Class on Sunday

Sunday, the 27^th of Feb.

Yesterday I emailed Dad because Lydia was home from Auburn for the weekend and he wanted to setup a time for us to video chat with the whole family, minus John, and I told him to just call me whenever the family got done with church.  About ten minutes after I sent the email I realized that it was Saturday and I was the only person in my family headed to church this particular day.

Along those same lines, class on Sunday just messes with my head.  I get all confused about what day it is and where I’m supposed to be since usually a Sunday involves church and laying around.

However, we did have a great moment in class today.  At one point the professor just stops talking and said, “hey you, no, not you, you, sleepy.”  And one of the students who unnoticed by most of us had drifted off to sleep, snapped back to reality.  The professor, who is extremely passive-aggressive said, “I don’t mind at all, I just noticed you slept last class as well so I wondered if I should bring a pillow for you?”

Laundry

Saturday, the 26^th of Feb.

Today I hauled my dirty clothes a couple blocks up the street to do laundry.  I took along a backpack full of snacks and the Feb./Mar. issue of Garden & Gun magazine. 

I had to wait about half an hour for a machine to come open so I just plopped down in one of the chairs and started reading.  It was really a delightful afternoon.  It took me about an hour and a half to get it all done but it was just wonderful.  It was about 68 degrees (F) with a gentle breeze and I sat in the shade and read the entire issue. 

G&G has a unique ability to really make me feel like I’m experiencing the culture of whatever it’s talking about.  You feel like you’re living it when you read.  So it was a surreal experience to be immersed in the world of Mobile Bay or New Orleans while listening to people walking by speaking Arabic and Hebrew with the occasional strains of French or Russian floating by my ears as well.

Oh.  I noticed the locals looking at me funny when I was loading my laundry into the washing machine so I asked what was up.  Turns out that I’ve been doing laundry with fabric softener, not detergent.  Yeah.  Darn those all Hebrew labels!

Shabbat Dinner

Friday, the 25^th of Feb.

Today was another great day in the Holy Land.  I slept in this morning then went a bought a bike from “O Fun!’  Haha.  I paid 550 shekels for it ($148) and they have a policy that allows me to return the bike when I leave the country for 1/3 of the price I paid ($49).   So I’m basically paying $100 to rent a bike for two and a half months. 

Then I went on a long run that afternoon of 10 miles.  It really felt great to get out and just enjoy the country.  You see so many interesting things when you run around.  I’m a slow runner so I move past life slow enough to see the culture and watch the people interact.  It’s great.

Tonight my buddies Brian and Ben invited everyone over for Shabbat dinner.  It was great because Brian fried schnitzel that was unreal.  Gideon and Natalie did the traditional Shabbat blessings and we ate and hung out.  It was really a great evening of food and hanging out.

Every Day An Adventure

Thursday, the 24^th of Feb.

Today on the bus a girl broke her ankle trying to get on the bus.  I noticed a girl sitting down between the bus and the curb, but I didn’t know why. Finally, the old women sitting on the bus started yelling.  Then they started yelling at a guy who was sitting at the front of the bus who was about my age.  He finally says, “I don’t speak Hebrew.”  So I told him that I thought they wanted him to help the girl sitting on the ground.  He gets up and looks, but doesn't do anything.  So I worm my way up through the bus to the girl who’s sitting in the street between the bus and the curb clutching her leg and shaking.  So I get the lady standing nearby to help me and we get her to a bench where we can evaluate her leg.  It looked broken to me because there was movement where there shouldn't be movement.  However, she refused to let us call an ambulance (conveniently the same word in English and Hebrew) so we got back on the bus and went on our way.

Wednesday Welcome Party

Wednesday, the 23^rd of Feb.

The law school threw us a welcome party today.  It was great.  We gathered after class in a building on campus and had a traditional Israeli dinner.  Lot of falafel and shakshuka.  It was outstanding.  I could eat falafel all day.   Then we headed to Hemingway, a local bar, to hang out.  

The best part of the evening was that our Israeli “buddies” came to the dinner and with us to the bar.  It was really great to start getting to know the local students.  It’s great because now when I’m walking through the halls of the school, or the cafeteria, I actually know people.  

And they’re cool people.  My new friends Daniel and Nir taught me the “Have you met Matt?” game from How I Met Your Mother.  Great times.

Websites

Tuesday, the 22^nd of Feb.

Hebrew is written right to left, but website addresses, because the web was invented in the US, are written left to right which means you have this interesting situation:

Notice the period on the left side.

That’s the text going from right to left, until you hit the address where you have to jump to the left and go to the right, until you reach the end of the address at which point you jump back to the end of the address and start moving left again.  Confusing.  Or at least it would be if I read Hebrew. 

Tonight I cooked dinner of rice and grilled chicken.  Then I realized I had no spices in the entire place.  Not even salt. Bland.  I plan to rectify that travesty soon.

Orientation!

Monday, the 21^st of Feb.

So I don’t have classes today, just orientation.  Kinda weird to have orientation after classes have started, but ok, just roll with it.

Daniel and I took the bus together from our neighborhood to the school.  The first thing we saw when we arrived was a big booth serving beer and alcohol at 10am.  This country is something else.  In fact, if you agreed to “like” the Facebook page of the TAU International Buddy System then you got a free beer.  Otherwise it was about a buck a beer.

Once orientation started we were treated like celebrities.  They gave us free shirts and the dean told us, and I quote, “you are special, the rules don’t apply.”  I think I’m going to love this school.

I also realized that a lot of my classmates live really, really close to me and so I will have my bus “commute” with friends, which is great since it’s about 40 minutes each way.

First Day of Class!

Sunday, the 20^th of Feb.

Today was my first day of classes over here!  I have been eagerly anticipating this day, not because I’m pumped about classes but because I’m pumped to meet people. 

The first challenge was navigating the bus system successfully without any clue what the university looked like or if the line even stopped right by it.  I knew which line to get on (either 24 or 25) and I had scouted for a stop near my apartment, but I didn’t know how much a fare cost exactly (I thought it was six shekels and that turned out to be right) or where to get off.  And to quote good old Rumsfeld, those were the known unknowns.  Who knows what else I didn’t know?

Once I arrived at the university I had to figure out where my class was actually located.  I made my way through the main entrance where armed guards checked my bag then started wondering around.  I found a coffee shop, then found the law school but couldn’t find the building where my class was located.  I had written down that it was in “Merkaz 017.”  However, unfortunately for me, Merkaz is the English way to write the Hebrew word for “center.”  So I had written down “Center 017.”  Now as you might imagine there are several centers on campus so no one at the coffee shop knew where to tell me where to go. 

So I decided to head back to the law school building figuring someone there would know or at least let me look up in my email the full name of the building.  When I walked in the building I walked up to the first person I saw and asked her.  Turns out she’s a double major in, get this, law and accounting!  Haha she’s headed to work for KPMG after graduation.  Small world.  She graciously offered to walk me to the class so I made it in plenty of time.

The class itself is really interesting.  It’s a class on intellectual property taught by one of the top experts in the world on the subject.  Because he’s so world-renowned we have everyone from people like me with no IP experience to people writing their doctoral theses (FN1) to practicing lawyers taking it just to learn from him.  It’s an awesome course.

My next class is a land law class.  Not just any land law class though, it’s about how land law has shaped the conflict over Eretz Israel and/or Palestine.  (What you call it depends on which side you’re on.)  This class promises to be extremely interesting.  We’re basically going through the history of the conflict going back to the Ottoman Empire and studying the conflict and the central role that land law has played in that conflict.

The final class for the day is History of English Law which is also pretty interesting, but since I know it won’t interest any of you except the law/history nerds I’ll skip the details.

Boarded the bus with some friends and headed home exhausted.  A great first day.

FN1. Thesis.  Yes, the plural of thesis really is theses.  I know, weird.

Another Shabbat

Saturday, the 19^th of Feb.

I can’t believe another week has come and gone.  Church was really awesome today.  The head pastor/rabbi was back and he’s great. 

During the service I sat next to some guys from The Joshua Fund, who are over here checking on the funds they administer.  As I’ve mentioned before, the service is in Hebrew but they have translation through ear pieces for those of us who do not speak Hebrew.  In my quest to try and pick-up some Hebrew I decided to forgo the earpiece this particular day so I just sat directly in front of the guy who does the translation.  That allowed me to hear the sermon as well as the translation.  At one point during the service one of the Joshua Fund guys leans over to me and says “you’re so unassuming but it’s really impressive that you’re fluent in Hebrew and English.”  Apparently they hadn’t realized you could hear the translation that was right behind them.  Haha, he was right that I definitely look like I don’t know Hebrew.

When I got back I Skyped with people from Macedonia to the US.  Technology really is amazing.

Uh Oh

Friday, the 18^th of Feb.

Well I said that later in the semester I’d have to be concerned about temperatures when I’m running, I had no idea it would come so soon.  I went on a long run today (about 8 miles) and I was sweating!  In February!  It’s not so much the temperature, because it was probably about 76, it’s just humid already.  I am going to have to reevaluate my hydration strategy.

The best dinner ever

Thursday, the 17^th of Feb.

Tonight I’m meeting up with most of the exchange students.  We’re organizing our own informal welcome dinner for ourselves.

Because I didn’t know how to get there I left my place really early, about two hours before dinner, with plans to find the restaurant and then go to the beach and wait until dinner.  Turned out to be a great plan, it took me about 15 minutes to find the place then I just spent the next hour and a half at the beach.  Got in some good time with God and just enjoyed the waves crashing while the sun went down.  Heard the Muslim call to evening prayers for the first time, which was a different experience to say the least.

When I got back to the restaurant I was a couple minutes early and the hostess told me that no one else from the group was there so I just walked back outside to wait.  Pretty soon a group strolls up and starts speaking English asking where some guy was.  So I walk up and introduce myself.  Yah, turns out they weren’t from the exchange program.  In my defense, what are the odds that another group of English speaking college age kids would be at this exact restaurant in Tel Aviv?  Apparently fairly high.

Once my group actually arrived they were a ton of fun.  The food was incredible.  I had an entrée with pulled lamb over a bed of rice that was fantastic.  The lamb was seasoned with a bunch of spices that included cinnamon, and it was unreal.  We split appetizers, each got our own entrées, then split desserts and also shared several bottles of wine for the table.  All that, including tax and tip, was 130 INS (about $35).  It was unreal.  You would definitely pay at least double that for anything comparable in Birmingham and probably three times that once you factor in tax and tip.

After dinner we went to meet up some of the business school students at this bar near the beach.  Our group decided to walk instead of taking a taxi since it was along the beach.  It was an incredible walk and I got “in” the Mediterranean for the first time (I walked in about up to my knees).  However, by the time we got there the bar was packed and we thought we couldn’t get in.  (Turns out the doorman was supposed to be looking for us to let us in since we roll VIP style but since we didn’t speak Hebrew we didn’t know that haha.)  Anyways, we went to the apartment of one the exchange student’s friend and hung out there for a while before making our way to an Israeli dance bar.

Now would probably be a good time to explain the hierarchy of “evening establishments” in Tel Aviv.  There are “bars” which is what you’d think of in the US.  Then there are “dance bars” which are bars with a dance area and the entire facility is bumping dance music.  Then there are “dance clubs” or just “clubs” which are what you would probably imagine if you think dance club.  Haha.  Interestingly, although the legal drinking age is 18 here, most clubs don't allow people under 25 into the club.  I'm not sure why, but it has something to do with the military.  (I'll try to figure that out and update.)

All in all, it was a fantastic night and I’m really pumped about this new group of people I’m going to be spending the next few months with.

Parents and Technology

The email I received from my mom just now was too good not to post in its entirety:

I have a gmail account now.  It is [xxx]@gmail.com.  The best way to email me is still [xxx]@hinshawhome.net, but if you (read Matthew) need to g-chat with me, we can!

Love,

Mom

Hahaha I love my parents.

The Real Landlord

Tuesday, the 15^th of Feb.

Today I was going to get up early and go to one of the museums, but I slept-in instead.  Turns out to be a real blessing because while I was bumming around the apartment there was a knock on my door.  I open it to find two men, one of whom I recognized as the building supervisor, standing there.  The other man, after learning I didn’t speak Hebrew, identifies himself as the building owner.  Turns out that the guy that’s subletting to me had told the landlord he would be subletting but never let the landlord know that I had actually moved in and he was just coming by to check.  (I suspect that the real purpose of the visit was to figure out how much they’re charging me, since there is a premium charged to foreigners for short term, furnished leases, and see if he could squeeze some of that from the original tenet.)

We had a really great chat and now I have his cell phone number in case anything breaks I can call him directly.  He’s another lawyer actually.  This is getting eerie how many I’m meeting.

After we had talked all about the apartment and the business side of things we just started chatting.  He asked where I was from and I told him Alabama in the United States.  His response was one of my all time favorite reactions: "Alabama!  Ah a real American!" Why yes sir, I do happen to think that Alabama is the real America.  Our state encapsulates everything that’s great about our great country thank you very much.  Haha it was awesome.

Today on my daily run I realized that one of the reasons the real estate is abandoned on the beach is it is the sight of the Dolphinarium bombing.  In fact, I finally found the memorial at the club.  It’s really unobtrusive and doesn’t say anything in English on the front, which is unusual, instead you have to go to the back of the memorial to find the explanation.

Speaking of my run.  It was absolutely brutal today.  I went jogging during a storm, which was not my best idea, but it came out of nowhere and I wasn’t about to quit.  I compounded that mistake by jogging the first four miles of an out-and-back with the wind.  This of course meant that the last four miles of the run were into a 20 MPH head-wind.  It was wild.  I had to put my sunglasses on (despite the fact it was cloudy and raining) because the sand was stinging my eyes so badly.  I hope I never, ever, run in a 20 MPH headwind again.  Then again, you know I was loving every second of it.  When else in my life am I going to get to run on a Mediterranean beach in a storm?  Haha it’s awesome.

[Update: I went back several days later to jog again and the eight foot wide path I had run on during the storm was in places completely covered by as much as 3 or 4 inches of sand.  You would not have even known there was a path at all.  Wild.] 

Kite Surfing

Monday, the 14^th of Feb.

Nothing really excited happened yesterday.  So I won’t bore you with a blog post from that day.  It was just one of those great days where I got caught-up on nothing.  And loved every second of it.  Well, I guess I should say one thing about my day yesterday: Reading Garden & Gun in a park in Tel Aviv, Israel is quite the experience.  Highly recommended.

Today I went jogging and saw a bunch of kite surfers.  It was unreal to watch.  They were getting air and jumping waves like crazy.  It looks like it takes massive amounts of coordination.  You’re balancing on a board, in the waves, trying to steer a kite.  Not my cup of tea.  The coolest thing about watching it was that there was a whole group of ‘em out in one of the little coves.  It was like watching an intricate dance because they would all avoid each other.  I have no idea how they didn’t get their lines tangled or smash into each other but they didn’t.  Each particular kite surfer had a style.  One guy would go waaaay out into the ocean, where I could hardly see him, then come racing straight back in as fast as he could go.  One guy would just play in the breakers.  Another one, I think a rookie, just played in the shallow water.  The most fun guy was a dude I labeled “Mr. Big Air” because he was all about hitting a wave and getting air.  It was fantastic.

That afternoon I bought a blanket in the market for 10 INS ($2.70).  Why did I buy a blanket?  Well I haven’t been sleeping very well at night.  I finally realized it’s because I’m cold.  You see my apartment doesn’t have heat, I think that’s pretty common here.  After all, it’s the dead of winter right now and the lows aren’t even in the 50’s (I think the lowest it’s been since I got here is 63).  However, I didn’t think about this when packing and all I brought was a sheet and one light-weight summer blanket.  No bueno.  My landlord also gave me a set of sheets so for a while I had three sheets and a blanket piled on, but that’s just not enough when it’s in the low 60’s in your room so I finally bit the bullet and bought a blanket.  A Mets blanket actually, because it was all they had.  Been sleeping like a baby ever since.

Also, it finally clicked with me why I get so many strange looks when I’m running: it’s winter here and people are cold yet I’m running in shorts and a tech t.  That’s because it’s in the mid-60’s so I’m perfectly happy.  This insight dawned on me yesterday during my run when I passed a girl running in a sweater.  A SWEATER!  This does not bode well for later in the semester.

A Note Before the Deluge

I haven’t had consistent internet access since I left the States so I just typed everything in Word and  now I’m finally getting a chance to post it.  If you notice tense confusion it’s probably because I went back and edited it later and forgot to use present tense.  Sorry.  Posts that are travel dairies will have the date in italics at the top of the posts.  Those posts are more or less a play by play of what I did that day.  Posts that are things I’ve been thinking about or have observed about the cultures around me have no such date.  So you should be able to browse whatever you’re feeling like reading.

Also, I'm back-dating posts so that they show up on the day about which they were written.  If that proves confusing then let me know and I'll change it.

Shabbat Shalom

Saturday, the 12^th of Feb.

Shabbat, the holy day here, is really good.  Things start to slow down around noon on Friday and by mid-afternoon the street is fairly quiet.  By sundown the streets are virtually deserted, at least compared to the normal bustle.  It stays that way until sundown on Saturday.  It has started me thinking about the way America handles its rest.  We don’t really take a break.  The weekend is just as busy, if not busier.  Everybody just switches what they’re busy with. 

That’s not the case here.  The country comes to a virtual standstill for Shabbat.  In fact, there’s a big mall several blocks away that turns into a big market on Friday with people selling pre-cooked meals so that you can honor Shabbat by not cooking.  It’s probably a lot more honoring to the Lord and a lot more restful than the way we do it.

I walked about 20 minutes to church this morning.  I attended the services of the Adonai Roi Congregation.  Adonai roi means God our shepherd and the full name of the church in Hebrew is the first part of Psalm 23.  The services were in Hebrew with translation through earpieces like you see at the UN assemblies.  (That'll make you feel important haha.)  It was a bit more charismatic than I’m used to but was good.  The service started at 10:30 and the preacher hadn’t even started his sermon at 12:20 haha.  The songs in Hebrew are beautiful.  I’m going to try to find a CD of the hymns and post them for people to take a listen.

Oh and a little bit of humor for you at my expense.  The orthodox Jews wear dark suits 24/7.  Black pants, black coat, white shirt.  All the time.  So I figured that if those guys wore that to the beach then church, even for the non-orthodox, would be fairly formal.  So I rocked a full-on suit.  Pinstripes, bowtie and everything.  Nope.  There were people there wearing PJ pants.  So if the white kid didn't stick out enough anyways, I certainly did then.  Definitely made me stand-up and introduce myself in the middle of the service since I was so obviously a visitor.  Right on.

[I've now caught up to exactly one week behind.  By the end of this week I'll be back to posting in real-time.]

Where There’s Smoke

Friday, the 11^th of Feb.

Yesterday during my wonderings I found an internet café tucked in the back of a corner store nearby and resolved to go back.  Well when I woke up today my internet was briefly working.  Unfortunately the first emails I saw informed me that my grandfather had a stroke Thursday evening (US time) and is in the hospital.  So that made my trip to the café even more of a priority because of course the internet only worked long enough for me to see those emails.

The café is really close, the guy speaks great English and is really nice so overall that’s a big win and a huge answer to prayer.

Anyways, as I was leaving the internet café I thought I smelled smoke.  I have a notoriously terrible sense of smell so if I can smell it then you know it’s bad.  I started looking around and sure enough ahead of me a building was being evacuated as smoke seeped from the second story.  (I’d love to use the word billowed, just because I love that word, but that’d be a tremendous exaggeration.)

So the store employees are pushing out the customers, literally pushing them out and yelling.  (What they were yelling I have no clue.)  The first emergency personnel to arrive were police officers on roller blades.  Yep, roller blades.  I didn’t even see them roll up but suddenly they were right beside me.  Next came three fire engines, an ambulance and several police cars.  I got bored and left before finding out what was wrong.  I could tell by the way the firemen were moving that nothing exciting was going to happen and my attention span failed.

The Israeli public is absolutely unflappable.  I think that comes with years, decades even, of dealing with terrorism and war first hand.  We all know someone who died on 9/11 or was deeply impacted by it, but these people live with that on a regular basis.  The loud sirens here do not signify tornados but incoming missiles launched by terrorist organizations sworn to eradicate the Israeli people.  Security guards check your bags at the door because people blow themselves up in the buildings here. (FN1)   All that to say that despite the fact that the building was on fire the customers still wanted to shop and so the shop employees had to force them out.  Later I watched people continuing to try to enter the shop despite the fact that the police were blocking it off and the fire department was crowding the sales floor.  It was a fascinating and impressive display of cultural adaption to danger.

FN1.  Danger.  All that is thankfully a few years behind them.  The security remains but I don’t sense any danger at all.  I honestly feel a lot safer here than I do walking the streets at night in Tuscaloosa or I did leaving the office in Birmingham.

The Old, Old World!

Shabbat shalom everyone!  My first Shabbat (Saturday holy day) in the Holy Land is about to begin.  I have not had internet access at all for the last several days hence the lack of posts.  Needless to say, that will change soon!  When it does, you can expect a TON of posts!  In fact, I have typed up about 20 pages in a Word doc on my computer so get ready for lots of stories, pictures and cultural observations.

In the mean time know this:
I jog every day on the beach.  With sailboats on the horizon.  My neighbors are awesome.  I found a Messianic church within walking distance and the people here are extremely warm and friendly.

THUNDER!

Thursday, the 10^th of Feb.

Woke up this morning to loud claps of thunder!  I mean LOUD!  It made me miss Alabama thunderstorms.  Well prior to that I woke up around 1am to some bumping music next door.  At first I thought it was a club opening up but then I realized it was coming from the other side of the wall.  Oh well, it was really fun music and I enjoyed it.  I got up and danced alone in my apartment haha.  Plus, after the first song or two they turned it way down.  Very considerate neighbors.

The day was uneventful but what a night!  I started off the evening eating dinner with Daniel, my classmate over here.  On the way back to my building I found a Messianic (FN1) coffee shop that’s only a few blocks away from my apartment!  Hello great place to study!  Not only that, but they invited me to church on Saturday!  Wahoo!

Then coming back into the building I met one of my neighbors, Zoe, who introduced me to a lot of my other neighbors!  She was really outgoing and very nice.  We chatted for a while then I went into my apartment and realized that Zoe probably corresponds with “dlink-zoe” - the router with perfect signal (my internet is still out and I’m desperate).  So I went back to ask her but she doesn’t know the password and asked me to try and come fix it because she can’t get her iPhone on the network either.  Anyways, next thing I know I’m hanging out with a group of my neighbors: Zoe, Rhavid and Merri.  Zoe lives with her partner, Rhavid, next door.  Her birthday is today and it was their mini-party that I heard last night.  Merri lives downstairs.  At one point Zoe interrupted the conversation and said, “excuse me, but I just have to ask.  Is your nose yours?”  Meaning, did I have a nose-job.  That’s the second person to comment on my nose since I’ve been here.  The security guard at the mall, who spoke no English was talking about it and pointing.  I have no idea what’s going on.  Anyways, Zoe and Rhavid invited me to her real birthday party on Saturday!  I think I shall go.

FN1 Messianic.   Messianic Jews are Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

A Swim in the Mediterranean, Well Almost

Wednesday, the 9^th of Feb.

Today to switch it up I decided instead of running I was going to go for a swim and the Ben Gurion pool complex at the beach.  It’s kind of expensive to get in, even with the student discount it was 50 shekels (~$13.50) but I wanted to swim.

This however presented a dilemma.  The pool is about 1.5 miles from my apartment.  I could wear normal clothes and change there or just make the trek wearing pool clothes.  I decided that I couldn’t be bothered to find the locker room and pack a change of clothes so I made the trek wearing a swimsuit.  Haha it was awesome.

The swim was great.  It’s advertised as “salty, mineral groundwater” and it delivered.  It was a little like swimming in the ocean except with clear water and no waves.  I swam my normal workout for about two hours then decided to relax with some breast-stroke.  I could not do it.  It was impossible in the salty water.  Haha I just could not get the rhythm right because I usually glide a little bit under water on every stroke but no matter how deeply I angled on entry I’d just bounce back to the surface every stinking time.  So that ended that brief experiment.

Ah, it’s the little things…

Tuesday, the 8^th of Feb.

Today marked a pretty significant accomplishment for me.  I’ve been to three countries in the last week, and four continents in the last month, but I’m pretty sure today marked the most significant travel accomplishment of all of it: I bought toilet paper.

I don’t think you understand how difficult this is over here.  I have spent three days wondering the streets of Tel Aviv, been in countless stores and markets and not found one that sold that vital tree pulp.  Not the little store where I bought my shampoo, which coincidentally didn’t sell hand soap (see below), nor the PM/AM “super”market.  Neither did any of the other stores where I wondered, but I finally found some today in one of the markets I discovered during my daily jogs.  I think my finding it was because this morning I finally reached the critical stage of “do NOT come home without it.”  (Read: no TP anywhere in the place.)  Of course now that I’ve found a place that sells TP, it will be ridiculously easy to buy it again.

The rest of the day was pretty mundane.  I slept in, went on a 6 mile run and worked in a couple of workouts at the free gyms on the beach. 

Observations

(1)    Shopping.  It is completely unlike the United States.  There is no Wal-Market and no equivalent that I've found.  Everything is sold in small specialty stores.  This means that the store where I bought my shampoo and shower gel did not sell hand soap or a mirror to shave.  That’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s completely offset by the fact that there are probably dozens of grocery stores within a few blocks of my apartment.  Two blocks over there is a huge market with everything you need from a spice vender to a butcher to tons of fresh produce to a vender who sells knock-off watches.  The market is truly huge.  I jogged it today and it runs almost half a mile long.

(2)    Pricing.  The prices here are different.  Today I bought six rolls of toilet paper, six rolls of paper towels and four bars of hand soap and it was around $13 or $14 which I thought was kind of high.  I also purchased a couple of nice oranges, some big apples and a bunch of plump bananas and it was less than $4, which is affordable to say the least.  Much to the delight of my mother, it looks like I will be living off fresh fruit and vegetables.

(3)    Clothing.  And by clothing I really mean modesty.  I could write an entire post on the fashion here.  People here wear stuff that women of the night would blush at wearing but that goes with Israel’s proximity to Europe.  However, because Israel is still a relatively religious country and because it is in the Middle East, there are some interesting twists to modesty.  For example, people here LOVE their spandex.  Love it.  I have yet to see a dude wearing a swim suit other than a speedo.  Additionally, male joggers rock the spandex shorts hardcore. 

Yesterday at the market a girl about my age was wearing see-through pants.  Not “oh bad lighting” or “wow it just rained really hard” but straight up see-through pants.  As in I was about 15 feet away and knew exactly what kind and color of underwear she was wearing.  However, today when I went running and wore normal length running shorts (not the Paulie Bleaker style) I got dirty looks from men and quite a few leers from women.  Not to brag, but about 15 years of running and a couple years of triathlons have given me some darn good leg muscles.  In fact, I think I have pretty hot legs.  If you like ‘em pale and hairy.  Haha.  All that to say that I think the spandex for the jogging crowd is because it is more acceptable here to wear really tight stuff than really short stuff.  Just a theory.  Like I said, I’ve only been here three days.

P.S. I think I ‘m sunburned, but I can’t tell for sure because after three straight days of shopping I still can’t find a mirror.

[Update:  Since I wrote this post I've learned a that the AM/PM that I originally found was more of an "express AM/PM" there's another one that's close that does have a bigger selection of food as well as a very limited selection of cleaning supplies.]

Home Away From Home

Monday, the 7^th of Feb.

One of the things at the top of my to-do list upon arrival was find the US Embassy here in Tel Aviv.  Quite by accident I found it on Sunday.  Most embassies have their flags right out front, but the US for obvious reasons does not.  However, the Marines outside and armor-plated Suburban were unmistakable even though the Marines weren’t wearing a shred of uniform.   It was pretty funny because I jogged past the building and thought “man, that place looks American.”  Then today, I jogged back by to confirm and found the US flag flying at the back.  So I marked it in my GPS and memorized key landmarks nearby just in case.  Speaking of jogging, I need to video tape one of my jogs here.  It’s quite an adventure.  I start off on a busy street, go through a busy market, then along a gorgeous beach with sailboats in the distance and surfers in the waves, then wind through a pretty touristy area before returning back.  (If you’re worried, I don’t take the same route every day.  I switch it up.)  There are beggars, moms with strollers, tons of bikers and motorcycles on the sidewalks, tourist groups, people everywhere, animals roaming around (there are TONS of feral cats here).  Did you catch that?  Motorcycles on the sidewalks!  It's like a stinking game of Frogger.  I have noticed though that I run MUCH faster here.  It makes an easy jog quite the adventure to be weaving through so much going on.  Plus, I’m slowly learning my neighborhood.  I love it.

The Waiting Game

Sunday, the 6^th of Feb.

I woke up today knowing that it was going to be the “hurry-up and wait game” for most of the day.  I slept in, which was wonderful.  Then I went out to try and negotiate leaving my luggage at the hotel for the rest of the day.  Turns out the desk clerk is a lawyer and was only too glad to help one of his brethren.  The second time in two days that being a lawyer has actually HELPED!  I may have to stay over here.  Then maybe I won’t have to listen to all those lawyer jokes. 

The first order of business was to find a cell phone.  I knew that the big mobile company here, Orange, had a store at the Dizengoff Center so I headed there.  I found it without any problem, but not before the security guard at the door made fun of my pink nose.  *sigh* The hazards of being fair-skinned in the Middle East.  I think this may necessitate daily sunscreen application.  After getting the cell phone I started wondering back down toward the hotel and found a bike shop.  O-Fun bike rentals, repairs and sales!  Ed, the really cool South African guy who runs the place struck up a conversation and he told me that he’d sell me any bike they had with a guaranteed buy-back for 1/3 the original price.  He also told me that I could probably get a lot more on Craigslist so that was just a floor.  So now I’m thinking I’ll buy a “fixie” and bike to school every day.  The school is less than 10 miles away so that shouldn’t be bad at all.  (In fact, I think it’s only about 5 miles.)  Good exercise and I think buying the bike (with the sell-back factored in) will actually be cheaper than riding the bus every day.  Plus, riding a fixie is a great way to build cycling strength.

Anyways, I went out exploring while I waited for Eugene (my landlord) to call.  I wondered down to the beach and it is beautiful.  Wow.  The Mediterranean is unbelievable.  There is a boardwalk right on the beach that is well over a mile long.  I haven’t even come close to finding either end of it yet.  Lots of great shops and parks.  They even have exercise equipment setup along the beach.  It’s like the machines you would see at any gym except instead of using counter-weights the machines use your own body weight.  So you have a fly machine where as you close your arms your seat lifts off the ground.

WARNING: This story contains offensive language.  I stopped in one of the parks to drink my Peach Propel.  (I thought I was buying normal bottled water.  Oh well.)  A homeless man approached me and started talking to me in what I can only assume was Hebrew.  I told him I only spoke English and he said “ah, American!”  From then on he called me “American national” haha.  He was black and wanted to talk all about Barack Obama and how America was the greatest country in the world.  The only problem was that he kept dropping the n-word.  Here’s one exchange:

Him: “America is the greatest country in the world.”

Me: “Here is pretty awesome as well.  I do really love the US though.”

Him:  “America great because before n-, now president!”

Me: “That’s not a good word.  You can’t say that.”

Him: “No!  Me n- [points at self], Barack Obama n-, Michelle Obama n-. The President of the United States n-!!!”

Me: “I know what you are saying, but you cannot use that word.  But you are right, his election was a great moment of reconciliation and hope.”

By this point I was squirming.  It’s obvious that what he meant was that blacks in America have gone from slavery to the presidency, and he's right that it is truly great for our nation, but I just felt so awkward being in the presence of that word that I couldn’t help but do my awkward chuckle that I do when I don't know what else to do (the one that Kroto calls a “giggle” which it certainly is NOT) and try to tell him not to use that word.  Ugh I hate that word.

Thankfully at that moment Eugene called and I left to meet him.  We negotiated and wrote the lease on a piece of notebook paper while sitting at a restaurant on the beach.  Then since neither of us had a printer, I just took a picture of the contract.  Haha who knows.

Observations

(1)    The language barrier is high here.  Previously when I had travelled out of the country I had gone to Spanish speaking countries.  That makes a huge difference because even though my Spanish is poor, I can at least read the alphabet.  Here I have NO idea what the signs mean.  Zero clue.  It could say “one million dollars to the first American from Alabama to say ‘yall’ inside” and I would never know.  This makes little things much more difficult.  For example, I have no idea what I’m ordering or how to even pretend to say it.  (Reference the Propel I bought or the “spinach” ravioli that turned out to be sausage ravioli haha.)  I am reduced to pointing.  On the other hand though, almost every speaks English, even the homeless guys in the park, which is impressive and makes life much easier.

(2)    Security is completely different here.  It’s an enormous contrast with England and Ireland where not even the police are armed.  Here, firearms are a constant presence.  The police are ubiquitous and armed.  I see IDF (Israeli Defense Force) personnel walking everywhere with automatic rifles.  (I think this is because the entire country serves in the IDF for a couple of years than stays on reserves, serving several weeks a year. So I think what I’m seeing are soldiers coming to/from reserve deployment.)  Additionally, the stores, malls, and even the big street markets require you to show your bags for inspection and get wanded down before entering. It took me a few minutes before I realized they weren’t worried about muggings, they’re worried about the suicide bombers.  In fact, the Dolphinarium bombings happened very close to where I am now.  However, that was close to a decade ago.  Things seem very normal now, and Lord willing, they will stay that way.

P.S. Another “yay I’m a lawyer” moment.  When I went back to the hotel to load my bags into the cab to take them to the apartment the clerk kept talking about how proud my mother must be that I am a lawyer and how honorable it was.  She kept saying things like “let me help you with that, I’m just a clerk not a lawyer so it is my duty to help.”  Haha I love this!  I do feel really awkward though.  I want people to like me for me not because of my profession.  Oh well.  I’ll take it however I can get it I guess.

Hospitality

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to stop and thank my hosts for the last 10 days.  In both Cambridge and Youghal I was treated like royalty.  I slept so well in both places.  Elizabeth was an incredible tour guide and got us all over Cambridge and London without getting lost once.  Adam made a big effort to bust his butt at work so he could hang out with us despite his crazy work schedule (I have that to look forward to).  Seth, Jessica, Viki, Daniel and David made me feel super welcome.  I was a little worried that I’d be an imposition since I was dropping in for a week, but if I was, they sure didn’t show it.  Jessica cooked all our meals and every single one was fantastic.  Seth had done a week’s worth of work in advance so we could hang out during his normal work time.  He was a fantastic tour guide and I feel like I saw all the best parts of southern Ireland.  Viki, Daniel and David were so much fun to hang out with.  I miss them all a ton.  I’m going to have to practice Monopoly Deal so Viki can’t keep wiping the floor with me though.

So THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Oh Goodness, I Need More Sleep

Saturday, the 5^th of Feb.

That was the first thought I had when my alarm went off at 5am.  It’s not so much getting up at 5am as going to bed at 1:45am then getting up at 5am that does it to me.  Anyways, I stumbled downstairs to wait for the shuttle only to be greeted by a very chipper British lady who was probably in her late fifties.  She was also taking the shuttle and while we waited, she wanted to know everything about me.  Where I was from, where I was going, what I would be doing there etc.  It was actually great because I love meeting new people, it just threw me off a bit at 5:30 am.

I’ll say this for the Brits, they really do security right.  I checked my bags, including having to go to two different British Airways desks, cleared security, took a serious of trams and escalators and was at my gate in 32 minutes.  Not bad considering the TSA would have just starting warming up the porno-machine in 32 minutes. 

A little bit of despair/frustration set in when I realized that after the agony of the flight to London an almost equally long flight to Tel Aviv faced me now.  However, I wound up seating next to Conrad, well actually there was one seat between us which was perfect.  Conrad is a really cool English chap who works in London for a US software and logistics firm.  He goes to Israel about 15 times a year for business so he had loads of useful info.  Plus, he’s flown so many times that he knew exactly when we were crossing the Alps.  Being the thoughtful fellow that he is, he interrupted my movie (Due Date, which is hilarious) to open the shade so I could see them.  They are breathtaking, even at 30,000 feet you are overwhelmed by the grander and majesty of those mountains.  With all due respect to my brother, I can’t wait to go skiing there.

Upon arrival in Tel Aviv I was a little nervous because while the law school here “recommends” that you have a student visa upon entry, it’s not actually required and all the material they sent me said I could come in without one.  That is until about 5 days before I left when they sent me an email saying they recommended I have one.  The fact that I did not have one, coupled with Israel’s notoriously difficult immigration/security made me slightly tense.  However, I needn’t have worried.  When it was my turn I walked up to the booth and the guard asked me the purpose of my visit.  I responded that I was there to study. 

“Study what?” 

“International law.” 

“Where?” 

“Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University.” 

“Ah cool.  [big smile] I’m a law student myself at [a law school I can’t remember but fully intend to look-up].  Do you have a visa?” 

“No, the law school said I could get one when I got here.” 

“Alright.  Get the visa when you get a chance. Welcome to Israel.” 

End of discussion.  I really could get used to this whole “being a lawyer makes people actually want to help you” thing.  It’s new to me.

After immigration I sailed through customs, caught a taxi and checked into a hotel.  Providentially the taxi cab ride took me by my apartment building so I got to check it out briefly.  Once I checked into the hotel I walked up to check out the area around the apartment building and then called it a night.  I just couldn’t believe that the hotel that the airport info-desk lady booked for me happened to be within easy walking distance of my apartment.  What a blessing!

P.S. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the two “reunions” I had in the airport.  The first person I saw after deplaning was a guy wearing an E&Y backpack in the airport.  We struck up a conversation and discovered we’d worked on some of the same clients.  Thousands of miles apart but the same team.   The second reunion was of course an Auburn Family Reunion™.  After clearing customs I was trying to decide what to do, I could either call my prospective landlord who had offered to put me up for the night or check into a hotel.  I finally decided on the hotel but while I was thinking I hear a big “war eagle” and I get a big hug from this lady who’s frantically tugging at her husband and pointing at my shirt.  We exchange “war eagles” and go on our way.

One More Day in Cambridge

Friday, the 4^th of Feb.

It was a pretty glorious day.  We got up early and went to brunch at Patisserie Valerie which was outstanding then wondered around Cambridge some more.  We had to stop at FCUK (yes, I spelled that right it’s French Connection United Kingdom see this post for a picture) for one member of our group to flirt with a English bloke who works there which meant I had to stand outside and wait so I wouldn’t look like I was attached to this particular person.  Wouldn’t want to throw off the groove. 

We saw some beautiful parks and then I went home to pack.  We met up with Lauren again for dinner at Pizza Express, which was really good, and she brought her friend Rachel who was really cool.  It was a great night of fellowship and I really enjoyed it.  However, it meant that I left Cambridge a lot later than I was planning and didn’t get to the hotel till after 1am.  Oh well, definitely worth it.  Tomorrow it’s on to the Old, Old World!

My Last Day in Ireland

Tursday, te Tird of Feb. (FN1)

It was super sad.  I honestly could have come back to the US at this point and been perfectly satisfied with the trip.  However, I am looking forward to Israel.  Who knows what waits there!

Daniel had painted me a little picture to say goodbye and it is awesome.  I’ll have to figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t get messed up in transit.  Seth and I took care of the boys while Viki was at school and Jessica was in Cork.  Interesting side note: everyone kept talking about how tough the driving test was in Ireland (and England) so I looked it up.  It’s almost twice as hard to pass the driving exam here as it is to pass the bar exam in Alabama.  (53.4% pass rate for drivers exam in Ireland vs. 77% pass rate on Alabama bar exam.)  One of those two countries is doing something wrong.

Seth and I left in the early afternoon and drove to Cobh (pronounced Cove) to sightsee.  Cobh was the primary point of departure for Irish emigrants leaving for Elis Island so it was really cool to see it.  I feel quite confident that someone who contributed to my gene pool passed through Cobh.  It’s also the last port at which the Titanic docked before sinking and the Lusitania was torpedoed 30 miles off-shore to start The Great War (WWI) so the place was chock full of history.  (Now I know why they built that look-out shack on the cliffs.  U-boats were a big threat.)  We went to a museum, a cathedral and saw some of the other sights.  Including a small castle that Seth said had recently been for sale (complete with huge “FOR SALE” sign across the front).

FN1 The date in the post title is a tribute to the Cork accent which pronounces everything with a hard T sound.  No “th” allowed.  Seth becomes Set.  Thursday becomes Tursday.  It’s awesome.

The Lost Day

Wednesday, the 2^nd of Feb.

I apparently forgot to send myself an email of what I did this day and I can’t find any pictures I took today.  So I can’t remember what happened that day, other than Viki taking fiendish delight in beating me over and over again at Monopoly Deal.  The game is a blast.  It's basically Monopoly as a card game that takes 20 minutes instead of 20 hours.  Highly recommended.

Oh and how could I forget Seth confidently leading us into the wrong house for prayer group!  Apparently punctuality is not an Irish priority so we decided to arrive a couple minutes late to fit in.  Well even when we got there late there was no one else there so Seth knocks.  Waits.  Knocks again.  Finally he just walks in.  Next thing I know there’s a little scream from inside and I see one of the church women sitting on the stairs with her hand over her mouth laughing.  Turns out the prayer group wasn’t at their house but the house across the street (another family in the church).  It was hilarious.

Prayer group that night was amazing. There were people there from all over the world and it is so humbling to realize you’re a part of something that’s so big.

Prayer group, and being in Ireland in general, made me realize how important my witness is and how the tremendous value of each moment I have with someone.  I can’t really explain why I realized it and felt that way.  My best guess is that I was meeting all these new people knowing that I might not ever get to see them again (though I certainly plan/hope to go back).  Contrast that with home where I fully expect to see each of my friends and family members again, hopefully a lot.  The reality is however that each moment is a moment we won’t get back.  A chance to either uplift and encourage, or tear down and discourage.  It doesn’t have to be stuffy, I mean, I think a hearty laugh is healthy and spiritual, but I’m resolving to be more intentional with my interactions in the future.

Oh, and Seth told me that there’s a castle in the middle of a field that’s been abandoned and you used to be able to climb on it but the farmer who owns the field recently put up “no trespassing” signs because it’s really dangerous to climb since it’s falling apart.  I am sure it would be tons of fun to climb.

Made Breakfast Today

Tuesday, the 1^st of Feb.

I don’t mean to imply that I actually prepared breakfast, rather I was present for breakfast.  And I am DEFINITELY glad I didn’t miss it because breakfast was real, legit, HOT CROSS BUNS!  Wahoo!  And they were darn good.

After breakfast Seth and I left to do our daily sightseeing.  We drove to Lismore which is a village nearby.  It is home of Lismore Castle, the estate of Lord Burlington.  It’s actually his summer home.  Believe it or not, his family owns the rights to the entire river by virtue of royal deed.  That means his family makes piles of money and does literally nothing.  Wow.  I had no idea this kind of stuff wasn’t relegated to the history books.  (Then again, I do come from the country of Paris Hilton…)  Anyways, Lismore Castle was un.REAL. 

It’s huge and right on the shore of the Black Water River which runs all the way from Lismore (and even further north) down to the coast and Youghal.  This is actually the summer home of Lord Burlington.  I would love to have that for my summer home.  Cool bit of history: it’s the former home of Sir Walter Raleigh and Robert Boyle (of Boyle’s Law fame).  Though you can’t tell from the pictures the castle is built in a hollow square with a massive courtyard in the middle.  Apparently it was remodeled sometime “recently” and the lord in charge of it wanted a “quasi-feudal, ultra regal” design.  I think he got it.

Next we venture over to The Towers, or The Follies as the locals call ‘em.  Apparently this woman was so jealous of her sister-in-law’s house that she nagged her husband to build a huge and very impressive home.  So grand were her dreams that only the gates and entrance way were actually completed. The actual gate complex had a ton of rooms and working iron gates that still swung open and shut.

This is the gate.

And here's the entrance way.

The entrance way was built over a river, but it wasn’t enough that they built huge structures that would pass for castles.  They had to pave the river.  So the river bed under the entrance way for about 15 meters downstream is cobblestoned.  It’s actually quite pretty and makes the rushing of the waters sound even more sublime. 

However, all that just sits there in the middle of the woods with no house and it just goes to show you that 200 years later, we don’t remember what a cool house they had, only that they were greedy idiots.  Incidentally, the Potato Famine was one of the big reasons they never finished it.  They were so determined to finish it that they refused to work with their tenant-farmers as the crops failed and instead booted them off the land for sheep instead.  As a result the tenants tried to kill him.  Contrast that with the landlord next door who cut the rents and did everything he could to help his tenants avoid starvation.  I really hope that I’m that kind of person.

After The Follies we drove to see The Vee which is between Waterford and Tippary.  The drive itself was gorgeous!  Narrow hedges at times and rugged mountains at others.

By the time we arrived, I was already over-whelmed with the beauty of the country.  Once we did arrive it was easy to see where The Vee got its name [DSCF9483].  The local legend is that the lake on the side of the Vee has no bottom.  I want to go back with modern scuba gear to test that theory.

We didn’t actually even stop at The Vee itself because Seth said the better view was down the road. 

Boy was he right!  It was incredibly gorgeous.  Breathtaking actually.  We sat there for a while and just enjoyed the view in silence.  One interesting thing is that you can’t see a single road in that entire picture.  That’s because the roads are between the high hedges/fences you can see a couple pictures up.  It makes for extremely picturesque countryside but Seth swears the driving is more dangerous because your visibility is limited.  Oh well, since I’m a tourist I’ll take the views.

On the drive home we saw some sheep in the road and the coolest road markings ever.  At the top of a steep hill it read “Caution” then “Slow” with another “Slow” for emphasis and then in case you didn’t get it came this beauty:

Yes, that’s right.  It does say “SLOWER”.  Haha the Irish don’t take traffic laws very seriously (despite their ridiculously tough drivers license exam).  For example, they have three markings that mean “no parking.”  One means “please don’t park here,” another means “don’t park here,” and the third means “Ok, seriously, we really mean it, do NOT park here.”  Haha isn’t that great?  They just need to hire the tow truck companies from Auburn and bam, problem solved.

We ate lunch at home and hung out with the kids until school was out.  We picked up Viki and Ilyas from school and then Seth, Ilyas and I went to tour the Ballyantray Estate to celebrate Ilyas’ birthday which was the day before.  This was one heck of an estate.  It had a Knights Templar Preceptory on it.  The Knights Templar were probably the first international corporation (sort of a precursor to the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company or East India Trading Company) and they are credited with inventing modern banking (don’t be confused with the Medici’s who invented the modern system of accounting used in banking, the good ole debits and credits).  The Templars would let you deposit your money at any one of their Precptories and in exchange they would give you a letter of credit you could take to any other and retrieve your money.  How cool is that? 

I couldn’t get any pictures that did justice to the massive fortress built hundreds and hundreds of years ago but here are a couple to give a hint:

The complex was massive and sprawling.  The main tower itself is easily over a hundred feet tall.  I got a few levels up into it before I decided it wasn’t too safe to continue in hiking boots.  It used to have a circular staircase that went all the way up but most of the stones have fallen out now.  I think it’s easily climbable because there’s still basically a stairway but now it’s just a small lip around the wall so you’d have to shimmy your way up.  The tower, or keep, was where the entire complex of buildings would retreat when danger threatened.  I would definitely hesitate to attack it.

You could see the actual Ballyantray home across the river.

Sorry for the oversize, but that was the only way to actually be able to see the house.

From the Precptory we hiked over to Molana Abbey which was fairly close to the Ballyantray home.  The Abbey was founded in 501 AD, that’s stinking old.  The buildings we saw were probably constructed significantly later than that, likely around 1500.  Still, that’s really old.

Seth being goofy.

Still being goofy.

My turn to be goofy.

Strike a pose!

Here’s the heart of the old Abbey.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like to worship here when the roof was still intact.

We were leaving as the sun was setting over the marshes and it was stunning.
We saw some ring-necked pheasants and a river otter but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to capture them.

Jessica had prepared a birthday feast for Ilyas when we arrived home.  It was amazing, complete with napkins in the goblets.  Everyone laughed at me when I poured myself a full glass of Mi Wadi and took a sip.  Apparently it’s a “blackberry currant squash” with the “squash” being the key part.  “Squash” means “concentrate” and you’re supposed to dilute it a LOT and I was drinking it straight.  Finding out I was supposed to dilute it was a big relief because straight it tasted like kool-aid on crack.   Viki especially thought it was funny that this grown man didn’t know how to fix his own drink.

After dinner we left for Bible study at the Mulvay’s in the neighboring village of Ardmore.  The Bible study was on giving and it was really good.  Seth did a good job of reminding us that we give because Christ has given so much to us.  Simon and Paul had some really great insights as well and I enjoyed listening to the discussion as a visitor from “across the pond.”  After the study we sat around and talked cars with Mr. Mulvay for a long while.  I think he knows every mechanic in County Cork.  It was awesome.

We finally made it home around 10:30 and hit the hay.  I have no idea how Seth keeps up this pace on a regular basis.