So the craziest thing happened to me in the last 24 hours. Last night at 11:45, when I was "googling" old friends from college, reading up on their public information on the web, I got a call from my sister. Now normally, I'm in bed like two hours before this call, but I happened to be up. My sister relays a message to me, that my former college, (yeah Calvin!) got an email that my passport was missing. Now my first repsonse was, this is obsurd, someone is playing a joke. How could I have gotten back into Israel without my passport? So I start searching my bookshelf where my passport should be, and to my extreme shock, it wasn't there. I didn't even know it was missing, nor do I know for how long. So panic sets in, and I get information to call Michigan and track down my missing passport. A very nice girl Susan informs me that she received a mysterious email about someone "googling" my name and seeing a small paragraph about me on my former college's website. So he emailed them to see if anyone knew how to track me down. So this lovely young girl gives me the information from this mysterious email, and sure enough, the contact info is from Israel. So, I email the two different names and addresses from the email, and rest peacefully, hoping my passport shows up soon.

This morning, I telephoned the number from the email, and luckily, the guy on the other end of the line speaks English (the Hebrew's still not great for situations like this). He happens to be an American, who lives in my neighborhood. We arrange to meet, and I am super excited to see my passport back safely in my hands. The crazy thing is that when I asked him where he found the passport, he said he didn't. Someone from his synagogue found it, and didn't speak English, so he passed it on to Shmuel (the hero of the story) to figure out what to do with it. Shmuel, after trying numerous times to contact the US consulate and embassy, with no repsonse (boy that makes me feel safe) decided to post a notice on JANGLO, a website for "anglos" in Jerusalem, that he found a lost passport. He laughed and said he had like 4 reponses from people who told him to contact the consulate...well duh. Apparently the notice had my full name on it, and someone...an unknown Philip, "googled" my name and he is the one who found the paragraph about me on the web. I still have no idea who this unknown Philip is, or why in the world he "googled" my name and emailed my college. This story just kept getting crazier and crazier. I can't believe how many hands my passport passed through, or my name from computer to computer, or phone call to phone call. So...with great joy, I can report that my passpsort is where it should be, and just in time.

Tomorrow I have a field trip to Jericho in the West Bank and I need my passport to cross at the border check point. I can just picture what would have happended if I hadn't gotten my passport back...me, searching frantically, followed by a mental breakdown and lots of crying; and roommates pissed off that I'm making them late...it would have been a disaster. And, I'm thinking about traveling in a couple weeks for Pesach. What if I would have purchased a $500 plane ticket to Ethiopia and then couldn't leave because I lost my passport and would have been out tons of money and severely disappointed...or what if some terrorist found my passport and altered it to sneak into the US and the next September 11th occured? Or what if someone tried to hold my passport hostage and demand a ransom? Or..maybe I'm watching too many movies, but seriously, this is Israel. Nothing goes smoothely. How the heck did I get so lucky? I guess someone pretty amazing is looking out for me. Baruch HaShem!

So, I conclude this way too long post with a word of thanksgiving. Just when I thought this place couldn't get any crazier, I'm reminded that there are amazing people here, and I'm grateful that I got a little taste of heaven encountering some of them. Thanks Shmuel, thanks mystery Philip, thanks Susan at Calvin College, and thanks Sis for the late night phone call that saved the day!

what do you think....do we look anything like the spice girls?

Happy St. Patrick's day to all of you who celebrate, and to my fellow Irishman, isn't it great to be green? Well, it's official, JPOST, the local newspaper reported today that the Bird Flu has hit "the Holy Land." I guess all this "holiness" just couldn't save the birds. Two bird farms have been found with the disease and possibly more on the way. I guess if it's not one thing here, violence, war, racial conflict, religious conflict, why not add bird flu to the mix?

On a lighter note, this past week we celebrated Purim. It's a great Jewish holiday that celebrates the saving of the Jewish race during the time of Nebucadnezzer. Haddassah, or Esther as she is often known as, was able to save her people from mass genocide. Purim comes from the Hebrew word Pur, which is a lot...like the casting of lots... The evil Haman cast a lot to decide which day the Jews would be killed. However, in the end, it was him who faced the unfortunate "lot." On the 14th and 15th of March, Jews attend synagogue and hear the reading of the book of Esther and dess up in costumes. I've heard different reasons for the costumes: 1 because if they dress up, then they are unrecognizable as Jews and hide their identity as Queen Esther initially did, which kept her safe. or 2) the name of G-d is not mentioned in the book of Esther at all, and I believe is the only book in the Bible that does not mention him. Jewish midrash speaks of the "hester pan'im" the hiding of G-d's face, only visible between the lines of the text, but not specifically mentioned. Therefore, just as G-d hides his face, so do the Jews during their celebration.

For some people, this holiday is just a good excuse to get drunk and dress up. Jewish Halachah says that people should get so drunk that during the reading of the book of Esther, they cannot tell the difference between Mordichai (the good guy) and Haman (the bad guy). During the reading, everyone boos and makes noise with noise makers and the like whenever the name of Haman is read. People also hissed at the name of Haman's wife, and the lady in front of me at synagogue made horse neys and galloping noises when the horse was mentioned. I got a big kick out of it. It was great fun and I could actually understand the reading and follow along in the hebrew text this year. I guess my hebrew is improving...

My roommates and I followed up synagogue by going to a party at a friend's house. Since there are 5 of us, we decided to dress up as the Spice Girls. It was a great excuse to drag out our slutty clothes that we don't normally wear, and put on way too much makeup. I don't actually think we looked anything like the Spice girls, but I got to wear an Afro-wig which i loved. I think i could have been black in a former life...