And so on

I saw Tony Blair today.

By Tony Blair, I mean the back of Tony Blair's head. Well, we were pretty sure it was the back of Tony Blair's head. I mean, the bus driver thought it was the back of Tony Blair's head. Anyway, what looked like the back of Tony Blair's head (and presumably the rest of Mr. Blair, as well) was being photographed halfway up Mount Scopus, in front of a picturesque, panoramic view of the Old City. And that's what we saw.

In other news, as part of a successful short-term plan to delay studying for my Hebrew test tomorrow, I opened up and read "Slaughterhouse-Five" for a few minutes earlier this evening. Vonnegut's great. So it goes.

We're heading downtown for sushi, et cetera in a bit. I guess these vocabulary words will, in fact, have to "learn themselves," a verb phrase that, coincidentally, could be incorrectly translated and thus mistakenly placed in the category of verbs that I'm supposed to be studying.

In-night

So we heard through the gap-year grapevine that tonight might not be the best night to go downtown. Apparently it might be nothing, but to appease mothers everywhere, we're going to spend the night in the Kfar with the mounds of leftover food that we inherited from the parents before their return to the U.S. yesterday.

I had a most lovely week with my parents (during which I became the first Buechler sibling to host both parents for a meal---Boo ya), followed by a most lovely mini Brandeis Shabbaton in Rechavia. Yet, alas, it is time to once again return to my studies, i.e. Rothberg High School.

On that note, I have a "class" field trip tomorrow to go take a flashlight and play in the water tunnels outside the Old City. I, of course, look forward to being stuck in a dark tunnel with 40 other people.

Vis-a-vis

On Sunday, I took minutes at a Search for Common Ground workshop for Israeli and Palestinian journalists. Most important take-away piece of knowledge: It's apparently not too soon for Haifa fire jokes.

In visa-related news, today I had the privilege of delving into the Israeli governmental bureaucracy as I sought the coveted A2 student visa, which they apparently no, no, don't have it because you no need it, you eh just studying now so B2 is better, no A2, okay, tov.

Also today, the instructor of my architecture class (yes, I'm taking an architecture class, and, yes, it's a lot like middle school) informed us that, in all seriousness, the real reason it's difficult to capture Jerusalem is because "God protects Jerusalem." Things are very, very academic at Rothberg.
 
Oh, and this character has imported himself to Jerusalem for the week.

"OMG"

Today, an Israeli solider in full uniform walked passed us while pushing a baby's stroller. Adela, Ilana and Rose are still recovering---enough said. That's all for today.

Windy

Concerning this post's title, it's been very, very windy here---really, ask my hair about it. 

Last night, the apartmates banned the use of oil in any type of cooking initiated or carried out by yours truly. Something about being worried about health or calories or heart disease or something. Their loss.

I'm still finalizing my schedule here, which is rather challenging considering several factors, including the fact that the Rothberg International School has the organizational skills of an inattentive third-grader, as well as the presence of a certain employee.

But I have some pretty solid classes lined up so far, including one about alternatives to the two-state solution based on various political theories, taught by this professor, and one dealing the philosophical problems behind the trouble of teaching Israel today, with this professor (due to the kind advice/demands of Hannah Perlman).

To be an idiot

Back in Kfar Hastudentim after a most lovely Shabbat in Rechavia with the apartmates and special guest/host for the weekend Rabbi Howard R. Buechler. And, of course, I readily await next Shabbat with an additional American visitor.

On Thursday evening, we had the great privilege going to a theater off of Emek Refa'im to see a show titled (and this is a translation), "The Right to Be an Idiot." The theater was a bit...small. In fact, the crowd there was even smaller than that at certain past Brandeisian/Hebrew theatrical performances.

Anyhow, the play was very special. Basically, crazy young guy falls in love with crazy old woman, and, as the play is of the Israeli persuasion, the woman obviously turns out to be a Holocaust survivor. Also, Rose and one of the actors really hit it off (Facebook picture pending). Again, very special.

Classes start tomorrow, but I clearly didn't sign up for any Sunday classes; I'm trying to introduce Israel to the whole Sunday-as-part-of-the-weekend thing.

Searching for Search

I may have gotten just a little bit lost in East Jerusalem today while trying to find the location of my internship interview. In case you're wondering, Sheikh Jarrah can be somewhat difficult to navigate.

Anyhow, I made it to my interview, and hopefully I'll soon start interning at the Jerusalem branch of Search for Common Ground (hence the title of this post)---should be very interesting.

In intensive language immersion news, tomorrow marks the end of ulpan (super duper sad, of course), so today we had an ulpan-wide gathering, at which I may or may not have performed a certain Hebrew monologue in front of quite a large number of people. 

And the one and only Rabbi Howard R. Buechler is set to land is Israel tomorrow; hopefully he'll still be a little hungry after spending the week in Rome.

Between boils and lice

Today's laundry extravaganza was marginally more successful than that of two weeks ago.

Although this time I avoided my past vernacular misunderstanding and used laundry detergent rather than (fortunately color-friendly) bleach in the washing machine, the machine itself wasn't working and ate up some of my shekels, causing me to walk back to my room to get more. And despite the sunny skies, it obviously rained during that little walk. 

Speaking of which, a little while ago there was some thunder followed by the sound of hundreds of pebbles falling against the ground. I, of course, ran downstairs and headed outside. Subsequently, there's a handful of 1/2 inch hail now in our freezer.

And my apartmates had a little wine and meat reception last night.

Understanding Israel

After our final Sunday morning ulpan, my natural instinct was to make french toast, a lot of french toast. Subsequently, I'm currently in a losing fight with an impending late-afternoon food coma.

In other news, after Rose became involved in quite the bureaucratic communication breakdown within the Office of Student Activities last week, I think I've figured out why Israel is the way it is. It'd certainly explain why even though this country is hopelessly disorganized, it still manages to be really good at more exciting, quicker activities. It's just a theory. I'm sure I'll come up with others as the semester goes on.

Finally, I just explained to a certain Emily Jayne Diamond that the fact that it's 6:30 p.m. here at the same time that it's 6:30 p.m. in Greece signifies that we are in the exact same time zone---not that I am a full day ahead.

The fish is snake

Just woke up (along with a sizable portion of the apartment's population) from a poorly placed and shortsightedly executed late afternoon-into-evening nap. Hopefully we'll be less disoriented in the next little bit, as the Hadag Nahash concert (hence the title) is in just a few hours.

In case you were wondering, there is, in fact, 60 shekels worth of moist-looking chicken from Mahane Yehuda sitting in our refrigerator right now. We're going to be making some form of dinner tomorrow night because we just love frying schnitzel (and, well, everything).

And due to a confluence of eye contact, seat placement and general lack of organization and clarity on behalf of the good folks of the Rothberg International School, I was briefly mistaken for a professor specializing (at least to a Rothbergian extent) in ethnic Middle Eastern foods today. It was interesting.

By the way, Adela, in the interest of avoiding the impending situation in which you know that I know you know but I don't know that you know I know you know---I know you know.