EILAT of FUN with the Class

Finals are Finally over (except for 2 more papers due this week)! In order to celebrate an intense semester, the school took us on a trip to Eilat. Unfortunately, Oren had to stay home and bring home the bacon! We had a private bus, tour guide and 2 body guards to accompany us. The drive from Jerusalem to Eilat should only take 4 hours and 30 minutes, but instead it took 9 hours! Although, for good reasons. One is we went on an awesome hiking trip! We went to this place called Wadi Tamar (Wadi is a dry river bed). No one knew what to expect and to put it politely some people are just not meant to go hiking (see pictures). The trail is in a dried out river bed in the Negev (dessert). The obstacle began with walking down a steep hill. After the steep hill we climbed down steep ladders and ropes until we got to the bottom of the wadi. Some people were so scared of this hike, it took us almost 2 1/2 hours to finish when we probably could have done it in 1 hour. Although, it was quite humorous watching people try to push them-selves to get to the end of the trail. I hope Oren and I will do more stuff like this in Israel! The other reasons it took 9 hours to get to Eilat is because we made a ton of stops. Jokingly, I told Oren, "the bus is nicer than you" because it will stop all the time to let me go to the bathroom. When I was a youth director, I cut off my water intake at 11am if we were going on a retreat. This was to avoid the walk of shame to the bathroom in the back of the bus. One of the better stops was to Yot Veta, a kibbutz that produces milk products. We all enjoyed buying ice cream and taking pictures with fake cows. Now to Eilat details. The school booked us at a nice hotel called the Palamaro. Our stay included a huge breakfast and dinner buffet. One day we went to the aquarium which Oren and I talked about in a previous blog and rested by the pool. I found it very interesting that a bunch of my classmates have never seen or heard about a hot tub before. It was exciting experiencing this with them for the first time. They became addicted like me! Also, several of my classmates went in a swimming pool for the first time in there lives. I tried to teach a couple of them how to float, but wasn't so successful. On our last evening, I went to this place called King Cities with 3 of my classmates. It is an indoor amusement park that tells stories of the bible. We had a great time! It had an indoor water ride, a 4D movie, an obstacle course, illusion exhibit and a story telling maze. It was very well done. Even the 20 something crowd could enjoy it! My friend Luis from the Dominican Republic went with us to King Cities. It is amazing watching him go through all of this stuff. He has never experienced stuff like this. Everything we do is amazing to him. It really makes you appreciate the activities we do. Other things that took place during our vacation is visiting the Jordan and Egypt borders, walking around the strip, shopping, dancing and mainly just relaxing. The only thing missing was Oren. I wish that he could have come. My next blog will be about me and Oren's trip to the north.

All the Eilat pictures can be seen at this link below: http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=ominc&AID=4340764

One Semester down 2 more to go!

Hi Everyone! I am back to the land of relaxation and communication (but only for a few days)! I apologize to all of our fans for not writing and keeping in touch. My excuse is that I was taking 13 classes. The first semester was very intense and enjoyable at the same time. I learned so much about public health and I can not wait to go into the field and apply my new knowledge. The best part about my studies is my classmates. They are so fascinating and genuine people. (I do not want to talk too much about school, so here are the top 10 things you might want to know:

1. I have never fallen asleep in a class before this semester.Not because they were boring, but because of a lack of rest.In order to fix this problem I started drinking Mocha's (the only coffee drink I like). The workers at the coffee shop know me.As soon as I walk in they say mocha and put my order in.Even better is that the cost of a mocha is only $1, much cheaper than starbucks.
2. Between classes I enjoy window shopping at the mall on campus or grabbing lunch at the mall or Acadomon (student center)
3. My favorite classes this semester were Nutrition, Sociology, Economics, and Organizational Health
4. My least favorite classes were statistics (obviously), communicable diseases (the content was good, but the group project was torture. Everyone's work ethics were different.)
5. If I had to guess the school population it is 40% Arab, 50% Israeli, 10% other
6. A law in Israel states that all teachers must allow students to retake final exams if they are not happy with there grades or they failed. This law has something to do with military service and the possibility of students being called to reserve duty. This law applies to all students, even if you did not serve in the army.
7. Every morning I take the bus #19 to school. Many mornings the bus is so full, it does not even stop to pick up people. Sometimes I watch 3 buses pass me, before I can get on one.
8. This semester all 13 classes were in the same room with the same 26 people. I sit in the front row, next to Soumik. We have become great friends this semester. Soumik is from India and we have fun joking around
9. The new semester starts on Monday and I will be taking 11 classes.
10. I am now just as addicted to Yahoo messenger, as my AIM. All my classmates have it! It is so convenient. We chat to each other about school assignments. It even has a function that you can call each other.

More pictures are at: http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=ominc&AID=4340732

Happy Love Day, food and how to get rid of it

Today is Valentines Day in the US. Suzanne has finally accepted that I could care less for Valentines Day. If you need one day a year to remind you to show your wife, girlfriend, partner or whatever to tell them you love them, then you have a problem. I am not perfect, but I tell my wife I love her and I have gotten flowers for her other months of the year. It’s a commercial epidemic that is growing all over the world. What retailer would say no to something that may help them make a little more profit.

In Hebrew the translation is “Day of Love.” At least it was not overdone since Christmas, not that we noticed it was ever Christmas here. Just today I noticed a table at the supermarket with stuff and the flower shop was a bit busier. Either way…Happy Love Day Suzy!

Back to one of my favorite topics to discuss, food…wait. I am watching a TV show that is very popular here in Israel, “Born to Dance.” It’s similar to American Idol, but they dance with partners in all sorts of styles. Then they get critiqued by 4 people. They have a Paula Abdul type who wears a tie similar to her back in the 80’s and a Simon Cowl personality. The difference is this Simon is obviously gay and has had a face lift that left him with plastic skin.

Ok, back to food – I promise future pictures of the “shuk” or market soon. Meanwhile here are pictures of a few things we got down our street, all this for under $10.

Just the Kiwi and Strawberry could have been $10 in the U.S. Things are seasonal here, so strawberries might be gone in the next month. We are definitely eating more fruits and vegis here to go with our pastries.

Burger and Chicken places are very popular here. We have become somewhat regulars at Flame, a local place here. Burger Bar is a chain in Israel that is similar. Both are a walk up bar kind of place. They have a few seats and serve chicken sandwiches, burgers and more, simple but good. Sauces are a must and the workers get upset Suzanne gets no sauces. Israelis love garlic mayonnaise and everything else on it. I like some sort of spicy thing and chimi-churi (not sure what it is). Unfortunately with these places, as with many places here, are not very clean. I don’t think I have gotten sick here more than in the US from food, but don’t watch them so carefully. You would think kosher would also mean cleaner…not a chance. Pizza – years ago they would put one olive on each slice, they don’t anymore. We ordered a pizza last week and had up to 4 toppings. This meant something different here. 4 different kinds of slices, so we had 8 slices (1 pizza) with 2 slices of each topping we chose. Each slice had cheese and a different topping, not mixed. One last thing, thats a picture of two mini-pitas on the right.

Suzanne and I take walks almost everyday. Jerusalem is hilly, so it means the streets are not straight and places are built on hills. In between buildings or neighborhoods there are sometimes stairways. These stairs are in a neighborhood called “Malha” between us and the mall. We walk through there to the mall and use them as a workout.

The picture of me also satisfies a fan… the stairs, me and my purse.

Lastly, today on our walk home from the stairs and pastry shop an old dog was trying to cross a busy street. Suzanne and I kept calling him to us to keep him from getting run over. We could tell he wanted to get across, so I walked him across when it was safe…Suzanne wanted me to tell everyone I walked an old dog across the street. Aahhhh.