My Purim Extravaganza

My cousin commented to me the other day that most cultures have a holiday/celebration in which people dress in costume; the American’s have Halloween and Mardi Gras, the Mexican’s have Day of the Dead, Brazilians have Carnival – the list goes on - and Israelis have Purim. For those who are unaware of the background of Purim, it is a post biblical holiday that celebrates the survival of the Jewish people by the hands of Mordichai and Ester, both heroes, and Haman the evil villain. Some of the traditional ways to celebrate the holiday are to read/hear the Megila of Ester, dress in disguise (from Haman), eat Hamantashin and drink heavily in order not to tell the difference between Mordichai and Haman, a tenet of the faith that in my mind is followed closely by all young adults and most Israelis.
So if part of the study abroad experience is to immerse oneself in the culture of the host country, I did this by celebrating the festivities of Purim. Purim did not start until Thursday night this year, however, the fine upper level learning institution that is Tel Aviv University decided to start two nights earlier by hosting a party for its students in the dorms. The university brought in a DJ, set up a bar and some free food (along with face painting, weird if you ask me why college students want their face painted) one the first floor of my dorm. Now coming from a culture where our universities look down on excessive drinking and ban the sell of beer and alcohol at college football and basketball games, it was interesting to see the university promote drinking to its students. Back to the topic on hand, most of the students come dressed up in Halloween type costumes, I dressed up this night as a prepfratstar sporting the double popped collar plaid shorts and boating shoes. The party started around 9 and lasted until about 1, the DJ played the usual club techno songs intertwined with some Hebrew hits and the Akon and T-pain songs that have been played out in the states for sometime now. One interesting thing to note, the winners of the costume contest, two students one dressed as an old person and the other as his Pilipino caretaker, won roundtrip tickets to Amsterdam (more the university trying to push promiscuous sex with hookers and smoking weed). This precursor to Purim only gave us a taste of the true holiday spirit.
The real celebration was Thursday night in a shady south Tel Aviv neighborhood, Flourintine, at a street party sharing the same name. In Michigan we have block parties, but this was of another breed, to say that this party was a street party is to say that Achilles was just a warrior. The street was closed off for as far as the eye can see with thousands of people probably all of who are between the ages of 18 and 30 dressed up in costumes and wigs. My costume this night was a multifaceted, the first layer was a suit t-shirt that has become my ‘golden boy’ shirt and the second was a swimmer, hence the pictures of my taking clothes off in the middle of the street. Though most overseas students are not religious we fully partook (and some) in the mitzvah of drinking until we cannot recognize. This combination of factors along with the feeling that anything goes (lax police presence) added up to a night of fun unparallel and unlike to any American ‘party’ I have been to.

My Wall

Writers block. It’s a bitch. This is my third time sitting down with the specific purpose of writing about my trip to Prague and Budapest but the words are not coming to me and my muse (whatever she or it may be) has failed to stimulate me. Though you may be thinking if I have writers block, or a form thereof, what posses me to push the modern industrial looking keys of my computer and construct sentences here. The reason mis compadres (sometimes I get an urge to speak in Spanish and for Taco Bell, I contribute this to one of my previous lives as a Spanish conquistador) is that though I can’t seem to write about what we did during our travels I can speak at length about what I got out of my mid-semester break.
So for those who don’t know I booked my flight about 48 hours before its departure through my new favorite website, El-Al spontaneity (only available in Hebrew). The site has last minute deals on flights to mainly Europe (also North America, India and China, a little advertisement for El-Al) and for about half the price of a regular ticket. As I sat looking at what deals were on the site I saw that for $209 I could get a round trip ticket to Prague leaving on Wednesday night and returning Thursday a week later. This offer was too good to let go by and after messaging back and forth with Zach through facebook and e-mail I decided to book my flight.
Looking back on the trip I realized that 1) doing anything spontaneously is more fun and exiting than planning it out and 2) when you save money doing one thing you end up justifying buying ridiculous shit with the ‘supposed’ money you saved. And that the friends you travel with are what make the trip, not the places we went. We could have visited Prague or the Gobi Desert and we still would have had fun just being with each other.

My BBB

Personally, when blogging I need to be in an atmosphere conducive to the writing process. So as I sit here in a Tel-Aviv cafe trying to come up with a catchy title to hook my readers I thought what was happening around me and hence the three Bs: Breakfast, blogging and betzim (hebrew for eggs), I was contemplating other b words such as biznatch (too much wishful thinking) bong, blintz, Budapest, blunt, breathing and on and on. I just got back from my Prague/Budapest trip and though I did not sleep much on the red-eye flight I can not sleep until I get all that happened in this past week on paper (figuratively speaking). But before I can do this I have to finish writing about the previous weeks. So without any further interruptions.

On Saturday February 16th the group that I went to Eilat with was scheduled to go to Petra, Jordan, one of the newly voted ancient world wonders, however, after a rough night of vodka and redbull two of my friends stayed behind to nurse in my mind what would be a pretty bad hangover. So four of us boarded a bus for the Israeli/Jordanian border where our Jordanian guide was waiting to pick us up. After about an hour getting through both Israeli and Jordanian border control we started our three hour bus ride to Petra. I myself was not feeling in the best of shape and the bumpy roads did not help. During the bus ride our guide talked for almost the entire duration except for the few minutes before and after we stomped at a rest stop. He talked about everything from the Jordanian economy to American wives spending all their husbands money. He had no rhyme or reason to what he talked about, he was just practicing his broken English and trying to entertain some. Once we arrived to Petra we had to walk about another hour until we saw the main monuments in Petra. Petra was a city built by Arabs around the year zero. What makes it so interesting and a sight to see is that all the buildings are carved into the mountain instead of being actually built. Additionally, it is thought that only ten percent of Petra is excavated and that the rest remains buried under tons of sediment from the flash floods that occurred throughout the past centuries. Though the treasury and the scenery itself is amazing to see the grounds of the park is filled with little kids begging you to buy their dollar postcards and pushy men trying to give you a camel or horse ride. This aspect of the trip I could have done without and it amazes me how persistent arab men are. We walked for a few hours through the mountains and saw many caves and other things of interest. I am glad I went but lets say I don't see myself back for a while, maybe ever.

The following week passed without much excitement. At the end of the week I went to Jerusalem to spend Shabbat with friends studying at Hebrew University. I took the bus Friday and got there just in time before everything in the city shut down for the day. It still stuns me that the entire city shuts down for a day. The essence of the day of rest is recognized. Around six in the evening we walked to the kotel through the Damascus gate which is where the Arab shook is located and where the Shabbat has no bearing. After making it to the kotel we did a modified service and rushed back for the food. Every Shabbat a different apartment host a dinner where everyone brings food or wine and they all sit around eating and drinking for hours. This was the scenario this shabbat and we ate until we were stuffed. The whole next day we did the same thing, sat around and ate and drank, its a rough life we are living.

My reTurn to Blogging

I need to apologize to everyone who has been vigorously checking this site for I have neglected my duties as a blogger. I have not written anything in about two weeks and these following post will cover a lot of what happened in this span.
However, I just need to put up a list of things I have done in the past weeks to remind myself and just a quick glimpse of what happened. (order in reverse chronological order)
1. Petra, Jordan
2. Jerusalem for shabbat
3. booking a ticket for prague
4. going to prague
5. budapest
I am too tired to blog and the juices just are not flowing.
I promise to have write some good material by the end of the week