Monthly Archives: September 2007
Trains, Terraces, and Theaters (Pictures)
Something funny, but not a little embarrassing, just happened, and I’m debating whether or not to relate it.
Oh, what the heck.
I may have mentioned my devastating addiction to hummus before – it’s still going strong, and probably isn’t good for me. Still, pita and hummus makes a good lunch, which was what I was eating while working on my computer. An absent-minded turn, a swipe with the elbow, and I discovered that tubs of hummus obey what I must now call Murphy’s Law of Hummus, or the Hummus Corollary to the Theorem of Buttered Bread: The container will always land open side down. In this case, its descent to the floor was intercepted by my tennis shoe. My dirty tennis shoe. My tennis shoe that has been trekking all over Haifa and Caesarea for the past two days.
Hacking Around in Haifa (Pictures)
Sit back and get comfortable, because this is going to take awhile. The following are excerpts from my journal (pictures included):
24 September 2007, 08:55
So – I’m in the train on the way to Haifa, being very thankful that I at least know my numbers in Hebrew, because all the platform announcements were in Hebrew. All around me are people settled in for the hour-long ride north. longer if they’re going further. You can’t get much further than Haifa – then you hit the Lebanon border, and South Lebanon was slightly chewed up last summer.
We’re passing through vineyards now, having left the suburbs of Tel Aviv about five or ten minutes ago. The two people across the aisle are sleeping, and everyone else is listening to music or talking on their cell phones, or reading newspapers. Newspaper reading is insanely prolific here. It’s not just businessmen who carry a folded newspaper under their arms – everybody – students, housewives, travelers – grabs a paper on their way out of the station or onto the train.
Yehudim and Yom Kippur
Did I ever mention the street musicians here? There are quite a few of them, mostly pretty good. Of course, there was that one violinist by the mall whose flats were too flat, but other than that, I really like walking around on Fridays, or Yom Shishi, when everybody is out and about, laying in provisions for Shabbat (on Saturday – actually it starts at sundown on Friday), and buying newspapers and flowers. Observant Jews are allowed to read, but not write, on Shabbat, and the day itself is treated as a guest, so people buy flowers, which is apparently the proper thing to do when you are either receiving a guest or going as one. Treating a day as a visitor still seems slightly odd to me, but, hey, they don’t care what I think. Besides, fresh flowers are awesome. Especially roses. I might just get some one day, just for the heck of it.
Where was I? Street musicians. Every Friday, there’s a floutist that plays across the street, but I can hear him so well that he might as well be under my window. Mainly he sticks to a repertoire of Bach and some baroque composers, and I find myself inadvertently humming along to stuff that I played as a second or third year violin student. Amazing how it sticks with you – there are tunes that I didn’t remember I remembered until I heard them.
Interesting
[Insert apologies and excuses here. Move on.] It hasn’t been that nothing has happened; it’s actually that a lot has happened. I’m not going to be able to log it all, regardless of how I might wish to. I’ll give it a shot.
It’s interesting how the word ‘interesting’ can be used. An event or experience can be ‘interesting!’ or ‘interesting’ or ‘interesting…’. It’s an almost-neutral word that can express volumes – but must have context or, at the very least, accompanying facial expressions.
There are some situations in which the word simply does not suffice. For example, receiving an enormous box from a very special aunt is not interesting; it’s amazingly awesome! Especially when it contains Jell-O, which I can’t get here because it’s not kosher (I think the gelatin is a pork product), and books and energy bars and a “packable” hat and a sewing kit – the ultimate combination of complete practicality and utter frivolity. And extremely creative wrapping material, which for now is lending a bit of color to my plaster-and-tile decor, as pictured below. Oh, yes, my room does look a little more lived-in now.
Remember the unsung heroes.
Bauhaus in Pictures
I’ve decided to put pictures in this time, first of all because it’s much easier to show, rather than tell about, Bauhaus architecture, and also because when I try to email pictures home, my mail account screams at me and takes forever. There are also some cool Spider-man and rooftop photos.
As yesterday was Friday, which is the equivalent of Saturday, I decided to sacrifice my precious sleeping privileges and take a tour, under the auspices of the Bauhaus Center of Tel Aviv. This style of architecture, technically known as the “International Style” is incredibly prolific here, because the city was built in a culture and time when the architecture and ideology were quite popular. (A side-note: I’m being spoiled. I haven’t had real week-ends since … tenth grade, and the concept of not having to do anything is mindblowing.) In fact, Tel Aviv is known as “the White City” – pity there’s no resemblance to Minas Tirith – and as the Bauhaus Capital of the world. In 2003 it was designated a UNESCO heritage site. But what exactly is Bauhaus?
Entropy
Yesterday was interesting. I acquired both a bicycle and a roommate – two items that shall drastically change my life, albeit in different ways. After all, the two are slightly different: a bicycle is a machine; a roommate is a person. I paid for the bike; the roommate was free. The bike is of local manufacture (I think); the roommate is Belgienne.
Before I elaborate on either of these, I’d like to draw your attention to the sidebar (assuming you’re viewing my blogsite and not my Facebook feed. If you’re on Facebook, click on the “Imported From” link to get to my site. Ahem. Sidebar. Under “currently…” there are a few links. These are just five random stories from my RSS feeds that I thought share-worthy. I’ll be changing these fairly often – possibly every day – so enjoy. And check out the xkcd that makes a not-so-subtle tribute to Firefly.
Continue reading
Books, Bubbles, Buses, and Boeing
In the face of complaints that I don’t update often enough, I will admit that I have been slacking off. Remember, that’s what academs do. (It’s okay – we SEs love you guys anyway. We just don’t show it.) So what do I feel inspired to write about today? Ermm…ah, yes.
Books, or the lack thereof. I’m not exactly lacking in books, just a certain genre. I’m not exactly “lacking”, either – there are plenty of bookstores, but I don’t have the funds, nor the suitcase space, to build the kind of library I would like to. Have I ever told you how much I love Half-Price Books? But this weekend … I caved. I snapped. I gave in to the enormous weight of temptation. My flesh was weak, and my spirit – entirely unwilling. I cashed out for “The Bourne Ultimatum” and spent the weekend locked up in my room reading, and I don’t regret it at all. At some point I may feel obliged to write a short review, but all I’ll say now is that it was awesome. I haven’t read any of Ludlum’s books until now, but I’m sure I will in future.
