The end of Ulpan, and 12 days til Home.

I haven't blogged in a while. But now I'm sitting in the laundry room in the dorms at Haifa University, waiting for my clothes to dry, with nothing to do but blog on this sluggish internet connection. Tomorrow is the end of the Ulpan, and I'm pretty excited about leaving. It'll be nice to get out of these dingy dorms, I am definitely more than ready to be done with school for the time being, and tomorrow I get to see Mom, who will be boarding a plane for Israel in a few hours! We'll spend 10 days with our family here, and then fly home together. I'm really looking forward to going home, and I hope it rains soon after I get there. There are so many things that I miss about home, and one of them is rain. In the summer, it never rains here. To a New Englander like me, its actually quite aggravating -- sometimes in the evening the wind will pick up and the sky will darken, and in Massachusetts that means rain, but here the rain just never comes. So it continues to always be hot and humid and disgustingly sticky. At least we get nice breezes here on top of the mountain.

I'm really glad that this whole experience has turned out well. I was kind of miserable at the beginning, but as time went on I got adjusted and made friends and started to appreciate how lucky I am to get to be in new places and experience new things. It's definitely hard being in a foreign country, and it's hard trying to learn a language. But it's really been worth it, because I've gained a new perspective on the world by being here. This is a pretty cheesy blog post. But I don't really have anything specific to say. I don't remember when it was that I last blogged... I think that since then I've toured around Jerusalem, gone to the archeology museum on campus, ridden a cable car up the mountain in Haifa, and discovered an excellent falafel place on campus. These are all things that I'd never be able to do at home, and it's really neat that I got this opportunity. But I'll be home in 12 days, and I couldn't be more excited -- everyone in the Valley, cross your fingers for me that we'll get some rain soon :)

Tisha b'Av

Today is Tisha b'Av (which for all you non-Hebrew speakers out there, literally means "the ninth of Av," Av being one of the Jewish months), and I have no class. It's a holiday commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples... they were destroyed hundreds of years apart, but on the same date. People observe it by fasting and refraining from all other kinds of things, sort of like on Yom Kippur. I confess that I had to consult Wikipedia to learn what this holiday is about, because back home I never observed it, let alone even knew about it. But here it's a big deal and lots of things are closed, including the university. Perhaps people in Israel feel more connected to the history of the Temples and the Jewish people, and that's why they take this day so much more seriously here (not to mention the religious influence in the Knesset). And I guess it's a bit ironic that the one time in my life I get a day off from school for a Jewish holiday, it's one that I don't observe.

One of the most interesting things about being here is that it's allowed me to discover new things about my own country. The other day, on Shabbat, I began comparing religious influence on daily life in Israel and the US, and realized that I've been kind of mistaken about my country for a long time. The thing is, everyone knows that no matter how much we pretend otherwise, the US is basically a Christian nation. It was founded on Christian principles as a haven from religious persecution -- but not as a haven for everyone, just for certain sects of Christianity. I've always thought it ludicrous that we pretend to be so secular; how can you call yourself secular when Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, is the day when shops close early and there's no mail?

But being in Israel has made me realize how secular the US really is, and shown me what it's really like for one religion to dictate the way everything runs. Because Shabbat here is way more intense than Sunday at home. Sure, I know that there are still places in the States where absolutely everything shuts down on Sundays. But in most of the country, you can still go to the store, take the bus, and do almost everything else that you can do on any other day. In Israel on Shabbat, mostly everything shuts down. It's a little different where I am -- Haifa is a mixed city with a large Arab population, and in some parts of the city places stay open. There's even some bus service on Shabbat, which is unheard of in the rest of the country. But despite all this, I still felt the effect of Shabbat as I walked around Haifa this past Saturday. There was hardly anyone else on the streets. Metal grills were pulled down over storefronts, and doors were locked. The Haifa Art Museum was open, and that's where I went with a couple friends, but afterwards when we tried to find food, the only place open was McDonald's (go figure).

And today, Tisha b'Av, the country is shut down once again for a Jewish holiday. It's definitely a little weird being in this kind of majority, the kind that can shut down stores (it's usually the Christians who take care of that back home), and it's even weirder that despite this holiday being for my religion, it's a holiday I don't observe. Sundays in America are also holidays I don't observe, but they are so much more secular than I ever realized. It's definitely pretty cool that being here has given me a new perspective for when I go back home.

Things that are Israeli

...Alright, so I'm sure none of these things are specifically Israeli. You can probably find all of them in any number of places, perhaps mostly in the Middle East. But the point is that they're different from anything I'm used to at home.

• Walls. Israel is full of walls. Practically every house here has a garden wall around it, with a gate out front. This causes the streets to be completely lined with walls, so that narrow streets basically feel like hallways.
• Stone. Everything is built not just out of stone, but tan stone. There is almost no variation. Everything is the same color.
• Super-concentrated juice that you mix with water. Maybe we have this in the US, but if so I've never known about it.
• Blended iced drinks. Israelis seem to love them. Their iced coffee isn't coffee with ice cubes floating in it; it's like a coffee smoothie/milkshake/blended-ice thing. There are also smoothie places all over, especially by the beach.
• Toilets with flush buttons instead of levers. They also have two different buttons, for different flush strengths depending on, you know, what you've put into the toilet. Obviously this is really good for a place like Israel that has no water, but I think if we're trying to be green and all, these toilets should be more prevalent around the world.
• Wild cats. They're everywhere! I guess you could compare them to squirrels. There's a sign on the laundry room in my dorms that says "close the doors of the washers and dryers so the cats don't jump in," because there are lots of cats living around the dorms and they just wander into the building. I wonder why there are so many.
• Security stations everywhere. It's definitely different having to open your bag for inspection every time you go into a mall or train station or anywhere.
• Small, neutral-colored cars. I mean, obviously I knew that many Americans drive disgustingly huge cars. I've never liked that. But the cars here aren't just smaller, they're also not as colorful. Most of them are white, grey, dark blue, or black. I've only seen a few green or red or other brightly-colored ones.
• Giant rosemary plants. I wish we had these back home. Over here rosemary is basically a shrub, not just a potted herb, and you can smell it as you walk by.
• Of course, hummus, pita, etc. I'll never be able to eat falafel in Tyler dining hall again.

That's all for now. There are probably other things I wanted to put on this list that I'm forgetting, but if I remember them later I'll write them in another post.

Tzfat

The trip to Tzfat today was really good. We left Haifa around 7:30 and got to Tzfat in an hour or so. We spent the morning visiting various synagogues and other places in the city. For those who don't know, Tzfat is a center of Kaballah, or Jewish mysticism. So the place has a lot of history. We visited the studio of a Kaballah artist, who told us all about how mysticism influences his work. We also went to a candle shop where they sell beautiful handmade Havdalla and Shabbat candles (and regular candles too), and a natural soap/perfumey shop where everything is based on citron juice, and we got to go down into the centuries-old stone basement. We also saw a ton of art galleries and a weaving studio. One of the coolest things about being there was just walking through the streets, which are all really narrow and entirely stone. It all looked like something out of a fairy tale. We got a free hour for lunch, and a few friends and I went to this place that sold a certain kind of Yemenite food... I don't know the name of it. Basically it's a round, pan-cooked flatbread that is topped with cheese, onions, tomatoes, greens, and spices while still in the pan, then folded over into a sandwich. It was so delicious, and the guy making the food was hilarious.

After Tzfat, we drove half an hour or so to Mt. Meron, which is the highest mountain in Israel unless you count the Golan Heights. We went for a hike/walk up and around the mountain, and there were some nice views from the top. It was nice to walk through the forest on the mountain, because there is a sad lack of forests in Israel and I miss them.

Not much else to report, really. Two more weeks of class here. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow... it's Shabbat so I'm not even sure how many things are open. Haifa isn't as Shabbat-observing as other places in Israel, but still, things do shut down a bit.

This might be a good time to mention that my favorite word over here isn't actually a Hebrew word. It's "yallah," which is Arabic for "let's go." People say it all the time. If someone is impatient that you aren't leaving to go somewhere fast enough, or is getting ready to do something-- "yallah yallah." Israelis end phone conversations with "yallah bye" ...not a word of Hebrew. Basically it's a pretty great word. So until next time, blog, yallah bye.

Two more weeks in Haifa.

I haven't posted on here in a little while, so I guess it's time for an update. Today has been pretty busy. I had my midterm exam in the morning and it went really well. Then in the afternoon I went out with a group of people to the mall and then the shuk (market). The mall we went to is called the Grand Canyon, which is a play on words since "canyon" means "mall" in Hebrew. And it definitely is grand; it's pretty huge. Unlike malls in the US, the halls are full of people who've set up tables to sell spices and nuts and crafts and things. I didn't need to buy anything there so I mostly just followed everyone else around to where they needed to go.

The shuk is great, and a little overwhelming at times. Basically a few streets in the section of the city called Hadar are lined with stalls and shops selling pretty much anything you can think of, although most of them are fruit/vegetable sellers. At the good bakery place I got some more warm pita, along with a couple of little apple strudel-like pastries that were really good. I also bought some cucumbers, tomatoes, and almonds. At one of the nut stalls we found 10-shekel bags of various dried fruits, and a few of us together bought one of each kind and then divided it all up when we got back to campus. So now I have a huge bag of dried mango, kiwi, grapefruit, pineapple, banana, kiwi, apple, and strawberry. I think that one thing I definitely need to do before I leave here is to go to the market and buy lots of nuts to bring home with me, because they're cheap and really good. In particular there's this kind of sweetened pecan, which I didn't buy but my friend did, that is really great.

One thing I still need to work on here is correctly hearing prices when I buy things. It's not that I don't know Hebrew numbers -- I could count into the millions if I had to -- but when people tell you how much things cost, they speak so quickly and sometimes I don't know whether I've misheard them. Not to mention that the money itself is still somewhat unfamiliar to me, and it's a lot more coin-based than American money, so sometimes it takes me a while to fumble for the right change. Most times I just end up shoving some amount of money at the cashier and hoping that it's enough and that they won't just stare at me blankly because I haven't given them enough (the worst was early last week when I thought the 1/2 shekel coin was a 12 shekel coin and tried to use it for something that cost 12 shekels... but let's try to forget about that).

So anyways, that was my day today. Tomorrow I have to wake up bright and early to get on a bus to Tzfat at 7:15. Saturday is my weekend day, and Sunday it's back to class. Ulpan is halfway over and I have to say I'm kind of glad about that. It's been a good experience to be here and I've done some fun things, but I'm ready to leave. Three weeks from Monday I'll be on my way home.

One interesting thing here that I didn't anticipate is how this experience has made me rethink my own language. There are students here from 28 different countries, and they all speak English. They have to; the International School conducts everything in English, so if you don't know much Hebrew or English, you'd be pretty lost. I'm just amazed because although I knew before about how much better other countries are at teaching languages that the US is, this is the most complete experience I've had with it. I've met people from Russia, Finland, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic who speak not just English but also maybe several other languages in addition to their native one. It's just amazing to me that someone could get to that level of being so proficient in so many languages, and I just think it would be so neat to know that you could travel to countries with various languages and still be able to get around fine. I doubt I'll ever reach that level... I don't think I'll ever become anywhere near fluent in Hebrew, and I haven't even started learning any other languages. But it's just so neat to see.

I'll try to keep updating this more. I'm counting down the days until I fly back home.

E. T. Phone Home

Okay, this is probably going to sound weird to a lot of people, but if you know me then you should be used to my strange analogies by now. I realized the other day that I'm like E. T. Aside from the obvious difference (he got stuck on Earth by accident, while I came to Israel by choice), our experiences are pretty similar (although I don't plan to almost die before I go home, so no worries). When E. T. first found himself stranded on Earth, everything was strange to him. He didn't know what to do or where to go. But as time went on he found a place for himself, he grew to be really close to Elliott, and he had fun trying new things. The whole time, though, he knew that he had to get home.

I realized how similar that experience is to mine here when the phrase "E. T. phone home" randomly popped into my head the other day, as phrases often do. At first I was kind of miserable here, but I've since recognized that it's possible to be in a new place and to be slightly uncomfortable with all the unfamiliar things, as long as you try to find new and exciting and interesting things everywhere. So I'm doing my best to enjoy each day and just to have a good experience, while at the same time missing home more than I would have thought possible. Little things make me sad, like listening to a song I heard a lot as a kid or thinking about all the little mundane things I do at home, like waking up in my own bed and picking berries in the back yard. I even got really sad a couple days after I got here because I noticed that a Target bag I brought with me was returnable at participating stores, and I realized that all of the participating stores were miles and miles away from me (I guess it's maybe a little pathetic to be sad to be far from any Targets, but what can you do). I've been thinking lately that this whole thing would have been easier if I went to college far from home, because then maybe I would have already gotten over the extreme homesickness aspect of it all.

But I'll be home sooner than I originally planned, since I've finally decided just to stay here in Haifa for one session of Ulpan (three more weeks -- actually more like 18 days by now, it's crazy how time has gone by already), and then to come home sometime around August 9 or 10. Staying here for two sessions would give me practically no time at all between school here and Smith, and I've realized that the last thing I want is to have to rush from place to place and never get a chance to rest. It's still pretty overwhelming for me to be here, and aside from the fact that it will just be nice to have some more downtime at home, I think maybe this whole experience might be able to mean more to me if I have a few weeks to process it before I rush back to hectic college life. So the decision is made, although I still need to withdraw from session two and change my flight.

Anyway, I had a nice weekend in Mevasseret. I proved that I can transport myself around a foreign country by managing to get from Haifa to Tel Aviv and back again on the train. I met Avigail, who is adorable and fresh back from her trip to become an American citizen. And yesterday Michal and I went to walk around Ein Karem, which is a really old city/town near Jerusalem where I guess John the Baptist was supposedly born, although admittedly I don't know who he is. I didn't bring my camera but I really should have, because after we escaped from the parking garage (we accidentally took the wrong stairs and ended up locked out of the garage, so we had to climb a fence to get out) we just walked along these really pretty, winding streets lined with gorgeous stone houses and gardens, and neat looking churches. And pretty much everywhere around that area you can see views out into the hills, which are so rocky and full of strange trees and way different than anything I'm used to. It's pretty cool to see.

Being here has made me think a lot about why someone would choose to pick up and move to another country. Obviously tons of people in Israel are from other places, and a lot of them came not because they had to leave their old homes but because they chose to. Some students in the Ulpan are here because they need to learn Hebrew before moving here. I actually met a medical student from Germany who told me that she wants to come and work here because every time she comes here she feels like she's coming home, and she doesn't feel that in Germany. If anything, being here has made me realize how connected I feel not just to Northampton, but to the US in general. I know that no matter where I go in the US, it will still feel like home even though it will be different from where I live. I can't imagine deciding to leave and go somewhere else. It's good to explore other places, and I'm glad I came out here because I'm realizing how little I really knew about other parts of the world. But in the end, I'll be really glad to go home.

New Room

Okay, it's time for another update. It's been a weird first week. Things have been getting easier -- I've met some friends, seen new parts of the city, and started class. My class is pretty good, but not amazing. A lot of what we're doing now is review for me, which is actually sort of a good thing because I've forgotten a lot since I first learned it. I have to say that I'd hoped I would be more impressed with the class and with the organization/structure of the program in general, but what can you do.

The main thing, though, is that I just switched dorm rooms today (literally about half an hour ago). I'm not sure how many people I've told already, but my first room was not good at all. The dorms are apartment style here, and I was placed in an apartment with six single rooms (each with a bathroom) and a shared kitchen/common space. My actual room in the first apartment was fine; it was pretty clean and I could sometimes get slow internet from my desk (there's none at all in my new room -- I'm sitting on the bed typing this up, but I'll need to go somewhere else to post it). But the apartment itself was pretty awful. The kitchen was extremely dirty and barely usable (I never wanted to spend more than ten seconds in there; I would just stick my food in the fridge and leave, and I never even thought about cooking anything there). The chairs were all broken, the fridge was packed full of food that smelled rather suspect, and everything looked disgusting and grimy. I wasn't the only one who didn't want to spend any time there; no one was ever in the common area. And because of that I barely even met anyone I was living with. It was almost like I was living alone in the apartment, because I never saw anyone there. The regular university students are still here taking exams, and there were three of them in that apartment along with two other Ulpan students. I assume that the three Israeli students have been living there for a while -- I don't know how they can stand living in a place like that for more than a few weeks. I was only there for four nights.

Anyway, I tried repeatedly to get moved to a different room. It was a bit of a disaster actually; I kept being told that if I wanted to move I would have to find myself an empty room to move into because there were no lists or anything. It was pretty ridiculous. But today I was able to move into a new room in an apartment with two other Ulpan students (and I think three Israelis), where the kitchen is clean and usable and people actually talk to each other. And I now have a view of the city out my window! I met a few of the other girls who live here but don't remember their names. I'm interested to see what the dynamic of the place is. I guess I'll find out.

So that's basically what's been going on. The program is pretty tiring and time consuming. We have four hours of class every morning, plus homework and activities and trips. Yesterday we were supposed to go on a hike, but we waited for an hour and the bus we needed never came, so they took us to the market instead. I bought some oranges and warm pita. On the way back we rode the Carmelit for part of the way. It's the only subway in Israel (and I think the smallest in the world) and goes up the mountain. There's only one track and one train, which just goes back and forth along the six stops. Since the tunnel is slanted, the platforms are tiered, and different parts of the track have steeper or shallower slopes. Best of all though, everything on the train itself is oriented horizontally, so that it all looks slanted in comparison with the slope of the mountain. If you picked up the train and put it on a flat surface, the seats and doors would all be slanted. But on the track, everything is horizontal. Maybe I'll try to take a picture of it sometime.

I'm still thinking that I want to change my plans and come home after one session of Ulpan, instead of staying for two. I didn't have a real reason for signing up for two months -- it was kind of a whim, and mostly I felt that a one-month summer activity wasn't long enough to feel like a legitimate use of my summer. Most students here are only staying for one month, so there's absolutely no shame in doing the same thing. I'm no longer miserable here, although my class isn't quite as good as I had hoped. I'm making friends, I'm seeing interesting things, and I'm now living in a better apartment. But mainly, I want to go home sooner because I would really really love to have more time at home before school starts. So unless I change my mind in the next week, I'll be seeing WMass again sometime in the middle of August. In the meantime I'll try to make the most of being here. Tomorrow I'm taking the train down to Tel Aviv to go back to Mevasseret for the weekend, where I'll get to meet Anat and Avigail, and see Lois and Hillel again. And on Tuesday afternoon there's an Ulpan trip to Nazareth, which should be neat.

I think I'll go try to find some internet so I can post this. I miss everyone at home a lot! And I can't wait to be back there with you.