Jerusalem Travel Tips

Justin and I went to Jerusalem earlier this week. Not everything went well, but we learned a lot about the best ways to travel to Jerusalem. I thought I'd share some of our newly aquired knowledge with these ten easy travel tips.

1. Check the weather report before leaving.
What will the temperature be like? Is rain in the forecast? These are important questions.

2. Apply the information in the weather report to your trip planning.
Just looking at the weather isn't enough. If it's supposed to be cold and rainy and you don't have any warm clothes, an umbrella, or a rain jacket, maybe you should postpone your trip until Wednesday.

3. If it's cold and rainy and you decide to go to Jerusalem anyway, stop in a cafe once you get there.
It's a great place to relax and have a couple of drinks while you plan your next move. You should also befriend a waitress who will suggest really interesting things to do in town. She might even offer you a free place to crash.

4. Don't ignore your waitress' suggestions and go see a movie.
Those bars and cafes sounded pretty cool, especially the one with live music and guest lecturers. Even though Rachel Getting Married is a great movie, you can see it any time.

5. Book your hostel BEFORE midnight.
Most hostels stop letting people in at midnight. If at all possible, try to know where you're planning on staying before leaving for Jerusalem, although that could be asking too much.

6. If it's after midnight, call a potential hostel to make sure that a) it's open and b)there are vacancies before walking 30 minutes to get there.
If Justin says to you, "I kind of want to just go there and not call ahead of time," DO NOT tell him that this is a good idea. This is not a good idea. Call the hostel first.

7. If you meet a waitress who offers you a place to stay and you'd like to take her up on that offer because you don't have anywhere to stay, call her before she falls asleep.
She gets off work at midnight, but remember: She has school early in the morning so she just goes home and goes right to bed. Call her before she leaves work or you might not be able to take her up on her offer.

8. When you're wandering around Ben Yahuda street at 1 AM wondering where you'll be sleeping that night and it starts pouring rain, run into the first hotel you see and check the prices. If the rooms are too expensive, go back outside and wander around until it starts sleeting. At that point, you pretty much have to go into the next hotel you see and book a room.
The continental breakfast will be worth the price of the room alone. You will invent a sandwich called the "bread-cheese roll up."

9. Don't go to the Israel Museum on a Tuesday before 5 PM.
This one's kind of obvious, but if it's Tuesday, don't walk 45 minutes to the museum that's open every other day from 9-5. It's only open from 5-9 PM on Tuesdays because that makes sense.

10. You got to know when to hold 'em/know when to fold 'em.
If every single decision you make seems to be the wrong one, head to the Central Bus Station and get on the first bus back to Ra'anana. You'll do better next time.

Happy travels! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Southbound

When Justin and I arrived in Israel in early February, we were entering a country that was essentially an active war zone. In the media, many allegations were made accusing Israel of using excessive force in Gaza. Hamas' constant rocket fire into southern Israel received much less attention. In fact, with the aid of Iranian weapons, Hamas was able to dramatically increase its missile range, subjecting several once-safe Israeli cities to almost daily attack. My buddy Pavel had the bright idea to pay a visit to one of those cities to find out what life was like during the bombings. I thought he might be on to something, so I decided to tag along.

We decided to head to Ashkelon, a port city pretty close to the Gaza border. According to Pavel:

Ashkelon is a city of about 100,000 that sits on Israel's golden [Mediterranean] coast. Situated about 50 km (30 miles) South of Tel Aviv (one hour by bus) and 10 km (6 miles) North of the Gaza Strip the city has a beautiful coastline and beaches and a lot of new medium-rise construction. Villas near the water look, stylistically, like homes in Southern Europe and the Caribbean--red tile roofs, pastel shades of stucco, and architecture that mixes Middle Eastern and Southern European traditions.

In fact, Pavel did a very good job chronicling our trip to Ashkelon. You should check out his blog post (linked above). I really have only a few things to add. Although there were no overt signs that there had been a war just a few weeks prior, we saw unusual amount of "construction." Most of the work being done seemed normal, but there were several buildings that appeared to have structural damage. Whenever we saw such a building, Pavel would ask a local what the construction was for. Unfortunately, we were never able to get a clear answer. This makes sense, though. I don't know anything about any of the construction going on in Conshohocken. Hey, look at some pictures with explanations!

We spent a good amount of time at the Marina, the main shopping, eating, and nightlife area in Ashkelon. We later learned that a rocket landed in the Marina during the war. People stopped visiting the section and several businesses closed.

The beaches were very nice.

Look, an ampitheater!

This is a park.

Our trip to Ashkelon? Two thumbs, waaaaay up. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Eat, Sleep, Netivot

This past weekend, thursday through saturday night, I went to Netivot to hang out with Brandon. Once again I go to a place that makes Israelis say, “why the hell are you going there?” just so I can see Brandon. We were supposed to go camping somewhere in the Negev, but for whatever reason those plans fell through and we just ended up spending time in the small but nice town in the Negev called Netivot (in case you didn't pick up the name before).

On Friday morning we (Brandon, Diana, Ashley and I) went to the nearest city called Be'er Sheva to go the the Israeli Air Force Museum. It was pretty cool with lots of zoom-zooms (aka airplanes) and tanks and anti aircraft weapons. Some planes were just retired and thus on display. Some were captured or destroyed parts of enemy planes. Brandon loves planes so he was as happy as an asthmatic making out with an albuterol fairy. The rest of us had fun too.

After the museum we went to a Yemenite restaurant. After sitting down they placed literally 500 salads on the table to eat. They were all delicious. Everything on the menu ranged from 35-45 shekels which was more than we all usually spend, but we had heard this place was amazing so we figured it would be worth it. When they finally got the one guy who could speak either Hebrew or English (as the usual waitress only spoke arabic) he offered us a special deal. He would give us a sampling of the best things on the menu for 45 shekels each. So we did and it was awesome. There was seasoned rice stuffed peppers, chicken meatballs and lamb meatballs, two kinds of soup, awesome pita/naan type bread, and a raw-ish brisket type dish that was amazing tasting and as tender as a stick of butter that Vinny kept in his pocket for an hour or two. All in all, we ate so much delicious food that when we got back to Brandon's we all passed out.


When we awoke, it was almost time for dinner. Brandon is in a program called, Otzma, and through the program they get a host family. They don't live with their host families, but the family acts as some sort of mentor family that you hang out with. So Diana, Brandon and I went there for Shabbat dinner and had an amazing Moroccan feast and played with the cutest puppies. The dinner involved salads (of course), couscous (of course), and lamb and chicken and barechas and other stuff that I don't even know what it was. Thankfully, dinner finished with some real Moroccan mint tea. It was sweeter than tea I usually drink, but was still awesome. We went back there again for lunch on Saturday and once again enjoyed an incredible Moroccan feast. Lunch involved the salads once again, fried chicken wings, an eggplant meat casserole type thing, and some potatoes things. I wish I could be more descriptive, but just trust me that it was amazing. Although it was better when home made, I would strongly recommend going to the Moroccan restaurant in Philly called Marrakesh.

Their dog had little puppies! So cute.

I came back to Ra'anana Saturday night so I could try to be productive. It does look like a couple of new internship prospects may be opening up in addition to the one I've been working on, but we'll see what comes of that.

And I apologize for the sporadic posts, lately the Internet here has not been great. Heck, it even took a few days to get this post online. I would also like to get my pictures posted to facebook soon so everyone can see what's going on besides the select few we post to the blog.

No one tell him, but I pee in sam's bed while he's sleeping so he thinks he has a bed wetting problem.

my life as a two eyed cyclops

Soooo, up dates in a nut shell. (or is it updates in a nutshell?) very different meanings i thinks.

Friday, Sam and i went to shabbat dinner at Rabbi Simons. One other family was there. As they are orthodox, between the two families there must have been 15 kids (no joke). The food though was great and it put me in a very good mood. We even learned about biblical farming which involves farming your field on a 7 year cycle. The I wont get into the details but essentially it has to do with giving food to the poor some years and also not tending to your field once every 7 years so it can recover (kinda like a precursor to crop rotation). Anything that is grown in that 7th year is considered holy and may not be sold for a profit (for example, some fruits and veggies grow annually without having to be replanted).

I also hung out with Matan again and some of his Israeli friends. that was fun. You know, its very interesting to be hanging out with a group of israeli jews when jokes are told. some jokes just don't translate into english well at all. I'm impressed that they have both Chuck Norris Jokes and Dead baby jokes. I used to find baby jokes funny, but ever since the incident at the ER a few months ago its hard to laugh as much at something like that. But the most surprising thing was when they started telling holocaust jokes. I learned in my "jewish humor" class that there are many holocaust jokes, but it was still weird to hear them told by a group of people that are Jewish, and in isreal and have literally fought for our right to have this amazing country of Israel. but then again, i guess sometimes when an event is devestating beyond comprehension, there's nothing left to do but laugh.

speaking of that, Matan is still in the military as he reenlisted after his mandatory service ended. He told me about how absurd it is that the world hates Israel. He's seen Hamas using children as human shields and then the media goes on to say how Israel goes around killing kids. He has responded to intelligence tips that hamas was going to be shooting rockets from a certain building by blowing up those buildings. He then has seen the secondary blasts from the rockets that Hamas had stored there intending to shoot at Israel. It truly is amazing how great Hamas is at manipulating media exposure. I have no problem with Palestinians, but it is very unfortunate how clear it is that the whole world hates Israel(and jews?).

as a side note things are safe here. There are more traffic related deaths than war related deaths in israel. The area sam and I are living in is actually an upper class suburban type area that is far from Gaza, so it isn't necessary to worry about our immediate safety.

As for my internship. Getting things started is a pain in the bootyhole. The hospital seems to have endless amounts of red tape in their supply room. Hell, i probably wont be able to do anything there but push around wheelchairs and they are still making it difficult. The ambulance would require me to pay them $500 and take a 60 hour first aid course to work with them. Its just kinda frustrating because i've been doing emergency work for almost 5 years now and i don't want to spend money and time on the additional training. I'm talking to my coordinator about finding me another internship or figuring out a deal with some ambulance to minimize the amount of money id need to spend in order to volunteer. I could also talk to some doctors personally to see if i could start volunteering for them. I also want to Talk to Zev, the guy who runs the Krav Maga school to see if maybe i could help out there. Maybe i could work with some of the kids or something. I don't know. I have no problem living here, hanging out, and traveling but I wouldn't mind being a bit busier.

Watt else is knew? Eye kan't rally thinks of much else at the moment. kan ewe?

We're Super Rich Again!

I finally got around to cashing my Stagerim check. As part of our program, we receive a monthly stipend of 400 dollars.* So, yeah. I'm pretty much the richest guy around these days. I've been busy brainstorming different things I can do with the money:

1) Buy a really nice car.
2) Pay my rent 4 times.
3) Buy 2 not as nice cars.
4) Place a down payment on a condo.
5) Candy!
6) Invest it.
7) Hide it.
8) Steal Justin's stipend, then use our combined money to buy 6 crappy cars.
9) Gamble it away.
10) Gamble, but win lots of money instead of losing it.

Well, that's all I have for now as far as ideas go. Byeeeeeeeee.

*NIS

Purim

On tuesday, which was the holiday, Purim, I called Rabbi Simon to ask advice for additional things I could be doing in Ra'anana to enhance my Israel experience. Instead, he immediately invited me, Sam and Leaht (a friend we made here) to go to a Purim dinner. We accepted as we had nothing else to do and there's no reason to turn down a free meal with potentially interesting people. Interesting people who were also all orthodox Jews.

We arrived at the Shul where they were meeting to do their eating and found that there were approximately 30-40 people there for dinner, most of them families. Many people were even still dressed up in costumes too. First I'll comment on the people. They were all so incredibly nice and friendly and they all seemed like successful, intelligent who were quite interesting. I met a Dentist dressed as a clown, a very successful entrepreneurial startup manager and a guy who works for IBM, all of whom I exchanged numbers with as they offered to have us to dinner some time. We then sat down for an amazing meal that involved 3 delicious courses, most of which were homemade by Rabbi Simon. It was impressive that he cooked so much great food for so many people.

Now I don't know whether things went on were part of the Purim tradition, or merely what this group does, but the meal was interesting too. First of all, every so often people would break out in hebrew songs. I didn't know any of the songs, but the frequent singing didn't exactly surprise me. The more interesting part though was that every so often, Rabbi would ask one of the adult men to talk about something. They all began with a joke (some more appropriate than others) and then spoke for a few minutes about some philosophical topic based on the story of Purim. Sam and I were not invited to speak even though our breadth of jokes is wide, our knowledge of Purim is narrow.

After dinner, we helped clean up. The guy dressed as a clown gave me his jester type hat which I wore for the rest of the night (i'll have to get a pic from the evening from whoever had a camera as I had forgotten my own). They also gave us two giant trays of leftovers which we've been eating non stop and are so good. And this friday, Sam and I are going to have Shabbat dinner with Rabbi Simon and his family. Should be another nice time.

i like meeting dogs in the park

ps. still working on the internship but starting to work on getting another one just in case.

Purim

Purim was on Monday and Tuesday. It's like Halloween minus the trick-or-treating. Everyone gets dressed up and goes out to have some fun and general debauchery. The thing that pushes it ahead of Halloween in my book is its relevance to Jewish history. Unlike Halloween, there's something specific that people are celebrating. For those of you not familiar with the story of Purim, I suggest taking a look at this.

Anyway, Justin and I went to a bar in a neighboring town with our friend Leaht. Here are some pre-bar pictures of our costumes (we went as Americans):







Byeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Blog Update: Twitter?

UPDATE 3/10/09:
Twitter is up and running. You can now see both of our posts at once and it will tell you who wrote what.

As you may have guessed, the conversations Justin and I have are filled with hilarious observations, relevant discussion, and biting remarks. Sometimes, we turn these thoughts into a blog post. Most of the time, however, we don't. No big deal, right? Well, every once in a while, we have a short thought that we wish we could instantly share with the blog, but we don't and end up forgetting about it. While walking though Tel Aviv the other day, Justin came up with a nifty idea: We should incorporate Twitter to the blog.

We don't have any experience Twittering, so let's consider this a trial run. If we feel like we're using Twitter to contribute worthwhile content to the blog, then we'll keep it up. If not, it'll be like I never added the Twitter widget to the top right corner of the page.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know what Twitter is, you can either watch this video or not worry about it. Just know that we might have little mini-posts in the top right corner of the blog.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Pretty Self Explanitory

The past few days have been quite good as the weather has improved.

One of the most bizarre things happened this past week. I played this sport called, "basketball." I had played it in my youth yet the pasttime has escaped my practice for many moons. On Tuesday night we played, and on Wednesday I noticed that my knee had slightly scraped skin and i could not bend my knee without pain. Although playing basketball was a good workout and lots of fun, this knee pain was surprising since i don't remember hitting my knee hard. Unfortunately, I had to skip Krav Maga on Wednesday, but my knee feels better now so I'll be able to resume training Sunday evening.

Thursday was Jerusalem day for Sam and me. We got round trip tickets for the bus from Ra'anana to Jerusalem for approximately 40NIS (<$10). It took just over an hour, but we made it to Jerusalem easily (compare to my previous post on traveling to Jerusalem). We traveled with and spent the first part of our day with Jack, a friend we met at the Merkaz. The first thing we did is went to the Shuk (marketplace) and found Marzipan and bought some Rugalach (pronounced ru-gu-la) and it was absolutely incredible (supposedly some of the best in the world). It was so good that we came back later before leaving to get a box to share with friends.

We then got some awesome schnitzel (breaded, fried chicken breast) in laffa (extra big pita like wrap). We then wandered aimlessly through the old city where i got some coffee with each cup being brewed individually over a Bunsen burner. Somehow we made it to the Kotel (aka western wall aka wailing wall) where we talked to the security guard about good music for a lil while. The western wall, as always, was a nice experience, except for the beggars at the wall. There are people praying and absorbed in their own thoughts, all the while some orthodox Jews are asking for money, it's really annoying. I guess I'll give money to people sometimes just to be a good person, but sometimes these guys just look like they're preying on praying people. grarg.

No idea what this is, but we're wandering around old city

The Kotel

We also walked to the city of David (which is right next to the wall) and checked out an excavation site. It's amazing to think about looking at a couple thousand years of history and really being able to infer nothing from what you're looking at. Thus, we will soon be investing in a Lonely Planet guide to israel and we may even try to go on a free walking tour of Jerusalem. So It's very easy to get to and find the crazy historical sites, but it's more difficult to actually absorb the depth of what you're actually looking at.

Here's a picture of sam trying to get a grip on several thousand years of history

At the Kotel they were getting a delivery of old city furniture?

This is right next to the Kotel and i thought it would make a pretty picture. I was right.

Yesterday was also a good day. It was probably about 80 degrees so I went to the beach (sam decided not to go cause he's a big fat jerk face). On the way to the beach, we were pleasantly surprised by a parade running right down the main street (Ahuza) . This conveniently shut down the buses, but it was cool to see. The holiday, Purim, is coming up next week so the weekend is full of parades all over the country. It looks like Halloween with everyone dressed up in costumes and having a great old time.

Purim parade on Ahuza st

After the parade, the buses started up again and we hopped on. The bus ride took about 45 minutes, yet it is a ride that takes a car only about 15 minutes. Either way, it was a 8.50NIS ride (a little over $2) to get to the beach and what a nice day it was. Just hanging out in the sun reading and enjoying the view of cliffs, ocean, sand and the Israeli women. What a great way to begin the weekend.

Would be awesome to live in one of those houses

Today was about 90 degrees, and it felt soooo nice. I think that if this is 90 degrees, then i can definitely handle the heat once it gets up to over 100. I loved the heat. went out for a run/walk around Ra'anana and even found a place to do pullups and other workout stuff (i think i'm going to have to make this a routine thing). Although the best part about the run, was that my knee felt fine so back to Krav Maga tomorrow night.

Jimmy cracked corn, but why doesn't anyone care?

Where the Money's Going

I don't know if we've mentioned this yet, but Justin and I are poor. Lucky for us, then, that our program didn't cost any money, our rent is roughly $25 a month, and we don't pay any utilities. In other words, we're really only spending money on two things: Travel and food. We've been keeping you fairly up to date with the former (expect another post soon on yesterday's Jerusalem expedition), but not as much with the latter.

Justin and I are also in the unique position of being not-quite tourists and not-quite residents. As a result, we're often trying to balance the two often-contradictory lifestyles. For instance, every time we see a restaurant or bar or store or whatever, we want to go in and buy whatever they're selling. At the same time, we're going to be here for as long as six months, we're living on a budget, so we have act (to an extent) with constraint. Still, we want to enjoy ourselves and experience as much as possible. If we're constantly stressing over every shekel we spend, then we might end up skipping out on something that would have been worthwhile. It's a little confusing.

So, how do we tackle the issue of food? For one, we've actually been cooking quite a bit. To keep things interesting, we do our best to keep our shopping interesting. Our kitchen is usually stocked with fresh fruits and veggies from local produce stands. We buy pita and other fresh breads from a specialty bread bakery, zatar and other spices from a spice shop, pastries from yet another bakery, and we buy cheese, meat, eggs, and cereal from the supermarket. We also get hummus by the the tub:

Look, here are some of the meals we've made:

Some chicken, hummus, onions, peppers, spinach, and cheese in a hollowed out pita.

Justin fried up some chicken, making the breading out of cereal and spices.

A house favorite: Potato soup with onions, chicken flavor, Tabasco, other spices, two types of cheese, and some bread for dipping.

But then again, I usually just say "screw it" and buy whatever looks good, money be damned! Judging from some of our pictures, I think Justin does the same thing. Here are some of our best eats:

Justin enjoying a Burgers Bar lamb burger.

We went to Marzipan in Jerusalem, home of the best rugelach in the world.

Justin enjoying some chicken schnitzel in Jerusalem.

At the market in Tel Aviv, about to eat what I nervously dubbed the "salmonella special." After throwing raw chicken on the grill, the guy wiped his hands on his greasy apron and immediately proceeded to hollow out the pita with his fingers. Man did it taste good, though.

K byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Be cool: Cops. Look old (Part II).

Today I went to my internship. They're totally overworking me. We did the taping for that police show that I mentioned last week. I was camera 2, which meant that I set the shot once before the rehearsal, then stood by for an hour and a half in case the camera were to move on its own accord. It didn't. The more interesting part of my day happened on the ride home.

Oded, one of the police officers involved with the show, lives in Netanya, which is close to Ra'anana so he offered to give me a ride. We got to talking and I learned a good deal about the Israeli Police Force. Ready for some psuedo-reporting involving borderline-irresponsibly little research? And awwaaaayyyyy we go:

Oded has the title of "Chief Superintendent- Community and Civil Guard Department." He works at the central station and is one of the officers in charge of the organization, strategy, and deployment of the 50,000+ volunteer police officers.

The Israeli Police force implement the ideology of the Broken Windows theory. For those of you not currently reading The Tipping Point, here's author Malcolm Gladwell's description:

Broken Windows was the brainchild of the criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. Wilson and Kelling argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes. In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive pandhandling, they write, are all the equivalent of broken windows, invitations to more serious crimes.

Basically, the theory is that crime is contagious. Cracking down on the small crimes will ultimately curb the serious ones. It's the same ideology that fueled both the New York City subway system's revival in the late 80s and Rudolph Guliani's fight against crime. The Israeli police rely heavily on the volunteers to establish a visible police presence throughout the country. They serve mostly as patrol, but also do traffic duty, community outreach, etc. Oded asked me if I had seen any police cars at night. When I replied that I see them all the time, he said, "Good. My volunteers are doing their jobs." The majority of nighttime patrol cars are volunteers.

There have been significant changes to the program since its inception in the mid-70s. At the time, terrorism was the largest source of crime, so a great deal of training and effort went towards practical counter-terrorism. While terrorism prevention is still one of the areas of concern for the volunteers, car theft and burglary have since become the big focus points.

The program is fairly selective. Volunteers must pass a background check and have no prior convictions. All volunteers also go through training before being deployed on the streets.

At about this point in our conversation, Oded pulled over to the side of the highway and said, "Are you good from here?" I told him that I had no idea where we were. He pointed towards some trees in the distance and said, "Ra'anana is that way." I thanked him for the ride and he drove off. A couple of wrong turns later, I was home. I think I have to go in to my internship AGAIN next Wednesday. Ugghhh. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

This is one sick duck

Ssorry for the lack of posting over the past few days. It's been raining all the time and that tends to put a damper on my motivation to write. This may seem contradictory because i could be more likely to stay in and write, but i guess when it rains, i just feel lazy.

So, above is my two ducks that I have here in Israel. The small one is from Meredith and quacks a whole lot, just like Meredith. I talk to it all the time and ask it for advice. The other one is one i just got and actually dispenses floss. I like sick ducks that have floss in their gut for cleaning my teeth. I think he's actually making me floss even more than i used to.

I have also gone to Krav Maga twice (last wednesday and sunday nights). Krav Maga seems similar to the quaker blend, yet the extreme focus on combat makes it quite different. Each day after krav maga, all my muscles are tired and my arms are bruised from the hard contact. Last Wednesday we practiced against multiple attackers and yesterday we did some practice with being attacked from different positions (standing, kneeling and laying on the ground) with both empty hand and knife. I'm planning on keeping a log of all the stuff i learn so i can incorporate it when I return home and share with my kempo club (aka, the quaker blend). It's not easy, but i do like it. I think i'll stick with the beginner class for a few weeks until my arms are more resiliant from bruising and it would be good to have more endurance for the longish classes.

There was a whole lot of rain this weekend so it was hard getting out and about but things are fine. Yesterday we went to tel aviv and walked around a lot and had a terrible time finding a bus back, but it was a learning experience. it was nice getting to sit and read on the beach for a while (even though it was cold).

I also got a call about my internship today. Apparently the guy in charge of interns has been not at work for the past several weeks. So i spoke to him last Thursday when he told me there were a few things he still needed from me (even though i had already sent them months ago), so i took care of that right away. I then spoke to my internship coordinator today, and she said it'll be another week until everything is worked out with the Emergency room. hopefully I'll be able to pick up some more Hebrew in the meantime.

so in other news, i can't really think of anything else to blog about. although this weekend is supposedly Purim which is supposedly a really fun holiday where people here get dressed up as if its Halloween and have lots of fun. Looks like we have to figure out what we're doing.

righty tighty, lefty loosy.

Out and About

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Instead of blaming me for a lack of devotion to the blog, you should be asking yourself, "It's Justin's fault, isn't it?" Yes. It is mostly his fault. But, as you might guess, there are other possible reasons for a bit of slacking on my part. Allow me to list what some of them may or may not be:

1) Our internet access has been shoddy at best.

2) We have been performing illicit, highly illegal acts and to blog of these acts could alert the Israeli government, thus jeopardizing our visas.

3) We don't even have said visas, and do not want to risk the Israeli government discovering this.

But the main reason is fairly simple. We don't spend as much time in the computer room of the absorption center as we did when we first arrived. Why? Because we made some friends!

Allow me to explain: Last Thursday, our program had a get together in Tel Aviv. Having no prior commitments, Justin and I decided to attend. When we arrived at the Mona Lisa Cafe, we met about 20 other Stagerim participants. Apparently, Stagerim was (more on that in a future post) an international program. By my count, there were about 13 different countries represented at the gathering, including France, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Boston, Hungary, and Australia. Some of these people, it turned out, live in the very same absorption center that we do!

Dirty little secret: I hate Justin. Can't stand the guy. Never could. So I was pretty happy to meet some other young folk such as myself, and have been hanging out with them quite a bit the last few days. Unfortunately, Justin's always there too. Will someone tell him to back off?

Back to the night in Tel Aviv. Some of us enjoyed an adult beverage or two as we got to know one another. After a few hours, we decided to hit the bar scene. The whole night reminded me a lot of Freshman year in college. There were awkward introductions, obligitory getting to know you questions, and then a large group of people trying to agree on a place to go out. A lot standing around, indeciveness, and backtracking. But guess what? I loved Freshman year. Had a great time. Met most of my good friends. So I ain't complaining.

Outside La Chouffe, one of the bars we went to in Tel Aviv, with 1.5 new friends.

I promise to contribute at least 3 more posts this week.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee