Photo time!

A whole whack of photos from my last few days in Jerusalem. There’s some street art; happy people, music, poetry, and dancing at Def Adar Jam; and a boogie.

Filed under: friends, graffiti, israel, music, parties, photos, travels

Amazingness of the last few days

Amazingness of the last few days

Friends. I’m blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. And, though I’m glad I talked them out of it, it’s sweet that they volleyed around the idea of caging me in order to keep me near them.

Mile High Club. (Not that Mile High Club.) As the sun rose, I was somewhere over eastern Europe, or the Mediterranean. I noticed several black hatters standing in the aisle, reaching for their tefillin. I joined them. I got quite a few looks, but I think it was worth it. (It was suggested to me, before I left Israel, that davening on the plane/in the airport was important, so that folks could see alternatives to the black hatters’ orthodoxy.) It was also a nice bookend to the davening and shofar blowing in the airport on my way to Israel in the summer.

ICBC. Actually did something right! And easily! And quickly! They’re mailing me an extension on my driver’s license, so that it will remain valid until I get back to BC.

Swiss Air. Though they probably lost money on my flight from Zurich to Montreal, I’m thankful they didn’t cancel it. The plane was less than a quarter full – we each had a row to ourselves. Enough room to spread out, sprawl out for naps, and not care if the seats were fully reclined. I had a lovely conversation in Spanish, which pleased me as I really thought I’d forgotten that language. And then a French with a smattering of German conversation, comparing and contrasting women’s clothing/modesty in Judaism and Islam with a Catholic woman from Munich.

A fantastic welcome home from my parents and the friends I’m staying with.

SNOW! Landing in the snow was great. As we approached YUL, we were flying through the white clouds for twenty minutes. Once we descended from the clouds, the ground was white as far as I could see, which gave the illusion of still being in the clouds. It made for a trippy, but smooth, landing. Also, wearing crocs was great on the plane (comfy, easy to take off), but not such a great idea walking through the snow with my luggage from the car to the house. Wet crocs and toes! There are snow piles on every front lawn on this street – easily 3-3.5 metres tall. I’m in heaven.

Cuddles with the dog. Good talks. Many hugs. Good food. I’m happy to be back on this side of the pond.

And now, to sleep. Laila tov, bon soir, good night…

Filed under: canada, friends, judaism, languages, seasons, travels

Blame the Gays!

Gotta love it.

I was going to post about the earthquakin’ queers, but Rooftopper Rav beat me to it. What I would like to point out, however, is the juxtaposition of two articles currently on the Haaretz home page:

• Gay-friendliness is not only about values, wherein we learn that an open or tolerant Israel would come with financial benefits.
• Shas MK blames gays for recent earthquakes in the region, wherein we learn that Shas parallels Pat Robertson’s understanding of natural sciences.

(Would it be wrong to call Haaretz a fence-sitter when it comes to LGBT issues?)

cross-posted to Jewschool.

Filed under: homophobia, israel, judaism, politics, queers

Photos!

I’ve updated the Winter in Jerusalem photo set to include more photos from the last snow “storm”, along with some from today’s.

And what do you do when it’s sleeting and hailing and snowing and thundering and raining and crazy wind blowing all in one night? Go to a friend’s for a MEAT date! (You too can have a MEAT date: find a friend with a fleishig kitchen, cook MEAT for your friends, maybe make some ‘smores over the stove for dessert, drink a bunch of wine, neglect your Hebrew studies, and dance to the 80’s-a-thon on the teevee.)

Finally, we have some photos from ulpan at Hebrew University. Most of them are of the views, as requested by several of you. If you look closely, you’ll see a desert, goats, MS, and Palestinian neighbourhoods.

Filed under: friends, good eats, israel, palestine, photos, school

As ulpan comes to an end…

Are you considering the winter ulpan at Hebrew University? Here are some things to keep in mind:

• You’re going to be in a class, in a program, that’s aimed at American undergrads. Many of them are immature, and don’t actually want to be in class. What does that mean for you? They talk, SMS/text, laugh, etc., throughout class and during lectures. Because they are the target audience, the teachers don’t seem to care about their behaviour, and let the disruptions continue. A friend of mine, in another class, has had to leave early several times due to the headaches she’s been getting from their noise in class.
• The students who are at Rothberg for the semester will be continuing ulpan during the regular semester. They’ve been told that this winter ulpan is just the start for them, an introduction or refresher for the level they’re about to complete. I, and several other external students who just came for the winter ulpan, were told we would be finishing a full level (for me, that means the Bet book), over the four weeks of ulpan. Clearly we were told this so that we’d pay the huge tuition and take the course. However, the explanation given the the American undergrads is far more accurate.
• The tuition. It’s a lot. $900US, plus $60US registration fee, plus the book. So I’d be buying the book regardless of which ulpan I went to, but let’s look at the $960. That’s $960 for four weeks, which is 19 class days (4 the first week, 5 the remaining three). Or $50.53 per class. Then you factor in the three snow days we’ve now missed (one was made up completely), so that’s a pure loss of $101.06. Our teacher had some prior engagement last week, so she let us out an hour early; we were to make up that hour today, but today’s the third snow day. So that’s now a loss of $113.69 when I add the extra lost hour.
  • MS suggests that any Americans reading this won’t be balking at the price of the course, given the expensive post-secondary education system in the USA. But I still think that, regardless of where you’re from, $900 for an inter-semester, four week course is expensive.
• Disorganization. Yesterday, before leaving class, a classmate asked our teacher for information on the oral exam we’re supposed to have, a component of our final grades. Our teacher commented that it’s just as was explained on the hand out she gave us last week. Except we weren’t given a hand out last week, or ever. Their disorganization meant we were given a day’s notice for our oral exams. (Of course, due to the snow that’s been canceled.) On our test last week, we were supposed to have been tested on a bunch of grammar that our other teacher had never taught us.
• The zionist agenda. While I enjoy singing Israeli folk and rocks songs from the 1970s and 1980s as much as the next guy, I’m at ulpan to learn Hebrew. Not to spend a couple hours in an auditorium singing “gesher tsar me’od” and “ani v’atah.” The historic tour of campus, the lectures on Israeli money and the history of the Hebrew alphabet, and those weekly singing sessions were a waste of time. The lecture on Ethiopian Jews was interesting, but, again, shouldn’t have taken away from class time. Especially given how little we learn in class.

I feel like it was a waste of money. But, hey, your milage may vary.

Filed under: hebrew, israel, school

Our greatest ally?

Another incredibly stupid policy coming out of the US. It seems that Canadian luggage is screened twice:

The policy, developed after 9/11 and in place since 2003, requires all bags from flights coming from Canada to be screened at U.S. airports by the federally regulated Transportation Security Administration before they can be loaded onto connecting planes. This, despite having already been screened and precleared by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stationed at Canada’s eight major airports. The airport in Shannon, Ireland, is the only other in the world with preclearance to the United States.”In essence, that bag that’s already been deemed safe … gets to the United States, is taken off the airplane, goes back inside the air terminal building, gets rescreened and resecured, and is then sent back out to the second airplane and loaded,” said Jim Facette, president and CEO of the Canadian Airports Council, which represents airports across the country.

“So two things are happening: The passenger is waiting a longer period of time than they need to because screening can take between 75 and 90 minutes, and the TSA is incurring a whole lot of costs. It’s unnecessary.”

Unnecessary, airports and airlines in both Canada and the United States maintain, because the screening technology and security procedures in place in both countries are virtually identical, and precleared passengers can’t access their checked bags between flights. [Source.]

There’s a waste of money happening, as increase in missed connections and lost luggage, and the US hasn’t been able to show any evidence that this practice is making any difference! Ridiculous.

Filed under: america, canada, politics, travels, wtf?

The weirdness continues

About 3 minutes ago, there was an earthquake.

In about 3 days, it will snow again.

(Oh, Israel… you so crazy!)

ETA: Turns out the epicentre was in Lebanon, a magnitude of 5.0 – 5.3 (depending on your source). Based on the few earthquakes I’ve been in, I’m estimating the rumble in Jerusalem as a 2.7.

Filed under: israel, random, seasons

Up late (early?)

The newspaper is delivered at 4:10. The birds start singing at 4:22. The call to prayer has not yet happened.

It’s going to be a long day.

Filed under: sleep/insomnia

Coming to a North America Near You!

The countdown has begun. Some of you know that I’m cutting this year in Israel short, for various reasons.

What this means to you: I’ll be in North America. And soon!

In just over two weeks, I’ll have finished ulpan, said goodbye to my chevrutahs, and left my shiurs. On February 26, I’ll be arriving at YUL. Shortly thereafter, I plan on getting to Pizza Pita for poutine. (Some people kiss the tarmac, after a long time away, I eat cheese curds.)

From my touch down in Montreal through early April, I’ll be visiting the east coast trinity – Montreal, New York, and Boston. (With a side trip to Portland.) After that, I’ll be spending April and May in a west coast ménage à trois: Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria (with a possible side trip to Vernon and/or Kamloops).

If you live in these cities, and you want to hang out, let me know. (Please also drop me a line if you have a couch or floor I can crash on.)

See you soon!!

Filed under: america, canada, friends, travels

Exhaustion

The second week of ulpan is coming to a close. This is incredibly alarming as I don’t feel I’ve learned that much yet – and there’s only another 2 weeks to go. This also means I’m doubting their promise that students move up a full level after the winter intensive ulpan. (Like everything else at ulpan thus far, there have been conflicting promises. While many of us were told students could expect to move up a level (and, yes, that means students would complete a full level). Others were told they wouldn’t move up a level, but would get halfway through. Others have said that the administration carefully avoided answering their inquiries when they asked how far they’d move up.)

This has also been a really long week. Due to last week’s snow, the university was closed for two days. One day will be replaced tomorrow, Friday. For those of you outside Israel, this is like going to school on Saturday. It also means that I’m exhausted, and will have no real chance to catch up on my sleep. Friday’s been my morning of sleeping late for the last few months, since Saturdays mean waking early to get for Shabbat services. This Friday, I won’t have that option. And it’s going to be a rush to leave the campus, get down home, and prepare for Shabbat. Shabbat. Back to class on Sunday. I predict that by next Thursday, I will be a zombie.

Otherwise, it’s true what they say: this really is “Rothberg High.” There are so many gap year students and undergrads, that it feels like a high school during the breaks (and sometimes during class time). Those of us who have moved past that stage in our lives have been spending a lot of the breaks together. I’m glad MS is there; it’s nice to be able to talk politics, economics, and theology with him… Instead of rolling my eyes at the play by play of the previous night’s drunken debauchery. Good times.

Best word thus far (not actually learned in class, alas): מלוכלך (m’lukh’lakh) which means “dirty,” (with a sexual connotation). Really, I use it many times a day.

In other news, I like ordering upside down (חפוך – chaphukh) coffees. Especially when they’re strong. So very necessary when ulpan requires me to be up with the birds, but my insomnia has me falling asleep just before those birds start chirping.

This also means that my time in Israel is coming to an end…

Filed under: hebrew, israel, school, sleep/insomnia