Thursday, February 26, 2009

Israel, son

jan 13: got up at 5am. shamus took me to the train station, i took the train to union station LA, then took the flyaway bus to LAX. got behind some people, including julie, in my group on line and couldnt find the rest of the group, so i called michelle and she got us straightened out. so we all met up and went back on line. after a fierce interrogation, i went to check in and requested an aisle and was told bluntly "YOU HAVE A WINDOW" then was told to go around the side to have my checked bag scanned...where they took my shoes to check and took my carry-on, to be returned right before we got on the plane.

we had an ice breaker, where we said where we went to school and what the best thing we did in our shoes was. i was 3rd. i saw a kid standing across from me in a red sox hat, so i said "my name is doug, i went to ramapo college in new jersey, and the best thing i did in these shoes was see aaron boone hit the home run in 2003" and he said "OHHH ITS ON!!!" and i pointed him out to go next. name was zack.

so we finally were to get on the plane. those of us who had had out bags taken were put in a "special" line. when it was finally my turn, this woman said "Do you recognize your bag?" and i said yes and picked it up. Then she said "im sorry sir you cannot take your bag on the plane" and i said ".....can i take something out of it?!?" and immediately this one guy said "COME WITH ME SIR" and took me behind a screen and searched me...thoroughly. my shoes were checked about 4 times total. they went over everything in my pockets with a crazy detector, even a sandwich. so i was finished with that and i asked if i could take something out of my bag, they asked what. i said "my book and my cd player" and they said "you can take your book but not your cd player." i asked why not, the woman said bluntly, "It would cause too many problems". then i asked if i had an ipod if i could take that and the woman said "oh, do you want to take your ipod?" and i got mad. i said "no, i dont have one, im saying that you say its ok for an ipod and not a cd player? so if i had enough money to buy an ipod that i could have music on the plane? real cool" at that point, the TSA worker overseeing the el al security said "please calm down sir" then i took out my weird nj and a book...and they went through EVERY PAGE OF THE MAGAZINE even going back after they missed one.

so i was thoroughly upset getting on the plane with no music or snacks or notebooks or nyquil (which i ended up needing). i was unable to sleep on the plane AT ALL. i got on and there was some guy in my seat. i told him it was my seat. he and his friend, who was in the middle seat, tried to get me to switch to his middle seat, i said no. then the guy who stayed in the middle kept asking me how to use his own phone. when we finally got over the atlantic, the ride got bumpy including an apparently 500m drop before and after which i was losing it from the turbulence. when i tried to get some drugs from the flight attendants, they didnt even show up for 15 minutes, and then never came back.

around hour 13, i got up to walk around and ran into zack and his sister, molly. i immediately made a truce with zack and he was real cool. i made everyone laugh quite a bit especially as i was going crazy at hour 13 with no sleep etc. we really bothered one of the israelis sleeping by looking out the window on the exit door to see napoli.

anyway, a terrible flight aside from talking to zack and molly.

jan 14: landed. met Momo, the president of oranim. then we also met our tour guide, Raz. "My name is Raz. It is not razzle dazzle or raspberry or short for anything you americans might want to call me. i have a very strong foot from playing soccer, and i will kick you" we were also introduced to Noam, our medic/armed escort. he said, " okay. i want you all to drink lots of water, always have a liter and a half on you. people get dehydrated within 48 hours of getting to israel. the sun is very strong" on our way to the hotel, molly sat next to me, saying "hey friend". i saw some arabic graffiti on the way.

my roommates at this first hotel were kevin law and danny. it was named ma'ale ha'amisha. to get to the rooms, you had to go down this windtunnel with stairs and what looked to be a ramp for people with luggage. however the floor was slippery and it was much steeper than it should have been, causing many people to go flying. i tried it without knowing and almost lost my balance, but caught myself. after a meeting with momo who creeped on molly (and it was funny), we all hung out for a while.

after the opening session, a bunch of us went to the bar, where we had some deep conversations with the medic and raz and each other. it was another groups last night, they were younger and getting rowdy. one kid was dancing terribly on a table, it was funny.

Jan 15: we went to jerusalem this day. starting on a promenade across from the old city, raz told us about how the residents expanded out of the city walls and such. we went to the jewish quarter, where raz took us through jaffa gate, to king david's tomb, to areas in the old city that had been excavated to the original street level, had falafel. went to the southern wall excavation and the kotel.

after that we went to the hotel, and to the bar after dinner. our group received an acoustic guitar, and noam played for us, it was pretty cool, starting to really bond together at this point, what with it being the second drunken night in a row.

Jan 16: This day, we left the jerusalem area and went to tel aviv, i think is at next to michael. stopping in rabin square and learning about him and his assassination. drove along the beach, went to old jaffa and saw a tree hanging in a pit growing. we found out what a "tel" was as raz told us with a man doing yoga in the background. we went to the wishing bridge and put our hands on our respective astralogical signs. we ran into some afrikans who were really really into us. then we went to the flea market type thing at Nahalat Binyamin, where i met up with sunny. we hung out and talked and everyone i saw from the group thought i picked up a hot israeli chick. while we were waiting for the group to meet, brenda put on a street show as a robot. it worked because he had an immediate 30 person audience. then we went down to independence hall and learned about the events around the war of independence and what led to the creation of tel aviv and the state of israel.

after that, we went to our next hotel, Armon Yam in bat yam on the beach. my roommates were brenda (brendon: in the opening session, raz was talking to him and saw his name tag and said "Brenda? what is this? This is a girls name!" and it stuck the whole trip) and josh. we had shabbat dinner, and then went to the beach restaurant/bar across the street to enjoy drinks and fun, continuing the party.

Before dinner, we were strarting to party in kathryn, alex, and deinice's room, including playing "never have i ever" (which ive never played before) and after the activity, it was full-swing. tons of booze, it was like a dorm room party and was mentioned as such. we had the whole floor to ourselves, though, and we made full use of the fact. we used the balcony as a smoking lounge using divya's hookah (BIG MISTAKE, as she had the flu). danny pissed off the stairs onto a car that started moving, hilarious. at some point i called it in, and then at 2 josh came into the room and said they were going to the pizza place with noam escorting. i got up to a host of amazingly drunken people. at some point josh went outside and got scammed on by two israeli chicks who looked about 14. they said they were 20. so we ate some food and went to the liquor store and went back. i stayed up a little longer and then went to bed. we had no wake up call, just to meet for lunch at 1:30.

Jan 17: On this day, we did nothing. I woke up at 8 and went down to breakfast...and noam, karen, and some more were up, and had been up the entire night. We enjoyed the day on the beach, including ultimate frisbee, horses, Raz's son Ohmer and his wife, and more time on the beach. I ran into an art show/jazz show on the sidewalk which was cool. after dinner, we had an activity outside to show what we knew about and what shabbat meant to us (we were a very non-jewish group). brenda was in my group and came up with the idea to make it a real world skit. i was the music guy, and said "I was going to see my favorite band Meshuggah but they couldn't plug in on Shabbat so I came to this shabbat dinner". this may have been the day before. anyway, then we got on the bus to go to club kinsey in netanya.

After a bit, we made a u-turn and went back to the hotel. while i saw it immediately, some people didnt believe it until raz got on the microphone. he said "ahhh, as you may see we are getting back to the hotel. we had to come back. i got a call and they said there was a situation, i cant talk about it. but we have to go back." as soon as he was done, the bus hit something, it felt like it was running something over. raz said, "ahh... i was just messing with you. we forgot something at the hotel (the GPS) and now we have real problems." we stopped, it was a car door that had opened at the wrong time. the dent allowed us to correctly identify the bus for the rest of the trip.

i sat next to zack, and tivoli was sitting in front of us. we ended up serenading her and singing many songs, culminating in a buswide rendition of bohemian rhapsody, started by me. it was so badly butchered, though Noam kept it going and on track. when it was done, raz got on the mic and said "it's good that freddie mercury is dead because i dont think he would have been able to stomach what you just did to his song" so we got to the club, it wasnt really my scene but i still enjoyed myself dancing with peoples. not really much to say.

Things i forgot about Jan 17:

About halfway through the day i started to feel sick, and slept for a while during the afternoon. Then we had an activity, "singled out" birthright edition. I actually made it to the final 4 for the guys, with katheryn as the bachelorette. brenda won, i believe.

Jan 18: We left bat yam and went north to the roman port town of Caesaria, the amphitheater was awesome. then we headed east, through some parts of the west bank it seemed, passed Ha'amageddon (or so raz claimed. wikipedia says its by beer sheba). then we got to tel izrael and the izraeli valley where some historic battles took place. we walked down the tel, i talked to michelle f. a bit about her previous experiences on birthright and etc. At the bottom, we got to a tunnel which sometimes had water in it and people went through it. My fear of a water death precluded me from going in, but everyone was fine.

after that, we continued east, went to a falafel/shawarma place, where i noticed that my cold was continuing to develop, and mentioned it to Noam, who replied, "So?" hah. then headed along the sea of gallilee / lake kinneret to the kinneret cemetary. after that we headed north into tiberias and went to the Hamat Tyvera hot springs, which was a pretty cool time. spent some quality time here with everyone. when we got out, and back to the bus, matt d. got really sick from the temperature change. we got to the hotel, apparently named Shalom Plaza.

After dinner a bunch of us played kings cup, a drinking game ive never played before. I ended up losing but it was ok. then we started playing charades, which was pretty damn fun. i called it a night after a bit.

Jan 19: Woke up and felt like garbage. went down to breakfast to everyone asking if i was ok, apparently it was showing. we drove into the golan heights, which entailed us going up some mountains and the temperature dropping. we werent told we would be in such a cold place so i didnt bundle up with what i had. as we got to Gadot to look into jordan across a minefield, me condition deteriorated quickly. sloane noticed and her and noam tried to calm me down. neda sat next to me to keep me warm, thanks! then we went to mt. bental to look into syria. i got some tea before going to the bunker atop the mountain to listen to raz. my condition was still quite poor. we saw some soldiers giving their guns to girls in another group to pose with, and raz mentioned that we could never do that. someone in our group either wasnt with us or didnt hear him, and as we walked back, was caught by raz with one of the guns, but nothing happened.

so we went down the mountain....and i completely crashed. i started sweating profusely, my ears popped beyond anything useful, i had tunnel vision and almost passed out. we got to see philip, an american ex-patriate, very militant, from a functioning army bunker on the lebanon border. i watched from the back trying to stay with it. after this, we went to a mall where i drank some more tea and stuff. noam showed me around the grocery store to get juice but then seemed much more interested in showing me the wine, which was funny.

after that, we went to Tsvat/Svat/whatever, and visited an old synagogue which was cool. then we went through the alleyways to see avraham, an artist from detroit who was a total stoner and talked about how things were amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. I somehow made it through, got to the bus and we went back to the hotel. I slept through a bit of dinner and then went to the group session, which was supposed to last only a half hour, started at 830. we got out at 1130, but its ok because it was funny.

we ended up breaking into groups of 3 with each group doing a day in the life of sloane, michelle, or raz. our group was michelle, and we had matt b. act as michelle's thoughts, at one point saying "fuck, i need to get laid". every group had someone playing arielle and josh, as well as raz. matt d. did an incredible rendition of raz, with brian g. a close second. Raz' reaction to both was "i'm not russian". so I went to sleep afterwards, possibly one of the only nights I didn't party.

Jan 20: I woke up and felt much better. Though not 100%, i was much better. I tried to keep an open seat to let one of the soldiers joining us sit next to me (my one question to momo at the opening session was, "How many of the soldiers will be female?") but zack sat next to me. we picked up the soldiers and it was pretty awesome. we went to the dead sea. the seafloor is very sharp on your feet, so attempting to float as soon as possible is good. raz came by with some mud and people started muddying themselves up.

after that we continued south and got to the bedouin area we were staying, and all took camel rides. i rode with tiffani. after that we got welcomed to the area by one of the bedouins who was playing some instrument and it sounded awesome. then they served us tea and coffee which were both awesome. after that, we hung out a bit and set up in the tents to sleep. then it was dinner time, served to us in the dining tent while sitting on mattresses on the ground, family style, every group of 6 got a huge tray of a stuffed chicken and lamb meatballs, it was awesome. the best dinner we had. i sat with arielle and mimi and avichai and danielle and someone else who i dont recall.

after dinner we had a group activity in the tent to introduce the soldiers to us all. i was in barak's group and we were assigned to write a country song. danielle was asking him stupid questions, i said we needed to ask things like what whisky he liked and if he ever sat on a porch with a shotgun. he was very amused. we learned that he likes beer more than whisky, and he said "When americans lose their private rights then the rest of the world is soon to follow" which i found profound. he also likes to play a drinking game with his buddies based on taki, a card game like uno. we wrote a song to the tune of ring of fire.

after that, we had a campfire outside the tent. noam played guitar, i went between our campfire and the small tent with tea right by us a couple of times, but after a while i decided to call it a night since i wasnt feeling 100% yet. after trying to sleep for about 20 minutes, i listened to some music and eventually went back outside...

a bunch of people were still out there but were incredibly drunk. i stayed for a while, if i recall it was matt d., noam, me, molly, tiffani, karen, sam, barak, and a bunch more at the time. people started petering out as it was getting late. sam mentioned that he wanted to watch the sunrise but wanted to go to sleep. i told him to just sleep in front of the campfire, it would keep him warm. then he said that if i got my matress he'd get his. i said i wasnt really that serious about it. in 3 minutes he came back with his and i said "well i cant back out now." and got mine. molly kept tending to the fire since she is apparently a pyromaniac when noam stopped playing, barak started playing music on his phone, which was perfect. i laid on my mattress next to molly who was sitting by the fire tending it properly. we stole firewood from the other groups who had abandoned their fires, while there was still one group who was by theirs. we were running out of wood when finally the last group left, and we were victorious.

...at this point, it was me, sam, molly, barak, tiffani, and noam. and karen but she was out of commission, completely drunk. one of the bedouins came by with a giant log for our fire. at that point molly said "well, my work here is done. goodnight!" and she left. the bedouin hung out for a while and brought another giant log for us. i tried sleeping but it wasnt happening that much, but it didnt matter. karen almost fell into the fire a few times and refused to go back into the tent. alex came out randomly at this point, and then another bedouin came by and demanded we smoke his cigarettes because we looked cold. then he just hung out with us for the rest of the night without saying anything, surreal. alex went back inside after a bit.

finally, daybreak came. of course, the sun didnt come up for over an hour. there was an impressive desert landscape and i noted that it would be awesome if the sun came up through this dip in the mountains, but i noted that it was very unlikely to happen. finally after waiting forever, the sun came up...in that exact spot. awesome.

Jan 21: So we left the tent area and went to the ramon crater/ makhtesh ramon. i was reeling a little from the lack of sleep. on the way back to the bus, tiffani pulled me aside for a heart-to-heart regarding her sleeping arrangements the night before, ha. great girl. so back on the bus i tried sleeping for a while, until arielle fucking decided that the shade being halfway down wasnt enough for her. so she woke me up pulling it down, and then didnt secure it and it flew back up and hit me in the head and then she quickly grabbed it again and brought it down, hitting me again...and i immediately lightly bopped her in the head, to her surprise and anna's, who was across from us and witnessed the whole thing. anna kept talking about how the image of how fast i did it was burned into her mind. then arielle apoligized to me which surprised those who could hear.

so after a while we ended up at the red canyon and hiked it a bit, a little intense on the way down, but i was unaware that would lead to us having to traverse it up top, heights notwithstanding, but it wasnt as bad as it could have been in my mind. then we hiked up the side of the mountain and i was a little winded, and i had already pretty much run out of water...we then drove to eilat and my leftover sickness combined with lack of sleep combined with no water/the hike left me really out of it.

finally we got to eilat, and went to a mall on the beach, and i drank the health back into me with a delicious strawberry drink. then there was an actual non-fast food type place that i could have gotten a delicious looking turkey sandwich...but 4 people ordered salads in front of me. the guy in the storefront next to us said "if you want to eat today, order from us!" and he wasnt kidding. after waiting ten minutes and no end in sight, i tried to get a bagel but they were taking forever too, so i got a crepe with cream cheese which was apparently a dessert, but at least i got my food before tivoli and molly! then i was asked about what i was always writing down (lyrics) which was funny. arielle also asked me at one point.

after the mall i walked to the beach and saw some guy who owned a bar yelling at these two touristy people who had brought mcdonalds onto the beach: "You americans think you can just bring food onto the beach onto my seats! gah!" and some more that i forget. then he left and i heard the woman (it was an elderly couple) say to her husband, "Would you like a chip?" and i laughed and said, "oh, you must be from england." and they said yes and i mentioned how funny it was that that just happened. they agreed. i tried sleeping on one of the chairs but the guy came by and said it was 20 sheckels to use the chair, so i left.

i walked around the boardwalk a little bit. on my way back i ran into noam. we had a small conversation, and as i was walking away he said, "Jah will be with you." and i was like "wait did you just say that?" and he said "oh, you know it" which was amazing. we all met together and went to the hotel, the nicest of the whole trip...except the weird bathroom which instead of having a shower stall just had a curtain and a mop. oh, in the last hotel in tiberias i roomed with just zach. at this hotel i was rooming with harold (who was sick and coughing up a storm) and matt davis (previous sick dude).

so after a while we all got together to walk to the boardwalk / club for the night. i thought it should take less than the 30 minutes that raz suggested, and i said so...and he seemed to challenge me telling me to check the time when we got there...then immediately said that we were going to take a "short cut". i was convinced that he was fucking with us but he wasnt. i was pissed that he was actually completely right.

so we got to the boardwalk and oz was like "hey you guys want sushi or pizza? lets go here and i thought he was referring to this cafe...but he was actually referring to the pizza hut next to it. i refused to go, and we got a huge contingent of people to go to the cafe where they put tables in an odd configuration to seat us all. deniece got a gigantic beer. i got gnocchi and they gave me the wrong sauce. sam ordered exactly what i did. at first it was good but after i paused a bit and started again it was way too salty. matt d. ordered a bagel sandwich and a "cheese plate" thinking it was a small appatizer, instead it was a gigantic mound of cheeses that he couldnt even come close to finishing and was astounded at it. our food was a little pricey, while we were waiting for our food (which came out much quicker than i thought it would be), brian g. came over with some pizza from pizza hut, saying how quick and cheap it was...and let us try some and it was actually really good.

so anyway we all finished the food and headed over to club unplugged. it was pretty early by israeli standards, so it was pretty much just us in this small club. david started busting out the moves while he was still sitting down, and started doing the most hilarious stuff, and i realized he was what finkel and i refer to as "undercover funny" and i was very amused. lots of dancing and enjoying ourselves, taking some breaks outside. at one point i was outside and heard everyone chanting "RAZZLE DAZZLE! RAZZLE DAZZLE!" and raz was busting out the moves on the floor. noam was sleeping the entire time, hilarious.

so then a few of us were outside and i saw a group of (azuz????) kids try to get in but they were already really drunk and one looked like he was tweaking. they weren't allowed in. they all got together across the alley as we were sitting at the couches outside the club. i saw raz sit down and start eyeing them down, which was my first tip off that something could go down, the fact that he was concerned. i got out my camera and started filming. it was pretty uneventful until 3 or 4 of them walked back up to the club and got into the bouncers faces. the owner was there too...after a bit it got hairy and the owner cracked one in the face with his elbow and pushed them down the street. i jumped out of my seat, still filming to get a better shot...to the israelis in our group shouting at me "NO! DONT TAKE PICTURES!" which was really weird. it got to my head and made the walk back to the hotel really really interesting. within 30 seconds of the situation, 3 idf soldiers (with m-4s) walked up, i noted to one of our israelis, "oh, that's not that surprising to you is it?" She said no...but then in two minutes, there were ten forming a wall in front of the club, and it seemed serious. our group leaders got everyone inside under the guise of "one last dance" though some stayed outside...but i was told to stay inside because i had been filming, crazy. but yeah we eventually ended up back at the hotel after an intense walk (due to my thinking we'd get jumped). I didn't bother partying really since i was so tired at this point.

Jan 22: After some much needed rest, got up and we started our trip to Massada. On the way we stopped at mt. sodom and saw lot's wife, ha. after a while we got to massada, somehow we ran out of time and at the last minute, we ended up taking the tram to the top instead of walking. on the top some people got bas mitzvahed, and then we had to quickly leave as we had run out of time. the park ranger had to run down the mountain , yelling at his taxi driver not to drive away.

we finally made it to the hotel, i was rooming with zach and sam. we had dinner, and eventually ended up being me, molly, dikla, barak, and noam playing guitar in the lobby. dikla was shaving her new hat to make it look worn, and kept trying to get the guys to do it for her, lol. i was going to stay until 1:30 but was pretty tired, then at 1:15 barak called it in and molly followed suit. I left a couple minutes later. a pleasant evening.

Ah, before I forget. When we were in jerusalem at the kotel the first time, sam had bought a shofar and was pretty poor at playing it. there was to be or just had been a ceremony for new soldiers, so there were a ton around. one from a group close to us came over and started to play the shofar, doing a poor job at first and his comrades laughed at him. but then, our hero emerged victorious and played some beautiful tunes for us. also, when we were atop masada, barak said to me while we were looking to the dead sea, "Do you like that view?" and i said "very much." and he said "I hate it. it saddens me." He continued, saying that the sea had eroded and used to be much more magnificent.

Also before we got to our hotel in jerusalem, we stopped at a gas station/convenience store, and raz' wife and son showed up. again, what a cute kid!

Jan 23: I woke up, refreshed completely and ready to go. We went to Yad Vashem, israel's Holocaust museum. It was pretty interesting, but we were kind of rushed through. We were given headsets to hear the tour guide (not raz) speak. Though I didn't learn too much that I didn't already know, it was very interesting to see everyone else' reaction.

After the main museum, we were given sandwiches. Raz said there were pastrami sandwiches and i was looking for one and apparently bothered him by taking so long. He asked what i was looking for and i said a pastrami sandwich. I picked up another sandwich and he said "there you go!" and i thought, this looks like a turkey sandwich. I said, "are you sure?" and he said "well what does it look like?!" and i said "um...pastrami doesnt look anything like this in the states 8) " apparently it was turkey pastrami, which led to the conclusion. just another raz tidbit.

After that we went to the childrens museum, which was entirely disorienting. It was 5 (i think?) memorial candles...reflected hundreds of times with mirrors in otherwise complete darkness. surreal.

After that we walked up mt. herzl, Israel's cemetary for high political figures and military personnel in the vein of arlington natl cemetery. raz was very upset by a couple picnicking in the park in the cemetery. after a speech at herzl's grave, we saw yitzak rabin's and other prime ministers' until we walked up to the current plot being used. There we saw michael levin's grave, a kid from philadelphia who was determined to fight in the IDF, and joined up right before the 2006 lebanon war, and was killed. his grave was decorated with assorted philly memorabilia, including a phillies helmet and a "gotta have a wawa:" nametag (i'm sure no one on the trip saw the significance in that and wondered why i was taking pictures of it, ha).

Across the way, where raz said he is upset as he has had to lead his speech further and further back over the years due to more deaths, and then our soldiers led a mock funeral ceremony. This all took place while a man was visiting the grave of his brother right next to us, which was pretty crazy. After that, we went back to the hotel for a small amount of time to get ready for shabbat at the wailing wall, as nozzy would not drive after sundown (i think it was a birthright thing). We get to the old city, walking through zion gate to get inside. When we got to the kotel area, there were people dancing and having a grand old time. We started to as well, singing and acting out that david melech yisrael song, complete with hand motions. At first we were all together, until some old guy was offended that males and females were touching each other. After dancing a while we all were allowed to go to the wall... I walked up and didn't feel like dealing with the thousands of people I'd have had to wade through and wait for to get to the wall, so I turned back, as I had already had my time with the wall on the first day.

After we had all regrouped, we started walking back to the hotel, it was about an hours walk. While still in the old city, danny asked raz if he could stop at a liquor store we had passed. raz said no, then turned around and mouthed something. I thought that because one of the birthright people was there for "inspection" raz was SAYING no, but mouthing to go. Danny was confused, and i said that i thought raz was saying to go....which he definitely wasnt yet. danny got his stuff but everyone followed him and raz had to run back to get them all back on track. sorry about that one, raz. so we walked back to the hotel and didnt stop at all for liquor.

Once back, we had dinner, and the festivities began. buying beers per bottle from the bar they had, we spent way more than we needed to. sam bought me a beer, and then i got 4 more (ALL OUT FOR ME, I KNOW). I got the maccabee beer, which tasted uncannily like yuengling. we all stuffed into julie's room, with vh1 on. we started to play a sort of drinking game, drinking when certain lines were sung (usually the title of the song)...until we got to november rain, and i said 'OH! EVERYTIME SLASH SOLOS, YOU DRINK!' which led to awesomeness. apparently i was very into it, and barak later said he'd love to drink with me, to which i was very surprised and honored. we moved to a different room where they had lined the floors with mattresses, more sitting room and the place was completely packed. after a while, julie instigated a makeout party, i'll withhold the names ;) . At one point after this, Carmel (israeli soldier girl) said to me, "I've never drank this much before!" to which I laughed....and later still she said to me, "I've never been drunk before!" and i was confused. she kept using the rest and barak said, "everytime carmel throws up, drink!" it was great. at some point not too late i called it in. i probably should have stayed up, but whatever.

Jan 24 : Zach never even came back to the room, hah. On any travel day i am extremely anxious, so i had a pretty poor attitude this entire day, with the mentality of 'lets get out of here already'. we walked to the knesset and played frisbee in the park for a while. we went back to the hotel, seeing a small child dragging a street sign with an arrow, which was pretty funny. While we were waiting for the closing session, we all had a giant bro-down in the hallways with noam on guitar. at one point he played "good riddance", a song to which I personally DIDN'T have anything connected to, unlike most people (for some reason i didnt, i dunno why). Well, now i do. I lost it and was consoled by jen who said "i hope those are tears of joy!" then he played "leaving on a jetplane" which i suppose more people felt a connection to. after a bit i started another bohemian rhapsody singalong, excellent. finally we had to go to the closing session talking about our best experiences, etc. i said that i learned i already knew a lot more than i thought i did about israel. at some point during this meeting, some of the soldiers started leaving, and it was sad. Then, most of us went to ben yehuda st (some people staying stayed behind). Walking up, a car came racing down the street almost hitting us, my east coast side took over and yelled "fuck you!" , flipping them off. matt b. and his brother ben were so amused. i got my first bagel and it was excellent. i was eating with barak and sam, and right next to us was alex and some of the other girls. these people kept coming up to us asking for money, and this one kid probably about 18 and definitely a drug addict was bothering us for tsedakah. sam countered, asking if the guy could buy him food. the guy was annoyed and sam kept it up. to show he didnt need our money, he started to give us 1/10th sheckels...when he got to me he put his hand in my pocket?! to drop it, and i freaked out on him, yelling "yo get the fuck outta my pocket bro" the girls were astonished, thinking i would punch him. barak said "oh, i thought i might need to back you up there." i told them all, its about looking crazier than "they" think you are, not actually doing anything 8).

we left and finally got to the airport, it was a sad sad time saying goodbye to our israelis, especially noam. once we got in the airport and through the initial inspection, i got very focused on getting to the gate asap, and with all of my carry on bags as needed...so i missed the real goodbye session, but i already had had mine so it was ok. this return flight was the polar opposite of the one on the way in, even with my middle seat in the second to last row. sitting between debi and aron, we all pretty much fell asleep immediately, effectively killing at least 6 hours. they both used my shoulders as something to lean on, i am apparently a huge cuddle bear. cute. i watched the pelican brief, pausing often, thus it lasted most of the flight, ha. the flight attendants were so much nicer this time around too. and i onlyhad to bother one person any time i wanted to get up. seriously a much better flight.

when we landed we were all confused by how customs worked and said goodbye at the wrong times, but then we finally came out. i was one of the first, and made a sign "BR-1138" as people came out to join so we could all say goodbye. at that exact time i wasnt truely sad yet. that happened when i woke up the next day actually, but it hit me really, REALLY hard. aside from that, matt d. gave me a ride to the oceanside train station.

an amazing, incredible time. i advise anyone who hasnt gone on this trip and is eligible, GO.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Thursday in "Taste of Chaos" @ HOB San Diego

So...didn't know if i wanted to go up to leaving work even. Found out the show was sold out while I was at work. Figured I'd just walk up and get a ticket cheap off someone. Easy right?


Walked up front, they went on on opening with a song from common existence or envy and then played counting 5-4-3-2-1 and played a bunch of new songs (one was really good) , that other bad song from city 'at this velocity' (why couldnt they have played almost any other song from that record, most of them are real good), understanding, signals over the air, for the workforce, jet black, autobiography, and jet black new year, and closed with war all the time (excited, didnt hear that last time). It was fun, worth $10

oh i took a picture of the thursday merch prices... $20 tees, $40 hoodies, CDs $12, envy split vinyl $20. nice