So I figured it was time for another post

Hey, how is everybody

I'm doing great. We visited a messianic church yesterday and I was intorduced to a man who tried to convert me. It was a very intersting experiance. I hung out with one of my co counsulers from this summer last night. We went out and got a beer at a rock pub. It was a very nice experiance. The Israelis don't go to the bars that Us americans go to, they have more class than that. We didn't have first period today so I'm hanging out in the halls of Hebrew University. It's a lot of fun. I earned a 20 out of 20 on one of my essays yesterday. It was an awesome experiance. I've been waiting to be an academic for the longest time.

As George Harrison put it, "Here comes the sun"

I'm back in the academic game, and you know what? I'm here to stay.

-Z

I'm fine

There was a terrorist attack in Jerusalem tonight at about 11:00pm. I'm fine, and the rest of NATIV is fine. It's an unreal experience, scary but it makes me feel proud to still be in Israel, and to know, I still have a paper to write, and I'm going to do it, and nothing's going to stop me.

-Z

Good New

My friend Matt and I at Hebrew U

My friends Matan (right) and Nathan in my dorm
Just me and Nathan


So today started out pretty well. The history essay that I was working on was turned back to me and I earned an 86% on it 13/15. I'm pretty happy with that grade. I'm waiting to get my Jewish texts essay back and I'm hoping that will get better marks considering I spent a lot more time on it. I set up my Rosh Hashana schedule that features Erev dinner at Paul Friedman's house. Excited is a sever understatement. There were 4 spots allotted from each group to attend dinner and I managed to squeeze in. Today we have a meeting with Jules Gutin about conservative judaism and I have another History essay that needs to be written. This one about an Arab Israeli citizen who's a part of parliament. He wrote an article that we're analyzing and then taking a stand with an Israeli political party and writing a letter to the writer about your opinion based on your stand. It should be pretty interesting. I have a friend who's helping me write essays, he's a fantastic writer and I'm really enjoying the college atmosphere of everyone in the same boat and doing the same work. It's a really good environment for me.

Sunday Night Football...Really

So it's Sunday night and most of NATIV is out watching the football games at verious venues. I'm stuck here about to go to bed and get a better nights sleep than most will tonght. I take pride in that. It was a good day today, turned in my two essays, had another assigned due Tuesday. For dinner I bought some salami, turkey, dijon mustard, mayo, french bread with raisins and nuts for 80 NIS. That should keep me with dinners for about another 6 days, it's a good price and I need to start saving my money and my calries. Any suggestions on quick and easy meals? Thanks

-Z

School in 4 hours woo

Worked on two essays tonight, about to go to bed. Slichot was fantastic and so was the rest of shabbat. I played 4 games of rummikub with my buds and won 2 of those games. It was fantastic. I'll talk to y'all tomorrow. Any ideas of fun things to do in Jerusalem, or ways that I can optimize my time better, or good wakeup habits, that'd be awesome...THANKS!

-Z

me and my new mouse

My friend Avi and I

My friend Elisheva and I

Friday the 19th of September

After a night of working on two very interesting essays, a Jewish texts class, schnitzel-shwarma sandwich, and a little shopping I'm back at Beit Nativ with a few new toys. I have a new keyboard with Hebrew letters a small mouse, and some new headphones, in total about an 100 shekel purchase. With Shabbat starting soon i'm getting ready to get ready for the weekend. Shabbat Shalom everyone

-Z

Nativ is school too

Upon coming to Hebrew University, many of my friends and family did not believe it would be a real college experience. I have two essays due on SUNDAY. One for my Jewish texts class dealing with the final chapter of A.J. Heschel's The Prophets and one for my Israel society, politics, and culture class comparing and contrasting a video and an article. Both are underway, neither are done, and I plan on doing most of it on Friday.
Things are getting really exciting here. I'm going to the Jerusalem Symphony on Thursday to see:

Abir – Work for Mandolin, Clarinet and Strings (première)

Haydn –Concerto in D Major for Piano

Breiner - Symphonic Concerto for Giora and Orchestra (Israeli première)

It should be a lot of fun. It's very interesting how many people are going for the social aspect as opposed to an appreciation for classical music. I charged myself with the task of convincing a few of my friends that classical music is not just for old men and high class citizens of the rennaicance period.

Last night we had boys and girls bonding night. The girls did girlie talk things that I did not bother learning about. My groups boys happen to be fantastic, and they're all amazing kids. The first order of business was walk to a park, recieve a single NIS from our staff. Our task was to go around to the neighborhood and see what we could get for that single NIS. Kids came back with clothes, plants, candies, a hubcap, bread, anti-itch cream, and more NIS. Our group came back with 11 20 minute calling cards to America from Israel, it was fantastic.

The next thing we did was situate ourselves on a little patch of grass with a sweater in the middle. The game was called kadawa. The object of the game was similar to tag, but whomever was "it" had to hop on one leg while trying to tag people, he could only go on two legs if he was on the sweater. If he fell to two legs over the course of him trying to catch a kid, we would kick him until he got back to the sweater. This game was invented in the Israeli army, and was played no asphalt. If the "it" went off and tried to catch someone, somoene behind him could step on the sweater, transfer to one leg, and then kick him, thus subjecting that person to a beating until he got back to the sweater. Let's just say I woke up with my share of bruises this morning. It was great fun.

Today I'm sitting in the Hebrew University Lounge waiting for class because the bus came early and our 2nd period class was cancelled.

L'hitraot till next time

-Z

First day of school

Hey,

Today was my first day of school. At 8:30 we took a bus to Hebrew University, and I reached my first class: Israeli Society, Culture, and Politics. It was fantastic. Our professor, from London, England, is a brilliant scholar and infused the whole class with pride for the state of Israel. Asking us questions such as: Where did Zionism start? Did it start with the beginning of the diaspora, or with Herzl. He is a really engaging teacher, I'm looking forward to taking many more classes with him in the future.
Walking around Hebrew University today was a lot of fun. We needed to walk to a certain spot on campus to pick up our "readers" for that class. Our next class was supposed to be a Jewish Texts class, but the teacher called in sick. Our class made up of 10 antsy 18 year-olds itching to get off campus, decided to take the public bus home early. The regular bus doesn't get back home to Beit Nativ until 2:30. It was quite an adventure. I'm really looking forward to the readings I have to do this afternoon in order to prepare for my next class.
Today we get to talk to a representative from the Jerusalem Post, one of Isreal's most prominent Newspapers. Later we will recieve some "gifts" from Masa, the fund that donated a lot of money to our trip tuition. I'm very excited.
My phone number is 05260422580, for those who are interested. My email is on this page, and if you would like to visit me, I'll be at the Fuchsburg Center on Agron Street.

Talk to you later!

-Z

My Bed

The Views outside my Building

Our Porch

King George Street

Agron Street

My Dorm

This is my Room, Clockwise

Baseball Pictures

These are some pictures of a Baseball game I attended. The New Jersey Jackals, a minor league team, beat the Sussex Redbirds in a thriller

I'm finally home

Greetings from da holy land!

Hey, It's Zachary from my dorm room in Jerusalem. it's about 8:15 AM and I'm about to go to Tefilla. The flight was long, but it was enjoyable with all the new people anxious to get to Israel. We got to the airport and got picked up by our staff. We went to the Costel, and talked about how this trip is not necessarily about the history of Israel, but about modern day Israel and how we're going to be a part of the culture for the next segment of our lives. We arrived at Beit Nativ, the hostel that we'll be staying at for the next 5 months and we promptly recieved our Israel Phones and neccessary information. We woke up the next morning and we began to learn about the Nativ life. That was followed by a night of hanging out at Ben Yehudah street. Shwarma never tasted so good. My personal favorite flavor as of now is lamb shwarma with cole slaw, hummus, tachina, a little charif (spicy), and some israeli salad. It's fantastic. It's great being where I belong.

-Z