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.