on the road to hebron via egged

in an earlier post, i mentioned the semester project for my documentary workshop class. the class takes place on hebron road but i intend on using hebron road as it was meant to be used. today was the first day of the project, so to speak. i called יקוב, my teacher, telling him that i will be doing a dry run of the journey. since i know hebrew more than arabic, i decided to travel using egged, which for the purpose of my project i will call jewish bus. the cost of the ride is 8.80 shekels, which is barely over 2$, going from jerusalem to hebron. total time of travel was about 1 hr and 15 mins.

on the bus, i befriended a jewish woman, who made עליה to israel 5 months ago from canada. she lives in a jewish settlement 10 mins away from hebron. she told me that the bus initially traveled on hebron road before the building of the rail commenced and when it was 'safer.' after the bus was attacked on many accounts, a tunnel highway was built that bypassed the initial entry into the west bank. after 10 mins on the bus, the travelers on the left side were treated to an amazing view of the wall cutting through the landscape. i am still astounded by how close jerusalem is to the west bank area, being nearly encompassed by the giant concrete structure on almost all sides. the ride was mostly uneventful but i appreciated seeing the landscape of israel for the most part. there is a certain beauty in the hilly, deserted terrain, dotted with housing complexes or the occasional rundown buildings occupied mostly by arabs. there were also several farms along the way and i think with a little stretch of my imagination, this is probably what the area looked like 2000 years ago.... that actually might be too far a stretch.

hebron. what to say about hebron. a little history: hebron is the largest city in the west bank. it is the biblical region of judea and it is the second holiest city of judaism, after jerusalem. the most famous site of hebron is the cave of patriarchs. even though the site is holy to judaism, both christianity and islam hold the site sacred due to the connection with abraham. he bought a piece of land to bury his wife, sarah, and afterwards abraham, issac, leah, jacob, rebecca are all buried there. in recent history, as any piece of arabic land, there has been many tense conflicts between arabs and israelis. hebron is heavily patrolled by israeli military guards. rabbi moshe levinger and his wife began colonising the centre of town after israel incorporated the west bank in 1967. even though this move was illegal, it gained endorsement, even after the settlement of kiryat arba was established to draw the settlers out. each armed settler in the old city is protected by as many as four armed soldiers, who are stationed on rooftops and street corners, emboldening the ~600 jews there to parade in the streets chanting anti-arab calls and wielding guns. on february of 1994, baruch goldstein, a physician, entered the ibrahimi mosque and open fired on the praying palestinians. palestinians believe the israeli jews are stealing their rightful land and protest against the military occupation. the israeli jews believe they have every right to occupy hebron because it was jewish under abraham. however, it appears as if the palestinians always get the wrong end of the bargain. their homes are constantly decimated or taken over. they face constant harassment from the settlers.

the egged bus dropped me off in the old city. so my initial viewing of hebron was very unsettling. i was surrounded by crumbling structures, closed shops, graves, pro-zionist graffiti and gun-toting civilians and soldiers. i thought that this was hebron itself. i was mistaken after some research. even though the area looks unpopulated, there are people, both arab and jew, walking around the streets. there are many palestinian and israeli flags flying from windows and houses. however, there are more of the latter. everyone seems to be very welcoming and friendly. i visited the muslim part of the cave of patriarchs. a man there gave me a brief tour, beginning with donning of a head covering. the mosque is one of the more unassuming ones i've visited but the humbleness is appealing. there is a shrine of a stone with an imprint of a foot. my guide told me that this is abraham's footprint. interesting. i also visited the tomb of abraham, isaac and rebecca. in all, my stay was brief as service was going to start soon.

i am glad that i picked this as my project. i will get to explore a place where most people are unwilling to go to because of the heavy military occupation and threat of danger. this is one of the few times i am thankful i'm from abroad.

history of the city of david, the mount of olives and the surrounding areas

that is a long title but it encompasses what i've learned today in my israel culture class. i am enjoying that class immensely.

today we met outside שער האשפות (dung gate), located right next to the הכותל (western wall). from there we discussed the ever famous al-aqsa mosque, the third holiest place for muslims of the world, next to mecca and medina. there is a jerusalem archaeological park in the area and near the entrance one can see the remains of the cardo maximus road which was supposed to be this amazing colonnaded road that lead to damascus gate and was used as the main road.

there was a lot of soldiers milling around. the professor said that before the soldiers go back to their unites, they do educational visits to important places of israel history, getting exposed to zionistic propaganda. they were loitering all around the western wall, dung gate, and the city of david. there are still ongoing excavations in the city of david. the excavations show different layers which go all the way to the second temple period (516 BCE - 70 BCE). he then also explained that archaeological digs are used for political reasons by the zionists to claim possession of israel/jerusalem as the rightful cultural owners.

right next to the city of david is silwan, an arab neighborhood of jerusalem. like every arab neighborhood in jerusalem, it is a highly contested area, where they have no building permits and jews are starting to infiltrate and take over the property. an very interesting fact: some of the houses in silwan are built on top of burial caves of ancient jerusalem. most arab houses are usually close to the ground but because the property is so expensive, the buildings are many storied. currently, jerusalem municipality is talking about destroying houses in silwan.

afterwards, we walked behind the temple mount/al-aqsa mosque. there were several muslim burial sites. i think only the rich are allowed to bury the dead there and also if their family for many previous generations have been buried there. on the other side, we saw the valley of jehoshaphat, where it is said that the events of the day of judgement are to take place. within this valley are series of tombs. here are pictures.

absalom's pillar

grotto of st. james & tomb of zechariah

after class, since we were in the area, kimmy sue, jonathan and i decided to trek over the valley of jehoshaphat to mount of olives. there we visited the church of all nations (basilica of agony) and the garden of gethesemane. the church is quite beautifully ornamented inside with mosaics of blues and golds. the ceiling shows twelve? nations. the garden of gethesemane was pretty as well. it is the place where it is believed jesus was arrested. the olive trees in the garden are some of the oldest trees, dating back 2000 years. amazing, if you think about it.

from there we returned to the old city and because kimmy sue and i have been talking about it for the past three weeks, we decided to do the walk of the cross. kimmy said that some of the stations are made up. it was such a nice day that i didn't mind a little make believe and visiting the places where jesus is said to have walked with the cross on the way to his crucifixion. i saw the ecce homo arch, where pontius pilate declared, "behold, the man!" to viewers on the street. i saw the places where it said he stumbled. then we ended the journey at the holy spulchre (this makes it my third visit). while the walk itself was very nice, kim and i didn't not appreciate the different catcalls from the arab men in the marketplace and the uninvited help. one went so far to say "i'm available." i don't even want to think about what that even means. i got even more 'china' and 'konichiwa'. i'm sort of getting used to them by now but it still bothers me. i have taken the politically correct nature of america for granted. oh, how i miss it.

later, lisa, carla, stefanie and i got together to plan our various trips for pesach break! soooo excited! but i am tired after walking around for a solid 6 hours so i will show you the places i will be visiting sometime later.

היומ היה מענין

i was up all night planning the trip to egypt and for the roadtrip around israel for the upcoming pesach break. i am so excited! seeing the pyramids and the cairo museum and alexandriaaaa! okay, that's enough of that for now.

today, i met up with lisa and omri in the old city. we were meeting petra for a catholic mass at 1830. it was interesting for me to go to a church service after i haven't gone in so long, especially one in jerusalem, the mecca of the three monotheistic religions of the world. it was conducted in english by father richard, who came to jerusalem four months ago, leaving florida. the service itself was nice and calming, even though i'm not by any means familiar with mass. i forgot how drowsy i can get during church. oops. afterwards, father richard came up to us and asked if we would like a tour around the rooftop of the church. what an amazing view! he was really kind and pointed out several noticeable landmarks in jerusalem. the church, pontifical institute notre dame of jerusalem, is also quite known for its replica of the shroud of turin. it is also a place where many pilgrims start out their journey in the holy city. we might go back there soon to see this shroud exhibit because we can't go to italy :P.

afterwards, we walked to המרקיה (the souperia in english). what a homey place! upholding its name, המרקיה serves several different kinds of comforting, vegetarian friendly soups as well as שקשוקה (shakshuka), which is what a lot of the israelis refer to as the omelette. however, it's more like a tomato stew with a cracked egg on top. it is delicious! i must learn how to make one so i can make it for people back in the states. המרקיה seems to be a hipster/foreigners hotspot. one of the workers is a boston native (!) who just completed his thesis in hebrew literature in israel. omri, lisa, petra, and i sipped on תה נענע (mint tea) and chit chatted. it was also cool that the cafe decided to observe earth hour, by turning off the lights completely, immersing the restaurant in total darkness with little points of candlelight illuminating the diners. i like it!

i bid goodbye to the bunch and walked toward zion square where i came across a group of asians singing praise. they were singing in korean. what?? ever since i got here, i am astounded to find a big population of koreans living in jerusalem. i made friends with one who is in my documentary photo class. she told me that most of them make a pilgrimage here. that's cool, i guess? i never knew there was such a big following though. i should find out more information on this and hopefully get a decent korean meal while in israel!

the good mood i was in was shattered when i came back to my room in the כפר. a meeting was held to discuss the nasty atmosphere that occupies apartment 771. however, i think it was just an excuse for the two flatmates who do now like me to attack me even further. they really make me feel unwelcome in a place that is rightfully my own. i hope i get to move out into the city centre so i can be closer to my friends, שוק and fun things. but i will have to haggle with the dorm office, who might not like the idea! wish me luck. tomorrow my israel culture class is meeting outside dung gate, near the jewish quarter. i think we're exploring kidron valley, the place between the old city and mount of olives. more info on it later after the lecture!

ideas for screenprinting

just going to jot down my ideas.

i had my third screenprinting class of the semester. it's kind of hard because i'm not really used to this kind of teaching where the teacher just gives us free rein especially when i'm new to the medium. i asked him about this but all i got back was a nonchalant answer of "i'll give you a project then." didn't happen. so i just looked around at what people were doing and decided to experiment with photo emulsion. i printed out an image i found on the internet that looked pretty cool (link). it's hard to think in screenprinting terms because things may or may not show up and it is an additive process. seeing that i don't have a painting background which probably most people do in the class, i got a little frustrated with the medium quite quickly.

kim printed on glass and it looked so cool! she then combined her etching stuff with screenprinting and made really awesome prints. she's really talented and a great artist!

i wish i was doing stained glass again so i can print on it. but c'est la vie! i might continue the class 'images on clay' from last semester and print in clay tiles or something. not sure yet. i want to do something that explores my duality as an asian and an american. maybe combining some kind of transparent and coarse paper. it would be interesting to combine my documentary workshop class with screenprinting and impose maps or some other thing on top of the photos? or, printing anatomical images juxtaposing with something... oh the possibilities! there are so many i just don't know what to doooo.

on a different note, my flatmate from romania yelled at me for taking a shower this morning. i didn't know that she was going to take a shower. she was making breakfast. she said that i was inconsiderate and how she had class at 8 am but it was 7:40 when i got in the shower. it gave me a sour outlook for the day. i don't understand her gripe against me. she doesn't know me and i her. she stares at me like i'm some weird animal from some distant world, like everyone else in israel. she is not a nice person.

israel: facts of life

so i've been in israel for a little over a month. it was difficult getting adjusted at first but it's easier now. it isn't exactly smooth sailing but i'll take it. list of things i've noticed. enjoy.

1. everyone in israel smokes. no lie. they smoke after exercising. they light up while drinking, talking, eating, walking, photographing... the list goes on. i think i saw a kid who looked no older than 14 years smoking in the old city. what's up with that? moreover, the packs here are emblazoned with caution signs. so much for that, right? because of this, the most common question is יש לך אש? (do you (f) have fire?) the cigarettes here from what i've gathered are not cheap but they are also primarily bought by people who are rolling their own cigarettes and/or hash. fun times.

2. this is by far the most disgusting one. women and men alike don't seem to realize their asses are hanging out of their pants. literally. there is nothing like getting mooned in daylight. once when i was waiting for a bus after shabbat ended, this guy was opening up his stall across the street. when he squatted, his whole butt hung out. ew. in class, the pants just doesn't seem to stay on. this girl was shoving a pen into this guy's butt crack during a lecture. what the hell. this is just not cool.

3. furthermore on lack of respect of others in public spaces, people pick noses everywhere. on the bus, standing on the street, whatever and whenever. it's like they're thinking, 'oh i have nothing else to do so i'm just going to pick my nose.' what's worse, those boogers don't end up on a kleenex. they end up on the table at a cafe, seat on the bus, window, stone wall, etc. you name it and it's quite possible there is booger residue.

4. being a foreigner is hard, especially when i don't look white. because of this, i've been constantly stared at. quite rudely, actually. i was coming back from the שוק and this orthodox woman was blatantly staring at me, making me uncomfortable and unwelcome. i stared at her but it didn't seemed to matter until my friend, arielle, glared at her. i don't get this staring business. sure, i don't look jewish or israeli or even american for that matter. but the staring? unnecessary! i'm scared to venture into mea shearim because of this. we'll see.

5. haredi jews speak yiddish. when you ask for direction in hebrew or english, both of which they understand, they look at you condescendingly and shove past you. ohhhhkaayyy.

6. israeli men do not know how to keep their hands to themselves.

7. most people drink coffee all times of the day, from morning to late night to early morning. cafes are extremely crowded, more so than a popular starbucks during a busy time. if not coffee, it's tea. the most popular being תה נענע, a black tea with fresh mint leaves. it's incredibly delicious!

8. there is nothing to do from friday sundown to saturday sundown. unless you want to shell out money for a taxi and go to some arab places.

9. american jews (i really don't want to generalize but it's what i've noticed) fear the arabic people. they are afraid to get on arab buses or go into arab neighborhoods. it's rather frustrating at times and annoying. they also seem to think the worse before actually experiencing what it's really like instead of what they've been told. oh, and they also travel in packs.

10. falafel really is the cheapest meal you can get. it's vegetarian and can be healthy depending on the sides you pile into the pita or lafah bread. i've had it so many times, i'm actually getting sick of it. the best one i've had to date is served right outside damascus gate for 6 shek.

11. there is no "true" israeli cuisine. israelis have come from all over the world: europe, asia, northern africa, other middle eastern countries, and america to date. so each culture shows up on the menu. most people think of gefilte fish or matzah ball soup, which is only true to eastern european jewish cuisine. there is malewach, tabbouleh, couscous, etc. if anything, falafel might be heralded by all as a national food.

12. instead of saying 'um', israelis say 'ehhh'. it's actually way more annoying than 'um'. very nasally and obnoxious.

13. i'm picking up the mannerisms of my peers in the exchange program. i will be saying things like an elongated "yes" or "no" for every question. meanwhile, i'll be translating the sentences in my head into hebrew and spewing out random words like בסדר, בדיוק, באמת, לא!, מה?, tzebabah, and i think the list does go on for a few. i really do hope to improve my hebrew while here. but that's hard going!

that's all that i can think of right now.

on a different note, i baked cookies for the first time since i've gotten here. they were pretty successful. three ingredient peanut butter sandies: creamy peanut butter, dark brown sugar and flour. yum. i also started soaking the kumquats in vodka, in hopes that it turns into kumquat liquor. *fingers crossed!*

hebron project

for my documentary workshop class, we are to choose a place on hebron road, it can be the road itself, or the outlaying villages/places and photograph them. for my project, i want to use the road was it was meant to be used: going to hebron. i would like to make a pilgrimage of sorts there, using both arab and jewish buses. along the way, i would get off at certain spots to document the place and the people. it would also be great to photograph from the bus on the journey there. now i know that the west bank isn't the safest place to be but i have the foreign aspect working for me. hopefully, i'll be able to access jewish neighborhoods within the west bank as well as a part of the project. thank god for my holga because i don't know how i'd do this with any other camera.

i don't understand

today, i had my collage class for the first time since school has started. the first time, the teacher cancelled. the second time, i just didn't show up. my excuse: purim. anyways, the class is not what i expected. i thought we were going to do something similar to what people do in camp: draw, paint and glue things to pieces of paper and call it art. how sacrilegious am i? nope. he, gil, wants us to think REALLY REALLY outside the box. think installation and performance art combined with paper-ish products. okay, what? the topic for the next three weeks is crime scene. again, what?? i teamed up with avi and we got a-working. we plan on subverting the crime scene into something banal and absurd. should be interesting, yes? since avi does set building at his art school, we're going to use that to our advantage. woot. today, i imitated a dead person on the ground so avi could trace my outline with masking tape. during the process, he asked me to pose in different positions and took pictures of those. the things i do for art. anyways, while i was laying on the ground, this janitor person walks by and starts talking dirty, saying how sexy i looked on the ground. avi and i are giving each other the "wtf" looks and we start laughing. the janitor thought avi tickled me so he said something along the lines of "ooh... sexy and ticklish..." this made me feel so uncomfortable, especially since i was on the ground. besides that, i have high hopes for this project! it's exciting. :D

later on, i had my documentary photo class. the quality of the work in this class sucks. i am by no means a great photographer who produces awesome prints but c'mon! the teacher makes my blood boil. he is a hypocritical jerk. he says he wants to broaden the boundaries of what documentary photo means and criticizes how the students nowadays are self-absorbed. he is one of those teachers who wants the students to do it his way or it isn't good at all. he wants people to document the israeli-arab/palestinian conflict yet he only wants the israeli point of view. i don't get it. i'm more and more inclined to believe every day that i'm here that the arabs are unfairly treated. i don't know what else i wanted to write but i'm beginning to miss the american way of teaching and support.

efffffff... my life, kind of

today, i had my documentary workshop class that takes place on hebron road that leads into the west bank. the class trekked up and down גיבת המטוס and looked at some amazing landscape views of jerusalem. that place just can't be beat. however breathtaking and awesome the place was, i just can't find something i want to do. i want to observe the israeli-arab interaction but that's kind of hard seeing how the neighborhoods are segregated. it is also hard that i'm not originally from israel so i have no background information of the historical meaning of the place. it's quite infuriating, to be honest. the teacher, yaakov, was very encouraging and told me to think beyond the box and what i'm used to and just photograph what i feel. well then, i feel like making a journey to hebron, the city hebron road leads to. it's going to be dangerous since i will be going into the occupied territories with a camera... and sometimes being a foreigner with a camera is not a good idea, so i've learned. we shall see.

i also got to develop film for the first time today since... march 2008? it's been a while. developing color is going to be a big pain in the ass. everything has to be in the right temperature... the water level has to be right, i have to dump this there, dump this here, blah blah blah. but it was nice working with toxic chemicals. i'm not going to lie: the more toxic the art is, the more i'm intrigued by it and will dip my bare hands into it. speaking of, they wouldn't let me process color bare handed so boo but i got to do b&w with no gloves! i probably shouldn't be so excited about this because my hands are super dry and smell toxic... but it just got me in the photo mood, which is exhilarating! however, the film was not so exciting. they came out crappy. oh well. stupid bulb setting! dammitt! i had some really good shots today.

anyways, sarah invited me over for dinner. we had hamburger patties, mashed potatoes, israeli salad, two veggie dishes of some kind, indian rice, zucchini soup and bread. quite amazing. sarah then busted out mango & passion fruit sorbet. yum! i should host a dinner party soon and show off my awesome cooking skillz. haha. just kidding. but honestly, i need to start exercising or i'm going to put on the weight i've lost!

after dinner, i went salsa dancing! rothberg international school holds weekly salsa dance lessons. it's fun. my first time and i liked it. what i didn't like was this israeli translating condescendingly to be as if i didn't know anything. honestly, that's the one thing that bugs me about israel. i don't care if you have an opinion about how you think i'm some stupid american tourist, just keep it to yourself. don't show off. it doesn't impress me. (so far, only guys have done this to me.) another thing, this really weird looking dude gave me the once over... twice and tried this come hither look on me... what?! no. after the lesson, i danced with joseph and he's an aggressive leader. but the boy can move. :) afterwards, i was asked to dance! haha. it was fun dancing and i might go again next week!

lasly, i think for my pesach break, i'm going to go to egypt and jordan for the first half and travel israel for the second half. i'm going to stick to the middle east instead of eurotripping because i'm here and the middle east is just as, or even more, fascinating and fun than europe. that said, i'm tired so i'm going to bed.

dinner party & בית שאן

kimmy sue invited me over for a housewarming/dinner party at her place. she's a fellow bezalel student who is taking screenprinting with me. she's pretty awesome and super nice! joseph and i made rice pudding for the potluck. when we got there, i met so many people from hebrew university. it was really fun, eating good food, meeting new people, talking and laughing. i met a girl who's studying at USC and we spent quite a while talking about LA. during this talk, i realised that i forgot a lot of los angeles. i mean, i even say that i'm from boston when people ask me where i'm from. haha. she wants me to go back to LA so we can scout out great food and etc. harris, a guy from wash uni at st. louis, brought his guitar and played the harmonica simultaneously. how great is that! also, there were three people named jenny at the party: two jenny's and one jennifer. but whatever.

בית שאן, beit she'an, was the destination for the weekend. it was quite fun despite all the lack of enthusiasm coming from the israelis. anyways, בית שאן is the site of the ancient city of beit she'an-scythopolis and tel-beit she'an. here is a little history provided by the brochure:

settlement first began in the 5th millennium BCE on the tel. in the late canaanite period, the city became the seat of egyptian rule. the israelite tribes did not succeed in conquering canaanite beit she'an. after the battle waged at mt. gilboa, the philistine lords of beit she'an displayed the bodies of saul and his sons on the city walls. the city was later taken by king david, becoming the administrative center of the region during king solomon's reign. the site was destroyed 732 BCE, with the conquest of the norther part of the country by tiglat-pilesser III, an assyrian king. during the hellenistic period, the city known as nysa-scythopolis was founded on this spot. local lore has it that dionysos, buried his nurse, nysa, here and settled the region with this followers. at the end of the 2nd c BCE, the city fell to the hasmoneans and the city became predominantly jewish. as one of the ten cities of decapolis, it became the most important city in northern israel. during the revolt against the romans in 66 BCE, the jewish pop. was murdered by their gentile neighbors. in the byzantine period, beit she'an became largely christian. a wall was erected around the city, with churches and monasteries near it. after the arab conquest, the city declined in prominence and the population dwindled. it continued as a rural settlement thereafter.

עין שוקק

we left bright and early friday morning, caught a bus for the two hour ride to beit. we checked in the hostel there and it was a pretty nice place. we wanted to leave the actual national park for the later half so on friday, the group split up two ways: one for hot springs, the other one for trekking around. guess which group i was in. carla, claire, and i took off to find a kibbutz but instead found a vacation resort that looked pretty swanky. and after two hours of walking, we found עין שוקק. it was so refreshing to dangle our feet in the water after all that ambling about. at the waterhole, there were people playing checkers, swimming, playing guitar, and picnicing. it was very cute. we tried to hitchhike back to the hostel but failed and took the bus instead. haha. the shabbat dinner was amazingggg. did i mention how much i love israeli salad? and hummus? yum. they also served us non-dairy ice cream for dessert. niceeee. we were all antsy so we played games like it was recess time. petra introduced a game called sandokan, a czech game. it was hilarious and fun! basically it involved jumping around and stomping on people's feet. german jan was quite good and we were all scared of him.

today, we walked to the national park. it wasn't that far away from the hostel. it appears that my new friends like charades because before brunch they played. and when we found the first amphitheatre (which they mistook for a coliseum), they acted like gladiators and wild beasts. i had fun being a spectator. i'm not going to elaborate much on the actual national park because it's quite... dull actually. so i'm going to post some highlights.

amphitheatre

gladiator vs lion

view from tel

bath house

hieroglyphs

on a donkey to fight a giant

see? isn't it pretty?

kimmy, jenny, and i went to a little place called yemin moshe today. that area is super gorgeous and i'm jealous of every single person who lives there. yemin moshe is identified by the windmill in its quarters. it's quite an eccentric landmark. the windmill is actually one of the first structures to be built out of the old city, and yemin moshe, the first living space outside the confines. it was part of a scheme developed by sir moses montefiore, an english jewish philanthropist. he wanted to help the jews residing in jerusalem by easing the overcrowding within the walls of the city. montefiore built a block of 24 apartments, a development known a משכנות שאננימ (tranquil dwellings). the windmill was built in 1857 to provide the basis for a flour industry. however, few were willing to live here due to the lack of protection from attacks. a wall was eventually built and the gate was locked at night. the windmill never operated and now yemin moshe is one of the top real-estates in jerusalem.

in other news, i found a pad of paper for 12 sh which is like... 3$. unheard of. i also got... i think 36 eggs for 6$. score! too bad purim is over and back to school tomorrow. this weekend, some friends and i are heading up to בית שאן (beit she'an) for the weekend! and i mistakenly gave my number to some guy... and now he won't stop calling me. gah!

פורימ!

god, i love holidays. not only does school shut down but there are seasonal/holiday goodies that are super delicious and addictive. purim is a celebration of the liberation of jews from the evil emperor haman, who wanted to decimate them and picked a day by drawing lots. this story comes from the book of esther, which is read as a part of the celebration (מגילה). during the reading, children and adults alike hold noisemakers so when the name haman is read, the audience shakes the noisemakers, stomp their feet, or hiss.

in the story, king ahasuerus throws a drinking festival for his provinces. he gets so drunk that he demands his wife, queen vashti to display her beauty for everyone to see. when she refuses, she is beheaded and king ahasuerus orders all the young women to be presented to him so he may pick another wife. among the women was esther, a jewish orphan, who changes her name to disguise her jewish ancestry. the king finds her favorable and picks her to be his wife. soon after, the king appoints haman as his prime minister. when mordechai, esther's cousin, refuse to show him respect, haman plans to kill not just mordechai but every jewish person in the empire. haman receives permission from the king and draws lots to decide on the day. when queen esther hears of this, she throws a party for haman with the king present. they are invited to a subsequent party the next night. that night, the king can't fall asleep and learns that mordechai had saved his life before and wasn't properly awarded. haman enters and the king asks what he should do to honor a man. thinking that the man is the king himself, haman replies that the man should be dressed in the finest clothes and paraded around on the king's horse. haman is furious when he learns the man is mordechai. at the second party, esther reveals to the king and haman that she is jewish and that haman is planning to exterminate her people. haman is hanged and esther and mordechai write a decree in which the jews can defend themselves in an attack. as a result, many attackers and ten of haman's sons were killed.

purim is also considered by some to be the jewish halloween. during the holidays, which can span from 2-4 days depending on the jewish calendar, everybody dresses up and parade around the city center and anywhere. the holiday consists of the megilla reading, sending food gifts to friends, charity for the poor, and a celebration dinner. there is also a saying that 'on purim everything is allowed.' there is also a considerable amount of drinking as one should imbibe until one cannot tell the difference between two sayings in the talmud... or even until one cannot recognize the other.

my favorite party of purim is the hamentaschens. they are these triangular buttery cookies with hidden fillings inside. they are supposed to resemble haman's hat or his ears. people aren't sure which it is. nevertheless, they are yummy and i will be indulging in these for purim!

EDIT: i went to the bezalel's jungle party in some parking lot by givat ram. holy crap, israelis are crazy. i told my suitemate's friend and he told me that what i experienced was not a good israeli party/club scene. i saw lots of guys dressed in womans' clothing and the music sucked. after 00:30, the party turned into some nightmarish trance club with many people in masks. several grabbed me and screamed in my ear. wtf? and i came home smelling like cigarettes and semi-covered in spilt beer. how lovely.

the west bank experience (part 1)

even though israel is "secular", shabbat is taken very seriously. jerusalem is probably the one of the worst places to be on friday night/saturday as a lot of the shops and places shut down and the egged buses stop running. this does not condone fun times. i think the bright sun got to me yesterday because i didn't want to sit around in my room, browsing the internet. i mean, i can do that in the states to my heart's content... but here, i have the chance to do something different and experience things that is not possible anywhere else. soo... i popped open my lonely planet guide and they recommended that on the weekends, people should visit jericho or bethlehem. so being the person that i am, these were just other cities in israel. how mistaken i was. they're located in the west bank, or what is known as palestinian lands. i know there are tons of security and travel warnings against the west bank, but being there changed my perspective.

when you first leave jerusalem, the scenery changes. to me, it seemed less abundant than what i saw in jerusalem. it's a given that the palestinian reality is drastically different than that of the israelis. but that doesn't stop them from being extremely hospitable. my friends and i were constantly rewarded with smiles and exuberant cries of 'welcome' and 'hello!' one even went so far to share his education story with us. they're humble people and it shows. it was just so fascinating to be there because the media goes beyond what's necessary to show this place as dangerous. sure this is my first time, but danger was the last thing on my mind. we arrived to bethlehem quite late so most of the 'tourist' attractions were closed. however, we were invited to an AICafe talk to discuss israel as an apartheid state and how to go about boycotting israel. it was good to get the other side of the discussion because in the states, we (or i at least was) are constantly bombarded with pro-zionist propaganda or some israeli-palestinian peace resolution. but being in the reality, it seemed peace or an establishment of equality is far off.

after the talk, we went to one of the bezalel student's apartment. we cooked vegetable curry and drank arak and talked about social issues of the day and art, of course. then we were further informed about the construction of the wall, which is pretty much finished by today, and the destruction caused by the conflict... mohammed was very frank with us and told us how he isn't allowed to go to jerusalem or israel... and how he was 24 when he saw the ocean for the first time. it's hard not to be emotionally moved by his story. i know that i should get to know both sides thoroughly but what is going on right now is just morally wrong. it's racism and cultural genocide. a bit harsh? i don't know. my friends and i are going to go around the west bank more to talk with the people and get a first hand account of their lives that is suppressed by the media. it's interesting that i went to bethlehem to see the site of nativity and etc and got altogether an experience i never expected.

אני יודא שומ דבר באנגלית

let's see... first off, i'm really excited that i got into the screenprinting class. it was full when i asked the secretary of fine arts but i found out that it's better to go ask the teacher first rather than "officially" registering for classes. the teacher is hilarious. he's an ex-pat from england and tries to make art organic and toxic-free, which is quite a feat. he concocted a recipe for the paint thickener? out of flour, sugar, honey, and lemon salt. he calls it his "ארוחת בקר" meaning breakfast food because it looks like porridge. and he even tasted it in class. afterwards, i had a laboratory tutorial workshop class because i figured i need to learn how to use the lab here since they have a b&w, color and slide processing. however, my mouth turned sour when the teacher asked the class if he could teach the class in english. first of all, i understand that by being here, hebrew will be a constant thing. however, it was unnecessary for the 10 minute discussion of how they don't understand english, which is bullshit because they need to know a good amount of it to get into bezalel. whatever. i asked the teacher if i can take the class as "independent" study and he said it would be alright. cool.

today i had my shabbat class: the sea, the mountain, and the in-between. we met in מודיעין city which is half way between tel-aviv and jerusalem. it's a city that continually grows with new development projects and what not. so our project for the semester would be to find a subject matter in the city and stick with it throughout. my group decided to photograph from high-rises and rooftops of the apartments down into the city. the buildings there look very cookie cutter and like legos. so taking an aerial p.o.v would be really cool especially if we can use a tilt-shift lens or perhaps use a rc helicopter with an attached camera. oh the possibilities!

sarah held a dinner party at her apartment and the food was glorious. we ate and talked politics, philosophy and ate some more and talked about classes and ate some more and talked about movies. the israeli cheesecake is really different. it's really light and fluffy, unlike the american cheesecake. i kind of like it. oh, the kumquats are amazing. yum. next we had tea and sat around talking. it was really fun to get to know people from many parts of the world. and one even busted out a dictionary so she can learn more english. haha.

the weather is getting better... well at least for the weekend. i'm exhausted so sorry for the boring update but it is what it is!

second day of classes

today i had collage and documentary photography. collage was cancelled for today but i didn't find out until i got to class and waited for 30 minutes. however, i did meet a girl named alissa who is from the states delaying the college process. she and i hung out in the library looking at cool art books. i think it was open house day at bezalel because i saw the members of the army walking around the school. thankfully, none of them were carrying guns. i'm sorry but i'll never get used to people my age in a uniform toting a m16. it was the best open house that i've ever been to. first, i think there were art students, or post-bacc students selling cool artsy ware. one was selling a translucent keyboard lamp. one turned white potholders into cute wallets. someone had a rubix cube and made it into a doll thing. a plugin lamp in a can, etc etc. the coolest, i think, was the light bulb soap dispenser. and there was free popcorn and redbull all around. then i had documentary photography. first off, i'm really excited to take this class. reason: the teacher announced that we will be doing stereoscopy photography. OMFGGGG excitementtt! but i have to build a slide bar for it and measure the distance between my eyes so i can take pictures to make them stereo. who cares if the students in the class take really crappy pictures? it's interesting that i can tell the difference between a first year, second year, third year and a fourth year. at smfa that was never really the case. anyways i'm rambling. last thing, i thought i'd be able to take three or four classes... however, i'm taking seven classes and that's barely a full semester. i wish i have enough time to take photo and develop them.

first day of school

today was the first day of school. to count, it's been about 2.5 months after my academic semester ended. so to start school again was a little bit of a shock for me, kind of like freshman year all over again. fun times, man. i had to get up extra early so i can meet with the head of photography department to see if i can take some first year courses. i don't understand why third year students can't take first year courses. what's the stigma? i don't know why there are strict regulations for that. it's bizarre. anyways, he said he would let me take lab tutorial so i can refresh my technical skills in photography. phew. i'll really need it after i got that tour of the lab, but more on that later.

my first class was documentary workshop. basically, this class will never meet inside a classroom but near תלפיות, the industrialized part of jerusalem. the חברון road leads eventually leads to bethlehem and we will walk up and down this road doing our little projects on whatever catches our fancy. supposedly this is a really contested area and strict places for jews and arabs. honestly, why can't people just get along? i'm really excited for this class. surprisingly, i understood most of the hebrew that was spoken in class even though it was 95% in english. people in the exchange program seem so surprised that the teachers here are unwilling to teach the course in english. i mean, a prerequisite to going to a foreign country is that you have some prior knowledge of the language, which isn't to say full fluency. anyways, i'm ready to get on the road and explore this place like no other for the sake of art. it would be interesting to do this project with a holga or a view camera if i can get my hands on one. so fingers crossed. it also means i have tons of researching to do ahead of me. argh.

moving on, the second class was in the animation/video department called photography stills basic. the teacher didn't want to speak in english because it wouldn't be conducive for the class. to be honest, i can see why it is a first year class. the work was pretty sloppy and they weren't able to defend their work very well. it also didn't help that i only understood like 45% of the words spoken. goddamn academic language teaching. it is not helpful in actually using the language in real life. during break, i talked to the teacher saying that the class wasn't worth my time or his so i said thanks and left. phew.

even though it was only two classes, it was really stressful being in a new environment and seeing so many people in such a small building. anyways, the photo lab, right. that place is AMAZING. if i thought the smfa photo basement was awesome, bezalel's has it beat. it takes up an entire floor. we can do C-41 processing which should be interesting since it is very toxic.. haha. they use ilford b&w processing so that means i have to relearn all the processes again. they also process their own E-6 here at the school. awesomeeee! there are two studios if needed. a media stockroom for borrow equipment. it's just really amazing. i also need to find people to see what kind of film they use here in israel because the lighting is different so i need to find something that works best in this situation. i heard ilford hp5 isn't good here but tmax is, which i don't like using. boo. i'm anxious to do some serious art. i can't wait.

a side note: i had a chocolate craving and was at a falafel place that sold some other stuff as well. i picked up the brand elite thinking it was just regular chocolate. oh no, it wasn't. when i bit into it, there was an unexpected sensation running through my mouth. POP ROCKS IN MY CHOCOLATEEE. whattt. surreal. it was bizarre but i think i really like the novelty of it. if you're really nice, i'll send you a bar... if you'd like of course. :)