As some (or many of you) may know, I’m making Aliyah to Israel (FAQs to follow below). I’ve been approved to make Aliyah since this past August. What I didn’t know at the time was my exact date of departure (which was pending on whether or not I received certain grants that I applied for).

I found out last Tuesday (at 4am EST, 11am Jerusalem Time) that my grants have been approved. This is very good news.

That said, I will be leaving for Israel far earlier than I had originally anticipated (as the grant money is contingent upon taking the flight that they offer me).

This means that my new date of departure is:

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Taking into consideration that the last day of classes at university fall on December 7th and finals end on December 17th, I will be flying back to New York City/Long Island on December 21st. This essentially gives me four days to wrap up any loose ends and to say goodbye to everyone.

For those of you who are able to come to Thanksgiving this year (at my Parent’s house on Long Island) I would love to see you there (this year it’s being turned into a Thanksgiving-Graduation-Going Away Party type deal). If you would like to come, please email me for an invite.

For those of you who aren’t able to make it for Thanksgiving, I will be having some form of farewell get together on December 22nd. If you are interested in coming to it and want details, please email me and let me know…I’m not sure if this will be at my house on Long Island or at a local cafe or something.

Once I land in Israel (Thursday, December 27, 2007) My Cellphone Number Will Be:

Calling From Outside of Israel: +011-972-52-686-2642
Calling From Within Israel: 052-6862-642

If for some reason my cell phone number changes or doesn’t appear to be functioning (e.g. you can’t get in touch with me) please email:

callme@nomadmatan.net

And it will auto-respond with my current telephone number. Please realize that this is not a ‘checkable’ email account and I won’t get any messages that you send to it. Therefore, any messages that you need to send me that you require me to see and/or respond to should still be sent to my regular email address which can be found below.

My AIM/Y!M/MySpace Screen Name is:
nomadmatan

My Website Remains The Same At:
http://www.nomadmatan.net

My E-Mail Remains The Same At:
matan@nomadmatan.net

If you would like to be added to my Travelogue ListServ please email me and let me know that you’d like to be added to it. I’m almost done installing my own email list manager so I can move off of Yahoo Groups (which means greater control of the list for me, and no advertisements for you).

-=FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS=-

-What’s are you graduating with Anyway?-
I graduate with my B.A. in Linguistics (in the Applied Linguistics Track), my TESOL/TEFL/TESL Teaching Certification, my Paralegal Studies Certificate, My NIH Certificate and my Pharmacy Technician Certification.

-What Area of Linguistics Have you Concentrated Your Studies In?-

I’ve concentrated my studies in Applied Linguistics & Sociolinguistics.

These two fields (Sociolinguistics being a subfield of Applied Linguistics) address how to use and apply Linguistics in real-world situations to solve problems (whether business related, political, educational or other). Sociolinguistics studies how individuals, groups and society as a whole use language to communicate with each other and what their language use can tell us about them, their community and their social situations.

-What Languages Have You Studied?-

I’ve studied: Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, French, Classical Tibetan & Spanish…no I’m not fluent in all of them…one day though…one day! Personally, I prefer Hebrew & Arabic as those are the two languages I’ve studied most.

-What happens to your U.S. Citizenship?-

I will be a dual citizen, holding both U.S. and Israeli Citizenship.

-Is this for some kind of ‘year long study abroad’ thing?-

No. I’m moving to Israel.

-Like…Forever?-

I have no idea. I don’t write endings. But I’m moving there for now. I’m a big fan of letting certain things just work themselves out and this is certainly one of them.

-Doesn’t that mean you have to be in the Israeli army or something?-

Yup.

-What’s the game plan?-

For the first month (January) I’m taking a month off (slacker that I am). I’ve been at the University at Buffalo for 5 1/2 years…I need a vacation to clear my mind. I also have to get myself ready and acclimated to my new home. Plus there’s administrative stuff to do, like setting up bank accounts and test riding magic carpets.

The next five months (February - June) I’ll be on Kibbutz Ulpan studying Hebrew and potentially dealing with livestock (I’ve promised Alice that if I have to help a cow give birth that I’ll put a video of it on YouTube) “Puuuush Bessy…PUUUUUUUSH!” I’ll be the best calf-deliverer *ever*.

Then I’m in Garin Tzabar in August (which is essentially a pre-IDF training thing).

Then in November I’m in the IDF for two years. Benefits are the matching wardrobe (Green) and spiffy hats.

-Couldn’t you be shot?-

Yes…but we’re going to try really, really, really hard to avoid that. Besides, I had to promise Mom that I wouldn’t cause an international incident and I think getting shot falls under the ‘international incident’ category.

-What happens after the IDF?-

I’ll be studying a lot of Arabic at some intensive workshops and then even more Hebrew and eventually I’ll be going for my Masters Degree in Arabic. Whether I do that in Israel or not is up for debate. It depends if they have the kind of program I’m looking for and whether or not I get into the graduate program I want. Please note, however, that I reserve the right to change my mind at a moments notice and instead go for my Ph.D. in such things as advanced techniques in Underwater Basket-Weaving, Leper Care & Management or Alpaca Hairstyling: Current Trends and Concerns.

-What do you want to do with an M.A. in Arabic?-

Not surprisingly, given the world situation, Arabic Translators are in demand. I’d really like to do Arabic Translation.

Any other questions? E-mail me. Please feel free to forward this to anyone that I’ve missed, I’m in the process of updating my address book.

What Could Have Been (10/21/2007)
Matan Ar’ye Schwartz

His hands tracing your abs. His voice telling you little white lies that everyone wants to hear: you’re so beautiful. I love you. I’ll never leave you. You’re the only one for me. Come to bed:kiss me:hold me. Days and nights of passionate love, weekends of parties, booze and drugs.

And now you’re getting on your coat and you’re heading to the doctors as he’s saying “baby please don’t go” and you lie too “I’m just going to go to the store, no you stay in bed, I’m just going to get a paper, some milk, some eggs…you know the basics” as your hand print remains fresh on his ass…your body telling me that you’re scared, your voice shaking only slightly.

And You’re getting on your coat and he’s saying baby please don’t go:such a charming scene…when was the last time he used your name as if you were a human? When was the last time he used your name as if he respected you?

The pills you ate by the bag seem so sinister now, so foolish as you reach for the flask at your hip and take a swig like you’re trying to hide at the bottom. And you head to the clinic where nurses and doctors in lab coats draw blood and now you wait as the minutes tic by to form hours that form days that form weeks as you wait for two of them/fourteen days to pass moving around your house:work:your family, alive but not really living…you’ve already begun to think of yourself as dying.

Your phone goes off, the results for an exam you didn’t want to pass are in: with our condolences, you aced it. And people ask if you’re okay as you start to sniff and I know that you’re not, but you tell them that you’re ‘fine’ that it’s just this darn ‘allergy season…’ but you can’t fool me as you hang up your phone and shut your office door for a few moments of self reflection…I’ve been in love with you since the first day I met you and I know that you’re hurting.

Did you lay on him, let your semen stay inside of him? Did you believe him when he told you that he’d never leave you? At least that’s the one promise that he gave you that will ring true every morning when you look in the mirror, ’cause now part of him will always be a part of you as you run the race to beat the clock, to beat the game, to walk the fundraising walks that continue to fund the research that fund the new drugs to help you cheat death as this devil cheated life from you…and it didn’t have to happen, a condom didn’t break/you choose not to wear one and he chose to cheat on you.

He said he’d love you forever and now you’re standing at your front door not wanting to go in, as your hand reaches shakily for the doorknob and you open the door and walk in, he looks up at you as you tell him that you know he had been cheating: he slapped you across the face and tried to deny his act of treason: but now you get to scare this demon straight as you walk in/grabbing him by the wrists and making him listen to reason:now you as the angel of death impart the news that it wasn’t you who was the one who had been cheating and that you were drug and disease free up until the moment that you met him…and now you’re both infected.

You say that you’re going out for air, that you need some time to think, that you’ll be back later and you walk around until the moon rises and is high in the night sky, and then you walk back to your apartment…and hopeful that he’s still there, you open the door and find that your apartment is empty: he’s gone, taken his clothes and possessions with him…left his cell phone that you paid for on the counter, and a note saying that it would be best if you ‘just forgot him’ and he didn’t leave an address or a telephone number where you could reach him.

And now I’m standing in the living room with you; your arm around my shoulder, and for someone who usually towers over me at six foot five to my five foot five even, somehow you seem like you’re shorter, you’re still so beautiful, with your muscles, and your hair, and your good lucks…and ‘we pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living’, but I can’t help but mourn the loss of what could have been: a life together with you as more than my friend. I told you I would love you and treasure you and that all I wanted to do was exist inside your smile, that I thought you were funny and smart and kind…and you said in as nice a way as possible that people like you didn’t date people like me, ‘pretty people date pretty people you know how it is’ you told me…and as your arms wrap around me now, and your body shakes while crying, you hug me and I thank God that I’m not a ‘pretty person’ as I stroke your hair and breathe in your scent, not wanting to let go…afraid I won’t know when I’ll never get to hold you again as I whisper ‘we’ll get through this’ in your ear.

Two coffee mugs on the table, one on the floor in pieces.

Dumbledore is Gay, according to a recent news article.

Okay, first I’ll throw this out here to address the argument of “why do gay people constantly have to flaunt their sexuality.”

Everyone else’s sexuality doesn’t have to be stated, because for the most part it’s implied. Implied by who they date, who they marry, who have they have children with, who they can kiss in public without having an uproar started, who they cast glances at (all of this covered in painful detail in the book, and in the epic amount of fan fiction that’s been written about the series).

The reason most of us care (perhaps, the majority, given the demographic that makes up most of the fandom) is because we’ve been in fandom for years (I used to belong to one of the larger sites admin-ing the chat room before we closed down and it was something I talked about, for the period of around four years, for most of my day…I was eating, sleeping, or talking Harry Potter). I’ve made life long friends (we’ve gone to their weddings, gone to their houses, celebrated life cycles, mourned passings, laughed and cried together). Overall, we’re excited because it gives us more to talk about, another reason (not that we need one) to re-read the entire series, more ways of writing other fan-fiction, exploring things that we previously didn’t think to explore…I was (and am) so into Harry Potter I went to another country for Book Six and sat around, and did nothing but read the book…in a room full of close friends who were doing nothing else, but reading the book and enjoying each others company.

As far as why it’s important for the Gay community? He’s a prominent figure in the book, is arguably one of the most influential reasons why evil doesn’t take over the earth (he founded the Order of the Phoenix) and is incredibly well educated - hallelujah we have a Gay Character that isn’t there for comedic effect or to die of AIDS breaking out of the usual archetype of Gay characters in the media…it’s about damn time…and oh, he’s not pedophile either (the third Archetype).

And knowing JKR, and knowing to what extent she researched her book (I did a 30 page paper on it and her, single spaced, when I was in High School some six-ish years ago and I could have written a few hundred pages more - and would have - if my teacher didn’t stop me). I highly doubt him being Gay was an afterthought…her Characters are personal for her so she may not have wanted to mention it publicly, but she certainly smiled about it privately while writing the book and certainly knew about this aspect of the character as she was laying pen to paper.

This isn’t a publicity stunt, she doesn’t need any more people to purchase her book - she has more money than the Queen - and there’s only so much you can earn a day before it really just doesn’t matter anymore…there’s volumes of books that can be written about each characters back story, their upbringing, their families…she’s created a world like many other literary greats before her (Tolkien, etc) and those worlds have the ability to have infinite numbers of pages dedicated to them…so we’re excited to have one more thing to discuss and to debate, and to banter about over beer with friends.

…though personally, I was hoping it was Sirius…oh man, oh man…why couldn’t it have been Sirius?

When home’s just a thousand miles away
Matan Ar’ye Schwartz

Your body of stone, stoic coming in from behind…do not turn your face from me/your breathe wrapping around me like a blanket:I hear your voice calling me as you haunt me in my dreams, following me, beckoning to me as you leave me once again in tears: the feeling of a lovers embrace/all I want to do is hold you one more time:to see you once again…to tell you that you look so beautiful tonight.

But you have me walking these streets in this industrial wasteland; so cold now as the sun vanishes with the coming winter as I start to shiver/every step I take away from you hurts more than the one before it. I can’t breathe as I’m overtaken by you and I just wanna go home, but I’m walking these streets under the moonlight because I fear what awaits me in my dreams. It hurts so bad to wake each day alone as I fight the morning light for just a few more minutes of memories: one, a hundred, a thousand hours not enough to recall and recount every moment I’ve spent with you:each day I have to wait to touch you again becomes an eternity/intolerable cruelty I must endure before I can once again reunite with the only love I have ever truly known.

A thousand fears run through my mind:if I should die before we meet again a thousand fates I’d rather suffer than to never be with you once more…if only for one last day…for one last moment.

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, Jerusalem

My heart aches for you…Israel with your shores of blue and the forests that surround you like emeralds as birds rise to the sky bringing with them prayers that roll off the lips of children….markets full of people and food and in the desert life sprouts forth while midnight lovers embrace under waterfalls and in the cloak of night their love shines through the darkness.

The music of everyone’s soul audible to all who take a moment to stop and listen as camels traverse the land like boats in an ocean. As the world spins, changing all around them: the further things change the more some things stay the same…Jerusalem, you remain intrepid…and I’m holding what love you’ve given me in my heart and it’s what’s keeping me going until I can come home to you once again.

When home’s just a thousand miles away.

64 Days Until Go Time…No Wait, The Day’s Over…Now It’s 63…

Just a quick run down of life before I head home to shower, and watch Legally Blonde while I study and munch on pomegranates.

Good Ideas in Computer Science

Gnomes and Unicorns folks, Gnomes and Unicorns. We have our midterm for this course on Oct. 29th and we have a quiz in it next week. Right now we’re programming Karel the Robot…the course is okay, I believe I’ll be receiving a B+ to an A, we’ll see though.

Phonetics

This is phonetician boot camp (where there is an i in team [ti:m]), and while I didn’t do as well as I liked on the first homework, I did receive an 85% in the Buffalo Vowel Transcription, a 90% on the Arabic Transcription (I can’t believe I botched the one phonetic symbol which would have ensured a 100%…but such is life…the speaker was from Kuwait which was cool though) and I also (according to my scoring estimate) received a 90% on the German Vowel Transcription, I should find that out Tomorrow.

I should be getting my second homework grade back later this week (e.g. Tomorrow) or next week. The lowest grade is dropped so I’m hoping that - providing I did well on the second assignment - I can forget about the first and proceed forward with the course with no further hitches.

Linguist in Waiting is my informant for Tagalog which is the language I’ll be examining for my semester long phonetics project which we’re being introduced to next week. I want to specifically look at stress in the language.

Grammar & Lexicon

We don’t really need to discuss this course. It’s going (and is - thankfully - over in 63 days). The mid-term is tomorrow. We’re not doing a whole lot of what…’normal’ (read: non-linguists) people would describe as grammar (the best way to describe what we’re doing is mental masturbation).

Overall, there’s a large portion of students in the course who are overtly negative or hostile to each other, but JP and Julia as the teaching team are wonderful, so that’s a blessing at least.

TA-Ship

This was Sociolinguistics Boot-Camp for me last year, it’s much nicer standing on the other side of the classroom, watching the process from the standpoint of the educator rather than the one being educated. Scott’s teaching philosophy agrees with my own and, to date, it’s been nothing short of a wonderful experience. I get to teach the class by myself when Scott’s at a conference on the 25th of this month (I’ll be teaching about Politeness and Accommodation, which is good since I can cover that in my sleep if I were required to).

The students have their midterm exam this coming Tuesday, so I imagine (or hope) that most will be taking this weekend to study and taking advantage of my office hours Tomorrow to go over anything that they’re shaky on.

Also next week we’ll be listening to international rap which gives me a wonderful opportunity to use the HaDag NaChash Curriculum Guide for “The Sticker Song” (???? ??????). Actually, any chance for HaDag NaChash anything to make it’s way into class makes me happy, but the fact that we can legitimately incorporate it is great.

Independent Study

I’m looking at language policy from India in 1929 (the Language Riots) and comparing it to present language policy in India, specifically as it relates to education with an underlying focus on language discrimination. This is much more fulfilling than the research I was doing through last semester. I plan on being done with this by the end of October so I can ’scrape it off my plate’ so to speak.

Classical Tibetan

Classical Tibetan is going wonderfully, even though I won’t be able to be here next semester I’m receiving enough tools that I’ll be able to continue studying it on my own until I can study it in Tibet at some point (…it’s good that when I say things like that, folks at this point know I’m not kidding…). But Tibet is certainly on the list, and had I had this course before I set the ball in motion I would have certainly stayed for another few years here at UB before making Aliyah, though it really is time to get a move on and I’m not getting younger (a side note, I was once told by a very bitter and jaded homo that if I didn’t have a long time boyfriend by the time I was 21 I’d be single forever…he didn’t know how to respond when I said ‘that’s okay, I have my right hand and a mirror…’).

TESOL/TEFL/TESL
Next Weekend (Oct 13/14th) starts my TESOL/TEFL/TESL training course; which will be occupying my time over Oct 13/14, Oct 20/21 and Oct 27/28. I’ll be receiving my certificate on the 28th.

Israel

I should be finding out if I receive the grant that I asked for from Nefesh B’Nefesh later next week (hopefully). The other day I received my Garin Tzabar application which I’ll be filling out when I get back to my apartment so I can mail it out Tomorrow.

I’ll be meeting with my Shaliach sometime in November for our second meeting (though we’ve been in regular contact via telephone and email) which means I’ll have to book a weekend down to NYC (…twist my arm…no wait…twist it…).

Hillel

Chai Line is going amazing. I submitted a grant for that on Tuesday, I have some letters to send out for it Tomorrow before Shabbat and I’ll go into this in more detail later on.,

Time to head home

Time to head home, I’ll go into a real, full length, life update (including my Mom’s and Margie’s visit to Buffalo) sometime later this weekend.

Peace all!