המשפחה שלי בישראל

This past two weeks my sister Stephanie has been on Birthright in Israel, for 10 days on a guided trip and then four days traveling and visiting with me. I visited her while she was with her tour group in Jerusalem and they seemed like a good group of people. Since her trip finished in Tel Aviv I took the bus there after I finished class on Thursday and made my way to the hostel I had booked a few days before. Now, as my professor would word it, Israelis have a "zeal for sharing their experience and knowledge" and this is something that in my experience is proved true over and over again. I have mentioned that I never get anywhere in Israel without asking many people along the way - this journey, although not a long one, was the same way. A person actually escorted me across the entire maze of a bus station to make sure I found the right bus downtown in Tel Aviv. An Israeli friend has told me that it's not that Israelis want to be helpful, but to display what they know. It all works out for me, because I actually prefer that the people here generally aren't bubbling over with unneccesary manners and I get places and learn a lot on the way. Interactions with random people on the street seem simpler but I usually get such a positive feeling from them.

Our hostel was one block from the beach and the promenade so I forced Stephanie awake from her nap and we took a walk during the sunset. Tel Aviv is a completely different city from Jerusalem. It's actually smaller both regionally and in population but feels much more urban. The hostel was a pretty good one and while Stephanie ate our dinner in the common area we made about a million friends. It got me pretty excited for the traveling I'll be doing after I graduate, because everyone wanted to hang out and go do things. We ended going out with an Israeli and an American who recently made aliyah that night and I befriended the owner of the bar when I walked outside to make a phone call. He brought me back inside and brought Stephanie and I shots and introduced me to his whole family that was in the bar that night; ma, pa, brother...all of 'em.

Another highlight of Tel Aviv was running near the sea in the morning. I haven't been able to run outdoors in Jerusalem because for a variety of reasons I don't feel comfortable running in the neighborhood I live in. Not many people run in Jerusalem, but at all hours you can see runners down on the beach promenade in Tel Aviv.

Of course the best of everything was getting to be together with my sister and my cousin for a shabbat in Israel. During our shabbat dinner it was just the three of us, and of course being the oldest and wisest I grabbed baking soda instead of salt (it was in a similar bottle, I swear) and we all dipped our bread in that for our first bite of the meal. Incidentally, it wasn't me who figured out it wasn't salt, it was the other two. But the thing is, they were trying to start eating without me and I got scared and grabbed the wrong bottle. I was actually very impressive all weekend; I also pulled on a pair of jeans and looked down at them and just didn't recognize them at all. I looked at my sister and said, "Whose jeans are these?" thinking that I had grabbed hers or Maias. Well they were mine, I just had never realized what nice belt loops I had before and it really changed the entire pant for me.

I could talk about all the other meals that happened that weekend. Some pretty good lunches, dinner with all my roommates at my house yesterday. I feel like eating is just the main part my life here, so everyone who likes eating can be jealous. I think Stephanie is going to get home to the states and never eat again but then realize she wouldn't even want to cause the food is better here. Well, the hummus is. That rumor is true actually.

I sent Stephanie off to the airport in Sherut at six-thirty this morning so I'm guessing she is probably on a plane right now. I don't really know because I have no way of really being sure. But I assume she got there and got on the right plane and is going to get to JFK sometime. So, hopefully she or someone else will confirm this eventually.

I still need to upload my pictures from the weekend on my computer, these two are stolen from other peoples facebook profiles. They will come soon.