| damn...too long since the last |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|12:23 am] |
So, livejournal tells me I haven't posted in 52 weeks. So, I guess aside from all of the facebook and twitter updates, I should actually write sometime of substance.
So, summer is officially here in Israel. The temp is rising nearly to 40 and I think I might die! The AC is on more and more now. And the jellyfish are out in full force as well at the beaches now! oooo fun!
Time is counting down here in Israel though. I still haven't found a job yet and the working visa is still out of my reach. So, I'm heading back to the US for a while to redefine my goals and approach Israel from a different angle. It is not a failure, but a readjustment. I have thought a lot about conversion, and at this point I am ready to go ahead with it. I'll go back to NY, convert and then come to Israel as a citizen.
This is the next big step.....hooray, let's get to it! |
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| new beginnings |
[Jun. 19th, 2008|07:36 pm] |
So, I am back in NY at the moment. I'm here for a 2 month vacation to fulfill some social obligations and then it is back home to Tel Aviv.
The past couple months I have finally started to regain my confidence. I have come back to NY a new character, more ready to take on the world again. I have met some great people in the last couple months that reassured me that everything will be ok and that I will make it. As I become more and more comfortable with my position the more I realize that I can lead a normal life. I don't have to worry so much anymore. I think at some point I will want to start seeing a therapist about all this. It is wonderful that I am able to talk to select friends and have their support, but I also just need to vent and figure some things out that I'm just not getting yet.
I have also found someone who is just absolutely amazing. His name is Gur. He treats me with respect and love. That is all that I ask for. He's a wonderfully smart guy with a great future ahead of him. I hope that things really work out with him. I'm confident that they will.
Academic work at TAU is finished and now I just have to write all of my papers. I can't wait to start all of that crap...ugh. And wow, I need to find a job in Tel Aviv nearly as much as I could use a hole in the head. HA! Oh well...hopefully something will pop up and I'll be able to find a job. I need one ASAP so that I can begin saving up some money for October. The lease on my apartment is up then and I would like to renew the lease under my name only. My one roomate is moving out with him gf and the other one will most likely attempt to stay in the apartment with me...but, I have preempted him and told the lawyer handling the apartment that I do not want him living with me under any circumstances whatsoever. I want the apartment to myself and that is that! I can't deal with the constant cleaning up after people all the time and the stupid crap that he pulls at all hours during the day. The cigarette smoke and anti-social behavior is the worst though. Ugh...
Tel Aviv Pride was an absolute blast! :-) what could be better than thousands of gay men dancing on the beaches in Tel Aviv to Ivri Lider singing and drinks flowing!?!? Nothing I tell you, nothing.
My birthday was a couple days ago and wow what a day it was. I spent most of the day scrubbing my apartment clean...lol. Nearly the entire day actually. But at night, I had a wonderful party at my house for about 25 people. We drank tons of wine and vodka smoothies and ate all kinds of snacks and my famous casserole! Dror brought a special mixed CD for me and that really set the mood. Ron brought the best gift ever...an electronic bread maker! I made a loaf a couple days later with it. The machine is amazingly simple to use. My first loaf was banana nut bread with a pinch of nutmeg. :-)
The flight home was great. The Israeli customs control didn't even notice that my student visa was 1.5 months expired...hahaha! It was one of the most pleasant security experiences I have had thus far...straight through all the lines with no problems at all. The new terminal in London where I connected is a massive, bit of a pain in the ass. Terminal 5 is huge...like woah! Impressive in its' own right, it is decked completely in glass. However, getting about in it requires a lot of walking, train rides, escalators, elevators and conveyor belts. IE...too much! The flight from London to NY was surprisingly quick...5.5 hours.
We celebrated Erik's birthday yesterday. We didn't really celebrate in the sense of the word. We just lounged about the house most of the day and went out for a late lunch. That was about it. Later today however, we are heading upstate to the cabin for an Estonian shin-dig of sorts. Members of Erik's family are coming in and will spend the weekend partying at the cabin. It should be fun. Unfortunately, it means that I will miss Ed's bachelor party in NYC, but I think that is for the best. I'm not much of a macho straight man here and wouldn't exactly fit in with the crowd. I think I will have more of a better time at Megahn's party.
Ok...enough for now...time to throw in a load of laundry and get ready for the trip upstate! :-)
NYC Pride next weekend! It is going to be a blast. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 3rd, 2008|01:11 am] |
haven't updated in months...ages in fact. The last year has been a serious life changer. Even more recently, my life has taken some serious turns...in some ways for the best and other ways for the absolute worst.
January in NY was a difficult time. It was good to see family and friends, but was also much harder in many other respects. I had to face some new factors in my life that will stay with my forever now. I'm adjusting as well as possible and have managed to avoid the depression of it all for the most part. Broken down a couple times and just cried for hours, but then again, I guess that is kind of healthy instead of bottling it all up.
Coming back to Tel Aviv, my home was such a good feeling. I have met so many new people this semester as well. I managed to land myself a job as a Personal Assistant to a world renowned Concert Pianist, Daniel Gortler. He's a ton of fun to work with and has become somewhat of a confidant as of late.
I've been sort of seeing someone...finally. Over a year and I have now gone on several consecutive dates with the guy and we now spend a lot of time together. We're in a bit of a stall at the moment, we're not progressing forward anymore, which is understandable. He has a lot of things to consider now that we have leveled with one another. But oh well, what will be, will be.
Met someone last night, and that was a ball of fun. We had been talking for a very long time and finally met up. We enjoyed dancing for a couple hours at the party.
I'll be back in NY for a couple months during the summer and then I am making my way back to Tel Aviv to live out the rest of my life. I realize now that this is my home and I can't see myself living anywhere but here. This city is the perfect fit for my lifestyle, my pace and my needs. My needs are beginning to weigh a lot into what I decide in life. I know that I can get better care here in Israel than I can in NY. So here I am, loving life and living it out to its' fullest. |
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| Ottoman Paper is back! |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|07:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Ben Yosef | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
Welll...I finally got my Ottoman History term paper back. I did ok...an 82. It's a respectable grade I think. The professor wrote the following comment: "This is a good paper, although very traditional: high politics, diplomacy, military. Our class however tried to recreat Ottoman realities from the bottom-up." So now I know not to write a 'traditional' paper. I'm satisfied though. To be honest, I wrote the paper very last minute and right before the deadline, so for as quick as I slapped it together, it came out pretty good. I think this paper counted as one of my required long papers, so it's good that I have one out of the way. I wrote on "The Gallipoli Campaign: Final Triumph of a Dying Empire" :-) It was a great subject to write about. The Gallipoli Campaign is one of the most famous theatres in WWI. So with that out of the way and a satisfying grade in, I'm more confident about the rest of my work here.
The weekend is finally here and with any luck on Sunday or Monday I will have a new lease on the apartment and with even more luck, a new roommate :-) |
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| after 36 weeks...finally an update HAHA |
[Nov. 5th, 2007|03:13 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Ben Yosef | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  busy | ] |
Well, it has been 36 weeks since I last updated my blog...so I guess I will give a quick run-down of things. I finally posted the long lost Ukraine blog. What an amazing trip that was. School finished in June, and then I took the summer intensive Arabic class...I passed it by the skin of my teeth, but whatever...I passed it. I was more than happy to have done that at least. I finally moved out of the student dorms and into a nice apartment in Ramat Aviv Gimel, just north of the university. I have given it my magic decorating touch, and it's looking pretty spiffy now :-)
August 14th my step cousin, Spc. Steven R. Jewell was killed in a helicopter accident in Iraq. I didn't know him that well, but my cousin, who is in the Navy took it pretty hard. She spent a lot of time with him when they were both state side. I guess there was nothing that could have really been done...it was an accident and could have happened anywhere. Life goes on I suppose. My other cousin, Mark, is currently in Iraq, and has stepped up his involvement. He used to be a base communications specialist, but is now doing special helicopter runs all over Iraq. They go up in the helicopter and drop in on cars on the road and perform surprise searches for weapons, etc. It's def. more high risk than sitting in front of a radio. My other cousin, Joleine starts an eight month tour on the USS Truman starting in December. She's happy to go.
The rest of the summer was uneventful for the most part. I spent lots of time at the beach and swimming at the pool. The high holidays in September were pretty cool. On Yom Kippur, the entire state of Israel shuts down completely. The cities become 'bike cities'...everyone comes out and rides their bikes on the roads. So I took a nice long ride on the Ayalon Freeway :-) It was a fun experience. I should like to see NYC shut down like that for a day.
The other night I attened the Memorial Service for PM Rabin, who was assasinated at a Peace Rally in Tel Aviv in 1995. 150,000 plus people came to the service. It was a sombering experience, and gave me hope that people are still interested in creating peace in the Mid-East without going to war. So that is the quick run down of my life over the last 36 weeks. Starting the 4th week of school now and really can't wait for this semester to be over already...haha
I promise I will update more often from now on!!! |
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| long lost Ukraine blog! |
[Apr. 26th, 2007|03:12 pm] |
So, I left for Ukraine this morning at 6am. Going through Ben Gurion Airport was easier than usual this time round. I had a 4 hour layover in Budapest which was beyond boring. Not to mention that everyone in the airport was smoking. I got on the flight to Kiev smelling like an ashtray. Oh well I guess. We’re about 40 minutes outside of Kiev…my excitement has been growing ever since I left Tel Aviv. I broke down yesterday and bought a travel book for Ukraine. I’ve read through most of the book and am finding myself bombarded with so many things to do on my week long trip.
Arrived at the airport earlier a little bit late and made my way through customs with no problem….other than the long wait. I purchased a SIM card so I have some degree of safety when I’m walking around the city. The hostel provided a driver for me at the airport for a ‘small fee’. He was very helpful though. He gave me the basic breakdown of how the money works and where I can catch the metro, etc. The hostel is pretty crappy…lol. It is in the northern district of the city on the other side of the city. It is one of the worst districts in Kiev. I was warned by the front desk to be careful in the bazzare down the street and when walking around at night! Lovely!!! So, before it got too dark out, I took a walk down the main road from my hostel towards the city. I made it to the river bank and then turned around. Walking to the city center from the hostel is not an option…walking briskly it took me almost an hour to rear the river bank, and the city center would be about another hour to walk….uphill. So, I will have to do with the train for now. The train system here in Kiev is rather impressive. It covers most of the city and the outlying districts. The trains are crowded, but clean and efficient…and cheap! The US dollar is pegged at about 5 gryznia. The gryznia is further broken down into kopeks. The train costs one half kopek in each direction….ie, about 10 cents for the train. That is def. the cheapest public transportation fare I have ever seen. It is rather enjoyable. I will take the train into the city center tomorrow and start my site seeing.
I have a roommate! He is an older man of Lebanese origin. His wife and family are still there. It was a little odd at first, because I didn’t know exactly how he would take me being a student in Israel. So, I took the risk and told him…he had no problem with it. Apparently his employer is based in Brookyln and of the Jewish faith…so all is well. He travels all over the gulf and Ukraine purchasing and distributing various agricultural products for his employer. On this trip, he is buying pumpkin seeds here in Ukraine and arranging to have them sent to the UAE. One thing to understand about the Middle East is that the kiosks dotted all over the cities sell various nuts and seeds in great quantity. Ukraine has plenty of agricultural products to offer as well…24% GDP is agriculture. They are a good healthy snack on the go. In any case, his name is Jacques. It was nice to have a conversation in English…even though I have only been here a little bit, it was my first contact with another English speaker. Almost nobody thus far speaks English. But oh well, I will get by just fine I suppose. I did the obligatory dumb American tourist move and went to a McDonalds tonight for a snack and asked the lady the usual ‘Do you speak English?”…lol…at least I didn’t do it with a Texan accent.
Taking the train into the city today to do some site seeing.
Today was a good day to be a tourist in the central city. I could take tons of pictures without sticking out like a tourist. There was some kind of street festival in Independence Square today. Antique cars, police demonstrations, give aways, new imports, etc. It was a fun day. I climbed to the top of the St. Sofia church bell tower today. The view was pretty good from the highest point in the tower. I could see all of Kiev, and could see the districts past the river. The ‘Great Golden Gate’ of Kiev is not so great, and not so golden. It was kind of a depressing sight, certainly not one of the main attractions in Kiev. I hope the painting Mussorgsy saw was much more impressive…otherwise, I don’t see how one could write a symphony about it with such pomp and grandeur. I have had to forego my vegetarian diet while here. After several hours of searching, I have not found any resteraunts with vegetarian items on the menu besides regular garden and Greek salads. So, for the first time in forever, I have been forced to eat meat. I have tried to stick to light meals like chicken. So we’ll see what happens from here. I will certainly enjoy going back to Tel Aviv and eating gobs of vegetarian food there….<--a comment I never expected to make…ever! I am finding it very difficult to find internet connections here in the city. I have chosen several random spots which would logically have wireless internet connections floating about, but have thus far had very little luck. I guess Ukraine is not wired quite as much as the ‘western’ nations. Only 17 years out from Soviet iron fisted rule is a viable excuse I do suppose. Although, if one were to judge this society by the cars on the streets, it would certainly be a mixed reaction. There is everything from Mustangs, to Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Fiat…the works…not to mention incredibly old cars dating to the Soviet days. The classic boxy cars that were only produced in the USSR…and apparently the only thing in the USSR built to last forever. The police here in the city even have several of those old boxy things running around. Ok…time for some more walking…it was starting to rain a little bit earlier, hopefully it will hold off until I get back to the train.
Haha…I stumbled upon the statue of Lenin today on my way back to the train station. It was an interesting surprise…when I consulted my guide book it says that this particular statue, very modest in nature, is the only remaining statue of Lenin in Kiev. Despite the nice experience I am having thus far, I am thinking about heading back to Israel a couple days early…3 to be exact. I am really excited about seeing Chernobyl, but I also feel bad about missing so much school. A week off from Arabic and Hebrew might kill me, and since I have no internet access, I can’t work on my Arabic homework online. There is also the issue of the language barrier. Even though Kiev is the capital city, there are not very many English speakers at all. I really should have thought about this more before I decided to come…lol, but I thought it would be a little easier than it has been considering I in Kiev. But alas, it is not. Oh well I suppose. I have to call Malev Airlines on Monday to see what kind of changes I can make to my flight schedule. I don’t think there will be a major problem, the flights that I took here weren’t full, so I expect the flights to Israel won’t be all that full either now that Pesach is over. I talked to a couple friends back in Israel today on the phone. Btw, recharging a SIM card here is a pain in the ass. Too many step involved! Wanted to let Sarah know that I made it here in one piece. So we talked for a couple minutes and then I gave Roei a call. He’s sooooo cute. We have also had some short SMS convo’s. I must say, for as young as he is…he is one of the most put together and mature people I have ever met. He knows exactly what he wants to do with his life, and his goals are totally within his reach. I wish him the best of luck in everything that he does…I look forward to seeing him when I get back next week or whenever I get back.
I think tomorrow I am going to take the less trodden path and walk through the various parks in the city. I don’t want to poke around too much through the city on a Sunday, and it seems that any European/Slavic city that I go to…the churches are some of the main attractions. Yes, they are nice and they have amazing stories involving their construction, but they are not the only thing that makes the city attractive. When everyone goes to Paris, they must see the Eifel Tower and the cathedral. Milan..go shopping and then go to the cathedral. Tours, go to the cathedral. Jerusalem…look at the churches. Suddenly I feel like an international church tourist.
This lack on internet is killing me. Seriously…I’ve now gone almost 36 hours without internet and I’m dying. I need to learn Ukranian or Russian overnight and make some serious money wiring this city. It has to happen at some point…there are advertisements for computers and Windows Vista everywhere you look…so eventually people will want to start using their fancy new toys everywhere they go. The US is even far behind the curve on internet. In the big cities there are plenty of cafes that offer internet and you can usually pick up on unlocked wireless, but nothing is really wired for public access. San Francisco is the first city to experiment with citywide access. Other places are way ahead though. Tokyo is a ‘Mecca’ of wireless signal. Ahh…I would fit right in there. Despite my love for the great outdoors and wild adventures, I am addicted to the internet. What would I do without it?? On a daily basis I read five newspapers online and I have to check e-mail (I can’t wait for the number of junk messages I have when I get back to Israel), Facebook, and MySpace and the occasional interesting message on Atraf. Then there is my addiction to messengers. AOL AIM and MSN. I used to never use msn, but now I have a growing number of friends here in Israel that all use msn…not to mention a lot of people in my program that use it as well. (Finally, the teenagers downstairs have stopped playing music. They have a ‘rock band’ that, I swear, starts playing in the morning around 9ish and doesn’t stop until after sundown. Crazy crazy people.) O.K….I need more food. I think I’ll risk the bazaar at night and get some snack for myself. Back in a flash!
Success!...I managed a bottle of water and some vanilla flavored crackers…lol. It’s the perfect food for me! Ok, goodnight.
Well, today I had quite the day. Instead of parks, I found myself in the old city an wound up at the WWII monument. The monument was only recently built, but still has that 1950’s Soviet grandiose feel to it. The most impressive piece of the monument is ‘iron tits’…a 62 meter tall polished statute of a woman holding a sword and shield imprinted with the hammer and sickle. It is an impressive sight and can be seen from most angles within the city. It sits atop one of the highest points in the city overlooking the river. There are many impressive statutes and sculptures around the property, and a massive WWII/Soviet war vehicle display. The piece that caught my eye immediately was the Soviet Mobile Intercontinental Ballistic Nuclear Missile launcher. Woah! From there I walked back into the center of the city…anddddd…I found the internet station! The only place that provides solid internet access in the city is at the post office. You pay $10 an hour to use the computers. The connection wasn’t fast enough for me to do much, so this journal will be loaded when I get back to Tel Aviv. Okk…time for bed...Chernobyl in the morning!
Well, my day in Chernobyl is a complete mixture of emotions and feelings. To start, I woke up in the morning with a high fever and an incredible migraine complete with back pain and muscle cramps. Lovely. The drive to Chernobyl was about 2 hours. It was nice to see the country side and dozens of villages along the way. Ukraine is truly a beautiful country. Miles and miles of rolling pastures and wheat fields line the roads for as far as you can see. The road however was not so nice…it was something similar to a roller coaster ride. When we finally arrived in Chernobyl I met up with my guide and we made our way straight to the reactor building. Once on sight, we met up with an international representative who took me through the process of the accident and the past 21 years of clean-up and international initiatives to stabilize the crumbling sarcaphougus surrounding the destroyed reactor. Well, my fever and headache caught up with me at this point and I started to go dizzy and had to sit down. What an embarrassment. After 10 minutes or so I regained my strength and we continued with the presentation and then ventured outside to take some pictures of the reactor building. I was standing less than a football fields length of the reactor building…the site of the worst nuclear accident in human history. Amazing. I had waited years for that moment. I couldn’t believe I was standing there in that very spot. Radiation levels near the reactor are higher than normal but it was within acceptable limits…so there was no real harm to me. A day spent in the exclusion zone today exposes people to about the same amount of radiation as a trans-Atlantic flight from New York to London. So, no worries.
After leaving the reactor area we made our way towards the abandoned city of Pripyat. In 1986, it had a population of 50,000 people. Built from scratch just 20 years earlier for the employees of the power plant and their families, it was the epitomy of the model Soviet city. No churches, a large central square, massive apartment complexes, wide avenues, a ministry of art and culture, sports centers, etc. The residents of the city were ordered to evacuate just after the accident on the 26th of April, 1986. They were told that they would be able to come back in 3 days after the nuclear clean-up had been completed…this was to prevent people from going into mass hysteria and attempting to cart off all of their belongings and such. With provisions only for 3 days, the evacuation was carried out much faster. We walked through the city and entered several buildings. It was strange to see this massive city completely abandoned. The schools still had all of their books on the shelves. It was an incredibly sobering experience. We walked to the top balcony of the central hotel…from here we could see the entire city and the power plant looming in the distance. In a back room of the art and culture center there were dozens of large banners and portraits meant for the May Day celebration. Since religion was banned in the Soviet empire, people could not openly celebrate Easter, so instead they celebrated the first day of May. All the preparations were made for the parade, and it never happened. The amusement park was set to have it’s grand opening that same weekend..instead it lays idle..the ferris wheel and bumper cars rusting in the cool breeze. From the central square one can see the two tall buildings of the Soviet Party Headquarters and the Ukrainian Socialist Party Headquarters. Everything about the city is based on Soviet design…right down to the decorations on the street lamps.
Seeing that city made me realize something about my studies of terrorism. While the cause of the nuclear release over northern Ukraine was an amazing sequence of stupidity..the results of the accident are the same as a dirty bomb attack. Radiological material is spread over vast amounts of land…contaminating the soil and water, and thus making it uninhabitable possibly for decades. It is one thing to see scenarios played out on TV…but to walk through the real thing…it’s a totally different experience. The BBC produced a film a couple years back that played out a major dirty bomb attack in London…the end credits of the movie showed major sections of London completely abandoned. Previously, I couldn’t have imagined walking through say, NYC and seeing empty street after empty street.
Back from Chernobyl, I am so miserable. I have called the airline and changed my flight to tomorrow in the morning. If I get any worse, I want to be in Israel with doctors that I trust. Laying down for now….hopefully I can break this fever.
Waiting in the airport Got’ta love it. I found out that I have a long layover in Budapest. If I’m feeling o.k, I’ll take some time and explore the city. I have heard that it is a beautiful place.
Budapest is beautiful! Kiev was cold and kind of grey, but! Budapest is warm and all the flowers are blooming…ahhhh, I should have come here first. I have about 6 hours to explore the city…let’s see how much ground I can cover. I’ll head to the airport about 2 hours before my flight. Malev doesn’t require its’ passengers to show up so early like all the other airlines in the world. It is a nice change not to wait in lines for hours on end.
So, I am finally back in Israel. Getting back here has been a pain in the ass. I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport around 3am….tired, sick and irritable. The woman at passport control was a complete bitch. She started yelling at me because I have been using my tourist visa to enter the country. She had a huge problem with me being a student without a student visa. Israel allows students to study on their tourist visas as long as they continue to renew the visa every 90 days. This woman however didn’t agree with that. Apparently ‘SHE writes the laws’…not the state of Israel. So after 20 minutes of listening to this woman scream at me, she finally let me in the country…but only for 30 days! What a bitch. So now I have to truck it downtown and deal with the beaurocratic mess of getting a student visa at the Ministry of the Interior. Lovely, eh? Ok, back to bed…I’m still sick and I think I’ll skip classes for the rest of this week so I can get better. This has been an amazing week! |
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| space ball! |
[Feb. 22nd, 2007|11:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | hotel room, Milan | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | BBC World News | ] |
Well, Milan is absolutely amazing. I spent the whole day in the city today and took a ton of pictures. I'll get some more tomorrow! I'm heading out to a gay club tonight to see how the scene here is. :-)
and.....I just can't wait to get back to Israel where the Defense Minister, Peretz has made a show of stupidity better than good ole' GW Bush...he went to a high profile observation of military games with the new Cheif of the Army, and watched with careful attention through his binoculars with the lens caps firmly in place!!!
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| airport |
[Feb. 20th, 2007|03:04 pm] |
Well, I'm at JFK Airport waiting for the ticket counter to open. My grandmother and I drove down this morning from Liberty just before 10am. It was a nice drive and it gave us a chance to catch up on lost time. She is a wonderful and loving woman. I really enjoy my time with her. We got to JFK with relative ease...a couple wrong turns here and there but nothing major. So at about 12:30, she pulled away from the terminal on her way back to Oshkosh, WI. I'll be in Milan before she gets home. My flight doesn't leave until 5:55, but we had to come down early or else she would have been stuck in horrible NYC rush hour traffic for hours. I have kept myself entertained with my laptop and an electric outlet that I luckily found to keep myself going for so long. My laptop battery is really is bad shape, it lasts maybe an hour and then craps out. I've exchanged lots of e-mails and finally wrote down the driving directions to my hotel in Milan...lol. The Malpensa airport is kind of far from the city center....29 miles to be exact. My hotel is on the other side of the city so hopefully I won't get lost. I checked the car rental company and they have Smart cars! I think they are the cutest cars ever! In any case, I'm sitting here and the floor is not all that comfy, but I'll survive. This gives me time to organize myself and do some online research. You know, I still haven't written my papers yet..oh well. I have plenty of time to write them I guess. Alitalia takes soooo long to open their check-in counters. They only have one flight per day out of each airport to Milan. I do have to say, I will never fly Alitalia again. I'm now a comitted Lufthansa passenger. Lufthansa is such a great airline. Great in flight service and they have wireless internet on all their trans-atlantic flights! So when I get good battery power, I'm able to keep myself beyond entertained while in flight. :-)
Ok, I'm going to see if the ticket counter is finally open...more to come in a bit! |
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| my break-up and the world falling apart |
[Feb. 17th, 2007|03:52 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | my office | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | vexed | ] |
Well, I really can't wait to go back to Israel. I have been home for a month and in all...eh, I like Israel better. I just hope the Arabs don't rip Jerusalem apart before I get back. A religious leader called for an Intifada yesterday to protest the Israeli decision to start digging near one of the ancient gates to the Temple Mount. The gate is precariously close to the Al-Asqa Mosque on the Temple Mount and Arabs around the world have been claiming that the Israeli's are preparing to undermine the foundation of the mosque and begin work on the construction of the third temple. Now that would be an explosive situation! Anyone remember the last two intifada's?? Mass violence, suicide bombings up the wazoo...not good. Let's hope a third doesn't break out.
My month home has been defined by the nasty break-up with Marc. I have many things to say and I don't really know where to start with it all. I broke up with Marc the second day I was back and from there things got even worse and worse. We had many fights and every time we talked it was just horrible. I was the one who broke up with him, so automatically I would be demonized and blamed for the all the problems and breaking his heart, etc etc. Well, let me say this, I'm sorry and I know he cared for me and at the same time I know know that my decision was the right one. I seldomly regret my decisions and have certainly made much larger decisions in my life (West Point, moving out of the country). I wanted to give Marc plenty of space because I know he was hurt, and I was hurting inside too. I mean, I moved away from home and all my friends and lost some friends along the way and so I don't have someone to just go and hug or talk face to face with about how I'm feeling. I have to talk to people online and the lack of emotions online makes it even harder. He has all his 'friends' to talk to. Now, his friends....he used to tell me how he didn't like hanging out with them anymore because they were superficial and that he wasn't interested in their games anymore. One person in particular I wasn't fond of at all,...in fact I flat out just didn't like and Marc knew this quite well. So, the first night we get back, Marc couldn't wait to go to this guys party and see what it was like. Bullshit. He knew exactly what the party was going to be like, and he knew that all of his 'friends' would show up to the party. They go in this big crowd. Now, I get along with most of his friends although I always got the feeling that they didn't like me or were afraid to talk to me because I 'm sure they all knew how jealous Marc got when other people were around me. So, I could never talk to them or hang out with them without Marc getting all flustered. Ok, so we go to this place and the first thing he does is call this guy to get us in for free and then couldn't wait to drag me around talking to his 'friends'. He knows that I don't like that one guy and yet he insisted on going to that club. So he didn't think at all..and especially after I had just flown half way around the world and hadn't slept in almost 36 hours. The next night, I still wasn't happy to be around him and I knew what had to be done. I sat down with Marc and it took me a long time to get to the point. We broke up. That night he got incredibly drunk...great way to deal with emotions...and the next day I left with Erik to go upstate. Erik and Marc had a big blow-out the night before and when we left they spoke for the last time. Erik and I are great friends and I have no problems with him. Well since I have been demonized...I can go all out here. Marc lends himself to be criticized and he doesn't defend himself. He just gets flustered and walks out on people. The smallest things upset him and he shows it to everyone. So people feed on it and it just makes it worse.
I'm not saying that I'm a better person or anything like that. Marc just lets people get under his skin so much easier. I can't continue this rant or I'm just going to be nasty. I'm fed up with all this crab and going back to Israel is going to be great. I'm looking forward to Milan in a couple days. Hopefully I will get to see some friends before I go. I asked my friend Bryan if he can take me to the train station so I can get to the airport. We'll see what happens. Originally I was supposed to stay at Erik's house but he's stuck in Florida because JetBlue fucked things up. Ok, I'm done for now. And in our final convo. today he asked me if I was upset with how we ended our relationship and that we would probably never see each other again...so...my answer, no I didn't have a problem with how we broke up because I sat down with him and we talked face to face...and only the future will tell wether we see each other again or not. So he said, goodbye then and I said 'ciao'...goodbye is like when you are at someones funeral...so he posted this lovely little sarcatic away message and ended it with 'ciao'...ugh, I'm so fed up and I can't deal with the drama. Ok, time to end this. |
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| new roomates and bullshit unfair comments |
[Jan. 22nd, 2007|11:24 am] |
Well to start, it is before 12 noon and I am awake...amazing. My new roomates, or one of them at least, woke me up and then proceeded to attempt to shake my hand while I was still in bed. How lovely. But now I'm up and kickin' with a nice hot cup of coffee :-) (my latest addiction) I started my usual round through Haaretz, the NY Times, JPost, and the London Times when I came accross an article on the supposed Bush Policy towards the Iranian Nuclear Program. Jewish Lobby members close to the administration said at a conference here in Israel that Bush would attack Iran if it indeed sought nuclear weapons. Lovely. Blah Blah Blah...none of that interested me, but what did catch my eye was the last line of the article. The counter arguement presented at the conference by Benjamin Netanyahu stating that ""I call on the world that did not stop the Holocaust to stop investing in Iran to prevent genocide," he said, recommending garnering international support to bring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to trial for genocide." That is bullshit! Yes, it is true that one learns from his/her mistakes, and it is also true that the Holocaust MUST ALWAYS be remembered, but to use it as a political tool is wrong. And in this case, Netanyahu is calling on the world to stop Iran because 'the world' didn't stop the Holocaust. For one, not everyone knew about the Holocaust, and two, the world that exists today is not the same world as 60 years ago, and futhermore, it is unfair to call on the world to atone for something it didn't do. I didn't ignore the Holocaust, my parents didn't ignore it...we didn't exist. And I'm willing to bet that the world leaders of today were still crapping their pants and teething in the 1940's and otherwise incapable and unaware of events happening around them. I understand what he was trying to get across...but it came out very wrong. We should work to make sure that another Holocaust doesn't happen at the hands of a nuclear armed Iran. By stating that the 'world that did not stop the Holocaust' he set Israel apart from the rest of the world. He effectively split the effort to stop Iran...if he was smart, he would have included everyone...using nice simply words like 'we, and collective...etc.' But hey, I'm not the politician here. Let him make his own mistakes. Ok, time to show the new roomates around a bit and then off to Arabic. I think maybe I'll go out tonight for one last time before I hunker down for my Arabic final.
ooooo...almost forgot, my plans for the break. I fly back to NY this friday. I'll be in the US till Feb. 21 and then it's off to Milan, Italy for a couple days before returning to Tel Aviv. :-) |
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luciuskallias's journal
apathetic
anxious