk to find shelter from the rain. I departed my driver and his daughter with a hug and settled into a small café to catch up on emails and just hang out for a bit.

After some people watching and a coffee, I called Will and we decided to meet up and head to his place. I popped back to my hostel, picked up my things, and grabbed another tuk tuk to the boat taxi where we were meeting up.

Although this was the first official meeting between the 2 of us (we were facebook friends first) I felt an automatic sense of comfort with him. We chatted about our lives and where we are/what we’re doing…he is 22, teaching English in Thailand, traveling frequently, and basically just enjoying life…

After arriving in his area, he made sure to grab me some street food for me to try and helped me with my things to his room. I’m not sure if it was knowing some of the same people or being from the same place, but Will made me feel right at home. He was extremely hospitable and more accommodating than I could have asked for. He treated me to dinner and then we strolled through a night market near his house-similar to those in Taiwan and Vietnam, you can find anything in this market. Random gadgets, shoes (new and used), all sorts of clothes, and tons of food lined the market paths. We grabbed a small snack and sat in the grass and chatted about life. 

Defining good people is hard and definitely varies from person to person, but Will is almost to a T my definition of good people. He was super open, outgoing, and all around just a genuine person. He cared about what I had to say and gave an honest input. Even though it was our first encounter, I have a feeling we may cross paths again sooner than later-and hopefully not in the US…

So we headed back to his place, gathered my stuff, and I was off to the airport. My flight left Bangkok at 12:30 am and I was off to Amman. 9 hours on the plane with 3 seats to myself…perfect. I watched one movie then passed out the rest of the time. I flew Royal Jordanian which wasn’t as good as Emirates, but WAY better than any US airline. I arrived in Jordan at 5:30 am and hopped on a quick 45 minute flight to Tel Aviv and then the adventure started.

So Neek (her real name is Nikki-in case you haven’t noticed I refer to her as Neek-and we were roommates sophomore year of university) is on a 10 month volunteer program here in Israel and every week they have an educational day, and the day I arrive she happened to be in Jerusalem. Awesome-I had to navigate my way to Jerusalem from the Tel Aviv airport which was surprisingly much easier than I imagined. First I hopped on a “sheirut” or shared taxi to Jerusalem where I was dropped off at the central bus station (side note-met Mayan who was awesome! She was on her way home from the full moon party as well. She just graduated from Northeastern and decided to move to Jerusalem for the hell of it-basically, we had great conversation and ended up becoming bbm buddies and met up again!)…from here I grabbed a taxi to the western wall basically chasing down Neek’s entire program. And remember, I had my entire pack on me with a backpack in front-so I was quite a site to see. Finally after a little confusion and a little jogging, I found her!!!



After a quick reunion, we sat down and listened to a guide explain to us the various religions that are held within the area and the history that goes along with it. We started walking around basically just taking everything in.

To explain each and every detail of this part of the trip is impossible. It is difficult enough for me to remember exactly where we went without a map, but basically we went everywhere in the old city. Considering it is a pivotal place for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there is tons of history and culture within the streets. “The City of God” and the holiest place on Earth, I couldn’t help but feel moved spiritually. As most of you may know I am not religious what-so-ever…I dance on a line of being agnostic and borderline atheist, but in Jerusalem I felt something. One of Neek’s friends, Tracy, said something to me that really gave me the chills…referencing walking up to the wall and saying your prayers she said: “think about all of the people who have come here and touched this wall…think about how far people have traveled and how many years this place has been here.” And that’s when I felt it…even if you aren’t religious or anything, there still is so much meaning held within Jerusalem. She is right…people travel extreme distances just to be there and experience the holiest place…and I am so fortunate enough to have experienced this.



After seeing the main sights (including the site of where Jesus Christ was supposed crucified) we sat down and hung out for a while. Then, after watching a stream of people coming out of an alley way, I see ANDREW LENT! In Jerusalem of all places…I knew he was on his birth right trip, but we hadn’t been in contact since I arrived in Israel, so it was quite a surprise to see him. So I ran up to him, scared the shit out of him and we then proceeded to catch up a bit before he was off on his way with his group. The world is entirely TOO small! Coincidences like this have to happen for some sort of reason…I’m not sure what, but I’m sure I will find out eventually…another weird link that was made in Israel is that miss Tracy (who I mentioned before) actually is a good friend of the one and only miss Lizz Bogosian-it is somewhat frightening sometimes how small the world has become…
Ok, so Jerusalem was incredible…like I said-although I am not really religious, I definitely had a spiritual experience. From the old city area we loaded the bus and ended the day up on the top of a mountain overlooking a cemetery and the entire old city. The sun was setting over the evening and it was perfect. I had finally gotten to Israel and I was with Neek.
We headed to Ashqelon which was about an hour away. Neek and I were playing a quick catch up with everything from our families, boys, friends from home, yoga…etc. You name it and we covered it…

Beit Canada: Nikki’s “apartment” building…well upon walking into her room, I immediately felt like I was back in college. 2 beds in a room with an armoire at the foot of one…college. It isn’t a bad place, but it definitely isn’t the cushiest of places I’ve stayed. So I dropped my stuff off, showered (it had now been close to 2 days without one…I had an entire day in Bangkok, a 9 hour flight, a 1 hour flight, and an entire day in Jerusalem-EW) and then we went to dinner. 

Becca Feinstein-one of Neek’s closest friends on her program is hands down one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. Blunt is an understatement…this girl will be down right honest about anything-I loved it. Originally from Long Island, she attended University of Wisconsin and has quite the nact for making people laugh. The fact that she just does not give a shit is absurd-some people may label her as a lunatic but I was hooked…
After a hilarious dinner mixed with some serious girl talk, we headed back to Beit Canada and literally passed out within a half hour.

The next day I slept while Neek and everyone went to their Hebrew classes…I moseyed around a bit and ended up doing a ginormous load of laundry. During this time I sat outside in the courtyard with my computer attempting to finish this freaking blog post…here I was attacked by the little Ethiopian children who were playing. There is a small amount of Ethiopian Jews who have migrated to Israel-Neek explained some of the dynamic to me, but basically the Ethiopians have not entirely conformed to life in Israel. For one, they do not believe in banks, so the doors to their apartments are locked all day while they are at work and therefore the children are stuck outside until the parents return. Also, Ethiopians feel that the children should be raised by the community and due to this they do not always have the closest watch on the children…hence I was attacked.

It started with this one girl coming up to me and pointing to my silly bandz…I showed her them and kept typing…next she pointed to my beaded bracelet and motioned for me to take it off to show her…okkkkkk-so I took it off, showed her quickly then put it back on. THEN she started grabbing my necklace-at this point I was really annoyed and kept saying “NO” and she was just mocking me…wellll in the end, I had to go check the laundry anyway and walked away from her-she was really agitating me and if I didn’t move I was going to lose it on her. Later I found out that this isn’t an uncommon occurrence in Beit Canada-you just have to scream “DIE” at them (which means stop in English) and put them in their place.
Once Neek’s class was done in the afternoon we had a few hours before the Women’s Walk we were participating in. The women of Ashqelon were congregating for a walk to empower women-awesome. According to Neek and her friends, the experience was very “Israeli.” Translation: type A women walking around complaining about where we were going, how the shirts were not the right size, people getting on and off the bus, J-walking, etc. It was quite a hilarious experience because close to 100 women were walking through the streets of this small beach town in such an unorganized matter. 


About an hour walk we found ourselves wrapping around by the beach where they had various work out stations set up including a step class, kick boxing, spinning, and yoga mats. The thought was there, but the lack of organization really affected this part. People were scattered everywhere, there were snacks and refreshments provided and some vendors selling goods such as wallets, bags, scarves, belts, etc. In the end we ended up leaving before any of the aerobics classes really took off.

We made dinner-showered-hung out and then went to an ice-cream social with the Ethiopian students who reside in Beit Canada. This event was set up by the program coordinators and was interesting. The motive is to integrate both the US students with the Ethiopians, but it is hard. The cultures are so different and as everyone knows, its easier to stay within a comfort zone. We played a few games, ate ice cream and mingled for a while.

Around 10 or so we headed back to the room…Neek’s room hosted quite a pregame party and then we went out…the bar was near the port and was empty. We initially wanted to go to a place with karaoke but there was a 10 shek charge so we all hastily declined (even though that’s literally less than $3). Music played, we danced, and it was a good time.
Woke up the next morning pretttty early…Becca and Neek decide not to go to class so we got our stuff together pretty quickly and were off to Tel Aviv. Our heads were raging, but we figured the sooner we got to Tel Aviv, the better.  The sheirut was horrible. None of us feeling 100% and a bus filled with random people was not a good combination-good thing all of us made it in once piece.

Conveniently, Becca’s cousin lent us the keys to his apartment for the weekend which happened to be about 2 blocks off a major road in the city and 3 blocks from the beach. The place was absolutely adorable…we honestly could not have had a better set up. We dropped our stuff and headed for foooood…we ended up going to a gluten free pasta place (Neek is gluten intolerant) and it was great-I had a pesto pasta with peppers. After this we went back to the apartment, put on a movie and passssssed out like children. 3 hours later we all climbed out of napping positions and figured it was about time to make some moves. We showered and headed out-we grabbed dinner at a really cute café where Becca continued her hilarious antics. I would provide details but I don’t know if she’d appreciate it…but needless to say I’m pretty sure Becca is the most open person about everything I have ever met.

Oddly enough we had run into a friend of Neek’s from the states while walking around so we headed to his place to have a drink. Our initial plan was to go out and dance and such, but that did not work out. We were all still so exhausted from the night before/trip to Tel Aviv; we decided to call it a night around midnight. Thank goodness because I was on a level of exhaustion that I hadn’t reached in a while.


OK-this next day is probably one of the most intense days of my life. We probably walked close to 10 miles and I think I saw every piece of Tel Aviv. My 2 tour guides were incredible…they were both so into showing me everything that the city has to offer. I went to every outdoor market you could imagine, saw men pounding out chicken in their stands, all sorts of veggies and fruits splayed out on display, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pottery, plates, and any sort of decoration you could possibly imagine. I must admit that one of my favorite things about going to new cities is seeing the markets that they host. Tel Aviv is comparable to Buenos Aires in my book. Colorful streets, crowds everywhere, and just a good vibe in the atmosphere really made the experience. Becca and Neek’s constant commentary about the city definitely helped-these ladies have grown up visiting Tel Aviv frequently and I definitely reaped the benefits of this-they were awesome tour guides.
Around 3:30 we headed to a bus stop to catch a bus to Neek’s families house…we were going to have a traditional Shabbat dinner-YES. I wish I could have taken a picture of this. The mass amounts of food that Neek’s aunt provided us was insane. 5 different meat dishes, 3 potato dishes, rice, cus cus, hummus, bread, roasted peppers, the list goes on. We were at her dad’s sister’s house with 3 of her cousins, 2 spouses, and a 9 month old baby…needless to say the setting was quite unique. After the opening prayers (that neither Becca or I knew-thank god she was lighting her bro on fire when she was supposed to be memorizing them) we indulged on the best meal I have had in Israel. 

The family was beautiful…everything about them-they were vibrant and loving and so full of life. Neek’s uncle was constantly cooing at the granddaughter and the conversation was flowing making this such an incredible experience. (sidenote: Becca started to laugh uncontrollably when she made skis out of toothpicks-yes that happened). Unfortunately my stomach is not an endless pit and I had to stop. The food was so amazing, I did not want to stop…

After dinner we headed back to the apartment to get ready and head out. We wound up going out with Nikki’s 2 cousins and one of their friends. We went to a club opening which was hilarious and awesome. Clubs in different countries are so fun to attend…Israel felt somewhat similar to those in Cyprus-dark, loud, dancing, smokey, ridiculously fun, and a decent amount of good looking men. 

We danced the night away and popped to a kiosk on our way home for some scaop’s (sour cream and onion pringles) for the late night. YUM.

The next morning we arose around 11 am and immediately got all of our stuff together for the day. Becca was heading to a brisk (naming of her cousin’s child) and we were off to the beach. Nikki and I grabbed some food then walked up the coastline for about an hour. We settled near the Hilton and ended up having some intense life conversations and finished off the day with tons of handstands in the sand. It was absolutely wonderful.




It’s funny how even without seeing each other for months, Neek and I can pick right up as if we saw each other a week ago…we had quite a few heart to hearts and I think its great because no matter what we’re completely honest with each other. I’ll tell her things she doesn’t necessarily want to hear and she’ll do the same for me.
Back to Ashqelon—we took the sheirut back to Neek’s apartment and just layed low for the evening…her program was hosting a Halloween party, so she threw together a ninja outfit and I passed out

Sunday morning I woke up and headed to the beach…about a 10 minute walk from her place, it was pretty convenient. I hung out in the sun, wrote some postcards, and just took the scenery in. It was beautiful…waves rolling in, blue skies, and clear water. 



I headed back around 12:30 and relaxed a little before Neek and I taught a yoga class together. Neither of us had never “split” a yoga class, but it definitely made it interesting. Everyone has their own style of teaching and working their way through a practice; we both found that sharing the class was beneficial because both of us had forgotten certain ques and such that are really important in yoga. 

At the end of the class we did some more handstands and fiddled with some yoga moves then went back to the room. Here we relaxed, I wrote some of this blog and basically just hung out. We had dinner (homemade spring rolls) with Becca Michael Max and Jenn…it is nice how they have found some sort of family with their program. Neek’s program reminds me a lot of college-dorm style living, minimal kitchen equipment, frequent nights out, etc.
Monday-yesterday (YES I’m finally almost caught up!) we went to Jerusalem again!! Neek had an educational day again, but instead of touring the city, the plan was for them to be in a conference room discussing the politics of Israel. I opted out of being inside for the day and decided to explore some of the city by myself. Conveniently I had met Mayan (as mentioned earlier) and bbmed her letting her know I was going to be in town-we set a time and decided to meet for lunch at “the shook” or the market. 

But before meeting up with her I ventured to the Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem). The architecture of the museum was amazing…a triangle structure lifted off of the ground with a constant stream of natural light pouring through the ceiling; it was definitely one of the most unique museums I’ve ever been in.

When I was in middle school/high school I had a weird obsession with the Holocaust and read a handful of books by survivors and historians about the topic. There’s something about the psychology of the Nazi regime that amazes me…how could they convince an entire society that extermination of a race was the right thing to do? To read and understand what the Jewish people had to go through is hard enough to stomach, but facing the reality that it actually happened is another story. Suffering is an understatement…these people were tortured in a way I can’t really comprehend…as much as I read about it and visually tour a museum about it, I still cannot fathom the atrocities that the entire race had to go through. And to think that was only 70 years ago…

The museum was very moving and left me with an uneasy feeling within my stomach…doing a walk through and seeing all of the images and real artifacts from that time makes it so real…from the cobble stones they took from Warsaw, beds from Aushwitz, signs from Treblinka, clothes that were worn in the camps, and shoes-tons of shoes of the dead…all of these are reminders that the human race is capable of doing horrendous things. 

After I did the whole walk through with my audio tour guide I had to sit. I ended up sitting in the courtyard kind of taking it all in…this is some heavy stuff and I think that it’s important to really get a grasp on the reality of it…

About an hour later I decided to head out and find my way towards the shook. I am quite proud of myself because I just hopped on a random bus and wound up finding exactly where I was looking for! The market was similar to that in Tel Aviv…people shouting, men pounding out meat, veggies and fruit perfectly arranged on display, pastries calling my name, and cute little cafes mixed in. I walked around and people watched for a bit before settling down at the place where Mayan and I met up!

Even though we had just met, Mayan and I had amazing conversation that continued to flow the entire time we were together. We talked about traveling, life in the US compared to everywhere else, meeting new people, boys, food, family, and friends…we found out we had quite a lot in common and shared similar experiences. After lunch and coffee at the café we strolled around the market while she bought all of her groceries. Although our time was short, I am really glad we got to meet up again…we left with a hug and hopes of meeting up in India or Southeast Asia in the future!

I found my way back to where Neek’s conference was and then we headed back to Ashqelon for one last night. We had Yoko for dinner and ended up hanging out with Jenn and Becca for the evening.

Todayy-woke up and did 2 HUGE loads of laundry and gathered a lot of my stuff to start packing. EW packing is starting to get annoying and constantly moving is getting a litttttle bit annoying. And something about packing solidifies the fact that I am leaving a place and an experience. Leaving Neek and her friends and her life I have become familiar with is definitely going to be hard...especially since I'm not sure when I will see her again...but to be honest-I should be extremely thankful for the time I did get to have in Israel. It was awesome and she was such a fabulous tour guide I wouldn't have changed anything for the world.


But its good-I’m off to Cairo tomorrow and then to Kenya on Sunday!!!!!
I want to reach out and say thank you to all of those who have donated to my funds! I have raised over $2000 and am still going! I’m super excited to get to Nairobi and start the volunteering!!

I'm concluding with a few pics that were left behind from Thailand and other places...
Koh Tao sunset

what they sell in the street markets

Boo looking adorable as ever

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