It's definitely time for a substantial update, so here goes. And first of all, this is me and my friend Jaime, on the beach in Haifa. Yeah, that's the Mediterranean in the background.
Everyone told me when I said I was going away that the first two weeks would be the hardest. I've kind of lost track of time at this point, but I guess it's been about two weeks since I left. I can't speak for the first two weeks in retrospect, considering they've only just passed, but I guess it's been kind of hard in some ways and surprisingly easy in others.
Academically speaking, classes have been about what I was expecting. Coming from Simon's Rock has set me up to a complete snob intellectually and otherwise, and I was kind of looking forward to a break at a school I (correctly) assumed would be less rigorous than what I've grown to know and love. I've made a few changes in my schedule (dropping a class, mostly, when I realized Hebrew, which I didn't originally intend to take, is six credits). I decided to drop my Regional Conflicts seminar because I just wasn't feeling it that much. My workload so far is definitely doable. Hebrew is the most work, because I have it every day, but I'm really happy with how it's going so far. I'm starting to be able to make out basic words in Israelis' conversations, and the other day in the gym I was watching ER in English (it was either that for Fox "news"), and I was able to identify a bunch of the Hebrew words from the subtitles. It's funny, because I never intended on taking Hebrew here because I thought given my memory problems I wouldn't be able to do it. But the constant reinforcement of class every day, homework, and, of course, living here, has made it a lot easier than I thought it would be.
I'm also really looking forward to the Maryland class I have to take because I'm in the Maryland program. It's definitely my favorite so far. The professor is half Israeli and half American and grew up in Argentina. He spent a lot of time living in Jerusalem before moving to Haifa, and I was really interested in hearing him talk yesterday about the extreme disparity between the two cities. Essentially, he described Jerusalem as a microcosm of the problems of the Middle East and the conflicts in this region, and Haifa as a microcosm for the hope for peace and resolution. Haifa is kind of a special city; Arabs, Jews and Christians coexist here reasonably peacefully. The government is mixed, many of the signs are in Hebrew and Arabic, and I think there is a level of respect here for the mixed-ethnic society that really does inspire hope. Of course, I haven't seen much of the Arab villages and I want to. I guess I can't really speak for how much the ideals of this city actually play in reality because I haven't ventured far enough to formulate my own opinions on the matter. That being said, this is a great place to study conflict.
Anyway, the weather has been kind of shitty the past two weeks (like 50-55 degrees and rainy), but it was incredibly nice today and it's supposed to nice next week (and, I would hope, stay that way). We're going to Jerusalem on Sunday for the day and next weekend we're taking a pretty serious hike to Eilat.
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