Roughing It

It looks like I've neglected my blog for a few days, but things have been kind of crazy over here. Settling into a routine can actually be quite exhausting! Last week was week 2 of school, and I also began volunteering at Enosh, a center for mentally disabled adults to come and socialize, sort of like a social club. So my schedule looks something like this:

• Sunday: school in the morning, Enosh in the evening
• Monday: school in the morning, Ulpan in the evening
• Tuesday: school in the morning, enrichment in the evening
• Wednesday: school in the morning, Ulpan in the evening
• Thursday: school in the morning, and the weekend begins...

Speaking of weekends, the last few have been pretty eventful. Three weekends ago (has it really only been that long?), a group of us ventured out to the Dead Sea. It's called the Dead Sea because it's so salty that nothing can live in it, but here they call it "Yam Hamelach", or the "salt sea". At the last minute, a roommate of mine convinced all of us that it would be better to ditch our Bedouin tent hostel and camp on the beach, and somehow everyone agreed. I'm still undecided as to whether this was a good or bad idea. After stopping for dinner, stocking up on supplies, and roaming the Negev (desert) looking for a suitable campsite, we ended up settling at a public beach sometime after midnight. Drinks in hand, we floated in the Dead Sea for hours. It was amazing. There was no one there but us, and the water was so incredibly warm, it felt like a hot tub. Everyone swam and hung out until about 4am before falling asleep on beach chairs, but we were abruptly woken up at 5am by all of the crazy tourists who came out to the sea to watch the sunrise. Imagine traveling with 9 cranky, hungover people who are all running on under 2 hours of sleep. Needless to say, the next morning was kind of a challenge. After some deliberation, the boys decided to hike the waterfalls in Ein Gedi, and the girls made the (better) decision to hit up the Ein Gedi spa. This is when the day took a serious turn for the better. Sarah, Becca, Jess and myself went in the sulfur baths and pool, caked ourselves in mud from the Dead Sea, got massages, and had a delicious lunch. Such a good day. Then we met up with the boys and trekked it back to Ashdod. It definitely took a few days to recover from that weekend, but it was an awesome time nonetheless.

This past weekend was also amazing. The whole group was down for a big night out, so we all made sleeping arrangements and decided to head to Tel Aviv. The girls and I booked a hostel on Allenby. Being my first stay in a hostel, I had no idea what to expect going into it. As soon as I walked in the room, my immediate thought was, "my mother would be horrified." It's not like I was expecting the Ritz, but this was, to put it nicely, minimalist. I mean like, the bathroom doubled as a shower. You turn the shower on, and you're literally showering with the toilet. Then you have to squeegee the entire floor so that the water doesn't get everywhere. But, I like to think that I'm low key (I can hear you laughing), and I got over all of this pretty much immediately. It's all part of the adventure, right? The hostel quickly became our second home. It was close to everything, the people were friendly, and the tea there was quite possibly the best tea I've ever had. Oh, and there was a roof deck with a view of the entire city! This alone made it all worthwhile. We spent Thursday night bouncing around Tel Aviv. We met up with Jess's brother, his wife and their friends, then went to a really overcrowded club, left after 20 minutes, met up with the rest of the group, went to a really Americanized hip hop club called Lima Lima, and ended up at a burger place called Moses at around 4am. It was a great night; I'm definitely looking forward to doing this again sometime soon. While the rest of the group left the next day, the girls and I had some serious shopping to do. We spent the afternoon on King George (my favorite purchase: fresh squeezed pomegranate juice) and Sheinken, then went to the crafts fair and bought some beautiful handmade jewelry. Because of Shabbat, everything closes down around 4pm on Fridays, so we took it easy for the rest of the day. By took it easy, I mean tuned to one of the 4 channels in our room and watched the same 15 music videos on repeat. Due to this, my new obsession is Cheryl Cole. Girlfriend is fiercer than Kylie and Gaga combined. This video is on another level. You'll thank me later.



On Friday night, a friend suggested that we go to a club called "Supermarket". Definitely not my usual scene, lots of techno and strobe lights, but when in Rome... right? To avoid a seizure we called it a night earlier than usual and went to a pizza place so that I could break my veganism for a slice of mushroom and olive pizza. Side note: with my dietary restrictions, there are only a few things that I actually miss eating, but pizza is no doubt at the top of the list. So, every now and then I pretend to not know what I'm putting into my body and treat myself to a slice. No judging.

Saturday was interesting. Having to check out of our hostel at 11am rendered us pretty much homeless. Our plan was to go to the beach but it was raining on and off all day, so we ended up partaking in a culinary walking tour of Tel Aviv. We had breakfast at this adorable coffee shop where I got fresh fruit and muesli with soy milk. Then, we walked to a Mexican restaurant, ate there, and then got gelato and sorbet. The rain stopped for a bit so we took an hour or so to digest on the beach before going to an amazing sushi restaurant, Moon, for dinner.

Squeezing in some beach time in between meals

Israeli life partners

The beach in the late afternoon

A scene from our stroll to Moon

The reason we stuck around for so long is because later that night there was a giant rally in Kikar Rabin (Rabin Square) to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was like a giant peace rally. Uri met up with us earlier in the day and came along, so I had him to help translate and give me some background information. Still, I understood very little of what was being said, but it was an incredible thing to be a part of.

After so much activity, we needed a low-key weekend. Sarah and I stayed holed up in our room for basically 2 days straight, sleeping until 2pm and studying Hebrew. Yes, studying. But it was actually really fun! One of the bigger frustrations with living here is not being able to communicate, so I need to get busy with learning the language. I have to say we've come a long way. Tonight we took a much-needed break from our room and had a girl’s dinner at the one and only Chinese restaurant in Ashdod (tofu!), then went to the movies to see Eat, Pray, Love. Because I loved the book so much, I was expecting to be let down by the movie. While they do alter the plot line a little bit, I loved it. I seriously had goose bumps the entire time. Such an inspiring story. I'm sure the book/movie is a lot more romanticized than the real thing, but still, amazing. A great way to end the weekend. Also, seeing that movie made me miss Italy more than I have in a long time, so don't be surprised if you find yourselves reading about a spontaneous trip to Florence. I still don't have plans for next weekend...