Foto Friday – Desert Queens set forth

October 29, 2010 - 10:54 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Life, Sports, Travel 

This week, dozens of women from Israel and around the world embarked on an adventure: the third annual women-only Desert Queen jeep expedition. Part outdoor experience, part competition, the Desert Queen combines 4WD driving through Israel’s desert with personal empowerment.

Organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel and Geographical Tours with the cooperation of the Ministry of Tourism, the Israeli jeep expedition is a sister project of the international Desert Queen journeys that, for over a decade, have been bringing adventuresome women to exotic destinations around the world, such as the Balkans, South Africa and Lapland.

The Israeli journey got its start in 2008 when, in honor of the State of Israel’s 60th Anniversary, the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program and Geographical Tours brought women from the world’s Jewish communities together with Israeli women on first Desert Queen expedition to take place in Israel. In three short years the journey has become a well-known brand, with thousands of women applying each year, either individually or as a team, to take part in the pre-selection trials. It doesn’t come cheap. If they pass, the finalists pay a $1,500 price tag to participate in the Desert Queen.


Photo: Eva Taylor

The journeys are based on a 4×4 jeep convoy in which the female team members (3-4 per vehicle) drive through challenging terrain and are put to the test as individuals and as a team. Along the way, participants contend with various geographical, physical, cultural and personal challenges that includes hiking, self-exploration, teamwork, sleeping out in the field and night time activities that apparently have something to do with dancing and fire!

Participants must be aged 20 and over, with a valid driving license but previous 4WD experience is not mandatory. The organizers say, “We teach the participants everything they need to know for the journey, so that even the most inexperienced – can enjoy the driving. You do not need prior knowledge, and by the end of the journey you’ve completed all there is to know about off-road driving.”


Photo: Aya Ben-Ezri

This year’s seven-day journey (from October 27 to November 2, 2010) takes place in Israel’s southern region. It includes Mitzpe Ramon, Nahal Barak and Moa but the organizers keep the final route to themselves, revealing details to participants on a day-to-day basis. The organizers do state that in addition to the traditional jeep and outdoor adventure, Desert Queen 2010 will also include special features, for example, visiting young communities, army bases, a unique desert ecological project and orientation day at the Ben Shemen Forest with MK Tzipi Livni. What more could a girl want? Probably a hot bath… but only when the trip is over and done.

Take a look at expeditions past — and there are more on their YouTube channel. Potential future Desert Queens can apply for the expedition through their website.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Nostalgia Sunday – Hasamba!

January 18, 2009 - 11:55 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Art, General, Israeliness, Movies, Pop Culture 

Someday, Israeli adults of the future are going to be very nostalgic for Deus, a cyberpunk series on the Children’s Channel that I’m rapidly becoming addicted to. And for good reason: Deus is absolutely great. It has all the elements of 90210 – acne-ridden angst, mean girls, star-crossed puppy love – fused with HAL from 2001.

deus_group

I don’t want to give too much away because while researching Deus – also written OIXT in a bit of Hebrew-English typographic wordplay (read it backwards in Hebrew)– I found out that there are 52 episodes – and I’ve only seen, like, a few, and don’t want to spoil the surprise for myself.

What you can know is that Deus is produced by Movie Plus, (the same people who brought you “Beaufort”) for Yes satellite television, is directed by Gidi Dar, and stars some very cute young Israeli actors and actresses. And the opening theme by Ady Cohen is really good too.

deus_logoSo, this is what I know so far: Danny is a high-school hacker who, together with gamer pal Tomer, becomes embroiled a world of intrigue and danger, after hacking into the local mall security cameras to broadcast footage of the class teacher on a date, as revenge for an unjust punishment, posting it on a blog run by classmate Dafna, an aspiring journalist whose father has been arrested on suspicion of illegal business dealings, but the police discover that Dr. Werner, the missing partner in a company called Deus, run by the nefarious Mr. Gold, appears on the tape, after which intrepid policewoman Schneider begins investigating Danny against the wishes of her cantankerous commander, and meanwhile, Danny has fallen for fellow hacker, the beautiful Adissa, and class king Idan has gone missing only to return with a mysterious memory loss that binds him to Deus… and now, all the kids in school are installing Deus software on their computers, which watches them constantly via a big giant eye… and Deus has just been introduced into the classroom as a teaching aid… and there’s a big Deus dirigible hanging over Tel Aviv… and a hit man went after Danny… omigod… omigod…and we’re only up to Episode 10!

hasamba_book_jacketSo, what were the big tween hits of yesteryear? Hasamba! Israelis of a certain age reserve the same sort of passion when speaking about Hasamba that their kids do for Deus today. Hasamba was a series of books by Yigal Mosenzon about a group of do-gooder kids – Yaron Zahavi, Tamar, Fat Ehud, Menashe the Yemenite, Skinny Uzi and Moshe Yerachmiel – who fought crime and brought evil gangs to justice. A sort of kova tembel-wearing Emil and The Detectives, if you will.

In the 1970 movie, Hasamba and the Delinquents, underworld kingpin Elimelech Zorkin hires a gang called The Black Handkerchiefs to do a job, but is foiled by the members of Havurat Sod Muhlat Behehlet, roughly translated as “the absolutely positively secret society”, whose acronym is… Hasamba!

You may recognize a young Shlomo Artzi, for many years now a singer, as the actor playing Yaron Zahavi.

377px-dani_dinThen there was Danny Din, “the watchful unseen boy”, who starred in a series of books in which he executed missions on behalf of the Israeli security establishment that they could not do, but a 10-year old invisible boy could. You know how that is, Harry Potter fans. This book jacket is from “Danny Din In the Six Day War”. Compare that heroic effort with Deus’ Danny, who believes that he’s being hounded by the Mossad. How times have changed.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

So what is it like to live in Israel?

October 26, 2008 - 1:22 PM by · 10 Comments
Filed under: Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

Welcome to IsraelI returned from a trip to the states last month and was as usual was quite annoyed with the incessant questioning about my life here. Call me impatient but it’s the same thing every time and it can get quite annoying. So one night after a difficult dinner where the amount of silly questions matched the amount of drinks I had I jotted down the most common questions. The most common of course is being asked “What is it like to live in Israel?” People fail to understand that my life here is not a Disney-esque adventure where I jump from an archeological site to the Great Synagogue and back again. Sure I live in Israel, but I have a real job, real problems and a real life.

Here are a few of the most common questions asked of me, my real answers and the answers I would really like to give.

Question: Do you like living in Israel?

Answer: Very much.

What I would like to answer: No, I’ve only stayed here for the past eleven years because of self-hatred and my love of bureaucracy.

Question: Should Jerusalem be divided? I don’t think it should be.

Answer: That is a complicated question that I would need hours to answer.

What I would like to answer: Well, that is a fairly complicated question that I can’t even approach. It isn’t so black and white and frankly, your opinion on the matter means nothing to me. Just because you stay at the King David Hotel once a year does not give you the right to determine the future of Israel’s capital city.

Question: Is it quiet over there?

Answer: Yes.

What I would like to answer: It’s quiet right now, but you never know when the next bulldozer attack is going to be and I hear Iran is developing nuclear energy.

Question: I know someone who moved to Modi’in last year? Do you know David, uh, what’s his last name (screams to wife/husband “What is David’s last name?”)

Answer: Modi’in is a fairly large city and most of my friends live in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

What I would like to answer: Even if I did know this person who you apparently do not know very well since you do not even know their last name where can we possibly take this conversation next?

Question: Your daughter, does she understands Hebrew? Do you speak to her in Hebrew or English at home?

Answer: Yes, she understands Hebrew. They speak to her in Hebrew at daycare. We speak to her exclusively in English at home.

What I would like to answer: Well, if we want her to speak like someone with a severe learning disability we would speak to her exclusively in Hebrew. Of course we speak to her in English, it would be a crime to rob her of the gift of fluency in English.

Oh, I’m really not that bitter…I did have several drinks before jotting all this down. And I was just really missing the land where high fructose corn syrup can’t be found, the hummus is more common in it’s unpackaged form and where salad is served with every meal. I just couldn’t wait to get home already.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap