sophieinisrael

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:28:16 GMT

Hello, just to say that I am alive, just insanely busy. I had an exam on Thursday, and two tests a week. I'll try to update properly soon.

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:34:45 GMT

I had today off, so I went to Mea Shearim, which is an Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem. I didn't take any pictures of that, because it's not a ruddy zoo, but I did buy a couple of ace presents, and found a shop with nice swim suits that I shall ponder for a bit. It was blisteringly hot, and I'm a bit knackered, but I will post some of the photos I did take today - I branched out a bit after Mea Shearim

Beit Ticho

There is a house museum in Jerusalem called Beit Ticho, which belonged to a painter called Anna Ticho, and her husband Abraham Ticho. When she died, she left her house to the city of Jerusalem, and it's now on display. It has a really nice restaurant in the ground floor, and then art on the first floor.

Anna Ticho drew charcoal drawings like this:

In an effort to make it more 'relevant', they also filled the place with random modern art, including video installations, computer screens, moving pieces of paper, and sculptures, including this very creepy one called 'Pinocchio':

Abraham Ticho was an opthalmologist, but more interestingly, he collected Hanukkiot (Hanukkah lamps). I guess everyone needs a hobby. Some photos of my favourite ones:

Yeah, you can see me in the reflections. Never mind.

So after Beit Ticho, I went a couple of blocks over to wander around Melech George for a bit. I bought the world's most delicious smoothie - lychee, strawberry and banana. Sweet Jesus, it was possibly the best thing I've ever tasted. It was too hot though, so I took the bus home, though I had to wait as four non-accessible buses went by - not so fun.

Finally, judging by the windows of all the bridal shops here, Israelis all get married in meringues. And this was not even the worst example - that was sadly too far behind glass to get a good picture (FYI though, it was covered in fake flowers too, and had frilly sleeves to match the poofy skirt)

Look, a whole shop of nothing but meringues!

People actually wear these things???

Anyway, now I have to go sleep for a few weeks...

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:37:15 GMT

Er, I seem to have been invited to a family Shabbat dinner tonight, so we'll see how that goes. I was trying to arrange one for next week, but the guy ignored everything I said and did it for tonight instead. Better find a taxi company that runs on Shabbat then!

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:46:14 GMT

Oh, yeah, and a butterfly flew into my room:

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:37:43 GMT

Hello. I have been very busy - today was the final exam of the first ulpan. I haven't had the marks back yet, but my teacher told me I'd done fine, so that is good - no repeating classes hopefully.

Anyway, photos - classes, ulpan party, and after-exam class party at Yonat's house (Yonat is one of our teachers)

This is Yonat, one of our two teachers

I drew this picture of our class at the party (I had 10 minutes, ok?). Yonat rubbed it off the board though :(

Working hard:

The whole ulpan went to a party thing they held at Beit Maiersdorf (part of the campus) on Tuesday:

L-->R: Lina (another student, Rachel and Yonat (our teachers). Rachel = ACE. She was in Intelligence during the Six-Day War!

Free Ice cream! Modelled by Hannah and Sarai

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:52:26 GMT

My class went on a field trip to south Jerusalem (near Talpiyot) to look at some ancient aquaducts - I couldn't go into them, but a couple of leggies with claustrophobia sat it out with me, so it wasn't so bad. We also got to see some nice views, and a big statue. Oh yeah, and the Wall.

This is the Tolerance Monument. It's supposed to be an olive tree "sprouting the golden grain of tolerance" against the odds. I know I shouldn't laugh...

I don't know if you can make it out in the photograph, but in the background, between the trees, you can just about see the Wall (Defence Barrier thingy) which is being built around Jerusalem.

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:36:23 GMT

On Monday mum organised a trip with a wheelchair-friendly guide and his wheelchair-friendly minivan. Fun ensued.

In a kibbutz:

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:30:29 GMT

Today I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I don't really know what to say, so here is one of the inscriptions there:

Has anything like this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your forefathers?
Tell it to your children, and let them tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
- Joel 1:2-3

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:42:38 GMT

As requested, here are some pictures of the shuk (market), from a couple of weeks ago (my first bus ride in Israel)

No, I don't remember why Farrah was looking so incredulous, or Jess so anxious. Katie seems happy enough though

They have serious fruit, and it's pretty reasonable if you go to the right stalls. Melissa has promised to show me the world's best hummus stall next time we go, hurrah! I am more or less living off chickpeas here - I may get scurvy.

There's just about everything here though - fish, fruit and veg, cheese, religious stuff, hummus, nuts and dried fruit, household supplies, clothes, sweets, bakeries, etc etc. The entrance is guarded by policemen (actually, policewomen, every time I've been there)

Soldier arm --->

It was a Monday, so it was pretty quiet - Fridays are packed, I couldn't go because my wheelchair would never get through the crowds. I'm going to go back for shopping with some regularity, so I'll try to take more.

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:27:58 GMT

Recently a new Sefer Torah was dedicated in Oxford (Chabad). There was a sort of half-hearted attempt at a procession, with a bit of singing and looking sheepish as non-Jews without an obsessive interest in 17thC Ashkenazim (hard luck on them, I say!) went "what the heck is that?"*

* For non-jews going "what the heck is that?", a Sefer Torah is the Scroll of the Torah (Genesis-->Deuteronomy) that Jews keep in the synagogue and read from - it's the sacred text of all sacred texts. They're written by hand, and can't have a single mistake, and cost £££££££££££££££££££s. There are some interesting examples of early modern responsa on the subject, but I'll be boring you.

Anyway, not in Israel. In Israel, they get a giant procession going, with people dancing with Torah scrolls. Police are there to guard the scroll and police the parade, traffic stops (and it take a LOT to make traffic stop in Israel - maybe I need to strap a Torah to my wheelchair).

Sorry the pictures aren't very good - I only remembered to take pictures when the Torah was disappearing into the synagogue

Look in the archway - see the red canopy just over people's heads? That's the canopy over the scroll. Underneath it you can just about see two of the Torahs they were carrying

But the best thing about the procession was the white van they had rigged up as a travelling Disco-Machine, with very loud speakers, disco balls, streamers, fairy lights, and did I say really loud speakers?

Classy!

Check out those disco balls! It was belting out Carlebach classics, disco-stylee.

I am so glad I saw that - I think it was an awesome cultural experience. Who says the Charedi don't party?

Anyway, in other news, yesterday after class I went to Ben Yehuda Street to go shopping and stuff.

Ben Yehuda is near the shuk (market) and has a lot of tourist shops, jewellery shops, clothes shops, buskers, and Chabad-Lubavitchers inviting men to put on a tallit. It also has an awesome cafe where they make up a iced smoothie from fruit that you choose. Yum. It's a nice place to wander around, anyway.

These posters say "A Palestinian State is a danger to Jews!". Nice to know Chabad are doing their bit to promote peace in the Middle East.
The old man in the picture, by the way, is the Lubavitcher Rebbe - the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch organisation. They're very hospitable, but bonkers - they believe that the Rebbe, who died in 1994, is the Messiah. He's coming back, obviously... In the meantime, though, it's very important that Jewish women are chained to the kitchen sink having babies.

I managed to haggle a shopkeeper down from 340 shekels to 80 shekels for a gold pendant I liked (yay! go me!). It's about £12 in our money. I wasn't expecting to get it down so low, with gold prices so high. I think they knew I meant business when I brought out my own calculator and wouldn't let them do any of the calculations for me. I also went to five shops to compare what they offered (this was the cheapest I could get). Anyway, sorry to live up to the national stereotype, but they feel no compunction about cheating you, so I don't really see why I should feel any compunction about haggling them down. That'll teach them to cheat cripples!

You can buy some serious gold here - seriously, if you fell in a river, you'd drown just from the weight of some of these things. There are several shops on the street that sell nothing but gold. I liked this one because it's nice and delicate - I would wear silver if I could, but I'm allergic to it. So I wear gold, but I don't want to look 'bling', which is quite difficult as they assume if you're buying gold you're doing it to show off your ability to buy bling.

It's a hamsa - a pan-Middle-Eastern symbol. I think it's cute.

It got dark, so I took the bus home:

Yes, it's blurry, but the road was really bumpy. Note the soldier on the right, who appeared to be going to meet his girlfriend - he had an enormous bunch of flowers and a red rose.

Home in one piece, yay!

I've never been in quite so many dangerous situations before...

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:49:27 GMT

Today we managed to get to the Old City after class! We finally managed to get hold of the disabled map, and work out which bus to get (with the help of the madrichim), so off we went. Only two near-death experiences - on the world's steepest ramp by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (my tipping wheels genuinely saved my life, or at least saved me from brain damage of some sort), and then another when I got trapped, unable to get up a stepped bit, but with cars refusing to give me any space to extricate myself - a giant bus went past, so close that I left a black rubber mark on his side. Freaked out a bit at that point with lots of flapping and shouting and seeing my life flash before my eyes. I still can't believe the bus just forced its way through.

Scariest. Day. Ever.

In conclusion: Israel is very scary, and its drivers are obnoxious and reckless. We also had to go down a butcher's alley, through pools of blood, which wasn't so nice.

Anyway, on to nice things that don't involve dying:

Lookit, the Old City! And we're actually going to go in to it this time!

Mosaic at the entrance to the Jewish Quarter:

This is supposed to be part of the wall of the First Temple

We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and I lit the requested candles for the appropriate Catholic family members.

Sepulchre:

I interpreted some mosaics for Jess. Hurrah for Felix Fabri!

Now this is what I wanted to see: Pilgrim grafitti! Look at all the little names, initials and symbols carved into the pillars. Some of them could well be hundreds of years old - in the 15thC Felix Fabri complains at great length about the naughty friars and pilgrims who are so bold as to carve their names into the stone of the Church, even in the chapels and the Sepulchre! (Methinks he doth protest too much...)

Highlight of my day!

I also resisted buying Beautiful Things. Good Sophie.

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:29:12 GMT

Today's discovery: Israel has cherry flavoured ice lollies. My cup overfloweth!

Photos from Friday

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:55:39 GMT

(It's a terrible picture, but never mind...)

Funny trees!

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:38:04 GMT

Today was grim (we certainly didn't get the zoo, if you haven't guessed). I don't really want to dissect it, it's just a bit rubbish if you can't walk much. So instead of getting cross, here's a lovely kitten to look at

There, lovely. If you need something a bit stronger, I have a picture of a baby otter in a bib.

(you might need to watch The Mighty Boosh to appreciate this, otherwise you might be forgiven for thinking I've lost my mind)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:59:01 GMT

On Sunday, we went to a concert at the Mormon university, BYU. It was really good - a professional trio with pianist, cellist, and violinist playing Brahms and Beethoven. Before the concert though we wandered around the grounds a bit (although I did more watching, as there was a big bit I couldn't get to because there were a heck of a lot of stairs and a lot of walking). I took some pictures and then my friends took others on my behalf (i.e. all the nice ones!)

Tomorrow I'm going to the Biblical Zoo - I can't actually believe I'm doing this, but Jess really wants to go, and I really want to get out of the house and try the bus with someone else once more before I try it alone... Please don't judge me!

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:34:31 GMT

This giant lego sculpture/picture sits in the lobby of the Rothberg School - it's nice, even if the choice of material is a bit weird. If you look behind it, you can see little pieces of paper sticking out from between the bricks - apparently, all the Jews in Mexico wrote a message of goodwill to Jews in Israel and they were built in to the sculpture (there clearly aren't many Jews in Mexico!). There is a matching one somewhere in Mexico

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:10:24 GMT

On Sunday I went super early so I could photograph my route to class - I needed it to be early because taking photos takes time, but also I didn't want to be sitting in the road taking pictures in heavy traffic so I went before rush hour when everyone is asleep.
This is how I get to classes every morning:

I exit the student village through the South Gate and go down the hill (yes, I have get back up that hill on the way home)

I cross here to go up that hill, but don't be fooled by the zebra crossing - the there pavement leads nowhere, or rather it leads to a massive kerb (see where all the cars are parked?). I have to go in the road until I get to the parked cars there - then there is a dropped kerb to get on the next section of pavement. (no, I don't know why one side has a dropped kerb and the other doesn't. It's Israel.)

Thus begins what Jess and I term 'The Slalom of Death'. Your choice: whether you want to risk falling into a ditch, or in to the road. I hope you're excited!

See how narrow the parking meters/lamp posts/ditches make it? But we can't use the pavement on the other side, because it has no dropped kerbs!

To give you an idea of the scale, here is a picture of my knees as I try to get past a lamp post - note the lamp post on the left, my knees, the kerb on the right, and thus the precariousness of my position. Remember too that my wheelchair is actually quite a bit wider than my knees.

Now gaze longingly over at the nice, wide, repaired pavement that the leggies walk on across the road from us - but it's not cripple friendly, as it has <i>massive</i> kerbs everywhere.

Yay, the slalom ends and I'm still alive!

The second stretch of road:

Ok, see the kiosk on the other side of the road? I need to go down into the road on this dropped kerb (on the left, bottom), cross the street (a busy hospital entrance), and then go along the road a bit until I get to the dropped kerb beside the kiosk.

This is complicated by the fact that stupid taxis (or random motorists, or even buses) tend to park on the dropped kerbs to wait for patients or visitors to the hospital, and they don't give a toss about wheelchairs, and will tell you so in rude Hebrew. Thus:

Tosser. No kerb-hugging for us (and this is a fairly mild example)

Back on the pavement, and there is about 5 minutes fairly safe (albeit uphill, with dirty streets, and badly maintained pavements) riding in a vaguely straight line.

In the distance here is the exit to the university - it would take us about 10 minutes if we were allowed to enter here. Instead, we have to go round through the entrance, then the crazy 20-minute long disabled route, because we don't have security clearance. Lecturers take their cars in. So we actually turn right and go down the hill.

I didn't take a picture of the entrance because I didn't want to risk annoying the many, many security people. You'll have to imagine it.

Hurrah! Finally we hit some ramps! Things are looking up.

Again, no pictures of the security point.

Another ramp, which begins our magical mystery tour - the wheelchair route through the campus.

The first lift (actually, 2nd of the morning, as I use an elevator to leave the student village too).

We go through the Politics(?) department

And the Sociology department

Keep going...

Hurrah, we're getting vaguely near the Forum!

Keep going along this building, right till the end (yes, it's too far to see in the picture)

The Forum!

It's not over yet though. Take a sharp left

Out back into the open! And yes, we are now on the road from the exit. All that to get back onto that road...

And if you're bored, just think how I feel doing it every day...

Into the carpark

And through it to the second lift

More carpark, then round the corner to another corridor

And another corridor

Hey look, it starts to get nice again when you reach the bit for leggies!

And here we are in the Rothberg School - my building. Almost there! But there's one more lift to get to my classroom...

Hooray! I got to class in one piece!

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:45:21 GMT

Just to say, I've now enabled anonymous commenting so you shouldn't need to get a blog to comment

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:32:33 GMT

Aww, wubbles. I found this kitten on the way to class this morning (yes, my photos home may be a series of pictures of cats).

Oh come on, he's too adorable for me not to inflict pictures on you!

I told you there were cats...

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:21:11 GMT

The Laundry Cat, and her Kitten. Sooo cute!

Cats in the student village

Kittens in the car park:

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:47:00 GMT

So, I am now finally in Israel, reunited with my wheelchair (I'll spare you the details - I'm sure you've already heard). I've been here a little over a week so far, and so far have discovered (in brief):

- Israel is very hot
- Israel has many cats. Seriously, they're everywhere
- Hebrew is really quite tricky, and I have a terrible accent
- Israel has made cripples illegal, except for in shopping malls
- *Never* trust an Israeli taxi driver
- Never trust an Israeli university that says its campus is accessible
- Israeli fruit and veg tastes about a zillion times better than the crap we get back home
- Did I mention Israel is very hot?
- Israel has strawberry juice, lemon and mint juice, kiwi juice - you name it, they juice it. Pure liquid awesome.
- Hummus comes in a zillion different flavours, each more delicious than the next
- there is another wheelchair user on Ulpan! Her name is Jessica, and she is made of cool. We are statistical anomalies - apparently there has only been one other student in a wheelchair in four years, possibly more

Oh, and I haven't been killed in a terrorist attack yet.

I haven't ventured into town much yet, though I intend to. The journey to and from campus takes so long it's been kind of impossible so far, but Jessica and I are hoping to try to go into Ben Yehuda Street tomorrow after class.

We have been on a field trip to Jaffa and Tel Aviv though, which was interesting:

Replica of the Egyptian Gate in Jaffa

The hanging orange tree in Jaffa - this the last of the old orange trees that Jaffa used to be famous for. The groves were swallowed up by Tel Aviv as it expanded

Sea view in Jaffa

The city on the right is Tel Aviv, which is the big, modern flashy city in Israel. It's expanded so much that it's basically annexed Jaffa - when driving from one to the other, you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

A Jaffa cat. There are an awful lot of cats in Israel (or, in Hebrew, Chatoolim)

On to Tel Aviv:

This is a mosaic that commemorates the founding of Tel Aviv by the early pioneers, and the first ever Hebrew-speaking high school that used to exist on the site.

Ditto

We then got some free time, and we were starving, so we went for a meal:

Rachel (Jessica's friend) and Clarence - a really lovely guy, who helped lift out Jessica's and my wheelchairs from the bus every time we stopped somewhere. A real mentsch!

Jessica

Rachel and Clarence

And, finally, a really bad picture of me. I'm all shiny with sunblock as we spent about 4 hours in the baking sun at Jaffa/Tel Aviv. Lovely