This blog is going to be a fast forwarded version of my life for the past 2-2.5 weeks. I want to briefly talk about the Shuk ha Carmel. I don't think I talked about it before. Anna and I decided to go to it a few weeks ago. I really wanted to get geenie pants and a cloth over the shoulder purse. I got 2 pairs of geenie pants for 25 NIS, good deal! So then I found the purse that I wanted. It was orange with little pieces of mirror looking stuff sewn into it. I was able to knock it down from 40 -20 NIS but because of my commitment issues I told the lady that I would walk around to see if I could get a better deal. She told me that it was her final offer and that she won't give it to me when I come back. I took the chance. She was right, I could not find anything that resembled "my purse". I came back to her and now she was saying that the purse was going for 35NIS even though Anna also heard her say 20NIS. I circled around the stand like a shark and took out 25 shecks and tried to give them to her and she wouldn't take them and shooed me away! I was sad :( The next day we were going to Jerusalem (I wrote about this in my last blog, just not the Shuk) and I NEEDED that bag for my hipster Jeru outfit. So my friend Julie and I went back to the Shuk. I put on my glasses so that the lady would not recognize me. Julie needed a purse so I made her ask the lady how much it was. She told her 40NIS. I asked the lady how much the other purse was and looked me dead in the eye and asked if I want my purse. She wasn't messing around. I told her, "you rememberd me?!" and she said, "Of course I remember you, you have very unique features, you're like that girl, sex and big city!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It never ends!
Soooooooo moving on ahead.......
So I finally gave up on walking to the beach for 45 minutes each way and got really jealous of my friends with bicycles, so I grew some cajones (I haven't ridden a bike in 12-14 years, no joke) and decided to go get a bike. I gave my self a price range- I was not going to spend more 200 NIS on a stolen (yes, stolen) bike. After a group meeting, while in Yafo, great area for cheaper (read the previous reason of cheapness) bikes, I set off to find my bike. I returned to the place where my friends got their bikes but it was closed. While standing there, a guy on a bike mumbles something to us in Hebrew, and our friend Jorai, who is half Israeli translates to us that this guy knows of a bike shop and will take us there. The guy literally rode his bike along with us until we got to his shop.
S-K-E-T-C-H-Y! But not shocking. It's literally a bike shed. Wheels, seats, and other bike crap everywhere and yes, assembled bikes as well. My friend Adam right away finds a bike that he likes so he starts riding it around. I try out a few bikes but nothing really strikes my fancy.
A mechanic from shop next door starts talking to us, but at this point he is just background noise to me because I am so focused on buying my transportation. I don't really remember how this happened but suddenly we both bust into a conversation in Spanish and Russian. Pablo is his name and he is from Uruguay. He has lived here forever and has 3 daughters from 3 different women. Wow. So I am basically speaking with him in 3 languages while trying to speak Hebrew. Best time ever. So I asked him if there are any other bike shops where I could spend my mentioned amount and get a bike that will not break the same day. He says yes. Adam buys his first love bike and we set off to the other place.
The place is also in Yafo and it is run by a man who is sitting and doing nothing however, his worker, whose name is Adam is Sudanese. He lets me try out a couple of bikes. The one that I sort of liked was 200 but I wanted to knock it down AND get a basket put on it. I kept whining to him in Hebrew that I want to pay 150 sheks for the bike.
Suddenly, Adam comes back with a bottle of red wine and Pablo asks me "Do you want to talk or do you want to drink?" I obviously respond with 'both!" and Adam, Adam, Jorai and the lazy owner split a bottle of red wine, and just shoot the breeze, but I am still trying to haggle at this point. Two hours later, we finally all have bikes. I ended up paying 160 NIS for it but it was so fun!
After that, the guys and I went to the beach and chilled. I saw a boy and his dad throwing a board into the water and then jumpng on it. For the life of me I cannot remember what it is called. But anyway, the wine gave me liquid confidence and I asked them if I could try it. Well I tried it alright. I jumped on the board and fell on my tachat! AND scene! That was enough for me.
The next day, we had more volunteering tours. I was really excited because one of the places we were visiting was Nofim elementary school. All I knew from this school is that they needed Russian and Spanish speakers to help the kids learn English. We got there and right away the kids that were coming in started asking us who we were and what we were doing there. The vibe was great right away. We then went into a room where the new principal of the school gave us an intense speech of volunteering at the school. "If you don't feel that you should be here so then I ask you not to come back." That was pretty much along the lines of what she said, very powerful. That was my school. I knew it.
Jorai and I decided to go to the bike shop so that I could exchange my U-lock for another, more flexible lock. I didn't have a receipt or anything but I figured the guy would remember me. Jorai needed to get a lock and reflectors too. On the way up our street, I heard a really loud clicking sound and the chain busted!!! AAHHHHHH! I wanted to kill myself. Jorai flipped my bike over and tried to flix the chain with no luck. Then we saw some guy in a smart bike cart coming our way, he looked at what was going on and pulled over and brought his tools over. While Jorai went to go wash his hands, the guy started talking to me and mumbled something in Russian so I got really excited and started speaking to him, he was really happy to hear Russian speech he said. He fixed my bike but he said that I would need to fix the chain. The he gave me some apples and churma(parsimon) from his cart and sent me on my way. Not even 5 wheel rotations later, the damn chains busted AGAIN! So I had to walk my bike to the lock guy and then haggle in Russian to some Chechnyan guy who translated what I needed, however the numbers part I handled myself. Voila. Bike worked again.
It was time for our next volunteer assignment. It was called Mesila. It was an overcrowded day care center for migrant worker kids. The lady warned us that the one we were going to was the worst one of them all. Poor conditions, etc. When we got there, the toddlers pretty much jumped on us. I looked around and pretty much five people were already holding the toddlers. They were literally pulling our hands and begging for attention. It was so intense, I almost started crying. I have never seen so many kids starve for so much attention. If I have time, I will definitely spend a few hours a week there. It touched me. Those kids just need someone to hold them and love them, it's pretty simple.
That day when we came back, I got the idea to Google Russian restaurants in the TLV area and maybe I could go and find a job there. It would be way easier than trying to find a job in an Israeli place, at least for now only because my ivrit is caha-caha. I Googled and found a place that Ben and I had passed many times on the way to the beach. It was called Baba Yaga. I took a deep breate and dialed the number. A man answered and I asked if we could speak in Russian. His name was Sasha and he was the manager of the restaurant. He told me to come in the next day and speak with him, I was stoked! (I didn't end up coming in because we had the Sukkha building party the next day and it was hard to be back by the time everyone would come to our house to build and learn Hebrew. Ben and skyped day and he invited me to his sister's house for Sukkhot. I was excited. I wanted to see him and his family - it's been longer than usual since I have seen him!
The next day everyone came over to build the Sukkha for Sukkot, which is a celebration of fruit harvest. You build the Sukkha out of palm branches and tarps and you decorate and then eat inside the Sukkha. I like it. It was a complete balagan because 3 Hebrew groups were now at our house, all 26 people, plus our madrichim and morim and randoms. Wow. Let's just say we were all glad it was over when everyone left! Whew!
The next day was erev Sukkot (night of Sukkot). Ben informed me that he would get me at 2:30 which was WAY too early because we had a five hour Ulpan class until 1:30 and it was all the way in Yafo; 20 minute bike ride from Kiryat Shalom where we live. Oh well, I was going to make it happen. After we survived the 5 hour language class, I hauled ass home, actually to the bakery next door so that I could buy some baklava for the dinner. When I got home I realized that I was missing my bike keys and house keys but thank g-d I realized that I left them at the bakery, and thankfully my friend Anna was still there so she got them for me. I was freaking out. By the time I got home I thought that I only had like 10 minutes to get ready, but Ben called and said that he was going to be there in 45 minutes, WHEW AGAIN!
He came to get me and we were now on the way to get his sava (grandma). I was sort of nervous, don't really know why. He left me in the car while he went to get her. I seriously waited in the car for 20 minutes. I thought that he left his car and ditched me. Hahaha. I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, he finally came down with the savta. I said hi to her when she got in but she didn't hear me so Ben had to introduce her to me and then she apologized for not seeing me. She was adorable. She of course asked if I was his chavera (girlfriend) and he gave the default explanation. She wished me luck and happiness anyway. We got to his house and his family was not even ready. I thought the dinner was going to be earlier in the day but apparently it wasn't starting until 8PM. I am so glad that I got picked up like 5 hours before, oh well, I was thankful. We finally got to his sisters and I got introduced to more people. Some of them spoke English and some of them did not, but I am now so used to these circumstances so it didn't matter. We all gathered into the Sukkha to say prayer for the holiday and the wine and then it was game time, I mean dinner time. It was a great and delicious dinner. It was set up buffet style. I ate everything. Mamash taim - very delicious. I had really good conversation with some people from the party. I was starting to get sick though so I was really tired and feeling lo tov (no good). We went home and I just passed out and slept all day the next day.
I literally ended up going upstairs at like 5PM when Ben's mom started to make dinner. More food, yes. Too bad I wasn't hungry at all and just wanted to die. We ate and then she gave me some food to take home. So Jewish. I love it. I literally ate that food for like a week straight. It was rice, kabobs and chicken and potato salad. So not Israeli but oh well! Thank you Rachel!
The next day, Anna and Adam and I went to the beach. We went late but it was so nice. We lay there for a bit and swam a little. Anna and I noticed that there was a kite surfer getting ready to go do him things. We started watching him. He was literally flying. We were standing there breathless. We both said at the same time that it was our next sport. We started stalking him and made a pact that as soon as he was done we would go and talk to him and see if we could get lessons. We was in the water forever. While waiting, we started hearing drums and saw a group of Buddhist Krishnas walking on the tayelet (boardwalk) and beating their drums. We all walked over there and Anna started dancing to the beat with the Krishnas. I could have sworn she was going to run away with them. When they were done, so was the kite surfer! We picked up all our stuff and ran over like groupies to talk to him. We was so cool! He gave us his email address and said that he is at the beach a few times a week and maybe he could teach us. Wooooooow! After we were done, I realized that Baba Yaga was in that area so I came in to meet Sasha and apologize for not coming in last time. He was there, very laid back so we scheduled a new day for me to come in. It was a good day!
The next day, was the day of our 1st beach BBQ. Anna and I wanted to get some excercise beforehand so we rode to the beach and along the boardwalk and also picked up some things for the party. When we came back and we only had an hour to get ready and head back to the beach. We had a great outcome for the BBQ. We divided up the things for each house to bring. We were in charge of the meat so we brought veggie burgers and then other houses brought the alcohol and pitas and hummus. GREAT SUCCESS! It was a lot of fun.
After the BBQ a group of us decided to go to a house party in the city. We all rode our bikes into the center.
The house party was on a rooftop. While there weren't that many stories, the view was still incredible! We met some Americans and Israelis. All were very cool. We realized that it was almost midnight and our friend Nancy did not come on a bike so we had to get her on the bus before she turned into a pumpkin. We ran through the city and finally at 11:58 PM we got to the bus stop. Thank god there was another bus coming. When the bus finally got there, we tried asking if we could put our bikes on the bus and go too but the driver said no. So were off, biking across the city! Which is really not big, it's just intimidating thinking about it. Good times!
I ended up getting sick so I couldn't come into the restaurant again. I felt like an ass for flaking but I literally could not get out of bed. It was so annoying. I haven't had a fever in so long. So glad that it was in another country. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? Anyway, that whole day was shot I didn't do anything.
I got better the next day and rode by bike to Ulpan. It felt so good to be moving again. After I got back, I called Sasha. He didn't return my call for a few hours and when he finally did, I had given up on him at that point. He told me to come in at 6. So I got ready and went over there. He was cool. He said that he had a strong affinity for Taglit people, because he was not living with a girl from Taglit who had made Aliyah. It was a cute love story. Anyway, to make the long story short, he told me that because I don't speak Hebrew, I cannot come near a table, however, he would start me out as a bartender so that I could make drinks for the servers. They don't get tipped out at that place so the bartenders make 30 NIS hour, which is roughly $8/hr. Money that I don't have so it's better than nothing. He told me to come in for an "audition" the next day.
The next day, I got a call from a number I didn't recognize. When I called it back, it turned out to be a guy named Eitan, a friend of Kimberly's. He called to invite me to a concert....of....Idan Raichel. An amazing Israeli artist. Ben actually gave me his CD the night before I left Israel and my family and friends will back me up when I say that I listened to that CD for pretty much three months before I came back to Israel. It was meant to be. Problem: I had to be at BY that night and didn't know what time I was getting out of there and it was also my friend's birthday celebration that night. I politely declined the invitation but was so bothered by it because I so badly wanted to go!!!!!!! When I got home from the beach, Eitan called again and I decided that I NEEDED to go and would figure everything else out later.
I got ready to go to work and went to the bus stop and then realized because it was yet another holiday, Simcha Torah, the busses stopped running. So I walked a little bit and caught a cab. When I got to the restaurant everyone introduced themselves in Russian. It was super weird. I haven't been around Russian young adults in like ever. A couple of people in Tucson and Phoenix here and there but not 15-20 of them! The job is ok, mostly opening champagne and pouring wine and making coffee. Really easy. I wasn't really feeling it. I think I finally got my closuse to the restaurant business. Being out of it for 2 years and realizing that I came to Israel to actually make a difference and do worthless stuff really came to play.
I told Sasha I had to be out by nine so I left and changed and Eitan came and got me and we went to the concert. I was getting so pumped!!!!! I am not even a fan of concerts but this was a completely different feeling. I have a really strong conncetion with the music of this person. It was really easy to talk to Eitan, meeting him for the first time. He was super cool! We met up with a couple of his friends and walked into the concert hall. It was an opera hall and we literally had the best seats in the house. We were about 18th row, dead center. He later told me that the lady who throws these concerts had given him the tickets. Yes and YES! I have never in my life enjoyed anything more. The songs were amazing. He uses different instuments and different languages. His project consists of like 15 people if not more, from other countries with different skillsets. MEULE!!!
I was in a trance for 2 1/2 hours, I am not even joking. Just talking about it gives me goose bumps. And the lyrics themselves, so deep and meaningful, oh man! You get the idea.
The next day, I was exhausted so we just chilled for the majority of the day and then decided to go out for sushi. I don't know why but the thought of sushi in Israel does not really appeal to me at all! Although I was finally ready to test it out! We sat outside and the night was great!
The sushi was ok. I miss RA, I'm not going to lie. After dinner we went to the Port and just walked around. That is one of my favorite areas. Restaurants and bars on the water. Can it get better than that?? No. Good night.
The next day, Nancy and I finally got ourselves together and went to the Shuk (market) near our house. It was so cheap and productive! Definitely going back there again. After the shuk, I biked down to the beach, put in my iPod and did some valuable alone time. I got to the beach and just sat there for a good hour. It was so amazing. I never get alone time these days so I really appreciate when I can get it. So thank you to my dear friend Kimberly, she told me that every Friday there is a drum concert at sunset at Chinky beach. I biked down there to get a good spot. The drummers were starting up and the sun was beginning to set. It's a bunch amateur drummers, using different drumming instruments, and even though there is a balagan of sounds, it starts sounding so good together. I stood on a rock and noticed that a couple of guys started taking pictures of me and the sunset behind me with theit SLRs.
Very flattering. Not going to lie. Anna and Jodie met me there as the music began to get louder and the beat started to make more and more sense. Anna and I let loose on the dancefloor where more people were getting crazyt. It was such a release and so fun! I can't wait to do it again!!!
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