New Apartment, Polics, Ulpan, and Photos

This past Thursday I moved into my new apartment on Dizengoff. It's a beautiful studio apartment with a small kitchen and bathroom and is furnished with a large couch, big screen TV with satellite, hammock chair, and a couple of tables and chairs. The decor is a bit...out there (and feminine) but pleasant all the same. It has a great view of the Mediterranean Sea and is located near a lot of popular bars and clubs of Tel Aviv. After rearranging the furniture with Assaf we investigated the satellite TV to find it had 500 channels, of which about 450 are Arabic with the remaining 50 being Italian, French, and Polish. There are also a few Christian church stations and at one point I was able to get BBC News and Bloomberg International, but both have since vanished. There are no Hebrew stations. The running theory is that the owner isn't actually paying for a service but just picks up whatever stations are freely broadcasted, something Israel and America aren't really big on. But whatever, it's not's like I came to Israel to sit on the couch all day. Tomer lent me his laptop and I've been able to download Lost, Flight of the Conchords, and 30 Rock which I can then watch on the TV via some cables I picked up today, so the big screen certainly isn't going to waste.

A slightly more pressing setback turned out to be the street noise. I'm right above a very big and busy intersection and the window does extremely little to block out the noise of engines and the horns of passing (angry) motorists. With Israelis' well deserved reputation of being amongst the worst and rudest drivers in the western world, my room has been filled with what seems to be a near constant horn that no fan or TV white noise has been able to block out. Sara was quick to point out that, having lived in NYC the past 3 years, I should be used to this. Cars driving by, yes, constant horns, no. Fortunately the ear plugs I picked up before leaving do a great job of blocking out sounds. Unfortunately, so far I've had a rather talented knack for pulling them out of my ears in my sleep, only to wake up shortly there after. Oh well, better to get used to sleeping with ear plugs in the comfort of my own apartment then above a snorer in a hostel somewhere in South East Asia.

My neighbor is a girl from Ashdod who's house was hit by a rocket shot from Gaza. The Israeli government is paying for her to stay here in Tel Aviv while they rebuild her house. You don't go very far here without some reminder of the conflict going on less than 100 miles away. It's been interesting to hear the perspectives from those who live here. I've found a common theme of futility and bitterness towards the outside world.

"Hamas has been shooting rockets into this country every single day for EIGHT YEARS," one friend exclaims, "I'd like to see how long any other country puts up with that." Others want to know why the world media expect the IDF to operate flawlessly without causing any collateral damage or civillian casualty whereas they never highlight the fact that the IDF do both telephone call blasts and drop pamphlets over intended strike areas warning civilians to get out before hitting a target. There's been a lot of talk from those involved that the actual number of deaths from the Gaza offensive is 600, not the 1,300 the media is reporting, and that only around 50 were civilians. A few people I've talked to are planning on voting for the relatively unknown Avigdor Leiberman, leader of the extreme nationalist party Israeli Beitaynu, in the upcoming election for prime minister. His campaign slogan is "No Loyalty, No Citizenship" and is claiming that all citizens be required to take an oath of loyalty to the country. In a world where most anti Israel advocates are merely uninformed I respond that what Israel needs is better PR, not a leader who comedy programs compare to Stalin. But again, the sentiment I pick up is that this is futile, "people will always come up with a reason to hate the Jews. No PR will change that."

In less depressing news, I took the Ulpan Hebrew placement exam yesterday and start classes tomorrow morning. After taking the written exam I had an oral exam with an instructor who was confused by my results. She said most students are able to converse in Hebrew but have horrible written and grammar skills. I'm just the opposite, but I already knew that. I can conjugate like it's my job but put me on the street and I'm constantly saying "Ach omrim bih ivrit..." ("how does one say in Hebrew..."). She's putting me in a lower class than the exam would dictate in order for me to improve my conversational skills and told me to switch up if I got bored. The class meets Monday through Thursday from 9am to 12:30pm and I signed up for one month. Because I'm an Israeli citizen, there was some talk about getting me some paperwork from the Absorption Ministry that would make the lessons free until someone else in the class pointed out that, "there's this small issue of required Army service" that would make free Hebrew classes not really worth the savings. I haven't been in a class room in three years so I'm a little nervous but also looking forward to having a reason to get up early, a place to meet new people, and, you know, learning Hebrew.

And finally, I've posted a lot of pictures on Facebook of my first two weeks in Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv, as well as my weekend visits to family in Tiberius and Nahariya. They're visible to friends only. I'm in the process of uploading the complete set in full resolution to Picasa Web Albums and will share those out to family and friends as requested as soon as they finish (it's been taking HOURS). Here's a preview for you:


Looking through these photos reminds me of something Jenna told me about how when stressed out she reminds herself that she lives in a land of palm trees and a tropical climate, with a beach blocks away, and then whatever was on her mind doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore...