Wow, What a Day

Tuesday, the 5th of April

Today was an incredible day. One of those days where everything went perfectly.  I got up and made my way to the bus stop and it was perfect timing because the bus was pulling up as I was about a block away so I busted out a quick jog and made it onto the bus.

Allow me to take a quick digression.  As you all know, in the US it's uncool to run in public unless you're officially exercising.  You can't afford to risk your dignity.  However, in Israel everyone takes a much better approach: efficiency!  (Y'all know how much I love efficiency!)  If there is a bus coming, people take off running.  I saw a lady in her 50s or 60s run all the way across Kikar Rabin (a large park) to catch the bus I was on one day.  I love it and I always love when I can run to catch the bus because it means I wasted zero seconds.

Anyways, I was on my way to the law school because our social coordinator, Hilly (FN1), had arranged for us to take a tour of Jerusalem.  It was really a great tour.  We started the day at the Israeli Supreme Court.  We got there early so we headed down to the cafe to hang out until our tour was supposed to start.  Hanging out quickly digressed into what I like to call: Matt Defends the South.  (MDTS for short.)  It's a fun game where I explain that contrary to what everyone believes the people who live in The South are rational, intelligent, warm, friendly and not racist.  I then go on to explain that yes, we have indoor plumbing and in fact, the city where I'm from is one of the most educated in the world.  I like to throw in fun facts like that the Patriot Missile Defense System which protected Israel from Iraqi Scuds in Gulf War I, was designed in Huntsville.  I've gotten quite adept at MDTS since I do it, oh I dunno, eight or nine times a day.

Anyways, after our fun game of MDTS we toured the Supreme Court which is an absolutely beautiful building.  The whole building was gleaming and fresh since it is only 15 years old.  It was also funded by one family.  It was pretty crazy to see a supreme court building that's so new and unimaginable to me to see one funded privately.  Can you imagine the uproar if the US allowed one family (say the Kennedys or the Rockefellers) to build the supreme court building?  Allegations of impairing the impartiality of the court would run rampant.  Things are different in Israel because it's such a small country.  People have a lot more connections here because of the small population and because of the tight-knit of the society (having neighbors on all sides who want to kill you tends to do that).

We were able to sit in on the oral arguments of a really intense case.  Last year there was a fire in a national forest in the north of Israel.  More than 40 prison guards were killed trying to evacuate a prison in the path of the fire.  Another three police officers were killed trying to save the prison guards.  The State of Israel wanted to award them with medals to recognize their heroism but the families of some of the victims sued to delay the awards.  The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today about whether or not to delay the awards.  Tons of media was there.  In yet another stark contrast to the US, we were allowed to freely enter and exit the courtroom while oral arguments were going on.  Additionally, armed guards stood through-out the courtroom.  [The court ruled the next day to allow the awards to proceed.]

After the case, we went out for lunch at Sima which I highly recommend.  It was an incredible meal, one of the best I've ever had and a truly different cuisine (so I'm going to assume that means it's authentic).  When we walked into the restaurant they had already setup our table and loaded it down with all kinds of great side dishes and as soon as we sat down they started rolling out the fruit juice to drink and pitas to dip.  Unreal.  The food did not stop coming.  We had Meurav Yerushalmi, aka "Jerusalem Mixed Grill" which contains livers and hearts etc.  It was pretty good but I liked the rest of the grilled meat better.  Speaking of grilled meat, they brought platter after platter of it out.  I do not say this lightly, but it rivaled Thanksgiving at the Hinshaw/Lammons households (those of you who have been know that is the highest culinary praise one can receive).  Dessert was incredible baklava and mint tea.  When I asked Hilly what to order to duplicate the experience when I come back her reply was simple:  "The menu."  Fair enough.

Next we headed off to tour the Old City.  I won't say a lot about this because you really just need to see it.  I don't think I can do it justice so I won't try.  Sufficent to say, we wondered around streets that are thousands of years old, saw the site where tradition holds that Christ was crucified and buried, saw the Western Wall, which is the closest people could get to the Holy of Holies in the Second Temple, saw the Dome of the Rock (but couldn't get in since Muslims don't share very well) and just soaked it all up.  The best part of the tour was when our guide took us down this small dark alley into a courtyard, then to the corner of a courtyard to a hidden stairway that lead to the rooftops of the Old City.  There we stood, looking out over the different Quarters of the Old City and across the valley to the Mount of Olives.  Truly awe inspiring.

We loaded up on the bus and headed back to the law faculty where they were having a karaoke party Israeli style.  Instead of taking turns singing up on stage, they have one song leader with tons of floating microphones, they sing popular songs and everyone dances like crazy.  It was so much fun.  Again, words can't do this justice, but I did grab some video and pictures which I will post (eventually, maybe).

From there we loaded up into a cab and headed to our favorite Tuesday night bar, Friends Underground, to watch Real Madrid play.  Our cab driver was nuts.  He had CDs full of American music which he played and we sang along with loudly.  At one point, as I was belting out Time of My Life with everything I had, a car full of girls pulled up and asked us for directions.  They started laughing pretty hard.  Incidentally, our cab driver almost killed my friend Daniel who was on his motorcycle.  Just another day in Tel Aviv.

FN1 - Hilly.  I really have to give a shout out to our incredible social coordinator Hilly.  She's a 4th year student so she's our age, double majoring, and busy as all get out, yet she does an incredible job.  Social coordinator is one of those jobs you could easily phone-in but she goes the extra mile.  The whole day was incredible and flowed so smoothly.  She literally ordered the entire menu for us at Sima.  That alone was enough to win my stamp of approval. She put together an incredible day for us, and has done so again and again.