Wow, so I haven't written anything for about a month and a half... sorry about that. In early November, after weeks of almost no work being required for my classes, they suddenly started asking me to do things and I discovered that I had a lot less free time all of a sudden (well, not that much less, but still). I am currently in the midst of finals, and by "in the midst" I mean that I had one today, none tomorrow, and three on Wednesday. I feel I may have mis-planned my schedule a bit for this, but it's too late to change it now.
If anyone has been keeping up with the news, you know that Israel has bombed Palestine and now everybody over here is upset. There are currently large crowds of protesters outside the university yelling for their respective causes. On one hand, we have the Arabs, who are mad about the bombings, and on the other hand we have the Jewish Israelis, who appear to be mad because the Arabs are mad. As near as I can tell, they appear to be at an impasse. What I find most interesting is both international reactions to this whole and and how the media is reporting it. Granted, my view is almost certainly being skewed by the fact that I am over here being educated by Israelis, but it seems like the media is being unfair. Some of the articles I read made it seem like Israel was specifically targeting children on their way to school. Most don't even mention the fact that Hamas has been shooting rockets into Israel quite a while now. During my terrorism class last Wednesday, the teacher was keeping us appraised of how many rockets had been fired into Israel so far that day and by the end it was upwards of 80. What's more, Israel made very clear statements about how, if those rockets actually killed anyone, then Israel would retaliate, which is what appears to have happened. It just doesn't seem right that people are getting that mad at Israel over this. I mean, if Mexico shot 80 rockets into California in a single day, I don't think our government would respond differently. But whatever, I just had to get that out of my system. Oh, and I am fine, all that stuff is happeneing way far away from me.
On a lighter note, I am completely baffled by how Israeli customer service works. In America, waiters are nice to you, so you tip them. In Israel, waiters treat you like crap, and you still tip them, it makes no sense. I know this is somewhat contrary to things I wrote earlier, but this sentiment is being caused largely by one incident which I will relate, verbatim, below. I went with Lea and Popper to a bar called Dunk because it had been recommended to us. It was a really small place, maybe 20 people could fit inside it, so you had to go and talk to the cook people in order to get food. They also weren't kosher and had bacon & eggs, so I went over to order that. Here's how it went
Me: Hi, could I have the bacon and eggs?
Jackass Waiter: Sure *calls my order back to the cook*
Me: Uh, do I get any say in how the eggs are cooked?
Jackass Waiter: No
Me. Are you serious?
Jackass Waiter: Yes.
So I went back to my friends and they convinced me to go and try again. Here's how that went.
Me: Hey look, I would really appreciate it if I could get my eggs over easy.
Jackass Waiter: You get them how we cook them. If you don't like it you don't have to pay
Now, I thought that was fair, rude, but fair so I sat down. When my eggs arrived they were over medium-ish, but close enough. Here's a transcript of the conversation which ensued
Me: Hey, these are almost how I like them
Jackass Waiter: Yeah, shut the fuck up. We made them how you like them
The worst part is that Leah made me tip him afterwords.
Moving on from my new found hatred of Israeli waiters, I will now tell you about my admittedly kinda lame Christmas in Jerusalem, followed by the decidedly more interesting Christmas some friends of my had (and which I could have tagged along for, were I not such a huge wuss). So we had minor bus drama on the way down which does not really bear mentioning largely because I am not entirely clear what the problem was. Anyway, we (Me, Leah, Orli, Collette, Zack, Jake, Netta, and Gabby)get to Jerusalem and it is FREEZING. I did not know it was that cold there going in, but fortunately, I only have my heaviest coat here so it all worked out. The group promptly split into 2 groups, one (Leah, Gabby, Jake, and Zach) went on to Bethlehem (in the West Bank) while the rest of us went to the old city to find our hostel. Now, interesting fact, the old city at night is really, really creepy. It's all boarded up shops and winding alleyways. Eventually we found the hostel and it was really nice. The only downside was that I was in a room with some Polish dude who well, I want to say he snored but that is not quite right. Snoring implies, to me at least, some bass notes to the sound which were not present here. However, it was deeper than a wheeze, so I am not quite sure what to call it, all I know is that it was irritating. Oh, another fun fact about Jerusalem in winter, it sleets. As we were wandering around later, Colette said "Well, at least it's not raining," at which point it promptly began to pour. On our way back to the hostel we passed a girl caught in the rain who yelled "I'm so UNHAPPY" right as we passed her. I found that hilarious. My Christmas Eve dinner was penne pasta in spicy tomato sauce at a little bistro (I don't know what a bistro is, but it seemed like the appropriate word here)in the new city. I ended the evening by putting on dry socks and going to bed, serenaded by by snore-wheezing roommate. The next day I went out and bought things, including a keffiyeh, which I have been wanting for some time. Now, it turns out that keffiyeh's especially in the pattern I bought, are symbols of Palestinian solidarity (whoops) but I did not know that when I bought it. As it is, I only wear it in my room because it keeps me oddly warm (I don't know why keeping my neck warm keeps the rest of me warm, but I am not questioning it either) and because I keep getting yelled at/severely judged by my Jewish friends for wearing something that is not overtly pro-Israel. The way I see it, I bought it, it looks good on me, it is warm, and I am not involved in this whole Israel-Palestine thing, so screw them. Of course, I still am not likely to wear it in public, but that's more because tensions are running a bit high right now and I would prefer to remain invisible (man, am I a hypocrite). Anyway, the purchase of the keffiyeh also marks the one time I have successfully bargained for something since I came here. The original asking price of the Keffiyeh was 370 shekels (roughly $100). That is, obviously, was too much for what is ultimately just a very large piece of fabric, even if it is (allegedly) hand-woven. So I tried to leave the store, which he mistook for a bargaining tactic, so he lowered the price. This happened several times, with me pausing each time to reconsider and decide it was still too much. Unfortunately I had se a base price of 150 shekels (roughly $34) at the beginning and eventually he gave in and offered me that price and threw in this headband thing (which allows you to wear the keffiyeh as a hat) free of charge. Now, because he agreed to that price eventually I am pretty sure I got scammed, but I feel better about it because I consulted with some people and they told me that I got a fairly high quality product so whatever.
Now, while my Christmas was, admittedly, rather lame, a bunch of other people (Henning, Max, Valentine, Jake, and Zach) actually did some pretty cool stuff on Christmas. Henning, Max, and Valentine (German, German, Swiss) went down earlier than we did and went to a town meeting in Bethlehem earlier in the day where they were given tickets to the Midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity, apparently at random. At the mas, they got to se Abdul Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, in person. They then stayed the night in Bethlehem and proceeded to visit Jericho (The Church of the Temptation), Ramala (where the people are actually much nicer than the media would have you believe), and the tomb of Yasser Arafat. So yeah, their Christmas kicked my Christmas' ass.
Now on to the future: I will hopefully go to Nazareth on Thursday, after all my finals are done. I will then leave Haifa on Thursday night to go to Jordan (finally). I will return on Sunday and have several days to put my affairs in order before coming home. I may also make an effort to actually visit the Baha'i Gardens, the Stella Maris Monastery, and Elijah's Cave, because they are literally right down the mountain and I have not been to any of them. I guess we will see. Oh, and the picture is of a rainbow over the Dome of the Rock, during the one moment where we saw the sun while in Jerusalem.
More Later
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