Eight weeks in Israel...

Your Blogging Type is Logical and Principled

You like to voice your well thought out opinions on your blog. And if someone doesn't like what you write, you really don't care! Serious and blunt, sometimes people take your blog the wrong way. But you're a true and loyal friend to those who truly get you.

Ah, how true internet quizzes are!

I'm now suffering from that pressure you feel when you have too many tasks to do, and just KNOW you do not have enough time.

In the morning I went to core class, a bit grumpy considering my roommates got to go in the other class to a bakery and got to sleep in fifteen minutes late. *sigh*
We discussed the importance of the West Bank and Golan heights to Israel religiously, economically, and militarily. Somehow the whole situation reminds me of the Cuban Missile crisis, with the tiny amount of warning time from a radar. And really, I still don't think there's much the airforce could do to stop a missile with 7 minutes warning time, and only 2 minutes of being in the air.
When asked what we propose for a peace process to solve the Arab refugee problem, the dispute of Jerusalem, etc, I finally voiced my honest-to-God opinion:
Maybe the Ultra-Orthodox are right, and now is not the time for Israel.
Can one lone Jewish democracy the size of New Jersey survive in the midst of a dictorial, intolerant, Islamic fundamentalist world? I think not. I think the whole idea of Israel as a Jewish state is premature, and there will never be peace until there is tolerance. I believe that is what is at the base of this whole issue, and I know it sounds accusatory (if that is a word), but extremist Arab intolerance for other religions. I don't think it particularly matters to them that it is JEWS who took root in Israel, they would have the same reaction if Christians or Hindus or even just a different Muslim sect took over.
At the same time, with the military victories such as in the Six-Day War, it could be seen as God watching over us, and maybe it completely depends on your faith in God. But if it is truly according to Torah that a Jewish State can exist only with the coming of the Messiah, then maybe Israel is sacriligious and its survival so far has been simply by pure coincidence. Or maybe it IS the coming of the Messiah, and perhaps the Messiah is not necessarily a single person, but an idea, or maybe it IS a person and we just don't know about it.
But who knows. And what was I originally talking about anyway? Ah, solutions for peace.
The only thing I can think of is to try to innovate social reform to affect ideology. This would include more interaction between the Jews and Arabs. I think that if an Arab, or a Jew, were to make just ONE friend with a person of the other group, that positive impact could change the thinking of that person. So that person may think the people of the other group can't be THAT terrible, or at least recognize that not all are. Then maybe they will stand up for wrongs, or teach their children not to hate, maybe even their neighbors. (Though... There still remains the problem of dictorial and fanatic leadership... and those who would be tolerant won't live long...)
I know my thinking in this way has been affected by going to Brighton. I'm friends with Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews, Christians, Atheists, Muslims, Hindus, whites, blacks, Asians, Israelis, Arabs, straight people, and gay people. And I'm sure that had I not had this type of exposure to the numerous difference groups in my school that I would have grown up with a lot more bias than I have now. (After all, we are all biased in some way, I'd like to meet the person who denies that.)
The problem is, how to do that? The immediate thing that comes to mind is taking down the security fence, but I don't think that's necessarily the answer. I'd also say mixing in schools, but I don't know how that'd work out, and it occurs to me it would be like the school after Brown vs. Board of Education.

So I will say this: my proposal for peace is conclusively inconclusive.
Because quite honestly, I DO believe Israel's gonna be wiped off the map.
I don't mean to be one of those "apocalypse" preachers, but I think we are well on the way to World War Three. And it seems to be centered around the Middle East.
I don't just mean Israel, I mean Iraq and Iran and all the surrounding nations as well.
And could it be any coincidence that the Final Battle of the Earth is supposedly going to be at Har Megido? Armeggedon. OK, so, yeah, maybe the end of the world will start with the end of Israel.
Who knows.
But away from my doomsday speach, and onto the day itself!

After core class, I went into town. I went to the SuperSol and then a small shop closer to campus to pick up last-minute gifts for people. I also needed some ramen soup. And chocolate. Oh, I am SOOOO set on chocolate for now. You have no idea.

At 1400 I met with my English tutor briefly, and my American tutor, and finished up my Math final, and turned in my last science lab. NO MORE SEQUENTIALS! YIPPEE! But I still have so much sequential work to do when I get home. *cry*

I now have absolutely no idea how I am going to get all my stuff back home. I have roughly $125 USD left and I'm a bit nervous about it. Its gonna cost SO much to ship my books home and they won't get there for quite some time. I really don't know what to mail, if I should mail anything, how I am going to pack... I've got some stuff to leave behind but I don't think it's gonna make a big difference.

But now I sit, contemplating how I am going to pack, trying not to stress too much over my final, trying not to worry about my finals I just took, trying to FINISH THIS BLOG because I decided to turn it in for my journal grade and it is due tomorrow, and trying to keep my cool in general.
And we have early lights out tonight as well.
Damn. I need some chocolate to cheer me up.

But oh yeah, quote of the day:
Mike: you'll have to see my MR's when you get back
Mike: they're kinda neat
Mike: you can see my organs
Me: *blink*
Me: Er, that's ok, you can keep your organs to yourself

http://news.msn.co.il/news/Yellow/World/200701/20070114093947.htm

ארנבות הענק יאכילו את הצפון קוריאנים

מגדל ארנבות ענק מגרמניה התבקש על ידי שלטונות צפון קוריאה להקים חוות ארנבות במדינה כדי לפתור את בעיות הרעב במדינה. הגרמני כבר ארז את המזוודות והארנבות
סמולינסקי ובת טיפוחיו. (AP)

14/01/07 10:18
מאת: מערכת msn וסוכנויות הידיעות




פנסיונר גרמני המגדל ארנבות ענקיות, קיבל בקשה יוצאת דופן מהממשל הצפון קוריאני. החוואי החביב התבקש להקים חוות ארנבות ענק בצפון קוריאה כדי לספק מזון למדינה מוכת הרעב.

הכל החל כשקארל סמולינסקי, המגדל ב-47 השנה האחרונות ארנבות, זכה בפרס על גידול הארנבות הענקיות במשקל 10.5 ק"ג האחת. התמונות המרשימות של הארנבות בגודל של כלב ממוצע הופצו בכל רחבי העולם והגיעו אפילו אל מאחורי החומות הבצורות של פיונגיאנג, בירת צפון קוריאה הקומוניסטית והסגורה לעולם.

מדינת ציר הרשע רוצה לאכול

צפון קוריאה ידועה בעיקר כאחת ממדינות "ציר הרשע" המסוכסכות עם ארצות הברית בשל חתירתה להשגת נשק גרעיני. במדינה 23 מיליון תושבים ועל פי דיווחי האו"ם רבים מהם סובלים מרעב.

הצפון קוריאנים כנראה יודעים על מה הם מדברים, כי כל אחת מהארנבות מספקת שבעה ק"ג של בשר והיא עשירה בחלבונים ושומן.

סמולינסקי שהתרגש מהבקשה החליט לא רק להסכים לבקשה יוצאת הדופן אלא אפילו סידר לצפון קוריאנים מחיר נוח במיוחד.

סידר לצפון קוריאנים מחיר

במקום 250 יורו מחירה של הארנבת הוא החליט לגבות מהם 80 יורו בלבד - זיל הזול. עד כה הוא שלח לצפון קוריאה 12 ארנבות, שעדיין לא עשו את דרכן אל קיבות הרעבים. הן יחכו לסמולינסקי שיגיע בקרוב לצפון קוריאה כדי לייסד באמצעותן את חוות ארנבות הענק הצפון קוריאנית הראשונה.

I awoke early in the morning with a start, a result of very disturbing dreams, along the lines of what I had almost every single night this past summer. Not fun at all.
And then went through my head, I have no idea at all, how when I came back from Costa Rica and I went through customs to get back in the states and the Customs Officer said "Welcome back to the States", and how I know it sounds really corny but it actually meant a great deal to me then, and for some reason that went through my head.
Anyway, I managed to get back to sleep and woke up again around 1200.
I rolled out of bed and went to the cafeteria in my pajamas looking like crap, to wolf down some terrible cafeteria shwarma and rice, and for our teacher David to find a dead fly in his spaghetti.
Isn't cafeteria food delightful?

I spent most of the day at the park, I walked by myself since a lot of the girls were sick. I stopped by the mall and was surprised to find Aroma was open. I was even more surprised that security didn't even look in my bag when I went in the mall.
Huzzah for profiling I guess.
I spent my time at the park reviewing for the core class final.

Funny that I should use this particular userpic for today, it is perhaps the least accurately descript picture I could post. The weather here is gorgeous, hot even.

Ah, wonderful day of rest is finally upon us, almost.
Woke up at 0830, finished an American History test and turned it in to my tutor, that took roughly 10 minutes. Then went back to my room and tidied the room up to get my Shabbat cleaning done (a terrible habit I've developed here, cleaning my room before Shabbos...)
At 1000 I went to Chemistry and we did review for my final. Covalent bonding. *GAG*. I. HATE. COVALENT. BONDING.
I HATE IT. It is such a pain in the ass. I REALLY don't care about inter- and intra-molecular forces, and really won't ever need to know them. So this hour was spent shoving the material down my throat because even though I've read the chapter 4 times and my tutor has explained the material to me like 4 times, it goes in one ear and out the other pretty much. Because it is too complex for me to care, I have no motive to care, I really don't care about the physics of things to tiny for me to see, I see no application I will ever have that should cause me to care. And after 30 minutes of this, I told her quite flatly "I am never going to need to know this", and she told me, "Well maybe someday you will want to be a doctor." I told her I sincerely doubt it.
And what is it with everyone saying "Maybe you'll want to be a doctor" to me to study for EVERYTHING? Jesus. Is it really THAT prestigious a job that everyone thinks every student wants to be a doctor? Is it the money associated with it, or the education, or the simple fact of a lot of Jews being doctors? Sheesh. I swear, everytime I hear someone say "Maybe you'll want to be a doctor" I have to bite my tongue to avoid saying either "Fuck off" or "Yeah, and maybe someday I'll want to be a stripper too."
OY.
Anyway, now that I've had my little rant on having being a doctor shoved down my throat as well, back to the topic at hand, which is my rant on covalent bonding. Today seems to be working out as rant day.
Dipolar, van DerVells forces, resonance, coordinate covalent bonds, diffusion energy, quantum physics... I frankly don't give a shit about any of it. And drawing bonding diagrams... Ooooooooooh you have no idea how much I hate that. Normally I like chemistry and it comes... I wouldn't say fairly easily, so I'll just say that to me it is learnable. But I like more of the mix-mix-BOOM chemistry... Seriously though, I find chemistry interesting, and its more interesting when it is a little vague and I don't have to go into quantum physics.
-End rant-

From there I went to Algebra Two where I again focused on learning crap, or rather, faking that I learned the crap, that I am never ever going to have to use.
During which, I decided upon a new response to my typical conversation in math classes.

Me: I'm never going to have to use Trigonometry in my life.
Teacher: Well, say you built a triangular garden and you wanted to know all the angles and side lengths you needed to build a fence around it. Then you'd need it.
Me: Then, I'd hire someone to figure it out.
Teacher: But why waste the money when you can learn it yourself? (This is usually as far as it goes, never had a decent response to it though.
Me: Because money isn't everything. Aren't we always being told to go into a career that will make us happy? Well, my happiness includes not doing math. So paying someone to figure it out will as well make me happy. As well as paying someone to build the fence. Or, I could make the garden square like normal people do.

As I was saying though, math is still a royal pain. The only thing keeping me sane through that class is me being able to repeat over and over in my head this is the last year, this is the last year, this is the last year, all ya gotta do is pass the final exam and this is your last year....

Finally at 1200 I was done. I went into town as I "usually" do on Shabbat, and did a bit of shopping. First I explored a part of town I haven't gone to before, that was interesting. An old lady crossing the street with me started to talk to me, I told her I didn't speak Hebrew, but she kept talking anyway. Then when I went to cross Magdiel street near the Pizza Hut, at a crosswalk not at a light, where cars were stopped, I was quite almost hit by a car. ISRAELIS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. I don't know how I can possibly emphasize this more, because I'm sure I've bitched about it here in the past. So, traffic is stopped, and has been for a bit, and as I'm stepping into the crosswalk, the car poking into the crosswalk decides to pull left out of the right lane and blow through the crosswalk. The asshat almost got me killed, if I'd've been literally 6 inches further ahead I'd've not been walking for awhile.
*sigh*
Israelis suck at driving. Driving here is either a teen's dream, or a teen's nightmare. On the one hand, no rules of the road (if they even exist here) are followed. On the other hand, NO RULES OF THE ROAD ARE FOLLOWED. So trying to follow them seems to be useless. It's perfectly acceptable not to signal and cross four lanes of traffic at an unsafe speed. The driving here is, I shall say, "whacked."
I was stopped by some scouts here, starting to say "Shalom, anachnu-" I just cut him off and told him "S'lecha, ani lo m'daberet ivrit," so he wouldn't waste his breath.
I went to some different places, ended up getting plums, strawberries, two pomegranets, a chocolate bar, a 1.5 liter bottle of coke, and a coconut. I wanted to go to the bakery to get a Challah as well but by that time wasn't in much of a mood to cross the street so I just went back to the campus. The orange and avocado groves by the school are being harvested now, it smells so good outside. Nice and sunny and warm and smells of oranges. Reminds me of Florida. And the best part is, it's January.

From there I returned to the dorms (If I didn't mention this before, its an open Shabbat, and again I have no place to go so I am stuck on campus with a few other kids) and one of the teachers, Tuvia, was there with his kids. They have got to be the most adorable kids ever. Ellie's five and Aaron's two. I opened the coconut outside with the assistance of my new knife and the concrete, they had a good time watching that. Then I lost the thumb screw for the knife because it wasn't, well, screwed on tightly enough. So I spent 30 minutes looking for it and finally found it.
From there we just hung out at the dorms and we played cards and opened a pomegranet and ate coconut and I blew up some balloons for the kids to play with and some Balloonies as well, which they really loved.
Eventually they left and since then I've been here in the computer lab working on getting more blogging stuff done. I think I may end up just handing in this blog as my journal grade since I spend so much time on it.
Oh yeah, one more thing to add. I painted my nails silver today. Did not go so great. I really can't do that with my non-dominant hand at all. *sigh*

Well, another day, another day of classes... funny how it has almost become routine. Only in the sixth week of my being here do I feel like I've settled in, gotten used to the daily "routine", the people around me, the customs, even the weather... Just to be uprooted and sent back to the States and having to go through culture shock all over again.
I can't say I've seen this as being the last time I'll be here. Somehow through the entire trip my mind has been thinking in the scope of "When I'm here again..." and never really in the terms that I'm never going to see these places in the future.
In some sense, I've been almost completely isolated here. Haven't talked to my friends back home much, haven't been around ex's, or teachers, or the media, or the police or fire departments, or true American society. I'd say its kept me free of foreign influences, but that would be ridiculous, living in a foreign country, and a quite clearly Zionist school (sure, they say they are free of any religious or political movements, but I've come to see, as I suspected, that that is plainly not the case, despite our teachers' continual insistence that it is). But it has given me time to think to myself. To focus on myself. On my life. And not worry about the people around me. Well, there was a time when I did, but that person is no longer on this trip, and since then things have improved.
One of the things it has given me a lot of time to think about is post-high school decisions.
Now, I've been interested in Law Enforcement for quite some time now. But also in the past year or so I had the sneaking feeling its not quite for me... This experience has helped to clarify for me why I was doing what I was, why I got so deeply involved, and, during Holocaust week, helped me understand why I'm having such a hard time getting out of it.
It's helped me to see some things I enjoy in life, such as photography, volunteer work, and little kids.
It's also helped me discover and revive talents, such as drawing and creative writing. Oh, writing. How I've missed it. Rarely have I had an opportunity to actually use it. But now I have hundreds of stories to tell just from being here, each part of the day a seperate event, a seperate topic to write about. I wish now that I had applied again to the Teen Editorial Board of the Democrat and Chronicle. Even though I didn't, I think I am still going to once again pick up the pen, and if the pen is mightier than the sword, well then the world had best watch out.
However, back to post-high school plans, and how it ties into today's entry of general "class fluff".

I've been considering for quite some time now, and I do mean since before I came to Israel, taking a gap year. Maybe its part of my Aquarian rebellious nature, but I don't want to take the conventional path after I graduate. I see no reason to bend to societal pressure. This has become even more appealing to me on my trip, as while I clarify myself more clearly to myself (wow, that was an interesting sentence), it becomes increasingly clearer I have no true idea what I really want to do with my life. So I'd like to take a year off to relax from 12 years of study and hard work, to look into new things.
And I found it interesting that was our discussion this morning.
At 0800 we met in the Bet Knesset and a speaker came in preaching about the "gap year". Essentially, he covered everything I just mentioned. But know I had that in my head BEFORE today. And then in his talk he introduced SIACH, a new program at AMIIE, for gap year students to spend a year in Israel, and that's when the majority of us realized it was all a convenient commercial.
I'd been looking into that program BEFORE they told us about it. I'd been considering a gap year BEFORE they talked about it, and they didn't sway me one was or the other honestly. Yeah, I've looked into SIACH before. Seems pretty decent. Just not sure I'd want to spend a whole year of structured activity in Israel.

After about an hour of that, we move on to another speaker, named Avi. Avi was in the news a few years back because he was working security at a bar called "Mike's Place" in Tel Aviv next to the American Embassy, when a suicide bomber tried to run into the bar. Avi pushed the man outside and jumped on him, and then the bomber set off the explosives. Three people were killed and ~70 were wounded, but Avi miraculously survived, and is pretty much the only known person to have jumped on a suicide bomber and have lived.

We had an hour-long break then back in the Bet Knesset for our teacher David to talk about his experience in the Six-Day War. From his description of it, it's hard to believe it lasted for, well, just six days.

I went to lunch, and because the "HSI table" was filled and no one was leaving, started a second HSI table. I've forgotten how clique cafeterias can be. Well, another guy passed by and I could tell his school's table was filled to, so I gave him a smile a he sat down. And so I met Eliot, my second friend from Akiba. Sad that only now I'm starting to make friends. So we sat and talked and ate and pretty much everyone else was gone, then my teacher David, and my madrich David both joined us.

I went for a walk in town and went to the so-called "two-shekel store" and got a couple of things, then went back to campus. Nothing worth mentioning happened in any of my sequentials. Really. Nothing worth mentioning at all. Don't really have work left. Well, that's a lie. I have work left, but the things I've had left will be a lot easier to work at at home in the States with my own computer and harddrive, so I'll just do them when I get back and enjoy the last two weeks as much as I can.

I ate dinner with Eliot again, since the same thing happened as at lunch, and spent the rest of the night doing pretty much nothing until I went to watch the guys play soccer and just got the ball when they kicked it out of the cage.

Right now, I'm looking up things to write for. I missed writing for myself, school had pretty much completely squashed the love of writing out of me.

Well that's about it. Oh yeah, the quote of the day: "Where do the Chinese people come from?"

Well, thanks to a *certain* roommate, the sleep I managed to catch up on on Shabbat has now been... cancelled out.
But first things first.

Since I'm doing pretty well with getting blog entries done on time now, there's a bit of stuff that happens in the evenings that gets left out.
Such as yesterday. We had a meeting at 2230 and our madrichim got upset with us and just stopped the meeting. Normally they have to drag us to go to our group Havdalah, but last night after the both of them left we all got the candles and sidur and spices and grape juice and whatnot and got in a circle and did the whole thing and chanted all the prayers and whatnot. And honestly, I think it was awesome. To me, its the time we've been most unified. Everyone was there of their own will and happy about it and laughing and singing, just a very powerful moment. I'm sure everyone else felt it too, because afterwards everyone was hugging eachother.
And our madrich walked by while we were doing this and though he tried not to, I could see that he did actually smile seeing us.

Afterwards I got the knife I bought the other day and opened my first pomegranate. It was so much fun. And so tasty. Its really cool because it tastes like cranberry, which I can't really have because it bothers my stomach.
I'd initially been having doubts about the knife when I got it, but after using it I actually really like it. It has a lot wider blade, its a lot easier to slice things with than my other knife. I just hope I don't lose it to customs -NO, I'm not bringing it ON me on the plane, I'm not dumb.-

And I went to bed around 0000. Can't fall asleep much, possibly from the sugar of the pomegranet, but I eventually start to get tired. But at 0100 I'm still hearing voices in the main room of our room, so I get up and leave the bedroom and go there and two of my roommates are talking. Rather than being nasty and being "what the fuck are you doing up?" I ask them "Not goin' to bed huh?" And then I ended up eating two pears because I was still hungry and I was up anyway and I'm a midnight snacker. I go back to bed. One of my roommates goes with me. Then at 0115 my other roommate, the one I've had problems with in the past, comes in... with a girl from another dorm. And so they get in the same bunk and are whispering and giggling. I tell them "Hey, go to sleep." My roommate asks me if its OK for her to whisper. I really want them to just SHUT UP but that's clearly not gonna happen. I tell them just don't wake Emma, my other roommate, up.
0130 comes around, I can still hear them gossipping, and I really want to sleep. I tell them to hesh. They say a few more minutes. 0140 comes by. I tell them go to sleep. They say they are. 0150 comes by, I start losing my patience, I tell them to sheket. 0200 is there and I hear them laughing, I'm still trying to sleep, I get real pissed and hiss at them "IT'S FUCKING TWO IN THE MORNING. GO TO SLEEP!"
At 0210 they finally shut up.
I don't get to sleep until 0230.
And so I am now sufficiently pissed.

I woke up at 0700, finished homework up. Went to the Bet Knesset at 0755 for a "meeting"... it turned out to be a talk from a crew member of a ship used in the Aliyah Bet, the clandestine (I love that word, heheheh) immigration to Palestine after WWII to evade the British. He told us how he turned down the offer he was given of the boat now known as The Exodus, because he didn't find it fit for ocean-going travel. And he was helping all these Jews when he was only 18, that is so cool. Its really cool learning how all these young people have had such a huge impact on Jewish history.
We had a brief break, then core class, and then a break from 1030-1130. I went to the computer lab and then Ofer's to get my customary bagel with cream cheese. 16 sheks a bagel, its crazy. Also, it should NOT take 20 minutes to make a bagel! Food service is incredibly slow here, so slow it's painful.
Then class again, and we watched segments from The Exodus. I recall a few years back when I missed seeing it in religious school so they made me watch it at home, and because of that I hated the movie so much. I think now I may like to see it again, when it's MY choice instead of being shoved down my throat, when I have background knowledge, and when I'm old enough to actually appreciate it.

We got out at 1245, I went to lunch, tried shwarma for the first time. Upon first taste it was OK, but then quickly turned gross as I'd envisioned it would be. However, cafeteria food can't be representative of ANY food, so I suppose I should not be too quick to judge. Still, IMHO, the idea of shwarma is disgusting. Its like you put a big slab of cow (I think that's what it is, anyway) on a rotating skewer (wow, when's the last time I used that word?) and then when you order some, they take a circular saw and shave off bits of the meat. I dunno. I just find it gross. But to each his own. Or however the saying goes.

At 1400 I find out that American History is cancelled, and English didn't start until 1530. I BS my way through the lesson, I'm tired. My tutor tells me the sequential coordinator is making me do an essay for English outside of what Brighton assigned. This pisses me off and I am going to fight it. I have enough shit to worry about without unnecessary foreign requirements being loaded onto it.
At 1600 I go to Chemistry, finish up a quiz, and then move on to covalent bonding. After I do a couple pages on it, I just have to BS my way through the last 15 minutes because I'm so exhausted, and spend that time fantasizing about getting revenge on my roommate.
Went to math at 1700, I SO did not want to go. But I've got some small sense of accomplishment because I was able to do a couple of proofs. Whoopie.
But oh man, I am SOOOOOOOO screwed in math when I get back to Brighton. It's not even funny. I'll just BS my way through though, it's what I was planning to do for the last year anyway. I just need a third passing math credit to get into Averett. Brighton makes a big deal about if you take a third year of math you get a "Regeants Diploma with Advanced Designation", but ya know what? Honestly that is a whole bunch of bullshit, a diploma is a diploma, and I've talked to counselors and they admit, yeah, it really doesn't matter.
But whatever, I'm taking a third year anyway. But no way in hell am I taking a fourth year. I'll make up for doing the so-called "minimum" in math in other ways. I don't think I'm gonna have much trouble getting into college. With my public service and this Israel trip and my decent grades and hopefully the summer National Exploring Academy, I think I've got college pretty much in the bag. And if not, so what? I'll go to MCC for a couple years, or take a gap year. I'm not concerned. So I don't feel terribly guilty about BSing this course.

Then I went to dinner, where I had a potatoe bareka and some spicy potatoe dish and what I think was cream of mushroom soup. It was tolerable.

And so now I sit here writing, uploading pictures, and hoping I don't get charged with assault on my roommate in the next two weeks.
Two weeks.... it seems like such a long time to still be here, but it flies so fast.

If I had to pack for this trip all over again, I know what I'd bring a lot more of: Hot drink mixes, and MUSIC. Yeah, I brought like 15 CD's with me. And I bought another three while I was here (one of which was stolen, grrrr). But I'm sick of all of them for the time being, because I've listened to them over and over and OVER again. And this is even with the school policy of us not being allowed to listen to our music on the bus.
*sigh*
But my American music has kept me more or less sane while I'm here, so I suppose it did its job... more or less. It's not like they don't play US music here, quite the contrary, and I was surprised to find how popular Rihanna, Sean Paul, and Gwen Stephani are here, but there is simply a greater variety of it when I'm in the States. The music here, in addition to Israeli music of course, is from countries all over the world, since Israel is a country of immigrants. I like the mix, I'd like it more if I bought like a radio mix and could listen to the actual words and whatnot of all the songs, but oh well. I still miss hearing the newest songs, I have no idea what the Top 40 is right now, and I haven't heard Evanesence's song Call Me When You're Sober or Nickleback's Faraway (awesome music video, that one, check it out, similarly, for other Rescue Workers, check out Simple Plan's Untitled), which I both really like.

That, however, has not much to do with today.
Today is my first real day off in six weeks. Yeah, there have been other Shabbats, but on all of them I've either been doing something with the group somewhere in the country, or for two of them I was with a host family and we were doing stuff, so no real time to just do whatever I want.

I slept until 1100 which felt soooo good. Went into Ruth's room with the other kids who stayed behind for the weekend, and she made us Challah French Toast. Which was also soooo good. We all chatted while we were there, and Aaron and I got into another argument. He's the same kid I got in a big argument over law enforcement... last week I think. Well, first he was saying that religious charities should get no public funding because of seperation of church and state. I told him that by denying funding to religious charities but funding other ones is a form of discrimination against religion. So he changed his arguement to that charities with a religious requirement i.e. having to attend church, should not recieve funding.
I told him no charities should recieve public funding. It should be an individual's obligation of conscience to give charity, not an order of the government through taxation. (Yes, I know its Jewish law of Tzedkah to give charity, but again, seperation of church and state. Let people be responsible for fulfilling that obligation, not the government.) And furthermore it should be a person's choice which charities to give money to.
So then he asked sarcastically whether I thought there shouldn't be welfare.
I said no, there shouldn't be government welfare. If people need to get help they should go to charities.
So we started to get into an arguement on welfare and the size of governement, and I insisted government is too big and inefficient and wastes a lot of money, and insisted government size needs to be increased, and it was around then that Ruth turned from the hot plate she was making the French Toast on and said to us "Unless you're fine with getting all angry and having one of you storming out of the room, stop this conversation NOW."
Aaron said he had no problem with storming out. I remained silent.
Ruth went back to the toast. And the conversation ceased.

We ate the toast which was so good. And at 1330 I turned in for another nap, taking advantage of having no roommates for the weekend to catch up on sleep. Slept until 1600. Then I started on homework to try to catch up on THAT. Read a chapter of American History and read a short story for English. Then found out the only batteries I bought in Israel were leaking, which pissed me off because batteries are expensive here. So I threw them out and washed the battery acid off my hands and looked around until I found a pair that had a bit of power left in them for my CD player.
That's another thing I'd bring if I could pack again, more batteries.

At 1845 I went to the computer lab, where I am now. I'm working on uploading pictures I took in Haifa. Unfortunatly I don't feel they are representative of the city. For the record, I don't like Haifa. In addition to other things, it looks like a rundown piece of crap. Maybe that's from being bombed for a couple of months, I don't know, I didn't see it before the war. And I didn't take any pictures of the destroyed buildings, the shots I did take were of relatively nice ones. But I'm uploading them anyway.
Beside that, I've got 6 journal entries due for class tomorrow on the Shoah in addition to a homework assignment involving movie quotes, and I got some sequential work due tomorrow. *sigh*

Man, when I get back I'm going to have SO much free time. Comparitively, anyway.

Well, off to write those journal assignments.
PS, quote of the day:
"Flak was quickly adopted by the Allies because in the time it took to say Flugzeugabwehrkanone over the radio, you'd probably already be dead."

Today we drove to Haifa again, not my favorite city but oh well. I'd rather be in Jerusalem. We went to the navy museum, which was pretty interesting, I liked seeing all the insignia on display and took a fair number of pictures. When the lady there was telling us the story of the missing submarine I was amazed at how long Israel spent looking for the damn thing.
Acco prison was interesting as well. It was quite different from the other prisons I've been to. No, David, TO, not in. In the execution room it was a bit morbid where they wrote Hatikvah on the room, as one of the lines just ended in dots. I guess maybe that's as far as they to singing before they got the "short drop and a sudden stop."

I loved going to the grottos, the water is gorgeous. I find it interesting that while I HATE being in water and am afraid of it a bit, that it is one of my favorite things to photograph.
Then we went to the border of "no man's land", I felt kinda awkward being there with the soldier guards staring at us.
I was real happy we got to see The Green Mile, considering it is my favorite book AND movie.
On the way to DOTS at Ra'anana I saw a nasty car accident on the side of the road and a person in pretty bad shape being loaded on a stretcher. It reminded me of working vehicle extrication at my FD, and if I further pursue firefighting I think I'd like to specialize in Rescue/EMS.

We woke up this morning, left at 0715. Had about a 90-minute bus ride to the base of a "mountain" overlooking Atlit, where Hannah Shenesh (http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1376) lived. Of course, we hiked up it. As we were hiking, I commented "geeze... this feels like Masada all over again..." and when we get to the top, we have a long class, and Tuvia explains that the Jews had a plan to fight off the Nazis if they came into Palestine, on this mountain, and they called it "the Masada Plan".

Then we drove another 40 minutes to the Ghetto Fighters Museum, where we had lunch outside, and then went inside to learn about the Jewish resistance within the ghettos and the partisans. Soldiers from the Golani Infantry were there too, it was really cool to get to see them. We watched a video last week about Golani training. Craziness.

We learn about the failed uprisings, and the successful ones, and the tortures for penalties. We learn about the Nazis at Treblinka. How it wasn't enough for them to merely kill Jews, but they had fun with it. They called the walk to the gas chambers "The Path to Heaven", and labeled the gas chambers with a giant Star of David, and in the holding rooms for those doomed to die they labeled it "Chai" which means "life". They have games. Its not enough to have Jews wheelbarrow the bodies of dead Jews to the graves (there were no ovens in Treblinka), they got bored of that. They'd play a game called "Mark". A Jew would have to carry the body of a dead Jew on his back while running to the grave. Meanwhile the SS officers would snap a whip at him, trying to get his face. The slightest scratch would result in the Jew being "marked". At roll call the next day, those marked would have to step forward and be shot. Any marked that did not step forward would be beaten to death with shovels. Some stepped forward because they did not know if they had something that would be considered a "mark" or not on them.
And when Jews had to make a 150 meter run naked to the gas chambers, one of the head SS officers would play another game. He'd take a bayonet and chop off limbs of Jews running by from time to time. Or pluck out eyeballs. And when he was in a "really good mood", rape a 9 or 10-year old girl on the steps of the chambers in front of everyone.
He also trained his horse to trample, and every morning at roll call he would have his horse trample several prisoners.
On the whole, another Shoah Museum. I can tell this unit is impacting me, it makes me really angry. Not just the Nazis, but at the States as well, and my school. I don't recall ever learning about the Shoah in High School, and every tiny unit we had about it before then was all extremely sanitized. And it disgusts me. And the United States disgusts me as well. It likes to pretend it was so "in the right" in the war. That is such bullshit. Total bullshit. And FDR is full of bullshit. Saying the deathcamps are an "unimportant side issue"? BULLSHIT. Bullshit.
I'm not gonna go into more of the USA that pisses me off. Don't feel like getting worked up now.
So I'll end on that note, the United States failed the Jews of World War Two, and without further adeu, the pictures.
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We also drove through Haifa today. It looks like... well, it looks like its a city that's been bombed for a couple of months.

I am also putting in a design for our class t-shirt, art is something I've been exploring while I'm here. I mean, besides photography. As you can probably tell, I've been getting into photographing flowers. But I'm starting to draw as well. I'll post some of my drawings another day.

There are stars whose radiance is visible on earth
though they have long been extinct.
There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world
though they are no longer among the living.
These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark.
They light the way for mankind.
-From the writings of Hannah Senesh

Today I woke up at 0715, quite pissed that the toran hadn't woken us, because I wanted to get some work done in the morning. Yeah, I should've set my alarm just in case, but my alarm clock has gone AWOL (along with one of the set of Infected Mushroom CD's I bought, which pisses me off a whole lot more).
So I woke up, dressed, packed for the day, stripped the sheets off the bed and went to the laundry. I figure if everyone washes their sheets it will smell less and be more healthy.
Unfortunately, it was only after I dropped off my laundry that I realized I dropped off ALL the sheets... and I don't have any to put on the bed until I get the laundry back on Thursday.
*headdesk*

Ran to the cafeteria at 0745 and packed my lunch- eggsalad sandwhiches with cheese, chocolate milk, and some of the awful Osem chips. Those "chips" come in the wierdest flavors- pizza, hamburger, barbeque, grill... and ya know what, none of them taste like ANYTHING. But I hoard them in case I'm starving and have nothing else to eat. Then I grab a couple of blintzes and wolf them down, even though I'm not hungry. I love blintz day. And it tends to be blintz day on tiyul days.
Then we have an hour and a half ride to Yad V'shem, a Holocaust museum right outside Jerusalem. With my improved Hebrew skills (and they're getting better every day, now I can converse a bit, I was able to say "Afo ha'autobus?" today, feel so proud of myself hahaha) I can tell you with a fair amount of confidence that means "Hand of the Name".
We walked through the newest museum, built in 2005, which is a... would it be too corny to call it an architectural gem? Perhaps.
The building is in the shape of a triangular prism, with the grey cement walls sloping sharply upwards towards a skinny glass ceiling. It creates a sense of claustraphobia, which is ended only at the end of the tour, where it is designed to open up wider on the sides and you can see the light outside. When you go in the museum, it is designed so that in order to get to the exit (except in the case of fire) you HAVE to see every single exhibit.


And outside view of the building at Yad V'shem.

There a guide takes us around, wearing a microphone and we all get recieving radios and ear pieces to wear, since the museum is designed so sound won't travel well. We see piles of books the Nazis burned, cartloads of shoes, clothes, eyeglasses, photographs, and even one of the cattle cars they brought the Jews in. There are screens everywhere showing video clips of the brutality shown to the Jews, gypsies, blacks, homosexuals, and disabled. Some show statements videotaped from survivors of their personal story.
One man tells how as a boy he found that someone had stolen his hat. He knew if he showed up the next morning to rollcall without one, the Nazis would kill him. So at the night he went pacing around the bunks for his "victim" as he put it. He considered the death camps a jungle, where only those who prey on the weaker survive, and those weaker prey on those still weaker, and on down the chain. When he finally found a sleeping man whose hat peaked just above the blankets, he lifted it up and was relieved the man did not wake up. He returned to his bed.
The next morning at roll call he had a hat. He passed inspection. As he was standing in line, he heard a single shot ring out and a man fall. He knew who that man was and could not bring himself to look.

There are seperate sections in the museum dedicated to Aushewitz, Treblinka, Dachau, and other death and work camps. I was really surprised to find that there had been 3,350,000 Jews in Poland, and that the Nazis killed 3,000,000 of them. I find that incomprehensible. And 1.5 million of the Jews killed were children under the age of 18.
We learned a lot of statistics.
At the end of this museum there was a circular room filled with thousands upon thousands of binders. Binders filled with witness statements of HaShoah. Millions of names. It was a huge room, and sooooo many books. Books from floor to cieling, and the room looked to be three stories high.
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Then we went to the children's memorial, a completely dark hall except for 5 candles lit. The entire corridor is covered in mirrors, and the flames go down through the floor, back through walls, up through the cieling going into infinity. Thousands upon thousands of reflected flames, the appearance of different distances, going on forever. While an eerie background dirge plays and a grave voice reads off the names, ages, and location of death of the children in Hebrew, English, and Russian.

Afterwards we look at some of the trees planted by the Righteous Gentiles, non-Jews who helped Jews in the Shoah.
We go to the dining area and are eating our bagged lunches for about 5-10 minutes before some administration comes to chase us away and tells us its a restaurant. Well, no one was sitting anywhere there anyway, and it must be a pretty crappy "restaurant" because all the tables were dirty anyway.

Then we got on the bus and left to return home. Our teacher David called us all up individually to talk to us on the bus. When I got called up, the first thing he wanted to discuss was my grade. I've got an 80, and from a quick peak at the paper I see its the second or third lowest grades in the class, something that doesn't have me thoroughly thrilled. He tells me he thinks I should be doing better, that I'm capable of it, and that of all the kids in the class I'm probably the one with the most insight, etc etc. He asks what news I've heard from home, how I'd grade my experience here, things like that. I spend some time talking to him and then return to my seat.

We get back at 1500 and I had to be in class at 1630 to watch the movie The Musicbox, another Shoah film. Since I have some time, and its light out, I go into town. I get some pears, some instant soup (I'm thoroughly addicted to it), a... oh damn what's it called... it'll come to me as soon as I'm done writting this... you eat the seeds from it... anyway, I got that and some gum and eggplant in a pita at that stand I like. (OH, that's what it is... pomegranet)
Went back, went to class.
Watched the movie until 1800. Its a film about the trial of a Hungarian for war crimes, with his daughter being his defense lawyer. I did not care for it.
Ate dinner, returned at 1830 and finished the movie around 1930.
From there, me and a bunch of other girls went into town. We wanted to get some of the Mosenson shirts, and only Maya knew where the store actually was. We got there, and I got myself a sweatshirt, a zip-up sweatshirt, and two t-shirts. After I bought that I absolutely fell in love with this jean jacket. It was 176 sheks, which is like... $35... I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't love it so much. Its got brass and silver studs outlining the pockets, what I think is an airforce symbol in gold on the left pocket, and a really nice sparkle design on the back.

I LOVE the store owners here. I LOVE them lol. They are soooo friendly, they crack me up. One of the workers in the store helping us, he got all our names (and remembered them), everyone there only really spoke Hebrew, but he's from France so he tried to get us to speak French. So him and I ended up getting into an odd conversation with me using Spanish, Hebrew, and a bit of English, while he used French and Hebrew.
I can really see how Yiddish and Ladino came into being from mixing languages.
And then he was asking us if we were single, he was totally pimping his son. He tells us he is "one and eight" years old, fighting in the army, in Iran. That's another thing that cracks me up. Everyone wants their kids to get an American girlfriend here, all these parents try to set us up with their kids. We politely as possible decline and tell him we are leaving in a couple weeks, and leave.

A great day, I love it. And I am totally in love with this jacket. Was not planning to buy one, but totally love it.