Student Day In Haifa

Israel has a fine tradition called "Student Day" which I was lucky enough to be a part of this past Thursday. It is a celebration of all things student and it meant a big party down by the beaches with several prominent Israeli musicians. It was going to be huge, with students from all over Haifa and the North in attendance.

Elliot "prepares" for the Student Day concerts.

The international school gang gathered at our usual spot on the boardwalk behind the lowest level of the Talia dorms for dinner and pre gaming. I was getting pretty amped up because some of the acts were supposed to be really good. The show didn't disappoint.

Pregamin' it.

The last time I saw a show at the convention center, it was Purim and the party was inside. The Student Day concerts were out on a big open field that I didn't even know existed, across the street from the Haifa Mall. It was quite a setup they had - food, liquor and cigarette stands formed a perimeter with tents and nargila rentals towards the back, and space in the front for dancing facing a huge outdoor stage.

Aviv Geffen performing early on.

As you've just learned, Aviv Geffen was the first act I saw. He was nothing short of phenomenal. One of the most talented musicians in Israel, he gives a great show. Next up was Beri Saharof. I'll admit that I wasn't really familiar with him before the concert. I liked his style though. He was a very easy going stage presence that meshes well with his Hebrew ballad style of music. I was less impressed by ٌRon Denker.

Pyrotechnics were a big
part of Saharof's act.

At about 1 A.M., the headlining band, Infected Mushroom, took the stage. This was after 20 minutes of the Haifa University student union standing on stage and patting each other on the back. Some things are constant even cross culturally. I was most excited about seeing them before I arrived but by the time they finally began to play, I was just exhausted. I took one of the earlier buses back and only heard about 20 minutes of Infected Mushroom. That was dissapointing, but it was great to see so many Israeli acts in one night. How can we bring Student Day to America??

Lea, Elles and Dani at the concert.

A Jewish Engagement

One of my Madrichim, Levi is marrying a girl a grew up with, Ilana Slutsky. I didn't even know they were dating until last Thursday night, when they announced it at an international school event. It was, as they say, an utter mind-fuck. Tonight I went to the engagement party. It was religious, which came as no surprise. It was also mostly Americans. I arrived at around 7, and had a watermelon daiquiri in my hand less than 5 minutes later. It's a Wednesday night and I have class in the morning, so I had no interest in getting drunk, but it was tough not to. They were drinking like it's going out of style.

The party is in the quiet, wealthy neighborhood of נווה שאנן (Nave Sha'anan.) My cousin Prechia lives in the area, though I didn't see her. Did I mention it's a wealthy neighborhood? They had a gorgeous view of the bay facing North, looking out towards Acco and East to the Galilee. If it wasn't for the smog, it would have been flawless. Haifa holds the "honor" of being Israel's most polluted city.

The party was nice, albeit predictable. Levi gave a nice speech about Adam and Eve, and the yearning of the person for his soul/mate. It would have been utterly nondescript, but it was in Hebrew and I followed perfectly. They'll be going back to Chicago next week to celebrate with her family. I wish them a hearty mazal tov and all the happiness in the world.

Carmel Park

What a gorgeous day it is today. What an excellent weekend this is shaping up to be. I spent most of yesterday with Menachem. We went to the Grand Kanyon mall (it's a pun, the word "kanyon" in Hebrew means mall), where we had lunch together, traded stories and did some grocery shopping. I came back home that afternoon and did a little work, but mostly tried to be with people as I anticipate my time in Haifa dwindling. After Shabbat dinner in the dorms moadon, I went with a few of the boys out into the park for a night of camping.

I didn't really take advantage of the park much last semester except to job. I'm glad I know better now. The Carmel Park is the single greatest advantage Haifa has over every other major city in Israel - a massive nature reserve literally a 5 minute walk away. We walked about a half hour out, cutting East and South away from the campus to a nice clearing with a fantastic view of the water and parts of the city below. What we didn't anticipate there being were a group of drunken, jackass locals who were screaming and carousing until 4 A.M. I'm not exactly an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type, but this was way over the top.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK!

We had trouble finding the wood we would need for a fire. We got out there late, didn't have enough flashlights to go around, and there just wasn't any fuel on the path. A crashing into the forest we would go. Finally, we pulled a huge, dead branch down that had fallen but gotten caught in the lower branches of a tree. It made for an excellent fire when all was said and done.

Just a cool fire pic.

The next morning we hiked a little further East up the road and hit up a different Druze pita stand. They are multiplying! This guy was more engaging than the group who runs the stand by campus, and they had a hummus option to go along with the labneh and za'atar. A good time was definitely had by all. We trecked back home for a quiet afternoon. I did some laundry, a little reading, and hung out with my friends. Tonight I'm going with Menachem to my final Maccabi Haifa game of the season, vs. Maccabi Herzlyia. Beitar has already clinched the championship based on points (bastards), but we're still going to pull for our team. Shabbat shalom.

Hamsin

A Hamsin is a local term for a hot, dusty wind that blows through Israel from the Negev and Sinai. It brings with it unbearable heat and heavy air pollution. It is generally unpleasant. Some have speculated that the term (Arabic for 50) refers to the number of days that a Hamsin blows through the country every year. I've heard another suggestion though: The temperature in the desert can reach 50 degrees (Celcius) during a bad Hamsin. That translates to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a heat I simply cannot fathom. Lucky us, we've got a Hamsin coming through the area now!

Midwesterners who may or may not still be getting snow in May will want to bash me for bitching about the weather here. Sure, it may be sunny and comfortably warm almost every day in Haifa during the Spring. I don't underrate that. Unfortunately, when it does get hot, I have no way to cope with it. I am a cold weather individual. Everything about me is built for the cold. I'm short, heavy, and hairy. When the heat hits, I just wilt. Give me sub freezing temperatures and ice any day over 100+ degree heat.

Singing The Heeby Geeby Blues

I'm ready to come home. Not that I don't love it here. It's just that I'm ready to come home. I've been here since early October and that is a really long time. It hit me Sunday afternoon while I was on a bus on my way down to the beach. I was daydreaming and slipped into my parent's Neon on North Lake Shore Drive. Suddenly, we were at the central bus station at Hof HaCarmel again. The beach was as nice as it always is - perfect weather and all that. Still, I'm ready for the comforts of Chicago again.

School certainly isn't captivating me anymore. I am no longer enjoying my classes, and am very much looking forward to finishing them. I'm not learning much anymore in Hebrew. We read newspapers in class, but go too slow for me and have to spend too much time defining words I'm already familiar with. The grammar work is tedious and focusing on minor turns of phrase that my Israeli friends don't know how to do correctly. Plus, my classmates were a lot more fun last semester. I'm sticking it out, ready to finish my last exam and put an end to my Ulpan days. I got a 99 on my quiz from last week. The class just isn't challenging me anymore.

At the very least, Ofakim is going great. I love working with the kids, even though they are not always easy to work with. I underestimated little kids going into this job. They are not simple in any sense. I've learned how to relate to each child, how to get them to do their exercises and how to get them to participate in activities. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to them.

Black Coffee

There is never a better Shabbat here than the chilled out Shabbat on campus. I love traveling, I love camping, and I love going out. Nothing holds a candle to truly resting around here. Today was a great day. I had planned to go on a morning hike with Paulien, but not surprisingly I overslept. My cell phone has crapped out and I had no way to set an alarm, so I left my blinds open in the hope that the morning light would wake me. It did not. I got up around 9:15 and stumbled out into the living room. There was Paulien, sitting on my couch, reading. I was rather startled. Luckily, she overslept too and had just arrived.

Rather than start a long hike we weren't really going to be able to finish before lunchtime, we just hung around at the dorm. We brought books out to the grass by one of the security posts, sat down in the shade and read. We went out to the park for lunch at the Druze pita stand that is out there every Shabbat. Then we sat in the shade and talked about international politics, culture, globalism and nationalism. It was a perfectly pleasant time. I drink several cups of black coffee and reflected on how I would miss something as simple as the Druze pita stand. Something like this would never fly in America. If the FDA didn't get to them for having no food safety standards, then it would be because the IRS got to them first for not paying any taxes. Plus, can you imagine someone just making a fire on the side of the road in the middle of a major American city in order to cook? There is something quaint and foreign about it that is comforting. It just wouldn't work back home.

We spend the afternoon at Aaron and Bill's flat, drinking more coffee on their patio. I spent all day outside which is just a pleasure in Israel in May. Around 5, Paulien and I walked out to the park and collected a huge amount of firewood. We put it in the usual spot and came back. 4 hours later, we were out in the park with a small group of friends and had an easy, relaxed campfire. All things considered, it was one of the quieter days I've had in this city, but it was magnificent in it's simplicity. Shabbat shalom.

This Post Is Not About Israel

The Chicago Cubs are my one true love. Allow me get that off my chest right now. I have been a fan the entirety of my young life. Nothing would make me happier than watching the Cubs win a World Championship. As of this writing, the Cubs are 9 games over .500 and in first place. This season has me drinking the Kool Aid as much as I ever have. Which is why Jim Hendry, their idiot General Manager, is now dead to me.

Jim Edmonds wasn't out of work long. The Chicago Cubs agreed to a contract with the 37-year-old outfielder on Wednesday, five days after he was released by the San Diego Padres.

"Hopefully, Jimmy has something left and it was just a bad start," General Manager Jim Hendry said.

This time, he has gone too far. There are certain taboos in baseball that you do not transgress, and this should have been one of them. Edmonds is old, broken down and a waste of a roster spot at this point in his career. He is no longer good at baseball. He will not help this team to win. That is not the issue at hand. Edmonds is also an arrogant, hotdogging, selfish clubhouse cancer, who performed unspeakable acts of evil against this franchise for years as a member of the motherfucking St. Louis Cardinals.

He should never have been given the privilege of putting on the blue pinstripes. I worry that this will indeed be the year that we win it all, and the victory will be less sweet for us true believers because we uniformly loathe the team's primary center fielder. There is no forgiveness in my heart for what Edmonds has put me through, and it would fit his M.O. to rob a World Series victory of its unchecked joy. Go straight to hell, Jimmy Ballgame. And take Cruller Jim with you.