Ok, so I know this wasn't actually posted when it said it was...but it was written then, I just didn't have time to go upstairs and get internet.

Great couple of days. Yesterday, Tuesday, was the election here--a national holiday, so we didn't have class---there was supposed to be a really cool hike and such, but when we woke up, the weather was gross (as predicted)--so the entire ulpan turned over and went back to bed. After getting up around noon everyone lazed the day away---kinda necessary seeing as we've all been going nonstop and not sleeping so much. Then we were getting towards dinner and were about to go out when I decided I'd rather stay home. My friends left and en route to the bus stop it started hailing---ending the schwarma expedition and changing it to a night in--I made fried rice, which was ok---however seeing as our kitchen lacked spices, it was rather bland---the fresh guacuamole we made went on top and saved it though.

Today we had class and then went to דהר (hadar) the שוק (shuk--open air market) here in Haifa. It was amazing! The food is all amazingly cheap, you get yelled at from all sides in hebrew to buy stuff (I felt really cool for understanding what they were yelling), and the colors of the produce is unlike anything I've ever seen in the states. The eggplants were jet black, the tomatoes and red peppers were so bright--and smell amazing, the strawberries were as big, juicy, and bright as anything you can find in the middle of the season in the states, the scallions are like a foot long and bright green, and the pomegranates---well, they're plentiful. Not to mention the price---I got a week's worth of produce including 2 pounds of ground turkey, 3 beautiful avocadoes, 4 heads of garlic, 5 onions, a pomegranate, and three stunning tomatoes and spent approximately $15 american. Then we went to the spice shop---there were little premade bags and big tubs of spices that the owner would happily scoop bags of for you. For 4 bags of spices---curry, spicy paprika, a meat rub, and something else that smelled wonderful, I spent 19 shekels--less than 5 dollars--by my rough estimation this would've cost $30 in a supermarket in the states. My roommate is sharing with everyone he sees the kilogram (2.2 pounds) of chicken schnitzel he got for 15 nis (new israeli shekel)---$3.75. Even better was my friend Lars (from austria) who got 4 large salmon steaks for 24 shekels--that comes out to about $1.50 a steak. We can't wait to go back next week.

Then we came back here and had a feast! We added spices to the leftover fried rice, multiplying its quality, made more fresh guac, and made an incredible fruit salad with banana, pomegranate, orange, grapes, strawberries, pomello (something sort of like a grapefruit, but less tart). After eating I was so pleased I just had to sit and grin for a bit--can't wait to see what's for dinner tomorrow.

Election results---for those who don't know, the system in Israel is a parlimentary democracy. There are TONS of parties (I think 63 in this last election), and voter turnout is extremely high--the lowest ever was the 2006 election with 63%, it's often up near and above 80% (in the US we rarely break 60%-- here's a neat site with precise numbers for every country!). No single party has ever won the necessary majority of the seats in the כנסת (knesset--the name of the parliment), so in order for any party to be the current ruling party, they have to form coalitions with other parties. The current government dissolved when the current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from Kadima was brought up on corruption charges and resigned. His replacement, Tzipi Livni, failed to form a coalition within the specified 40 days, requring elections to be held.

Election results---Livni's Kadima party (a centrist) party got 28 seats, and Benjamin Netanyahu's (referred to as BB here) Likud party (center right) got 27. In third with 15 was Yisrael Beitinu (a right-wing zionist party), and finishing an unexpectedly low 4th was Ehud Barak's (center-left) Labor party. Continuing downward in seat counts are shas and United Torah Judaism (a total of 16 between them, both far right religious parties). So the current question is whether the new government will form between Kadima and Likkud plus a few other little ones, making it mostly center-right (61 is the required number of seats), making Livni PM, or whether Likkud will reach to the further right parties, making a strongly right wing government with Netanyahu as PM. President Shimon Peres will choose which scenario will bear out (as he chooses which party will lead the coalition), but he has announced that he won't take any action until the results are official on Feb. 18 anyway--so not much headway can be made until then.

People here have very strong opinions about the politics here and often very personal. Many people percieve Kadima to be highly corrupt, and voted against Tzipi Livni for that reason, etc. Because so many of the politicans return after leaving office, people have very strong opinions on them. One person joked that in Israeli politics, the one thing you can be sure of is that when someone leaves office, you can be sure you haven't seen the last of them.