The Story So Far
In a galaxy far, far away... oops there i go again with just days to go untill the opening of the new Star Wars film everything ive been doing recently has been littered with Star Wars reference or set to the theme tune of the imperial death march, which has been stuck in my head for ages already.
And yes, in time honoured fashion not only do i digress, but it seems my very first entry into cyber-space has began with a tangent. Oh dear the precedents are not good but theres always something to be said for setting the tone early!
So blogging y'say....what am i doing that for? A far question I suppose. Well theres the short answer and the long answer. Since you chose to read this (assuming, ill-advisely at this stage, that anybody is reading this) you can also skip any parts if i start boring you. This being the case im gonna mention both.
1. Ive been in israel now, studying at Pardes - "THE halachic non-coercisive Torah learning institiution" (Poster-child? me? i dont see it myself) for almost 2 years. As with all these things i left England with the best of intentions to stay in contact with all of my nearest and dearest, and indeed my first year was punctuated with semi-regular email updates from life here in Jerusalem. However, since the beginning of this acadamic year, my workload has increased beyond all recognition due to the onset of the Educators Program at Pardes. My emails have subsequently dwindled to just 2 since last summer. So my little blog experiment is an attempt to remedy that situation, in a more flexible way that means i dont have to burden already bursting inboxs with verbose and irrelevant waffle. So now, my inemitable style is to be transfered to this, my very own blog which i can update regularly with brief comments about all manner of things, add pics etc and you can comment too. Whilst you, dear reader, can pop in at leisure.
2. Ive been reading the blog of another pardes students, it can be found at gleichinisrael.blogspot.com. Its full of entertaining comments on the challenges of living in israel, being modern, female and Jewish etc and a whole lot of generally witty and provocative material. So inspired by that site and its candedness i thought id give this blogging lark a go. The author of that blog also uses her blog to vent her many frustrations. I have to admit that i do plan to use this to mention anything which i consider at least vaguely interesting to voice my opinions and thoughts etc, so now that i ve shared - Dear Lord ive been at Pardes too long,, usiong languagge like that- lets see how my plan works out in reality.
I also owe the author of the above blog a debt of gratitude, let me explain... Ilana is a fascinating and outspoken character. Her willingness to voice her frustrations, challenge herself in her struggle to define her relationship to judaism and above all her cynicial sense of humour (a rare quality indeed at Pardes) made me think that we might well become very friendly in the course of the year. I made an effort for several months. Now i frankly cant be arsed, and things have deteriated to the point where we barely speak as she has no interest in reciprocated and is very selective about the friends she makes. This seems like such a wasted opportunity. I go through cycles of allowing this to irritate me and alternately just ignoring it. This week its been really pissing me off again. So after a few weeks of internal debating this made up my mind for me- its time to start my blog!
Ill be back again soon to share some of the highs and lows of recent months and to tell you a little something of my Yom ha'atmzaut experiences which will be concluded by tonight
And yes, in time honoured fashion not only do i digress, but it seems my very first entry into cyber-space has began with a tangent. Oh dear the precedents are not good but theres always something to be said for setting the tone early!
So blogging y'say....what am i doing that for? A far question I suppose. Well theres the short answer and the long answer. Since you chose to read this (assuming, ill-advisely at this stage, that anybody is reading this) you can also skip any parts if i start boring you. This being the case im gonna mention both.
1. Ive been in israel now, studying at Pardes - "THE halachic non-coercisive Torah learning institiution" (Poster-child? me? i dont see it myself) for almost 2 years. As with all these things i left England with the best of intentions to stay in contact with all of my nearest and dearest, and indeed my first year was punctuated with semi-regular email updates from life here in Jerusalem. However, since the beginning of this acadamic year, my workload has increased beyond all recognition due to the onset of the Educators Program at Pardes. My emails have subsequently dwindled to just 2 since last summer. So my little blog experiment is an attempt to remedy that situation, in a more flexible way that means i dont have to burden already bursting inboxs with verbose and irrelevant waffle. So now, my inemitable style is to be transfered to this, my very own blog which i can update regularly with brief comments about all manner of things, add pics etc and you can comment too. Whilst you, dear reader, can pop in at leisure.
2. Ive been reading the blog of another pardes students, it can be found at gleichinisrael.blogspot.com. Its full of entertaining comments on the challenges of living in israel, being modern, female and Jewish etc and a whole lot of generally witty and provocative material. So inspired by that site and its candedness i thought id give this blogging lark a go. The author of that blog also uses her blog to vent her many frustrations. I have to admit that i do plan to use this to mention anything which i consider at least vaguely interesting to voice my opinions and thoughts etc, so now that i ve shared - Dear Lord ive been at Pardes too long,, usiong languagge like that- lets see how my plan works out in reality.
I also owe the author of the above blog a debt of gratitude, let me explain... Ilana is a fascinating and outspoken character. Her willingness to voice her frustrations, challenge herself in her struggle to define her relationship to judaism and above all her cynicial sense of humour (a rare quality indeed at Pardes) made me think that we might well become very friendly in the course of the year. I made an effort for several months. Now i frankly cant be arsed, and things have deteriated to the point where we barely speak as she has no interest in reciprocated and is very selective about the friends she makes. This seems like such a wasted opportunity. I go through cycles of allowing this to irritate me and alternately just ignoring it. This week its been really pissing me off again. So after a few weeks of internal debating this made up my mind for me- its time to start my blog!
Ill be back again soon to share some of the highs and lows of recent months and to tell you a little something of my Yom ha'atmzaut experiences which will be concluded by tonight
posted by Ben at 1:16 pm
1 Comments:
Looking forward to reading all about Arse's expliots b'aretz - watch out for those americanisms and american spellings creeping in!
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