im an idiot...and hungry

i lost my phone.

 

saturday night, i lost my phone. so if you have tried to call or text me since saturday, and i havent responded, that is why. apparently i cant get a new one until wednesday, because the talk-n-save people accidentally delivered it to jerusalem instead of haifa. so thus, i must go 2 more days w/o being able to talk to anyone.  i hate that feeling more than most normal people probably would.

 

boo.

 

losing my phone was not so cool, but at least the rest of shabbat was.  my friend tamar from gw (a fellow make-up-your-own-major-er) just arrived on friday to spend the year at ben gurion univeristy in the negev. her family has a beautiful apartment in talpiot, an area of jerusalem, where we spent shabbat.  after spending the week in haifa and then returning to jerusalem, i was really pleased with the decision i made...i love haifa. and haifa is not infested with mechina girls and yeshiva boys (kids just out of high school who come to "yerushalayim" to "learn" for a year or 2... basically lots of long skirts and annoying attitudes. no. i dont miss that).  anyway, it was nice to be back and see emily and drew and erik (aka shimon peres) again, and it was soooo good to see tamar and jake, formerly of vegan-georgetown-etc fame, currently of tel aviv and awesomeness.  we went to services and then came back to tamars for delicious delieverd shabbas meal, with literally 6 different kugels...and there were only six of us.  sadly we did not each take down an entire kugel, though clealy we should have.  anyway, it was relaly fun and then jake an di stayed over at tamars through all of shabbat, emily came down again saturdya afternoon and the four of us just played and hung out ad were lazy and restful all of shabbat, which i think is what you are supposed to do.  so enjoyable.  then i lost my phone which sucked but whatever. and then eeearly sunday morning i came back to haifa to start this study tour program.

 

so far, ill be honest, i spend most of the time in class trying to look interested (and failing miserably, which is a problem since there are only 4 students sitting aroudn the equivalent of someones dining room table, minus the food) and scribbling reminders of why im there in the margins of my awkwardly sized israeli notebook.  4 credits. as i wrote in an email to a couple of friends yesterdya, i feel like im a 7th grade girl doodling the name of the boy i have a crush on.  that boys name is 4 credits. <3 <3 <3

 

seriously, the class is miserable. the three other people are each a rare breed of awkwardness....and while id say that each one is more awkward than the other, that is not true. one is far and above the others in terms of awkwardness. i can handle boy haircuts and questionable social protests on leg and armpit shaving (i did go to commie camp for 5 years), and i can even handle general weirdness from english majors at all women's colleges. what i cannot handle is when all of that is in one person, compounded with potentially mild to severe tourette's syndrome, manifesting itself in excessive blinking (like an opthomological stutter or something)...aaaand that this particular person smells.  i dotn mean to be picky about pesonal hygeine, and i could handle weird eye twitches and bad fashion/hair choices...but smelling is not ok when we are going to be in enclosed spaces for extended periods of time...aka a tiny classroom 6 hours a day, or worse yet, a 5-seater car filled with 5 people, one of whom smells, for each of our day trips....  this is problematic.

 

that and the fact that to call the professor an arrogant windbag would be an insult to his unique breed of pomposity.  his sheer stamina of self-importance for 6 hours each day is impressive in and of itself. not to mention that he wears faded black jeans... no no. we'll leave the fashion critiques for another day.

 

so we have awkward and uncomfortable other students, an abhorrent professor...whats left?  well while the syllabus and itinerary look fascinating, i can assure the class is not.  so far we're covering ancient jewish history and while the other students seem engaged, i think it is because they may have never learned anything like this before. i am the only one that speaks hebrew, which is fine, tihs isnt a hebrew-oriented program. but apparently im the only one with any judaic educational background, which is also fine, i hoep these awks kids get a lot out of the program...but all of tihs compounds to me being really bored, feeling like im wasting time that i could be spending eating/sleeping/playing/being on the beach/volunteering/eating again... 4 credits.  4 credits. 4 credits.

 

maybe the trips wont be so bad. we're going to some cool places... a lot ive been to...some i havent... i may have to take more kindly to substance abuse in order to make those days go by without taking my own life.... 4 credits.

 

tomorrow were going to tzippori (been there, relatively boring archaeological site), nazareth (new to me and im kind of excited, i just read a book about jesus' life growing up, thank you valerie, that was a- hilarious, and b- getting me in the spirit of learning more about jesus and pals), and to tzfat, which is probably my favorite city in the world... yet i kind of dont want to go. not with these people, not as the third stop on a day trip of cities that are far apart. but i guess ill suck it up and try to enjoy.  i really need to eat something, this is a dreadfully depressing entry... sorry kids.

 

ok. minimart here i come

-am