Inbar Gal (
backupmemories) wrote2008-08-19 03:24 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Entry tags:
(no subject)
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. ^^;;
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.
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. ^^;;
no subject
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;
no subject
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...:_:
no subject
(Haha, i've heard that one before)
no subject
But yes, the heat...! It's horrible. At least my family now have air-conditioning, thank god.
no subject
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!)
no subject
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...-_-;;
no subject
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?
no subject
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. ^_^
no subject
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
no subject
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. ^^
no subject
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... ;)
no subject
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)Re: Hello