I completely forgot one of my best friends, Gil Semons, was also doing Marva!! He told me during the first month he was intending to do it, but he had been absent during the decision week because of some family issues back home so it slipped my mind. Thrown in with the addition of two of my favorite girls, Sam Okin and Bianca Fouxe, I'm even more ecstatic since my last post.

Tuesday we played our final regular season football game. It was against the team that lost in the championship last year and ended up being the number one seed after they beat us. I played an absolutely terrible game, as well as everyone else. We were without Benny and Jeremy, which was rough. We lost 24-25. We scored with 30 seconds left on a midrange pass over the middle to Zach, and decided to go for the win with a two point conversion instead of a tie. It was disappointing, but the playoffs are coming, so hopefully we'll take care of business.

Earlier that day we took a fieldtrip to a Yemenite house, where they fed us Yemenite food, sang songs and showed us traditional clothing. I dressed up as an orthodox groom which everyone got a kick out of.

Last night was a huge party put on by the Scouts. I had a really good time, mostly because I got to see all of the scouts plus their friends who I've gotten close to, such as Ohad's friend Oded, who recently returned from America after taking a Greyhound from New York to Cali with stops on the way. Before the party, our sports track director, Yael, hooked up a ride to her house to watch the Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball game and have dinner, and then provided a ride to the party. The scouts organized a ride back to Jerusalem, so between the transportation, dinner, entry fee, and free drinks all night ( Thanks to Tzofim), I payed about 12 bucks. Not too shabby.

Right now everyone is relaxing in the apartment before dinner. I have 4 friends staying in my apartment over the weekend. Rachel Pergamit and her friend from section 3, and Josh who I mentioned in my last blog and his friend Andrew. All of them are from section 3 in Bat Yam, which was pretty cool because both of them visiting were completely seperate developments. Tomorrow Rachel and I are going to have Shabbat lunch with some family friends from Eugene, and later that night I'll be playing Basketball for Jeremy's team in the Jerusalem Yeshiva league. I haven't played with them yet, so I'm hoping I fit in with them.

I have to get ready for dinner. I have so much more to write on concerning Isreal Experience; I'll try to do it sooner rather than later.

Jakey G

Week one: Introduction. This week will be spent in the home base of the Sde Boker becoming familiar with army discipline, codes, learning first aid, topography and basic information about the IDF. In addition, participants will undergo weapons training during which they will learn how to use an M-16 rifle, and at the end of the week they will experience their first shooting range and first march/hike (approx 5 km). Shabat is spent on base

Week Two: Field Training. This week will be spent outside of the base in the field conditions (no bathrooms or showers!) Participants will learn how to be a soldier in the field through lessons on topics such as camouflage, ambushes, training exercises and survival training in both day and night. Shabbat is free.

Week Three: Negev and Navigation Week. Throughout the week there will be a variety of activities in the Negev area including a visit to an infantry base, a joint exercise with the soldiers there, and intense walking. At the end of the week Marva soldiers climb Masada at sunrise. Shabbat is spent on the base.

Week Four: Galilee/ Golan Week. During this week Marva stays at a base in the north,Participants have the opportunity to tour around the north, including the border with Lebanon.

Week Five: Sport. This week is spent on an army base. There, participants undergo intensive physical training including fitness, obstacle courses, sellf-defense and more. Shabbat is spent on the base.

Week Six: During this week the men and women will be separated for the first and only time in the program. Shabbat is fre.
Men: The week will be spent doing infantry training at a base in the South. Training includes learning to use heavy weaponry as well as group exercises.

Week Seven: Jerusalem week. This week is spent learning about the three differnt religions in Jerusalem and exploring the old and new city. The weekend is spent on base.

Week Eight: Summation. This week is dedicated to ending lessons, discussions, a final 18 km march, and a military graduation ceremony

My decision's been made

I found it amusing rereading my last blog entry about how the ride to Tiberias was uncomfortable. The ride to Tel Aviv was most definitely worse. We were supposed to have two 9 person sheiruts, but 4 of the guys backed out so we had to fit 14 people in a 9 person sheirut. Yours truly was the last to board. I was miserable. Other then that I had a great time in Tel Aviv. We celebrated Biancas birthday by walking along the Tel Aviv beach and watching a drum session, having dinner at nice restaurant, and lastly getting desert and the renound Max Brenners Chocolate House. Around midnight, Eli, Avi, Benny and I took a cab to Holon to stay at Ithai's apartment. We ended up staying up until 4 in the morning talking. Benny, Ashley and I woke up grudginly at 6 in the morning, boarded the bus to Mount Hermon at 6:30 and slept for a good portion of the 3 and a half hour bus ride. It was cool because most of section three went on the trip, seeing as how they're in Bat Yam/Holon, so I got to see Adam Rothstein and Etsion again. I also got to see a cool guy I met through Mike named Josh. He's from Portland and is going to the U of O next year, but he wanted to get out to Miami for the Year Course orientation so he met Mike there instead of going to the L.A one with me. Mike introduced us, and since then I've played ball with him, met up a few times here and there. He's a real cool guy and I'm so stoked he's coming to the U of O. We talked for probably 87% of the trip about Oregon sports haha.
In the Hermon, we took a chairlift to the top of the mountain. I have some pretty funny pictures of the way up and the way down. The mountain was fairly void of snow; people said that this year was a terrible year for skiers. Nonetheless, the top of the mountain was very snowy and cold. We played some games in the snow, hung out and were cold together. Pretty upsetting point: Arab kids started throwing rocks and snowballs at us. Some people got extremely mad at them, but Ithai stopped anyone from doing anything. They couldn't have been older than 12 and 11, and getting mad would have only encouraged them. After getting back to the bottom, we went to this rollercoaster type ride. You could either go one or two people per time. Basically we got on a little pod, and had a lever letting you adjust your speed. It.....was..... awesome! I loved it, but we ran out of time so I could only go once. After that we took a 20 minute busride to Nimrod Castle. is an ancient fortress situated in the northern Golan Heights, on a ridge rising about 2600 feet above sea level. I took pictures and I'll upload them later. We just walked around the Castle; nothing special, but a very cool site that was worth visiting. After we settled in a field for lunch. Our lunch was a type of food which I can't remember how to pronounce. It was absolutely delicious. This is how you make it: Boil water, throw in rice, beans, carrots, lettuce, sauce, soda, whatever. It's basically shmorgusborg stew, and it's so freaking tasty. We than took a bus back to Holon, and immediately caught another bus back to Jerus (alem. I'm so glad I did the trip. It's been so cool having these amazing, productive, adventurous weekends. I plan to have many more in the future.
Today I didn't do much. I played a lot of basketball, then went to watch a Jerusalem basketball game, and I just got done skyping with Austin for about an hour.
Now, on the topic of my post title. Yesterday, the only event of significance was in the evening we had a seminar educating us about our Israel Experience options (last three months). Fortunately, I had already made my decision about a week ago. I had juggled my sport volunteering options with the Army, and ultimately I chose the army. It's widely regarded as the most rewarding option, and I have plenty of friends doing it (Marva). The one issue with Marva people have is that you're seperated from your friends. Problem is, nearly everyone is seperated from their friends. Marva is the largest option of all, and although we only get every other weekend off base, I'll be able to use those weekends to the fullest. Benny just decided today that he's doing Marva, and I couldn't be happier. I have a schedule of what we do week by week, which I'll write in my next post. But it's a litle past midnight, and I'm going to bed

In other notable news, Avi Behar shaved his head. Look back to my October 9th post, consider that hasn't cut it since, and you'll realize this was a big deal

Peace and Luv

So much for that post on Sunday. I've been receiving some heat from my counselor for spending so much time in the Hostel, so I've been at my internet-less apartment more often. Sunday was actually a terrible terrible day for me, But I'll start with the weekend.
Thursday evening, a dozen of us took a bus to Tiberias to bike around the Kinneret. It wasn't comfy. We took the last bus, and although I was the first to arrive out of the group, I ended being the last to board the bus. There were some difficulties with transportation, and they barely made it in time. Every seat on the bus was taken, so about 8 of us sat on the floor for the 3 and a half hour busride.We arrived pretty late at night and just went to bed. In the morning everyone was noticeably less excited about the bike ride. It was beautiful weather when we started; blue skies, bright sun with a slight wind chill. There were 4 guys including myself, and 9 girls for the 40 mile ride. The three guys were out of sight of the pack very early on. I decided to just hang back and leisurely ride along with the others for the first half hour or so. I eventually decided to catch up with the boys, and right as I did I was met with 30 mile per hour winds at the bottom of the largeset hill we would face. It was the only real obstacle I faced on the ride. I finished with Ashley(fluffy) and Joe with a time of 3 hours and 40 minutes, 40 minutes faster than the fastest boy from the previous week. It was a very easy ride; I had an urge to do it the next day. That night a group of kids from section three, including two camp friends of mine, Adam Etsion and Adam Rothstein, came to do the ride on Saturday. We hung out with them for a bit, and saw them the next day when they finished. We just hung out on saturday, walked around Tiberias a bit. It's a really nice town with amazingly friendly people. One guy asked me if I was from America, I said yes. He asked if I was jewish, I said yes. He then told me he loved me hahaha.

Sunday was miserable. I played in my Hostel basketball league, and the game went terribly. We play five games, one against each team, and the top two teams get a week off in the playoffs. I was the only 2-0 team heading in to week 3. We played against Jeremy, Benny and Avi, and got destroyed. My teammates were awful. They played with zero intensity, meanwhile I was getting battered around. I got hit on a layup and hurt my hand on the pavement. My teammate threw a pass behind me and it got deflected and jammed my thumb. Jeremy kicked me in the calf. It was a bad bad game. I was furious afterwards, so I went to the gym to angrily lift. I lifted 3 sets, and on my fourth I was interrupted my a 40 pound bar crashing into my leg. A friend of mine was removing weights from a bar, and he only took them off one side. The instant he did, the bar flipped over, and the side that had it's weights removed smacked me in my left leg. It damaged my quadricep muscle, but if it had hit my knee, I can't even fathom how bad it would have been. My leg muscle started cramping and I couldn't walk for two days. My legs ok now, but I haven't been able to workout and I wasn't allowed to play in the football game this week, which was killer. Our game ended in a tie, but it was to a terrible team. We should have murded them. WE looked very good in Defense which was very comforting. Next week is the last week in the regular season. We play a very good team, and if we beat them we get the #2 seed in the playoffs and get a bye in the first round.
In thirty minutes I'm taking a bus with some friends to Tel-Aviv. It's my friend Bianca's birthday, so we're all going to hang out tonight and roam around. Late at night, Benny, Fluffy and I are taking a cab to Holon to stay with Benny's old scout roommate Ithai. At 6:30 in the morning we're taking a bus to Northern Israel where we're hiking up Mount Hermon. It's supposedly one of the most gorgeous places in Israel, so I'll make sure to take pics.
Gotta run, my time is up
PEACE
Jakey g

Tuesday night we played the top team in our flag league........ And we killed them. The score was 26-12, but the score isn't indicative of how badly we beat them. They scored on a fluke catch on fourth down, and their other touchdown came with 40 seconds left. Our last two games we've had 7 players, which has made a world of difference. It's 6 on 6, so everyone is playing more, getting comfortable, and having more fun. Things are really clicking; as of now we're probably the favorites to win the league.

I've been doing really well here. Classes are in full swing from the break. Today I went to a museum in Tel Aviv and listened to a classic New York jewish guy talk tell his story of how 60 years ago, him and a dozen others picked up 1500 holocaust survivors on a boat and sailed them to Palestine. It took place at a Jabotinsky museum, so we also watched a few exhibits about him. Jabotinsky assembled the first Jewish army, who rallied with the British Army in WW 1 against the Ottoman Empire, who then controlled Palestine.

I really enjoy my Zionism class. Learning about the history of Israel, as well as the Zionism field trips that correspond every week are my favorite part of school.

I just finished my college essay to the University of Oregon. I wrote on the topic of an article that my mom sent me by a family friend named Matthew Dennis. It was concerning, what else, Israel and Gaza. I wrote the essay, and then looked at my last two blog postings and was shocked. I completely took a 180 turn in my convictions. I wrote in my blog and remember saying to my mom that Peace wasn't an option. I don't even know how those words left my mouth looking back. In retrospect, I haven't read or watched many pieces promoting peace. But ultimately, it's the only real answer.

I just finished my last class for the week. I'm going to go to the gym and shoot around outside for a bit. At around 8 tonight, when most of my friends get back from volunteering for the army ( packaging food and whatnot), we'll take a bus to Tiberias up north. Tomorrow, 12 of us are going to take a bicycle ride around the Kinneret, the largest freshwater lake in Israel. A group of guys went last week, and not all of them finished (it certainly wasn't AVI and BENNY). It should be a lot of fun. Saturday we're just going to hang out in Tiberias and enjoy the nice weather up there. Most of my other friends, Mike Jeremy Benny and Avi are all going with Tania to stay in Bat Yam/ Holon and go to a big party tonight in Tel Aviv.

I was happy to hear all my gifts arrived safe and sound to Eugene from Amsterdam and Paris. I was getting kind of nervous about if they'd ever get there. Although I've been doing progressively worse and worse with my blog, I've been doing much better with keeping in touch with my friends as of late. Gotta take the good with the bad I guess. I probably won't have internet access over the weekend, so I'll make sure to write a post on Sunday.

jakey g

Tonight is my good buddy Moshe Teitz birthday, so I think we're planning on celebrating tonight. I just done with a swim lesson and I'm reasonably exhausted. Last night we played in our flag football league and then we stayed up very late talking with my old camp friends who were visiting. We also watched flag football videos from when Avi and Benny won the world championship. The flag football game was extremely fun actually. We only had seven people so I finally got to play defense and develop a rhythm with the receivers. Since I never play defense and I play quarterback, I never get to run the ball. Early in the game I intercepted it and took it 3 quarters length of the field for a touchdown. I stopped in the middle of the play because I heard a whistle from the either field. I did a stutter step and the guy pursuing me fell, and then I ran it in. Everyone contributed and had lots of fun which was great. We had Tania Grunberg, Benny's girlfriend taking pictures and videos on the sideline, so hopefully I'll get some pictures uploaded.

I called my mother this morning ( a little too early, sorry mom) and we spoke about my last blog post. After re-reading it, I'm aware that I was pretty emotional when I wrote it. I delivered some messages I intended, others I left out. Something my mom brought up was that although the negative perception is what's bothering me , that ultimately plays a factor in how you assess their actions. Israel is being pretty relentless in their attacks, and it surely doesn't help their global image. Where we differed on the matter was she believes peace is an option. I argued that Hamas isn't interested in peace, while Israel most surely is. Israel is worried about Israel; if peace is what's best, that's what they want.

The important message I left out in my last post is I don't fully support what Israel is doing. It's hard to predict which course of action is best, especially when I live here.

Not much has transpired since my last post. I had classes the past two days and they went well. I'm writing to reflect on the past couple days concerning the war.
It's on every TV around the hostel. After each and every one of my classes, we have discussion time. Whats been extremely upsetting to me is how it's being covered. Every time we turn on CNN, every time I go on to Comcast to read my email, I see headlines reading " Israel pounds in to Gaza", "Israel continues to relentlessly bomb Gaza". CNN interviews countless people living in Gaza who speak of living in fear.
I'm very one-sided on the matter. I almost feel guilty for it. Anti-Israel promoters are so defiant and outspoken, they dismiss entirely the other side of the spectrum. I feel as if by being one-sided it seems as if I'm doing the same. I came to Israel with the belief in the country's right to exist. I was uneducated in the Israel-Palestine conflict, although I had heard advocates from both sides in my family and I saw where both were coming from. The issue at hand was occupation; that's not the issue anymore.

Israel is an established nation. They're often blamed for "stealing the land" of the Palestinians, when in actuality in 1922 the League of Nations granted the UK a mandate of Palestine, which put forth the goal of "securing a Jewish home". Riots erupted in Jaffa (where I used to volunteer) and Jews were beaten and shot at. The police came, only to reinforce the Arabs. This occurred in May of 1921, nearly 90 years ago. The 1930's saw persecution of Jews, with 1939-1945 Holocaust killing nearly 6 million Jews. After all this information was taken in to account, I had decided I 100 % believed the Jews needed a home. But as I said, that's not the issue anymore.
Hamas intends to destroy Israel. If they gain the land they desire ( The west bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza strip), they will undoubtedly use the land to further execute their plan of eliminating Israel. This isn't in question. They threaten everyday lives of Israelis. Meanwhile, Arabs make up 20 % of Israel's population. The ability to coexist is one that could be easily achieved. Instead, Hamas vows to make Gaza Israel's grave.

The U.S and Canada view Hamas as a terrorist organization. The European union views Hamas as a terrorist organization. Jordan, a Muslim and Arab nation, has banned Hamas. So how can they're be rallies flooding the streets of San Francisco and other major cities around the world supporting a terrorist organization?
Pro-Palestine people wish for them to get their land back, so when Palestine fires 80 rockets into Israel, effectively breaking a 6 month ceasefire, does Israel just back off without protecting their country? Give them a mulligan and give the truce another go?
It saddens me certain facts are heard, and others aren't. Whats more depressing is the fact that the word of defiance is always louder and trumps that of defense. Something I've learned in my 19 years is I never want to be angry. The feeling consumes you. I watch videos and see the anger, violence, and hatred in people. It's a sad sight; I lose a little bit of hope for a better tomorrow.

My favorite, Champ Elysees at night

Eli, myself, Avi and Mini (Eli's mom) at little village by a dock

Seno (Eli's stepdad), Myself, Avi and Eli

Having some lunch

Ride em cowboy!

Thumbs up at Marodaum, mini Holland!

At the Heineken factory

Seeing how beer is made

At the Eiffel tower!

Eli and I at the Arc de Triomphe

Test tasting at the Heineken factory

So it's six in the morning right now, and we're leaving the apartment to go to the airport in an hour. I stayed up all night writing notes to go with my holiday gifts I got. I had grand aspirations of writing a killer blog, but here and I am with an hour before I leave, Im not fully packed because I have no idea how Im going to transport the gifts, and I promised Kev Id write him an email. I'm going to be brief for now, and then I'll go back and touch up on this one.

Monday we visited the Official Heineken factory. It was so cool! I got a few free beers here and there, learned all about how to make beer, and specifically the history of a beer that's a pretty prominant part of Amsterdam's history.......................................................
Annnd the internet crapped out at Eli's apartment, and we had to catch our plane. Now im back at the Hostel. I slept through the entire plane ride just like the first time. I'm really glad to be back. Seeing everyone, talking to them about their break, even hearing Hebrew is nice ( Dutch is so ugly).
It was nice staying up all night though. I skyped some friends, called others by phone, and writing notes to all my friends was really enjoyable. I miss them a lot, and it felt good to let them know.

Back to the trip. After the Heineken factory, we visited the Rijks museum. I've been to dozens of museums ( thanks mom) before, but this one was the most extraordinary. The paintings were amazing, most of all Night Watch by Rembrandt, one of the worlds more famous paintings. That night we stayed in because the next day we would be heading to Paris! We took a bus around noon and arrived to Paris at 8:30. We checked into our hotel then went to get dinner in an area called Saint Michelle. After that we walked around, visited the Eiffel Tower, grabbed some beers, and took photos. " The City of Lights" certainly lived up to it's name. I would have loved to walk around all night, but unfortunately it was hovering around freezing temperatures. We woke up the next morning and had to be out of our hotel by noon. The weather was kind of crummy with overcast and on and off showers. We had some minor disappointmets a long the way. We went to the Louvre museum, one of the most famous museum in the world with the most famous painting, The Mona Lisa. The Louvre is open 6 days a week. The one day it's not open happens to be a Tuesday. I was really upset, I'm not going to lie. I mean really upset. But we kept on trekking. Avi, Eli and I walked around what felt like of all of Paris. We visited The Notre Dame Chapel, which was definately a favorite site of mine. I don't know why, it was just stunning. Then we went to the Conciergerie right around the corner, a former royal palace and prison. We had a choice whether to go up the Eiffel Tower, or the Arc de Triomphe. We decided to do the Arc, because it would be a shorter wait and it was close to our tram as well as Champ Elysees. We went around 6 and found out it was closed due to bad weather. Bummed again. We walked up and down Champ Elysees. It was so gorgeous there; all the trees had blue lights attached, matching the lights on Ferris Wheel at the end of the road. We caught a bus at 11, and arrived at 6:30 in the morning to Amsterdam.

The next morning I woke up around noon to go gift shopping for friends. That took up most of my day, I was lucky enough to get a little snow as I walked around Amsterdam. That night was New Years. Nothing too big for us. Eli, Avi and I got some drinks, watched some fireworks and went home. I still had a lot of fun though. I woke up at 9:30 to call friends back home and see how their new years was. It became apparant that I couldn't talk over the people in the background without waking up Eli and Avi, so I gave up after talking to a couple people. Thursday we spent the day at our friend Nofar's house. Nofar lives in Amsterdam, coincidentally about a 5 minute walk from Eli's place, and is also on our section in year course. We hung out with her, watched soccer, ate dinner with her family which was great, and then went out at night to do some final shopping for friends back home. Like I said, I decided to stay up all night that night so I could accomplish some things while exhausting myself for the plane ride. And here I am! Glad to be at the Hostel. Most of Shalem didn't go anywhere for the vacation, and some of the brits came back already, the others should arrive tomorrow night. Because of the Dolphins winning their division and getting a first round game at home for the playoffs, Mike extended his stay so he could go! Pretty cool, I really hope they pull it off, it's going to be a tough game. It's funny how much we missed people. It was hard to keep in touch with people from year course in Amsterdam, but easy to get a hold of people back home. We were regularly so busy during the day we wouldn't get home until late, which is the ideal time to call people back home. Also, Mini and Seno had a Miami home line, so all calls to the states were free!( I made sure to take advantage of that)

Ok, I got some stuff I need to take care of. I need to check with the U of O, and Im really close to finishing this book I started when we left for Amsterdam that Avi recommended called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Very very good book. I've only sat down and read it in the airport and on the bus to Paris, but It's a very easy read (at times) and a lot of fun.
I hope everyone had a good New years/holidays. I miss everyone and send my love from Israel.

Jakey G