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Inbar Gal ([personal profile] backupmemories) wrote2008-08-19 03:24 pm
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In Israel, alive, and FINALLY have internet! Thank god!

It's really, really, really, REALLY hot here. -_-;; As soon as we arrived, I remembered why it's a bad idea to go into the middle of the desert in August. Also? It's apparently a heatwave. Someone hates us. Famous Israeli joke: How do you know God intended his Chosen People for suffering? He gave to us as our country the one place in the Middle East with no oil!

Also, jetlag = evil. Very, very, very evil. I've gotten about 4 hours of solid sleep a night, accompanied by randomly passing out for ten minutes here, an hour there...>_<

On the bright side, saw plenty of family, got clocks (handmade by my great-uncle, I think one calls it), went to the beach (clear as glass - the Mediterranean is fun), such like that. Israel has been improving my Hebrew exponentially, too, which is nice - my mom always says that I need to go to Israel every other year or two in order to refresh my memory, because in the year in between the quality goes down. Ah, well. ^^

Um...that's all for the moment. ^^;;

[identity profile] maelicia.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you're there safely and alive. ^__^ Don't try to get killed by the heat.

I still have to know what an actual jetlag is. I didn't have time to know what it was since I had an exam to succeed when I came back from France. XD;

Famous Israeli joke: How do you know God intended his Chosen People for suffering? He gave to us as our country the one place in the Middle East with no oil!
Lawl~ XD;

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
^___^ Yep, I live. It's sort of odd getting back into the Israeli way of things - less clothing, more security. I mean, the malls have no trash cans. -_-;;

Mmmm, it's not so bad Europe-North America, because that's only a few hours time difference rather than an almost complete night-day switch. But it does seem to be hitting me rather bad this time around...:_:

[identity profile] ecoknight.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like fun. I was in Egypt a month ago (1st time ever in the desert). It was 46 degrees C - and that was a month ago! So i sympathise about the heat!

(Haha, i've heard that one before)

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, Egypt. The closest I've been to it was a short visit to the Sinai when we went to Eilat...it's sad, really. My RL name is so obviously Hebrew that it's difficult for me to travel in most countries in the Middle East, alas. ;_; Legally, anyway; everyone sneaks into Jordan for kayaking at least once in their life. ^^

But yes, the heat...! It's horrible. At least my family now have air-conditioning, thank god.

[identity profile] ecoknight.livejournal.com 2008-08-21 12:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm, i thought i recalled from my pre-holiday reading that Egypt recognised Israel's existence - Part of the peace treaty at the end of the 6 day war, was it? I don't remember very well. Jordan aren't that strict, are they? As you may gather, i'm really not very clued up on the middle east!

Sinai - that's the interesting bit that we didn't get to. We did Luxor-Aswan area and day trip to Cairo. I'd have liked to see the desert monastries etc.

I've heard if you go to Israel on a round 'land' trip you have to leave by boat because you can't enter the surrounding countries until you've had new passport issued. Do you know if that's true? *shamelessly seizing opportunity of asking in case ever gets there on pilgramage!* ;)

We managed the heat perfectly well BUT i would have considerable reservations about braving it without the air conditioning to hide in several times a day! (So yey for air conditioning!)

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-21 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Egypt is one of the only Middle East country which recognises Israel's existence, this is true. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it's particularly safe to go there - particularly not when you're 1, Jewish, 2, female, 3, American, all of which I pretty obviously am. Anti-semetic feeling is pretty bad in most of the Middle East, alas...;_; Jordan isn't as strict as some of them go, but it's still a bit of an issue getting in and out.

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that question, as I have an Israeli passport which I use while I'm here, but it seems odd to me - far more likely that you can just go through customs on the border. I recommend that if you intend to do a land trip of the Middle East that you think about starting in Israel and moving out, though, because Israel is (correctly) paranoid about people smuggling in weapons and bombs and such...Of course, I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about here. It may be true, particularly if one is attempting to enter a country which is still in a state of war with Israel. ^^;;

One of the times I went to Israel, I had the misfortune of a 8 hour car ride in a car with no A/C, in late July. And there was only one CD, to make it worse. (As much as I like the Beatles, their early stuff all sounds the same. And they just kept replaying the CD, over and over and over again...) And to add insult to injury, the family members I was going with kept stopping to collect different-colored sand for their sand collection...-_-;;

[identity profile] ecoknight.livejournal.com 2008-08-22 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, well, i admit, we took a Nile cruise, so we were mostly shepherded around. On those occassions when we did make our escape, Luxor and Aswan have an armed tourist policeman about every 100m on the main streets, so i'd have thought even female american Jews would be ok but i'll freely admit i don't have much idea what i'm talking about. At least three of the crew on the ship were Copts, anyway, don't know what they're like with the anti-semetism.

I also admit that i don't really know much about Jordan. I've just got this impression of it as being one of the more reasonable countries in that area, and tend to feel fairly well disposed towards it because i went to school with the king's neice (might be the late king's neice, i've got this niggle they may have a new one since then... :s). So actually clueless, you see... ;)

I see what you mean about smuggling, but i'm pretty sure i've heard that once you've got that Israeli stamp in your passport you can't go to most of the surrounding countries until you've got a new one. But i can't remember where i heard it. Maybe it's just not -advised-!

8hrs *gulp* We had six hours through the Western Desert in coach, but it had AC :D

Hope you're having a nice family visit/holiday, anyway. Am i allowed to ask how dangerous it actually is to be in Israel?

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-23 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
Well, the problem with Egypt and Jews is that the armed policemen you see aren't always that friendly. ^^;; (Not speaking from experience, of course, but one does always hear stories - it's generally advised in Israel that you can go to Egypt, provided you take a lot of people and stick together. And make sure your passports are very good, and that you know at all times where the embassy is...) And Copts are Egyptian Christians, so I don't know either. ^^

I'm not that familiar with Jordan either. ^^ Compared to other Arab Middle East countries, it's presumably nicer, or so I heard.

*shrug* I've really not heard that about the passport. Maybe it is really just not advisable. ^^;; And yes, A/C makes aaaaaall the difference sometimes. XD

The visit is quite nice. ^_^ It's not that dangerous to be here right now, really - if there's any country that knows how to deal with terrorist threats, it's Israel. There's plenty of security everywhere, not to mention off-duty army kids meandering around wherever you may want to go. In all the times I've been in Israel, which is usually 2 weeks to a little over a month about every year or every other year, I haven't seen a single violent attack personally. Pictures, yes, but that's because my mom's best friend from elementary school lives in Sderot, which Hamas sends rockets into on a daily basis. -_-;; Israel in general, if one avoids the Gaza Strip area, is actually a very nice place to visit. ^_^

[identity profile] ecoknight.livejournal.com 2008-08-25 12:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, i thought that was probably the case. But explosions in Israel are usually 3/4 headlines down over here, which let's face it, isn't so good! Are you in Jerusalem, or somewhere else? Quite frankly, i think if i lived in the Gaza strip i just wouldn't. I'd move the moment i could afford to. I expect there are all sorts of family and pride reasons not to though, if you actually do... :s

I had a feeling you might say that about the policemen as well. It's bad enough if you're a non Jewish american tourist; i was followed around a temple by one, semi-automatic and all, trying to do the tour guide bit. There's me, knowing full well i don't have any note small enough to tip him with, trying to escape without offending him, before he's mad because i've listened to him and not tipped him... haha! I thought the convoy to Abu Simbol was the funniest, though. Our army guard got on (this was the 4am convoy) rifle against wall, head on hands, snoring all the way! :D

We felt perfectly safe there though. We felt less likely to have our pockets picked in Aswan and Luxor than in the UK, quite frankly. Didn't feel afraid of mugging at all. You have to watch the street traders, though. Cairo more like London, naturally. But of course, we were neither Jewish nor american... Don't think i'm trying to convince you it's safe, because i'm sure you know much better! ;D

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-25 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, there aren't that many explosions here right now, not really - you get told about a lot, but those are almost entirely in the area right around the Gaza strip. Unless there's a declared state of war, you're as safe in Israel as you are anywhere else - more so, actually, because Israel is much more prepared than other places to deal with and prevent terrorist attacks. And there are policemen and army people everywhere, so there's almost no situation in which you could get into serious trouble.

I'm currently in a city called Rishon, not Jerusalem, but I have friends and family practically everywhere in Israel. I haven't gone to Jerusalem on this trip, but that's not for safety reasons, I've just been there so often I can probably tell you how many steps you have to take to get from one place to another. (Though that time we got lost and ended up on the Arab half of it was amusing. We only figured it out when they started calling everyone to come for midday prayer. ^^)

We actually just talked to our family friends from Sderot yesterday, and they have no intention of moving. As far as I can tell, it's a mixture of pride, family, and, well, money. It's difficult to move houses, particularly if you have kids, and there's no where in the world which is completely 100% safe. (An example would be some of my parents' friends - when they moved away from Israel to live in the US nearby my parents, they came to San Francisco with us...in 1989, right before the big earthquake. Some people just have no luck. ^^)

^___^ That's amusing! That happens quite a bit in Israel, because of the draft, so you'll often seen 17 or 18-year-olds wandering around with their guns looking like they've been working too hard. ^^ I'm sure Egypt is nice, though, and if there's ever a chance I could go there with a large enough group to feel safe, I absolutely would. But until then, ah well. ^^

[identity profile] ecoknight.livejournal.com 2008-08-26 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, i entirely take your point. I'm just from this little island where we have (almost) no earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, forest fires, volcanoes, civil wars, insane people with guns shooting random strangers and comparatively little terrorist activity (crosses fingers hastily). So to be honest, there's a lot of places Brits look at and go wow, that looks dangerous. It's just a matter of what you're used to, i think. My friend from Los Angeles came to the UK and was shown her university room, and the first thing she thought was, 'which idiot put those shelves that high on the wall. I won't be able to put a thing on them.' Then she remembered she was in the Uk :D

I think it's the same with most places you see in the news, anyway. Bar Tsunami scale events, if one actually stops to think how many people live in the country, and how many people have been affected by the thing on the news report... that begins to put it in perspective. If i ever get a chance to go to Israel i certainly will. I'm just picking your brain because it's interesting to hear from someone on the ground, so to speak :)

I can send you the link to my Egypt pics if you're interested. Lots of temples and a few pyramids, oddly enough... ;)

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-26 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh, yes, I'm aware. It's all a matter of perspective. ^^ Things that other people think are just normal, a new person might think is weird.

And yes, please do send pictures! Temples and pyramids are always nice. ^^ (I'm absolutely shocked that such things exist in Egypt of all places. ^___^ )

Hello

(Anonymous) 2008-08-22 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
I'm new here, just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

Re: Hello

[identity profile] nirejseki.livejournal.com 2008-08-22 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
*blink* Well, hello and welcome. ^_^ Do you have a LJ...?