On the Streets of Jerusalem Part 1.

So it's August 3rd and I'm just catching up on what’s been going on. Don't hate me for not writing very much this place is so amazing I haven’t had ANY time to do anything except travel, explore and experience these amazing countries (though technically Palestine is not a state)!
On the 22nd Illy's family took us to Nazareth to taste the "best hummus" in the country. Every house we visit insists on feeding us there definition of "the best hummus" but for me the Best hummus is NO HUMMUS. The trip to Nazareth was not very exciting we went to Annunciation where we were able to view the beautiful art each country has donated to the church each one was a representation of the Madonna. The Japanese Madonna looks Japanese, the Indonesian Madonna looks Indonesian and the Mexican Madonna looks Mexican…Canada’s is looks like a mix between a jellyfish and vomit. But I’ll get to vomit later. When we got home Illy put on a very interesting Animated documentary called “Waltz with Bashir” about Israeli soldiers being traumatized by their work during a Massacre in Lebanon. It was very interesting and a true story I advise everyone to watch it. That evening Ryan was ill from the Arabic coffee he drank, so Omar, Zee, Hadas and I went to an ancient burial ground in the mountains of
Tivon. These consisted of sarcophagus’s buried deep inside caves; it was creepy yet really cool. The next day (the 23rd) we traveled to Ofek’s Kibbutz near Hertziliyah. A kibbutz is a socialist agricultural community based on the motto to each “according to his abilities and according to his needs.” However the kibbutz movement as a whole, including Ofek’s kibbutz, have experienced privatization since as recently as the early 90’s. During this privatization the Kibbutzim have lost – their core values and ideologies. As soon as we got to Ofek’s Kibbutz and took the tour, he suggested we take the bus up the Tiberius and Camp with his voluntary commune at the sea of Galilee (for those who do not know this is the same sea where Jesus walked on water). I am finding that here in Israel there is almost NO presence of the conflict and yet is affecting hundreds of thousands of people, instead it is mostly old historical or biblical knowledge that I am picking up in my travels. This sounded great so we packed our camping supplies and took the three hour bus ride to Tiberius. On the bus the guy across from me was holding a machine gun, though this did not shock me as you see over 100 guns day here, I found it rather astonishing when he removed his sandals (or Kaf Kaf’s in Hebrew) and rested his foot on the automatic weapon in such a casual manner. We arrived at Galilee just as the sun was setting and I took some amazing and beautiful pictures (I am really getting into photography here) we also got to meet some of the teens from Ofek’s commune (the group he will be volunteering with instead of joining the army) while we swam, set up the sleeping area and ate some rather disgusting homemade pasta. We also got to see Avner! Then some of the girls and I climbed into a lifeguard tower and sang Joni Michelle songs – which I was happy to learn is quite popular among the teen hippies of Israel! After this we decided to go skinny dipping as it was dark out. This was A LOT of fun and definitely a new experience except while I was swimming I accidently swallowed some of the sea water (which is lake water as though Galilee is called a “sea” it is in fact sweet water). I thought nothing of it at the time but as the night got longer my stomach started to cramp up and I was in a lot of pain. As the tent was full of our luggage (so it wasn’t stolen) everyone was sleeping on blankets, however my sleeping bag had been ripped and my towel stolen during our skinny dipping excursion so I ended up sleep in the dust. Around 5 in the morning I woke up with even worse stomach pains. I ended up throwing up n the rocks on the beach while a random French man asked me if I was ok. After a glass of water and watching the sun rise I went back to seep a restlessly slept until 10 as I had a fever and chills. When I woke I continued to vomit in the baking sun until a taxi came to take us to the bus station. I slept for the rest of the day and all that night while the rest of the Canadians and Ofek and Illy went pubbing in Tel Aviv.
The next day we went to an anti deportation concert in downtown Tel Aviv with Tom, Illy, Avner and Ofek – Ryan stayed home in order to sort out his University issues. This anti deportation concert was very good and very interesting with a mix of Americans, Arabs and Jews from across the country all protesting the deportation and eviction of migrant workers and refugees (children in particular).
Now Ofek is forcing me to stop writing to you because he is an impatient benzona. I will try to write when I arrive in Nablus tomorrow!