Stomach Flu

I have been battling a stomach virus since early Tuesday. It was a pretty nasty one while the infection was at its peak, but it also receded quickly and I am feeling much better. On Wednesday I ate nothing but some oatmeal, a little cold pasta and a few bites of an apple. Today, when I was feeling better, I had a falafel with a lot of spicy harif for lunch, and a cup of coffee with milk around 5. There can only be two outcomes here: Either I'm healthy again and there won't be any comeuppance, or I'll be burned by the fires of hell in a few hours. Here's to hoping its the first.

I did have the sense to stay in last night while my crew went to a pool hall. Tonight, I have no such sense. I'm going to a bar in Mercaz haCarmel to see a "Beit haBubot" concert tonight. Unfortunately their website is in Hebrew and it doesn't even have track excerpts on it so if you want to hear some, you'll have to find someone with a cd. It is excellent music though, and I recommend it. Think folk acoustic guitar with Latin influences, in Hebrew. Here is the site. It does have tablature, for those of my readers who also play the guitar.

Classes And Such

My Terrorism and Responses professor is a little bit nutty, which is just fine with me. He gave my class an experience this afternoon that I don't think can be topped. He taught the entire class with a handgun tucked into his jeans. No holster or anything. My professor was packing like he was a Latin King. It's certainly become my favorite class.

Arabic is getting crazy. The difficulty level has increased exponentially since the start of the semester. We get about 40 vocabulary words per week, which is simply too many to commit to memory. Doris is getting very frustrated. I'm keeping my head above water right now, but it's a struggle. Rina pushes us harder than any other teacher I've ever had. I'm looking at this as good prep work for law school. Better to get used to the workloads now.

There is a Hebrew flick in the moadon tonight so I'm gonna go meet some friends and watch. Tomorrow is my short day (only Hebrew at 10 A.M.), and I am going to a pool hall tomorrow night for a birthday party. I'm looking forward to the late morning, although usually when I get to sleep in I feel about the same getting out of bed as I do on the days when I get up at 7. Go figure.

Nes

Today was an average Monday. Getting out of bed took a tremendous deal of effort, and I was pretty drowsy all the way through Arabic this morning. I grabbed a cup of Nes before Hebrew Ulpan, much to my embarrassment. For those who don't know, Nes is local slang for instant coffee. This is because the Nescafe' brand ran ads making a play on the Hebrew word נס, meaning miracle. In other words, Nescafe' is the miracle of coffee. Except it's garbage. I can't believe I am drinking this swill. Finding a real cup of coffee in this country is all but impossible so it's all I have. There is a coffee machine in the Terrace Building that serves Nes like its real coffee; cappucino, mocha, lattes and espresso. It's really quite impressive, and at 1.10 Shekels per cup, it's seductive. The worst part is that I'm actually starting to not hate the taste.

How humiliating.

One thing this stuff is good for is warming me up when it's chilly outside. I'm really not a superstitious guy. I'm just aware of the coincidences that superstitious people would attribute to some omen. That said, the last time I complained about the cold weather, it got nice and warm again and stayed that way for quite a while. It's getting cold here now and I don't much care for it. It's a different cold from back home too. It comes from a general attitude around here that winter doesn't really happen, so it seems colder than it is. That's the best way I can explain it. None of this is really rational, but I'm not always entirely rational either.

Tiyul In The Galilee

We left campus at 8 this morning for our educational tour of the Galilee. We were all over the Northern part of Israel, going up mountains and down into valleys, and winding through ravines and Wadis. Today was the kind of day it was totally impossible to dress for. At times it was sunny and warm, at other times it was overcast and cold, and we had periods of high winds and rain mixed in.

A cold morning foreshadowed a strange weather day in the north.

Today's tour was organized for students in the "Contemporary Israel" class, so we had class time interspersed with each stop on the tour. The overall topic of the trip was Labor Zionism and the seeds of the country planted by the pioneers of the second and third aliyot. Our first stops were on the Gilboa ridge overlooking the Jezreel Valley. The photo above is from the top of Mount Shaul, where according to the Tanach, King Saul and his army were routed by Philistines, and Saul committed suicide by falling on his sword. The Labor Zionists were avowed secularists, but they still used imagery from historical events like the battle at Gilboa to promote their ideology. I mostly like the mountain from the view at the top.


One of the missions that the Labor Zionists took upon themselves was the draining of the swamps that dotted the Jezreel Valley. The swamps were breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes, so draining them was an absolute necessity for making the valley habitable for large kibbutzim. The Labor Zionists took this principle a little too far, eventually doing ecological damage by eliminating every swamp in the valley. Of course they did not have any knowledge of ecology science, and the state is now working to protect the environment. We stopped next on Mount Gilboa proper to look out across the separation barrier into the West Bank. Each time I do this, it's a startling reminder of how close the West Bank is to Israeli cities.

A small Palestinian village just across the border from Israel. The separation barrier can be seen in the bottom left hand corner. Jenin is about 2 KM Southeast of here.

Our next stop was the Kinneret Cemetery, where a number of prominent Labor Zionists are buried. The cemetery is not traditional, because of the secular ideology practiced by the Labor Zionists. Today, people visit more to see the cultural icons buried in the cemetery, such as Rahel the Poetess, and the recently deceased Naomi Shemer the composer of "Jerusalem of Gold."

Naomi Shemer's grave.

We went to Tiberias next for lunch. The city sits on the western shore of the Kinneret and it is mainly a tourist attraction. Parts of it remind me of Florida, which is not a complement. The resort district is nothing but old guys walking around in flip flops and shorts. Tiberias has been home to a number of very famous Rabbi's, making it an attraction to a lot of Orthodox tourists as well. The city does have a nice shopping area where we went for lunch.

The modern city of Tiberias.

Our last stop was Mount Arbel, where we looked out across the Kinneret at the Golan Heights, and down the cliff at the Ginosar Valley and the Druze village of Wadi Hamam. The Galilee has a very large non Jewish population; by some measures Jews are the minority in the area. The last time I was on the Arbel was on Ramah Seminar back in 2002. It was our first real hike of the trip. My luggage was lost on the way to Israel, so I was hiking in sandals, and I blistered up pretty badly. It was cold, windy and rainy at the summit today, so we were all very grateful to head back to the bus. It was a nice, educational tour, but I would like to tour the Galilee on my own when I have time.

The village of Wadi Hamam, just below Mount Arbel.

Schadenfreude

I want to get this in writing while I still can: With 7:40 remaining in the second quarter, the Fighting Illini football team is tied at 14 with undefeated Ohio State, the top ranked team in the country. I'm thrilled that Illinois is a respectable team again, and very bitter that they didn't qualify for a single bowl game in my four years in Champaign. On to tonight's post...

We had a nice barbecue at the dorms this afternoon. A group of international students got together and we made ourselves a feast. Kabobs, turkey dogs and roasted veggies, pita, salads and hummus, tea and Turkish coffee. I nearly ate myself into a coma. Normally I prefer not to eat until I don't feel well. It was an especially poor decision today because I went over to the Mor's house around 5 to watch the M. Haifa - Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv soccer match. Devorah seems to worry that I am wasting away, and she wants to stem the hemorrhaging by making sure I eat a lot when I visit. I know she does it because she cares, but I just can't eat that much, and she doesn't take no for an answer.

American men performing our birthright: grilling.

The game was a blowout. Maccabi crushed Bnei Yehuda 3-0, which is the soccer equivalent of telling someone your going to punch them in the mouth, and then going ahead and doing it. Shani and Carmit came with baby Shai around halftime. I spent much of the inconsequential second half playing with Shachar on the porch. God help me when I have kids. I don't have the energy to keep up with Shachar now, and I'm theoretically in my physical prime. After about 25 minutes, Shani came in out of the bullpen and I went back inside to rest. We chatted and I talked with Shai a little, and then everyone left but myself and Menachem. He and I watched a second soccer game, Beitar Jerusalem - Ironi Kiryat Shmona. This game ended in a 0-0 draw, but it was fascinating to talk to Menachem during the game; his schadenfreude was off the charts. The game had only a passing affect on Maccabi's standing in the league, but Menachem's hatred for Beitar is pure, and comes not from standings but from a deep conviction in the true and correct state of his fandom. I both admire and empathize with this particular strain of learned insanity. I am, after all, a Cubs fan.

I did a nice big load of laundry tonight at the Mor's. Devorah uses fabric softener, so my clothes are softer and sweeter smelling than they have been since I arrived. It's just wonderful. Tomorrow I am leaving the University at around 8 A.M. for a day trip in the Galilee. I'll update tomorrow evening with photos and stories. By the way, it's now halftime and Illinois is actually LEADING Ohio State by a touchdown. 21-14 Fighting Illini! I bet those OSU pricks are choking on their own pretentiousness right now. Honestly, "THE" Ohio State University?! Shut the fuck up.

A Short Hike In Nahal Sfunim

This morning about a dozen of the international students hiked through Nahal Sfunim, a short trail that skirts the base of the Carmel, just outside Haifa. The trip was three hours including breaks so it was no sweat, although it wasn't the easiest hike I've done. It was all rocks and hills so your climbing up or jumping down every few steps.

The Carmel is rugged terrain.

It was cold this morning so I doubled back to my room and grabbed a stocking cap (thanks mom!) before rolling out the door to our waiting sherut. I nearly made everyone late because of it too. The driver was not terribly pleased. It's about a twenty minute drive to the entrance to the Nahal. The base of the Carmel is ringed with farms and Moshavim. In fact, there are banana farms right at the entrance to the Nahal. I've never seen bananas growing anywhere except in a greenhouse.


Once we got moving, the weather was just perfect for a hike. Cool and overcast but not cold. There was a slight drizzle for about 2 minutes but we climbed into a cave and waited it out. Per and I did a little exploring in the cave while the rest of the group moved on. It didn't go very far back, but the light disappears very quickly. There are bats living in the cave and Per kept insisting that their urine is highly acidic, and we needed to shield our eyes so they don't blind us. I don't know if its true but I doubt it. I'm generally skeptical about things like that. We lost our nerve when we were all the way back and they started squeaking very loud and frequently at us. I know they aren't dangerous, but I didn't really want to agitate them any more so we turned and caught up with the group.

The mouth of the cave from inside. Once you turn the corner, it may as well be night.

We stopped a few times to chat and drink tea. Or brought herbs from his mother's garden and boiled them right in the pot with the water. It's delicious but it makes you drowsy. After walking for another 45 minutes or so, the sea comes back into view in the crack between two ridges. One of my friends noted how important it is to get out and see nature every now and then. We are surrounded by so much natural beauty but living in the city, it's almost too easy to forget it. This view is incomparable.


We wound back down towards the moshavim and walked back to the road where we waited for our sherut back to the campus. This afternoon is for being lazy and sleepy. I'll worry about homework tomorrow, but right now I just want to relax. Shabbat shalom.

Hiking in the Nahal

The Atlit naval base is on that rocky atoll. The modern city is just to the east of the base.

Haifa comes back into view.

Clubbin'

I went to the "Soundstage" club at Kibbutz Yagur last night. There was a concert there by a band called "היהודים." Needless to say, this would never fly back home, whether the band members are Jewish or not. It was a heavy metal concert, which sounds just as bad in Hebrew as it does in English. They went on stage at 2 AM so I had plenty of time for dancing and that part of the night was a blast. The main dance floor was playing Israeli club music, primarily in Hebrew, so we ended up there. If I had ignored the language though, this would have been no different from any club I've been to in the U.S. Hot and poorly ventilated, strobe lights and inflated drink prices, skanky women and creepy men. Call it a little taste of home.

This completely inverts my learned preconceived notions about kibbutzim. Back in elementary school, when we would study the origins of the state of Israel, we learned about the socialist collectives called kibbutzim, where groups of ideologues joined a collective to farm the land and live a simple, Marxist existence. The problem isn't that this definition is wrong, so much as it is hopelessly outdated. Today the kibbutzim exist as small capitalist ventures, selling whatever it is that will help to enrich themselves. For Kibbutz Yagur, this means running a very successful night club. As an aside, I didn't get home until after 4 A.M., with an 8 o'clock Hebrew class waiting for me after daybreak. Baaaaaad idea.

We pulled together my cooking club again last night, and I think it is starting to gain some traction. We had a few more people this time and we've already agreed to stir fry next Wednesday night. I really hope this works out, I love to cook and I love to get together with my friends for dinner. One more class (Arab-Israeli Relations) and then the weekend is here! I've got a lot planned so I'll fill everything in as I go along.

Cooking Club schmoozes after dinner.