Hasbara

I'm well aware that Israel needs to promote itself, but sometimes that gets a little out of control. Planning moadon bishul on tuesday afternoon, I had settled on making shakshuka and was searching online for recipes. (I know it's easy, I just wanted a little guidance.) What I came up with was a recipe posted on the ministry of foreign affairs website. Check it out here: Shakshuka Recipe.
Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but it just seems to me that they can put the time and bandwidth to better use.

As you can probably guess, it's slow around here. I'm getting into work at the school and my classes. The international school is going to the Negev for hiking and a little touring over Shabbat, so I will write it up when I return. Shabbat shalom.

Ofakim

I started work at the Ofakim school today. Hoping to get a jump on my first day of interning, I set my alarm for 7, with the intention of getting up to shower, dress nicely and have a nice, calm breakfast. These plans never work out for me though. I snoozed my alarm the first time it went off, which is standard behavior for me. I even build in a single snooze when setting my alarm. Unfortunately, the alarm did not ring again. I blearily glanced at my cell phone seemingly minutes after putting my head back down, before I leapt out of bed in a panic: It was 8:05 and I was due in Hebrew class in ten minutes! I rushed a shower, pulled on the first collared shirt I could find, grabbed a handful of kumquats on the way out the door and only arrived 5 minutes late to Ulpan.

Hebrew was uneventful. I grabbed a cup of Nes "cappuccino" before heading down to the bus station, and then caught a sherut to Mercaz HaCarmel. The school is on "HaYam" street, a few blocks below the Carmel Center. I arrived at about 10:40 and headed down to my classroom. I'll be working most closely with Rola Farah, the teacher of "Gan Tamar", who was trained at the Peto Institute in Budapest. She will be teaching me the "Peto method" which entails repetitive, exhaustive physical therapy that can help train a child with severe locomotion difficulties to overcome them.

The day was free and easy. I spent the mid morning and early afternoon in Gan Tamar, meeting kids, playing games and helping out with whatever the staffers needed. It was nice, except for the tiny chairs that were not designed for children over 7 years of age. My lower back hurts right now, the punishment for spending too many hours with my knees higher than my belly button. Most of the kids left around 2 o'clock and I entertained that one's who stayed behind for about a half hour. They really took to me quickly. Rola and a new group of staff members came back around 2:30 and the kids ate their boxed lunches. Then the physical therapy began. I wasn't able to participate much, and I mostly observed, but there were a few times where I was able to pitch in. The time passed pretty quickly. My biggest concern heading in was that I would be using Hebrew professionally for the first time ever. I'm thrilled to report that I kept up and even was able to crack a few jokes! This is going to work out just fine.

Where's The Beef?

Spring has returned to Haifa. The trees are in bloom, wildflowers are carpeting the Carmel park, and the whole city has been taken by a warm, wholesome air. Of course a return to spring means a spike in outdoor activities. Yesterday I was out and about all day, enjoying my new friends, my freedom and the killer weather we are being blessed with.

Budding flowers on the tree outside my bedroom.
Soon the whole area will smell like flowers again.

At about 11 yesterday morning, I met up with a group of people and we went on a romp through the park. It was never intended to be a hike, and so we took it easy, talking and joking as we wound our way down the path. Someone started talking about plans for late night, and I tossed out a suggestion: how about a bonfire in the park late that night? The idea took and I began to spread the word. We walked for almost two hours and I had begun to work up an appetite when we came back to the main road. Bill had been telling me about a "Druze Pita" stand that was only open on Shabbat. We walked over to it and I bought myself a sandwich of just baked pita, labneh, zatar and olive oil. We sat by the side of the road people watching for about an hour while I munched, indulging in lots of olives and about 8 dixie cups full of tea. It was magic.

A lazy afternoon in the Carmel park.

That evening we went to a soccer game, Maccabi Haifa versus Maccabi Herzliya. The game was astoundingly slow for the first 65 or so minutes, and then picked up for the rest. It ended in a 1-1 tie, the second tie I've seen in person at Kiryat Eliezer stadium. One of my friends remarked "There's no overtime? But aren't they required to have a winner?" Unfortunately, ties are perfectly legal in soccer. They are just patently un-American.

This look is a keeper.

One of the best things about going to Israeli games is that you get to see a side of Israel that doesn't show its face in most places. Frankly, Israeli soccer fans are overwhelmingly crude, chain smoking yahoos, the lowest common denominator of society. We rode the bus back with a group of nut job teenagers, who were thrilled to pose for pictures, chat with me about Michael Jordan, and hit on our girls with the reckless abandon of a pervert who knows the object of his lust doesn't understand a word he is saying. I told them to knock it off.

MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

When I got back to campus, David and I began our search for wood. It was awfully shortsighted of me not to collect wood during the daylight hours. Armed only with my wits and the tiny flashlight that my dad got for free from Dan hotels, I made my way off into the night in search of dead trees to strip for larger fuel. The coyotes were out last night and they were a little close for my comfort. Judging by the sound of one of their howls, it couldn't have been more than 10 yards away. I was understandably a little nervous walking around in the dark. I was searching near this outdoor bathroom stall when I heard something move in the dark, and I froze. I scanned the woods with my light but I didn't see or hear anything else, so I took a breath and stepped forward. Thats when I happened to flash my light into the bathroom for a moment, and the big red eyes staring back at me nearly caused me to stroke out. Regaining my wits a split second later, I fixated my light on the bathroom door and was treated to this absurd spectacle.

"You might want to give that a minute."

There was a fucking big, stupid cow staring at me from the bathroom. He seemed perfectly relaxed. I'm sure if the cow had an interior monologue, it was thinking something along the lines of "what?! I come here every night. What's your problem?!" I'm not even sure how the thing managed to turn around in there. The bathrooms are pretty narrow. My composure regained, we managed to collect enough dry wood for about an hour and a half of fire.

The humble beginnings of our bonfire.

We attracted a group of about 15 people, who mostly sat around talking, drinking wine and goofing off. The fire never got very big, but thats probably for the best. It was big enough to warm everyone's butt and keep away the coyotes, so that's all I can ask for. I'm definitely going to organize another one of these, and next time I'm collecting the wood during daylight hours.

David and Mallory warm up by the fire.