EUROTRIP!!!

Here's the blog post you've all been waiting for... the one about my Eurotrip! It's been more than 3 weeks since my last post. I went on the trip then came back and for the past week and a half, have just been putting it off. But I finally got the motivation to write it. I'm sure many of you have already seen the 600+ pictures that I posted on Facebook, but even though pictures tell a thousand words, it doesn't tell the whole story. What really happened on the trip? What happened behind the scenes? Did Alex, Adam, and I get on each other's nerves? OH YEAH! Did we have a ups and downs, but overall, an amazing trip? YES.

On January 5th, we woke up at 9am for last-minute packing and to leave. We took a cab to the airport and then did the whole airport thing: security, passports, etc. We finally got on the plane, and after a 1 hour delay, we finally left for Europe. Four and a half hours later, we touched down, got our bags, and immediately took a bus from Basel, Switzerland (where we flew in to) to Zurich, our first stop. After some logistics, what did we do? We went across the street to a frickin' BURGER KING and got burgers for about 8 Swiss francs each. Smart idea, right? Great way to indulge in a new culture, overpay for low-quality American food. Amazingly enough, it was higher quality than any Burger King in the U.S. Afterwards, we went straight to our hostel to check in, dropped off our bags, and checked out a couple nearby streets, then went to sleep.

Our friend, Mr. Toucan

The next day was our first full day. We checked out FIFA World Headquarters (who would've guessed it's in Zurich?) and it was a dream come true for Adam. He's from Guam and he grew up playing tennis and soccer (yes, he calls it soccer because Guam is an American territory and they're very Americanized there). The three of us had a snowball fight then looked around the main area of the building. There were replicas of FIFA trophies and a 3D HDTV, which fascinated Adam . Then we went to the Zurich Zoo and saw many, many awesome animals. We took way too many pictures, both clear and blurry. The zoo kind of took up the rest of the day. At night, we went out to a popular club; this Swiss know how to party!

The next day, we checked out and took a train to Milan, Italy, but making a stop on the way... to go skiing in Airolo! Skiing in the Swiss Alps was an experience unlike any other. It felt amazing to be in the Alps, one of the premier places in the world to ski, but I was not the most acrobatic. Highlights included going down the hill (definitely NOT the Black Diamond!) a few times, almost twisting my leg, having the boot lock on the left ski come out and spending a good 45 minutes trying to figure why that happened and finding a solution (which I did), then skiing again and falling on the way up twice. Regardless, it was fun. I have been skiing only one other time in my life and that was in December 2010 when my friends and I went up to Vermont to visit my friend, Jason, who was working for Okemo Mountain Resort at the time. After skiing, we got on a train to Milan -- Italy, here we come!

Upon arriving in Milan, we checked in to our sketchy hostel, appropriately called Hostel California (no joke). Alex was tired, so he went to sleep early while Adam and I went out on a stroll to explore the nightlife. Now Milan doesn't seem to be all that interesting at night; some bars and clubs seem to be okay, but it's often a sausagefest. We got lost in the middle of the city, asked for directions back multiple times, checked the map constantly, and got into a couple arguments. We got back after exploring and walking for a good 3 hours. The next day, the three of us got up and went to a few hot spots; we wanted to hit up as many as possible with our one day. We took the subway around the city and covered the Duomo of Milan (most beautiful church I've ever been to), took pictures with Leonardo Da Vinci, Castello Sforzesco, and the AC Milan (Adam's favorite soccer team) stadium, and Corso Como Street/Garibaldi Street. It was then race to the train station; we schlepped our bags and got on the train for Venice. Unfortunately, we didn't stamp our tickets, which you must do before boarding. We got charged 60 Euro for not stamping our tickets when no one told us we were supposed to; this led to a long and frustrating argument with the train conductor who was validating tickets... and didn't speak a word of English. Thankfully, we had Italians who knew English translating for us and helped us get a discount for the penalty.

Venice

Two full days began in Venice; January 9th and 10th. Now Venice seems like a blur because I'm writing this post so late, but we covered some main points. We got there and walked around the first night just exploring and finding out that no one goes out in Venice. The next day, we took the awesome "subway system" which is a boat system. We went to Piazza San Marco (and the church) and spent a lot of time on the sea taking pictures. Adam and I got into a disagreement over whether the U.K. is part of the EU. Then we met this British girl who's on a 2 month trip around Europe for fun by herself, and we asked her the question. I won the bet! The UK is part of the EU but as I knew, they don't use the Euro, they use pounds. Adam was just misinformed. We also went to the Jewish Gheto and we did tefillin at the local Chabad house, went to Lido Island (unfortunately, both the hotel and casino were closed down), Murano, and a number of other big areas. We got to a point where we couldn't visit any other places, so we took the last few hours to do a little shopping. Alex got this awesome camera bag (which he flaunted around the rest of the trip), Adam got a few knick knacks and considered getting a mask, and I got a hat. We then boarded the night train to Vienna.

Cool looking picture, huh?

Schonnbrunn Palace overlooking Vienna

On January 11th, we arrived bright and early to Vienna, Austria. We checked in to the hostel and then checked out the city immediately. We checked out some statues and amazing buildings and explored the Schönbrunn Palace, where we walked around the garden and walked all the way up to the top of the hill to see a beautiful sight of Vienna. After that, we checked out another church and went to the Jewish Museum of Vienna. Their main exhibition is "Bigger than Life", a presentation of American Jewish Hollywood and how many Jews have risen through adversity and diversity to speak out for Jews (on and off screen) and become some of the most famous and most influential people in the film business. Important sections included: Jerry Seinfeld, Lew Wasserman, Inglorious Basterds, and a collection of Viennese menorahs and synagogue knick knacks. We also spent time at the University of Vienna, looking around at statues of famous people who went there and/or taught there, including: Sigmund Freud (who's museum I couldn't pass up after the University, it was awesome, and I bought his book The Interpretation of Dreams), Earl Schrodinger (check this clip out!), and Christian Doppler. Then we had to the train station; we picked up our bags at the hostel, and raced against time to make our train. We missed it by 10 minutes (DAMN IT!) so we hung out for the next hour waiting for the next train. On to Munich!


We got to Munich, Germany late on January 12th so we had an easy night. The next day, we went on a city tour of Munich. We learned quite a bit about Munich and it being the capital of the German state, Bavaria, one of 16 states in the country. However, Bavaria is special; it has its own government separate from the rest of Germany, and they're just different Germans. On the tour, we went to the Glockenspiel, learned a little about the 1972 Olympics' Munich massacre, and stopped off at the Hofbräuhaus (I had some good beer and a killer mac and cheese. For those who don't know, the Munich massacre was a tragedy that occurred during the Summer Olympics in which 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were taken hostage and killed by the Palestinian terrorist group, Black September. The aftermath involved members of Israeli intelligence tracking down and killing suspected members of Black September. The movie Munich illustrates the aftermath well; I highly recommend people to see it because it provides a compelling story about history and gets you emotionally involved. At night, Adam, Alex, and I checked out a popular club called Neuraum. Great club!

Bunk beds for the prisoners

On January 14th, we got up to race to Marianplatz to meet up with the New Munich Tours group to get a tour of the Dachau concentration camp (the company also does a city tour, a beer challenge tour, and teaches about the Third Reich). We got to the camp and it was worth the price of admission for the tour. My first tour of any concentration camp or death camp, and it really resonated with me, both as a Jew and a member of today's society in the world. I learned that between 32,000-45,000 people died at Dachau, one of the first camps opening in 1933 (they stopped counting the death toll after a certain year). We saw the buildings where all the prisoners stayed; throughout the time of the camp, the population grew, and people to a bed progressively grew from 1 to 3, 6, 8, 10-12. We also saw a map of all the camps throughout Europe (there were so many!), what kind of badge prisoners wore which depended on what they were, bunkers, and the crematoriums. The large crematorium was very emotional; I saw the area where prisoners waited, then "showered" (there's sadly only 1 shower head left), then got stored and cremated. We then went outside and concluded our tour, standing in front of a statue that said, "To Honor the Dead and Warn the Living". I then walked out of the concentration camp, something thousands of prisoners never got an opportunity to do. Only 1 person ever escaped the Dachau camp: Communist Hans Beimler. I noticed that, on the gate, as I walked out was "Arbeit macht frei", or "Work makes one free"; this was put into the heads of all who died at the camp to believe, unless you consider dying the only way out. We ended our tour at the train station, where our guide gave us some final words. She mentioned that Germany knows it has a dark past, and they are the only country to have embraced and dealt with its past in a very mature way. Nowadays, German schools teach students about the Holocaust for 10 years; students learn to know their country's past, understand it, and never deny it. It is a crime to deny the Holocaust in Germany, a fine of 2,500 Euro. Now, it is difficult to talk to older Germans about the Holocaust, but it can be easy or hard to speak with younger generations, depending on the person. The three of us were very fortunate to get a great tour and I was touched by everything our tour guide said, both educational and inspiring. 


After the Dachau tour, we had a quiet last few hours before we boarded the train to Basel. While Alex relaxed, Adam and I went to the Augustiner-Keller, one of Munich's largest beer gardens. We split some pretzels and cheese (really good!) and an Edelstoff (great tasting beer). We packed up and boarded the train. Once we eventually got to the airport, we took a nap. Afterwards, we went through security and I got two things confiscated: my lighter and my toothpaste. Yeah, I forgot to put them in my checked luggage. I got into an argument with the security guard, but Alex calmed me down. I was NOT happy. Either way, we got on the plane and took off, ending our epic adventure in Europe.


Look for another post soon! I'll be updating again more often. See ya!

One of my favorite pictures because it looks so artistic!

Busy, Busy, Busy, Conference... and a Little Fun

Happy (belated) Hanukkah, everybody!

Israeli dreidel, it has a "peh"
for "poh" meaning "here".
On the dreidel is "Nes gadol
haya poh" meaning "a great
miracle happened here"

I don't have time to do ANYTHING anymore... projects, papers, and exams are taking over my life. So December 21st began with the HRM and Staffing Orgs presentations. The HRM presentation went smoothly but Staffing, not as much. I don't remember what happened later that day but I remember it turned out to be okay.  December 22nd was busy; Hilary and I met with our boss at a local restaurant called Jeremiah, great place to get food (I got a salad and grilled cheese sandwich). I then had a project meeting, then everyone in the Master's program went to a program Hanukkah party. We had so much fun just telling stories, eating sufganiyot (jelly donuts), lighting candles, singing songs. The next number of days were mainly spent working on projects for this class and that class. I have written page after page, edited piece after piece, and worked on more projects. I'm ready to pull my hair out right now. December 24th was filled with work then going out with my friend Dan to hang with some new friends of his. I spent all of Christmas just working and trying to recover from a hangover. December 26th consisted of presenting the small group project in Organization Theory and Design, but we have to wait to present the big project for tomorrow.

Now December 27th was interesting. The Master's program went to an International Conference on Anti-Semitism, sponsored by the World Zionist Organization, at Bar Ilan University in nearby Ramat Gan. I ended up taking a lot of notes. We sat in on a few lectures and seminars all day. The first lecture brought up questions like, "Is the Shoah (the Holocaust) the mirror of the Jews or is it just explaining the persecution?" and mentioned that Jews are the "Other". When speaking of Modernity, topics of Aryan race being a "clean and healthy society", "The Bloodlands" being when Stalin committed mass murders all over Eastern Europe, exorcising the Jewish spirit being the reason for studying the Holocaust nowadays.

The second lecture was by Robert Wistrich, a professor at the Hebrew University. He discussed Communism in the 1920s wanting to start a Red Jihad, spreading a revolution all over the world. He also discussed the Muslim Brotherhood. He that their cries against anti-Semitism undermine the foundations of Islam, Hamas is a branch of the European Brotherhood, and Iran believed that Jews were perceived as being a central part of a global conspiracy to exploit and suppress Islam. Wistrich also mentioned that there's rhetoric against the Jews about conspiracies of them planning to take over the world, such as Protocols of the Elders of Zion (just like Pinky and the Brain). Also, anti-Semitism is supposedly more of a Muslim than a Christian phenomenon, more left wing than right wing, and more Middle East than West.

Panel at the International Conference

We then took a workshop called "Drawing the Line: The Difference Between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel Sentiments". We learned that 13% of Americans hold anti-Semitic views and the three aspects of anti-Semitism include religion, politics, and race. There is a grey area on the line in which certain animals have represented Jews in cartoons and such, terminology including "Palestinian Holocaust", "Israel = 4th Reich", etc., and the "Israeli Apartheid" is the worst type of racism -- Israel Apartheid Week was created by college students because they believed that Israel has apartheid between Israelis and Arabs (WHICH IS NOT TRUE!!!), so they believe Israel has no right to exist because apartheid is a crime against humanity.

The next workshop was called "Countering anti-Semitism in the New Media". I actually had already learned just about everything this guy talked about. He brought up the video about Muhamed al-Dura and his son being shot and killed in the line of fire, supposedly by Israelis (but did they really die?). What is said on Wikipedia pages differs from language to language. If you type the word "Jew" into Google, the first search result is the Wikipedia page on Jew. The second result is JewWatch.com (DO NOT CLICK ON THIS LINK IF YOU WILL BE EASILY OFFENDED, or possibly offended at all), the most anti-Semitic and disgusting website on the web. The question is, should Google keep JewWatch up on their results when it's very offensive but FREEDOM OF SPEECH comes into question. Also, the State of Israel is not allowed to have a Facebook page, and Facebook limits pages on Israel. I didn't really like the guy giving this talk, and some things were not very accurate.

We then went to a panel on anti-Semitism as our last stop. There are claims against Israel include: the exclusion of women, intermarriage laws, diplomacy on campus, and the Holocaust. Regarding the Holocaust, it's difficult for teachers to teach about it in the classroom. It's a very emotional subject and someone can easily get offended, but it's a subject everyone should learn about. It's also possible with hard disputes to discuss the whole Gilad Shalit issue, whether he should have been traded for 1,000 prisoners and him being considered a hostage vs. a terrorist. A question was brought up about whether the Israeli education system can teach about anti-Semitism and anti-Israel and how to combat it. The panel said, "To all educational system: you must know what you're fighting against and what you're fighting for". Jews are also very heterogeneous today, both inside and outside Israel; a girl on Birthright was quoted as saying that she didn't see the reason in marrying Jewish. The answer came to be that it's her right to not want to marry Jewish, but it's important to have Jewish babies. So the conversation moved to, "What is the meaning of being Jewish?". The problem is that many young Jews don't study about their heritage and religion, and the Israeli education system should help Israeli Jews define themselves in terms of religion and culture. The last thing covered was Xenophobia; teaching of the Holocaust requires three pieces: education, teacher training, and research. Yet, teachers bring their own stereotypes into the classroom regardless, and every cultural context has their own explicit language.

Ilana and me

December 28th involved finishing learning anything there was to learn for my first semester in grad school in HRM and Staffing, then we prepared for the exams. Unfortunately, our exams are structured as 20 or so multiple choice questions and a few short answer questions... there is very little room for error! At night, Alex, Adam, and I went to a bar for some fun and we got to a packed place. The only interesting thing that happened on December 29th was that at night, I met up with my friend, Ilana, from the L.A. Hillel community service trip in March. She's on Birthright and having the time of her life. We chilled for an hour, it was so nice seeing her again! :)

Part of East Jerusalem

On December 30th, Anna, Shoshana, Simon, and I went on our Israel Diplomacy class trip to Jerusalem. We visited the City of David, where we watched a video of the history, toured a bit to see King David's castle (inside and outside), then met a guy who lives in East Jerusalem. This guy lives in a small neighborhood  filled with 85 Jews. He talked about his Arab neighbors and how he's not afraid to be friends with them, or get into fights with the ones who are not so fond of him. He has a great view of the Old City from his apartment; he can see both the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall. I took some pictures, too!

Lastly, New Year's Eve was awesome! Adam and I weren't aware that our friend Cody had organized for everyone to pay earlier in the week to go to a local underground club and get on the list. So I went to the club early and got four tickets (2 for me and Adam and 2 for our "dates" Anna and Elena). The four of us joined in on the festivities and had a very fun night!

Here's a beautiful picture of sundown outside my
apartment to (hopefully) leave you with a nice feeling

Happy New Year 2012! Can't wait to see what this year brings... obviously, everything in Israel! See ya later.