Hello from Ben Gurion!

I am blogging to you live from Ben Guiron Tel Aviv's DAN business lounge. In case anyone is wondering, it is about the same as all the other business lounges in the world (I'm flying Austrian Air), but there's MATZAH here! So cute. Like, seriously, seriously cute. Anyway, I'm flying into Vienna in about an hour, and then I have a few hours of a layover there before I fly to Heathrow and meet my dad!!! I am so excited! I just wish I wasn't sick. I have a horrible cold that I started coming down with at seder. I went to seder in the north with Dara and her sister and her sister's friend, at Dara's family friends' house. It was really nice, although it kind of made me miss home. I think I may have missed a Pesach last year because it didn't coincide with the Simon's Rock April break, but in general I try to be home for Passover. It's kind of weird not to be, even though I am in the Holy Land and all. I mean, it's, like, the Jewish dream... Next year in Jerusalem and all that. Beseder.

Things at campus have been very quiet. Most people didn't go to seder in the north, so the campus was relatively empty yesterday and Monday, but I was sick so I was sleeping a lot and doing nothing, anyway. When I come back from London next week, Dara and I are planning a trip to Petra, which I am also really excited about. Then classes start again on the eleventh or something, and there's really not too much left after that. This semester is going by so much faster than a Simon's Rock semester does. Maybe that's a good thing. Meanwhile, I am assembling a thesis committee (looks like Mark and Becky, for anyone interested in my Simon's Rock life) and writing a proposal. Actually, I haven't started that proposal yet. It's kind of due tomorrow (today). I guess I have something to do on the plane...

It's occurring to me right now, after I've checked my bags, that I probably should not be wearing flip flops. I'm basically going from summer to hella winter (the weather in London is supposed to be nasty for the next week). Oh well...

Time for an academic post

I'm taking this class called the Psychology of Conflict Resolution, which I kind of took last semester with Anne, only with Anne it was an actual psych class, and this one isn't, really. But it's still interesting, in a different way. The professor is Israeli, and he is really fixated on the differences between collective and individualist societies. Which at first I found kind of annoying, but I'm starting to understand more what he means after having been here for a while. So he assigned each of us our own book to examine for examples of divergent ways of thinking from what we're used to. The book I got is called Negotiating for Peace in the Middle East, by Ismail Fahmy, who was the Egyptian foreign minister and deputy prime minister before Sadat signed the peace treaty without his knowledge. I'm only like 100 pages in, but there are already a lot of interesting examples of cultural differences from the western way of thought. I read part of the book aloud in class yesterday [the Americans and Egyptians are at a dinner in a hotel. Kissinger and his people have been in Egypt for a little while, trying to "manipulate" (if you believe Fahmy's viewpoint) acceptable solutions out of Sadat]:

"Kissinger relayed to the participants the terms of the agreement he had reached with Sadat on military issues. President Sadat had suddenly agreed that the Egyptian military presence on the east side of the Canal would be limited to 7,000 men and 30 tanks. By so doing, he had astonished everybody, including Kissinger and the Israelis. In fact, Kissinger had argued all along that Sadat could not possibly settle for less than 250 tanks. General Gamasy, who had not been consulted, was very upset, feeling that he and the Egyptian army had been humiliated. His eyes filled with tears, he rose quickly from his seat, retiring to a far corner of the hall and started to weep. Everybody watched General Gamasy uneasily. The Egyptian delegation was affected and emotionally moved, sharing Gamay's humiliation. From the look on the faces of the American delegation, one could easily see they too were upset by the injustice inflicted upon Egypt. But Kissinger, typically only thinking in personal terms, turned pale and kept on muttering, 'What did I say wrong?' When General Gamasy returned to the table, silent and downcast, Kissinger started showering him with extravagant praise...General Gamasy, who is a very modest man, listened in silence. The dishonour was not to be expunged by a few words of personal praise. Sadat had singlehandedly given awy all that the Egyptian army had won with great effort and sacrifice. Without consulting anybody, he had caved in to the Israeli request that Egyptian military presence be reduced to nothing...According to Kissinger Sadat was apparently quite taken aback by the attitude of his senior officers and was to comment: 'My army! First I had trouble convincing them to go to war. Now I have trouble convincing them to make peace.'"

That's kind of long, but if anyone read it, it's very interesting. First of all, there is the fact that Sadat supposedly made this choice without consulting anyone (Fahmy is highly critical of Sadat throughout the entirety of what I've read so far). But there are more subtle things. General Gamasy weeping in a banquet in front of everyone is pretty shocking, but it's also interesting that Kissinger's praise did little to rectify the bad news he received. Our professor says that personal praise does not have much of a place in collective societies and is more a source of embarrassment than anything else. And then there is the disparaging comment that Kissinger was essentially only capable of seeing things through his lens of American self-centeredness, which Fahmy refers to as "personal terms." This is, perhaps, the largest distinction our professor wants us to draw between the two divergent ways of thought.

We haven't done too much actual analysis of what these different examples indicate about the larger social structure, but I'm definitely getting a lot better at spotting them. I was talking to one of my friends last night about the class, who is from Mexico, and he commented on the fact that the professor has us move all of the desks to the side of the room and sit together in a circle of chairs in the center, which I always found kind of annoying, but which is not that weird coming from a place of Simon's Rock, where we like to pretend (?) we are best friends with our professor and have classes outside on nice days sitting on the grass, and in some ways we are kind of like a big, if not happy, family. But my friend commented that it's funny how difficult most of the Americans in the class seem to find his method of teaching and some of his odd habits, and that in Mexico, sitting in a close-knit circle is not so strange a request at all. I guess Simon's Rock really is unique, but that's another blog post for another time.

Things are going well. Pesach break starts today, so the school is going to shut down for a few weeks soon. I leave for London on the first! And then I'm going to Petra with Dara when I get back.

One month

It's kind of hard to update this blog regularly because everything kind of melts together here and I can't remember what I've documented and what I haven't. But it's March 17 today, a month after my arrival in Tel Aviv, so it's probably time for an update.

Two weekends ago, we went to Jerusalem, which I thought was pretty incredible. We went to David's tomb, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and, of course, the Wall. Having never been to Jerusalem before, I was relatively mesmerized by the (perhaps transient or unfounded) holiness of the city. And I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that people actually live there, and walk those streets every day. I'm looking forward to going back to see more with my family when they come in June.

And last weekend we hiked the Negev and ended at the beach in Eilat on the third. We camped out for one night in the middle of the desert which was pretty cool, and I got some really awesome photographs. Of course, I accidentally ate a little meat on Friday night and spent most of Saturday and all of Sunday violently ill, which kind of ruined my trip, but I still appreciated it in some ways. For one thing, I have literally never seen a desert before. I mean, I've flown over some desert states but we never went to the Grand Canyon or anything like that while I was growing up. So the thought that I was experiencing something I've never seen before wasn't lost on me, despite the vomit.

And other than that, I've been getting into a groove here. I feel pretty good. I am mostly enjoying my classes, although I do miss the academic and intellectual companionship Simon's Rock offers. I like most of my professors and I am really enjoying Hebrew. Today, I went to the mall with my friend Jaime and we asked some ladies on the bus how to get there in Hebrew. Even though it was a really basic conversation and they eventually switched to English (not to mention that about four other Israeli women we weren't talking to jumped in to give their own advice), I was really proud of myself for addressing them in Hebrew. Of course, once they answer in Hebrew, it gets a little more complicated...

This weekend I'm going to Tel Aviv to visit Dara and I am really excited because I still haven't been there! So I will update more after Tel Aviv. Then, after next week of classes, Pesach break starts. I'm going to meet my dad in London for a few days, which I am REALLY excited for and hoping he will bring three months' worth of Mexican food with him) and then I'm hoping to go to Egypt or Greece or something for the rest of the break.

I want to say more, but something about the quality of life here defies extensive description. Maybe it will be easier in retrospect, but recording it while actually living it seems somehow contradictory to something I can't explain. Beseder.

Update! I'm bad at titles.

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.

One week down

I haven't posted in a while because I've been really busy settling in... Classes started this week. I only have one I haven't had yet tomorrow, which is the class I have to take for the Maryland program, Cleavages in Israel. I'm also taking beginning Hebrew, Psychology of Conflict Resolution, Conflict Seminar in Regional Conflicts, Guided Fieldwork and Writing Israel (a creative writing course). Things have been going pretty smoothly, although it's hard to adjust to classes outside of Simon's Rock after having been there for so long. Luckily, most of the classes I'm in are pretty small (the regional conflicts class is an honors seminar so it's like 12 kids or so).

I haven't been exploring the city TOO much since my last blog post, but I have been into town a bunch of times to get falafel and stuff. I still need to figure out a schedule of getting groceries because I've kind of been starving since I got here. But the food I have had has been very good.

Tomorrow we're going to a big Purim party, which I'm pretty excited about (Purim is kind of like the Jewish Halloween). I don't have a costume, but I think it'll be a good time.

Anyway, I'll post more when I have more to say, and once I take some pictures!

Second day and post!

First of all, this is the view out of my window in the daytime. The night view is even more spectacular, but I can't get a good picture for some reason. I will soon. So that's Haifa, I guess on the other side of the mountain, where I haven't been yet. You can see it's kind of smoggy, but the air up here is pretty clear.

Today was really intense. I got up pretty early for an international school breakfast (hummus and pita duh) and then a bunch of people decided they wanted to go on a hike that would eventually lead us to the beach. I really wanted to go to the beach and I haven't worked out in a few days so I was pretty excited about the prospect of a good hike, but it turned out to be pretty strenuous and I wasn't wearing the right clothes. It was about 3 hours of walking downhill, literally down the mountain, and then about an hour of walking along a highway (turns out the trail down the mountain didn't lead quite as smoothly to the beach as I was anticipating). But we eventually got to the beach, called Dado, at about 4. By then, we were all pretty exhausted so it was good to just chill on the beach for a while. And the water was freezing! Of course, because although it's 70 degrees outside, it's still winter. We watched the sun set on the Mediterranean, which was pretty incredible.

After that, I met Dara and her parents in Horev and they took me to dinner, which was really nice. We went to a pasta/pizza kind of place and I had sweet potato pasta which was good (still trying to navigate being vegan in a foreign land). They answered some of my questions about Israel and gave me some tips (such as NEVER JAYWALK! The drivers here are insane). And then Dara's parents drove me back to the university. It's kind of early to be in for the night on a Saturday, but I'm incredibly exhausted and out of it. And tomorrow we have a long day of orientation and stuff, and then classes start on Monday.

Culture-shock, still nothing too noticeable, other than getting used to everything being shut down for Shabbat, dozens and dozens of stray cats skulking around ankles, and I noticed that there are very few trash receptacles here in general, which is kind of a shame because there was some trash on the beach.

First REAL Post

So it's 2:45 on my first day in Haifa. First of all, the weather is absolutely, without exaggeration or embellishment, perfect. It's warm but not hot and breezy and cool at night and it's just beautiful. Especially compared with that 3 feet of snow I left behind in Washington!

The flights were long and tiring, but nothing out of the ordinary and certainly easier than the 14 straight hours to China. The first flight was to Heathrow, and I occupied myself by watching An Eduction on my computer and Bridget Jones's Diary on the plane (it was British Air...). And I was lucky because a woman sitting near me asked if I was going to Haifa and she and another boy near us all happened to be doing the same program, so we kind of stuck together at the airport. And I got to see Lisa! I found her as she was in line to board her plane to Frankfurt, and it was such a relief to talk to her and see a familiar face. The second flight, into Tel Aviv, was a little rocky and the plane was older and kind of shitty, but by that point I was so disoriented it didn't really bother me. The other two people doing the Haifa program and I got our bags together and got surprisingly easily through customs (at least I did, with my student visa). Then the three of us walked right outside of the airport and a sharoute driver gathered us up and we got on the van with a bunch of other kids going to Haifa. It was dark by the time we got up the mountain, so unfortunately we didn't get to see much of the view. The University of Haifa is on top of Mount Carmel, and the view out of my window is absolutely incredible (pictures soon).

After getting settled in my room and stuff I went on a mission to find a computer lab. I asked a guy standing outside his dorm if he spoke English (turns out he's from Texas) and he was really nice and let me use his computer in his dorm room and then invited me to go out for a drink with his friends, so I met a few more kids who were all here doing the Ulpan for the past month. They're all learning Hebrew and most of them are learning Arabic, too, which was really cool. I was kind of tired but I figured I should trick my body into thinking it was on a normal schedule and it was kind of early, so I did go with them into town (I forget what it's called but it's a little ways down the mountain) and we had a few drinks before taking the bus back up, and then I went to sleep.

I had to get up kind of early today because Shabbat starts in a few hours and I knew I needed to get some stuff done before everything closed. I was lucky again when an American girl asked me for help getting somewhere and she and I met up with one of the RA people who took us to a bunch of other international students and we went back to the same place I was last night to get groceries, change money, etc., before everything shuts down (at around 3 p.m. until tomorrow night for Shabbat). I thought I needed to get a new adapter for my plugs (turns out I was wrong) but I was proud of myself for getting to a little electronics store and buying the right thing before I got home and realized that my old one actually works too. Oh well. And I bought some postcards in this huge mall while everyone was buying groceries, and then we went to get falafel (duh) which was pretty much the greatest thing I have ever tasted, and had to catch the bus back before they stop running.

Everyone here is really friendly and accommodating (not just the Israelis, but the other international students). I met my suitemates but I don't think they speak English (fortunately we all speak the international language of smiles...). A lot of the kids here aren't religious or aren't Jewish at all, which I think is really cool. There are tons of kids who are Middle Eastern studies majors and I've met a bunch of German students studying here for the semester.

Right now I'm outside the student center, which is already locked because of Shabbat. I don't have wifi in my room, but I live literally one second from the student center, so I'm not as worried about it as I was. Tomorrow I won't be able to do too much because of Shabbat but I think the international students might be going on a hike around Mount Carmel. I really want to go to the beach just to see the Mediterranean, but it'll have to wait until the busses start running again tomorrow night.

Culture-shock wise, nothing really stands out yet. There are guards who check your bags at the entrance to most big stores, and an Israeli soldier (a woman) was with us on the bus with a huge gun, but other than that it's decently familiar, at least for now.