Our tour guide Baligh’s local tour organization which EF works with is called “Nazarene Tours” because Baligh himself is from Nazareth. He made an amusing comment on the first day about the fact that he is more of a Nazarene than Jesus for two reasons: Jesus was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth for at most some 30 years, while Baligh himself was born there and has already lived there for longer. Today we will visit Nazareth and also... Read more
What the three things mentioned in the title of this post have in common is my friend Eldad Keynan, who stopped by the hotel where I am staying in Haifa and spoke to my students as well as me. He brought me some fruit from his garden (sheseq, which a quick internet search informed me is loquat) and some fresh olive oil. He also shared news about his ongoing quest to find evidence of early Jewish Christian tombs. Whatever your... Read more
Today was our first day of touring, and it felt pretty full, although the tour guide at the end of the day said that tomorrow will be a full day, and so apparently it is possible to at least try to squeeze even more in. Today was a visit to completely new places for all of us, since they were places that even I had never been before. Our first stop was Caesarea Maritimia. It is a fantastic site for... Read more
Even as someone who has a particular love for Scandinavian music of the early 20th century, I must confess that Hakon Borresen is not a composer who was familiar to me. Enjoy this symphony of his as you watch the sun set on an alien world… Read more
We reached our hotel, and on the way in the bus the tour guide shared a bit about practical considerations and logistics, what we will be doing tomorrow, and so on. At the hotel we had time to freshen up before eating a buffet dinner with food that was for the most part not too exotic and not too hard to identify. Tomorrow we will visit Caesarea Maritimia, an important historic city with evidence of the way different cultures... Read more
My recent post on the Doctor Who episode “The Krotons” has been shared at the Journal of Postcolonial Networks Read more
We have made it to Tel Aviv! Our flight was about an hour late leaving JFK. It was probably thanks to some of the initial delay that Maddie was able to catch the flight, since her flight to JFK was delayed. There was fog at JFK which was probably a major cause of both delays. So perhaps it would have worked out more or less the same with or without the fog. As I write this, we are still waiting... Read more
A 20th century composer from Denmark. You may not expect to like “classical” music, but keep in mind that technically this isn’t “classical” – it is modern music of the late Romantic style, from a period which also shaped what has become characteristic film music. And so it is unsurprising that the person who shared this video and others from the same period overlaid them with imagery of a science fictional character. Read more
Off we go! I took the photo above near the gate in Indianapolis, but did not have time to post it before we left. We have arrived at JFK airport and made our way to the gate where our departure to Tel Aviv should be. We are so early that it is not listed yet – we have another 3 1/2 hours before the flight is scheduled to leave, so the students have gone to find food and wander... Read more
I’m off to Israel today with a group of students from Butler University. I hope to post photos and updates here regularly. There is also a blog I’ve set up specifically for this trip, where not only I but the students can post as well. And so if you want to keep an eye on it, the address is: http://fromindianapolistoisrael.blogspot.com/ Read more
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