This past weekend was awesome, aside from the fact that the basketball game on Saturday didn't work out. Only one player from the other team showed up, which left us pretty pissed off. But the lunch earlier that day was amazing! Rachel, her friend Emily and I walked about a block away to eat lunch with Randy, Allen, and their three kids as well as some of their friends. Randy and Allen used to live in Eugene and moved to Jerusalem in 1993, when I was about 4. They had plenty of pictures from Eugene, including some from my parents wedding. Our shabbas dinner consisted of Mexican soup, Artichoke ( who woulda guessed I like Artichoke), Lasagna, Quische, Salmon, and don't get me goin on dessert. What was great about the lunch was their love of song. In between courses, they would break out the song books and sing Hebrew tunes with their beautiful voices. Along with their orthodox traditions, it was really quite an experience. The beginning of the week was pretty lame. We had two days of seminars pertaining to campus activism concerning the Israel vs Palestine issue. While it's an interesting topic, we had heard most of the information presented, and had already viewed literally every video clip they had showed us. There were however two interesting seminars. One was by a man named Gil Troy, who spoke of his view of Zionism. It was a hour and a half long speech, and not once did he mention Palestine. I bought his book for three bucks, so I got my next read ahead of me. He also brought up an interesting quote from Barack Obama. Many Israelis disliked Obama and preferred McCain because supposedly McCain was better for Israel, and many have theories as to Obamas ties with the Arabs and whatnot. Here's the quote from The Atlantic during an interview conducted by Jeffrey Goldberg.

"You know, when I think about the Zionist idea, I think about how my feelings about Israel were shaped as a young man -- as a child, in fact. I had a camp counselor when I was in sixth grade who was Jewish-American but who had spent time in Israel, and during the course of this two-week camp he shared with me the idea of returning to a homeland and what that meant for people who had suffered from the Holocaust, and he talked about the idea of preserving a culture when a people had been uprooted with the view of eventually returning home. There was something so powerful and compelling for me, maybe because I was a kid who never entirely felt like he was rooted. That was part of my upbringing, to be traveling and always having a sense of values and culture but wanting a place. So that is my first memory of thinking about Israel. And then that mixed with a great affinity for the idea of social justice that was embodied in the early Zionist movement and the kibbutz, and the notion that not only do you find a place but you also have this opportunity to start over and to repair the breaches of the past. I found this very appealing...................................................................................................So when I became more politically conscious, my starting point when I think about the Middle East is this enormous emotional attachment and sympathy for Israel, mindful of its history, mindful of the hardship and pain and suffering that the Jewish people have undergone, but also mindful of the incredible opportunity that is presented when people finally return to a land and are able to try to excavate their best traditions and their best selves. And obviously it’s something that has great resonance with the African-American experience. "

Pretty good stuff if ya ask me. The other seminar came from a writer for Honestreporting.com, although he put on a front of being pro-Palestine. He got everybody in a fit of rage, causing some people to cry. In the end it was pretty funny, for me atleast, because I had a feeling he was faking the whole time.

On tuesday we had our first football playoff game, and lost. It was pathetic, similar to last week. Everyone played terrible, and we didn't deserve to win, oh well. In the following weeks I'm looking forward to lifting and playing ball. I haven't lifted seriously in nearly a month now, kind of weird because aside from my weeklong injury, there's really no reason.

I have to pack now for an overnight trip the sportstrack is going on. We're hiking and then rappeling down the mountain. For the night we're staying in Bedouin tents, and in the morning we may go to the Dead Sea.
Until next time,
Jakey G