Flooded roof/Thanksgiving/Jerusalem v2.0

My coworker lives in a 7th & 8th floor penthouse with a couple balconies, a bomb shelter, and a nice view.
It rained really hard for 3 days. When we walked upstairs after those 3 days, we discovered that the drain was blocked. This is not good for the balcony, or the apartment.
First he went to see what the problem was:
Then he danced back inside:
Then he got a big metal rod to try to clear the drain:
This didn't work, so he called a plumber. That done, we walked to dinner, and saw this cool building on the way:

Thursday night was Thanksgiving in America... not so much here. But, I took myself down to the beach and ate a meal as close as I could find to Thanksgiving dinner: chicken, salad, potato, apple tart. It was a good dinner, and a nice view of the water, and my waiter was cute. Not quite the same as being at home, but it'll do for now. At least I get to be home for Christmas :) That's more important to me.

Yesterday we went to Jerusalem again, because it's cool. First we had to wait for a bunch of crazy marathon runners to go by.Then we went to Jerusalem. Here are some religious people:and some frankincense and myrrh
and a street in the old city, with a tractor signand a random Erin in Jerusalem picture.

The weather lately has been a little chilly (notice the jacket in the picture above). But this morning it was sunny and warm! so I went outside to lie in the sun, and it was very nice. Then I went hashing again, and it was good exercise.

Now back to work tomorrow, less than a month left here.

Birthday Dinner!?

Today I had my birthday dinner... a few weeks early. This is because my coworker (the Australian one who climbs up on the bar when I suggest to him that would be a good idea) is leaving for a few weeks, and when he returns we have other big plans for my birthday, so we had to get dinner out of the way. It was really good! I had steak and wine and chocolate souffle, yum. And it was on the top of the second tallest building in Tel Aviv, so a great view!
You can't really see the lights when you have the flash on...
so here's a dark one so you can see the view behind me:
Very good dinner.

Also today a huge thunderstorm rolled in. I hid under the bed.
But the guys on the roof next to me kept using their fire to do something, weld perhaps:
I guess they don't care about getting struck by lightning. It was entertaining to watch anyway, so thanks, welding guys.

Ikea

No pictures today...forgot my camera.

Random fact: Everywhere you go here, they search you for bombs. Hotels, malls, shops, sightseeing areas, etc. they always check in your bags, and sometimes you walk through metal detectors. And they check your trunk before you park in any garages, etc. The guys at the checkpoints on the road and at work have big guns, but the ones at the hotel don't.

Well, tomorrow's Sunday, so back to work. Time for bed!

Eilat (Red Sea)

Today I got up early and traveled all the way down south to Eilat. You can't get any more south than that, because you run into the Red Sea.
That is not a problem though, because the Red Sea is cool. Here I am being surprised at how cool it is, actually.
I didn't just stand in the Red Sea, and try to part the Red Sea, but I also went under the Red Sea to eat lunch. I felt bad for the little fishies who were soon to be dinner, so I had steak instead. I don't think they got that from outside the window.
This trip was neat because it goes through the Negev desert. There is a very large crater in the desert.
Also, there are dangerous camels. I was so scared that I almost fell over while looking around making sure they wouldn't attack me.
While driving through the desert to the southern tip of Israel, you have to keep in mind that Israel comes to a point at the Red Sea, so it is very narrow. This means you have Egypt on one side of you (notice the barbed wire border)...and Jordan on the other (notice the Jordan flag). You can see all three countries at once if you open your eyes wide enough.
On the way home, we had to stop at the Fountain of Youth to make sure we didn't get too many gray hairs from the stress of watching for attacking camels.

But it's okay, no camels caught up to the car. In fact, I got a nice picture of the sun setting over the desert.

Jaffa

Last Saturday I went to Jaffa. This town is to the south of Tel Aviv a little bit. They kind of run into each other. This is the place where the dude, after getting swallowed by the whale, got thrown back up on land. Once again, I'll have better pictures for you later. Here are some to tide you over.

This is a view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa, I live somewhere in there.

These are some blurry surfers. I need to find better pictures of hot guys. They are definitely around. I will hit the beach volleyball courts soon.

While walking around Jaffa, we ran into a group of people filming a movie!? Maybe it will be very famous and I will be in the background. I don't know though, the actors seem a little strange.
This is a blurry outdoor restaurant on the beach. They have many of these because the weather is nice almost all year (but most of them aren't blurry). They have started to enclose some of them, but we can still sit outside. This one is near my hotel.

On all the door frames they have these little sticks. If you open one up, you find a scroll with some scribbles on it. I mean, some Hebrew on it. Don't forget to read it backwards while you are praying. I mean, read it from right to left while you are praying.
and the inside

And back to the nicely made up hotel room to sleep. My bear gets to nap in new positions daily, although this one doesn't look very comfortable.
I've had pig parts for dinner 3 nights in a row now. Shh, don't tell the Jewish people.

Hi Mom, I'm still alive.

Better update coming soon.

Jerusalem

Today I hit the history, hard. I went to Jerusalem; here is the Mount of Olives. It was really pretty.

I drove into the Old City of Jerusalem. Did you know you could drive through it? Turns out you can. I even parked in there. Lots of stone buildings and narrow little streets.

First stop was the Western Wall/Wailing Wall, which I touched, on the women's side, of course.

There were a lot of people there praying, all kinds of people (see how the women are all squished into one small side).
From the site of the Western Wall I got a good view of the Dome of the Rock. I hear there are 85 kilos of gold up on top.

Then we walked over and into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is rather amazing. This is the location where Jesus hung on his cross.

First we stopped to touch the hole in the ground where they stuck the crucifix. (hmm, there's a picture of me under the table but I don't have it)
Then we walked downstairs, where you can see the rock that split when lightning hit.
Next we went to over to touch the rock that they laid Jesus on after he died.

All in all, it was hard to believe that I was actually there, seeing all of this that is so famous and worshiped by so many around the world. But I was there, and now I feel kind of important.

On our way home, we stopped at The Borderline Pub, and drank Palestinian beer. Didn't get hit by any rockets. Then we stopped at Abu Gosh, an Arab village, and ate really good hummus, and a lamb dish.

Now that the sun has gone down, Shabat has started. This means that Jewish people cannot create a spark until Shabat ends at at sundown tomorrow. This includes driving, turning on lights, cooking me hot meals, and touching an elevator button, so the elevator works automatically. It goes up and down floor by floor, opening by itself. Makes for a long trip up to the 12th floor...

Just kidding, they only do that for one elevator out of the four. They designate it with a sign:

...don't get in that one if you are not Jewish.

In the hotel

I've actually been quite busy doing work, so this blog entry will not be too exciting. Sunday through Thursday I get up at 6 and drive to the test site in Ashdod and wait for one of my colleagues to come escort me through the gate. Then I witness testing for a bunch of hours, and then I am free (after they escort me back out). Except "free" also includes catching up on whatever work is being sent from Seattle, so not really...

Today however testing ended early, so I'm making a blog entry, and I'm hoping to be able to catch up on some Seattle work so I can do more hanging out on the beach. The beach is very important for my mental health.

Now I've talked too much so here are some pictures.

I bought some mystery items for a late-night snack, I think they are crackers:
Of course the necessary McDonald's shot:

This is my hotel from the outside:

Don't worry - Just in case you are driving around lost and can't read the sign because you're too far away, here is a closer shot to make it clear where you are going:

Yeah, not really that helpful. Also there are some annoying things, like I get dropped from the internet a lot, and the shower curtain attacks me. However, when I come home in the evening my room looks like this:

Okay, thanks for reading. Now it's time for me to go back to working on my laptop, sitting on my balcony, watching and listening to the waves crash against the beach.

Visiting Up North

I got my other pictures from yesterday, which will probably be used as blackmail by one of you at some point. Check out yesterday's edited blog to see them.
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Today we drove up north to Golan Heights. Sometimes it snows there in the winter. In the Middle East. Yep.

First we went to Caesarea, a town which King Herod built to honor Caesar. I hadn't expected to see Roman ruins here, but it makes sense, since they took over the entire world. I learned that sarcophagus means "flesh eater". See the aqueduct:

Then we went to Armageddon. Yep, that's right, I've been to the end of the world. Here they call it Megiddo; it's the hill that overlooks the valley where the final battle will take place. Here I am, at Armageddon. I also drove through that valley... there were some cows. I hope they are fire-proof.
Then we traveled over to the Sea of Galilee, but walking on water is slightly beyond my capabilities, so I just took a picture. That is the town of Tiberius in the foreground.
From there we ate falafel (yum), and then went to see Jesus be baptized. Okay, not really. But we saw a whole bunch of people getting baptized in the Jordan river, "near the spot where Jesus was baptized". That's what the sign said anyway. A lot of places over here are approximate, based on writings from the bible. I guess the geography matches pretty well though. Everyone seems to think so, based on the line of people visiting:
I think they brought their own priests. But you can also rent one if you need to, so don't worry about bringing your own with you when you travel over here.

I thought about going to touch the water, but then I saw these fish. No way was I going anywhere near there.

On our way home, I almost died in a minefield. Luckily I saw this sign in time though, and ran back safely.

I am just kidding, Mom! We were driving on the very safe, paved road and stopped to take this picture. From outside the fence. I promise...