I have learned a lot in the last 24 hours. For instance, when the cops come to our street and broadcast something over the loud speaker they are actually telling the taxi drivers, who are ALWAYS parked out in front of our building, that they cant park in front of our building. This little gem was learned last night when I decided that, instead of going out, I would hangout downstairs at of the restaurant underneath our apt. Recently, we've started saying hi and chatting a bit with one of the restaurant owners so last night when I was walking home at around 12:30 I pulled up a chair...and stayed until 5 am...

It was like a show out there! Allenby really is the craziest street in Tel Aviv and I was thoroughly entertained. I had lots of caffeinated drinks bought for me - my restaurant host, Elias, and some Arabs who were just hanging out after a party. I met the two hippy-esque girls who are squatting in the apt across the street from us. They were pretty young and surprisingly clean looking. I finally got to talk to this friendly looking homeless guy who hangs around our neighborhood. It turns out hes Russian but grew up in the US and so his English is perfect. Hes likely a paranoid schizophrenic or something, as it took him a while to decide that he would come over and talk to us with me there. He needed to know my sign first  - Virgo, which he said means I am self-centered - and only after an hour of going away and thinking about it did he decide I was ok. Hes very interesting and college educated. According to Elias his family is well off and gives money to one of the street vendors for whenever he needs it.

Very random night.

Today I tried unsuccessfully to sleep late - likely the caffeine - and then went to the beach for a while. It was a beautiful day and on the way home I decided that I would finally stop and chat with the Hare Krishnas and find out more about what they are about. I got one guy to tell me a bit about why they are there singing every weekend, but he was more interested in trying to get me to give him ten sheckles as a donation in exchange for a brochure that  would save him the trouble of having to explain it all to me and make my life better. I respectfully declined but stuck around to watch them dance and recite the mantra for a while longer. While I was there an older Israeli man approached me and told me that the guy I had been talking to used to work at the hospital with him but was fired after he was caught trying to distribute Hare Krishna materials at work. The Israeli guy then told me that Israel was a Jewish state...uh thanks...and asked what religion I was.  When I responded that I didnt have a religion. He smiled and said well you have to be something, your parents are something right? I responded that they were both catholic at one point, and he said well then they took you to church and got you baptized and gave you your name right. Uh no. He just couldnt wrap his head around it. By the end of the conversation all I got was a humph and a questioning look.

Its been an interesting 24 hours.

Passover Rules

Passover was not exactly conducive to blogging...so theres a lot to catch up on.

So. My mom’s trip was great over all (at least I think so). On her last day here we took a trip to Jerusalem. I was really impressed with Jerusalem's landscape. I always knew that there was an area named Temple Mount, but it had never really registered that the Dome of the Rock and the surrounding city is actually built on and around a mountain. It makes for amazing scenery.
The day my mom left my friend Theresa arrived. We also had a great time. While she was here we explored Jaffa, enjoyed the beach and Tel Aviv’s night life, experienced out first Seder, saw the Bahai gardens in Haifa, and took an amazing road trip to Jerusalem, the dead sea and Masada. The weather was great for most of her trip and I definitely looooooved the dead sea area. We played in the mud and floated in the salt water and soaked up the sun. Sigh. It was really nice.

After Theresa left Tam’s family came to town and we headed down to Eilat and Petra. Also awesome. The weather was even warmer than its been in Tel Aviv – the best part being that it stays warmer in the evenings – and we had a great time. Eilat itself isn’t that special. Its very touristy and mostly hotels. We went to the underwater observatory which was surprisingly impressive. Half the observatory is a lookout over the red sea above the water and the other half is under water along the reef. It was really cool. We also went snorkeling along a coral reef. Tam has an underwater camera and we took a bazillion pictures. The water was a little chilly, but we had a great time.

Petra was…wow. I found it more impressive than many of the places we’d been to in Egypt. Its just so big and impressive. The buildings are carved right into the side of the mountains and the natural colors of the rock are incredible. Later in the day, we rode donkeys up to a monastery at the top of a mountain. We were really annoying, bumping people and stuff with the donkeys – and I am pretty sure my donkey tried to step off the edge of a cliff several times – but the view from the top was great.
Passover is now over – sad – and we’re back in classes – sadder. We’re starting to realize that our time left here is pretty short. In fact, Tam and I leave a month from now. Wow. So for the next few weeks I guess we’ll just try and enjoy the city as much as we can!

View from the top

Today mom and I planned to go to Akko...but I slept in :)
Instead, we went for a leisurely breakfast and wandered up King George - somehow managing to avoid buying anything. We then went to the Azrieli Centre and went up to the observatory to get a 360 view of Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas. It wasn’t the clearest of days, but the view was still pretty great. The picture above shows the coastline and right in the middle by the water, the building that you can barely tell has sort of an angled bottom and a square top, is right up the street from where we live.

After taking in the view we walked up Ibn Gvirol and mom got her eye brows threaded - how very middle eastern! Then we walked to one of the northern beaches and had a beer and some fries in the dimming sun.

We're pretty bagged now, but tonight we're going out with some of the exchange students to dinner at a restaurant called Havana and then maybe to a wine bar in neve tzedek. The rough life continues.

Oh yeah...its now Passover break for the exchange students. We don’t have class until April 7. Amazing.

grrrr...

So I had written a nice post and it crashed, so heres a quick version:
1. Every party in Tel Aviv turns into a street party. Like St Patty's day for instance. We went to a party at a pub called Molly Blooms, but the interesting part was the street out front that was full of people. Not the greatest picture ever, but you get the idea.
2. My mom is here! Its been a good visit thus far, even though I’ve been absent for a bit of it to work on an exam (darn school). She’s here until Friday and we're hoping to see more of Tel Aviv and head to Jerusalem. Tonight we ate at a great restaurant named Cafe Noir - definitely a food recommendation.

3. On Sunday my international humanitarian law class went on a field trip to a military court in the occupied territories. We got to listen in on the trial of a Palestinian accused of selling an uzi to another man. It was a bit of a circus, as language barriers required that a translator do simultaneous translations into Hebrew for the prosecutor and into Arabic for the defence attorney, the witness and the defendant. On top of this, the translator was making comments to one of the soldiers so he could translate into English for us. It gets crazier, but its just too hard to put into words. Literally a bit of a circus - hopefully people are actually receiving justice.

Another succesful weekend

Another great weekend is over – and there's a lot to report.

First, boot camp was a good decision. We've had it twice now and I definitely think its going to help us eat more pastries. Its pretty much what I expected – we run around and in between running around we get yelled at (although are instructor is little and cute and I could totally take her) and do push ups and sit ups. Its a really good small number of people too. We had it this morning and then again Wednesday and Thursday. We're going to be buff before we know it.

Aside from working out, we've been eating and drinking and dancing. Friday, there was a street party on Rothschild – wow. I have no idea how many blocks along this street were full of people and djs and food and drink stands. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, and apparently it happens every couple of months. This video (I have no future in film...) gives you a little idea of how loud and busy it was. It sounds like we were in a club – but this is actually like 3:30 in the afternoon in the middle of a street. Nuts!

After the Street party Tam and I were lucky enough to be invited by our roommate to Shabbat dinner at her friend's house. The food was great and hopefully we made some new friends (who will invite us over for more delicious Shabbat dinners!).

Saturda,y we exceeded all of my expectations and made it to a yoga class at a place called Yogini. So awesome. I was still pretty tight from our first boot camp class and really needed the alignment and stretching that the yoga teacher focused on. After class we went for brunch at Dalal – a restaurant in Neve Tzedek that I think I have mentioned before. I tried to branch out from the Israeli breakfast which is my new favourite thing, but only managed to agree to share the Israeli breakfast and shakshuka with Tam. We spent the rest of the afternoon digesting on the beach.

Finally, today – which technically isn't the weekend – we were delighted that our only class was cancelled. This allowed us to go to boot camp, take a leisurely lunch and then run some errands. We're majorly tuckered out from all the fun and it was great to have a day to get some things done (like clean up my disaster of a room and buy groceries).

This week we have a tour of Jaffa/Yafo and Neve Tzedek and I'm sure there will be some kind of a celebration on St. Patty's day. We also need to try and get some school work done because we have a couple exams before the Passover break and, more importantly, my mom comes at the end of the week!

Current Temperature: 25°C (at 11pm)

Boot Camp – Day 1

No, we have not joined the army. But, if you've been following the blog at all you will have noticed that a large majority of what we have been doing while we've been here has had to do with eating - and its starting to show. One of the exchange students from Canada had heard about a girl who had great results from attending these boot camp work outs on the beach. So a group of about 6 of the exchange students decided it would be fun if we gave it a go. We'll be going twice a week for the next 6 weeks or so – give or take a few sessions because of Passover and friends and family visiting. Today is day 1...

Also...I can't believe I've been neglecting to put up the temperature lately...its been beautiful.

Current Temperature: 20°C

Cats

Today it was around 30 degrees and we didn't have class until 3, which can only mean - Beach Day! Nothing more I can really say on that except that I love the beach. Love it.

Managed to make it to class despite the weather (we DO go to class) and were entertained by a cat in our class. Like Egypt, there are stray cats all over Tel Aviv - especially on our campus. Apparently the cats there are taken care of by the biology department and have free run of the place. They look pretty healthy and I am sure there are lots of suckers (ahem...me...) who will feed them and pet them etc. One of these cats is always around the law school building and today it wandered up to the second floor and into our intellectual property class. It walked around looking for attention and food. Every once and a while it would meow and eventually - sensing that I am one of those huge suckers - jumped up on my chair and laid down in the space between my back and the chair. Ha! It only stuck around for a bit because I couldn't pet it as much as it would have liked and eventually it was chased out of the class by the proof. Funny stuff (and definitely more interesting than what we were learning).

Tonight, while others are going out, I am heading to bed to rest up for another day at the beach tomorrow!