First Day of Classes

Yesterday was first day of classes. I took the Hebrew placement exam in the morning. I don't think I did very well on it because I did nothing with Hebrew all summer. I also completely bombed the oral part of the exam because I was really nervous and was being asked questions with complicated answers that I could only explain in English (ex. Why did you go to Pittsburgh instead of a school in California). I also found out that for two years I have been writing incorrectly. Nobody bothered to correct me on how I wrote daleds wrong.

Afterwards, I went to my first actual class, Contemporary Israel because, as a previous roommate told me, I needed to contemporize, whatever that means. The class was great. It covers pretty much all of Israel's history from the biblical age until today. One of things I am looking forward to is reading Theodore Herzl's, who founded the modern idea of Zionism, Der Juden Stat. I've been told by many Israelis that Herzl must be rolling in his grave because of how his utopian ideology has been implemented. I don't know if they're right, but I look forward to contrasting Herzl's ideas with what actually exists. I'll probably post something on here about it.

After class, my roommate and I washed all of our dishes, which were absolutely disgusting. It took us about an hour and they're sitting on our kitchen table because we're waiting for housing to come and clean our kitchen cabinets. I also bought some new kitchen stuff yesterday. I got a cutting board, some bowls, and (drum roll please) a French press. I'm going to be honest. Instant coffee sucks. It is terrible. And Mr. Coffees don't exist in Israel. So I had to settle for a Chinese made French press which has tons of English spelling and grammar errors on the box. That makes me very confident in the product. Today was the first time I used it and I'm waiting to see if it breaks.

I've signed up to volunteer with Ethiopian refugees on Monday night. I will be teaching one student English once a week, apparently in their home. I'm exited and it sounds like it will be a very fun, memorable, and rewarding experience. If you're wondering what Ethiopians are doing in Israel, I will tell you. In the early 1980s, the Israeli government began bringing the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community to Israel amid tremendous amounts of controversy as to whether or not they were actually Jewish. The Ethiopians had been living in the mountains, secluded from everyone else, since at least the destruction of the Second Temple, and their brand of Judaism was completely different than mainstream Ashkenazic (European) and Sephardic (Middle Eastern/Spanish/Asian) Jewry. Because of this, their community has faced tremendous racism in Israel and has been largely excluded from society both because of their skin color and their status as new immigrants who speak no languages that Israelis do. The largest operation to bring Ethiopians to Israel occurred when my brother was born on May 24, 1991. The U.S. government intervened in both the Ethiopian and Sudanese civil wars to allow the Jewish community to assemble at an airfield in Sudan and be lifted to Israel. It's a remarkable story and I feel that I do not do it justice by condensing it to 1 paragraph. If you're really interested, read a book. It's good for you.

We went to a pub last night called the Beer House. It was a lot of fun. They had beers from all over the world and I wish I could have tried them all. However, I settled last night for 2 pints of some Irish stout beer that I had never heard of. It was delicious. I've noticed that binge drinking is rare in Israel. Since I've been here, I haven't seen anyone completely drunk or doing anything irresponsible. It's pretty refreshing since in most U.S. colleges, that's pretty much all there is to do. Here, everything is much more relaxed and whoever said that I would be bored in Haifa because of a lack of nightlife was completely wrong. I don't need the constant stimulation of a trendy night club with more bottles than G-D, I just need somewhere with cold beer and good music.

I don't have classes on Wednesday afternoon, so I'm hoping to make it down to the beach tomorrow with some friends to kick it old school and take in the beautiful Haifa coastline. Our add drop period is three weeks long, so I won't know my final schedule for a while. Once I do, I will post it.

If anyone is wondering, the food on campus is cheap and amazing. It costs only 3 bucks for a schnitzel sandwich with hummus and all the other stuff. Plus they have only Coke products on campus and you can buy them in cans as opposed to the 1 liter bottles you have to buy at Pittsburgh.

My coffee cup is empty and I need to get ready for class.