WAR! (ba-bump) HA! (ba-bump) HUUHH!

WAR! (ba-bump) HA! (ba-bump) HUUH! ...
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If you're like me, you don't really pay attention to the news. So if you haven't heard, Israel is having a bit of a tiff with Lebanon at the moment. Our good friends in the Hezbollah decided that things were getting a little too quiet up north, and so they fired some rockets, blew up some jeeps, killed and kidnapped some soldiers. Israel responded by blowing the shit out of numerous military targets (at night, making sure to minimize civillian casualties). Same old routine.

Unfortunately (besides the obvious misfortune of it happening at all) the Hezbollah's attacks seem to indicate extensive planning. Also, Israel's "aggression" -- or as France and some other similarly spineless country likes to call it, "excessive response", or as I like to call it, "not even close to the bare minimum of justice" -- probably won't sit to well with the various hypocrites in power around the world. So, we may be in for a tough time here.

I've noticed it's different how people react here -- it's a very personal thing. Asides from the fact that it occurred (at most) hours away, practically everyone knows someone who serves or has served in the area that was attacked. It's not like in America where you hear of gang violence and shrug your shoulders, because you only feel bad about it in an abstract way. Maybe the feeling people had after 9/11 comes close, but that was an isolated incident, whereas in Israel people are faced with it practically every couple months.

Everyone I've seen seems a little depressed, and nobody wants to do anything besides sit and watch the news. Aside from preventing me from going to a jazz festival with Limor's family (since they don't feel like it right now, which I definitely understand), I don't know how this will affect me personally. Hopefully it won't get any worse than that, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Seriously, what IS it good for?

Ketchup

The last couple weeks have fairly flown by. I'm still not used to the week beginning on Sunday, although I've always felt that Friday should be part of the weekend anyway, so that was a nice change. I'm enjoying work, because I'm still not really working (at least it doesn't feel like work, even though I'm there for seven or eight hours a day).

My days are long, because I study Hebrew in the mornings. I was able to find some instruction through the people I work with (another perk, which doesn't really make up for the fact that I'm not getting paid (yet)). It's not Ulpan (intensive Hebrew learning), because those don't really start until August, but it's a good (and free!) start. I am in a small class, consisting of myself, the teacher, and four Russian students about my age. Class is hilarious, because the Russians don't speak Hebrew, the teacher doesn't speak Russian, and I just speak English.

Actually, the Russians know more English than they do Hebrew, so the teacher is able to get them to understand what she's talking about by switching between broken English and a Russian-Hebrew dictionary. Sometimes I catch myself thinking about Hebrew words with a Russian accent, which Limor assures me is a horrible idea. She already thinks I speak Hebrew with a French accent, so I guess I'm screwed.

"Ulpan" is from 0830 to 1200 Rishon through Chamishi (Sunday through Thursday). After studying Hebrew, which is about thirty minutes (walking) from Limor's apartment, I backtrack fifteen minutes to SCE to study my second foreign language (computers). After the first couple days I settled in quickly, although it took me a while to remember to bring a jacket (Kobi affectionately refers to his office as "the refrigerator"). I spent a week or two getting familiar with C# and Visual Studio .NET, the programming language and environment (respectively) that I'm using. I have since gotten about a third of the way through the main project I'm working on - writing a simulation of dioxin dispersal in incinerator exhaust. I'm only a third finished because I've basically just rewrote an existing simulator. The next step will be to figure out how dioxins behave when burned with trash, and then figure out the physics of dispersal and plug them into my simulator.

I have "taken a break" from that project several times to help Kobi and Dr. Shlomo (my other "boss") with some of their projects. Shlomo is the software engineering professor who's the other half of the joint project with Adi that I joined for my internship. Shlomo is the kind of guy who has five different projects going on at once, and if he thinks he needs something done he'll just stop by and ask you to do it. So, not one to complain, when he asked me to help Sergey (another guy in the group who works in Kobi's office) finish writing another major piece of software, I jumped right in.

It started that, as the foremost expert of English in the building, I would write the Help file for the program. So I had to first learn about what it does (and what it's supposed to do). From there it progressed to me testing the program, and figuring out what the average user would expect, to helping to write some of the code (or at least telling Sergey what to do), to writing the script and narrating an eleven-minute "how-to-use-it" video.

The reason I don't mind spending so much time at work (asides from the fact that it's fun) is that Limor is busy studying for her exams. She has eight to prepare for, and they all fall within a two-week period. So (and I don't understand how) she spends ALL DAY studying material. She's not alone, since just about every other student in Be'er Sheva is in the same boat she is. Sometimes I'll come home from work and she'll be sitting in the living room with four or five other people, all staring at thick stacks of paper.

A funny side note, multiple-choice questions are called "American questions" in Hebrew. I assume that's because only Americans are stupid enough to need to have the answers in front of them in the first place.

Because this post is getting long, I'll just mention briefly that Limor and I have been apartment shopping again, and we may have found a place we like. I'll be posting pictures online, so check them out at:
<a href="http://photos.yahoo.com/dj_modus_ponens">http://photos.yahoo.com/dj_modus_ponens</a>

Yom Student

Now I should probably fill you in on what I've done for the last month. But I also forgot to mention Yom Student (Student Day). It's a big concert / party / fair / event that Ben-Gurion University, the Shamoon College of Engineering, and the Be'er Sheva Technical Academy all throw at the end of the academic year before students start their exams. Just a chance to hang out, listen to good music, play some stupid games, and relax before cramming for finals. This was on June 5th and 6th (or 6th and 7th?), by the way. I went with Limor, and we met up with a bunch of her friends. There were some good bands in the evening, including one very good student group who played a lot of covers of American classics like "Jungle Boogie" and "Celebration".

Highlights of the evening were eating a strange South American fruit concoction called Acai, and my first ever ride on a Segway (which is a retarded invention - gimme a bike any day).

Past Meets Present

It's been a couple weeks since I last said hello (not counting my 4th of July email). Things have been pretty ho-hum here. There were a couple interesting things I wanted to mention, but every time I wanted to write something down I was nowhere near a computer, and every time I sat down I felt like playing videogames or organizing my music instead.

So, first things first, I wanted to say how much fun I had meeting up with my friends Stuart and Brian in Tel Aviv. That was a while ago (about a month, actually). They came in to Israel for their first time on the same Birthright trip (Israel Outdoors - Israel By Bike) that I went on two years ago. From what I've heard since they had a great time, and I'm very glad they did. I met up with them a couple days into their trip. They had just gotten into Tel Aviv that evening, and they were given the night off to hang out.

I hopped a bus from Be'er Sheva, and rode two hours all by myself (the first time doing so - scary...) to Bat Yam, where I stopped off at Limor's parents' place for pizza before they drove me to the hotel the guys were staying at. It was a very surreal experience for me, being there, because it was like I was watching myself from the outside. I stepped into their hotel room, and I was transported back in time. Everything looked and felt exactly like my trip - the barely slept in beds, the small bags of luggage scattered around the room, and the sense of amazement in the air. Ahhh...it was great.

It was also great to see Stuart and Brian again, especially because I haven't seen Brian in a couple years. So we hung out for a little bit, catching up and getting ready to go out to a club / bar with the rest of their group. I met a bunch of other people on their trip, and they all seemed like great people. We headed out from the hotel and walked about ten minutes to the beach. We passed a couple clubs, but since it was still before midnight they were all empty (how different from Raleigh it is!), and so we settled on a nice little bar with seating on the shore. It was an extremely pleasant night, and we spent about two hours just hanging out, sippin' some drinks, smokin' some narghillah (hookah). Around 0100, Stu, Brian, another guy named Sasha, and I were feeling restless, so we left to find a club, but unfortunately the only promising place happened to be 24-and-up only, so we just headed back to the hotel. Just like my Birthright trip, they had to wake up extra early the next day, so it worked out fine.

The next morning, I got up out of my sleeping bag on the floor and went down with them to share the hotel breakfast (yeah free food). Again, it felt just like my trip, right down to the plates of assorted cheeses so typical of Israeli hotel breakfasts. They had to eat quickly to be off on their next adventure, so Stuart, Brian and I were soon saying our goodbyes. As I watched their group walk away, I was struck by one of the most powerful out-of-body experience I've ever felt. It was like when you read a book, and you get to a passage where two of the main characters cross paths. You know that each of the characters has their own tale to tell, and even though you are following one storyline you know that the other one is just as important. I couldn't help but sit there, bemused, as I watched my friends walk out the door.

The rest of the morning I spent wandering around Independence Park, which was right outside the hotel. I did take a moment to go to the top of the hotel and take some panoramic shots of Tel Aviv. It was very cool twelve stories up. When I was wandering around the park, I did see a line of Orthodox Jews wandering up out through some trees. Curious, I went to see where they were coming from, and I came to a cliff overlooking the shoreline. Below me I could see a section of the beach that had been walled off. When I looked closer, I noticed that all of the beach-goers in that section were male, and about half of them had white dress-shirts and black pants, and I realized that I had stumbled upon a Lubavitch beach! I mean, I guess even Orthodox Jews have to have fun sometimes. I thought it was hilarious to see two Orthodox Jews, fully dressed, doing jumping jacks on one side of the wall, while on the other side a woman in a bikini was lounging in sand.

Then, I thought I heard Matisyahu (the Jewish Reggae Superstar) singing somewhere, so I went to investigate. I was very excited, because I thought I had accidentally discovered that he was playing a concert in Israel, but then I found out it was just his live album playing from a hotel sundeck. Oh well.

Cats, Crocs, and Caca

I would like to take a moment to discuss the three most common things in Be'er Sheva. You might even say these are distinguishing characteristics of the city. Asides from the dust, and the students, and the trash, and the other typical Israeli things.

Item number one: Cats

I've probably mentioned this before, but Be'er Sheva has a lot of cats. I don't mean pampered housepets - I'm talking about roving strays. They're everywhere. You see them under bushes, in dumpsters, wandering the streets, everywhere. I was on the roof of a four-story apartment the other day, and there in the corner was a cat. Before you say "well Jeremy it obviously got there the same way you did" and then wonder how I got there in the first place, I came up the stairs (which are always locked) and the cat climbed a tree (which I watched).

When evening rolls around, cats come out in force. Every street corner and trashbin has at least a couple cats lolling about. Often they are mangy, underfed streetcats. Other times they're like the ones where I study Hebrew - still mangy and underfed, but also irritated by idiots who like to pretend they're taking care of them. In any case, cats are the unquestioned lords of Be'er Sheva.

Okay, that's not true, but it looks really impressive when I write it.

Item number two: Crocs

You may have seen some people wearing these in the 'States, but I'm pretty sure they're nowhere near as common as they are here. Crocs are closed-cell foam shoes which can't decide if they're galoshes or slippers. They're a nice enough idea, I suppose - waterproof, durable, and extremely comfortable. However, not only do they look like plastic clogs but they come in the most eye-wrenching colors possible. Sure there is black, dark blue, and forest green, but there's also neon yellow, magenta, sky blue, gamma-ray lime, etc - and it seems like the brighter the color, the more popular it is.

It's especially jarring to see here, because Israelis are normally so stylish - MTV chic, if you will. So, seeing a young man in a properly faded pair of properly tight dark jeans (since baggy jeans are out), with a properly tight gray shirt sporting an appropriate English slogan, makes the set of cherry red crocs look completely absurd.

It's not just limited to one group of people either - you see kids wearing them, teenagers wearing them, tons of college students wearing them, and even adults wearing them. And not once do they look appropriate.

Item number three: Caca

I'm going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and assume the reason they let their pets take craps on the sidewalk and in the street is because they're too busy fighting terrorism. I choose to believe that the effort required to walk a dog to a patch of grass, or sand, or something not where people walk, is so monumental that it would prevent these proud people from raising farmland from the desert they live in. Perhaps I'm missing some cultural clue, that the more poop you have in front of your house, the more your neighbors like you.

I'm assuming that after a while I'll just start taking these things for granted, and I won't notice them anymore. But you won't see me wearing crocs when I walk my cat on a leash to a bush to do its business.