Israel 2010-2011: Tree "Planting" (Haircutting...) in the North!

Hey All!

First week of classes finished, and so now I can FINALLY give a list of courses I am taking! In addition to Hebrew, I am taking Archaeology of Jerusalem, Murder, Rape, and Other Original Sins: Genesis and its Interpretations, History of the Modern State of Israel, Jewish-Non-Jewish Relations and Rescue During the Holocaust and I am auditing Biblical Figures and Stories in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Art. I know...only a few classes...suuuuuch long names!!

What else has happened...well, in the absence of a microwave in the dorms, Deborah and I had to think outside of the box because we wanted popcorn (we also haven't seen it pre-packaged ala Smartfood). Luckily the grocery store near the Kfar had plain kernels of corn, and so I, having worked at Silver City for the summer, devised a plan to make popcorn sans microwave - it was very serious. See, working at the movie theater this summer DID teach me things! We ended up putting kernels into a pot with some oil and salt, and then I shook the pan back and forth while the kernels popped and Deb melted the butter. 'Twas delicious!

In other news, today I went up north with the school to the Carmel Forest - a forest that was devastated by a fire a few months ago. We surveyed the outer rim of the damage, and then we were supposed to plant trees, but this being Israel, plans changed and we ended up going to a different site (that had been burned about 15 years ago - new trees were growing). At this new site, the trees had been growing naturally and sporadically in the area we were in. Our job was to, as I like to say, give the trees a "hair cut". We had to cut the branches off the bottom 1/3 of the tree so that if there was ever another forest fire, it wouldn't spread as easily to the tops of trees, and therefore wouldn't destroy the entire forest. We also had to cut down diseased trees and trees that were growing too close to other trees - again for fire safety. On our way down the hill (we were cutting the trees on a mountainside, it was quite the experience =P) we found an animal skull - the person who works for JNF assumes that it belonged to either a cow or a boar, which Deborah gleefully proclaimed as "Pumba" and many pictures ensued.

That's all for now!!

Dale