Week 2

(photo: night view from Deb's balcony)

Hello all-
Thought I’d better report in on my latest activities or you might stop checking the blog! Things are slower during the week because Deb has to work. Poor thing, summer is her busy season so she leaves at 8 in the morning and doesn’t get home until between 6 and 8 p.m.! So mostly in the evenings we order dinner in and watch Angel episodes. Actually, not a bad way to spend the evening. She has started to feel better so that’s a good thing but then I got hit with a cold. So in between the heat, work and illness, we are not the most energetic bunch around! But I have still managed to have a pretty good time. I spend a lot of time working on my research. I know next to nothing about Israeli cinema or Israeli politics so I have a ton of reading to do…but I am finding it fascinating. I breakup the research with exciting ventures into the city…or relaxing at the pool. Actually, I researched at the pool, which is the best of both worlds. Deb has a gorgeous round pool on the rooftop of her building (28th floor) with piped in mellow jazz music and an amazing view of the city. I’m going to try and take pictures from there later… Very relaxing ...even when little kids are swimming. And it needs to be relaxing to help you recover from the glass elevator ride up the last three stories. I have begun to develop a fear of heights. Well, not actually a fear of heights as much as a fear of plunging thousands of feet to my death. Personally, I feel it is a healthy fear and not one I need to overcome.

I have also been out exploring the city. I desperately needed to get a nail fill so I headed out to Carmel market where I had passed a salon that did fills (not that big over here, you have to hunt for them) Not only did the girl do fills but she did nail art as well so I had cool French tip variation with glitter and gems done. It was interesting arranging it since she only spoke Hebrew and Russian and the other girl in the shop only spoke Hebrew and French and I of course only spoke English…but we managed. Apparently the language of beauty care is universal!

After that I wandered around a bit. Carmel market is right on the edge of Shienken Street, which is supposed to be the hot funky area of town so I decide to stroll that way. The hype is true…It’s sort of a Greenwich village-ish area. Lots of young people, cafes and cool funky stores with more cutting edge fashion. (the fashion over here is basically the same as south Florida) I only meant to go down a little ways and then go back to Carmel market for our dinner but it was so interesting I just kept going a little further. I ended up doing the whole street and came out on Rothschild. Rothschild (named after Baron Rothschild who was a big financial supporter of Israel development years ago) used to be THE place to live..very elegant. It is not quite as upscale as it used to be but it is still very nice. It’s a VERY wide street with two huge rows of trees with benches, walking path and the occasional juice bar in the middle. The buildings tend to be very modern looking (the International or Bauhaus style was very big here in the 30s and the architecture of the city tends to reflect that) with lots of balconies. (Photo: Rothschild)

I kept meaning to get a taxi home but it was so pretty under the trees that I just kept walking. I saw this cute bird catching a worm..it looked just like a regular little brown bird but then the top of his head had a feathery crown like a Kookaburra. I kept walking and low and behold what do I see….a new age bookstore. They are unmistakable. Same as in the states, same bulletin boards with Reiki and Yoga announcements, same tables with kitty cats and, as you get closer, the same smell of incense (they must all buy the same brand wholesale) but everything was in Hebrew! It was so wild because it was exactly like you were in the states, same statues, crystals, even the people inside were dressed the same except that everything was in a foreign language I felt like I was in an Angel episode where I had stepped into one of those alternate universes! I checked to see if there were any yoga classes in English but no luck. At this point it was very very hot and I was slightly lost so after another half hour of wandering I finally hailed a cab and headed home.

Here are a few random photos for your enjoyment. Stay tuned for the next installment: Andrea and Deb in the desert!

View of a strip mall. And the infamous McDrive. .)(photos: sign for a brand of gas station..because of my love of dragons this tickles me everytime I see it. A shot of one of the Nazarene Express buses..just makes me think of a Monty Python sketch.