Ein Gedi

On the 4th of January we did a lab trip to Ein Gedi in the desert next to the Dead Sea. After a breakfast out in the green (in between tons of soldiers sleeping all over), we had a lovely short hike into Arugot Wadi with stunning views. We finished off by visiting the Ein Gedi Kibbutz to see their botanical gardens, snacked on ice-cream and visited their sweet zoo. What a lovely day!

Massada - מצדה

One of my last big adventures in 2011 took me up to Massada, probably the earliest site symbolizing Judaic nationalism and today a UNESCO world heritage site. In the first century BC  Herod the Great built a fort ('Massada' in Hebrew) on top of a mountain next to the dead see. It was here, that the las rebels stood up agains the the huge Roman army in the First Jewish–Roman War. The rebels lived in the fort (a rather harsh word for the huge grounds that contained a hanging palace and a royal spa!) for three years, collecting rainwater and  sustaining their own agriculture and livestock, before the Romans gave up waiting out on the Jews and built a huge ramp up the mountain. When they reached the top, it took them another full day to ram/burn the main gate, after which they were so exhausted that they called it a night (really?). When they woke up the next day and marched into the fort to enslave the Jewish inhabitants, they discovered a mass suicide of close to 1000 Jews, which preferred death over slavery. Only 2 woman and five children stayed alive through hiding, the story goes. The event and site was long forgotten until an accidental discovery in the 18hundreds. Today the story is glorified and the fort became a heroic site of pilgrimage for Jews, undermined by the famous oath "Massada shall never fall again!".

With that story in mind, Massada is a beautiful place to visit. Throw an ancient luxurious fort on top of a hill and combine it with a splendid view - if that doesn't make your day, nothing will! What a trip! Check out my photos here:

Merry (belated) Christmas!

December 24th (christmas eve) Nisim took me to Nazareth, a mainly Arab-Christian town. Nazareth is built around the  Church of the Annunciation, where (according to Wikipedia) the Archangel Gabriel announced the future birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. Nazareth is therefore a central meeting point for a huge number of Christians during Christmas (okay, to be fair: there was also quite a few Americans involved...). Anyways, as you might imagine, people in the Middle East celebrate Christmas very different than what I now from Germany, where the Family sits happily around the tree singing Christmas songs and people are rarely found outside. No, Christmas in Nazareth is LOUD and CROWDED and CRAZY. Imagine a carnival parade with X-mas themes, LOUD music from speakers all over ("Who knows what language they are singing in, the bass is killing the words!") and millions of kids dressed up in Santa costumes, ringing huge bells in your ears. The parade was finished with the release of hundreds of red and green balloons into the sky. Christmas-fellings anyone?

Here, see for yourself:

Jerusalem lab retreat

Just when I got back from Manchester, we went to Jerusalem with the whole Immunology department of the Weizmann Institute. Our two days in Jerusalem were filled with lots of amazing food (not the parve cake though), long sightseeing hours and a few lectures. we stayed in Dan hotels (a very prestigious hotel chain in Israel) where they even threw a party for us. The Goldstar beer was very limited however... Nevertheless, we all had an amazing time!!

graduation in Manchester

On The 13th of December 2011 I proudly graduated with a MSc in Developmental Biology from the University of Manchester, UK. But see for yourself: