So. It's been a while. Like over a month. My B. Ulpan has ended and class has started. I'm taking Hebrew, History of the Modern State, Arab-Israeli Conflict and Jewish Education in North America. Interesting, sometimes boring, not so stimulating. Here to live in Israel, not so much for the classes I suppose. Which is great, because my weekend is from Wednesday at noon until noon on Sunday.

So what have I been doing for the past month plus...

I got a weekly residence DJing at a downtown Jerusalem Dance Bar called Shakuf (Sha-koof). Every Wednesday I go and DJ with a DJ from Toronto from 1030-230. Always fun and nice to DJ in the holy land. Something I definitely miss about being over here. I'm looking to get into vinyl when I get home. Can't wait.

I went to Tel Aviv last weekend and chilled on the beach. I don't think I've been to a beach in two years. The shore is so close and I never go. Shame. Tanned and chilled and relaxed, it was wonderful and relaxing. We rented an apartment that was a 30 second walk from the beach and spent Shabbos there.

Attention facebook stalkers: The beautiful girl in all the pictures is Michal. I decided this time that a long distance relationship was foolish, so I picked a girl who lives in Los Angeles. It's like a hop skip and a jump from Philly. No big.

This Thursday I leave on a cruise for Greece. We stop in Rhodes and Crete. Five Days, Four Nights. Very excited for that. My spring break is crazy long. It starts this Thursday and goes through Passover until April 7th. Love this country. Towards the end of break, at the beginning of April, I'll be meeting up with Peter (Rigler) in Jerusalem for a day. Looking forward to seeing him.

The tension in Jerusalem is up and down. Not so dangerous honestly. Life goes on and there's nothing to worry about. Obama is slowly working his way onto my shit list with his Israel policy. Jerusalem will remain unified, the 1600 units to be built in East Jerusalem were ill-timed, but I don't have a problem with them. Here's some reading:

New York Times, Rabbi Eric Yoffie (Ha'aretz), JPost, Al Jazeera

I apologize I haven't been writing. I haven't had much to report. I'm living life in Jerusalem and loving every second of it. I can't believe it's almost April. Unbelievable.

A few things that I haven't had an opportunity to mention:

Fuck Sidney Crosby.

What an incredible March Madness! I've been watching every day on the internet.

How 'bout them Phillies....15 Days.

Shoot me an e-mail if you love me. (Alex@AlexKress.com)

Love

Kress, Alex, Kressticle, Luda, Kressilicious, and so on and so forth...

Nutshell

This is going to be a quick hitter. Don't have much to say about anything, just some things to nutshell:

Zachy D stayed with me Wednesday and Thursday. He's a great friend of mine from NFTY who did EIE (high school in Israel) with me. He made aliyah last summer and it's been wonderful to spend time with him and catch up.

I'm convinced there's something in the water. I think my chest hair is about 4 times thicker than when I arrived. Even Max has facial hair here. Or maybe the Kress genes just decided to kick in at this exact time in my life.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:00 AM (or 11:00 PM your time) to go hiking. We went to Sattaf, a site I visited and lived near when I was on Kibbutz Tzuba a few years ago. We hiked for four-ish hours with a few mini breaks to nosh or enjoy the views. At the end we built a couple fires, made Pita, Tahina, Labane and Tea. I got back to my apartment around 1:30 and passed out.

For dinner two of my best friends here, Kayla and Becka, came over. I made a delicious dish called Shakshouka. I made it as simple as possible. First I sauteed onions, tomatoes, peppers and garlic in a little olive oil. Then I dumped some tomato sauce and about a teaspoon of sugar (tomato paste is better, but i didn't have any) over the sauteed veggies, mix it all together and cover it. You let it cook, stirring it every couple minutes, until it thickens. After most of the liquid is gone, you crack eggs on the top of the mixture (my pan holds 6 eggs on top of about 3 tomatoes, 1 pepper, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves and 3/4 can of tomato sauce). Recover the pan until you have some nice sunny-side-up eggs on top of the concoction. Sounds gross, tastes like heaven. Try it. Or I'll make it for you when I get home, cause it's just that divine. Thank you Zachy D for teaching me how to make it.

I feel bad that I'm half way across the world in sunny 75 degree weather while three feet of snow is on the ground at home. Staam.

This is a perfect opportunity to teach you all a hebrew word: Staam. It essentially means kidding, or joking. When I was here in 2007 and asked my Hebrew teacher what she thought of the meeting at Annapolis, she said 'staam, Annapolis'. Useful in both serious and not so serious situations.

So, אמא אבא, (dad, mom) I love you but I don't feel bad at all. I hope you are getting a good workout shoveling.

Anyone near my house, go visit Lili and love her for me. Cause I miss her:

Alright. That's all. Hope everyone had a wonderful Shabbat.

Kress

Superbowl & Shtuff

Thursday Laynie and Leah made their way down to Jerusalem from Haifa. We went to Hebrew Union College (The Reform Movement's Seminary) for a reunion of URJ camp staff.

(Maxwell, Mollie, Jill, Sam Roberts (Harlam's Assistant Director), Laynie and Leah.)
After we left HUC, Sam took us to Focaccia Bar off of Ben Yehuda and then to this delicious little Waffle shop. We met up with a camp friend, Itai Liptz. Just so happens he is the part owner of a bar in Jerusalem and took us all out. The following night Maxwell made dinner for everyone, chicken and penne in a white wine cream sauce. Itay Chen and Itai Liptz came over and we hung out. It was a wonderful night. I went out with the guys after dinner back to Itai's bar.

Saturday we took a walk into the Old City. We strolled through the Armenian quarter on our way towards the Kotel. I was seeking out this spot I was taken to on EIE. After lots of wandering I found it:



Beautiful view of Mount Moriah and the Kotel. The pictures on facebook have group shots with everyone. They're wonderful.

After the Old City we walked towards central Jerusalem to look for an open restaurant. We found a nice little place that was essentially Italian food. I had a steak sandwich with cheese, don't mistake it for a cheesesteak. However it was delicious. The others got delicious Pizza and Pastas.

Some more pictures from the trip to the Old City that I particularly enjoy:



And then Super Sunday. Wow. We had Ulpan from 9:30-2. I played basketball from 3:30-5:30, hung out a bit, Skyped with the rents, made dinner. Then I got ready to go to Tel Aviv for the Super Bowl. It was a hell of a trek, waiting a long time for the Bus to the Sheirut Station and at least 45 minutes for the Sheirut to leave. Sheirut are 10 passenger little buses that go to and from Tel Aviv and also run within cities. It costs 22 NIS ($5.87) to get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and takes about 45-60 minutes. We left our apartments around 9:30-10:00 and got to Tel Aviv around 12:30ish. We went to a restaurant/bar called Mike's Place. Most importantly on the wall there is this:

Beautiful. Philly was the only other city represented at the bar. Naturally. We hung out with Guy, Totah, Leah, Dahlia, Jill, Max and met a ton of people from Philly. There was a girl in there in a DeSean Jackson jersey, Guy was reppin a Don jersey and Max and I have are our Phillies shirts. It was a great night.

More to come. Love you all.
Kress

So. Some events. Some commentary. Miss you all. Enjoy.

First and foremost, it's become ever so clear the importance of camp in my life. The free, tell all spirit encouraged by Jewish camping is unrivaled and the difference in people is conspicuous. I love camp, I love people who understand camp and that seems to be an underlying recurrence in my best friends. On the camp track, Jill, Max, Mollie and I met Sam Roberts near Ben Yehuda last night and had a wonderful time with him. It's the dimples.

Max and I have been trying to make regular trips to the Shuk. Today we took a bus down and bought lots of fresh stuff: salmon, tomatoes, onions, pita. I made salmon in a white wine and lemon sauce with peppers, onions and mushrooms for dinner. A couple nights back Max and I cooked for a few friends of ours. We make penne with onions and mushrooms sauteed in a red wine butter sauce. Delish. Cooking is fun.

After a few weeks I am beginning to appreciate knowing SEPTA like the back of my hand. We've been slowly figuring our way around via the buses, but I couldn't begin to explain the geography of Jerusalem, how to walk somewhere or the way to anywhere but Ben Yehuda or Emek Rafaim. We've vowed to stop taking cabs, so buses are the only choice here. No regional rail. No subway. No weird trolley's that are underground sometimes and above ground others. Nada. Just buses. Hopefully I'll master it in the next four months.

HEADLINE: Jews who come to Israel like to ball. Great news. I've got a pretty solid group of guys, and a girl, who love to ball. I've been playing three or four days a week: twos, threes and even some fours and fives. It's nice to actually play some good pick up ball.

Thursday Laynie and Leah are coming down for the weekend. We're all excited to see them. We'll go to the Shlichim reunion on Thursday and see Sam and then go out to Foccacia (Sam and my favorite restaurant here). Hopefully we'll make our way to the shuk and the old city on Friday/Saturday. No plans set in stone except excessive cuddling. Yes to that, as Ilayna would say.

Alright. I'm tired. Oh, cherry beer, delicious. Check it out.

Be well. Love always,
Kress

The Good Life - החיים טובים

So I try not to bore you all with nonsense, hence infrequent posts. But today is worthy of a post. Jill and I headed to the Malha Mall to see Paige. What a wonderful girl. We also got to see Bar, love her, and I saw D-Sol: I cannot wait to have a beer with D-Sol (Assistant Principal of EIE).

Then we headed to Ben Yehuda, which I'm already sick of, to meet up with Max and wait for Nati & Itay. The three of us had a nice time before we were graced by Netanyel and Itay's presence. It was wonderful to see them, love those guys.

Past couple days nutshell:
Max and I hit the shook for the first time and wow. Philly needs to look into acquiring one of these. I bought fruit and vegetables that are the best I've ever had in my life, for dirt cheap. I made guacamole with the best Avocados I've ever tasted. I've had red and yellow peppers that must have a divine presence. I have oranges that Harry & David would be proud to sell. Apples, eh, they're ok. We're going back tomorrow, it's nice to live in a country where eating healthy is cheap.

Wifey & Laynie Gaga are coming down from Haifa, cannot wait to see them. There's a big Shlichim reunion Thursday for all the URJ camps that we're planning on attending. Should be a good time.

It's 3 in the morning. Write more soon. Love you all, be in touch.
Kress

Shalom from the Motherland

Unfortunately, I don't have internet in my room right now, hence my first post is five days into the trip. What a whirlwind of four days. Max and I arrived on separate flights, and as of right now we are in separate rooms. We have to wait until Tuesday to straighten that out.

Thursday I arrived in Tel Aviv a little before 7 AM. I slept maybe 4 hours on the plane. I took a bus straight to Hebrew U and moved into my apartment. Later there was a bus to a local mall where we bought blankets and sheets and all the good stuff you need to live. After we returned, Max and I decided to go to the Old City and were accompanied by a few new friends (girls, duh).

Friday Max and I wandered around and ended up in the Mount of Olives, an Arab town. We had a pomello (Max's first) and eventually took a cab to visit Mollie at her apartment. She took us to the sheirut station, the shared taxi to Tel Aviv. We wandered around Tel Aviv, went out to dinner at Yotvata and enjoyed a few Corona's and cigars on the beach. Then Gal and her boyfriend Roye picked us up and we headed towards Modi'in to Einav's.

At Einav's we watched A Bug's Life. Holla.

Saturday we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast with Einav's family. Then we went to a little park that overlooks Modi'in (lots of pictures on facebook, red flowers and pictures with Einav, etc). We had a wonderful lunch at Abu Ghosh, at the restaurant that claims the newest Hummus World Record (literally, Abu Ghosh Resturant). After lunch (which was delicious) we headed to Tzuba to visit friends I made on EIE and show Max the tell. There's a bunch of pictures from Tzuba as well, we stayed up on the tell for the sunset which was beautiful. Then we took the bus into Jerusalem and had dinner at Foccacia. We met up with Gettlin at the Coffee House on Jaffa street and then some of our new friends to go to a pub (Nadin's) and then some dance club. No idea what that was called but mad fun.

Sunday Max and I chilled for most of the day. Had orientation in the afternoon and met up with Mollie for dinner at Hamoshava on Emek Rafaim. Delicious and cheap. Then Mollie ditched us to see Jill who had just arrived. Max and I went bowling at "Bowling Yerushalayim" in Talpiyot. It was fun, 164 high. Not too shabby, Max got 155.

Today we started ulpan, really enjoyed it. Max and I are in the same class and our teacher is wonderful. Excited to keep going and really learn the language. Lots to learn.

Here are the public link to the photos in case we aren't facebook friends. Enjoy.

Be in touch soon.

Love you all.

Kress

In the Mix

I had to make a few mixes before I left. Here are the latest (click to download the mp3):

Tiger's Hangover

Aladdin's Bad Touch

The Hardware

Familia, Friends, Random People -

I suck at blogging but I'm going to do my best to keep this updated and document the epic events of a college student. Above is a gorgeous picture of gorgeous equipment: MacBook Pro, the love of my life. iPhone and iPod, necessities. Duh. Nikon D90, my newest pride and joy to document the land of milk and honey at its finest. And the shoobie of the technological collection, my Barnes & Noble Nook. Currently reading my Dad's favorite book, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and can't seem to put it down. I don't know if it's the book or the desire to play with my new toy.

The less important stuff: I'll be studying in Jerusalem from January to June at Hebrew U. January-February is strictly Ulpan, roughly 5 hours of Hebrew immersion 5 days a week and then at the end of February my classes start. Honestly, I don't know what they are because we don't register for classes until we get there, but I'll keep you updated.

I leave 10 days from now, on January 20th on a 1:30 PM El Al flight out of Newark. Won't have much to report until then. Happy New Year and check back after the 20th.

All the best,

AK