Post coming soon...

I am working on a post, it's coming soon. I just wanted to let everyone know. It probably will be done tonight, but maybe not. Anyway, look forward to a recap of the last week and a general review of my summer, when I get around to finishing it!!!

A week in review

There is a hard decision that must be made when it comes to blogging. I know what my plans are for a certain period of time and I know what needs to be blogged about. So, when not a lot happens, I can put off the blogging for a while, for the sake of a better blog. This time, I put it off too long, but I assure you, my loyal blog readers, that you will not be disappointed. While it is true I did not blog for an entire week, let me assure you that the following blog will be very comprehensive in it's reporting of all that went on since my last entry. You might even have to take a break and come back. Well here goes.

We leave off as Ari is about to try and take his fan back to HomeCenter…

…Oh who am I kidding with this 3^rd person garbage…

Ok, so I was went to HomeCenter, well first I got a ride and did some errands in order to secure that ride with one of the YU staff members, Doni. We drove around town and had some good discussions, and when we finally got to Malcha Mall, I was ready to get that fan returned. We walked into HomeCenter ready to fight to the death for our right to get a working fan. Luckily, the nice woman behind the counter didn’t really care to fight, and said, just go take a new one. She didn’t even plug in my fan to see if I was telling the truth. She asked when it was purchased and if I had a receipt, which I didn’t, but it didn’t much matter. I’d say I am pretty satisfied with my new acquisition. The only problem is now I have a one week old fan that I am dying to get rid of for no apparent reason. I am planning on posting a listing on a popular email list in Jerusalem, who knows if I’ll get any takers. I might look crazy writing I bought a fan a week ago and I need to sell it in the next week because I’m leaving the country! I probably shouldn’t tell them it was a replacement for a fan that broke, that wouldn’t help my cause of saying its in great condition!

On Monday night we had our weekly dinner and presentation with an added bonus. One of the Yavneh guys was finishing all of Gemara Kiddushin and since it was the 9 days, we got to have some meat after the siyum. Let me first say, they went back and forth about having the meat, some saying that really only his friends should be able to participate in his simcha but finally in the end they ordered us deli sandwiches (which were honestly pretty bad) and we heard a presentation from Maaglei Tzedek. Maaglei Tzedek does various chessed projects around Yerushalyim, one of which I almost participated in during my year in Yeshiva, volunteering to tutor very underprivileged kids whose grades are slipping, but it never panned out. They also do a traveling coffee shop for people who can’t get out and go to a real coffee shop. Their newest project is called the Tav Chevrati or social seal. It’s basically a moral teudah (hechsher) for restaurants. It is offered for free for restaurants in Israel that ensure that their workers are getting what they are legally entitled to, like minimum wage, overtime extra pay, and a bus pass. Also the restaurant has to be wheelchair accessible. They encourage people to only eat in places with the Tav and tell owners why they are leaving if its not there. The restaurant doesn’t have to be kosher for it to get a Tav. More information here.

On Wednesday, Erev Tisha B’Av, I basically just ate as much as I could. For my pre-fast meal, I had pita with peanut butter as an appetizer, pasta with cheese sauce (ok its sounds good but I didn’t really do a good job of making it…) and a bowl of life cereal. By the end of my meal, I was stuffed, I could barely finish the cereal! We had eicha together in the YU Beit Midrash, followed by a short shiur by our madrich Rafi. I went to sleep early, since there’s really not much else you can do. We had late davening in the morning (8:30 AM) and then we had kinnot. Before every kina, Rabbi Bednarsh, one of the YU rabbis gave a 5-15 minute introduction/shiur on it, and it was very well done. Kinnot lasted until 12:30 PM. After that, I went to Yad Vashem. I had been to Yad Vashem last year with Yeshiva but a few weeks after, they opened the new museum. We spent about an hour there, but because it was a fast day, I clearly couldn’t pay as much attention as I would have been able to on a normal day. There is so much to see there, hours and hours worth of videos and well, it’s really well done.

After that we walked over to Har Herzl, the military cemetery, for Michael Levine’s funeral. Michael was a chayal boded meaning he moved to Israel and did the army with no parents (in Israel). He served as a paratrooper as was actually at home on vacation in Philadelphia when the war broke out. Read more about Michael here. I was very moved by the amount of people in attendance, probably only a small fraction of them actually knew Michael. There were many soldiers in attendance and it was a very emotional funeral. Following that I jumped on a bus and headed for the Old City. We arrived just in time for Mincha (with tefillin). I had to scour the area for a minyan that was just beginning, I was a tad late, most people had started about 10 minutes before I got there. I ran into the Eretz HaTzvi guys finishing up and eventually found a bunch of guys getting ready to start.

Following a brief break and Maariv, I met a bunch of guys and girls from Yavneh and we broke our fast in the Kotel Plaza on bagels. We sat there for 15 minutes eating and talking and then we decided we needed more food so we debated for a while whether to go to Ben Yehuda or Emek Refaim. Ben Yehuda won out and we slowly made our way there. I grabbed a piece of pizza and headed back to my apartment shortly after because I had been out all day and also I had some stuff to do.

For shabbat, I helped another girl on Yavneh organize a semi-improptu shabbaton in Kochav HaShachar (ok, I'll be honest, she did most of the work...). Kochav HaShachar is a beautiful Yishuv north of Yerushalyim. One of the YU staff members lives there and invited as many people that wanted to come for shabbat. We had 19 people coming and we organized transportation and housing for everyone. Everyone was set up to sleep at a family there and that was also the Friday night meal, for Shabbat lunch we ate at Doni’s, where the food was catered, and seudah shlishit was food that we bought.

On Friday morning after davening, I went to the shuk with 2 girls to do the seudah shlishit shopping. We had a budget of around 250 shekel to spend on everyone and of course a shopping list. It was a lot of fun looking around for the best deal, and especially carrying everything, including a huge watermelon (which I dropped only 20 seconds after buying it…). After we got back to YU, I had only about a ½ hour to get ready, because then I was going to go with Doni to pick up the catered lunch and get a ride directly there with him. I rushed back and was ready and we did some errands quickly and got to the caterer. We spent a whole lot of money on lunch and bought almost all of the meat they had left. There was a buffet when we got there of many types of meat, let’s just say when we left they were ready to close, even though they probably would have closed anyway since it was getting late. We shlepped the food back to Doni’s car and then we were on our way. The scenery once you leave Yerushalyim is unbelievable. Doni noted that there is only one arab village on the way, and the rest is either empty hills or yishuvim. The arab village happens to be quite large but once you are through that the views are unbelievable on the curvy two lane highway through the mountains. We got to Kochav HaShachar and unloaded all the food and then I went to my host’s house.

My hosts were very cool, the husband was Australian, and very hippy-ish, Reb Nachman kinda guy, and the wife was originally from Riverdale. The kids didn’t speak a word of English, which is weird because normally in Israel, English speaking parents speak and teach their kids English, but to each his own. After dinner we hung out together near the shul and talked with all the Yavneh people, and then went to sleep. Shabbat morning was nice, we missed the early (8 am) minyan because our host forgot to wake us, but he woke us for the late (8:45 am) one that had no air conditioning. Sitting next to me was this man and his son, who I knew I recognized, but I couldn’t figure it out. I asked the kid from my family if he knew them and he told me they were guests. Then later I heard them speaking in English, so I decided it was time to go in and find out who they were. I had suspicion I recognized them from maybe him doing shlichut in Detroit as part of Kollel Torah Mitzion maybe, but I was wrong. The minute he told me who he was, I remembered and it was great. They were the directors of Pittsburgh NCSY (Yariv and Aviva Aharon) when I was there and I also recognized his son from shabbatonim. What was even more ironic was that Yariv was Doni’s brother-in-law (and he was staying at Doni's for shabbat, clearly...).

The rest of Shabbat was uneventful, I played a game of Risk with some people which we couldn’t finish. Doni gave us a very informative tour of parts of the Yishuv before mincha to see how the yishuv has grown over the years. On a clear day you can see the Dead Sea from the lookout point and you can also see Yericho in the distance. After Shabbat we had a bonfire. Here are some pictures:

Photo credits: Monica and Vicky

On motzaei Shabbat, after we got back to Yerushalyim, we found out that our Madrich, Rafi, had been called up for reserves. He'll be just replacing another unit that is either going to get some rest, or head up for real duty in the North, he's not sure yet. He expects to be doing basic work in the Galil at checkpoints and nothing too hard. He wrote us a very heartfelt email and we will miss him in our last week.

Last night, I tried again to make pasta with cheese sauce. It tasted ok, but apparently the pot liked the sauce as much as I did and tried to keep the sauce stuck there, it was really hard to get it off. Someone recommended using a knife to scrape it off, which worked, but let me tell you scrubbing it with a sponge for 20 minutes did nothing at all!

Also, as you now know, this is my last week here, so if anyone has any shopping requests, let me know. I'll be back home next Monday night :( .

Living life almost normally

I spent this past shabbat in Yerushalyim at my "adopted family" from Yeshiva days in Katamon. I had never slept over there before, but during Yeshiva I'd frequently go over for Shabbat meals, so their kids knew and loved me. They have 7 kids (1 pair of twins) ranging from 6 mos. to 11-1/2. I tried to get a sense from them how the war was affecting their lives, if at all, over shabbat. Uri's neighbor, Eli, has been in the army more than a week, he told me. I ate at his house for dinner only a month earlier, but life as normal means that in times like this, you go to the army for reserves. Uri's kids, friends with Eli & Eli's kids, who has been on the border in the Golani Brigade since last week, thought that he was "guarding the border with Russia." Not trying to overanalyze this, but its either that the kids misunderstood what they were told, or this is what Eli's wife told them as to not to let them worry.

I asked Uri if he thought he'd get called up any time soon, and he told me he actually got a call this past week. He told me that since he has more than 6 kids, it is voluntary for him to go and serve; however, he is seriously considering it. I can't imagine how he'd want to leave for war with 7 young kids at home, but that’s the Israeli mentality, I guess. One night this week, I overheard the following quote from one of my fellow Yavneh participants, "Is Israel really in a war right now?" It's sad, here in Yerushalyim, its much harder to see. Where I work at Machon Lev, the place seems a bit emptier, right now they are in the midst of moed bet exams, where basically in Israel you get a 2nd chance (everyone does) on the final, so the place is a little less full from the students who don't need that opportunity, but about a week and a half ago, you'd see students in their uniforms all over the place. Other then that, the YU campus is hosting 20 or so families from the North who had to flee their homes. There is a heightened security presence in Yerushalyim during the evenings, I have seen on more than one occasion Border Policemen examining papers of random Arabs walking down the street, but that's really normal. So on one hand while the person who said that was probably being a little sarcastic, the routine in Yerushalyim is not so different than what I am used to, or anyone who has lived in Yerushalyim is used to.

On Monday night, I went to dinner with Ian and 2 of his friends for his birthday. After which we created a new tradition, watching Tigers day games using Ben Yehuda's free wireless on MLB.TV. Whoa! Let me break that down. So, Ian has MLB.TV, which is a paid subscription to basically watch any MLB game you want at any time live or on demand for any team. Next, Ben Yehuda (and Emek Refaim) have free wireless. Ian has a computer. We had a game Tigers vs. Twins starting at 2 PM ET, perfect! We got stares for cheering but probably close to 10 kids and adults peering over our shoulders, asking what we were watching and also where Ian bought his white (Apple iBook G4) computer.

This afternoon I am hopefully taking my fan that I purchased from the Israeli equivalent of Home Depot, called HomeCenter, back because about a week ago it stop oscillating. The oscillation of our fan is key, based on our room setup. I actually feel bad for my roommate, because right now the fan is stuck in my direction, and well I don’t really feel like moving it to his. With only 2 weeks left in the program, all I really want to accomplish is to have a fan that we can sell at the end of the program, and make back atleast part of our 100 shekel ($22) investment. While the investment was certainly worth it, and even if we only make back half of it, at this rate a non-oscillating fan will be a complete disaster if we try to sell it. The one potential snag is that my roommate bought it with cash and has no receipt. I am hoping that since I think the fan is a house brand, they will realize that we did buy it there and either repair it for me or give me a new one, but I really can’t know. What happens in America if your fan stop oscillating and you are receipt-less? Please feel free to share your experiences with me, so I can compare them to the one I will have later today.

Also, while I'm at it I am going to add another picture from last Tuesday's Kotel Tefilah that I stumpled upon via a friend. This one really shows how many people were there:

(click to enlarge a bit)
Photo credit: Rachel Klapper via Aviva Horowitz

Various Pictures

I'm really not good at taking pictures but I realized for the full effect I should have some on my blog, so I borrowed the following pictures of the last week or so from some friends:
You can click the pictures to see them a little bit bigger.
Note: If you haven't read today's blog entry, read it first before you see the pictures, because, well it came first, even though this is at the top.

Photo credit: Monica Brandwein
The Kotel last night right at the start of the tefillah.
Look how full the men's section is, about 1 hour later, the entire plaza full!


Photo credit: Monica Brandwein
Kotel

Photo credit: Monica Brandwein
Chartered Nefesh b'Nefesh Flight Arriving at Ben Gurion Airport with 250 olim

Photo credit: Monica Brandwein
At the NBN Ceremony

Developing a town and a career

This past shabbat Yavneh headed south to the Negev. We began with a very short "hike", I'd call it more like a brief walk, at Ein Ovdat. We looked around, it was beautiful. We heard air force jets flying over every few minutes, most likely leaving their Negev bases to visit some friends in Lebanon. After that, we headed back to the busses for lunch at the Be'er Sheva Mall (Canion HaNegev). It was a little surprising to me after spending most of my time in Israel in Jerusalem to actually ask a restaurant if they were kosher and hear the answer, "No." We even found a restaurant that had a neon sign saying they were kosher but had no way of proving it...sketchy!

We wandered around after having the most terrible pizza ever from Sbarros and then went to hear a woman speak about Ethiopian culture and stuff. It was hot and boring and too long, I won't go into it more, because I really didn't enjoy it. Following that we headed to our shabbat destination Yerucham, about 40 minutes south of Be'er Sheva. The hostel looked newly renovated and our room was very nice, not that I'd be spending much time there, but still. In the hostel was a bus from Bnei Akiva's Mach Hach Ba'Aretz as well as a group of Israeli's on a hiking "kaytana" which is basically short week or two week long specialized summer camps. The Israeli kids loved us and we talked to them throughout shabbat. Shabbat was very nice, we had a session on "pidyon shvuyim" or the mitzvah/ramifications of getting kidnapped people released. My small group briefly read over some sources, and then discussed it for a while on a more practical level, as in what should Israel do now. We also had a tour of the town by a local resident, who explained to us the many problems Yerucham faces today and has faced since its inception.

Some of those problems include low expectations of education from generation to generation and the fact that students aren't encouraged to continue their education. Also the fact that there is no industry in the town is a big problem. Apparently when the houses were being built, they were offered on a buy one get one free basis, whatever that means, but it was basically to try to get anyone to come so that they could develop the Negev. There are a lot of immigrants and one of the most prominent hesder Yeshivot in Israel but really its just one sprawling residential district with some run down areas and some nicer ones. Being so isolated probably leads many people to leave. There is a thriving religious community there, I don't know what percentage, but it's certainly present. Oh, and while I enjoyed Yerucham and recommend going there, the food was terrible.

One of the reasons I came to Israel this summer was to "get a foot in the door" in the Israeli industry. You need to develop connections in as many ways possible and that will lead to an interview or two and another interview and hopefully a job. On Sunday morning I took a detour from my usually scheduled work, to attempt to do some of this networking. When I say scheduled, I should say, when I schedule it, because just today I didn't come in until 10:45. But anyways, I didn't go to work, and I was awake. I went with a friend of my dad's who works for a computer company to a client of his. He was hired to wire this really rich guy's apartment in Nachlaot with new ethernet, cable tv, and phone lines. Really to start it is more of a renovation and heavy labor job, but still I tagged along to check it out. He brought with him the shiputznik or “renovator”, an Arab, who had with him 2 boys, probably his sons. It was very interesting to work with them, they spoke with us in English, because I think they spoke English better than Hebrew, and of course with their father(?) in Arabic. I stuck around for about 2 hours observing the scene and laughing at how much this really rich guy wanted done to his house. He wanted to have an ethernet jack or two sometimes in many of the rooms, for no reason whatsoever, but "money talks"! He was really against cordless/wireless for some reason, therefore he also wanted a phone jack installed in many rooms as well.

After that, I had lunch headed back to work. I may go back later in the week to see some more practical work, we’ll see. My site is really coming together now, I've had my 3 most productive days since I've been here, and basically finished the site. All the data hasn't been inputted into the database yet, but the framework is nearly complete. I have some more features to add but the basics are more or less done. On Monday night, we had a dinner with our employers. My guy didn't really show, but the food was good, so I didn't really care about the company. The dinner was an appreciation for all the employers for putting up with us and it was very nice.

On Tuesday night, I went to the mass tefilah at the Kotel. Various Rabbis each lead a spirited perek of Tehillim, in order that the situation in Israel will be improved, on extremely loud speakers, I can still hear them screaming into them now. R. Ovadiah Yosef said a few words as well as the 2 chief Rabbis of Israel were also present, Rabbi Shlomo Amar (Sephardic Chief Rabbi) and Rabbi Yona Metzger (Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi). Following that, and on every Erev Rosh Chodesh, is the sivuv she'arim, the march around to visit all of the Old City's gates. I imagine that tonight's was especially packed because of the mass tefilah, but I can't know for sure. The entire Kotel plaza was literally packed that no one could move, it was unbelievable, and many of these people went on the march. I started it only because I basically had no choice, it was the only way people were moving out of the plaza when I wanted to leave, but then since I had a headache from being near the speakers, I headed back about 20 minutes in. I kind of regret not going, but I may have another opportunity, if I choose to go and experience something one-of-a-kind, on Tisha b'Av night.

Welcome to Israel!

This week has been a rather quick one. Work has been uneventful, I started to do some basic coding after last week I spent mostly reading. It's hard to start from scratch like this when you code because you could be missing one comma, not know it and it could throw you off completely. It would be really nice to have someone to help me here, there is one guy who said he would, but he's never around or available. With someone a little bit more veteran, it becomes much easier.

On Monday we had our weekly Yavneh dinner, this week it was at the Nefesh b'Nefesh headquarters. They served us bagels but really it wasn't about the food. They gave us the choice of 2 out of 3 presentations that we could attend, one on the social aspects of Israel, one on jobs, and one on oleh benefits. I chose to attend 2 & 3 and learned quite alot about what an oleh is entitled to. I learned that every new oleh gets NIS 15,000 (about $3,500) upon aliyah as well as numerous discounts for appliances and cars. Really, its not that great, but every bit helps.

I visited Yeshiva on Tuesday and couldn't believe the changes they've been making since I last had been there less than a month ago. That night, I had dinner with my family friends the Kays and another fellow Detroiter, Avi Davidoff, who I had met maybe a few years ago. He was here trough MSU studying at Hebrew U, but they had pulled their students out of the program a few days earlier, and he was headed home that night.

Thursday morning I woke up at the nice hour of 5:30 AM and followed by a quick davening, I boarded the busses for Ben Gurion Airport (NatBag). Yavneh sent a bus load of kids to greet the Nefesh b'Nefesh flight that was arriving from New York. Aboard the 17th chartered flight in NBN's history and one of 7 this summer were about 250 new olim. They were praised by speakers at the ceremony as well as by the media for coming to Israel in such hard times. As their plane pulled up the crowd cheered. We were in a hangar only several feet away but of course they could not walk that distance. Upon disembarking the plane, they boarded the famous busses to be driven about 50 ft to the hangar. We all greeted them with much energy and congratulated them on their new home. Bibi Netanyahu was the keynote and best speaker, he is very powerful, and his English is great. The funniest part was after the ceremony, which lasted about 40 minutes, the olim boarded the busses again, then boarded the plane, only to taxi over to the gate which was just across the tarmac from us. They had to go through officially beaucratic stuff (well, most of it gets done on the plane thanks to NBN) but getting their passports stamped and customs has to be done in the airport. Apparently the ceremonies that are not during the 3 weeks have a live band more energy, so hopefully when I come I’ll get the full deal.

On Thursday night I had a mini high school reunion at a nice Italian restaurant near Ben Yehuda. In attendance was Rabbi Baruch, Mrs. Wrotslavsky, Ian, Ari Barak, Jeremy Baruch, Lauren Schanes, and of course the head of school. For Shabbat I'll be in Yerucham (40 minutes south of Be'er Sheva), we are leaving bright and early tomorrow, for a tiyul beforehand and we'll be back on motzaei shabbat.

Fun in the Sun: Merchav Am & Beit Shemesh

Shavua tov!

Let the eating began! Wednesday night, I went with a few friends to Emek Refaim and ate a wonderful (milchig!) pre-fast dinner at a restaurant I had never been to called Masyrk (pronounced MAHS-reek). While many of you may know, I am not the biggest fan of eating our Milchigs, I was assured by one of my friends that I'd find something to get there. (I don't think that friend knew the extent of my picky eating-ness, especially dairy...) I asked if they had Fettuccini Alfredo and he said yes, so I was satisfied and we hopped in a cab to grab a rather late dinner. When we arrived, I was nervous as I looked through the menu and didn't see anything resembling my favorite dish from Slice of Life (Skokie, IL), however I noticed a "3 Cheese Pasta" with Mozzarella, Roquefort, and Parmesan cheeses and thought I'd give it a try. One of the reasons I chose it was because of its lack of vegetables, like most of the other dishes there. It was very tasty and I have to say I have never had nor do I think I will ever have that combination of cheeses again, it just sounds too fancy.

Back at my apartment, I decided to snap some shots of the scenery my apartment overlooks. I am clearly not a professional photographer, and couldn't really get a non-blurry shot with my camera, but still it's decent:

Full moon over Yerushalyim!

My fast went pretty smoothly, I worked until around 1:30 and headed back for a nap in my apartment, like many of my friends also had chosen to do. By the time Mincha rolled around I was feeling fine and very well rested. News had been flowing in throughout the day about the beginning of our new battlefront and many people were hovered around any computer to read the latest. While some people began leaving for dinner before the fast so they could began eating right after it was over, I opted to stay for Maariv and departed about 1/2 hr after the fast was over (I would have left directly after Maariv but the bus didn't come for almost 20 minutes...). I met my Uncle in town who had already eaten with the throngs of people he said all placed their order about 10-15 minutes before the fast at Burger's Bar. He said that they all timed the food perfectly to be ready for the customers as the fast ended. Only in Israel. Being that I was a bit late, I missed Ilan who had to be back to his place by 9, so when I arrived at around 9:10, my uncle was fully ready to have a 2nd dinner at my choice of restaurant. I chose one of my personal favorites, Shnitzi's. We discussed plans for Friday over a scrumptious dinner and I met up with some friends and headed back to Bayit V'gan.

I woke up around 8 on Friday morning, I was to meet my Uncle and Ilan so we could aim for a 10 AM departure for our tiyyul to the Negev. He rented a car so we could drive to a Yeshuv of his friend's called Merchav Am. Being that I knew I was going to be going to the Buckmans in Beit Shemesh for shabbat, I knew I had to buy them my traditional shabbat gift of Marzipan Rugelach. I met my Uncle and we picked up Ilan and headed down south. The drive was about 2 hours (that's a lot for Israel, but nothing for the typical American...). We passed sprawling Be'er Sheva (we drove around it on the highway and saw many brand new beautiful suburban neighborhoods) on the way, which looks like a really nice city, I've never been there before.

We arrived at Merchav Am and found (quite easily actually) Eitai's caravilla. (Caravillas are what were given to many of the evacuees from Gush Katif and are also used in newer settlements before permanent houses can be built…) From the outside it looks like a trailer or two put together, but as Ilan and Uncle Lee commented when we were inside (I had been in one previously) you really can't tell that it is a caravan at all! The yishuv is literally in the middle of no where, about 40 minutes from Be'er Sheva, and 10 from Yerucham, a small city of about 12,000 people. There are about 50 families living in this community, they get very cheap housing and a ton of help from the government to live there. It is actually the only religious yishuv south of Be'er Sheva! You could tell it was the middle of no where because for much of the way there were warning signs about camels near the road or army training grounds.

Ilan and I at the entrance to Merchav Am.

We spent about 2 hours there, Uncle Lee asked a lot of questions, we got a brief tour, and then the highlight. We planted a tree. This was not what you'd expect. I got to carry the tools where Ilan and Uncle Lee carried the very heavy tree down to the area we were planting it in. They said it probably weighed at least 90 pounds. Also, we weren't just planting it in soil, we had to dig through the hard desert rock and to make the hole, which was quite fun! We planted a peach tree and Eitai promised if we returned in 4 years we could eat from it.

Starting the hole

Uncle Lee making progress

All done! (with Eitai and cute kids...)

After we had a quick lunch back in Eitai's house we hit the road for Beit Shemesh, where Ilan and I spent shabbat. It was very relaxing, we slept a lot. One interesting story, on Friday night after dinner, we were invited to the neighbors for dessert. They had for dinner some Dutch non-Jewish friends. The parents still live in Amsterdam, but are some of the most zionist non-Jews I have ever met. They are also pretty right wing Zionists as well. The wife has taken ulpan here and speaks some Hebrew. She and her husband were also in Gush Katif during the disengagement last summer. The son who is my age has been in Israel for about a year and a half, he wants to move here and go to the army, but he is going through complications because he is not Jewish. He is currently volunteering for Magen David Adom, but desperately wants to get into the army, which is unlikely. He was in ulpan for 7 months and can speak Hebrew well. Because of his European accent it sounds like he speaks Hebrew better than he does (that's what Ilan & I guessed) but he also speaks English like an Israeli with his accent. After a fun shabbat, we had dinner at KFC in Mevaseret's mall and then headed back to Yerushalyim!

Italian Week: World Cup win and Pasta Making

It's been a fun week so far starting with Sunday night where I watched the World Cup with who knows how many Israelis and probably 1.5 billion people world wide. I saw it in Kikar Safra near downtown with some very enthusiastic fans for both teams. In the aftermath of the World Cup, I have discovered quite possibly one of my favorite quotes of all time.

Marco Materazzi, the Italian player who was headbutted by Zinedine Zidane said:
"I did insult him, it's true...but I categorically did not call him a terrorist. I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."

No wonder he's a soccer player.

I've honestly never really enjoyed watching soccer, but there really was something about the final game that was just awesome. I really couldn't have cared less who won, even though since the French are a bunch of anti-semites, I was rooting for Italy, but when the shootout came, I was just as nervous as if it were the Pistons or Wings playing. I jumped in the air when they won and I was then just as confused, who cares. I guess it shows that I am truly a sports fan, well fine, maybe I need to watch (and enjoy) the championship of Australian rules football or cricket before I get that title.

On Monday night we had our weekly dinner with Yavneh. They brought in a speaker from the Student HELP Organization, which was started a few years ago. The organization helps students get educated about loans for college and then finances them. What sets this organization apart (besides that its based in Israel, run by American olim, and probably really nice) is they donate 100% of profits to Tzedaka. They obviously pay their workers (the speaker reminded us of this) but after that they give the rest away. I think they said they donated $1 million last year and their goal is one day to give $20 million each year. They also treated us to dinner, so even more a reason to like their organization. The speaker and former CEO of the organization (he now dropped that title because it became too much work) then went on to give a more important presentation. He basically rushed through the one about loans in 10 minutes so he could give us some more practical information on resumes and interviews. He showed us what not to put on a resume and not to wear a tux to an interview. The tips were great and coming from a partner at KPMG-Israel, I believe him. I asked him after if he'd review my resume and give me feedback and he told me to send it to him but he couldn't guarantee he'd have time.

On Tuesday night, I took a pass on the Jerusalem Wine Tasting Festival at the Israel Museum. Many of my friends went but I didn't really feel that I would have had so much fun there, I really don't have that acquired taste for wine, and I certainly can't drink (and enjoy) those dry red wines. As a semi-consolation, however, I finally enjoyed my first bowl of pasta in Israel! I know, I know, seems hard to believe it took me so long! Really, it wasn't that hard, although I will not take credit for lighting the stove.

I am just reading news right now about an attack on Northern Israel this morning and the kidnapping of 2 more soldiers. There is still very little information available as of 5 AM ET, noon in Israel, but we can only hope that they along with Gilad Shalit will be returned back to Israel as soon as possible.