Fist day of school in Israel

today was the first day at school! i went to the school with my family and we waited for about 20 minutes, then i got taken to my classroom, where i met my teacher, and found out that there were 3 russian kids and 1 american kid, but another russian kid and i both joined, so there were 4 russian kids and 2 american kids.  We practiced hebrew talking, and hebrew cursive, and i have WAY better handwriting in hebrew cursive then in english, cursive or print!

all in all, i enjoyed my day at school.
plus, i created a youtube account last night and will be posting the videos from my trip on it
here is a link to the channel:
My new channel

Passover in Israel

Passover is a jewish holliday that celebrates thejews becoming free from slavery. we went to these peoples' house and they had a 4 year old, a 9 year old and a 12 year old

the  next night wasnt a seder but we had dinner at our friends' house, and they have a three year old and a one year old, who I basically  babysat, and this family has a washing machine and we dont so they will let us use theirs, and when my  parents go over there, i will come with them to play with the kids

Your friend,
               Micah

Shabbat #1 in israel

Last night we went to Shabbat, and I read my book (point blank by anthony horowitz) and it was good!
The  next day we went to services, same story, then we had people over, then we went to our friends the Greybers' house, and played with their three kids. It was fun but I wasn't allowed to play electronic games cuz it was shabbat, so I read a lot.

Today was all in all vey fun and I'm sad that in about a week, i will have to start going to HEBREW SCHOOL! :(


I WANT TO GO HOME,

                                      Micah

The Western Wall

I don't really know how to explain what the western wall means to the jews and why it's special, so here is a paragraph I found on the internet , then I'll tell you about my experience:

It has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries, the earliest source mentioning Jewish attachment to the site dating from the 4th century. From the mid-19th century onwards, attempts to purchase rights to the wall and its immediate area were made by various Jews, but none were successful. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th-century, the wall became a source of friction between the Jewish community and the Muslim religious leadership, who were worried that the wall was being used to further Jewish nationalistic claims to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. Outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace and an international commission was convened in 1930 to determine the rights and claims of Muslims and Jews in connection with the wall. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the wall came under Jordanian control and Jews were barred from the site for 19 years until Israel captured the Old City in 1967.




Usually people write notes to God and put them in little cracks and crevices in the wall, then they pray to god, so I wrote a note and put it in a small crack. Jonah and me praying at the wall:

I want to thank Wikipedia for the article and I'm glad we are finally in Israel



Hope nobody misses me too much,
                                                             Micah

Ariving in Israel

We got to the airport and got in a sherut, or mini bus to our apartment and went to dinner about three blocks away at "Burgers Bar" where I had a HUMUNGO burger and some of Jonah's chicken tenders.....YUM!

The next day, today, we went on a long walk to get to a bunch of stores and bought a bunch of stuff for the apartment. Then we took a taxi ride home and now you are cought up to my present  day!
 P.S. when we arived our apartment smelled like ciggarette smoke, so we bought some fabreeze


I MISS OAKLAND,
                                 Micah

ATLANTS AT LAST!

Atlantis

Today we went to Atlantis water park, and there were many very fun water rides that I went on with my dad. (it was hard to take pictures, so most of my pictures in this post will come from Google Images.
Atlantis is on a man made island near dubai called "The Palm", because it is shaped like a palm tree

First, we went on two rides called "The Plunge" and "The Surge", and they were mostly total darkness, so I couldn't tell if I was facing the right way. (We were on those blow up raft things)

After that, we went on a ride called "The Falls","Stinger", and "Rapids", and I LOVED them all.

Next, we went on "Shark Atack", which goes really fast, then suddenly you are in a tube, that is in the middle of a little pond, and you see: sharks, rays, and fish.  

But best of all, I went on the signature ride of Atlantis, "THE LEAP OF FAITH"! It is only one drop, not a series of a bunch, like the other rides, but it is one big strait down drop, and I loved it! 

Before I went on it, I was scared, but it was AWESOME! I even went on it twice more!
On my third one my dad wanted to make a picture flipbook out of my sliding, so he said to yell out a word when I came down, so i yelled "CHEEEEEEEEEEEZE!", and everyone around him laughed , maybe if you
look closely, you can see my mouth moving! (but i doubt it)
Google pictures:

Dont mind the above words

My photos:

More Dubaii

All I'm going to say is that we went to the dubai mall, the largest mall in the world and i went to this kid civilization thing. i was an artist, race car driver, and more.. it was called kidzania. then we went home and the next day we had lunch at the taallest hotel in the world:

we also went to the tallest building in the world, and the view was amazing.
Atlantis today! :) yayay!

Day 3 in Dubaii

A Museum with a sort of/maybe/a little bit/not really Interesting museum

We went to Museum that i didn't really like, but it was ok.

Then we went to the beach, and it was very fun. we took a few pictures of me and Emmie buried alive.



Me



Emmie

.

again, sorry i couldn't make a long post, but I don't have much to say about today, but in a few days, we will be going to a water park called Atlantis, and i will have a lot to say about that. Oh great, now I'm giving away too much of a sneak peak, and i won't say anymore! Like in my last post, i thought i would start signing my posts

Miss you all,

                    Micah I. Bloom 

Day 2 in Dubaii

Today we went to see the movie  Rango, which was great, and we loved it!

Then we went to a little shopping market, and it was great!

sorry this post was so short, it's just that i try to post as frequently as i can and i'm doing this just before bed at about 9:30 pm or 10:30 am Oakland time.

Hope life is great wherever you are reading this post,
                                                            Micah

Arriving in Dubai and our first day here

We arrived in the Dubai airport at 5 in the morning and we hung out there until about 6 when we took a taxi to the house that we were staying at.  When we arrived at the house, ny dad's childhood friend, Justin, greeted us.  A few hours later, his son Sam woke up.  Sam is in 3rd grade and he's 9 so he's closer to Jonah's age but I'm better friends with him than Jonah.  In another couple hours, Justin's daughter Emmie woke up and Sam, Emmie, Jonah, and I put on a play.  That day, my family went swimming in their pool and we went to a HUGE mall, The Mall of the Emirates.  Inside it, we saw many great restaurants, a HUGE arcade, and a ski mountain which was in between the mall and the hotel next door called the Kempinsky.  Inside one of the various food courts, there was a place called the Shake Shack which they also have in New York. I got a delicious black and white shake which had chocolate, vanilla, and custard.  In the arcade, which was called Magic Planet, there were many games and rides.  I saw this movie simulation of a roller coaster called the Cosmic Coaster.  And it was AWESOME!  Jonah went on the bumper cars with three teenagers.  Then we played a car racing game with the whole family but some of the cars didn't work.  The ski mountain was very cool because it had a chair lift and a luge slide.  Then we went home, had dinner, and went to bed.

Jonah on the bumper cars

China: part 3: Beijing: HOW CAN YOU CHOSE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?

The First Day

On the first day, the first thing we did was go to the Forbidden City, which is a part of Beijing that only the Emperor and his highest ranked officials could go in.  In the Forbidden City, it was believed that there were 9,999 and 1/2 rooms but there is actually 8,704 rooms.  While we were there, we explored the courtyards and various halls.  Next we went to Tienamen Square, even though we didn't know we were there.  After that we went to the Temple of Heaven and we walked through it.




palace at the forbidden city



 another palace at the forbidden city

The Second Day

On the second day, we went to the Great Wall of China.  We climbed up various hill through defense towers and up one VERY BIG hill.  While there, we saw a lot of graffiti in one room and Eli and I made a video to explain the graffiti in a funny way.  We called it GRA-FEE-TA, the ancient Chinese calligraphy.  Then we went to an antique market but it wasn't the one we were looking for.  So the kids stayed in the car.



the very big staircase



The Third Day

On the third day, we went to the Beijing Zoo and saw pandas, hippos, rhinos, monkeys, and other creatures.  I don't really have much to say about the zoo, except that it was amazing, so I guess you can just look at the following pictures.  After that we went to a show with acrobats, magic, singing, and dancing.  And I will have pictures of that too.

China: part two: Kaifeng: Who's ever heard of Kaifeng anyways?

Kaifeng

To get to Kaifeng, we took a train, and it was very late arriving and when we finally did, we barely got to the hotel which was very nice. Kaifeng, pronounced KIE-Fung, was a very big city in the 1400s, and there was a small Jewish community that strived, and a nice man named Shi-Lei showed us the sites in the city, both Jewish, and Chinese. I knew it would be fun, hanging out with all three Baum children, all week long.

  

The Jewish Sites

The first Jewish site we saw was a small museum that was at a theme park.  Not a theme park with rides, but a park sort of like a county fair.  It told the history of Jews in Kaifeng.  Next we went to "Teach Torah Lane," a street that used to be filled with Jews but isn't any more.  But they still call it Teach Torah Lane.  After that we saw Shi Lei's house where the few remaining Jews in Kaifeng meet to practice prayer. After that, we got on the airplane to go to Beijing, and I will post about Beijing.

The two families at Shi Lei's house



a picture of the synnagogue used in the days of the Kaifeng jews

Teach Torah Lane

 

China: part 1: Shanghai: NO SOCIAL NETWORKING!

China and it's internet

In Shanghai we were blocked from YOUtube, Facebook, Twitter, and worst of all, blogger. China blocks all these internet sites because they want to control what people say to the rest of the world. For most of our time in China, we had Gmail, but for the last few days, we couldnt because it was blocked. We didn't know why, but we hope to find out soon. Ok, i'm getting a bit off topic. I'm just gonna start talking about Shanghai now.

Arriving in Shanghai

When we arrived, we got picked up by the driver of our great friends the Bessler-Baums' who took us to their house, and we hung out there until the three kids got back from their school, which is called SCIS, or Shanghai Community International School. Next, the oldest child, Eli showed me his room, and we used his laptop. After that, the youngest child, Sam, showed me his pokemon, silly bandz, and laptop. After that, the middle child, Max, showed me this mock YOUtube that China has, called youku, and surprisingly, many of the videos I've seen on YOUtube, were on youku! Finally, we went to our hotel room, and had dinner, and I went back to the Bessler-Baums' house because i was going to Eli's class and school the next day.



Obama as Chairman Mao, the first communist leader of China




Shanghai skyscrapers



Going to SCIS

In the morning we had breakfast, and I borrowed one of Eli's school uniforms and we got on the bus to go to school. When at school,  a lot of the day was free time because it was the last day before a break, so I wasn't too bored. It was amazing to see all these kids from around the world, coming together with one language, English. I made friends with people from Japan, Ireland, America, and many more places. 

SCIS website:     http://www.scischina.org/