Run in with the police

Today as i was driving with my boyfriend's mom in her car, we were stopped by the immigration police. I kid you not. 

They wanted to make sure i was not an illegal worker....

i think i've written about asians here before? we are like Mexicans in the US - day workers, house cleaners, construction workers, cooks, etc. ...it's an interesting experience. 

i wish i wasn't so busy with school so that i could keep up with this thing properly. there's a lot of interesting things going on here - especially with the upcoming elections....

but for now (as always) pharmacology calls. (i love that class!)

BBQ

i'm exceptionally good at neglecting this thing.

sorry.

sadly, it's when exciting things are happening that nothing gets written. 

i had a BBQ the other day and invited some friends from school and some Israeli friends also. it was really nice. 

best Israeli quote to date: (sorry for the vulgarity,mom)

W: Eh...Candy, where is the hummus?

Me: Oh, we didn't get any hummus.

W: Ma!? [What!?] you don't have any hummus?! A BBQ without hummus is like fucking with no dick!

welcome back to israel. 

I suck

I've completely failed to update this thing.....and failed during the time that SO MUCH has been going on! Maybe eventually i'll go back and recap.

For now, a short picture summary of SOME of the things that have happened:

Spring happened. The bloom was gorgeous.

Eithan's mom, Irit, had an art exhibit opening at a kibbutz up north.

It's an exhibit about valuing things past -- and about how with the current desire for things to be new and with the pace of development, we are losing our history and a simpler life.

It was really nice. Live music, food, and the kibbutz had their second hand stores open.

Listening to music in the yard.

Holocaust Memorial Day.

A 2 minute siren sounds throughout the country for a moment of silence.

People everywhere stop and pay respect to those that lost their lives during the holocaust, and to the survivors.

Israel turned 60!! It was a HUGE celebration - very well done. I'll write about it when I have more time. Fireworks show

Huge street parties. I think I left around 6am, and this is how many people were still out. In the cab back I could see tons of people out and about at cafe and restaurants. Independence Day - no small celebration.


In the morning, Eithan's friend had a BBQ on his penthouse rooftop. We watched the air show from there. Not a bad set up.....
Memorial Day and Independence Day I will eventually write about and post more pictures of - I took pictures on my big camera, so uploading those photos takes FOREVER. So I'll have to do it some other time.

Look what I found in Tel Aviv!!!!!!!

Random day at school. We had a Mexican food night the night before because I had torillas from the US (thanks Sundar!), and we brought the left overs to school for a picnic lunch.

Today there was a free BBQ for the students of Sackler (Israeli and American). It was well done. Free beer too!

Eithan and me at the BBQ. All I can think about when i see this picture is how prominent my sternocleidomastoid muscle is...le sigh.

Funny note: I brought my football to the BBQ to toss around....Israelis do NOT know how to throw a football. hahahhaha.

Lots more to come - I guess I'll get to it the next time I'm looking to procrastinate.

HUGE update in store

but for now...i really need to study. hahah

in short - haven't updated because i've been to busy enjoying israel. went camping, then "camping," many many many jewish holidays occurred, took finals, spent some time in the hospital (i'm fine), and stephanie came to visit.

eventually i'll write about these things.

the good news! my old cell phone number is back in action - 510-331-....

it's my vonage phone now. so you can call it like you did back then and you'll get me here in israel.

please just be aware of the time difference (MOM)

Happy

It's 90 degrees and sunny outside.

I just finished my last final (for now...2 more in 2 weeks) and am now drinking a cold beer and cleaning my room

Sundar is coming to visit today with his friend Anand.

Tonight we'll sit at a beach bar and relax (or party).

Life's good.

Multi-cultural Israel

Did you know Israel is quite (sort of) diverse? Jewish people from all over the world come to live in Israel -- from Russia (tons of people...sometimes I forget I don't live in Russia), Argentina, Morocco, Ethiopia, the US (obviously), etc. There are also a number of immigrant workers from the Philipines, China, Thailand, and other countries in Africa - including Sudan.

The other day some guy tried to tell me about these vitamins he was promoting. I barely speak Hebrew. He didn't speak English. So we spoke in Spanish....... hahha...

delirious

you know what's funny?

people with asian accents saying either a)delicious or b)delirious

i've been studying microscope slides for the past 7 hours......

Nerve Gas

I'm studying for my gastrointestinal physiology quiz tomorrow at Eithan's house. He and his friends are studying for their physics final. They were laughing at the fact that a) they all speak fluent English b) they looked over my shoulder at the slides from class and the only word they understood was "&" and "atropine." hahhaa.

It was strange to me that they all knew atropine is used a treatment for exposure to nerve gas -- though maybe not so strange because they've all done military service? Apparently at the time of the Gulf War, Saddam used to launch missiles full of nerve gas into Israel. An alarm would go off and everyone would grab their gas masks and move into the shelters until it was over and the alarm went silent. Eithan and his friends clearly remembered this as a part of their childhood.

Israeli Defensive Forces (IDF)

Did you know: that there is required military service for Israeli citizens? 2 years for women, 3 for men. And that fighters (not everyone is a fighter - some are medics, secretaries, engineers, etc) are issued a gun that they must keep with them 24/7? Eithan was a fighter in the tank unit - he was issued an AK-47 to be kept at his side at all times.....for 3 years. crazy....

FYI

I realized that I never update this thing because i usually have updates that will take too long to write. So i'll do this - TRY and write a "Did you know....." each day. That way there's SOMETHING written on this thing.

Did you know - It's incredibly hot right now? In the 90's hot. That's hot!

Did you also know - Jesus has a tomb? I had no idea! Apparently it's in Jerusalem. Moran and her friend went to check it out on Easter Sunday - thought that was interesting.

SLE

Today (actually....right this minute) we got a Clinical Correlate Lecture on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

I read the case report and immediately shouted out "she's got Lupus - SLE"

Kyle and Ari: What?!
Me: Lupus. You haven't heard of lupus?
Kyle: No. How do you know about it?
Me: I don't know. I feel like it's almost common knowledge? Plus, one of the models on America's Next Top Model had Lupus.
Kyle: haha. Oh yeah, Ella mentioned it. But she saw it on House. House. America's Next Top Model. I see you're getting your information from a great source.

A cute/funny video

from one of my classmates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZzaNgQe_VA

The Tel Aviv Women's Rugby Team

what are the chances?...

so as i was walking home from the grocery store the other morning, when all of a sudden....



a HUGE pigeon LANDED ON MY HEAD.

i shit you not. claws in my hair.

it stayed on my head for about a second and a half during which time i screamed (not a terrified scream, just a "what the hell! there's a pigeon on my head!" sort of scream), and then it flew off.

seriously. can you imagine a bird on your head?! Of all the places in the park, this large pigeon decides that the top of my head looks like the most appropiate place to land...

A gardener standing behind me saw the whole thing and started shouting all these things in Hebrew. Too bad I don't understand. I think he was in shock as well. We both laughed. And then he told me to run (this I understood thanks to rugby).

in israel they say that if you get pooped on by a bird, it's good luck because the chances of bird poop landing on you from the air is so low that if it happens, it's a good sign. i wonder what the chances of bird landings on heads is. i'm going to bet it's pretty fucking low. so in conclusion, i must be very lucky.

what a crazy start to a day.

Random updates

Considering I'm so bad at updating this thing (because I'm busy and/or ...just plain terrible at updating) I thought I'd write a list of updates...because i love writing lists:

things that have happened since coming back from break:

oh, before the list...a funny comment from James (my classmate) on the flight home from Israel, "You know what, after studying for finals in 12-14hr. sessions in the study hall, sitting on a 12 hour flight home....not so bad. I would almost say....easy." Very true Sir James...very true.

back to the list:

- watched an educational movie about suicide from the 1970's in my behavioural sciences class because my professor was stuck in Jerusalem because he got SNOWED IN. Yes, it snows in Israel. Yes, it gets REALLY cold in Tel Aviv....like SF cold. No, I don't live in the desert. And no, I can't take my behavioural class seriously when we are watching ridiculous 30 year old films about a serious subject.

- went up North for the weekend. Went to Cesaeria (a resortish area that was once occupied by the Romans. There are still remains from that time...aquaducts, pillars, etc - in the summer they have concerts in the ampitheatre. The place is beautiful! AND i got a delicious seafood dinner - shrimp, scallops, calamari, fish, etc. YUM. We also went to the Sea of Galilee (sp?) where Jesus supposedly walked on water, and wine tasting in the Golan. We went to this place called Chateau Golan..and the wine was (surprisingly) excellent! Then just drove around the sea and walked through random art exhibits on the side of the road, fruit groves, vineyards, and Eithan showed me his old base camp from the army. Among all this beauty I got to see tanks and tank practice fields....weird.

- went to "Sextival" at the Tel Aviv port with a bunch of my classmates. This was an event hosted by Playboy. One of my classmates saw and ad and a few of us decided to go, even though we knew nothing about it. "Lama lo?" (why not?) we thought, we'd just check it out. It was ok. Moran and I rated it as, "dont' regret going, but would not recommend it." It was basically a giant sex shop. They had 2 bars inside, pole dancers, chocolate bars, soap shops, sex shops, a massage both, a jacuzzi sales man? and the best part: a giant inflatable condom with men dressed as sperm inside it holding signs that said "Mom?"- hosted a Chinese New Year dinner party at my house. Tried to keep it small, but private parties are unheard of over here and what was intended to be a small dinner for 10, became 20, then 30, then 50. not kidding. I didn't mind, but it was hard trying to figure out the food situation because I initially wanted to invite people over for dinner, but then had to turn it into a potluck. I tried to make it as traditional as possible....made a "lucky" snack plate of seeds and candies, a fruit plate with pomelos and tangerines, bought blossoming flowers, decorated the house with things I brought back from home, had nin-gao for dessert, hand made seasame balls, potstickers, steamed 2 fish, made chicken, mapo tofu, and hot and sour soup. I think it was a success. Sadly, I have no pictures of the event....

- had a political discussion with a group of Israelis about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a bar last night. I'm not getting into it right now...but I'm glad I got to hear some Israeli perspective (I hear a lot of American-Jewish perspective with my classmates) and to have a conversation about what's going on. It's really easy to feel removed from the situation living in Tel Aviv -- even though the border is only an hour away. I found out that the engineering department of Tel Aviv University used to be an Arab settlement about 15 years ago, and now the Arab population in this area (specifically....Ramat Aviv is like the Beverly Hills of Israel) is non-existent. Most of the discussion was with Eithan's friend Weiman who's a general? captain? i can't remember... a high ranking official in the army - suffice it to say it was an interesting discussion. and that everytime i think about this situation and similar ones around the world, it makes me sad. i know there's no easy solution to these things...but we're in the 21st century and it's strange to me that violence is still a primary means by which countries and people deal with each other. i wish I could put more thought into what i'm writing here, but i need to get back to studying.

- ah. and school. jebus. I have class pretty much from 8-5pm everyday. It's exhausting...BUT i am learning some interesting stuff. I'm currently taking:
- Anatomy
- Physiology
- Immunology
- Histology
- Endocrinology
- Embryology
- Behavioral Sciences
- Biostatistics

talk about a full load. I really like my physiology and histology courses, and of course anatomy. Right now we're learning cardiac physiology which makes me think about my time at CPMC and I get really excited about what i'm learning because i've been able to see it applied at one time...even though at that time i had no idea what was going on. Now i also have no idea what's going on...but at least i know a little more.

ok. i think i'm done incoherently rambling.

for a taste of israel:http://digital.timeout.co.il/activemagazine/welcome/israel_6.asp

Bike accident #2 - successfully averted

So as I was riding my bike on my way to school today (to take my cell phys. final (final #4 of 7)), I was distracted by an advertisement on the side of a bus - a picture of a giant bucket of fried chicken.....i think my head turned ALL the way around to get a good glimpse of deliciousness...anyways, i almost didn't see the pole ---------- this far away from me. Thankfully for my cat-like reflexes, I swerved and the crowd rejoiced.


(there's no point to this blog. i just wanted to tell you how much i love fried chicken)

back to studying.