A Night Out on the Town

What is a typical night out on the town like here in the city of Haifa? I am glad you asked. If you assumed that it involvs eating a burger and going to a pub, you have safely assumed the right answer.

Lets start at the beginning...

6pm--Monday and Tuesday this is the time I get out of class, I am usually tired, unmotivated to do any more homework required of me, and generally am uninterested in sitting at my computer in my room.

6:30pm--After giving myself some time to check email, facebook, the news, and any other random thing I am interested in (EMS games or news...I know I know, its lame), I tend to call my friends to find out if there is any interest at all in going to a pub. Often times, from certain friends, I get a "oh, I am not really in the mood to drink tonight, but thank you" or the famous "I have a lot of work to do" excuse. Its ok, I usually have my designated drinker on board anyway, so I can handle the rejection...at this point I call Steve...we decide the time to meet...lets say for the sake of this story its 7:30pm

7:30 pm--I get on the 37 bus to Khorev Center and meet Steve down the road near Denya. At Khorev Center we transfer to the 123 bus to Newe Sha'anan. On the way we decide what pub to go to, again for the sake of the story and to explain a really cool feature in some Israeli pubs, lets go with the Second Floor pub in Newe Sha'anan.

8:15pm--We arrive to the pub and order our first drink. The cool feature in this and some other Israeli pubs is the 1 + 1 Happy Hour. From 6-9 you buy one beer and once you finish it completely you get the same beer in the same size glass for free. Buy one, get one free...love it. We also order the burger which is very good at this place.

8:45--So lets say we are drinking semi-quickly tonight and for the sake of argument we finish in 30 minutes, we then receive our second beer. At around this time or a little sooner, depending on how crowded the place is and how many waitresses are working, we get our burgers.

9:45/10 pm--We have finished our second beer and burgers (usually Steve have finished both in record time and I am usually stuck with a quarter or more of a beer left and chips still on my plate). We pay for the bill and hop on the 123 bus to Khorev, then transfer to the 37. Steve gets off at the top of the hill in Denya and either hitch hikes home or walks. I continue back to the university in a thoroughly happy state, fed and buzzed.

This is a typical weekday night...this is of course excluding soccer nights which will be explained in a future post.

יום הסטודנטים

A few weeks ago was the big celebration of יום הסטודנטים at the Technion University in Haifa. Students from all Haifa Universities and Colleges came to the Technion for two nights of fun, drinking, and concerts. It is supposed to be a celebration of the students of Israel, giving us an opportunity to blow off some steam, have a good time, and make some new friends. I went with my roommate and his friend. We spent the first hour of this adventure sitting outside of the event drinking the famous Israeli alcohol, Arak and after we were thoroughly "happy" we continued into the celebrations. Besides paying 100 shekels to get in, it was a pretty awesome experience. There were hundreds if not thousands of students from all over. There were hundreds of food and beer stands. There were two big stages, one with a DJ and a dance floor and the other with famous Israeli bands playing. While walking around for the first hour was eye opening and interesting (probably mostly due to the Arak still saturating my system) it eventually became kind of boring, especially because my roommate and his friend were not having a great time. This is understandable though when you consider how expensive the food and beer was inside. While my friends got in for free due to their membership with the Haifa University student union, my 100 shekel entrance fee basically burned a hole in my pocket. We ended up getting some Thai food (was really good by the way) and went home. It wasn't a bad night for me, even though it was a boring and frustrated night for my friends, I have now had the opportunity to see what student life is like in Haifa on a whole new level. Back at Clark events are smaller because it is a small school, so having this many people representing the two major schools of Haifa was incredibly awesome and eye opening.

Problems, always problems

http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3873560,00.html

Here is a classic situation where you just want to smack some people!

Tales of going home with an Israeli

I have now gone home with my roommate twice and both times have been awesome. Yes, usually it ends up that we watch Prison Break for most of the day and generally don't wake up until past noon (after a previous night of drinking the extra sleep is welcome), but the experience is welcome and nothing beats meeting new friends and family. The day tends to go something like this:

1) Wake up past noon (generally) and immediately put on Prison Break to catch up from where we left off the night before

2) After watching a few episodes of Prison Break, my roommate has almost always already called a friend up who meets us at the house and from there we go to another friends house. Then we sit for a few hours talking and drinking coffee.

3) We return to the house for a few hours and a few more episodes of Prison Break, then head out for a night of drinking either at a pub or at someones house.

4) We stumble back into his house around 4 or 5 in the morning. My roommate whips up a batch of his famous pasta and sauce which we then proceed to devour

5) We get into bed and watch more Prison Break until we fall asleep only to repeat the cycle the next morning which usually involves rewatching an episode that one of us fell asleep during. 

MASA conference and Hadag Nachash

Last night I went along with several others from the international school to see a Hadag Nachash concert (Hadag Nachash is a very popular Israeli band). After getting through the layers of security, we finally found our seats, expecting some speakers and a kick ass concert. Suddenly, in walks B.B. Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. I had heard something about him being there, but it didn't sink in until I heard the words, "Please rise for the Prime Minister Netanyahu". Netanyahu is a very good speaker, very good! He went to Harvard University in Boston which explains it all. His speech was inspiring and powerful, however, the message I feel was simple and something I have heard many times before: "Israel is Your home". I guess it depends who you are talking to...but my opinion aside, a good speech with a lot of passion. If I were an idealistic high school student, I would make Aliyah in 2 minutes, alas, I am 21 with a passion for Hiking, playing the drums, and Emergency Medicine...while I plan on making Aliyah next year, it is because I do really enjoy living in this country, Zionism aside.

After the speech, Hadag Nachash played an awesome show. It has been about three years since I saw them in concert last at Brandeis University. It was an awesome night and Hadag Nachash has and continues to be a big favorite of mine as far as Israeli bands go.

The past few months...a reflection

As I sit in my room now, with only weeks separating me from my return to the US, I can't help but reflect on the good times and the bad times that I have had in Israel. It's been 4 months since I said a tearful, but excited good bye to my family at Logan Airport as I departed on my journey from Boston, to Madrid, to Tel Aviv. I reread the not my mom slipped into my backpack just as I was leaving, which she always does, with the words written on the envelop "open on the plane". I most often times forget and read these letters weeks, sometimes months after I have already departed the plan, but this time was different. On my way to Madrid, I turned off my Ipod, placed my book into the seat pocket in front of me, and placed the sudoku back into my bag. I read the note slowly, carefully, savoring each word and its meaning. I have read this letter 3 times since I have been here, once when I came, once when I was in the middle of my stay, and now towards the end of my stay and I am sure I will read it one more time before I land in Boston.

Looking at the letter now, I find the words are the same, but the meaning is different. When I left for Israel I was unhappy about where I was in life. Nothing seemed to fit, nothing seemed to make me happy anymore. These words were meant as encouragement and they still are, but now, as I read, its all different: "By the time you read this card you will be up in the air, well on your way to another wonderful adventure...I know you will gain so much from this experience. Remember life is not smooth. It is the roller coaster effect that makes life challenging, keeps us on our toes, and keeps life interesting--a life-long learning process. Remember this when challenges arise in Israel--and they will--but you love this place and want to be there".

There have been tons of challenges here. Re-familiarizing myself with the culture in Israel, making friends, trying endlessly to work for MDA (still in the works), figuring out how to use the buses and which stations to go to, all of these things and more have been challenges. I remember the first two weeks here when I stayed with my friend Shai, I was too scared to use the buses because I didn't know which bus went where or what station was what. Jerusalem was even scarier when I went to meet with the MDA people, I ended up getting lost and arrived a few hours late for my interview. I couldn't speak a lot of Hebrew, let alone understand it, and I was frustrated. The first few weeks...no, I would go as far as the first month...in Israel were angering, frustrating, depressing, and I wanted nothing more than to return home. However, just like what my mom wrote to me in this letter (which I re-read around this time), she repeated to me in Jerusalem during my family's visit, "once you accept Israel as just another country in the world, a place like any other, if you still love it after that, then you know you can live here". That is more or less what she told me that day and it has stuck with me ever since.

Israel is not a place where grand miracles happen or where the Messiah comes flying down to your rescue, it is not a place where everything is perfect (far from it), nor is it a place where everything is bad, it is not a place where all people are treated equally, nor is it a place where people are repressed. Israel is Israel. I love this country for the simple fact that every morning when I wake up and look out my window, I see a world of possibilities, a place that needs help, that needs molding. I look out at night from this same window and see the mist coming off the water and settling over the dark city, with the lights reflecting off of these clouds displaying an almost heavenly world. I love Israel for the simple fact that I feel connected here, with the people and the nature. I love Israel for its nature, its beauty, its unique contrast between desert and forest. I love Israel for all of the people I have met and become friends with, this most importantly. If it were not for the people that I have met these past four months, I don't think I would have wanted to come back, they are the primary reason now, that I wish to return next year. Ideology is only a small piece of the bigger picture for me. Most of my ideological thinking has vanished with my current stay here. I wish to come back and live in Israel because of my friends...my new family.

Coming back from Italy at the beginning of April, I walked from the terminal to the passport control booth. As soon as I reach the ramp just before the booths a sensation filled within me...I am home. It must have repeated in my head many more times as I waited in line to have my passport checked, thinking next year I won't be in the line with foreign passport holders, next year I will be in the line for Israeli passports. As I arrived in the Sherut into Haifa, I said aloud to myself for the first time..."I am home". This sensation will stay with me for as long as I live, through the roller coaster that is life. My mom was right, this roller coaster keeps us on our toes and keeps life interesting, without it, I would not be returning to Israel. אני אוהב את ישראל מכל הלב! ברוכים הבאים לחיים!