Catching up

Thursday was simply class. We had morning session until 11 and then our test at 11:15 or so. We were free to leave when we were finished, so Michele and I hit up the mall for some errands.  There's a food court in the mall, so we had schwarma and chicken skewers that we shared. It was really good.

That evening, Halley had some friends over and we all had dinner together before meeting up with her friends, two Israelis, Edan and Tal, who are in the army. We sat on the beach, looking towards Jaffa and just hung out for a while before going to a hookah bar. It was pretty chill, and we were enjoying ourselves. Three of their army buddies joined us, and it was cool to talk to all of them.

I love some of the old buildings with the new art in Jaffa! 

Such a gorgeous view!!

When we were suitably relaxed, we headed over to the WonderlanD club.  It was loud and crazy and fun. The problem is that Israeli boys are very aggressive. I was quite literally man-handled, and all four of us girls were pretend dating Halley's two friends because that made them back off - a little. After the club, we got kebaps/schwarma. It's kindof funny to me how it was the late-night staple in Belgium and here. Honestly? Super Kebap was better...

I was talking to Edan on the walk back, and I asked him how much emphasis they put on marching. It's a really weird thing to notice, but nearly every Israeli walks in a very particular way - almost like they're kicking their heels out. Edan made fun of me for noticing, but also pointed out that Israelis live around their time in the army.  I debated the pros and cons of mandatory service with Tal for a few minutes, (he was of the opinion that it was not so beneficial to developing as adults since college and moving out are delayed by three/four years, while I thought having an extra three years to decide my career and gaining the maturity the army teaches you would be a good thing), and then Edan was telling me how nearly all the slang revolves around army speak.  You don't "hit on" a girl, you "strategize an attack" - I forgot the rest, but there were a lot of army-related acronyms and stuff, too. I thought it was really interesting.

So we got back around 5AM, and I fell asleep til 8, when I got up to have breakfast, decided I didn't have anything to do, so went back to bed. I pretty much slept on and off all day, had some fun Skype conversations =] and cleaned the apartment.

I did read my Israel guide book, and it looks like I've seen most of what I'm sincerely interested in already. There are a few museums to go to that would be interesting, but I think, other than shopping and the beach, I've seen most all of it. Of course, I want to spend some more time in Jaffa and walk around some more, but I'm getting the hang of the city.  I've already decided that Tuesdays will be my Shuk days since there's an arts and crafts market next to Shuk HaCarmel every week.  My weekly groceries have pretty much come down to strawberries (they're AMAZING here!), tangerines, and some things to make the cucumber-tomato salad that's so popular here.

So that's life here in Israel, at least for now.

Lilah Tov!