A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

There is a phrase that I have grown to know and love over the past three months in Israel, “Acharei HaChagim,” or “After the Holidays.” Summer vacation finally is over in Israel; and that means that I won’t have another break until January. The past month has been a test run for the rest of the school year, as I now will have a full schedule with classes from 8:30-6:00 the majority of the week. The real question is how I am going to balance all my schoolwork without any breaks I have had due to the holidays. It’s going to be a busy schedule, I’ve known that since I arrived here, but the fact is that I haven’t really been able to get into the motions of being a graduate school student until now. This is it!

Fortunately, my schoolwork is doable. After all, students before me have completed the year successfully, right? I won’t be bored, that’s for sure, as I have a combination of reading, comprehension, and translation in all of my classes. I just got to keep telling myself that I will be okay.

Let’s back track about a week ago, when I was in, well, paradise. About ten of my classmates and I traveled to Egypt to stay at a Marriott Beach Resort to relax. Don’t worry, I really wasn’t in the depths of Egypt – I was only 30 minutes from the Israel-Egypt border! Nevertheless, I have a passport stamp to prove my travels. I stayed in Taba, one of the “regions” of Egypt (Sinai and Egypt proper are the other two). I was about 2 hours from Mount Sinai and 4 hours from Cairo. While I do eventually want to go back and see the pyramids, there have been warnings in that area and Taba was as close to the pyramids I felt comfortable going to. Nevertheless, I stayed at a 5-star hotel at a relatively inexpensive price. For those of you who know me, I’m not much of a sit by the beach or pool all day type of guy. While I only could last 3 hours outside at a time, and spent the rest relaxing in my hotel room or walking around, it was nice to do as close to nothing as possible.

As promised, below is the link to pictures from the Galilee/Golan. Most of them are scenic pictures from various points that I went to. Don’t be fooled, they actually are different places! Some of them were taken at Mount Ben Tal, which provides a great view of Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. General rule of thumb: Anything with greenery is Israel; most of the mountains are Syria or Lebanon. There is a picture I took near a barbed wired gate – passed the gate is Lebanon. Yes, I was that close! Other pictures include: a synagogue in Rosh Pina, one of the first settlements outside Jerusalem, and Tel Dan, a well researched archeological site led by an HUC team that shows worship to God outside the Temple in Jerusalem! I need to figure out how to put captions on these pictures so you have a better idea what I am talking about!

Okay, off to do homework…

PJ

http://community.webshots.com/user/pjschwartz (Click on Galilee/Golan Album)