Climb Every Fungus!

A new day, a new blog! This morning started out lovely, although I think the shortness of my sleep time is starting to get to me. I wasn't as eager to get up at 5:40 am as I normally am. But get up I did b/c I had a hot date...Brandie, Katrina and I went walking at 6:30. We took the road into town and found a street that took us to a cool overlook of the Sea of Galilee. The sun was just coming up, so we just spent a few minutes watching the sunrise and chatting. Katrina then realized that we only had 10 minutes to get back, so we ended us being 5 minutes or so late for our meeting. Whoops... Breakfast was fine, chocolate pudding again. Then I had my conversation with Trisha about the blog, decided to make a new one, and satisfied, got on the bus to start the day.

And what a day it was! Let me just say that this was my favorite overall day today. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!!! :-D The morning was spent at Safed, a town on the side of a hill on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. There were so many hairpin turns leading up to the town that, well, I gained even more appreciation of Talib's driving skills. The man can manuever a bus like no other! We had such a tight turn coming out of Safed that we all clapped when he made it. The hills leading to Safed are so covered with rocks, it actually looks like fungus growing on the hillside! I started singing "Climb Every Fungus" (guess the tune.) Then Eugene, Yohan, Brandie and I started singing Mama Mia. It's funny, there's a row empty b/t everyone else and us in the back...it's like no one wants to get near our weirdness! Haha!

Our tour at Safed, which took the whole morning, the longest we spent at any one sight yet, overtook the Baha'i shrine as my favorite stop so far. our tour guide, Tova, was an Orthodox Jew, originally from Canada, who came to Israel over 20 years ago, straight out of high school. She talked about Judaism in general and Kabbalism for a bit, and my brain did a dance just listening to her! She was so interesting and stimulating! Just like the information at the Baha'i shrine, she inspired me to want to do much more studying on the topic.

The topmost part of the city was a Crusader citadel that we unfortunately didn't get to see. We saw some of the Jewish nieghborhoods in the old city. The higher neighborhoods were Sephardic Jews dated back to the 16th and 17th centuries; the lower are Ashkenazic dated even earlier. We went to three different synagogues along the way. I enjoyed seeing the similarities and differences b/t each of the synagogues and comparing that to my experience at the Reform Jewish synagogue in Louisville. We also visited a candle shop where they make their own candles by hand. Katrina and I passed by the hookas though b/c Claudia promised to help us buy them in Jericho and teach us how to use them! In Safed, for one of the first times this trip, I felt like I was getting an authentic Israeli experience. Sure, we were still a large group of Americans getting led around on tours, but we weren't surrounded by other tourists. We were surrounded by the Jewish people who still live and work and worship in these neighborhoods. We met another tour group, this of Israeli students who could not go to school b/c their school is in a possible target range. (Interesting note: All Israeli school trips are required to take a guard with them. Funny, the guns don't even phase me anymore. We've seen them quite a bit in the past few days.)

A couple of interesting things that Tova said...she was talking about the debate among Orthodox Jews as to if women can be a part of the daily prayers, etc., and someone asked her opinion on the subject. She claimed that she is a feminist, but she also wants a strong community where prayers are said several times a day. If the men are not obligated to say the prayers, like in other froms of Judaism, then the prayers don't usually get said as often. So even though she has a deep desire to read the Torah in public and be a part of the prayers, she has a greater longing for a strong community. I enjoyed her explination b/c lots of times I feel like people expect all feminists to think and act the same way. She participates in a system where there is not equality b/t men and women, but she puts her faith above her feminist ideals. It's all about what's most important and sticking to that. I appreciated that.

I asked Tova a couple of political questions, curious about her answers, but guessing what they might be. I first asked her what she thought about the Temple Mount. She said that as an Orthodox Jew, she believes that the Tmeple Mount is the holiest place on Earth and that it is only holy to the Jewish people. She does think that the Third Temple will be built at some point, but she places that on God and has faith that God will take care of that at some point. In the current geopolotical climate she does not think that people should take that duty on themselves. I also asked about the boundaries of Israel; should the West Bank and Gaza be part of Israel. Again, she identified herself on the right politically. She feels that Israel won this land in defensive wars and so has the right to this land. However, she also acknowledges that Israeli has an obligation to the people that live in this land to treat them well. She doesn't feel that the Palestinians have a right to their own nation, but that they should have rights in Israel. We've read so much about these different viewpoints and we've heard them on TV, but it was different hearing it from someone who lives in Israel who has a major stake in these events. That's not to say that we all don't have a stake in it, Jews, Muslims, Christians, etc, but I enjoyed getting to ask her that while roaming the streets of Safed.

Overall, Safed was amazing, and I needed it! My spirits were lifted and I felt rejuvinated. Now I know again why I came here! Lunch, on the other hand, well, not so much. Haha! The conversation was actually quite nice. We had some discussion of the morning and then, of course, bust into giggles. The main dish was fish from the Galilee, and I thought, hey I like fish and it'll be fresh, so yeah, let's try it. Yeah, I must have missed when they said the fish came whole, as in with the head! I waved mine away; I couldn't do it. I know I should have tried it, but I honestly thought I was going to puke just looking at it. I may need to take a break from fish now. We'll see. So I joined Katrina and Cory and the ranks of hummus eaters!

The first stop after lunch was two churches which both commemorate the multiplying of the fishes to feed the masses. both were made in the 20th century. The first was a Fransiscan church. There wasn't anything too special about it, but there was a random open door standing against the side wall. Claudia said that it's the door to heaven. I appreciated it theologically b/c the door stood wide open...take that as you will... The second church was a Benedictine church. Again, the church was nothing special, but it had a beach leading to the Sea of Galilee and one of the seven springs was accessable as well. Eugene, Brandie and I climbed some rocks to take a closer look at the spring. That was fun to have time to scramble around and work up a sweat. Yeah!

On our way to the next stop, we began to create a song for the trip based off of "The Wheels on the Bus." Yohan filmed us singing part of it; you'll really have to see it at some point. It's not finished yet, so I won't share it, but let me tell you, it's a good one. The next site was the archaeological site of Capernaum where we saw what is traditionally accepted as Peter's house and the synagogue. The synagogue was actually destroyed at one point, so the actualy structure is after the time of Jesus. Over Peter's house is a modern church built on stylistic stilts. Strange.

After Capernaum we visited a modern Greek Orthodox church. And I thought the Church of the Annunciation was over the top! This was SOOO gaudy! Visually it did nothing for me; I don't feel the need to have every single inch of wall covered with something. I did, however, enjoy the chanting and the insence. Makes you feel like you're really there. Outside, the grounds were so beautiful and peaceful! I could go there just to sit and relax and meditate. An interesting fact about that church is that is couldn't be built until after 1967 b/c it was part of the no-man's land b/t Israel and Syria. But once Israel controls the Golan Heights, the Greeks who apparently originally lived in that area were allowed to build a church. I'm wondering that if the Golan Heights ever go back to Syria, what happens to that church? but the likelihood of that happening voluntarily is slim. If I've learned anything so far this trip, I've learned that water is life. Whoever controls the Golan Heights controls large amounts of water, and considering the massive irrigation program in Israel, they need it!

Dinner tonight was beyond words. Not the food, the food was passable, although they actually has ice cream, REAL ice cream for dessert! A bunch of us had been craving it, so lets just say we had our fill. Katrina was in rare form and we couldn't help laughing the entire time. We made up some new verses to our song, some which can't make the final cut, but damn, they're fantastic! And let's just say that Katrina and I thought about playing "hide the butter" tonight, but we're just too tired for all that fun. And let me just throw this out there, if you play "hide the butter" and "eat the fish" what game are you playing exactly?

Ok, one amazing conversation and then I'm done for the night. After our b/f dinner meeting, Brandie asked if dinner was at 8. I told her no, it's now at 7, and that if it was at 8, I'd have to naw off part of my arm. So then I wondered, is it worse to eat part of yourself or part of another person? Which is more cannibalistic? Katrina then piped in with the fact that if she happens to die by accidentally falling into a deep-fryer, she wants people to eat her at her funeral. I mean, why waste good meat? I responded with, "If you fell into a vat of batter and then into the deep fryer, that would be even better!" So I leave you with this, if you eat a vegetarian, can you then be considered a vegetarian? I'm out!