FUN FACTS

1. In Israel, every little restaurant and cafe and crap stand sells this stuff called iced coffee. But it's not like American iced coffee with coffee and ice, it's like a delicious milky sweet coffee SLURPEE and you can buy a medium for 10 shekel at Ofer's on campus and they're SO expensive but SO good. SO. GOOD.
2. You know how there are two day weekends? Like, with Saturday and Sunday? I don't. Because in Israel, SUNDAY IS A WORK DAY. So there is one day and one night of true, honest-to-God weekend, but even with that Sunday is Shabbos so everything is closed until sundown. Moral of the story? Madness.
3. Yesterday while eating lunch in the Hadar Ochel, we looked up and the ceiling tile above us was all wobbly, and Leeron was like, "I think it's dripping..." and then it FELL on the TABLE, right on Brooke's tray. And there were chunks of ceiling everywhere and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.
4. I just got iced coffee all over the front of my shirt and I'm too lazy to change it, so now I'll smell like rancid milk ALL DAY.
5. Tonight is our super-duper exciting "Hanukah Halluh" party with the Akiba kids. Akiba is made up of 45 students from the same American high school who are doing the Alexander Muss program at the same time we are, just separately. We don't really know what a "Hanukah Halluh" entails-- although I suspect that by "halluh" they meant holla, as in holla back or "Hollaback Girl", if you will --but on the dorky little flyers they handed us it said to dress in your best 60's get up and that there would be free food. I'm down.
6. I spend most of Physics every day attempting to explain to my teacher exactly how I expect him to teach me. When I'm not teaching him how to teach, he's doing labs for me and getting distracted by Orli, who has an inborn gift for sidetracking teachers.
7. I'M going to go take a nap!
8. And then I'm gonna pick out my favorite 60's ensemble and get my groove on, Hanukah Halluh-style.


Happy Hannukah and Merry Christmas to all! Much love.
xoxo

laundry day!

I'm not really in the mood to write much more, but I feel obligated to offer some kind of paltry update. Below is an excerpt from an email I just sent-- it is what it is what it is. Real updates soon, I promise. (Including a TRUE LIFE, IN-DEPTH, SUPER DETAILED REVIEW OF MY DAY from sunrise to post-sunset. Get pumped up.

"i come home in a month! how crazy is that? i'm having trouble grasping the reality of the time frame: on the one hand, a month is almost nothing and i'll be home tomorrow. on the other hand...well, every day here feels like a forever. so much HAPPENS, you know? i think it's the close quarters-- 35 of us breathing the same air, doing the same homework, eating the same food, using the same toilets --inevitably things happen quickly. it's this total retardation of the way relationships develop, everything gets sped up and suddenly there are people you want to puke on and people you want to sleep with and it all happened so FAST. and the kids here are from all over; i'm so excited about these friends i'm going to have all over the u.s. i've started constructing these elaborate fantasies about my year off: driving and busing and flying from city to city and state to state, sleeping on floors and finally meeting the friends and boyfriends and girlfriends that these amazing people keep telling me about.

long beach, seattle, colombus, greenwich, miami, chicago...and then salt lake city. everyone thinks it's hysterical that i'm from utah, and then they ask me really stupid questions about mormons, and then they find out that i have mormon friends, and then they flip shit all over themselves. a part of me is really irritated by it, but i think it's probably a good thing that they're actually hearing from a real person that mormons are not crazy. it's so funny, though, so hypocritical-- that jews, of all people, would jump to these rediculous conclusions about people of another religion."

Today's recommended listening is anything by Josh Rouse, and today's recommended eating is mellawach pizza from the little restaurant next to my dorm. Today's recommended things-to-send-to-Dory-in-the-mail is LETTERS! Or instant food, cash, and hoodies. Or letters. Send me an email (indieosyncrasy at hotmail dot com) and I'll hook you up with my mailing address! For reals, yo.

Peace.
xoxo

flash to black

So I'd like to begin this post by informing you all of my current soundtrack. It will mean absolutely nothing to about 99% of you-- in fact, I can think of one, maybe two people who will read this and know who I'm talking about. But that's not the point. The point is Will Sartain. The point is In The Dark.

I'm glad I've gotten that out there.

Another dreamy 24 hours halfway across the world. Time passes so strangely here; I can't get over it. In a way it reminds me of AMIGOS, this perversion of moments that leaves me in some places forever and in other not at all. I open my eyes, and I'm blinded by a rush of hot desert sand, and my hips are flexed out so my legs can wrap around the saddle that is wrapped around my camel which is plodding methodically along the train; I blink and then I'm in the moadon, pupils dialted to American movies projected on the wall with my back propped against Danny and the couch; I close my eyes and take a gasping breath and it's morning.

Again and again, all of these tiny fleeting images that blind me and then fade-- no, flash --to black. Lack of sleep has left me with dry eyes for weeks; no number of steamy showers or eyedrops or brief fits of crying can rehydrate my vision. But I don't mind, I don't mind, I wouldn't have it any other way. Becayse every moment gives me something else to think about.

Maybe I am not a Zionist. Maybe I am not a very good Jew, maybe I do not believe in Eretz Yisrael the way I am meant to. But I am thinking about what it means to be the person I am not, and I am slowly constructing opinions of my own, slowly developing an understanding of this strange place that is supposed to be my homeland. Slowly, I am learning what it means to function within the Old City walls. Slowly, I am coming to grasp the complexities that run the bloodstream of this ancient country.

sunrise on masada

Yesterday, at 3:30 AM, I woke up with my thirty-five new best friends and hiked to the top of Masada in the dark. The air was cool and the snake path was full of steps designed for giants, and halfway up I got that feeling in the back of my throat that makes me think of rowing crew, nearly done with a 2k sprint and wanting so so badly to throw up.

It was drama. We watched the sunrise over the Jordanian mountains and I took hazy pictures of the sky. My notes from that morning go like this: coherent printing, slowly deteriorating into cursive, then illegible cursive, then scribbly black lines, and then a really big bloody spot of black ink where I fell asleep. I woke up when Bar started handing out snacks. Exxxxcellent.

Lots of interesting discussion while we were at Masada about what we would have done had we been in the position of the people stranded there. There was a group of about a thousand people who fled from Jerusalem in the face of the Romans and took refuge on top of Masada. They lived normal lives up there for three years, under seige by the Romans but still essentially secure-- even though they were really stranded, and it was only a matter of time before things got ugly. The Romans finally decided to construct a huge ramp to roll all their weaponry up, so that they could really attack. The people living in Masada could have done something-- they had archers, and hot oil, and catapults that they could have fought off the people constructing the ramp with --but the builders were all Hebrew slaves, their own people taken captive by the Romans. So the Jews on Masada did nothing. When it was totally clear that the Romans would breach their defenses, the people decided to kill themselves to preserve their dignity and prevent the Romans from claiming Masada as a victory. So they did-- when the Romans reached the top, they found the entire population, men, women, and children, dead in their homes.

While sitting in a circle at the bottom of Masada's Southern Cistern, we talked a lot about whether or not we would have done the same thing in that situation, whether or not it was even really justifiable. It's a really hard question, and...well, I don't know. I can't really decide how I feel about it. I'll get back to you.

After we climbed back down from Masada, I spent ten shekel on a frigging Prigat (delicious grapefruit drink but totally not worth the equivalent of $2.50) and then bought some exciting giftage at the Ahava store. Oh! And we made friends with our guard. His name is Ron and he wears and headband and he carries his gun everrrrrywhere, which is actually a law or something but I think it's hysterical. One of our other guards would cuddle up with her gun and spoon with it on the bus. Tee hee.

I've got more fun stories to tell, because that afternoon we went to the Dead Sea, too (it BURNS!) but I've got to go take a crack at my English homework. I'll try and post the rest later.

I hope all is well back home, and that none of you are too angry at me for not corresponding. I'm mailing international postal service mensajes today! A.K.A some of you will have letters soon. Be excited!
Much love,
xoxoxoxo

quick antecdote time!

This past weekend was our first free weekend off campus, and, as you may or may not know, I spent it visiting family friends of -my- friend Jack. I have not the faintest idea what their last name was, but the parents were Edi and Mordecai, and their daughter (my age) was called Cegal. So so much fun! They live in Raanana, which is about fifteen minutes from Hod Hasharon, and have a completely schitzophrenic dog named Sofi. I won't go into detail, because...well, because I am lazy. But I'll share a real quick anecdote with all a y'all before I troop back to the dorm to do English homework.

So on Friday night, after attending a late Thanksgiving dinner with a total random assortment of people who had made aliyah over the years, me, Jack, Cegal, and Cegal's friend Raanan went on a bowling adventure. Cegal speaks pretty much perfect english, because her mom is actually American, but Raanan's English was a little on the rudimentary side. (It was just another time when I wanted so so badly to be able to speak Hebrew, and couldn't. I hate not being able to tell what's going on, let alone communicate.) But annnyways, we were heading out to the mall in Hertzaliya, and Raanan was driving.

Wow.

For those of you who have never witnessed Israeli drivers before, I want you to imagine a stereotypical Boston (or New York) driver. Now make them angrier, give them tiny, fast cars, and design a road system composed entirely of roundabouts. Welcome to Israel.

Nor can you forget the mandatory sound systems, which are pretty much always pumping intense disco beats (availible on the radio at all hours of the day). Raanan liked techno, but he was also all about the Kelly Clarkson. So there we were, me and Jack in the backseat, 1am with Raanan blasting down the street, singing along to Kelly Clarkson in screetchy falsetto, and cutting off at least five people in a period of a few minutes. Oh, and signaling? Not something that happens here. You want to be in the other lane, you get in the other lane. Everyone else gets to deal with it.

But all of us lived to tell the tale, so I'm feeling okay about it. The weekend really was tons of fun, though, and Cegal promised to come visit our campus later on. Yay having Israeli friends! But now HSI has taken away one of our free weekends, so unless I miss our camel-Bedouin-tent-camping adventure, that's only one more homestay the whole time we're here. I can't really decide what to do; on the one hand, it is unlikely that I will ever again have an opportunity to spend the night in a Bedouin tent; on the other hand, I may never be back in Israel, and the first homestay was SO MUCH FUN. You guys have any opinions? You should comment if you do.

To everyone I haven't emailed/responded to recently, I am so so sorry and I swear I'll do it soon! I would say I'm too busy, but that's a little bit of a lie. There's just...a lot going on, that's all. But I will get in touch with you soon, I swear!

Oh, and if you want my mailing address-- email me! And you should send me yours as well; there are loads of people who I want to send letters to whose addresses I just don't know.

Much love to all! Hope everything is wonderful in your respective hometowns, more fun stories later!
xoxox

aw shoot

Hey all!
I can only write a little bit today, it's Friday and I have to go pack for a free weekend. I'll be spending it in a town not far from here with my pal Jack; we'll see how it goes. Should be interesting, at least. And I am SO SO excited to have food that is NOT from the dining hall. Guhh...yesterday all I ate was pita, hummus, and cookies. It was all white and brown. Guhh...

ON Tuesday we left for our first overnight tiyul to Jerusalem. We spent the morning hiking at Mount Gilboa, but hiking is maybe not the best verb. Because it was all downhill. More like walking, or, occasionally, falling. Or ankle turning. I actually am totally in love, because they never ever make us walk UP the mountains, only down them. I hate up. I love down.

But anyways, the mountain was tons of fun. It reminded me of the forests in the northwest, all mossy and full of trees. But what do I know about trees. Then that ended, and we went to

Aw man. Our rooms are getting clean checked for cleaness and I need to be in the dorm right right now.
xoxox! More post-Shabbos.

fun old cosas!

So here I am in the computer lab, on break from core curriculum in the morning. I've spent the past few hours studying Torah with my pal Jacqie, and then there was some discussion about historical value, bias, accuracy, etc-- for all of my TOK homies back in Salt Lake, this was totally old news and I OWNED it. If you had been there you would have laughed.

"It's a religious text, automatically carries a propagandistic bias, blah blah blah, cross-referencing for historical value, blah blah."

Awesome.

Yesterday we went to Tel Gezer, and it was completely, %100 amazing. It's an archeological dig about 45 minutes from Hod Ha'Sharon, and the areas exposed are from around 1750 BCE. The Canaanites were amazing-- they found this hilltop right at the beginning of Israel's foothills, and it's totally secured. It looks out along the costal strip (which is totally flat) to the Mediterranean, and then it's backed by more hills and the beginning of the mountains. Back in the day it was totally fortified; stone walls with cyclopean masonry as much as ten feet thick, and then those were reinforced with earth. To get water, they dug out a tunnel at least fifteen feet in diameter that went through the bedrock to an underground aquifer-- we even got to climb down it!

Amazing stuff, really. Just looking around almost all of us found pottery sherds from 3,000 years ago.

Break is almost over, so I'm off to study Biology for a few minutes and then it's back to class. Me, Fallon, Leeron, Jacqie, and Sasha are presenting a skit on Deborah's life as a judge. It's kind of terrible. But but...we were busy last night. With, you know. Homework. And stuff.

More later!
xoxox

baaack!

(Sorry for the pause, all. The computer lab closes for Shabbos, so I couldn't post again until now.)

So back on the airplane. There was a big group of Hassids and a few rabbis sitting on the plane with us, at at least three times throughout the trip they stood up to pray. Towards morning, one of them came around to all of the boys on our trip.

"Are you a Jew?" He would ask. And when the boy said yes, without another word, he would wrap tefilin for him. It was bizarre and I think on some level a little offenseive; who's to say that every single one of the boys even WANTED that? It was our first ultra-Israeli cultural experience, though, and definetly an interesting one.

I read 'Damascus Gate' on the plane-- Dad, you were right, it's awesome. Haven't had a chance to read since then, but if I ever have free time ever ever again I most definetly will pick it up.

We arrived in Israel at 5:50 in the evening, totally jetlagged and even more confused. At that point I was mostly hanging out with a girl named Dena, who is quite religious and from Cincinnati. She's a total sweetheart, though, and speaks some Hebrew, so it was nice to have her around as the 35 of us navigated through the airport. At this point I was also hanging out with a sort of strange kid named Jared (can't remember where he's from, but he has a super awkward habit of breaking out in song whenever you say something that reminds him of a showtune. He has a lovely voice, though, so it's cool.) I had also spent a little time with this guy named Jack, who I thiiink is from...okay I have no idea where Jack is from. But he's super rad and an excellent guitar player, and I get to go home-staying with him next weekend! Yay.

But back to my narrative. Because you know I am allll about the narrative.

We arrived at campus in the dark, had a veggies, hummus, potato-cheesy-bread things, super vile kind of pizza, and chunky noodles--also vile. This food definetly foreshadowed the horribleness of things to come. The food here? Sucks. But anyways, first night, food, got our smashing Israel cell phones, met our Madrichim (essentially out counselors) and checked out the dorm. Our Madrichim are tons of fun-- Bar and Yoni. Yoni's originally from New York and is totally excellent, he talks about "people who have a true look in their eyes" all the time and has dreadlocks to the MAXX. Bar is super sweet, and lives on a kibbutz in the north. Her english is a little sketchy, so she almost never talks to the group, but she works really hard, is really funny, and is generally fun to be around. I <3 Madrichim!

Our dorms really aren't as nice as they should be considering how effing MUCH the program costs. We're in Friedman, which is one of the older dorms. It's got two floors, really terrible bathrooms (with flooding showers!), and a minor cockroach problem. I share room #13, right next to the stairwell and the bathroom on the second floor, with Laura, Rachel, and (dun dun DUNN) Samantha. I love Rachel and Laura, but Samantha and I, well, we don't get along so well. I spent the entire night chilling with Ali, Dena, Sam, and Jared, and trying DESPERATELY to avoid her. Good times!


I'm going to have to go for now, there are kids from the other American group on campus who need computers; they just got back from a week-long tiyul. More updates later! I miss and love every one of you.
xoxoxox

lech lecha

ISRAEL.
I am so. Totally. In Israel.
I'll start from the beginning.

On Tuesday morning I boarded a 10:00 flight to New York JFK. I spent the next four or so hours chatting blandly with the girls of the BYU basketball team (who had me almost surrounded) and a group of LDS missionaries on their way to Poland or Russia or...or someplace.

I met up with the other AMHSI kids in New York, and it was really, really awkward. And quite frankly not fun at all. Oh, and Mom? You know how you thought I had way too much stuff? Comparatively, I am a hobo. I brought one big big duffel, my messenger bag, and a backpack. There was one girl with a matching 5-piece floral luggage set, and another with at least three duffel bags the size of my entire body. So let's hear one for packing comparatively light! But yeah, so I talked to some of the kids as we worked our way through El Al check-in and security, which was bizarre and incredibly thorough. The woman I talked to asked me to write my name in hebrew, and then grilled me about what Reconstructionism is, and then told me to have a nice flight. Yahoo!

At midnight we boarded the plane to Tel Aviv-Yafo. It was a gigantic plane--three seats on one side, an aisle, five more seats, and aisle, and then three seats again. Business class was on the second floor. Yes. The second floor. It was a goddamned DOUBLE DECKER PLANE. My friend Jack tried to sneak up to scope it out, but I guess the hoodie and the ratty jeans gave him away because the flight attendants made him sit back down.

(Okay, I've got to go to an all-dorm meeting. I'll continue this later today, I promise! Emails and letters soon, as well.)

xoxoxo