A First Glimpse from the Holy Land

It's now been almost two days since my arrival to Israel. My first reaction upon arrival was a sense of surrealism- a sort of disbelief that finally, I am actually here . My time here so far has been spent seeing my parents and some friends and reacquainting myself with daily life in Israel.

One of the first things I began to be reminded of was the type of personalities and attitudes which the Israeli people hold. Very open, very loud, and always saying what's on their minds. Yesterday, for instance, as I was taking a walk with my friend Tamir through the streets of Zichron-Ya'akov, we came across (another) house being built in the little bit of space still left in Israel to build. As we were walking past it, a man walked towards us; as he past the house that is being built he shouted at the construction workers (in Hebrew- loosely translated): "Why all this building?! we're gonna be breaking into war tomorrow anyway and everything will be ruined!" Despite this man's pessimism, I found his remarks quite intriguing, and perhaps a testament to Israeli sentiments towards the current situation in particular and the overall situation in general. At that moment, I really wished I had my digital recorder with me so that I could have recorded and shared his exact remarks with all of you.

Today is Friday (Yom Shishi), a day when the entire country operates on a half day schedule in anticipation for the Sabbath (Shabbat), whether for religious reasons or simply because its a day during which you don't go to work- one of the remaining ways in which Israel differ itself from most of the rest of the world because of her Jewish character. This factor has many good aspects to it, bringing the Jewish citizens of Israel together under a common cause. How this translates to the implications towards the other citizens of Israel (i.e. the Arab-Palestinian) can be debated. I hope to get better insight to this as I move ahead with my work this summer.

I will be spending the weekend with family and friends, and anticipating my first meeting with Dr. Jabareen on Monday at Haifa University.

They say a picture is worth more than a thousand words, so I will attempt to add some interesting photos I take with captions beneath them to each blog entry to give you a sense of what catches my attention as I go about my daily life in Israel.

Shabbat Shalom and have a good weekend.
















(Bottom) Sign on a fence at the side of a main street,

stating: "Stoping the disaster:

Moving the Gas Factories to the Ocean"

(Top) Artillery Tank at the Artillery
Display in Zichron Ya'akov