Birthright Israel Sign-Ups Are Open (and you are VIPs!)

Just a quick post tonight while I compose my thoughts on Anthroplosion 2011.  Before too much time elapses, I wanted to post a few quick links for my fellow MOTs about Birthright Israel, since trip registration opened today and will probably be closed by tomorrow!

The Birthright trips that are open for registration will run during winter of 2011--2012.  Winter trips last until Spring Break in March.  You are eligible to go on Birthright if you are between the ages of 18 and 26 and have some Jewish heritage.  Note:  I was 27 when I went on my trip, but 26 when I applied.  If you're close to the age deadline, you can learn on the Birthright website the exact date on which you must be 26 to be eligible.

The Birthright trip is a 10-day tour through Israel led by a tour guide.  The trip is free---included is your roundtrip airfare, hotel/accommodation costs, all meals (you are given a small sum of cash to spend on the on-your-own lunches), transportation within the country, and costs of admission to attractions.  Not included are souvenirs, airline change fees (in case you extend your flight), and booze.  You have to pay a $250 deposit, which you will get back once you come back from the trip.

Photo courtesy of Ashley.

I had an amazing time on this trip and would highly recommend it to everyone who is eligible!!  Please let me know if you end up applying; I can help you get VIP status on your application through your affiliation with a past participant (me!).  (Edit:  My VIP status may only be good through Israel Outdoors; I'm not completely sure!)

• The Birthright Israel website, with information about various trip providers.  Note:  This information is really convoluted and confusing.  Instead of signing up for the Birthright Israel program and then choosing a provider later, you sign up directly with the provider, who operates under the umbrella of Taglit.  There are lots of providers and it can get pretty confusing to parse through them.  The main thing to keep in mind is that, due to the conditions of Taglit funding, ALL trip providers must do 90% of the exact same stuff.  The 10% of ways in which they differ probably has very little impact on your trip experience.  The most impact you will see is in the type of people who choose to take your trip.  For example, choosing a provider that focuses on the religious aspects of the trip will include more people who went to Sunday school as kids than a secular trip.

• Sample trip itinerary.  How fabulous does that look?

• Israel Outdoors, the trip provider whose trip I took back in March.  I HIGHLY recommend them!  I had an awesome time on the program and my fellow participants were some very chill, laid-back Jews.  Despite the name, there was only one night of camping!  Lots of walking and hiking though, which was a fantastic way to see the country.

On a hike through the Nachal Jilabun Canyon.

• My trip recaps.  If you're not sold on taking this trip, or not sure what it involves, or not sure whether you'd enjoy a winter trip, you can read more about my experience at that link.  I went on a trip in early March and found the weather to be great---not too hot during the day, although a bit chilly at night.  (PACK LAYERS.)  I don't know what a trip would be like in December, or in July for that matter.  I do know that all trips have awesome, if not different, activities.  For example, winter trips visit a hot spring while summer trips go tubing down a river.

Please let me know in the comments or via email if you have any questions, and do let me know if you end up applying so I can help you get VIP status.  (Edit: I know Israel Outdoors considers alumni connections/VIP status, but I can't say for sure about the other providers.)

These trips fill up incredibly quickly, so I recommend that you pick a provider with minimal agonizing and fill out your application right now.  Don't take too much time to think it over or you may have to wait until Summer 2012!  (If you're turning 27 before then, you won't be eligible, so don't hesitate!)

Middle East Recap: Days 13 and 14

[Catch up: Days 1 & 2, Day 3, Days 4 & 5, Day 6, Days 7 & 8, Days 9 & 10]

March 19, 2011

We woke up early this morning and my awesome friend Abby drove me and Becky to Petra.  We checked into our hotel in the adjoining town of Wadi Mussa (cleverly named "The Cleopetra"---get it?).  After drinking our welcome tea, we had a shwarma and then went to an AWESOME local bakery named Sanibel.

At Sanibel.  Pitas fell from the SKY!

We got to Petra around 11am and spent the day exploring the ancient city and snapping photos of the buildings carved into the sides of the mountains.  We rode horses into the Siq (the long entryway into the city) (horses are included in your entry fee!) and marveled at the treasury and tombs.

Along the Siq.

Emerging from the Siq to face the Treasury.

The Treasury.

Without knowing where we would end up, we walked up a seemingly endless series of stairs leading up to an area called "The High Place of Sacrifice."  We actually stopped about twenty feet from the place of sacrifice, disheartened after reaching the top of the mountain without seeing the site.  Then a Bedouin woman showed us a hidden path between a few large rocks and suddenly we were standing in the middle of the sacrificial space, feeling very thankful that she'd been there to show us where to go.  The path down was interesting and dotted with random tombs.

Steps to the High Place of Sacrifice.

The High Place of Sacrifice.

The High Place of Sacrifice.

The path down from the High Place of Sacrifice.

On the path down from the High Place of Sacrifice.

On the path down from the High Place of Sacrifice.

On the path down from the High Place of Sacrifice.

Trying to leave things nicer than I found them.

You want me to walk across WHAT?!

We watched the sunset (frankly, underwhelming) and then rode donkeys back to the entrance at the end of the night with a duo of young Bedouins, one of whom rode with me and inched up a bit too close for comfort.  That'll be the last time I share a donkey with a stranger!

At sunset.

The Siq is one big fault line; you can see at certain points where the earth on each side of the path would have fit together.

The day of walking and climbing in the hot sun left me totally wiped out, and the knowledge that we're going back tomorrow to climb the 800 steps up to the Monastary is currently drawing at my eyelids.  Somehow, I stayed awake long enough to make a return trip to the bakery (snacks for tomorrow!) and to walk around Wadi Mussa for a bit before my sister picked a great place for dinner (Jordanian buffet!  So delicious!).

The appetizers!

We fended off a VERY persistant Bedouin guy who followed us from the pastry shop around town to our restaurant.  He wanted us to have a drink with him and wouldn't take "no" for an answer.  Every corner we turned, his car was there.  He even waited for us outside the restaurant while we ate and then came inside once our check was paid to plead with us again to have a drink with him when we were done.  Hilariously, just as we'd gotten him to realize that we were NOT going out for a drink with him, he asked us---as we were halfway down the street---whether we'd have a drink with him tomorrow.  My sister, trying to be nice, called back, "Maybe!"  This of course prompted him to get in his car and follow us for several more blocks before we convinced him that she didn't actually mean "maybe."  (I had a similarly "doh" moment when a guy stopped his car next to us to ask whether we spoke English.  He looked lost, so I said "yes."  My sister immediately shouted to me, "NO!  IT'S A TRICK!" at the same time as the guy in the car perked up that he'd found some American girls and started trying to cajole us into getting into his car.)

Neither of these guys were threatening, but it was annoying and a bit intimidating to keep saying "not interested."


March 21, 2011

Our second day in Petra was exhausting.  We ate cheap breakfast in our hostel (scrambled egg, some pita, and coffee for 2 JD (about $3.50).  We got to Petra around 9am with one mission:  walk up the 800 stairs to the Monastary.  The trek was tough cardio.  As with our walk to the High Place of Sacrifice the day before, the steps often leaped in height, narrowed in width, or utterly smoothed to a slope in depth, so walking required great attention.

We were indeed wowed by the sight of the magnificent monastary.  The structure is beautiful and eerily, abondoned-ly ancient.  We hiked up the mountain a bit more to enjoy a beautiful view of the mountains, then made our way down with only mild harassment from a begging/whining Bedouin child who wanted some of our Sanibel pastries.

The monastary.

Becky looking down on the monastary.

A Bedouin advertisement.  I chuckled because "letail petra" is supposed to be "little Petra," but "letail" is almost an exact phonetic spelling of the way the Bedouins pronounce the word "little" ("LEE-tail").  (PS: kind of sad that the word "Israel" has seemingly been defaced)

After a quick stop for lunch---day-old pastries whose relative staleness since yesterday matched our moods---we walked up to a few more sights (the Blue Church and Byzantine Church) and then made our way back to the hotel.  A horseback ride to and from the entrance to the Siq (the long road into Petra) is included in the ticket price, so Becky and I rested our tired legs on horseback after merging from the Siq.

The Blue Church is so named because of these blue marble columns.

Tile work on the floor of the Byzantine Church.

At the Byzantine church.

This camel was just as tired as we were.

Amazingly, we ran into one of our Birthright companions and her sister both days in Petra.  After Becky and I retrieved our bags from the hotel and relaxed outside with a cold drink, we met up with our Birthright friend (Jess) and her sister (Sarah) and headed for the bus to Amman.  Jess parted ways with us there to go snorkeling in Aqaba.  The bus ride was uneventful---although I discovered "Tomato Ketchup" flavored Lay's chips at a rest stop.  Didn't try them, though.

Once in Amman, Becky and I met up with my awesome friend Abby, who coordinated almost all of our Jordan trip and THEN let us stay with her overnight.  We went to a nice restaurant called Cantaloupe, where we enjoyed fun cocktails and girl talk.  After dinner, Abby took us for a quick sugar rush at Habiba, a hole-in-the-wall specializing in an utterly mindblowingly delicious dessert pastry called Kanafeh, which is basically like a cross between a mozzarella stick and a cheese blinz, wrapped in filo dough, deep fried, then soaked in honey.  It is HEAVENLY.  Becky and I devoured an ungodly amount of them sloppily in the alley in front of Habiba.  Then we picked up a few bootleg DVDs ($1.40/1 JD per disc) and made our way back to Abby's apartment to rest for the night before crossing back into Israel in the morning.

KANAFEH IS SO EFFING GOOD.

The Jordan-->Israel crossing took place at a more complicated border, apparently, since it took us almost two hours to get from one side to the other.  Add an hour transportation on each end (Amman-->King Hussein Bridge/Border; Bridge/Border-->Jerusalem) and we were both road weary upon arrival.

Still, we were determined to buy a few last treats from the Jerusalem market at Mahane Yehuda, one of our favorite "shopportunities" on Birthright (blogged here).  We ate falafel for lunch and then bee-lined to our favorite vendors for Halvah, bageles, pita with zaatar, delicious and melty-doughed rugelach (best I've ever had in my life).  After the market, we took a public bus to the central bus station (which was bombed two days later) and then took a shared cab (like a minibus---13 passengers) to Tel Aviv.  The trip from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv is about an hour; although both are on opposite sides of the country, Israel is quite narrow and so the distance is relatively short.

Ongoing Purim celebrations in the market as people in costumes dance in the middle of the street.

More halvah than you could imagine.

Bageles.

Returning to Tel Aviv felt like breathing a relaxing sigh.  The city reminds me of Miami Beach, close to where I grew up in the suburbs, and after being surrounded by totally unfamiliar Arabic for four days, the Hebrew signage was almost comforting.  While neither my sister nor I can understand much Hebrew, we can read some of it.

Before our flight, we returned to our Birthright leader's apartment to pick up our bags and reunite with a few other Birthright friends who also extended their trip until the 21st.  We had a delicious sushi dinner at a restaurant called Japoniko and then hightailed to the airport.  We didn't leave much time to spare (the security lady suggested we may even miss our flight, despite the 25-odd people waiting to check in for the same flight.  Of course, we made it on the plane, but only after spending an hour at security and then racing through an improbably long series of gates and terminals.

My sister and I settled into our airplane seats in ecstacy.  Far from our pre-flight nerves, we were both thrilled to be boarding a comfortable flight that promised a chance to sleep.  We've had enough travel; we are both ready to go home and lay in our own beds.

Becky wasted no time cracking open the rugelach, and I'm currently eying my bag of Bamba (a snack that's similar in texture to cheese poofs, but coated in peanut butter powder instead of cheese powder).

Image of Bamba courtesy of My Jewish Learning.

I'm sure I'll be processing this trip for a while to come, but for now I feel happy and grateful to have had such an exciting adventure, but also equally excited and relieved to return home!

Middle East Recap: Days 11 and 12

[Catch up: Days 1 & 2, Day 3, Days 4 & 5, Day 6, Days 7 & 8, Days 9 & 10]

March 18, 2011

Now, if you were on a bus from midnight until 5am, wouldn't you assume that you and your fellow passengers would all want to get some sleep?

Not quite the case, apparently.  We had a few talkers on our vehicle who interfered with our REM, but even more, the ride itself was so bumpy and windy that Becky and I arrived in Eilat tired and drained.  I'd hoped we would get enough sleep on the bus to avoid the need for a hotel, but that clearly did not happen.  We walked to the first hotel we could find and asked the front desk if we could stay from 5am until 4pm, and he obliged.  There was even free breakfast!  All for about $40 per person.

Becky slept well but I slept fitfully, with the anxiety of my big-sisterly responsibility for the solo leg of our trip seeping into my dreams.

Fortunately, our day in Eilat went smoothly.  We took a cab to Coral Beach, which is home to a small underwater nature reserve.  We rented $5 snorkels and sat on loungers above the rocky beach, alternatively baking in the sun and swimming in the freezing Red Sea.

The reefs at the beach were not very colorful or impressive, but the fish life was AMAZING!  I saw an enormous variety of bright, phosphorescent fish of all colors---sometimes all colors at once---many of which I had never seen before.  I even spotted two pufferfish.  There was an extremely long, needle-thin fish with a spoon-flat nose.  I watched as a huge blue spotted fish successfully flipped over a spikey sea urchin, immediately lunging for the sweet animal beneath the spikes.  It was breathtaking.

Our lunch consisted of foodstuffs hoarded from our free breakfast.  Me: cucumber, tomato, and soft cheese sandwich.  Becky: two hardboiled eggs.

After the beach, we rode back to our hotel, stopping at an open-air market for fresh fruit along the way.  We showered and made our way to the Jordanian border, which we walked across nervously (after getting the requisite passport stamps).

Once there, we met with a friend of my friend Abby, who drove us to a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum where we will stay for two nights while exploring the area.  Ironically, the Bedouin tent was my and Becky's least favorite Israel accommodation due to its dusty air and cold temperature, but this camp---run by a man named Suleman---at least has fresh air indoors!  Of course, the toilet is a hole in the floor, but you can't have it all.

I could barely stay awake around the campfire after dinner.  With the plan in someone else's hands, I slept like a rock.


March 19, 2011

Waking up in Wadi Rum in the morning was a slow-dawning experience.  While driving in under cover of night yesterday, the landscape consisted of vague rocky structures reminiscent of what I imagine the moon would look like.  In the sunlight this morning, the full spectrum of the sandstone rock formations showed themselves.  It took me a few minutes to even notice them as I stepped outside of our tent onto the sand, slowly waking up to the smell of desert and eventually processing my breathtaking surroundings.  These structures were formed, apparently, when sea water receded, exposing them and turning the sea floor into a desert.

We spent the day moving from spot to spot in the SUVs of our host Bedouins.  The day was action-packed and involved running up high sand dunes, rock climbing, hiking, and picnicking.  Becky and I once again crashed early---before 9pm!  Walking through the deep, soft desert sand was absolutely exhausting.

Ravi running up a sand dune.

The resultingly unbelievable amounts of sand in our sneaks.

I made friends with this amazingly adorable goat by throwing him my orange peel.  I named him "Sirius Black & White" and I wanted to take him home with me.  He was so distracted by the orange peel that he got separated from his herd.  One of the guys on the trip picked him up and carried him to the Bedouin woman who was herding the goats.

Before we went to bed, we had an interesting conversation about Israeli-Palestinian relations with one of the Americans on a year-long fellowship in Jordan (like my friend Abby).  Not surprisingly, basically everyone here is anti-Israel.  While I certainly wouldn't be able to support or defend all of Israel's political actions, one thing I was struck by was the difference in open-mindedness and willingness to concede between moderate/liberal Israelis and pro-Palestinian Americans.  In talking to Israelis (admittedly no right-wing folks), many of them acknowledged the Palestinian perspective or agreed that Israel could be in the wrong on some of its actions---while also noting that radical Palestinians and suicide bombers are also in the wrong.  Even the native Jordanians we spoke with seemed to have a more tolerant attitude.  But none of the pro-Palestinian Americans visiting the Bedouin camp with us acknowledged this shade of gray.  Again, I'm not condoning the actions of the Israeli government towards Palestinians, but I am saying that when a small minority of Palestinian radicals cause great damage and loss of life in Israel by finding weaknesses in Israel's defense policy, committing suicide bombings or launching homemade rockets (using materials Israel provided to support the building of houses, as in Sderot)---I don't know.  Can't we at least acknowledge that both sides are sort of in the wrong?  At least a little?

A fragrant patch of mint growing along a hiking trail.

I left this rock structure on the top of a cliff.

How adorable is my sister?

Our hero, host Abby.

We stood on top of this rock bridge!

Carefully walking down the side of a cliff...no biggie, I basically do this all the time.

Some Arabic Words:
shokran: thank you
la shokran: no thank you
salam: peace
a salam malekum: peace be with you (all purpose greeting/farewell)
kef halak: how YOU doin? (to a man)
keef halek: how YOU doin? (to a woman)