011-972-52-456-3723

That's the cell, for those interested. First person to forget the time zone difference and call at 3:00 am gets a prize of no monetary value and a beating in August.

Required Reading

Just because I'm over here doesn't meen I can't keep up with my partisan squabbles. Now that I've read this, I almost wish Fahrenheit 9/11 were coming out in Israel while I'm still here. All who are planning on seeing it, you must read this first.

Via Ben Domenech.

Falafel Heaven

If there is anything to Israeli cuisine besides falafel and shawarma, I haven't seen it yet. Naturally, there are three falafel stands within walking distance of our dorms, two literally right outside the gates (within 100 feet of each other). And this being the Jewish state, cheap deals abound. The place recommended to me by my roommate will give you a full lunch for under the equivalent of four bucks, drink included. And this, by the way, is only if you've forgotten to eat for three days and need to order the big wrap falafel the size of most Third World countries. A normal-sized falafel, which is a meal itself, costs about what I paid for a pack of Dentyne Ice at Newark. So far, in the span of four days in country, I have yet to go a day without a falafel fix, and the streak doesn't seem to be in jeopardy any time in the next six weeks or so.

Recap

If the "Welcome to Israel" sign above the Ben-Gurion entrance didn't speak for itself, there was the pushy woman at the passport counters. Attempting to convince the American herd that using the lanes marked "Israeli Passports Only" is OK, she yells out:

"What you afraid? You in the Palestinian Authority?"

Everyone laughs, and we start dispersing. Welcome to Israel, indeed.

The past few days have been like freshman year/first day of camp all over again, since, well, they have been. The university has the standard stores and the neighborhood nearby has a small shopping area and grocery store, all of which I've visited pretty often getting food, notebooks, adapters, etc. Both the area and the university are safe and pretty; Hebrew U is far more campus-y (i.e. American in feel) than I would have expected, and it's a nice surprise.

The people are similarly fun. I've been tossed in with three Israeli roommmates in an apartment, all of whom are nice and accomodating. Roy (for lack of spelling knowledge) is a hardcore Blue Jays fan; he's already shown me the best falafel deal in the area and taken me to the student center (where free beer and food are readily available) to watch soccer matches. Andrash and Cobi are also great guys, but I haven't done much with them yet besides talk. As for the kids in my group, they're turning out well. The dorm and class situation works out so that everyone is fairly scattered, so sticking with the people I met on the first day has been tough. We've become more social animals, though, as the number of cell phones in the group has increased. Yesterday a few of us took a trip to Ben-Yehuda Street, which is a pedestrian mall/tourist trap downtown, and tonight looks like it's bar time.

As for Hebrew, it's coming. There's a fair amount of studying and flash card work to be done, but we've learned most of the alefbet, some basic get-around-and-meet-people phrases, and some amazingly useless words. (And by the way, I'm starting to realize my attempt at education is ridiculously unnecessary. My miniscule knowledge of Hebrew, while fun, is already overkill for getting around. Honestly, anyone with moderate skill at Charades and tolerance for a few mistaken falafel orders could live grandly in Jerusalem for months without speaking a word of Hebrew.)

So that's been the first few days, in a very small and vague nutshell. I'm going to try and post pictures of the university and the Mount Scopus/French Hill area at some point, but I'm not sure if it's going to work without my laptop here.

Note to the Parents

Gamla 2000 Cabernet is in ample supply.

American Questions

A snippet of last night's conversation with Andrash, one of three Israeli roommates:

"We have two hours and two questions to answer. It's difficult, the professor gives us a thesis. There are no...ahhhh...American questions."
"What are American questions?"
"They are the kind with the multiple answers, and you guess."

American universities: clearly well-esteemed the world over.

It's hard to condense two days of whirlwind activity into readable paragraphs, but I'm trying. For now, I'm doing well, having fun, and have learned enough Hebrew to meet someone, give them the impression I know the language, and then have to apologize after my twenty-word vocabulary runs out.