Long time no blog ...

Sorry if i've been a tad AWOL from the blog the last stretch or so. I have found "blogging" much trickier than i could imagine. So a little update

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Purim in Jerusalem was rather fun. I dressed as a Mormon or Mitt Romney depending on how sophisticated you are. I also was a Mormon with a mohawk ... didn't really go all that well with the costume, but it was a really badass mohawk. (I no longer have it) For those of you who don't know, Purim is a time for joy and craziness (some people compare it to mardi gras) and it's really an insane scene. There are tons of parties and dancing and different meals and loads of libation. (Since, I don't drink ... i just watched my friends act silly).

I took a stroll through the old city on purim and everyone was singing and dressed in costume and it was quite a scene, it's really excuse for a lot of the yeshiva boys to let loose.

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Weather in this country has been bazaar -- two weekends ago I was on the beach in Tel Aviv in shorts and the weather across the country was spectacular. Last week, we had a crazy, nasty day that included hail, snow, sleet, rain, sun, wind and everyother weather pattern imaginable. I had put away my winter gear, so it was a bummer to have to go dig it all out again.

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An almost devastating moment the other day ... my friend Aaron and I were watching March Madness and with 1:45 left in the creighton/nevada game (one of the few good ones) our feed flipped over to beach soccer. (i kid you not ... beach soccer) I guess because the game was supposed to end at 9:30, they cut away from the game immediately at 9:30. I ran around the apartment screaming ... but then they fixed the problem and i watched the rest of the game.

Nothing more frustrating than the feeds in this country ... you never know when you are going to get a game or not. For the record, like the rest of the world, i have florida vs. georgetown in the finals.

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Thought you would enjoy this photo. Now this clergy having fun!!!

And we think Peace in the Middle East is a Pressing Concern ...

This gem is an actual news story floating around ... it's spectacular and not made up at all ...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found bound, drunk and nude, according to information reported Monday by Israeli media and confirmed by a government spokeswoman.

The longtime diplomat, Tsuriel Raphael, has been removed from his post, and the Foreign Ministry has begun searching for a replacement, ministry spokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel said.

Two weeks ago, El Salvador police found Raphael in the yard of his residence, tied up, gagged and drunk, Israeli media reported. He was wearing several sex toys at the time, the media said. After he was untied, Raphael told police he was the ambassador of Israel, the reports said.

Ben-Hillel said the reports were accurate and that Raphael has been recalled although he did not break any laws.

"We're talking about behavior that is unbecoming of a diplomat," she said.

The ambassador did not file any police complaint in connection with the incident, she said.

Raphael had served for six months as the ambassador in El Salvador and for several years at different missions around the world, she said.

The embarrassing affair was one of several involving Israeli diplomats in recent years. In 2000, Israel's ambassador to France died of cardiac arrest in a Paris hotel under circumstances the Foreign Ministry refused to publicize. Media reports said he was with a woman who was not his wife at the time.

Last year, Israel replaced its ambassador to Australia, Naftali Tamir, after he said Israel and Australia are "like sisters" because both are located in Asia and their peoples don't have the Asian characteristics of "yellow skin and slanted eyes."

In 2005, Israel canceled the appointment of a diplomat to Australia after it was discovered that he published pictures of nude Brazilian women on the Internet while on a mission in Brazil.

Closer to God????

It's a good thing Judaism is a monotheistic religion otherwise I could only imagine in what light some of my classmates would view themselves. At this point in their lives they may not be god -- but they certainly have the pulpit right next him. (and sometimes, only sometimes ... god even takes advice).

Without going any further, let me state that I really do like my classmates, and let me also say that it's a damn good thing that I'm around (my own god complex) to knock some of these individuals off his/her pedestal. I'll continue, at times their is an aura of oneupsmanship or full out competition that takes place among classmate to classmate. Everyone needs to read one verse more than the person before, or add one extra element to a service or spend an extra half hour studying.

Student A: I'm so tired, I stayed up until 3 working on my Hebrew homework.

Student B: I know, I stayed up until 3 too, but then I got up at 5 to contiune to read commentary on (insert ancient text here)

Student A: I'm analyzing Plato from a Jewish Vegan Lesbian perspective, so I need to make sure that I stay up until 5:30 this morning to really dive into the text.

Yours Truly: I'm very tired too, I stayed up until 3:00 watching the Pac-10 semi finals and I need to get up early tomorrow for my fantasy baseball draft.

(the above dialogue was totally fabricated ... only one line is true, you guess which one.)

'neath the elms

The witty individuals at HUC seem to think it's really funny that I spent my undergrad years at a college named Trinity. I can't tell you how many times someone thought they were being creative and witty and say: Did you study with the father, the son and holy ghost?

I usually respond to them in one of 4 ways:

1. I punch them in the eye
2. I say Did you really study with a United States Supreme Court Justice?
3. I give a 10 minute soliloquy about the Trinity's religious roots (this bores them mightily -- they can't focus on anything more than 2 sentences long without reverting to thinking about themselves)
4. I punch them in the eye

Well my point of all this is that there are currently 3 bantams studying at HUC in Jerusalem. Classes of '73, '98, and '01. How you like them apples. Now I can truly imagine that some of the original founders of the great Hartford Institution must be turning over in some rather large graves knowing that this trio is learning torah and hebrew in the holy land.

One even more wild item about the Jerusalem "trinity" --- Liz (wearing a Trinity in Hebrew shirt in the photo) was my freshman year RA and her father worked with my grandfather in NYC.
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The other photo is me and liz at a soccer game. (notice the look on the face of the Israeli man on the bottom left, i thought about photoshopping it out, but rather enjoyed him being in our photo) About 15 of us went to the game including 4 older british men who waxed nostalgically -- in a language I'm not sure I understand -- about the first time they saw Sheffield take on Tontenham in '63. Even though three of them have been living in Israel for more than 20 years the accents are so crisp when they talk to other british mates, it's rather enjoyable.

I've seen some bloody boring football the last couple weeks. Anyone that says soccer is more exciting than baseball, needs to be seriously reevaluated. I spent a cold, wet evening watching 22 men wander around a soccer field and not score. Not only did they not score, one team was obviously not even trying to score -- believing that by playing only defense they would settle for a tie and take the 1 point that comes with it in the league standing. The last 180 minutes of soccer i've attended (and this is supposedly a decent league and i've been going to see the first place team) i've seen a grand total of 0 goals.

I'd rather watch the Millview 9 year old girls softball team warm up for the 4th of July dizzy bat race.