succoth part 2: the caucuses!

stop #4: TBILISI, GEORGIA

arriving at the tbilisi airport at 3 am was fun! i caught a ride into the city with a bunch of elderly men who smelled like beef jerky on a very typical soviet era minibus that was spewing smoke and stalled out every time it stopped. georgia is so interesting: it really is the modern buffer between east and west. you may remember that they had a huge war with russia in 2008 over a little territory called south ossetia, which almost ignited another cold war. to this day russia essentially controls south ossetia, which has declared its own independence, as well as another breakaway independent region called abkhazia. in the meantime, georgia is trying to join nato. and i had no idea until i got there, but there is another completely autonomous entity (thanks to a "strongman") called adjara. such a fractious and complicated region, which makes it super interesting to this guy! i would describe the georgian people for you (mom), but generalizing is wrong. i can say, however, that they generally subsist off bread, beer, perogies and pie. i spent 2 days in tbilisi: climbing mountains, exploring castles, marveling at countless georgian orthodox churches, not speaking a word of english, eating huge perogy-like kinkhali, breathing way too much second hand smoke, riding the <20 cent/ride metro system, feasting my eyes upon soviet era monuments, entering dilapidated, abandoned communist government buildings, etc.! the highlight was definitely renting a scooter for 3 hours on my last day. i scooted all around tbilisi (a city of 1.4 million), and up and over a mountain to some little towns in the countryside. it was the definition of catharsis for me.

all too soon, the time came to move on to armenia. i was going to take the night train, but it only goes every second night. so i showed up at the mini-bus station at 8 am to catch a minibus, which are supposed to leave "frequently" for yerevan, armenia, 6 hours away. well, these things wait until they're full before they leave. by 2 pm, there were still only 2 people waiting, and i was starting to get anxious. so i started the long process of bartering without language so we could get on the road. thank goodness for cell phone keypads so at least we can get the numbers straight! after an hour of unintelligible "discussion" and a little too much compromise on my part, we finally got on the road. it turned out that the guy who was driving the thing had spent his morning consuming alcohol; we were all over the road. one minute we'd be 4 inches behind the semi in front of us, the next he'd be getting a call on his mobile and forget to keep driving, and we'd coast to a stop, honking traffic piling up behind us. unless he unwittingly had us drifting off into the ditch, which happened a few too many times. an hour out of tbilisi we stopped, and waited for another hour while they brought one more passenger. probably a good thing for his blood alcohol level. at the georgian/armenian border we stopped for a 1.5 hour dinner break, so the driver could smoke another pack and pound back a few more beers. the other guy in the van insisted on buying me dinner; that was really nice of him!


stop #5: YEREVAN, ARMENIA

my friend brad has an armenian friend named veronika that he put me in touch with. and thank goodness, as when i arrived in at my hostel there was no one to be found. apparently no one ever stays there. it took about 15 calls in armenian, and finally someone got in touch with the guy who was supposed to be running the hostel. turns out it was really nice, and i was the only person there! veronika was super nice, and she even took a day off work to show me around the city! we went out to a town called etchmiadzin, where the oldest church in armenia is, from the 4th century. armenia is the oldest christian country in the world! and to this day their brand of christianity has its own independent flair. we then went to a museum devoted to the armenian filmmaker and artist sergei parajanov, whose work was heavily censored by the soviets. and we ate some really tasty armenian food. i was amazed at how cultured the place is. there is cutting edge art absolutely everywhere, and everyone is intently concerned with looking really, really good. as a group, they seem to hold themselves to a very high standard.

that evening i went to the armenian genocide memorial, which is on the crest of a hill overlooking yerevan. unfortunately the museum was closed by the time i got there, but there is an eternal flame and some evocative architecture that is very poignant. the armenian genocide occurred during the late 1910's: 1.5 million armenians were killed by the ottoman empire. this cause has been furthered by armenia's huge diaspora in the west. to this day turkey refuses to call it a genocide, resulting in a very antagonistic relationship between armenia and turkey. the border is completely sealed shut. armenia and azerbaijan, its neighbor on the other side, also unfortunately don't get along. i learned a lot about this from veronika, who is working to encourage dialogue between youth of the two countries. there was a big war in the early 90's, after which the ethnically armenian region of nagorno-karabakh declared its own (still internationally unrecognized) independence from azerbaijan. really interesting geopolitics that i could go on and on about, but i won't bore you. but the tensions and the complexities are one of the reasons that i really wanted to visit this part of the world, so it was great to hang out with someone who could explain it all. armenia = super interesting place, i'd highly recommend anyone to go there. as a parting gift, on my last day i finally got to see mount ararat, which towers over yerevan. its where noah's ark is believed to have run aground.


stop #6: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

i flew home on this brand new low cost carrier called flydubai, which is super cheap! the first few hours of my layover in dubai were spent waiting in line with hundreds of afghani tribesmen who were on their way to mecca for the hajj. when i finally got out of the airport, i took the amazing metro system to the tallest building in the world, the burj khalifa. i learned that if you took all the iron re-bar used in its construction and layed it end to end, it would reach a quarter of the way around the globe! if you were to scroll down - way down - you could read about the last time i was in dubai. for some reason i really appreciate the place. on my way back to the airport i chanced upon the emirati equivalent of a walmart, and, realizing that everything was significantly cheaper than in israel, indulged in some shopping. managed to make it back to the airport just in time!


stop #7: AMMAN, JORDAN

i flew back to amman because it was way cheaper. after a night in a super sketch hostel, i spent a day getting back to israel. 5 hours at the allenby bridge border crossing. overall though, an amazing break: i almost forgot i was a medical student! but its good to be back :)

sukkot part 1: ukraine - hungary - latvia

one of the perks of going to medical school in israel is that we get 10 days off for the jewish holiday of sukkot! i decided to go on a little trip :)


stop #1: KIEV, UKRAINE

i had a 24 hour layover! after finding my way into downtown kiev by about midnight, i searched for my hostel in some dark alleys for about an hour before finally finding it. its only identification was a tiny piece of paper with 12 point font that said "hostel" scotch taped above the door of the building! huh, eh! anyways, i ascended the 7 floors of the communist era apartment building and woke up the woman who runs the place. turns out she sleeps in the bunk bed directly beneath me! before i left she gave me a huge box of about 100 gourmet ukrainian chocolates! i didn't know that chocolate was a ukrainian specialty. i still don't think it is. but those chocolates satiated me for the rest of the trip. the only drawback of the hostel was that when i picked up my bag at the end of the day it was clear that someone else had gone through it while i was gone. i don't think i would have expected anything less.

but overall i had an amazing day! kiev is a wonderful city, especially in the autumn. i went to independence square, home of the infamous orange revolution of 2004. also, st. sophia's ukrainian orthodox church, whose clocktower one can climb for fantabulous views. i also made sure to stop at the arsenal'na subway station, the deepest subway station in the world! got to love superlatives, right?!?! and the kiev subway is pleasantly priced, at 20 cents a ride. did you know: every soviet city with a population of over 1 million got a subway system? i ate at an amazing self serve ukrainian restaurant for a few dollars, and otherwise just wandered. ukraine has a fascinating and rather unfortunate history. but recently they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, at least in kiev. the newest news is that the chernobyl nuclear disaster site recently opened up to visitors, so i guess that's one of the main reasons tourists are going there these days.


stop #2: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

i spent 3 days in budapest, mostly to hang out with a great friend and former college roommate named brad. i feel like we have so many memories, everything from weekly wings nights to road trips to maine to wonderful liturgical church services to apples to apples at “family” game nights to lamenting the methods used by certain women to break up with us to wine tasting in the santa ynez valley to an infamous box of stool that just wouldn’t disappear to fish tacos in tijuana to vague recollections of him leaving at 2 am in the mornings for his job sorting lobsta in glosta, just to name a few. it was great to catch up. he is pursuing a master's degree at a very interesting graduate-only institution called central european university that is entirely in english and is a remarkable melting pot of students from every corner of the world. in a couple days i had already hung out with people from over a dozen different countries, including a disproportionately large number of romanians. we went to all kinds of little hungarian restaurants that the tourists don't know about and it was amazing. and cheap. oh and also he was kind enough to show me to a few different shopping malls - they have some seriously amazing malls in budapest! one day we went to a traditional hungarian bath house! i stayed the entire day. it was a good time! speaking of budapest - hey dad! - remember that time we were there on christmas eve a few years ago?! that was also a good time.

stop #3: RIGA, LATVIA

i had a short layover. but it was just long enough to find my way into the city and ascend the steeple of the tallest church in town before the sun went down. and buy some delectable latvian pastries. and wander around at night for a while. it was freezing! and everyone was watching hockey as a pastime! it reminded me of you know where! the baltics have really done well for themselves post-communism. downtown riga is nothing short of glamorous!

bethlehem; yom kippur

a few weeks ago i headed up to jerusalem and got to have lunch with the director of the middle east studies program, the study abroad program i did in egypt during college! that semester really changed the way i think about the world, and this particular professor had a lot to do with that, so it was wonderful see him again. also, my friend lynn from gordon college cross country running days is now the intern at the program. it was nice to catch up with her as well and talk about some of the politics/faith issues that only former mespers would think to discuss! because they live right on the seam, we decided to go to bethlehem for a few hours. after passing through the gnarly checkpoint and looking at "the wall" from the other side, we went to the church of the nativity, which marks the spot where it is believed that Jesus was born. there was a 3 hour long line of tourists, but because lynn speaks arabic we went in the back way and didn't have to wait at all! we then went to "the shepherds field", where another church marks the spot.

on the way home, coming through jerusalem, i ran into some preparations for yom kippur, which was the next day. some jews prepare for this very holy day by killing a chicken after holding it above their head and saying a prayer. they were doing this by the thousands in downtown jerusalem. across the street was a raucous animal (specifically chicken) rights protest. israel is a diverse place!

yom kippur, or the day of atonement, is the most sacred day in judaism. many here fast all day, and nothing is on the radio or television. no cars are allowed on the roads, so my classmates and i took the opportunity to saunter around all evening in the middle of the normally bustling boulevards and intersections of be'er sheva. we were even able to spend some time in a large municipal fountain that only gets turned off once a year. good times!

the north!

one day during rosh hashana my classmates diana, becky, cherec and i went circa-israel roadtrip! we started by watching the sun rise from beer sheva's favorite hilltop war of indepedence monument. then we drove up along the edge of the dead sea, and decided to make a random stop in the palestinian city of jericho. we bought some falafels and fruit, and chanced upon the mount of temptation, believed to be the location where Jesus was tempted by the devil. jericho is also famous as the city that the ancient israelites marched around... and around... and around... and then the walls fell down. today it goes by the tagline: "oldest city in the world. 10 000 years". we also found a seemingly ownerless camel, who was gracious enough to patiently pose for many pictures with us! thanks camel! camels are my favorite animal, definitely!

then we continued north, right along the israeli-jordanian border and the jordan river (although these days its more like a trickle). at one point i was driving and decided to take a one way in the wrong direction. all of a sudden: flashing lights and siren: oh no. the cop asked where we were from. "america". to that he said: "never mind then, enjoy the rest of your morning!". nice, eh! this gave me something of a feeling of invincibility, which translated into what i was quickly informed was an excessively aggressive driving style. sorry ladies!  eventually we arrived at the sea of galilee, or kinneret in the vernacular. its actually a lake, not a sea. famous for us christians! interestingly, it is also the lowest freshwater lake in the world. we went swimming amongst throngs of israelis. yofi tofi! (hebrew for very nice!)

we then headed into the golan heights, which is territory that israel conquered from syria during the six day war of 1967. its called the heights because it is at a much higher elevation that any of the surrounding area. we were going to go hiking, but the national park was just about to close. so we kept heading north, all the way to mount bental, where there are expansive views of syria (on the other side of a united nations-patrolled buffer zone). we could also see mount hermon, home of the levant's only outdoor ski hill! there are also old army bunkers to explore on top of mount bental. the golan is full of fields of landmines, marked by "do not enter" signs. there are also old abandoned tanks along the sides of the road, one of which we played in for a while! we continued north, through verdant vineyards and apple orchards, to two druze towns called mas'ada and majdal shams. the druze are a fascinating pseudo-islamic mystical sect/ethnicity, most of whom live in syria and lebanon, with some in israel. the israeli druze are actually famously unique for their valiant and committed service in the israeli defense forces, choosing to support the state of israel (in sharp contrast to the more typical arab perspective). the towns are amazing - they are built up the sides of mountains - you'd never guess you were in israel! we found the border fence with syria where the townsfolk apparently use megaphones to communicate news with their estranged family members on the other side of the buffer zone (because they can't travel back and forth).

we then descended into the galilee valley, passing through pristine alpine towns and past nimrod's castle, which is precipitously perched on the top of a mountain. deciding that the day wouldn't be complete without a glimpse of at least one more country, we headed north to the border with lebanon at metula! this border is also sealed shut - israel and lebanon were at war as recently as 2006. but the road goes right up to the border; road signs still intact and everything! and wow, metula is a glitzy little town. probably the most affluent town i've ever seen in israel. coincidently, it is also the home of the "canada centre", a rec-plex that contains israel's largest skating rink and is the home of the israeli national ice hockey team. yeah!

then we headed home, through tiberias, haifa and tel aviv. the rest of the galilee will have to wait for another time- we are medical students, not tourists, after all :)

fish pedi. physician's oath. hebron.

its been a week full of excitement! last weekend was our physician's oath ceremony, during which my class recited a paraphrased version of the hippocratic oath, meant to get us thinking seriously about the journey we are embarking on. indeed, it was a poignant time! we all dressed executively in white and groomed ourselves well beforehand. for my friends cherec, julia, diana and me this involved getting a fish pedicure in beer sheva's old city! special fish eat the dead skin off your feet!!! i cannot recommend this experience highly enough! so exhilarating! back to the oath - ben-gurion university was actually the first medical school in the world (decades ago) to start doing the physician's oath at the beginning of medical school. it had traditionally happened at graduation, but it was felt that doing it at the beginning would be totally way better. during the 90's the trend spread, and today every medical student in america says a physician's oath at the beginning of medical school! after the ceremony there was a delectable catered dinner, skits/movies created by each class, and music and dancing compliments of some musically talented physicians-to-be and the co-director of the program on guitar!

last weekend was also the 100th anniversary of the keilah/church that i go to here. there were over one hundred visitors there from all over the world in honor of the occasion. particularly encouraging to me was that they had a palestinian pastor from bethlehem come and lead some worship songs. i really believe that one of the main goals of the church here (and everywhere, but especially here) should be to encourage peace and reconciliation among populations that often don't get along so well, as this is one way that we can tangibly show that the love of Christ transcends divisions of ethnicity, culture, politics, and indeed even theology. unfortunately it doesn't really happen enough in this region, so that was a really encouraging time.

now, we're on a four day weekend for rosh hashanah, the jewish new year! the first night some of my classmates made an amazing meal and we watched a movie outside in the couches that populate their yard. some of us were thinking about going to petra in jordan for the weekend, but that ended up not happening. so yesterday morning i got up at 5 am for a little day trip to hebron. its not exactly an uncontroversial place, but, as some of you may know, that typically only serves to pique my interest...

hebron is the largest city in the west bank, was an important site in ancient history, and is currently right on the fault line that is the israeli-palestinian conflict. that is to say, tensions are always high, and there is perennial violence. it is about 2 hours north of beer sheva by bus. and when i say bus, i mean bullet-proof settler bus, that stops at every gated israeli settlement along the way, even the ones with 3 buildings (the 3rd being the bus stop) on the tops of mountains. hebron is where the tomb of abraham (yeah, that abraham!) is, making it a venerated holy site for both jews and muslims. the tomb is underground, topped by a huge edifice that contains both a synagogue and a mosque. separated of course. both were nice! hebron was actually also the capital of israel a few millenia ago during the tenure of king david, but for the last thousand years it has been almost entirely populated by arabs. in 1929 a group of 60-some jews were very unfortunately murdered by a mob of arabs. thus, small numbers of hard-core zionists (arguably the most extreme and religiously ideological on the spectrum) targeted hebron as a site for settlement after the west bank (or judea and samaria, as they like to say) was occupied (or liberated, as they like to say) by israel in 1967. also, because some of them view the area as the true heart of israel (and thus of central importance in the cosmic narrative) because of its importance during the time of david.

in 1994 an american-israeli settler (and a physician, no less :/) massacred dozens of muslims and injured over one hundred more in the mosque side of abraham's tomb. to prevent retaliation against the 500 or so jewish settlers in the old city, the israeli military partitioned the city into 2 zones, h1 and h2. initially 30 000 palestinians lived in h2 (the jewish section), although they soon were forced out by harassment from the settlers and the military, countless checkpoints, and restrictions like curfews. so now what you obstensibly have is about a quarter of the land area of the city of 300 000 - 400 000 (including what used to be the main road through the city) that is a deserted urban wasteland of empty shops and crumbling homes, encircled by huge cement walls and barbed wire, populated only by a couple small enclaves with a total of 500 settlers, 2000 israeli soldiers to protect them, and probably 10 times that many israeli flags flying absolutely everywhere.

(not that the other side doesn't have irrational biases either, but)... there are all kinds of "historical" placards in h2 (in english), describing the variety of ways that the arabs have insulted judaism in the city throughout history. one talks about how they disrespected a jewish cemetery by allowing a farm to built beside it. literally across the street, there is an overgrown arab cemetery with an israeli army bunker built in the middle of it, and huge spools of extra barbed wire stacked on top of the graves. not that graves are what's really important in this situation, but its symbolic of the hypocrisy. seriously, the aura of the place was so depraved that i started feeling nauseous. the arabs can't come near the settlers, and the settlers can't leave h2 by decree of the israeli government. probably in everyone's best interest. so i walked around there for a while, and then headed through the checkpoints into the main arab part of the town. i was vividly reminded of my days in egypt, what with all the higabs, twisty streets of the old city, getting a guy who sold me a 25 cent coffee to reteach me the numbers in arabic, enjoying some pleasantly priced (less than $1) falafel and custard stuff with honey, and trying to avoid being conned by all these people eager to show you their house that was recently destroyed by israeli water cannons (but you can only see it if you "donate" a chunk of cash - they probably make so much money like this). (so palestinians can be hypocritical too, can't we all). but the abuse is real - it got so bad that the israeli government and the palestinian authority jointly decided that there needed to be a special force of international observers, called the "temporary international presence in the city of hebron", or tiph. these (mostly scandinavian) guys and gals can be seen wandering around in their special uniforms, taking complaints from palestinian shop owners about abuses and sampling dried fruit in the old city.

after a number of hours i went back to h2 to catch my bus. i got there early, and eventually was approached and started talking with one of the settlers, as he was finishing playing some kind of mesmerizing game on his iphone. just like me! he was a 27 year old guy from boston, named israel (original, eh?). this tourist bro walked past, engrossed in lonely planet's "israel and the palestinian territories" guidebook. that was a catalyst for an intense conversation with israel. he noted the title of the book and started laughing. i asked him what he thought of that, and he said that the rest of the world doesn't understand that god gave the land - all of the land - to the jews. when i asked what about the arabs, he said that that he actually doesn't mind if they stay. "we shouldn't give them civil rights in society, but that doesn't mean they can't have human rights here". hmmm. he invited me into his house for coffee, and his mother was setting up for the big evening rosh hashanah meal (its jewish new years eve), so we helped her set the table. super nice family (to me).

this niceness contributes to but one of the many reasons these tensions have become so intractable - american tourists (unfortunately [in my opinion] many of them fundamentalist christian dispensationalists who are [again, in my opinion] far too obsessed with eschatology) come in on custom settlement tours led by american, english-speaking guys like israel (he's a tour guide - there's really not much else of an economy when you're living in an isolated ideological settlement and can't even interact with the locals). their luxury coaches are waved through the checkpoints, and they only drive on the israeli roads that the typical palestinian isn't allowed to use. they become extremely well versed in one side of the story, but they never even set foot outside the separation barriers to hear the other side. and many don't even know that there are actually christian palestinians on the other side of the barbed wire (not that someone's religion should influence whether you should empathize with them). and then they go home to their churches, and as "experts" on the "holy land" due to their "2 week tour" implore people to "stand with israel at all costs" because she is in a "cosmic battle" of "eternal significance" with "hostile enemies". and they wonder what on earth would compel palestinian youth to periodically throw rocks. ahhhh no, i'm starting to rant. sorry. but if you consider yourself a proponent of this perspective, i would challenge you to go to hebron and, after visiting both sides of the barrier, ask yourself which side seems the most hostile right now.

to be fair, and to wrap up: hebron is an extreme case. not all settlers are driven purely by ideology. heck, some of the people living in the settlements of east jerusalem aren't even necessarily pro-settlement: they're just living there because the government subsidizes the housing. and a huge proportion of israelis are anti-settlement, many even fiercely so. so don't get me wrong - i like israel. but israel really isn't doing itself any favors by occupying a quarter of hebron.

study, study, dead sea!, study, study

lots of studying; studying.

there was one epic day in there where we didn't have class. i rented a car (it was soooo cathartic to drive that thing, i miss driving so much), enlisted some good friends, and we embarked at 4:30 am to watch the sunrise from the top of masada. its a huge mountain with a plateau on top that has become a symbol of jewish pride and spirit of independence. it was where, not long after the time of Christ, the zealots made their last stand and ultimately opted to take their own lives before submitting to the romans, who had been spending years building a ramp out of rock to the top of the mountain. some remarkable history. also, before that, king herod built a summer palace there that is perched on the edge of a precipice with tremendous views of the dead sea. after exploring and taking a number of photos involving planking and, a preferred alternative, owling, we descended the mountain and drove further north along the edge of the dead sea, the lowest point on earth! we soon found ourselves in the west bank (retrospectively in violation of the rental car agreement, but whatever), and found a place to go swimming/floating! half the mass of dead sea water is salt! most everyone there was arab, so i got to practice the five arabic words i remember! also, there is therapeutic mud that one can rub all over oneself! in fact, all those annoying israeli salespeople at the kiosks in the malls in north america are selling beauty products derived from the contents of the dead sea. apparently all the bromine in the air is supposed to relax you by deadening nervous synapses; indeed it was relaxing! after that, we decided to head to jerusalem! we stepped into the church of the holy sepulchre and went into the tomb where Christ is traditionally believed to have been buried. the complexities of belief and the politics of religion and their ramifications just relating to that church alone are mindblowing. you can read about it. we also went to the western wall and had dinner at the armenian tavern in the armenian quarter of the old city, called such despite the fact that there aren't really armenians to speak of left in jerusalem any more. on the drive home, at about midnight, we decided "why don't we go swimming in the mediterranean sea today too!". so we made a detour to ashkelon and did just that! when we got home it had pretty much been 24 hours since we left. a great day with wonderful people!

since then more studying. one of our classmates was hit by a car and broke her leg :(. various birthday parties. oh and last night there was an event called wine sheva, where wineries from all over israel came to offer samples and there was jazz music and cheese and fruit on skewers. it was really nice. never would have imagined such a glamorous event happening in this town! beer sheva is generally pretty worn down, and all about the dust and stray cats. but i still like it!

i better get back to studying now

ani lomed evrit!

"i learn hebrew!"

i've been here in be'er sheva for a month already! i like it here. be'er sheva is an ethnically diverse university town of about 200,000 in the middle of the desert. i'm so stoked to finally be starting medical school, and in the middle east no less! my 35 classmates at the medical school for international health are wonderful. they all have such passion and varied life experience: a good percentage of them already have advanced degrees. i am really honored to be a part of this remarkable group of future physicians. and importantly, we all get along really well! for the last month we've been immersed in an intensive, 4-hours-a-day hebrew course called an ulpan. though i'm a lot closer to the bottom of the class than the middle when it comes to language learning skillz, i feel like i've learned a lot and am finding that hebrew can be fun! my classmate natalie has been kind enough to tutor me, which has helped a lot. thanks natalie! for the rest of the day we've been taking an emergency medicine class, where we learn the pre-hospital course of treatment for emergency situations such as trauma, choking, cardiac arrest, israeli snake bites and the like. we also practiced the art of i.v. line insertion on each other! there was a lot of blood. we just had the final exam for the course which involved a lot of practical scenarios - fun fun! tomorrow begins the "real" medical school courses - the first semester lineup includes biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, microbiology, biostatistics, immunology, histology, genetics, "global health and medicine" and more hebrew. i'll be studying a lot.

during this orientation month we've had a lot of fun. various shabbat dinners/potlucks and great times on the weekends. oh and how could i forget running down up escalators! one day the whole class went to jerusalem! we filed through such epic sites as the garden of gethsemane, the tomb of david, the western wall, the via dolorosa, and the church of the holy sepulchre! though i spent two weeks in jerusalem a few years ago, i can never get enough! really lucky to be living near such a historically (and otherwise) significant locale. the class also took an evening trip further south from here into the desert to sde boker, where david ben-gurion (the namesake of our university and first prime minister of israel) had his kibbutz and is buried. we hiked in the full moonlight through a wadi (a dried up waterway carved into the rocks), ending with a campfire! also took the train to tel aviv with some friends from my class... a couple times already! amazing beach; frolicking in the waves; a mall with an h&m: could life get any better?! maybe if it were cheaper. but what are ya gonna do.

there have been huge protests in israel over the last month - precipitated by an increasing cost of living. there is a live-in tent city in the median of rothschild blvd. (one of tel aviv's most affluent streets) that goes for miles. be'er sheva also saw the largest protest in its history, right outside soroka hospital where we have our classes.

i'm doing my best to keep my mouth shut when it comes to politics here. sometimes its really tough. but its probably a good thing. after all, i'm here to become a physician, not a political talk show host.

currently fighting the urge to turn this post into a politically charged rant. there's always a lot of juicy cause for that in this part of the world.

i've procured some nice things recently! like a bike, which makes life so much easier! and an iphone! some super cool classmates and i got a family plan together! now i wonder how i ever survived without a smartphone before! and a quality hair cut! this metrosexual guy who washed my hair both before and after! we also found the cheapest source of food in town: the buffet-style hospital cafeteria! so glad that place exists! and a happening shuk with best-priced fresh produce. and i found and moved into the apartment i'll be living in for the year! my classmate flatmate's name is seungjin. sometimes he cooks amazing korean cuisine! we live in a choice location on the 16th floor. with a great view of the hospital. anyone and everyone is welcome to come visit!

there is a nice little church here! except its not called that: its a veila, or congregation, or literally a herd of sheep. there are some really nice people. everything is translated into russian, english and spanish, audible through little headsets that most of the people there need to wear. it looks like i'll be helping with setting up the audio equipment. afterward we've made a habit of patronizing the gleeda (ice cream) place! its about the only place open on shabbat.

there have been some missiles from gaza landing in be'er sheva over the last few weeks. it started with an attack on a tourist bus in southern israel near eilat. in fact, the casualties of that attack were evacuated by helicopter to our very own hospital, and we watched them being rushed into the emergency room from our classroom. the retaliations and counter retaliations spiraled into what became the most intense back and forth between israel and gaza in the last few years. when rockets are coming into town a loud warning siren goes off, giving us 60 seconds to find a bomb shelter, descend to a lower floor, or at minimum hide on the eastern side of just about anything. one day there were almost 100 missiles. israel has very recently unveiled an innovative laser guided interception system called the iron dome that is supposed to shoot em down before they get here, but despite that at least one person was killed in be'er sheva and a lot of the rockets still land close enough to hear. our hebrew class moved to a bomb shelter, and my room is actually a shelter too, so sometimes the sirens give me an excuse to stay in bed a little longer. i've actually never once felt scared in any way here. though i hate violence with every fiber of my being, i get something of a rush out of finding myself in the midst of it. it helps remind you that life is meaningful. and though it often brings out the worst in people, it can also bring out their best. indeed, if i wasn't currently in medical school and money wasn't a consideration i'd probably be trying to get into libya right now (ok, i'd stick to the eastern part). oh and regarding here, there has been a ceasefire in the last few days, so no need to worry :)

i've found time for some nice long runs in the surrounding desert. my favorite is running to a war monument on the top of a hill on the outskirts of town, where there is an amazing view. there are a lot of war monuments in this town. hopefully i'll find time to run in the midst of biochemistry and all that jazz. let me rephrase that. the more i run, the better i'll do in biochemistry. you gotta do what you gotta do.

today i had lunch in an astro-turf yard with a third year from my school who made amazing coffee and serenaded us with his oud and psalms in arabic. it was nice!

i think that pretty much catches you up! not such a bad first month of medical school, eh!?

balkanology! part 2

continued from part 1: here.


KOSOVO (pristina, 1 night)

what a funtastically fascinating country! they declared independence in 2008, after obtaining united nations protected autonomy after the big nato intervention in 1999. but the serbs still consider kosovo to be part of serbia. so talk about political intricacies and complicated animosities, eh? although independent, one gets the impression that the place is still basically run by the unmik (united nations mission in kosovo). they have a huge complex in downtown pristina. i saw the "newborn" monument, which was unveiled at the announcement of independence and has become something of a symbol of nationalism. its a series of huge yellow letters that spell "newborn", and it is covered in the signatures of kosovo's youth. also, the library at the university of pristina, whose unique design has been aptly described as "simultaneously outrageous and beautiful": google image it! kosovo is definitely on the developing end of the spectrum. the smells and the sights are evocative of a place struggling to survive. i stayed in the only hostel in town, which is run by a hunchbacked former university electronics professor who speaks impeccable english (pretty rare in kosovo). there are lots of mosques (albanian/muslim majority), and a recently begun serbian orthodox church that has come to be known as a symbol of serbian arrogance and spite: it was a target of vandalism and anti-serbian hate graffiti, the u.n. had to move in with force to protect it, and apparently the serbian orthodox church isn't going to rest until its finished. oh and kosovo absolutely loves bill clinton. they named a street after him, and put up a statue as well as a 3 story tall mural of his perfect face. can't blame them - he saved them from the genocidal slobodan milosabitch. not to tell just one side of the story though, there were innocent serbians who lived in kosovo who now can't go back for fear of their lives. just a sad situation all around. actually, there are still serbian enclaves in kosovo, and they basically don't answer to any national government. anyways, ...

MACEDONIA (skopje, 2 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! all of skopje (pronounced skow-pee-ah) is seemingly under construction. they are building all kinds of huge museums, and statues in the central square of famous macedonians throughout history, like the byzantine emperor justinian. the centerpiece is a massive bronze alexander the great on a horse, which apparently was only erected a couple of weeks ago! there is a splendid old town, a huge bazaar, a beautifully ornate ottoman era church (that had to be built 3 feet under ground because churches couldn't be taller than mosques in the ottoman empire), and a really nice chapel built in commemoration of mother theresa, who grew up in skopje. also, a clock tower. did you know that every town in the ottoman empire needed a clock tower so that "no shop keepers could work longer than anyone else and earn more money"? good thing that era's over, eh!? if you want to climb the skopje clock tower you can find your way through the construction zone and into the big mosque on the hill. find the old guy with no teeth and give him some non-verbal pleasantries about his mosque. then motion to the clock tower and he will open the lock with a huge, archaic key from the middle ages that he finds under a carpet in the mosque. climb up the stairs, but watch out for the randomly placed wooden beams which could almost knock you out if you walk into one, and be careful not to step on the rotting corpses of dead pigeons or, further up, the nest with recently hatched baby birds. when you get to the top, crawl out the small window unto the ledge and its a beautiful view of skopje! here's something interesting: the greeks don't like the name macedonia. the ancient macedonia included part of greece (or as the greeks would say, it was greek to its core), and indeed there is a region in greece today called macedonia. thus, when the republic of macedonia emerged out of the ashes of the former yugoslavia as an independent state, greece saw their choice of name carrying with it the possibility of territorial expansionism, and demanded that the country be referred to in the united nations as the former yugoslav republic of macedonia (fyrom). as a byproduct of this angst, buses between macedonia and greece are extremely scant, despite the fact that they are right beside each other and its not very far. also, skopje has one of the largest roma settlements/slums in the world. the roma are a transient ethnic group in the balkans who struggle with unemployment. there was actually a roma museum in belgrade that i wanted to go to but i didn't have time. and because i have a thing for superlatives, i simply had to see the largest cross in the world up close. it is called the millenium cross (because it was built in 2002 to commemorate 2000 years of christianity in macedonia and the world), and it sits atop vodno mountain overlooking skopje. one gets to it first by hiking for 2 hours up the mountain (or by taking a city bus, i later discovered was an option), and then taking a brand new ropeway (that just opened last week!)

BULGARIA (sofia, 2 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! there are countless ancient churches, the largest sephardic synagogue in europe, and the nicest shopping mall that i saw in the balkans (because yes, that does matter!). bulgaria is now part of the european union, believe it or not, and they are pouring the money in for things like new freeways. i say "or not" because the smell of corruption still seemed pretty thick in the air (to my relatively uninformed nose, although i would never say something like that unless i actually saw it happening) and there are still way too many elderly people who have to scrounge through the dumpsters looking for food. (by the way, if you're ever trying to get me to give you coins, you're going to have a lot more luck if you're digging through dumpsters than if you're sitting on the sidewalk with your hand out). saw some cool stuff in sofia, got caught in a refreshing rainstorm, shared a room in the "4th best hostel in the world" with some emaciated (and when i say emaciated i mean it was medically scary) party animals from the u.k....

GREECE (again!) (athens, 3 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! but now i'm repeating myself. i went to the archeological sights (like the parthenon at the acropolis!), it was really nice. national archeological museum, olympic stadium, greek salads, can't go wrong!


CYPRUS

what a funtastically fascinating country! i know its not in the balkans, but i had a noon - 6 am layover there! the island of cyprus is dominated by the e.u. member state of the same name, but the northern third is a de facto independent state called the turkish republic of northern cyprus (turkey is the only country in the world that recognizes its independence). because cyprus and greece are pretty tight, the "turkish occupation" of the north throws a monkey wrench into the already strained relationship between greece and turkey (indeed, greece's animosity is one big reason that turkey can't seem to get into the european union). we learned all about this stuff when i was on the middle east studies program. anyways, as i was looking at the map as we were landing in larnaca, i realized that it wasn't even too far to north cyprus. i thought "wouldn't it be cool to go there if i could!". found some free internet and discovered that indeed, starting in 2008 it had become possible to cross the u.n. patrolled buffer zone in the divided capital of cyprus, nicosia! found myself a shuttle to nicosia (also known as lefkosia), and a couple of hours after landing i was in north cyprus! and wow, talk about a city divided. from south to north you go from christian to muslim; white people to brown; greek language to turkish; crowds of tourists to abandoned streets; mcdonalds and starbucks to falafel places. i didn't really know what i was looking for, if anything, but i chanced upon this most amazing mosque. they had taken a huge ancient stone cathedral (it had very distinctive western style arches and stained glass windows), and converted it into a mosque by removing all the christian references and building two huge stone minarets on either side. usually mosques are built oriented toward mecca, but of course this one didn't have that orientation initially, so the mihrab (the depression in the wall at the front of the mosque) was carved into a huge chunk of rock that they had to orient diagonally inside the building. clearly i'm pretty nerdy about this stuff, but it was one of the most interesting things i've seen in a long time. and by the way, if you're thinking "what gives those muslims the right," christians have been known to convert mosques into churches as well. so that was my favorite sighting of the day. caught a bus back to larnaca, where there was a beautiful swimming beach and church with the grave of lazarus of biblical fame (who moved to cyprus after he was raised from the dead by Christ), and a 6 am flight to....

ISRAEL, TO START MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!!

balkanology! part 1

i figured i'd post the following synopsis of my recent travels through the balkans, as a few of you might be interested! also so i can come back and be reminded of what i actually did! i tried to put up some pictures too, but its hopeless with this website, so mere words will have to suffice!

my favorite things about the balkans:
-liquid yogurt!
-history!
-cheap! (most places)
-communism and ethnic violence are things of the past!
-liquid yogurt!

GREECE/HELLAS (athens, 1 night)

what a funtastically fascinating country! i flew into athens in the middle of the night. the flight was delayed for 5 hours because the greek air traffic controllers were on strike to protest the government's proposed austerity measures (as you may have heard, the greek government is broke). the metro line from the airport was also down, so i was forced to do something i always try to avoid: take a taxi. i went to the beautiful new acropolis museum and wandered around for the rest of the day. downtown around the parliament was like a war scene due to the recent riots!

ALBANIA/SHQIPERI (tirana, 2 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! just before my bus left, the door knob to the restroom i was using fell off, locking me inside. luckily, someone eventually heard my incessant pounding and was able to let me out! the night bus ride to tirana was delayed for 4 hours at the greece/albania border because evidently someone was trying to smuggle in something illicit, which the customs guy found by literally cutting open the suitcase with a knife. this precipitated an all-bus pushing and shouting match with the customs guy! eventually we were able to get back on the road and, after loosing a few suitcases out the side of the bus after taking a hairpin curve a little too fast, arrived in tirana! albania has seen some tough times. they were under the control of a communist dictator named enver hoxha for most of the last half of the century, and then, swinging the other way, experienced a nasty bout of anarchy in 1997. the biggest pastime in tirana is partaking in "bar kafe" culture, in which one sits at a bar kafe and drinks expresso and hard liquor all day. they love their alcohol, starting with beer for breakfast! indeed, it was surprisingly difficult to find food amidst all the establishments specializing in alcohol. also - and i'm not kidding - there must be more casinos in tirana than there are in las vegas! the only difference is that tirana casinos are only about 10 square feet and have 1 slot machine. and albania loves america - to the extent that they named a main street in tirana after george w. bush. i stayed at this nice little imaginatively named hostel called hostel albania, which is run by a german local celebrity dj named claas. went to a tiny mosque in the main square which, due to its beauty, is apparently is one of the only religious buildings in the country to have survived hoxha's tenure. also, found a statue of mother teresa at tirana university (she was ethnically albanian!), went to the revolving top of the skytower for a nice view of the city, saw a nice albanian themed photography exhibition at the national art gallery, and climbed the hoxha pyramid - a huge pyramidal edifice built by hoxha's son to commemorate him, then turned into a nightclub called the mummy, and now abandoned and covered in anarchist graffiti. perhaps the scariest moment of the trip was getting to the top of the pyramid and realizing that i had go down the same way i came up, as it was 45 degree cement all the way to the bottom! took a minibus called a furgon to a city called shkoder, and then, while fighting off dozens of taxi drivers fighting for my attention, boarded an unmarked bus that a police officer who didn't speak english told me was heading for...


MONTENEGRO/CRNA GORA (budva, 1 night)

what a funtastically fascinating country! unbelievable natural beauty, with these lush forested mountains dropping off into the adriatic sea! also, a lot more civilized (and expensive) than albania. the bus took me to a nice seaside town called ulcinj, from where i caught another to budva. i decided to stay there merely because it was on the way - little did i know that budva happens to be to russia what cancun is to north america! so much burning russian skin. tourism is basically the entirety of montenegro's economy. there was a nice long (rocky) beach in budva, and a very picturesque walled old town. also nearby was this amazingly beautiful islet called sveti stefan - google image it! montenegro only split from serbia in 2006. also, unlike most of the other countries in the region, there isn't really a montenegrin ethnicity. thus, everyone in montenegro is first a serb, albanian, bosnian, etc. took a bus to the town of kotor, which is another beautiful walled town (they built the walls up the side of a cliff so it would be super-defensible! and the place even used to have its own navy), and then around this huge, extremely beautiful awkwardly shaped bay of kotor and into...

CROATIA/HRVATSKA (dubrovnik, 2 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! crazy expensive though, especially where i went, the red-roofed old city of dubrovnik. dubrovnik is the most successful and affluent city in croatia today (due to tourism), just as it was during the middle ages (due to maritime trade - it was a powerful city state that had a formidable navy and rivaled venice for supremacy in the adriatic). i had booked some place and thought it was a hostel, but nay, it was a room in a family's house! that was cool, and they even let me use their washing machine. i went around the top of the city walls, which is the thing to do there, and went to a few tiny museums, and otherwise just wandered the narrow pedestrian-only streets of the old city. a highlight might have been this little war photo exhibition about when the city was under siege by the serbian army in 1991. then took a bus to...

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (sarajevo, 4 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! although something i didn't know: its not even really a unified country. it is composed of 2 completely autonomous entities: the muslim dominated federation of bosnia and herzegovina, of which sarajevo is the capital, and the serb dominated republika srpska. the army of the latter had the city of sarajevo under seige for 4 years in the early 90s, in what was the worst conflict during the breakup of the former yugoslavia. i went to a little museum that had a remnant of a tunnel under the airport that supplied sarajevo with provisions during the siege. that war was between the orthodox serbs and an alliance of the catholic croats and the muslim bosniaks. i learned that although the wars of the 90s were between religious groups, the animosities had much more to do with ethnicity than religion. also, the bosnians, croats, serbs etc. all have their "own" languages, but they are all mutually intelligible. so are they really that different after all? anyway, there are 2 types of buildings in sarajevo: those that existed before the early 90s, which are are invariably riddled with bullet holes, and those that have been built since then, including, much to my appreciation, many modern shopping malls! outside one of these one night was a huge free concert by a bosnian rock star! despite all the hostilities, sarajevo has a tremendous history of religious tolerance. in one block, for example, there are catholic and orthodox churches, mosques, and a synagogue. there is also a bridge, called the latin bridge, on which the archduke of austria-hungary franz ferdinand was assassinated, precipitating world war I, as well as the more recent formation of a rock band named after him. sarajevo also hosted the winter olympics in 1984. i explored some of the many cemeteries filled with countless white arabic-inscribed gravestones from the early 90s :( , went to a sweet indoor/outdoor swimming pool complex with the most powerful hot tub jets imaginable, ate lots of dirt cheap balkan ice cream (which really does taste better than anywhere else, apparently its because they use fresh, local unpasteurized cream!), and got a view from the top of the futuristic, brand new and epically tall (especially for the balkans) avaz twist tower! on day 3 in sarajevo i experienced my first speed bump, as there wasn't supposed to be a day 3 in sarajevo. i purchased a train ticket to belgrade, and they told me to go to a track at the train station. some unmarked train showed up at the correct time, so i got on, but soon realized it wasn't the right one. everybody yelling at me in who knows what language. by the time i got off, the correct train had come and gone on another track. and because bosnia and serbia hate each other, there is only one train and one bus a day, so i gave up on the train and bought a bus ticket for the next morning. luckily the guy named jan at the awesome hostel (very much nice guy; place), let me stay another night even though they were really busy. he said "dude, your crazy try taking train, man. all trains balkans suck so bad, bro". he also ranted a bit about how it is common for people in the republika srpska to believe that the horrific atrocities against muslims during the war in places like srebenica didn't actually happen and are merely anti-serb conspiracy theories. in the morning i unfortunately set the alarm for 5:45am instead of 4:45, so i missed the bus as well. so i ended up taking the train after all. it was sort of like i expected a balkan train to be: extremely hot inside (if there's ever a next time remind me to bring a lot more water) and very pleasant views outside!. after the fact i learned that the train route actually only started up again in 2009 (much to international media acclaim) as more of a political statement of "moving on" from the war than out of traveler demand.

SERBIA (belgrade, 2 nights)

what a funtastically fascinating country! belgrade is a big, graffiti-filled city that never sleeps. it also seemingly has more than its fair share of gothic, over-tattooed young people who subsist off death metal and cocaine. it was also more than 40 degrees C when i was there (as well as everywhere else for the rest of the trip as well). because i showed up a day late, the nice hostel i booked (which was playing the most recent arcade fire album in the restroom and had lockable lockers) had cancelled my reservation because it was the busiest night of the year (because the infamous exit festival, one of the largest music festivals in the world, had just let out in the next town over). did you know that belgrade is the #1 rated party destination in all of europe? anyways, ultimately, through a long, unfortunate series of events i ended up at a place called the hostel from hell. actually it was called hostel centar. the owner managed to accost and completely sketch me out on the street before i even got to the place, i don't think they've washed their sheets since the communist era, and, despite my best efforts to be nice, i became the new enemy of an intoxicated homeless serbian man who was sleeping at the base of the ladder that was the only access to the unbearably hot attic where they had me sleeping. other than that though belgrade was great: the city is sprinkled with beautiful serbian orthodox churches that are filled with amazing icons. all except one - the st. sava temple (one of the largest orthodox churches in the world) - which despite being under construction since 1931 is still an empty shell inside. and there was a castle! and i couldn't leave without paying a visit to the largest mall in serbia, the ocse center! took a bus through the beautiful mountains of southern serbia into...

continued in next post... here.