Break in proceedings
August 10, 2012
EDIT: After multiple tries I was able to repair my laptop by removing the screen assembly and replacing the cable connecting the screen to the laptop! YAY!
Much to my dismay, the screen in my laptop has shuffled off its mortal coil! Unfortunately for me and my readership this means posts may be fewer and farther between with less media content, till I get it repaired in New York. However, the last few days have been excellent as always with a few more adventures to appear soon.
Monday/Tuesday – Day 20/21
August 8, 2012
Here it is! 3 weeks away! Not really missing home yet, far too much excitement and seeing Adi is wonderful.
For the last few days I have been studying hard, in the areas of algorithms, data structures and programming. I have an interview coming up that could make quite a difference and so I’m sacrificing a little fun time for a great potential benefit!
Monday saw me at my cousin’s birthday in a more religious area of Jerusalem, Givat Shaul. For those of you who haven’t been to Israel this means a rather stark difference from what many of you will have experienced otherwise in travel. The entire neighborhood is dressed modestly, commonly in black, white and bland colours. The advertisements are specifically targeted to cater to the population and feature very few women and if so, in household situations. The food is all kosher and everything closes early Friday afternoon, with nothing at all open on Saturday. The roads close and the streets fill with people on the way to meals and synagogue.
After my stay there it was back to the boys apartment in Tel Aviv where I engaged in some applied research into wireless security protocols, much to their excitement. Apparently programming is cool, who knew?
Also today marked the beginning of ‘The Two Towers’, as I felt it was necessary that Sarah, who considers herself somewhat nerdy, to be inducted into the full trilogy and was somewhat horrified that she hadn’t seen them all already.
My camera has run out of battery and I left the charger in Jerusalem so it may be another day till photos appear.
Shabbat – Day 11
August 2, 2012
A late wake up followed by a simple lunch in house made the perfect start to this Shabbat.
At about 1:30 my phone rang, indicating that Colin Bulka of machon fame (director of part of my gap year program) was waiting downstairs for a walk. I came downstairs to find him and his bike in top shape, rearing to go for a walk down the hot and humid streets of Tel Aviv. After a good chat, my skin almost felt seared off by the unforgiving rays of the sun.
Walking to Sarah’s place for a quiet afternoon seemed like a good plan, however, with the fast of Tisha B’Av (jewish fast day of mourning) quickly approaching we instead set off to the boys’ apartment for the pre-fast Seudah (feast).
After the departure of Shabbat, Sarah and I went to Frishman beach, where the synagogue was reading Megillat Eicha, the book of lamentations. The Rabbi described the relevance of reading it at the beach as stemming from the deportation of the Jews from Israel from the ancient ports and their return via nearby Yafo (Jaffa). The reading was mostly pleasant, though I did miss the sound of practiced singer lifting up in mournful cries as with the trope of Eicha.
We then returned to the apartment to pack and await a lift from Gali Birenbaum, a mutual friend of ours from ISSI, who would be hosting us over the next few days and helping us manage the fast. She picked us up and subsequently another friend, Ariel Kliger and we chilled at her place till the late hours of the morning.
Clean plaid clothes or dirty clothes? And a kumta!