Sounds of the Old City

All of last week, a music festival was held in the Old City which showcased traditional Jewish and Israeli music, and last Thursday, I went with some friends to check it out. The music was great, actually far better than I expected. We stayed for a couple of hours, and heard everything from traditional Jewish music, to some classic American favorites, and everything in-between. Here are some cool pictures and videos I took so you can live vicariously through me!

Drum circle outside Jaffa gate.

Sounds of the Old City!

Cool light fixtures. 

Sampling Sahlab, a warm local drink made from orchids. From left to right are my friends Rachel, Sonya, and Molly.

Hanging musicians! 

Taking a break. 

Flute duet. 

Some sort of banjo-ude type instrument, but played with a bow. 

More music.

Even more music. 

And more music. All of it very good! 

Now here are the videos:

Video of the hanging musicians just inside Jaffa gate. 

Video of a haunting woodwind duet.

We're not sure if these people were officially part of the festivities, but they were highly entertaining nonetheless. 

Ave Maria.

Just some more traditional Israeli music...

Jaffa

Our field trip last Tuesday was to Jaffa, an ancient city on the Israeli coast now combined with Tel Aviv. Jaffa is incredibly old, and once served as the principal port for Jerusalem during the crusader period. Despite having visited Tel Aviv several times, it was my first time in Jaffa, though after having been there once, I am confident it won’t be my last visit.

We were in Jaffa for the majority of the day, and visited a mosque, several churches, a theatre, and a successful local coffee company, where we were treated to coffee and lunch, while learning about customs and society in Jaffa from one of the company’s owners. It was a great way to spend such a beautiful and sunny day. 

Skyline of Jaffa.

Dogs on the beach. Miss you Boca :(

Tel Aviv in the distance.

The mosque we visited.

Close up of the mosque door.

Ornate mosque window.

One of the two domes of the mosque.

The minbar, a pulpit-like structure in the mosque.

Inside the mosque.

Our teacher, Daphna (in blue), explaining the art and architecture of this specific mosque.

Door to the prayer hall.

Traditional Arab sweets generously provided by the mosque!

Parts of more ancient structures, which were used in the mosque's construction, can be found throughout the building.

The area for ablutions, or washing, which is compulsory for Muslims before prayer.

The minaret. 

Mosque pigeons. 

The mosque courtyard.

We met this woman at the end of our tour of the mosque, and she proceeded to tell us stories from the Quran in Arabic for a good fifteen minutes before we were able to politely make our escape. 

After the mosque, we visited the Arab Hebrew Theatre of Jaffa, where we spoke with one of the  theatre directors. 

Funny.

Jaffa clock tower. 

A gaggle of Israeli soldiers taking shelter in the tower's shadows. 

The reconstructed facade of an old colonial-era Jaffa building, which was bombed in the early 1900s.

Flowers in the traffic circle. 

Our visit to Anton Coffee Company, where Anton's wife, Doris, served us a delicious lunch, and spoke with us about the local culture and customs. 

After lunch, we met up with a friend of Yael's (another one of our teachers, who you can see on the right). A successful American businessman who gave up everything to become a monk, he showed us around one of the older churches in Jaffa.

Facade of the monk's church.

Mosaic map of the city. 

Palm trees. 

A fountain in the Old City of Jaffa, with all the signs of the zodiac. 

Street market.

St. Peter's Church.

Inside of St. Peter's Church. 

Jaffa shoreline. 

She's seen better days.

There were a bunch of weddings going on when we visited, and I was bored at the time, so I started taking pictures of the couples. 

Mediterranean Sea from Jaffa. 

Pesach (Passover) Break is coming up soon, and hopefully I'll have a chance to go back to Jaffa sometime during our two weeks off. 

Field Trips!

I've literally either been in Arabic class or doing Arabic homework since my last post and have had no free time whatsoever. But I have been on two cool field trips, one to David’s Citadel in the Old City, and one to Abu Ghosh, the Arab village we visited a couple of weeks ago (see previous post). In Abu Ghosh, which we visited again this past Tuesday, we had a cooking workshop, where we learned how to make everything from hummus and falafel to stuffed grape leaves and these meat-filled things that I forgot the name of. This consisted of just sort of hanging out in the kitchen of an Arab restaurant and speaking with the chef/owner in broken, infantile Arabic, and it was a blast.

In other news, the Jewish holiday of Purim is right around the corner, which means that we don’t have class on Thursday! Though I’m really enjoying my classes so far, it will be a welcome break to catch up on the homework that I’ve fallen behind on, as well as sleep for absurd lengths of time.

Before we move on to pictures of my field trips, I just want to give a special shout-out to my readers at the Grosse Pointe Public School System! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog, and keep on reading!

A fountain in David's Citadel in the Old City.

Cool glass sculpture hanging from the citadel's ceiling.

Citadel's courtyard, with the minaret that has, ironically, become a symbol of Jewish Jerusalem.

View of Jerusalem from the citadel.

Close up on the Dome of the Rock.

After seeing the citadel, we toured parts of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City. One of our Arabic teachers had an Armenian friend, who you can see in the bottom of this picture, who was nice enough to be our guide for the day.

Departing Hebrew University for Abu Ghosh on a beautiful Tuesday morning. After the rainy, snowy, miserable weekend we had, it was nice to finally see some sun. 

The restaurant where we did our cooking. 

Customers waiting impatiently for service while the chef/owner talked to us in the kitchen. There were also seemingly random people walking in and out of the kitchen all day, which was never explained. 

Dead fish in the freezer. 

Cooking kebabs in the kitchen. 

Ahmad, one of the coordinators of our program, and Ashley, one of the students (also a recent MSU grad, go green!).

Making grape leaves. 

The finished product: a delicious lunch!

Here's a video of me helping to prepare falafel in the kitchen!

Stay tuned for more exciting posts!