Running Tel Aviv

After a week of fun (for the most part) its back to academic life. Classes here have started and I am slowly settling in to a "normal life". For those of you who are interested in what I am studying while in Israel here is a brief summary of my classes:

1. Politics and the production of everydayness: this course offers a unique opportunity to explore various aspects of the production of everydayness in Israel as it is manifested in different sites: the arts, the leisure industry and the spatio-temporal arrangements of daily routines and practices. In a nutshell, this course immerses us in Israeli culture through academic study.

2. Israeli-Palestinian Relations: Conflict and Negotiations: Pretty self explanatory...

3. Hebrew: We learn hebrew.

4. Religion, state and politics: Comparative Aspects: the purpose of this course is to examine the relation between religion and public life both in western and non wester societies. The professor is incredible and the course looks like it will be an incredible experience.

5. The final course that I am taking here is called the NYU Tel Aviv Core Course. This class meets one a week for two hours and we have lectures by prominent people in Israeli society, i.e. movie directors, authors, etc. This class also ties together all of our group trips that we will be taking to places like Jordan in an academic fashion. The final aspect of this course is a personal project. Each student must choose an interest that he or she has and relate it to something in Israel.

I am not really sure what my personal project will be but I think it may have something to do with this:

Last night I went out for my first run in Tel Aviv. The place where I am living is very conveniently located next to one of the biggest parks in Tel Aviv. In the park there is miles of well maintained running and biking surfaces, a very nice rock climbing wall, out door gym (these are placed all over Tel Aviv, they are sort of like parks but all the equipment is for working out, the only negative aspect is that that they dont have any weights on them, pretty much if you can lift your body weight youre out of luck, so for me (the muscular bro that I am) this is a problem), and lots of different playing fields and courts.

One thing that you will notice about Israel in general is that everyone truly loves to be outside. I guess when the weather is so nice day after day, who wouldn't want to be outside?

Anyway, I set out on my run last night with no specific course in mind. I decided that I just wanted to run where my feet took me. A few minutes in to the run I realized that running was going to be my best way to efficiently (and cheaply) get to know the city of Tel Aviv. I also realized that running would also allow me to get to know the people of the city better. Over the numerous years that I have been running I have realized that running alone allows you to observe a lot of different things. My fellow high school and college teammates would probably agree with this statement as we have all probably witnessed some of the most bizarre and astonishing things while out on a run. So, while I was in the first few minutes of my run, I decided that Israel should be no different. Here are just a few of the good and bad things I observed yesterday while on my run...

-Israeli kids will still laugh and yell at you for your short shorts. The only difference is I (right now) can not decipher what they are saying...I'm sure its probably the Israeli version of run forest run. Soon I will be able to respond in hebrew, just wait kids, just wait.

-Israeli runners still wear short shorts. However, the short short pride in Israel is not the same as the states. Usually, when one short short runner runs past another short short runner there is a certain acknowledgement. As if to say "I got your back short short wearing comrade". So far, here, this is not the case. I hope it changes.

-Everyone has a dog and all of them are really cute. The only problem is that people dont like to use leashes. Naturally, running past a random dog off a leash is nerve racking, but I think ill get use to it.

-Finally, (for this post at least) running in tel aviv feels very safe. In a city where all the drivers are nuts its nice that all the running routes are safely guarded from the roads. I find it really interesting that the Tel Aviv park and city planners care more about bicyclist, runners and walkers than the New York State department of transportation does.(some of you will understand what I am trying to get at here)

After my run, I started to think about how I can incorporate this in to my personal project. I guess I will have to figure that out...

Anyway, for some less serious stuff. The beer here is good. I've found a new love for Tuborg and Israeli Goldstar beer. It sure beats natty ice and keystone. The night life is pretty fun here. I am going to save that post for after I have my first weekend out here.

To conclude, I would like to know how everyone is enjoying the blog. I am sorta just writing about whatever, but if anyone would specifically like to here about something else please let me know. Email, IM or comment here! I miss all of you and hope that everyone is well.

I will write again soon....