why i love hebrew. and not whipped cream.

the word in hebrew for whipped cream is katzefet.  it comes from the root letters kuf-tzadik-peh (קצפ). this is the same root as for the word for "to foam at the mouth," as might be induced by a seizure...or rabies.  amazing.

 

additionally, whenever one has a birthday in israel, and ones friends slyly get the waitress to bring one a celebratory birthday dessert, one must beware that this dessert will most likely involve a) katzefet (whipped cream/rabies foam) and b) sparklers, instead of candles.  while the display of pyrotechnics is somewhat impressive when the waitress is en route to your table, it becomes increasingly more awkward as one cannot blow out sparklers, one must wait for them to burn out on their own, thus elongating the uncomfortable period of time between when the dessert is presented and when one actually gets to eat it.  as if being the subject of the birthday song isnt painfully awkward enough (i have yet to figure out what the socially appropriate response to that is... ), waiting for sparklers to burn down while trying not to get burnt when all you really want to do is end the singing and start the eating is... well... something i dealt with on more than one occassion this past weekend.  thanks friends.  for real, thanks for all the bday love in whatever form it came, i appreciated it. and if you didnt know/forgot/forgot but want to make up a good excuse, dotn worry about it, i appreciate the thought/lack thereof.  time zones. its confusing, no worries.  im not really a big birthday person in the first place, thus, this paragraph is awkward enough.

 

beyond katzefet and sparklers, the weekend was good. i stayed in jerusalem with emily and drew and came to haifa on sunday afternoon.  while i was pissed about it last week, saying "why woudl they uproot us all for just 5 days of class?!?" i am glad that they did... i love haifa, and im really glad to be here right now.  also, it has given me some time to be here and gauge how i feel about staying while actually being here, instead of making a decision from jerusalem... i might as well have been sitting at home, i needed to be here to make this decision.  that being said, i am here. its tuesday afternoon. and i really still dont know waht to do.  which is greaaaat. this has gotten even more complicated and so many factors are involved and im WAYY too good at playing devils advocate to any argument anyone throws my way (myself included)...so basically i still dont know. but i told myself i woudl decide today. so we'll see how that goes.  the "go with your gut" plan doesnt really work when my gut changes its mind several times each day... and, as i mentioned in my last email, i also think i have the plague/rubella/SARS of the stomach anyway... so we're trying not to aggrivate my gut any more anyway. at this exact moment, im feeling like its great here and why woudl i leave? but that is likely to change within the next 20 minutes anyway, because once i ask myself "why would i leave?" then i actually answer the question and rememebr the compelling reasons on both sides...adn thus... here i am. incoherent, confused, and overheated in this non-airconditioned computer lab.

 

in an unrelated note, for the record, as much as i love israel and socialism, the postal system here is a joke which i do not find particularly funny.  apparently my laptop and the accompanying clothes that were sent in a package to me about a month ago have been sitting in the post office on mt scopus for 2 weeks. glad they notified me.  unfortunately they will not locate it for me, i have to go there and get it. which is great. because mt scopus is in jerusalem, and i am in haifa.  but at least we *hopefully* know where my laptop is. 

 

random other note: the is a pocket-sized french kid in my hebrew class whose dedication to applying hair product makes it look like he is perpetually walking through a wind tunnel.  or like he is the manpretty equivalent of a troll doll.  regardless, my favorite thing about my new friend marc, besides his legitimately adorable giggle and his addiction to playing "snake" on his nokia phone (when it looks like hes all cool and texting his frenchy friends about hair gel and tiny euro-sweatpants), is that during our 5-10 minute breaks from class, he habitually goes outside to smoke a cigarette and drink an entire carton of chocolate milk.  again, chainsmoking in one hand, vitamin-enriched chocoalte milk in the other.  adorable.  i want to put him in my pocket.  i love chocolate milk.*

 

*the list of reasons to stay and to go includes such compelling factors as the remarkably high quality of dairy products israel has to offer (gc yoni), which constrasts the painful quality of tap water... clearly my priorities are in line.  safety? security? ability to graduate on time? personal well-being?  please. snack foods, outlandish travel plans and friends who may or may not be around are clearly of much greater import.

 

taht being said, im going to go back to my room, get some work done, try to make some decisions, or at least soem phoen calls, and then there is a movie on campus at 8:30.  one ive wanted to see for a while, woo hoo for building up my (already entirely too vast) personal library of israeli movies. and by that i mean ive seen way too many, own none, and would like to keep it that way.  ps after class yesterday we watched a movie that was hands down the single worst israeli movie ive ever seen. thus, probably the worst movie of any kind i have ever seen. for those of you who were a part of the semesters in which i took "israeli cinema" and "arab film and culture," you know just how bad this movie had to be to top the cinematic GEMS i suffered through for 2 semesters.  this one was something about a pilot with a brain tumor... he had rick segal hair (anyone? mi adult board?) and i think his wife was an aerobics instructor, but she spent a lot of the movie wearing a cream-colored "sensible pant suit" w/ shoulderpads almost as big as her hair.  aw-ful.

 

b'kitzur (in short...ha something im not so good at- brevity is overrated wan), i still dont know if im staying or coming back. lots of factors. and the newest amusing one is the study tour program i am supposed to go on in september?  is down to 3-5 students.  they say their programs will continue no matter what, and that this is a great opportunity for more individualized attention... ya think? 4 studnets isnt a bus. its not even a short-bus.  its barely a mini-van.  4 students is a toyota camry, w/ professor yisrael ne'eman behind the wheel.  awkward. really awkward. we'll see what happens with that...

 

i think im getting the hang of what should be blog vs what should be email. aka this entire post said nothing relevant at all... hope you enjoyed.

 

be in touch. im off for an ice cream bar. mmmmm...dairy...

-am

 

ehh... so what you're saying is...

i just got an email from haifa that may have indicated that all programs are on, to be in haifa, and we are going back thursday after class, to have our last week of ulpan in jerusalem.  i may have gotten this email.  approximately 80% of the rest of my program did not, as it was only sent to those of us intending to continue through the fall semester...thus, i somewhat doubt its legitimacy... more on that to follow, i ASSURE you.

 

it is weird. i should be rejoicing that my programs are happening and i can go back to my original plan...but somewhere between an uneasy feeling of "whaaaa?", a lack of confidence in the lasting durability of this ceasefire, and all the work ive done to create other options for myself that arent so heinous make me not so jumping for joy immediately...granted, i seldom jump for anything (except jump rope for heart circa 4th grade. anyone? anyone? bueller?).  basically im unbelievably confused and torn and unsure what i want to do at this point, and currently more nauseated than excited at the prospects.  dinner should help.  as should some definite word from the administration, which i think will come tomorrow or tuesday.  the email they got back from me was probably one among many, but i did indicate that this seemed mildly ridiculous (to uproot us and move us back to haifa for the last 5 days of class? i mean great that the rest of the programs are going on, but, uh...thats dumb...) and especially that they had made some kind of "decision" that affects all 100 ppl in this program, but only told 10-20 about it, seems reallly stupid. so the response i got back was that they are evaluating and will be discussing with us tomorrow or tuesday.  so until then, no official decisions from here... but a lot of nerve-wracking, which is pretty normal at this point.

 

moving on.  other than the clothes currently on my body, every article of clothing i own on this continent is currently under the care of a brusk-sounding israeli named "kobi."  i am praying it comes back to me tonight, as that would make for qutie an awkward trip to beer sheva tomorrow... though at this point with the recent announcement from hafia, im not sure if i am still going to go (also could have somethign to do with the fact that the bus id have to take leaves from the central bus station at 6:45am...and i live about 40 mins away from the central bus station...)  apparently as much as id prefer to do my own laundry, that sort of thing is passe here on mount scopus... it is less expensive for "kobi" to pcik up your laundry from your dorm and return it to you later that day or the next day clean than it is to go to a laundromat, buy your own detergent, pay for machines, etc...not to mention that it is a 20 minute walk to the nearest laundromat, or bus/cabfare there and  back... so ill be counter to my instincts and send it off... kobi said i owe him a cup of coffee because he is putting a rush on my laundry so it done tonight... i love making new friends. 

 

this weekend was really enjoyable. as i may have mentioned, i have been very strategic about my friend-making... in that, i am deliberatly not making any close friends who are on the haifa program, and instead am making friendly acquaintances in class and hanging out w/ emily, drew and some of their friends in the evenings.  the logic behind this is somewhat convoluted, but let me be. it works for me. plus, obviously i love em and drew, but some of their roommates/friends are quite cool as well.  specifically, em's roommate jess, who looks REMARKABLY like our other best friend, rachel haskell, and some of drew's roommates... jeff, a somewhat typical but harmless and fun gw reject, and erik, a 28-year old bearded goofball (though he shaved it today, sad) who spends a disproportionate amount of time speaking in an impersonation of shimon peres... it is addictingly funny, and he is in my phone as shimon peres.  it is funny to scroll through my contacts and see "rose, sarah, shimon peres, shlomit..." ha. so those are some of the key players in the weekend (though i promise i do have friends on my own program..and they have names... like aly and adina and talia... i didnt make those names up either, theyre real people). 

 

thursday night we went out to the art fair, which was exceedingly fun... me, em, drew, jess, erik, and one of emily's other roommates, marla (think a league of their own marla... yup).  im a problematic friend to bring to an art fair becaus ei will point out all of the things you should buy, but not buy anythign myself because, as you may recall from the end of europe, i have no money, but a tremendous amount of will power (when it comes to everything b ut food).  art fair was really fun, and from tehre we went out to an outdoor-ish hookah bar, one we'd been to previously and enjoyed, and this time doubled up on liters... meaning that in addition to 2 hookahs for the table, each of us consumed 2 liters of beer.  picture a 2 liter bottle of pop (or soda or coke, whatever region you're from). now fill it with beer.  we each drank that much.  it was a really amusing night.  there are funny pictures on all of their cameras to indicate, though i still have yet to take my camera out anywhere.  i think im in protest. slash i will just get them from emily/erik/etc. 

 

friday i slept in later than i have in weeks.  i can measure how late i sleep by how many times i hear the call to prayer from the nearby mosques, and friday i think i missed the first 3 calls... aka i slept till like noon or 1.  glorious. gloriously hot in my room but whatever i was unconscious. i met up with my good friend MARA from school (a fellow avi chai-er, and one of the best people ever in life...) and her parents for a delicious lunch. so pleasant, it really was great to see them.  then saying goodbye on the street we ran into shlomit, one of our staff from the trip.  only in israel, right?  i had seen her earlier in the week, but she and mara had not seen each other since the trip ende din january, so it was a welcome coincidence.  i went off with shlomit and helped her prepare for shabbat, then returned to mount scopus to do the same... from there, emily, drew, erik and daniel (one of drew's roommates, a brittish guy who is a BIZARRE combination of zach gelman and my uncle jeff... i dont think there is anyone else on earth who knows both zach gelman AND my uncle jeff, but if you were to know both of them, you too would be astounded by the combination) and i went down to emek refaim (adorable area, atually where shlomit lives) to go to services at a synagogue called shira chadasha.  id been there before, once on avi chai over winter break (but i was mid-stomach virus, so i cant say i got much out of the service), and again whne i was here in march on purim to hear the megilah being read (the purim story, that holiday in march where jews get dressed up, eat triangular pastries and get needlessly drunk... another victory of the little guys over a larger oppressing body... hope that was a sufficient explanation for the non-jews, and an offensive enough one for the rabbis on this list).  anyway. it is a traditional orthodox synagogue, with a mechitza down the middle (a dividing barrier to separate men from women while praying), but it is egalitarian, which is pretty unique. so instead of the womens section being behind the mens, or in a balcony above, they are side by side, and the divider is a curtain, so it is not so oppressive as some can be.  moreove, friday night services, the first part (kabbalat shabbat) is led by women and is filled with beautiful and spritual melodies and niggunim (wordless melodies, for more info contact nshriber@gmail.com) and was truly moving.  the service almost brought emily to tears, but then again, so did rugelach last week...so that doesnt say too much. anyway, it was really powerful and im sure i will be back.  from there we had a lovely walk through the city to get to one of the few restaurants open on shabbat (most things are closed in jerusalem from a bit before sundown on friday to a bit after on saturday) for dinner. thanks ad.

 

yesterday, less in the spirit of shabbat, me, em, drew, erik and jess boarded a sherut (shared cab) headed for tel aviv for a day at the beach!!! after a mild altercation with an ornary israeli man who wouldnt give erik back his seat, the ride was relatively smooth and we were excited to arrive to a beautiful stretch of beach!  it was weird for me to be on this side of the medeterranean, after just being on the other side a few weeks ago in nice with adam, but this felt right. it was also the same strecth of beach i'd spent a good amount of time on a few summers ago after my birthright trip, and i was glad to be there with good friends.  and was scared and excited at the prospect of finally evening out the tan/burn lines from my 2nd degree burn from the beach in eilat in march... im a little burnt, but i think mission accomplished, in that im only burnt where i wasnt before, and maybe this will eventurally turn into an even tan? basically i look ridiculous and have multiple different colors of skin, varying from glow-in-the-dark white to bright pink to an elusive bronzey tan... but of course they will nto likely ever merge into one... dotn worry.  tan lines are a mark of pride, so naturally, mine would be absurd and funny.  duh.

 

beach was fun, despite the disproportionate ratio of  body hair to bathing suit coverage....

 

thats prettymuch the update from here. i should go meet kobi to get my laundry (and apparently coffee...what???) and hope for the best.  there will be more updates as i find out more info about the program, obviously. i realllllly apprecaite all the emails tha tyou guys have been sending back, thank you so much and please keep them coming. i mean it. i love opneing my email box when i only have 8 minutes and having 31 emails from a 24 h our period...and i love that gmail doesnt tell you how many "emails" you have, just how many new "conversations"... so often there are 10-15 individual emails within each new conversation...basically i love getting emails. so send them.

 

off to find laundry and aloe...

am

 

sorry about that...

ok so apparently entitling my last email "kicked outtt" was not as funny to you guys as it was to me.  i am not getting kicked out of the country (that i know of), i was just getting kicked out of the computer lab.  calm yourselves.  it's not like im cracking katyusha jokes (ok, that's a lie, i am cracking lots of katyusha jokes... oh well)

so. i will try my best to give an update of whats been going on, and will hopefully post more info on the blog at some point.  or instead, this email will j ust end up being really long and you'll forgive me.  more likely option b.

right now im in jerusalem, doing my univeristy of haifa ulpan program, which has been relocated to the hebrew univeristy of jerusalem. its a mouthful.  it is great that hebrew u was able to host us and accomodate our program with a few classrooms and random dorm rooms here and there (note: i arrived last saturday and have yet to meet my roommate. she has stuff in the room, pictures on the wall, food in the fridge, and there has even been some moving of pillows and opening/closing of cabinets, but ihave yet to see her).  the conditions arent great, but at least were not running down to shelters 5 times a day.  anyway, my program has about 100 students from literally all over.  the other day i was sitting around a table at a coffee shop and felt like i was at a meeting of the european union... a girl from luxembourg, switzerland, 2 french, 2 italians, a german guy, a dutch guy, and me.  i really dig the diversity, its way more interesting to me than to be in a program with hundreds of americans, and a token canadian here and there for a change.  the other thing thats cool is the range of ages.  while there are some college aged kids here, there seems to be a large delegation of post-grads and people in their later 20's (as well as a few older people, like a random 41 year old woman whose oldest of three is my age... weird, and a german man named "roberto" who has to be at least 74.  long scraggly white beard, old man shorts... we call him father time).  anyway, thats mostly because its an ulpan program, im pretty sure the semester is slated to be more people in their early 20's, though hopefully maintaining the international flavor. 

classes so far are good, unlike the hebrew u program, which as like 35-40 different class sections, we have 6.  im in level 6, of 6... its pretty challenging, but engaging.  my class is the biggest, with 22 students, from 13 different countries... several of the aforementioned countries, plus south africa, poland, ukraine, russia, hungary, brasil, norway and uruguay.  depite my lack of effort, im making friends with several of the people in my class, and strategically avoiding others (liek the other girl whose name is amy who speaks hebrew and is learning arabic and wanted to sutdy abraod in lebanon but couldnt so was to be in haifa... aka stop trying to be me.  except the difference is that shes not cool. she's a dancer, and shes not funny, and i dont particularly like her, and were it not for our frighteningly parallel academic interests, i wouldn't give her a second thought.  i tried to like her. but she is lame. oh well).  the classes are intense, and by that i mean long. my attention span fades when you put me and 22 other people in a hot classroom that would be comfortable for 15, and then make me sit there for 6 hours.  granted, there are strategically placed breaks, but by the time we get to the afternoon slots, im prettymuch done for.  somehow my passion for hebrew grammatical structures fades when im comatose from heat and boredom.  but my teacher is excellent.  actually, i knew she'd be good before she even opened her mouth.  the hair was a dead giveaway.  any good israeli woman past the age of 40 is automatically compelled to wear her pants at least 2 sizes to small and die her hair 4 shades too purple.  the pants werent so bad, but the hair is a dignified shade of eggplant, with maroon roots... thus, you KNOW she's good.  and the director of the program (aka the queen bee of the hebrew teachers) has a full head of burgundy with plum highlights.  you know its quality instruction, these women are DEDICATED to the cause of being hte best herbew teachers they can be, and that means burgundy hair. the purpler the better.  amazing.

ok so thats class and the people here... being here is weird.  its so not where i envisioned myself, and its very weird to be here and not know if ill be here for 3 more weeks or 5 more months... its the kind of uncertainty that nauseates me to the core, and means im agonizing constantly over the decision looming in front of me... ill keep you all posted on any new developments... im trying to go visit ben gurion univeristy (in the negev) some time in the next week or 2 to see if its somewhere id maybe want to spend the semester if haifa doesnt work out, and if its a better option than just returning to gw.  i like being in jerusalem for a little bit, but its really not where i want to spend an extended period of time.  one thing that is great abotu jerusalem is that my best friend emily and her boyfriend/one of my good friends drew are both here. they are on the legit hebrew u program, and it is great to be able to hang out with them as well.  im so glad that they are here and have such a great semester ahead of them, and i enjoy showing them around the few areas i actually know, and more importnatly, pointing out the what to eat...

for instance: there is a legendary bakery right by the shuk (market) in jerusalem, called marzipan.  they dont actually make marzipan (the weird decroative but gross candy made of almonds or something, i dotn know, its gross), they make breads and pastries and baked goods, and LEGENDARY rugelach.  their chocolate rugelach are basically the best thing one could...ever consume, and thus, when i gave one to emily for the first time, she was literally moved to tears.  as in, i gave it to her, she examined it, took one bite, and said "oh my god, i think im going to cry... its so good" and did.  she cried.  there is more deliciousness in store, even if i am only here a few more weeks... there is always deliciousness in store.

making plans for shabbat- hopefully tonight i will be in emek refaim (the german colony) with my friend shlomit, who was one of the staff on the trip i went on with the avi chai fellowship over winter break, and tomorrow morning emily and i are going to explore and find a synagogue around campus and do potluck lunch after with my friend adina from class.  unfortunately, the campus is located on mount scopus, aka in the middle of nowhere, and kind of a shlep from the rest of the city (read: 30-40 minutes from the center of town by bus) and not really surrounded by the best neighborhoods, but hey, im getting to practice my arabic!  (using it less than i did in france/switzerland ironically, here its mostly to reply to teenage catcalls.  few things startle a 17 year old arab boy like jewy jewberger responding in properly accented arabic.  bwa ha ha)

what else?  i have to take advantage of precious computer time while i have it... emily was kind enough to lend me her laptop while mine is en route (crossing my fingers that package gets here ok...) and once this email is sent i get to play around in the wonderful world of gw registration and try to find classes to sign up for the fall just in case i have to come back.  hopefully katyushas are reasonable enough an excuse to get me signed into a class or 2, hopefully the professor for "israeli politics" will understand.  hopefully.

um.... ive run into several people i know, as is always the case in jerusalem... made plans to see others (like long lost friends interning here for the summer, old friends from high school now in the army, etc etc) and trying to make the most of the situation.  its unbelievable bizarre to be here right now.  im glad that i am, but it is so weird. i feel really out of the loop even though im right in the zone. i said that before and it made even less sense just now, but putting my thoughts on the situation into words consisely is not even close to possible.  the perspectives im hearing are so varied- from home, from the radio here, from other students, from typical israelis, from european news sources, and from random phone calls from one of my friends from gw, who is palestinian, offering a vastly different perspective as well... its hard to take it all in and process.  my own opinion and feelings are so differnt than just about everyone else ive spoken to, so its a lot... but i feel safe and am hopeful things will calm down and the soldiers and civillians aroudn the border, on both sides of it, will be safe and able to return home soon. 

final notes about europe: first of all, that was one of the best experiences of my life.  i am SO glad adam and i decided to go and actually m ade that trip happen. it was something we had talked about doing for 4 or 5 years and im SO glad we actually did it.  i learned so much and got to see and experience so many different places and cultures (and eat lots of new and delicious foods, mmmm), and got to do so with my best friend.  pretty lucky, eh?  in case you dont know him, adam horowitz is prettymuch the best person ever in life. and beyond just getting to go on a dream european adventure, im so glad i got to spend those few weeks with him, because he's the best.

also, things you shoudl know about europe: definitions of personal space vary from country to country. for the most part, everywhere's definition involves a lot LESS of it than the us.  cassis, or black currant, is a delicious delicious addition to my life. it is some sort of fruit or berry or something and it is delicious. it is rampant in europe, used as a flavor option for gelato (acutally not that good), fanta/pop/soda (realllly good, vw), jelly, even frappuchinos (i  made an exception and lifted the "no starbucks outside the USA" embargo to try a raspberry black currant frappuchino in the airport in london.l.. mmmmmm).  it is quite lekker (dutch for good/delicious).  other observations from europe? bajillions of churches called notre dame. each famous for something else. i think we went to 11.  and then on my frist day in jersualem, we passed one on our walking tour (which i may have mentoned, it was 8 hours long).  each one is famous for something else, and it took us until approximately notre dame #8 to realize it meant "our lady."  we are idiots.  additionally, europe, there appears to be no social stigma against the practice of public nose picking.  rampant.  to go on an archaeological excavation of ones nasal cavity on a bus, train, subway, street corner, restaurant, etc... is apparently perfectly ok.  also, the tourist industry in any given country is at least 50% dependent on the continent of asia.  as in, asian tourists are everywhere. except dublin.  but even in israel.  it is a cultural phenomenon i am SO intrigued by, specifically practices surrounding picture taking.  photographic practices of asian tourists fascinate me... i could write a dissertation on the "stand in front of this famous thing by yourself but dont worry abotu smiling" practice alone.  let alone the "all you guys stand together in a large pack in front of this statue. doesnt matter what it is" or the "look, an arbitrary street corner or building."  breathtaking.

in total, we went to 8 countries, 14 cities, stayed in 9 hostels and on 2 different uncomfortable floors w/ friends at the london school of economics (thanks again p and emfeld!).  took hundreds of pictures (only 1/2 of which do i have, we took turns w/ our cameras...and none are on my computer yet, as neither my computer nor the cords are here) and really had a phenomenal time.  i think i wrote a bunch about dublin and how fun it was, and we're still in touch w/ our dublin roommates sean and jorge!  and our interlaken rooommates just got back in touch with us as well, which is fun.  london we did our own way, which involved only spending money on hot beverages and an occassional meal, and a lot of time sitting and relaxing and enjoying each others comapny. it was perfect.  well done europe, well done.

so now im here. with jsut my backpack, so it looks like im that girl who's so hardcore all she brought with her for a semester is a backpack...which is really quite funny if youve ever seen me pack for anything...ever.  i have taken a grand total of 0 pictures since in israel, which i think is appropriate... it doesnt feel like im travelling, it just feels like im doing a program somewhere, and living my life...which is good i guess. aaand thats about all i got for right now...because the battery life is running out and i still have more work to do...and i have to pee (shoutout rose sadler).

that should be sufficient for now... sorry it was long, i guess i dotn really get the difference between what should go in an email and what in a blog... so ill post this there too... and not change any of it. bwa ha ha. thanks for all your emails and your concerns and prayers, it really is comforting to find so many friendly names and messages whenever i open my email box. keep em coming.

ok. keep sending love, esp in the form of text messages and calls to 011-972-52-598-4409.

shabbat shalom!!!!
-amy

lest i forget,
SHOUT OUT TO EMILY SARAH FELDMAN.

that is who we are staying with in london. she is delightful. and working on a paper. you can put her paper in your prayers as well as israel/lebanon. you know. proportionally.

broke, tired, and unsure of the future

so adam and i are in our final stop on this european adventure, london.  we're staying at the london school of economics w/ some of our friends who are studying here this summer.  im sure london is actually beautiful and sophisticated and well-cultured, but we're exhausted, my bank account is overdrawn, and this city is EXPENSIVE...thus we're pretending it sucks and calling it new york part 2.  we've walked around a bit, taken unnecessary trips on the tube (the london underground/metro) just to get the full value of our day passes, and spent some much needed time chilling out and sitting, instead of constantly doing and seeing and snapping pictures.  london has involved several hot beverages (tea and hot cocoa primarily), which is a necessary change of pace.  it is very obvious that our trip is winding down, and while we're really sad to be leaving each other, adam and i are both ready to be done with this trip and sleeping in a real bed, wherever that may be. 

 

which brings me to my next point... to answer many of your questions... at this point, the verdict on haifa is as follows: the univeristy officially moved the august ulpan (hebrew program) to the campus of hebrew university in jerusalem.  as of now, i WILL be going on saturday, and will be doing the ulpan in jerusalem. ulpan is from aug 5 through the 31st.  i am hopefull and praying that the situation imporves in that few weeks, but realize that isn't necessarily too likely... no word yet about whether the study tour program i was supposed to do in september will still commence, and where the fall semester will take place... unfortunately i am crunched for credits as i am trying to graduate in may, and have been banking on all of these programs in order to do so... but safety is obviously a legitimate concern, way moreso than having to make up 4 credits next summer, so for now, the plan is to do the ulpan and during the course of the next 4-5 weeks, see how the situation is and what the status of the upcoming programs is, and know that if i dont end up staying in israel, i can go back to gw for the fall semester (and get to go through the fun of scrambling to find a place to live and classes to take).  so the forecast: ulpan in jerusalem until aug 31, unsure beyond that... either haifa, somewhere else in israel, or more likely gw.  a lot of though and deliberation has gone into this, and if you have further questions, ill be glad to explain, just email me.  but that is the plan for now.  thank you all for all of your concern.

 

on a different note, as a final city, london is huge. and overwhelming. and full of asian tourists, as every other city was (except for dublin actually).  we tried to see the changing of the guard at buckingham palace today and instead saw approximately 7,000 tourists and mobs and got as far away as possible as soon as possible.  ill  just assume the changing of the guard there is liek the one at arlington cemetary, but with funny hats.  also, the little red phone booths everyone always seems insistant upon taking pictures in when they come to london smell like pee.  and have porn taped on the walls.  and smell like pee. its intolerable to have to stay in one to actually make a phone call.  not to disillusion you or anything, but really, its gross.

 

thanks to the friends who have studied abroad or spent time in these places for great recommendations, and thanks to patrick ryan o'donnell, levi eliott mcgarry and catherine mary/margaret brinkley for being irish, because ireland was awesome and everyone there was absurdly friendly.  including our roommates at the hostel, 2 guys from uc-berkeley named sean and george.  one was president and the other a proud member of what we can only assume is berkeley's awkward fraternity. 

 

dublin actually involved some great food, depsite ireland's lackluster culinary (im sorry, gastronomic, as is used all too frequently in europe) reputation.  3 outstanding sandwiches/veggie burger-esque entrees, 1 awful veggie burger, and 1 vegetarian kebab...which leads me to tell you about our first night in ireland, at the kebab place...  we're sitting in the restuarant, enjoying our food, whatever.  mid-meal some random man walks into the restaurant, comes up to our table, looks me in the eye, grabs three fries off my plate, shoves them in his mouth, and walked out of the restaurant.  it was one of the more bizarre things that has happened in-euro.... (ha, in-fetu 907) and was hilarious.  perfect intro to ireland.

 

before ireland, we were in belgium, which i wrote about before, but let me reiterate that i loved. thank you stanley (and fraskell!) for your excellent recommendations. it was easily the most delicious country we visited.  we also made a point to be as tacky as possible and go to mini europe the morning we left for ireland.... mini europe is exactly what it sounds like, a park featuring miniature versions of famous buildings/sites in european cities.  it was one of the most ridiculous places ever, and i could not beleive it actually existed...endearing really.  the consensus on mini-europe was that it would have been mega-fun if it were a mini-golf course.  clubs and golf balls would have made that not such a huge waste of time/money/life.  there were windmills and a disporportionate number of mini-DHL trucks in just about every cityscape... but im telling you, putt putt is the way to go.

 

on that note, i should go... we've been in this computer lab a while and i think there are people who legitimately are students here who may have real work to do... hopefully ill get to post again before israel, but if not, ill be posting from the holy land in a few days time.

 

love and peace in the middle east (please??)

-amy

holler from ireland

quick hello from ireland

 

people speak english here, and wear A LOT of jean-on-jean...we counted 116 instances in the first 24 hours.

 

walking tour, pub crawl, irish jewish museum, jameson distillery tour (i think that means 4 winerys, 3 brewerys and 1 distillery so far in 2006...), and enjoying the COLD.  i forgot how much i love wearing long pants. thank you ireland for not being as oppressively hot as the rest of this continent.  the jewish museum was great, it was tiny and not often visited, but was basically a graveyard for any jewish related relic you could possibly dig up.  the "artifacts" ranged from old torah covers and parchments to pictures of old ladies in a seniors home and some guy's triple a card... basically if you send it to them, and it has anything to do with anything or anyone jewish, or even jew- ish its good enough to be on display.  (we also were big geeks and got excited about seeing stuff from the 1970's from BBYO dublin... and habonim ireland)

 

hope things are good wherever you are, we're doin it up in dublin, and heading to london tomorrow morning, our last stop on this euro-adventure.  we'll be staying with our friend emily feldman (my roommate from last summer for those of you in dc) which is aweosme because not only are we lookign forward to seeing her and exploring the city, but its also free...or close to free, which is much needed at this juncture, as my bank statements are...laughable.  the plan was to bankrupt myself before startign 5 months abroad. got the bankrupt part down, now i gotta figure out the whole 5 months abroad part....

 

in short, no more money, still not sure where ill be going come saturday, having fun, appreciate all your concerns and wishes. 

 

oh, and no leprachauns, as yet, but lots of lucky charms jokes.

-amy