Akko

About a month ago, Pavel and I started going on weekend day trips. Our first was to Akko, a coastal city north of Haifa. Akko is notable for several reasons. In 1798, Napolean unsuccessfully laid seige on the city. In the picture below, you can see part of the protective wall that surrounds the old city. Akko is also one of the few cities in Israel in which both Jews and Arabs live together. Pavel and I discuss this more in depth in the podcast, but I'll just mention that in general, this doesn't create too many problems, although conflicts arise from time to time. But mostly, I was there for the hummus.

You see, Akko is known as having the best hummus in the world. I learned this while on my birthright trip. We were walking by the water in Akko's old city when Yoni, our tour guide, pointed out a restaurant, saying that this restaurant, here in this tiny city, was home to the best hummus in the world. Did we stop and eat there? Of course not. There wasn't any time to stop. There's never any time for hummus! I made a vow that I would come back to Israel some day, and when I did, I was going to find that restaurant and have me some hummus. In other words, Akko's hummus is secretly the real reason I'm in Israel. (I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "How much better can the hummus be in Akko? I've had hummus in literally every other city in the world and there's a lot of good hummus out there." If you ask me, you should stop being so cynical.)

Somehow--and I don't know how this happened--Pavel and I couldn't find the hummus restaurant that Yoni vaguely pointed out to me nine months ago. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm usually great at things like that, but in this case, I came up short. Instead of eating the best hummus in the world, we went to some crappy, overpriced tourist trap that was listed in the guidebook as a place that only "insiders" know about. In other news, "insider" is my new favorite pseudonym for "white person." Here's an example of how it can be used:

Pavel: What did you think of the shuk in Akko?

Sam: It sure had a lot of insiders.

Pavel: Yeah, our guidebook sure does a great job of making us feel like insiders.

Some of our fellow insiders shopping at the shuk

What really frustrates me, though, is how stupid I was about finding the hummus place. I could have called Yoni and asked him what the hummus place is called, where it is, and how to get there. I could have also asked any person in Akko those same questions. Did I? Nope. Why? Because I'm a moron. Now I'm going to have to make Aliyah. I really don't want to do that, but how else will I ever get to try the best hummus in the world? I think I'll make a good soldier.

New Akko city street

This view does not impress me

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Catching Up

I know I haven't been a great blogger lately. Certainly a lot has happened since my last post. Let's recap some of the bigger things that have "gone down" since April 30th, shall we?

- Citing irreconcilable differences, Justin and I split up as roommates. I got to keep the apartment, while Justin moved back to the United States. We had some great times, but in the end, we weren't meant to be together as roommates in Israel. For obvious reasons, we both agreed not to comment on the split for one month. Well, my friends, that month has passed and I have a few things I'd like to get off my chest. Just because Justin and I aren't living together anymore doesn't mean that we still love you. We don't. In fact, if not for this blog, we'd probably still be roommates. I want you to think about that for a few minutes. To be fair, you're not the only person I blame for this. I also blame Justin.

Can you believe this guy?

Anyway, Justin moving out seriously shook up the Ra'anana social dynamics. Here's how it boils down: Justin, Pavel, and I hung all the time. With Justin gone, it's just me and Pavel most of the time. Pavel works during the day. I rarely do and Justin never did. This makes things considerably more boring during daytime hours. You would think this would lead to more blog posts, right? You'd be wrong.

-I lined up work for my return to the US. I'll be teaching tennis at the same place I did last summer. This is good, because I am very broke. Plus, nothing beats working outdoors and playing tennis all the time. I'll be starting that around June 20th. For reasons I'm about to mention, I may keep the blog going through the summer and into next year. For those same reasons, I also need to find some supplemental work for the summer.

-I did some more traveling. Pavel and I visited the northern cities of Akko and Haifa and spent two nights in the old city of Jerusalem. This week, I visited some family friends who live on a Kibbutz near Tiberias. All of the trips were a lot of fun, and I'll try and get some blog posts up with pictures shortly.

-I sprained my ankle playing basketball. I had the exact same injury last year, only worse. Its been four days and I can already walk without a limp. I may be back on the basketball court, spraining more ankles within a week.

-The big news: On August 8th, I fly to Hong Kong, where I'll spend the following 10 months teaching English in a Chinese public school. Right now, I don't have much more information, other than the fact that A) I'm incredibly excited, and B) I'll continue the blog in some form or another. I may post occasionally throughout the summer on my trip preparation (and maybe even some tennis anecdotes). Obviously, living in Hong Kong will be nothing like anything I've ever done. Hopefully, that'll translate into some interesting blog fodder.

In other news, I only a couple of weeks left in Israel. Pretty soon, I'm outta here. Before going home, though, I'm headed to L.A. for five days to visit college friends. As for the rest of my time in Israel, here's what you can expect:

-A couple of posts recapping some of my recent trips (with pictures).

-A two-part podcast about traveling to Akko.

-A twitter here and there.

-A few exit posts about final thoughts, feelings, murders, etc. These could conceivably continue past my time in Israel.

-A post about L.A.

That's it for now, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.