This morning we left the apartment at 4:40 to drive to the airport, but Ben and I were up early with excitement! It was a 40 minute drive but it seemed like 3 hours. Finally, we got to the airport and met my Grandma and Uncle.
We had a little coffee and then left and sat in traffic for a while. I was so happy that my folks were in town so I didn't mind the traffic. We then arrived at the Diaspora Museum, a museum that is about Jews all over the world. It was truly amazing. We met with a private tour guide; she was expressing greatly throughout the tour that what kept/keeps the Jews alive today was/is tradition. For example, a Bar Mitzvah. A Bar Mitzvah is when a boy turns 13, he gets to read from the Torah, the holy book for Jews. A Bat Mitzvah is for girls and that's only about 60 years old, so that didn't really keep the people together. Another tradition is circumcision as the covenant between Jews and God. A circumcision covenant occurs when a baby boy is 8 days old, the parents bring him to a doctor (or trained specialist/rabbi). The doctor then takes a special knife or a pair of scissor type of things and cuts a tiny bit of the baby's penis off. On a nicer note, we then went to my Dad's lecture at Tel Aviv University. Ben was too loud so I had to take him outside, which he wasn't too happy about. By the time we got home, everyone was SUPER tired so we all went to sleep at 6:30 with a little snack before.
Day 2:
Today my grandmother, uncle, brother and mother went to the Negev Desert. I was home and just hung out with my Dad.
Day 3:
My grandmother, uncle, brother and mother are still in the Negev.
Day 4:
The same thing today except tonight is Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish holy day of rest. I prepared a special dinner for the whole family that was a 5 star and 5 course meal.
Day 5:
Today we went to the Children's Museum, a museum just for children's activities. There is also an exhibit on the Deaf and another one on the Blind. My grandmother, uncle and I went to the deaf exhibit. Our guide was deaf which was interesting because we couldn't talk for an hour and a half. We had to communicate differently. She taught us to use our bodies to communicate. Once we had finished that, we went to the lake outside the museum. My brother and I went on a pedal boat (which I am still sore from!). When we came home, my mom wanted to make an Israeli dinner. And when my mom wants to do something, no one can stop her. Thand goodness she doesn't do bad stuff, then really no one could stop her! I was not protesting her dinner though (yum!), but if there were a change of dinner plans, she would not be happy.
Day 6:
Today we went on an archeological dig. The first cave we went into was closed to the public, only open to this archeological group. The part of the cave we dug in was called the Front Room. I found several pieces of 2,000 year old pottery! The archeologist guide said the most important artifacts have ancient writing on them because they tell you about history. And I found some! When then went into a second cave that hadn't been dug out or excavated. It was dark and lit by candles and we had to do some climbing in small spaces. It had these holes in the walls, used 2,000 years ago to raise massive amounts of pigeons! In the middle of that cave, there was a cut-out space in the wall so me, Ben and this other girl climbed into it while the guide said "Where's Ben, Caleb and Jennifer?" Jennifer's dad came into the chamber after crawling through a hole, turned around and saw us, and almost fainted! We found out afterwards that the cut-out we were in was probably a feeding trough for animals! Last, we went to a third cave, to see a completed excavation: it was now open to the public because no more digging occurs there. It was all finished and dug up. It is now part of a national park system museum, so we didn't dig there, however there was a lot of history to learn there. What was interesting to me was a stone wheel that would turn to crush olives... it was a large olive oil press! The anicent people lived above ground but they had their work below, in caves, the pigeon raising and olive oil industries.
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| Archeologist Missy shows Ben & me the site at Tel Maresha. |
Although the day was really fun, I couldn't wait to get home. Why? Because we were going to my favorite restaurant, London.
Day 7:
Today we went to the Israel Museum. Here they hold the Dead Sea Scrolls which are ancient scholls found near the Dead Sea that include the oldest known bible scrolls. We saw them and they are so cool! The building is shaped like the lid of a jar they were found in and the scrolls are in this room that look like a Torah scroll handle. There was a sculpture shaped like an apple core! There was also a sculpture that was a mirror; it was placed a certain way so you would see Jerusalem upside down! There was interesting Judaica like different wedding outfits from Ukraine and Morocco which were totally different from each other. There was a whole section on the Mayan Indians with sculptures there made by actual Mayan Indians! There was also a whole exhibit on modern art where me and my mom had a long discussion about what art is.
Overall, I really enjoyed being with my grandmother and uncle.
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