Birthright Trip to Israel: Day 3

This is the view from Haas Promenade. The gold dome is the Dome of the Rock on top of Temple Mount. This is where Muhammad came down from heaven on a winged horse and where Abraham almost killed his son, Isaac.

I am happy to say that after Day 2, the trip really couldn't get any worse, so things could only get better from there. This next day we traveled to Jerusalem. We went to Haas Promenade first, where we could look over the city. There we learned about some of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, including the "security wall" (in Palestine it is seen more as an "apartheid wall"). The wall is meant to keep both groups safe, and in most places it's not actually a wall, but just a fence. We also discussed the old city of Jerusalem. It is divided into four sections: Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian (we could only see the Jewish section on the Birthright trip).

Here is a view of the security/safety wall.

This is the Western Wall. Notice how much larger the men's side is on the left than the women's side.

Then we walked over to the Western Wall. Contrary to belief, this is not the western wall of the ancient temple. It is actually the western wall of the platform that was built around Temple Mount, and the temple was built on top of that platform. This space is used as a synagogue, and people go there to pray. Many people write down wishes or prayers on little pieces of paper, fold them up, and then find a crack in the wall to stick the notes in (the notes are eventually ceremoniously burned, though I am not sure how often that happens). People are crying and praying at the wall, and it can be overwhelming.

I will admit that visiting the Western Wall probably would not have meant much to me. However, our male American tour guide, Max, told a very touching story to us before we went. His dad got sick and passed away before his son had the chance to say goodbye. This haunted Max for a long time with "what ifs." He was on a trip to Israel after his father passed, and he visited the Western Wall. He had been before, and he never really thought much of it. But this one time, Max walked up to the wall to pray, and he felt this breeze and a moment of peace wash over him, and he knew his father was with him. (At this point, most of us in the group were crying.) Even though telling this story is about the only good thing this guy did on our entire trip, I am glad he shared it with us, because it made me respect my trip to the Wailing Wall and made it more meaningful.

The Orchid Hotel

At the end of the day, we headed to the Orchid Hotel. This hotel is on a resort kibbutz, and it was quite fancy (we weren't originally going to stay here, but our itinerary changed). There was a beautiful courtyard, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a gym, a HUGE dining room...It was amazing! The food was very good, and such variety! AND they actually had desserts! They had small dessert plates, but I always took a dinner plate: I wanted to try everything! I think we were all very pleased with our accommodations.

Because it was Friday, we did Shabbat-related activities that night. We sang Hebrew songs (I knew none of them, but I was glad my sister and I weren't the only ones not singing.), and some participants shared their own stories about how they celebrate Shabbat (I've actually never observed the Sabbath before.). We also played some games, like charades and a sing-along (which weren't so bad).

This was a very good day, and I was looking forward to the next day because it was Saturday, the holy day for Jews. So I knew we'd get to relax and just hang out without running around like crazy!

Birthright Trip to Israel: Day 2 (the longest day of my life)

This day almost killed me. We did SO much and were SO busy and I got SO frustrated that I kept thinking to myself, "Oh my God, I can't believe I have eight more days of this." So here we go...

Part 1: Hike down Mt. Arbel

Overlooking the Sea of Galilee from Mt. Arbel

This was a very rocky climb right next to the Sea of Galilee. It was a beautiful hike, but was more difficult than the one the day before; some people were lagging even 15-20 minutes behind because they couldn't keep up with the rest of the group. There were definitely some steep parts! Here are some more photos:

See the tiny person to the right. We started up at the top!

My sister and I are standing in a cave in the mountain; Jews came there to hide a long time ago.

So far, so good. Moving on...

Part 2: Visiting Tzfat (or Safed)

We then drove to the city of Tzfat. It is the highest city in Israel and is one of Israel's four Holy Cities (Tzfat is the home of Kabbalah). Tzfat is best known for its artisans, from painters and sculptors to jewelry makers and candle makers. Unfortunately, we had very little time here (maybe 30 minutes to go shopping). We had falafel for lunch (still not my favorite), and after shopping it was already time to leave. This town was so cool: I wish we had had more time to visit!

Here is a synagogue we visited; ladies had to cover their shoulders and legs. Notice the blue fences and windows: blue is a holy color in Judaism (hence the blue on the Israeli flag).

This is a holy arch in the synagogue from the 16th century.

This is some of the candle art we saw: Noah's ark with cartoon characters!

Then the day took an ugly turn...

Part 3: "Kayaking" on the Jordan River

For starters, I enjoy kayaking. I kayak for work and I like doing it in my free time. So I was looking forward to this activity. However, this was NOT kayaking. It was rafting with six people per boat with only two oars. This is like saying, "We're going to fly a kite," but really it's wind-surfing. These are two completely different things!

Does this look like kayaking to you? I don't think so.

I made sure to get in a boat with people who didn't want to get wet (some people were looking forward to flipping over, and I was NOT into that). Had it not been for other rafters, the ride would have been very pleasant; it's like a lazy river, and you could just float along. However, because of all the other people, it was like water bumper cars out there! Other rafts are bumping into you, pushing you into the sides of the river (it was quite narrow, actually), where you could get scratched and hit by branches and thorns. There was also A LOT of splashing, some by people we didn't even know! I did NOT want to get wet, and yet these strangers (and some of our fellow [juvenile] Israelis on the trip) kept splashing us to no end! Even yelling and cursing did not deter them; even the parents of small children did not reprimand them for splashing us! AND to top it all off, some stranger actually swam out from his raft to try to tip us over! I was mortified. We were yelling at him, and I swear, if he had held on to our boat for one extra second, I would have hit him square in the eye with the end of my paddle. After that, I was ready to be DONE. I paddled as hard and as fast as I could (my legs and arms were actually quivering from the exertion), and we were the first boat out of the water. Needless to say, I was SO glad the experience was over. At this point, the Israeli people themselves had not done a good job of winning me over, and at that moment I really couldn't wait for the trip to be over.

The night ended just like the others: dinner and then games. I ate quickly so I could shower and get that river water off of my skin and out of my hair. Later we played a name game, which I would have KILLED (I am one of those few people who's actually good with faces and names), but I wasn't going to compete for attention with the clowns in my group, so I let them have their fun. Then we did some improv comedy (which is very difficult, so I'm not sure why we did it), similar to "Who's Line Is It, Anyway?" Most of it wasn't funny (again, since most people aren't good at improv, including myself, who didn't even participate), and the only part I really liked was when one of the girls played a "Valley Girl" cow: "Like, moo!"

Ugh. End scene.

Movie Review: If I Stay [SPOILERS]

Image found here: http://goo.gl/VYvz7P

After I met up with a friend for dinner the other day, I decided to treat myself to a Netflix movie night (now that I have internet again. Yay!). I decided to watch If I Stay. I thought this was going to be a typical teenage romance story (I was imagining something like any of the movies based off of Nicholas Sparks' novels.).

But it was actually rather serious! At the beginning of the movie, the audience is just starting to get to know the female protagonist (played by Chloë Grace Moretz) when BAM! She and her family get in a horrible car crash. Now we are watching her spirit/ghost looking over the scene of the accident, screaming but no one can hear or see her. We take a trip to the hospital and eventually learn that both of her parents died in the crash. Then the movie goes back and forth between the present (her ghost along with her almost dead body) and flashbacks of the past. It's through the flashbacks that we learn about this girl's love for playing the cello, her interest in attending Julliard, and of course her relationship with her boyfriend (played by Jamie Blackley). It's young love between this naive high-school student and her older, rock-and-roll boyfriend. This part of the movie is fine (as long as you keep in mind that this is a movie and love between teenagers isn't really like that). We later learn that her younger brother died in the hospital, so it's just her now. Her ghost has to decide whether she wants to fight to live, or if she is ready to die since her family has been taken from her. The most touching part of the movie was when others come to visit her in the hospital. Her friend says, "We're your family," and her grandfather tells her that although he wants her to live, he understands if she has to go. At the end her boyfriend visits and plays her a song he wrote for her, and tells her she got into Julliard. At that moment, her eyes open, and you figure she's going to survive and they're going to live happily-ever-after. I knew they had to let her survive, otherwise this would be one depressing movie!

A few problems I had with some scenes:

1. At one point she gets stung by a bee on her hand. Her boyfriend suggests he sucks the stinger out WITH HIS MOUTH. First of all, that's snake venom you do that with, not bee stings. Also, the make-up for the bee sting looks more like a serious spider bite! So this scene was completely incorrect.

2. In one of the scenes, they are at a bar where her boyfriend's band is performing. They take shots at the bar. Keep in mind, she's STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL. Don't you think she would have been carded? And I'm not even sure his character is supposed to be 21 yet, either! Bars don't just go handing shots out to minors. Hmpf.

Three out of five stars. Not my favorite, but not bad.

Birthright Trip to Israel: Days 1-3

Photo by Taylor Arion

I just got back from a Birthright trip to Israel, and I promised some blog posts about it, so here is the first one! I am clumping the first three days together because the first two days were mainly travel (and since we were traveling forward in time, it was like we missed a day).

Our group met at Dulles and instantly started mingling and sizing each other up (though ice breaker games were mandatory, sadly. Luckily Starbursts were involved.). We flew from Dulles near DC to Brussels, and then we went on to Tel Aviv. In total, this takes about 14-15 hours. The seats were not very comfortable on Brussels Airlines, but each seat had its own monitor where you could watch movies or TV shows, or even play games, so that part was fun (although the audio on my monitor didn't work, so watching movies/TV was out for me). You also get several meals (I think on our flight across the Atlantic we got dinner and two breakfasts!). Although airplane food isn't awesome, I do like free food (and since Southwest Airlines never offers meals, this was a nice change). We had BBQ chicken and rice for dinner (with still-frozen veggies on the side; we also got pita bread and marinara sauce, as if we were supposed to pretend the pita was actually mozzarella sticks); breakfast was all carbs: a bagel, croissant, and TWO muffins (and still-frozen orange juice). When we landed in Brussels, we had a short layover (Note: the bathrooms in the airport almost mimic the bathrooms from an airplane. Ew!). For our connecting flight, our plane was not at the gate, so we had to take a shuttle to the airplane. I felt so nauseous that I took a Dramamine, and then I was knocked out for the whole second flight. I was so tired that I couldn't even eat my meal; the flight attendants kept trying to take it away from me, but I insisted on taking it with me. I didn't know when our next meal was going to be, so I wanted to save what I could!

FINALLY we arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv (another bathroom note: they're not into toilet paper at this airport; luckily a stranger was nicely handing out tissues for us to use). Our American group leaders from Shorashim left a bunch of us behind to find our own way through the airport, but we figured it out (thank goodness!). We could not get our passports stamped because many other countries will not let you in if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport; instead we got little pieces of paper. We quickly got our bags, and then were greeted with singing and dancing from our Israeli comrades (with Shorashim, you get to experience the trip with young Israelis for the entire ten days); one of them was dressed like a camel, FYI. We exchanged our money (essentially four shekels equals one dollar), and got on our bus. Then we were on this bus for several hours before reaching our hostel in the northern part of the country. By the time we arrived it was late at night, and we still had to eat dinner and then play ice breaker games before we were able to go to bed. Keep in mind that most of us had not showered, washed up, brushed our teeth, etc. for more than 24 hours! Ugh...

This was our home-away-from-home on this trip. We traveled everywhere in it! All 50 of us!

This very tall man in Slava, our bus driver. How he made it through some of those little streets in a charter bus is beyond me!

Welcome to our first hostel!

Our hostel in Peki'in was very nice. I had never stayed at a hostel before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Three people were assigned to each room (though the rooms are meant to fit five), and each room had its own bathroom (divided into three "mini" rooms for sinks, the shower, and the toilet, which made it very easy for three people to share). There was also a patio where people could relax, and some of the rooms even had their own balconies! And of course there was a large dining room; there we enjoyed our buffets breakfasts and dinners.

View from our hostel.

Speaking of food: It was not all that. Breakfast was so-so. On the poor side: mediocre scrambled eggs; weird cheese; bland French toast; hard boiled eggs (for breakfast?); bread (no toaster for toast). On the good side: cereal; whole milk; pudding! (instead of yogurt. A much better choice, I think). Dinner was pretty much the same: some sort of meat (fish, schnitzel, no pork obviously); tomato and cucumber salad; hummus. And NO dessert after dinner. Hmpf!

This is what much of the Israel country side looks like.

Anyway...Onto the first full day of our trip. After filling my belly with pudding, we started off the day with a hike on the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve. Since it was quite hot (it was after all August in the Middle East), we were told to wear hats and sunscreen, and to drink lots of water; this became a daily routine for us. The landscape is very arid, so we saw lots of plants that you won't see on the eastern United States (everything there looks sort of like southern California, actually). The hike wasn't too difficult, just hot, and there was a spring where we could go swimming to cool off.

Hiking in an Israeli national park

Swimming hole

After the hike, we went to a shopping center for lunch (this was not unusual for this trip). My sister and I had salads, since it had seemed like ages since we had eaten some healthy food; we also got chocolate milk shakes to balance the meal (and then one of our fellow Israeli trip-mates drank some of my shake without asking. Rude!). Once we were done eating, it was time to head to Har Bental, the top of the Golan Heights. Here we could see the border of Syria, and we talked about the conflict over the Golan Heights (it's high in elevation, so strategically good to have for war). We could even hear bombs going off (though they were far away; we weren't in danger).

Syria is in the distance.

We were standing on an old bunker. We were actually on the edge of the mouth of an ancient volcano.

Next we went onto see Mitzpe Gadot, a war memorial for the soldiers of the Yom Kippur War and the first war with Lebanon (1982). It sits on top of what used to be a Syrian fortress. Here we learned about the history of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who worked as the Chief Adviser to the Minister of Defense in Syria and was key in helping Israel win the Golan Heights.

It is a Jewish tradition to leave rocks on a memorial or tombstone. It represents that someone has visited, and rocks last longer than flowers.

Then we got back on the bus to go back to the hostel. This is when I learned how annoying the Israelis in our group were: they would sing 90's pop songs, take pictures of you, and touch you, all while you were trying to sleep! I couldn't believe how rude and immature they were. Ugh, don't get me started...

Once we were back at the hostel, I wrote a blog post about our day for the group. Each of us HAD to join a "committee" to do different things (write blog posts, help design the group T-shirt, remind us to drink water...); I'm under the impression that the purpose of these committees was to have the participants (i.e. us) do the work that our American group leaders were too lazy to do themselves. But at least I already blog in my free time, so this task was easy. Then I got my first real shower (it felt so good to be clean!) before we had to do more group activities. The games included "2 Truths and a Lie" (not so bad) and then creating a dance for an Israeli song of our choice (HORRIBLE). This was the moment I realized that this trip is less of an educational, cultural experience and more of an adult summer camp...NOT my idea of a good time.

 And then we were finally able to go to sleep. And this was just the beginning.

Some facts about Israel:
-Israel was founded as an independent country in 1948.
-It's about the size of New Jersey.
-There are 8 million people who live there (about the same number of people in New York City!).
-Roughly 6.5 million of those people are Jewish; the rest are Muslim, Christian, or part of other religious minorities.

Restaurant Review: A.G. Kitchen in Silver Spring, MD

I went to see Kip Moore at the Fillmore in Silver Spring last week (read my blog post about the concert here), so I wanted to go to a restaurant for dinner that was close by. I looked on Google Maps and found A.G. Kitchen. It's close to the venue, so I made reservations immediately (even before I saw the restaurant was mentioned in the latest Washingtonian Magazine). When I called the day of to say I would be late, the staff was very understanding, which I appreciated.

This restaurant is in a great location in downtown Silver Spring, and it's very spacious (I probably didn't even need a reservation). The restaurant is new, so I think it's still going through some growing pains: the floor looks like poured cement (hardwood would be much more suitable to the vibe); some ceiling panels were missing and bare wood was exposed; very small tables meant to fit four are scattered throughout the largest part of the restaurant (in such a big space, bigger furniture is better and simply more accommodating). BUT I liked the bright colors throughout the space, and there are some booths for seating, which is my preference.

On to the food and staff. I ordered the mini-tacos in which I could mix-and-match which kind I wanted. In the end, I vote that the fish and pork ones are the best. My friend got the Samba Chicken (a house favorite) and was very pleased. AGK's homemade guacamole is also delicious! I already want to go back to try some things I didn't get, like a margarita or the guacamole with fruit in it. Also, the staff is very friendly and attentive; my only complaint would be that they try to clear your plates too quickly, even before you're finished eating! And this was when the restaurant was more than half-empty, so it wasn't like they were trying to rush us so they could use the table for someone else.

All in all a great find, and I am looking forward to my next visit!

Concert: Kip Moore at the Fillmore

Last night I saw Kip Moore perform at the Fillmore in Silver Spring. The tickets were very reasonably priced, and it's a great venue to get close to the stage (we were probably "four rows" away from the stage had there been seats).

His opener was Scott Kurt, a local from Virginia. I liked seeing a local guy perform, and I thought he did a pretty good job! His style was kind of eclectic: His guitar-style reminded me of Collin Raye or John Michael Montgomery (great country singers from the 90's), and his voice sometimes sounded like Chris Cagle. He had some fun songs, so I hope he's able to get more coverage (maybe radio?).

Then it was on to the main act. Kip and his band are a lot of fun, laughing together and calling out fans in the crowd making fun of them. Right off the bat, they seem like fun people to hang out with.

Kip has a new CD out (the whole point of the show was to promote the new album, Wild Ones). So he performed mostly new stuff, but he threw in some of his hits like "Hey Pretty Girl," "Beer Money," and "Somethin' 'bout a Truck." Here are some of his newer songs (somewhat in order of my favorites):

What Ya Got on Tonight
That Was Us
Running for You
Come and Get It
Backseat
Magic
That's Alright with Me
Heart's Desire

It was an acoustic show, which I didn't know ahead of time. But I thought all of the music was really good! There were some silly parts of the show, like Kip's many references to wanting to have babies (is his biological clock ticking?) or his reference to the radio station WPOC instead of WMZQ. And of course there were the annoying high school students trying to push their way through the crowd and the group of moms who were talking throughout the show and not even listening to the music. They were missing a great show!

Kip's going to be performing on Halloween at Rams Head Live!, too! Click here for ticket info. Maybe I'll see you there!

PS: Sorry for the lull in blog posts recently. I was on a Birthright trip to Israel and only just got back. Stay tuned for future blog posts on my trip!

Movie Review: Ex Machina {SPOILERS]

Image found here: http://goo.gl/SzbIXS

This is a very interesting sci-fi movie about Artificial Intelligence (AI). With this genre of film, the main theme is our fear that AI machines will outsmart humans and take over. Well, this film certainly covers that first part. Here's the plot:

Nathan (played by Oscar Isaac) is a genius who has created an AI woman named Ava (played by Alicia Vikander). Caleb (played by Domhnall Gleeson), who works for Nathan's company, is invited to check out Ava and see if she can pass the Turing test (i.e. to see if she is just as intelligent as a human being). Caleb has to take a helicopter ride to get to the remote location of Nathan's house, and is dropped off all alone and is told to hike to the house; right away you get the creeps and are yelling at the TV to tell Caleb to get back in the chopper. Once he makes it to the house, we immediately can see that Nathan is a complete weirdo who has been away from society for too long, since he's been holed up here to work on his research. Once Caleb realizes his assignment, he starts interacting with Ava to see if the robot woman does have human intelligence. They seem to build a sort of friendship (and perhaps a crush), with Nathan watching all of their conversations. But Ava has the ability to cut off the building's power for short periods of time, and during those times she can talk to Caleb privately. This is when she tells him that Nathan is a horrible person, keeping her prisoner and lamenting that he will destroy her when he creates a better, new model of the AI. Caleb is persuaded, and he works to try to help Ava escape. One day when Nathan gets black-out drunk, Caleb is able to break into to computer system and reset the safety features so that the doors will not automatically lock so Ava can get out. Nathan does find out about this, but by the time he knows about it, it's too late. Ava has been able to get out of her "cage" (if you will), and with the help of another AI woman (who pretty much just acts as Nathan's sex slave), they stab Nathan and kill him. At this point, you think Ava and Caleb are going to run away together and live happily ever after. But NO! The door locks Caleb in, and even when he calls for Ava to come get him out, she leaves. You watch her finally leave her prison and explore the woods around the house. She then catches the helicopter that is meant to take Caleb home, and we see her acclimate to city life. The end.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was beautiful to watch, especially since most of it takes place out in Norway (photos of the set here). And the three main actors did a great job: Isaac was a perfect creep, Gleeson is the epitome of the innocent and naive guy, and Vikander is amazing as a robot, with all of her precise movements (she was trained as a ballerina). I also liked the suspense, and the whole story really got me thinking about today's technology and what could possibly happen in the future. I certainly thought it was risky of Nathan to program his AI to attempt to escape using the help of another person, especially since Nathan did not want her to succeed! He was pretty much asking for it, and he got what he deserved. The movie kept me awake after watching it, just thinking of the robot's intelligence and then her lack of sympathy for humans. The cruelty of machines (without all of the feelings that people have) and how they could potentially destroy the human race is what we fear most about AI.

My least favorite part of the film was the last three minutes. They were completely unnecessary. When we see Ava leaving the building through the elevator and Caleb stuck in the house, the movie should have immediately ended there, with all of us completely shocked that she left him there to die. But we get to see Ava explore the house a bit, enjoy the outdoors, leave the area on the helicopter, and make it to a city where she can people watch, which was her dream to begin with. The audience can assume that when Ava leaves the house, she will enjoy the outdoors that she never got to experience before; we don't need to see it. It's actually almost an insult to the viewer to show these last few bits: we ARE smart enough to know that she would get outside and leave the house where she had been kept a prisoner. The ending was so obvious that it could not even be called artistic no matter how beautiful it was; it was just a waste of film. 

PS: Gleeson is a total dork during the special features; definitely a nerd!