mvelelis

July 6th-7th, 2007, This was a great weekend. Stav, my friend from Birthright (a free trip/tour of Israel for all those not in-the-know), took me to the Northern part of Israel for a weekend of camping and hiking. I was the American guest of her, her boyfriend, and her friends Dan and Dana. Some other people met us later at night, after our hike. Everyone was really nice, and we all had a good time. We started with a hike in Nachalat Zaki/Zaki River. I wish I could have taken pictures, but for the better part of the hike the water was thigh high. For other parts we had to swim. It was awesome. From there we went to a nearby river where we busted out the shampoo and soap and cleaned ourselves up. After that ... read more

July 1st, 2007 Today Adlai and I took a short trip down to Jaffa (Yafo). It’s an ancient Arab city at the very south of Tel Aviv. Read all about it here. Jaffa’s known for its cool sense of local Middle Eastern culture. It’s full of small shops, most of which sell antiques. I managed to get some cheap house wares while out there, and I had fun in the process. I also got a really amazing nargila (hookah) for an excellent price. It was a true Middle Eastern experience, with bargaining and everything. After that Adlai and I went to Shuk HaCarmel, which is a small Israeli market in the center of Tel Aviv, right across from the trendy Shenkin Street. If you’re from New York, think street fair in the Village. I got ... read more

June 28th, 2007 Today I went on a tour to Zichron Ya’akov with my program from the Jewish Agency. It’s not much of a program really. We never see each other ever except for the rare event or tour, and this was my first one. I met some cool people, but I’ll probably only hang out with very few of them outside of the program. Zichron Ya’akov is a nice little town in the Carmel Mountain area of Israel. It’s up in the north by Haifa. It was the center of the NILI organization, which was the Israeli group that spied on the Ottoman’s for the Brits, and pretty much guaranteed Allenby a victory in Palestine. Read all about it here. The town was basically funded by the French Baron de Rothschild, who named it ... read more

June 26, 2007 So a lot has happened over the past few days, but to be honest I'm way too tired to write about it all. To start, Tel Aviv is in the midst of a heat wave, as is most of Israel. It's 100 degrees Fahrenheit and higher everyday. For those fans of the metric system, that's 38 degrees Celsius and up. It wouldn't be so bad if I could go to the beach everyday, but I started my job a couple of days ago. The hours really suck during my first week because I have to go through training. Basically, I’m at work from 8:30 AM until about 5:30 PM everyday. Today I worked until 6. It’s exhausting and I’m already sick of work in general. There’s a lot more responsibility than I expected, ... read more

June 22, 2007 So I’m in Tel Aviv with full Internet access, but only in the lobby. Still, it’s better than the situation was before, but it’s weird having a different IP address. Every time I use AOL to get to Google, it takes me to the German site. On Internet Explorer, it takes me to the Israeli one, which makes a lot more sense but is nevertheless annoying. I miss Jerusalem. I don’t really miss the scenery so much—it’ll always be ther for me—but I miss the people. I made good friends there and I made them quickly. Here, not so much. I’m living in the Tel Aviv University dorms, but there’s not much social life here. People use their rooms for sleeping and that’s pretty much it. Nobody really hangs out in the halls ... read more

June 17, 2007 So it’s been a few days and things are progressing quite well. I’ve gotten close to a couple of really cool guys here. A few of my better friends are British and they’re starting to rub off on me. I’m trying my best not to borrow their terms of speech. The same goes for a Californian guy named Jonathan, who I’ve also been spending a lot of time with. G-d help me if I start saying “rad.” There are people from all over the world in Aish HaTorah (my school). Aside from the English, of which there are a ton, there’s a decent amount of Latin Americans and tons of North Americans. Some people are cool, but there’s definitely a fair share of super-weird people. It’s not because they’re religious—trust me, they’d be ... read more