Some School and Pesach in Israel

Hey everyone,

So I've been out of contact for a while. Didn't have much exciting to report I guess. Eventually I had to settle in for some school, and since I got back from Shanghai through early April when I left for Pesach (Passover for any non-hebrew speakers) I've mostly been focused on passing my classes. All is good on that front. Overall my classes are not quite as interesting as I believe their Brandeis equivalents would be, mostly because students never speak up here, so lectures tend to basically be monotonous extended monologues. I do really like my Chinese philosophy class, as well as learning to write Chinese. I'm getting pretty good, and can write 230 characters, and read even more. I can also speak a fair amount. Surprisingly, another favorite class is American Cinema. I have never taken the time to watch Charlie Chaplin, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and other great classic movies, so the opportunity has been welcome.

I've also spent time playing rugby and Judo, which have both been fun. Since I mostly hang out with fellow exchange students or my roommate, rugby has given me an opportunity to get to know the permanent ex-pat crowd, while Judo has helped me meet local students native to Hong Kong.

As usual, I flew to Israel to celebrate Pesach with the family. It was great to see everyone. Everyone, cousins and grandparents included, went down to Eilat for four days. Joe and Ari took their Advanced Open Water Diver course, which I had done in Thailand, and I tagged along practicing some of the skills I learned in the course. Even though one of the days was the second holiday, we managed to get in seven dives in just three days. The dives included two deep dives (about 100 feet deep), a wreck dive, a cave dive and a dive with dolphins, who all loved Joe. I brought a camera down for most of the dives, and had a lot of fun photographing Joseph and Ari during their course.

Unlike at Brandeis, most of my professors had no idea what Pesach is. Still, they were all really cool about me missing school for two week. Not everyone was so lucky. One person actually had to get a letter signed by a rabbi, and take a temporary leave of absence before the professor agreed not to penalize her for missing two classes and an exam.

When I got back Sunday night, I had to immediately switch into super finals mode. Monday I had an essay due, Tuesday a test, Wednesday two tests, Thursday a make-up test and a presentation, and Friday a make-up session including three quizzes and an exam. That's what I get for disappearing for the two weeks before finals. Somehow, with about fifteen hours sleep total for the week, I managed to survive until Friday. Now, other than a few simple papers, I'm done until May 14th, for my Logic final.

Given the nearly three week break between my first finals and my last one, I decided to head down to Australia to see how my friends are living down under. I'm heading first to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I will explore the city for one day, before continuing to Melbourne. Sam, as well as Judah and Elie (who both visited me in February) agreed to take off school so we could explore the continent for a bit. We'll spend Shabbat in Melbourne, and Sunday we're off to New Zealand, where I will be turning 21. Then Sydney for an extended weekend, and back to Melbourne.

I'll be sure to update with more pictures soon.

Yoni

PS If you remember, when I first arrived in Hong Kong from Beijing, I commented that the air was clean and fresh compared to China's capital. While this is certainly the truth, Beijing is really not much of a measuring stick. Coming back from Israel, I felt almost choked by the air in Hong Kong. Looking back, it is hard to believe I didn't feel it before.