Monday, February 14, 2011

Kite Surfing

Monday, the 14th 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.

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