Sunday (12/25)
merry xmas! but more importantly, happy hannananukah! i sure wish i could watch the hebrew hammer right now, even though hanukkah actually starts tonight.
in honor of the holiday, i will say a few words that my friend keith once told me:
"you suck, hananuka sucks, shove a menorah up your ass."
so, instead of waking up early to go to class with limor, i slept in (big surprise) until 11am. i would have slept later, but loud telephone conversations in the living room woke me up.
about half an hour after i got up, i thought i heard limor get home, so i jumped back into bed from where i was working on the computer so limor could wake me up, but after five minutes nobody came in, so i assumed it must have been another roommate coming back. little did i know that about twenty minutes later limor would come in with breakfast on a tray! ahhh...so thoughtful she is. breakfast was damn good too - she basically took everything sandwichable from the fridge and put it between two pieces of bread. just how i like it. i felt bad that she didn't get a chance to wake me up though. maybe tomorrow (ha, at 4pm).
because limi planned on skipping her second class (or third, she "saved up" so she could skip a bunch while i'm here) we had until about 5:30pm to work. limor had some papers and things to catch up on, and i had the last several days to record, so we had plenty to do. i did take a cereal break at one point about an hour before we left.
then we went to class (which was the last one of the day, that she skipped the previous week), and i spent the hour and a half online, switching between typing up my travels and chatting with people on IM. i'm really glad i got to catch several of my friends from home, so i filled up a good hour or so with conversation. i tried to wish everybody a happy holiday that i could find, but i guess some people were already home and didn't have their computers on.
after class, limor had to drop off some papers, and then we rushed back across campus to her cousin zohar's apartment. we just barely made it out the gate before they locked it for the night - which is stupid, because they have one of those rotating gates that only lets people out, so i don't understand why they have to lock it. "no you can't leave the school you're trapped here forever mwahahahaha!" if we hadn't gotten out, we would have needed to circumnavigate the entire school just to get back to the other side.
so, zohar met us outside, which was very nice of her because it was drizzling and she stepped in a puddle to do so. there limor and i watched a little bit tv (on the one channel her set received) and chatted with zohar's nice russian friend. then we all headed over to celebrate the first night of hannukah with limor's friend amit. zohar tried to show us a shortcut, but she kinda got lost in the backway twistings and turnings, and we finally gave up due to treacherous mud puddles and walked down the street. it seemed like way we finally went was shorter and easier than the "shortcut" we had been trying before, but oh well. when in rome.
at amit's apartment he was just finishing up cooking up a ton of latkes [potato pancakes / hashbrowns], and i could see trays of souvganiot [filled doughnuts, like krispy kreme] sitting on the table. he had a bunch of other friends there as well, including one guy who actually used to live in cary (apparently limor and i had met him at a red hot chili pepper's concert several years ago). so i enjoyed some extremely tasty and oily foods - i ate about six latkes and 1 1/2 souvganiot, which at the time i thought was a good idea but later came to regret. it was nice hearing more hanukah songs than christmas songs. and those latkes were so good!
i also decided i had to have a dreidel, because i realized that the ones in israel have the letter "pay" instead of "shin". this is because the four letters around the dreidel stand for "nes gadol hayah po" [a great miracle happened *here*] instead of "sham" [there]. in fact, as long as i'm spouting hebrew, i'm also halfway to "leshana haba b'yerushalayim" [next year in jerusalem].
after our nice meal, limor and i parted ways with zohar and her friend, and we walked the twenty minutes back to her apartment through a light rain. fortunately i remembered to bring a rain jacket, which worked wonderfully, and i almost didn't even mind it when limor continuously poked me in the head with her umbrella.
we got back, dried off, turned on the radiator, and went to sleep. i woke up a couple hours later with a terrible stomach ache from all that oil. ugh...it lasted all night, but i don't feel too bad this morning (12/26) as i sit and type all this up.
speaking of which - i'm finally caught up to today! nice!
2005-12-26
rain down the stairs
Friday (12/23)
The next morning we woke up and had one of those great israeli breakfasts - all sorts of cheeses and hummus with pita, and we even had some fresh avocado straight from the tree (itzik knows this guy who has a couple), and i finished up with a bowl of pillows.
speaking of which...i'll be right back. i feel like some right now...
so we headed out to zichon ya'akov (memory of jacob), a town up near haifa. it started out as a nice and sunny day that promised rain later. before we left, i took a look out of their kitchen window at the beautiful view of the beach half a mile away.
it was a short drive (1 hr) during which i caught up a little more on this journal. i'd driven by the hotel we were going to stay at (havat habaron - "the baron's ranch") before, both on birthright and on one of my previous trips with limor's family, but i got a better look at it this time. it's a pretty recognizable hotel, because it looks like a set of stairs built into the side of a mountain.
we had a couple hours before check-in, so we spent that time checking out zichon ya'akov. it was one of the first villages in the region, so it's got a lot of history. one of the big attractions is the winery, where you can take tours and sample their wares at their restaurant. we took a look around, but skipped the tour in favor of going shopping. plus, i'd already seen a winery in france, so i was good on that score.
also, right when we arrived, we tried to find parking on the narrow, windy, mountain streets. when we finally found a regular, unassuming spot on the road right behind another car. after we got out of the car, this lady next to us launched into a five-minute tirade of "helpful" advice about how we can't park there no it's illegal to park there we should park in this other place (that obviously is not for parking) but we shouldn't park here because it's illegal to park there we should...she just would not stop. we were like "okay thanks, we'll take our chances" but she could not give up - she pulled around beside us and continued to be "helpful", until finally we just ignored her and she drove off. weird.
after the winery we went over to this quaint, renovated street. it was originally the main thoroughfare of the town, and had places like the town's first water pump, the place where the first town council used to meet in a big circle, and the town's very first mcdonalds. like all renovated tourist towns, there are plenty of kitchy places to shop for handmade, locally-made, elven-made, etc gifts. so we went browsing, and aviva and limor spent like an hour at this one place that sold - guess what - clothes. not even authentic or unique clothes, but regular average department store clothing. itzik and i just looked at each other - we've been through this before.
it started to cloud over, so we piled back in the car and headed up the mountain to the hotel. it was pretty windy by the time we got there, and it had already started to drizzle. we checked in and explored the hotel a bit. like i mentioned before, it's built into the mountain like a set of stairs, so each level sticks farther out than the terrace above it. to get from floor to floor, there's a diagonal elevator, like a cross between an elevator and an escalator. if you're not paying attention (and this happened quite a bit), you'll get knocked over by momentum when it starts and stops.
it was very pretty outside (it hadn't started raining) but it was chilly, so we headed up to the jacuzzi and indoor pool. for some reason, the jacuzzi / sauna / shower room was separated from the pool by a short walk through the dining halls. in fact, the front window of the pool looked out over an outdoor pool and the patio deck, but the back window of the pool looked into a dining hall. i can't imagine why - think of how weird it would be if you were eating lunch and some old dude / dudette in a bikini was doing laps in front of you.
i noticed that there was a connection from the indoor to an unfilled outdoor pool, which was unfortunately closed, but it would have been really cool to swim back and forth from the cold to the heat. until i noticed later that there was a rainpipe draining into the outdoor section of the pool - who knows what's in that water?
after the oil-bath from wednesday, limor and i weren't feeling much like jacuzzi, so we left back to our room on the 14th level (the main lobby / dining hall / pool areas were on the 15th). barak joined us, and we tried watching tv, but it was really hard to find something on the ten channels we got. i did watch some bizarre kids show featuring two guys dressed up as the red ("adom") and green ("yarok") lights of a traffic light, who also rapped about the importance of looking both ways before crossing (some kid almost got run over by a tractor at one point). i was trying really hard to figure out what was going on / why any child would watch it, when fortunately limor saved me by changing the channel.
we ended up on the MGM channel, which played old famous movies or something. against my better judgment, i really enjoyed the movie which was on. it was a very engaging tale of a black man (played by a young sidney poitier) who somehow fell in with five german nuns in the middle of nowhere, texas. he gets suckered into building them a chapel, but because of his big heart he is slowly won over, and wins over, the group of nuns, and everybody learns a valuable lesson. i'm not sure what the actual movie title is, but the hebrew translation was "five nuns and a man".
aha, the actual title is "lilies of the field".
so while we were watching the movie, itzik was in the process of getting us a room change due to the incredibly noisy heating unit. it didn't bother me, but then again i'm special. that's what my mom tells me, anyway. so we eventually switched to the 5th level which didn't have as good of a view, but by that point it didn't really matter, because it was cloudy with a chance of meatballs.
after the movie, limor and barak were bored, and i was hungry, so we went back up to the dining floor. actually, i think we watched the movie before we went swimming, but whatever. i couldn't wait the hour or so until dinner (6:30pm), so we split a tuna salad in the lounge area. it was gigantic, so itzik and aviva helped us finish it when they came up. i think we went back down to the room until dinnertime, but i'm not sure.
we enjoyed a very nice meat meal at our "reserved" table in the "fancy" dining area. instead of sitting next to the pool, we had a higher-level area (next to the jacuzzi room, although no glass windows). there were all sorts of dishes (and parve desserts blech), but as always the best part was the hummus and bread. we took our leisurely time to sample everything, and walked back to the room, crossing the windy patio deck.
we chilled in the room for a while, watching some israeli programs (i played on my computer), and then we went back upstairs to the lounge for what i was told was dancing. instead, we were met by one set of relatives - limor's uncle, aunt, and cousin shaked (pronounced shah-KED). after some chatting, the hotel staff brought out a birthday cake for me with the message "mazel tov to 120" iced in hebrew. the cake was good, but we found out later that the hotel made a mistake and gave the chocolate cake limor's parents order to another family, and we got their cake. it even had (in english!) "happy birthday jeremy" - and it was chocolate - so i was kinda sad that the other family ate it. oh well.
so the dancing was pretty lame - the music started in the 1950s and was slowly making it's way to more current times, but only old people were on the floor - so we left to go to sleep.
The next morning we woke up and had one of those great israeli breakfasts - all sorts of cheeses and hummus with pita, and we even had some fresh avocado straight from the tree (itzik knows this guy who has a couple), and i finished up with a bowl of pillows.
speaking of which...i'll be right back. i feel like some right now...
so we headed out to zichon ya'akov (memory of jacob), a town up near haifa. it started out as a nice and sunny day that promised rain later. before we left, i took a look out of their kitchen window at the beautiful view of the beach half a mile away.
it was a short drive (1 hr) during which i caught up a little more on this journal. i'd driven by the hotel we were going to stay at (havat habaron - "the baron's ranch") before, both on birthright and on one of my previous trips with limor's family, but i got a better look at it this time. it's a pretty recognizable hotel, because it looks like a set of stairs built into the side of a mountain.
we had a couple hours before check-in, so we spent that time checking out zichon ya'akov. it was one of the first villages in the region, so it's got a lot of history. one of the big attractions is the winery, where you can take tours and sample their wares at their restaurant. we took a look around, but skipped the tour in favor of going shopping. plus, i'd already seen a winery in france, so i was good on that score.
also, right when we arrived, we tried to find parking on the narrow, windy, mountain streets. when we finally found a regular, unassuming spot on the road right behind another car. after we got out of the car, this lady next to us launched into a five-minute tirade of "helpful" advice about how we can't park there no it's illegal to park there we should park in this other place (that obviously is not for parking) but we shouldn't park here because it's illegal to park there we should...she just would not stop. we were like "okay thanks, we'll take our chances" but she could not give up - she pulled around beside us and continued to be "helpful", until finally we just ignored her and she drove off. weird.
after the winery we went over to this quaint, renovated street. it was originally the main thoroughfare of the town, and had places like the town's first water pump, the place where the first town council used to meet in a big circle, and the town's very first mcdonalds. like all renovated tourist towns, there are plenty of kitchy places to shop for handmade, locally-made, elven-made, etc gifts. so we went browsing, and aviva and limor spent like an hour at this one place that sold - guess what - clothes. not even authentic or unique clothes, but regular average department store clothing. itzik and i just looked at each other - we've been through this before.
it started to cloud over, so we piled back in the car and headed up the mountain to the hotel. it was pretty windy by the time we got there, and it had already started to drizzle. we checked in and explored the hotel a bit. like i mentioned before, it's built into the mountain like a set of stairs, so each level sticks farther out than the terrace above it. to get from floor to floor, there's a diagonal elevator, like a cross between an elevator and an escalator. if you're not paying attention (and this happened quite a bit), you'll get knocked over by momentum when it starts and stops.
it was very pretty outside (it hadn't started raining) but it was chilly, so we headed up to the jacuzzi and indoor pool. for some reason, the jacuzzi / sauna / shower room was separated from the pool by a short walk through the dining halls. in fact, the front window of the pool looked out over an outdoor pool and the patio deck, but the back window of the pool looked into a dining hall. i can't imagine why - think of how weird it would be if you were eating lunch and some old dude / dudette in a bikini was doing laps in front of you.
i noticed that there was a connection from the indoor to an unfilled outdoor pool, which was unfortunately closed, but it would have been really cool to swim back and forth from the cold to the heat. until i noticed later that there was a rainpipe draining into the outdoor section of the pool - who knows what's in that water?
after the oil-bath from wednesday, limor and i weren't feeling much like jacuzzi, so we left back to our room on the 14th level (the main lobby / dining hall / pool areas were on the 15th). barak joined us, and we tried watching tv, but it was really hard to find something on the ten channels we got. i did watch some bizarre kids show featuring two guys dressed up as the red ("adom") and green ("yarok") lights of a traffic light, who also rapped about the importance of looking both ways before crossing (some kid almost got run over by a tractor at one point). i was trying really hard to figure out what was going on / why any child would watch it, when fortunately limor saved me by changing the channel.
we ended up on the MGM channel, which played old famous movies or something. against my better judgment, i really enjoyed the movie which was on. it was a very engaging tale of a black man (played by a young sidney poitier) who somehow fell in with five german nuns in the middle of nowhere, texas. he gets suckered into building them a chapel, but because of his big heart he is slowly won over, and wins over, the group of nuns, and everybody learns a valuable lesson. i'm not sure what the actual movie title is, but the hebrew translation was "five nuns and a man".
aha, the actual title is "lilies of the field".
so while we were watching the movie, itzik was in the process of getting us a room change due to the incredibly noisy heating unit. it didn't bother me, but then again i'm special. that's what my mom tells me, anyway. so we eventually switched to the 5th level which didn't have as good of a view, but by that point it didn't really matter, because it was cloudy with a chance of meatballs.
after the movie, limor and barak were bored, and i was hungry, so we went back up to the dining floor. actually, i think we watched the movie before we went swimming, but whatever. i couldn't wait the hour or so until dinner (6:30pm), so we split a tuna salad in the lounge area. it was gigantic, so itzik and aviva helped us finish it when they came up. i think we went back down to the room until dinnertime, but i'm not sure.
we enjoyed a very nice meat meal at our "reserved" table in the "fancy" dining area. instead of sitting next to the pool, we had a higher-level area (next to the jacuzzi room, although no glass windows). there were all sorts of dishes (and parve desserts blech), but as always the best part was the hummus and bread. we took our leisurely time to sample everything, and walked back to the room, crossing the windy patio deck.
we chilled in the room for a while, watching some israeli programs (i played on my computer), and then we went back upstairs to the lounge for what i was told was dancing. instead, we were met by one set of relatives - limor's uncle, aunt, and cousin shaked (pronounced shah-KED). after some chatting, the hotel staff brought out a birthday cake for me with the message "mazel tov to 120" iced in hebrew. the cake was good, but we found out later that the hotel made a mistake and gave the chocolate cake limor's parents order to another family, and we got their cake. it even had (in english!) "happy birthday jeremy" - and it was chocolate - so i was kinda sad that the other family ate it. oh well.
so the dancing was pretty lame - the music started in the 1950s and was slowly making it's way to more current times, but only old people were on the floor - so we left to go to sleep.
183,000 words
hey, i started uploading the pictures i've taken so far to my yahoo.
check out:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dj_modus_ponens/album?.dir=ea6c
also, look up to the sidebar on the right, below my profile. there should be some picture links there, so keep an eye out for new ones.
i'll put more up as i get them. hopefully eventually i'll even name them too, at which point i'll think about reuploading them.
for now, enjoy.
check out:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dj_modus_ponens/album?.dir=ea6c
also, look up to the sidebar on the right, below my profile. there should be some picture links there, so keep an eye out for new ones.
i'll put more up as i get them. hopefully eventually i'll even name them too, at which point i'll think about reuploading them.
for now, enjoy.
2005-12-25
not chicken, but daughter
Thursday (12/22)
today we get to go back to bat-yam and hang out with limor's parents, itzik and aviva, and her youngest brother barak (her middle brother snir is in the navy). limi went to field work, and i slept late. i woke up about 11 and puttered about. i had planned on getting some work accomplished, but instead i found other things to distract me. i did wash all the dishes we had forgotten about, so at least i wasn't completely worthless.
limor came back about 3pm, and we had enough time for a snack before leaving for the bus station. to get to bat-yam, we first took the intra-city to the main station. while there limor cautioned me that it is a "life-threatening case" when trying to get on the buses. although i dismissed her words at the time, because we didn't have any trouble getting a seat, i was to see the truth to her words several days later.
while we were waiting for the egged to tel aviv, i noticed a heavily-scarred man walking around. i must have been paying too much attention to the bandages swathing his face, because it was several minutes before i realized i had seen him reach empty-handed into a trashcan and pull out a sandwhich, which he began to eat. i don't think i've ever seen poverty like that before. i was a bit shocked and uncomfortable, and i felt vaguely guilty. nothing a good three-hour bus ride can't fix!
the bus ride shouldn't have taken more than two hours to get from be'ersheva to bat-yam, even though we had a transfer at tel aviv. but, between delays and the bus breaking down in the middle of the city, our commute lasted much longer. on the egged to tel aviv, i had a chance to type up a little of my travels, but not much more than jot down some notes really. i did look up once to see we were passing by a grove of oranges, which was pretty cool. it reminded me (like just about everything does) of all the fruit orchards we passed on the bus during my birthright trip.
i hope you aren't getting the impression that i define my life solely by sleep and birthright. cereal also plays a very important role.
so we get to tel aviv and jump on one of the intra-city buses for a "quick" jaunt to bat-yam. unfortunately, we had driven right by limor's parents' apartment during the egged ride, but since it didn't stop there we had to backtrack forty-minutes. not necessarily a bad thing - i'd get to see some of the city sights, like passing by rabin square, dizengoff square, and the circle and triangle buildings known as the azrieli buildings. lots of geometry in tel aviv huh?
but, the bus suddenly died soon after leaving the station, and so in typical israeli fashion every angrily exited the bus to wait in a densely-packed mass for the next bus. as soon as it arrived, there was the usual pushing and impatience. oh well.
it was very cool getting back to limor's parents apartment, for several reasons. first of course is the nostalgia factor - i had a really great time there two summers ago. second, it was really weird seeing myself in the lobby mirror wearing heavy winter clothes, when before it had been light summer clothes. third, her parents have a really, really nice apartment. it's not a giant mtv cribs-style place, but it's very tastefully decorated. everything looks polished and new.
so we had debated going out to a good sushi buffet, but instead her parents suggested we go to franchesca's for italian. when they asked me if i liked italian, limor and i could only laugh at their naïveté.
dinner was most excellent. franchesca's is a fancy little place on the beach with excellent food, and endless bread and dips for appetizers. i probably ate a dinner alone of just bread, it was so good. my actual meal was niokie with pesto/cream sauce. i've never heard of niokie before, but pesto/cream is always good, so i figured i'd give it a shot. i found out that niokie is the peanut-butter of pastas - at least, that's how i'd describe it. niokie are little balls of dough made from potato, instead of grain, and they're very, very doughy. i say they're like PB because they stick to the roof of your mouth, take forever to chew, and are incredibly filling. i give it three thumbs up.
during dinner i had noticed waitresses adorning various dessert cakes with sparklers (instead of candles) and i thought it would be cool if we ordered one - and apparently limor's parents did, because our waitress brought two! then they all started singing happy birthday to me, which i thought was great because i haven't really had a chance to celebrate this year. also, the cakes were good (strawberry and chocolate).
after dinner, we went outside to a chilly sea breeze. the women were cold, but i thought it felt great, and when i noticed some pull-up bars out on the beach i had to run out and swing on them. after a couple minutes of play - during which itzik and barak joined me - i took pity on a shivering limor and aviva, and we all went home. instead of going right to sleep, i watched "the fantastic four" with barak on his computer. disagree with me if you will (and you probably will) i thought it was a decent movie. not anything great, but i had fun watching it.
today we get to go back to bat-yam and hang out with limor's parents, itzik and aviva, and her youngest brother barak (her middle brother snir is in the navy). limi went to field work, and i slept late. i woke up about 11 and puttered about. i had planned on getting some work accomplished, but instead i found other things to distract me. i did wash all the dishes we had forgotten about, so at least i wasn't completely worthless.
limor came back about 3pm, and we had enough time for a snack before leaving for the bus station. to get to bat-yam, we first took the intra-city to the main station. while there limor cautioned me that it is a "life-threatening case" when trying to get on the buses. although i dismissed her words at the time, because we didn't have any trouble getting a seat, i was to see the truth to her words several days later.
while we were waiting for the egged to tel aviv, i noticed a heavily-scarred man walking around. i must have been paying too much attention to the bandages swathing his face, because it was several minutes before i realized i had seen him reach empty-handed into a trashcan and pull out a sandwhich, which he began to eat. i don't think i've ever seen poverty like that before. i was a bit shocked and uncomfortable, and i felt vaguely guilty. nothing a good three-hour bus ride can't fix!
the bus ride shouldn't have taken more than two hours to get from be'ersheva to bat-yam, even though we had a transfer at tel aviv. but, between delays and the bus breaking down in the middle of the city, our commute lasted much longer. on the egged to tel aviv, i had a chance to type up a little of my travels, but not much more than jot down some notes really. i did look up once to see we were passing by a grove of oranges, which was pretty cool. it reminded me (like just about everything does) of all the fruit orchards we passed on the bus during my birthright trip.
i hope you aren't getting the impression that i define my life solely by sleep and birthright. cereal also plays a very important role.
so we get to tel aviv and jump on one of the intra-city buses for a "quick" jaunt to bat-yam. unfortunately, we had driven right by limor's parents' apartment during the egged ride, but since it didn't stop there we had to backtrack forty-minutes. not necessarily a bad thing - i'd get to see some of the city sights, like passing by rabin square, dizengoff square, and the circle and triangle buildings known as the azrieli buildings. lots of geometry in tel aviv huh?
but, the bus suddenly died soon after leaving the station, and so in typical israeli fashion every angrily exited the bus to wait in a densely-packed mass for the next bus. as soon as it arrived, there was the usual pushing and impatience. oh well.
it was very cool getting back to limor's parents apartment, for several reasons. first of course is the nostalgia factor - i had a really great time there two summers ago. second, it was really weird seeing myself in the lobby mirror wearing heavy winter clothes, when before it had been light summer clothes. third, her parents have a really, really nice apartment. it's not a giant mtv cribs-style place, but it's very tastefully decorated. everything looks polished and new.
so we had debated going out to a good sushi buffet, but instead her parents suggested we go to franchesca's for italian. when they asked me if i liked italian, limor and i could only laugh at their naïveté.
dinner was most excellent. franchesca's is a fancy little place on the beach with excellent food, and endless bread and dips for appetizers. i probably ate a dinner alone of just bread, it was so good. my actual meal was niokie with pesto/cream sauce. i've never heard of niokie before, but pesto/cream is always good, so i figured i'd give it a shot. i found out that niokie is the peanut-butter of pastas - at least, that's how i'd describe it. niokie are little balls of dough made from potato, instead of grain, and they're very, very doughy. i say they're like PB because they stick to the roof of your mouth, take forever to chew, and are incredibly filling. i give it three thumbs up.
during dinner i had noticed waitresses adorning various dessert cakes with sparklers (instead of candles) and i thought it would be cool if we ordered one - and apparently limor's parents did, because our waitress brought two! then they all started singing happy birthday to me, which i thought was great because i haven't really had a chance to celebrate this year. also, the cakes were good (strawberry and chocolate).
after dinner, we went outside to a chilly sea breeze. the women were cold, but i thought it felt great, and when i noticed some pull-up bars out on the beach i had to run out and swing on them. after a couple minutes of play - during which itzik and barak joined me - i took pity on a shivering limor and aviva, and we all went home. instead of going right to sleep, i watched "the fantastic four" with barak on his computer. disagree with me if you will (and you probably will) i thought it was a decent movie. not anything great, but i had fun watching it.
the spa treatment
Wednesday (12/21)
We got up at 8:15am so we could leave by quarter til. We needed enough time to take an in-city bus to the main station so we could make the Egged. While we were waiting, Limor bought a newspaper for 1 sheqel. The Egged brought back memories of my Birthright trip, because it was the same kind of bus.
The trip took about an hour or so, during which we realized we could have gotten on at a station next to her university, and enjoyed the sights of the desert (washed out arroyos, bedouin "cities"). Upon arrival at the hotel where we were going to enjoy our spa treatment, we noticed a cat with blue eyes. After making many exclamations about its genetic abnormality, and taking several pictures, a local girl told us the eyes were blue because of cataracts. We immediately felt embarrased, like we had been exclaiming over a cripple "wow cool you have to use a chair with wheels!"
We checked into the Crown Royal Hotel at 11am, had a look around, and headed downstairs to the spa to start our treatment. Unfortunately, the staff had made a mistake and set our appointment for 12pm. So, with our hour to kill, we changed into swimwear and wandered around outside on the hotel's private beach. It was very, very hot outside, so I was running around shirtless in shorts (yes, four days before xmas I could do that). I should have gone right in to the Dead Sea, but the water felt a little chilly, so instead Limor and I sat in the sun on the outdoor pool deck and watched the hotel staff attempt to get old people to jazzercise. One moderately old dude with man-boobs took it upon himself to help out the entertainers by standing right next to them and mimicking (well, trying to anyway) their actions. So it was pretty funny watching this 50+ year old guy flappin' his arms next to a fifteen-year old girl in a miniskirt and a twenty-year old guy in an 80's jumpsuit.
Noon rolled around, so we started the first part of our spa treatment - a forty-minute oil bath. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty mundane - Limor and I just sat in a tiny jacuzzi that had been liberally dowsed with scented oils. For future reference, don't stay in for longer than ten or fifteen minutes. We got bored after five, but stayed the entire time, and we got out dehydrated and groggy.
Then came the highly-anticipated forty-minute massage. Two Eastern-European women came in and told us to lie down on the special massage tables, which are basically boards with holes in them for your face. They then proceeded to methodically work just about the entire body, except for the sections that mommy said Uncle Jimmy isn't supposed to touch. I managed to stay awake the entire time, and I think next time I'll ask them to concentrate more on the hands and feet.
Then the ladies filed out, and we dressed for a hotel lunch. I've gotta say, parve desserts suck. That's my only beef with the country, is that they don't serve milk and meat together in most places (damn you religion!) Breakfast is by convention dairy, and dinner and usually lunch are meat. So the food was good, but nothing is more disappointing that sampling a fine-looking dessert tray, only to find that the cheesecakes aren't really cheesecake. Oh well. Maybe working off that meal with a swim in the Dead Sea will cheer us up.
Back outside, we tried to decide whether we wanted to leave "early" at 4:15pm, or stay later until after 6pm. At first I thought I'd want to wander up and down the shoreline, so we should stay late, but then we decided to play it safe and be ready by 4pm.
So the temperature had cooled somewhat by 2pm. I could no longer saunter, shirtless and carefree, in the early-spring-like weather. Swimming seemed more like a Polar-Bear Club activity at this point, but I figured if I came all this way, I shouldn't waste the opportunity.
Oh, yes, I forgot to say that I didn't bring a real bathing suit with me (because why would you swim in December?), but I did bring a pair of quick-dry, dark-blue, brief-style underwear. So in true European form I stripped down to my briefs and waded in. Normally I wouldn't have been so self-conscious, but there was an American family right next to us.
After paddling around a bit, I started to warm up, or at least get so numb that the cold didn't bother me. The Dead Sea is so much fun - it's gotta be one of the weirdest feelings to float unaided. I wanted Limor to enjoy the sensation as well, so I thought it would be a good idea to try out the heated pool of Dead Sea water inside. Ahhhh...I wish I'd have done that first, and instead of the oil bath...it was as close to perfect relaxation as I could ever imagine. I would say that it was like being cradled in the womb, but I don't really remember what that was like. The water was warm, but not hot, and we were perfectly bouyant. As long as I didn't brush the wall of the pool, I could imagine that I was just a disembodied brain, a floating (ha) personality, since every part of my body felt exactly the same.
But, because the Dead Sea is so salty, if you have any cuts or scrapes they start to sting pretty quickly. I didn't feel anything, but Limor did, so we got out after a little bit and tried out the jacuzzi. Eh, jacuzzi...how can anything as mundane as a jacuzzi excite me after the warm pool? I am forever a broken man.
Then it was about time to go, so we rinsed off in these glass-walled showers right in the middle of the pool area (a very embarassing thing to do), changed, and left the hotel to search for the bus stop. Due to some road construction, we had to find another place to catch the bus. While we were wandering around, we came across the public beach where I went during Birthright - so of course I had to run over and look around, trying to recapture the feelings from almost two years ago.
During the bus ride back, Limi dozed, I read a book and enjoyed the sights in reverse. We got off at the University station, walked back. We were so dead-tired I could have fallen asleep right then, but we were icky with minerals and needed a shower. Then we were hungry, so I had some leftover fatut (still just as good the second day). And for the first time in a while, I had some sort of contact with the US when I was lucky enough to catch my roommate Mark on IM.
I had a series of very strange dreams that night, possibly a combination of total exhaustion and greasy food. I can't remember them now, but suffice to say if i've ever told you my dreams before, they're at least that detailed and weird.
We got up at 8:15am so we could leave by quarter til. We needed enough time to take an in-city bus to the main station so we could make the Egged. While we were waiting, Limor bought a newspaper for 1 sheqel. The Egged brought back memories of my Birthright trip, because it was the same kind of bus.
The trip took about an hour or so, during which we realized we could have gotten on at a station next to her university, and enjoyed the sights of the desert (washed out arroyos, bedouin "cities"). Upon arrival at the hotel where we were going to enjoy our spa treatment, we noticed a cat with blue eyes. After making many exclamations about its genetic abnormality, and taking several pictures, a local girl told us the eyes were blue because of cataracts. We immediately felt embarrased, like we had been exclaiming over a cripple "wow cool you have to use a chair with wheels!"
We checked into the Crown Royal Hotel at 11am, had a look around, and headed downstairs to the spa to start our treatment. Unfortunately, the staff had made a mistake and set our appointment for 12pm. So, with our hour to kill, we changed into swimwear and wandered around outside on the hotel's private beach. It was very, very hot outside, so I was running around shirtless in shorts (yes, four days before xmas I could do that). I should have gone right in to the Dead Sea, but the water felt a little chilly, so instead Limor and I sat in the sun on the outdoor pool deck and watched the hotel staff attempt to get old people to jazzercise. One moderately old dude with man-boobs took it upon himself to help out the entertainers by standing right next to them and mimicking (well, trying to anyway) their actions. So it was pretty funny watching this 50+ year old guy flappin' his arms next to a fifteen-year old girl in a miniskirt and a twenty-year old guy in an 80's jumpsuit.
Noon rolled around, so we started the first part of our spa treatment - a forty-minute oil bath. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty mundane - Limor and I just sat in a tiny jacuzzi that had been liberally dowsed with scented oils. For future reference, don't stay in for longer than ten or fifteen minutes. We got bored after five, but stayed the entire time, and we got out dehydrated and groggy.
Then came the highly-anticipated forty-minute massage. Two Eastern-European women came in and told us to lie down on the special massage tables, which are basically boards with holes in them for your face. They then proceeded to methodically work just about the entire body, except for the sections that mommy said Uncle Jimmy isn't supposed to touch. I managed to stay awake the entire time, and I think next time I'll ask them to concentrate more on the hands and feet.
Then the ladies filed out, and we dressed for a hotel lunch. I've gotta say, parve desserts suck. That's my only beef with the country, is that they don't serve milk and meat together in most places (damn you religion!) Breakfast is by convention dairy, and dinner and usually lunch are meat. So the food was good, but nothing is more disappointing that sampling a fine-looking dessert tray, only to find that the cheesecakes aren't really cheesecake. Oh well. Maybe working off that meal with a swim in the Dead Sea will cheer us up.
Back outside, we tried to decide whether we wanted to leave "early" at 4:15pm, or stay later until after 6pm. At first I thought I'd want to wander up and down the shoreline, so we should stay late, but then we decided to play it safe and be ready by 4pm.
So the temperature had cooled somewhat by 2pm. I could no longer saunter, shirtless and carefree, in the early-spring-like weather. Swimming seemed more like a Polar-Bear Club activity at this point, but I figured if I came all this way, I shouldn't waste the opportunity.
Oh, yes, I forgot to say that I didn't bring a real bathing suit with me (because why would you swim in December?), but I did bring a pair of quick-dry, dark-blue, brief-style underwear. So in true European form I stripped down to my briefs and waded in. Normally I wouldn't have been so self-conscious, but there was an American family right next to us.
After paddling around a bit, I started to warm up, or at least get so numb that the cold didn't bother me. The Dead Sea is so much fun - it's gotta be one of the weirdest feelings to float unaided. I wanted Limor to enjoy the sensation as well, so I thought it would be a good idea to try out the heated pool of Dead Sea water inside. Ahhhh...I wish I'd have done that first, and instead of the oil bath...it was as close to perfect relaxation as I could ever imagine. I would say that it was like being cradled in the womb, but I don't really remember what that was like. The water was warm, but not hot, and we were perfectly bouyant. As long as I didn't brush the wall of the pool, I could imagine that I was just a disembodied brain, a floating (ha) personality, since every part of my body felt exactly the same.
But, because the Dead Sea is so salty, if you have any cuts or scrapes they start to sting pretty quickly. I didn't feel anything, but Limor did, so we got out after a little bit and tried out the jacuzzi. Eh, jacuzzi...how can anything as mundane as a jacuzzi excite me after the warm pool? I am forever a broken man.
Then it was about time to go, so we rinsed off in these glass-walled showers right in the middle of the pool area (a very embarassing thing to do), changed, and left the hotel to search for the bus stop. Due to some road construction, we had to find another place to catch the bus. While we were wandering around, we came across the public beach where I went during Birthright - so of course I had to run over and look around, trying to recapture the feelings from almost two years ago.
During the bus ride back, Limi dozed, I read a book and enjoyed the sights in reverse. We got off at the University station, walked back. We were so dead-tired I could have fallen asleep right then, but we were icky with minerals and needed a shower. Then we were hungry, so I had some leftover fatut (still just as good the second day). And for the first time in a while, I had some sort of contact with the US when I was lucky enough to catch my roommate Mark on IM.
I had a series of very strange dreams that night, possibly a combination of total exhaustion and greasy food. I can't remember them now, but suffice to say if i've ever told you my dreams before, they're at least that detailed and weird.
up in da club
Tuesday (12/20)
The next morning found us at school at 10am, again sitting in the student lounge downstairs, again working on a paper. Because Limor and I can only share one adapter, I kept my computer off to save battery, and instead read my book. While we were there, some girl sat down next to me with a coffee mug that had children's english scrawled on the outside, much like a summer camp craft project, and I wanted to ask her if she was a counselor at a US summer camp like Limor.
At 12pm, we scurried up to Limor's second class of the day (skipped the first one for the paper). I worked on my computer for the hour or so we were there, and when we left the classroom we were surprised to find that it was raining outside. What had begun as a very sunny and warm day had suddenly become dreary and cold. It's funny, because Limor had complained earlier about being overdressed.
Limor's third class was in a small, cramped room with just enough seats to fit her entire class. Apparently it's a weekly ritual for students from the electrical engineering class across the hall to try to steal chairs. It's very easy to tell if someone is a thief, because Limor's class is practically all female - so whenever a guy steps in the room, all of the girls start shouting "Get out! We need 100% of these seats!" What really got me is that at least ten guys from the EE class came in the room - you'd think they would notice when the guy before them comes back empty-handed, but I guess you gotta give them credit for persistence.
Three other events of note during that class (which was on feminism, and featured a lot of English): (1) her teacher noticed that I wasn't a regular student, probably because I was male; (2) one of the girls in our row was face-down passed-out on her desk, and everyone made me take a picture of her; (3) one of the two guys in the class had his computer, and although I didn't see it, I was told that he came across a nude photo of himself while browsing thru pictures - he was also sitting in the front row, so the majority of the class saw it.
The third class was across campus, and it was about sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll, minus the rock'n'roll. I'm not sure why, but it's taught by both North- and South-American professors. The SA professor taught today, although both were arguing during the couple minutes before class. Judging by the constant laughter, the teacher was pretty funny - like when his self-described "South-American temper" got the better of him and he stopped mid-sentence to rush outside and yell at some guy using a hammer in the hallway.
We went home at 6pm, walking back through an orangish dark after a storm, which has that peculiar lighting that looks very beautiful in person but refuses to be captured properly on film. Believe me, I tried several times on the way back.
At home, Limor made us lo mein for dinner. Afterwards, around 10pm we went out with Hadas, Re'ut, and Adi to a club called "Must". Coincidentally enough, the evening was supposedly had a South-American theme. Because it is a relatively new club, it took a little while to fill up, but it was pretty packed after about an hour. The music progression went from general club-rap, to techno, then latino-ish techno (which was I guess a nod to the party's theme), then to old israeli songs that everybody knows and feels nostalgic about but doesn't really want to dance to.
So I danced all night, feeling rather foolish the entire time. I think I'm a pretty good dancer, maybe I get too into it sometimes and overdo it, but I always wonder if people glance over at me and think "Wow, what a retard." But, I enjoy myself, and since I'm not the kind of guy who has to grind up on every girl in the club (not to mention Limor wouldn't appreciate that anyway) it doesn't matter what other people think. Apparently I concentrate too hard on dancing though, because I don't smile or something, so Limor's friends kept leaning over and asking me if I was bored or not having a good time.
At 2am I was pretty much ready to go, and Adi suggested we go to Nafi's. I'm down for some middle-of-the-night Israeli comfort food. Nafi's is kind of like the Waffle House (or Cook-Out) that everybody goes to hang out at after a party, only it's actualy quality food. Still greasy though. I hadn't been there for almost two years, and I was ready to eat some fatut. I don't know how to describe fatut, but it's warm, cheesy, and satisfying. Especially after four hours of dancing. So Nadav, Re'ut's boyfriend, called me over to drive in the "guy's car", and I headed over with him and Yaron, while the girls arrived separately.
After stuffing myself, we all parted ways. I didn't go to sleep until 4am. I was sure I'd regret it the next day, because Limor and I had plans to enjoy a day of spa treatment at the Dead Sea.
The next morning found us at school at 10am, again sitting in the student lounge downstairs, again working on a paper. Because Limor and I can only share one adapter, I kept my computer off to save battery, and instead read my book. While we were there, some girl sat down next to me with a coffee mug that had children's english scrawled on the outside, much like a summer camp craft project, and I wanted to ask her if she was a counselor at a US summer camp like Limor.
At 12pm, we scurried up to Limor's second class of the day (skipped the first one for the paper). I worked on my computer for the hour or so we were there, and when we left the classroom we were surprised to find that it was raining outside. What had begun as a very sunny and warm day had suddenly become dreary and cold. It's funny, because Limor had complained earlier about being overdressed.
Limor's third class was in a small, cramped room with just enough seats to fit her entire class. Apparently it's a weekly ritual for students from the electrical engineering class across the hall to try to steal chairs. It's very easy to tell if someone is a thief, because Limor's class is practically all female - so whenever a guy steps in the room, all of the girls start shouting "Get out! We need 100% of these seats!" What really got me is that at least ten guys from the EE class came in the room - you'd think they would notice when the guy before them comes back empty-handed, but I guess you gotta give them credit for persistence.
Three other events of note during that class (which was on feminism, and featured a lot of English): (1) her teacher noticed that I wasn't a regular student, probably because I was male; (2) one of the girls in our row was face-down passed-out on her desk, and everyone made me take a picture of her; (3) one of the two guys in the class had his computer, and although I didn't see it, I was told that he came across a nude photo of himself while browsing thru pictures - he was also sitting in the front row, so the majority of the class saw it.
The third class was across campus, and it was about sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll, minus the rock'n'roll. I'm not sure why, but it's taught by both North- and South-American professors. The SA professor taught today, although both were arguing during the couple minutes before class. Judging by the constant laughter, the teacher was pretty funny - like when his self-described "South-American temper" got the better of him and he stopped mid-sentence to rush outside and yell at some guy using a hammer in the hallway.
We went home at 6pm, walking back through an orangish dark after a storm, which has that peculiar lighting that looks very beautiful in person but refuses to be captured properly on film. Believe me, I tried several times on the way back.
At home, Limor made us lo mein for dinner. Afterwards, around 10pm we went out with Hadas, Re'ut, and Adi to a club called "Must". Coincidentally enough, the evening was supposedly had a South-American theme. Because it is a relatively new club, it took a little while to fill up, but it was pretty packed after about an hour. The music progression went from general club-rap, to techno, then latino-ish techno (which was I guess a nod to the party's theme), then to old israeli songs that everybody knows and feels nostalgic about but doesn't really want to dance to.
So I danced all night, feeling rather foolish the entire time. I think I'm a pretty good dancer, maybe I get too into it sometimes and overdo it, but I always wonder if people glance over at me and think "Wow, what a retard." But, I enjoy myself, and since I'm not the kind of guy who has to grind up on every girl in the club (not to mention Limor wouldn't appreciate that anyway) it doesn't matter what other people think. Apparently I concentrate too hard on dancing though, because I don't smile or something, so Limor's friends kept leaning over and asking me if I was bored or not having a good time.
At 2am I was pretty much ready to go, and Adi suggested we go to Nafi's. I'm down for some middle-of-the-night Israeli comfort food. Nafi's is kind of like the Waffle House (or Cook-Out) that everybody goes to hang out at after a party, only it's actualy quality food. Still greasy though. I hadn't been there for almost two years, and I was ready to eat some fatut. I don't know how to describe fatut, but it's warm, cheesy, and satisfying. Especially after four hours of dancing. So Nadav, Re'ut's boyfriend, called me over to drive in the "guy's car", and I headed over with him and Yaron, while the girls arrived separately.
After stuffing myself, we all parted ways. I didn't go to sleep until 4am. I was sure I'd regret it the next day, because Limor and I had plans to enjoy a day of spa treatment at the Dead Sea.
another day at school
Sunday (12/18)
Limor and I left early at 10am for school. It was a regular school day for Limor. I still haven't gotten used to the idea that for Limor (and the rest of Israel), the weekend lasts from Friday to Saturday, with Sunday beginning the week anew. It feels right though, because at home everybody is ready to drop by Friday morning, and we're all ready for the weekend anyway, so why not start it then? Of course, if our week began on Sunday, we'd probably feel ready for the weekend on Thursday, so it wouldn't really make any dfference.
Anyway, so it was a regular day at school...oh wait, I already wrote about this. NEXT!
Monday (12/19)
Limor had to go to Dimona for field work, and I couldn't tag along, so I planned on getting up with her to get some work accomplished. Again, I was powerless to resist the sweet temptation of bed, and so I didn't get up until 11am. You see a theme here?
I woke up and turned on some music. I didn't realize Limor's stereo is broken, so I hope I didn't deafen anyone when I tried to turn down the volume, only to raise it to the max level. Once that was fixed, I spent about 30 minutes exercising (I'd like to do this regularly), and then I probably puttered about for a bit, eating breakfast (PILLOWS!) and cleaning up dishes.
I should mention that there is this breakfast cereal called "Kariot", which translates to "Pillows". I believe it has to do with the fact that each bit of cereal is a chocolate wafer surrounding a creamy chocolate center - in the shape of a bed pillow. For me, this is heavenly, because I love cereal and sugar and chocolate, and this is all three (for breakfast!).
Actually, I think I worked on the webpage instead, or maybe played around online, for a couple hours before eating breakfast, because I think I was just finishing my bowl when Limor came home, and she didn't come back until 3pm'ish.
Soon after Limor came back, she had a tutoring session for her work-study program (called "Perach", which means "flower"). That lasted for two hours, during which time I read (still haven't finished with my second book, I'm pacing myself well). After walking her student to the bus stop, we showered and met Limor's friends Hadas, Re'ut, and another social worker Hila, for dinner.
Hadas drove us all over to Arigato, a sushi / Asian bistro. It is a small place, and we sat in the outside section, which is a small room enclosed by a clear plastic hanging. After putting out the gas heating lamp while trying to move it closer to our table (it was chilly) we had a good time ordering food. Limor and I split some California rolls (with salmon instead of fake crab), and I had a too-spicy Chang Mai Pad-thai. I'm going to stop eating Thai food in the future. Other than that, dinner was fun.
After dinner, we dropped Re'ut off because she was still getting over a cold, and headed to Ben-Gurion U. to see a Pink Floyd cover-band. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a Pink Floyd fan (dammit I keep spelling it "Floyed", like the past-tense of "floy" whatever that is) but I'm up for new things, and it was free. Good thing I went, because the most random thing happened - I saw Jenny P, one of my friends from Raleigh. She actually spotted Limor and I in the middle of the dark and crowded student center, although I don't know how. I knew she was going to be in Israel same time as me, but how cool is it that she would cross paths like that?
*sidenote: ugh I'm trying to type this up while riding to Tel-Aviv on the very crowded Egged, the major inter-city busline, and it's so bouncy and jouncy that I'm starting to feel ill. ughhhhh....we just passed something which smells like old poo, which isn't helping matters at all. be back in a minute...*
So the concert was alright; the band did a very good job with the songs, I just wasn't in the mood for that genre. Also some gigantic dude had to stand in front of us during the concert and jam out, and he also had to cop an attitude when Adi politely asked him to stand somewhere else so the shorter people could see. We went home around 12am, and when we got back Aviad was stil having his "Erev Poker" (Poker Night) with some buddies, even though when I asked him he said he was already broke.
Limor and I left early at 10am for school. It was a regular school day for Limor. I still haven't gotten used to the idea that for Limor (and the rest of Israel), the weekend lasts from Friday to Saturday, with Sunday beginning the week anew. It feels right though, because at home everybody is ready to drop by Friday morning, and we're all ready for the weekend anyway, so why not start it then? Of course, if our week began on Sunday, we'd probably feel ready for the weekend on Thursday, so it wouldn't really make any dfference.
Anyway, so it was a regular day at school...oh wait, I already wrote about this. NEXT!
Monday (12/19)
Limor had to go to Dimona for field work, and I couldn't tag along, so I planned on getting up with her to get some work accomplished. Again, I was powerless to resist the sweet temptation of bed, and so I didn't get up until 11am. You see a theme here?
I woke up and turned on some music. I didn't realize Limor's stereo is broken, so I hope I didn't deafen anyone when I tried to turn down the volume, only to raise it to the max level. Once that was fixed, I spent about 30 minutes exercising (I'd like to do this regularly), and then I probably puttered about for a bit, eating breakfast (PILLOWS!) and cleaning up dishes.
I should mention that there is this breakfast cereal called "Kariot", which translates to "Pillows". I believe it has to do with the fact that each bit of cereal is a chocolate wafer surrounding a creamy chocolate center - in the shape of a bed pillow. For me, this is heavenly, because I love cereal and sugar and chocolate, and this is all three (for breakfast!).
Actually, I think I worked on the webpage instead, or maybe played around online, for a couple hours before eating breakfast, because I think I was just finishing my bowl when Limor came home, and she didn't come back until 3pm'ish.
Soon after Limor came back, she had a tutoring session for her work-study program (called "Perach", which means "flower"). That lasted for two hours, during which time I read (still haven't finished with my second book, I'm pacing myself well). After walking her student to the bus stop, we showered and met Limor's friends Hadas, Re'ut, and another social worker Hila, for dinner.
Hadas drove us all over to Arigato, a sushi / Asian bistro. It is a small place, and we sat in the outside section, which is a small room enclosed by a clear plastic hanging. After putting out the gas heating lamp while trying to move it closer to our table (it was chilly) we had a good time ordering food. Limor and I split some California rolls (with salmon instead of fake crab), and I had a too-spicy Chang Mai Pad-thai. I'm going to stop eating Thai food in the future. Other than that, dinner was fun.
After dinner, we dropped Re'ut off because she was still getting over a cold, and headed to Ben-Gurion U. to see a Pink Floyd cover-band. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a Pink Floyd fan (dammit I keep spelling it "Floyed", like the past-tense of "floy" whatever that is) but I'm up for new things, and it was free. Good thing I went, because the most random thing happened - I saw Jenny P, one of my friends from Raleigh. She actually spotted Limor and I in the middle of the dark and crowded student center, although I don't know how. I knew she was going to be in Israel same time as me, but how cool is it that she would cross paths like that?
*sidenote: ugh I'm trying to type this up while riding to Tel-Aviv on the very crowded Egged, the major inter-city busline, and it's so bouncy and jouncy that I'm starting to feel ill. ughhhhh....we just passed something which smells like old poo, which isn't helping matters at all. be back in a minute...*
So the concert was alright; the band did a very good job with the songs, I just wasn't in the mood for that genre. Also some gigantic dude had to stand in front of us during the concert and jam out, and he also had to cop an attitude when Adi politely asked him to stand somewhere else so the shorter people could see. We went home around 12am, and when we got back Aviad was stil having his "Erev Poker" (Poker Night) with some buddies, even though when I asked him he said he was already broke.
2005-12-22
points for double-post
i figured it would be a good idea if i separated my travelog from my regular blog, as i may feel like posting random bullshit here which the majority of you won't be interested in or might be offended.
like if i were to say "penis penis vagina".
so, in order to avoid confusion, i opened up a new blog for travel-related info. you can find it from my profile on the right ("around the world in x days"), or simply jump to:
http://drzaustravel.blogspot.com;
so, if you wanna hear about what i'm doing when i'm not at home, check there, but if you want to read more about penis penis vagina, then stay right here.
also, still at work catching up to the last couple days. sleep is just so hard to resist.
2005-12-20
step back a few days...
limor informs me that i should elaborate on the "couple other things" we did in my last post, and she's probably right. i'm just really really lazy. but here goes:
----------------------------------------------
(Friday 12/16) limor and her friends have this great "tradition", where every week they all go over to someone's apartment to share a meal, and basically hang out. it's not so much a tradition as a direct result of be'ersheva being a moderately boring city.
i have been informed that there's not much to do in the city because it's in the middle of the desert. this argument is not really correct, vis-a-vis las vegas. however, besides the university, be'ersheva hasn't really developed to the point of, say, tel aviv, so i understand why people say it's a boring city. so to find fun, students naturally turn to the "only" interesting thing there - other students.
i really like the fact limor and her friends hang out so much. even though it's a (gasp!) ten-minute walk between apartments, rarely a day goes by without someone dropping in. maybe i'm just lazy / don't get out enough, but it seems like we don't do this enough at home. something to think about...
anyway, back to hadas' apartment. so limor made the alfredo, and i carried it. we met up with more of limor's friends on the way over, and the five or so of us walked over together. hadas' apartment is very nice - the same simple, almost austere decoration common to the other (i.e. three - i have so much experience here, haha) apartments i've seen in be'ersheva - but on a slightly more expensive level.
oh yeah, and her oven sits on top of the washing machine. because the buildings are often older, they don't come with built-in space for our more modern appliances. also, because much of the city's occupants are students (i'm guessing here), not everyone can afford the same stuff you see in practically every apartment in the us. so, in some places you'll see a modular dishwasher sitting on a counter (re'ut's apartment), or in others the aforementioned oven-on-top-of-washer arrangement.
so i was introduced to a bunch of limor's friends (whose names aren't actually that hard to pronounce), and i sat back to listen to the sounds of hebrew conversation. i've learned not to expect much english, and while on one level it's kinda boring not knowing what's going on, on another level i enjoy watching other people have fun. it's much the same at most parties i've been to elsewhere. language is a superficial difference - i may be able to understand the conversations going on, only i still don't because it's too loud to hear anything.
dinner and dessert were a pleasant affair, and i had fun watching this "news" program on tv with everyone else (even though it was in hebrew - the mannerisms were hilarious). i say "news" because the show was kind of weekly cross between "the daily show" and saturday night live's "weekend update". there's a deadpan anchor who discusses current topics, broken up by sketches and parodies of the week's main events. i will point out one sketch, or series of sketches, as particularly funny. i guess recently a semi-famous and totally vapid beautician was temporarily elected to the knesset (israeli parliament). so, of course the show proceeded to make fun of her. even though i couldn't follow the mock interview, it was still really funny because the (male) person portraying her periodically burst out with some really ditsy antics.
good times.
----------------------------------------------
(Saturday 12/17) hadas - who has a car (xander, you moron) - picked us up, and we headed over to. the girls' outrage at the expensive entry fee was not mollified by the 20 nis* drink coupon we each received. the bar / tiny dance floor / pool hall was pretty empty while we were there (maybe because of the high cost?), so we were able to pick a decent table. i did see probably the biggest pool table ever, which was nearly chest height and about one-and-a-half times as wide/long as a regular table. i've never seen a giant bedouin before, but presumably this table was for them.
* nis = new israeli sheqel = money. 1 sheqel is about 25 cents.
after two lousy games, two fruit drinks (for me, the girls had beers and other stuff), two hours, and eighty nis later we were ready to call it quits. it was fun, but we should really practice pool first.
----------------------------------------------
(Sunday 12/18) bright and early (7 am) limor woke me up so she could work on a paper with adi, another of her many friends from school. they co-opted the room (spilling coffee all over their papers by accident in the process), and may or may not have accomplished a lot of work. then, around 10am we walked with aviad and his girlfriend inbar to class, taking aviad's extremely circuitous route behind the apartment, through an abandoned strip mall and the adjacent dirt lot, and around some fences.
i was really impressed with my first impression of her school. sitting in the middle of the negev, ben-gurion university is an unexpected jewel. it boasts some of the most nicely manicured lawns i've seen, palm trees, and a very cute little artificial stream. also very nice architecture. i didn't take pictures, but i will at some point, as well as climb said architecture.
sitting through her first class wasn't bad - i just read a book - and afterwards we took a break to enjoy the nicely manicured lawn i just spoke of. limor tells me it's pretty unusual for it to be so warm this late (december, he-LLO? *roll eyes*) but it was at least sixty and sunny. we parked it under some palms to bask while enjoying lunch (mmmmm cheese sandwich) and dozed a bit. lots of other people had the same idea, including a very friendly alley-cat, with whom i shared my lunch.
i will digress here a moment to mention these ubiquitous felines. according to someone i heard once, back when israel was formed, a bunch of the arabs living here (freely / fearfully / arrogantly / etc) abandoned their homes, and in doing so turned loose their pets. i guess the arabs must have been cat lovers, because just about every city is swarming with them. the weird thing is, most of the street cats look healthier than many housecats. an affectionate one actually curled up around my ankles earlier when we were on our way to hadas'.
so after our brief but pleasant interlude, limor and i journeyed deep within the student center to a student lounge, where we (more like i) languished away from the sun so limor could study with adi / hila / re'ut / probably others. i read my book some more, wrote the first post, and did a very small bit of work on the webpage i'm being paid to write for a professor (which is what i should be spending my time on).
after about four hours, we emerged forth into the world only to discover that the sun had nearly fled. alright, alright, enough poetry, time for one more class (limor planned to skip her last one). in this one, the teacher actually noticed that i wasn't a regular student, and came by to investigate.
finished at 6pm, limor and i made our way back to vege-out at the apartment.
----------------------------------------------
so that about wraps up the addendum to the first post. i guess i should get started on the last two days now, before i forget them and events pass me by.
[the previous message was brought to you from the classrooms of ben-gurion university]
----------------------------------------------
(Friday 12/16) limor and her friends have this great "tradition", where every week they all go over to someone's apartment to share a meal, and basically hang out. it's not so much a tradition as a direct result of be'ersheva being a moderately boring city.
i have been informed that there's not much to do in the city because it's in the middle of the desert. this argument is not really correct, vis-a-vis las vegas. however, besides the university, be'ersheva hasn't really developed to the point of, say, tel aviv, so i understand why people say it's a boring city. so to find fun, students naturally turn to the "only" interesting thing there - other students.
i really like the fact limor and her friends hang out so much. even though it's a (gasp!) ten-minute walk between apartments, rarely a day goes by without someone dropping in. maybe i'm just lazy / don't get out enough, but it seems like we don't do this enough at home. something to think about...
anyway, back to hadas' apartment. so limor made the alfredo, and i carried it. we met up with more of limor's friends on the way over, and the five or so of us walked over together. hadas' apartment is very nice - the same simple, almost austere decoration common to the other (i.e. three - i have so much experience here, haha) apartments i've seen in be'ersheva - but on a slightly more expensive level.
oh yeah, and her oven sits on top of the washing machine. because the buildings are often older, they don't come with built-in space for our more modern appliances. also, because much of the city's occupants are students (i'm guessing here), not everyone can afford the same stuff you see in practically every apartment in the us. so, in some places you'll see a modular dishwasher sitting on a counter (re'ut's apartment), or in others the aforementioned oven-on-top-of-washer arrangement.
so i was introduced to a bunch of limor's friends (whose names aren't actually that hard to pronounce), and i sat back to listen to the sounds of hebrew conversation. i've learned not to expect much english, and while on one level it's kinda boring not knowing what's going on, on another level i enjoy watching other people have fun. it's much the same at most parties i've been to elsewhere. language is a superficial difference - i may be able to understand the conversations going on, only i still don't because it's too loud to hear anything.
dinner and dessert were a pleasant affair, and i had fun watching this "news" program on tv with everyone else (even though it was in hebrew - the mannerisms were hilarious). i say "news" because the show was kind of weekly cross between "the daily show" and saturday night live's "weekend update". there's a deadpan anchor who discusses current topics, broken up by sketches and parodies of the week's main events. i will point out one sketch, or series of sketches, as particularly funny. i guess recently a semi-famous and totally vapid beautician was temporarily elected to the knesset (israeli parliament). so, of course the show proceeded to make fun of her. even though i couldn't follow the mock interview, it was still really funny because the (male) person portraying her periodically burst out with some really ditsy antics.
good times.
----------------------------------------------
(Saturday 12/17) hadas - who has a car (xander, you moron) - picked us up, and we headed over to
* nis = new israeli sheqel = money. 1 sheqel is about 25 cents.
after two lousy games, two fruit drinks (for me, the girls had beers and other stuff), two hours, and eighty nis later we were ready to call it quits. it was fun, but we should really practice pool first.
----------------------------------------------
(Sunday 12/18) bright and early (7 am) limor woke me up so she could work on a paper with adi, another of her many friends from school. they co-opted the room (spilling coffee all over their papers by accident in the process), and may or may not have accomplished a lot of work. then, around 10am we walked with aviad and his girlfriend inbar to class, taking aviad's extremely circuitous route behind the apartment, through an abandoned strip mall and the adjacent dirt lot, and around some fences.
i was really impressed with my first impression of her school. sitting in the middle of the negev, ben-gurion university is an unexpected jewel. it boasts some of the most nicely manicured lawns i've seen, palm trees, and a very cute little artificial stream. also very nice architecture. i didn't take pictures, but i will at some point, as well as climb said architecture.
sitting through her first class wasn't bad - i just read a book - and afterwards we took a break to enjoy the nicely manicured lawn i just spoke of. limor tells me it's pretty unusual for it to be so warm this late (december, he-LLO? *roll eyes*) but it was at least sixty and sunny. we parked it under some palms to bask while enjoying lunch (mmmmm cheese sandwich) and dozed a bit. lots of other people had the same idea, including a very friendly alley-cat, with whom i shared my lunch.
i will digress here a moment to mention these ubiquitous felines. according to someone i heard once, back when israel was formed, a bunch of the arabs living here (freely / fearfully / arrogantly / etc) abandoned their homes, and in doing so turned loose their pets. i guess the arabs must have been cat lovers, because just about every city is swarming with them. the weird thing is, most of the street cats look healthier than many housecats. an affectionate one actually curled up around my ankles earlier when we were on our way to hadas'.
so after our brief but pleasant interlude, limor and i journeyed deep within the student center to a student lounge, where we (more like i) languished away from the sun so limor could study with adi / hila / re'ut / probably others. i read my book some more, wrote the first post, and did a very small bit of work on the webpage i'm being paid to write for a professor (which is what i should be spending my time on).
after about four hours, we emerged forth into the world only to discover that the sun had nearly fled. alright, alright, enough poetry, time for one more class (limor planned to skip her last one). in this one, the teacher actually noticed that i wasn't a regular student, and came by to investigate.
finished at 6pm, limor and i made our way back to vege-out at the apartment.
----------------------------------------------
so that about wraps up the addendum to the first post. i guess i should get started on the last two days now, before i forget them and events pass me by.
[the previous message was brought to you from the classrooms of ben-gurion university]
2005-12-19
Re: [blog] testing email feature
just to see if this works...
subject = title, and body = post
pretty cool feature...probably doesn't mean i'll update this thing any more than i would normally.
back again in the motherland
hey everybody,
so i can't believe it's been five days already, although that's probably because i've slept through 80% of it. i wouldn't say i'm enjoying israel, because i haven't experienced anything yet that really says to me that i'm in israel. but i am really really happy to be with limor, and that was more of the point of this trip.
my flight was moderately uneventful. it's been so long since i've used a paper ticket, i didn't know where to check in, so i shuffled back and forth between lines until i realized i was just supposed to go to any counter. after an quick pass through security, i double-checked that my flight was on time (which it was). after i walked to my gate, i checked again if my flight was on time (which it wasn't). so i sat around for an extra hour. fortunately i wasn't too late to new york to catch my next flight to israel.
in new york, i was continually assailed by waves of nostalgia. every couple of minutes i would look somewhere and realize that almost two years ago i was standing in the same spot, waiting for my first trip to israel. it was fun getting quizzed again by what i call the "el al girls", those female flight attendants who generally ask stupid questions relating to judaism in some bizarre security ritual. by the time i got through all of that and found the terminal, it was about time to board.
boarding for el al is quite different than boarding for the average american airline. instead of a logical progression of passengers ("we will now begin boarding group 3, group 3 only please") there is just this mass stampede towards the plane. passengers don't and aren't even encouraged to form lines - they form funnels. combine this with the fact that a lot of israelis have no concept of "personal space" and you get quite a mess. so after filing through the first door, we all wait in a packed group (of about 300 passengers) on a ramp leading to the loading gate. As we stand around for about fifteen minutes, i can't help but laugh at how frustrated everyone looks - after all that rushing and pushing to be the first, they wait anyway. i thought it was even funnier when eight minutes into the wait i see the flight crew slowly making their way through the crowd. you'd think el al would streamline the process, but i'm sure they get some kind of perverse pleasure from being rude.
my seat was great - window seat far enough behind the wing that i had a clear view, although it was on the less-exciting ocean side. something else i really appreciated was the fact that i had a centered window. sometimes i get unlucky and my window is either too far forward, in which case i need to lean out of my seat to see, or right at my shoulder, in which case i twist my head off every time i want to look out. this time, i felt like goldilocks with her last bowl of porridge.
the flight itself was kinda boring - i didn't feel like watching "cinderella man", so the next best movie was "dukes of hazzard". i watched it for jessica simpson, and then fell asleep feeling like i would have done my brain a better service by slamming it through the reinforced airline window. i did wake up periodically to look out said window, and i was lucky enough to see the french/italian alps during daylight and no cloud cover. wow. *sidenote: the last couple times were at night or i slept through it*
you can probably tell by how much time i just spent describing my twelve hours in transit that i didn't do much the next couple of days. i just wish i had remembered to charge my camera batteries before leaving, so they wouldn't have died right when i arrived in the first airport. ah well, there's always the return trip...
limor met me at the airport - which was an unexpected and wonderful surprise - with her dad, mom, and youngest brother. after an hour drive from tel aviv to beersheva, we had nice dinner of hummus and labneh and other stuff. but lots of labneh. yum.
after that sleep was the order of the day. and week. i just couldn't help myself - any time we didn't specifically have sometime to do, i took a nap. it was great. also, it was kinda chilly, and it's just too warm under the covers to leave.
so other than sleep, limor and i did a couple other things:
- made alfredo pasta and ate it in her friend hadas' apartment, along with seventeen other people and their assorted dishes. *sidenote: hadas makes a really freakin' good dessert*
- played pool (extremly poorly) with hadas and re'ut, two of limor's friends from school.
- went to school. ben-gurion university has a really nice campus - very attractive landscapes and building designs. we went to her first class, sat outside in the unseasonably warm sixty-degree weather for about half an hour, then spent the next four hours in a student lounge so limor could work on some papers with her friends.
right now, limor is in dimona for her internship. she spends two days of the week in on-site visits for a couple hours, so i elected to sleep in. i love not having anything immediate to do...
hopefully, once limor and i hit something approaching a regular schedule, i'll be awake late / early enough so that i'll be able to talk to you guys online. this whole seven-hours ahead time difference sucks. for example, it's 1:00pm now - early afternoon - but everybody back in the states is probably asleep at 6:00 am.
peace out for now.
so i can't believe it's been five days already, although that's probably because i've slept through 80% of it. i wouldn't say i'm enjoying israel, because i haven't experienced anything yet that really says to me that i'm in israel. but i am really really happy to be with limor, and that was more of the point of this trip.
my flight was moderately uneventful. it's been so long since i've used a paper ticket, i didn't know where to check in, so i shuffled back and forth between lines until i realized i was just supposed to go to any counter. after an quick pass through security, i double-checked that my flight was on time (which it was). after i walked to my gate, i checked again if my flight was on time (which it wasn't). so i sat around for an extra hour. fortunately i wasn't too late to new york to catch my next flight to israel.
in new york, i was continually assailed by waves of nostalgia. every couple of minutes i would look somewhere and realize that almost two years ago i was standing in the same spot, waiting for my first trip to israel. it was fun getting quizzed again by what i call the "el al girls", those female flight attendants who generally ask stupid questions relating to judaism in some bizarre security ritual. by the time i got through all of that and found the terminal, it was about time to board.
boarding for el al is quite different than boarding for the average american airline. instead of a logical progression of passengers ("we will now begin boarding group 3, group 3 only please") there is just this mass stampede towards the plane. passengers don't and aren't even encouraged to form lines - they form funnels. combine this with the fact that a lot of israelis have no concept of "personal space" and you get quite a mess. so after filing through the first door, we all wait in a packed group (of about 300 passengers) on a ramp leading to the loading gate. As we stand around for about fifteen minutes, i can't help but laugh at how frustrated everyone looks - after all that rushing and pushing to be the first, they wait anyway. i thought it was even funnier when eight minutes into the wait i see the flight crew slowly making their way through the crowd. you'd think el al would streamline the process, but i'm sure they get some kind of perverse pleasure from being rude.
my seat was great - window seat far enough behind the wing that i had a clear view, although it was on the less-exciting ocean side. something else i really appreciated was the fact that i had a centered window. sometimes i get unlucky and my window is either too far forward, in which case i need to lean out of my seat to see, or right at my shoulder, in which case i twist my head off every time i want to look out. this time, i felt like goldilocks with her last bowl of porridge.
the flight itself was kinda boring - i didn't feel like watching "cinderella man", so the next best movie was "dukes of hazzard". i watched it for jessica simpson, and then fell asleep feeling like i would have done my brain a better service by slamming it through the reinforced airline window. i did wake up periodically to look out said window, and i was lucky enough to see the french/italian alps during daylight and no cloud cover. wow. *sidenote: the last couple times were at night or i slept through it*
you can probably tell by how much time i just spent describing my twelve hours in transit that i didn't do much the next couple of days. i just wish i had remembered to charge my camera batteries before leaving, so they wouldn't have died right when i arrived in the first airport. ah well, there's always the return trip...
limor met me at the airport - which was an unexpected and wonderful surprise - with her dad, mom, and youngest brother. after an hour drive from tel aviv to beersheva, we had nice dinner of hummus and labneh and other stuff. but lots of labneh. yum.
after that sleep was the order of the day. and week. i just couldn't help myself - any time we didn't specifically have sometime to do, i took a nap. it was great. also, it was kinda chilly, and it's just too warm under the covers to leave.
so other than sleep, limor and i did a couple other things:
- made alfredo pasta and ate it in her friend hadas' apartment, along with seventeen other people and their assorted dishes. *sidenote: hadas makes a really freakin' good dessert*
- played pool (extremly poorly) with hadas and re'ut, two of limor's friends from school.
- went to school. ben-gurion university has a really nice campus - very attractive landscapes and building designs. we went to her first class, sat outside in the unseasonably warm sixty-degree weather for about half an hour, then spent the next four hours in a student lounge so limor could work on some papers with her friends.
right now, limor is in dimona for her internship. she spends two days of the week in on-site visits for a couple hours, so i elected to sleep in. i love not having anything immediate to do...
hopefully, once limor and i hit something approaching a regular schedule, i'll be awake late / early enough so that i'll be able to talk to you guys online. this whole seven-hours ahead time difference sucks. for example, it's 1:00pm now - early afternoon - but everybody back in the states is probably asleep at 6:00 am.
peace out for now.
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