There was a bombing in Jerusalem today.
Things like this happen, and I suddenly remember that I am, in fact, in Israel. For better or worse.
I had planned on paying more attention than usual in Women in Israel today (great topic, but the professor's misuse of prepositions makes it nigh impossible to follow her lecture as closely as one might like), when a Gchat from my Hebrew University friends informed me of the bombing. For the rest of the class, I had one eye on the Arabic movie with English subtitles being projected onto the whiteboard, and the other on Haaretz, JPost and CNN for updates. All of my Israel friends are fine, to the best of my knowledge. But even all the way up in Haifa, I felt pretty shaken up. Partly for my own sake, but mostly, I think, in solidarity with those that were closer to the tragedy. Israel's a small place--when events like this occur, you begin to feel connected to everyone.
Then I read about the events in the south these past few weeks with the rockets (I really believe that the International School should keep us more informed of current events in Israel--I'm actually quite annoyed that I only heard about about the killing in Itamar and the rockets in Beer Sheva by coincidence many days after the facts). All of this news fills me with worry for the state of the State of Israel. I know that we are strong, but I hope that we won't have to pay with any more lives. (Am I allowed to say "we"? I've been force-fed the Bnei Akiva doctrine of "Israel is YOUR home" for nine years of my life, and I've now lived in this country for a total of six--albeit nonconsecutive--months. But can I count myself in the "we" yet? A question that I still haven't answered for myself.)
One thing scares me most is that I'm now at the age where I know boys and girls that are serving in the Israeli army. On the one hand, I'm glad that the army is so present and ready to defend us should the occasion call; on the other, I'm not glad that it is my friends--present and former both--that will have to be the ones to do so. It brings everything much closer to home, adds another degree of worry to the list.
Just to be clear, I do not feel unsafe here. My program has given us no indication that we should be wary of any places or bus lines, and life in Haifa is continuing as usual. Given the responsible and efficient way that the university handled the evacuation during the Carmel fire last semester, I am confident that, in the event of an emergency, the correct measures will be taken to ensure our safety.
Until next time, hopefully with happier thoughts to share,
Ariel
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
How to Avoid Death by Drowning
I was about to watch the latest Shameless episode and/or continue the aimless Facebooking that has become the main constitution of my free time of late, when I became aware (via Facebook, of course) that this person has yet again updated his Israel blog. His number of entires is now up to an impressive 30, while mine are at a measly 13 (granted, mine are longer--yes, you're right). Since I know that I'll likely be met back at Brandeis with an "I blogged more than you did!" or two (or three...or an infinite number) if I don't step it up, I've decided to do just that.
A bunch of music-related things have happened to me in the past few days (What? A musical discussion topic in Rhythm and Muzika? Shocking...). My friend Jeremy had said earlier in the semester that he'd help me with my (very) amateur a cappella arrangement of Gavin Degraw's "Chariot," and it looks like tomorrow morning will be day one of the process. I hope to be able to put the parts that I've sung into Garageband onto an actual virtual music score (that sounds oxymoronic, but what I mean is a real, computerized music score), both to make it easier for me to move on with and edit the arrangement, as well as to learn more about how to write music. The notes I can figure out, but the timing was a real challenge when I tried to do this myself before--so hopefully I'll learn something here that will make me better able to arrange songs on my own in the future.
Music-related event number two: we started our volunteer projects in Haifa today, and Jeremy and I are hoping to start a music activity with the kids at the community center. They have some really sophisticated recording technology, so one idea--if the kids are interested--is to teach them songs and record a few tracks for a CD. If we sang some English songs along with the Hebrew ones, we could also integrate some English teaching through the music. If it all works out, I think it could be a really great project on many levels!
Music story 3: I signed up to audition on Sunday in Tel Aviv for a Jewish singing competition run by the Masa organization. The prizes are pretty intense--recording with an Israeli star, going on a combined touring/voice training trip around Israel in August, and more things that I cannot remember--but to be perfectly honest, I'm going to the audition simply for the experience. The chances of winning are super slim, but I figure that that gives me more of a chance to breath--literally--and enjoy a low-pressure audition in which I can practice not being nervous at this type of thing for once. Plus, for all of my talk (actually, "all of my thought" might be more accurate) about how my dream is to be singing/playing guitar one day on the street/in a cafe/in my room and be noticed by the right people who could make my dream music career a reality, I would be incredibly silly not to go to Tel Aviv on Sunday.
It's like that joke about the man who's about to drown in a flood and waits for G-d to save him: a boat passes by and he doesn't take it; a helicopter drops a rope down but he refuses; a whale swims by and he doesn't climb on. Ultimately he drowns, and up in Heaven asks G-d why He didn't send him any help--to which G-d replies that He sent him a boat, a helicopter and a whale, but the man simply wouldn't take the help that was sent his way.
I do NOT want to be that dead man--literally or metaphorically speaking.
A bunch of music-related things have happened to me in the past few days (What? A musical discussion topic in Rhythm and Muzika? Shocking...). My friend Jeremy had said earlier in the semester that he'd help me with my (very) amateur a cappella arrangement of Gavin Degraw's "Chariot," and it looks like tomorrow morning will be day one of the process. I hope to be able to put the parts that I've sung into Garageband onto an actual virtual music score (that sounds oxymoronic, but what I mean is a real, computerized music score), both to make it easier for me to move on with and edit the arrangement, as well as to learn more about how to write music. The notes I can figure out, but the timing was a real challenge when I tried to do this myself before--so hopefully I'll learn something here that will make me better able to arrange songs on my own in the future.
Music-related event number two: we started our volunteer projects in Haifa today, and Jeremy and I are hoping to start a music activity with the kids at the community center. They have some really sophisticated recording technology, so one idea--if the kids are interested--is to teach them songs and record a few tracks for a CD. If we sang some English songs along with the Hebrew ones, we could also integrate some English teaching through the music. If it all works out, I think it could be a really great project on many levels!
Music story 3: I signed up to audition on Sunday in Tel Aviv for a Jewish singing competition run by the Masa organization. The prizes are pretty intense--recording with an Israeli star, going on a combined touring/voice training trip around Israel in August, and more things that I cannot remember--but to be perfectly honest, I'm going to the audition simply for the experience. The chances of winning are super slim, but I figure that that gives me more of a chance to breath--literally--and enjoy a low-pressure audition in which I can practice not being nervous at this type of thing for once. Plus, for all of my talk (actually, "all of my thought" might be more accurate) about how my dream is to be singing/playing guitar one day on the street/in a cafe/in my room and be noticed by the right people who could make my dream music career a reality, I would be incredibly silly not to go to Tel Aviv on Sunday.
It's like that joke about the man who's about to drown in a flood and waits for G-d to save him: a boat passes by and he doesn't take it; a helicopter drops a rope down but he refuses; a whale swims by and he doesn't climb on. Ultimately he drowns, and up in Heaven asks G-d why He didn't send him any help--to which G-d replies that He sent him a boat, a helicopter and a whale, but the man simply wouldn't take the help that was sent his way.
I do NOT want to be that dead man--literally or metaphorically speaking.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
I'm Too Tired to Think of a Real Title--Sorry
Only a week and a bit late: Eilat was amazing.
Lovely desert views, relatively challenging hikes (the second day more so than the first, but both were really pretty), cooking משותף. I chopped veggies for the salad.
Friday night we slept outside--וואי, איזה קור!--and had one and a half kabbalat shabbat services. The first was a spontaneous Carlebach service, made possible by one siddur and a few curious participants (some knew the words, some did not, but who needs words when you're swaying kumbaya-style?). Unfortunately, we were asked to stop our slightly more traditional service to join the official International School one, which consisted of kiddush around the bonfire. I guess that version had its merits, too (warmth for one, bigger group atmosphere for another), but the intimate makeshift service definitely did more for me. Aside from my general preference for the traditional תפילות, I always take a lot from group singing. When harmonies are involved, the resonances always seem to me to reach to שמים.
Sleeping outside on Friday night was definitely an experience. Freezing, but no animals, thank goodness: nighttime visits from baby rattlesnakes and their desert equivalents more than once a year is more than I can handle. The stars apparently out in the wee hours of the morning, but while I was likely awake at that time I didn't think at any point to turn my head up to look at the sky (that would have meant facing not only the stars, but the wind, too). So, sadly, no stars, but at least I was able to keep my face warm.
After a full day of hiking on Saturday, we had a free night in Eilat. That ended earlier than you might expect since, sun-tired and hungry, most of us went to sleep right after dinner (yummy all you can eat laffa and salads at a mediterranean place a little bit off the beaten track--next to an abandoned lot, in fact, though the location says nothing about the venue or its food).
On Sunday morning, the girls and I walked around the Eilat mall until it was warm enough outside to go to the beach. There, we found out that customer service is somewhat unheard of in many parts of this country. Example from the שטח: Most of the stores in the mall were just starting to open, and a Claire's-like accessories store caught our collective eye. The door was open, so we walked in to look at their headbands. All of a sudden, an angry Israeli woman came up behind us: Couldn't we see that the doors were closed? We're not open yet! Get out! Now, first of all, one of her doors was open, so speaking to us like idiots who had walked into a closed store was just plain inaccurate. Second of all, taking that tone with potential patrons was a sure way to guarantee that none of us would ever walk into her store again.
We left the mall soon after that episode and spent the rest of the morning in the sun, rude cashiers forgotten. Eilat's beach was certainly nothing to sneeze at--very rocky, with 20-shekel-to-sit lounge chairs polluting most of the sittable sand--but we found some open sand/rocks/glass that fit our sunbathing purposes quite nicely, and camped out there for a few hours. Then came the bus ride back home to Haifa, an appraisal of the day's tan (definitely visible, but the SPF 30 prevented any true Eilat color--I should be thankful, I guess), and some much needed sleep.
Monday night I went out with Gilly (apartmentmate), her boyfriend and miscellaneous International Schoolers to the Irish House bar in Merkaz Hakarmel, which was fun both because it just was, and because it was a Monday night (I still haven't gotten over the weeknight fun culture of Israel/study abroad). Thursday night a group of us went to Duke for St. Patrick's day--another Irish bar and another great time.
Friday I met Doreen in Tel Aviv, and from there we went down to Ashdod to stay with her cousins for Shabbos. A really sweet family, great food, lots of Hebrew, and a beach nearby. I learned the Hebrew word for "to tan" (להשתזף--which I actually did this time!), found out what it means to poyke on the beach (don't get any ideas--a poyke is a type of pot used for slow-cooking veggies and meat), and still made it back to Haifa in time for אגודת הסטודנטים's (basically the Student Union) Purim party at the Haifa Convention Center. Excellent DJ, though the main event--an Ivri Lider performance--didn't start until 2am, and my friends and I ended up leaving the concert after only three or four songs. Given that my feet hurt from dancing, my throat hurt from the smoke (when will Israel make it illegal to smoke indoors??), my head hurt from not having eaten enough between a late couscous lunch in Ashdod and the rager, and given the fact that I was less than thrilled with the beginning of Lider's performance, I was happy to head home.
On the table for this week:
Class, International School Purim party, volunteer orientation (I'll tell you more about that when I know more about it), and Shabbat in Hashmonaim.
Talk to you later :)
Lovely desert views, relatively challenging hikes (the second day more so than the first, but both were really pretty), cooking משותף. I chopped veggies for the salad.
Friday night we slept outside--וואי, איזה קור!--and had one and a half kabbalat shabbat services. The first was a spontaneous Carlebach service, made possible by one siddur and a few curious participants (some knew the words, some did not, but who needs words when you're swaying kumbaya-style?). Unfortunately, we were asked to stop our slightly more traditional service to join the official International School one, which consisted of kiddush around the bonfire. I guess that version had its merits, too (warmth for one, bigger group atmosphere for another), but the intimate makeshift service definitely did more for me. Aside from my general preference for the traditional תפילות, I always take a lot from group singing. When harmonies are involved, the resonances always seem to me to reach to שמים.
Sleeping outside on Friday night was definitely an experience. Freezing, but no animals, thank goodness: nighttime visits from baby rattlesnakes and their desert equivalents more than once a year is more than I can handle. The stars apparently out in the wee hours of the morning, but while I was likely awake at that time I didn't think at any point to turn my head up to look at the sky (that would have meant facing not only the stars, but the wind, too). So, sadly, no stars, but at least I was able to keep my face warm.
After a full day of hiking on Saturday, we had a free night in Eilat. That ended earlier than you might expect since, sun-tired and hungry, most of us went to sleep right after dinner (yummy all you can eat laffa and salads at a mediterranean place a little bit off the beaten track--next to an abandoned lot, in fact, though the location says nothing about the venue or its food).
On Sunday morning, the girls and I walked around the Eilat mall until it was warm enough outside to go to the beach. There, we found out that customer service is somewhat unheard of in many parts of this country. Example from the שטח: Most of the stores in the mall were just starting to open, and a Claire's-like accessories store caught our collective eye. The door was open, so we walked in to look at their headbands. All of a sudden, an angry Israeli woman came up behind us: Couldn't we see that the doors were closed? We're not open yet! Get out! Now, first of all, one of her doors was open, so speaking to us like idiots who had walked into a closed store was just plain inaccurate. Second of all, taking that tone with potential patrons was a sure way to guarantee that none of us would ever walk into her store again.
We left the mall soon after that episode and spent the rest of the morning in the sun, rude cashiers forgotten. Eilat's beach was certainly nothing to sneeze at--very rocky, with 20-shekel-to-sit lounge chairs polluting most of the sittable sand--but we found some open sand/rocks/glass that fit our sunbathing purposes quite nicely, and camped out there for a few hours. Then came the bus ride back home to Haifa, an appraisal of the day's tan (definitely visible, but the SPF 30 prevented any true Eilat color--I should be thankful, I guess), and some much needed sleep.
Monday night I went out with Gilly (apartmentmate), her boyfriend and miscellaneous International Schoolers to the Irish House bar in Merkaz Hakarmel, which was fun both because it just was, and because it was a Monday night (I still haven't gotten over the weeknight fun culture of Israel/study abroad). Thursday night a group of us went to Duke for St. Patrick's day--another Irish bar and another great time.
Friday I met Doreen in Tel Aviv, and from there we went down to Ashdod to stay with her cousins for Shabbos. A really sweet family, great food, lots of Hebrew, and a beach nearby. I learned the Hebrew word for "to tan" (להשתזף--which I actually did this time!), found out what it means to poyke on the beach (don't get any ideas--a poyke is a type of pot used for slow-cooking veggies and meat), and still made it back to Haifa in time for אגודת הסטודנטים's (basically the Student Union) Purim party at the Haifa Convention Center. Excellent DJ, though the main event--an Ivri Lider performance--didn't start until 2am, and my friends and I ended up leaving the concert after only three or four songs. Given that my feet hurt from dancing, my throat hurt from the smoke (when will Israel make it illegal to smoke indoors??), my head hurt from not having eaten enough between a late couscous lunch in Ashdod and the rager, and given the fact that I was less than thrilled with the beginning of Lider's performance, I was happy to head home.
On the table for this week:
Class, International School Purim party, volunteer orientation (I'll tell you more about that when I know more about it), and Shabbat in Hashmonaim.
Talk to you later :)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Beaches and Bank Runs
Quick update!
We're going to Eilat this weekend--scheduled to get on a bus at 4am tomorrow morning (in other words, really REALLY late tonight), hike all of Friday, sleep outside on Friday night, hike Saturday day, sleep at a youth hostel Saturday night, beach it Sunday morning through early-afternoon, head back to haifa Sunday at 1pm.
Things I'm particularly excited for:
1. THE EXERCISE!
2. The views
3. The scheduled Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday night
4. The bonding time
5. The hiking tan
6. The beach tan
7. The warm weather (at the beach--not so much on the hike)
8. Potentially seeing my camp friend at some point during the weekend
Things I'm not particularly excited for:
1. The scheduled bonfire after Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday night (not that I don't love bonfires--I'm just not so comfortable with the idea of lighting a fire immediately after praying to G-d to welcome the Shabbat, the one day of the week when fire is explicitly forbidden...Do we think it's the thought that counts here, too?)
2. Starting a full day hike after waking up at 4am the night before and enduring a long, likely sleep-deprived bus ride
3. The possibly cold conditions under which we'll be sleeping in the desert on Friday night
4. The desert creatures I may encounter during said outdoor slumber.
I'm all for sleeping in tents, but the last time I slept outside (on the Trail with Abba two--was it three?--summers ago), I could not stay asleep for more than 10 minutes at a time out of fear that bears/snakes/mice/many-legged insects were going to eat me. And for the record, the snake fear was not completely unjustified: earlier that night, I happened upon a baby rattlesnake close by our camp site...(The funnier part of that story was that the thru-hiker who was sharing the site with us for the night tried to catch the snake, in the hopes of posing with it for a picture to send back home to his mother down south. This baby rattle turned out to be too feisty even for a snake-catching pro like [What-Was-His-Trail-Name??], however, and after a few moments of deliberation--in which WWHTN had the snake pinned by the neck at the end of a stick--WWHTN freed the snake from his immobilizing half-nelson, no picture taken for dear mama. I hope she wasn't too upset.)
Off to meet with an economics professor to comprehend his generally incomprehensible lessons...Anyone want to start a bank run?
We're going to Eilat this weekend--scheduled to get on a bus at 4am tomorrow morning (in other words, really REALLY late tonight), hike all of Friday, sleep outside on Friday night, hike Saturday day, sleep at a youth hostel Saturday night, beach it Sunday morning through early-afternoon, head back to haifa Sunday at 1pm.
Things I'm particularly excited for:
1. THE EXERCISE!
2. The views
3. The scheduled Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday night
4. The bonding time
5. The hiking tan
6. The beach tan
7. The warm weather (at the beach--not so much on the hike)
8. Potentially seeing my camp friend at some point during the weekend
Things I'm not particularly excited for:
1. The scheduled bonfire after Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday night (not that I don't love bonfires--I'm just not so comfortable with the idea of lighting a fire immediately after praying to G-d to welcome the Shabbat, the one day of the week when fire is explicitly forbidden...Do we think it's the thought that counts here, too?)
2. Starting a full day hike after waking up at 4am the night before and enduring a long, likely sleep-deprived bus ride
3. The possibly cold conditions under which we'll be sleeping in the desert on Friday night
4. The desert creatures I may encounter during said outdoor slumber.
I'm all for sleeping in tents, but the last time I slept outside (on the Trail with Abba two--was it three?--summers ago), I could not stay asleep for more than 10 minutes at a time out of fear that bears/snakes/mice/many-legged insects were going to eat me. And for the record, the snake fear was not completely unjustified: earlier that night, I happened upon a baby rattlesnake close by our camp site...(The funnier part of that story was that the thru-hiker who was sharing the site with us for the night tried to catch the snake, in the hopes of posing with it for a picture to send back home to his mother down south. This baby rattle turned out to be too feisty even for a snake-catching pro like [What-Was-His-Trail-Name??], however, and after a few moments of deliberation--in which WWHTN had the snake pinned by the neck at the end of a stick--WWHTN freed the snake from his immobilizing half-nelson, no picture taken for dear mama. I hope she wasn't too upset.)
Off to meet with an economics professor to comprehend his generally incomprehensible lessons...Anyone want to start a bank run?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Everything Since Last Weekend
The great thing about forgetting to update your blog is that you get to not update your blog. The bad thing about forgetting to update your blog is that when you finally remember to update it (לעדכן, by the way, from ''עד כאן''), the prospect of putting your many days' worth of undocumented adventures onto virtual pen and paper looms before you ever more hugely, making the decision to finally sit down to the task that much less appealing. You will be relieved to know, however, that no matter how often I find myself not looking forward to sitting down and writing a week’s worth of happenings in a single sitting, once I open up my laptop and place my fingers on the keys, I can’t help but do just that—and enjoy it. It’s curious how many things in life play out that way.
Now, where to begin?
Last weekend was a marvelous blur of unending entertainment: a Hadag Nachash (“the fish is a snake”) concert on Thursday night, followed by an early morning bus to Jerusalem on Friday to stay with Hillel and Rose for the weekend. We spent Shabbat with Hillel’s parents, cousins, aunt and uncle at his parents’ rented apartment in Rechavia, davened a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat at a packed Carlebach shull on Friday night, ate a plethora of schnitzel, caught up on sleep, and caught up in general. Saturday night we went back to Hebrew University, where we stocked up on Burgers Bar (something that’s missing rather conspicuously from the Haifa restaurant scene), added a few more bottles of wine to Suite 413’s collection (no, we did not drink it all ourselves—we merely finished up the Shabbos leftovers), and went to the Ben Yehuda area for the night’s events. I hung out with real Israelis (it helps with you have a crazy Israeli neighbor named Itai who gives you homemade hummus and rides to the bars in his red sports car), saw camp friends, and generally had a swell time. You’ve gotta love Israeli theater class-induced friendships: after all the אימפרוביזציה and קטרזיס, there’s no turning back.
Sunday we (all the Haifa kids that spent Shabbat in Jerusalem) met up with the rest of the program for an organized tour of the Old City. I had Yisrael—one of the International School professors—as my tour guide, and in many ways he reminded me of my Core teacher, Reuven. He knew his Jerusalem like the back of his hand, and used the Bible—albeit in English—as a walking commentary. We saw the Christian religious sights, too, which was a first for me. I just wish we’d had more time at the Kotel, but I know I'll go back there on my own soon.
Probably the most exciting thing about the trip (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration—but this was definitely exciting, and a first) was that I saw two soldiers that I knew while walking around the city. One, Josh, I saw while wandering through Machane Yehuda with Hillel and Nadav; and the other, Ben, I saw while on the Old City tour. The Ben sighting was particularly entertaining: the city was full of soldiers that day because it was a designated יום תרבות, culture day, in which the soldiers get taken on tours and learn about different things in Israel (from what I gathered). Ben is a mefaked (commander) and at one point, a few of his soldiers ran to join a group of kids who had spontaneously broken into song and dance to welcome the happy month of Adar. Like a camp counselor who needed to bring his campers back to their assigned activity, Ben went to coax each of his soldiers out of the rotating circle of happiness—and just like campers, each soldier waited to be taken out individually by his commander. It’s funny how boys never change.
The week was a jumble of scheduling decisions that I’m very glad has finally come to an end. I’ll be taking four classes this semester and auditing one (though since it’s at 8:30 in the morning on Thursdays, there may very well be a number of weeks that I won’t be there—the beauty of auditing is that it shouldn’t matter): Women in Israel; Markets, Games and Strategic Behavior; Modern Hebrew Literature; Introduction to Rabbinic Literature; and Difference and Equality: the Jewish Struggle for Rights (for the audit). Hopefully, I’ll be getting major/minor credit for two of those. If I don’t, it will be interesting to see how I’ll graduate by next May!
Thursday was another night of dancing (GREAT exercise), Friday we made Shabbat dinner (I don’t think it was entirely kosher halachically speaking, but I’m hoping it was the thought that counted there), and today was down to business work-wise, because tomorrow is…(drum rull please) TEL AVIV! ETD: 09:45. Itinerary: TBA (though I know it includes the beach and 75 degree weather). Shopping goals: 1 dorky hat for Eilat hike next weekend, 1 pair cheap sunglasses. The possibilities for fun times are endless.
Lilah tov everyone,
Ariel
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