First day of work!

Today we heard from the mayor of Yerucham where he spoke to us about the troubles facing this community. The city was established in the early 1950s and there have been difficulties trying to get people to live here because of its location. As the mayor said – ‘drive to the middle of nowhere and turn left’. The majority of the people here are new immigrants and the city is one of the poorest in the country. Yerucham is seen as a city that nobody wants to live in and a big problem is self image. To start our volunteer work we spent the day painting a bomb shelter and a number of other buildings around the neighbourhood. Despite its necessity, it is horrible to have to picture the need for bomb shelters right next to a nursery school. Anything that we were able to do to change the image of that bomb shelter by painting pictures on it can put the children at ease, and bring life and colour to the community.

One side of the bomb shelter

In the late afternoon after a long day of working we went outside the town to the makhtesh hagadol (large crater), which is unique to Israel. Despite its name, it is not the largest one in Israel. It was amazing to be able to look out in all directions and see no civilization whatsoever only a 5 minute drive from Yerucham. This really put into perspective where we were.


Today rockets were fired from the Gaza strip to Ashdod and Ra’an, the furthest north and east respectively that Hamas has ever reached with rockets. One person died in Ra’an.

Travel Day 2

Still not there yet. Long story short, I get out of the airport in Tel Aviv at 4PM local time after a layover in Zurich, Switzerland. Amazingly everything went smoothly and I even got my luggage! From the airport it was a 2 hour drive south to Yerucham where we would be staying for the next 3 days.

I had a chance to shower and then we went for dinner in the hostel where we were staying. They advertised an Israeli dinner, but there was only bread, humus and salads at the table, which was disappointing. After about 10 minutes they brought soup which was surprising because we did not know there was more food. Then came the fries and rice. Five minutes later they brought schnitzel. Then I started to get full – I should not have eaten so much bread and humus had I known there was going to be schnitzel. Five minutes later they brought out the shwarma. I was not prepared for this much food!!! And lastly desert! The food was great and plentiful as it continued to be for the entire trip.

We had orientation after dinner and then we were given free time. Yerucham is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Israel and thus there is nothing to do here. We spent the rest of the evening at the park and hung out at the hostel.

The Amazing Race

The blog title is misleading – there is nothing amazing about this race. 5 airports, 4 countries, 3 flights… wait – that doesn’t add up…

My 6AM flight from Toronto to New York was cancelled and the only way I could get out of Toronto was by land, not air. They booked me on a flight from Buffalo to New York at 11:30AM, so I had to drive to Buffalo. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. As I was waiting in line to check in, the power to the entire airport goes out! They manually write me a boarding pass that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Because of the last minute flight change, I was not guaranteed a seat on the flight. I check my luggage and go to the gate where someone might be able to help me. Since there was no power, the people at the desk were unable to confirm my seat – they told me to call their hotline to confirm my seat, but the hotline told me to speak to the person at the gate! This continued for almost 4 hours!

At 1PM (an hour and a half after the flight was supposed to leave) power came back on. After waiting in several lines they gave me a spot on the flight, and a real boarding pass! At this point I am continuing to freak out because I need to get on a plane ASAP which is not here! The plane was redirected to Rochester and is now scheduled to leave at 245. This is not good, as my next flight is leaving at 610. Once on the flight, I manage to relax for about a nanosecond. My stress level then skyrockets as the flight can be summed up by the phrase “screaming baby”.

My boarding pass! Unbelievable!

We land in New York at 430, leaving me an hour and a half to disembark, get my luggage, change terminals, check in, go through security and find the gate. I also have no idea where to go to accomplish any of these tasks! When I got to the luggage carosel I immediately went to lost luggage. I was fairly confident that my luggage had made it – but I did not have time to wait for it. I was watching the far carosel from a distance as the lady was doing the paperwork; all the while I did not see any luggage! After the paperwork was done to re-route my bag to Israel I left the room and saw people on my flight at a different carousel! I immediately found my bag and told them they didn’t have to re-route it. To make another long story short I get to the gate 5 minutes before I get on the plane. Obviously I was the last person from the group to arrive. Ironically, had I made my initial flight from Toronto I would have been the first person to arrive.
At this point things started to improve. After a game of musical seats, I won by getting the aisle seat behind the washroom which had extra leg room!

Greeks Build Israel - Preface

I am going to Israel again! 4th time ever, and 3 Decembers in a row! This time it is Jewish National Fund (JNF) mission to do community service work for a week. A prerequisite for this trip was that I was required to raise $1000 for a rocket proof playground in the city of Sderot, which has been bombarded with over the past 8 years. This is one of the closest communities to the Gaza strip, only 1.5 km away from the border. Residents have only 15 seconds to run for cover once a rocket is launched. More info on the playground later in the blog. Money is still required for this project – you can still donate here. The trip was made up of 39 people in fraternities and sororities from all across the US and me as the lone Canadian. There were 3 of us from AEPi. Even before we left for Israel to help out the communities, as a group we made an impact in Sderot by raising over $40,000 for the playground.

Here is a map of Israel to give context to where I was. The light blue line is the current range (40 km) that Hamas is able to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip. On this trip, Hamas fired rockets into Ashdod, and Beer Sheva for the first time ever – the furthest they have been able to reach. Approximately 15% of the population of Israel lives within the rocket range of Gaza. Since 2000, over 8700 rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel – an average of 3 rockets EVERY DAY!

Ahmadinjad Protest in NYC

Along with approximately 140 other Canadian students, I went to New York City to protest the Iranian President - Mahmoud Ahmadinjad's presence at the UN. We left at 10PM on Saturday and returned at 130AM on Tuesday. A trip of about 50 hours, in which 20 of those were spent on the bus. We arrived in NYC at 830AM and we still had the entire day ahead of us. Before we went for brunch and programming I went for a quick tour of Times Square with my sister, as our hotel was right around the corner.

The morning was spent doing some advocacy training and learning about Ahmadinejad and his threat to the world. At 4PM we got back to the hotel and we had the rest of the evening of. For the evening I hung out with my assigned hotel roommate and neighbours. With only the evening available to enjoy New York, we had to make the most of our limited time. We walked around Times Square, past the Empire State Building, and then to dinner at the 2nd Ave. Deli. We ended up sharing a deli platter which was said to serve 3-4 people. LIARS! - there must have been enough food to feed 6-8 people. The platter included pastrami, salami, corned beaf, roast beef, chopped liver, egg salad, tongue, and turkey. Despite the abundance of delicious food, I was determined not to leave any uneaten; Against all odds, I succeeded in my quest to finish the dinner - but barely. After the dinner, bought tickets in Times Square for a comedy show, where we were told Dave Atell, and 2 other known comics were going to be performing - LIARS!!! We got there and found out it was ladies night, and there would only be female comics, and that the people that were advertised to us had performed the previous week. They comped us one drink and since we were already there, we decided to stay. Only one of the comics was funny and on the whole the entire show sucked. After the show it was almost 11 oclock, and we started walking around the area thinking of something to do, as it was still to early to call it a night. We ended up taking a cab to the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, and we walked the bridge to Brooklyn. This took a considerable amount of time, as we stopped to take pictures approximately every 25 feet, not to mention the bridge was long! We ended up subwaying back to our hotel in Times Square at about 1AM.

Amy and I at Times Square

Elana, Me, Dan, Hailey on the Brooklyn Bridge

After heading to bed at 130, we were woken up at 730 in order to get ready for our day. Before we went to the rally, we went to hear from a number of speakers who represented organziations who helped to fund the trip. We then headed out to the rally, where there were over 2000 people there. There was a fairly extensive list of speakers at the rally, however, neither Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton showed up due to Clinton's stubbornness. The list of speakers included Irwin Cotler, Natan Sharansky, Elie Weisel and Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik. The reason for the protest was to show the world that Ahmadinejad's genociadal statements cannot be tolerated, and that he should be denied a platform to spread his hate speach. After the rally, we walked back to the hotel where we boarded our busses and headed back home. It seemed as though the trip was over before it started.

Elana, Hailey and Me at the rally

Chicago boat tour

There was some AEPi convention stuff going on today, however I decided to skip out on it again - didn't really miss much. Instead I went on an architectural boat tour of the city. I took the city bus downtown, and just as i stepped off the bus it started to rain. Just my luck, as I figured I would be soaked while on the boat tour, and end up with crappy pictures. I had to pre-order my ticket, so I was going on the tour rain or shine without an umbrella or raincoat. Luckily 15 minutes before the tour started, the rain stopped, and the sky was blue as could be. The tour was an hour long and awesome - the tour guide talked non-stop, and there was a lot of interesting information, but there was too much info to absorb any of it.

Chicago from the riverCrazy mirror bean

After the tour, I got back to the hotel and got ready for the banquet. After 3 hours of dinner and speaches I got bored to tears and left to party. The speaches ended up continuing for another 2 hours. We partied late into the night, fell asleep for about an hour before we had to get on the bus at 6AM to come back to Toronto.

Me, Craig, Matt, and Josh before the banquet

Take me out to the ballgame

Another early morning full of AEPi stuff, and now skipping ahead to after lunch... Instead of going back to the AEPi stuff, which I had done last year, I went out and about around town in the daylight. This time we walked around the same areas of the city, however in the daylight it was completely different. We managed to get back to the Chicago Theater and get a picture in the daylight.

Joel, Jon, Jon, and me at the Chicago Theater

We got back to the hotel in order to get ready for our early dinner before we went to the Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox game. This was an ideal 5-star hotel pre-baseball game meal: burgers, dogs, giant pretzels, peanuts and Cracker Jacks! The game was a lot of fun. The White Sox won 4-3, and the game became close when Boston hit a 3 run homerun in the 7th.

The Chicago skyline from the baseball stadium

Sightseeing and Second City

This morning started off early, after a long night of partying. This morning started off hectic as I found out I had another interview with RIM this afternoon. In between the speakers all morning I was trying to track someone down in order to let them know that I can't make the interivew! We sat down for a nice banquet style lunch and awards. After lunch I ran back to the room to try and track down someone from RIM. Luckily I was able to finally get in contact with the interviewer. I had the interview on the spot and it went well (I found out the next day that I got the job!). It was perfect timing as right after the interview ended, I headed back to hear from the next speaker who was Jerry Reinsdorf - Owner of Chicago Bulls and White Sox, who is an AEPi Alumni. He talked to us about his experiences in AEPi and left plenty of time for Q and A.

There were a few more sessions in the afternoon before we all boarded buses to the famous comedy club Second City, where many Saturday Night Live stars start their career. We had the entire show booked out for AEPi, and it was non-stop laughter. After the show some of us decided to walk around downtown Chicago and see the city. We did some wandering with the hopes of eventually finding the famous Chicago Theater. Without luck, and the night getting late we decided to head back to the hotel. We hopped on a subway, and long story short we got lost and just decided to get off the subway and take a cab. Due to dumb luck, when we turned the corner after getting off the subway we were right at the Chicago Theater! The light weren't on, so we had to make a point in coming back tomorrow. We hopped in a cab and headed back to the hotel where we again partied the night away.

The city skyline at night

Chicago - The Windy City

AEPi convention #2!!! This time in Chicago. During this trip, I was scheduled to be writing 3 final exams. Luckily, I was able to reschedule them; I wrote two yesterday, and one the day before. It has been a very stressful past few days, but I'm happy its over with and that I'm heading to convention. Unfortunately once I get back I still have one last exam to write.

The day started out early, as we left for Chicago at 730AM, and left on our 10 hour bus ride. We rented a greyhound bus for 25 of us from different AEPi chapters in the area. The bus ride was long and the scenery was extremely boring. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King in the states, and one of us tried to apply for a job. Additionally, I had a job interview with RIM while on the bus.

We eventaully arrived at the hotel, and checked all out stuff into the hotel. We went out for dinner to a famous deep dish pizza place, where the food was amazing. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, where we heard some speaches and then began our first night of partying.

The Canadian Delegation

Canada Day Long Weekend

I had a five day long weekend for Canada Day, so I decided to spend it in Ottawa. I got a ride into Ottawa at about 8PM where I met up with Joel, who I stayed with for two nights. The first evening was pretty low key – we went to a pool hall then hung out at Joel’s house. On Saturday, the first full day, we managed to accomplish nothing. We watched a terrible movie – There Will Be Blood. The only good thing about the movie was that it killed a lot of time. In the evening, the Supreme Master (Gary) and Executive Director (Andy) of AEPi were in town for a conference, so they took the Ottawa AEPi chapter out for dinner – I tagged along. After the dinner, Gary and Andy had to go back to the conference, but we were going to meet up with them again at the Casino in Hull, Quebec which is just outside Ottawa. Until then we went over to someone’s apartment then out for a few beers. We made it to the casino and had a good time, except for me losing money.

Sunday morning Joel had to leave at 830 to drive to Toronto for a wedding, so he drove me to Jason’s house where I spent the next day. We went downtown to a bar to watch the Germany vs Spain Euro Cup Finals. Spain won 1-0 and the game was really entertaining. In the evening we went to go see a movie. Once at the theatre, we decided to rent a movie because the movie was sold out. It took 6 of us 45 minutes to come to a consensus on a movie. We saw Into the Wild, which was another long disappointing movie.

Monday morning I woke up, and began to watch another movie; this one was actually great. I watched Catch 22, but the only problem was that I had to leave with less than 5 minutes left!!! I walked around downtown Ottawa for the afternoon before I had to meet Darryl at the train station. It had poured the previous 2 days, so to my disbelief, it started to rain again! I went into the parliament building and decided to go up the peace tower (200 meters) to get a good view of Ottawa. The long lineup killed an hour, and I managed to stay dry. Not even 10 minutes after I got back outside it began to pour. Without an umbrella or raincoat I stood under a tree for half an hour – thank goodness no lighting. The rain was coming down so hard that if I ran to a building it would have been soaked to the bone, so the tree was my only option. For dinner, Darryl took me to the best burger place in the world – The Works. I had a burger topped with Montreal smoked meat, sauerkraut and an onion ring – AMAZING!!! After that we took it easy for the evening because Canada Day was going to be a long day. We downloaded You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, which was absolutely hysterical.

Tuesday was Canada Day – the 141^st. We went to a BBQ at one of Darryl’s friend’s for the afternoon. In the evening we went downtown, first to a bar then to catch the fireworks, which were great. After the show we met back up with Darryl’s friends at a bar. I had to catch the 6AM train from Ottawa in order to make it back to Waterloo in time for my afternoon class at 430, so I decided to stay awake all night. On the way home, I only managed to get 3 hours of intermittent sleep. Oh well, all around a great weekend despite the lack of sleep.