Work and fun trips

Again, a large gap since I last wrote - mainly because of the utter craziness of my internship. Good craziness though, the same kind that causes Israelis and Jews to force feed people - intense but strangely pleasing. I've had pieces published most days, some of which fall in the 'bizarre' category - which I love... hence my other blog about weird and wonderful (and obscure) news stories (mbezzle.blogspot.com).

Amid the madness, I have still done a fair amount of things in the last month. On one of my first evenings in Jerusalem, I went along to the food festival taking place in the main market in the city. It was utterly packed and I even considered making my entrance a la Peter Parker by swinging from the ceiling to avoid the agitated (and ill-fragranced) crowd. However, I was with friends from my programme and didn't want to blow my cover as a mere mortal geeky journalist. The market was great but we were fairly let down by the tiny portion of meatballs (ie. one) that our 15 shekels ticket bought us.

The newspaper has taken me on a few 'field assignments' - the Galil (north) with the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), Pat in Jerusalem to report on some co-existence teenage basketball games, random guest house that was hosting a dinner for people taking part in the Jerusalem half-marathon and 10k run, and Tel Aviv for various stories.

A nice break from work came earlier this month when the whole group visited Haifa for the day. We had a look at a church, the world-renowned Bahai gardens (of which I took hundreds of pics that all look the same) and the general city. I thoroughly recommend the city's pizza.

I was also fortunate enough to welcome some London guests. Just hearing more of the London accent made me feel eternally overjoyed and grateful... Ann and Maurice from my school, Paula from the Israel tour I led 2005, Tamara from the Birthright tour I led in 2007, Lucy from university and Vanessa from my gap year and university. Ah. It was a big London love-in.

As well as reminiscing with old friends, I also forged friendships with some new people! I met a Canadian theatre writer, producer and actor on a bus who invited me to visit Ramallah with him, where he was due to conduct some research interviews for a forthcoming play. For a few days I was definitely going, until I realised my Israeli passport might cause some trouble. I could easily use my British passport to get into the West Bank, but when it came to getting back into Israel, it was likely the border police would demand to see my passport stamps - verifying my entrance into Israel from the airport. However, I never get stamps due to my dual-citizenship, which would cause a problem. It's illegal for Israelis to enter most of the West Bank and being caught could result in a criminal record. After some consideration, I decided against it but will try and ensure I get to go somehow, maybe on a press trip later on down the line.

Other events include celebrations for Tel Aviv's 100th birthday - for which we spent most of the time in my friend Mandy's room, waiting for her to finalise her outfit... We managed to make it to the main party in town, though, and caught the end of the musical performances. The random post-concert dancing in the street made it worth it, too.

Last week was the Jewish festival of Pesach or Passover and meant I had a week off from work (though I ended up working from home for most of it). I went to a seder (Pesach meal) with my friend Alexandra, which was great. We ate eight kinds of charoset and had to match the country of origin to each charoset pot. I lost interest after I tasted the Moroccan charoset, which was exquisitely sweet and yummy. Wow and wow. Did I mention the Moroccan charoset? Proof alone that a greater being exists in the world. And he's a great cook, let me tell you.

I ended my Pesach break with a day trip down south to the Dead Sea with Diane - a Scottish friend from the programme - and her brother and his friends. Thanks to this relaxing day I finally caught some serious tannage and now look almost Israeli... which is a lot of pressure with regards to my Hebrew accent as people ask me for directions etc more freqently. I speak some Hebrew, but there are few sentences in Hebrew more confusing than: "I don't speak Hebrew."