my life as a two eyed cyclops

Soooo, up dates in a nut shell. (or is it updates in a nutshell?) very different meanings i thinks.

Friday, Sam and i went to shabbat dinner at Rabbi Simons. One other family was there. As they are orthodox, between the two families there must have been 15 kids (no joke). The food though was great and it put me in a very good mood. We even learned about biblical farming which involves farming your field on a 7 year cycle. The I wont get into the details but essentially it has to do with giving food to the poor some years and also not tending to your field once every 7 years so it can recover (kinda like a precursor to crop rotation). Anything that is grown in that 7th year is considered holy and may not be sold for a profit (for example, some fruits and veggies grow annually without having to be replanted).

I also hung out with Matan again and some of his Israeli friends. that was fun. You know, its very interesting to be hanging out with a group of israeli jews when jokes are told. some jokes just don't translate into english well at all. I'm impressed that they have both Chuck Norris Jokes and Dead baby jokes. I used to find baby jokes funny, but ever since the incident at the ER a few months ago its hard to laugh as much at something like that. But the most surprising thing was when they started telling holocaust jokes. I learned in my "jewish humor" class that there are many holocaust jokes, but it was still weird to hear them told by a group of people that are Jewish, and in isreal and have literally fought for our right to have this amazing country of Israel. but then again, i guess sometimes when an event is devestating beyond comprehension, there's nothing left to do but laugh.

speaking of that, Matan is still in the military as he reenlisted after his mandatory service ended. He told me about how absurd it is that the world hates Israel. He's seen Hamas using children as human shields and then the media goes on to say how Israel goes around killing kids. He has responded to intelligence tips that hamas was going to be shooting rockets from a certain building by blowing up those buildings. He then has seen the secondary blasts from the rockets that Hamas had stored there intending to shoot at Israel. It truly is amazing how great Hamas is at manipulating media exposure. I have no problem with Palestinians, but it is very unfortunate how clear it is that the whole world hates Israel(and jews?).

as a side note things are safe here. There are more traffic related deaths than war related deaths in israel. The area sam and I are living in is actually an upper class suburban type area that is far from Gaza, so it isn't necessary to worry about our immediate safety.

As for my internship. Getting things started is a pain in the bootyhole. The hospital seems to have endless amounts of red tape in their supply room. Hell, i probably wont be able to do anything there but push around wheelchairs and they are still making it difficult. The ambulance would require me to pay them $500 and take a 60 hour first aid course to work with them. Its just kinda frustrating because i've been doing emergency work for almost 5 years now and i don't want to spend money and time on the additional training. I'm talking to my coordinator about finding me another internship or figuring out a deal with some ambulance to minimize the amount of money id need to spend in order to volunteer. I could also talk to some doctors personally to see if i could start volunteering for them. I also want to Talk to Zev, the guy who runs the Krav Maga school to see if maybe i could help out there. Maybe i could work with some of the kids or something. I don't know. I have no problem living here, hanging out, and traveling but I wouldn't mind being a bit busier.

Watt else is knew? Eye kan't rally thinks of much else at the moment. kan ewe?