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. :)

food! glorious food!

okay so, i didn't do a lot today.  but i did do something very important: grocery shopping.  it's disgusting what i've been eating for the past five days.  nothing but peanut butter, bread, and honey... throw in some milk and water and you got it.  and maybe some falafel here and there.  there's nothing wrong with peanut butter.  in fact, i love peanut butter, crunchy please.  but i cannot subsist on peanut butter and honey alone.  plus the bread that i got here in the beginning is this "dark diet" bread and it's about 50 calories a pop.  so i wasn't getting much in the way of energy.  

so מיסטר זול it was.  i bought some apples, yum.  lots of pasta.  i got a 500 g bag for around a 1$.  i got some chicken soup mix, tomato soup mix...  since my hebrew class didn't teach me a lot of practical hebrew, i had to guess from the pictures what the contents were.  not fun.  got a box of black tea, oatmeal, more bread and some instant pasta mixes.  haha.  i think i'll be living off of pasta and instant stuff.  hopefully not though.  that would be utterly disgusting.  

when i got back, i made one of the instant pasta things.  it's was rice and noodles in the style of chinese.  i kid you not, that is the literal translation.  it took me a while to work through the cooking directions.  the end result was alright.  i modified it with some ketchup and pepper.  it's funny because ketchup seems to be an essential to an israeli college student's pantry.  my suitemates put ketchup on EVERYTHING.  well ketchup is good.  so i'm not complaining.  the taste to this pasta dish was interesting.  it didn't taste very chinese food-y at all.  oh well.  sarah tells me chinese food here is really bad.  i mean, they serve it in a baguette thing.  what?  i know.

tomorrow, i'm going to go into the city.  i should have bought a lonely planet back home but i didn't.  i also need more socks and still in need of hangers.  my suitemates urge me to explore now because when school starts i won't have time to.  they're really nice.  i'm glad i got this suite.  and talking about school, i saw the curriculum for next semester.  I WANT TO TAKE A LOT OF HISTORY & THEORY CLASSES!  they sound amazing.  for example: ruminations of photography: from walter benjamin to roland barthes, the scream: the liminal locus of artistic & poetic representation, the arist: myth & reality, the body as a symbiotic field, etc.  AH!  but the classes are taught in hebrew, i believe.  so we'll see how that works out.  i'm excited nonetheless.

furthermore, i hate rain!