Holiday Happenings

            Sorry this one’s late; I completely forgot what day it was. We’re having another holiday – this time it’s Wednesday and Thursday – to celebrate the Israeli Memorial Day and Independence Day, respectively. And then of course there’s the weekend.

            I haven’t been doing much so far this weekend; I cleaned house, did most of my homework and finished a short story yesterday, and today I need to write a final project outline and study some German. I’m still finding it hard to focus on work, but things are going fine. It’s kind of scary to consider that there’s only a month until finals, and then the semester will be over; it’s gone by very fast, and I still have a lot I want to get done.

            Language classes are going well. I made an A on my Hebrew midterm. We’re currently in the middle of a discussion on whether Wagner should be performed at official functions in Israel, which provides us with some interesting vocabulary. I think I did alright on my colloquial Arabic class midterm; I knew the answers, but the class is taught in English transliteration, and I’m not sure I got the transliteration right. Finally, my formal Arabic lessons are going wonderfully; I get along great with the teacher, and she says I pick things up very quickly.

            My other two classes form and interesting contrast; Palestinian History and Society is taught, as it should be, by a Palestinian, while my International Law class is taught largely from the Israeli perspective. Neither class is completely biased, but we’re studying the Six Days’ War in both, and it’s interesting to hear them presented; depending on who is doing the talking, either the Israelis or the Egyptians appear to be the sole aggressors. I’m writing a final paper on the subject, but it’s going to require a lot of sorting out.

            Most of the past couple of days, though, has been taken up with my finally watching the Harry Potter movies (I don’t have time to read the books, especially already knowing all the major plot points). I just finished the last one this morning. The nice thing about watching movies on the internet, though, is that you can easily skip past all the teen angst and romance parts and just watch the plot, so it didn’t take me as long as you might think.

            Now, though, I really need to stop watching movies and get down to business. This semester has been amazing; it’s been very stress-free, and I’ve had very little work or responsibility. I’ve learned a lot just by traveling by myself and having to get my own food, do my own cleaning, and etc. However, overall, I’ve had a lot of free time.

            The struggle I’ve been having all semester is what to do with that free time. I have several projects in the works that have been given ample time – mainly German and Just War theorizing – but lately my plans have been getting derailed by my own indolence. I know I need to rest so I don’t burn out, but I actually enjoy being productive more than taking time off, if I’m working on something interesting.

            In any case, it’s been a fairly uneventful week so far. I may go out and do something this weekend, but public transportation has shut down for the holidays, so I’m not going anywhere today. Even the gym and supermarkets are closed. Fortunately for me, I’m perfectly content curled up in my room with an interesting project, and I’ve just found the first Harry Potter novel in German on pdf, so if you’ll excuse me, I have some studying to do.

PS – Here are some photos from my mom's phone of our trip to Nazareth and Tiberius!