You go with what you have

---

[youtube=DgkERWBAfpU]

For Crystal's Wedding

on the way to Climb

For Crystal's baby

---

Kalymnos, Greece is Paradise. Plain and simple. The weather is perfect. The climbing is amazing. The water is crystal clear. The food is delicious.
You wake up in the morning, and you take the scooter over to the climbing sector. You hike about 15-20 minutes, and voila. Many climbs, at many levels, and some with beautiful stalagtites. Around 2pm, the sun comes out and so by now you are ready to head to the beach. You hike down, change into your swim suit, and head for the water. You cool off in the water, lay by the beach, grab some food, and whatever else you want to do. Rest and repeat.

With all this paradise, one might wonder, Why in the Hell did I book a ticket to Israel??

Well, I have a friend I met in Thailand coming to meet me in Kalymnos in October, so I have 5 weeks to check out Israel, Jordan and Egypt before meeting him in Greece.

Due to a glitch on my keycard, I am truly sorry to say that I lost my pictures of climbing in Greece. So, I guess it is a good thing I am going back!!!!

Education and Politics
Lets talk education for a moment. The dictionary defines Education as:
-noun 1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

Educated people is obviously fundamentally important for any society to have.

In many parts of Europe, the government pays you to get your Masters or PhD. The fees you pay in school are only taxes. Meaning, you pay about $500 per semester. (As opposed to NYC which is about $10,000 per semester)
Did you hear that? The Government PAYS YOU to get educated, instead of you paying the school and leaving with a ton of debt. They give you money every month to live, and they pay for your school! You arrive at a Masters or PhD with no debt, and usually with a guaranteed job.

How do they do that? Simple. They don't spend so much money on the MILITARY. I mean... skilled labor. pfft! who needs that? Let's spend money on potential warfare.

For the countries that tend to stay more neutral, they have amazing education priorities.

Testing this theory, I travel into Israel, where I find out that about every two years there is a student strike at the local universities. Why? because the cost of education is outrageous. The Israeli government puts in tons of money to their already amazing military. Therefore, education priorities are shoved under the rug.

You go with what you have
Tiia, a new girlfriend (who is the voice behind the Nutella commercial above), knows 6 -SIX- languages! So she can pretty much go places, and get on great. I told her that I was a bit envious of her language abilities, and she told me she was envious of my perfect english. But she has perfect english, just with an accent. She told me a saying in Finnish. It translates into, "You go with what you have." She was referring to the fact that I have been getting along just fine in all the countries I have been in, and to accept what you have, and what you dont, and move on.
I will see her again when I return to Kalymnos.

---

Photos

Chili Peppers
Ah.... How I wanted to take these back to America and cook!

belaying in Greece
Life is good when this is your view of the clear water... which we will swim in when we are done climbing!

Turkish Castle
Coming in from Kos

Baaaah
Walking on the way to climb, I watch him eat his breakfast.

Joni and Meher
My travel buddy for a week. We traveled over to Turkey for a bit, and then came back to Masouri, Kalymnos to climb.

Getting a bit rural in Turkey
here is a bad sign.

Hillary Clinton
No Hillary for President!

Comments

[Michael Sperber]

About some of your commments....
Hi Sweetie, sounds like you're having fun! Just to address a couple of things that you wrote. The reason why the governments have the money for education in the EU is because taxes are insanely high. In most countries income taxes go over 70%+!!! This has lead to a lot of problems, one of the biggest being that their unemployment rate, especially among people under thirty, is 4 to 5 times what it is in the US. So all that education doesn't really help them getting a job! As for Israel's spending on it's Military, I wonder if you realize that Israel is a TINY country surrounded and outnumbered, by thousands to one, with people that are sworn to destroy the country and kill every Jew. Once you spend some time there you may figure out why they need to spend so much on their military, and that without that spending, and America's help, they would cease to exist very very quickly. On both of these subjects I could go on and on and on, but this blog is about you and your experiences, not a political debating board. I love you sweetheart, but sometimes your views are VERY simplistic, and your perspectives and reasoning ignore tons of relevant factors in favor of a rather naive world view. Big Kisses! Michael

[Michael Sperber]

A suggestion
Perhaps while you are there, you can travel to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lybia, etc.... take a look at the abject poverty and utter ignorance and lack of education that is the experience of most of the populations there.... Then think about the fact that oil has made those countries 10s of times more wealthy than Israel... Why aren't you critical of the fact that, in Saudi Arabia for example, only 5000 people control all the wealth in the country and do nothing to create an infrastructure, and an education system for the people there. THEY can afford it far more than Israel or even the EU and the US for that matter!

[Jennifer Inacio from hebrew]

hey joni!!!
ohhh i am envious of your trips..i'm so glad you are having some fun!!!!and how about that special thing you had to pick up in london?!?! when is it going to happen?have funnnnn

[jen]

hummm
was it in london? or just anywhere in england...well have fun..byee

[JRenee]

Hi Jennifer!
What thing in England? Ohhh... that thing. I tried to tell the lottery board that I was there to pick up my money, but they just called security. Bastards.

[rufus]

sadly, your friend michael is an idiot. his figures are bogus and his comments on israel portray a non-thinking bias.