3-6-08 - Project #3 Brainstorm

Once again i have to write this entry because of internet problems. To begin with I am not totally sure as to what i want to do with this project. Creativity has always been a weakness of mine, especially when I need to plan out my creativity. So for time time being my plan will be to fly by the seat of my pants as always.

Reflection Upon This Trip

Hopefully this will help me to both wrap up this assignment, answer Prof. Baldwin's questions, and cover the reflection requirement.

To Begin with, the end of the trip was full of crazy times. We visited a few more historical sights, we got to walk a few more cities, visit a few more historical sights. Some of the interesting highlights of the untold parts of this story include seeing Jimmy Carter check into the hotel, my run in with Israeli Secret Service, a trip through the Arab Market, and so on. To reflect upon the trip, I found that unlike many people do, I did not experience anything religious revelation within my life. Though, on the other hand, it did leave me with a lasting impression of what it is like to be an outsider, and helped me gain some concept of what non-Americans think of this country.

Professor Baldwin, as for your comments, I hope that this bit above helped wrap things up without making my project too long. With the map i found that to be extremely difficult. There were few if any locations to be found through searching, and to try and look for one building, or hill by a distanced view to be way too difficult. So, there are ten if you are willing to take your time and zoom in on a few of the areas where they overlap (Israel is a small country, and thus alot of sights within the country are located relatively close to one another). Also, I hope that some of the pictures being directly uploaded from my computer will not cause me to incur any penalties in my final grade. After posting the first four through FLICKR as directed i felt i could sneak away with being lazy and just directly adding them.

In conclusion, I hope you have enjoyed reading my project, should you have any further questions, or comments which might help me in the future please let me know.

Trip To Israel

View Larger Map

Hey, It's good to be back in the states. So, to begin with I'm sorry I have yet to catch up with the last few days of my trip. Anyhow, above you will find a map marking some of the places I have visited. Also, here is a link to the beginning of my trip... please feel free to read all about it.

Day #4

Today is a day I had been looking forward to since I first arrived in Israel. In the morning we headed for Mt. Masada to see the sun rise. We made it just in time, and after watching the sun rise we had plenty of time to explore the ruins on top of the mountain. Apparently this is the location where a group of Jews held out against the Romans in the past. Though fun, this is also the location where the Jewish inhabitants decided to draw lots and commit ritual suicide to spite the Romans who wished to capture and make slaves of them. To travel up the mountain we hiked up the dirt mound the Romans built to gain access, and to get down the mountain we took the snake path on the other side which was surprisingly steep and twisty.

After hiking down the mountain we headed a short distance to the Dead Sea. This had to be one of the highlights of my trip. It is absolutely amazing how you can float so high up in the water. Since the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the globe the water is incredibly dense due to an extremely high concentration of minerals in the water, unfortunately this means if you get any of the water in your eyes it burns almost unbearably.

When we were finished at the Dead Sea we all packed back up and headed for the bus. Tonight we will be staying at the Jerusalem Regency. Though it is a nice hotel, I must say the idea of staying within Jerusalem for the upcoming Palestinian Elections is a bit unnerving. Everyone says we’ll be safe, but this is Israel, and almost anything can happen at any moment. Also I am not sure if I will have access to the internet, so I will do my best but this may be my last entry for a couple of days.

Should you want to go back to the first the map please feel free to.

REFLECTION

Day #3

This morning, once again, we loaded up on the bus and headed for the anchient Roman city of Bet Shean. We spent a good part of the morning there, and during this time we got to explore the ruins. Interestingly enough there was still a good bit of the architecture there, including a public bathroom, and part of what I would assume to be a church, as there was still a standing baptismal bath.

After spending the morning in Bet Shean we leaded up and headed for an active archeological site where we were taken on a tour of some excavated caves in which people had previously used to both live in, and store belongings. When that was complete, we were given the chance to participate on excavating an old limestone mine, which the areas historic residents used for both storage and trash disposal. This part was expecially fun because a good number of use uncovered small artifacts. The most interesting one being a double-sided oil lamp which those running the site found interesting as no one had uncovered anything similar to that at that before.

CONTINUE TO DAY #4

Day #2

Today was a long day, I doubt that in the future I will stay up all night with everyone drinking again, but for the first time in my life I was of legal drinking age and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

After breakfast and leading up on the busses again we traveled to the Golan Heights in the northern corner of Israel. Once we arrived I discovered that we would be traveling up to the top by Jeep. This part of the trip was interesting as the driver of the jeep I was in seemed to be a bit “nuts”. Fortunately we didn’t get stuck when he went off the off road trail and through a rather deep mud puddle which took some doing to get out of. After the Jeep ride in which we got to take in the beauty of the country side we got out near the top and finished the last little bit of our journey on foot. At the top we could se bombed out bunkers and fields here and there that were surrounded with bright yellow warning signs. Apparently there are still a good number of live land-mines in these plots.

From here we traveled over to Mount Gamla, where historically a group of Jews held out against the Romans for a short period of time before being over-taken and forcefully removed. The scene from here was good, and I wish I could remember more about what our tour guide had to say but to be honest I wasn’t paying very much attention


CONTINUE TO DAY #3

Day #1

I’m not sure where to begin telling this story, but for now I think I will forgo a useless description of my Flight to Israel. As for now it is the end of my first day in Israel. Today we landed at Tel Aviv International Airport on what we Americans would call a wonderfully warm morning. It was about 60 degrees outside when we arrived, which is a nice change from being at West Virginia University during the middle of winter. Oddly enough, the first thing we did after getting off the plane and being broke into groups of 40 was a take a group photo. Because the groups were broken down into which university you were coming from, my friends Heidi and Deva, along with myself were tossed in with everyone else on the miscellaneous bus. Basically, our bus consisted of everyone who came in groups whose size was similar to ours or smaller. Needless to say, it felt odd taking a group picture with a bunch of people I barely knew.

After everything at the airport was taken care of we headed off on our bus to see our first sights. The first place we stopped was on a mountain side for lunch. The view was amazing as we could see Tel Aviv, and the Mediterranean Sea’s beach.

When lunch was completed we once again loaded back up on the busses and headed for where we would be staying for the first few days of the trip, Kibbutz Nof Ginosar. At the Kibbutz we got better acquainted with those on our bus, and we got our first chance to mingle with Israeli’s who lived on the kibbutz.

CONTINUE TO DAY #2