Weekend In Tel-Aviv

My Friend Chloe's family has an apartment in Tel-Aviv that we often go to for Shabbat. It is co-owned by several family members but no one lives there permanently. Family members just use it when they come to Israel.  It is pretty awesome for us because we have an amazing, and free, place to stay in the center of Tel-Aviv. We go Friday afternoon and return to the kibbutz Saturday night.  We take a bus from the kibbutz to the mall about 15 minutes away, then take a bus to the central station in Tel-Aviv. From there we take a bus to the apartment. It takes about an hour and 30 or 40 minutes total, because we have to wait for buses. It's so nice to have a place to just relax and have a kitchen.  It's an easy walk to the beach, restaurants,  and a bunch of shopping.  There is also a huge roof-top deck that is fun to hang out on. It's really nice of Chloe's family to let us use it.  Last weekend, Chloe, Ilana, Michal, and I all went together.  Ilana went to culinary arts college so she made us a delicious Shabbat dinner (Pasta, Salad, Pita, and Wine).  We will be going back frequently. 

Pictures:

1st:  When we got to the bus stop at the mall, there were police waving us away from it. Ilana speaks Hebrew and was able to tell us there was an abandoned package, hefetz hashud, at the bus stop. Ilana had watched a scene like this unfold before so she filled us in. There is a special robot they use to handle the package. First it approaches it and pokes it. If nothing happens, it shakes it. Then it blows it up. The one Ilana had seen blown up before turned out to be a bunch of books.  The driver of that white car got yelled at by the police for pulling up there.

2nd: The living room and stairs to the roof

3rd: I know it's not a great picture but I wanted to show the Shabbat table. Ilana, Chloe, Michal.

4th: Michal (one of my roommates) and Me on the deck

5th:  Trying to perfect the use of the camera timer. 

Work

Kibbutz Tzuba owns and operates a hotel on the premises called Hotel Tzuba.  I clean rooms there.  I work with one of my best friends from the ulpan named Chloe.  She's 18 and French.  Two more girls from our group work with us as well.  Jessie is 28 and from the Caribbean, and Natasha is 25 and from Belarus.  

A typical work day begins at 8. We arrive at the office/storage room for all the linens.  We then sit around on plastic chairs for the next 45 minutes to hour and a half waiting for instructions.  During this period we watch 5 Arab guys and 3 ladies drink coffee and chat.  We chat amongst ourselves and place bets on how many minutes it will be until we're put to work.  At some point a couple of the guys will throw some huge bins of linens through the door and proceed to stand there and watch us fold them.  They usually have some more coffee and a cigarette at this point.  When the boss leaves, the music comes on and the ladies start dancing very seductively.  Eventually they split us into two teams and we clean anywhere from 10 to 15 rooms.  I make about 25 to 35 beds a day and do a lot of sweeping and dusting.  Sometimes I get to clean the bathroom. Woot. It's really exciting when people leave things in the fridge and we get to claim them.  So far we have gotten things like melon, ketchup, sweet and sour sauce, juice, turkey and yogurt.  One problem with our job is that the people we work with are paid by the hour, so the longer they're there, the more they make.  This results in us returning to the office for pointless cigarette and coffee breaks periodically.  Luckily, we get out early every day. So we can't complain.  We laugh a lot at work.  

Pictures:

1st: Kamar (one of our bosses) and me doin' what we do.

2nd: Typical office scene

3rd: Jessie, Me, Chloe

4rd: Playing pinata with a suspended bag of linens and a mop. One of many ways to entertain ourselves while we wait.

5th: Resting