WHY STUDYING ABROAD IN ISRAEL IS EXCELLENT

FUN – You think there’s no nightlife in Jerusalem? You’re wrong. Ben Yehuda street and the downtown area is filled with more pubs and clubs than you could go to in a year. It’s full of English speaking New Yorkers and Hebrew speaking Israelis.

CULTURE - After the Birthright trip people asked me if I felt more connected to the land. The only reason I had enough courage to commit to studying in Israel for this entire year was because I had seen the land on Birthright. I didn’t necessarily feel “connected” though. Studying here has changed everything. I’ve experienced the culture and understand it now. When a little old lady tells me to move at the supermarket by running her shopping cart into my leg, I just smile and think, “Ahhh, culture.” I am more connected to Israel than ever before.

HEBREW – I have learned a ridiculous amount of Hebrew in just six months. I came in the summer knowing just a bit from Hal’s Hebrew classes at the UO. I now bargain fiercely with salesmen at the market and with taxi drivers in Hebrew and can hold a conversation with Israelis. It’s helped me feel more connected to the land to be able to speak with the locals, and has helped me understand more about spirituality in Judaism. Even if learning a language isn’t exciting to you, learning some Hebrew cannot hurt you. I promise it will strengthen your understanding and identity in one aspect or another.

UNIQUE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES - The school has also taken us on some wild trips.
They’ve taken us outdoor rock climbing outside of Jerusalem, on hikes through the desert, on hikes through the Judean hills, cave spelunking, and to the tropical underwater observatory in Eilat. Don’t forget that Egypt and Jordan are right next door and very accessible. I’ve done both without a significant strain on my budget. How about Turkey? How about anywhere in this half of the world during your six month winter vacation? Not a bad opportunity.

SPIRITUALITY – You’re never forced into it, but if you want it, it’s here. There are new invitations for Shabbat every week. I’ve had dinners in the Old City, and smoked hookah in a sukkah in the Old City. I was at the Wall on the eve of Rosh Hashana when it the square was packed from front to back. I watched a Torah be marched all through the Old City on Simchat Torah with singing and dancing. Did I mention that I get paid to study about Judaism? Whether you embrace it or not, you’re going to be amazed by what you see.

PEOPLE – My first roommates were Canadian, French, and Israeli. In the summer I had classes with Arab students, made friends with a Palestinian and went to his house where his sweet mother served us an amazing lunch. You can’t leave here without becoming more worldy.

ACADEMICS – Did you know that Hebrew University is world renowned? My history teacher can rattle off absolutely any date or number about Israel off the top of his head, my entrepreneurship teacher is a CEO, and my business ethics teacher is a lawyer who’s filing a case against Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, for incitement to genocide. These are amazing professors. There’s an archaeology of Jerusalem class here that takes 12 FIELDTRIPS through the term. Now that’s a nice class.

Did I miss anything? It’s likely. Let me know your questions! Send me an Email.
dakalman@yahoo.com

Dk

By the way – I live on the 7th floor in the dorms overlooking Jerusalem. I've added a picture of a sunset from my window. Come to Israel!

Shalom to everyone,

I’m now on a 6-week vacation from classes.

This weekend was my 21st birthday. To celebrate, we took a trip to Tiberias in the north, one of the four original holy cities. Tiberias is located on the Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee (although there’s no salt). Israel pumps its water to the entire country from this lake.

Our plan was to bike around the entire lake on Saturday. We silly Americans, however, didn’t bother to translate 55km into terms that we understood. It was a 35 mile ride full of surprises. We started with six people, and ended with much fewer. Suzanne, Mira, Ariella, Andrew, Jason and myself were the six.

Suzanne had never learned to ride a bike, so our hostel manager suggested putting her on the back of a tandem. In the morning, however, she woke up very sick, perhaps due to a food poisoning aftermath from earlier that week. She was unable to ride with us. Five people remained.

We set out at 8:30am and it took us half the day to ride about a quarter of the way around the lake. Three hours into the ride we stopped at an intersection to wait up for the people in back. 10 minutes later Mira rode up and told as that she had thrown up. She had ridden to her limit and called for a ride back to the hostel. Four people remained.

Our group’s energy was waning and we continued only for a little longer before stopping for lunch. We sat next to a banana farm and wolfed down copious amounts of pita and humus. After lunch we decided to split up. To stay safe we would create two groups of two: it would be me and Andrew, and Ariella and Jason. Andrew and I set out at a fast pace and the other group kept their own comfortable pace. Now, in a sense, we were down to two people.

Andrew and I made good time for about 20 minutes. Andrew’s recurring knee injury then flared up and put him in considerable pain. Simultaneously, rain started to roll in and we were on exactly the opposite side of the sea from Tiberias. There were no cities around, only farms and a kibbutz here and there. We had 2.5 hours until dark. We decided to push forward.

Although we hadn’t seen any lightning or heard any thunder, the storm decided to place one huge lightning flash directly to the right of Andrew and me. I swear I felt the heat from it and Andrew confirmed that he saw the flash. It was time to find shelter.

Finally we arrived at a gas station. We rested and ate there. An hour later, Ariella and Jason showed up! Now we were four again.

It was Saturday, the day of the Sabbath, so no buses would run until the day was over. We waited until dark and then went outside to the bus stop. Rather than taking a bus home, we ended up coming home with our bikes in a horse trailer full of horse dung. It was quite an adventure!

We’ve returned to Jerusalem and this week I am taking it easy and preparing for next week, when I leave to spend the rest of my break in Thailand.


Danny




I've added some pictures.

The first is Andrew, Myself, Mira, and Ariella with the bikes we rented from the hostel. Jason took the picture.

The last two give an idea of the landscape. The second is banana trees. The blue bags have something to do with harvesting the bananas, but you'll have to ask a banana farmer to find out exactly what.

The third picture is a nice shot of an enormous cactus with Sabra fruit on it. The fruit is tasty if you're able to get to the inside. The inexperienced peeler will end up with plenty of nasty spikes in his or her hands and/or mouth that are worse than stinging nettle.

SALSA DANCING VIDEO -

The International school at Hebrew you conducted a talent show in the fall. I put together a salsa routine and performed with three lovely people. We ended up winning the talent show! Here is the link. Be patient because it may take a bit to load.

http://www.jonahmancini.com/index.php/category/videos/