middle east 6/19/09: layla tov

Hi everyone,

Just a message to let you know that in case you didn't hear, Amy and I made it home safely yesterday morning. We've been pretty exhausted, so the email is coming in a bit late.

Our last few days in Israel were delightful-- we spent time with our second cousins Hanan and Noa, and met some third cousins from our paternal grandfather's side that we didn't know existed. Everyone was absurdly friendly and hospitable. Also, our aunt Edie arranged for us to see a rehearsal of Be'ersheva's Symphony Orchestra, so that was really cool. I got to meet the oboists, and I had one of them show Edie what an oboe actually was. Very cool. Mostly, we got to spend quite a bit more time seeing Tel Aviv and Yaffo, which both turned out to be really cool. They have a fun, almost Santa Monica & Venice Beach (respectively)-type feel to them.

The flight home didn't seem as long as the flight to Israel, and we slept through most of it and also chatted with our friend from birthright, Jared, who happened to be flying home the same night as us. However, tragedy struck on the shuttle bus home-- somehow, we managed to leave our camera on it, and despite some phone calls to the shuttle company, it didn't turn up. So, there won't be any pictures of Petra, and we'll have to wait for copies of our friends' pictures in Israel and Egypt. It was quite sad when we realized, but I think we're letting it go. Our sister Melanie had the best response to our loss-- she stifled laughter and said, "You guys are such losers!"

(The funny thing is, with no scrap book to focus on, I've already turned my attention to the next big trip-- Le Quad and Friends go to Asia, Summer 2010. Whee!)

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon. Thanks for reading!

Hope everyone is well,
much love,
Sara (and Amy, too)

middle east: 6/11/09: from nuweiba to be'ersheva

Hi friends and family!!

Amy here. We're in Be'ersheva right now, and Aunt Edie's neighbors were kind enough to let us use their computer to email home. The nearest internet cafe isn't within walking distance, and according to Sara's guide book, it's 50 cents per minute. Outrageous.

On Saturday, we spent the night in Nuweiba, Egypt. We spent the afternoon exploring the town, which seemed to be comprised of twenty souvenir shops (all with exactly the same things for sale), ten locals and maybe two other tourists. We had dinner that night at Dr. Shesh Kabab's restaurant and met THE Dr. Shesh Kabab himself! Shesh in the flesh! He sat with us and told us about how he had two restaurants and then enthusiastically shared with us his life story. He told us about his family and how he fought in the Yom Kippur war and served in the Egyptian army for...some amount of years. Then he and our waiter, Sammy, told us they wanted to throw us a party. They brought out drums and cheerfully sang Bedouin songs, right on the patio of the restaurant. They asked us to sing an American song, so since Sara and our friend Leah were both sick with sore throats, it was I who was elected to do a solo performance. I chose to sing "Tequila," because it was song I could think of. A strange evening, altogether, but nice. After dinner, we spent the night in huts on the beach. We stupidly decided to forgo the mosquito nets so we could feel the fan more, and woke up with about thirty bites each. Word to the wise: if your beach hut comes equipped with a mosquito net, take advantage of it. It's probably there for a reason.

Sara: After the fairly shady bus ride to Nuweiba, we opted for a taxi to the Israel border. This turned out to be a great move; it was only a few dollars more expensive and the driver (a friend of the hut-owner) brought a huge van so that we could spread out our things. Walking across the border turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than we expected-- our passports were checked about a dozen times, but all the guards were quite nice about it, and there were even some duty-free souveneir shops.

Once we crossed the border, we separated from our friend Leah and made our way to our hostel in Eilat. Amy and I didn't really have anything we needed to see there, so we decided to just spend time sleeping until we were ready to head to Jordan. A long nap in the afternoon was so luxurious we felt as if we'd rested for a week, and we decided we could take a day trip to Petra the next day.

Amy: We were able to book the day trip through Eilat Youth Hostel, so a van picked us up at (sigh) 6:30 in the morning, just outside the hostel. We crossed the border, and after two hours in Jordan we arrived at Petra. We decided to ditch our tour group, because we had lecture exhaustion; after spending two weeks listening to a tour guide explain the history of every temple, every building, every hill, just getting the preview of what was to come from our Jordanian tour guide on the bus to Petra was enough to make our eyes droop with fatigue. Petra itself was awesome. The colors of the rocks were incredible, and we got some fantastic photos of the place. We also befriended a young Bedouin girl, who gave me a necklace as a gift! After exploring Petra, we met up with the group for lunch and then headed back to Israel.

Sara: The next day, Tuesday (if we've got our days straight....) we headed to our great-aunt Edie's house. We'd been looking forward to meeting her, and she is such a sweetheart. In the day and a half we've been here, she's taken us shopping twice, and bought a necklace and bracelet for me and earrings for Amy. The only challenge, though, is that she's losing her hearing. For instance, she asked me twice, "You went to London with your orchestra, right?" I explained both times that I'd gone to London once with my school's drama department, and once with my friends. However, last night Amy and I heard her have this conversation on the phone with her son Alec....

...Aunt Edie: "Yes, yes, the girls are here. ....Amy goes to school in California." (At this, Amy and I look at each other, and Amy mouths, "Just me.") Edie continues, "and Sara....Sara plays the oboe in an orchestra." (Amy and I shrug and nod.) "Yes, she plays in the Los Angeles....in the Los Angeles Philharmonic! A great orchestra." (Amy and I look at each other in shock, and both bite our lips, desperately trying not to laugh audibly. Edie doesn't notice.) "She toured with
them in London."

I tried to hold in my laughter for a split second longer, then covered my mouth with my hands and ran to the back bedroom and burst out laughing. Amy joined me a few seconds later, and I think we both laughed until we cried. Part of me feels like my life is a bit more complicated now (I begged Alex's sister Panina to explain that I was not, in fact, in the L.A. Phil) but the other part of me just can't stop laughing.

In other words, life is grand.

Much love,
Sara and Amy

middle east 6/6/09: greetings from nuweiba, egypt

Hi everyone,

Sara: The Lonely Planet implied that Nuweiba was somewhat 'off the beaten track' and until now, I thought of places like....Nice, France, perhaps....as being off the beaten track. But after being here for four hours, we've seen precisely three other vacationers, and maybe nine townspeople. My interpretation has changed somewhat.

On the other hand, it feels very African and third-world-ish, so that's kind of cool. Lots of camels and goats wandering around. We're sleeping in these huts literally right on the beach, and we can see the mountains of Saudi Arabia right across the Red Sea. We're only here for about 24 hours, so for now, we're enjoying the sun and we'll hopefully get in some good snorkeling this afternoon.

On a more exciting note, we're writing after spending about 3 days in Cairo. Woot! Cairo was very cool, though I'm a bit relieved to have some downtime, now. There's so much energy in that city! It was difficult to hide our 'tourist' status there (Leah is blonde, for instance) so whenever we went out, there was a sort of caucophonous symphony of dozens of Egyptians saying, "hello hello!" and "Welcome to Egypt!" (or occasionally, "Welcome to Alaska!")

Cairo traffic is notoriously insane, but I think we all kind of loved it. Some of you might have seen my facebook status that I'd been hit by a bicycle. I totally had the green walking man, but to be fair, I was a bit distracted. Elisa said that my experience was "authentic." (I think the cat with one eye that tried to steal my shwarma at the hostel was authentic, too.) But basically, with the traffic-- all things to the Cairo driver are merely suggestions. Painted lane indicators? Signals? Speed limits? Pedestrians? All things to keep loosely in mind. It was hysterical. I think our average life expectencies probably dropped about five years each time we got in a cab.
__

Amy: One of the highlights of Cairo was going to the Egyptian Museum, which was walking distance from our hostel. None of the exhibits were very organized. The lighting was poor. Most of the rooms were way too hot. But it was still, somehow, incredible. We visited King Tut's tomb, and gazed and the beautiful jewelery, most of which I decided I would still wear, even today. Jared said "I think the museum would really benefit by making the experience more interactive and having mummies jump out from behind corners," and that made us all laugh. It's mind-boggling to think about how good the Egyptians were at preservation... everything from the ancient city, to the ancient pyramids, down to the very bodies of ancient Egyptians, have survived centuries. It's downright crazy.
__
Sara: There were definitely aspects of Egypt that felt like they were out of an entirely different century, or even an entirely different millenia. The elevator at the hostel was straight out of the early 1900's, and SO cool. Basically, picture the elevator in the movie Titanic-- you know, metal bars for doors, and a lever indicating which floor to go to. This is a start. Now, let's add that the elevator fit perhaps five people in a pinch, and imagine that the setting is the
entryway for the Tower of Terror or perhaps the Haunted Mansion-- dusty, dimly lit. Now add that the elevator itself had small wooden doors with glass windows, and these wooden doors needed to be fully shut for the elevator to go-- in other words, you could be between floors, open the doors, and the elevator would stop. Add all this to
the fact that there wasn't really an enclosed elevator chute, more just a stairwell with an interior rail surrounding it. This was our elevator, and it broke down about twice daily.

Meanwhile, Khan al-Khalili (the marketplace) could have been from a different millenium, and reminded me strongly of the scene at the marketplace in Aladdin. We happened to go on the 4th, the day Obama spoke at Cairo University, and the following conversation ensued with basically every salesman in the market:

Merchant: "Where you from?"
Us: "America."
Merchant: "Oh! Obama..." *excited mix of Arabic and English*
Us: *cheerful* "Obama!"

Needless to say, he's quite popular here, and I think he's probably part of the reason most of the locals we've met have seemed thrilled to meet us. I imagine this is kind of what being a celebrity feels like.
__

Amy: We woke up early--really early--yesterday morning to catch a cab and head over to the pyramids. They were only about twenty minutes away from the hostel we were staying at, and we arrived before the ticket stands were even open. To pass the time until 8:30 rolled around, we explored the area a little bit and stumbled upon a
golf course. I don't like golfing, but I would have LOVED to have played a round or two there. The pyramids were tall in the near background, and it was way cleaner than pretty much anywhere else in Cairo. After taking pictures of us pretending to putt, we walked over to the entrance of the pyramids. We decided to have a horse-drawn carriage tour, which turned out to be a fabulous idea! Our guide even let us climb up one of the pyramids...we were only allowed to venture up a few stones, but it was totally cool nonetheless. I got a profile shot of myself "kissing" the Sphinx and Sara and I took another picture that looks like both of our hands are touching the tip of one of the pyramids. Because of the morning light, the shadows cast by the pyramids gave us some amazing photographs. We spent a total of an hour there, which was completely satisfying, and then we made a beeline to McDonald's. Silly American tourists and their comfort food...

Shockingly, our stomachs have been handling the food in Egypt just swimmingly (knock on wood), thanks to good advice from Sam and Audrey: Don't eat food that isn't cooked. Felafels have been my own personal cooked food of choice. I think I've already had about ten of them, and this is only day four in Egypt. They're so delish!

Hope everyone's doing well back at home,
Amy and Sara

*photos in this entry are courtesy of Elisa Law.

middle east 6/2/09: how do you say, "free at last!" in hebrew?

Shalom all!

Sara: So, life here is super sababa (which means 'great'). Our official birthright trip ended on Sunday evening, which meant sad goodbyes. Mayanot allowed us to stay in Jerusalem if it suited us better (which it did) so Amy, Courtney, Elisa, Noah, Jared, and I hugged about thirty-five people and the bus drove away and then we were free! It was an amazing thing. Funnily, the first thing we did with our new-found freedom was find a restroom. But, backtracking a little bit....

Amy: On Thursday we went to the Holocaust Memorial, which I know Sara already mentioned but I just wanted to talk about it a little bit, too. For me, it was the most moving and memorable part of the trip, aside from meeting all of my beautiful new friends. Our group scheduled a guided tour, but there were a few of us who got annoyed with the incessant talking of the woman leading us and decided to wander off on our own with our headphones on mute. We listened to dozens of video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and saw the "stripped pajamas" and bunk beds. I can't describe it, so maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead, but the entire experience was just unreal. We also got the opportunity to listen to and a Holocaust survivor, in the flesh, and ask her questions. I forget her name, but she was less than ten years old when she went to the camps. She just started talking about the Holocaust a few years ago, and still believes in God and tries to live a normal, happy life with her husband. Mordechai, our group's leader, lead a small discussion group at the end of our visit, just to get a feel of what we got out of the visit. I shared a personal philosophy, which probably made little sense to anyone but me: I think that there are good people and unlucky people. If someone can't recognize value in a human life, that's pure blindness.

On Saturday, we all split up and were assigned different homes of Israeli families who volunteered to host us for a Shabbot lunch. Sara, Ashlee, Amy #2 and I were assigned to the Mann family, who were originally from New York. We didn't have an exact schedule of how long we were supposed to stay, so we ended up talking to the family for almost five hours. They were an ultra/modern orthodox Jewish family, so naturally they had eight children (that's just average...strange land) and were very interested in the questions we had for them. They talked all about living the Talmud and what life is like in Jerusalem and their view of American politics. We all had such a good time that we were invited back, and Sara and I ended up staying over at their house last night! They're very different, but lovely nonetheless.

Sara: The final few days of our trip were fun, except for being cooped up in the hotel a lot due to the security alert. Basically, it was such a small alert that most Israelis didn't even hear about it, but Birthright is super cautious about that sort of thing. Luckily, we had people like our tour guide Mordechai and Israeli chaperone Moria fighting for us, so on the last day and a half we were able to go out clubbing in Jerusalem and to Ben Yehuda street (which is basically a shopping area.) We also volunteered at a soup kitchen, and for the last event of the day, we all planted a tree in Israel. As part of custom, we all named our tree and sang a song for it. I named mine "Caroline" and sang Neil Diamond, while Amy went a slightly more egocentric route and named hers "Amy" and sang it, "America" from West
Side Story.

Once we were released, Noah/Jared/Elisa headed to Eilat (we later found out that on the bus, a drunk man peed on Elisa...), and Courtney, Amy, and I walked about a mile to the Old City, where we stayed at a little hostel between the Armenian and Christian Quarters called Citadel. While the area was a little bit grungy, the hostel was AWESOME. If the Quad is reading, you guys remember when the hostel in Poland had an underground cave. This hostel WAS a cave. Our room was up on the third floor, which meant climbing up three steep, rounded flights of stone stairs. Just a few steps above our room was the rooftop, which had a view of the whole city (The Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, etc.) SO cool. While we were only there for one night, Courtney and I woke up early the next morning so that we could explore the rooftops and walk around the Arab shops in the area. I'm not sure if 'Arab' would be the PC-term, but I don't know more specifically than that-- Palestinian? I'm not sure. But basically, it's worth noting that we were basically walking in and out of Jewish areas, and the non-Jewish areas were very different from the Jewish areas. The Arab areas seemed darker or more hectic, with schoolboys offering directions (then asking payment) and more salespeople trying to get our attention. We definitely blended in better in the Jewish areas, which seemed more orderly. There were plenty of military men in all the areas we were at, though, so it all seemed reasonably safe.

From there, we were picked up by our dad's cousins Sam and Audrey Meline, who took us out to lunch and showed us around their part of town. They were incredibly nice and we got to talk for a couple hours about our family tree, which was great. We learned that, ridiculously, at one point in our trip we were barely fifty feet from their house! Crazy.

Amy: Incidentally, I got food poisoning three days ago--throwing up, and all. I feel better now, but I'm proceeding with caution and choosing my foods as wisely as possible from now on. I can only imagine what's to come in Cairo.

Miss you, love you all,
s&a

middle east 5/27/09: jerusalem

Shalom all!

So right now we are in Jerusalem. We were supposed to go out tonight, but there's a TERROR ALERT. Poo. This means we will be having sangrias at the hostel to ensure our complete safety. So, no need to worry at home.

Anyway, Jerusalem is rad! This trip has been so busy, and I've had no time to write at all, particularly because this hostel has no computer. My only internet access is to pester Noah to use his laptop, but today my new friend Courtney needed his computer anyway so we are here, updating our internetz. Whee!

Let's see, quick highlights. Yesterday we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. It's interesting, it's really the first time I've dealt with the Holocaust since visiting Auschwitz two years ago, and in some ways I feel like I've just finally begun to digest that last trip. The museum gave us all a good cry, then afterwards our group got to listen to a Holocaust survivor speak. It's sort of funny I suppose, but I've always really wanted to meet someone who had survived the Holocaust and hear them talk about it. Even though this woman, Wertl, seemed to have to emotionally disconnect herself from the words she spoke, it was still moving to hear her speak.

Other things...last night we got to go to the desert and sleep under canopies at a Bedouin camp. So cool! They served us delicious food and had ceremonies with dancing and then a couple of us walked around under the stars. Super rad.

Finally, today we got to float in the Dead Sea! Totally excellent. It's amazing: even if you think you are totally scratch/scrape-free, after about five minutes in the Dead Sea, everyone knows exactly where all their injuries are because they sting! Ack. It's supposed to be healing, though. We also all covered ourselves in Dead Sea mud. I expect amusing pictures will come once everyone gets home and uploads
to facebook.

I hate to be so brief, but I think I need to run. Hope everyone is well at home. Much love!!!!
-Sara

middle east 5/23/09: shabbat shalom:-)

Shalom!


The past few days can definitely be described as (what Amy and I call) "extreme traveling." We have done so much, and we haven't even made it to Jerusalem yet! (Speaking of Jerusalem-- I have handwritten nearly all of your prayer requests, including the ones left at facebook, and I will definitely be done by the time we get to the wall.)

For the past two days we have been in Tiberias, in northern Israel. It is so exciting to finally be in an ancient city. From our hotel we can see the Sea of Galilee, and I'm hoping we get to walk all the way down to the water soon so that I can try to walk on top of it. (This is surely a simple thing, no?) The 'mifgashim' (Israeli soldiers)
have arrived, and they are pretty cool.

Amy: The mifgashim are all such wonderful people. A few of them are struggling and getting a little bit frustrated with speaking English, but they are all able to communicate if you speak clearly and are patient when they are speaking. One of the female soldiers, Yaara, is rooming with me and Sara now! She basically works in army human resources, and she interviews new soldiers and decides which position would be best suited for their personality. She speaks English fluently, and she says she learned from American television shows. She is definitely on Jewish Standard Time, though, and she's been late to almost every event we've done.

Sara: The soldiers arrived on Thursday, which was our first full day in Tiberias. It was a pretty awesome day. In the morning, we headed up north to the Lebanon border. The border, at a kibbutz, is literally a fence across a rolling hillside. We got an added bonus because when we arrived, we could hear morning prayers coming from Lebanon over a loudspeaker. The voice was slow and melodic and sounded eerie, but I could understand how it might be soothing for the people living there, as well. Adding to the eerie-ness was the view-- we could see the yellow flag of Hezbollah on the closest hill. We got to hear a speaker from the kibbutz, an American-Israeli who had fought in four wars, including the first war with Lebanon. He was intense and fascinating to listen to. Finally, after the speaker, I walked over to the fence on the pretense of taking a picture... then I reached through the fence and took a rock from Lebanon;-)

We also got to visit Tzfat yesterday, which is the city where Kaballah (Jewish mysticism) was born, about 1,000 years ago, where we were able to see a (pretty cool) speaker and run around town eating lunch and buying a gift for our "Secret Santa" (funny, on a Jewish trip.) After Tzfat, we went rafting in the Jordan river, which was so fun and refreshing. We weren't allowed in the water, but I "fell in" when an Israeli soldier "pushed" me. Naturally, he dove in to "save" me, as well.

Amy: The group of people on this trip who we've been getting to know over the past few days are fantastic. A lot of people who Sara and I have been sticking with actually live in Los Angeles, and I'm positive that we'll hang out together when we get home. Last night, after the Shabbat dinner, a group of us all went in someone's room and played cards and talked for hours. We actually stayed up until three in the morning, just visiting. We've bonded a lot about all of the annoying rules we have on this trip, like how we can't walk around town without a chaperone (which of course is understandable...but it seems ridiculous nonetheless). I feel happy and safe with all of these new friends we've made.

Sara: It's worth noting that the reason we were able to stay up so late last night is because today is Shabbat, the day of rest. Finally, we've all gotten a chance to sleep! Tonight we're going out to have dinner in the city, and then tomorrow we see the Syria border and head to Jerusalem.

Until next time, much love,
Sara and Amy

middle east 5/19/09: machadash? hakob'a seder

Shalom all!

We made it safely to Israel and we are now at a GREAT little hotel in Tel Aviv overlooking the Mediterranean. The water is so nice and warm! Okay, I (Sara...Amy is going to write some of this too) am sort of loopy so I'm not sure this will be in any logical order. But the beach is awesome, and the people on the trip are so nice. I already feel like we've known them forever. Amy and I actually made a ton of new friends, to the point that we decided to sleep in separate rooms so that we could socialize with more people. This is a little bit silly though, since Amy and I are sharing a lot of things (like shampoo.)

Amy here! The flight...was long. So long. Fifteen hours long. But it was actually not quite as miserable as one would expect, because we all were free to move about and visit with people on different sides of the plane and help ourselves to egg salad sandwiches in the kitchen. My row buddy and new friend, Theo, loved playing card games just as much as I, so we kept ourselves entertained for a good portion of the flight.There were also incredibly amusing instructional videos on how to stretch in your airplane seat.

Sara: Oh yeah, about the flight. It was all sort of dramatic because Israel takes security SUPER SUPER seriously. So, checking in to El Al, every single one of us was questioned. Amy and I were able to be interviewed together and they just asked us a few questions (like about where our relatives in Israel lived) but both my roommates, Stacey and Elisa, were detained for further questioning and had their bags searched and held until they boarded the plane, along with several other people. Jared, who will be going with us to Egypt, initially didn't get his bag back-- which had $4000 of camera equiptment. How stressful. But in the end everything worked out fine, phew:-)

Amy: Luckily, Sara and I were anticipating much hotter weather than what we were greeted with. There was a nice breeze when we stepped out of the airport, and so far the temperature is much milder than it's been in California recently. Tonight we have the option to go out to a nightclub, but a group of us decided to skip it and hang out at the beach instead. Because it's THAT awesome. I hope you all are doing
well back on the other side of the world!

Lots of love,
Sara and Amy

middle east 5/16/09: shalom!

Hey friends and familia,

It's travel time again...Monday morning, Amy and I are off on the
birthright trip to Israel! Our flight is at 1:45 p.m., but we have to
be at LAX by 9:45 to meet up with our birthright group...and since the
405 is crazy at that time, we actually leave for the airport at 6 a.m.
Eek:-p

We will be abroad from May 18 to June 18, and we will be visiting
Israel (two weeks with a free! Mayanot birthright group, plus a week
with familia at the end), Egypt (Cairo), and Jordan (Petra). During
that time I'll be sending out periodic email updates to share any
travel highlights. If you're not really into group emails, let me
know and I'll take you off this list, no problems.

Also, If anyone has prayer requests, let me know and I will tuck them
in the Western Wall for you:-)

Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Sara