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My new blog highlights my time in Australia

arm

yup ... worst cast ever

One hand ....

I only have a left hand .... no seriously. I will not be blogging for a while.

Going, going, .......

GONE

Actually, this could sum up many different things in Israel this week.

First off, GONE is the end of the year. As I'm very very close to the end of school and have a bunch of finals and papers over the next few weeks and then most of my classmates are back to North America. Since I'm discussing classmates, these people get so worked up about finals it's disturbing. The teachers must be so frustrated by scores of questions coming in about this final or that final -- what happened to just learning the information. Sure we want to do well, but i think we're taking this to a new level. What's a shame, is that half of these people are totally worked up about getting good grades in hebrew, but when it comes to ordering a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop, they'll only speak in english.

Two, GONE, it may end up summing up the proud Israeli government. A new report criticising the government for ineptness stemming from last summer's war in Lebanon/North was released this week. It is quite damaging to anyone in the government and it has many individuals calling for Olmert's resignation. Currently his approval rating is hovering around 3% (not a typo). 3%, for the record, is about the standard margin of error in most of these polls, so Olmert effectively has the support of not one person in the entire country. (stroll into Israel wearing a white sheet and hood and holding a burning cross and you'd be more popular) It's insane how far this government has fallen, corruption, ineptness and deceit have become the norm. (at least, Israel has an independent review for poor war choices ... but i digress)

Three, GONE. The first dinger hit in Israel's inaugural baseball season. I should have tried out as the draft of the 6 team league was held this week with the season to start over the summer. As a blatant publicity stunt, the last player drafted was .... Sandy Koufax. Yup the Dodger southpaw who hasn't thrown a pitch in 41 years was drafted by one of the local teams.

Four, GONE. Me, to study for some finals, but i've put a couple picture from me in Egypt up for your viewing pleasure.

Howdy

Back in Jerusalem after a rather remarkable time in Egypt -- my travels this year have been spectacular and i'll try and get some photos out of Egypt in the next week or so.

My passover break was wonderful, it's really hard to be back at school -- spring fever has set in and i think most of the class is trying to finish the race without having to pit again and lose momentum. For me, i plan on enjoying my homestretch as much as possible.

As you can tell, for better or for worse blogging has fallen victim to what promises to be a wonderful and fun spring. Perhaps some notes that you take at whatever level you'd like.

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Currently in the high holiday's of Israel. About a one week stretch has Holocaust Memorial Day, Memorial Day, and Independence Day -- it's a wonderful time, each of the events is taken really seriously and the spectrum from sadness to joy really reflects the mood of the country. The two memorial days are marked by a two minute siren where everyone/thing stops (people get out of cars in the middle of the highway) and takes an extended moment of silence.

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Classmates are same as ever, too much competition between one another way too much oneupsmanship (ooops not gender neutral term) . But, I do want to state for the record that I'm generally rather happy with the make-up of my class and have more friends here than I ever could have imagined.

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Great Great Great webpage for you to visit ---- especially if you are single www.druzedate.com
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Played and scored a goal in a soccer game the other day. We played HUC vs. HUC staff and faculty. We lost 6-2. It's rather embarrassing, until you realize that the other team brought ringers (no seriously they did -- and half the staff is British).

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Hope all is well, enjoy spring.

Returning, Bethlehem, England vs. Israel

Constant emails pouring into my inbox have been asking me to resume the blog. So my apologies to those who use my blog as a welcome 10 minute relief once a week from the horrors and pains of day to day office life.

I've been busy, or super busy as they say in the Panama. I've been all over the country and tomorrow am off for a week to Egypt, to see the pyramids and hopefully climb Mt. Sinai. I'll be sure to bring back little imitation tablets that say "Moses climbed Mt. Sinai and all I got were these stupid little tablets."

Some of my travels have taken me to Bethlehem. 6 miles and an entire world away from where I live now in Jerusalem. Bethlehem is one of the major cities in the West Bank and is one that has, for a plethora of reasons, really suffered since the outbreak of the second intifada. It's now shut off from Jerusalem by a rather massive and truly ugly separation wall which depending on your view either shuts off Palestinians from their livelihood and prevents a steady flow of tourism (Jesus was believed to be born in Bethlehem) or protects Israel from suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism. To be honest, it probably does both.

The trip to Bethlehem was called encounter and attempted to provide my group with a better sense of life on the other side of the separation wall, we had a few tours, met with some speakers (including the former mayor of Bethlehem) and had some small group dialogue with students and other young people from Bethlehem. It was a very powerful trip, probably didn't change my ever changing views so much, but I'm quite glad that I went and it was remarkable to get to such an important city which is so close. Unfortunately, after coming back from Bethlehem it's hard to be optimistic that a peaceful end to this conflict is on the horizon.

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Also headed out to a rather big big soccer match. England vs. Israel in a qualifier game for Euro 2008 - probably the second biggest soccer tournament in the world. The game itself was rather sloppy and not all too exciting, it finished 0-0, but the atmosphere was spectacular and it's fun to have seen some of the best soccer players in the world on the England team. England looked very rusty and couldn't really figure out how to play together and Israel seemed content to play defense and settle for a tie. The highlight was spending the afternoon on the beaches of Tel Raviv hanging with the loyal England faithful that traveled to Tel Aviv for a game. Israel has never seen so much beer consumed in a single evening. I went with a couple friends from HUC -- i've attached a few photos. I have some more photos and anecdotes from the game but thought that you would probably enjoy these mores. Two of the people on the left are in my class, can you guess which one isn't?


All else is well, Passover is going very nice and it's great to be on a vacation, I promise you it is well deserved and popular to contrary i'm not on "vacation from vacation", even though I guess I could see how one would think that. I spent a couple of days in the north, hiking around and am now back in Jerusalem. I'll try and post a photo of me sitting on top of one of the pyramids.

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!!!