New Friends

Yesterday was a day of new friends. While watching the concert and drinking free beer, two guys from the Haifa student union came up to my friends and I and talked to us. They told us about how the Arab student group in Haifa is putting out propaganda comparing Israel to Nazis or something like that and that they're protesting. However, after we got off that topic, they started telling us about the night life in Haifa. They gave us their phone numbers and said that they could get us in to any club or bar in Haifa and get us free drinks. I don't remember their names, however one looked like Lenny Kravitz and the other looked like Donald Sutherland. That's really wrong, but I can't remember their names. I feel bad. They were cool guys.

I made dinner last night with my existing friends. We made beef stir fry and it was delicious. We ate the stir fry, drank some wine, and had some delicious pancakes with nutella on them. Afterwards, we broke in my new hookah, which works wonderfully. Thanks for asking.

While we were smoking, an Arab guy named Nasser just walked up to us, said he was bored, and asked if he could join us. He seemed like a nice guy, but my roommate Evgeni was there and he was not too happy. Not because he's anti-Arab or anything, but because he feels cheated that he spent 4 years in the Israeli Navy while Nasser, who I'm guessing is named after Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian Pan Arabist leader, was able to go straight to college without doing any sort of community service. I completely understand Evgeni's frustration. I would be pissed too. There's a bill in the Knesset right now that would mandate a year of communal service for all Arab youth in Israel. It seems like a good idea, and I support it and think the US could use something like that (NOT MILITARY SERVICE), but who am I to make that call for Arab youth in Israel. It seems like a win-win situation. Arabs would get full military benefits without having been in the military and their communities would be strengthened. But again, who am I to say that it's right or wrong. I'm just a guy with a computer. One of the first things Nasser said was that he was not a bad guy with a bomb. I was a little confused by it, but I understand why he would say that. Arabs have a really bad image in the West and I certainly hope that his visit to our table was not specifically intended to debunk this myth. If my friends and I truly believed this, why would be in Haifa, where half of the students are Arab? Anyways, Nasser seems like a nice guy and he said he would come up and visit sometime, however I think it's all talk. When it comes down to it, I think he was just free loading.