I felt so bad this morning. I tried to get up for the gym but the monitor didn't get there on time. Other people and I waited for a bit but after half-hour, I just really wanted to go back to bed. I didn't want to go to class. So I went back to sleep for another hour or so. I woke up very refreshed, especially with a shower.
First, I went to the secretary's office to tell her which phone I wanted. TalkNSave would be sending one out today and I'll get it tomorrow or Thursday, before I go to Jerusalem. Yay!!! Then, I went to class. Apparently, everyone knew that I got stung by a bee. I guess my classmate told everyone why I didn't show up. Roni was cool with it. Then she went on *gasp* another "therefore" lesson... all the stuff she posted for lessons today were repeats. So much for progress. Some people improved while others still struggle a bit to speak more naturally in Hebrew. I felt that my conversations with Lilach helped me out because I just snapped a sentence or two out of the air when we had to say sentences.
After class, I ran off to my room and quickly packed my lunch and began waiting at the bus stop. The Immigration Museum would be closing at 4 and I had no idea how long the ride would be or how big the museum was. I mistakely stepped on 36 bus when I should've taken the 24. So the 36 bus took me to the north bus station. That was good for me to know though when I want to head out to Tiberias for a day. (Haifa has two central bus stations- one in the south to serve all places south of Haifa and another one in the north to serve the Golan and Galilee areas). I switched to 114 that would take me along the route to the south station. I went too far past the museum so I ended up having to walk quite a bit.
The Museum was a bit tricky to find as I had to stop at the Maritime Museum to ask for directions. As it turned out, I had to go down the stairs. I hated the stairs- they're the very gradual kind and it's hard to step down without short-stepping or gliding. The security guy was very frisky- he really checked me over and asked for my ID (passport but I gave him my student ID). My ID was almost unacceptable!
I paid 5 shekels and went in. First, I went to see the audiovisual movie. It was a little hard to understand but it talked of the illegal immigration of DPs. After that, I walked the exhibits (I had about 30 minutes left). Almost everything was in Hebrew.
"Aliyah Bet" was an illegal immigration operation to save thousands of DPs and Holocaust survivors using the ships, which were later converted for the Israeli Navy to fight in the 1948 war. At that time, Palestine was still under British Mandate with heavy Jewish immigration restrictions. Only up to 1,250 Jews could immigrate legally to Palestine. Britian had planned to expand immigration and partition the state to a Jewish state and an Arab state but the Arabs shot down the idea in 1939. To pacify the Arabs while needing the oil and weaponry for the upcoming war against Hitler, Britain abandoned any ideas or promises to give Jews more opportunities to be in Palestine. Jews were very unhappy especially that the Jews in Eastern Europe needed a place to escape. During the war and after, the British Navy created a blockade to prevent any illegal immigration to Palestine. Aliyah Bet operated in the 1930s and from 1946 to1948, bringing in 50,000 safely to the shores of Palestine. Another 50,000 were captured and deported to Cyprus by the British. Many of the ships and resuce efforts came from American and Canadian Jews.
The ship, which held the audiovisual movie.
The exhibits themselves were alright. I saw photographs and objects from the operation and camps in Cyprus. There were also a bunch of old Ha'aretz newspapers.
What a dwelling looked like at a camp in Cyprus
Finally, I walked into an exhibit on the history of the Israeli Navy. I thought it was very interesting that the Israeli Navy was literally born out of claudestine immigration (PC term used by those involved) because they used the same ships and basically some of the people who participated in Aliyah Bet became fighters for Israel in the War of Independence. The exhibit covered many of the major battles fought- in 1959, 1967, 1973, 1982... The Navy also captured many terrorists. It was definitely the most interesting part because it seemed like Israel really prided on its navy to protect the fragile state and there were some pretty cool operations against the Egyptians and Syrians.
After the museum, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity of being across the street from Elijah's Cave. So I put on my white button down shirt and went up the stairs/ramp. I was expecting a big, big cave. Like a real cave that you see in Biblical movies. Instead, it was like a synagogue in a moutain. Elijah was one of the prophets and rumor had it that he stayed here on his way to a momentous confrontation with the prophets of Ba'al on the Carmel. "And Elijah said...Now Therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel." (I Kings 1B). This is one of Israel's most sacred caves.
The view from across the street
Men's side
Women's side
After the cave, I set to walk along Allenby Street towards Hadar to catch a bus back. It was a longer walk than I thought but mostly flat, thankfully. I decided to catch a sherut when I got tired but oops, I should've kept going to another bus stop because I finally saw a 37. Oh well. So the sherut dropped me off near Herzl street. Much, much to my joy and this greatly lifted my spirit- a Russian market!!! As I've mentioned Haifa has a pretty large Russian speaking population and I have yet to find an ethnic market until today. So I went in to look for Russian chocolates. I sampled one but it wasn't what I was thinking off. Then I looked in the refridgerated cases and looked at the prepared foods. Yum... one of the young Russian girls gave me several samples, which were all yummy. I picked out two potato pancakes and a sweet pancake. I also got several pieces of chocolates for Aunt Nancy to give to her on Friday and some chocolate covered marshmallows. I also picked out what I thought was a slice of honey cake (but later found out it wasn't). I was very happy and nothing seemed to matter for the moment.
By the way, here's a picture of McDonalds' on Herzl and thought you'd enjoy the little "McWall" sign. In Israel, the Israelis don't say "take-outs." Instead, they say "take-away." I would imagine it'd be confusing in a restaurant if you wanted to tell the waiter to "take-away" your food as in clearing the table..
While e-mailing with another graduate student, she talked about her research papers and such and I mentioned how I hadn't done anything this summer. Then I realized that when I'm in Israel, it's so hard for me to even think about research project ideas. Everything relating to graduate school is basically thrown out of the window when I land in Tel Aviv because my mind warps to "survival-mode." Whether it's a matter of being able to understand Hebrew or just... survival in a semi-state of war country, I just don't think about anything except making it to the end of the day alive and gaining more knowledge of Hebrew. No wonder why I wanted to make aliyah so badly a year ago- it was too hard for me to imagine any research ideas or maintain my interest in the Holocaust or American Jewish history. Or even want to go to graduate school. It's funny because when I was in Germany or Czech Republic (or Japan and Spain), my train of thought keeps running. In Israel, the tracks go nowhere in particular.
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