Well, this will be my last post from Israel, though I think I will continue to use this blog when I travel again later. Before I post my closing thoughts on this whole thing I want to relate a funny-ish story. If you recall, I started off this semester by rushing a drunk girl to the hospital and staying there for many hours. As fate would have it, I ended the semester in a very similar fashion. On my birthday, Baeli Regine, Popper, Elior, and I were walking up a gentle hill towards the bus stop to go out to the Irish House (a bar), which has two for one drink specials on Sundays and Mondays. Now, this had been a fairly bad day for no particular reason so I was in a bad mood and everyone was moderately surly. Just as we crested the hill, Popper's knee went out and he fell to the ground. Something had shifted in his knee and he was unable to stand or walk, but he also didn't want to go to the hospital, which is what Baeli immediately recommended (she has a thing about injuries). After we spent some time conclusively ascertaining that Popper couldn't walk, he decided to go the hospital, so we called a cab and everyone minus Elior hopped in. Of course, it wasn't until we were halfway to the hospital that we realized that we didn't really have any cash on hand. That discovery led to a frenzied bit of pocket-emptying and by the time we reached the hospital we has just barely enough. As with the last time, we had to get our own means of actually transporting Popper to the doctor, in this case Baeli found a wheelchair lying around, and we began the billing process (885 shekels). The most dramatic difference between this trip and the first one was that this trip was actually a lot of fun (also our moods all got alot better over the course of the evening). As long as Popper didn't move his leg he was fine, so we just kept him immobilized and made jokes and whatnot until the doctor saw us. Baeli and Reggie kept getting bored and wandering off, but they did get us hot chocolate at one point. I feel that we were really not maintaining the proper ER at 2am decorum, mostly because we were just sitting back, talking, laughing, and sipping hot chocolate while people with legitimate problems went ahead of us, but whatever, it was a fun way spend my birthday. It turns out that Popper has hyperlaxivity, so his joints are really loose and stuff can just move around in them without warning. He is going to be here until March so I am not quite clear on what he is going to be do about it but I'm sure he will do something.
Now on to my closing thoughts. I think that I have had an overall good time here in Israel. I got to see ancient things and holy places and tourist traps. I spent Christmas is Jerusalem, hiked up Mt Sinai, saw the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and got endlessly swindled by merchants all across the holy land. I have learned that cabbies always lie, Israeli waiters hate you, and that I hate doing the dishes after a meal more than anything (well, maybe just a bit less than wearing wet socks, but its close). I have gone to bars, nightclubs, nature preserves and hospitals. Hell, I have gone to the hospital more here than I have back home. There are some things I will miss, like my friends, the sight of the Mediterranean from the top of Mt Carmel, and the interesting feeling of independence which comes with cooking my own meals (which is not so say that I wish to continue cooking my own meals). There are also things I will not miss, such as the nausea inducing bus rides, the horny cats yowling outside my window at all hours, Shabbat, and the constant, unending tension. My only regrets are that I did not manage to see Cairo, Petra, or Istanbul during my time here, but I suppose I can see them later on when I visit this area again. Well, I suppose that is all I have to say. I am not sure how much I have been changed by my time here, but I am sure that I am stronger for it. Goodbye Israel, it was fun.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Christmas in Israel
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
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tel Aviv, Take 2 (Subscript: I Think My Fridge Is Possessed )
Alright, so let me begin this entry by apologizing to my family for not blogging in a while, but I really didn't have anything to write about. So that being said, here is an update on how things are here. My classes are going in interesting, if not especially challenging, directions. In Terrorism and Responses the teacher almost always has a handgun in his waistband while he is teaching, which I think is funny but which freaks out Baeli and Regine. It is looking like I am going to have to do an oral report on the Aryan Brotherhood, or the Aryan Nation or whatever they are called, for that class. This is lame because I had wanted to do a report on the Tamil Tigers, but someone else got there first. Oh well. Psychology has been intriguing not so much because of the subject matter but because of how the teacher and I interact. You see, his English is not that great and I have a habit of talking quickly, quietly, and with a decidedly unusual choice of words. This means that eventually I will ask him a question and he will not entirely understand me, but he does not want to admit that he doesn't know what I said, so he gives a vague and open ended answer which doesn't really answer my question but doesn't really not answer it either. I know he is doing this because I do the exact same thing every time he asks me a question. Regardless, I remain optimistic about the course as a whole. Speaking of optimism, my Honors Seminar is finally getting interesting. The teacher had to start from square one of International Relations Theory because he did not know how much we knew seeing as how we all come from different institutions. Fortunately we are finally getting to some stuff which, while I already know it, is still interesting nonetheless. Arabic is going well, we can now conjugate regular verbs for every person in the past tense (yay?). I really don't know if that means we are going at a good pace or not, but it is working for me so far. And finally, Rabbinic Lit is beginning to drive me crazy. We have spent 4 WHOLE classes just getting clear on when someone can say the Shema (the morning/evening prayer). That is an entire month on a few lines of text. I stand by my original statement that Rabbis are crazy, or at least that Talmudic Rabbis were crazy and this craziness has just lingered around for the last several hundred years.
Now for the one interesting thing that has happened so far since my last post, another trip to Tel Aviv. This trip was born partially out me being spontaneous and partially out of a conversation between myself and a guy named Alex Popper, who usually goes by his last name. He basically said that me and him and Baeli and Regine should go down to Tel Aviv some weekend and go to some clubs or something. Now it happens that Beali has a friend named Anat who is from Yemen and who lives in Tel Aviv and who Beali stays with when she goes down there. One fine Friday I decided that, since Beali was already down in Tel Aviv the rest of us should go and meet her. Anat also happens to have some sort of in with the people who are involved with the club scene in Tel Aviv so she always knows where the good places to go are and can get us in for cheaper than normal. So I called Regine, but she had homework, and then I called Popper and he said sure, but he had to wake up and pack and whatnot before he could go. Because it took him so long to do these things we ended up rushing down the mountain to make the last train, which we still managed to miss. The one funny anecdote from this part of the trip was from when we called the cab to take us to the train station. Popper called and asked in English for a cab and was told that it would cost 70 shekels. When we tried to haggle down the price the guy hung up on us. So we asked the guard lady to call another cab guy, which she did. When she spoke to him in Hebrew we got a cab for 45 shekels. The moral of the story is that one should always have someone who is from here call for services.
Anyway, we missed the train and had to settle on taking a bus down instead. On the bus I ended up sitting next to a woman who was from Tel Aviv but had spent the last several years in Virginia doing "Alternative Research." When asked what that entailed she listed two areas of study as examples: meditation and ape psychology. Needless to say I was very hard pressed not to laugh at her career choice. On the long, long walk from our stop to the beach we kept asking people for directions, even though it was a straight line from our starting position to the beach. I noticed that Israelis give directions in English the exact same way that they give directions in Hebrew, To clarify, when you ask where something is in Hebrew, the answer usually goes something like "yashar, yashar, yashar, smalah, yashar, jaminah, etc." This translates as straight, straight, straight, left, straight, right. When we asked for directions in English, the answer we got was "Straight straight straight, straight straight, straight straight straight, left." Each straight, in both languages, indicates about 5-15 minutes of walking, so as I said it was a very long walk.
Eventually we stopped for food at this Russian place. We had pickled herring and potatoes and mushrooms in piquant sauce as appetizers and chicken stir-fry for the main course. They also served some truly excellent freshly made lemonade. The appetizers were disturbingly tangy and the pickled herring could not be eaten on its own, you had to eat a potato chunk at the same time or else it just tasted too weird. Part-way through the meal a whole bunch of elderly Russian people from America who were on a tour of Israel (I don't know why) came in and Popper had a long conversation with a woman who also happened to be from Santa Monica, which is where he is from. After the meal we called Baeli to see what was going on and she said that she had to get ready so we waited for her by this fountain by the beach. After a while we got bored and started to make use of what I thought was playground equipment. It turned out to be exercise equipment, but it looked like it had been designed by Ronald McDonald. Regardless, it was very amusing and after Beali showed up we went back to Anat's apartment, changed and got ready to go out.
The girls, of course, took a lot longer to get ready, so Popper and I went out to some bars to pass the time. We ended up back at Joey's Bar (which is where I started my first night in Tel Aviv back at the end of the Ulpan). This time the place was a bit more populated than it was the first time I was there but not a lot more. This was due to the fact that the nightlife in Tel Aviv starts late and ends late, as I was to experience over the course of the evening. We were there at around 11pm, and things were just barely getting started. So we left pretty quickly after we arrived. The music was also rather intolerable. The only way I could describe it is that if you took a manic four year old with ADD, gave him an iPod, let him upload music that best fit his mood, and then set it to shuffle, that was the music in that place. Also the beers were really expensive.
After that it was off to the club. Anat recommended a place called the G-Spot, which I thought sounded like the name of a strip club but apparently it wasn't. It ended up being a very interesting night and I spent 5 hours at the club without even realizing it. I labeled this effect the "Techno Time-Warp," so called because a person's perception of time distorts greatly when exposed to excessive amounts of techno music. This is caused by the fact that all techno sounds the same, so while I thought I had only been there for a few songs, I had actually been there for four hours. Afterwords, my ears were ringing for about a day and a half, so if I end up going back I am definitely bringing ear plugs in order to avoid permanent hearing loss. I got out of the club at about 5:30am and we all went to breakfast at a place called Dixie's, where I had my first bacon and egg breakfast since coming here. Granted it was not bacon like I have back home, but it was close enough to keep me happy. Once breakfast was over with, Baeli and Anat went back to Anat's place to sleep and Popper and I were cast out into the streets of Tel Aviv. Fortunately the sun had come up while we were at breakfast, so we went down to the beach. They were setting up these lawn chair type things there, which cost money but are less expensive than a hostel, so we decided to just stay there. Popper ended up sleeping on a lawn chair for about 6 hours, while I read a book, then went for a walk (I didn't end up sleeping at all that night/day). Baeli rejoined us around the time that Popper woke up and we all lounged about on the beach until public services began again (this was all during Shabbat, remember) and then went back to Haifa. Overall, it was a very good trip and look forward to going there again.
On the topic of trips, Regine, Baeli, and I are trying to plan where we want to go during the rest of the semester. In addition to Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey, we are also thinking of going to Nazareth and possibly Hebron (because I want to see the Tomb of the Patriarchs) assuming things aren't too dangerous there.
Two final things. The first is that my refrigerator may very well be possessed. The damn thing, no matter what I set it to, will constantly freeze everything I put in there. I had a can of olives in brine which would periodically be frozen solid for not apparent reason. This would also happen to my mushrooms and my jelly to a limited extent. Last night, I discovered that my carrots had all been encased in a thick coating of frost and they are no where near any water at all. The second thing is that the best part of getting my own internet connection will be that I will no longer have to come up to this horrible lounge. Something about the lounge which I have somehow forgotten to mention, I think, is that it ALWAYS smell like cat poop. Always. This is because the cats use the planters, and occasionally the floor, as litter boxes. There was, at one point during the breaks, a 4 day period during which there was just a big ole lump of cat crap right in the middle of the lounge and no one would clean it up. I seriously cannot wait to have internet in my room.
More Later.
Now for the one interesting thing that has happened so far since my last post, another trip to Tel Aviv. This trip was born partially out me being spontaneous and partially out of a conversation between myself and a guy named Alex Popper, who usually goes by his last name. He basically said that me and him and Baeli and Regine should go down to Tel Aviv some weekend and go to some clubs or something. Now it happens that Beali has a friend named Anat who is from Yemen and who lives in Tel Aviv and who Beali stays with when she goes down there. One fine Friday I decided that, since Beali was already down in Tel Aviv the rest of us should go and meet her. Anat also happens to have some sort of in with the people who are involved with the club scene in Tel Aviv so she always knows where the good places to go are and can get us in for cheaper than normal. So I called Regine, but she had homework, and then I called Popper and he said sure, but he had to wake up and pack and whatnot before he could go. Because it took him so long to do these things we ended up rushing down the mountain to make the last train, which we still managed to miss. The one funny anecdote from this part of the trip was from when we called the cab to take us to the train station. Popper called and asked in English for a cab and was told that it would cost 70 shekels. When we tried to haggle down the price the guy hung up on us. So we asked the guard lady to call another cab guy, which she did. When she spoke to him in Hebrew we got a cab for 45 shekels. The moral of the story is that one should always have someone who is from here call for services.
Anyway, we missed the train and had to settle on taking a bus down instead. On the bus I ended up sitting next to a woman who was from Tel Aviv but had spent the last several years in Virginia doing "Alternative Research." When asked what that entailed she listed two areas of study as examples: meditation and ape psychology. Needless to say I was very hard pressed not to laugh at her career choice. On the long, long walk from our stop to the beach we kept asking people for directions, even though it was a straight line from our starting position to the beach. I noticed that Israelis give directions in English the exact same way that they give directions in Hebrew, To clarify, when you ask where something is in Hebrew, the answer usually goes something like "yashar, yashar, yashar, smalah, yashar, jaminah, etc." This translates as straight, straight, straight, left, straight, right. When we asked for directions in English, the answer we got was "Straight straight straight, straight straight, straight straight straight, left." Each straight, in both languages, indicates about 5-15 minutes of walking, so as I said it was a very long walk.
Eventually we stopped for food at this Russian place. We had pickled herring and potatoes and mushrooms in piquant sauce as appetizers and chicken stir-fry for the main course. They also served some truly excellent freshly made lemonade. The appetizers were disturbingly tangy and the pickled herring could not be eaten on its own, you had to eat a potato chunk at the same time or else it just tasted too weird. Part-way through the meal a whole bunch of elderly Russian people from America who were on a tour of Israel (I don't know why) came in and Popper had a long conversation with a woman who also happened to be from Santa Monica, which is where he is from. After the meal we called Baeli to see what was going on and she said that she had to get ready so we waited for her by this fountain by the beach. After a while we got bored and started to make use of what I thought was playground equipment. It turned out to be exercise equipment, but it looked like it had been designed by Ronald McDonald. Regardless, it was very amusing and after Beali showed up we went back to Anat's apartment, changed and got ready to go out.
The girls, of course, took a lot longer to get ready, so Popper and I went out to some bars to pass the time. We ended up back at Joey's Bar (which is where I started my first night in Tel Aviv back at the end of the Ulpan). This time the place was a bit more populated than it was the first time I was there but not a lot more. This was due to the fact that the nightlife in Tel Aviv starts late and ends late, as I was to experience over the course of the evening. We were there at around 11pm, and things were just barely getting started. So we left pretty quickly after we arrived. The music was also rather intolerable. The only way I could describe it is that if you took a manic four year old with ADD, gave him an iPod, let him upload music that best fit his mood, and then set it to shuffle, that was the music in that place. Also the beers were really expensive.
After that it was off to the club. Anat recommended a place called the G-Spot, which I thought sounded like the name of a strip club but apparently it wasn't. It ended up being a very interesting night and I spent 5 hours at the club without even realizing it. I labeled this effect the "Techno Time-Warp," so called because a person's perception of time distorts greatly when exposed to excessive amounts of techno music. This is caused by the fact that all techno sounds the same, so while I thought I had only been there for a few songs, I had actually been there for four hours. Afterwords, my ears were ringing for about a day and a half, so if I end up going back I am definitely bringing ear plugs in order to avoid permanent hearing loss. I got out of the club at about 5:30am and we all went to breakfast at a place called Dixie's, where I had my first bacon and egg breakfast since coming here. Granted it was not bacon like I have back home, but it was close enough to keep me happy. Once breakfast was over with, Baeli and Anat went back to Anat's place to sleep and Popper and I were cast out into the streets of Tel Aviv. Fortunately the sun had come up while we were at breakfast, so we went down to the beach. They were setting up these lawn chair type things there, which cost money but are less expensive than a hostel, so we decided to just stay there. Popper ended up sleeping on a lawn chair for about 6 hours, while I read a book, then went for a walk (I didn't end up sleeping at all that night/day). Baeli rejoined us around the time that Popper woke up and we all lounged about on the beach until public services began again (this was all during Shabbat, remember) and then went back to Haifa. Overall, it was a very good trip and look forward to going there again.
On the topic of trips, Regine, Baeli, and I are trying to plan where we want to go during the rest of the semester. In addition to Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey, we are also thinking of going to Nazareth and possibly Hebron (because I want to see the Tomb of the Patriarchs) assuming things aren't too dangerous there.
Two final things. The first is that my refrigerator may very well be possessed. The damn thing, no matter what I set it to, will constantly freeze everything I put in there. I had a can of olives in brine which would periodically be frozen solid for not apparent reason. This would also happen to my mushrooms and my jelly to a limited extent. Last night, I discovered that my carrots had all been encased in a thick coating of frost and they are no where near any water at all. The second thing is that the best part of getting my own internet connection will be that I will no longer have to come up to this horrible lounge. Something about the lounge which I have somehow forgotten to mention, I think, is that it ALWAYS smell like cat poop. Always. This is because the cats use the planters, and occasionally the floor, as litter boxes. There was, at one point during the breaks, a 4 day period during which there was just a big ole lump of cat crap right in the middle of the lounge and no one would clean it up. I seriously cannot wait to have internet in my room.
More Later.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
So Now I'm Homesick (But At Least the Tunderstorms Stopped)
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
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
Friday, October 24, 2008
Hike Like an Egyptian (or How I Spent My Succot Vacation)
Alright, so this is going to be a fairly long post about the absurd amount of hiking I did during the Succot vacation. So, to begin with, I ended up going on the school trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. This entailed a 4 hour long bus ride very very early in the morning, which actually wasn't so bad. Now, the thing to remember about Masada is that its sole purpose was as a fortified escape encampment. This means that it was built on top of a really big hill. Really. Big. However, I was unaware of that because we approached and hiked Masada from the Roman Ramp, so called because the Romans built it to lay siege to the place. The history of Masada is actually pretty interesting, it is where the Jews made their last stand during their rebellion and it has some very impressive reservoir things for catching and storing the water from flash floods. What I found most interesting about Masada though, was the way down, aka the Snake Path. The Snake Path's name is derived from the fact that it is a series of switchbacks which seem to be literally stacked on top of each other, like a snake winding up the side of the mountain. This was a rather terrifying trek for me, but I really felt for the people going up the path (I was going down). What was especially funny were all the little kids, like 5-8 yr olds, whose parents were dragging them up this horribly step winding path on what I can only assume to be the worst vacations imaginable.
After we were done hiking down the mountain we went to the Dead Sea to float, which is really all you can do in the Dead Sea. I got in the water and found it very hard to keep myself actually in the water itself, so instead I just went with it and floated for a while. I also helped a bunch of people from our group pick salt crystals from the bottom near the shore, because they look cool and apparently make good bath salts or something like that. The principle downsides of the Dead Sea were these: The smell and the burns. I am not sure if the entire Sea smells like the part I was in, but that part reeked of sulfur and methane (it was like swimming in farts). Additionally, the salt started to eat at you after a while and the little cuts on my hands started to really sting. I also discovered that most people can only stay in the water for a few minutes before their nether regions begin to burn something awful. Which brings me to a funny story one of the guys in our group told me. When he was on his birthright trip (a thing where Jewish kids go to Israel for free and have fun for a weeks or something) there were two among their number who decided to just have lots and lots of sex while on birthright. In accordance with this decision, they decided to try and have sex while in the Dead Sea. Both had to be rushed to the hospital immediately (I found this hilarious). After I got out I rinsed of thoroughly and we set off for our next destination.
That next destination turned out to be a Bedouin camp where we spent the night in this massive tent. We also made our own food and I was on pita patrol, which meant that I helped build the fire and cook the pita which was being made by other people. I mostly just stood there and held a plate where people put the cooked pitas. I would say that the other people on that particular job ate about 1/6 pitas that they cooked, but whatever. Afterward we had some horrible wine (it was like sangria but almost painfully sweet) and went to bed.
The next day we woke up and got ready for yet another hike, this one to the En Gedi National Park, which is a lush and beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert and right across from the Dead Sea (but without the smell). I don't have any pictures of En Gedi because we were hiking in water most of the time and I didn't want to risk my camera. That being said, I hiked then entire time in my brown hiking boot looking shoes which, it turns out, are mostly water proof. So once I got water into them it stayed there until I emptied my shoes again later, which was irritating. Also, on the way back I kept nearly getting scalped by the trees. But it was an incredibly beautiful hike which made me think of the Grand Canyon but with trees. After this point in the trip everyone else went back to Haifa except for Summer, Miri, and I who waited for a bus to Eilat so we could continue on to Dahab, in the Sinai Peninsula.
There isn't really much to tell about this first trip to Eilat really except to mention that the entire city smells a lot better a night, because during the day it reeks of pee, rot, sewage, and garbage. During the night it just smells like the ocean. Eilat is also called the City of Sins, but I didn't see anything which seemed to warrant that epithet.
When we reached Taba, the border crossing between Egypt and Israel, we were initially going to take a bus to Dahab which is about 2.5 hours away. But Summer (who speaks Arabic and spent a semester or something in Cairo last year) haggled a taxi down to a reasonable price of 30 Egyptian pounds. As a reference point, that is equal to about $6. She had to fight with the cabbie the entire ride down to Dahab (and managed to consistently call his bluffs about abandoning us by the roadside) until he finally delivered us to are destination: the Penguin Village. This turned out to be a very nice and reasonably priced hotel. We got three nights with complimentary breakfast, a sunset camel ride, a night hike up Mt Sinai, a snorkeling trip, and an all day hike to the Colored Canyon and the White Canyon all for approximately 75 euro (about $110). The next few days proved to be very hectic and I didn't get much sleep.
Once arrived, settled in, and had a delicious dinner, we went on our sunset camel ride. I was surprised by three things about camels. The first is how their legs work. If any of you have some free time I would recommend trying to find a video on the internet of a camel sitting down because their leg joints bend in a decidedly weird way. The second is how snake-like their necks are. My first impression of them was that someone had taken a furry snake and jammed it into a camel body. The last is the sound they make. For some reason I was under the impression that camels were mute, like giraffes or rabbits. It turns out they make this odd yet vaguely frightening sound. If you remember the tyrannosaurus from Jurassic Park, imagine that thing giving out a really large watery burp instead of a roar and that is what camels sound like. My camel was named Shakespeare for reasons which are entirely unknown to me as he did not seem overly creative or theatrical. Our guide was named was a Bedouin guy named Ramadan who we would later ran into a couple more times in town. We rode the camels for about 20 minutes (which really hurt my inner thighs) then got off and hiked a bit to the top of a small but rocky hill to watch the sun set over the town of Dahab and the Red Sea. We also drank an absurd amount of Bedouin Tea, which is a welcoming tea they give to guests. It is served in these little shot glass things and I must have had 5 during our break, then 2 more at Ramadan's uncle's house, then 2 more at Ramadan's house. I'm not quite sure why we went to those places, but I think they were just being hospitable while our ride back to the hotel showed up. At the end of this I had to tip Ramadan (on account of me being the only guy in the group) and in Egypt you apparently have to tip by placing the money in you palm and then transferring it via handshake. As you might have guessed, I was incredibly bad at this and really awkward about it to boot. After we got back we had about an hour to rest before heading off to Mt. Sinai.
The drive to Mt Sinai took about 2 hours and sucked because the van was very full and my available leg room was about 4 inches shorter than the length of my upper leg, so I was sitting sideways the entire way. We arrived at the mountain at about 1am and commenced hiking. We had yet another Bedouin guide but I cannot remember his name. What I do remember is that he struck me as being like and Arab Peter Pan due to his ability to practically fly up and down the mountain and suddenly appear in places he could not possibly have reached without being seen. Now, much like at Masada, there are two possible paths of approach for hiking up Mt Sinai: The Camel Path and the 3,700 Steps of Repentance. Needless to say, we took the Camel Path, which meant about 3 hours of hiking (but we took the Steps back down). The hike itself was pretty uneventful, the only thing worth mentioning is the little old lady who was in front of me on the final 750 stairs before we reached the summit of the mountain. To put it simply, that lady was booking it and I was struggling to keep up with her. She had a cane in one hand, a flashlight in the other, and an apparently indomitable determination to reach the top before dawn. Once we actually got to the top I rented a blanket and Summer rented a ground pad and we sat down on a very inclined portion of the top of the mountain to wait for sunrise. Of course, it turned out that we were on the wrong side of the mountain to see sunrise, so we ended up standing behind this huge crowd of people waiting for the sun. I have a lot of trouble standing on inclined planes for long periods of time without falling over, so I kept sitting down because even though the sky was getting lighter, the sun wasn't there yet. Because of this I nearly missed the sunrise due to the fact that the sun rose incredibly fast. Once it began to be visible over the horizon it was fully up in about 20 seconds. Then of course we had to get down the mountain and that took a while because there were probably a couple hundred people up there. We left our guide at the to to look for straggler be he managed to magically appear stretched out between two rocks near the bottom like some sort of middle eastern leprechaun (I never saw him pass me and there was only one path) to give us instructions for later. At the bottom of Mt Sinai is St Catherine's Monastery which houses one of the largest extent collections of Orthodox Iconography in existence. I would have gotten pictures of this, but the monks wouldn't let me. They also made me wear this sarong looking thing because the bottoms of my knees were showing beneath the end of my shorts. It was kind of embarrassing.
When we returned to Dahab we changed into our swim stuff and went out to the Blue Hole to go snorkeling. The Blue Hole is a coral formation which drops about 285ft about 20ft from the shoreline and a lot of divers die there every year. I had to teach Summer and Miri how to use their snorkels, which took a while because Miri had never used one before and Summer was afraid of sharks for some reason. During our snorkel time I discovered that I can no longer see in focus under water, which made me sad. That being said I could still make out a whole bunch of fish and corals, the only ones I could name being lion fish and brain coral. My inner fisherman really wished that I had a net and a fishing license, but seeing as how I had neither I somehow managed to restrain myself from trying to illegally fish with my bare hands. After this we had dinner and I finally got to sleep.
The next day we went hiking in the Colored Canyon and the White Canyon, both of which were highly reminiscent of pictures I have seen of the Grand Canyon. The two hikes together took about 12 hours. Our guide didn't speak English though for some reason so I don't really know anything about either of them. The one thing worth mentioning is that at one of the many (there are like a thousand of these things) checkpoints on the way to the canyons, the Egyptian police dudes took my and Summer and Miri's passports. We asked if we would get them back and our guide's response was something in Arabic which meant "If God Wills it," which is most definitely not what I want to hear when it comes to my passport. They had to hold them because we did not have visas to enter mainland Egypt (only the Sinai). Now, we were still about 9 hours by car from mainland Egypt so I'm not quite sure of their logic but whatever, I got it back in the end.
The day after that we checked out and hopped a buss to Taba to cross back into Israel. Unfortunately, there were 6 guys on the bus who had to get out at every single checkpoint and this caused the 2 hour drive to extend into a four hour drive which, in turn, meant that we missed all buses to Haifa from Eilat (it was also the last day of Succot so everything had closed early). This meant that we were stranded in Eilat until the next day. Of course, seeing as how Eilat is the beach vacation city of Israel, there were worse places to be stranded. So we checked into the same hostel we had stayed in before and went to go get dinner. It is important to mention that I was feeling very very sick for some reason at this point and could barely stomach food. This problem was further exacerbated by what appeared to be either a broken water main (hopefully) or a broken sewer line (hopefully not). I say hopefully on the water main because as we were walking a police car sped past us and completely soaked the left side of my body in whatever it was and I very nearly lost it right there. The next we sunbathed for 3 hours then went to the bus station.
Eventually we made it back to Haifa (after a 6 hour bus ride) and I got to sleep for about 6 hours before having classes all the next day. The day after that we had a big thunder storm which shut down the dorm's elevator so I now have to walk up 9 stories to get to literally everything. My favorite part of the trip was that everyone in Dahab thought I was Arab. Some thought I was Egyptian, but most said that I looked Moroccan or Tunisian. However, in Israel, no one thinks I look Arab. I plan on using this to my advantage when vising other Arab countries in the future in order to avoid being hassled.
And Now for Pictures:
1. Ramadan taking a smoke break on the mountain overlooking Dahab
2. Me on a Camel
3. Me in the Colored Canyon
4. A bush which is either the burning bush or its descendant
5. Sunrise on Mt Sinai
6. Me floating in the Dead Sea
7. The Snake path down Masada (it ends at the building in the upper right hand corner)
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Endless Holidays
Well, I am currently in the midst of what is quite possibly the longest stretch of holidays I have ever experienced. That, however, is not the reason why I haven't posted in a while. No the reason for my lack of posts was an incredibly irritating bout of illness. It began as a mild sore throat and stayed that way until I went out to a bar called Morrison's, which is themed along the lines of the lead singer from the Doors but only seemed to play techno-remixes of Madonna songs. It was also incredibly smokey and quite loud. After that I had a sore throat which prevented me from talking and I couldn't walk or stand for more than a few minutes before having to sit down. This all occurred last week during our break for Rosh HaShana, which is the Jewish New Years holiday. While everyone else I know went out to bars or visited Egypt, I was reading in bed, eating soup, and drinking chamomile tea with honey to soothe my throat. Needless to say, that kinda sucked.
After Rosh HaShana, we had two days of school before our break for Yom Kippur and Succot. I had another good intro to rabbinic lit class and in Arabic I learned 4 more arabic letters, 5 out of six arabic vowels, 2 additional pronunciation markings, and about 10 words. I also had my first Psychology of Conflict Resolution class which, in all honesty, seemed like a moderately sized group therapy session. The entire class was comprised of questions about the reading, but they questions about how we felt about the reading, you know... what it made us feel. Now, I hadn't done the reading because I was not in the last class. That being said, here is a near direct record of my sole contribution to the discussion:
Teacher: You, how does that make you feel?
Me: How does what make me feel? (I hadn't been paying attention)
Teacher: Everything.
Me: Everything?
Teacher: Yes.
Me: Uh, everything is... good?
Regardless of how free form that class is I think I will stick with it, if only because it is completely unlike any class I have had before and may prove interesting. Also during this time I tried to arrange a trip to turkey for me and some other people during the Succot holiday (which commemorates the Jews wandering in the desert and also has some harvest-related meaning). But all these people were in Egypt for all of last week and I was too sick to make it to the travel agency's office so that didn't end up happening. But since with my new schedule I now have four day weekends every week so I can probably go there for the weekend later on. Now I am trying to figure out if I want to go on the international school trip to the Dead Sea. I am torn because the trip includes some time at the Dead Sea, then a hike up Masada (King Herod's mountain stronghold) and then camping in a Bedouin tent for the night. Now, as most of you know, I hate hiking and I'm not really one for camping either. On the other hand, it would be a good opportunity to meet some of the other international students and apparently the sunrise when viewed from Masada is one of the most beautiful sights in Israel. Oh, well, I'm sure I will come to a decision eventually. Also, The Succot holiday will last for all of next week as well. This means that we had a week of school, then a week off, then two days of school, then a week and a half off, then two and a half months of school. All of which roughly equates to me working my ass of on research papers and oral presentations about a month earlier than I would back home because of how condensed the semester is.
The last thing I want to mention is that I watched half of the first presidential debate and all of the second one last night and was kinda (not really) surprised to find myself agreeing more with McCain than Obama. Granted this may have been because Obama's goal for the second debate seemed to be to not directly answer any question he was asked, but I digress. Also, from both debates, I noticed that McCain is really, really good at getting in the last word, it was quite impressive. I would like to talk about the debate in a bit more detail but I am little pressed for time right now so I may do that later, I don't know.
More later
After Rosh HaShana, we had two days of school before our break for Yom Kippur and Succot. I had another good intro to rabbinic lit class and in Arabic I learned 4 more arabic letters, 5 out of six arabic vowels, 2 additional pronunciation markings, and about 10 words. I also had my first Psychology of Conflict Resolution class which, in all honesty, seemed like a moderately sized group therapy session. The entire class was comprised of questions about the reading, but they questions about how we felt about the reading, you know... what it made us feel. Now, I hadn't done the reading because I was not in the last class. That being said, here is a near direct record of my sole contribution to the discussion:
Teacher: You, how does that make you feel?
Me: How does what make me feel? (I hadn't been paying attention)
Teacher: Everything.
Me: Everything?
Teacher: Yes.
Me: Uh, everything is... good?
Regardless of how free form that class is I think I will stick with it, if only because it is completely unlike any class I have had before and may prove interesting. Also during this time I tried to arrange a trip to turkey for me and some other people during the Succot holiday (which commemorates the Jews wandering in the desert and also has some harvest-related meaning). But all these people were in Egypt for all of last week and I was too sick to make it to the travel agency's office so that didn't end up happening. But since with my new schedule I now have four day weekends every week so I can probably go there for the weekend later on. Now I am trying to figure out if I want to go on the international school trip to the Dead Sea. I am torn because the trip includes some time at the Dead Sea, then a hike up Masada (King Herod's mountain stronghold) and then camping in a Bedouin tent for the night. Now, as most of you know, I hate hiking and I'm not really one for camping either. On the other hand, it would be a good opportunity to meet some of the other international students and apparently the sunrise when viewed from Masada is one of the most beautiful sights in Israel. Oh, well, I'm sure I will come to a decision eventually. Also, The Succot holiday will last for all of next week as well. This means that we had a week of school, then a week off, then two days of school, then a week and a half off, then two and a half months of school. All of which roughly equates to me working my ass of on research papers and oral presentations about a month earlier than I would back home because of how condensed the semester is.
The last thing I want to mention is that I watched half of the first presidential debate and all of the second one last night and was kinda (not really) surprised to find myself agreeing more with McCain than Obama. Granted this may have been because Obama's goal for the second debate seemed to be to not directly answer any question he was asked, but I digress. Also, from both debates, I noticed that McCain is really, really good at getting in the last word, it was quite impressive. I would like to talk about the debate in a bit more detail but I am little pressed for time right now so I may do that later, I don't know.
More later
Friday, September 26, 2008
Longest. Night. EVER.
Ok, so I know that I just posted yesterday, but last night was one of those things that you have to write down while it's still fresh. To celebrate the end of the first week of classes, several of the international kids came to my suite for dinner and drinks before going out to a nightclub or something. I made tuna rosy (thanks for sending me that recipe Grandma, it's delicious), and there was much rejoicing. The number of people kept increasing so an initial group of about 4 eventually became a group of 10-12. At this point we left my room and went down to the rooms of those guys who live next to me (Brandon, Adam, Jake, and Zach) and there was additional alcohol and the eventual decision to go to a club called Nirvana which is on the beach. So taxis were called (it took 3 of them to get everyone there), and we were on our way. However, upon arriving it became excessively clear that one of the girls had had way too much. She stumbled out of the cab and ran for a nearby grassy hill where she promptly began crying, vomiting, and stumbling towards the sea. Some of the other girls (Leah, Summer, and Baeli) went to help her out wile I stayed with the rest of the group to wait for the last taxi to arrive. When everyone got there it became yet clearer still that, not only did this girl need to leave, she needed to go to a hospital. To put this in context, she is tiny, like 5 foot nothing, and had been chugging vodka for some reason. She was almost completely unresponsive, vomiting a lot without really producing anything, and her skin was very cold to the touch. My CMC freshmen year orientation training kicked in when I noticed these things and I so I mentioned that there was I distinct chance that she had alcohol poisoning. It was decided that me, Beali, and Summer would go to the hospital with her while everyone else went to the club. I had Leah get some water and a garbage bag from inside the club just in case. This turned out to be a spectacularly good idea. We had a helpful Israeli girl hail a cab and set the fare, then I had to pick up the drunk girl (who was completely ragdoll at this point) and we left for the hospital. You may be wondering why we took a cab instead of an ambulance or something, and the reason for that is that we called the Madrichim, who are social activity coordinators/RAs, and they told us to take a cab instead. Because I was the one carrying her she was on my lap the entire time and man oh man was I glad that bag was there because she threw up at least twice more on the ride over (at the end of the night I was still miraculously vomit free). There was one horrible yet hilarious moment when Baeli had the window down in the front seat and the wind inflated the bag... it was so gross.
We got to the hospital, paid the taxi, and then got a very interesting introduction to Israeli health care. So we get inside and there is a medical guy there and he has me put the drunk on a gurney. Then, and this really enraged Baeli and Summer, he had me push the gurney through the hospital. Now, putting her onto the gurney was hard, because she was completely limp, and so her head did hit the bars on one side of it (I felt bad about that), but pushing that gurney was really really difficult. Those things are really hard to steer and I kept hitting walls. When we got her into admission and they asked us for her insurance information we discovered that the drunk girl had left her purse in the first taxi she took to the beach, so she had no money, no phone, and no identification. Also, those of us there barely knew her. So we filled in the information as best we could and Summer ended up footing the bill for the hospital stay because we couldn't get her insurance info. While this was going on I was allowed to wheel her back to where the doctors were, but seeing as how I have never been in a hospital before (let alone an Israeli hospital) I had no clue where I was going. And that is when I learned that Israeli doctors can be marvelously unhelpful at times. Picture this, if you will: it's about 2am and I, an obviously confused American am wheeling a small obviously sick girl through a hospital. I see a doctor and ask here where to take the drunk girl. The doctor responds "There" and points in the general direction of a hallway. I go towards that hallway and it splits off into several directions. So I ask another doctor where to take her and she says "There" and points in the general direction of another hallway. So I got towards "there" and it splits again. I get fed up with that crap and go back out and ask the doctors where specifically I should take her. The doctor looks at me angrily and says "I already told you." I very nearly started yelling at the doctor because, you know, she had not already told me, but then another doctor led me to a room full of people on hospital beds and we got the drunk girl squared away. I then traded places with Baeli because her Hebrew is better than mine or Summer's so we thought she should be in there with the doctors and whatnot. When I got back out to the lobby, Summer was on the phone asking the Madrichim when they would have someone there to help the drunk girl. They said that they wouldn't, because they had to lead a hike to the Golan Heights the next day. They also advised that we go home and leave the drunk girl at the hospital. This advice only served to further enrage Summer, who proceeded to lay into them about how we don't speak Hebrew, it is a foreign country/hospital, the drunk girl had no money, no phone, no ID, they (the madrichim) are being paid to help the international students and how, even if it was our responsibility to care for her, we (Summer, Baeli, and I) were not well enough equipped to help in this situation because we don't speak Hebrew or know Israeli hospital procedure. After a few minutes of this they conceded and said they would send someone in an hour. Baeli went back to sit with the drunk girl, while Summer and I sat in the lobby to wait.
We got hungry after a while and went off in search of a restaurant which was advertised as being in the hospital and still open. This when I discovered that Israeli hospitals also contain malls. Had we been there during normal business hours (it was around 3am by that time) we could have eaten at a McDonald's, bought some clothes at the Israeli equivalent to the GAP, and gotten some books and the Israeli equivalent to Borders. But it was the middle of the night so everything was closed except one restaurant called Aroma. We got sandwiches and Beali and Summer had coffee and it was very pleasant. While we were talking over food I realized two things. The first was that this was the first time I had ever been in a hospital, at least insofar as I remember. The second thing was that everyone helping the drunk girl (Summer, Beali, and I) were half black/half white. That doesn't really have any bearing on the situation, but it seems kinda improbable all the same.
Around 4am or so someone from the University got there as did Eytan (they guy I went to Jerusalem with who also happens to know this girl). Eytan said that she was going to be fine and that he would stay with her for the rest of the night so we could go home, which we did. We left the hospital and went to this sketchy little kiosk/bodega thing to see if we could hail a cab. We turned down 3 cabs because they wanted too much money for the ride (they wanted about 70 shekels), but we finally found a guy who would take us back to the University for 50. The one condition was that he wanted to pick up a friend of his first which was a 10 minute or so trip out of our way. We agreed because it was very late and we were tired. The interesting thing about the taxi driver was his voice. Do you remember in Star Wars episode I, that fat little alien hummingbird thing which owned Anakin Skywalker when he was a child? Well this guy sounded exactly like that hummingbird thing. When we got dropped off at the University (it is now about 5 am), we talked with the security guard for a while, because he is also a student and happened to know Baeli. Apparently he had warned her never to drink with Americans because something like that always happens when you do. I can't help but agree.
More Later.
We got to the hospital, paid the taxi, and then got a very interesting introduction to Israeli health care. So we get inside and there is a medical guy there and he has me put the drunk on a gurney. Then, and this really enraged Baeli and Summer, he had me push the gurney through the hospital. Now, putting her onto the gurney was hard, because she was completely limp, and so her head did hit the bars on one side of it (I felt bad about that), but pushing that gurney was really really difficult. Those things are really hard to steer and I kept hitting walls. When we got her into admission and they asked us for her insurance information we discovered that the drunk girl had left her purse in the first taxi she took to the beach, so she had no money, no phone, and no identification. Also, those of us there barely knew her. So we filled in the information as best we could and Summer ended up footing the bill for the hospital stay because we couldn't get her insurance info. While this was going on I was allowed to wheel her back to where the doctors were, but seeing as how I have never been in a hospital before (let alone an Israeli hospital) I had no clue where I was going. And that is when I learned that Israeli doctors can be marvelously unhelpful at times. Picture this, if you will: it's about 2am and I, an obviously confused American am wheeling a small obviously sick girl through a hospital. I see a doctor and ask here where to take the drunk girl. The doctor responds "There" and points in the general direction of a hallway. I go towards that hallway and it splits off into several directions. So I ask another doctor where to take her and she says "There" and points in the general direction of another hallway. So I got towards "there" and it splits again. I get fed up with that crap and go back out and ask the doctors where specifically I should take her. The doctor looks at me angrily and says "I already told you." I very nearly started yelling at the doctor because, you know, she had not already told me, but then another doctor led me to a room full of people on hospital beds and we got the drunk girl squared away. I then traded places with Baeli because her Hebrew is better than mine or Summer's so we thought she should be in there with the doctors and whatnot. When I got back out to the lobby, Summer was on the phone asking the Madrichim when they would have someone there to help the drunk girl. They said that they wouldn't, because they had to lead a hike to the Golan Heights the next day. They also advised that we go home and leave the drunk girl at the hospital. This advice only served to further enrage Summer, who proceeded to lay into them about how we don't speak Hebrew, it is a foreign country/hospital, the drunk girl had no money, no phone, no ID, they (the madrichim) are being paid to help the international students and how, even if it was our responsibility to care for her, we (Summer, Baeli, and I) were not well enough equipped to help in this situation because we don't speak Hebrew or know Israeli hospital procedure. After a few minutes of this they conceded and said they would send someone in an hour. Baeli went back to sit with the drunk girl, while Summer and I sat in the lobby to wait.
We got hungry after a while and went off in search of a restaurant which was advertised as being in the hospital and still open. This when I discovered that Israeli hospitals also contain malls. Had we been there during normal business hours (it was around 3am by that time) we could have eaten at a McDonald's, bought some clothes at the Israeli equivalent to the GAP, and gotten some books and the Israeli equivalent to Borders. But it was the middle of the night so everything was closed except one restaurant called Aroma. We got sandwiches and Beali and Summer had coffee and it was very pleasant. While we were talking over food I realized two things. The first was that this was the first time I had ever been in a hospital, at least insofar as I remember. The second thing was that everyone helping the drunk girl (Summer, Beali, and I) were half black/half white. That doesn't really have any bearing on the situation, but it seems kinda improbable all the same.
Around 4am or so someone from the University got there as did Eytan (they guy I went to Jerusalem with who also happens to know this girl). Eytan said that she was going to be fine and that he would stay with her for the rest of the night so we could go home, which we did. We left the hospital and went to this sketchy little kiosk/bodega thing to see if we could hail a cab. We turned down 3 cabs because they wanted too much money for the ride (they wanted about 70 shekels), but we finally found a guy who would take us back to the University for 50. The one condition was that he wanted to pick up a friend of his first which was a 10 minute or so trip out of our way. We agreed because it was very late and we were tired. The interesting thing about the taxi driver was his voice. Do you remember in Star Wars episode I, that fat little alien hummingbird thing which owned Anakin Skywalker when he was a child? Well this guy sounded exactly like that hummingbird thing. When we got dropped off at the University (it is now about 5 am), we talked with the security guard for a while, because he is also a student and happened to know Baeli. Apparently he had warned her never to drink with Americans because something like that always happens when you do. I can't help but agree.
More Later.
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