Spring Semester in Haifa

Bahá'í Gardens; Haifa, Israel.

Greetings from Haifa – it’s Passover break this week and it’s been a very down-to-earth break for me. No crazy (international) travel plans this time, just a lot of time in Israel with friends (much-needed). But, so much has happened in the past month to talk about.

To finish the story where it ended last, I had a wonderful inter-program break in Europe and left Vienna for Haifa about one month ago. It was a bit of a crazy way to get back (nearly missing the train from Vienna, spending the night hopping around Budapest cafés and eventually arriving to the airport around 2:00 AM), but in the end I made it to Tel Aviv in the morning and set up a bit in Haifa. I stayed in one of the Haifa suburbs, called Kiryat Motzkin, with family for about a week and a half while classes began and while I sort of got my things together in Israel, which took a huge amount of effort; Israel is not quite the easiest place to get things done quickly! But all is a bit more sorted now.

Vienna; Austria

Classes have been decent – it’s a very unique situation for me because I’m taking entirely graduate/medical school coursework. The undergraduate campus teaches mostly in Hebrew, unless you’re doing engineering, so I made special arrangements to take class through the medical school, of which there is an English-speaking branch. So two of my classes are first-year medical school with Americans and Canadians studying here for all four years, one of my classes is a graduate school class in genomics, taught in English but with Israeli students, and the final course (the challenging one) is with the Hebrew-speaking medical school and exclusively Israeli students – meaning, in Hebrew of course. So it’s an interesting mix and certainly a challenge, but that’s what life is for! The kids are all very nice, so it’s just a matter of fitting myself in (as usual), and I think it’s been alright so far. The geography makes living here interesting – Haifa is built on and around Mt. Carmel, with the undergraduate campus on top of the mountain and the medical campus on the base, on the beach. The real challenge honestly is that because my program has been self-created and self-driven, there’s no one else doing it with me, which makes it a little hard to find a group – so my friends here are split between the medical students (on the beach, where I live), the other international study abroad kids (on top of the mountain), and then of course my friends from Ulpan, in Jerusalem. So lots of running around when I want to see people!

Nazareth, Israel

At the beginning of April I found a more permanent housing arrangement about ten minutes’ walk from the medical school (meaning I can roll out of bed and into class for my two 8:30 classes, bless). It’s literally 100 meters from the beach, which is incredible – I can make a cup of hot chocolate and sit on the rocks of the tidebreaker at midnight and sip as the waves crash from all sides. Living by the ocean is one of the most calming and wonderful parts of this experience – its repetition and the gentle breaths of the tides are reanimating, and the tranquility of the miles of shoreline, combined with the charm of the mountain hikes and views are enchanting. Haifa, as a city, is very peaceful and calm. It is nice in some ways, it puts a lot of the Israel-Palestine conflict out of your mind, and the more secular lifestyle allows for a lot more liberty to travel and go out than I had in Jerusalem. But I can’t shake off the sleepy atmosphere that Haifa maintains – it doesn’t hold quite the same interest and nightlife as Tel Aviv, nor the “electricity” in the air of Jerusalem, as an Arab friend put it. It is a quiet and scenic place to return to, and the Bahá’í Gardens’ beauty and the European charm of the German Colony are alluring, but Haifa can trap you sometimes – which in the end I suppose is a good thing, because it gives me motivation to travel more and see more of Israel. And Haifa is a transit hub of the north, so I’ve been fortunate in being able to travel.

I’ve had a lovely time exploring Haifa itself and walking along the shore, but more recently I’ve really been able to get out and see places. I took a day-trip to Nazareth, which was really fascinating especially because it is such a large Israeli Arab city, which played very interestingly into the Christian heritage of the city. The Old City reminded me a lot of Jerusalem, and the basilica and churches surrounding the holy sites were also extraordinary. I also took a day-trip to Akko (Acre), which also had a very pleasant Old City, a classic experience except on the coast, with a lot of more modern history attached.

The Sand Mosque; Akko, Israel.

Passover began last week and I had an amazing Seder with family in Haifa, complete with the huge family atmosphere, the hyped-and-excited children, and the singing until 1:00 AM. Celebrating the holiday in Israel was much easier than in the States – it’s relatively hard to not observe Passover here honestly, most stores will only sell kosher-for-Passover things. Some friends (shoutout to William, Matthew, and JP!!!) came up to Haifa to hang out a bit, and I took a quick trip to Tel Aviv to see a friend from London (shoutout to Pola!!!), which was a wonderful reunion, and I met some family Canadian family in Herzliya that were here for the holiday! The next big thing after that was a hiking trip from the Mediterranean to the Galilee (fully across Israel). We had a good first day of hiking, about 22 km with our heavy backpacks, and made it to the campsite to set up.

It was with truly terrible sadness, that evening, that we learned of the death of Hannah. I will not report in-depth details or the gruesomeness or the horror of it all, that has been done already. To suffice it: she was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist on the Jerusalem light rail – stabbed brutally to death. I have no words to describe my pain in hearing it, or my anger, or my hopelessness in thinking about it. She was truly a beautiful and kind soul, and I will miss her dearly. It’s beyond unfair and unjust – she was a smart and compassionate person, and her death is nothing short of pure tragedy.

In memory of Hannah Bladon.

We immediately cancelled the rest of the hike and the four of us from Hebrew U hiked to the nearest town and followed a series of buses to Jerusalem, arriving there that evening. Talking has helped us all, I think, and while the pain will not lessen easily, at least there are other people to share it with. I will be returning to Jerusalem until the beginning of classes.

Life will go on for us – there is talk of a daytrip to Be’ersheva, and possibly a trip to Bethlehem or to the Negev for more hiking later this month. In Jerusalem, we did leave the university to go to the Old City for Easter and for the end of Passover, and we are trying not to seclude ourselves. Life will go on, despite it all.

Haifa, Israel; 18 April, 2017.