שבוע שלם ומספק בירושלים

Wednesday night we went to Beit Ar-El and had pizza while hanging out with the madrichim.  The tzevet here seems much more friendly and significantly more competent than the tzevet in Arad was, and they also appreciate good humor much more.  In the week or so I've been here, they've already done a good deal more for me than madrichim in Arad ever did.

On Thursday we had various orientation activities--in the morning we listened to a lot of speeches, one of which was from Mel Reisfeld, an uppity old man who used to work at Tel Yehuda.  When he first came in, he saw Chanya, shook her hand, and then said "You know, in Israel, over the age of 80, there is no such thing as sexual molestation."  Throughout the course of his lecture, he also got very mad at some people for talking and yelled at one person "hey stupid, be quiet."  At the end, he apologized to them, but also flicked another group of people off on his way out.  So I guess you could say he's a pretty crazy guy.  We also signed up for classes, which I'm very excited about--after going three months without any legitimate courses, I'm ready to learn some things again.  In this last trimester, I'm taking one class called Introduction to Jewish Art (with Avi Rose, who's the head of academics in Jerusalem and a great teacher from what I've heard and seen) and a class called Creative Non-fiction Writing.  We also found out our volunteering placements on Thursday--I'm working at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which was my second choice.  It's essentially a research internship which looks like it'll be a lot of fun.  I just figured that after 6 months of working with kids (almost 9, if you count the summer before I came), it was time for a change.

Thursday afternoon, after all the orientation activities were over, a bunch of guys (myself included) got on the roof of one of the Beit Ar-El buildings and started throwing a football from roof to roof.  This got obnoxious quickly, as every time the football didn't make it to another roof or balcony and fell instead onto the quad-type area, we would all yell "FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL!" until someone retrieved the ball and threw it back up.  This activity went on for about an hour, and included throwing the football onto our madricha Emma's porch against her will, yelling at the top of our lungs, and switching roofs a couple of times.  As ridiculous as it sounds, it's probably one of the most fun times I've had on Year Course.

After this, I went with a small group of people to check out the shuk in the old city.  To me, a successful trip to the shuk involves spending less than 100 shekels (about 25 dollars), but getting something that I'm going to utilize more than once.  This was not a successful trip to the shuk.

That night, we went to Ben Yehuda street.  Ben Yehuda street is one of Jerusalem's main attractions, where a lot of Americans go to buy things and get drunk.  If you're not going to do one of those two things, though, it's not a terribly interesting place to hang out--sure, there are religious Jews in the street doing dances and singing and sometimes an assortment of other tricks, but, to a large extent, Ben Yehuda represents everything I don't like about Jerusalem--touristy loud Americans.  It's still nice to hang out there every once in a while though.

On Friday we woke up and took a bus to go to Abu Ghoush at Sam's request.  Abu Ghoush is both a small city nearby and a delicious hummus place, however, I am yet to go there, because the bus we took instead went to Ramot, a Jewish suburbia that is technically part of the West Bank.  Once we realized this, we got off the bus and headed to Machane Yehuda, a big shuk area in Jerusalem.  We got lunch there (probably one of the most crowded places I've ever been, and with some of the slowest walking people) and then headed home.

Upon getting back, we quickly prepared for Shabbat and then headed towards campus.  The entire section went to the Jerusalem "Great Synagogue" (that is its name, not its quality) for Kabbalat Shabbat services.  Initially we had been supposed to go to the Kotel for Friday night services, but during the afternoon on Friday some Arabs on the Temple Mount throw stones at police in a riot, so Year Course decided it wasn't worth the security risk.  Something interesting I read about that afternoon later on is that many Muslim people helped subdue the rioters throwing stones.

After the service ended, we had dinner at a place nearby and then headed home.  That night we had my Bar Mitzvah themed party, which, needless to say, was fantastic.  Nathan and Scott prepared speeches as my gay fathers and we had a candle lighting ceremony, the whole night was great.

Saturday, we woke up late and went to the promenade nearby with Andrew's family who are in town.  Technically, parts of the promenade are in the West Bank.  If you've ever seen pictures of Jerusalem, it's likely that they were taken from there, because it affords one of the best views of the old city and the Dome of the Rock.  When we got back I went for a run--running in Jerusalem is so much harder than it was in Arad for multiple reasons:

1. It is higher altitude here, so I have to breathe in more air to get the same amount of oxygen.
2. It is hotter here (mostly because it's turning into summer now all over the nation).
3. There are cars and buses everywhere that I have to stop and wait for at lights.
4. There are cars and buses everywhere that are polluting the air.
5. There's no magic in the air here.
6. There are always all these people in the streets I have to run around.
7. There are always these annoying people who are also trying to stay in shape running around the city.
8. On part of my loop, I run down Emek Refaim, a street infamous for delicious food, and it always smells fantastic.
9. It's hilly here.
10. People try to punch me as I run.
11. It's technically illegal to run on the sidewalks in Jerusalem, so every time I see a cop, I have to pretend I'm walking.
12. I have been running barefoot.
13. There are wild creatures running around whose natural prey are redheads.

Okay, so the last 4 reasons are bullshit, but you get my point.

Sunday morning I went to volunteering for the first time.  Because it's more like an internship than anything else, we were told to bring in resumes, so I updated one that I had from last year and brought it in.  We met the boss of the place, Justus Weiner, who's an international justice lawyer.  The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a pretty right-wing place, and, although I don't quite agree with that, it seems like it'll be fun to work there.  They also order in lunch for free from Emek Refaim street every day, which is a definite plus.  After Justus talked to us for a while and found out what we each wanted to do (Chanya, Laura, Maya, Tal, and Josh are at this volunteering with me), we went to Tal Bagels for brunch.  It was tasty, but more expensive than I'd like it to be, so I am determined to find another bagel place.  In the afternoon  I went to my first class, Introduction to Jewish Art.  We discussed the idea of whether or not it's okay for Jews (and religions in general) to make images out of any part of their dogma, considering that idol worship is prohibited in most modern-day religions.  We also looked at some art and talked about the first and second commandments (that there are no other gods before god, and not to worship other false gods because god is jealous), which was a very interesting point, as they both seem to imply that there are a lot of other gods out there.  I guess that's particularly interesting because I tend to think of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as monotheistic religions, but these commandments (given from god) acknowledge the existence of other gods.  We spent most of that class talking about how the class was going to go and doing introductions, but it was still very interesting.

Sunday was Jake's birthday, so that night we went to Ben Yehuda street and just hung out for a while, not doing anything particularly special.  We played this game called "clusterfuck" that was a good deal of fun, and I want to make a point of remembering it.

On Monday I awoke much later than I wanted to via a call from Justus.  He wanted me to come in to do an interview and discuss my resume, and then we decided that I would come in for my first day on Wednesday.  I left JCPA for Beit Ar-El and went to a Garin Tzedek meeting discussing what we want to do this trimester in terms of trips and optional peulot during the week.  That afternoon I went to Creative Non-fiction Writing, which I'm not sure how I feel about yet.  We discussed a few basic writing concepts I'm already very familiar with from taking Creative Writing in high school, and then we did a rudimentary writing exercise where we wrote the first sentence of a story--hopefully it's going to pick up as the class progresses, but I'll be fine either way as long as we get chances to write. 

That night, I went to an English-speaking comedy club near Ben Yehuda street.  By the time we got there, it was just karaoke, which was a good deal of fun--Scott, Nathan, and I sang "Under the Bridge," which is kind of a tradition of ours.  Nathan and I have also been wanting to do karaoke since we came on Year Course, so it was about time.  The club also has open mic comedy night until 10:30 on Mondays, so I think I may go next week and see if I can do stand-up.  I'm pretty excited about it; I heard from the people who were in Jerusalem before us that it can be a good deal of fun if you go with a big group of people.  I also am anxious about the prospect of being good at stand-up, but we'll see how it goes.

Tuesday was the first siyur in Jerusalem.  We went to the Christian quarter and walked the via dolorosa, where Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion.  It was pretty good as far as siyurim go, especially considering that I've never been to the Christian quarter and that me, Nathan, Scott, Max, and Andrew had some delicious shwarma afterwards.  We returned in the afternoon completely exhausted and pretty much everyone in the apartment took a nap.  When we woke up, we went shopping at Mega Bul--a grocery store brand that we loved in Arad--across the street.  It wasn't the haven of food that it had been in Arad, but it was still quite satisfying and cheaper than our earlier groceries.  We returned home and made a stir fry dinner, I went for a run, and then went to campus to watch "Wet Hot American Summer" before returning home to go to sleep.

Today was my first real day of volunteering.  I went in at about 8:40, but Justus didn't arrive until 9:15.  We spent most of the morning editing one of his research papers which is getting published.  This consisted of me reading it aloud to him, which included saying things like "comma, period, paragraph break, open quotes," etc.  I was then given 25 shekels to buy lunch, because I was one of the only interns who came today so they decided not to order in.  I went to Holy Bagel and got a card that entitles me to one free bagel after I buy ten, so this was easily the most exciting part of my day.  I stopped by Beit Ar-El on my way home and hung out for a while before coming back to Derech Hebron.  Wednesday afternoons are usually full of optional activities, but most of them have not existed today because it's the first real week.  Thus, Scott, Nathan and I are going to go down to campus now and play frisbee for a while.

I hope all is well with you, and that you are also enjoying frisbee or some other sport at the moment!  I'm sure I'd love to hear from you, especially if we've not talked in a while.  Take it easy!