Ramat Aviv: Jewish Diaspora Museum and Botanical Garden 9/25

Monsoons this morning

Rafi looking at faces of Jews from the past.

Beth Sholom in Philadelphia

Scribing a Torah Scroll.

Botanical Gardens

Ants on the ground at the Botanical Gardens!

Wild Chameleons...can you see them??

Can you spot the chameleon hidden in the plants?

I am so excited after seeing the chameleons!

In our two weeks here in Israel, we have come to realize that the week seems to have a palpable difference in pattern than in the United States. All day today, as with last Sunday after Shabbat, it felt to me like a Monday. Mondays feel like Tuesdays, and so on. When fully observed, I think that Shabbat does this to the feeling of the week. Because of this, in my head I have begun to think of the days in terms of their Hebrew names: "yom rishon" (first day) for Sunday, "yom sheni" (second day) for Monday, "yom shlishi" (third day) for Tuesday and so on until you get to "shabbat" for Shabbat. It makes much more sense to call the days by these names because after Shabbat, it feels natural to start the week with "day one." Also natural, is to start this first day as the first day of the work week, to move about busily with work, errands, and planned recreation after relaxing, eating, and talking on Friday and all day Saturday.

On our yom rishon, Rafi and I woke up to POURING DOWN RAIN!!! We were so surprised! The rain seriously seemed like a monsoon. We were completely not expecting rain, especially in these quantities. The air was thick and humid. The sky was dark and heavy with clouds. The neighbors still had laundry hanging out to dry from their back windows across the courtyard. I opened the window in order to experience the rain more fully and also to be able to snap some pictures. I looked down to the ground below and saw that large puddles were forming in the dirt and creating mini rivers flowing out to the road. The rain stopped in about ten minutes and the clouds parted after about thirty minutes for a beautiful, sunny rest of the day.

Rafi and I set out after breakfast in the search of cell phones. We needed to get these for a few reasons. The first of which was to be able to contact each other, if the need arises, while we are out doing our own volunteering and such while we are living in Jerusalem. Also they are important to be able to contact other people in Israel to help us get volunteer opportunities, and now the cell phone is going to be even more important to contact people with possible apartment leads for us. Last week we had popped into a few cell phone stores and received their rates for their cheapest phones. Today we hit the jack-pot at the first place we visited. We went into a phone store very near our apartment in Ramat Gan (we hadn't noticed it last week when checking prices). We went in to ask about prices and ended up buying our two phones there because the price was right. Rafi had asked him what the price was for the cheapest phone, and then asked if the man could give us a deal since we were buying two phones. The man did give us a better deal (it was cheaper than the other places we had asked) and he gave us the sim cards for no price (many other places charge for these). The shopkeeper was very nice and set up our phones for us and loaded them with the minutes we purchased.

Our next objective was to find a bus that goes to Ramat Aviv because we wanted to check out the Jewish Diaspora Museum there. After Rafi asked a few women on the sidewalk about the bus, we got a consensus that we would need to catch the 45 bus. We walked the short distance around the corner to the bus stop and after figuring out which side of the street we were supposed to catch it on, finally boarded our bus. The bus driver was originally going to pass by us and continue n his route, but the woman standing next to us at the bus stop was waving her arms madly at the driver and I was also waving him to stop, although with a lot less intensity. When we got on the bus behind the woman to wait to pay, she began a fight in Hebrew with the bus driver, shouting at him and giving him a disgruntled piece of her mind. After we paid and found seats, Rafi went back up to the driver to ask where we were supposed to get off for the museum. The driver told him that the bus goes close to the museum and that he would let us know when to get off.

The driver was right, the bus did go near the museum...it actually dropped us off right in front of it! Perfect! The museum is located on the Tel Aviv University campus. I had originally heard about it from my Israel guide book that I received as a Bat Mitzvah gift from some of the members of my Living a Meaningful Jewish Life class at Hillel UW. The guide book has proved to be very informative and useful. We have used it in many situations and I read it to gain insight about any place that we visit for an introduction of the area as well as for highlights to visit.

The Jewish Diaspora Museum, while it does not contain any intense ancient artifacts, is interesting and meaningful. It tells the story of the Jewish people and their diaspora through videos, music, timelines, quotes, dioramas of daily Jewish life in different countries throughout time, models of synagogues around the world, facts, photographs, paintings, and replicas of Judaica. The term "Diaspora" refers to the "scattering" of the Jews all over the world in different periods of time due to their exile and expulsion from certain areas in certain eras.

Rafi and I viewed the exhibits for three hours and enjoyed every minute of it. It was a nice break from the heat and mugginess of the days that we have been experiencing, and it was the one museum in Tel Aviv that I definitely wanted to visit. I learned a lot in the exhibit - one of the overarching themes that the facts portrayed was that in any given area, Jews were welcomed at first, contributed to the success and prosperity of that area or nation, and then the people in charge began to look unfavorably toward the Jews and drove them out. This is a reason why I think that the existence of Israel is so vital.

After we left the museum, Rafi and I decided to head across the street to the Botanical Garden. We arrived at the front gate where there was a chair in which a staff member seemed to normally sit and sell tickets. No one was in sight. The sign next to the gate said that on Sundays the gardens were open until 4:00pm and also mentioned something about a fee. It was already a little after 4. We looked around, and decided to go ahead into the garden. We were really quiet at first because we were not sure if we were supposed to be there. It was beautiful though! The area was quiet except for the crunching of the debris under our shoes. We spoke to each other in quiet voices, almost whispers. Walking around the first garden for a couple minutes, we saw many plants, all of which were labelled with an identification tag. We encountered a long line of black ants carrying eggs and other resources with their ant strenth. We stopped and marveled at them for a couple of minutes and I snapped a few pictures.

Ambling a little further up the path, Rafi let out an exclamation of surprise! There was a yellow and black reptile walking across the path in front of us in a rushed manner, trying to get to the safe plant side as fast as he could. I walked up to him, also as quick as I could, to get a better look. I recognized something in the way this creature walked and held himself. As I peered into the greenery that he had just walked into, I noticed another reptile in front of the one who just arrived in the plants. This one was a familiar green color with a deeper green forming a camouflaging effect. What was it that seemed to familiar to me? Then I realized...the green one was staring at me, but it's eye was turned all the way around to the back (it's head was pointing the opposite direction from me). These were chameleons!! In the wild! Wild chameleons!!! So cool! I grew up with chameleons in my family - that is why these seemed so sweet and familiar with their special body movements, how they sway on the branch to pretend that they are a leaf in the wind. The one that was yellow and black on the dirt path had now turned a few shades of green to match the coloring of the greenery around him. I was lucky to get a few pictures of these neat creatures. See if you can find them!

After the encounter with the wild chameleons, Rafi and I continued to explore the gardens. We saw beautiful, lush plants, and various spiky and fuzzy cacti, but no more interesting creatures other than white snails attached to many plants on the last leg of our walk in the gardens. We made the rounds and found the entrance again. We did not come across a single other person the entire time we were there. It was very relaxing and special. We walked to the nearby bus stop and caught a bus home where we ate a nice meal of leftover matzah ball soup. Right now, Rafi is engrossed in Sunday football - the one day and program that we turn the T.V on for.

Tomorrow we may go to the beach. Tuesday we will travel back to Jerusalem for exploring and shwarma followed by Scrabble Club, and Wednesday we will prepare for Rosh Hashanah!