obligatory first post

welcome friends, loved ones, strangers, stalkers...come one come all

at the request of a disproportionately large number of my friends and acquaintances, i've decided to cave on my strict "blogs are lame" policy and start one for my upcoming adventures abroad. one week from today i leave the comfort of the fattest state in the most overindulgent country in the world for thin and foreign lands across the ocean...

starting on wednesday, july 12th, i will be backpacking through europe for a few weeks with my best friend, adam horowitz. as of now, our plans are tentative, but we will be meeting in paris on the 13th, and ending up in london by august 5th, from whence (whence? awesome) i will fly to israel to start my summer programs and fall semester at the university of haifa.

for now, it looks like we'll be hitting up paris, the south of france, monaco, switzerland, luxembourg, belgium, the netherlands, ireland or scotland, and england... and potentially liechtenstein, but only if we can learn how to spell it.

from london, adam flies home to the states, as this is the conclusion of his abroad adventure, and merely the start of mine. i fly to tel aviv and make my way up to haifa (a port city in the north of israel, on the medeterranian [another word i should probably learn to spell], with a vibrant and diverse community and, allegedly, the closest thing to arab-israeli coexistence anywhere in the world...more on that later). i will be in haifa for their summer ulpan (intensive hebrew program... i know... i already speak hebrew...but it can only get better, and i'm getting five credits for it), then their "september study tour" (i don't really know that much about it either... but 4 credits, and study tour around israel, how bad could it be?!?), and finally, starting in mid-october, fall semester. for now, i'm planning on taking 2 classes in the international school (taught in english), 2 in the regular univeristy (taught in hebrew...including an arabic language class), and interning with a daycare program for children with special needs.

if there's a chance you'll be in israel between august and january [winter break anyone??], DEFINITELY holler at me. i will be in israel through mid-january (though i'll likely be doing some traveling from israel as well... hopefully prague, italy/croatia/greece, turkey/cypress, and some other middle eastern adventure travel), at which point i'll make my triumphant return to the states, and finish up my final semester at gw! crazy.

ok. i'm sorry for not capitalizing. you'll just have to get used to it. i'm a decent speller, and to quote a t-shirt my friend jesse wears proudly, bad grammar makes me [sic]. YES!! always end with a bad joke. that shall be the strategy of this blog. that and being unnecessarily verbose. awesome.

i'm off to explore the intricacies of my new backpack, make hostel reservations, play on ryanair, and fill out forms for haifa... and eat, obviously.

be in touch! i'm a compulsive gmail-er and will post contact info for my time in israel once i get it. for now, i'm out. save this link and check it periodically, hopefully i'll be able to keep it up to date... otherwise you can just laugh at my awkward long-windedness...and how i just made long-windedness into a word. greaat. (2 a's were deliberate there.)

peace, love, and new backpacks,
-am