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Israel Pictures Full - Picasa

So I'm back in New York now and back to EST and resuming my normal life which is kinda sad given how awesome the last month has been. Even though I spent almost a month in Israel, I still feel like I barely scratched the surface of the country. There's so much more to experience, and I can't wait to get back and it's looking like next summer will be the time...maybe even December?

There are plenty of English speakers in Israel, but it still was frustrating not to be able to communicate with some people. Each day in Israel I pretty much doubled my knowledge of Hebrew...I can now count to ten, say excuse me, say cool/nice/okay in a bunch of different ways, I can ask where something is but probably won't be able to decipher the answer, i definitely can say I don't understand you, and a bunch of phrases I picked up here and there. Point of the story is: I want to learn hebrew and I'm looking at a few options of how to do that. Next time in Israel, I'll be ready to converse.

Side note: In online chat in the US, we say lol when something is funny...in Spanish speaking countries, the corresponding word is jaja...in Israel, the letter ח or chet is used (ח makes that distinctive throat clearing sound that we don't use in the US) which I thought was kinda funny in itself...its normal to see a string of the letters חחחחחחחחחחח which would be pronounced chhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh or a long throat clearing sound. Maybe you find that funny too...

Anyway, here's a list of the most memorable moments of the trip (10 is just about as cool as 1:

1) experiencing the top of Masada, looking at the amazing view down towards the Dead Sea, learning about its history.

2) opening ceremonies at Ramat Gan Stadium, walking in the stadium to 50,000 fans and a potential audience of a million or so around the world

3) the group B'Nai Mitzvah at Hebrew University in Jerusalem with breathtaking views of the desert

4) The sunsets at Caesarea...just breathtaking. can't tell you how much i wish you could have been there to watch it too.

5) wading through Hezekiah's Water Tunnel, a 2,000 year old water tunnel that provided Jerusalem with fresh water.

6) wrapping Tefillin at the Kotel, saying a prayer at the Wall while thinking about my family and loved ones, placing a prayer note in the wall

7) renting a car, driving to Jerusalem, spending the afternoon with Marc, walking around the city, especially the Shuk where I took great pictures and had a great meal, conversations with Marc about his path and the search for significance and meaning in our lives

8)The Golf Closing Ceremonies at Caesarea, receiving the bronze medal with the team, drinking champagne on stage, the after party mingling with great people (and golfers) from 12 countries (Australia, Scotland, Finland, France, US, Israel, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Great Britain, South Africa, and Argentina).

9) Relaxing and playing at the Sea of Galilee, waterslides, barbecue, last night with the tour group, Izzy our tour guide, stubbing my toe.

10) Floating in the Dead Sea, getting all muddy, (with Masada in the middle) the Bedouin feast, camels, eastern music, belly dancing.

11) US Golf Team camaraderie, on the busses, at Shefayim, at the Dan, at the port, the hotel, the room, laughing at movie quotes (Zohan, Caddyshack, Dumb and Dumber), making great friends.

12) the flight home - the King David Lounge, taking a great shower right before boarding, unlimited Coke's, upgrading to business class for $250, the seats, mingling with the flight attendants.

I definitely missed a few moments that were also very memorable: Yad Vashem, Sidonian Caves, our last day in Tel Aviv...and plenty of others.

El Al

Last Day in Israel (for a little while)

Right now I'm relaxing in the King David Lounge at Ben Gurion airport - we board LY01 in about 90 minutes or so and a bunch of us golfers upgraded to business class for a small fee. Firstly, apologies for being so lazy not posting anything in the past few days.
A quick wrapup before I get around to a full post when I have time in the coming days. My golf was pretty poor, but got steadily better as the week progressed. The Men's open team took bronze, finishing behind South Africa and Israel respectively. Mike Feuerstein and Mike Myers took 2nd and 3rd respectively in the individual medals, a very solid achievement, shooting 77-69-73-70 (+1) and 72-73-78-71 (+6). The overall winner was Dean Sundelson of South Africa who shot 71-70-73-69 (-5) to capture the gold.

All through the week I was having difficulty with my chipping and putting and that part of the game really cost me strokes all over the place. Again and again I was having trouble keeping chips on the green and countless holes I had two chips and one putt or one chip and two putts or sometimes three putts that inflated my score. My drives were adequate but got better over the days, and was finding it difficult to gauge the distance of my irons with the steady 20-30 mph winds off the Mediterranean. On the bright side, in the final round, after starting out with four consecutive bogeys, I finished the round +2 for the final 14 holes and -2 for the final 6...holes 15 thru 18 are definitely the toughest holes on the course and 18 was a par 4 playing 490 uphill so that definitely was a moral victory for me.

Later in the evening was the awards ceremony which was really nice, classy, enjoyable - everyone had a great time. Today, we decided to not go to the Maccabiah closing ceremonies and instead head to Tel Aviv and be tourists for a final day. We dropped our bags at Mike's cousin's house on Sprinzak before walking around. We walked I'd say two miles or so along Sderot Rothschild and then a street going towards the Sea with all kinds of shops that we stopped in. We reached the beach and found a very nice restaurant just on the other side of HaYarkon from the Sea. We ordered well, ate even better, and then decided not to cab back but walk instead to burn some of the calories off. An hour later we hit back on Sprinzak to Mike's cousin's bachelor bad. We rested for two hours and very luckily found Don't Mess with the Zohan on TV and watched it before calling cabs needed 3 to bring the four of us and bags to the airport. So here we are now in the KDL enjoying free drinks and food before we board in an hour back to the states. :)

To look at a selection of pics, some of which you've probably already seen, click here. Thanks for visiting.

Video

Video

Practicing

The heat is tough out here. To get to the golf course we have to take a 10 minute hike through the desert. Walking through the deep sand takes some extra energy and by the time you get to the course you're pretty sweaty. So today I hit a few buckets on the range and was pretty though not overly pleased with the way I was hitting the ball. After the range, I hit some putts and then spent an hour on the chipping green where I hit chip after chip to get dialed in on the distances. With the wind the way it is and the pins tucked tight on every hole, chips are probably the most important element to keep scores down.

After practicing, I was pretty tired, but decided to play holes one and two and then head back here to the hotel. Hole one is a 400 yard par 4 dogleg right with a tree in the right center of the fairway and a stiff right to left crosswind. (you can see the 1st hole all the way on the right of the first pic) I hit a drive right down the middle but not quite far enough to the left as my second shot clipped the top left of the tree and dropped straight down. I hit the sand wedge on the green and two putted for bogey.

The next hole is a 320 hard slight dog leg left with bunkers left and right. My standard play here is to hit a hard hook with the 1-iron and I've yet to really hit a bad one here. My tee shot hooked right into the center of the fairway 105 meters (116 yards) away from the pin right in the middle of the green. The wind here was a strong left to right hurting crosswind and I elected to hit a knock down 9 iron instead of a full pitching wedge to control the distance. I hit it crisply, and it flew straight as an arrow starting just left of the pin. Karen, who I was playing with, said "wow that looks perfect" as it was in the air. It landed right in front of the hole, took a bounce and went in for a satisfying eagle. Nice! Since I had my camera, I had to take the shameless photo op...

Caesarea Sunset

Went out to the port at Caesarea this evening with the Adams', Jake, Mike, and Jon. We ate at a nice restaurant right on the water and saw another gorgeous sunset. This time I remembered my camera. After dinner we walked around the port area where there was a little street fair with all kinds of little stands selling food - falafel, crepes, asian noodles to knick-knacks - rings, bracelets, doo-dads, tchotchkes, dresses, air-tattoos, creams, lotions, and oils, etc. etc. etc. I got a few gifts here and there. There was also a pretty big projector screen showing an old American movie with Hebrew subtitles that was pretty popular with some people bringing chairs and others just sitting on the lawn. It's such a beautiful place and such a nice community of people here.

Jerusalem Road Trip

I rented a car today, a beautiful Suzuki, and drove to Har Nof, Jerusalem to visit my friend Marc who's studying to be a rabbi. Surprisingly, I only took one wrong turn on the way to Har Nof...I took a right too early and wound up at the base of the Jerusalem Forest at a construction site. I got some very strange looks. I drove back up the terraced hillside and asked a friendly Jewish face how to get to Har Nof...pretty soon I passed a power station, a gas station, and a few roundabouts and Marc was waiting for me around the bend.

Although we hadn't met up for probably 5 years, we caught right up. He introduced me to his roommate and we headed by car to the city center. We parked the car in an indoor lot but not before some uzi carrying soldiers checked my empty trunk. First stop was the shuk, the outdoor market between Yafo and Aggripas. This was exactly what I wanted to experience that I missed during the tour of Jerusalem during precamp. The sights and smells were delicious and I think the pictures does it a decent amount of justice:







We stopped for lunch at a little stand with just three tiny tables...despite the roach crawling on the wall directly next to my face, the food was delicious:

After lunch we headed outside where Marc introduced me to Marzipan Bakery...all I can say is WOW and this picture definitely does not do it justice:

After that, we went around Ben Yehuda street and then walked to the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim community and went to some bookstores and shops before heading to an Arab shuk and then the Western Wall. can I ever get my hat straight?

Opening Ceremonies + Road Trip

The opening ceremonies was an amazing experience. We took a tour bus from the Dan to Ramat Gan Stadium in the mid afternoon where we entered a caged off athlete staging area where all the athletes mixed and mingled before the parade into the stadium. There were sandwiches, popsicles, and water to keep us all fed, hydrated, and comfortable.

We relaxed in lawn chairs and took pictures with different countries - the athletes from India wore very cool (hot) suits:

The Great Brits surprisingly were quite the trash talkers singing all sorts of songs aimed at the US delegation which we for the most part ignored, but some of the ladies had cute eye-makeup:

As you can see, the US team was all wearing these kind of old fashioned hats that looked kind of silly and was difficult to get looking just right.

better like this?

orrr like this?

i thought stacey wore hers very nicely...

by the time I was in the stadium, it was getting pretty crooked:

The Turks definitely had a nice color scheme going:

desperate much?

me with some israelis:

scary looking commies:

quite a view:

gdddeht scaught!

oui oui oui?

viva mexico!

the south africans:

once inside the stadium, and after the parade of nations, after the speeches (in ivrit) of the mayor of Ramat Gan and Prime Minister Netanyahu, there was a beautiful dance performance with hundreds of performers:

and the beautiful conclusion:

torch lighting:

Opening Ceremonies PrePost

Boker Tov! Opening ceremonies last night was absolutely incredible. Walking into Ramat Gan stadium with over 50,000 fans was an incredible feeling, one that I won't soon forget. With about 15 million Jews in the world, and 50,000 fans / athletes/ staff in the stadium, that means that 1 of every 300 Jews in the world were at the event last night...pretty amazing stuff. We met athletes from so many countries...a partial list: Estonia, India, Turkey, Scotland, Great Britain, Russia, France, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Belgium etc etc.

I'll be writing a full recap of the event, including more pictures and video, but for now I'm busy planning my day. Take a deep breath and try not to worry as you read this, but I'm renting a car and driving to Jerusalem to meet up with my good friend from Horace Mann, Marc Friedman. Marc is attending Yeshiva and studying to become a rabbi! I"ll definitely be asking him a lot of questions as we roam around the city eating falafel and chatting.

I'll have my cell phone if you'd like to reach me, but the best way I believe would be to email me which'll come straight to my blackberry. I also may stop in Tel Aviv on the way back to Caesarea. By the way, renting a car seemed like a better plan ($40 per day) than a 2.5 hour $17 round trip train ride which involved a change in Lod, and a $100 per way cab ride. Maybe you'd agree with me.

Thanks for Visiting

Went out to Crusaders restaurant on the pier at Caesarea tonight. Forgot my camera and missed taking pictures of literally the most breathtaking sunset I've ever witnessed. It was incredible. Food was good too.

Opening ceremonies tomorrow, look forward to pics and a recap. Until then.

Dan Caesarea

The Israeli Water Hazard:

My future third home:

The Dan Lobby:

We're checked in to the Dan Caesarea now, and different teams have been showing up over the past few days. So far I've seen teams from Canada, South Africa, Israel, Finland, Australia, and Great Britain. Others have seen the Scottish team but I've yet to see them. Overall, there's 11 countries in the golf tournament.

Since we've checked in we've been relaxing around the hotel and playing and practicing. Today, I played the back nine in the morning with Jake and Ron. The back nine is 2 or 3 strokes tougher than the front. I sunk a 20 yard chip for birdie on 18 to shoot 39 which isn't great but still respectable I guess. We headed up to the restaurant and had a delicious lunch and I picked up a few gifts at the pro shop. Then it was back to the hotel where I napped for hours. The heat really zaps the energy out of me although I have yet to feel really fatigued on the golf course.

At 5, I headed back to the course to play the front nine with Jake. We really tore the course up both shooting one under with lots of birdies all over. I hit the 3rd hole par five in two with driver driver two putt, then hit one of the best shots I've hit recently, a 185 yard six iron to a foot. We kept waiting for a single playing in front of us who was playing two balls (a single should never hold up a twosome). Finally on the 8th hole we joined the single, an Asian man in his 50's with New York Yankees socks. We introduced ourselves, and asked the obvious question...so what are you doing here? Turns out Sam is the South Korean ambassador to Israel in his second term. Very cool! He hits a nice ball and I was happy that I made a nice birdie on 8 after a really solidly struck 6 iron to 8 feet and a 360° all around good putt.

On 9, the 210 yard par 3 I selected the 3 iron, and aimed about 30 yards right for a long sweeping draw that I've been playing lately with a fair amount of success. Well this time was not so successful, I hit it thin, pushed it, and it didn't really draw and wound up in the 10th fairway. I zapped the distance and I had 59 yards in. I hit a solid approach and just missed the par putt to finish -1 for the nine. The other golfers had a kick out of the "just missed the shot and wound up in 10 fairway 60 yards right."

I'm kind of in a somber mood and a little headachy, so after dinner I decided to stay in so here I am in the room thinking about stuff. Life takes some interesting twists and turns and although it doesn't always turn out the way you plan or hope, the future isw long and uncertain and anything can happen. All anyone can hope for is happiness, loving family, close friends, and passions that keep you moving forward. Tomorrow is another day.

Day 5: Mount Carmel, Sea of Galilee End of Pre-Camp

So yesterday was a long and hot day. We headed off to Mount Carmel to do three activities: off-roading, mountain biking and rappeling off a cliff. We started out mountain biking going up a huge hill (maybe not for the cyclists) but I had to get off the bike and walk the rest of the way. After the hill there unfortunately wasn't a long breezy downhill but a pebbly path we had to walk the bikes down followed by a stream we had to bike through. Wasn't too much of a problem for me to get through but a few people who froze right before the water got soaked as they tipped over in the water.

After that was over, we loaded in some air-conditioned land rovers for a bumpy ride up and around the mountain towards the area where we rappeled. We fitted with harnesses and carabeeners and slowly lowered ourselves down the face of the cliff. I've done it before and it's really not that exciting to be honest besides the first minutes or so when you go from parallel to the face to perpendicular. There's a nice adrenaline rush that comes with it, but after you start lowering yourself down it's kind of low key.

After that we loaded back on the bus and waited for probably an hour for the men's volleyball team to finish whatever activity they were doing before we headed to the Sea of Galilee up in the northeast. The Sea is the lowest freshwater lake in the world and the largest in Israel and is pretty vital to the water supply in the country. The place is just magical with the views of the Golan Heights.

We were the last bus to arrive at the sea so we only really had about 45 minutes before the buffet opened but I did have enough time go on a few runs on the waterslide. After the light dinner we had a bonfire on the beach and had a precamp wrapup where we sat in a circle and each said a few words about the experience of touring around the country and seeing the sights and learning the history. I talked about how this trip has really made me feel a much stronger connection to my culture and heritage that I wasn't expecting to feel to the degree that I have. From wrapping Tefillin at the Western Wall, to floating in the Dead Sea, to walking the narrow streets of the old city to hiking down Masada, to the group bar mitzvah at Hebrew University this has truly been the most memorable week of my life.

Later today, we're heading to the hotel Dan Cesarea where we'll be staying for the next two weeks. We'll also be going out at night since we won't have to wake up at 6 every morning. Sooooo stay tuned for what's to come.


from bedouin feast night

Day 4: Dead Sea and Masada

As I write this we’re all on the bus heading back to Shefayim from our Bedouin feast. We have about two hours (at least) ahead of us so I figure its best to not fall further behind in the blogging department.

Practice was optional this morning. The bus left at 6:30 for the course and as we left the bar last night, Jake and I ambitiously agreed that we would wake up (with four hours of sleep) and go practice.

However, as you might expect we slept right through the alarm, and woke up at 8:30 as the half marathoner who’s staying in our room came back from his run. We laughed that we actually thought we could wake up on that amount of sleep…actually only two of the open golfers + woman as well as the juniors (who had plenty of sleep) practiced today. The tournament doesn’t start until the 19th so we have plenty of practice rounds before that.

We got on the bus at noon after a quick lunch for another 10 hours of touring. First top was the Dead Sea reached via a route through the West Bank. It’s acceptably safe to pass we’re told because of checkpoints and a very tall fence recently built.
Most of the way to the dead sea, we stopped at a gas station for a pit stop. Of course, there were camel rides and a fruit market at this particular gas station so I snapped some pics with a friendly non spitting (I think) camel and paid 15 nis for a squeezed in front of you orange juice. It was good but very warm.

I felt pretty ignorant learning that the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. Why did I think it was Death Valley?? Oh well, now I know. I also learned that the Dead Sea recedes 3-4 feet each year and within the past two decades, split into two bodies. We arrived at the Dead Sea (forgot the name of the beach unfortunately) picked up a locker key and a towel and headed towards the water.

The water’s edge is a good mile walk from the main building (didn’t used to be). The water was literally 90 degrees and there’s a thick layer of salt as the sea floor and surprisingly the beach itself. So I was pretty skeptical about the whole floating on the water thing, so I was excited to see for myself.

Picture a water bottle thrown into the water. It might crack the surface of the water but immediately rise to the surface. That’s exactly what it’s like in the Dead Sea. I waded out about 50 or 100 feet, leaned back and as my rose from the bottom I was amazing that I floated like a water bottle right to the surface and needed absolutely no effort to float right on the surface. Very very cool.

After we had had enough floating we walked back up towards the main building but stopped at the mud baths first. Apparently it’s quite the exfoliator so I decided to give it a shot. There were a bunch of kiddie pool sized pools filled with mud and I hopped right in and started massaging the grey goop all up in my legs arms back and chest. This kind of activity is not exactly my cup of tea but who cares right? After a few pictures we washed the mud off and walked back to the building where we changed and grabbed cold drinks before heading back to the bus.

Back on the bus again, we drove a few minutes up to Masada. We watched a movie about the history and significance of the site and took the tram up to the top where Izzy took us around the site showing us the frigidarium, tepidarium, and calodarium and other spots on top of the mountain before we all met up on the east side of the mountain to listen to an engaging sermon by the team rabbi.

Next stop was dinner of a Bedouin (sp?) feast another ten minutes away from Masada. It really was a feast, and we pretty much filled ourselves up with appetizers of delicious bread and hummus, falafel, and all sorts of other delicious foodstuffs. At the end of dinner, there was a belly dancer show which was very enjoyable to watch.

As you’ve noticed, I’m finishing this up quickly because my eyes are getting pretty heavy. Tomorrow we actually are practicing again at Cesarea and seeing the course for the first time. Thanks for reading.