My Next Post About Israel

First, it was about a week since I posted last.  After that Shabbat, we got ready for Pesach by throwing away all the bread in our house.  Then we went to a Passover seder and learned about Jews escaping Egypt.  The next day we had dinner at a friend's house. It wasn't Pesach seder but it was a very big meal.  Then the next morning we went to a Bible museum about the Bible.  We had a worksheet to do.  On Friday we went to Ben Yehuda street which is the most famous street in Israel.  We had kosher meat at McDonald's - Yay!  On Saturday we went to an Orthodox synagogue which means religious, very religious.  We played at Liberty Bell Park which is a park that has fake exercise kids' equipment.  yay.  On Sunday we went to the Time Elevator which was a "4-D" movie experience about Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) and its history and it was really cool.  Today we went to another Orthodox synagogue for seventh day of Passover services.  It was really fun because we played Homomo/Chaye Sarah with three kids there.

Shabbat in Israel

Well, last Friday and Saturday we have been observing Shabbat.  Shabbat is a time of rest and we got to rest a lot. Last night we had dinner at our house and we had chicken.  Then we went to a Shabbat service which is kind of like church.  Today we went to a service with a lot of ruach which means spirit.  After that we went home and met some friends of ours. Then we walked with them to meet some other friends of ours. We did Havdalah, which is another Sabbath thing that you do.

Israel so far

Well, we arrived in Israel two days ago and we've been having a fun-ish time so far.  Well, the bad news about it is we had to do TOO MUCH walking. I bet a lot of my classmates couldn't handle it.  Then the good news was that we got to see the Western Wall.  Well, you see, we'll be walking a lot in Israel; we'll be barely ever taking a cab, so that's bad; it's not okay with me.  Everything here in Israel is Kosher so I can get McDonald's.  Yay! 

Dubai

Well, for the past couple days we have been in Dubai.  The first day we landed and then just settled in.  Then we unpacked, went swimming, and worked on our Wi-Fi.  We have been staying at a really really nice house because my dad's friend Justin is the US Consul General here so we have security guards - yay!
The next day, we went to world's second biggest mall, The Mall of the Emirates, and there is also a really huge, well not really huge, but pretty big arcade in side.  It had rides, arcade games, and was pretty fun.  It is called Magic Planet (http://www.magicplanet.ae/).  There was also an indoor place where you could go skiing!  I was amazed!

This is the Dubai ski place that I talked about.  Amazing, huh?

This is the Mall of the Emirates, the second biggest mall in the world.

That is me in Magic Planet on the bumper cars.

 The next day we saw Rango, a movie.  It was pretty funny, it was actually really funny.  Then we went to a Gold Market which is called a Souk (pronounced sook) here.  Then we went home, had dinner, and went to bed.

This is the Gold Souk that I talked about and it has A LOT OF GOLD!

The next day we went to the biggest mall in the world and went to the biggest fake-adult kids thing in the world, Kidzania (http://www.kidzania.com/) where kids got to be adults. It was really fun. I recommend it to all.  Then we went to the Lower Ground level and then went to a high level like the 124th floor of the Dubai tower which is actually called the Burj Kalifa (http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/) and is the tallest building in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.  Then we went to a huge place called Sega Republic (http://www.segarepublic.com/). It had rides, games, and fun.  Well, we didn't go inside but it looked so fun. I recommend it to all.


 

This is the bank inside Kidzania where you exhange your cheque for Kidzoes.

This is the Kidzania sign/logo.

This is the Kidzania race track that I raced my brother on. As you could expect, I lost.

This is the Flamingo Hotel where the Kidzania fire fighters put out the fire.

This is me at the window and view at the Burj Kalifa.

This is my brother and dad scared of heights at the Burj Kalifa.

I am on a telescope at the Burj Kalifa. I am looking out a telescope there.

This is a picture of the tallest building in the world.

Today we are going to the tallest hotel in the world (Burj Al Arab).  A lot of tallest here.  Tallest, Biggest. Dubai sets a lot of world records.  That's it, bye!

China: No Social Networking!

 Well, we were in China for the last week and I couldn't post on my blog because there's no blogspot, there's no facebook, there's no youtube, there's no twitter.  So we couldn't really do anything.  Anyways, the first day we just got to our hotel and settled in.  The next day, we, well I, went on a Jewish tour about Shanghai.

Ohel Moshe from the Jewish Tour of
Shanghai

This is me with the Chinese people from the Jewish tour, again.  I was cracking up, they were like grabbing me.  It was funny.

I got the most expensive thing on the Jewish tour of Shanghai, which was a basketball, which you'll learn about later in the post.

Rabbits at the Shanghai market

They were playing cards near Mr. Wong's house on the Jewish tour of Shanghai.

 It was kinda interesting but not really.

Then we took a train to another place in China called Kaifeng.  The first day there, again, we settled in.  Then we saw this awesome Jewish tour guide who taught us about the Kaifeng Jews and taught us about the history of Kaifeng.  His name was Shi Lei.  He took us to the Imperial Palace which is a famous place in Kaifeng.  The next day we went to a park where there was an exhibit or exhibition on Jews in Kaifeng.  We went down a lot of slides and crossed our arms and laid down and put our heads back on the slide and that made us go SUPER FAST!  Then we went to the site of the mikveh which is a Jewish term and you go bathe in it.  Right now it is blocked up because there is no Jewish community to use it.  Then we went to Teach Torah Lane which was once called Sinew-Plucking Religion Lane.  I gave a person a basketball there.  Maybe he'll become the next Yao Ming!  Then we went to the Shi Lei family museum at his house and saw some cool things.

This is a wild cock that we saw on Teach Torah Lane.

This is me and our tour guides throughout all of China, the Bessler/Baum family.

This is a picture of me and my friend Max who is also in the tour guide family.

This is me and the boy I gave the basketball to.  And maybe he'll be the next Yao Ming, like I said.

This is me with some more tourists and my brother's friend Eli from the tour guide family and Shi Lei our Kaifeng Chinese Jewish tour guide.

This is where the mikveh used to be.

This is Shi Lei's family.

This is Teach Torah Lane.

This is a traditionl Chinese outfit with a lot of makeup.

Next we went to the airport and flew to Beijing.  Then we had dinner and went to bed.  Then we woke up and met a tour guide named Liyo and went into the Forbidden City.  And after we got out of the Forbidden City, my friend and I danced and attracted a crowd.  Then we went to the Temple of Heaven which is a very famous building, one of the most in China.  Then we went to bed.  When we woke up we went to a VERY VERY famous tourist attraction and site, The Great Wall of China.  First we took a cable car up to it, cause it's very high, and my dad and Eli rode in the same car that Bill Clinton rode in when he visited the Wall.  So when we got up, we took a long walk around and it was a great view.  Especially at the top hill, well it wasn't the very top, but it was very high and really hard to climb.  None of the girls (the mommies) climbed it.  Then we went back.  On our way back to the car, we got a shirt that said I Climbed The Great Wall!  And that will be a souvenir that I will show you (if Mrs. Green is reading this post out loud to the class).  And then we went home.  The last day we shopped and went to a show that had traditional Chinese dancing.  My two favorite parts were the guy who changed masks in the blink of an eye and the magician.  Then we went to the airport and that's China.  So, that's all I want to say.  See ya!