International Israel

Tonight an Israeli student took a small group of overseas students to a cool pub downtown. We saw a live Israeli band perform, which was exciting because American music had unfortunately inundated the country at the expense of Israeli music.

I’ve started to establish a daily routine of sorts, with ulpan in the morning, classes or research in the afternoon, and some sort of social activity most evenings. I’m working hard at learning Hebrew since I really want to be able to understand more of what’s going on around me.

I’ve enjoyed talking to many of the European students I have met here, especially since they tend to be older and more mature than the Americans. Some of the European students are not Jewish, and I give them a lot of credit for coming to study in Israel. Most of the Europeans are from Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic and Denmark, and a few are from Hungary, Poland, Russia, and other places. One of the students in my Hebrew class is from Japan! Unfortunately she doesn’t really speak English, and our Hebrew isn’t conversational yet, so I haven’t been able to talk to her. There are growing numbers of Asian immigrants in Israel, mostly from Thailand and The Philippines, who come here as agricultural laborers and caretakers.