Directed Independent Study, free weekend and more...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! Internet isn't great here, but I'll catch you up...

Last Monday (5/21) after classes, I went with one of my friends, Vanessa, and two of the graduate students to the bus station. We were heading to do work on our Directed Independent Study. The TA's on the trip are doing research about Israeli feelings toward Arabs and Palestinians. To help them, we are handing out surveys at the central bus station in Jerusalem. Doing 15 hours of handing out surveys gets us 3 credits. Vanessa and I were the only ones to go on Monday, and we had a very interesting reaction to the surveys. They were in Hebrew, so we didn’t actually know what they said. At first, we had no problems; people just filled them out and gave them back. Then, one man finished the survey and came up to us and said, “Everyone here is going to answer the same way. We hate the Arabs, we are at war with them… and so are you!” After that, things continued to go downhill. One Israeli solider told us the same, that everyone’s answers would be ‘1s’ (meaning on the survey, basically saying they don’t like Arabs, want them to leave the country, etc). He also told us that his belief was that all Arabs should die… which he said multiple times in the conversation. At the end of the night, by the way, we were only there for two hours, a woman sat us down and lectured us about how it was a really hard country to be asking these questions and very inappropriate to be handing this out. She said she wanted to make sure we knew what we were getting ourselves into, and we should be careful, and really reconsider participating in this. This night was the most clarifying and intense since I’ve been here. This was the moment I really truly realized that what we see on the news and even hear about in class is not even close to the true story. I never realized how much deep seeded hate there was in this country, and how passionate people get about it. Very very good experience…

View from Hebrew University 

Wednesday, we went to the Supreme Court and Hebrew University. The Supreme Court was the most beautiful building I had ever been in. Every piece of architecture had some historical to the Jewish people. All of the lines and every design represented something important to the country and the people. It was so fascinating. We were also able to sit in on a court proceeding, and although we couldn’t understand it because it was in Hebrew, when we left our tour guide explained. I have always been interested in law and the court system, so it was amazing to see one in process, and how it differs from our Supreme Court system. After we took the bus to Hebrew University. Here we also learned about the different buildings and the history of the school. I was shocked to learn that Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud were some of the first founders of the University. We also saw some amazing views of Jerusalem.

My mom and me in the Mediterranean Sea

View from our hotel room in Tel Aviv

View from our hotel room, Tel Aviv
This weekend was a “free weekend.” We were allowed to go anywhere we wanted. My parents had come to visit, so I went with them to Tel Aviv. My friends also wanted to go to Tel Aviv, so they were looking for a hostel to stay in. They found a very cheap place, 25 shekels a night (about 6 dollars), which was described as tents on the beach, a 30-minute walk from the center of Tel Aviv. It turned out to be tents in someone’s back yard, on concrete, over an hour car ride from Tel Aviv. My three closest friends ended up only staying one night, instead of two, and found a bit more expensive place that was actually in the city. My parents and I went for the whole weekend, Wednesday to Sunday, and were right on the beach. The hotel also had a pool, and was minutes from great shopping locations. On Friday we went to a shuk (outdoor shopping market) and a craft market. Most of the other days we spent at the beach and in the pool, just having a relaxing time before I had to go back to the program, and my parents had to catch their flight home.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we're going to Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum... supposed to be very moving and emotional. Thursday we leave for the Dead Sea and Petra in Jordan. More to come about that as soon as possible…