blistering barnacles in bangkok!

Well, I made it. Anxiety and packing and ridiculous sherut drive to the airport, and really long flight over the Indian Ocean (I think because El Al can't fly over the Arab states, it flies down the red sea, and then turns directly east towards Thailand), I made it.

Bangkok is a very weird city. Bizarre and weird. My friend Tom described it as the Los Angeles of Blade Runner goes tropical, which is a pretty apt description - theres street vendors everywhere and multi levels to everything and I havent even seen the skytrain [Im writing on a funny, Korean-English keyboard and cant find the apostrophe key, which is why my grammar is really, really bad. It isnt intentional]. It's a bustling city, filled with life, but, as much as I've seen (which is very little), very touristy.

I had a bizarre taxi ride over here; i picked up the taxi at the airport and told the counter where I was going, they wrote it down on the slip in Thai - so I couldnt read it to check it - and we were off. It was mid afternoon, so lots of traffic in the city and the driver pulled over and from my limited sense of where the airport was and where my hotel was, I knew we were in the wrong place. The street was wrong and the hotel was wrong. I tried explaining it to him, but my Thai is non existent and his English was poor, so I showed him on my Lonely planet map, but after a while I realized he couldnt read the English characters. I made a total novice traveler, totally orientalist, faux pas. Eventually, once I realized that "ph" was pronounced "p," and we sat in another 45 minutes of traffic, we made it. So, next time, take the bus.

The heat is evident. It's currently about 10:30 PM (which is 6:60 PM in Jerusalem and 8:30 AM in California) on Tuesday and probably around 75 degrees. Which is lovely, except that the air is thick with humidity and walking around feels like walking through linen. [I sweated a lot walking around just now, so I can't wait to see how things go during the day]. My afternoon started with a shower, a brief nap (in our A/Ced room), and then a lot of walking around the neighborhood of Banglamphu. I didnt go too far because once I started out it was getting dark, but we're next to the river and in the middle of the backpacker central. The streets are filled with non-Thais: many, many white people (but not just Anglos; I heard French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Geman, and Dutch) and other Asian tourists. But the Americans, though, man do they stand out. And in an obnoxious way. Hopefully once David and I start engaging with the culture, we'll do it in a respectful, mildly orientalist way (David will be the mild and I'll be the orientalist).

The food here, so far, has been delicious. I wasn't hungry when I started my walking exploration, so I walked and walked until I was. My street-vendor dinner consisted of two chicken/onion/pineapple skewers and (you ready for this Mer?) corn on the cob, grilled right in front of me, a whole fresh mango, a crunchy fried "pancake" drizzled in chocolate, and a bottle of water. All tasty, all leaving me wanting more, and all totalled less than $3. If only street food in the US were this good and cheap.

Tomorrow David and I explore Bangkok. After that, who knows? I'm thinking now about staying an extra night here, and then heading on to Cambodia and then either Veitnam or Laos or maybe other parts of Thailand. I will say that I will e-mail again, but I can't say they will be tediously detailed as this one. I'm really just killing time now, keeping myself awake before David arrives, hopefully in the next 2 hours. So now I'm off to read some more - I started The Audacity of Hope on the plane ride over. It's very good, very funny and well written and it's, unsurprisingly, reeking of Barack Obama. It's really his presidential campaign, in book form, written 2 years before the campaign. And particularly relevant to today is his section on the judicial system...

the end?

So, my year has ended. Last week was finals and this past weekend was saying goodbye. I'm having a hard time thinking about, reflecting on, and talking about the past week, and in many ways the past year. I hesitate to use superlatives, but the word that keeps popping up in my head is "transformative." And I think, in many ways, it was. I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know something's ending right now. I've been in a funk, then and now, with all the stress of finals (which were a breeze, mostly), the packing, the organizing, the farewells (ranging from casual to truly, truly heartbreaking), and the getting ready for Asia. 

Yes, I am leaving tonight (in a little over 6 hours) for Bangkok, where I will meet my brother and we will travel around southeast Asia for two weeks. Then I'm returning to Israel - for about 30 hours - to collect my stuff and head on home. So, yes, the year is ending. 

I'll try and post about my travels and adventures with David in Bangkok, Angkor Watt, and Vietnam. If not, I'll give a rundown upon my return to the US of A! 

is the Pope Catholic?

You betcha. 

And he's definitely in Jerusalem right now.

He's in Jerusalem so much that the entire city center area, an area than encompasses my campus, most of my friends' apartments, and even, really, my apartment, was totally shut down to cars and buses this afternoon. And that's only day 1 of a 5 day visit. 

We've been told that any plans this week involving any sort of mechanical transportation (cars, buses, taxis) - which include our class trip to see Star Trek tomorrow night, or the end of year barbecue Wednesday afternoon after the student-faculty football (read: soccer) game - are all tentative until they actually occur. Because of the Pope. And his entoruage. And the ensuing traffic. 

It's a doozy.

In other news, tonight starts Lag B'Omer, so in order to celebrate I got my haircut (thanks to Meredith and my hair clippers) and then walked by dozens of bonfires in the park (a nice term for the desolate, Mordoresque barren weed-land) by my apartment. The whole city smells like smoke. I've got 14 days left until I leave for southeast Asia, 29 days until I'm back on American soil. Oh boy.

definitely an alarmist

or am i?

We received a letter yesterday from our illustrious president saying, after a board of governor meeting, that HUC is fully committed to both "financial sustainability" and maintaining their presence in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, New York. But they are still looking for radical, structural changes to be made to the college's operation in order to maintain the high quality of education to which we are accustomed to receive. It's a relief, although the final plan will be voted on in late June. 

So, basically this means, reading between the lines, that for me, I'll spend my next two years in LA and then graduate. For my current students, who knows. They'll probably have a few years at their respective campuses, and then maybe relocate, or not. Whatever plan happens may not affect their course of study. What still makes me uneasy is the looming potential for layoffs: staff, custodial and administrative, and faculty (probably the non-tenured ones). That's worrisome and hopefully nothing will be done hastily and without great kavanah (intention)...

A visiting faculty member, who's a congregational clergy in LA, thinks that the LA property is definitely going to be sold to USC and perhaps some of the land in NY and Cincy as well. But we'll see. 

In other words... I'm an alarmist. 

RIP: Bea Arthur

Sadly, another Golden Girl has left us. Bea Arthur, Dorthoy Zbornak, the self-confident, "straight woman," heroine of the late-1980's/early 1990's TV program, died yesterday. It's another blow for comedy worldwide. The NY Times called her a "battle-ax," and that's such a great metaphor. Bea, we'll miss you. 

Last summer, Estelle Getty, who played Sophia on The golden Girls, died, and I sadly blogged about it here. That's two in less than a year! Hang on Betty White and Rue McClanahan! Keep going strong!

Some obits:

New York Times

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly II (with clips)

so I'm an alarmist

sue me. 

these are alarmist times and they call for alarmist measures. 

campus was fine today, being back after almost 2 weeks, nice to see everyone. but people were responding to the news in various ways. no one knows what's going on, what's going to happen, it's all speculation and rumors and innuendo. people are panicking a little bit on the inside, but mostly we're focused on our liturgy paper. which is due tomorrow. so i'm going to get back to writing. 

campus closure

Nothing, of course, has been decided, and won't be until late June, but David Ellenson, the President of HUC, sent a letter to all students and staff last week saying that due to the dire financial crisis the college is in, the Board of Governors is going to take drastic restucturing steps, including consolidating of programs, staff reductions, tuition hikes, and/or closing of up to 2 (of 3) North American campuses.

This is huge news. Huge. Drastic. Horrid. Incomprehensible. Most likely, the one campus they'd retain would be New York - and close LA and Cincinnati. So I'd be moving to New York a year earlier. But the agony! The horror! It's got me - and many of my fellow classmates - with shudders. We're shuddering. and cowering.

Oh you silly Board of Governors and your rhetoric and your alarmism! Just don't make me relocate to New York a year ahead of schedule!

Here are some articles on the subject:

LA Times on HUC Campus closure

LA Times on HUC LA Staff Fighting Back (Yeah!)

Jewish Journal of LA on How USC may be the Savior of HUC LA