Sorry again for the amount of time between blogs. I didn't bring my computer with me on this trip, so I have been relying on other people to write. I have been on my own for the past week, so writing was not possible. Hmmmm, let's go back a week...
After my last blog I went with my friend, Talia, to a crater in Southern Israel called Mitzpe Ramon. It is HUGE! We started off at one end of the crater, looking down on it from a cliff. By car we slowly entered the crater and stopped at several sites along the way. Our first stop was at a small hill called the carpenter hill that seemed normal to me. Once we got closer and began walking up the wooden pathway that wound up the hill I began to see what looked like bricks stacked on top of each other. These bricks are naturally occurring rocks that are a dark gray color. They start off as tall columns and break off into 8in. blocks. The entire hill was made up of these columns. It literally looked like the left overs from a construction site, hence the name of the hill. From my understanding, there is no other place in the crater where this rock formation occurs.
Our second stop was to collect sand. Hmm, collecting sand in a desert? This sand was special. All throughout the crater there are patches of sand that are all different colors. There is pink, blue, green, white, black, light brown, and dark brown sand. We brought containers and collected different colors to take home. Once back home we took glass jars and layered the sand with the different colors. For those of you that knew her, I remember doing this with neon colored sand in Linda's basement as a kid. They were hideous, but special none the less. This version, however, is obviously more neutral in color and has a different special meaning to me.
Sunday morning, which is Monday to Israelis, Talia's father dropped me off in Be'er Sheva, the nearest town, to take a train into Tel Aviv. Now that I have safely made it to Tel Aviv, I will tell you a little more about Nir Akiva, the town where Talia lives. In the news you may have heard of a town called Sderot. It is just on the Israel side of the Israeli/Gaza Strip boarder. Nir Akiva is just southwest of Sderot. Several times, mostly in the early morning, Talia's parents would come into my room and wake me to tell me to get into Talia's room. Talia's room is the safe room in the house. From the time an alarm went off, we all had 10 seconds to get into the safe room before a bomb would hit. A lot of times these alarms are false alarms, or are meant for the next town over, but the experience was scary regardless. Had her parents not woken me up, I would have slept right through the alarms because they were so quiet. Each time we would all sit on Talia's bed listening for about a minute. After nothing happened, we would go back to whatever we were doing before. Throughout my stay I only heard bombs hit way off in the distance, and never had any close calls. Talia told me that Nir Akiva has actually never been hit because their population is so low that they are not a big target. This was comforting, but I have to admit that I am happy to be further North and away from any threats.
Once in Tel Aviv I snagged a taxi and headed straight for my apartment. After fumbling with the key, sweat dripping down my face, I managed to open the door to the freshly air conditioned apartment. What a relief! Over the next couple days I explored the city, being sure to stay inside from noon to 4pm, as it was too hot to be outdoors then. I made my way to the Shuk HaCarmel, a big market filled with stands of fruit and vegetables. Each vendor would yell louder than his neighbor about how his prices and produce were better. The next alley over was an art market with lots of locally made pieces of art from clocks, to statues, to jewelry. After wandering I met my friend, Bret, for lunch. Bret graduated from Juilliard two years ago and has been dancing with Batsheva since. He got me a ticket to his show that evening, so after we parted ways I made my way home for dinner. The show was wonderful. The ensemble (second company) did Tabula Rasa, a piece by Ohad Naharin, and Lost Cause, a piece by Sharon Eyal. Both were exciting, and it was great to see Bret and other recent Juilliard alum up on the stage. At the performance I even ran into one of my students from International School Moshi's Arusha Campus. She had been intrigued by the dance part of our performance in Tanzania, and since she has family in Tel Aviv, decided to see a show while in town. It was great to see her and meet her parents.
Other that than I have been making my way around the city on a rented bike. Tel Aviv isn't too big, but it is crammed with little boutiques and coffee shops. I even found a small studio, Studio B, that has open classes, so I sucked it up and took my first ballet class in a month in a half. It could have been worse. Since I discovered the studio I have taken class almost everyday. In addition to my visits to Studio B, I have become a regular at the beach. The sand is soft, the water is calm, and the sun is hot hot hot. At about 11:45 it is too hot to be out there, so I have to gather up my things and run over the hot sand back to the boardwalk. This week the jellyfish have arrived, and these aren't small Virginia Beach jellyfish, these are monsters. Dotted along the beach are washed up jellyfish about the size of basketballs. Because they are so big they are pretty easy to spot in the water, but I have been stung by a sneaky one or two.
Earlier today my friend Scott arrived from Toronto. He is my classmate at Juilliard and will be doing the Batsheva summer program with me. It is from his computer that I am currently typing. Ingrid, my classmate and roommate for the next month, arrives early tomorrow morning. I'm sure that the three of up will try to make our way to the Dead Sea, and spend plenty of time at the beach.
It is almost dinner time here, so I will say goodbye. Until next time!!!
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