Tel Aviv

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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 or anything. It’s a little lonely, but I do know a few people in Tel Aviv and I made a couple of friends in the dorms.
The first person I met was a girl named Yael. She’s basically the one who set me up with my room (she’s sort of the R.A.) and she is the coolest, sweetest girl ever. I met her boyfriend, Sigee, also, but we really haven’t spoken much. The next guy I met was her (sometimes) roommate, Adlai. Adlai is the most laid back, chilled-out guy ever. He’s as hippie as they come, with full on dreadlocks and beard. I call him Yael’s sometime roommate because he tends to spend most of his nights in his tent on the beach. Like I said, real hippie. Anyway, he’s got a heart of gold. He and I chilled out some last night with my friend Lisa from the U.S., and then Lisa and I went out for her friends birthday party at some bar.
The night was fun until it ended badly when Lisa left her phone in the taxi we took home. The cab driver actually called us back from her phone to say he’d return it, but it appears that that was all B.S. because about 20 min later he turned it off and we never heard from him again. Still, he had my phone number so I had to stay at her apartment just in case he’d call back. To make matters worse I was exhausted, yet the apartment was filled with wide-awake people because her roommate was heading back to America. In the end I just passed out on the couch.
Anyways things are progressing. I’ll update further and post more pictures in the next day or so.
Asalam Aleykem,
Marcus

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