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