Shalom from Israel

After debating with myself for a while about if I should start a blog or not, I have decided I will. I have only been gone for 3 days yet I already feel like I have so much I want to tell people and it's easier than trying to decide what I want to email to which person. Plus, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I really like the internet. :)

So I am writing this literally on the middle of the street (well, there's like a pathway with benches and stuff in the middle of the road) in Tel Aviv on someone else's unsecured wireless network. Yay to my brother for figuring out there is good connection here. I have been in Israel for 2 days now on a family vacation from which I will go to Budapest. We have a nice big apartment about a block from the beach and maybe 3 blocks from a really populated street with lots of shops and restaurants so it's a really good location. And I can get internet in the middle of the street right outside the apartment so I like that!

My mom, sister and I had a flight with a layover in Amsterdam for 10 hours. That seemed like a really cool idea but when we land in Amsterdam and it's 10:30 AM their time but 1:30 AM CA time... not as cool... We went out into the main city and walked a couple blocks to eat at these rice tables, something my mom had heard about. It was pretty good- you get all these little dishes of various things like some sort of egg in a sauce and a cucumber salad and fried shrimp and bean sprouts in a peanut sauce and you mix them with rice. In the 5 or 6 blocks down to the restaurant, we saw 2 McDonalds, a Subway, and a KFC- all of American's finest! Everything is so expensive in Europe! Well, something that costs about $5 in the US is about 5 euros but the euro is so much stronger than the dollar so I'm really glad I'm going to Budapest where things will be dirt cheap. We then took a boat tour through the canals. The houses in Amsterdam are really tall and narrow with lots of windows and all right next to each other. It was very pretty. I'm sure I'll be back someday. Then because we were so exhausted we just went and waited for our flight. I definitely do not recommend the KLM flight to Amsterdam- it's too tiring that have that layover and it's like having 2 red eye flights!

On Friday (after leaving the US Wednesday morning) we finally got to the apartment and sleeping (an adventure in itself- my dad and brother had arrived earlier than us and we got to the apt around 3:30 AM and didn't have a cell phone to call to let us in and I accidentally rang the wrong apartment and woke someone else up... whoops...). Friday we went to the Shook- my favorite place in Israel. It's like an outdoor market with tons of fresh juices and fruits and vegetables. We had fresh pomegranate and orange juice- so good! We also went to the artist market which has really nice goods from local artists- jewelry, clocks, decorative pieces, all sorts of things. Randomly, we saw Matt (a friend from CMC who I am traveling with later in Israel after my family leaves before I go to Budapest- I knew he was in Israel but had no clue he would be in Tel Aviv that day). I definitely did not feel like I was in Israel when I had run into a CMCer after less than 12 hours in the country! The rest of Friday included nothing too exciting. The jet lag hit in, nothing was open (I really wanted falafel for dinner but everything was closed for Shabbat), and we all went to sleep early.

Today, we met up with family friends who lived in the US until about 10 years ago. It is very weird- they have a daughter my sister's age (18) who is in the army. Whenever I have been to Israel before, I have been younger than the soldiers but now I am older than almost all of them (girls are done around 20, boys around 21). It is just really weird to think about all the responsibility brought on with joining the IDF and that the people experiencing that are younger than me! And it's funny because Netta (their daughter) was complaining about how the girl's uniforms are ugly and things like that. I've met Israeli soldiers before but never someone I knew personally and well and never heard one complaining about such... normal... things. We went with them to tour this kibbutz that had an underground secret bullet factory when Israel was fighting for independence. I was wearing a CMC sweatshirt and a woman turned to me and goes "CMC! Do you know..." and it was someone I had a class with last year. It is so weird how you just see so many people you know from home when in this country so far from home! We then ate at this great restaurant with tons of Israeli salads- there is no appetizer like a bunch of Israeli salads with pita. Lots of hummus and eggplant dishes and pickled dishes and all sorts of things! And I finally got to have my falafel!

We then went to this monastery sort of thing. The women pray in Hebrew, Arabic, and French and also speak English but mainly converse in French (it is based in France). They always pray in the language of the country they are in. I am always so impressed when people know lots of languages because that is definitely not a talent I possess. Although I could understand some of their French, which impressed me! It was very pretty. I took some pictures and someday I'll probably figure out how to put pictures on here but with my slow wireless internet, today is not the day.

Well it's getting cold out here (although I'm sure when I am in Budapest I will be craving this weather) so that is all for now. I'm sure over time I'll figure out exactly how I want to use this but for now, that is all!