November 6, 2005

So, I split the country last week to enjoy Israel for several months to become fluent in Hebrew and make music a vocation instead of just an avocation.

It is now one week since my arrival in Israel. Its also been one week that I have know that coming to Israel at this point of my life was the right thing for me to do. Before I even boarded the plane, I met an ‘Ud (the middle eastern lute) teacher and played a little music. If things work out, I’ll have a teacher and someone to help me buy an ‘Ud. I’m not one for signs, but this meeting was definetly a bonus.

The town I live in, Arad, is pretty small and everything I need is within walking distance. We’re surrounded by the desert. The mountains of Jordan and the Dead Sea lie only twenty miles from town and easily seen from the hills here.

I wake up every morning to a panoramic view of the Negev (the Israeli Desert that comprises of nearly fifty percent of the country) and my days are filled with playing music, learning Hebrew, and being in the presence of many passionate and inspiring people.

The program set me up with an apartment in the local Immigrant Absorption Center called Yafeet. I room with a fellow from Holland named Petr. It’s a fairly small apartment. One room, a tiny kitchen, a closet, and a bathroom. I live among a variety of people. Of course there are plenty of Americans, but there are also people from Holland, Hungary, France, South Africa, Switzerland, Scotland, Mexico, Argentina, and Russia.

So far, the Group has traveled in to the Negev to explore some dry rivers (wadis) and a natural phenomenom called machtesh. A machtesh is very much like a crater, but created by the erosion of a mountain top. A top layer of hard earth erodes, leaving a very soft clay-like dirt that also blows away. Over enough years, the appears to be a gigantic hole in the ground. This event only can be found in Israel.

This coming week is the formal beginning of the program. I’ll be in an intensive Hebrew language immersion program and practicing/writing several hours a day. Soon, I will have a space in the conservatory and that’s when things will really get serious.

I'm going to post some pictures, but the upload speed here is terrible. So, hopefully in a few days something will be up here.