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

The Love Shack

Our room is the only one that does not have a plain white door. It has quite the opposite in fact. On the outside it is blue with a heart on it, hence the name "The Love Shack", and on the inside, it is painted red with black Hebrew lettering. Some day I hope to be able to read and understand it. I love our room. It is not like the pictures online showed. Those are the hotel rooms that the spoiled American high schoolers from the NFTY program stay in. Ours are more like little cabins. I have two roommates. One is from Boston, Michal (25), and the other is from South Africa, Kerri (22). They are both Olah Hadasha, new immigrants. The three of us get along really well and have had a lot of fun together so far. Our room seems to have become the hang out room where people always come to see what's going on. I think it's because we're the coolest and we made our room nice and homey. 

Pictures:

1st: The Love Shack

2nd: Our kitchen. It consists of a toaster oven, sink, electric hot water pitcher, refrigerator, and little cupboard.

3rd: Bathroom

4th: My bed and clothes cupboard, note my bedside table. It is made from a huge piece of bullet proof glass and has a bullet hole on the underside, apparently it really is  bullet proof.

5th: Our room, Kerri

Kibbutz Tzuba!

I have now been living on the kibbutz for almost one week and I love it. Tzuba is in the foothills 10 kilometers west of Jerusalem.  It is a very beautiful kibbutz.  They run a factory that makes bullet proof glass, a hotel, an amusement park for kids, and orchards.  I work in the hotel with one of my new pals from the Ulpan.  There is also a hill on the kibbutz, which they call a mountain, with ruins from the Crusades on it. Some of us walked up it the first day and it was amazing. There are beautiful views of all the surrounding areas and Jerusalem.  I really like it here so far. Class and work are both fun. I will be posting pictures and information about the other aspects of my life here. 

Pictures:

1st: Lobby of the hotel

2nd: Some of the rooms of the hotel. I clean them!

3rd: The main road in the kibbutz. At the bottom is the glass factory. The hill just behind that is the one you can hike up with the ruins on it. 

4th: View from the courtyard of the hotel.

5th: Tennis courts, soccer field behind them. 

At the Wall

After we checked out what the Christians were doing on Good Friday, we went to the Western Wall.  There's always plenty of people there Friday afternoon.  At one point, there was a sudden flurry of activity and excitement that included several cars, complete with a police escort, driving right in the courtyard.  A bunch of Hasidim ran over to the cars and out stepped a wise looking old man and a couple middle aged guys.  They hurried him down to the Wall as if he were late for something.  Based on the reaction he drew from the Hasidic crowd, he was very important. Some of the boys even tried to run up and touch him, only to be thwarted by the guys on either side of him.  It was quite an event. 

Dad sat next to a Hasidic teenager on his flight and learned a little bit about the dress code. We had noticed that some of them wear long silk jackets that are black, and some wear white.  Apparently they are just carrying on the traditional dress of their grandfather's grandfather's grandfather. It depends on what your family has been wearing for generations. Also, some men wear round fur hats, which intrigued us.  It turns out that depends on marital status. Married men often wear them on Shabbat, when they perhaps get a little more dressed up.  They are often a present from the bride's parents. 

Pictures: A taste of people you see at the Wall.

1st:  The closest shot I could get of the men's side. Dad is to the left of the ark, close to the Wall, with the blue kippah.

2nd: The important man arrives. Notice the man sticking his arm out to block the kids.

3rd: Cute matching outfits

4th: Look at those red payos! 

5th: Cute Orthodox girls

Good Friday

On Good Friday, I was very curious to see what the Christians were doing in the Old City. It's interesting to be in another religion's holy place for a major holiday.  We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be the location of the crucifixion, death, and tomb of Jesus, and also walked along Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus walked in his final hours after being condemned to death.  Both were packed with people. There were many parades of people singing and carrying huge wood crosses through the street.  Inside the church was also extremely crowded.  Upon entry, you see the Stone of Anointing, which is believed to be where the body of Jesus was prepared for burial.  There was a line of people waiting to touch it, kiss it, and pray at it.  We followed the flow of the crowd into the room that houses the Holy Sepulcher, the tomb of Jesus.  We then joined the crowd waiting to go upstairs to Calvary, also known as Golgotha, believed to be the site of the crucifixion.  Underneath the alter is a hole where the cross is said to have been raised.  There was a long line of people waiting to go under the alter and kiss the star that marks this spot.  I loved seeing what goes on in the Old City during such an important time for Christians.  It was a very interesting experience. 

Pictures:

1st:  Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Commissioned by Constantine and completed around 335 C.E.

2nd: Stone of Anointing, where the body was prepared for burial

3rd: Sepulcher believed to house the tomb of Jesus

4th: Calvary/Golgotha, where the cross was raised

5th: One of the many parades on Via Dolorosa

Tennis

Dad brought our tennis stuff with him when he came.  We played three times while he was here, once at a tennis club in Tel-Aviv, and twice at the club in Jerusalem.  The club in Jerusalem was really nice and we met some friendly people.  After we played the second time, a guy came to ask Dad if he wanted to play doubles. We figured he meant that Dad would be the fourth, but he meant for Dad and me to play him and his partner (Zacharia and Moshe). Luckily, I eventually remembered how to put a serve in and we smoked them, 6-2, 6-0.  They were very impressed with how good Dad was.  After one particularly nice point, one of them asked how old he was. They were shocked to find out he was 60. They were 50 and 45.  As one of them put it, "We are old but with ambition." Maybe next time guys. 

Pictures:

1st: #1!

2nd: Zacharia and Dad. Zacharia got Dad's information so next time he comes to Israel Zacharia will set him up with someone his level. 

3rd: The outdoor courtyard, Teddy Stadium in the background is where the soccer is held

4th: Snack bar

5th: View of some of the courts from the lobby sitting area