A Comedy, Some Spelunking, and Haifa...Oh My!

This blog will cover the adventures of my fourth-ish week here, from February 11-15. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my blogging on time, I promise I'll get better.



February 11- An Israeli improv comedy troupe (actually a duo) came to my Ulpan class to have some fun with us. They were great, and it was some good Hebrew practice since not only everything they said was in Hebrew, but when we had to participate in their fun and games, we had to speak in Hebrew. It's also interesting to see, and very easy to tell, when Israelis cater their Hebrew speaking to your level of understanding. The comedy duo, and all of the Israeli lectures we've been to (3 of them), spoke Hebrew slowly and of the level where we could understand what they were saying. But even when you don't know every word spoke, it's great how comedy can still be so much fun!



February 12- Cave Day! Our school held a program called Cave Day, where, if you signed up, you could go exploring some caves called the Beit Guvrin Caves. The first cave we went to was actually just a big open cave, called a bell cave, that we just walked around in. The walls of this cave were essentially made out of chalk...as in you could just wipe your finger along it like if you were checking for dust, and your finger would be covered in chalk! We didn't stay there long, but continued onto caves called the Bar Kochba Caves. They were named so because this is where the Jews hid out during the Bar Kochba Revolt. I happened to have crawled around in these caves 4.5 years ago, when I was here in Israel on my High School in Israel program. The tunnels were specifically dug very narrow and small so that it was impossible for any Roman soldier to come in with his weapon. If you were much bigger than me, this cave crawl would not have been so easy for you. The best part of all was that I got to use my headlamp! And while a bunch of people were making fun of me for it before we started crawling, they all wanted to crawl behind me in the caves because I was shedding the best light around, in addition to the only other 2 Israelis, who also had headlamps. We crawled for about 10-15 minutes towards this bigger cave where the Jews used to raise pigeons. There were hundreds of holes dug in the walls for the pigeons to live in. The Jews used to raise pigeons for both messenger purposes and for food, because they were smaller to transport around than goats! It was slightly muddy inside, but I had no problem with it, it was great fun! After spelunking, we made our way towards this mound called Tel Azaka, where we climbed our way towards the top to watch the sun set over the country. This was all near an area SW of Jerusalem, called Beit Shemesh. It was a beautiful view, and after which we were all provided with some yummy Israeli snacks to tide us over until we returned.



February 13-14- I made my way to the city of Haifa to spend Shabbat with my friends Jessica Feldman (from college) and Neri Stein (from camp) who both happen to spending a semester here in Israel at Haifa University. I brought my friend Larissa along with me, and we actually joined up with 2 of our guy friends who also came to Haifa but stayed with other people. After class on Friday we made our way on a bus from Jerusalem to Haifa and arrived in the early evening. After simply relaxing and enjoying some homemade challah from Larissa, we all went out to a pub in downtown Haifa called The Bear Pub after grabbing a quick bite to eat before. Now, as most of you may know, Friday-Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, which means that many many things here in Israel are completely shutdown until sundown on Saturday. While that still holds true in Haifa, many many places were still open, and it was quite weird for Larissa and I, who had gotten used to Jerusalem, where ABSOLUTELY everything shuts down for Shabbat, to be able to go out on a Friday night. We didn't stay at the pub too long because we were getting up early Saturday morning to go to the Baha'i Gardens. So, if you ever have the opportunity, go to Haifa and visit the Baha'i Gardens...they were stunning. Apparently, this is the Baha'i faith's 2nd holiest site. The way the gardens are set up is that near the bottom is the main focal point, a placed called the Shrine of the Bab. It wasn't that impressive inside, but I'm thinking that they only let us inside a very small part and the rest is closed off for worshippers? Anyways, the garden and the view from that part overlooking the water is amazing. But it gets better... After we explored the gardens at the bottom (which you don't need a tour guide for) we made our way up a very large hill where the terraces begin. Quick timeout- on our way up the large hill, we pass by the Sculpture Garden section, where we all hung out for awhile, relaxing in a very pretty area with tons of human sculptures all over. Anyways, we climbed the rest of the way up and waited to join up with a tour to walk down through the terraces. This part of the garden you do need a tour guide, but you don't have to reserve one ahead of time. There are 9 terraces leading down to the Shrine, and I can't find the right words to describe how pretty these are. It was also a beautiful day outside, sun shining, and just a perfect day to walk through the gardens. However, because the gardens are a holy site, women have to dress modestly. The funny thing is that according to our guide, the Baha'i faith is all about equality between men and women, as evidenced by the perfect symmetry of the layout of the gardens (yet somehow they can wear shorts and we can't!) No fair, boys get everything, girls don't get anything! The Baha'i people apparently don't accept money from anyone outside of the faith, so all their expenses for this garden, which total several million, come from only the Baha'i people. People have described this as the 8th wonder of the world, and after visiting, I might have to agree.



Anyways, that's all for now. Stay tuned for another blog post coming up as I'm heading to Eilat and Petra, Jordan this weekend for a fun little trip between ulpan and rest of our regular class schedule.