Had HUGE, awesome breakfast. --- Headed to the Armored Corps tank exhibit, but it had closed early, shucks. We'll go back tomorrow! --- A couple soldiers were standing outside, and one let me and Arielle have our picture taken with him. There was another, cuter one sitting down (you can't see him in the picture), and as we got back in the car, Arielle said, "I wish we could've taken our picture with the one sitting down. He was cuter! 'Hey you're nice and all, but your friend is cuter, can we take our picture with him?' heh." Ah, well. The one we DID get certainly wasn't bad in any way!! There'll be more photo opportunities tomorrow, too. I'm still baffled by the strong military and police presence here. I mean, I knew there'd be a lot, but for some reason I didn't expect to see so many. The war is just a few miles away but you'd never know it. --- So then we went to a place called "Mini Israel", which is exactly as it sounds. It's a tiny scale model of pretty much the entire country, in an outdoor exhibit the shape of a Star of David. --- Dad keeps getting cranky - not a good traveler! I still don't know what people are talking about when it comes to jet lag. Sure I was tired after the long flight, but after sleeping great both nights so far, I've been perfectly fine. I think it's because since back home, I sleep all day and stay up all night, I'm pretty much already on Israel's schedule!! --- Came home and changed, then drove to the moshav's giant pool and stayed for a few hours - that was fun. I borrowed Mike's shorts and Danny's sandals, LOL. Took forever to talk Dad into getting in the pool, but he finally came in. Played ball with Dad, Mike, Arielle, Aiten, Barak, and Jordan, then they all took turns trying to jump on Dad and somehow knock him over. They couldn't, of course. Mike went down under the water and tried pushing Dad upwards - he lifted up about 6 inches, LOL! That was hysterical. Irit and Elana brought us some really good tuna sandwhiches and water. You're not allowed to eat near the pool, so I faced the opposite way from the lifeguards and tried to eat it inconspicuously, but they saw me and told us to leave the pool area and sit in the grass under a tree outside the gated area. Oh well, it WAS nice under the tree... --- Dad is a "picky creep", as he called himself, much to the amusement of Danny. Oh man, Danny is SO funny. He and Mike are so cute to listen to when speaking English. Danny kept saying, like ten times, "Peeky creep? what is... peeky creep?" (until Mike explained it to him - Danny's English isn't as good as Mike's). Dad's a VERY picky eater and doesn't like the Israeli food too much... He eats a few things here and there, but it seems everyone is aware of his pickiness. (Don't tell him I said any of this)! He's not very willing to try new things and it sometimes gets embaressing. I try to have a little of everything, whether I like it or not. And I do like most of it! Still, my favorite thing is the toasted breads with hummas on it. That stuff is gross looking but SO good - it's made from chickpeas. It's even better when it has subtle spices and olive oil mixed with it. --- Sabbath started at sundown and we got ready to walk to Mike's parents' house for dinner. As I was getting ready, I swear EVERYBODY was coming in and out of my room to play on Jordan's drumset. The kids played very well, Mike and Danny were pretty good, and Dad played very haphazardly, LOL. --- Had a ginormous meal, made by Mike's mother. His parents are so awesome, and Eliza is an excellent cook! I even liked the fish she made, go figure! I mean..... Me? Liking fish? That-there is a world phenomenon. Yes, I live in Florida and hate seafood. --- Aiten is taking paramedic and firefighter courses, and took everybody's blood pressure after dinner. Mine was 114 over 72, yay!! Did I mention Aiten works out? He's too hot. Which actually isn't to my taste, but I do like him. Aiten and Arielle are American, by the way. I don't think I mentioned that until now. --- We were SO tired after dinner, but a neighbor was having a party so we walked over there and said hi to a few people. Mike walked us home within minutes though, because Dad was about ready to keel over (he honestly looked...drunk). I also have a bit of a cold (not too bad though... I haven't told anybody because I don't want to spoil the trip), so I was exhausted and ready to pass out. I took strong allergy pills and crashed in bed not fifteen minutes after getting home. These pills are like a generic brand of NyQuil, so I should be pretty good come morning. ---
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Got up early. --- Drove to a few places for Danny's job (he sells Tree Of Life products). --- Went to a huge mall in Tel Aviv. Ate breakfast there - I had a mozarella sandwhich with sliced tomatoes and dried tomato paste. It was....really good, for the first bite, then it got ...disgusting. For some reason they put mint leaves inside the sandwhich. MINT? It did NOT taste good with the tomato and cheese, and after I tasted the mint, it was all I could taste. So even after I pulled the remaining leaves out, the sandwhich tasted like crap. --- After eating, we went to a home appliance store to look for a shower head (this was before we discovered we didn't need one). They decided not to buy one and to go home and take measurements first. We also found some ADORABLE little fans, that were very round and light green with yellow accents. Oh my gosh they were so adorable. We needed more fans for our bedrooms at night, so Dad bought one (to later give to me) and Mike and Arielle got one (I already had a large standing fan in my room). We figured we'd take them home after using them here, but it turns out we can't :o( Things in Israel have different plugs and power supplies than in the US. We knew about the plug and Dad was going to try to just replace the cord with an American one, but that wouldn't work either. Israel's power supplies give out a different voltage than the US, and the motor in the fan is built for that. If we changed the cord and plugged it into a US socket, it would burn the motor out. So, shucks. I wrote down the company so maybe I can find an American one online when we get home. [The brand was "Kenon" - I looked it up and haven't found anything yet!] --- While Danny was meeting a customer and Dad and Mike were...I dunno what they were doing, Arielle and I were looking at jewelry at a little pavilion not far from where we ate. We found some beautiful Star Of Davids. I picked out a plain, interwoven silver one, but the shape was swooshy - the star wasn't made up of straight lines. It's hard to explain but it's gorgeous. You'll see it in the pictures of me. Arielle found one that, instead of two triangles making up the star, it's a triangle and a heart together, but you can still tell it's a Star Of David. It's SO pretty, and just happens to be the same shape of a tattoo she wants to get (which her father is totally against, LOL). --- After the mall, we drove to Haifa, where Mike was born! How AWESOME that was. Haifa is "the port of Israel" - located in the north-west tip of the country right on the Mediterranean Sea. It's a huge city with a couple giant, beautiful buildings that you'd probably recognize. Israel's navy is also based there, if I'm not mistaken. Danny drove us up a huge mountain well above the city, to a place called the Bahá'í World Centre, and beautiful temple of the Bahá'í religion. We went out on balconies at the very highest level and took some amazing pictures of the city. The view was so surreal, it looked fake, like you could reach out and touch it. --- Before we went out on the top level of the Bahá'í, a young blonde guy and a girl working there had to let us into the gate. I was wearing my green Smokey and the Bandit shirt, and as we walked inside, I heard him comment to the girl, "....but it wasn't a stylish green like that; that's like, kelly green...." - I have no idea what he was talking about or why, as that was all I heard, but I'm glad he thought my shirt was stylish! --- We then drove down to the lowest level of the Centre, where the large temple is. The temple had already closed for the day, but we walked around the gardens for a while. It was so pretty and well-kept. A couple was even getting married there, but they were on the other side - we saw the bride and groom walk by hand-in-hand. --- Went to another mall and ate lunch. --- Next we went to the valley of Megiddo, where the Battle of Armageddon will be fought in the End Times. What a freaky feeling it was, being there. It's a huge, bowl-shaped valley, about 25 miles long and 10-12 miles wide. Here, the armies of the North will come down upon Israel and Christ will crush them; the blood of 200 million soldiers will run as high as the horses' bridles for 200 miles, and Israel will spend 7 months burying the enemy's dead. Only 1/6th of the northern armies will survive. Gosh, we were there. It was so freaky! And the valley is the absolute perfect spot. I mean, it just looks like a battlefield. It's flat and there's hardly any buildings, it's mainly farmland, and the mountains on all sides make it look like a bowl. We also went on Mount Megiddo, where part of the ancient city of Megiddo was. There were many excavated ruins atop the mountain, as well as an amazing view of the valley (and a lot of millipedes). Dad kept on and on telling me to take pictures of the valley so I did - I think I took like 30, LOL. We also brought back a rock from the field, a rock from the mountain, and a chipped piece of stone from the ruins. There was yet another wedding in preparation at the bottom of the mountain (it's not that large), and they were cooking meat and there were flies all over it.... ew. --- Got home not long ago. My allergies are getting really bad. I haven't felt great ever since the fan dried out my throat last night, I might have a very mild cold. I'm exausted! Going to bed now and it's not even 9pm, this is a world event! ---
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Also, here's a picture of my new Star Of David, as well as the adorable fan which we couldn't keep. I love the Star because it's unique and different!
Mike - Dad has known Mike for over 20 years. He met him at Bally's and he's one of Dad's best friends. "Michael" and "Mike" are just American translations of his actual Hebrew name, Mikael, pronounced "mick-HAY-ell". He was formerly a paratrooper in the Israeli army. Arielle - Mike's daughter (she's American). Daniel - Mike's brother; Dad met him the same time he met Mike. Irit - Danny's wife, pronounced "ee-reet". Barak - Danny and Irit's son (who had his bar mitzvah the day before we left), pronounced "bar-awk". Jordan - Danny and Irit's son, pronounced "yor-dahn". Elana - Mike and Danny's sister, pronounced "ee-lahn-a". Edan - Elana's husband, pronounced "ee-dahn". Aiten - Elana and Edan's son, pronounced as it looks. Max - Mike, Danny, and Elana's father. Eliza - Mike, Danny, and Elana's mother. Heidi and Finette - Danny's two dogs.
We stayed at Danny's house with his family, Mike, and Arielle. The house is at a small place called Shoresh in between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem - it's on the top of a mountain with a beautiful view! The house is modern and is no different from a house in America (except for lack of air conditioning, which I'll explain in a bit). It's a two-story house, with four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.
I'll be typing out the notes I took at the end of every day, but I'll be adding a lot to them as I remember more, and I'll explain things better, since what I originally wrote was fast and not very descriptive. I know "taking notes" is SOOOOO nerdy, but if I hadn't, I could never have remembered everything that we saw, things that happened, and all the places we went. I'll be writing about one day in each post (ten days, ten posts), and will post a few pictures from the particular day at the end of each post. We got an awesome new digital camera right before we left (thanks to Tom and Darlene), and thank the Lordy because... I ended up taking over 600 pictures. Heh. This camera is awesome though!! I can take pictures at night now (only if you keep the camera on a flat surface and set the timer, because if you hold it and move it ever so slightly while the flash is off and the shudder is open longer, the picture will be very blurry). I can also take sunsets and CLOSE-UPS!! Which is great because I love flowers. Anyway, on with it!
June 6-7th
Ralph drove us all to the airport. We were flying with Edan and Elana (Elana is Mike's sister and Edan is her husband), they're so sweet and funny. --- Flew first from Miami to Atlanta, and before we boarded the plane to Tel Aviv (which left around 10pm), we had to go through yet another security check before we entered the gate (considering the destination and all). There were military guys with guns and German Shepherds standing around. --- Crappy, longarsed plane ride. The flight was AWFUL and uncomfortable, over 11 hours long. We were sitting at the exit row, so we had plenty of leg room, but since there was a 5x5 space in front of us (as well as the restrooms), people who got up to walk around seemed to congramorate right in front of us. Dad was sitting in the aisle seat and since he has wide shoulders, everybody walking by kept brushing against him real hard. He was miserable the entire time (which made me miserable). --- I got some beautiful pictures out the window of the Ireland coast and the Swiss Alps! --- Got off at Tel Aviv airport, it was gorgeous! OMG WE'RE IN ISRAEL. IS. RAEL. --- Mike can't believe we're here. He's been wanting us to come with him for over 15 years. --- Met Arielle, Mike's daughter, for the first time in probably ten years. I can't believe she's 22, and so beautiful! I remembered her with hair down to her butt and glasses. --- Met the rest of Mike's family - Danny (who I've met before, he's adorable and sooo Israeli) and his wife Irit, and their sons Barak and Jordan. Also met Mike's parents, Eliza and Max. Max is from France and kisses you on both cheeks and is always chuckling to himself and grinning, it's so cute. --- Mike, Danny, and Max met us at the airport - our plane landed in the late afternoon. On the way home, we stopped by the Armored Corps tank museum - Mike wanted to show us a tank sitting outside - got a picture next to it. --- Danny showed us around the house, then we walked to their parents' house. Eliza cooked us a ginormous dinner. I was unphased by it, I knew they ate a lot here, but Dad was ASTOUNDED by the amount of food. Dad doesn't eat much, even though you'd think he did. He's also very plain.. He likes some of the food, but not much. I try to take a little of everything. I especially like the bread with hummus - I LOVE that stuff. --- The view from Danny's house (where we're staying) is absolutely amazing. What I wouldn't give to have a view like this! We can see Tel Aviv in the distance - the lights are beautiful at night. --- I was worried A.E. was worrying about me; I told her I'd send her a text message as soon as we got here safely, but stupid me didn't realize that our cell phone wouldn't have service in ISRAEL. Duh. Thankfully they have a computer here and I was able to email her. I also asked her to email all my friends and let them know we were here and safe (which was the original plan if I could have texted her). It never crossed my mind that, since I had internet access and was then sitting at a computer myself writing an email to A.E., I could have just emailed everybody else also. Duh, again. Hey, it was a very long day. --- I'm gonna have to get up at 5:45AM tomorrow. Arrrrrrgh..... I need at least an hour to take a shower and get ready (as does Arielle, so I have to get up earlier than her). Luckily, even though the cell phone doesn't have service here, I can still used the alarm clock on it!! --- We saw an Israeli soldier with a loaded M-16 walking on the side of the road today. Hawt. --- I'm staying in Jordan's room (with a set of drums at the foot of the bed!), and Dad's staying in Barak's room. We both get twin-sized beds, which is fine with me because it's what I have at home, but...... Dad doesn't fit so well in it. LOL. --- Danny works for a company called Tree Of Life (and Sea Of Life) which sells Dead Sea products (Mike used to sell their products too, kind of like an Avon representative). They have shampoo and conditioner in the shower called "Yes To Tomatoes" and "Yes To Carrots" - they're part of the "Yes To Vegetables" series and are made from Dead Sea mineral water, silt (Dead Sea mud - yes it's good for your hair too!), and vegetables (obviously). I love the "Yes To Carrots" one, it smells so good. Besides carrots, it also has pumkin, sweet potato, and a couple other things in it. They also have this awesome jar of lotion in here. It's actually "mineral butter", made from mineral water, silt, and wheat extract. It's really thick and feels SO good on dry skin. --- We're having a problem with the shower head. It's hard to explain, but the hose is attached to the bottom faucet, and the head is held to the wall on this bar thing. Well, the head only points straight out, so you have to either take a shower holding the shower head the entire time, or turn the water down so it does spray sraight out and soak the bathroom. [We later solved this problem. We looked into buying a new shower head, but had to go home and take measurements first. It turns out we didn't even need a new one, all we needed to do was turn the contraption to the side and point the head down, doh!! That's what we wanted to do by getting a new one, but we didn't know the old one was capable of it. Long story short, it was fixed without incident]. --- The house has no air conditioner! It's dry heat here, but still hot. Electric is too expensive here for them to have air conditioners or dryers. I'm sure I'll be fine once I get used to it. I kept the window open and a fan blew on me all night and made it bearably nice. Dried out my throat though. ---
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Okay so, this isn't about Israel yet but....I had to post it. last night, Charisma's father was searching around the internet for strange things and found...... Octodog. OMG.
Description: What the heck is an Octodog?? Well, it's a new, unique way to make your hot dog. Just insert hot dog into the Octodog, push down, and get the craziest looking hotdog you've ever seen. So simple, yet so fun. Perfect for family BBQs, kids love them. Features: The Octodog brings fun to an ordinary hotdog and meal, watch how many interesting and unique ways children can find to eat Octodogs. Remember to get out the camera! How does it work: 1 Remove the Eyes. 2 Place Hotdog inside and insert the eyes. 3 Place in the cutter base and slide down. 4 Remove the base, eyes and Hotdog 5 Cook Your DOG
Create Octodogs to add fun to any: Parties, Birthdays, Backyard cookout, Picnics, camping trips.
Good Lord. Look at the HEADS. They have EYES. I was laughing for ten minutes straight and was crying and couldn't breath. Is it not the most retarded thing you've ever seen? Then I found one on eBay and... I bought it. I'm gonna take it to Charisma's house next weekend and we're gonna make them. Then, I'm gonna freak everybody out on the 4th of July with 'em. Heh.
"Hey Darrell, Charlie, Brendan, how y'all doin'? I made you some OCTODOGS!!!!!"
I also have something else to post here. Remember the ha-UGE roller coaster we went on at Darien Lake Six Flags, NY? And you know how on rides and roller coasters, they take pictures of you during a critical moment of the ride and you can buy them? Well Tom bought the picture taken of us on the second time we rode it, it's SO funny. We all look hysterical, I love this picture! He let me borrow it so I could scan it, so here it is!
OH, and, I learned how to write my name in Hebrew; it's read from right to left.
BACK GUESS WHO'S BACK!! Erm....yeah. We got back from Israel on Saturday, what a LONG DAY that was. But the trip was amazing!! I was skeptical at first, but once I was there, I felt completely safe and very, very happy. I absolutely loved it!! We went all over the entire country (except for the "hot spots", of course). I felt uneasy a few times, but I never felt unsafe. I took notes at the end of every day so I'd remember all the places we went and certain things that happened. I'll be blogging about the whole trip, one day of the trip at a time, soon. Once I can type the notes out and compose my thoughts! I also took over 600 pictures - I'll be uploading some of them also. It'll be a while though, because I have to edit and resize them all, then choose which ones I want to put online.....
I think I have minor food poisoning or a stomach bug because I've had a non-stop upset stomach ever since Saturday afternoon. Nat mentioned it might be because of coming into a different country with changes in water, food, and bacteria, etc, but I don't think it's that. I had no problem whatsoever when we went into Israel, and also, it came on very suddenly during the plane ride - it wasn't gradual. All I'd eaten since Saturday afternoon was Saltines and ginger ale, but then my stomach started to hurt from being empty, so I just had some cereal, even though I'm sure it'll be expelled within a few hours....
So anyway. I'll write about Israel in the following blogs. As for this blog, I shall talk about the dream I had last night. It involved Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jurassic Park - figures, right? Before you roll your eyes and leave, I promise it'll be very, VERY intriguing.
I'm not sure how it exactly started out, but myself and a group of people were going to THEJurassic Park, as in, the actual, real place with real dinosaurs. Somewhere along the course of the trip though, it morphed into a ride. Things were no longer real. Even though the T-Rex was attacking us and killing people (I remember that it ate a redheaded girl), it was all okay because it was "only a ride"! I remember commenting to somebody else, when it was all over, that this ride was WAY BETTER than the JP Ride at Universal Studios, because in Universal's ride, the T-Rex doesn't attack you as realistically or something.
And now enter Skynyrd. I don't know how it came to be, but there was suddenly a concert that night. There was a stage down in the sidewalk of whatever city we were at, and most of the crowd were on the balconies of the huge, surrounding buildings, or behind barriers way out in the road. There were only a few fans in the area in front of the stage, and there was lots of room left. (The band was already performing, btw). I was up on a balcony with Dad, but I told him I wanted to get closer and go down in front of the stage, so he said I could, and I...flew down there. I flew from the balcony to the sidewalk. .........I guess I had wings or temporary gravity-defying power or something..... Anyhoo, I was now directly in front of the left side of the stage. Johnny Van Zant was kneeling on the edge of the stage, letting a couple girls in front of me touch his hair (LOLOL). So I pushed my way closer and started touching it also (it was very soft - I wonder if he uses conditioner?). I took a picture of him with my hand touching his hair, but I didn't have the flash on so it came out terribly blurred. About five minutes later, I yelled to him my crisis concerning the picture and asked if I could do it again, so he kneeled down and I started touching his hair again and I got another picture. (Which turned out lovely, might I add).
A while after the concert, I was talking to Johnny, Gary Rossington and Billy Powell and was telling them all about the incredibly realistic Jurassic Park ride (which killed people) and was explaining how much better it was than the one at Universal. Johnny was very interested by it, but he didn't think he'd like it at all because he wasn't fond of water rides (never mind the people getting eaten). After a while, I went on the ride once more with a friend and saw Johnny again when we got off. After exchanging a bit of small-talk with Johnny, we were walking away from the ride area (you know the areas you walk through when you get off a ride, where the metal poles and/or ropes usually guide you to the exit), and then I saw Rickey Medlocke standing there, with his arms crossed, looking as if he was waiting for somebody (probably Johnny). I walked up and leaned against him and looked from side to side then whispered, "Heh..... Hey. Goin' my way?", and he looked at me with total disinterest and said, "No.", then continued looking for Johnny. Omg. Rickey blew me off! Later on in the dream, I was walking with my friend (I have no idea who it was), and we saw Rickey and Ean Evans standing behind a counter...... making popcorn. I mean, they were all dressed up like the guys you'd see making popcorn at the old movie theaters or carnivals or something, with the chef-type hats on and the red-and-white-striped aprons. Then they started arguing, I think about whether they were making the popcorn correctly or putting enough butter in it, and I remarked to my friend something about it serving them right for Rickey ignoring me like that.
That's the last I remember of it. When I woke up, I was in....awe. It's quite normal for me to have strange dreams, but this one was....wow. I was thinking about it this afternoon and started grinning, and I said to Dad, "Heh...I um....had an interesting dream last night.", and he said, "Well, by the way you said that, let me guess that Medlocke was in it.", "Yeah but he blew me off!!", "..........HAA! HAHAHAA."
He laughed at me. Laughed at me! And when I told him the rest of it, he just stood there with the usual look of wonder that accompanies his face while he wonders how I remember so much detail from dreams...
One more thing I have to say: I'm sad to say that my grandfather passed away while we were in Israel. We knew it was coming, but we were hoping he'd hold out until we got home. They had his funeral three days before we got back. I'm sure he'd have wanted us to stay in Israel like we did. He had known we were there and was very excited for us - he'd been there a couple times himself and loved it! We'll visit his grave sometime soon. And on top of that, Gary, my Chia Pet also died. I knew he wouldn't last much longer either, but again, I was hoping he'd hold out until I got home! (I don't intend for this to sound like a joke on my grandpa). Poor Gary, I'll have to grow him again. My uncle was taking care of him and said he was just getting really long, then it became too much weight for him and just started falling off. Apparently there's a few "hairs" still left growing on his butt, but the rest is dead.
That is all. Next posts will be about the trip, day by day!
I can NOT believe the day has already come. Just can't believe it! We've been talking about our 10-day-trip to Israel for MONTHS now, but I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow. It's surreal. I'll be sure to take tons upon tons of pictures (got a great new digital camera!) and make notes about everywhere we go... and write a nice long blog about it when we get home!
We're going with a friend of ours and his family, and staying with his brother, who still lives over there. They'll be our tour guides and show us all around the country. We have no set plans, just playing it all by ear I suppose. I know I've been quite anxious about the trip but it's turning into excitement, now. I've got a new CD player that won't skip on all my CDRs, got all my CDs together (I list these two first because they're VERY important for the long plane ride, LOL), have most of my other crap packed, got a new camera, and we just got our passports a few days ago. Talk about good timing.