Middle East 08

 I’ve been in Israel know since Friday afternoon. I spent a
few days in tel aviv before coming to Jerusalem.
So, my program began yesterday. Its unclear about how many people are actually on it – we have a French contingent of about 25 people that are living with us and we do activities with, but half of them speak no english, so they’re not with us 100% of the time. Maybe I’ll learn two languages. Sababa. I’m guessing there are between 50-60 peeps on the program (americans, south africans, argentineans, a girl from
 brazil, a lot of canadians, russians, and one bloke fromAustralia.)

 Everyone seems really nice, i’m sure the crazy in all will
 come out sooner or later though, myself included of course. There’s one guy that is incredibly intense about everything so hopefully he’ll be living in Jerusalem.

 So we all met at our first kibbutz yesterday afternoon. Some
 token ice breakers, dinner, etc. the usual. We all went out in  Jerusalem separately, but met up eventually at some bar on some street. Great fun.

 This morning we (came home, then) woke up for breakfast
 and to review the program procedures, etc…. then had a drama workshop that was fun… there will eventually be videos up on my facebook profile. giddy up. so then we had lunch and a hebrew test (5 points to whomever
 can guess who signed their name and turned it in blank). I
have a little free time now before my lecture on “Trends in Israeli Society”,then a free evening!!

 Tomorrow we tour the Jerusalem border areas then have a
 lecture on “Israeli Arabs”. Wednesday I tour the City of David, the Israeli Supreme Court and Goverment Offices, and finally go to the Kotel Tunnels and the Jewish Quarter. Thursday, I have a meeting with my future employer in Tel Aviv and an Idan Reichel concert. Very exciting. Download him if you haven’t…

I’m very happy, a little jet lagged, and overall ridiculously
excited for what is to come.

cheers!

-j