Recent Events

It's been a while since I posted anything... I apologize; I've just been so busy and so exhausted I haven't had a spare second to sit down and write. So much has happened in the last couple of weeks that I'm going to sum it up in bullet points. It began like this:

-It was midterm; I had essays to write for all of my classes and a Hebrew exam, and our internet crashed. Why did the internet crash? Oh, because Aardvark forgot to pay the internet bill. Great. I therefore went to an Israeli McDonald's to use the free Wifi. It was an interesting experience, but not one I plan on repeating. (Side note: I did get good grades on all of my assignments, despite the setbacks)

-Windows had its opening event for the year, and it was quite successful. There were about 50 people there: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian; Israeli, Palestinian, American, British, Italian, French, and Dutch. There were really, really old people sitting on the chairs outside, and toddlers running around playing. It was very interesting to watch the dynamic between all the people there, and to play the role of a hostess in a situation where I myself felt so out of place. I spoke so much Hebrew my brain hurt, and talked to people I never otherwise would have met. There was this funny old Palestinian man named Professor Taleb, who is a professor of geology at the most prestigious university in the territories, in Ramallah. He was full of stories about all sorts of things; the wars, the land, how much he loves Jewish people. I really liked hanging out with him until he tried to sell me stuff. That happens a lot here, which is frustrating. Regardless, the rest of the event was really cool. The Israeli/Palestinian dynamic was fascinating. The really old people all sat around together drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes (for some reason those two things go hand in hand here), and the little kids all ran around together, but Israelis and Palestinians from the ages of like, 25-50 mostly stayed away from each other and talked to the Americans or Brits or Italians. I realized later that it's the people of those ages who remember the most clearly the Second Intifada. Israelis who now are 25 grew up avoiding crowded places and public buses; they LIVED the violence. They were in the army during the Second Lebanon War and the war in Gaza; they watched people they know and love die there. The generation of Israelis who are now getting their educations and entering the workforce may be the most anti-Arab generation yet, simply because they are traumatized by the events that they have experienced in their lifetimes. That's crazy. The longer I live here, the more layers of society there are to peel back, exposing more and more of the insanity that is the Middle East. It's so intense. I love it! Anyway, the point is that the event went really well, and I learned a lot, and Windows is awesome. Yay!

-In the two weeks since I last posted, I've eaten two bizarre fruits. The first was an annona (also called a cherimoya), a weird-looking spiky green heart-shaped sort of thing. It's related to the custard apple, and has stringy white flesh surrounding large black seeds. It was sweet, but kind of salty at the same time, and just generally really gross. This past Sunday I bought a lumpy pear shaped fruit that looked sort of like a quince, but green. It also ended up being disgusting, like a really mealy, bitter, vile pear. I still have no idea what it was, but it was terrible. I'm hoping next week's fruit will prove yummier.

-My roommate Rebekah's mom was here last week, staying in our apartment, which was wonderful. She's this adorable little British woman, who mothered us all constantly and kept us in line, and swept the floor three times a day (although we yelled at her not to). Now she's gone and the apartment feels empty and sad. I really liked having a mom for a week! (23 days til my own mommy is here!!!)

-On Friday morning my roommate Shira and I went out shopping, and discovered a really cool clothing market. There was nothing there really worth buying, but it was an interesting cultural experience. Then we walked down Sheinkin St, and found a street vendor making tiny pancakes. They were DELICIOUS. I don't really know how to explain them except to say that they were literally just tiny pancakes. I'll post the pictures soon.

-That same Friday we began our Shabbat B'Yachad, or in English, Shabbaton (did you know that that's not a Hebrew word?). Aardvark rented out a tiny little synagogue in the neighborhood and we spent Shabbat eating, hanging out with our rabbi, eating, praying, eating, and "bonding". The singing and the eating and the hanging out with Rav Fivel were fun, but spending that much time with the whole group really sucked. I get saturated on Aardvark very quickly, and so a solid 30-ish hours of together-ness was just WAY too much.

-Today, we had a free morning, so my friend David and I went on an epic adventure across Tel Aviv. Our first stop was at a crazy antique market near Dizengoff Center, which had tables selling everything from old books to vintage clothing to weird figurines of Asian people in oddly sexual positions to a giant gold bust of Elvis. It was totally bizarre, and so much fun! Next, we tried to go to the bi-weekly Farmer's Market at the port, but after a half hour or so of wandering around looking for it, we remembered that the farmers are on strike. Oops. We'll have to try again after the strike is over. We ended up at one of the only American restaurants in the city... SUBWAY. At home I hate Subway, but after three months living in Israel you really start to crave a good, American SANDWICH. Not falafel, not schnitzel, not anything in a pita, just a plain, old-fashioned SANDWICH. I got turkey, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a whole wheat sub, and it was FANTASTIC. I've never been so excited about a sandwich. :)

-The reason we had a free morning today is because our field trip this week started late in the afternoon. We went to Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, to visit the Blind Museum, which is a museum experience where you walk through a series of scenarios in complete darkness, forced to use your other senses to figure out where you were. It was a little unnerving at first, but incredibly cool. It turns out I'm really good at identifying things without seeing them. I identified a KOHLRABI without looking at it, and I've never eaten a kohlrabi! All of the staff at the museum are either blind or visually impaired, and they help to guide you through the exhibits, because they're the pros at using their other senses. We got around by listening to each others' voices and feeling along the walls and holding onto each other. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before, but I would recommend it to anyone. SO. COOL.

-Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow! I'm cooking dinner for a good ten people or so, in my little tiny kitchen. I don't even have an oven big enough to fit a turkey, so I'm making two chickens side by side in a roasting pan. Lucky for me, though, someone's dad brought over a can of pumpkin pie filling, so although it won't be anywhere near as good as our from-scratch pies at home, there WILL be pie at my Thanksgiving table. I'm also making the standard potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, and Liverman family stuffing! I really have NO IDEA how I'm going to pull this off, but I'm excited!

Happy Thanksgiving!