Pokemon Reorchestrated and Travels: Part Three!
Of the four days where I was supposed to be at my internship, I have only attented two. I am currently home sick with an infection, shortness of breath/coughing and a nasty sunburn.
But the day has still been good, because I spent it listening to Pokemon Reorchestrated! The composer of this amazing album, rewriting all the Red/Blue songs (and adding some new ones) is Skotein! He was actually the first friend I made on SPPf (and indeed, the internet), and his talent in writing, drawing, screenwriting and composing have impressed me since 2004. I love the boy dearly, and I'm so happy that his first album has been such a huge hit it's reached #43 on the Top 100 Albums, and #3 on the Soundtracks chart. Jeez! So proud~ *sniffle*
Oh, and yes, Israel is good! I mean, the drivers here are crazy, bicycles and motorcycles drive on the sidewalks, food goes bad quickly, almost everything shuts down during holidays (including Shabbat, which is weekly), it's perpetually dusty, and so hot you'll sweat your skin off, and my neighbourhood is full of junkies and smells of cat piss. :>
But I'm really having a great time! The girls I share an apartment with are nice, silly, and fun. I was supposed to have a roommate, but she quit the program before it started after seeing our neighbourhood, so I have a room to myself. The apartment is a good size, with most of the basics, though the kitchen table and chairs are all crappy plastic and clearly from an outdoors set (the table has a hole for an umbrella). There are remote-control ACs in every room, though they have likely never been cleaned and were possibly the cause of my and another girl's sicknesses. Almost everyone in the program is in those building, which has seven apartments (two per floor) and a roof where we come up to chill, have potluck dinners for the holidays, and most importantly, drink. There is also one apartment of eight girls a few blocks away (their place has a crapload of balconies and bathrooms, so jelly) and another also some blocks away with six guys.
We go to the beach, we drink, we do both at the same time. We walk, we shop. We go to Hebrew class and seminars on Israel. We go on vacations - in the first week I went with the whole group to my favourite part of Israel, the mountains in the north, then went to the beaches in the south, and even went to Jordan for the day with five other girls.
We had the entire week before work off due to one of the many Jewish fall holidays, which is when I went to the south and also attended my first Israeli anime convention! Well, sci-fi/fantasy/RPG/film/anime, that is. XD Screenings took place in a cinema and the rest was held at a neighbouring school, where artists and bookshops sold their geeky wares, LARPers foam sword fought, and even face-painters worked in the yard. Indoors were all the events/panels, but instead of a cover charge to access all events, it was $10 a pop per event. Worse yet, it was all in Hebrew! In the end, my friend and I went to the cosplay masquerade (still Hebrew, but a nice guy there translated for us). I also commissioned a t-shirt with a Mew on it. X3
On the very last day of my break last week I met up with Stellarwind! He's the only internet person I know in Israel, and I've admired his art since about 2004, so it was cool getting to finally meet up. We walked, window-shopped, and ate delicious frozen yogurt while swinging on indoor swings.
We also have work now! For those of us doing internships (as I am), we work Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. We are only required to work for 25-30 hours per week. Some people are on the art track, where they attend lectures two days a week and work on their craft two days a week. (One of my roommates is a photographer and another is a glass-blower, for instance.) On Tuesdays we can go on optional trips, and Friday/Saturday is the weekend. (A typical Israeli works Sunday-Thursday, and Fridays are half-days. However, they are also very relaxed, so work attire is casual and being late is much more acceptable.)
My inernship is with a group of kids/teens magazines for whose audience English is a second language. Sounds simple enough, but we really have to tailor the language in each piece to the right group. Smaller articles can only have nine "vocabulary words" (words they might not have known prior to reading), which are then translated to Hebrew and Arabic in a table at the bottom of the article.
My first article on the first day was about my trip to the south where I went to an aquarium with a friend, and I talked about what was there. It was for the nature column on the magazine for kids aged 12-14, so I really had to bring the writing down and eliminate difficult words - I started with over 17 and eventually got it down to 9. My supervisor was fairly impressed and quite happy with my work. :> I've been asked to do a piece for the games/tech column, and I was really hoping to write it about Pokemon B2W2. Instead, I was asked to compare Apple/Google/Windows phones, though, and I've had a surprising amount of difficulty getting the info I need that 14-18-year-olds would be interested in. Sigh.
Also, you know what they don't have here? Halloween. How will I survive?! (Answer: Halloween parties. And lots of cupcakes!)
Instead, they have a holiday called Purim in March, where we celebrate escaping extermination by wearing costumes, eating pastries and getting drunk. Sounds kind neat, right? Weeeeeeell my program ends and I'll be back home before that. :<
Anyhow, that's life! It really has been great, though I'm still adjusting (and working on my Hebrew). Thanks for reading!
~Psychic
But the day has still been good, because I spent it listening to Pokemon Reorchestrated! The composer of this amazing album, rewriting all the Red/Blue songs (and adding some new ones) is Skotein! He was actually the first friend I made on SPPf (and indeed, the internet), and his talent in writing, drawing, screenwriting and composing have impressed me since 2004. I love the boy dearly, and I'm so happy that his first album has been such a huge hit it's reached #43 on the Top 100 Albums, and #3 on the Soundtracks chart. Jeez! So proud~ *sniffle*
Oh, and yes, Israel is good! I mean, the drivers here are crazy, bicycles and motorcycles drive on the sidewalks, food goes bad quickly, almost everything shuts down during holidays (including Shabbat, which is weekly), it's perpetually dusty, and so hot you'll sweat your skin off, and my neighbourhood is full of junkies and smells of cat piss. :>
But I'm really having a great time! The girls I share an apartment with are nice, silly, and fun. I was supposed to have a roommate, but she quit the program before it started after seeing our neighbourhood, so I have a room to myself. The apartment is a good size, with most of the basics, though the kitchen table and chairs are all crappy plastic and clearly from an outdoors set (the table has a hole for an umbrella). There are remote-control ACs in every room, though they have likely never been cleaned and were possibly the cause of my and another girl's sicknesses. Almost everyone in the program is in those building, which has seven apartments (two per floor) and a roof where we come up to chill, have potluck dinners for the holidays, and most importantly, drink. There is also one apartment of eight girls a few blocks away (their place has a crapload of balconies and bathrooms, so jelly) and another also some blocks away with six guys.
We go to the beach, we drink, we do both at the same time. We walk, we shop. We go to Hebrew class and seminars on Israel. We go on vacations - in the first week I went with the whole group to my favourite part of Israel, the mountains in the north, then went to the beaches in the south, and even went to Jordan for the day with five other girls.
We had the entire week before work off due to one of the many Jewish fall holidays, which is when I went to the south and also attended my first Israeli anime convention! Well, sci-fi/fantasy/RPG/film/anime, that is. XD Screenings took place in a cinema and the rest was held at a neighbouring school, where artists and bookshops sold their geeky wares, LARPers foam sword fought, and even face-painters worked in the yard. Indoors were all the events/panels, but instead of a cover charge to access all events, it was $10 a pop per event. Worse yet, it was all in Hebrew! In the end, my friend and I went to the cosplay masquerade (still Hebrew, but a nice guy there translated for us). I also commissioned a t-shirt with a Mew on it. X3
On the very last day of my break last week I met up with Stellarwind! He's the only internet person I know in Israel, and I've admired his art since about 2004, so it was cool getting to finally meet up. We walked, window-shopped, and ate delicious frozen yogurt while swinging on indoor swings.
We also have work now! For those of us doing internships (as I am), we work Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. We are only required to work for 25-30 hours per week. Some people are on the art track, where they attend lectures two days a week and work on their craft two days a week. (One of my roommates is a photographer and another is a glass-blower, for instance.) On Tuesdays we can go on optional trips, and Friday/Saturday is the weekend. (A typical Israeli works Sunday-Thursday, and Fridays are half-days. However, they are also very relaxed, so work attire is casual and being late is much more acceptable.)
My inernship is with a group of kids/teens magazines for whose audience English is a second language. Sounds simple enough, but we really have to tailor the language in each piece to the right group. Smaller articles can only have nine "vocabulary words" (words they might not have known prior to reading), which are then translated to Hebrew and Arabic in a table at the bottom of the article.
My first article on the first day was about my trip to the south where I went to an aquarium with a friend, and I talked about what was there. It was for the nature column on the magazine for kids aged 12-14, so I really had to bring the writing down and eliminate difficult words - I started with over 17 and eventually got it down to 9. My supervisor was fairly impressed and quite happy with my work. :> I've been asked to do a piece for the games/tech column, and I was really hoping to write it about Pokemon B2W2. Instead, I was asked to compare Apple/Google/Windows phones, though, and I've had a surprising amount of difficulty getting the info I need that 14-18-year-olds would be interested in. Sigh.
Also, you know what they don't have here? Halloween. How will I survive?! (Answer: Halloween parties. And lots of cupcakes!)
Instead, they have a holiday called Purim in March, where we celebrate escaping extermination by wearing costumes, eating pastries and getting drunk. Sounds kind neat, right? Weeeeeeell my program ends and I'll be back home before that. :<
Anyhow, that's life! It really has been great, though I'm still adjusting (and working on my Hebrew). Thanks for reading!
~Psychic