A Restful Shabbat

As it turns out, I was able to relax and catch up on some sleep this Shabbat, which is exactly what I needed. After barely sleeping for about a week, I was beginning to run myself into the ground. I left Eli's place around 1:30 in the afternoon and made my way back to the central bus station in Jerusalem. What a zoo. My God. It seemed like the whole country was trying to escape the city before Shabbat came and everything shut down. I arrived at the central bus station in TA about an hour later, where Alex was waiting for me. We wandered through a shuk for a little while, looking at clothes and goofing off, before eventually buying some baklava for that night and hopping a sherut to his apartment in Petach Tikva.

We got a little turned around en route and had to ask the driver to drive us back to Petach Tikva. Alex has only been living in this flat for about a month, so he still doesn't know the area very well. He shares a place with 5 other lone soldiers. The apartment is very nice, supplied by the army for the use of its lone soldiers. The life of a lone soldier in the Israeli army is not the easiest life to lead. The people I met were the picture of mental exhaustion. They were young, on leave and just trying to forget about the army as much as they could before they had to return to base. Alex is a cook in the army, so we made a feast last night. Roast chicken, fried chicken, stuffed peppers with meat, rice, salad, pita and hummus. Some girls who lived in the building came by and we ate seemingly forever.

The artist at work in his studio

We watched a movie and then went to sleep. It was glorious. I slept until 10:30 in the morning and I needed every minute of it. I got up and got dressed, and at noon my cousin Itzik picked me up. Itzik and his family live in Givatayim, a wealthy suburb of Tel Aviv. Before March of this year, I didn't even know that I had family near Tel Aviv, but after much prodding from my dad, I ponied up and called him. I ended up spending all afternoon with him. First I met his mother at her home. She noted how much I look like my Bubbie Nacha (I didn't know that), and sat down to ask me all about my family over a piece of cake. A proud Yiddishe Mama. Next I went with Itzik to his family's home for lunch. I met my new cousins (although I'm having trouble with some of the names so I will get back to you when I am more certain of them) and we talked and ate and relaxed.

The Weiss family and I in Givatayim

Eventually Doron and Rina (Itzik's son and one of his daughters) took me on a short walking tour of Givatayim. It's a beautiful neighborhood, very different from Haifa. I don't know that I can really explain the difference, but the cities have a different feel to them. I did snap this photo of Tel Aviv from a distance.


The best thing about the afternoon was that four whole hours, I threw caution to the wind and spoke nothing but Hebrew. And I did pretty damn well with it too! I am finding that my Ulpan combined with my real life experiences are combining to enhance and expand my Hebrew vocabulary on a daily basis. I'm learning new words and phrases, and putting them to use almost immediately. Speaking Hebrew still requires more concentration than English, so after the visit was over, I was once again drained. I went back to Alex's and we hung out for another 2 hours, before I caught a 6:15 bus back to Haifa. Travel is great, but it's always nice to return home. Things get crazy again tomorrow, so I'm going to take the opportunity to get another full night's sleep tonight.