Alright, so I went to Cesarea yesterday and it was pretty awesome. Cesarea was either the largest or the second largest port in the entirety of the roman empire and was an important trade stop and thriving city for about 800 years. The it got destroyed by the Muslims (I think). Then the Crusaders came up and built a fort there. Then the fort got destroyed by the Mamelukes. Now there's an archaeological dig there. It has yet to be destroyed. We got to see a lot of cool stuff, like the hippodrome (where horse races were held, which, much like NASCAR, were primarily watched for the crashes), the theater (which still hosts concerts), and one of King Herod's palaces. The above pictures are, in order, 1.some ruins 2. Areon (from Macedonia), Sarah (from Denmark), and me on a statue of a chariot at the Hippodrome and 3. the remains of King Herod's freshwater indoor swimming pool/enemy-drowning pit (apparently he needed to drown a lot of enemies). Again, the issue of water was addressed a lot on the tour, in this case they talked about how the people of Cesarea (Cesareans?) built massive aqueducts from the Carmel mountain range to the coast 15km away to carry water to the city. They also imported an entire tribe of people from the Sudan to clear the nearby marshes because they were resistant to malaria. This tribe still lives in this big city in that same area which we passed on our way to the ruins. I also got to go to the beach and swim for a bit (my first time to the beach since I got here). Now, here's the thing about the Mediterranean: its warm. And not nice warm, more lukewarm like old bathwater. The mental image I got the entire time I was in the water was this one: you know when you're in a pool and you wander into a warm spot and you wonder whether its warm because of the sun or something or because someone just peed there? Yeah, the entire sea feels like that. It's also so salty that it burned my eyes a bit. That being said, I enjoyed the beach and will probably try to return there once I figure out the bus system.
Now, for some random things I have been meaning to mention here but kept forgetting. The first is that salad here is comprised entirely of cucumbers and tomatoes. Sometimes there might be cabbage, but not often. I don't think I have seena head of lettuce since I got here.
Then there are the bugs. There is some kind of spider here which is both huge and terrifying to me. I only ever see them from a distance, but there front legs always look like pincers to me and thus I have named them Land Crabs. Every time I see one I am torn between wanting to run away and wanting to smash it to death. So far I haven't done either. There are also massive (or possibly normal sized, but bigger than I've ever seen) cockroaches which live around the dorms. My morning today was ruined when I walked into my bathroom and looked into my shower and saw two of them scurrying about. I went to get a shoe to smash them, but I returned just in time to see them escape down my drain. So I turned on the water in the hopes of drowning them (or at least washing them away from my room). I came back into the bathroom a little later and saw a third cockroach on the floor. This one scurried into the tile of my shower somehow before I could squish it. As near as I can tell, they have some sort of network of tunnels around my bathroom which they use to get from place to place. My response to this invasion will be overwhelming and poisonous.
On the topic of pests, my dorm is currently under siege by four highly motivated and tragically adorable kittens. I don't know where they came from, but they REALLY want into the suite and, of course, I can't let them in. So I have to shut the door in their faces and then listen to them meow piteously through the windows. They don't appear to be malnourished and there are cats everywhere around here so there must be a food source somewhere... hopefully. I still feel like a jackass every time I have to dodge them on my way in or out.
On a completely different topic, I was talking to Washti (my Israeli suite mate) about how the Israeli students here are still taking their finals even though it is summer. Apparently this has been the case for the entire time Washti has been at the University. This year (his junior year) the teachers went on strike for about two months at the beginning of the semester, so they have finals right now. His sophomore year the students went on strike to protest a raise in tuition, so finals got pushed back until summer as well. His freshmen year, Syria decided to start shooting rockets into Haifa, so school got canceled until they stopped and, you guessed it, finals got pushed back into summer. He fears that he will never have a summer to himself at this rate. Personally, I hope no one tries to pull any of that stuff while I'm here because I don't have the time to make stuff up later.
The last thing I want to mention is that nearly everyone here is either two years younger or minimum 4 years older than me. For example, the two other students in the picture at the beginning of this post. Sarah is 23 and Areon is 27. So now I feel very, very young. Oh well. I'm going to the Bahai Gardens on Sunday after my Mid-Term so I should have some good photos then. More Later
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