Back in Jerusalem

I spent yesterday morning in the pit, my final time on the archaeological dig. It was a wonderful week -- I really enjoyed it and I learnt so much -- but even so, I don't think I want to be an archaeologist. It takes a lot of hard work to achieve a little (even if you do use volunteer slaves).

After lunch, it was a quick shower and then buses back to Jerusalem. The first bus went the short trip from the Ginosaur Kibbutz to the city of Tiberias, also on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. Then another bus from there to Jerusalem. It started off not too full, but then filled up very quickly. The military use the public bus system for moving their personnel around the country, so there were a lot of young soldiers on the bus, most of them standing in the aisle.

There was one incident where I wished I knew a bit more Hebrew. One young guy in uniform sat a girl on his knee and the two of them spent the whole two-hour trip flirting. Near the end of the trip, a mother with three young kids sitting opposite them, said something to the girl. This lady had a headscarf so she was most likely a Muslim. Anyway, that started a yelling match across the aisle but unfortunately I couldn't understand what they were saying. Eventually another woman sitting behind me came and calmed things down. (She had also calmed down some other little dispute with a passenger and the driver earlier, so I don't know if she was someone official or what.) Yes, people here are not embarrassed to tell you what they think of you -- almost the complete opposite of the Philippine culture where people often tell you what they think you would like to hear!

I was also surprised at the traffic going into Jerusalem late Thursday afternoon. When I asked about it, they told me that many workers have Friday and Saturday off as their weekend, so many people come into Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.

I caught another bus from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to where I'm living, although I had to ask the driver to tell me where to get off because I wasn't completely sure of the area yet. But it's much cheaper taking the bus than a taxi where they refuse to use their meters (just like Manila). By the way, I found an interesting article about transportation in Jerusalem.

So now I'm back here with a family until I leave on Wednesday. I'll focus on my Hebrew language learning for these last few days. I haven't got as far with it as I had hoped, because the study tour and then the dig have been much more intense than I expected with little spare time for language learning or opportunity to practice brief conversations with locals. I'll go the the fruit juice stall again this afternoon to try a brief chat, and also work at home to see if I can get through another page or two of my children's book.

First impressions

Well Israel looks a like more like an Asian country than a Western country in terms of roads and buildings. I was surprised to see some beggars on the street (including one man asleep on a slab of cardboard) and just in walking around and sitting and watching people, saw several people just throw their little bits of rubbish out onto the roadway.

However, it's not like tropical Manila or green New Zealand in that it's much drier and dustier (and it is summer here of course). But I can see why Israelis and others consider New Zealand so clean and beautiful.


I saw many less beards and traditional Jews than I expected, but as someone said, this isn't Jerusalem. I was amazed at the young people with all the tattoos and body-piercing and provocative dress. Many girls/women here wear much more revealing tops than the mostly conservative Filipinos I am used to seeing (and of course they are much bigger built people here also). I see a lot more women smoking here than I'm used to in the Philippines. I also saw gay men holding hands and others dressed as women. (PS: I just read in the newspaper there was a Gay Parade in Tel Aviv today, so apparently there are a lot of foreign gays here at the moment. The government is busy at the moment passing legislation to prevent the big parade that the gays wanted in Jerusalem.)

Like the Philippines, there are many small stores, often with all the same kinds of store side-by-side in one particular area. Where my hostel is, it's just art store after art store and then walking along a bit further, you hit all the fashion clothing stores.

I walked about 40 minutes to a shopping mall. My backpack was searched going in, but I'm well used to that in the Philippines also. What I did like that I haven't noticed anywhere else in the world, that my entrance was labelled with a number (Gate 7), and then inside the mall were overhead signs that directed you to the various exits so it was easy to find my way back to the same exit so I could figure out how to get home again. (I hate many malls in both the Philippines and New Zealand that I find disorientating inside and then you have to walk around for ages to find which entrance was the one you came in.)

I've seen McDonalds and some other international brands here, but the prices are much higher than in the Philippines. Some eateries have their menus in English and Hebrew -- others don't! The money here is the shekel (actually the New Israeli Shekel or NIS). US$1=4 shekels, NZ$1=3 shekels, 1 shekel=P11 approximately. They also have coins for "cents" but someone I asked couldn't tell me the Hebrew name for it.

People walk faster than Filipinos (it's often not cool to walk fast there) and mostly cross at intersections and mostly obey the crossing lights. So many people are talking on their phones while walking or shopping and I even saw one while driving his motorcycle with one hand--there seem to be perhaps more motorcycles here than in NZ but hardly any compared to the Philippines. Nobody uses umbrellas to keep off the sun here nor do they seem to wear hats.


Everyone drives fast here. I first noticed this on the buses (which are all big automatics -- some are long bendy ones--see photo) that the driver just plants boot (i.e., accelerates rapidly) after leaving the bus stop so you have to hold on tight, quickly gets to high speed and then brakes hard for the next stop. Like NZ, they only stop at bus stops--in the Philippines you can stop the bus almost anywhere. I already observed one accident and three incidents of road rage. They seem to be very impatient drivers here.