Finally, back in action

Without having any particularly good reason for my absence, I'm back. Learning of the popularity of my blog from twos of fans, whom I will now refer to as my Legions of Fans because it has a much better ring to it, it would be a crime for me not to write more about journeys through Israel.

Where to start? We had a pretty sweet weekend. Liberated from my class for the weekend and Naomi unfettered by work for the same reason, we took off like the children of summer. After rolling out of bed at a luxurious 9 am to find Naomi circuit training in the apartment and showering off the last of my language school woes we contacted a girl named Elinor. Elinor is our most obscure contact yet: She is the daughter of Shlomet's brother's girlfriend, which in Israeli terms means she's practically our sister. She is also handily the first Israeli astrophysicist I have met, though only by ten minutes as we were joined by her friend. We watched jazz in the park. It takes being in another country to realize that jazz is truly American (it's one of the good things we export), and all of the songs I recognized and some I had played before. After my third application of sunblock in as many minutes we decided to head for cooler locations and got lunch. Her friend departed and we blew our ram's horn, which calls Yoni the Great from his mountain kingdom. Yoni, Elinor, Naomi and I had fantastic seafood followed by gelato, both of which I manged to get all over me during the meals. Yoni, upon his white stallion, challenged me to what ended up becoming a who-can-finish-"x"-faster game, where x is defined as anything you can finish. This titanic struggle still continues.

Yoni the Great was required to write a sonnet in order to win a damsel's heart so he had to take his leave of us. We came back to our apartment to recharge so that Elinor could show us Tel Aviv after 12pm, a feat Naomi and I had yet to pull off.

A bit on Tel Aviv nightlife. The evening starts at 10 p.m. and rolls into the morning. Most people don't go out to eat much before then, so it's been very easy for Naomi and I to eat pretty much anywhere without a wait. There are many different ways to keep yourself entertained. We have seen: Groups of shirtless men playing intense table tennis in the public parks, bonfires on the beaches, hopeless tourists wandering the boardwalk, dance clubs, and pick-up bars. Elinor thought the scene we needed to learn the most about was the last one. Pick-up bars are built for human contact. They are small, crowded and loud. We went to a rather hip one on Rothschild, which is a swanky street. This bar was previously an apartment, thus making it a perfect place for a pick-up bar. Imagine creating a box that was 20' per side. Now imagine creating another box that was 19' 10" and placing it inside. This is the configuration of the bar we were in: the inner box was the bar and the 2" perimeter was the space that 100 young people were awkwardly crowding around. This King Aurther's Round Table approach to bars is brilliant because everyone can just sit and check everyone else out. Naomi, Elinor and I managed to secure a space near a load-bearing pillar so we had a make-shift barrier to help us against the press.

My favorite part of the evening was when somebody's dog, I don't know who's, started wandering around our area. You had to love this dog because normally it would have the run of the place because it's small and agile, but this dog had an Elizabeth Collar on (the Cone of Shame from "Up", if you'd rather). This poor cone-headed dog kept trying to get around and just running into people's legs. Adorable.