Germany & Amsterdam

So last week I left Haifa, first to go to Tel Aviv to see Mindy, who was finishing her Birthright trip. We slept at Dara's apartment and went to the shook and did some random Tel Aviv shit before she and her brother left for Amsterdam and I left for Germany. Germany was so cool! Except we didn't spend that much time in actual Germany because Lisa and I decided to go to Amsterdam. I really wanted to see Berlin and get more of a feel for Germany, but I also REALLY wanted to go to Amsterdam, and Lisa has never been there, so I'm really glad we got to share that.

When I first got in at Frankfurt, I couldn't believe how quiet the airport was, which is when I realized that Israel is really loud. We ended up missing the last train from Frankfurt to Marburg (where her university is), which meant we had to pay a lot of money for a cab or stay in Frankfurt all night until the trains started again. Fortunately we're young and excitable so we decided to stay and after being scolded by some German police officers for being where we weren't supposed to be in the train station, we left and found a 24-hour bar. In the bar, there were a bunch of legit weirdos (it was the middle of the night) included two Americans who I ended up sitting between while they screamed to each other about Obama bowing for the King of Saudi Arabia, and something about business taxes. Sure makes you miss home, right? Also, there was this German 70-year-old whoasked one of Lisa's friends in German if I was Jewish when she told him I was visiting for Israel and then came over to me and produced a copy of "Goethe und die Juden" (or something... Goethe and the Jew) and told me I should read it. Which kind of freaked me out. Also, I don't exactly speak German, which he couldn'tunderstand.

So anyway, we spent the next day hanging around in Marburg (actually I slept most of the day) and then it was one of Lisa's friend's birthday parties so we went to that and then went out. And then at like 4 in the morning that night we bought some train tickets to Amsterdam and the next day was spent traveling to/arriving in Amsterdam. As soon as we got off the train in Amsterdam I had these really intense positive associations. It's such a beautiful city, everyone is there just to chill out and have fun and relax and everyone is in a good mood all the time and it's just such a relaxing environment. I really think everyone should go there at some point. We met up with Mindy and Ben and went to dinner with them/hung out with them a little. The next day we went to the Anne Frank House which was really well done and touching.

I had a lot of fun, but I'm sad we had to spend so much time traveling because it meant we didn't get to see as much of Amsterdam as we would have wanted. But it was definitely worth it and I was really glad I got to do it with Lisa.

I might post more later about actually being in Germany and what that meant for me as Jew when I go back and write about this whole experience after. This is more just a record of my travels.

My family is coming here on the 3rd and then we're touring Israel until the 15th, when I go home. This semester has gone by so incredibly fast. I really can't believe it's over.

On America and stuff

Jeeze, I haven't updated this jawn in forever. Mostly because I haven't really been doing anything since the Pesach break. I guess I've had some schoolwork, but I haven't been doing too much of that either. I know it's a cliche, but I literally have no idea where the time has gone. It feels like maybe two weeks ago that I took that sharoute ride from the airport to the University for the first time, and now the semester is almost over.

I think being here has been really good for me. I have a much better conception now than I had when I first got here of what is important to me. I've been around a lot of people who are radically different from people I would be with at Simon's Rock, which has been important to my development, I think. I forgot what it was like to be around with people who are so ideologically/intellectually/emotionally/etc. different from me. I think I have a much clearer idea now of who I am, which is probably also a cliche, but I don't care.

I've been thinking a lot lately about American identity and what being an American is. I've spent quite a bit of time abroad by now, all over the world, but before coming to Israel, I rarely thought about my conception of the United States and how having been born there has informed my decisions and my personality. There are things about living in the U.S. that I never appreciated until being away from it for so long. I know that America is a very flawed place in many ways, but I no longer feel like I have to hate living there or resent being an American in order to be cultured or worldly or interesting. This is truly a progression for me, as I am a person who has a lot of liberal guilt and thinks a lot about how much better the country would be if I ran it. But now I can see it for its benefits, too. Anyway, after having been here and been thinking about this for so long, I've decided I want to pursue a more active interest in changing things back home as best I can. So I got a canvassing job in DC for the summer--saving the country, one doorbell at a time. It's better than nothing.

I've also been interested in documenting cultural differences. I mean, in many ways, Israel is very Westernized, and, in many ways, it isn't at all. I am taking this class called Psychology of Conflict Resolution (I think I've discussed it on here before), which in some ways is a load of shit and, in other ways, is by far the most interesting class I've taken here. I see examples of what we learn about in class every day, embedded almost imperceptibly in the culture here. What I may have thought of as rude or un-American when I first got here, I now see as beautiful indicators of a different mindset that is incredibly complex and difficult to understand as a foreigner. Of course, the class leaves a lot of infuriatingly complex questions that are pretty much impossible to answer. For example, we spend a lot of time discussing the vast differences between individual and collective mindsets, but we never talk about the genesis of these divergent mindsets. I want to know where the difference really is--whether it's in the actual thoughts of the individuals, or whether it's just an affectation picked up by societal norms which dictate the way people should behave. It's hard to say, and the professor can't answer it.

Anyway, I'm going to Germany this week to visit Lisa, and, before that, I'll be spending time in Tel Aviv with Mindy. So things are really only looking up from here on out. I will update about Germany, I'm sure.