hello friends

i have failed miserably at updating as much as i promised, you'll forgive me for not having any real excuse, save for being super busy and exhausted. all is well with me in the holy land.. here's a bit of an update on major events in the last few weeks, as well as a general picture of what an average week looks like. fun!

things have been good for the most part. that's a pretty blanket observation, but classes and internship have been keeping me pretty busy. as well as the cold to end all colds, followed by its remission, currently followed by its relapse... its been a long couple of weeks since last i wrote. after the cruise to turkey and cyprus came the onset of one of the worst colds ever. this meant carrying toilet paper around with me wherever i went for a good week or 2, becuase im too poor for kleenex.

the first weekend back from the cruise was the gay pride festival in jerusalem, which was cause for austen and me to spend the weekend in j-lem with emily and company. i dont know what makes international headlines and what doesnt, but there was a LOT of resistance to this demonstration in the weeks preceeding it... ultra-orthodox jews were burning trash, rioting in the streets, and issuing some pretty intense threats to have the parade cancelled. after a lot of debate, and calculating the number of police that would have been necessary to guard the parade (which became an even bigger problem with the events in gaza, thus needing to split the police forces in several different locations in israel), the parade was re-located to the stadium at hebrew u's givat ram campus...and was not so much a parade as a festive assembly. either way, it was a beautiful day and a peaceful and colorful assembly, celebrating equal rights and diversity. plus it was hosted by the drag queens from jerusalem's one and only gay bar, and they are fabulous. hadag nachash performed (israel's most popular hip hop group) and there were energizing speeches from all kinds of dignitaries (my favorite was the random european consulate member, a, clearly from italia, who, eh, in additiona to-a, supporting the-a, gays-a, also might as well have been offering a special on-a spicy meat-a balls... he was basically a mario brothers cartoon... but with better hair).

after the pride festival, austen and i returned to hebrew u to debrief and get ready for the rest of our weekend. as we got up to emily's apartment, austen got a phone call from his friend nick, back in the states. nick indicated that he was watching good morning america, live, and that diane sawyer was currently in the old city in jersualem. now, austen is a broadcast journalism person, so diane sawyer is basically like a godess to him. this meant that we immediately threw on shabbat clothes and cabbed to the old city, with nick on the phone indicating where diane was at every moment. basically we spent an hour running aroudn the old city following directions like "she's in a market looking place... there's a man selling bread...and some kids int he background" thakn you nick. that was really helpful. austen, who has no shame, went up to random security guards and asked if they had seen diane sawyer. while she is a relatively well-known figure in the US, she doesn't have the same international notoriety as, say, madonna. or god (as, at the time, we were running past the western wall). i certianly hope there was a camera crew following us, because we must have looke dlike a scene out of an orthodox verison of saved by the bell... long skirt for me, kippah for austen, and following a really half-baked scheme to track down a "celebrity" over the phone...from someone who has never been to israel and knows basically nothing about jerusalem. "she's in like an alley... it looks old. are there any old-looking alleys in jerusalem?" yes nick. there are.

after our unsucessful hunt for diane, it was about time to head to the new city for shabbat. as part of the pride festival (which was originally supposed to be a week-long world pride event in august, but was cancelled/postponed due to the war with lebanon), there was a kabbalat shabbat service (friday night) at the Jerusalem Open House, the organization which organized the pride events. after some tedious stair climbing, austen and i arrived at the JOH for services, which were wonderful. about 50-60 people showed up when clearly they were expecting like 30, max. services were led traditionally, but with an occasional addition of something more pertinent to the target audience (like in one prayer, lecha dodi, where it says "kimsos chatan al kallah" -as a groom spreads joy [?] to his bride" they said "kimsos chatan al chatan!"... groom spreads his joy to his groom). i was really impressed with the facility and the services and activities they provide to GLBT's in the jerusalem area, making the process of coming out and being openly gay easier in such a tense location. after services there was free dinner, which i always love, and some great conversation with new friends.

i say that, but really i mean that i was legitimately the only straight person in the room. which is fine, and not something im totally unfamiliar with (though usually even at gay bars, there are some other "allies"/straight friends that get dragged along). apparently it is relatively unusual for straight girls to partake in the events there, and while i was welcomed with open arms, the isaeli upfrontness had its way of coming out...in the form of several people mid-conversation flat out asking "wait, are you homo?" no. no i am not. im sorry. this really upset one of my new friends, who had just previously started a conversation in the following way (all in herbew, remember).

lesbian in sweatervest: "can i ask you a question?"
me: "sure"
lesbian in sweatervest: "he and i were having a debate, and we were hoping you could answer us"
me: "ok, what's the debate?"
lesbian in sweatervest: "well, we were trying to decide whether you were a girl or a guy."
austen: -uncontrollable laughter-
me: "hm. ok. well what do you think?"
gay guy with large cubic zirconia earring: "well, i definitely think you're a girl"
me: "ok, and what do you think?"
lesbian in sweatervest: "well, im not sure. i mean, maybe i think so too...but i thought maybe you were a guy... which is it?"
me: "he's right. i hate to disappoint, but im a girl"
gay guy with large cubic zirconia earring: "i knew it!"
lesbian in sweatervest: "i hope you're not...how you say... offended"
austen: -uncontrollable laughter-
me: "no, not at all. im...flattered?"

this is my life. wtf.

we ended up running into lesbian in sweatervest, gay guy with large cubic zirconia earring, and a lot of the rest of the cast of characters from the day when we ended our night at shushan, the aforementioned jerusalem gay bar. only after, however, wandering around the new city in search of decent coffee shops, since neither of us were interested in drinking heavily (we learned our lesson last time we went there after yom kippur), and were more interested in hot cider/cocoa. we eventually gave up on coffeeshop in favor of anywhere warm and open, which ended up being a GREAT place with excellent hot chocolate, lots of open space, good prices, colorful atmosphere...ok it was mcdonalds. but whatever. it did the trick.

saturday in jerusalem was relaxing and involved one pancake and a lot of beads. that makes it sound more interesting than it was, but i have no real problem with relaxing saturdays. austen and i returned to haifa that evening and met up with amy o, yair, and tomer to go to irish house, one of our favorite pubs in haifa, and home of things like churros and deep fried mars bars. gross. slash delicious. being the 5th wheel on a gay-straight double date is one of my favorite activities, because it means that i get to out-eat everyone, as well as be the only one to order a proper beer...at an irish bar. pansies. just kidding, they're good people. but they drink like girls.

that was last weekend. this past weekend was also spent in jerusalem, actually, as one of my good friends from dc, ian, was in town visiting. wednesday night i actually met up with him in tel aviv for a record 3 consecutive dinners. that is the basis of my friendship with ian, food and funny. 1) sushi, 2) falafel, and 3) max brenner (the chocolate restaurant). thats the way to rationalize going all the way to tel aviv for one evening. three dinners. glorious. ian went to gw and has been working for bbyo for the last couple of years, so he is a dc friend, as well as being drew's best friend from home...thus emily-drew-ian-amy is a logical and delightful combination, but not one we ever anticiapted would happen in the holy land. it was pretty great. so yes, a bit more jerusalem, but all in the name of good friends, good food, and good fun. this weekend involved a change of pace from hitting the bars as we often do, and instead involved hitting the cooler outside of one of the 24-hour convenience stores, that boasts 5 shekel beers. 5 shekel for 1/2 a liter of beer is about $1.23. this is an excellent price, as you can pay 4-5 times that in any given bar. and israel does not have any laws prohibiting the carrying of open bottles or public consumption of alcohol, so we took to the streets and did some active and engaging people watching on thursday and saturday nights. there are pictures. a lot of them. i have none. drew and ian, please send me them. we witnessed a west side story-esque gang fight of orthodox teenagers, during which they posed and repositioned themselves at least 25 times, and only one person got slapped...once...ever. we also saw hassids dancing on top of what can best be described as the "na-nach-nachman mobile," which is a uniquely jerusalemite experience. rav nachman is a famous hassidic rabbi, and his followers are a devout and jubilant bunch, distinct from most other hassids. and apparently, they can often be found dancing on top of large vans in the middle of pedestrian malls to re-written techno songs praising said rabbi.

friday morning was spent at the shuk (market) with emily, buying provisions for dinner and the rest of the weekend, and the afternoon was spent buying ugly shabbat boots, so we can look like all the other orthodox girls (and because flip flops and naot clogs can only take you so far...), and going to the kotel (western wall), the four of us all together, to take pictures and do some independent shabbat prayer. that is something i will never take for granted, and is really cool to be able to do... seriously iak/drew- i want those pictures! from the kotel we retired to ian's friend tali's apartment, which she had bequeathed to us for the night. at this point, we got into a time machine and travelled back to 1957, wherein ian and drew sat on the couch and watched tv while emily and i cooked dinner, set the table, and even brought them drinks. kind of a change of pace from the previous friday night, when i was asked if i was acutally a man, and spent my night at a gay bar, trying to figure out from where i knew the song the drag queen was performing. anyway, drew's old roommate erik (aka shimon peres) joined us for dinner and it was delightful, delicious, and followed by an intense food coma on tali's couches, which was chased with enough baked goods to stun an elephant. that is what shabbat means to me.

this week, so far, has been pretty "normal" but is about to be drastically differnt from all previous weeks becuase my MOM arrives today!!! she is coming to visit for a week and a half, and im really excited! i haven't seen her in over 4 months, and it should be a grand time. this means touristy sites, and going out to restaurants i cant afford (aka anything other than pizza hut). i am really excited to show her around haifa and the north this weekend. then during the week she is taking part in a group tour, and i will meet up with her again next weekend in jerusalem (shocking). im really excited to see her. especially since it is thanksgiving (apparently). somehow pilgrims and plymouth rock didnt seem to make it onto the calendar in israel.

other exciting news, my friend aaron just announced that he is coming over winter break as part of a hillel trip. i am SUPER excited about this, and hope to be hearing similar news from many of you (ya titlebaum!) if you will be in israel at any point between now and january...10-15ish, PLEASE let me know.

i promised i would write about what an average week is like here...but ive been writing for a long time, rambling about these specific events (and i promise, ill get pcitures from ian/drew/austen asap...i take 0 pictures of my own... ive literally taken like 8 since being in israel...oops). cliff note version: i have 4 classes and an internship that is about 20 hrs a week. classes are: social inequalities in israeli education (taught in english in the overseas dept, sociological perspective, really diverse students in class- from us, germany, czech republic, denmark, south africa, arab schools in israel), spoken arabic (also taught in english -transliteration- in the overseas dept...which is just laughable. its me and 3 guys, none of whom know any arabic, so i really shouldnt be in the class after 3 years of standard arabic, but it was the only class in any dept in the university that i could take), applied linguistics (taught in englsih, in the regular univeristy, so im the only native english speaker -other than the british professor- and is about language acquisition, 2nd language development, etc. relatively interesting, but not so much so at 8am twice a week), and intro to islam (taught in hebrew in the regular university, with a 250+ person lecture section that is miserably boring and a 25-30 person discussion section that moves unbelievably fast...and 2 weekly reading check tests online that i thankfully do with the other amy, but take forever and are difficult when you have 30 page readings in hebrew).

moral of that story, classes are pretty good. the other HUGE occupier of my time is my internship, at at battered women's shelter. ive probably mentioned it before, but it is wonderful. unbelievably time consuming (15 hrs a week, an hour+ commute each way, three days a week... about 20 hrs) and exhausting, but great. i really feel the effects of what im doing there, and see how helpful my presence is there. i work part of the time with the little kids in the nursery, but i dont even really get to do that, because i work most of the time in the office, working on grant applications and translating documents. this has been the bulk of my work the last few weeks, as i am the only native english speaker anywhere in sight, and most of the staff there dont actually speak much english at all. translating is really hard work, and i dont know exactly how they intended to submit these proposals to american philanthropists without me there (ha, the one im working on now is literally going to the schustermann family fund, aka funders of bbyo, hillel, birthright, aipac, aepi...basically the entire jewish world). at any rate, its hard, but wonderful. and they are so great to me. and bring me coffee/chocolate/cake/candy/make me eat dinner there... and we know i love free food.

speaking of food, i still havent had real mexican food. im dying. and no, i will not be having turkey today, but thats because im a vegetarian, not because of any kind of thanksgiving protest. i have a lot to be thankful for, clearly, and i will do my best to remember that every day, but especially today.

with that, im going to apologize for the length of this post and go pass out for a few hours, as the remission of my cold is leaving me less than coherent... then arabic class, and then my mom gets here! exciting!

please be in touch, and know that i come home in about a month and a half (though i STILL dont know exactly when). crazy.

happy thanksgiving!!!
-am

ps- im currently reading "east of eden" by john steinbeck (who also wrote "of mice and men," "the pearl," et al). it is 720some pages. and is probably the best book ive ever read. ive never voluntarily (or otherwise) read a book this long, and im only about 1/2 way through, but it is incredible. you should read it.

hello hello
here are a few pictures from october and the cruise, more to come. the first is of me and emily, from when her parents were in town. this deserves to be up here because it was a weekend that was remarkably full of raincoats (see: my avi chai jacket and emily's gold lamee raincoat that i bought her as a joke for $3.50) and me shamelessly accepting free food from the hyatts. delightful.


next we find a picture from the u-haifa overseas halloween party. somehow a whole lot of planning and emailing went into what ended up being (nearly) free pizza from pizza hut (im OBSESSED with pizza hut in israel...its problematic... i have it like 4 times a week...and am starting to have a crush on the guy who takes the orders. green card for free breadsticks??) and the movie hocus pocus, which i had actually never seen, since bette midler's makeup in it on the cover picture frightened me as a child...and still does. anyway, we had to come "in costume" and apparently i was one of three who ended up dressing as thug/ghetto. im ghetto detroit. to the left of me is this kid rob, from delaware, and to the right is rafi, from great neck (long island). gang-stas.


the next picture is from the cruise, it's the four of us excited to be entering turkey! left to right is amy o, austen, me and yair. behind is is alanya, turkey. i cant tell if we are pretending to flex or what, but we were certainly excited. it was a gray and kind of gross day, which ended up meaning that we went to the hammam (turkish bath, more on that later) and as we were finsihing up there, we were hurried back onto shuttle vans to return to the ship, saying that we had to get out of port and back on to sea, since there was a storm and the weather was gross. this meant the boat was unbeleivably rocky that night, and though it is several days later, i still have vertigo/wobbly leg syndrome. thats the technical name. i think. let's move on.


um, because of the waves and bad weather, the main show was cancelled that night... this is a picture of the show that didn't get cancelled. remember, this was a $200 cruise, so some tackiness can be expected. it was glorious.

the final picture in this installment is from cyprus. because of some unfortunate shabbat prohibitions, amy and yair didn't get to play with us in cyprus. austen and i ended up playing in lemassol (the city in cyprus) with our new friend tomer, featured in this picture. yes, another gay israeli tomer. this one is 17 and adorable. i wanted to take him home and keep him forever. he won the cruise on some kind of contest on a tv show, and brought his sister with him as his guest. she was kind of a drag, but he was great. anyway, this is us in a store in lemassol, where austen bought a scarf made of llama wool. maybe it was alpaca. anyway, this is us posing with a llama. and yes, austen and i are wearing santa hats. they were 50 cents, and made of felt. excpet that they were 50 cents of cypriot pound, which is really like $17. ok like $2 or something, but whatever. anyway, throughout the streets of cyprus there were wreaths and it was exciting to see christmas stuff, thoguh bizarre because it's just starting to feel like fall. anyway, we got in the christmas spirit because we are tacky americans, and wore the hats all over cyprus. and onto the boat again. it was great.

anyway, those are the first few. ill post more when i can, as well as some actual info about the trip, classes, life here, upcoming excitement, etc. lots to say. fear not. there are more pictures and i will be adding albums to yahoophotos soon. i promise. in the meantime, enjoy this, and look forward to pictures of the gheri-curl isrullet (israeli mullet) that was on our cruise, pics our new friend guy- israel's next pop star, several shots of us jumping (apparently this was a theme of the trip...they are ridiculous), and maybe even a few in which i am eating/drinking/making a sarcastic face. crazy i know.

more to come.
-am