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