Hectic Days

be-jeeeeeeeesus I've been slack with this blog! Appologies to one and all. I've been seriously busy, perhaps more busy than I've ever been before in my life, but I'm not complaining because it's all good and it's been 'fun busy' and I will try now to re-cap what I can remember of it...

So, in the last 3 weeks or so, we have become closer with our buddies Tzvika and Pini and we see them and hang out together a lot. This has a lot to do with the fact that: we live 10 doors down the road from each other; that I keep bumping into them at Wall Street; that Pini is studying film and has a collection of fantastic DVD's which he lends us (I finally watched A Clockwork Orange which has been on my 'must see' list for years now and which I have persisently forgotten about every time I've gone to hire a movie)... but it may also have something to do with the new love affair I have begun with Churchhill. Unbeknowst to me til now, I can actually feel love for dogs. Well, this dog at least. We've started a work-out routine. I take him for walks several times a week, or, more accurately, he takes me for walks, as I spend most my time running after his tiny ass saving him from traffic and bigger dogs. He's about 4 months old and has no street sense and no common sense whatsoever, but he has unlimited energy and boundless love and affection- especially for me for some reason. I actually taught him how to fetch sticks! My cat never impressed me to this extent!

Anyway, in addition to hanging out with boys and dogs, Yula's Israel program came to an end so I had a cohort of Aussies which I became responsible for to show them a good time around Tel Aviv. We had a few big nights, going out to bars in a ridiculous grp of about 10 people... It's a small world because Shir joined us and it was because she was hanging out with her friend from Melbourne who she'd met at Habonim (youth movement) camps about 7 yrs ago, and this girl was on the program so that's how we all met up randomly. In addition to this, a girl from Sydney called Ilona was also on the program and Ilona and I met the first time when we started at ticketmaster7 together over 2 years ago! Here's some evidence of a good night had by all-
The nightlife in Tel Aviv is great, and it's all within walking distance from me. Our tiny apartment once again was converted into a hostel and we regularly had 2-3 people stay over at a time. Last Friday we had 10 people over for Shabbat dinner which was awesome. This included our neighbours and also a random Druzic guy who Eli met whilst security guaurding (is that a verb??) What is Druzic I hear some of you ask? Well, it's a faith, and a religion and a people- a very interesting people at that. Extremely secretive. They're sort of Arabs, but not Arabs, some would say they are sort of Muslim, but they're not Muslim, and there's only about 1 million of them in the world. Either way, whoever they are, they make excellent food. And in fact our guest brought us some delicious dessert made of coconut and jelly and rose and I don't know what else was in there... Educate yourselves about these interesting people at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze

Speaking of great foods, Jordana went to Sinai for a few days and came back with Sachlav mixture. Sachlav is a drink best drunk warm, it's milky based and has coconut, flour, pinenuts, sometimes banana or chocolate or rose, other kinds of nuts mixed inside.. it's very special. Apart from sachlav, Eli treated Jordana and I by cooking up his most excellent shakshooka- a Morroccan dish which is tomato based and eaten best hot with eggs and chilli and bread. Mmmmmmmmm.... I've also tasted the most amazing teas in my life! I made friends with a guy called Yossi who works on rechov Levinsky (for those who know it) in a spice shop. There's a whole strip of these shops which basically all sell exactly the same thing as the next: spices, herbs, teas, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, dates etc...

So Yossi sold me paprika and sultanas one day, and then noticed that I had a bit of a cold and insisted on making me his 'special' tea. I declined, so he gave me a handful of dates and nuts instead for the road. He dabbles in homeopathy so he told me walnuts are the best for a cold. Every time I walk past he gives me dates. It's funny, I am given bread, dates, borekas, fresh juice and the occasional beer for free from 5 respective places. Haha, have I settled in or what? I don't think I'm given anything in Sydney! Anyway, the other day he made me some strange concoction of a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a sprinkle of this and a few drops of this and a squeeze of that- he wouldn't tell me what he put inside exactly because it's his secret 'special' tea, but I could taste rose and mint and I had pinenuts floating inside... it was an anazing taste sensation! Apart from that, Eli and I went to visit Yeffy's place 2 Fridays ago. Yeffy is the band leader of the band Eli belongs to- I wrote a bit about him in past blogs. He's Yemen. He lives in a moshav, which is like a village, and when we went to his place, there were 5 generations sitting around the table!!! I remember in Sydney being in a room with Lena, Lena's mother, grandmother and great grandmother (4 generations) and being conscious of that- which is the closest I've ever come to this. What an incredible feeling it gave me! I felt strangely envious.

Oh- I bumped into Taly Dribbin- a girl from Melbourne who I met with Lena when we were backpacking 3 years ago. We met her in Spain and then Paris and then I bumped into her in melbourne last year and then I bumped into her again in Tel Aviv at the markets last week... crazy!! What else?

oh yeah- they're doing a lot of construction in our street- right outside our place in fact. For 4 days we had problems with the water in our unit (Eli and I have a knack for finding places with water + electricity problems!) so after the night that I dragged about 10 people to my favourite Indian restaurant and then had 3 people sleep over, we woke up the next morning wth no water- which meant no toilet. Disaster. My neighbour's shower came in handy, as did the exclusive gym next door to Wall Street to which my manager is a VIP member. With the approval of my manager, in between classes I was able to steal away with a hot shower, 2 hot towels, a warming/drying presser maching thingy which warmed my underpants, lovely shampoo and conditioner at my disposal, followed my a hair dryer and body moisturising lotion. I can tell you, showered teachers are happy teachers. I began to think the construction in my street perhaps wasn't so bad afterall. Unfortunately all the problems have now been fixed, so now I have no excuse to turn up to work unshowered. :-)

Oh yeah, speaking of work- we were supposed to have a big staff meeting last Tuesday night. So we all turned up to the conference room as we were meant to. And our boss (the one with the gym membership) told us to get into groups of 4 and head down to the taxi rank and tell the cab driver 'East Restaurant'. So having no idea what to expect, we did as we were told and ended up at a really stylish, modern, gourmet Asian restaurant/lounge/bar. We were surprised to learn that there was in fact going to be no meeting and we were getting together instead just to eat dinner and drink and be rewarded for a great 2005 and a good start to 2006... so we ate a 6 course meal and we drank shamelessly til the weeee hours and then our cab rides home were also paid for. Have I mentioned that I love my job already??

I took the last 2 days off of work as I had a cold. Eli's also sick. It was bound to happen and I blame the Australian cohort entirely- everyone was sick. Jord's still sick. Yula has pneumonia for goodness sakes! (Yula's on the plane on her way home as I type this actually) So I got to spend time with Jord which was super. The quote of the day today was:

"In Israel, you're set. Everywhere's a rubbish bin; everywhere's a toilet; everywhere's an ashtray and everywhere's a parking spot!"

Last night we went for dinner to Shelly's parent's place. Eli and I met Shelly in Sydney last year. The connection was: Shelly's mum is very good friends with a cousin of Eli's. For those who know, Shelly's boyfriend is Ran. Ran's mum and Shelly's mum are also best friends. It's a small world. So both of them were in Sydney last year so some of you met them. They were also travelling with a third guy, Rotem. So last night, Eli, Jord and I went to Shelly's, and Ran was there as was his mother. After an excellent dinner the 5 of us went out to a house party as it was Rotem's birthday. EVERYONE smokes in Israel. It's hard to comprehend that it's a developed country, almost 'modern', with groundbreaking medical research and everything, and yet- there is an abundance of cigarette advertisements and absolutely no effort on the part of the government to restrict the selling of cigarettes to children or to up the price on packs. They're dirt cheap and everyone smokes everywhere (including offices and other such public places like post offices and shopping centres and furniture and clothes shops and all restaurants- no such thing as 'smoking sections' yet in Israel... even the bucthers cut meat in the markets with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.) So what was really interesting about last night was that Shelly's parents are extremely liberal, and since the age of 14, she has been allowed to smoke with her parents inside the house. So now, the whole family, including her 16 year old brother, smoke together around the table. It seems so strange to see a father hand his son an ashtray and light his cigarette for him. It took a while for Jord and I to get used to this...and then to be passing around the table Shelly's photos from her trip,including ones of her topless with Ran at a beach, and her parents were totally fine with it?! Hello??

Anyway, in other news, yes, Hamas won the Palestinian election last week. We shall see what will become of this... Until next time.. Love and peace
xxx
Sarah