Welcome & Shalom from Israel

Hello from Israel, finally.

It only took about 28 hours of traveling to get here. 3 hours at LAX, 10 hours to London, 10 lovely hours in the Heathrow airport, and 5 hours to Tel Aviv. Oh, actually, 28 and a half hours. I waited for Daniel for about 30mins to pick me up, you would think after all that traveling someone could pick you up on time. After all, he had 28 hours to get there. Rule #1 about Israeli’s, and I also read this in an article before I left, you can throw punctuality out the window.

 Today was a long, but fun day. I never realized that starting your day at 5am can make the day seem very long. I have a new found respect for all you people who are crazy enough to be up at that time regularly. After the brief trip from the airport back to Daniel’s apartment I jumped straight in the shower. I realized in London that the first thing I forgot to bring was deodorant, so I smelling nice a ripe upon my arrival. We hung out for a bit, settled in, and then took Daniel’s mom back to the airport so she could meet her volunteer group. We took the train back to airport to avoid traffic and the crowd was much different then anything you see in the States. Thousands of young soldiers were roaming the streets on their way back to base for the week. Loaded with their bags, hand guns in their belts, and M-16’s around their necks. I guess it makes you feel safe they’re always ready, but also a bit nerve racking as a first timer.

 We walked around town for a bit, stopped at a café to have some breakfast, which was my first official meal and a bit odd to no surprise. Daniel picked this café that makes omelets. Apparently the ingredients in the actual omelet are already picked for you (which was just mushroom’s and spinach, I think), then you get to pick 5 sides to add to the plate around the omelet. The selection included a very strange assortment; pesto, Hungarian salad (looks like pico de gallo, I called it salsa), tuna, sun dried tomato paste, cream cheese, a few other types of cheese dips, eggplant, and some other random pasta, coleslaw, and dip-like sides. I wasn’t sure what to do so I picked, well the 5 I could recognize and actually name. It was quite odd when it was served, but not knowing when your next meal is, or what it might be, I scarffed down the variety omelet and we sat and talked.

 Daniels apartment is just a few km’s south of Tel Aviv (I believe). The city looks like any other European city I have been too. Small narrow, car-lined streets with little european cars and thousands of racing scooters (I miss my scooter) all competing for an inch, horns blaring at us for taking a step into the crosswalk. I thought pedestrians had the right of way, false. The buildings are old and run down apartments with every kind of small shop tucked into the smallest places.

 Daniel lives in a small 1 bedroom, studio size apartment with his girlfriend. There is a second small room that is an office that I am sleeping in and Daniel said it’s their bomb shelter. I don’t know if he was serious or joking because he can be very sarcastic, but I didn’t ask truthfully. I figured, well, ok, cool at least I’m safe I guess. Built in bomb shelters, interesting. I wonder if it increases the rental value.

 Later in the afternoon we took another walk, but this time down to the beach. Wow, the Mediterranean Sea. I never thought I’d be sitting at a restaurant in the sand, along the Mediterranean Sea eating hummus and pita bread, drinking a jack and coke, talking Israeli vs. Palestinian conflicts, along with old Claremont High school gossip about who’s who now, who is married, has kids, who’s doing what, etc…The weather was beautiful. Warm, but not hot and the humidity is bearable. I also learned that you cannot add your tip onto the bill when you use your credit card like we do at home. Daniel asked if they could re-run the bill and just add a little extra for a tip to pay her, she said no, he said well sorry then, neither of us have any cash on us, and that was that. No argument, no spit in our food, and we got up and left.

 We then were off to meet up with some of Daniel’s friends. Two guys he used to live with and spent time in the army with. One of the guys, Shai, pronounced ‘Shy’, took us to a bar with over 200 selections of whiskey and an assortment of beers from around the world with alcohol contents of 10% +. I think they outlawed that in most bars in California. We bounced around to a couple more places and then called it a night. They were trying to give me a “taste” of the nightlife here in Tel Aviv. Shy claims Tel Aviv has some of the most fun nightlife out of all the places he has traveled. It was Sunday night so a bit slow, but still a decent size crowd. (FYI – the work week here is Sunday – Thrusday)

 After a long day, I was ready to pass-out. Usually at home I would shower before I got into bed, especially since I had been sweating all day and I was covered with a nice greasy layer of humidity, but if I took a shower I’d be taking away from the true experience. I was also trying to prepare myself for life on the Kibbutz. Who knows what the shower facilities will be like and how often I’ll be able to take them. So I jumped into bed just like everyone else does. Ha, oh man, gotta love the real immersion into a new lifestyle.

 Hope you are well and until next time, have a great day!