Weekend, Poker, and Yitzhak Rabin

Me, Noa, and Aviad at Shabbat dinner

Here I go again, writing a post while at the laundromat... this has got to stop. So I left off on Friday night where I was about to go to Noa's house for Shabbat dinner. Oh my God, what a great dinner! I saw her boyfriend, Aviad, again. I met Noa's mother, Hannah, and her boyfriend (and his daughter and her boyfriend), and Noa's older brother's family. A total of about 13 or so people over for Shabbat dinner, doing a late celebration of Noa's 23rd birthday. Great food, great conversation, and a wonderful time. I got some insight of my job dilemma from Noa and her mom's boyfriend's daughter, and we looked at pictures of Noa's mom and her boyfriend taking a trip to the Bahamas, Vegas, Miami, and New York. I got back from Modi'in at 11pm and went out with my friends to a nightclub for a friend's birthday. A bad night of dancing: not a single girl would give me a single dance, except my female friends. I have better luck next time. No worries!

On Saturday, I finally caved. I didn't want to do this but I did. I bought an HDMI cable for 70 shekels (thought I'd say something more exciting, didn't ya?). Thats only about $19. It was a good idea, though, because now I am running my computer on my TV, meaning I can more easily watch movies and go online on my bed. At night, I went to hang out with my Birthright friend, Patrick. I saw his digs (a studio apartment with 2 roommates, but comfortable) then we went to a coffeehouse with some of his friends. I met a couple Australian girls (the first Australians I have ever met) and this guy from Vancouver. A fun dinner hanging out with a good friend.

On Sunday, I went to Ulpan (Hebrew study) and learned some more words. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. At night, I went to this American bar right outside my apartment building, called Mike's Place. I got a basket of fries and a half liter of Goldstar (Israel's BEST beer) for just 100 shekels. Good deal. Shoshana, Kenny, and I watched the Jets beat the Bills. I was not happy, especially the next morning when I heard that the Patriots lost to the stupid Giants. Thankfully, there's a place I can go to watch football. Unfortunately, it's at the most inopportune times of the day (stupid 7 hour difference). Good night, though. I did, however, miss out on hanging with Alex and our new friend, Melanie, who just happens to have dated an old friend of mine from West Hartford (now that's Jewish Geography for you!).

Cory looking at his poker cards

Monday was a class day. Org Theory and Design was fun. I met with the guy who wants to hire me for his new company again. He told me more about the product and how I'd be learning about how companies run their HR systems now, but if I worked for him, I would also help change how that system is run. Honestly, I am almost ready to say yes, at least for now. We'll see... After that, I messed around in the mall for a bit then went to OB. I learned more. We went home and I just relaxed, watching a movie (Eurotrip). I then played some poker with my buddies. We taught Cory how to play, he still didn't understand, and just made jokes the whole time. No one is so funny without even trying. Adam won, and Alex scratched by without losing a dime (or a shekel). I kind of lost by going all in and losing the hand because I thought Adam was bluffing. Lesson learned.

Today, we had Ulpan in which we played a game. Lucy, Alex, and I teamed up and had to come up with the most Hebrew words with the letters all the groups were given. We won, partially because we had the most words and partially because we're awesome. I helped Naum and Lucy (and Dave) with some words today, and it felt good. Maybe if the HR career doesn't work out and business is a fail, I'll go into teaching. You know what they say, "If you can't do, teach". A few hours after that, we went to the Israeli Museum at the Yitzhak Rabin Center. We took a self-guided tour of the establishment of the State of Isreal, all of Israel's wars, and Rabin's life.

Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem and lived in Tel Aviv most of his life. He is known as one of Israel's most important and critical political and military figures. He served in the IDF for about 25 years, holding many positions including general and Chief of Staff, leading Israel to victory in the Six Day War. He also served Israel as Prime Minister twice and was elected to the Knesset. He also won a Nobel Peace Prize with Yasser Atafat for negotiating the famous Oslo Accords, which originally was meant to put Palestine and Israel at peace. With this, Israel agreed to give the Palestinians Gaza and the West Bank and recognize the PLO. The Palestinians were supposed to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. This did not last long and they were back to fighting. Unfortunately, on November 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was walking out of a rally for the Oslo Accords at Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square) in Tel Aviv and was shot in the back of the head by an Orthodox Jew and was assassinated (the perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison). Found in Rabin's pocket later was a bloodied piece of paper containing the song "Shir L'Shalom" ("Song for Peace"), which explains that it is impossible to bring a dead person back to life, and therefore, the need for peace. Hopefully, the Palestinians and Israel will find peace in a foreseeable future.

At right, the song "Shir L'Shalom" (Song for Peace),
which Yitzhak Rabin had in his pocket when he died.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will bring you more in the coming days and months!