Alright, as you may have guessed from the title, this post is mostly going to be me complaining about things because I have begun to grow rather tired of this place. Also, I am not entirely sure that I am homesick, seeing as how it was my understanding that homesickness is mostly being sad because you are not home, whereas I am just severely irritated because I am still in Israel. To put is simply, this country is too tense. I've talked to some of my friends here about this and they all pretty much agree that there is a near constant tension here. To me is seems like a constant sense of "MINE, NOT YOURS" coming from literally everyone, and it is starting to get to me. Needless to say I will be very glad to get back to nice, relaxing California in two months. Additionally, everyone I know got homesick (the sad kind) all at once (this is about 4 days ago) so no one is really doing anything fun right now. This situation is being exacerbated by the arrival of all the Israeli students because their school year finally started last Sunday. So now there are new people everywhere and its getting on everyone's nerves. I personally will be happy to get internet in my room in a few days because the Wi-Fi lounge has become way to crowded. Most of my friends are interpreting new people (and therefore new roommates) as an invasion of their space (since we have been here all by ourselves for 2 months now). I don't share this opinion, but then again I only have one Israeli roommate (whose name I can never remember) and he will be sharing his internet with me and Sebastian so I have no problem with him.
On a completely different note, I am really looking forward to my next care package because this one will contain books. Now, my normal enthusiasm for books notwithstanding, this is a wonderful development because books in English here are expensive. For example a paperback book regardless of length will never cost less than 60 shekels (about $20). I think I have spent more on books that will be giving away (or reselling) at the the end of the year than I have spent on food so far. So, yeah, those books will be a relief.
And now for things which are funny/interesting:
We (all the international kids) had a big American College-style Halloween party on Halloween (obviously) and that was actually pretty fun. I went as a swimmer and my goggles kept giving me a headache. The best costumes that I saw were a guy dressed as Quail Man from Doug and a girl dressed as a Cat from Haifa (basically a cat outfit, but dirty and with garbage taped to it). I had a good time and look forward to the next party. This event had the unexpected consequence of making my friend Regine (from Denmark) want to have Thanksgiving and Christmas as well, which may or may not happen.
During the election the international school had an all night thing to watch election coverage as it happened. I decided that my time could be better spent by sleeping and then waking up early to find out who won once the polls had closed. To clarify this, the all night thing started at 2am and went until 7am. I went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 6:30am and caught the last 30 minutes. It was kind of funny listening to the people here talk about who they would support. In general, the Arabs liked Obama, because he is new and vaguely Muslim. When we were in Dahab, we talked to some Egyptians there and they said that McCain could not be trusted because he had been an POW and received a head injury and was therefore crazy. It was pretty funny, especially when I thought about how my Aunt Tish would reply to such a statement. The Jewish people here, however, preferred McCain because he is more strongly pro-Israel and, well, Obama is vaguely Muslim. Because everyone (but me) stayed up to watch the election coverage, most people were too tired to celebrate Obama's victory the next day and, in fact, most did not even go to class in the morning. My Arabic class had only three people in it that morning. On the topic of Arabic, we now know half the alphabet and can conjugate verbs in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular in the past tense. Also, I can now write my name, but because there is no "p" sound in Arabic it looks like Luuk Ban Hall, oh well.
In closing, here are some irritating nicknames which I have had before, but which have managed to spontaneously reappear over here as well:
1. Lukie-Poo
2. Luke-cifer
3. Kooky Lukie
Truly, I lead a charmed life. More Later
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