Today is kinda rainy and dreary, but that's ok---apparently it hasn't rained much here lately, and they really need it. I think we're planning on going hiking anyway.

Yesterday we had class but shortened---usually our week goes sunday (יןם ראשון) to thursday (יון חמישי). The reason for that is that (for anyone who doesn't know) all jewish holidays begin in the evening and go through the following evening. The day before is called the ערב (erev--literally evening) of the holiday--and so שבת (shabbat) the weekly sabbath, which is sunday, begins friday evening. People who are religious have to prepare for שבת friday during the day before they stop working, carrying things, or using electricity starting in the early evening. For that reason, in Israel, the weekend is friday and saturday. We will usually have that weekend, but a week from tuesday, there will be an election here (I'll write more about it later). Elections in Israel are national holidays and so we won't have class--so we had class yesterday to make up the day. Therefore this is only a one day weekend.

Yesterday after class I tried to go to the gym---where you need a membership card. I couldn't buy one because there was no one in the office as it was ערב שבת and then tried to go to the gym anyway. I worked out for a while before the guy came to kick me out---I felt really cool because I was able to tell him why I didn't have a card in hebrew. Unfortunately that didn't dissuade him at all from kicking me out. I did feel cool though.

Had a chilled out afternoon--a potluck dinner in my friend's apartment and a party at another friend's apartment and then out to wander the streets of haifa looking for a bar that has enough room for 35 international students (the answer is none). We ended up splitting up and going in all different directions.

Because of כשר (kosher) laws, people who are extremely religious won't ride busses that run on shabbat or shop in stores that are open on shabbat. Therefore, all the busses run very infrequently throughout the country during shabbat, but חיפה (haifa) is a very secular city, so after you make it down off the mountain into the city, almost all the businesses are open.

Here are a few more pictures from our hike the other day that actually include me.

Taking a little walk in the park around here, you run into remains of houses and storage places that are thousands of years old, we of course use them for our own purposes, like reenacting the scene with the pit from the movie 300.

Mid hike.
In front of us are trenches of some sort that are dug into the mountain. We assumed they were military right on the crest of the hill there, but we didn't know if they were old or new.

A fun night last night---went out into Haifa to scout out what we could see. A lot of fun. After going to dinner with almost 25 people, hanging in the bar, and having most of the group leaving, we asked our waiter (named Barack!!!!!) where a good dance club was. He introduced us to his friends who were in the restaurant and go to U Haifa. We talked for a while and got the scoop on where to go. Today I actually ran into one of them while walking around campus. Our first israeli friends!

Speaking of being international, I figure I should mention that although the majority of the students in my class are from America, we have students from Germany (several), Vienna, Japan, and Korea. Seth and I also spent a while talking to our Israeli roommate today, which was great.

This afternoon after class we went on a beautiful hike, which we were able to leave for right from school. Following are pictures.


Midway through the hike, we stopped to frolic in a beautiful field.
The view of campus from the neighbouring mountain. The thing on the lower right are the dorms.

The view from the top of the mountain.

Second day of ulpan went well. Mainly today it's been really exciting how much I've improved at hebrew already! I've listened to hebrew before, but actually understanding anyone was virtually impossible. Since yesterday that's changed. Listening to דבורה (devorah), my teacher today, I was actually hearing the language---even when there were words I didn't understand, I could get the general flow of a sentence and realize which words I didn't understand. VERY EXCITING.

Pretty soon we have hebrew zone, which is basically like study hall, but we all are planning on doing our hebrew homework and goofing off and then we're going to go into the city for dinner and hanging out.

Sorry this wasn't actually posted until today, but I actually just didn't have a chance to take my computer up to the lounge where we have internet today. Today was the first day of אולפן (ulpan) classes---the ulpan is something started back in the early days of Jewish migration to Israel and is an intensive month long hebrew class. So, from 8:30 to 1 (or 14:00 as it's done here) with a one 30 minute and one 10 minute break, I'm in hebrew class. Today was the first one, and it was really great! My teacher is an old israeli woman and she's hilarious. The class seems like it will be great, but really tough, I'm in the next-to-top level, and at that level there's a really wide range of familiarity with the langauge, I'm at the low end, but some of the people who are really good can speak really quickly. My constant reminder is that I'll be awesome at hebrew (I hope) by the end of the month (and the end of the semester!).

After class we went to lunch on campus, and then had our first טיול (tiyul)--field trip!!! For this one we went to a kibbutz 45 minutes or so away where the first holocaust museum in the world is located---interestingly it's topic is not the holocaust in general, but ghetto resistance during the holocaust, at Warsaw in particular---very interesting, but rather depressing. I did get really mad at our guide when he started going on about how the holocaust was just so much worse than any other genocide. He tried to express the organization, use of (and development of) technology for killing, and totality of the final solution made it so much worse than any other genocide. While maybe some of what he said was true (particularly the technology bit) I don't think that makes the holocaust worse than any other genocide---you can't have a worse genocide. That's about as bad as it gets. Granted, the holocaust was different from any other genocide, but no more than any genocide is different than any other.

Then got back to campus, made rice with hummus and peas and carrots with a bunch of people for dinner (much thanks to mom for the recipe :)), and then had a study party in my apartment. Much fun was had by all. Tomorrow we're either going to hike to the beach right after class or go to a bar/club in the evening (as none of us are 21, being able to do that is very exciting!)...which is TBA.



I'll end the post with some pictures:



On the walk from the dorms to the school buildings, this is the view down the mountain at night. The big colorful things are part of a petroleum refinery.

A 2000 year old aqueduct next to the holocaust museum.
The museum.

Day two---also awesome. Started early this morning with hebrew placement test--went fine except for the speaking part---which I did not do so well on as we've never really talked in hebrew class. Then had a delicious lunch of שקשוקה (shakshuka) a tomato stew thing with egg in it that boils in the stew---it goes on a sandwich---fabulous, glad to be back with israeli food. Then we had a very exciting mandatory meeting...ish. Then a bunch of us went to דליה (daliah) a druze (no it's not a typo--try wikipedia for more information about the interesting druse if you haven't heard of them) village where we went shopping for trinkets. I bought a hookah and my suitemate seth bought tobacco flavored mango, peach, and mixed fruit---excited for a test run soon. Tonight we have a felafel dinner courtesy of the program and then a drum circle. Tomorrow ulpan classes start. For the next month, I'll be doing only hebrew for 4 hours a day!

Traveling to haifa--what fun! 747s are freaking huge! I mean, the jets on that plane are as big in diameter as I am tall. Very cool. The most notable part is the fact that there was a guy on my plane with amazing ear hair---I mean serious tufts.

First 6.5 hour flight was easy---got to frankfurt at 7 am ish local time (midnight at home)--flight left at 10:05, in between met up with the two people I knew were on my flight--and adventured onwards! The flight from frankfurt to תל אביב was short, like 3.5 hours--granted I slept through alsmot the entire thing so it seemed super short. Getting through customs was no big deal, and went without incident. Went to go get a sheirut to haifa--these shared taxis, and who is on the same taxi, and studying in Haifa, but Liora Diamond, who I graduated from CAP with and haven't seen since. We get to the university, find our rooms---see pictures below, and I run into the one person I knew was going to be in the program with me, who it turns out is my suitemate! Wacky.

Some room pictures to make mom happy---

my suite--my room is the first on the left


straight ahead inside the door

a little further in and to the left---I made my bed after this


and my very own bathroom!!!!

Anyway, writing now, at 9 we're watching a movie and then probably bedtime--hebrew placement test is early tomorrow---8 am!

First Post!

Getting ready to leave, packing has been relatively painless so far. Going out today t0 get the last of the things I need--new shoes and a computer case--and let's not forget a haircut!

It's been an interesting week--after going to the national mall twice in four days--for the inauguration of a president no less--jetting out of the country. Definitely an amusing bit of timing. It'll definitely be interesting to see how Israelis respond to Obama. Irrespective of the fact that Bush foreign policy generally destabilized the region, he did pour huge amounts of money into the Israeli government's hands...however, I get the feeling maybe that's not what the Israelis really need...it'll be interesting to see whether Israelis agree with that assessment, or think that any decrease in cash flow (not to mention weapons) from the US is a bad thing.