Back in T.dot

After a very successful second teaching practicum at Clarke Road S.S. in London, ON, I am done the first term of teacher's college and now back in home sweet home, Thornhill! I will be here for one week and then depart on Dec. 25th for Santa Barbara California for a week with Heritage Retreats.

I went to see a movie the other night called 'Ushpizin' it was one of the best movies I have seen in a while. Took place in Israel and was totally in Hebrew with English subtitles. I highly recommend it. If you have seen it feel free to comment on how you felt about it.

Increasing Happiness

An Exercise For Increasing Happiness and Confidence


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Applying this exercise will enhance your life. If you have trouble recalling positive experiences, you can gain from this exercise by picturing hypothetical experiences and this can serve as a resource for the future. Spend sufficient time on each part of the exercise to have a positive emotional feeling even if a slight one. With repetition it will become easier to evoke positive emotional responses. Modify these exercises to fit your individual needs.

1) Recall an instance when you felt calm and relaxed (such as on a trip or vacation). Try to relive that experience by remembering as many details as possible.

2) Remember at least three of the most positive experiences you have had during your life. Recall as many details as possible. Actually relive the emotional feelings that you had at that time.

3) Remember at least one instance when you were successful in doing something. Picture yourself in the situation and feel some of the original pleasure.

4) Recall an act of kindness you did for someone. Feel pleasure in having performed it.

5) Recall an instance when you controlled an impulse such as overcoming a desire or an instance when you refrained form saying something.

6) Think of a positive trait you have or that someone you respect said you have.

7) Recall an instance when you felt inner strength and confidence. Try to experience that feeling by recalling the instance as vividly as possible. Make a cue that will help you remember the instance.

8) Think of something positive you would like to do. Imagine yourself actually doing it.

9) Think of something nice you can say to someone or do for someone. Imagine yourself actually saying or doing it.

10) Think of something you can do for self-improvement. Picture yourself actually improving

from Gateway To Happiness, (c), Rabbi. Zelig Pliskin.

Higher Education

My Menorah!

http://www.americancomedynetwork.com/FLASH/my_menorah.htm

Put on your yarmulke
Its time for Chanukah
So much funnaka
To celebrate Chanukah...

Mr. Fox , Geography teacher at his desk.

Me next to the Clarke Road SS sign.

Clarke Road SS

Clarke Road Secondary School, and the image of the school mascot: the mighty Trojan!

Dancing in a Winter Wonderland

Just wanted to welcome you all to WINTER. The cold harsh unforgiving winter. Brrrrr...

Paper Clips

Just recently saw the movie "Paper Clips" It was a very touching moive and I definitely recommend seeing it. Not sure why this site has turned into a movie review site, but nevertheless, I wanted to share that with you.

California Dreaming...

I just confirmed a trip going to Santa Barbara California over the winter break from December 25th to January 1st. Check out the website for details of the program : http://www.heritageretreats.org/

Podcast

I found some inspiring 'podcasts' to listen to. Copy the links below into your browser and have your speakers on. Enjoy!

http://www.aishfiles.com/podcast/Pliskin/MasteringJoy.mp3

http://www.aishfiles.com/podcast/Pliskin/BeingLikedbyOthers.mp3

http://www.aishfiles.com/podcast/Pliskin/DousingtheFire.mp3

Got Air?

A good reason to plant a tree and take the bus.

Your Attention Please

Fox News reports that Bush's 'Axis of Evil' Feels the Heat from Coalition Success in Iraq.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,84188,00.html

March of the Penguins

Went to see the movie March of the Penguins last night at the Western University theatre. I must say that it was an incredible movie. Very inspiring scenes and some awesome vistas of that area of the world.

Picture of Clarke Road Secondary School in London Ontario. The High School where I am teaching for my first two practicum placements

My new house where I am living on the top level with two roomates, Drew who is in teacher's college and Adeel who is doing a Master's in Math.

Chabad House

Chabad House

Check out a link of where I am living at the moment in London ON:

http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=5701

Western

On the Western Road...

Greetings friends,
I thought it was due time for a quick update as to where the road of life has taken a turn this time. After spending the summer as a counsellor in Belgrade aka 'where is that'?, Maine, at Camp Modin - www.modin.com - and being home in Thornhill for about 2 weeks, it is time to pack the bags yet again, this time to head to London. No, not London England, the 'other' London in Ontario- two hours west of Toronto. Thats right, on September 6th, I embark on an 8 months Teachers College program at Western University. - http://www.edu.uwo.ca/ where I will be trained to teach History and Geography to high school students.
So if you will be going to Western in the near future, for a visit, let me know! I wil be glad to meet you up there ;) Email is still the best way to reach me as I have yet to obtain a phone # in London, so keep it real!
I hope that you are doing well and I will hope to see you soon.

Yay!!! Back in Toronto once again!

I am back in Toronto!!!!!! Wohoo!!!!!!!!!!!

The Beaver's Bunk shot

Out bowling with the campers

Modin Blog

So, it turns out that Camp Modin is also maintaining a blogsite, so if you are a keener, you can check out http://campmodin.blogspot.com/ to read the daily happenings of life here at Camp Modin!!

Not a typical day at camp...

So, I am not sure if you heard or not, but we were headed to "Fun Town" today and one of the buses flipped over and injured several kids and staff. I was not on the bus, the bus in question was behind us, and so we had to wait for over an hour on the bus while we saw a helicopter take away a child and tons of ambulances going back and forth taking the kids. Right in the middle of the chaos, two news journalists literally came out of the forest on the side of the road to start filming. One of the staff told them that they should leave. We all went to wait it out in a local parking lot and finally just went back to camp. At lunch we all saw both kids and staff walking around the camp with neck braces, crutches, and broken arms. It was really strange and sad. Apparently we made the state news as well as the national news, and the story even got to the UK. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5116370,00.html or type in Maine, Bus, Accident in Google News for other sites. Only one kid was airlifted to the Hospital with a head injury, and many parents came to the camp tonight to check up on their kids. One kid in my cabin had his parents fly in on their private jet to see him and his sister who was on the bus. All the state troopers and hospital staff said that we all handled the situation very professionally and Howie (the director) just praised us for our job well done and he gave us a pizza party for our efforts.
Also, earlier last week, there was a staff member let go for a bad attitude, and her brother left with her in solidarity, and on the first day of camp another guy was let go for being rude and innapropriate. Apparently there are always some staff who don't even make it through pre-camp, and I guess that rang true again this summer. Other than that, everything else is fine. The kid who lives in Beijing is Jewish and from Florida, he just lives in China. The kids are a handful sometimes, but overall very nice and easy to work with. Thank G-d, I and all of the people involved are alive.

Cabin Life

One of the kids in my bunk lives in
Beijing and speaks fluent Mandarin. He has lived there his whole
life. Pretty neat. We are having some homesickness issues in the
cabin, but otherwise things are well. We had Tennis, Ceramics,
Baseball, Lacross, Nature, Riflery (always comforting to watch 10 year
olds shooting rifles!) and tonight we had the opening camp fire. The
apprentices who are counsellors to be now and are 16 years old were my
former campers in Eagles 5 summers ago! Really cool to see them again and how much
they have grown. Our cabin has lights out at 8:30pm so we get off
after that. So far so good!

Modin Update

Hello from Camp!
So, aside from the constant unbearable heat here, (it is about 100 degrees F everyday!) Everything is going quite well. We have already been on an overnight camping trip and had to build our own shelters to sleep in and cook our own dinner. I am a cabin called the 'Beavers' and I am in with a diverse groop of co-counsellors. I am one of 8 counsellors in the cabin, and the other guys are from Israel, South Africa, England, Holland, Sweden, and Australia. The camp this year has over 80% Australians, and I am only one of three Canadians here! The other Candian's are Tamar, (Ruthy's sister) and the head chef. The other night we went to 'rock n' bowl' and that was pretty fun. I got three strikes in a row and got a 'turkey' (it shows up on the screen when that happens) I think it was my best bowling in my life with 135 as a score. We are basically doing seminars all day, and most of it is repeitition for me, but I am actually enjoying some of the activities and games. We have gone swimming a lot and it is so nice to get some refreshing times during these hot days. The kids will arrive on Wednesday and I will be looking forward to that. We will only have 8 kids on our side and they will be all 10 years old. I had older kids last time and there were more of them, so I think this time will be easier, but we will see.
I hope to talk to you soon!

Kabbalistic Artwork from Tsfat in Israel 

Toldot

I remebered that I won a photo contest last year of some of the pics that I took while I was in Israel, to see the pics I took go to : http://www.toldot.org/content/beyond/ex.html and click on the bottom left pics, I have 6 to my name. You can also click on one of them and then just click previous or next to see them all. It is also quite a cool site to see.

Oh Canada..... 

TORONTO!!!! 

T.dot

I decided to come back to the land flowing with skim milk and maple syrup, thats right, CANADA!! After 6 months in the Holy Land (Israel) I decided it was a good time to return home and to see my family and friends. I will be off again for the summer in Maine USA for a summer job called Camp Modin - www.modin.com and I will leave on the 22nd of June and return August 18th. For those who I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to in Israel, I hope that you are well and please know that I hope to be back in Israel as soon as I can ;) Please email me nathanfox@gmail.com and you will be sure to be replied to. I hope you are well, Peace & Love, Nathan.

Tsfat Shabbat

I just got back from Tsfat - http://www.safed.co.il/ where I stayed at http://www.ascent.org.il for Shabbat. It was one of the most joyous and excited times I have had in Israel so far. The people, the classes, and the beautiful nature all combined to make the experience wonderful. When we arrived, we went to an art presentation where we saw some amazing pieces of art. : http://www.kosmic-kabbalah.com/
On thursday night, we traveled to Meron, near Tsfat where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is buried. Over 400,000 people came out to celebrate. See: http://www.aish.com/omer/omerdefault/Lag_BOmer.asp

It was an absolutely wild time. We were packed in like sardines to see his grave because of all the people who made the trip especially to go there. I ran into about 10 friends of mine there and we stayed up till 3am.
I went to the Ari Mikvah before Shabbat which was really great, as it is so famous. See: http://www.ascent.org.il/NewAscentOfSafed/Safat/Places/SafatCity/mikvah.html and also

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Luria.html to read up on the Ari.

On Sunday we toured the city and saw a great view the Sea of Galilee as the sun was setting. The trip was definitely a success and very rejuvinating!

Laura Bush in Jerusalem (she is in the black)

Laura Bush visits Jerusalem

I was in the King David hotel on friday and I happend to talk to a guy who turned out to be working for the American consulate. I asked him what he was doing here, and he told me that he was preparing for the First Lady, Larua Bush to come and visit Jerusalem on Sunday (today). She was in Jordan, is in Israel now, and is going to Egypt next. Today, while my Hebrew class was about to start, we all saw many stretch black limosines come into the Western Wall plaza. From the news, people knew that it was Mrs. Bush. I quickly ran to get my camera and I went right down. She was right up at the wall, (perhaps praying, or putting a note inside, but I couldn't see because of all the security detail and the journalists and photographers. As she was leaving the wall, I saw her and I got a few good pics. She was wearing all black and had her head covered with a black cloth. There was so much comotion and she was essentially put into one of the limos and the whole entourage left the scene, with tons of cops, American secret servicemen, tourists, and photographers all struggling to see her. It was very intense. Well, at least now I can say I saw the First Lady in person, it was a fun interlude for the day. I plan to travel to Safed this Shabbat with some friends from the Yeshiva so I am really looking forward to that.

New Zman (Term)

Now that the second term has begun, I am really busy with my courses and my studies.

My classes now include, Halacha class in the morning, Gemara - Bava
Kama - which means First Gate in Aramaic and deals with damages. See
: http://hillel.myjewishlearning.com/texts/talmud/Overview_The_Mishnah/Nezikin4270.htm
for the details.
My next class is Shemona Esri - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amidah
and then I have lunch. After lunch I have Hebrew Ulpan 2 where we are
starting to write and read.

I then have a class on the book Mesillat
Yesharim : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesillat_Yesharim
followed by Navi class (Prophets) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neviim
Finally followed by a class on the parasha of the week.

Today was Israeli Independence Day and there were many people near the
Western Wall. There were Israeli flags everywhere! See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Independence_Day

During Remembrance day yesterday, - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Hazikaron

I saw the President of Israel Moshe
Katsav from the aish balcony. He gave a speech in Hebrew about the
~22,000 fallen Israeli soldiers and the victims of terror. See below for the news clipping:
---

Israel recalls fallen, celebrates Independence Day

May. 11 - Israel's main Remembrance Day memorial took place Wednesday at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl and there were additional ceremonies simultaneously at 43 military cemeteries around the country, The Jerusalem Post reported. A two-minute siren sounded at 11 a.m. A ceremony also took place at the memorial for fallen Beduin soldiers at the Hamovil junction in the Galilee. The nation bowed its head Tuesday evening as Remembrance Day began, mourning the 20,368 servicemen and women who have fallen in its defense since November 1947. "Tonight all the people of Israel are standing in silence, bowing their heads, filled with pain and agony," President Katsav told the crowd at the Western Wall. At sundown on Wednesday, the mood will shift as the nation begins celebrating its 57th indpendence day, with celebrations taking place throughout the country over a 24-hour period.

---
Ok, I am off to check out some of the Independence Day festivities!
Shalom ;)

3 day "Nach" Tiyul

Hello!
I just arrived back in Jerusalem after spending three days on a Tiyul (Hebrew for Trip) in the north of Israel, around the Sea of Galilee. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_galilee to learn about it. It was an amazing trip. We got to see a great view of one of the oldest cities in the world: Jericho - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho

We also went to Gamla, a famous site where the Jews fought with the Romans and were finally conquered, although the remains are still there today. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamla
We camped out right on the beach of the sea of Galilee and in the morning I went swimming in the sea which was really refreshing! The area in the north of Israel is the most green in the whole country and amazingly not too far away from total desert. The reason it was called a "Nach" trip was becaused on points of the trip we discussed the Prophets and writings of Israel. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanakh One of the Prophets we discussed was Joshua, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Joshua for a detailed account of the actual places discussed. We even got to see Shechem (or today called Nablus, a corrupted name of Napoli that was given to the ancient city by the Romans) from a distance. We also saw the tallest mountain in Israel that had snow on it: Mount Hermon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermon
The area was extremely beautiful and very inspiring, and I even had a view of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon from one of the peaks. We went to one border town right next to the barbed wired border between Israel and Jordan and in between every two houses were bomb shelters due to all of the wars launched upon Israel.
My next term will begin on May 9th and I am really looking forward to getting started with it and learning more about my ancestry and my culture.

Tel Aviv, night shot 

Cairo Pic 

Happy Passover! 

Tel Aviv 

Tel Aviv

I woke up this morning and had the strong urge to swim in the sea. So I went straight to Tel Aviv. I spent the day on the beach and went for a swim which was absolutely great and very refreshing. That is one thing that Jerusalem is missing, a beach. Although a bus ride that is just over an hour is not too inconvenient. I met up with an old friend of mine, Bonnie Shay in the evening. She actually lives on my street back in Toronto, although she lives in Tel Aviv now. It was great catching up with her. She took me to see Rabin Square, where Yitzhak Rabin was assasinated. It is a very sad area and there was a candle burning by his memorial. Although Tel Aviv is a very modern city, I definintely prefer to be in Jerusalem where I find it to be more spiritual and uplifting.

Passover

I have completed my two Seder Passover meals and am now in the Chol Ha Moed (intermediary period) of the festival of Passover: http://www.aish.com/holidays/passover/default.asp The first Seder was held at Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser's house where only I and my friend Adam Krepel were guests. We all took turns reading the Haggadah and drank the mandatory four full cups of wine. We ended up finishing the meal and exodus story at 4:45 in the morning. At that point I was extremely tired as well as inebriated from the wine and made it to bed at 5:30am. It was pretty special having just come out of Egypt physically and then to recall how my ancestors came out thousands of years ago from slavery as well. The main point was that we were meant to feel as if 'we' all had just come out of Egpyt spiritually and now we can enjoy ourselves in pure freedom.

The second Seder I went to was at Steve Bresler's house, the Hebrew teacher at Aish. There were many guests at that one and we finished a bit earlier at around 2 am. One of the guests I knew from back home, Gabe Bredin who went on a Yeshiva trip with me to the Catskill Mountains two summers ago. Gabe is also from Toronto and is now in Tel Aviv in Medical school. Today the old city was extra packed because it was Birkat Ha Kohanim day at the Western Wall. It only happens once a year and is where the Kohanim (priestly Jews) bless everyone at the same time. It really was something amazing to see.

Dahab to Jerusalem

I am back in the holly land once again! The exodus is complete! After a 16 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab and trying to sleep on the bus overnight while contstantly stopping to be asked to show our passports, we made it to Dahab in the Sinai. Gold in Hebrew is Zahav and in Arabic it is Dahab, named after the golden sand found on the beaches in the area. The city was quite nice and although touristy very confortable especially coming out of Egypt proper where it was much more rustic. As soon as we arrived I went scuba diving as I knew I wouldn't get a chance to go again for some time. I had a full hour under water with a very friendly Egyptian from Alexandria. I saw many different fish and went down 13 meters. It was deffinitely worth it. That night we played some cards, and hung out at a restaurant right on the beach. We could see the city lights of Saudi Arabia from the other side of the Red Sea. Today we left for Taba with a really friendly Bedouin who along the way took us for tea in the middle of the dessert with his Bedouin friends. We made it back to Elat and then took yet another bus to Jerusalem and arrived tonight at around 10:30pm. It is great to be back here and to see all of my friends again. I am really looking forward to celebrating Pesach now that I know what Egypt looks like first hand.

Luxor Temple. (it is huge!) 

öAbu Simbel 

Abu Simbel 

The view in Aswan, Egypt 

The Pyramids at Giza 

Luxor, Egypt.

Hi!
So we are now in Luxor, Egypt and now near the end of our trip. We had a really great time going to see Abu Simbel near the Sudanese border. There were huge statues carved into the rocks and it was very impressive. We then took an overnight felluca ride from Aswan to Edfu, and then took a taxi to Luxor. THe felluca was awesome, they say one of the highlights of Egypt is going down the Nile on a felluca and now I can see why. All along the bank was lush greenery, palm trees, and farmers. We slept on the boat with 13 other people.
Luxor is the most popular place to go in Egypt next to Giza and the Pyramids. We have already seen most of the ruins, some of them really did blow me away with the enormous size of the pillars and the intricate artwork covering all of the monuments. We rented bikes and have been going around the city on them since yesterday. It is so great to ride a bike again!
We are headed to Dahab today by bus, stay there tonight and tomorrow and then head back to Jerusalem via Elat. I am really looking forward to going there to swim and experience the beauty of the Sinai.
Take care!

Aswan, Egypt.

Hello,
We are currently in Aswan, a city in southern Egypt. We arrived on Friday and had a really nice felucca (boat) ride to the the west bank of the Nile river where we saw some ancient ruins and explored. The view from on top of the bank was quite beautiful watching the Nile go by flanked by palm trees. We stayed in the same hotel that Adam Krepel stayed in last year so we got a really nice room and everyone is very hospitable here. We spent Shabbat here which was really nice. Tonight we are heading to Abu Simbel, in the south on a felucca boat and we are leaving at 3am. From there we will most likely head to Luxor for a day and then make our way back to Israel just in time for Passover!

Greetings from Cairo!

Salaam Aleikum, (hello in Arabic)
I am writing from Cairo, I am travelling with Adam Krepel and Josh Kopple (from LA). I had a spectacular 2 day and one night stay in Mitzpe Ramon crater led by Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser and the alumni for the 'possible you' trip. We took an incredible hike into the crater and the views were out of this world. We hiked and talked until it was completely dark outside and we could see the stars very clearly. Although I was there when I was on Birthright Israel two years ago, this time we had a lot of time to really soak in the environment. We had to navigate back to our bedouin tent in total darkness and all the while going back up the mountain out of the crater. With flashlights we were very happy to see the next marker on the rocks. On Monday the 11th we had another half day of hiking around and sightseeing in the area. The rest of the group went back to Jerusalem or to other destinations and Josh, Adam and I were taken to the bus station to catch a bus to Elat. The last bus left at 5:30 pm and we arrived at 6:30pm! We were trying for half an hour to hitchhike a ride Elat with no success. Just as we were losing patience with the situation a car pulled up that we flagged down and said that he was going to Elat and it would be his pleasure to take us down there with him! Thank G-d that he came for us because otherwise we would have had to spend the night in Mitzpe Ramon and lose a full day. The driver - Yonatan, was extremely nice to us and although he was born in Haifa he now lives in Elat and is the chief engineer for the city! The views driving down to Elat were awesome and it felt like we were driving with James Bond because of the high speed we were going, the views and that Yonatan was telling us how he has been all over the world on business and on pleasure trips. He drove us right to a hostel called the 'sunset hostel' and because he was friends with the owner, the owner- Ari, gave us his best room. We relaxed at a beachside restaurant for the night and it was nice to be back in Elat after being there three months ago.

The next morning we got our visas and entered into Egypt. The drive from Taba to Cairo took about six hours and gave us spectacular views of the Sinai desert. We saw wild camels along the way and sand dunes. The first night in Cairo we went to a popular bazaar called Fishawy.

Yesterday we went to Giza and road on horses to the Pyramids. The pyramids were very impressive and it was nice to finally see them in real life!

The horses were sprinting for most of the way and the scene looked like it was right out of an Indiana jones movie with the sun setting behind the pyramids as we were racing towards them on horseback. We got as close to them that we were standing on the first layer of the pyramid. We then were invited back to the Egytians man house who led us- Ahmed and he gave us tea and showed us photographs of him and his family. He then took us to a wedding which was pretty interesting because everyone was staring at us because we clearly stood out as foreigners. As we left there were about 50 local Arab kids running after out taxi trying to talk to us.

Today we are going to go to the Museum in Cairo and tonight we are headed for Aswan and Abu Simbel in the south. It is actually quite close to Sudan and both countries share Lake Nasser. We plan to take a felluca boat down the Nile and to head to Luxor. I am really enjoying Egypt so far, and must say that the people are incredibly hospitable and friendly. Many people greet us with smiles and when we say we are from Canada, they say "Canada Dry, never die!" I think some tourist started that line a while back and now it has stuck so that almost everyone says it.

I hope you are well!

Pic of the view from Bat Ayin  

Old City with view of Menorah replica in the backround