Sefad, Tel-Aviv/Herzlyia

Wednesday, February 10: SEFAD TRIP!
I finally made it to Sefad for the day. I went with my roommate Emily. It took us three vehicles and nearly 2.5 hours, but we made it. Once in Sefad, it took us another 30minutes to finally orient ourselves and find the things we wanted to see. We spent our day (5 hours) going to various art galleries and shopping/window shopping. The Sefad candle store was really cool. The candles were beautiful and they had some funky ones in various shapes- including a Harry Potter candle in the shape of the broom he flies on.

Our day in Sefad concluded with a FABULOUS lunch. We had a Yeminite version of pizza. It was Lachuh with Sefad cheeses and vegetables on top. Lachuh is a type of bread with a lighter and slighly sticker consistency than a pizza crust. It reminded me a lot of injera, the Ethiopian bread, although thicker than that. The man making the food tried hard to convince me that Italy is not the inventor of pizza, Israelis are. He asked us to repeat the word "pita" to him from a child's point of view. He explained that a child would misprounounce pita to create the word "pizza" and thus is the origin of the name. It was hilarious and silly, but the food fantastic.

Thursday, February 11: Off to Herzilya!
I went to stay with Israeli friends of mine that I know from Capital Camps and stayed with when I first arrived to Israel. They were great hosts for the weekend. I arrived Thursday night, in time for a late dinner of burgers/fries.

Friday, February 12: My friend dropped me off in Old Yaffo, where I started my day of walking nearly half of Tel-Aviv. The weather was beautiful and warm and sunny, clear blue skies. I walked around Old Yaffo for only a short while, I didn't really know what sights I was supposed to see there and I think I missed the must-see sights. Then I proceded to walk up the boardwalk, along the coast and then over into the city to the HaCarmel market. I walked through the food/clothing/stuff side then through the artists market. It was very crowded. I also sat and listend to a band (The Band Holler on their Just Married Tour). They were really good.

I grabbed a passion fruit smoothie (with mango and something else- YUM) and started my walk towards Dizengoff Centre. Around this time, someone stopped me on the street and asked in hebrew: Do you speak English?
Not registering what he actually asked, I responded in hebrew: Yes, a little, a little. (This is my token answer when people ask me if I speak Hebrew)
Anyway, then he proceded to ask in English about the bus system and how to get to the train station. I answered in English that I don't know much about the busses, showed him on the map where to catch them, and told him I don't know why I answered that I spoke only a little English. **He looked very confused. I wished him luck and continued walking. It was funny.

In Dizengoff Centre, which is an unusually large mall, although on Friday's they have a food market and a designer clothing market inside the mall. The food market was AMAZING. It was like a cheaper much better version of Taste of Bethesda. I started my eating with a Kuba, which is similar to a samosa as it's a doughy, meat filled item. I think I've had them before but never as large as this one, which was like the circumference of a bowl. Quite tasty.

Then I ruined my second course by being swayed by the pasta stand. Not only was it only okay pasta, I should have kept walking because afterwards I found the second floor of the food market. Oh well.

The market was comprised of dozens of stands with food from a baked potato bar to sushi, chinese food, pasta, local cuisine (kuba, stuffed peppers, etc), and dessert stands as well.

Anyway, around 3pm I made my way to the bus staion to grab a bus before the stop running for Shabbat and headed back to my friend's place. I joined them for dinner at their family's house, but before that watched a documentary about/interview with Rupert Murdoch's mother. Very interesting.

Saturday, I spent the day on the beach in Herzilya. It was hot and sunny but the water was still to cold to swim in. Instead of heading back up to the kibbutz late saturday, which is when the trains start running, I decided to spent the night and head back on Sunday morning. I watched "Far and Away" a 1992 movie with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. It was about Ireland and the US in the 1890's. Pretty good and really nice to sit on a couch and watch a movie in english.

Tomorrow we have an overnight trip to the Golan Heights & Hula Valley with the whole group/Oranim. On Friday, I'll be celebrating Purim with the kids in my center. Next week we have our group graduation--I'm busy making the slideshow for it. Then next friday we'll celebrate purim on the kibbutz in the pub. And then that's that. The program ends. I don't fly home for another week, leaving saturday march 6. I'm still unsure what I'll do during that week and where/if I'll travel.

I hope everyone is surviving the snow and staying warm. (and I apologize for mis-spellings and awkward sentences, I'm supposed to be leaving for work any minute...so I had to rush this update a bit)