it's 9 PM; why are you still here?

today was a pretty good day, despite the fact i didn't get to enter temple mount and that i was detained for 30 minutes because i, stupidly, brought an x-acto knife in my backpack to the western wall. it just proves that i'm not yet used to the lifestyle here. and it's illegal to carry a knife in israel.. what? but i'm an art student! anyways...

this weekend, i kind of did what the people do and rested the entire weekend. i slept day in and day out all of friday and saturday. i kid you not. it was marvelous!

the israel culture class wasn't as interesting as it normally was, as we explored the kotel and the jewish quarters. maybe i just wasn't in the mood after dealing with the whole knife fiasco. honestly.

some pretty alley way in the jewish quarter
remains of the broad wall and map behind it (jewish quarter)
um, i actually have no idea what this is; it's pretty, though.
after the class, i went to prisma to pick up my photos from my fisheye. OH MY GOD. i love this camera. thank you mark! it might just be beginner's luck but i got some amazing shots from it and i don't even remember half of the shots. hrm. also, my baby (nikon d60) is clean and ready to go. woo. kimmy and i got some food to go at moshiko's which serves pretty damn good falafel. afterwards, we trekked back to bezalel to do some work before break and classes.

avi and i've been working on this project for about 3 weeks now. we didn't even start til last week. oh dear. but it's coming along fabulously, if i do say so myself. it's a collage/installation on a crime scene. avi and i are trying to do something absurd with it and i think it's working. i think that because of this project, i'm becoming the crazy art girl who does everything the hard way. yea. and what is the deal with kicking everyone out at 9 pm. what is this?! how do they expect us to get any work done with only 3 hr class periods while taking 7-9 classes throughout the week. you are insane, bezalel. i also do not like being nagged by police officers. i was on such a good working mood too.

that's all i really have to say, so here are pictures of the upcoming work:

avi made this metal structure
in a different location
this is my corner. i like it. it's my baby.

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.