The Past Few Days

First of all, I'm sorry for all the spelling errors. It's really hard to fix them on an iPad.

The past few days have been about as different as possible as anything I would have experience in Maine. On Tuesday I went traveling with Avi in the north of the country. He knows so much history which makes him a great tour guide. We went to Ceasarea, which I'd actually visited with my dad when we came to Israel seven years ago. It's an old ruined city next to the Mediterranean. If I thought there were a lot of cats wandering Herzliya, it's nothing compared to the population there. You could take a picture facing any direction and
find at least half a dozen cats in it. Cats on trash cans. Cats amon stone ruins. Cats peeking out of hedges. Everywhere. Afterwards. Proceeded farther north to Tivon, the site of the first farm I intended to WWOOF at. We had hoped to visit the place to just check it out, but our call to see if that was okay was received quite rudely and a bit strangely. It was a Little suspicious and I .decided not to go there. It's not worth it since I have other things to do and a bad feeling about it. So after Tivon we continued to the Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee. I saw it from about every possible angle as we progressed farther north into the Golan Heighta. To get there we drove along the border to where you can see both Syria and Jordan, and then there's an extremely steep and winding road directly upwards. Remember what I said about Israelis liking to drive fast? Okay well imagine that, racing uphill, slowing just enough to make a 180 degree corner, then rocketing off again, same corner, over and over. Meanwhile there are "beware of landslides" signs the whole way, just to add a new level of terror. But once you're up there it's incredible. Therer are viewpoints where you can see for miles. All in all we were gone for 10 hours that day traveling. When we returned Ronit invited me to a bar with her and the friend I'd met on Monday, Neva. I was fairly exhausted from Thea say but the advice I was given before coming was to say yea to any offer that you are on the fence about. So I went and it was pretty fun though we didn't stay long.

Wednesday was my first day really fending for myself. I had called Noa's friend, Grumer's, the night before to see if I could come visit him in Tel Aviv and stay in his apartment that night. I found the bus onto Tel Aviv without much difficulty and Grumer's met me at the central bus station. This is the second largest bus station in the world, only beat recently by one in India. There are seven floors with buses and stores and tons of people. Tel Aviv itself is a bit like an Israeli version of New York. Grumer had to work all day so he gave me a map and told me places to check out and I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring from Allenby to Dizengof.

On Thursday I found my way back to Herzliya. If I thought car drivers were bad, they've got nothing on bus drivers. At times there are half a dozen lanes and all the cars are weaving back and forth making use of every lane. Then the bus drivers come in and honk and curse their way amongst the cars, making just as much use of every single lane. THEN the motorcyclists come into play. They're weaving around cars and buses, who are already weaving across lanes, at ridiculous speeds. Someone told me more Israelis have died in car accidents than in all the wars combined and I have no trouble believing it. I finally found a place to change traveler's cheques on Thursday. After going to 3 or 4 change booths and one bank, the post office changed them for me. I have $200 worth of shekels that might last me my whole time here. The rest of the day was spent reading and making calls, trying to find a place to stay tomorrow night. I wdnt out for pizza with Ronit in the evening, and then later I went out with Eyal and one of his friends. We werre going to go to a bar but it was packed sowe went to a hookah bar. Definitely an interesting experience that you won't find in Maine, but it was fun.

We are going into Jerusalem tomorrow so I will just take my suitcase and stay there instead of struggling my suitcase onto a bus. I'm staying with another of Noa's friends and the brother of her boyfriend tomorrow, Danny. Then Sunday night friends of my parents, the Paley's, said I could stay with them. I have about a week and a half in Jerusalem before I plan to go volunteer at a kibbutz with some other friends of my parents for a week or so.

I am struggling to learn hebrew as quickly as possible. Everyone here speaks some degree of English, and while most people don't mind that I can't speak Hebrew, some are very rude about it. I can't really form sentences yet but I know words here and there and I try to work in what I know as much as possible. Ronit is quite helpful and she says my accent has promise.

Israelis are much more outgoing and upfront than Americans. People come up and talk to you often, yeah they are hitting on you about half the time, but sometimes they just want to talk or ask questions or offer you help. I walked into the bus station yesterday on my way back to Herzliya and the guy in front of me turned around and asked me where I was going and then took me up to floors and found my bus for me. He could probably see the look of bewilderment in my eyes, but that's just not something that really happens in the US. So yes, Israelis can be very helpful and sweet, but they are also not very polite always. I feel like I need a thicker skin here. I don't usually think of Americans as being polite, but compared to here they definitely are. Here you have to be more aggressive. "excuse me" rarely works, it has to be accompanied with shoving your way through the crowd. But I'm getting used to it, as well as the weekend being Friday and Saturday and 24-hour clocks.

I think I had some sort of romanticized notions about this trip in my head. The thought of not knowing where I might be the next day was exciting. And it is, but it's also stressful and a bit lonely. It's a good thing all my plane tickets are bought and I'm committed to this trip because I really thought of ways to get out of it the first few days here. On the plane rides I was so mad at myself for doing this, but it's good for me. I am entirely in control of where I go and what I do. I can't sit around and mope when I get sad, I have to always figure out where to get money or food or where I'll be sleeping the next night. I originally thought this would be easier than Thailand because I'd be with family and I have a cell phone so I can talk to my parents as often as I want, but in Thailand I will be in one place the whole time. I won't have to live outed my suitcase a few days at a time and I'll have a job to do. Here I have no requirements or expectations, which is good and bad. But like I said, each day gets a bit easier and I'm really glad I have no choice but to see this through.