tel aviv beach front

tel aviv is prettier from sea.

click for bigger.

a cause for celebration!

happy independence day, israel.

you sure are young.

heh.

a vigil for those past

israel sure does know how to do sadness, unsurpassed by any other. in the course of ONE week, there are three sirens, to remind the entire nation of its past and those who fought to make israel a reality. although they are relatively short bursts, its enough to penetrate the thoughts and actions into momentary sadness. even though the holocaust rings strongly in israelis' past, none hits further home than the soldiers who perished while protecting the values and the land of israel. the israel defense forces are comprised of people who are younger than i am, as military duty in israel is compulsory. while most do not see action, it is undeniable that their time as a soldier on duty has impact on the rest of their lives. i am not writing off the american memorial days but the ones here in israel are more... harrowing, to say the least. the people who die for this country are mere young men and women, aged eighteen to twenty-two. i don't know what i'm trying to say. i shouldn't even be comparing america and israel together, seeing as they are completely different ideologically, historically, culturally, etc. but for some reason, i feel more affected by the services in israel than i do by the ones in the states. i can't explain it, i just feel it. i will also be happier once these days are past, which will culminate in israel's independence day which will be nothing short of amazing fun. supposedly, there is a jerusalem day coming up in may. there is also shavuot. may these be happier times.

i am also ready to start school again; i'm tired of break.

musings

i've always had this ideal in my head--that when one goes abroad, one engages in adventures that are one in a million, changes into a different person, etc. well it's been almost three months, yet i feel completely unaltered from when i first arrived. these are my assessments. i am more vegetarian than before. i won't touch meat here. however, if someone has prepared some for me, i will eat it out of respect, i suppose. i adore coffee and won't be able to tolerate the weak american one once i return. i love fresh produce and haggling. political discussion rule my day to day living. i don't know. perhaps i was banking on this experience too much. maybe it is what it is and i shouldn't expect to "miraculously" change although i am engaging in different social customary practices and whatnot. i feel more affiliated with israel than america, which should amuse my friends, especially my teachers. i find myself keeping shabbat inadvertently. this is a terrible assessment. i will stop now.

remembrance day

as mentioned earlier, last night and today is יומ השואה, day of holocaust. last night, there was a service at the yad veshem, the holocaust museum in jerusalem. today, i got to witness the siren. at 10 am, a siren blares across the entire country for two minutes. in these two minutes, crowds of people, buses, cars stop in their tracks to stand and observe the deaths of their ancestors in the holocaust. i don't know how to describe the experience. it was... a bit overwhelming. there is a palpable feeling in the air of remorse for the dead. the city isn't as buzzing as it usually is. i just felt an entire nation's feeling of despair and the effect of the diaspora on my shoulders.

in lighter news, kimmy and i went to beit ticho to see some nice paperwork art. the exhibit was small but the works on display were really amazing. i'm starting to gain a new appreciation for paper related art. there was even sound installations of paper. interesting. the whole place is such a nice reprieve from jerusalem. cute cafe, nice garden and an awesome little library of art history, artists, poetry, and literature. kimmy and i have a date to go there often and lounge around eating desserts and drinking tea while reading. afterwards, she took me to jerusalem's printmaking workshop. what a cool studio! there was a gallery up of woodcut prints and they were really nice.

on a completely different note of deliciousness. there are four king of sandwiches in israel: falafel, shwarma, fuul, and sabich. and now i can say that i've tried all of them. in order of desirability: falafel, fuul, shwarma, sabich. falafel for me is going to be the quintessential israeli food. fuul is an amazing pita pocket of beans, egg, and veggies. shwarma... it's okay; i don't get the hype. but if you like meat, go for it. sabich was interesting. not sure if i'll get it again. maybe i'll try one at moshiko's.

i haven't been to see a lot of art while my stay in israel. so this week i will remedy that by going to israel museum, museum on the seam, seeing the chagall windows at hadassah hospital and just general church hopping in mount of olives. then i will shut myself in the darkroom for hours to crank out some photos.

april is the month of rebirth, rejoice and remembrance

yesterday for my israel: place and culture class, we went to the old city to view the greek orthodox easter celebration at the holy sepulchre. it's quite a bizarre celebration. there was a procession into the apse of the church which the patriarch led while chanting and singing in latin. there were many people in the church as well, visiting the calgary and the stone upon which jesus was anointed before burial. people crowded around the stone tablet, laying candles and various knickknacks, covering them in the oil and fragrance laid out on the stone. my teacher, doron, told us there was another celebration earlier called the miracle of the holy fire. a holy blue fire descends from heaven to the tomb of jesus, which the patriarch catches with two candles. as he appears among the people, the crowd goes crazy in chant and praise, vying to light their own candles with this holy fire. it is also the only time in the year where the holy sepulchre is open late.

today and tomorrow are the holocaust memorial days. tomorrow morning at 10 am, a siren will go off in which people will completely stop what they're doing for two minutes to remember the tragedy. many will be flocking to the yad veshem, the holocaust memorial on mt. herzl. the radios will only play sad songs... and people will be in mourning.

next week wednesday is israel's independence day. so that will entail a lot of fun, i hope.

i also realized that the semester is quickly coming to a close and i have yet to print any of my photos. i'm disliking my digital camera and from now on will only shoot analog.

places

we went to:

tel meggido

nazareth

tiberias

yam kinneret

kiryat shemona

har hermon

majdal shams

yehudia reserve

ein gedi

mitzpe ramon

21 L of water

four gas refills

400+ km

4 days on the road

awesome.

more substantial update once energy is back to full.

random thoughts about photography

i have this teacher named yosef cohen. he may not be the most liberal minded when it comes to photography but he does provide interesting insight. i remember saying that i "shoot" pictures rather than i "take" pictures. yosef then proceeded to kind of chew me out on my choice of words saying that i do not shoot but take or record things. i think it was also in his class where someone talked about how a photograph is a gift. it is offered to you to take. otherwise it is stolen. this is interesting because i have never come across this mentality in the states while studying photography. the photo students always nonchalantly used the word shoot or take. it is true, i think, that a photograph is a gift that has been given to you, especially if you work with people. it is a reward to getting to know the subject better. if one just barges in, demanding good pictures, there will surely be none. moreover, it's difficult to say if this mentality would inherently provide the best pictures. then this discussion goes into the intent of the photographer and whether the subject is being manipulated. etc etc etc. photography has always been an heated subject with many theories in approval of the medium and many more ready to tear it to pieces.

perhaps i should adopt this method and see where it takes me in photographing jerusalem and/or israel.

a hodgepodge of things

in addition to the birkat hachama last wednesday, today was the birkat kohanim. it is a massive ritual blessing at the kotel. each year thousands flock to the wall on the intermediate days of pesach to be blessed by a convocation of kohanim, judaism's hereditary class of priests. this tradition is normally conducted at people's respective worship place but the kotel as a location has been around since temple eras. the kohanims' chant, "may the lord bless you and keep you; may the lord shine his countenance toward you and be gracious to you; may the lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you peace." this is chanted over the tallit-shrouded believers, raising their hands in praise.

picture courtesy of jerusalem.com

furthermore, spring should be around the corner but the weather today was pure summer. maybe it was the weather in conjunction with the thousands of people milling around jerusalem today. it was a nice sight to see after all the quietness in the beginning of pesach. there were tourists from other places, some making a pilgrimage to the churches around jerusalem for easter sunday service. and then there were the israelis escaping their homes for the vacation. the central bus station was crammed with tents, coolers, sleeping bags, IDF, etc.

i was out and about the entire day, getting a good dose of sun. i went to mt. zion as it is one of the places on my list. here is the tomb of david, the last supper room, the church of dormition, oskar schindler's grave, and the church of st. peter in gallicantu. i visited the first three. mt. zion is not too far from zion gate and i was surprised by the close proximity. the tomb of david appeared to be one of the many prayer sites in jerusalem. there is a partition to create room for women space and men space. there wasn't much to see as there were many people reading their prayer books. so i went in search of the last supper room. the lonely planet guide can be misleading sometimes and the people milling about can be misleading too. i don't think i saw the 'actual' room but it is a nice place. what else can i say about it? nothing more than davinci's last supper is rather a figment of his imagination... because the room doesn't look anything like that. anyways. my last stop in mt. zion was the church of dormition. this is the traditional site where the virgin mary died, or 'fell into an 'eternal' sleep'. the latin name for the church is dormitio sanctae mariae. i have to say that this is one of my favorite churches in comparison to all the others i've seen so far, and i've seen a lot. this might even top church of all nations. the crypt was very peaceful and beautifully constructed. there is a stone effigy of mary in the center with jesus calling his mother to heaven. i don't know if you are aware of this but while jesus ascended to heaven, the virgin mary's is called assumption meaning she needed to be helped physically to reach heaven. take it however you want it.

on an excited note, i'm leaving on a road trip around israel tomorrow morning. i will be going down south to the negev to hike in the mitzpe crater and up north to hike in the woods/rivers and ascend mt. hermon to see into syria and maybe lebanon. and hopefully make it to akko, caesarea, and meggido. but anything that happens will be fun. i am very excited for this. afterwards, i will also hopefully partake in the greek orthodox easter celebration at the holy sepulchre and then be on my way to egypt for a week. AHHH!

jerusalem at night

חג סמח!

it is the holiday season in the holy land. and there is so much to say and i apologize in advance if this post reads a little scatterbrained.

pesach just started and i can already feel its effects in the city. the streets are completely void of people and cars. there is silence in the air as people sit down with their families to remember the time of israelites' imprisonment in egypt. if you know anything about the ten plagues, this is what pesach is all about. the holiday lasts for a week and this is one of the few times many people in israel have a break from work or school. it is also a time when many haredi jews go on vacation so on my travels, i will see black and white clad perons in the negev or the galilee area. pesach is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, along with shavuot and sukkot, which are the three times in which the jews offer up a sacrifice to God. and just like any jewish holiday, pesach involves the family. there is the reading of haggadah, which elaborates the story of enslavement in israel, the ten plagues and the exodus from egypt. along with the story, there is an intricate service, involving drinking of wine, partaking in bitter herbs, and consumming the matzah.

i wasn't able to join a family for the seder dinner so my friend, jonathan, and i decided to spend the holiday together. it was really nice since both of us weren't going to be alone. jonathan cooked a fabulous dinner of salmon steak with sweet curry sauce, vegetables and quinoa, and a nice salad. avi left us a copy of the haggadah so we can partake in the seder service. since we didn't get to eat until midnight (we napped for a long time), we gave up on the story halfway through and made hillel's sandwiches (matzah, haroseth, bitter herbs) and drank the customary four glasses of wine. our own tradition was in the making.

the one thing that makes me weep a little inside is how forlorn the bakeries appear this time. during pesach, no leavened products (חמץ) are consumed and the pesach cookies are so unforgiving. they are made from coconut, eggs and sugar. some have jam and some are covered in chocolate. these cookies are the hardest, nastiest tasting things i've ever eaten. there are no more pitas, breads, rugelach, bourekas... it makes me so sad. there is no more lovely smell of yeast in the air. i'm a little crazy, sorry.

this year, the seder pesach was made extra special because of the birkat hachama (creation of warmth). this is 'sun worship' happens every twenty-eight years. the prayer is said to commemorate the creation of the sun, which supposedly happened on tuesday night/wednesday morning. and because of the way the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun, the exact same point is reached every twenty-eight years. for the prayer service, many flocked to the western wall before sunrise and created a frenzy of voices as the sun rose. while the birkat hachama occurs every twenty-eight and pesach every year, the next time the two will coincide won't be for another five hundred years. so indeed, this pesach is something special.

it's 9 PM; why are you still here?

today was a pretty good day, despite the fact i didn't get to enter temple mount and that i was detained for 30 minutes because i, stupidly, brought an x-acto knife in my backpack to the western wall. it just proves that i'm not yet used to the lifestyle here. and it's illegal to carry a knife in israel.. what? but i'm an art student! anyways...

this weekend, i kind of did what the people do and rested the entire weekend. i slept day in and day out all of friday and saturday. i kid you not. it was marvelous!

the israel culture class wasn't as interesting as it normally was, as we explored the kotel and the jewish quarters. maybe i just wasn't in the mood after dealing with the whole knife fiasco. honestly.

some pretty alley way in the jewish quarter
remains of the broad wall and map behind it (jewish quarter)
um, i actually have no idea what this is; it's pretty, though.
after the class, i went to prisma to pick up my photos from my fisheye. OH MY GOD. i love this camera. thank you mark! it might just be beginner's luck but i got some amazing shots from it and i don't even remember half of the shots. hrm. also, my baby (nikon d60) is clean and ready to go. woo. kimmy and i got some food to go at moshiko's which serves pretty damn good falafel. afterwards, we trekked back to bezalel to do some work before break and classes.

avi and i've been working on this project for about 3 weeks now. we didn't even start til last week. oh dear. but it's coming along fabulously, if i do say so myself. it's a collage/installation on a crime scene. avi and i are trying to do something absurd with it and i think it's working. i think that because of this project, i'm becoming the crazy art girl who does everything the hard way. yea. and what is the deal with kicking everyone out at 9 pm. what is this?! how do they expect us to get any work done with only 3 hr class periods while taking 7-9 classes throughout the week. you are insane, bezalel. i also do not like being nagged by police officers. i was on such a good working mood too.

that's all i really have to say, so here are pictures of the upcoming work:

avi made this metal structure
in a different location
this is my corner. i like it. it's my baby.

happy birthday, serge gainsbourg and lisa weiss

i went to tel-aviv for the first time yesterday. it has a completely different feel than jerusalem-- definitely more urban, open, and free. it reminded me of los angeles for some reason. lisa, jonathan, carla, avi and i went to an art show somewhere between yafo and tel-aviv. it was in this building called the panorama. the displayed work was not necessarily good but definitely interesting. avi and i walked through the part of the building where there was a fog machine running. we couldn't see anything and avi caught me freaking out on camera. the art scene is more happening, as people say, in tel-aviv than in jerusalem. lots of the art students i talked to reference berlin, germany as the next new york art scene and tel-aviv a close second after berlin. in conjunction with the art show, there were also musical performances. i ended up talking with this old, eccentric looking man. what i didn't like about this conversation was that he asked everyone where they were from in hebrew. when i answered in hebrew, he said that i should speak in english because it's my native tongue. when i told him that i wanted to speak hebrew because i'm in israel, he said that it doesn't matter, just speak english. i didn't understand this. it was also at the art show when i realized the question 'יש לך סיגריות?' (do you have a cigarette?) is somewhat of a pick-up line. it's a given that any person in israel smokes and therefore has some to share. sometimes, the cigarette in question is a joint.

yesterday was serge gainsbourg's birthday. avi, being french as he is, he heard there was a birthday party in gainsboug's honor. the place wasn't even a kind of bar or a club. it was someone's house that they put a tiny bar in. i loved the homey feeling exuding from the white walls covered in kitschy art. everyone there looked decadent in their french styles, sipping beer and red wine. the deejay spun some 50s/60s music, much to the liking of my friend, lisa. we twisted and shimmied and just had good fun. it was funny that even though it was gainsbourg's birthday, they played none of his music.

i met three soldiers at the party. so far the best experience i've had with the off-duty IDF. their names are dekel, matan, and itamar. they were very nice and offered me a grand tour of tel-aviv the next time i'm back there. dekel is in the process of learning spanish. matan and itamar can't wait for their service to israel is over and move to berlin where matan wants to study music and itamar, history or film studies.

and of course, how can one visit tel-aviv without a visit to the beachside? we trooped over to the ocean around 430 am. the walk there peaceful and nice. i was constantly reminded of santa monica, walking through the residential areas to the pier/beachfront. and, i dipped my feet into the mediterranean! from the sand, tel-aviv appears to be just like any mediterranean city/port. it's pretty at night. i am told that this after midnight past time is one high schoolers engage in. nevertheless, it was a fun, but tiring, experience. i definitely have to go back to tel-aviv as much as possible.

we got back to jerusalem at 630 in the morning by the way of a sherut. jerusalem by morning light is really an amazing place. the streets are empty. there is lively silence in the air. oh my god, i love it. by the time i made it back to mount scopus, the entire city was enveloped in a dense fog. it was peaceful.

i'm really starting to really like being in israel. the life style is radically different and i can feel myself changing, acclimating easily into the life here. the food, the people, the sites-- i'm amazed by it all. interestingly enough, i'm practicing korean more so than hebrew. i don't know if i want to come back to the stateside!

פסח

it is getting to be that time around the world: spring cleaning. here in israel, i feel like that has more depth than just throwing away junk and cleaning out your house for the new year (i am now wondering why the new year doesn't start with the spring season). פסח, or passover, is one of the most important religious holidays in judaism. i don't know if you are familiar with the bible, especially the old testament, passover is connected with the ten plagues god unleashed on egypt for not releasing the israelites from slavery. for the tenth plague, god intended on killing the first born sons. however, israelites were instructed to mark their doors with the blood of a spring lamb and god would pass over their house. when the pharoah let the israelites go, they left in such a hurry that they didn't wait for their bread to rise. פסח is celebrated for seven days in the festival of unleavened bread. it is also one of three pilgrim festivals, the other two being שבועות and סכות.

one or two weeks before the start of פסח, most households in israel clean out their houses. the orthodox jews do so even more vigorously to remove any traces of חמץ, wheat products, which include yeast goods, certain cakes, and most distilled liquor, from the house. afterwards, they do a formal search of חמץ with a feather duster and a wooden spoon. any found are then burned. while, none of my flatmates are religious in any way, they partake in cleaning out the house thoroughly. there is an elaborate meal called סדר (seder) for פסח that is quite long and can span the course of two days. there is retelling of the story, washing, and consumming unleavened bread and bitter herbs. hopefully, i'll be adopted by a family for this!