I got to play Mah Jongg!!

Note: this is my last post from Israel. Later this week, I will post from Oakland about the many wonderful Hadassah visits I had this spring and summer.

Throughout our first two months of life here in Jerusalem, I asked every English speaking person I met about Mah Jongg. I brought my card, and I wanted to find a game to play in. No luck. Until...

Mark was in his Ulpan class (kitah bet at the Baka Community Center), and they were talking about their hobbies. Well, one of his classmates Amy (who happens to be the cousin of our friend and congregant Bryna Ross), mentioned that she plays Mah Jongg. Mark talked to her about it and asked if I could join. She said yes! They have a big WhatsApp group of about 14 people but only 5-8 play together at any one time. I got added to their group, and they were playing at 5:45 pm on Shabbat afternoons and usually Wednesday evenings at 7 pm during the week. Sometimes they switched to Tuesdays (like this week because of Tisha B'Av). I met such lovely people in the Mah Jongg group. They were very warm and welcoming. I've played maybe 6 or 7 times overall. So much fun!

I didn't have the 2023 card yet when I left for our trip, so I asked Stacy to send me a photo, and I used my tablet as my card. Luckily on Shabbat I could borrow an extra card from other players as I wouldn't want to make the Shabbat observant people uncomfortable by using my tablet. 

If you don't play Mah Jongg, you can probably skip this paragraph. The "Jerusalem" version of the NMJL game is a little different. For example, the dealer does not roll any dice to break the wall. They just start dealing. And when I say dealing, I mean that East passes out all the tiles. This table rule was not troubling to me at all. It doesn't really change the game. However, the element I didn't like but had to play along with was the changes to the optional pass. Instead of passing across 0, 1, 2, or 3 tiles with the person that wishes for the least deciding, this group used a type of "mush." Whatever optional tiles we didn't want got put in front of us, and we went around taking any of the tiles on the table, matching the number that we put out. This does change the game, but only a little. I still didn't enjoy this part, and if I could, I always took whatever was right across from me to simulate what would happen in a regular optional pass.

I am very grateful to Mark and Amy for making the connection and was very happy to have gotten to play Mah Jongg here in Israel.

The Congregational Trip Joined Us Here in Israel in June!

With the congregation, I got to see many of the more touristy sites that I had been saving for this time during our stay. Here is a chronicle of the TBA congregational trip to Israel 2023.

The night before the official start of the trip, several staff and a few congregants got to eat together on Ben Yehuda Street. We had Mark's favorite schwarma place and everyone found it delicious whether they had schwarma, falafel, or another sandwich. From the staff we had Joe and his girlfriend Kim, Ann and her husband John, Rachel and her child Jayden, Virginia, Josh, and Amanda. Kelsi came without her two sons that were on the trip with her; they stayed at the hotel. It was so wonderful to welcome them all here to Jerusalem!

Day One began at the Ibis hotel where the staff stayed for one night. Unfortunately, we were a little late for everything. A little late to meet the bus, then the bus took a little while to arrive, then the people meeting us at the airport also ran a bit late. Some of our staff's luggage was lost, and though we checked on it while we were at the airport, it had not yet been found. 

Finally, we got moving and drove to Cesarea where our guide, Jonty Blackman, gave us his first walking tour of the historical site. We saw the big theatre and the hippodrome. Jonty's stories were interesting and educational.

Our next stop was the Druze village where we learned about the Druze religion and saw the Druze flag. We were treated to a delicious luncheon there as well. I especially enjoyed the cinnamon tasting items. 

We then went to the Tulip Winery. We learned about the village and the work that the winery provides for adults with disabilities. I didn't partake in the wine tasting but had fun talking with a few of the trip participants: Treya and David, Sam and Sue, and Frances and Rick, while they drank the wine. 

Last stop on the first day was the lovely hotel at the religious Kibbutz Lavi. We had a yummy buffet dinner there and enjoyed the spaciousness of the very large rooms. At the dinner I sat with Reuven and Marcie, Sue and Sam, Maya and Jonathan, Marlene and Keith, Susan, Ann and John, and Treya and David. It was lovely.

Second day in the North: We started in Tsfat. We saw some sites, a beautiful synagogue, heard some more of Jonty's stories, and attended a glass blowing demonstration which was incredibly interesting and beautiful. Sheva Bracha is a painter and glass artist. We spent time in her studio and saw some amazingly beautiful art. During the lunch break, Mark went to the the mikveh, and I had lunch with Kelsi, Ari, and Asher at a vegan cafe called Elements. The Gutkin family and Rachel and Jayden were also there. Before we got there, I purchased a spinach and cheese pastry that was delicious. At the cafe, I got a chai "ice cream" which was also delicious. The owners of the cafe had lived in Berkeley and we talked about how the East Bay was doing. To make conversation, he asked me "what do you do?" which led to a discussion of middle school math and education in general. 

Our second stop after our morning and lunch in Tsfat was Tel Dan where we took a hike and spent time at a water hole there. Also at the water hole were some brand new IDF soldiers who were doing some team building. We saw one doing push ups at the edge of the water to dunk his head. One of them came to talk with us about what they were doing there but we were not allowed to take their pictures for security reasons.

The next stop was an amazing group cooking session at another kibbutz. We made shakshukas, breads, salads, and it was all so fun and yummy. They played music while we worked and made us do some Israeli dancing before we started. When we got back to Kibbutz Lavi, there was a lecture from one of the members of the kibbutz who explained what life is like on the kibbutz. Only a handful of us attended but I was really glad I did. 

On Day 3, we started with a bumpy jeep ride around the Golan Heights. I was in the jeep with the Gutkin family and Joe and Kim. At the end of the ride, we heard stories of the Golan and were served some delicious watermelon. It tasted so good because we were so hot and thirsty. We stopped at an overlook that I had been to before on the previous congregational trip in 2011. We got to hear stories while looking out at Lebanon and Syria. There were bunkers there. Some were closed but one was available for us to walk through. It was small and rounded. I didn't remember that from last time. On our way out, we bought some honey and cherries from a roadside seller. 

Our next stop was lunch at a big rest stop with quite a few restaurant choices. Then we proceeded to Sde Eliyahu, another religious kibbutz. Our guide was a woman from South Africa who has lived on the kibbutz for 23 years and turned out to be a long ago friend of Jonty's. We got to see where the preschool children play in "junkyards" and some huge Banyan trees that were planted for fast shade but became too invasive so most of them have been removed. We met a gardner on the kibbutz who is from Chicago; he's been there 33 years. To conclude, we saw the BioBee film and met some containers of bees, wasps, mites, and one other type of bug that I cannot remember. These are organic, all natural ways to control the bad bugs by introducing these good bugs. 

Then we came back to Jerusalem. We first went to a lookout on Mt. Scopus where Jonty explained what we were seeing and told stories. Ari Bornstein also met us there and told us his lone soldier story of his aliyah and IDF service. After that we took Ari to our hotel for a minute, then to dinner at Pizzaria Flora on Aza Street. He was lucky to get permission to stay out away from his base overnight so he went home to Ranana to sleep instead of returning to base. We went to our apartment to do some laundry, then repacked and returned to the Dan Panorama hotel.

On Friday the bus drove us to the Old City. This was a special treat for me because Mark and I only have walked there! Our first stop was the roof at Orayta Yeshiva which is always beautiful and meaningful. Rabbi Dardik met us there and told us his stories of the temple times. Next stop was the Wall. People got to go to their side and pray for a few minutes. Then we saw the Western Wall tunnels. Mark and I took the Bridge tour of the newer excavations while first timers took the tunnel tour with Jonty. In the Old City, we had lunch and shopping time and Mark and I got me a pair of small gold chamsa earrings. Sadly, yesterday, July 26, I lost one. But I did enjoy wearing them here in Israel while I had them. Lunch was a ReBar smoothie but my chai flavored one was sadly not that good. 

Mark led Kabbalat Shabbat overlooking the Old City next to the Windmill. Noa, Levi, Sylvie, Tate, and Ezra helped lead the singing and prayers. We had a nice buffet dinner at the hotel and then went to Shira Chadasha for Kabbalat Shabbat services. About 8 people joined Mark and me at the service. 

Saturday morning - Shabbat in Jerusalem! Breakfast at the hotel was a wonderful spread. Only Marlene and Keith, Frances, and Susan joined Mark and me at Sod Siach for morning services. There was a cute oneg there in honor of one of the congregants' grandfather's memory and included some beer bread which I didn't care for and sushi which I loved! We chatted with several English speakers at the oneg. Some of the congregants took Jonty's afternoon tour of the Old City, especially visiting the Christian sites. 

At the end of the day, Mark and I hosted havdallah on our balcony. During the singing after the prayers, some people saw a shooting star! Sadly, one of the participants tested positive for Covid so he ended up missing a few days of the trip and only met us at outdoor activities. After havdallah no one wanted to go to Machane Yehuda with Mark so he and I went to the First Station instead. It was much bigger than I remembered from 2011. We ran into Joe and Kim there and saw a huge book festival there as well. We also ran into Yoni Swidler there on his way home from a trip or a friend's house. Mark went to Captain Burger and I got ice cream with caramel, rice krispies, and cashews. Yum!

On Sunday, we traveled to Masada and Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea. It was very hot at all three stops. At the Dead Sea, I only put my feet in the water but lots of participants in the trip did the floating thing. There were only a few tears. The hike at Ein Gedi was very hot and even involved some challenging climbing. The water hole there was a lot smaller than I remembered and Jonty said that a rock slide a few years ago cut it into a quarter of what it used to be. We had some rest time in the hotel before going back out to Ben Yehuda Street and Machane Yehuda for dinner at Basta!

Monday was our last Jerusalem day which started with everyone at Machane Yehuda and a walking tour of Nachlaot. We met a resident who yelled at us for stopping in front of her building and then ended with "enjoy your visit!" So Israeli. During mid day, most of the trip went to Yad Vashem. I was lucky to be able to take four young people to the Biblical Zoo instead. Our bus driver Aharon took good care of us! At the Biblical Zoo, Levi, Ezra, Sylvia, and Asher enjoyed walking around, seeing many animals, and playing on the playground. After all of this, we drove to Tel Aviv and settled into our Tal by the Beach hotel. I was very lucky to get to attend the Batsheva Dance Company performance with Barbara. It was amazing.

During our first day in Tel Aviv, we went to the Anu museum which was so well done. We then spent time in the Carmel Market and in the artists street Nahalat Benjamin. I picked up some very inexpensive jewelry that I haven't lost yet. :-) Finally, we took a graffiti tour through several neighborhoods in Tel Aviv and got to make our own spray painted record albums. Our day ended with a farewell banquet at a yummy restaurant. Our former congregants, Alison Hazen and her daughter Louise performed their circus act for us. They were fantastic. 

We said goodbye to everyone and got a ride back to Jerusalem with JJ Jonah of Israel Maven whose team planned and executed our whole trip for us. It was wonderful, exhausting, fun, and interesting to have this special time with so many wonderful people from home. We really enjoyed ourselves. It was fun to play tourist in the city where we are living for four months.

Trip to Cyprus in May 2023

 In May we decided to take a mini vacation to Cyprus because neither of us had been there before and lots of Israelis travel there because it is so close and reasonably priced. Also, we needed our visas extended and had heard that when you fly back to Israel, and put your passport through the machine, that you get a whole new three months. And you will see at the end of this post that we found this to be true!

Our weekend getaway to Cyprus started on a Friday and began with a Gett (taxi) ride to the train station, taking the train to the airport, and getting on a flight to Cyprus! We left two hours later than we were supposed to take off. When we arrived there, we took a Bolt (another taxi/Uber/Lyft type thing) from the airport to our hotel. I stayed in while Mark walked around exploring. Later we both went out to find dinner. After dinner we came back to the small boutique hotel and watched episode 8 of the final season of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Shabbat shalom!

Shabbat morning services at the Chabad synagogue started at 10 am but we didn't know that so we arrived at 9:15 am. They had tea, coffee, cheesecake, and other cakes available for anyone who wanted them. Mark had some tea but I had already eaten breakfast and stuck with my water bottle. The very Orthodox services were enthusiastic and spirited. They auctioned off the aliyot, a practice I had heard about but never seen in person before. There were a handful of women then davening, and a couple others managing children and babies. There was a luncheon afterwards; we had not made a reservation so we had to pay for our portions after Shabbat ended. We did so at the website after sundown. The lunch featured many salads and dips as a first course. Then the rabbi gave a drash in Hebrew. After that, lunch continued with meat, potatoes, and two kinds of kugel. We met some lovely couples and young single people with whom we tried to speak Hebrew but were not too successful. Overall, it was a great experience!

We walked back to our hotel and got ready for a trip to the beach. We enjoyed the free lounge chairs and umbrellas at the beach. It was lovely. Mark got ice cream, and then we got drinks at Habibi 2, two mocktails. They were a bit too sweet but nice and cold. Finally we went to Ocean Breeze for dinner. I got delicious sushi and Mark chose a salmon salad but there was too much chili powder on it. We walked back to the hotel with Mark looking for a decaf coffee on the way, but no luck. After we got back to our room, Mark went back out in search of coffee. I enjoyed some reading and podcast listening.

On Sunday we flew home, taking a taxi to the airport and getting there just in time for our flight due to some confusion about what time it was happening. It was a lovely little getaway. Very relaxing, perhaps a little boring, but we chose to just experience what was around us without looking for anything special. And we never had any uncomfortable feelings like we did while visiting Jordan. Larnaca was very welcoming and Cyprus was lovely.

Trip to Petra in May 2023

In May we traveled to Petra to see this amazing wonder of the world. I wouldn't call the trip amazing, however. There was too much stress for my liking.

First of all, we needed to leave the country and come back because our 3 month visa was set to expire at the end of June (with us staying in Israel until the end of July), and we had heard that international travel allows tourists to come back to Israel and have the three months reset. When you get to the end of this post, you will hear how that turned out for us.

Now, back to the trip. We had heard the most impressive things about seeing Petra. People raved about the sites and how wonderful their experiences were. So, Mark found a lovely 2 day, one night excursion from Jerusalem for us through a travel company. We were scheduled to leave Jerusalem from the David Citadel hotel very early in the morning on a Tuesday morning, spend the day touring around Jordan, sleep at a hotel (not a tent) in Petra, and see Petra on Wednesday with a late afternoon trip back to Jerusalem.

We arrived early for our 6:30 am pick up and saw other tourists there, mostly Americans but also some other English speaking visitors to Israel. Each of them were taking either a three day tour or a four day tour with the same travel company we used. We were a little worried that we were not in the right place when no one else was doing the two day tour, but we jumped into the transportation provided anyway. Most of the people fit into the van, but Mark and I and one other couple (Robin and Bernie from Australia) were placed in a taxi that followed the van. We drove about an hour or two to the Allenby border crossing (north of Jerusalem) where things were pretty confusing. On the Israel side, we paid for the visa to Jordan, went through passport control, and then had to wait for a bus to take us across the border. The first bus was full so we had to wait "ten minutes" which was actually closer to 30 minutes for the next one. We paid $2 for each of us for the bus (we actually paid $5 instead of $4 because we didn't have exact change), and then we got to the Jordan side where we were met by our tour guide. At this point we finally knew we were in the right place because he had a list of everyone who was doing each tour. That took a load off our anxious minds. 

Because we were only staying one night, we had to pay an additional visa fee in Jordan. As the only couple on the two day excursion, we were the only ones who had to do this. We waited quite a while behind another group at the special visa window but once it was our turn, it went very quickly. Finally, the rest of the tourists joined us inside the building, and we all went through passport control. This part went much more smoothly than I expected. We had our irises scanned as a security measure. We then walked outside and had our luggage scanned. Then we got on the bus where they once again checked our passport stamps. The whole procedure was very long, and it was very hot out while we were waiting for things. Finally we got on the bus and were on our way.

The first stop was Jerrash where we saw extensive historical ruins. On the way there we had a quick stop for lunch where our choices were falafel or schwarma. I wanted the schwarma but forgot that it wouldn't be kosher, so I switched to falafel. There were two wraps in each package so Mark and I shared one package and saved the other package for later which I was very grateful to have done. During the bus ride, we were lucky to have wifi and USB charge ports under the seats. The driver's name was Itar.

In Jerash, the tour guide walked us around the ruins for about 2 hours. It was very hot, and he warned us that there were people who would "help" us take a nice picture and then try to charge us money for their help, so we just said "no thank you." After the long tour of Jerash, and the extra time in the Jordan border crossing, we did not have time to stop at Mount Nebo where Moses is said to have looked out over the Promised Land. That was disappointing. During our time on the bus, our guide, Khalid, spoke a lot about history. However, he never once said the word Israel. He only called it Canaan. That was disappointing and made us a bit uncomfortable. However, we were very grateful for his assistance at the border crossing and for the extensive information he shared about Jerash. 

view from the bus

snacks in Jerash

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We had another long bus ride to Amman to drop off the other tourists, most of whom were at the 3 star hotel, and one of whom chose the 4 star hotel. I had the pleasure of going to the restroom there, and boy was it gorgeous and fancy! The air conditioning felt great in there too. At this point, we were given a driver named Ahmad to take us to Petra. After a 3 hour drive, we were finally at our hotel. Luckily, the dining room was still open so we could grab some food. On the way there we stopped at a huge store for snacks and a bathroom break. The whole day was very long and very hot with a lot of stress and uncomfortable moments. The 3 star Oscar hotel worked out well for us. Dinner and breakfast were included, but we had to pay for our drinks. I did not enjoy the hard bed, but the room was spacious and comfortable otherwise. 

On Wednesday, we had an adequate breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and went to Petra itself. A driver came to the hotel to pick us up, and first stop allowed us to drop off our bags at the travel company's office. The backpacks waited for us there all day. The driver then brought us about 5 or 6 blocks down the road to the entrance of Petra. Our private tour guide's name was Shadeez. I very much appreciated the morning's cool breeze. Shadeez was very knowledgeable and guided us through the first 2 hours of our walk through Petra. At one point he asked, "how long have you been dreaming of seeing Petra?" and my answer was "no time?" It had not been a big dream of mine the way it has been for other people. Anyway, the structures were HUGE, beautiful, and very decorative, and it is obvious that there is still much excavation to be done to find even more parts of the beautiful ancient city. At one point during our long walks, Shadeez asked us if we were "real Americans," which meant he was wondering if we were Jewish. Very uncomfortable. Of course we said "yes, we are real Americans," but he seemed unconvinced. At the deepest part of the tour, Shadeez said goodbye to us. Mark took an additional hike up a mountain to a monastery, but I stayed at the outdoor areas of the restaurants at the base. It was a very hot and long walk back to the Visitor's Center and Museum. When we got there, I sat on the floor for about a half hour to recover in the air conditioning. During our walk back, there were about 400 rockets fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. We kept receiving Red Alert after Red Alert. Very scary. And we were worried about getting back into Israel from Jordan.

    

        

         

After seeing the museum, we returned to the touring company's office at the appointed time and waited there for our bus to the border. We did not purchase any souvenirs in Petra even though there were many stands all along the way. There was one last lunch in Petra that was included, but it didn't happen until 3 pm! The bus drove us to the Eilat border crossing (south). Leaving Jordan we were told we would need to pay again but that didn't happen. On the Israel side, it felt so good to leave Jordan behind, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. But when we tried to renew our visas, the border agent called over her supervisor. The supervisor proceeded to yell at us saying "do you know it's illegal to extend your visa a border crossing?" We said, "no, obviously we didn't know that" and agreed to make an appointment at the Misrad Hapanim to extend our visa for the extra month. Sadly, we couldn't even make an appointment to make an appointment, though we tried. Instead we took a flight to Cyprus and were able to renew our visas at a machine in the airport upon our return to Israel.

Our final leg was a very long bus ride to Jerusalem. We arrived at the David Citadel at 12:30 a.m. and walked home to our apartment, arriving around 1 a.m. It was an interesting and challenging trip. I hope you enjoy the photos.