Greecey. Very greecey.

Greece has been a nice break. We have been average American tourists—seeing the ancient ruins, speaking English, souvenir shopping (dangerous business when you’re traveling light, but I bought a couple of pairs of earrings and a scarf, of which I had neither with me before, as well as a replacement purse after experiencing a lot of frustration due to the everything-is-always-under-everything-else situation first introduced in our South America journey. The new bag has a pocket for nearly everything important, so I always know where to look for a camera, change, bus ticket, etc.

Also in Greece, we slept more and I used more internet. I was really tired the whole time. I finally quit being sick, basically as soon as we left Israel, but I still haven’t gotten all my spunk back. Hopefully that will happen soon.
Israel was just really intense. The week at Livnot was jam packed with activity and opportunities to spend time with people. I had to walk the line between trying to rest enough to get well, and not missing out on the activities and social opportunities offered. After the week officially ended, I stayed on for a few days. Sunday morning was hectic as all the Miami crew was getting ready to leave and finally got out the door for Jerusalem. Carla went with them. I stayed behind and breathed a big sigh of relief to have some quiet time at last, where there was some hope for having a one-on-one conversation without being overheard or interrupted! I went for a gorgeous hike that afternoon with the people who remained—Gary and Mike, who were in the program with me, along with Shayna and Stephanie who worked there. It was a terrific little group!

Monday that same group (more or less) went to Tiberius and rented bikes, then biked partway around the Sea of Galilee. I stayed in Tiberius with Mike and Gary and we camped on the beach. It was, to date, the only time I’ve used the ground pad I brought—but I was the only one who got a good night’s sleep, so for that night at least it was well worth it!

On Tuesday I was planning to hike back to Tsfat with the guys, but I ended up not feeling well—and then we ran into another friend from Livnot on the bus to our hiking start point, and he was regretful that he couldn’t join because he had a rolling suitcase to get back to Tsfat. So I took advantage of the serendipity by switching his suitcase with my daypack and his pricier ticket with my short-distance ticket and share of the common lunch, and I headed back to Tsfat. I was a little sad when they arrived back raving about the marvelous views and all, but with respect to my health it was probably the right call.

Wednesday I left for Jerusalem early in the morning. I got there at 11:30 and spent a good hour trying to find Carla at the bus station. It wasn’t anybody’s fault; we didn’t know the place in advance and were waiting for each other in different places, twice. She had her phone, so I was able to call her from the cells of generous strangers. It wasn’t great, but we got out of there before 1, which was cool because not two hours later a bomb went off at the very spot where my bus had dropped me off!

We walked around the old city and spent the night in this place called Heritage House where you can get two free nights. And by “you” I mean “non-orthodox Jewish youths.” While I definitely liked the place, there were some uncomfortable moments based around some people judging whether others were Jewish enough. I didn’t actually feel any judgment myself, but I saw some pretty uncomfortable interactions between some of the staff and a lovely girl named Jen who was also on the Livnot program with us. Jen is an African American convert to Judaism, and while she is more spiritually Jewish than most of the non-orthodox people I’ve ever met, I bet she gets a LOT of unfortunate reactions from people who look more “Jewish”. Which is so sad—I really had no place being at Heritage House, but because I am white with brown hair and green eyes, I pass for more Jewish than Jen.

In general, being in Jerusalem was exhausting in that I felt like I was constantly being put into a box, and not necessarily one I actually fit into. The categories there were not native or foreign, or American, European, Asian—the categories were Jew, Christian and Muslim. I wasn’t sure whether I should go for Jew or for Christian (aka neutral in any conflict or discussion). Really, I am neither. So I was ready to leave Jerusalem.

The last weekend we spent in Efrat with Shayna’s family, and it was both completely awesome and completely exhausting! We did a full shomer Shabbas (aka no electricity, tearing TP, writing, electronics, musical instruments, carrying things, etc. from sundown Friday till Saturday night) and instead spent our time eating huge meals, singing and praying, and having one deep philosophical discussion after the next. Shayna’s family is overflowing with joy and song and love for one another, and it was inspiring to be around. Carla and I both saw traditions we’d like to incorporate into our future lives.

After that we spent a last day and 1.5 nights in Tel Aviv before heading to the airport to go to Greece. I got to spend more time with Maya, my friend who I met the last time I went to Israel (in 2003) and she’s always a ton of fun so I was really glad to be able to hang out. We all went to the beach together, and overall I just had an exceptionally nice day. Maya took me and Carla to South Tel Aviv, where she works with refugees from Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. It was pretty impressive to see the presence that she is in that community after being here for only about 7 months—one person after the next stopped her in the street to say hello and it was clear that she is much loved, which is unsurprising given her fabulousness. We learned a lot about the conflicts between immigrant and refugee communities and other Israelis, and it was a reminder of how much darkness there is in the world… and also of how much there is to be done to make it better. A little kindness can go such a long way.

Our flight to Greece was at 6:00 and though we left the house at 2:45, we did not get on that plane till about 6:10. Transportation to the airport was tight, and per usual there was some max-speed running while carrying all our luggage involved. But really the hold up was security at Ben Gurion. We got fully searched and frisked. And I am talking FRISKED. If I had been carrying a bullet in my underwear, it would have been found. They ended up walking us to the plane, which is good because we would have been pretty angry if we had missed our flight after arriving more than two hours in advance for it.

So that catches us up to the present… the only bummer about blogging so infrequently is that we’re missing out on the little vignettes! So I’ll try to work on some of those. Did I mention that we are on an 8 hour ferry ride? So now there is finally time to sit and hash out some good writing…