New Blog

Check out my new blog about the Middle East:

Mashriq Madness

Back in the States

Last night, Orr brought me, Shoko and all my bags from Dimona to the airport in Tel-Aviv. I'm amazed we were able to fit everything in the car.

If you've never taken a dog on a flight before, I highly recommend it. I have never had such an easy experience at an airport and this was the Israeli airport no less. Everyone working there came over to pet him and when they asked Orr to step out of line since she wasn't flying, they pushed my carts for me! Then they told me to go right to the front of the check in line! I then took Shoko for a walk around the airport. I was a little nervous that some security guard might stop me with him, but the ones I saw just stopped to pet him. I returned my phone, got a milkshake and then it was time to put Shoko in his his kennel and go through security.

There was a group of high schoolers returning from a trip on my flight. I was afraid they would be really loud and obnoxious but it was too bad. Since my flight left around 1 am, I fell asleep right after take-off. I am always going to fly out late at night, it makes sleep easier and I woke up in the morning here and it should help get rid of my jetlag.

After I woke up and finally got off the plane, I flew threw security and ran to find Shoko. The overweight baggage was late so I got my other bags and loaded them all on one cart. When the overweight baggage came, I told the servicewoman that the dog was mine but she looked at me funny and I didn't understand why. Then I realized that I should probably tell her in English since I wasn't in Israel anymore.

Pushing two carts - one with a dog on it - is not very easy but I made it. I didn't have any trouble with the customs woman who checked Shoko's passport and as soon as I went through the last doors my parents ran up to me, hugged me and helped me with my bags. My mom didn't stop crying a long time even though I pointed out that I was back now and there's no need to cry.

We got home and Shoko ran all over the house sniffing. We sat around talking for a while and then my mom had to go to work. My dad took a nap and I went to the bank to exchange my Shekels. I then went with my dad to the pet store to get some much needed things for the pup. We then met up with my mom at Bishoff's for lunch. I just unpacked all my stuff (I'm very impressed with myself) and now I'm just trying to keep myself awake and busy.

It's a little weird being home. I walked into my room and was overwhelmed by the amount of needless crap that I have. After living in the dessert for a year, I feel like we have so many people telling us to buy so many things that we don't really need, that we're told will make us happy but just take up room in our homes until they take up room in landfills. I took lots of my cloths out of the closet and put them in bags to give away. I'm no saint - I brought 2 bags to Israel and came back with 3 full ones - but I'd like to bring some of that sparse desert-living back with me to the states. We'll see how it goes.

Last Day in Israel

Well this is it. My final day in Israel. No time for last minute trips, just packing. I got up and started taking everything down and putting them in my bags. I took everything out from underneath my bed and Shoko ran under. I think he knows something's up.

Udi came by and we went to the bank to sort out my account. When that was all done we came back and I kept on packing. Mor came by to help and Shugi stopped by for a little too. I'm still working on getting everything in. Who'd have thought that packing up everything for a year would be so difficult? This is what my caravan looks like right now:

While I was packing, I looked outside and saw Daniel, Afiq and Dina harvesting some passionfruit.

The kids who come to hang out here already picked the ones growing on my caravan so I never got to have any.

Of course they picked them too early and just threw them on the ground. I was waiting so long for them to ripen! Get those kids off my lawn!

I decided to do some laundry so that I could fold up the clothes and have them take less room. They're outside drying now and it shouldn't take too long, it's really hot out.

I took a break to put on tefillin and daven Mincha. I hadn't lain tefillin in months and I'm glad I got to do so once more before I left. It's weird, before I came here, I put them on almost everyday, but once I got here, I stopped. I think that in the States I feel more of a need to assert my Jewishness, something that isn't really necessary here. I guess we'll see what happens once I get back.

Soon Orr will get back with her car and we'll start loading it up with all my stuff and make the trek up to Tel-Aviv and then the much longer flight to Newark.

Jersey here I come

My Last Night in Israel and a Little Review

I've been a little busy these past two weeks and haven't had much time to blog. Some quick updates:

Last week, the conference that I had been planning for a nearly a year finally came and went. It ran smoothly and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I had to take care of some logistics while it was going on but I was able to sit in on a few lectures and they were pretty interesting. The first one I sat in on focused on maps, so being a huge nerd who loves maps, I was pretty happy. It felt pretty good to see something I had worked so hard on finally come about. Though I must say I am relieved that it's over.

A random occurrence: while I was on the bus back toe Dimona last week, I noticed that a Russian man sitting on the bus across the aisle from me had a tattoo of a ring with a swastika on it. I noticed it as he was getting off the bus and was completely shocked. I understand the need to take in Jews and their families, but this is getting ridiculous.

Here's how my last real day here went:

I woke up around 7:30 and took Shoko out for a walk. Then I headed over to Orr's to study for my Arabic final. I had been having trouble forcing myself to study but this was do or die. We went over some important stuff, prepared our Arabic weather reports and then got on the Sherut to go to campus.

We headed over to the library so I could print out my test card. I ran into Yezvey which was great because I probably wouldn't have gotten to say goodbye to her otherwise. We then grabbed some lunch at Dalali, ate really quickly and ran to the test. This was no easy test. It was in four parts: 1. Translate a long Hebrew text made up of the texts we read this year into Arabic. 2. Translate a shorter Hebrew text. 3. Write an interview in Arabic with a Jordanian student. 4. Write a weather report for a hot country. I started from the end since I prepared more for that and worked backwards. I didn't get to finish translating the first story. I hope I passed.

After the test, I met up with Yoni, Loren and Yishai and we grabbed some dinner at "Little India." It's right by campus but I hadn't eaten there all year. It was great to hang out with them all before I leave. Yoni and I then went over to the dorms and hung out with Anwar and Elif. We just chilled, had some tea and joked around (an Israeli Jew, American Jew, Israeli-Palestinian and a Turk provide lots of comical material as you might imagine). I then went to say goodbye to Yalee. She was working at Munchilla tonight so she didn't have some much time to hang out, but by then it was nearly 10pm, so neither did I.

I caught a bus home and ran to take out Shoko (he'd been inside for almost 12 hours, but he still didn't have an accident). I saw that I had a missed call from Udi, called him back and he told me to come down to see him, they were having a birthday party for Reut. I knew what was coming but I played along. When I got there I walked inside and everyone was inside for my goodbye party. It was so great. They made me a cake with wafers and chocolate on top arranged like the caravans in the village (complete with fake solar panels!). They also made me a photo-collage of a bunch of picture of me, Shoko and the guys from the village. It was really thoughtful.

We hung out for a while and then I went with Afiq and Daniel to watch some Family Guy (a long overdue activity we'd been talking about).

Now it's time to pack. Not looking forward to this at all. I don't think Shoko has any idea of what's in store for him tomorrow...

Shoko Gives Me a Scare

Tonight I got a call from Boaz telling me Shani saw Shoko get hit by a car near the bus-stop and then ran off. So I went out to look for him, but then heard he had run back to the village. I was really nervous but despite a few bruises he looked alright.

Ortal offered to take us to the animal hospital. Unfortunately, the closets one is in Omer, on the other side of Be'er Sheva. When we got there the vet examined Shoko, took an ultrasound and told me that he was very lucky because he hadn't broken any bones and had no internal bleeding. Phew.

Tomorrow I have a meeting in the morning for the conference. It's this week! I can't believe it. It'll be nice to get to meet all the people I've been emailing for the past year and I think it might be even nicer to finally have this off my shoulders. After the meeting I'll go to the library to do some work and then head home to take Shoko for a walk. Should be a good day.

Endless Work

So I haven't posted in a long time because I've been trying to get lots of work done on my many, many papers. This has worked to some extent. I would like to have more done by now, but I'm on track and that's good enough for now.

Last night I finished by review of Syriana for my Oil Politics class. Earlier in the week I was about to sit down to watch it and I invited Boaz to watch with me. I felt pretty bad afterward. It's a confusing enough movie when English is your first language and I don't think he was able to follow it. I picked up more this time than the last time I watched it, but after I read a bunch of reviews and had more than a few "Oh! That's what that was," moments. It was definitely one of the more enjoyable papers I had to write.

Last Shabbat Rachel Ishofsky came down to visit. She's in Israel for the summer working in the Jewish Heart for Africa "office." I have office in quotations because she is just working off her computer, which means she's been doing her work on the beach and in cafes while watching the World Cup. Right now she's on her way down to Uganda. I'm very jealous.

Now I need to get back to work. In an hour or so I need to take Shoko to the vet get some shots and have a few papers filled out so he doesn't have any trouble with immigration.

I leave you with the pictures of Shoko that I took while I should have been working.

MAPMES Beach Party

Yesterday was the big, end of the year, MAPMES party. We had it at Zikim Beach near Ashkelon.

Shoko had never been to the beach before, so I decided to bring him along for the ride. He made it all the way to Be'er Sheva without issue, but as we got closer to the beach, Shoko threw up, which really endeared him to the rest of the group. But they forgave him. Amir also brought his puppy, Pishpesh Chazir (which means Pig Fly, don't ask) and they had a great time running around on the beach.

As soon as we got to the beach, everyone ran to the water. It was almost 6 so we wanted to get the most time in the water as possible before it got dark. I pulled Shoko in the water, but he really hated it and ran back to dry land. We then quickly realized that there were jellyfish everywhere and we ran out also. Luckily I didn't get stung but Yoni got stung right on his face and Erin and Amir got some bad ones.

After we dried off, we set up the grill and started a little BBQ. We hung out, ate, smoked some hookah and just had a really good time. On the ride back to Be'er Sheva, Rachel started to talk about the blockade of Gaza. I interupted her and said the only politics we're allowed to discuss are those involving Uruguay and Paraguay. To which she said, "But I don't know anything about them." A resounding "Exactly" rang out on the bus.

After dinner, I got a call from the Spielmans. They were visiting family at a Kibbutz nearby and wanted to say hi. So they drove over and I got to see them again, but this time Avi, David and Savta were with them.

It was great seeing Avi. It had been over a year and I didn't realize how much I was missing my friends from back home. He even humored me and played with Shoko a little.

Josh had somehow gotten taller.
I finally got home a little after midnight and called my Dad to say Happy Father's Day. I told him that I was in contact with the company that is going to help get Shoko his Green Card, so now maybe he can relax a little bit, or maybe worry about me for a change.

Today, I had lunch with Maura, Beeba, Sara and Liad. Maura is leaving really soon to lead a NFTY trip so this was probably the last time I'm going to to see her here. We had a nice lunch in the cafeteria and joked around a little before I had to get back to work.