Traveling Adiva

I didn’t really buy a lot of souvenirs on this trip. There were several reasons for this. Primarily, a lot of the stuff sold was Jewish paraphernalia, and I just… don’t really have a use for much of that, nor did I feel comfortable buying it. Also, my group of people that I’d get gifts for has shrunk. A few family members and one or two friends. And of those people, one is firmly anti-consumerist (and so would have really hated this trip).

But there’s one thing she’s always loved about my travels, and that thing is laughing at odd signs and terrible English.

Hi mom. ( These are for you. )

Had to get up pretty early, even after coming in late after the Jerusalem ‘night on the town,” since we had two speakers before we had to set out again to our next activity thing.

The morning started FANTASTICALLY, said with as much sarcasm I can muster; W was being kicked off the trip. An incident occurred which I won’t get into since it’s her business but. It’s another thing I’m very angry about. I don’t think what happened was handled well, and of course, secondarily, now I’m truly by myself in the friend department. Some of the other people are fine but I’m simply not on their radar as part of their ‘hanging out with’ group. Three more days to go, and I’m counting them down through gritted teeth.

The speakers were good at least. The first about Israeli politics, the second, Yiscah Sara Smith, a religious transwoman whom I greatly enjoyed listening too even though her opening talk was difficult. She was very good at handling people and answering questions (including those about things like shomer nagia), and the group was finally, finally respectful of a speaker. She was absolutely the highlight of the day; which was a good thing to have, since it continued in not the best vein.

We drove for a bit, then stopped at a mall for lunch (come to Israel; see a whole bunch of malls), drove some more, and then our actual stop at the house of S, one of the Israeli soldiers who were accompanying us for the trip, as per the program. Two speakers that I honestly had some trouble paying attention too. I’m tired. This doesn’t feel like Israel. I could do this all at home, if I cared to in the least. S’s family was incredibly welcoming though, and also prepared SO much food for us, that I deeply regretted the mall stop. Ah well. Back onto the bus for more driving.

To the Bedouin tents in the desert. One of the worst experiences of the whole trip, in my experience. It reeked of tourist trap, cultural appropriation, and I loathed almost the whole experience. Dinner of eating-with-our-hands was fine enough, but then we had a talk about their coffee culture (which Y, the Israeli soldier who acted as translator, told us later was total bs), and did a short activity outside in the desert. It was supposed to be a silent activity, but my group members are utterly incapable of shutting up so that was sort of a bust, much to the chagrin of our tour guide. Two of the group did get slightly lost in the desert though, so at least there was some humor to lighten the mood. What did they think would happen if the sent 40+ people out in the desert at night and instructed them not to say anything?

The night was the worst. We spent it was a group in a Bedouin tent. It was freezing, dusty, and uncomfortable, and while not was bad as Qufu (which had become my nightly chant), it was all the more miserable with the bigger group of people. By that point, most of us were sick; the coughs and colds had spread, and the night outside made it worse. I know that particular stop was on the itinerary, but I feel that the group leaders could have made an executive decision what with so many people so sick.

Those who were able to (or cared to) got up early for the “camel rides” which would have been fun had I not felt supremely concerned for the animals. It was my first time seeing a camel up close though, and it was sort of fun, in an also-worried-and-feeling-bad kind of way.

We had breakfast and got on the bus almost immediately after, which again, I disliked. We spent the night in the desert and weren’t even allowed a little bit of time in the morning to really see it? Who planned that? That was dumb. I explored just a little bit in lieu of a big breakfast (not hard, no appetite anyway) which was fun, but then I had to get back to get back on the bus. Come to Israel: see the inside of a bus more often than you see the outside of anything.

Drove to Masada for a hike. Unfortunately, the usual path for us was closed due to flooding. Normally you hike up this one path, and then hike down the other side to the dead sea. We took a different path and went up and down the same way, and then had to drive around to the dead sea. The hike was fun, and I loved getting to see Masada and look and the old stonework and architecture and listen to our guide explain the history. That was the Israel I’d been looking to get out of this whole trip.

While it was a clear day, and even sunny, the Dead Sea was, surprisingly enough, absolutely freezing. I’d been struggling with feeling cold all trip, the point where I suspect that I may have been sick and just not noticed, so I didn’t go in. Some of the group did decided to take the opportunity, so I just acted as photographer.

Afterwards, we drove to Tel Aviv and to the hotel we’d be staying until departure. Tel Aviv was crazy crowded, and the parking was something else. That was where I experienced the highlight of the day; the crazy car debacle. Let me explain.

Our hotel was located on a side street, and that was where our driver was attempting to turn. Except that there was a car illegally parked on the curve of the street and in the street, so he was unable to turn no matter how much maneuvering and backing up he did.

So he put the bus in park, got out, and moved the car.

By which I mean he opened the car’s door (Israelis lock NOTHING), put it in neutral, and started to bounce it until it moved. Two other people (our guard and a group member) got out and pushed. A few random Israelis smoking on the street watched with detached interest. The car was pushed aside, bus driver again tried to get the bus onto the street, but alas, car was still in the way. He got out and moved it again. The random Israelis started helping to direct the bus forward. It was a thing of beauty.

The hotel was fine, if small (expected in Tel Aviv) and though I got the cot this time, it was lovely after the Bedouin nightmare. But the day wasn’t over yet; it was “night on the town” time again, Tel Aviv version. And this time there was no market for me to wander, just a lot of clubs. And, after W, the new rule was no wandering alone.

I spent the first half of the night waiting outside clubs, while whichever group I was with partied inside. It was not the most fun thing of feeling, and eventually I called the group phone, hoping to ask for permission to walk by myself to wherever the group leaders were, or to go to a chocolate café that one of the Israeli soldiers had pointed out in passing, that I did want to try.

The group phone wasn’t with a leader though, it was with our tour guide. She gave me permission to go by myself, but didn’t no where the leaders were. I ended up going into an all-night grocery to at least get out of the cold. She ended up coming to meet me, and I spent the rest of the night trailing after her while she went to find a group leader. I did ask to at least see the chocolate café, but we never got around to it. By the time we found him, it was time to go to the meeting place anyway. On the plus side, at least it wasn’t raining this time.

Today was packing up and leaving the kibbutz, and spending the morning in Akko, the afternoon in Haifa, and the evening in a different hotel for a one-night stay. Which I will now talk about out of order.

Haifa first. We got an hour for lunch and to walk around a bit. ( I went to kosher McDonald’s for my first ever burger. )It wasn’t bad, but a few group members maintained that said burger actually tasted much better that McD in the states, so the jury is still out.

We had a tour of the German quarter, with our guide pointing out some interesting sites, from Israel Santa Clause, a man who has his place decorated year round, and actually dressed up and gives out presents come December, and art around the city. Then she took as to a Baklava shop she is fond of. It was pretty, but I’m getting a bit tired of being taken from place-to-spend-money to place-to-spend-money. Oh well; that’s what Taglit seems to be about, to be honest. I wonder if it’s different for different groups and it’s not, uh, the first time I regret the decision I made in choosing this one. Anyway, the tour was interesting enough.

( Pictures, pictures )

We were supposed to visit the Yad Vashem museum, Israel’s biggest holocaust museum. But it was closed on account of weather (noticing a pattern of this trip?), so we went to the Beit L’oomi Hagd’ot (transliteration??) museum in Akko instead. We were split into two groups, and away we were with our guide.

He was incredible. I don’t know if the museum would have had the impact it did without him, and I very much appreciated what he showed us and how, as well as the fact that, for the most part, my group managed to be respectful. It was a very somber morning, but an important one.

The biggest deal for me was when he brought us to a model of the Treblinka extermination camp and explained to us how it had been designed, including the Chai the team of Jews forced to build it had created out of the two cabins, and used. He also spoke about Yankel Wiernik, a carpenter who was so good at his job, the Nazis hadn’t wanted to kill him. He survived for over a year, being sent all over the camp to work and thus learning the layout of it, able to communicate with the permanent stays forced to run it, and had the main hand in running the overthrow and escape of the camp, wherein 600 Jews escaped, though only about 100 survived, him included. He managed to get to Israel, where he met and married another survivor and adopted her son. He testified against several officers who worked at the camps, and drew up plans of it and its location after it was razed by the Nazis during their retreat.

Years later, he built a scale model of the camp.

The one we were looking at.

We arrived in Israel at about 9:50am Israeli time and about 2:50am MI time, and headed right into activities. Kind of. It was a lot of sitting and listening to begin with, which...perhaps wasn't the best start for people who'd just gone through a nine and a half hour planeride and who also didn't sleep at all maybe. I didn't pay attention to most of what was said, just trying to stay awake (and also very hungry) and the rest of the group felt the same way, I think.

But! I got to spend about an hour walking around Jaffa, mostly to change money and get some lunch, and enjoy the fact that the weather was actually nice, a big change from rainy, cold Newark. We got to see waves on the beach that looked like something painted, and the architecture was pretty cool to look at too.

I am almost positive we did another activity after walking around Jaffa, but I can't actually remember what it was. We got back on the bus, drove the about three hours to the first Kibbutz we were staying at, had another bit of time to set our things done and wash up a bit, then dinner, then a group talk /activity that lasted way too long, since we were all dead on our feet. Finally bedtime happened! I'd been worried all day about being able to sleep, but I actually fell asleep around 11pm!

Of course, then I woke up at 4:30am. And couldn't fall asleep. Decided that if I wasn't asleep by 6am I'd just get up so...that's what I did, come 6am. I walked around the kibbutz a bit, found a bunch of clementine, orange, and kumquat trees (along with a tree of SPIKEY DEATH that no one has yet been able to identify). Breakfast at 7:45am, and then we all went back on the bus at 8:30am to head to Tzfat.

It started raining literally the minute we exited the bus, and it was quite cold; some of us were better prepared for the weather over others. we went to the lookout area first, and saw the Lebanon and Jordan borders. Back into the bus and to inner Tzfat, where we were supposed to wander around and have a good ol' time looking at the artists etcetera. That is, of course, when the sky opened up and TORRENTS OF RAIN poured out. We were as soaked as our clothing would let us be. My torso escaped unscathed thanks to my awesome jacket, but my jeans were drenched and the rest of the group fared little better. It really wasn't the best day, just with the cold and rain, and, due to huge lines at not very many food places, we only really got about 20 minutes to look around. But what can you do. We had two interactive experiences with artists, one a kabballistic painter, the other a windchime maker. The painter was...eh, mostly because I think gamatria is stupid, windchime guy was interesting but by then I was cold, tired, wet, and feeling kind of bus sick. I'm hoping that passes tomorrow.

Our last stop was the best one, and at least a good note to end on. We went to a kibbutz winery and got to do a small wine tasting. well, "liquor" tasting because though the were all fruit wines, they can't call it wine for Jew reasons. Anyway, tried passion fruit, blackberry, pomegranate, and chocolate. The passion fruit one was pretty amazing; enough that I actually bought a bottle. It was a good end to the day. Especially since when we first arrived, the kibbutz was experiencing a blackout--we tasted our first wines in the dark, by the light of our flashlights and phones.

Back at the kibbutz now, and we're being told to expect snow tomorrow. Israel is excited of course, but really, I could have stayed in MI for that. We're changing our itinerary a bit to compensate, since they don't think we'll be making it to Jerusalem with the snow.

Regardless, I'm in Israel, and tomorrow's another day. My group's pretty cool and we all get along well. Now I'm going to try to actually get some sleep.

I am pretty woefully behind on updating this journal, as my time in France has just been one whirlwind of activity after another, even the downtime. This hasn't left a lot of time for writing up tales of my day (for instance, it's currently 11pm, I've been up since around 7am, and I'm about to go to sleep).

That being said! Things have been very nice. I arrived without much fuss on the 8th and spent some time in Paris before heading back to Adriana's place, and Sunday we walked around the market and town. We'd planned to go into Paris but missed the bus, and ended up just having a nice day walking around the village of Limours, where she lives. Monday and Tuesday were both take-it-easy days, as that's when she teaches at the school. Monday I went on a long walk, and Tuesday I mostly spent the day writing up an essay for school, to get it over with (as it is due the day I get back). Wednesday and today we spent in Paris, visiting the Louvre and the Musuem D'Orsay. I have now seen many, many famous paintings and sculptures up close, as well as slightly less famous things that I probably liked a little more.

It's been short sleeves and ice cream weather, with maybe a hoodie for the morning and in-a-shadow chill, things are blooming, it's green, and there's sun without snow on the ground. I'm already used to it, which is going to make returning to Michigan this coming Sunday an unhappy experience indeed.

Proper write-ups and quite a few pictures to come soon, though I can't believe it's already Friday tomorrow and I leave here in only a few more days.

It's that time again. The time of me having awesome friends who currently are living (or wanting to travel) elsewhere and have invited me out with them. This time I'm going to be visiting the lovely Adriana, who is currently living and teaching in a little village in France known as Limours-en-Hurepoix according to her, which I will believe.

I'm in my last semester at school and have a week off in March for spring break, at which point I will probably be wanting to get as far away from college as I possibly can. SO WHY NOT EUROPE? Adriana was kind enough to extend an invitation for a visit back when she first moved to France, and I have yet to change my opinion of, "when given the opportunity to travel, do."

At the moment I have just finished booking my flight! It's through Airfrance (le gasp) which is a new company for me, and I'm leaving March 7th (to arrive the next day on the 8th) and returning homeward bound on the 16th (to arrive a mere 4 hours later, thanks to time zone jumping). The (nonstop!) round trip cost me $1,129 and I'm already freaking out about it, but in mostly a good way.

I've got a little more to do to prepare for this trip over my other international flights because, while I don't need a visa to travel like China did, I will need to submit for a new passport, having gone through a name change. I'm not bothering with trying to deal with the little gender letter because that really shouldn't have much of an impact on my trip, past boarding. And it'll be a good run through to see how this all works, trying to travel as a person whose presentation might not match their written documentation. (All I want is an 'O' for other option. Is that so much to ask?)

So right now my plan is to update my passport, which requires:
Get a new passport photo taken
Fill out/print respective forms
Assemble other documentation needed, such my court-ordered name change
Fee
Putting that all together and mailing it out

Then it's a waiting game until I get it back. Upon retrieval, I need to log back into Air France and put in my passport info. Then I think I'm good to go until the date nears! Adriana has promised to keep me updated on the weather, so I have an idea of how to pack.

So France is in my future! I'm excited. It's been a while since I've gone off into the wild blue.

Yesterday (again), nothing much of importance happened except that we were attacked by monkeys. More to come later. Hoping to avoid a repeat experience.

Just without internet access for a while. I'm actually typing this up from an internet cafe. For 2.5RMB (about 40 cents) you get an hour of time. So not bad.

In Nanning now. We flew here from Xian and everything went pretty smoothly. Between the plane, sleeper train, metro, bus, and taxi rides, we've pretty much done about every mode of transportation in China. Funny, that.

Mostly the last couple of days has been taking it easy and winding down from the previous two weeks of GOGOGOGOGO. Mostly we've been doing laundry (everything is dirty forever) and cleaning up. Brittany's apartment is covered with dust. Which is just an example of how dirty it is here; she cleaned everything right before our trip began, and was gone for just over two weeks. Things shouldn't get that dirty that quickly. It's ridiculous. Welcome to China: it is dirty here.

Not as cold down in Nanning though! That's nice. From very up North to very down South, we have traveled all over China now; Shanghai, Qufu, Beijing, Xian, and now Nanning.

A lot of walking though. A lot of walking. China is also a destroyer of socks; I keep wearing through my toes.

Pictures to come when I can upload them. Some videos too, if I can figure out how to put them up. Signing off for now though; the guy across from me just lit up, and I"m not so much a fan of the smoke in my face.

January 25, 2012
Beijing Downtown Backpackers Hostel, Beijing (big surprise)

Today was a good day. Mostly in terms of buying lots of things. You know that satisfaction you get after you ponder over something for a long while, and then finally buy it and love it forever? That feeling, quite a lot of it.

Of course, that all happened much, much later in the day. The morning was spent wandering around Ditan Park in the downtown Beijing area. Ditan Park is a huge, huge New Year’s festival thing. And it was, essentially, a street fair. Loads of vendors selling more or less the same five things (plastic weapons, hats and ears, apples on sticks, whirlimajig thingies, and various other trinket things that I don’t understand why people buy them), carnival games with big stuffed animal prizes and few wins, and food vendors.

The food vendors were interesting. Lots and lots of food on sticks. By ‘food’ I pretty much mean ‘meat.’ Pork, beef, chicken, fish, squid, other things with tentacles, other stuff that we weren’t sure how to identify…very interesting. I also learned that I am not a fan of the smell of stinky tofu, and that the food most definitely deserves it’s name. No joke, this was the conversation that happened:

Brittany: I really don’t understand why people eat stinky tofu.
Me: That’s what that smell is? I thought it was a horse.

We bought a…drink while there as well. A, uh, thing. Fruit or vegetable thing. That the vendor punched a hole in, stuck in a straw, and handed to us. We still can’t figure out just what it was. Pictures (and hopefully video) to come.

After our fingers froze and we subsequently noticed we’d been walking around for three hours, we stopped for a quick bite and then headed back to the hostel to regroup before going out for an actual late-lunch-meal.

It was walking around after lunch that the magic really started. We stopped in this Tibet-Buddhist-Hindu themed shop and after some looking around, I found an item I really liked that I thought would make a great present for my parents. The woman who worked in the shop came up to us and showed us how to use the thing properly and…I really, really liked it. It was a good quality piece, obviously handcrafted, and yeah, just. Wanted. Knew it would be a perfect gift too. It was fairly expensive though (260RMB), so I spent a while deliberating.

The woman came up to us again and saw me just not wanting to let go of the thing and turned it over to show the price. We nodded, because yeah, we’d seen it, but then she shook her head. “No, no,” and took out her calculator (a lot of shopkeepers communicate price with them) and put down 180RMB. I hadn’t even planned to haggle (it’s common-to-expected, but I don’t know, I felt sort of weird, in this case). Then she hands me the calculator, very clearly telling me to make an offer. So I just sort of type out 160RMB, not really sure what I’m doing (I had no idea how to price this thing). She makes the “oh what are you doing to me” face, but it was very clearly as a joke, and I’m just, yes, okay, I’m buying it, seriously, I want it and it’s 100RMB less now, wrap it up, let’s go.

So. She wraps the piece, and then, uh, begins a ritual. She starts chanting what I assume was a prayer, and moves the package over my head and my hands, then turns to a display with various god statutes and ‘offerings’ (apples, money), continuing to chant, holds the piece over different parts of the statues, bows, chants more, turns to another display with offerings for luck and health and wealth and chants to that and waves the item over that—the process probably took a good several minutes. I just. Mostly stood there awkwardly and looked interested. I have no idea if she did that every single time someone made a purchase, or she liked me, or, uh, maybe it was because I was buying what I’m fairly certain is a Hindu holy object.

When it was over, she turned back to me and handed me the piece, I bowed and thanked her and gave her the 160RMB. She smiled again (she really didn’t stop smiling between the time we came in and this point, except for the ritual) and handed back 10RMB, saying (Brittany told me later), “We’re both foreigners here, so we’re friends,” which was apparently something she’d said repeatedly while we were in the shop. According to Brittany, her accent was very different; probably she was either a minority or not Chinese at all, and, well, it’s a xenophobic culture. Maybe she just liked that a very obvious non-Chinese made a big purchase of something she thought was important. Not sure, but wonderful experience. I kind of want to go back and buy more things from her.

We headed back down the alley after that, ducking into the occasional shop, looking at various street vendor wares. I bought candy floss because I wanted some, and then we had the very interesting experience of watching the “THE POLICE ARE COMING” signal followed immediately by every single vendor throwing their wares together and scurrying away. They trickled back in about fifteen minutes later.

More street vendor food was then bought (something known as tanghulu pictures to come) and we returned to our hostel room to eat that, make a video of the experience, and relax our have-been-on-them-for-almost-six-hours feet. We went back out again at about 7-ish, intending to get a small, very unhealthy (but delicious and not sweet) dinner, but.

On the way over to the café, we passed this shop that we had stopped in the day before. Lots of awesome, handmade clay pieces; everything from phone charms to framed wall art. Both Brittany and I really liked the pieces and spent a while in deliberation, deciding to eventually come back later. We passed it that morning only to be disappointed in finding it closed, so that it was open at night was a nice surprise. We made a beeline inside and…again spent a long time just looking at everything and wanting everything and this stuff was so cool, it really was. Finally, after eons and picking things up and putting things back and repeat, repeat, repeat, I decide on three charms to get; one for me, and two for my mother and sister. Brittany, meanwhile, buys a charm as well as a hanging decoration.

I’m about to make my purchase, when I look back over at the larger pieces again. There was this one piece—a Chinese knot in yellow cord, with a clay dragon curled up below it. It was very cool, and just nice, a great looking piece and I looked at it and looked at it and looked at it and finally went, “okay, you do this every time but you are in China, you love it, it’s handmade, and just buy the thing you won’t have this chance again.” So. I bought it. And I’m very, very happy with it. It’s a beautiful little piece, transportable, and I like that I’m sort of by-accident building up a collection of interesting art from the places I’ve visited around the world. It’s even nicer since I’d been looking for a dragon something for myself, it being the Year of the Dragon New Year and all. Plus, the shop owner told me how it’s a good thing for wisdom and studying, which is great; I need all that I can get.

When Brittany saw me buy the dragon, she started having thoughts about a framed piece of wall art –also a clay dragon- that she wanted, and after much deliberation, mostly consisting of “yes, we can transport it, you love it, it’s handmade, how often will this opportunity come along,” she bought it too. I think we confused the shop owner, silly Westerners making multiple purchases. But he boxed up the dragon for her, and then told her to pick another charm off the wall, which was cool.

We went to eat feeling very accomplished and proud of ourselves, and on the way back from the café (it was pretty late; about 9pm), we noticed that another store was still open that Brittany had hoped would be. In we went, she bought another thing for a gift that she is also very pleased with, and then back to the hostel we went.

All around, very good day.

I couldn't fit all the pictures in one post, so here, have a part two.



Let's start with Kevin, being pretty cool while he practices his staff form.

( More pictures ahoy! Click me. )

And there you have it. That was Qufu. Pictures put up only three days after the fact. Eesh, I am so behind.