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Saturday (12/31)
because i have been wanting to go outside and enjoy the great weather for the last week, we got up early so we wouldn't miss the sun. we had a quick breakfast, or rather i had a quick breakfast and limor didn't eat anything, and then we went outside to see what we could see.
the first stop on our journey was the bomb shelter behind her apartment. i climbed on top of it as i had seen the neighborhood kids do earlier. distances make size deceptive though - i didn't need a ladder to get up, and it was much smaller in person. the picture limor took of me turned out pretty cool though, so i count it a successful adventure.
then we turned back around to the main street (masada) and started walking. i figured that, since we always walk down the main street, we should cut behind the buildings, so i steered limor down a side alley to the service road behind the apartments. it was mostly deserted, and seemed like a run-down industrial park.
encounter with a mad dog
right on re'ut's st.
then another right to bialik st., instead of left to hadas'
marched along - saw freud (limor) and einstein st. (me - flagpole)
continued to the "spaceship" = part of the technological college of be'ersheva (like ncsu's harrelson building)
very beautiful and sunny - stopped to look at ants
took a left to cut through to rager ave. - stopped at a neighborhood playground (fun on a balance-beam thing)
walked by little park, then across rager ave to the justice building
stopped for a while to look around - graffitti, climbing on stuff
walked back (limor hungry) - saw birds in holes, weird tree
passed a pretty rose bush
walked to big intersection where they're building new music hall (architecture)
saw off to the right the golems - made limor take a "quick" detour to see them
walked on right side of the main thoroughfare along dirt road by nice new apartment buildings
passed the hospital and almost got to the university
turned left back down masada, took fake walking pic
got home - had big communal lunch with aviad and inbar (i had spagettim leftovers)
in the evening - went over to re'ut's for sushi
re'ut's "sushi sandwich", not enough rice - my "no rice sushi" (tasty) - then cooked up 2 more cups of rice, which we threw away (cuz nobody was hungry)
girls got ready while boys cleaned up
split up to take cabs to a house party
met zohar there?
started out interesting, quickly became crowded and fairly boring - too much techno music
mistimed new years, kissing contest went sour
called up mom and sister to wish happy new years - didn't remember anybody else's number
nadav didn't feel good, so left
nadav was sick, so rest of us watched the israeli cult classic "alex in love" or "lovesick alex" (very funny)
orly kept urging mike to take more shots
mike passed out - snoring, poke but no wake
i ate tons of re'ut's brownies while nadav continued to barf
finally got mike awake, orly helped him stumble off to bed
we left, went home, i talked to mark and rosie on im, called up family to wish happy new years (dad, eric) while limor fell asleep
Sunday (01/01)
limor woke up at 10am to study for quiz, i slept until 2pm
we ate early dinner / late lunch with inbar and aviad - they weren't going to eat with us, so we made fried breaded-egg potatoes, they ate their spagettim leftovers and told us about their new years (expensive spagettim)
limor studied a bit more, i probably read a book or played on the internet
went to the mall near the central station
went to
walked around to just about every store
were just about to give up and get some food when i saw a mega-sport - went in, found really cheap and good shoes - trouble with size, finally found correct size, but then not right color (booo)
waited...and waited...and waited for aviad and inbar to show up so we could eat - finally had burger ranch
just before that - atm with perfect bills
went to see "narnia" at 9:50pm - good movie
went home in a cab (mall closed), aviad stayed at inbar's
went to sleep
Monday (01/02)
dimona - today i join limor
got up early - 700am
quick breakfast, dress, pack some extra clothes to get dirty
walk to a different bus stop near school to wait for free ride to dimona (normally 10 nis)
wait around, other social work students trickle in
one taxi/bus shows up, not enough room, wait around for another one
other one shows up, but still waiting on final student
first bus leaves, last student finally shows up half an hour late
quick ride to dimona, passed much desert and many bedhouin "cities" - dimona much poorer city than be'er sheva
get to community center, go inside - large group of americans there on a hillel mission trip, mixed with bunch of israeli students/volunteers/madrichim? - adi is one of the group organizers
quick breakfast of bourekas (i abstain)
randomly enough i see or, the director of unc hillel (near my hometown), had come on the trip as a member, so i chat with him a bit
assistant mayor gives short welcoming speech in hebrew, adi translates
limor pulls me aside so i can "meet" her counselor/teacher - wave hello, go back downstairs
split up into work groups - i'm with zack (tulane, knows shira, spent the semester in penn state) and liat (half israeli, goes to university of judaism in new jersey? - only 120 students there) and some other random israelis who i don't catch their names (noah, sigan?...)
walk into an apartment building and head upstairs to our designated work area - we're going to paint the walls of some dude's apartment
go upstairs to find the entire family just spending a regular day inside - one kid's even playing GTA on his slim ps2 (awesome) when we arrive
you'd think if he requested our help, he'd be ready for us, maybe straighted up a little, moved some stuff around - instead we helped him take stuff off his walls, move shelves around, clean up dishes, etc.
someone made a disparaging comment on how dirty it is and how they could have clean it before we came - i thought that was a rather shallow statement from someone who signed up to help the poor - i mentioned that maybe he's got a different set of priorities (like feeding his family comes first)
and so began a very disorganized process
after moving furniture around we started sanding and scraping old paint off the walls and smoothing out bumps
more people came in to "help" and pretty much just ended up getting in the way, especially when several large groups of people came by to check on our "progress" and just wandered around for several minutes, halting work
since everyone was concentrating on scraping and applying dry-wall to holes, i took a broom (which had been sitting in a dirty puddle of water next to the fridge, so i had to clean it off a bit) and started sweeping off cobwebs and ants and spiders from the walls and ceilings - several of the israelis looked at me strangely, demonstrating to me that they had no idea of what they were doing
after sweeping the walls, i swept the floors, trying to get most of the dust and paint flakes off the floor so we could paint the walls
while i was sweeping, people kept going back over to places i had already swept and scraped more crap on the floor, because they hadn't done it properly in the first place
also, before i finished getting everything up, whatever retard in charge decided that since we were using water-soluble paint, we would just pour water on the floor instead of laying down newspaper - and so they started making a huge wet mess. i don't know why, but they poured the water more in the middle of the floor than along the walls (where you'd think most of the paint would splash), and i started scrambling around with a floor squeegee trying to keep the water out from under the couches and pianos piled in the middle of the room
also, because the room hadn't been completely swept, dirt, dust, hair, and paint flakes were all floating around - later when i was squeegeeing the floor clean, i was told not to filter it out before dumping it all down the drain (again by the retards in charge), again demonstrating that they have no idea what they're doing - we should have spent an extra 10 minutes now cleaning it to save several hours later unclogging the drains
i avoided the painting, partially because there weren't enough rollers to go around, partially because i didn't want paint on my pants, but mostly because i realized i was the only one who cared about cleaning up - i don't think a single one of the self-absorbed people in the room thought more than five minutes ahead
after applying one coat of paint, we stopped for lunch, and just left a huge mess - puddles of water, drying paint, etc - and i realized the family was still sitting in a little side room of their apartment. i was shocked that they had not left to go outside, to a park or relatives or something, while we were "renovating". i guess i was the only person bothered by the thought of leaving to relax and enjoy food while we left the poor family with a swamp. but, since i wasn't in charge, i went with the flow.
back at the community center, i arrived to find a shortage of seats - no problem, i wasn't really interested in trying to insert myself in already formed groups. so i wandered around, grabbing food from different tables. i don't think anybody noticed i was there. i sat down on a couch on the other side of the room, next to liat, who also didn't have a seat, and chatted a little bit.
then limor came to save me, and liat left after she sat down. i talked with limor for a bit, ate some cookies (like oreos but when you squeeze them the chocolate filling oozes out of eyes in the faces on the side of the cookie), and was briefly mobbed by a group of neighborhood kids fascinated by the fact that i could only speak english. it was very funny to have twenty kids crowded around, shouting out their names and saying random phrases in english (like "ooh yair loves you"), until one of the community directors frantically shooed them out.
after lunch, back to cleaning - i kept squeegeeing while others painted, although i took a turn using the small brushes to paint around bookcases and light switches
while cleaning up, the guy who lived in the apartment came out and saw me scraping up crud before sweeping it down the drain - he seemed very embarassed, and told me that i didn't have to do it, i could flush it down the drain or leave it for him to clean (i'm not sure of which) but i let him know i was happy to do it (and i was, because that's what i came for - to help him).
all in all, the apartment did look a lot nicer, with cleaner walls and unintentionally cleaner floors.
i left with limor soon after finishing, not really saying goodbye to anyone except zack
another short bus ride home
stopped off at the central station and walked to the "cheap" grocery store nearby - like a kmart crossed with a food lion crossed with a warehouse - there were ants crawling all over the fruit-drink aisle, and someone had left meat sitting in the cereal aisle - limor said the quality changes every week, and sometimes you get lucky.
it wasn't really that bad, since you can't really ruin packaged foods
bought a lot of stuff, agonized over which flavor of pillows to buy, got a new silverware drying rack to replace the old one limor had
stuffed everything in our backpacks, walked to a bus stop and rode back to limi's apartment
made very tasty bolognese for dinner
right before dinner - walk downstairs with aviad to buy strange fruit drinks 3L = 13 nis (pomegranate, summer fruits, "toot banana")
inbar joined us just as we all sat down
showers
aviad's friends came over for poker night
we laid down in bed with window open, passed right out
i woke up in middle of night to close window
Tuesday (01/03)
the weather keeps on getting more and more gorgeous
leave for school at 12pm (skipped first class)
worked on journal during classes
during second class teacher came by and chatted with me for a bit
aviad sent a text message saying he wanted to kill anat's cat and possibly anat (their third roommate)
third class - limor had a quiz, so i waited outside in the fading sunlight to read my book
as sun went down, wind picked up, and it got cooler, until i huddled next to building on bench
aviad called to explain his earlier text message - cat jumped on counter, started eating/stepping on aviad's food, when he told anat she said it was his fault for leaving food on the counter
limor came out of quiz, we waited outside classroom with others who had finished early/on time
went back into class, i continued reading book
after class, walked over to university diner and picked up some sweet potato soup (2 for 13 nis)
walked home with soup, sat down to dinner - ate soup with soup nuts, had bolognese for dessert, i finished limor's and read book while she studied
took a brief nap, then made pudding for 2nd dessert
did something while it congealed (shower? read and finished book? nevermind - it only took 5 min)
left extra in fridge for aviad
ate pudding and watched "zoolander" on limor's computer - still funny the second time for me
went to sleep at 12am
Wednesday (01/04)
got up early - 40 min before alarm (set for 8am)
lay there in pain for a couple minutes, not wanting to wake limor, then i realized i couldn't do it for 40 min so i got up to go to the bathroom
fell back asleep so comfortably right before both limor's phone and my watch alarm went off
get up, pillows for breakfast while water heated up
read a tiny bit more, then took a shower - dressed warmly, but ready for 24 oC weather
made lunches for long day today
went to class, waited to meet re'ut, then she got left behind anyway while talking to a friend
ate dust swirling around, extremely breezy and cool and not sunny
dropped off some paper in a building, went to class (taught by a judge)
ahhhh...real desks - i could stretch out and not suffer from carpal spinal syndrome or whatever
too tired to work on journal much, tried anyway - wrote out notes for today, but still not caught up from wed.
read articles on gamespot instead during class
in between classes, while stopping off for coffee, i notice that they carry the best drink ever - they don't have my favorite flavor (pear and kiwi) so i get mango/passionfruit instead - awesome; also get egg sandwich to split with limor
head up to class - no internet, so finish up articles i still have on screen and continue journal
during third class (steep rows, english guy with tinkertoy demos) it started raining
scurried over to student center to wait for limor's perach kid
sat on a bench for 45 min, chilled, looked for club flyers
mor showed up - went downstairs to lounge - i played around on my computer instead of doing real work
hour and a half later, mor left - we went home
had dinner (random leftover soup w/ rice and spaghetti and chicken flavor)
waited around for a bit, then went to manchilla to see limor's friends one last time
cool place - everybody except adi showed up (nadav, re'ut, hila, hadas, yochai)
limi and i split burger with egg (sunny-side up) and malawach - i finished limor's malawach
just as i was thinking how nice the sparkler cake is (saw it at another table) - limor's friends had the waitress bring me one for my birthday - they all sang
ate ANOTHER cake for dessert - i decided i'm not going to eat for the rest of the month
as we were leaving we see aviad/inbar and their friends sitting outside - they were celebrating finishing their SPL paper/project (the restaurant program)
piled into yochai's car (since hadas left us early w/o paying) - i said my goodbye's
limor heard on the news that sharon was fighting for his life
we went to sleep
Thursday (01/05)
limor woke up early to go to dimona (7am) - i slept in 10am even though i set alarm for 11 (i didn't feel like sleeping any more)
woke up, played on computer - continued downloading more ebooks from yesterday (found some pretty good ones)
exercised a bit
read some stuff online (looked for ebooks, magic: the gathering)
started the sad task of packing up my stuff - double-checked i had everything on my original packing list (couldn't find red travel toothbrush)
had a lot more room in bags than i started
swept limor's room too because i had time
limor came home
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And that's it - there's probably more after that, but I don't think anybody's read this far anyway, so I'll stable my OCD tendencies and leave you alone for now.
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