The Decision

    This weekend I went to Jerusalem as a "it's the last time" kind of thing. My friend and I were supposed to stay with a one of my friend's cousins, but that didn't work out so we ended up crashing at some friends of a friend's apartment at Hebrew University. Because I spent the weekend there, I got a taste of the University and I am happy that I chose Haifa. It's good to know that I made the right decision and that I chose correctly for me. The apartments are nice. The kitchen/common area is much nicer than where I live, but the rooms are small, although they have a lot of shelves and a big desk, and there are separate rooms for the toilets, sinks, and shower. The downside that I personally saw was that you are surrounded my Americans. All their roommates were American, all their neighbors are American and everyone speaks English. I like the fact that I have ONE American roommate, from Illinois, one Danish roommate, and three Israeli roommates. If I wanted to, I could use my Hebrew. I never see them so I don't usually talk to them period. Also, the program that they were in is really big and I think mostly, of not all, American. I like that my program is only a little bit over a hundred and that some of my friends are from different countries. I now have a reason to go visit Denmark and Hungary.
    My friend and I left Haifa in the early morning Friday and made good timing to Jerusalem. We managed not to get lost going from the bus station to Hebrew U. That night for Shabbat, the girls in the apartment had a potluck for their friends and I think I was connected to all of them somehow. Which was another reason I'm glad I didn't choose Hebrew U. Everyone knows each other. I like that going to Haifa will only be MY experience. I mean yes it would have been nice/helpful to have someone from umass here, but by being on my own, I feel that I got to experience everything more. I got to be who I wanted to be. No one knew anything about me and I could mold myself into the person that I wanted to be. One of the people that was there goes to Mt. Holyoke, a few know a bunch of people I know at Umass, one knows a friend of my brother's. The connections keep going and it was quite amusing. After everyone left we decided to go to sleep and instead of sleeping on the common area floor, someone picked the lock to one of the empty rooms and so there was a bed and our own room.
    Saturday, we slept late-ish according to normal people standards and walked to the Old City. It was about an hour walk there, even with us getting lost, which I thought was impressive. The girl that we were staying with did not give us the most, um, greatest directions so we had to ask a few times:
"How do we get to the old city?"
"Turn left at the end of this street. Keep walk straight and then ask someone else."
The best answer, if I've ever heard one. Because both of us were on a mission, we walked through the Arab shuk looking for scarves. (Yes, Leah. I got you one). For lunch, we stopped at the best pizza place in Israel. And although that's not saying much. I will go as far to compare it to New York pizza. It was so good. The best pizza (even though it was the second time) I've had in Israel...now for that burger that I've been craving for three months We then walked to the Kotel for one last looksee and then went back to the shuk to complete our mission. We walked through the Jewish quarter looking for the cardo and we got a little lost, but I found our way. We bought the necessary scarves for the appropriate people and started to head back. This time it took longer because we got lost. And that's not our fault. I mean we did head up the wrong street at first, but we were turning around on Jaffa Street looking at map, (Read: looking touristy), this guy asked us where we wanted to go and we told him Hebrew University. Basically his directions were to continue on Jaffa street go down some other streets, pass the Central Bus Station, and we'll be there. It didn't sound right to me because those weren't the street names that we had passed, but maybe it was a short-cut that he knew. Anyway, we were walking for a good 20 minutes and let's just say the more we walked, the more black we could see. Finally at one point, these two girls asked us where we were going and we said Hebrew University and both of them automatically said "Which one?" Well, we were baffled. There are two Hebrew Universities? They redirected us and told us not to walk into Me'ah Shearim. (A REALLY Orthodox community) We were very close as it was. Anyway, we made it back a little before dark, snacked, showered, and went out to dinner. Afterwards, we wandered Ben Yehuda street and I met up with my friend from Umass. She took me to this very cute quaint coffee shop and talked for a few hours. She couldn't believe that I'm leaving so soon and that we only got to see each other twice. She showed me which bus to take back and I got back safely. Although not without questioning my age. See, I bought a Cartisia Noar which is a child's ticket (which I recommend to all my friend's coming to Israel. Just make sure you wear pigtails). Or until the age of 17. Anyway, the bus driver, with good reason, asked my age. So I said "16...I mean 17". I figure my sister is 17 and everyone thinks she's older than me so why not. Besides, I think I can pass for 17 when I'm not dressed up and smile cutely. Neither of which I was so I actually looked my age. I got back to the university and went to bed.
    Sunday morning, we woke up early for college students and packed up our stuff. We took the bus to the old city and continued to walk to the Cardo so that my friend could get a necklace from Haddaya. I was so proud of myself. This whole weekend, I mangaed to navigate through the Old City. I actually kind of know my way around which I think is cool. I managed to get us from the university to the Old City and Back...and to the City again and then we took a side road towards the Jewish Quarter. We had perfect timing with the bus back. We got through security and everything by 11:58 and the bus left at 12 (which is 12:15 Israeli time).
    Once in Haifa and back in my dorm, I worked on my psych project and talked to my parents before going to the Hannukkah party. There were latkes and soufganiot (Jelly Doughnuts) which are way better here than they are in the US. Although the thing they sour cream is kind of gross. Because I don't think it's actually sour cream. We played a few games, sang some songs, decoreated cookies, made candles, and then I left to go to my friend's apartment to light Hanukkah candles. I had missed the lighting before because I was late to the party.
    Today was the second to last day of volunteering and since it was Hanukkah, we had a party. We sang the usual songs and blessings over the candels. We sang a few new Hebrew songs. (ie ones that I have never heard before) and the directors of the community center said a few words. The Elders (remember tha this is an Ethiopian community) blessed us, as per ritual, and thanked us profusely for tutoring. That was the only organized part about the whole party. The kids, whose parents came, ran all over the place. It was loud and noisy and basically unorganized. Here's a picture of everyone. Volunteers and Kids. You can't really see me, but I'm the third person in from the left in the second-ish row. As I said, it was so unorganized.

Random Weekend

 Random, but necessary stuff to say:
    - My psych of conflict class is a three hour "we can talk about whatever you want in class" In a three hour class, the teacher will give us a break after the halfway point. My teacher takes a break every half hour...and it's not because we look bored, but because he has to go to the bathroom. And every time he gets up to leave, we all have to hold in our giggling until he leaves the room. This wasn't a one time thing. It's been happening for a few weeks and each time it just gets funnier. I think we had like three breaks plus the big 15,20,30 minute break. It depends on the day how long it is.
    - We were filling out course evaluations for out teacher and this Ukrainian girl (who is the bluntest person I have ever met) just kept asking questions about the class for next semester and the lady who gave us the forms was just like "I don't know. You'll have to come to the International School Office"
    On a related note, we were filling out the evals for Rabbinic Lit. and the teacher stayed there!! Besides the fact that I was in front row and that he could probably read what I was writing, I hate filling out evaluations when teachers are right there!
    -There is a vending machine for hot drinks, which you might think is kind of gross. But it's not. It's 1.20 shekels. That's 25 cents for a small (really small) hot drink, usually hot chocolate. A cup drops down and your drink vends and you have a hot drink.
    So, we finally got a microwave in our apartment a few weeks ago, but the timer was broken so my roommate went to go get it fixed. Anyway, I was helping her carry it from her trunk to our room and we started talking about Chanukkah and I mentioned how I forgot to bring a Chanukiah (it's not a "Menorah" in Israel) and the next day, I see a present on the table for me. I open it up and it's a menorah, I mean Chanukiah. From the box/the bottom of the Chanukiah, she probably got it for free or had it lying around her house. Either way, it was the thought that counts and it is very pretty.
    This weekend was not as exciting at last week's trip to Jordan (I have more pictures, but it's too many to put into one album), but fun just the same. Thursday day just slipped through my hands. By the time I looked at my clock, it was 4:30 and I was like "WAIT it can't be. I haven't eaten lunch yet" At which point, my friend cam to borrow a laundry token from me and we ended up talking for an hour so by the time I lunch, it was actually an earlier dinner. Thursday night a bunch of us decided to go out for dinner because two friends of one of my friends came to visit (they are studying in Jordan and will be in Israel next semester). We went to Mercaz HaCarmel for dinner and I exactly knew where to get off the bus. It was exciting. Usually I have to wait until we pass the stop to realize that I was supposed to get off. We went to a Thai place called The Giraffe and it is run Israeli style. Before I get into that though, I want to mention something else. In the US, the waiters and cooks in Asian restaurants are all Asian. I think that the Head Cook was the only Asian and all the rest of the staff were Israeli. It's not just this restaurant either. I went to a sushi place at the beginning of the semester and the same type of staff was there too. It's just an interesting observation. Anyway, so the food in the restaurant is served whenever it's done. Which is good, except that some of us got our meals waaaay before others and the appetizer that we ordered came last. The other funny thing about being there was that a) my roommate was there with her parents and b) another big group (we were nine, them eleven) from the University came in literally two seconds after us. After eating dinner, we went ran into some other people from the university and went to for drinks with them. We were still nine people though because two others went home and it was only two that joined us.
    Friday, I worked on my Rabbinic Lit paper, which is comparing the two creation stories. It is really interesting to read the rabbinic commentary because half the things they comment on have nothing to do with the actual verse. And they comment on every single word. In the book I got out from the library (which I can kind of navigate now!!), has 200 pages on just the first two chapters of Genesis. Friday night, it was someone's birthday (he's like 30 or something, actually 25, but that's 30 here) so there was a Red and Black party here. Those are the colors of Georgia State where he goes/went. It was fun, but I didn't get to sleep until late or early depending on how you look at it.
    Saturday was a lazy day and Sunday was Food Shopping Day! So now I have food in my fridge, but yet there are still dishes in the sink...and there will be tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and the after that, and the day after that...
   

Eilat of Fun in Jordan

    Thursday morning, I woke up a few extra minutes early to finish packing for the weekend. What I don't understand is that no matter what time I get up, it still takes me until the hour (8 or 10 depending on the day) to get dressed. So I had to stuff last minute food and toiletries into my suitcase. I carried my suitcase to class, actually some nice Israeli did, I put in a locker, and went to class. I have no idea what we talked about because the whole class I was like "I'm going to Jordan...wait I need to pay attention...But I'm going to Jordan". Nevertheless, I made it through class and left 15 minutes early to catch the bus down to Hof HaCarmel. We weren't doing anything important anyway, unless you count two lies and a truth necessary to the learning process. Leaving at noon on a Thursday is just not a good idea. It's when everyone goes home for the weekend so we stopped at pretty much every stop. Luckily, we had a few minutes to spare before we took our first bus to Tel Aviv and so gathered some pastries at the pastry shop at the bus station. The ride to Tel Aviv was one full of giggles. This should not be surprising as we were six girls. There has to be giggling. It was only an hour and a half ride there and we had an hour before our next bus to Eilat so we bought tickets and ate lunch. I had falafel. It was seven shekels for a take-as-much-as-you-want buffet. That's different than an all-you-can-eat. I "stole" extra falafel and fries for everyone. We then hurried to the bus for a six hour ride South. Past Jerusalem. Past Masada. Past Ramon Crater. Past the Negev. We literally went from tip to tip in a day.
    Once in Eilat, we had to find our hostel, so creatively named, Eilat Youth Hostel. Not knowing where we were, we asked our safe person (aka random guy with a kippah) for directions and he told us where to go. We eventually got to the hostel, unpacked, and went to sleep...after talking for an two hours. Friday morning the four of us (two went diving with dolphins at an earlier time) got up at 830 went to a delicious breakfast of eggs, bread, tuna, veggies, and random other food. In Israel, no one eats fruit in the morning. It's just an odd concept. Instead they have peppers and carrots and cucumbers. To me, that's a salad, which I like to have in the afternoon. After breakfast, we packed up for the day and walked around North Beach for the morning. If you want to call it a beach with the amount of sand there is. It was like being on a Tropical Island, though. There are stands that line the beach. Funky music playing. Men in bathing suits that should never be worn. The only difference is that Eilat is one of the cheapest places to buy almost anything. After lunch a lunch of PB and Pita (and buying a skirt), we caught up with the other girls and went on a glass-bottomed boat tour. It was a preview of what we were going to see the next day. We saw the borders of Egypt and Jordan and corals and dolphins. There were a few, um, interesting people on board and I don't think the bar was to blame.
    Anyway, by the time we got back on land, the sun was setting, ie Shabbat was starting, but we had to make one more stop before out hotel. Ice Cream. One of my friends is worse than my mom when it comes to ice cream. And that's saying something. At the hostel, we napped, showered, dressed, and went to the Red Sea Star restaurant. We had reservations at 7. That was a joke. There were ten people there. We were six of them. The restaurant itself was under water, which was cool, but there were very few fish. And no I didn't have fish for dinner. It was the experience that counted. And it was definitely an experience. When paying the bill, we had too much money. This phenomenon always happens. Everyone pays the bill maybe a few shekels (or dollars) over but despite that, there is always a big tip left. As compromise, we took the extra money and bought cookies with it for dessert.
    After talking and giggling for an hour, we set the alarm for 6:15 and went to sleep only to wake up to "Holy Crap! It's 6:30!" We sat up from bed, rushed with getting dressed and packing, grabbed breakfast from the fridge and waited outside in front of the hostel for the next ten minutes. Because we had time to spare, I started eating my yogurt, which a) I stole from breakfast the previous day and b) wasn't actually yogurt. It was Levan which is a cheese type yogurt. But basically it tasted gross and as I was saying how bad it was it slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground. Right side up. This was just the beginning of things to come and it was only 7am. The jeep eventually came and the six of us climbed in. There were two other people in the Jeep. One of which everyone somehow knew. She knew two of the kids on our program and I "knew" her because of Hebrew School. I didn't actually remember her, but we figured out that we both went to Prozdor. It was a seven minute ride to the border and by the time we got there, our hair which we had so neatly combed earlier was now a mess. It was a windowless jeep. We got to the border and waited for an hour for it to open (at 8am) and once it did we made our way to Jordan.
    Not without troubles, of course. I never got my Student Visa so they yelled at me to get one. They asked me why I didn't have one and there's no good reason but they kept asking me and I was just like "I don't know". Anway, it was a big ordeal. We eventually made it onto the tour bus with Ali (pronounced with stress on the A), our tour guide. We got a short tour of Aqaba, which was like 10 seconds from the border. It is physically a big town, but the concentrated area is only a few square miles and I swear that we were in the middle of nowhere until we got to Petra. Once in Petra, we walked towards the treasury learning about the rock formations and the Nabateans. When we got the the treasury, there were little kids asking us if we wanted to by postcards (1 for 1 dinar, about $1.50) or if we wanted a camel/donkey/horse ride. "It's either me or my camel...or both." "No women, you cry. No camel, you die. Which is it?" After trying to avoid the heckling, we made it to the end of one of the ancient town and ate lunch. It was included in the price of the tour so it was almost like it was free. And it was a GOOD lunch of real hummus (aka not the cheap stuff that is still good, but not as good) and pita and rice and israeli-style salads. But they had gross desserts. The tour guide let us walk back by ourselves so we booked it back up the mountain so that we could have time to shop. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. At the Indiana Jones Shop (It's not actually random. One of the scenes from The Last Crusade was filmed in Petra) One of my friends bought sand art that had camels on it. It was pretty cool and just as she and another girl were talking about getting it back to America, it slipped out of her hand and she dropped it. My reaction "At least when I drop things, they're not valuable" the owner of the stand was very nice though and gave her another one. No sooner after we had bough some magnets (3 for 5 dinars), another one of my friends dropped her magnet and it broke. It's expected to be cheap because, well, Jordan is a poor country, but we hadn't even left the stand. Again, the owner was very nice and let her take another magnet. He'll remember us as the those American girls who broke everything. Before destroying anymore property, we got onto the bus for our ride back with a short stop for the best baklava I have ever had. We got back to Israel around 730 and went through security and routine questioning and a hard time about my student visa. I was given exactly one month to get it. Perfect. I leave in exactly a month from the stamped date.

pictures will be up next post. I have real work for the rest of the semester. I actually have to write two papers...the first two of the semester. Here's a picture of the six of us, as a preview.

Pilgrims Meet the Hippies Meet Menachem Begin

    What's Thanksgiving without a Thanksgiving dinner? Therefore it was only natural to have a big feast. And boy was it a feast. My stomach agreed.
    Because I only had one class, until noon, I helped my friend get everything ready. She doesn't live on campus so I had to go to Mercaz HaCarmel...by myself. That was a big feat. It was the first time traveling anywhere in Haifa alone. I didn't get lost and I got off at the right stops and even used some of my hebrew.
    Once at my friend's apartment, I helped her figure out stuff about the turkey. How do you cut off the neck? Do you cut off the tail? Did I get all the organs out? Which way does the turkey cook? Not having ever cooked a turkey, I had to look all of it up online. Once we figured out all the answers, we put it in the oven to cook for the next four hours. We had no thermometer that says when the turkey is ready nor did we have a turkey baster but it managed to come out fantastic, if I do say so myself. And we managed to almost drop it only twice. Along with turkey we had the usual thanksgiving delicacies: stuffing, sweet potato stuff with marshmallows on top, cranberry sauce, a fruit relish and then of course everything that everyone else brought. It was so good and so filling. There was also dessert. I think by the end everyone was about to explode from the food.
    Friday was a day filled with laziness and reading. I went to Friday night services and then had dinner with a friend. There was no potluck because it was moved to Saturday so that we could have more time to cook and dress up like hippies. It was a '60s themed potluck. With Jimi Hemndrix (spelling intended) and Janice Joplin and Bob Dylan playing, we chilled with our groovy delicacies of Kool-Aide Electric Acid (Sprite) and Magic Brownies, which was actually challah french toast and bananas dipped in chocolate. There were only a few people there but it was nice because everyone had a place to sit, enough food, and we could have one big conversation.
    Today, I went to Jerusalem. The only reason I went again was for class. But our professor didn't come and four people out of the twelve in our class showed up. It was a international school wide trip so there were other people. Once in Jerusalem, we walked through the Armenian quarter and then through the room where the Last Supper was held. It has been turned into a mosque since then so there's not much to see there except some Romaneesque arches. We then made our way to the Jewish Quarter and to the Kotel. After putting a note in the Wall, me and the three other people from my class walked to the Begin Center. This is why I was surprised that our professor didn't show up. Menachem Begin's (pronounced BAY-gin) relationship to his mentor Jabotinsky is analogous to our professor's obsession with Begin. So I thought that our teacher would want to come and guide us through his life. Instead we joined a tour group and "learned" about his life. I say "learned" because besides the fact that we learned everything already in class, they just threw information at us and it was hard to absorb all of it. It was a good museum and if you're in Jerusalem you should go, but not if you've spent the past two and a half months talking about him. The good thing about going to the museum was that we had an hour afterwards to kill before catching up with the rest of the group so the Madrich that we were with gave us a small tour of the Cable Car used in the war with Jordan. Jordan forbade the entrance of food and water to Israel so the Israelis built a cable with a car so that it could bring food over. Food was transfered by night and the cable was brought down in the day so that the Jordanians wouldn't be able to see it. It wasn't until like twenty years later that the public was informed of this cable. As a plus, a meeting with the Khzakastan Parliament was going on in the Mount Zion Hotel (right next to the cable) so we got a sneak peek of them. We then caught up with the group went to Machanai Yehuda for some shopping and food and made our way back to university.

The Simple Things

    Compared to last weekend's trip to Ramon Crater (pics here), this weekend was pretty boring. Although it was nice to relaxing.

    After a hard week of presentations and tests, I had no food left in my fridge and so a few of us made our way down to Horev's SuperSol. We stopped at the pharmacy in the mall and I needed tissues so I bought the best tissues ever...princess ones! They're the travel kind so there are like packages in a pack. It's awesome!
    And then started the Movie Hours: Pick a Chick Flick. My friend and I, after being stressed all week, decided that we wanted to watch a movie and so we watched A Walk to Remember. A good sappy movie with Mandy Moore. Friday, I woke up really late and decided that instead of sleeping the day away, I should get up and do something productive. The result: watching Pride and Prejudice...the 5 hour version. The one with Colin Firth. I had never watched any version or read the book and surprisingly (to me) it kept my attention and was interesting. We stopped for lunch and random phone calls in between and by the time we finished it was 7pm. After a dinner of chicken and veggies and my apple crisp as dessert, we watched two more movies: What's up Doc? (with G-pa's favorite actress, Barbra Streisand...right?) and Clue, which was kinda stupid. All of us then decided to actually use our brains before going to sleep. (Although to be fair we did because we had to put the subtitles on because the volume wasn't loud enough so we had to read those) So I ended up reading some Chick-Lit. I finally found the fiction section in the library so I took out a bunch of books.
    Thus ended the Movie Day. Saturday, it rained and what better thing is there to do than to watch a movie. Just kidding. My friend and I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. It took longer to find all the ingredients than it took to make the actual cookies. I have the basic ingredients like flour, sugar, and chocolate (of course), but I didn't have the other stuff...mainly an oven. My friend did so we used hers, but we also had to find vanilla (didn't), baking soda (kinda), and more chocolate chips (of course we found those!) along with eggs and measuring cups. The oven, the toaster oven that we used, only fit ten cookies so it took a while to bake. Not wanting to stay on campus Saturday night, a few of us went bowling (בולינג) at the Haifa Mall. I started off okay and by the second game, I was beyond awful with a score of 19. My first game was 33 and my second 63. So I did improve...kinda.
    In other news, today I volunteered at the school. The girl I'm working with actually kinda learned her letters so we were somewhat productive. What I don't understand though is why even after three weeks they don't know their letters. What are they doing in school that is preventing them from learning English? The Madricha who runs the volunteering told us that all the younger kids (ie those not in high school) are all below their grade level for English. I'm tired of doing the letters and I'm sure she gets bored of it. We actually went on to words today. But even that is hard because she doesn't know many/any words. Not body parts, only some colors and few other random words. I wonder if the Israeli education system is bad all subjects or just this?
    Anyway, my roommates and I have a microwave...this calls for some microwave popcorn and some hot tea to warm me up from my cold showers, but that's a whole other story.
   

The desert did not desert the dessert

I don't think I've talked about Israeli drivers yet. So here are the rules of the road:
1. Green means keep going and red means you can go if there are no other cars
2. You can drive in whatever lane you want, that includes the middle
3. You can immediately switch lanes without warning, that includes going from the far left to the far right to switch lanes.
4. If you almost crash, which happens often, you can get out of the car and start yelling at each other in the middle of the road
5. There's no speed limit
6. If you do crash, then you can still yell at each other in the middle of the road
7. If you're a pedestrian, red means don't cross and green means cross. This is the one rule that they do follow. There is a fine if you don't. But none of the Americans follow this rule because if the light is red and there are no cars coming, why not cross?
8. check the horn because although it's not often used, a foreigner will always use it due to the way Israelis drive.
9. remember...you can always just stop in the middle of the road and do whatever you need to do

    We left for the Negev/Ramon Crater early Friday morning when no college student back home has gone to sleep (5:30 am). We made it to Be'ersheva in five hours where we stopped at a shuk for breakfast, but not before getting into an accident. The bus driver and the car driver started yelling at each other from their cars and then we pulled over and there was a whole debacle, but I think that it was the car's fault. Everytime I'm on a bus, I see a car almost hit the bus so it was bound to happen, but it was totally the car's fault. Anyway, we also passed Be'ersheva University so now I know where my brother was for a year...the middle of nowhere. After getting food at the shuk, we went to Ben Gurion's grave and home. It was nothing too exciting. David Ben Gurion, a prime minister of Israel and one of the original pioneers, lived in a simple but nice home. His grave site overlook was gorgeous and peaceful. We drove to Advat and after lunch, we learned about the history of the Spice Path and the Nabaeteens. There was a bunch of old ruins which was interesting to see and our tour guide told us their story. Finally, we made it to Ramon Crater and we walked up to an overlook and managed to fit forty people on a small platform. By sunset, we headed off to the Bedouin tent and made a dinner of pita, meat, and various salads. After a shortened Kab. Shab. (Kabblat Shabbat), we ate. And for dessert we had s'mores, but one of the madrichim forgot to bring the chocolate bars so we used chocolate spread which was just as good. We were also served Bedouin tea, but it was too sweet for me.
    The next morning we awoke at a more reasonable time and had breakfast. I think that I had too much coffee (only a cup, a literal cup) because I had so much energy for the rest of the day, but that was a good thing. We hiked from 9 in the morning until 430 in the afternoon. We walked in and along the crater. It's not actually a crater because no foreign body hit it. I think that it used to be a mountain and it was eroded so now there's a big whole in the ground. We took breaks during the hike, but not a lot which was good because hiking with forty people is only fun when we don't stop every five minutes. We also climbed the mountain (I want to say Har Hebron, but I think that's wrong) at the end of the trail and you could see everything! It was gorgeous especially since the sun was beginning to set. I tried to take panaromic pictures of the view. Oh, and the climb up was at a 100% slant. It was a straight line up. But that's because we were all racing each other (only 15 people did this everyone else stayed at the bottom) and the path kinda ended, or so we though, and we made up our own path. Going down was easier because this time the tour guide was in front of us and showed is the path. It was a tiring, but really fun weekend. This week is full of stupid presentations and tests. Ick.

Pictures will be in the next blog. Or when I have time. Or when I want to procrastinate. One of those.

I hate it when they're right

    The most awful non-required class I ever took was "Immigration to Israel" taught by a teacher who a) could barely speak English so b) couldn't pronounce her students' names even though she was their advisor and c) made groups of three write a ten page paper and present it and didn't even pay attention to the presentation. Although that turned out to be a good thing. So in this miserable seventy five minute class we talked about, well, immigration to Israel from the early 1900s to today. The two things that stuck out in my mind besides the monotonous teacher was that there was a huge Russian immigration and a big Ethiopian immigration. I don't know why I remember that but I do.
    Now fast forward a year (aka now). I am volunteering to tutor some Ethiopian kids in English. On the way home the Madricha who organizes the volunteering started talking about the Ethiopian immigration and though her explanation was helpful, I'm glad (it hurts to say this), I'm glad I took that stupid class. There were also several times in the past months that she has talked about thr Russian population here. My professor was Russian so I knew a bit more about that.
    Monday was the first day that we taught English. Everyone has their own kid (or two). They range from age 11 to 17. Most of the younger kids know very little English. Me and my luck got a girl who doesn't really know the alphabet. Even from just an hour of tutoring, you can realize how hard English is. I had to explain what vowels were and which letters they were. Try explaining that in a different language, or even in English. I think we spent most of the time spelling soccer. She spelled it logically (SIKR) it's just that We write out the vowels in English. Since this girl knows no English I spoke in Hebrew for an hour and I have to say that I am proud of myself for doing so.
    Also on Monday was HaZikaron Yitzchak Rabin--Yitzcahk Rabin Memorial Day. (Yitzchak Rabin was the Prime Minister of Israel and was assassinated 13 years ago). There was a service that might have been interesting if it was in English, although those who are fluent said it was boring anyway. My friends and I picked out words that we knew.
    On Sunday, after watching two movies the day before (The Bookdock Saints--hilarious, and the new James Bond Movie--I think it's better if you see the first one), a few of us decided to go the Shuk to get some fresh veggies and fruits. We made our way down to the Arab shuk, which we forgot was closed, and instead of getting veggies and fruits, we went to one of the best Hummus places in Haifa, possibly all of Israel. After lunch, we walked to Hadar, the Jewish shuk that we usually go to, and got a few fruits and veggies. Today my friend and I made our way back down to the Shuk to get the rest of our groceries. After my 8am class, I didn't have class again until 415 and had a whole day to waste so to the Shuk it was. This time we were more successful. After some of the "Best Falafel in Haifa" (there are two falafel places that are the best in Haifa right across from eachother. You can literally have both feet in each store), we went to the spice store, the fruit store that has more variety than any fruit stand I have ever seen, the Hummus store (yes, there's a whole store for hummus), and the deli where they cut meat like an artist. It was a very successful trip.
    Class update: Hebrew-- we're learning about Nifal, which is the passive voice (I was doing, I was cleaning, etc.) and we learned how to conjugate verbal nouns which I didn't understand until she said that it was a gerund so now I get it. Not class related, but when people speak hebrew to me, I'm not translating word for word. It's just there, like in English. And I'm getting so much better with numbers. When people tell me a price, I know what it is without going through the whole 1-10 thing. Except I still get mixed up between the 20s and the teens. Oh well, I'm getting better!
                        Rab. Lit.-- on monday we talked more about the Shema and the two different schools of thought on what the Mishnah means by "one long and one short" (Mom, I'll email you what he said, 'cause it's too long to write here)
                        Psych of Conflict--we don't do anything in that class. It is so israeli. The teacher comes late. We take a break every hour. Sometimes for 5 mins, sometimes 10, sometimes 20. Our teacher told us to write a 10 page paper. No directions. No due date. No nothing. We talk about what we want. Menachem Begin in jail. The conflict in the middle east. Whatever we want.
                    Psych Seminar--the shortest class, but the most boring. we have to give a 10 minute presentation on our topic, which we haven't chosen yet and might not be approved but we have to research it anway.
    Anyway, some friends from umass are going to be Haifa on Thursday and Friday so hopefully I will be able to see them! And Friday and Saturday I'm going to the Negev...Hot by day, Freezing by night.