Body Modification Day! (Parental advisory suggested)

Last weekend, Ilana, Chloe and I went on a little trip.  Through a series of events, we ended up in a little town up North at 8:30 in the morning with nothing to do.  After breakfast, Ilana mentioned that she wanted to speak with a tattoo artist she knew who worked across the street. Chloe asked if today was going to be the day that Ilana got her second tattoo, which she has been thinking about and drawing since we've known her.  Ilana told us, "No no, I just want to talk to him."  About 20 minutes later, it was decided that today was the day.  She had been wanting to do it with us there and the timing was right.  At that point, Chloe, who had been thinking about getting her tongue pierced for a while now, verbalized this idea.  Of course Ilana was all for it, but I told them they were both crazy and that I was definitely not getting anything done.  After Chloe's tongue had been successfully pierced, I began to think about whether I should get my earlobes or my cartilage pierced again.  After we held Ilana's hand throughout the duration of her tattoo, I settled on a second cartilage piercing.  We walked out of the parlor 2 1/2 hours after we walked in and all had a laugh at the strange morning we'd shared.  For lunch we ate ice cream. 

Pictures:

1st:  Chloe nervously contemplates exactly what it would feel like to have a needle through her tongue.

2nd:  Ilana bites herself as the fun begins. Don't worry, it'll be over in just 40 easy minutes of being poked with a needle 100 times per second. 

3rd: Getting there...

4th:  My ear

5th:  Survivors

Mom and Dad- don't watch this.

This is Chloe getting her tongue pierced.  The needle was actually already through, but this is when the guy replaced the needle with the actual stud.  It was a really fast process and Chloe reported feeling no pain, just a strange sensation.  She ate ice cream, yogurt and frozen drinks for the first day and a half, but got used to it really quickly and was back to normal foods.  You'll all be happy to know that she is healing very successfully.  Good on ya, Klo. 

Some Random Ulpan Fun

Pictures:

1st: Jessie, Ilana, Me, Chloe in old Yafo.

2nd:  You can find a lot of interesting stuff at the flea market in Yafo.

3rd:  Guy (Britain) and Bagdan (Ukraine, recently got kicked off the Ulpan).  Bagdan is a competition boxer and was one of the best in his area in the Ukraine. He made Aliyah and will soon be competing for Israel.  Guy is also a boxer.  Despite the fact that these two have no common language, except for the several phrases in Hebrew they learned in Keita Aleph, they were best friends and spent all their time together, usually walking around shirtless smoking cigarettes.  Sometimes Bagdan would show Guy boxing moves and they would play games that involved hitting each other in the arm.  Guy has been so depressed since Bagdan left. It was a beautiful relationship.

4th:  Meir (head of the Ulpan), Diklah (our Ulpan Ima), Shoshi 1 (Keita Bet teacher)

5th: Me at the Tzuba blood drive.

Davis Cup

As some of you might not know, Israel made it to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup.  I went to Tel-Aviv with my friend Josh (New York, 23) to watch Russia get defeated in the quarters.  We went to day one and day two of the three day tournament.  It was awesome. We started out the first day with Dudi Sela and Harel Levy locking down two singles wins.  Day two clinched the win when Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich beat Marat Safin and Kunitsyn.  It was a huge moment for Israel and it was so fun to be a part of. 

Day one took place on a Friday.  A really friendly man we were sitting next to invited us to his house just north of Tel-Aviv to have Shabbat with his family.  We figured an opportunity like this doesn't come along too often so we jumped on it.  It ended up being really fun. It was him, his wife, his 14 year old son and his 31 year old son.  It was so good to have a home cooked meal too. They really welcomed us into their home as part of their family.  It was one of the best experiences I've had in Israel and one I will remember forever. 

Pictures;

1st:Dudi Sela Neshama!  (One of the cheers for him, Dudi Sela's got soul/spirit)

2nd: Ram and Erlich in the blue vs Safin and Kunitsyn

3rd: Safin (The somewhat rude Israeli fans thought it was funny to sarcastically cheer him on as Safina)

4th: Me, Amir Hadad, Josh

5th: The family who took us home. We were trying out the self timer on the camera

Eilat

A couple weekends ago I went to Eilat with 4 of my friends from the ulpan.  It is the southern most city in Israel and from there you can see Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.  It is extremely hot. It was in the low 40's celsius when we were there, which is about 104 to 110 degrees. It doesn't really cool down at night either, it's just more tolerable because the sun is not on you.  Rowan, the Aussie, got off the bus and immediately told us how much he missed the heat and how good it felt.  

We stayed at a hostel that was about a 15 or 20 minute walk from the center of town.  It was a really nice hostel and the 5 of us had an 8 person dorm to ourselves.  Chloe (France) and Tamar (New Zealand, 18) both went down there to take a two-day advanced diving course.  While they did that during the day, Rowan, Itamar and I walked around the little shops by the beach, escaped the heat in the mall, and snorkeled.  The snorkeling in the Red Sea was absolutely awesome. The visibility was perfect and there were so many kinds of tropical fish.  We even saw an octopus! 

The last day we all went to a place called Dolphin Reef.  It's a huge place on the Red Sea that is home to about a dozen dolphins.  You can snorkel or dive with the dolphins, or just watch them being fed, which is what we did.  The trainer was very attractive.  Tamar, Chloe and I listened very attentively while he delivered his talk about the dolphins and the facility in Hebrew, most of which went right over us.  Overall, I loved Eilat, but I don't think I could live there. 

Pictures:

1st: Rowan, Me, Itamar

2nd: Me, Chloe, Tamar, Sexy Dolphin Man

3rd: Cute kids watching the dolphins

4th: One of the main sections of beach, Jordan in the background

5th: Rowan, Itamar, Chloe, Me