Parents Visit, Other Visitors, B-ball, Mazal Tov, etc., etc.

Oy. I have a lot to write about, and not much time (I am in med school, after all). I will probably just run through most of it.

Hannukah in Israel was wonderful. Not only was it Hannukah, which is a great holiday in-and-of-itself, but everyone around me was celebrating! Eating at my favorite (read: the only) sushi place in Haifa, the three people working there took the time out of...making sushi....to assemble a make shift Hannukiah (three saki cups turned upside down) and light the candles. Even the dean of the med school gave a Hannukah talk, and then we ate sufganiyot. Actually, there were sufganiyot everywhere. At the hardware store, they had plates sitting around the store full of sufganiyot. It's amazing. On the other hand, the "latke" apparently never really made it to Israel, which is too bad, because I am a HUGE, HUGE fan. But...I think I imbibed enough sufganiyot to hold me over for a while, so it is probably not so bad that I didn't also have a bunch of potatoes weighing me down.

Best of all, my first Hannukah in Israel was also marked by my parents visiting me. I took the liberty of posting a few pictures from their trip here below (I hope you don't mind....). Besides treating me to a few nights at the majestic King David and eating at the finest restaurant Jerusalem has to offer, they also came back to Haifa to sit in on an Anatomy lecture (well...my dad did), and clean my apartment (thanks, Mom!) We also went to Tzfat (much more beautiful than I remembered it), and made quite a few trips to the Carmel in Haifa. Overall, it was really wonderful to have them here, and I hope they had as much fun as I did.

Since then, I've had a few other visitors. Shmuel stops in every so often. Elazar Volk has stopped by on his trip to look at the Technion. And I spent this past Shabbat up "on the mountain" (at Shmuel's) along with David Held and Jason Ruchelsman, both friends from MIT. After Shabbat, I showed Jason the better parts of Haifa (that is, Burger Ranch), and we make a very important pilgrimage to one of the most unfortunately named barbers this side of the Euphrates (let's just say common decency does not permit me to post the name in English....though, for all of those with a strong stomach and some knowledge of Hebrew, here is the barber's name: דודי פינס ).

This week was my second time playing in the weekly basketball game along with a rag-tag bunch of Israeli and American med students (as well as a few doctors). Actually, to call this a basketball game is a bit of stretch---it was more of an on-and-off debate with some basketball thrown in for good measure. I am not exaggerating that much when I say that almost EVERY SINGLE play was contested. Entering the gymnasium, an outsider might think we were arguing over a rather difficult page of the Talmud from the way people on the court were picking apart others' actions on the court and even the rules of basketball. There really was a point were my desire to leave was beat out by my appreciation of a good laugh. Plus, I got a few minutes of play-time in to show everyone that there are, indeed, terrible basketball players from Indiana.

Otherwise, I've been doing as much studying as I can possibly handle....and watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Actually, I had a discussion with Jason at the Shabbat table, where we came to the conclusion that most of the absurd things that happen on the show probably really happened in real life...in Israel. Indeed, there is something just sort of absurd about the way things happen here. And if subsequent blog posts haven't been enough proof of this, I will give example of something that happened today (!) that would make Larry David HIMSELF blush: I was sitting in my living room (watching "Curb," ironically enough), when I get a phone call from a friend of mine here in Israel who we will call "Lior." "Lior," who is currently a soldier stationed in Jerusalem, calls me up and says, "Michael, I'm going to need you to come down to Jerusalem next Motz'ash (Hebrew abbreviation for "Motzei Shabbat", or Saturday Night)."
"Why, Lior?"
"Well, I'm going to need you to play wingman. I just met this really attractive girl from Australia, and she has a very unattractive friend you're going to need to deflect for me."
"Come on, Lior. You could have at least lied to me....alright, I'll be there."
"Thanks, I owe you."
"Where did you meet this girl, by the way?"
"Well.....I picked her up at Yad Va'shem."
".........."
"We were there with my unit, and saw her get off the bus...and, well, I couldn't help myself."

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has taken the time out to call/email/facebook-message me. As much fun as things can be here, it is still good to hear from all of my friends/family back home. Also, I wanted to give hearty "Mazal Tov" to my good friends Michal and David on the birth of their daughter, Nessa.

With that, I leave you with a few pictures from the past few weeks:

Three Stars and the Volks

Me and my Dad Outside my Apartment


Me, my Mom, and the best shnitzel maker in Israel (in Tzefat)


Me in front of the unfortunately named barbershop