Back home in Montreal, parts of my summer seem a little surreal. Was that really me taking buses in Jerusalem, calling up pundits, writing articles about the war between Hizbullah and Israel?

A quick look at my blog entries confirms that it was me the whole time.

Adjusting to "normal" life in Montreal came pretty easy. I felt the stress of being in Israel the whole summer dissipate as I caught up on movies, with friends, read local newspapers and slept. People suddenly wanted to talk to me about my summer. I was recruited to talk in front of my grandmother’s senior citizens’ group. While some octogenarians snored, I recounted my experiences. They seemed interested in the nitty-gritty of daily life in Jerusalem. While many of the older people in the audience had visited Israel, many wanted to know what life was like outside the elder-hostel tour bus.

My summer in Israel seemed to follow me back to Montreal as local politicians took flack for participating in pro-Hizbullah rallies. I started to notice the Lebanese flags sprouting up around different parts of the city. I found myself conflicted when people would ask my opinion about the war. As a journalist for the summer, I merely reported events. It wasn’t in my internship duties to take sides. My summer in Israel helped me see the fuller picture, making it harder to choose one viewpoint over another. Sometimes being exposed to many different ideas makes it more difficult to choose just one.

I have become more perceptive of the news. The local papers seem to rule here. Most people I talk to will ask me if I read so-and-so article in the (Montreal) Gazette today and what I think about a certain issue. Now I’m aware of so many different news sources on the internet from around the world that I find it limiting to get my information from one article picked up from a newswire in the newspaper.

My time in Montreal is pretty brief though. This Sunday I will be leaving for Northwestern University just outside Chicago. I’ll be starting journalism school in a few weeks. I’m not packed at all and I’m somewhat disenchanted with journalism after being exposed to all its workings all summer. I read the commencement speech for the graduating class of this year (http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/medill/inside/medill_voices/medill_commencement_speech_2006.html) and it got me a little concerned about the future of journalism and whether or not it will have a place for me when I graduate.

I’ve been in touch with my former bosses at The Media Line and I was happy to find out that they organized a major event in Jerusalem on Monday where the who’s who in the coverage of the war debated the shortcomings of the coverage of the war. The Jerusalem Post carried an article about the successful event which saw such names as Steven Erlanger, the Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the New York Times answer blunt questions about his newspaper’s coverage. The link is: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525968905&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

I don’t have much to report on the current Mideast situation because I’m no longer in a newsroom. If anyone is interested, I can still occasionally report on my experiences in journalism at Northwestern University’s journalism school and offer an insider’s report on what one of the top journalism schools in the states is teaching its students. I’m also thinking about heading back to The Media Line next summer in Jerusalem so this won’t be the last time you’ve heard from this intern.