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.

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.

המישביר is just like macy's except not really

so today i made my trip to the "city" which is funny because it's just a small concentration of shops, restaurants, and random stuff.  i had to buy a comforter, sheets, pillow, etc.  my suitemates told me to go to המישביר because it's just like macy's.  well macy's in the states do not do security checks.  nor is it filled with discount looking stuff.  anyways, it took me an hour to find the stuff only because i'm being super cheap.  the bed set was 119 sh, comforter 159 sh and a pillow for 49 sh.  the pillow was free because there was some buy one, get one free or something.  it seemed rather arbitrary.  the tax is 15.50%!!!!  what the hell!  so i ended up paying around 278 sh which is around 70$, which isn't bad.  the buses here are really weird.  the drivers are semi-rude and want to drive everywhere.  yeaaa.  it's 5.9 sh so it's a little expensive, i think.

everyone here is on finals crunch.  semester just ended a week ago so their tests have started.  i feel like i'm bumming again!  but anyways, i was able to meet sarah, one of my fellow exchangers.  she's pretty cool.  haha.  and my suitemate, eleanor, bought me a hebrew peanut snack ( במבה bamba) because she saw me eating peanut butter and as a welcome gift!  how sweet!  :)

finally, my phone was available for pick up!  yay!  it's a crappy bang up phone but whateverrr.  i can call people now, which comes to a grand total of two people!  hahaha.  

i need to brush up on hebrew...  i'm in way over my head here.  what i am doing here??  i don't know.  hopefully things will get better once school starts.  i kind of want to fly back to the states but won't because i'm stubborn... and also if i do fly back, that means this semester has been a complete bust.  no defeat!