April is tomorrow!!

Oh what a week its been!

Last Shabbat I spent in Herzliya with Eva and it was incredibly fun.  She wanted to make sure that I point out that we don't only go to museums when we are together, but also we see movies (I guess so that everyone wouldn't think that she was only very cultural).  In fact, on Sunday we went to see 2 movies back to back.  My butt hurt by the end, but the moveis were enjoyable.  Definitely go see the one about Freud and Jung, I can't remember the English name and the Hebrew translation name was not worth remembering... The day before that we had a litte road trip... went to the Recanti Museum in Caesarea and then spent the day in Zichron Yaacov.  It was such a beautiful day out and it so enjoyable to be in the sun!!

Recanti Museum

The courtyard with a touch of the Alhambra

A cute sign I saw in Zichron

I had the opportunity this week to spend time with family and it was all very enjoyable.  On Monday I got a tour of Ramat Aviv with my mom's cousin and her husband and on Wednesday I drove to Jerusalem to see my aunt and cousins.  It was also extremely enjoyable to be driving again!  Thanks to Omer I had a car that I could use to get there easily.  I plugged in my music and cruised through the mountains as I ascended the holiest city in the world.  Its always breathtaking to reach Jerusalem.  The exhilaration never dies...

Driving in Israel is an interesting phenomenon as well.  Most drivers, I would say, are selfish and crazed.  They rarely give the right of way and believe that they are the only ones deserving of being on the road.  Honking is a constant.  My favorite is when the light changes from red to yellow (and will eventually change to green) the car behind you is already honking.  You need a lot of patience and self confidence to get behind the wheel of a car in this country.  Its because of this insane driving that bikers have to ride on sidewalks here as well.  This to me is nuts.  The streets in Tel Aviv are packed with pedestrians who have to watch themselves so closely when stepping foot onto the pavement and yet even on the sidewalks (their own safe territory) they have to be careful as not to be mauled by bikers.

On Thursday, my roommate Yael and I decided we were going to take a walking tour through Neve Tzedek, a beautiful and artsy neighborhood in Tel Aviv.  We brought our cameras and our goal was so to capture the beauty.  It was a gorgeous day that culminated (as any day should) with sitting at a cafe with a delicious cappuccino (or in Hebrew, Cafe HaFuch and "dal" in my case which means skinny).  Milk by the way, is another interesting phenomenon.  In the US I drink skim milk (I know, not really milk by most people's standards) and I like it because it gives a little sense of creaminess without too much of a milk flavor, which I am not a fan of.  Here, most places serve 3% milk.  To me, thats like drinking directly from the cow's udder.  Most places will have 1% milk which is considered "light".

There are many great pictures that came out from this day, I will include a bunch... but keep scrolling down so you can read about Friday's adventure.

Tel Aviv beauty

Got fabric?

Long Live Israel

Rounded mirrors make me a fatty

Good inspiration for a mailbox

An invitation to sit?

Love this picture!

Tel Aviv's newest attraction, "the station".  No, its not a Holocaust reference.  It used to be a train station

Unsure of why this was put here, but it looks cool!

We are very PC in this country

Lady walks dogs or dogs walk lady?

Seriously, what could be better than this.  The finish line with a mosque behind it.

 Friday was the Tel Aviv marathon.  Preparations were underway well before this week, but you could definitely feel the excitement in the air the night before.  The only illogical thing to me was that the clock changed here between Thursday and Friday.  The poor marathoners lost an additional hour of sleep even on the night that they were running a race at 6:30 a.m.  Crazy.  The last chunk of the marathon was int he neighborhood near my apartment so I decided I was going to race crash.  I went around 10 a.m. and joined in the race.  I have to admit I had a guilty conscience the WHOLE TIME.  People were cheering and taking pictures, they were passing out water and wanting high fives and I felt like a cheater.  :(  I didn't cross the finish line because I felt that it would be rude, so I ducked out once the finish line came into view.  That in itself was a bit awkward because there were lots of people around and I needed to find the perfect place to stop so nobody would notice and say, "KEEP GOING!  YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!!!"

Anyway, it was a great run and I was glad I did it.  Especially since I didn't run the Shamrock Shuffle this year and I had wanted to run it and beat last years time.  I did, however, wear my shuffle shirt to the TLV marathon.

Tomorrow I am heading on a three day trip with Helene to go up north. Some trekking and fun!!  And next week is Passover.  More details to follow next time!!  Hugs and kisses ya'll!