Homeruns and Yellow Port-O-Potties...

More IBL goodies.

If you like Israel and you like baseball, the following video might make you the happiest person in the world.




That was Ha'tikva, the Israeli national anthem. And at yesterday's game between the BeitShemesh Blue Sox and Tel Aviv Lightning, it was sung by a member of the Burgers Bar concession stand crew. Nice job! Now get back to french fryer.

Good game last night at Gezer Field. The Blue Sox won 8-2 thanks in part to Australian Jason Rees who crushed two HRs, including a grand slam that, I'm pretty sure, landed in southern Lebanaon. We've got analysis from my friend and color commentator extraordinaire, Jason Edelstein:





Gezer Field is a jewel of a ballpark. Does it look familiar? If you ask me, it bears a striking resemblance to the baseball field in Field of Dreams:


Sunflower fields just beyond the outfield fences...looks a lot like
something Ray Liotta would walk out from, no?

By the way, by far, the most interesting "quirk" about Gezer Field is the restroom facilities. And by "facilities" I mean the lone Port-O-Potty standing just beyond the center field fence. Basically, if you need to hit the can...EVERYONE will know about it haha. Oh Israel...one big happy family.


Follow the yellow brick road...



...to the yellow Port-O-Potty in center field if nature calls.


Have I mentioned how much fun it is being here these days?

-E

Part of history...

I was a part of history.

The first-ever professional baseball league in Israel is off and running. Last night was Opening Day of the Israel Baseball League and, for those who aren't aware because you managed to escape my incessant reminders, I called the game for the English-language TV broadcast which will air in the States on July 1 on PBS. (Unfortunately, only a few PBS affiliates are picking up the game, but New York's Ch. 13 will have it).

Well, after my first day back in the broadcast booth after a 5-year hiatus, 5 words come to mind:

Don't. Quit. Your. Day. Job.

Haha, what can I say? There have been smoother Opening Day broadcasts in the history of the world, but to be honest, my performance fit the mood of the evening: organized chaos. Wildly successful...yet slightly chaotic. It really was an evening of firsts and now that 24 hours have passed, I'm pretty happy and extremely proud to have been a part of this.

First pro baseball game in Israel (Modi'in Miracle beats the Petach Tikva Pioneers 9-1), first ever professionally-hit homerun, first concession stand to sell peanuts, cracker jacks, AND falafel...basically there were a lot of firsts. The broadcast was a lot of fun and, who knows, maybe one day I'll be the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question.


The Field at the Baptist Village in Petach Tikva. Yes, it's a little
ironic that the first-ever pro baseball game in Israel was played
at a place called the "Baptist Village."





This is exactly why I LOVE Israel: the concession stand workers
praying a few hours before the game. Only in Israel.


My cage. Me calling the action from behind home plate.
And behind a chain-linked fence.


Opening Day ceremonies marking the first-ever professional baseball
league in Israel. The Commissioner of the IBL is Dan Kurtzer, former
US Ambassador to Israel and Egypt. Just out of the picture is a guy
Boston Red Sox fans may remember: Dan Duquette. He's the IBL's Director of Baseball Operations.


The IBL Broadcast Crew (l-r): Executive Producer Gary Rubin,
Associate Producer Michael Klein, "Talent" Erik Levis, and our
buddy Dave who preps the fields.

The thing about these last two insane weeks (ever since I got the call from the league asking me to anchor the TV coverage because Bob Costas didn't want to and Jeremy Schaap couldn't commit) is that I NEVER, in a million years, thought something like this was possible. When I left NY, I thought that was the end of the TV part of my life. And I was cool with the idea of sacrificing that business; "Israel" was the new driving force in my life.

And now, here I am, able to combine both loves. This is one of the weirdest and most surreal experiences I've ever been a part of.

Thanks to Gideon Cohen for helping make this happen.


Niiiiiiiiice!

Anyways, if you watch the game on PBS, try to have some pity on my goofs and flubs. Remember...Bob Costas said no.

-E

In case you missed the story in yesterday's New York Times...



Israeli league players come from eight countries. The oldest is a 51-year-old pitcher from Nyack, N.Y.

Israeli League is Ready to Play Ball

By ELLI WOHLGELERNTER

Published: June 24, 2007

JERUSALEM, June 23 — In the land of milk and honey, it is time for peanuts and hot dogs — the Israel Baseball League makes its debut Sunday night when the Petach Tikva Pioneers play host to the Modi’in Miracle. A high demand for tickets has moved organizers to double the seating capacity at the Yarkon Sports Complex to accommodate a projected 2,000 spectators expected to attend.

The game will be televised live in Israel by the local sports channel, whose broadcasters will handle the play-by-play in Hebrew. The game will also be broadcast in English in the United States next Sunday on PBS affiliates in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, Fla.

The league’s six teams will share three fields: in Tel Aviv; in Petach Tikva about 10 miles northeast of Tel Aviv; and in Kibbutz Gezer, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The teams will play an eight-week, 45-game season, with an all-star game July 29 and a one-game championship Aug. 19. The league will honor the Jewish faith — there will be no games on Saturdays or on July 24, the Tisha B’Av fast day.

The oldest of the league’s 120 players — who represent eight countries — is Pioneers pitcher Scott Cantor, 51, of Nyack, N.Y. The youngest is Miracle pitcher Nate Rosenberg, 17, who lives on Kibbutz Gezer.

Another teenager from Gezer is Alon Leichman, who started playing at 4. His father, David, initiated the construction of a field at Gezer in 1982.

“I said 25 years ago that the field is for our children, and now my 18-year-old son is to play pro ball on the field,” said David Leichman, who, like many at Gezer, emigrated from the United States.

The league is run by an advisory board of donors and investors who will try to eventually make a profit. For the players, who are being paid $2,000 each for the season, the league is an opportunity to continue doing what they love.

“To me, it’s a reward for all of my hard work in the gym and on the field, and it’s the ultimate Jewish-American dream,” said Josh Eichenstein, 23, a middle infielder from Los Angeles. “Being able to play baseball as a job in Israel blows my mind.”

Eichenstein said he hoped to put on a good show for all the people watching baseball for the first time.

“I want to help Israelis understand the game of baseball,” he said. “Once the game is understood, they will fall in love with it.”

That is what organizers are hoping will happen. In this soccer- and basketball-crazed country, baseball may be a hard sell. The game has been tweaked — some say corrupted — to make it more palatable for a foreign audience. Games will be seven innings instead of nine, and ties will be broken by home-run-hitting contests instead of extra innings.

The league has assembled some former major league players and executives. Art Shamsky, Ken Holtzman and Ron Blomberg are among the managers. Dan Duquette, a former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos, is the league’s director of player development. The head of public relations is Marty Appel, who once held that position with the Yankees.

Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former United States ambassador to Israel, is the league’s commissioner. Now retired from diplomatic service, Kurtzer will spend the next two months in Israel, on vacation from his day job as a professor at Princeton.

“My role basically is to establish the character of the league,” Kurtzer, a professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton, said this week in a telephone interview. “So we’ve developed the rules and a code of conduct. My job is largely to give advice and do some public relations, give speeches and things like that. I don’t know that I’ll be at every game, but I’ll be there the entire summer.”

Once accustomed to negotiating disputes between Israel and its neighbors, Kurtzer is still working on how to mediate arguments on the field.

“We’ll see if it’s a punch, if it’s a brawl, if it’s a melee — we’ll make decisions on the spot,” he said. “I assume that issues will come up about discipline and other kinds of issues that end up in the commissioner’s office. I have done a pretty good study of how the commissioner’s office in Major League baseball works, and in other sports. So you never know — each situation is going to be different.”

The games will also be announced in Hebrew at the ballparks, and the Web site israelbaseballleague.com features the rules and a glossary of terms in Hebrew. Still, the league has been pitched to Jews in the United States, urging Jewish organizations to send tour groups to games and establishing support chapters in Chicago and Phoenix.

Some Israelis, including those born in the United States, are wondering whether such a marketing strategy will help the league establish traction among natives.

“Baseball is the greatest game ever invented, and I hope the league is a rousing success,” said Eli Groner, a one-time Maccabiah Games bronze medalist in softball, who works as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company’s Tel Aviv office.

“But the key to generating popularity here is in successful clinics at the grass-roots level.”

He added, “ ‘If you build it, they will come’ is nice for a movie and to create a tourist destination in Iowa; inculcating a culture requires much, much more.”

The league has a long-range plan for building a fan base. It has run youth camps and clinics, and has promotions scheduled throughout the season. Players will teach children the rudiments of the game and leave behind baseball equipment for them.

“Our real objective this summer is to build some degree of interest on the part of Israelis,” said Kurtzer, who acknowledged having doubts about whether Israelis would make a quintessential American sport their own.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I know there’s a Little League that’s functional, that includes not only American Israelis but Israeli Israelis. We won’t know until we test it. We’ve talked to people about it and we think there’s room in Israel for a third sport beyond basketball and soccer. Baseball is a little complicated, it’s a little bit different from what Israelis know, but we’ll have a little fun teaching them.”

Israel and the UN

Great piece in today's Washington Post by Jackson Diehl about Israel and that joke-of-an-organization, the UN.

I actually wrote a paper on the effect of the UN on Israeli society, so this is good timing.

Anyways, the point is: think twice next time you're on the east side of midtown Manhattan and you see the UN building sitting there, all self-righteous...

-E

A Shadow on the Human Rights Movement

By Jackson Diehl

Monday, June 25, 2007; Page A19

Where does the global human rights movement stand in the seventh year of the 21st century? If the first year of the United Nations Human Rights Council is any indication, it's grown sick and cynical -- partly because of the fecklessness and flexible morality of some of the very governments and groups that claim to be most committed to democratic values.

At a session in Geneva last week, the council -- established a year ago in an attempt to reform the U.N. Human Rights Commission -- listened to reports by special envoys appointed by its predecessor condemning the governments of Cuba and Belarus. It then abolished the jobs of both "rapporteurs" in a post-midnight maneuver orchestrated by its chairman, who announced a "consensus" in spite of loud objections by the ambassador from Canada that there was no such accord.

While ending the scrutiny of those dictatorships, the council chose to establish one permanent and special agenda item: the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." In other words, Israel (or "Palestine," in the council's terminology), alone among the nations of the world, will be subjected to continual and open-ended examination. That's in keeping with the record of the council's first year: Eleven resolutions were directed at the Jewish state. None criticized any other government.

Genocide in Sudan, child slavery and religious persecution in China, mass repression in Zimbabwe and Burma, state-sponsored murder in Syria and Russia -- and, for that matter, suicide bombings by Arab terrorist movements -- will not receive systematic attention from the world body charged with monitoring human rights. That is reserved only for Israel, a democratic country that has been guilty of human rights violations but also has been under sustained assault from terrorists and governments openly committed to its extinction.

The old human rights commission, which was disparaged by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan for casting "a shadow on the United Nations system as a whole," frequently issued unbalanced condemnations of Israel but also typically adopted half a dozen resolutions a year aimed at the worst human rights abusers. For the new council, Israel is the only target. Eighteen of the 19 states dubbed "the worst of the worst" by the monitoring group Freedom House (Israel is not on the list) were ignored by the council in its first year. One mission was dispatched to examine the situation in Darfur. When it returned with a report criticizing the Sudanese government, the council refused to endorse it or accept its recommendations.

The regime of Gen. Omar al-Bashir, which is responsible for at least 200,000 deaths in Darfur, didn't just escape any censure. Sudan was a co-sponsor on behalf of the Arab League of the latest condemnations of Israel, adopted last week.

This record is far darker than Kofi Annan's "shadow." You'd think it would be intolerable to the democratic states that sit on the council. Sadly, it's not. Several of them -- India, South Africa, Indonesia -- have regularly supported the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement in their assaults on Israel and defense of Cuba, Belarus and Sudan. The council's chairman, who rammed through last week's decisions without a vote, is a diplomat from Mexico.

The European Union includes countries holding eight of the council's 47 seats. It has made no serious effort to focus the council's attention on the world's worst human rights violators. According to a report by the independent group UN Watch, the European Union "has for the most part abandoned initiating any country-specific resolutions." At one point before last week's meeting, the European Union threatened to quit the council, effectively killing it. Yet when the meeting ended, Europe's representative, Ambassador Michael Steiner of Germany, said that while the package of procedural decisions singling out Israel "is certainly not ideal . . . we have a basis we can work with."

What about Western human rights groups -- surely they cannot accept such a travesty of human rights advocacy? In fact, they can. While critical of the council, New York-based Human Rights Watch said its procedural decisions "lay a foundation for its future work." Global advocacy director Peggy Hicks told me that the council's focus on Israel was in part appropriate, because of last year's war in Lebanon, and was in part caused by Israel itself, because of its refusal to cooperate with missions the council dispatched. (Sudan also refused to cooperate but was not rebuked.) Hicks said she counted only nine condemnations, not 11.

Never mind how you count them: Is there a point at which a vicious and unfounded campaign to delegitimize one country -- which happens to be populated mostly by Jews -- makes it unconscionable to collaborate with the body that conducts it? "That could happen, but I don't think we're anywhere near there," Hicks said.

That's the human rights movement, seven years into a century that's off to a bad start.

Opening Day!

We made it. It only took almost 5700 years, but there's finally a professional baseball league in Israel.

Today is Opening Day. Petach Tikva Pioneers hosting the Modi'in Miracle with your's truly calling all the action. July 1 on PBS. Check your local listings, as they say in the business.

I'm leaving for the field now. Time to be a part of history.

Play ball!

-E

The joys of the shirut...

If you've never been to Israel or this part of the world, then you probably have not had the honor of riding in a "moneet shirut." A shirut is basically a shared cab that is the cheapest, easiest and fastest way to get places in Israel, particularly from Friday to Saturday night when there's no public transportation because of Shabbat.

These shiruts are much like other forms of public transportation...included in the price is the free entertainment you get from the whack jobs who occasionally sit next to. A few weeks ago, the driver of one shirut I was on pulled over and kicked two people out on the highway cause they wouldn't stop yelling at each other.

You can also have great experiences...shiruts are good for work connections, making new friends, good banter...

Apparently, they're also good for meeting the cast of The Office.

Undoubtedly, this was one of the more bizarre moments of my time in Israel. Yesterday I got in a shirut to go to Tel Aviv and when I got in, I found myself sitting next to Craig Robinson, aka "Darryl" the warehouse manager from The Office.




What in the holy hell is Darryl from The Office doing in Israel? GREAT question. He's here doing a stand up comedy tour with some friends for an American charity. I know this because he wouldn't stop talking about it. He also told me he's single and looking for some action in Tel Aviv. Then he fell asleep. Nice guy actually.

Anyways, this just goes to show you that:
a) anything can happen in Israel
b) anything does happen in Israel
c) if Israel is safe enough for a cast member of The Office, it's safe enough for anyone

-E

P.S. If anyone knows a hot, single, girl living in the greater Tel Aviv area...I know guy who wants to meet her. And we'll find someone for "Darryl" too.

Now batting...

In yet another sign that my life has taken on abnormalities of biblical proportions (pun intended), here's the latest bit of exciting news from Jerusalem:

I am hosting the television coverage of Opening Day of the brand-new Israel Baseball League. July 1, PBS, 11:30 AM.

You read right, I'm making my triumphant return to television. The game will be in Petach Tikva but it's going to be broadcast back to the States about a week later on PBS.

The Israel Baseball League is the first-ever professional baseball league in Israel and Sunday's Opening Day will be between the Modi'in Miracle and the Petach Tikva Pioneers.

vs.


For those not in the know...the IBL is a completely normal, professional baseball league. Here's the website: www.israelbaseballleague.com

So yea, I'm kind of excited. Baseball in Israel. Say it IS so!

Play ball,
Erik

Yet something else...

...to procrastinate with instead of doing my end-of-year papers.

I'm on Facebook now. Ugh...Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, random blogs...how is any normal human being supposed to keep all these profiles in order?!

Whatever, I'm addicted so hit me up if you want.

I am SOOO getting this shirt, btw:




Late,
E

Thanks Tom...

Some of you have been following the utterly anti-Semitic effort by Britain’s University and College Union to boycott Israeli universities. I want to direct everyone to a piece written by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. I may not agree with him all the time, and he's definitely a little high on himself. But he's without question one of the best writers alive today. His column in yesterday's Times only adds to the legacy.

I met him briefly here on campus last week and I'm glad I got a chance to say hi.

Anyways, take a read...it's quick and worth it:

Boycott Built On Bias

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
June 17, 2007

Two weeks ago I took part in commencement for this year’s doctoral candidates at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The ceremony was held in the amphitheater on Mount Scopus, which faces out onto the Dead Sea and the Mountains of Moab. The setting sun framed the graduate students in a reddish-orange glow against a spectacular biblical backdrop.

Before I describe the ceremony, though, I have to note that it coincided with the news that Britain’s University and College Union had called on its members to consider a boycott of Israeli universities, accusing them of being complicit in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Anyway, as the Hebrew U. doctoral candidates each had their names called out and rose to receive their diplomas from the university’s leadership, I followed along in the program. The Israeli names rolled by: “Moshe Nahmany, Irit Nowik, Yuval Ofir. But then every so often I heard an Arab name, like Nuha Hijazi or Rifat Azam or Taleb Mokari.

Since the program listed everyone’s degrees and advisers, I looked them up. Rifat got his doctorate in law. His thesis was about “International Taxation of Electronic Commerce.” His adviser was “Prof. D. Gliksberg.” Nuha got her doctorate in biochemistry. Her adviser was “Prof. R. Gabizon.” Taleb had an asterisk by his name. So I looked at the bottom of the page. It said: “Summa Cum Laude.” His chemistry thesis was about “Semiconductor-Metal Interfaces,” and his adviser was “Prof. U. Banin.”

These were Israeli Arab doctoral students — many of them women and one of whom accepted her degree wearing a tight veil over her head. Funny — she could receive her degree wearing a veil from the Hebrew University, but could not do so in France, where the veil is banned in public schools. Arab families cheered unabashedly when their sons and daughters received their Hebrew U. Ph.D. diplomas, just like the Jewish parents.

How crazy is this, I thought. Israel’s premier university is giving Ph.D.’s to Arab students, two of whom were from East Jerusalem — i.e. the occupied territories — supervised by Jewish Israeli professors, all while some far-left British academics are calling for a boycott of Israeli universities.

I tell this story to underscore the obvious : that the reality here is so much more morally complex than the outside meddlers present it. Have no doubt, I have long opposed Israel’s post-1967 settlements. They have squandered billions and degraded the Israeli Army by making it an army of occupation to protect the settlers and their roads. And that web of settlements and roads has carved up the West Bank in an ugly and brutal manner — much uglier than Israel’s friends abroad ever admit. Indeed, their silence, particularly American Jewish leaders, enabled the settlement lunacy.

But you’d have to be a blind, deaf and dumb visitor to Israel today not to see that the vast majority of Israelis recognize this historic mistake, and they not only approved Ariel Sharon’s unilateral uprooting of Israeli settlements in Gaza to help remedy it, but elected Ehud Olmert precisely to do the same in the West Bank. The fact that it is not happening now is hardly Israel’s fault alone. The Palestinians are in turmoil.

So to single out Israeli universities alone for a punitive boycott is rank anti-Semitism. Let’s see, Syria is being investigated by the United Nations for murdering Lebanon’s former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Syrian agents are suspected of killing the finest freedom-loving Lebanese journalists, Gibran Tueni and Samir Kassir. But none of that moves the far left to call for a boycott of Syrian universities. Why? Sudan is engaged in genocide in Darfur. Why no boycott of Sudan? Why?

If the far-left academics driving this boycott actually cared about Palestinians they would call on every British university to accept 20 Palestinian students on full scholarships to help them with what they need most — building the skills to run a modern state and economy. And they would call on every British university to dispatch visiting professors to every Palestinian university to help upgrade their academic offerings. And they would challenge every Israeli university that already offers Ph.D.’s to Israeli Arabs to do even more. And they would challenge every Arab university the same way.

That’s what people who actually care about Palestinians would do. But just singling out Israeli universities for a boycott, in the face of all the other madness in the Middle East — that’s what anti-Semites would do.

Amen.

Peace,
E

Welcome to Hamastan!

There goes the neighborhood.

You don't need me to tell you what has happened over here in Gaza. But if you really need a refresher, here's the bottom-line: after a few days of civil war and killing anyone it could get its hands on, Hamas is now in total control of the Gaza Strip and its dreams of an Islamic paradise can finally come true.

Paradise huh? It doesn't look like these poor Palestinians want any part of Hamastan:


http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070616/481/3ab48be3e33148e398e23395f6ed8a9c

These are Palestinians running TO Israel FROM Gaza. That's right they're running towards the Erez Crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, hoping to cross into Israel.

Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute. They're running towards Israel "the Apartheid State?" The same Israel that is the subject of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, the book by that complete brain-moron of an ex-president Jimmy Carter?

The same Israel that violates all kinds of human rights?

The same Israel that is a brutal occupier?

The same Israel that is a fascist, racist state?

The same Israel that is the root of all the world's problems?

The same Israel from which I'm writing all these cynical questions?

And despite ALL of that, those Palestinians still want to come to Israel? Wow, must really be bad scene in Paradise/Hamastan right now.

I honestly and sincerely hope the killing stops and that innoncent Palestinians are spared any more blood. No one deserves a life like this, in a country run by Islamist maniacs. But I can't help but think: you get what you vote for.

-E

Board of Governors

Last week was the annual Hebrew University Board of Governors meetings, where donors fly in from all over the world to get a sense of how life is progressing here on campus. The only reason I am mentioning this is because a few of us were asked to attend dinners as student ambassadors. The above picture was from the more formal dinner earlier in the week. The final dinner was more...uhh...wine-inspired. The evening started out rather timidly. But then the bar opened up.

Hence this little video of me and my friends:




The only reason why that video is funny (and admittedly there's no way for anyone to know) is that the president of the school was standing right behind us. We got a few interesting looks.

Anyways, a few more pics of the Board of Governors final dinner:


Yael, Ilan, and me enjoying a nice cocktail. Don't be fooled by the
glass I'm holding...that's straight Moonshine in there.


My buddy Micha being oh so British.


Left to right: Avi, Ilan, me, Yael, Micha. Pre-drinks.


Ravioli, short ribs, chicken, etc. Definitely beats pita.


#1 sign wine is kicking in: Ilan falls in love with a greenbean.


#2 sign that the wine is kicking in: dancing.


You might be surprised to read this, but Micha is
a spectacular dancer. No one knows why and no
one really bothered to ask. But my man can move.


Thoroughly confused.


Carmen and Yael egging us on. But by far the best part of this picture...
Avi's look of sheer terror at our dancing. Soul Train...you're next.

"Graduation" Day

Seeing that we're right smack dab in the middle of high school/college graduation season back in the States, I started reminiscing about my graduation from Syracuse waaaaay back in 2000. That, in turn, led me to one of the great head-scratchers about life here in Israel: the complete lack of any kind of ceremony or event marking the graduation of Rothberg's M.A. students. Graduation ceremonies just aren't a big thing here in Israel. No caps, no gowns, no keynote speakers, no hangover-induced puking on your shoes, and no endless photo sessions with family.

No no...here at Rothberg, we get Ben & Jerry's.

Today was the first-ever "Rothberg Graduation Day" for students who have wrapped up their 2-year stint in Jerusalem and are moving on in the world. Here, in no particular order, are the highlights of "Graduation Day" 2007:

1) A Ben & Jerry's ice cream trolley.

2) My friend Jenn agreed to be the keynote speaker after an email went around to students asking if anyone wanted to take on the task.

3) Live entertainment by our friends, and local band, Holler.

If I sound a little cynical, that's 'cause you're reading this correctly. No knock at all on Jenn, Holler, Ben, or Jerry...they were all terrific...but you'd expect a little more from a school that is trying to mold itself (at least partly) on the American university model. I know Israel is different and I am truly appreciative of the free ice cream. But we're talking about one of the premiere academic institutions in the world...and this was all it could come up with?!


My friend Shira was the MC and organizer of the event.
To her credit, she did a great job putting this all together. Except...


...for the banner, which apparently is only congratulating
one of the graduating M.A. students. Everyone else...sucks for you.


When was the last time an ice cream cart showed
up at YOUR graduation ceremony? Huh?


These clowns will be graduating next year. We're pushing to stretch
next year's budget to include cookies so we can make
ice cream sandwiches with our Ben & Jerry's.


So yea. That was it. No flipping of tassels, no passing out of diplomas, and the Provost didn't even show up to wish the students good luck. Next year, we'll get this done right.

Ok ok, I'll stop whining. After all, we can't all be as lucky as these guys....


DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES! DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES!


-E

Stripey NO!!!!

Apparently I'm into uploading funny videos in between complaining about Hamas recruiting 7 year-olds to hate Jews and the West.

This one is amazing. That is ooooone magic baseball.

My new hero!

Just when you think the world is coming to an end, this little diddle of a video pops into our lives. I've actually been laughing for a few days straight now.




See...there's more to life than Israel, U2, and dolphins. There's also YouTube.

29 is the new 28

Not much to say about Erik B-Day 2K7, other than there were disturbingly striking similarities between what I usually do on my birthday and what happened last night here in Jerusalem (the equation is always simple: cool bar + cool people + copious amounts of alcohol = fun). It was definitely a little weird to celebrate a birthday with a bunch of people I didn't know 8 months ago. But to be honest, these former "strangers" are now my best friends in the world and, since it's a really tight-knit group here on campus, we all celebrate together as if we've known each other forever. It was just a lot of fun, a ton of people showed up, and the good times were had by all.

Oh, so you want some pics? Fine...


Pre-bar at my apartment with, by far, the most ghetto cake in the history of baking.
Naty actually took this thing from his Hebrew teacher
who was GOING TO THROW IT IN THE TRASH!


I suppose ghetto-cake is better than no-cake.


Yoann might be the best mojito/pre-bar engineer
in the history of drinking...


...the fruits of his labor.


Shirley has man hands. But otherwise, she's quite a lady.


Later on at Open...Naty putting on a "gun show." It's really hilarious to hear a french
guy say: "Excuse meee, but do you have your teeekets to thee show?"


Hooray friends! Monica, Oren, Naty, and the world's newest 29 year-old.


Hooray more friends! Maryland Dan, Jessica, Naty, and Jason aka "Cookie."


Me and Yoann. Needless and useless fact: I shaved his head.


Avi and Chad.


Go Orange! Me and fellow 'Cuse chick Shira.


Ilan's girlfriend Sara either laughing or combusting.


Me and Ryan George, my only friend in Israel with two first names.


The always mysterious Ariel. Yes, that is mascara. No, I don't know why.


Milk was a bad idea.


Yoann and Hofit kickin' it.


Alabama Josh is #1.


The glass was definitely half full.


Umm ya, it got to the point where I was blessing people.


So that's the story from my first birthday in Israel. Next year, when I hit 30, who knows what exactly will happen...

Lyla tov,
E