Yesterday, we all went home with with our host families. On the bus to Nazareth, Yasmeen and Ashton got a call from Yasmeen’s sister saying that her grandfather had had an accident and died. Because Yasmeen’s family was not able anymore to take care of a foreign student, Naïki’s host, Jiana, was so friendly to take Ashton into her house. That same night, we wanted to get to know each other and decided to go to the beach which was very nice. We talked about their religion, the Druze, and how they feel about love. This was interesting for Naïki because her bachelorpaper’s subject is 1.Kor.13. aka Love J
When we got back from the beach, we took some funny pictures with the students and drank Mate tea which comes from Argentina. We, Naïki and Ashton, both burned our tongue but we have to say, it was very delicious!
This morning, we got up around 7h30 to attend our first Arabic class ever, which started at 8h. It was about the cognitive domain of Bloom. The teacher was so nice to explain the subject in English first so we knew what the class would be about. After her explanation,she started to teach in Arabic which we did not understand at all. :)
After our first Arabic class, we gave Doctor Taha and his students a presentation about Ghent, Arteveldehogeschool, Belgium and our subjects. This presentation led to interesting converstations concerning the political and religious situation in Israel.
Since Jiana has an exam tomorrow and has to study all day, we wanted to explore Haifa a bit more. Around noon, we left school with Laura and her host, Sereen, and her boyfriend, Achmed, to visit Akko (in English, Acre) which is one of the oldest inhabited sites in Israel. Sereen told us that Greek historians refer to the city as Ake, meaning "cure." According to the Greek myth, Heracles found curative herbs here to heal his wounds.
When in Akko, we walked through the Soux and visited the Templar tunnel. This is an underground tunnel under Acre's old city streets. The tunnel leads from the Templars Palace which was destroyed in 1921 and in the sea up to Acre's port in the east. The tunnel was built in the late 12th century as a stratigical underground route used by the Templar monastery who moved to Acre after Jerusalem was conquered Salah A-Din. The tunnel in 350 m' long.
After the Templar tunnel, we visited the The Mosque of Jezzar Pasha which was built in 1781. Jezzae Pasha and his successor Suleiman Pasha, are both buried in a small graveyard near to the mosque. In a shrine on the second level of the mosque, a single hair from the prophet Mohammed's beard is kept and shown on special ceremonial occasions.
When we got back home from Akko, we made some Belgian food for Jiana and her roommate. We went to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for our specialty : pasta with peppers, mushrooms, onion, apples, pesto, Boursin and chicken. We can assure you, it was fabulous! :)
We’re looking forward to tomorrow when we’ll go to Galilea with all the students.
تحياتي
Naïki & Ashton
Jiana, Ashton, Thara & Naïki at the beach
Acre or Akko
The Templar tunnel
The Mosque of Akko
Mate tea
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