in Eilat

Okay, one week now in Israel. Three weeks more of traveling with my parents.
*breathes in*
*holds it*
*breathes out*

By yesterday I was about ready to kill my dad. Because he's an Israeli citizen, if we'd rented the car under his name we would have had to pay extra taxes. So I'm doing nearly all the driving (with my mom helping out a bit). This is fine, I don't mind driving. But my dad is the worst navigator and "back seat" driver you ever met. "Turn left, no not here. Oh maybe right. Oh maybe you should make a U-turn". He also doesn't seem to notice small road signs like "one way" or "do not enter".

It amazes me the lengths my parents will go to not to pay for parking. Is it a New York thing? a Jewish thing? No clue. But I spent literally an hour driving around Old Jerusalem (think very small, crowded streets, built a thousand years ago, not made for cars) to save $6. Thing is, we're not actually that poor. But my parents and I think of money very differently. They see that as $6 saved (minus gas, of course) whereas I see that as an hour lost. I suppose it's that they grew up in very poor households and were constantly having to be careful with their money. Whereas I've lived the Silicon Valley lifestyle and, which is a different perspective altogether. Anyway, from now on my mom gets to drive when we're in "looking for free / cheap parking" mode cause I just can't deal with it.

Jerusalem, actually, made me uncomfortable on the whole. The first place we went to was Yad v'Shem, the Holocaust memorial museum. I didn't know we were going there until we got to Jerusalem and my mom said she wanted to go. I suppose it wouldn't have made much difference if I'd been mentally prepared, places like that are always hard to deal with. It's one of those things which you know you have to do, you know it's going to hurt, and you know there's nothing you can do about it.

The museum is done very well and the architecture is quite striking. It's very designy but also very cool (separate, of course, from the contents). The contents are also done very well. There are something like 15 rooms and it takes you through a history of the war and the holocaust, starting with the rise of Hitler and the sentiments in Germany after WWI, and continuing through to the end after the end of WWII and the liberation of the concentration camps. There are a lot of video clips and survivor accounts. All in clean, crisp, air-conditioned comfort, which causes some small dissonance.

These things get me *very* emotional (I refuse to watch Schindler's List ever again. Twice was once too many). But I know they don't affect everybody the same way. Perhaps it's growing up having heard about this once a year every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day. I want to say it's because I'm Jewish, but my dad was actually falling asleep through many of the exhibitions. But then, he's not exactly the sensitive type. So who gets affected by these things and who doesn't? By "affected" I mean feelings of desperate sadness, hopelessness, pain, and concern about the human race and its capacity to do evil. Some people can go through a museum like that and not be crying. I wonder what I hear that they don't, or vice versa.

The difference between Yad v'Shem and the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima is striking. Yad v'Shem is very much "the Germans (and the world) did this to us". In the Peace Memorial, they talk about how Japan was very expansionist and militaristic. And while they don't condone the A-bomb, there's kind of a sense of "we deserved it, at least somewhat" as well as "the Americans had no idea how bad it would be". The last, at least, is probably somewhat true. Which is perhaps why it's not as vilified as the Holocaust. But it's interesting that I don't have nearly the visceral reaction to the A-bomb as I do to the Holocaust.

After Yad v'Shem, we went into Old Jerusalem (see parking episode above) and went to the Wailing Wall- the site of the first temple in Jerusalem and the holiest place in the world to Jews. Again I felt uncomfortable. There was a service going on there and a lot of very religious people around me. And it just felt crowded and I felt very judged. There was no sense for me of spirituality or awe. In fact, I have felt a lot more peace, calm, and spirituality in Japanese Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples than I did there. It seems to prove more and more to me that I'm not much of a Jew. And yet I am. There's no changing that that's how I was brought up and that's my family. My history.

Jerusalem was Thursday. Friday and Saturday were mostly about family in Tel-Aviv. Sunday we drove here.

And today we spent in Eilat, the resort town of Israel. It's on the order of Honolulu for atmosphere, though it's a lot drier here. Very young crowd- late teens to early 20s. All good-looking people in skimpy bathing suits on the beach. We went to an aquarium and then to the beach. Today was the best day so far. We even had a really nice fish dinner tonight that cost *gasp* more than $15 per person (though not much more). (I *really* don't understand my parents and money.)
Somehow being in Tel-Aviv was always stressful because we had to see so much family in such a short time. So perhaps things will get better from here.

Tomorrow we'll go snorkeling and then head up to Masada and the Dead Sea for a few days. It'll be hot, but hopefully interesting as well.