tel aviv again

I've been in Tel Aviv with Micah for almost two days now, and we've been getting in to all sorts of adventures. After I met her at the airport the other day, we went to a youth hostel she used to stay at when she lived here. But once we got there, we decided it was too expensive for us and she called a friend who said we could stay at his music studio. After running around the city with our heavy backpacks, we finally found his studio and we think it used to be a bomb shelter because it's in the basement of an apartment building and the door is really thick. But it's decorated all musically, and during the day bands come here to practice and it has a really good vibe, despite the fact that it doesn't have a shower.

Today we walked around an artist market they have here every Tuesday and Friday. All these local artists set up stalls displaying their art, like jewelry or photos or whatever, and sell it there. We didn't buy anything, but I talked to one photographer who told me that he has been working with his father on a photo project about the Western Wall since 1987. They have been just going back and taking awesome pictures, and soon they are going to publish them into a book, and it's going to have a foreword by Elie Wiesel. I asked him for his business card so I could follow along his project, and he gave me one of his photos on a postcard for free :)

Then we took a bus over to Yafo because that is the Arab part of Tel Aviv and I wanted to practice. I looked around for a wooden camel for my brother, and I found one in this flea market that was made of leather and bargained the price down from 100 shekels to 30, but I didn't end up buying it because it was kind of weird. And the shopkeeper was really forceful and was blocking the doorway so I couldn't get out when I said I didn't want to buy it. But at another place Micah and I got crazy matching sunglasses, and we bought a pair as a thank-you gift for her friend for letting us stay at his studio.

After that we wanted to go find some Arabs, and we wandered into this produce shop and started talking to the owner. We ended up finding out that he lived in New York and that he speaks Hebrew and Spanish (like Micah) and Arabic (like me, sort of) and English too. He was very friendly and invited us over to his house so we can practice speaking our languages with his kids, but we had to come back to Tel Aviv because we are going to another friend's house to stay tonight. But he gave us his phone number and said that he is going to call us to see that we are doing ok, being away from home and all that, and he said if we needed anything at all we should call him and he would love to help us out. He even asked if we were doing ok with money! Micah has been in Turkey for the last five weeks and she said that there, if you talk to any shopkeeper they will invite you inside for tea and are very hospitable, so it was nice to find a similar experience here.

I also decided that I wanted to buy a soccer jersey here, and when we were walking around we found this street with all these really cheap shops with big piles of clothes outside. One had a bunch of sporting clothes and Micah and I found matching red jerseys that we think are from some high school team, but we both put them on and got a lot of attention on the street because people want to know what team we're supporting, but we have no idea. We just look cool, and it was only 30 shekels for both of them, which is around $7.50.

Right now we are packing up our stuff and saying goodbye to this alternative music studio because the next friend we are going to stay with is coming to pick us up soon. Hopefully we'll have wi fi at this next place so I can borrow Micah's laptop to post again :) (Read more inside ..)

faces

It seems like this is turning into more of a photo blog... maybe because I've taken so many pictures, and we have been doing so many things that going back through my photos is the best way to review. But my brother put the newest version of iPhoto on my sister's laptop, and it has the ability to go through all your photos, find specific people's faces and organize them for you. This comes in very handy when you have over 1,000 in less than a week. So, I thought I'd use iPhoto to pull up some pictures of me in the various places I've been over the last 2 weeks because once I go to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, I'm not sure if I'll be able to add many pictures on here. (click "read more inside" to see the rest!)

Nissa moved to Haifa the week my family got here to work here for the next year. She uses us for free meals because her apartment's kitchen is scary :P


For the first time ever, my brother will hold my hand while we are walking, awww!


My mom and me in the courtyard of the House of Abbud in Akka.


My brother, our sherut-buddy Shiva and me exploring a street market in Akka. My mom bartered for a purple scarf for me, from 10 shekels down to 8. The exchange rate is about 4 shekels to one dollar.



Ok, this isn't a picture of me, but I think this is the sweetest building ever and I wanted to share. It's the Center for the Study of the Texts, and the circle in the roof lets light through into a garden that's one floor below ground level. It's hard to describe, but there's a fountain with a circular garden surrounding it, and all around that is a library. It's the coolest looking thing, and I hope one day I have an office that is that beautiful :)
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mortaz, and more photos

We saw this shirt in a market in Akka, and of course my brother and sister each had to buy one. (I'm planning on taking my brother's once he grows out of it).  The people running the shop didn't really understand why my whole family was laughing hysterically at this shirt, but one man informed us that this is a picture of a famous Syrian actor named Mortaz.

The gardeners here put a lot of effort into making the gardens surrounding all the holy places look beautiful year round.

This is a palm tree in the courtyard surrounding the Mosque of Al-Jazzar, something we visited when we walked through the old city of Akka.  Akka used to be a prison city where the founder of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah, was sent to live for nine years.  

My sister and brother and me while we were walking through Akka.

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change in travel plans

When I had the chance to log in to my e-mail today, I found out that there has been a change in the SOW plans. Instead of going to Bangladesh for the whole month of July, instead we will first go to one of Water Partner's sites in India to document the work they are doing there as part of their commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative. After two weeks in the southern-most part of India in the Tamil Nadu region, we will then travel to Bangladesh and spend the remainder of our time there.

After we finish our documentary work, Griffin and I have plane tickets to fly from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur on July 29. We'll spend a few days in KL, and then we'll fly to Phuket on August 2 to relax on the beach ANTM-style. After that our travel plans are flexible and we'll likely take trains around Thailand to Bangkok, Ko Phangan or Chiang Mai. We just have to make sure that we are back in Bangkok by August 17 to catch our flights back to the US! (Read more inside ..)

photo update

I've taken approximately 4230 billion photos, mostly of flowers with blurry backgrounds, but I've narrowed it done to just a few for now. Click "Read more inside" at the bottom to see the rest!

Flower stand in New York

Tel Aviv airport

Brother and sister on the beach in Tel Aviv

My mom and me in a mall in Tel Aviv

View of the Shrine of the Bab on our first night in Haifa

View through a gate into the Monument Gardens

Only one of the many blurry flower photos

The balcon of the house of Abbud in Akka

Family photo

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haifa

Hi everyone,

I just have time for a quick update- I'm writing from Haifa now, and my family has been here for three days.  When we first arrived  on the train, we could see the Shrine of the Bab from the train station, and it was crazy to see something I have looked at in pictures for my whole life less than a mile away.  Yesterday we actually went to see it, and today we took a bus over the other side of Haifa, near Akka, to visit the Shrine of Baha'u'llah.  These are both very holy places in the Baha'i Faith, and the gardens surrounding each of the shrines are so beautiful.  I had the thought that if the whole world looked like them, it would be a much happier place because it's impossible to feel angry when you are surrounded by so much beauty.  Of course, it's pretty impractical to expect that because the people who work here spend a lot of time and energy making sure that the holy places are as beautiful as they are.  But anyway, I've taken a ton of pictures, but with the limited access to internet and the plugs that fit American chargers, I can't upload them and show them to you quite yet.  But I hope to post some soon and also reflect more deeply on what we've been doing and seeing here, once I have more time.  

Love,

Sarah

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tel aviv

I'm sitting here in the lobby of our hotel with my little brother, David, after spending the day traveling from JFK to Tel Aviv. I guess it was yesterday that I left Ben's apartment near Columbia and got lost on the subway route to the airport. Now, a time change and a 12+ hour flight later (I watched three movies), my whole family is jet lagged. Today is Saturday so it's the Sabbath here and most places are closed. But we walked down the beach and ate at KFC (my dad's choice), and we will have time to do some more exploring tomorrow before we take the train to Haifa. So, I've only had a small taste of this city but I'm excited to come back and explore it with Micah in less than two weeks!

I left Atlanta to go to New York last Tuesday, and I spent those few days wandering around/getting lost in the city. In the evenings, Ben would get off work and we would wander around together, without getting lost quite as much. When I was by myself, I was lot more ambitious about where it was possible for me to walk, so by the time I could meet up with Ben my legs were killing me. (An aside from my brother, "the average New Yorker walks three miles a day, or something like that.") For a while I doubted if I have the stamina to explore new cities with the itinerary I have planned for the summer, but now I feel much better and I think I just needed to work my way up.

Some places I went: The Design Museum, which is housed inside Andrew Carnegie's old mansion and where I got inspiration for some art projects for the fall; the reservoir in Central Park; an indie Spanish movie about soccer, Rudo y Cursi (starring my fave, Gael Garcia Bernal!); Greenwich Village; Little Italy for "the best cannoli on planet earth" and espresso; a taco stand near Columbia (not quite as good as Carrboro's, of course); Ground Zero; Times Square and all over the theatre district in an unsuccessful attempt to get a cheap ticket to a Broadway show.

Also, I have more concrete travel plans about getting to Bangladesh. On July 2, I'm going to fly from TLV back to JFK where I will meet up with the rest of my team on their way up from Raleigh. Then we will all travel to Dhaka via Dubai. Afterwards, Griffin and I are going to Malaysia and Thailand and I will fly out of Bangkok back to the U.S. on August 17.

My family is waiting on me to go exploring now, I think we are going to try find a place that is open so we can have tea or something. But one last thing, my brother and I are working on a project that you will all be able to enjoy via YouTube soon. He won't let me reveal any more, but trust me, it's good. The Travel Channel or the Discovery Channel might pay us millions for this :)

Love,
Sarah (Read more inside ..)