clickmom

home again haiku

too tired to write
shower bed fall asleep dream
home now so happy

last full day in Israel

It is the morning of our last day full here. Our fabulous tour guide who made the trip come alive, and feels like an old friend to me at the end of our 10 days together, has the day off and we are on our own. Normally I am not sure I would have the courage to wander away from my hotel in a country where I don’t speak a word of the language, but today I won’t be alone, I’ll be with the Rabbi (ick), Matt’s tutor, and my mom. We’ll wander over to a nearby shopping mall to complete our quest for jewelry here. I am not sure why jewelry is necessary to commemorate the trip, but it sure has given the trip unity. Every where we go the females of the group scavenger for rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc.. as if we won’t be allowed back into the states without some. Every one of us has picked up a thing or two along the way, but I guess we need more, since the men are going scuba diving and we are heading for the store.

This afternoon will be spent relaxing at the hotel pool or wandering the beach. We are too tired to do anything else.

Before we left one of my oldest friends, Bob, told he me thought this trip would change my life. He thought I would somehow be inspired and have some sort of revelation and come home a changed person. The one aspect of this trip that has the ability of changing me is the thought that so many people have impacted the lives of every single Jew. We have heard story after story of people who risked every thing to create and maintain this country. We have seen photos and films of men and women who dedicated their lives for Jews to have a country of their own, the country where Judaism was born. We have heard tale after tale of our persecution and enslavement. We see young men and women on the streets in their army uniforms everyday. While Evan gets a thrill over seeing all the weaponry they carry, my mother-heart breaks thinking how young and innocent they all are to be taking in such an immense and serious responsibility. Yet, every Israeli, participates. We even spent time with Amir, a Druze, an entire different religion, whose community enlists in the army when they turn 18 because they are here for the same reason the Jews are- Freedom. Isn’t that what it is all about? Isn’t that why we live in the USA? My own home country was founded on the same exact same principles that this country was. (Except at home we destroyed the native communities to claim their land and the Jews actually belong here)

I am just wondering if there is some greater good I should be part of.

Maybe I am going home a changed person.

Israel Day 8

Yesterday we went to Masada.  Masada is where a Jewish settlement of about 1,000 people lived on top of a huge mountain about 2,000 years ago.  We got to ride a cable car up to the top, but back then the only way up was on foot, and it is a big mountain.  At the time, the Romans were all about enslaving the Jews and making sure we had no power or pleasureable life to speak of, and eventually the Romans surrounded the mountain and the Jews were able to hole up there for 7 months before the Romans prepared to attack, so all the Jews killed their families and themselves rather than allow the Romans to rape, pillage and enslave them.  We walked around these ruins, and I tried to imagine what it was like to live up there so long ago.  Every day we hear another story of sacrifice and bravery and I have to admit that I am a little bit overwhelmed by how courageous, strong and brave my forefathers were. 

Then we went to the Ahava factory and bought all kinds of Dead Sea pproducts.  They better work.  I thought it was all so touristy until I saw the tour guide and the bus driver pick up some pproducts for themselves (He claimed it was for his wife)

Then we went to the Dead Sea.  I got to go to the spa there with the other women on the trip.  WHile walking by the Dead Sea water pool, I noticed that the average spa goer there was about 70 years old and 70 pounds overweight.  And didn't shave their underarms.  So I said "I feel young and beautiful" which made Matt's tutor crack up, which is why I love her so much.  She gets all my jokes and has a great laugh. 

We all had massages and mud baths before we took a float in the Dead Sea.  Since the massage therapists didn't speak English, we just went off with any of them. I was hoping for a Tibetan massage, but ended upp with a standard one.  I thought my massage was so-so, but I was in for a surprise, because apppparantly in Israel, the breasts are part of the massage package and I haven't had that kind of massage before.  It was interesting, truthfully she used so much oil, I found it tough to relax.  I was just wondering how long it would take for me to slide off the table.

The mud bath was an all new adventure for me.  I was led into a less than sanitary looking room.  There was mud smudges every where and I worried that it resembled something I thought I had seen in "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest."  The lady gestured for me to put my clothes on a chair and gave me a shower cap to put on my hair.  This is the part where it gets really funny if you are a visual person.  I took off my clothes, and noticed what looked like a tiny little hand coming over the back of the chair.   It was a lizard!  Damn, I had given the husband the camera to take photos of the kids frolicking in the pool.  I got naked, put on the plastic shower bonnet and realized I had my cell phone in my purse.   So, picture this, me naked and still greasy from the massage, with a plastic bonnet on my head, cell phone in hand, in a dark and muddy room, trying to manuever my phone behind the chair to get the perfect shot of the rather sizeable lizard that wanted a mud bath too.  And what happens, the non-english speaking lady comes marching back in with a big bucket of mud. She gave me a weird look, so I moved the chair which sent the lizard scurrying across the room and made her scream.  Ha!!

The mud, it was interesting.  I'll have to do a mud bath somewhere else so I can compare them.  It doesn't go all over like they lead you to belive in the movies.  It helps the joints and goes on mostly feet hands knees shoulders and down the spine, with a streak of mud connecting them all.   The only thing I wish I knew before hand was how much mud could get crammed into my butt crack (spinal mud) and how hard it would be to get out.  (More visuals for the strong stomached out there)

Then I went into the Dead Sea, which tastes GROSS and stings the eyes like a bitch.  Can you all tell what a smooth operator I must have been in the Dead Sea?  I was just a little bit pitiful trying to manuever in the water when it felt it was baby oil trying to eject me.  You should have seen my boobage trying to float right out of my suit!!  Very floaty water.  I have pictures. Afterwards- I was soft as could be.  I am still soft today.

Can't keep my eyes open here, I am honestly looking forward to being back on my own time in a few days. I am not good at changing time zones.  Day light savings time messes with me for weeks, you can imagine what a seven hour change does.   Also, I miss my bed, but I am trying to figure out how long I can leave the devil dog with the dog sitter for.  I don't miss her.

Israel Day 6

So, today is Saturday, which is the sabbath here, and a day of rest, so nothing Jewish was open. Instead of doing something Jewish/touristy we hung out at the hotel pool in the morning, the kids needed the break from touring anyway, and spent a few afternoon hours wandering the Arab Market. (Their day of rest is on Friday) This is what I discovered at the Arab Market.

1. I have NO CLUE how much anything on the face of this earth is actually suppposed to cost. I mean completely cluless.

2. I am a lame haggler. And they can tell.

3. I suck under pressure.

Therefore, the one item, I was fairly certain we got at a bargain price (because really, who knows?) we saw in a retail store window this evening for two shekels less than what we paid at the Arab market. Now, two shekels is worth about fifty cents, but leaving the Arab market I had the impression that I had done a great job on this one item. You see? Clueless. We paid retail and had to haggle for it!! They can smell the sucker in me a mile away.

I am so totally going back home to the mall, where at least I know I am getting ripped off, but can enjoy the luxurious air conditioned sanitary conditions of paying retail. Sheesh.

The husband only wants to spend spend spend, and IT IS KILLING ME!! He is making me shop on vacation. Poor me. Now he wants to buy me jewelry, and I am trying to tell him that I can't buy jewelry just for the sake of spending money, I can only buy jewelry if I happen to see something that appeals to me, sppeaks to me, calls my name. So he is making me jewelry shop three times a day. gah!