Lets play a little game called Jgeo

Jewish Geography...heard of it?

I wandered around alone my first day in Jlem but then I sat beside a NonJewishBlueEyedAussie on my hostel's couch.

I actually cannot communicate how utterly SICK I am of telling people my whole life story. I am so sick of saying I'm from Canada and talking about Canada and the French and myself and my life and what I study and why I'm in Jerusalem blah blah blah kill me now.

But.....when you live my life its essential. But it makes me want to stop traveling, its really the worst part.

But I inflict this pain on other people so its clearly Karma.

So back to NonJewishBlueEyedAussie. Now...why would a NJ (non-Eew) come to Israel you are probably wondering? Well..I have met in my hostel alone like 5 NJs at least who came. I think its fascinating. This particular guy had met a lot of Israelis on his travels and

Had admired some things and had definte not admired other things.

...Like Israeli's incredible talent for bargaining in third world countries like Bolivia. (*sarcasm in case of undetectableness over web)


We, and Canadian ex-birthright ppl who were also staying at the hostel, decided to go to this comedy show that their birthright leader was putting on.

I won't even go into the JGEO with them. Lets just say..Hi 3 close friends, 1 camp friend summer '99, and my distant cousin.

So this comedy show...was....not funny. It was funny because it was so bad. Seriously, I thought that that was funniest part. They were making like Arab and terrorist jokes which I personally don't find funny at all because I
a. don't support racism
b. don't support making fun of cultures that aren't your own
c. don't support making it seem like Jews are racist to NJs
d. especially when your a huge loser/nerd

and they were making facebook jokes. Hellooo I have had facebook since 2005...like...get with the program and 2008.

The only funny guy was the birthright leader who was making fun of Jdate and internet lingo. Actually funny.

One of the 'comedians' who looked about 15, we ran into on Ben Yehuda st. after the show. There he (in a Kippa) called me a stupid bitch because I told him he wasn't funny and maybe he should stop seeing the world in black in white as in

" I don't like people who hate me."

Politics are going to come up a lot in this blog me being in the freakin M.E and all. Deal.

I understand the argument that many Arabs are brought up in a culture of hate..which is pretty much true. But that doesn't give Jews the right to return the hate. Then we are just stooping to their level. (hello kindergarten problem solving). As well...its a sad situation and if you can't make fun of it in an actually funny way...then just shut the fuck up. Also I find a lot of Jews use that hatred as an excuse to justify everything.

"Well, they hate us so there is no use in trying to make peace until they stop hating us"

Which is a valid argument. Maybe. But...maybe it could be changed to

"It is so sad that some people hate us. Lets try to get together with them and make them see that we are all just humans and they shouldn't feel like they have a reason to hate us."

So instead of separating ourselves further from them, perhaps we should actually get closer to them.

Newaz...so after the stupid bitch phrase one of the birthright guys like flexed his muscles and the guy like ran away.

Then we went to Mikes Place (cafe) where I ran into someone I know from a CFJS (Canadian Federation of Jewish Students) conference named "Comedian".

That was pretty fun. I ended up having 3/4ths of a wine bottle so was a little bit tipsy for a little bit and got to watch a girl on an Aish program hit on NonJewishBlueEyedAussie in an extreme way.

As in put her legs over his and call him "her aussie".

But she was fun and outgoing and I like her. But NonJewishBlueEyedAussie didn't and as soon as she left he was very relived as apparantly he was sooo not into her. But I guess when you're 25 and travel a lot you probably hook up with girls left right and centre. Especially when you're Australian. Their kinda sluts. Like Jews, except blonde and more straighforward.

All the other birthrighters had gone home to wake up for their early bus ride so me and NonJewishBlueEyedAussie stopped for some shisha where we ran into 'Comedian" who spilt my beer on me, and who happened to be hanging out with a Hasbara group where this girl I had been on a conference with last year was.

That was a mouthful.

Then NonJewishBlueEyedAussie et moi had a religious discussion where I tried to explain to him that one could both be Jewish and an Aetheist. True, but he didn't buy it. I refuse to explain it again. Try watching "The Believer" with Ryan Gosling for an intro to this concept.

Then we walked back to the hostel and me him and 2 girls went to Yad Vashem the next day.

For some reason...not emotional for me. It was just very long. The only thing that was truly scary was the pictures of the people in the concentration camp. They are just so skinny it's like they aren't even alive anymore. You wonder how they can even lift their heads.

I printed out the names of the people who died in my family from the 'Hall of Names' which is full of BOOKS of names in this circular room. Just books and books of 3 million dead people.

But then you step outside and have a "Fuck them!" moment because dammit your Jewish and alive and its 2008 and you just stepped out into Israel which is the fucking Jewish State.

But then I lost all of the other ppl and didnt see NonJewishBlueEyedAussie until later.

That night we went out with his ex-gf's Israeli friends and went to a club where I was soooo exhasted I almost fell asleep. Jlem is pretty expensive and drinks are like kinda super expensive so I wasn't really in the mood. But the friends were super nice except some of them were in high school. Sketch! Super Sketch! I used to be the high school girl...dammit when did I get so old?