Fridays, 2012 - Tales Of A Wanderer

While there were plenty of activities regarding me and the group, I also like to have some "me" time. It should also be pointed out that up until now, I always seemed to find my weekends spent in Modi'in, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but I wasn't getting the "full" experience that Tel Aviv had to offer me. Didn't help that everyone I knew told me to be spontaneous and to embrace the city. So how was it that I only spent two... maybe three weekends tops in Tel Aviv after being here for only a month and half is a mystery to me.

April 1 (3?), 2012
It was a Sunday afternoon after I was done from work when I was heading back to my bus stop. Routine being the same: Wake up, go to bus stop, go to work, flail, go to bus stop, head home. This was a procedure for almost a week and a half. Across from where I work is the Ayalon Mall (as stated previously in my journal about my journey to find the building) and I realized that up until now, I haven't even stepped foot in there. Which in itself was somewhat silly. Going with the "why the hell not" approach (a foreign concept to me, mind you) I showed my bag to the security and walked in. And it was packed. Christmas-like decorations hanging from the ceiling, people buzzing around to different stores, kids running around like lunatics. Yup. It's the mall. I wasn't really aiming to buy anything, I was merely walking around taking in the mall. I'm going to be living here for a few months, might as well know the mall like the back of my hand. I already knew that the malls of Israel were famous for having super markets in it, so it didn't take me long to find it, conveniently next to it was a super-pharm (the equivalent to a CVS in the States), but what made me the happiest was there being not one, but two book stores in the mall; something that made me upset that the mall back home decided to close down for yet another ridiculously expensive clothes store.

The thought hit me that I should look around for a movie theater, I mean... if there is a movie theater in the mall back home, there should be one here. It took me a while to realize that the escalator right in the beginning of the mall led to more floors. And not to more stores, rather, it was to an area of junk food, arcades (like... legit arcades, not the occasional game lying around in the lobby), and a giant play pen for kids to play around with. It looked like something straight out of the circus. It didn't surprise me that I saw yet another set of stairs and proceeded to climb up, curiosity being the one in charge at the moment. The smell of popcorn began to overwhelm me until I reached the top of the stairs.

The goal was achieved. I had found the movie theater.

I honestly had no idea how to react to this, as this was a much much neater layout compared to the one back home. I mean, yes, the second floor full of pre-movie activities and that in itself should have signaled me that this was an amazing theater, but the movie lobby itself was something else. My brother always mentioned that when going to the movies, it should be a special occasion, like you need to dress for it because you're about to go watch, experience, something out of this world. So when I see that there are cafe lounge chairs (the fancy kind you see in shows like Mad Men) and the lobby has a nice dim light to it, floor is clean, and tiled, and the posters hanging over the cashier cast a soft light... THIS was a sight to see. I didn't know what my face was doing, but I felt my my mouth slightly open. I took my ipod and quickly put it in reverse mode so I can take a picture and catch my expression. It basically captured how I felt in a good way.

The face of your tour guide through the Magical World of Israel

After taking in the sight, and chalking it up as a place to go for when I watch movies, I decided to head out. Of course... not before I grabbed myself a book and dinner.


Every Other Friday So Far

  

After my little escapade from the previous weeks, I decided that one weekend I'd stay in Tel Aviv. One weekend I got food poisoning (a story, while disgusting, I'll save for another journal entry), but the few hours before it kicked in, I went out with a bunch of people to find hummus and I can already tell that some of you out there are going "no sh*t you got food poisoning!" but do keep in mind that while I do speak Hebrew, have the Israeli citizenship, raised in an Israeli house, and have Israeli parents- I'm an idiot because of the fun fact that I was never raised in Israel (strike one). We grabbed some lunch at this hummus restaurant (strike two) when afterwards one of the people decided to... angrily proclaim that they wanted to be alone. And the proclamation wasn't told to anyone else. Just me. Taking the cue, I decided to ditch the group as a whole and venture off on my own. I'm twenty one, I'm not a kid anymore, and after being for two and a half years in a college that was on ghettoville, USA, I think I know how to handle myself. So I spent my day around the Artists' Alley. And ditching the group was easily the smartest move I've done thus far. It was a Friday, so naturally it was pack, but it also meant more street performers and artists for me to browse at. I knew some of the alley already because I was there every summer with my family and as stupid as this sounds, being an artist myself (at least, I'd like to think I'm one), it didn't feel in the slightest weird. I browsed the stands ranging from old Japanese comics turned wallets to custom made leather belts, all the way to cute flocks of sheep that looked like something straight out of Dr. Seuss. I passed a stand that were selling wooden instruments when a memory returned of a few summers ago when I was here.

I was with my mom in the summer when we passed a kiosk being watched over by an old man. He was selling an instrument called an ocarina, only these were special. These were special in a way that they were all clay made and shaped out to be in the form of animals.I was floored and fell in love with an elephant ocarina, and both me and my mom agreed to go back to it as soon as we were done strolling around (we usually spend a day in Tel Aviv for the Artists' Alley and then a restaurant before we left back to Rishon). Unfortunately, we forgot (but was totally made up when we ate at a restaurant where a celebrity was eating a few tables away from us) and the topic of the ocarina was never brought up again.

This was three years ago, so I couldn't help but ask present day the guy running the wooden instrument kiosk. He was also selling an ocarina but his was wooden, not the animal shaped on I fell in love with. Fortunately, he was really happy to help, saying the guy was a few streets down. I thanked him and let him know that if I couldn't find the guy, I'd come back to him (his stuff was really nice and I did take his instruments into consideration). After strolling around and passing many hand made items, I found him. I found the man from three years ago and his collection of animal ocarinas. I was grinning from ear to ear when I approached his stand and told him happily in Hebrew how I was so happy to find him again.

"I found you!"
"Oh, you did."
"I was looking forward to come back to your stand for almost three years now."
"Well, ha ha, I'm still here. Haven't left yet."

We had a pleasant conversation about ocarinas (he even showed me a trick or two) when I finally made my purchase. Unfortunately, the elephant sold out for a while now, but I found something else that caught my eye. It was small, simple, and had a minor shape of an alligator. When I asked the man what animal it was, he simply shrugged, gave a chuckle, and said he had no idea what animal it is, but it could be anything I want it to be. I thanked the man and walked away with my three years late ocarina. I felt a spring in my step when I heard a violin playing that reminded me of Pixar. I let my ears lead me when I came across a group of four standing with instruments in hand: One was playing the cello (or bass, please feel free to correct me), two playing Spanish guitars, and one of the with his violin. I stood around for a bit to take in the music, it was really ear pleasing that I couldn't help but record them. And of course, I gave them some money. I only give when I really feel like they deserve it.

                                                                               Amazing folk/jazz group

      

                                                 The Artist

I later left back for home as Shabbat came rolling in. For the next couple of weeks, (the few that I stayed in Tel Aviv), I spent my Fridays wandering around Tel Aviv, starting off always at the Artists' Alley but eventually I managed to spend a few of my Fridays looking for other restaurants to try out. Salads and Bars hardly count as "trying food" in my book and I like to explore in the morning where the majority of things are open. I'll get into food later with a different journal. So anyways, during one of my Fridays (the second Passover) I planned my day carefully. I already knew that things close early on Friday but because it was the second Passover, things were going to close extra early. I wandered around looking for a restaurant that was open (seeing as most of them were closed for Passover) when I came across the Disengoff Mall. I anyways needed to find a new pair of headphones, so what other place but the mall? I mean, Modi'in's mall was open during Passover eve, so it stands to reason that the mall here should be open as well.

I was horribly wrong.

Sure, they did let me in, but the sight of it was something straight out of a George A. Romano zombie flick. All the stores closed, floors completely empty of people, and 80's lite pop music playing and echoing throughout the deserted mall. I walked around trying to find anyone else, and I did. But there were only four of them, easily. Eventually I came across some stairs and decided to climb up, finding yet another movie theater, all those this one being less impressive than the one at Ayalon mall. After enough time listening to "Time Of Our Life", I decided to call it quits and head back home. Things were closing, and clearly I needed to leave. The weather was nice so the walk back wasn't bad, seeing as all the buses seemed to have vanished.

When I got home, I realized I liked Fridays. Not for Sabbatical reasons, but more for myself and traveling. Up until now I was going with groups, always being with someone, and always going to places I'd much rather not go. When wandering around by myself, I don't need to worry about the other person's entertainment, if their hungry and if so where should we go so they can have a good meal and within our budget. But when I'm on my own, I have to worry only for myself, and I get to go to places I would otherwise not go and eat whatever I want without even second guessing. So I officially declared Fridays as "Me Days" where I just go wherever my feet take me while listening to good music.

Just last week I managed to find a group of people standing and giving free hugs (something I really wanted for a while) as well as coming across a bunch of puppies. For breakfast I stopped by a cafe so I could have french toast with some coffee while reading a book, listening to a New Orleans-type jazz band. Eventually stopping by the mall (this time crazy full) and trying some homemade Dim Sum, Sweet Challah, and buying two awesome scarves. All of this at my own pace. I try to be as social as I can (and being stupidly bad at it, I should add), but being on my own for the day is fairly nice, especially when I have the whole morning/afternoon to myself.

Proof of my awesome Dim Sum.

March 19/ 25 - Present, 2012 - Office Space

We end that journal for a more upbeat one: My Internship.

Allow me to refresh your memory of my history: For two and a half years, I spent my time studying Game Art and Design, with the original goal of becoming a Computer Animation major being shot after being told that the position was not in my favor and I should go to that or Motion Design (Motion Design is basically advertisement and title cards you see in shows and movies), I withdrew in December 2011 after being unable to handle the massive amount of stress the college environment was providing me.

So I joined the program a month later for an internship. There wasn't a CA company looking for an internship, but one video game company was. And only one video game company answered my resume, and it was Sidekick. When I talked to my boss (who in the Skype picture looked like a mix of Tony Soprano and Kelsey Grammar) he said I would be doing (most likely) website design and QA. Eager that I signed up, I confirmed my position as an intern for his company.

March 19, 2012
It wasn't our official day to work but it was the day in the two week orientation to go spend the day (or an hour) at our work place, and to basically navigate through Ricky's poorly done instructions (example being one person tried to find the bus stop they were suppose to take, only to find out it wasn't there). Ricky then explained to each of us what time our meeting with our employers was and how to dress accordingly, seeing as mine was a video game company, casual clothes would be fine.

I tend to over-do things.

So after spending the day figuring out what to wear (only ending up wearing a blue tank top underneath a long sleeve white v-neck shirt, puma sneakers, pocket watch necklace, blue beanie, and my suspender pants) I set my alarm clock for 8:38 am after making a minor bet with my dad regarding how long it takes to get to work. He said an hour, and I thought roughly 40 minutes and my meeting being at 11. The morning of the interview I walked with London to the bus stop to which she continued onward (roughly 15 minutes on foot for her to get to work) and I waited by the Ulpan bus stop (hilariously enough, the same bus I take to Ulpan was the one I needed to take to get to work). All I knew, according to my mom, was that I should ask the bus driver if he could drop me off at either:

A- Sela Building
B- A street name I can't remember at the moment
C- Alayon Mall.

So when I went on the bus, I quickly asked the bus driver if he could drop me off at Sela.

"Slicha?"
"Sela? You know where that is?"
"No."
"Okay... [street name here]?"
"What language are you speaking?"
"...Hebrew."
"...Never heard of the street."

My patience was running a bit thin, I mean, the bus driver doesn't know the street name?! Either he's a moron, or I'm royally messing up the Hebrew language. And something told me the bus driver was being a moron. I sighed with annoyance and asked about the mall, to which he goes "Ahh yes! This I know!" in his obviously broken English. Swiped my card and went to find a spot. As I sat there watch buildings zoom by, I kept wondering exactly how far the place was. I checked my pocket watch and saw that the ten minutes become twenty. Then thirty. And it didn't help that each time the bus reached a city-like area, I was ready to get off, but not once did the announcer call out about Ayalon Mall. I saw the signs on the street kept aiming upwards so I only followed based on the sign. Luckily after five minutes, the announcement went off and I hopped off the bus. To a construction site. And a crapton of Rabbis.

Like a lost lamb (and on an adventure, as both Ricky and my mom said), I went to the nearest shopping plaza and tried to find the street name. I walked into a store and asked the clerk if she spoke English (just to double check for myself), she said barely, so I went with Hebrew. I asked for the street name (still thinking I was butchering the name) and she goes "Oh! Continue straight from here, make a left, and it's right there!"

Yup. Bus driver was an idiot.

I thanked the lady, wished her a good day and made off to her directions. And lo and behold, I found it.

Now, out of respect for the company, I can not and will not show or discuss any pictures of their on going projects. I'll slip every now and again, but they are usually, for the most part, pictures of my cubicle. Sorry in advance.

So anyways, I go into the building and ask which floor Sidekick was on, the guard tells me the first floor, so I hop into the elevator with a pregnant lady, a rabbi, and a mailman. Yes, it does sounds like an opening to a really bad joke. So I go to the first floor, doors open and the first thing I see is a giant clown.

On the floor.

Taking up the entire said floor.

I carefully walked around and made my way to a sign written in hebrew. It read Sidekick and no indication of an arrow, but it doesn't take one to piece two and two together when the only sign is on the left side leading to a hallway with one clear door.

Made my way in and was greeted by one of the people who worked there, Guy (my employer) was expecting me and had the door open. Walked in and everything clicked perfectly. And after showing me the tour of the area (the guy who greeted me was called Tal, the producer) and noticed something interesting about my work place. There was not a single girl working. All males, and I was the only girl there. Weird, but for some reason I felt like this could work, and speaking of it, I went straight into work, doing QA.

Little did I know that QA was not what I thought it was. When I asked Guy if I was going to be doing anything publicly, he smiled and said no, but I was doing QA for sure. For most people, QA is "Questions and Answers", so I was a bit shocked that I was going to be doing that. When Guy lead me to my cubicle, I looked at the laptop they handed me to browse around their website to get to know them more, I was met with another person working there, Elad. He's in charge of QA. So obviously I asked what in all that is holy is QA. 

"Quality Assistance."

"...Come again?"
"Basically, you'll be trying all of our games and such, and help us see if there are any problems like bugs-"
"...Bugs?"
"Yeah, in games. Basically you're a play tester."

So I wasn't doing any public relations work. I'm going to intern by playing games. All day. As well as fix the website, but that was briefly covered on my first day. I left my work at around 4:30 leaving a nice impression on the guys by showing them that I actually do play games and know how to respond accordingly (and occasionally throwing a gamer joke here and there) as well as feeling horribly sore. But I had a huge smile knowing that for five months this was my "job".

And I was a-okay with this.

Fast Forward To Present
So it has been roughly three weeks since my first day. And so far they were right, I've been playing two games over and over and over and over again finding bugs, timing the length of time it takes the game to load, throwing fits of rage when the game does some really stupid bug (and believe me, there were PLENTY). Most of the people on the team are nice, some are interesting characters in and of themselves, and others I'm still trying to understand how their minds work. One moment they are nice, and other moments they are getting really angry that it's impossible to get through to them. I also learned that in order to make a point with some, you HAVE to be angry and yell. It's aggravating to say the least, but it gets the work done.

I didn't just play games, I'm also in the midst of fixing up the website with a guy named Dan. He knows more of the technical aspects while I know more of the artistic parts, and both Guy and he left me the responsibility of handling both the website and Facebook. So when I'm not jumping around like a headless chicken, I'm on the internet. Not too shabby. I also wowed them over with a powerpoint presentation basically explaining why and how the website can be a million times better with using mostly pictures over words (showing them that using just pictures isn't out of the realm of possibilities) and completely impressed the two of them (Guy, CEO and Dan, Web Designer) that they complimented me. And for the first time since I left my college, I honestly did feel like I was on cloud 9, like I made someone proud, but mainly I made myself proud knowing that I was good at something.

Sure, some days I'm so tired I don't want to get out of bed, the hassle of bus aggravates me (which I will write a whole journal entry about) and I just want to veg out, but at the end of it all, I'm happy. I'm always smiling when I'm working there, and the people make it fun. I had never experienced a whole floor of people yelling "THIS IS SPARTA", the boss blasting "Ride of the Valkyries" right behind me while mindlessly playing with his phone, and swords. Swords EVERYWHERE.
















Oh yes, and I did meet one girl. Just. One. And she is in charge of complaints. I met her briefly and she spoke crazy fast that I looked like a deer in headlights in regards to what she had to say. But I think she caught on shortly afterwards, shook my hand, and left. So... that makes two girls in an office filled with about fifteen guys. Could be worse I imagine?

So basically, so far it's been an amazing experience. The idea that the company trusts me with handling their websites, listening to my input, and having a serious yet fun atmosphere is grand. These next few months will be an adventure, that much I know for sure.

March 14 - 20, 2012 - Intensive Ulpan Week

The fact that I'm stupidly late with updating and by far way too lazy to actually do the day by day thing (on top of my mom saying I write way too much for one day of events) made me go with a fast abridged version of the the past week. If only so I can write my next journal update about the trip with Jerusalem to the Galili (because writing Kineret on the computer makes it think I'm dumb and have no idea how to write Kinect). Anyways, let's speed things up and catch up what transpired.

March 14, 2012
Basically it was a nine hour seminar of who Israelis are and how they function. This basically translated for me as nine hours of how my family function. Been living with it for twenty one years, I'm pretty sure I got the gist of it. We were also informed on the "rules" of being late to group meetings and that if someone is late often, then they have to buy snacks. Me, New York, Belgium M, and Paris went to grab coffee and when we came back (and I should note, we had no idea how the area we were in functioned) we were a good two, maybe three, minutes late. So Ricky says we're late, to which I quickly made a tweet (another tool I use to update my shenanigans for you readers) that I hope the people here like bags of chocolate milk, cause there is no way in hell I'm paying so much for snacks most of them might not even eat. Once we hit the six hour mark, we were permitted to go and get coffee because we had two more speakers to go through. Belgium M was kind enough to make me a strong cup of coffee to last me for at least four hours.

Here's the photo of proof:

I feel I should also note that Ricky pointed out that the building we were at, which is a dance/theater studio, is where our Ulpan will be.

I'm going to be spending the next few days riding the same bus to this building. Meaning I better know the streets pretty damn well. No big deal.

One of our speakers opened up with making us go into groups, and from there we had to write one sentence and pass it on to the next person. This basically translated into a disaster seeing as no one in my group neither
A- Cared.
and B- Knew what the heck was going on.
We already passed the seven hour limit and our attention span was horrifyingly shot (I found out shortly after that most colleges don't have three hour classes, so I was somehow still in tact by the fifth hour). When we were done, we were to read what we wrote. Basically it was a disaster. Most of the groups were able to make a coherent story that was equally hilarious, whilst ours was... well, stupid. I won't go into the details but it was something I had to keep for myself. This opened up to the concept of documenting our stay. Guess who is a month ahead of the game? This one. It shortly translated into a pretty bad PR speech about how we should sell ourselves to the program. Clearly, the guy didn't read our contract because it said very clearly that the program is allowed to use our images as long as we're on the trip.
Translation: We signed ourselves to whore out big time.
Once that was done, we quickly zombied out to the nearest bus stop.

March 15, 2012
Went back to studio (after Ricky challenged us to be there on time and to get there on our own) and headed up to the second floor, we were then guided to go to the third floor so we can be sorted out who is going to what level of Ulpan. For those who don't know or are unfamiliar with Ulpan, basically it's a "school" for people who travel to Israel (e.g. my program) and need to learn basic hebrew to function. And there are three levels:

Level 1 - The basic alphabet, basically it's 1st grade hebrew.
Level 2 - Learning more words, working more on the pronunciation and grammar, this is Middle School.
Level 3 - Because we know hebrew, this refreshes basic things but teaches how to read the hebrew newspaper.

Before traveling to the program, we all had to take a test to show our hebrew capabilities. And on top of that, when we got there, we had to speak one on one with the woman in charge of Ulpan so she can verify our level. Now let me refresh your memory: I can speak hebrew, Jewish school, hebrew speaking family, the whole shpeal. When I'm panicking (like say, nearly loosing my passport which contains highly important documentations) I suddenly become a natural and nail every pronunciation and grammar. However, I tend to mix actual hebrew and "slang" hebrew as well as basic derp hebrew when speaking normally. So bring me in front of a "teacher", and I'll naturally revert back to Grade A talking.

Luckily it didn't go as terrible as I thought it would and I made it out in one piece and excelling my hebrew (of course, I royally messed up street and road, but that's more tomato tomahto. She was actually surprised by my level of speech and told me that (I apologize if I sound braggy, but this is a rare occasion for me) I had the highest score on the test with a 91%. So naturally I should be in level 3.

Hell. Freaking. Yes.

I later found out that four other people were going to be with me in level 3, and we high fived each other. The rest of the day was bland with more lectures and discovered that we had to get ready for Shabbat dinner. My room versus another apartment to see where we were going to do it, we won and the other apartment had to do it there. I also made the group laugh when we did an ice breaker, it revolved around talking for as long as the match was lit. Mine died quickly so I asked if I could light another, the guy doing the ice breaker said sure if I wanted to, so I quickly lit one and with a smile went "I'm also a pyromaniac." Laughter ensued. We move forward with the next day.

Oh yeah. And it rain pretty hard, and being someone who only comes to Israel during the summer when everything is practically dead, it was a bit of a culture shock for me.

March 16, 2012
Our first Shabbat dinner. After Ulpan (where we got out work book and got to know each other), me, my roommates, New York, and P went to the market place (a.k.a the shuk) to get some ingredients for Shabbat dinner. It was a bit drizzly, but nothing a good hoodie couldn't handle. So we wondered on through, and again, culture shock for little ol' me, and I had to grab some shots of Tel Aviv's friday.

I also went and bought myself some bread because the smell was irresistible. New York also bought some bread. After getting some veggies, and the day finally clearing up, we head back to our apartment and placed our groceries into the fridge. A nap was in order. I was planning on taking a shower, but the power to sleep overwhelmed. And I passed out.

When I woke up, I walked around the complex for a bit to see if anyone else was awake, and for the most part, they were all cooking. Belgium M then called for all the girls into her apartment so we can light the candles for Shabbat. One candle per girl, and once we were done, we said happy shabbat and went back to our respective apartment to get down to cooking. My apartment was making Israeli salad, with very VERY powerful onions. It literally put us all to tears, but the outcome was amazing. We then dressed up and headed down stairs to join everyone else for the dinner, which was amazing seeing as everyone brought their A-Game into this meal. The layout, however, was hilarious if anything.

One side was quiet, calm people, mildly discussing about things in general, then there was the middle (where I was) where it was mainly one girl who was talking about politics and would refuse to hear my input (something about my age or something, I don't recall) and then there was the other side. The other side was, to put it bluntly, a bunch of drunks. Five bottles of vodka, whisky, and two bottles of red wine as well as plenty of beer to put Homer Simpson to shame. And this was, according to them, only the pre PRE game. For those of you, like myself, that aren't aware of a pre-game, it is basically you drink your ass off before you go to a bar to drink even more. And most likely head for the club. Me, I'm not a club person, I don't mind the occasional drink, but no more then two MAYBE three drinks. And even then I'm picky with what it is exactly that I'm drinking.

Dinner ended, and we cleaned up the apartment (minus the floor) and left for the next apartment, so that they can pre game (take note how I only used one "pre"). Belgium M became an emotional wreck and techno was blasting while I sat there not knowing what the fuck was going on. Yes, I may not have had the drinking experience, but holy crap there is a lot of work that goes into drinking before drinking. We didn't leave until 11 (which is early) and we just bar hopped until we found what we were looking for. However the term "we" is loosely used seeing as we went as a big group and eventually broke into three smaller groups, mine heading towards one of the madrich's second work spot.

When we go in, a lot of them ordered beer, and I was post-dinner with a dessert craving. So I ordered a White Russian (remember the drink I had before I flew?) which resulted in confused glances as to what the hell I ordered. Clearly these people don't know drinks. It was also there that I learn that they don't actually "drink" but rather get completely plastered drunk with tequila and vodka to the point they get nasty hangovers and achieve black outs. Yup, I'm with real adults. Belgium M, after being an emotional wreck, then screamed in the bar how much she loved me and that I was the best thing to have ever happened on this trip, and to be honest, I never got that as a compliment from a complete stranger, it was actually nice.

To my disappointment, she was in a blackout when she was yelling that. Still, I was flattered even if it was a drunk fest yelling she was doing.

Once I finished my drink, me and another guy decided to call it a night and head home. I tried getting to know him better, but he clearly only talked in argument form, and after the politic shtick that happened at dinner, I was in no mood to argue. Not to mention the White Russian was kicking in at full speed. When we reached home (he lived in another building) I was on my way upstairs when I saw Maryland hanging out with P, Texas, and another british guy, to whom I will call Liver. I was really tired but Maryland insisted that I should stay a bit, and wanting to meet people and be more of a social butterfly, I complied. After thirty minutes, I said screw everything and went to bed.

March 17, 2012
I don't remember much, but I spent time my aunt, uncle, and their kids. We went to a place called Brewhouse (which is the equivalent to Yard House) and ordered some salmon and cider flavor beer with my uncle.

It looks like adult butter beer.

Ulpan, we never touched our book and had to stay in class for five hours. Thank god for my art classes where it is usually three hours, other wise I would've lost my shit. For our last intense class, we had to talk for five minutes in hebrew about anything, and for a while, I was constantly getting bashed on about my age and how I'm still the youngest and therefore 100% ignorant of my surrounding. Yes. Because at twenty one, still fresh in the world and making the decision to live for five months in Israel for a possibility of a career is SOOOOO immature and careless. But for someone who is twenty five and should technically have a job by now and know what the hell it is they are doing, quitting everything for an internship is totally mature.

Yup, I'm clearly confused.

So for the first two minutes, I basically gave a very angry lecture about how age should not factor a person's maturity. And if age is a major issue with people, clearly something is wrong with them. They tried to argue back but I made my point about how annoying it is and to shove off because I clearly am not the typical immature drunken twenty one year old discovering alcohol for the first time. I drank at sixteen, therefore, not rushing to drink. But I digress.

After winning the argument and defending Florida (cause if there is only one person who is allowed to bash it, it's people who actually live in Florida.) I spent the rest of my time saying the internship is home for me. To which leads me to the end of this journal so I may go into the next one to discuss about the internship. The actual juicy part of this trip.

March 13, 2012 - Shalom Tel Aviv!

Woke up at five in the morning to man shouting at what I assumed was a garbage truck. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but what I could figure out was that the man was pissed. And that truck deserved it in some twisted way. With my jet lag still being in full affect, the attempt of sleep ended up being futile when I woke up an hour later and decided to check the weather to base my outfit accordingly. 

Low 70's and high 60's was the forecast, and remembering that we had grocery shopping, I figured a tank top, long sleeve shirt, a sweater, jeans and boots was the perfect ensemble. Since I woke up before London and Maryland, I was able to take my time picking an outfit (practical yet stylish is something hard to accomplish when most of your winter gear doesn't look anything remotely stylish, especially when layering) and getting overall ready. Eventually, they both woke up, got dressed, and all three of us went downstairs to meet up with everyone else. Ricky promised breakfast and coffee.

When we arrived downstairs, everyone was munching on these sweet bread rolls, and I made my way to counter where Belgium M was making some coffee. Ricky then gave us the rundown of what was going on and if there were any damages in the apartments not caused by us that we should be aware of. Maryland and I pointed out a few problems as well as a bunch of other people. Once it was all said and done, we were told to go upstairs to our apartments, and as roommates, we were to discuss how we should be standing financially. Thanks to a discussion we briefly covered the other night, we decided that when it came to the basic necessities (e.g. toilet paper, paper towels, milk, etc) then we will split the money, but for anything that we want for ourselves, then we need to pay for it ourselves. A reasonable point, in my opinion, seeing as this will prevent doubles of anything. We then started to talk so we can get to know each other more, and a common trait we had was we had a cleanliness OCD (although, Maryland not as severe as mine or London). Ricky called us down, and all of us headed to a bus stop.

The bus ride was packed, and most of us managed to snag a seat. I sat all the way in the back next to Belgium M and a guy who had my brother's name, but sticking with the land as name theme, he was Burkley. We drove for a good 20 minutes before we realized that the super we were going to (super big and super cheap, as claimed by Ricky) was a bit of a drive. We all chatted to each other and all, but the drive evolved to almost an hour drive. This could be because it was a public bus we were on, or the place was just god awful far, but either way, a bunch of us were getting antsy and wondered if the ride will ever stop. Some of us played musical chairs because we couldn't bring ourselves to stay in one place for long, but me and Burkley stayed and talked about the arts such as photography. When we finally arrived, I hopped off the bus going "Ah yes, legs, I have those." causing a girl (who is also from New York, but instead I'm going to go with Curly for reasons I'm not going to go into) to giggle a bit, replying "Yeah, those things attached to us that let us walk."

We were told we only had one hour to get our things and back to the bus, this time a private one so we could have room to put our stuff, and all of us went to the shopping carts to begin the shopping. I pulled out the list I wrote with London and Maryland earlier today and we went forth. Because my aunt already went with me and got me the basics that will last for the first two weeks and not expire, I didn't really need to do much shopping, I mainly got grape juice, lemons, red pepper, and a kinder egg. I still helped with the necessities, but I felt alright not having to go buy a lot of things. While we were shopping, I ended up being the translator when it came to food products that didn't have any english, I had to get my head back into the English-Hebrew translation because some of the words I didn't know, and yet I was alright with that because that meant I had actually read and understand. Good old brain usage. When we got the basics, we strolled around a bit when we came across Texas and his roommate who I forgot where he was from, so I'm just going to call him P. They were talking to us about how later on during the program, they want to do a barbecue because of the one we had on the roof. We continued on ward when we came across the laundry section, something both London and Maryland needed. I had a bit of a difficulty trying to figure out which was the detergent and such, luckily Ricky came by (if only as a reminder we were under a time limit) and helped out. I ended up translating some of things London said to hebrew for Ricky because there was clearly a language barrier going on.

When they got what they needed, we went to the check out to purchase our items. The clerk there was trying to ask something to Maryland, who was having a hard time understanding what he was asking. Again, language barrier. Turns out the clerk was asking her if she wanted to pay for her part in to two payments. After clearing up the confusion, we began to pay for the communal items as mentioned earlier. While we were trying to figure out how to split it between the three of us, the clerk and a guy behind me helped us with the math of what the outcome will pay to split the money between the three of us. Israelis are really nice people when they're aren't in a rush. Once we got our things, we headed over to the bus and began to put the things underneath, I went to return the cart as well as get the money back when I forgot how to get the money out. An old lady came by and told me how and waited till I succeeded in getting it out, again, nice people when not rushing. When I popped the coin out, it flew out of the socket and disappeared. I silently cursed because it was 5 shekel and it belonged to Maryland. Texas came by and helped me looked for it in the sea of shopping carts, but no dice as it was missing. He was kind enough to give me his 5 shekels to give to Maryland and refused that I should pay him back after I insisted that I would. We both went back to the group where I gave the coin to Maryland, who proceeded to return it to New York. The shekel apparently belonged to her. A chain of borrowing, go figure.

We hopped on the bus and began to drive back to our apartments, a lot of us were tired which made the bus ride quiet. We dropped off the people who lived in a different building first because they had a longer walk ahead of them, we then were dropped off a bit farther from them with only a block or so to walk. Normally, not a big deal because the weather was nice and good walk after 45 minutes is fantastic… but doing it with groceries? A whole different experience. So me, London, and Maryland began to split and take equal weight of each grocery so as to not make it seem that one is doing more than the other, when Florida (another guy who lived in my city, as well as attended the same school as me, I should point out) came and helped us with our huge pack of water. We finally made it back and began to unpack everything and putting it into place. We were told while driving back that we were going to be late to do the fire drill on time, so we would have to do it a bit later, none of us complained and made our lunches. I wasn't that hungry (thanks to jet lag which butchers my appetite) so I just munched on some of the sweet rolls we got this morning and chocolate milk.

We then went to the roof top to discuss in the events of a bomb attack where to go. For the people in the other building (who shortly came to our place after putting their groceries away), all they had to do was go to Florida's room. For the rest of us, next door was a music school that had underground bomb shelters. Ricky asked who, of the complex, was the most responsible. I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the pressure should such an event happen, but London accepted the role, taking into consideration that of the bunch, she was the most reliable. Ricky handed her the keys to the school's bomb shelter and told it to keep it somewhere accessible as well as safe. Afterwords, we went back to our rooms to do the fire drill, with only me and Spain getting out at a reasonable pace while everyone else sort of came along with garbage bags in hand. Because clearly there is enough time to run from a fire and take out the trash at the same time.

Shortly after the drill, we went next door to music school (which was also a cafe) to say hello to the owner and his wife who baked us cookies and made homemade tea. We went downstairs with our snacks to greet the old man who talked about the school's history. What was more impressive than the man's lecture (interesting subject, didn't much care if I'm going to be honest) was the bomb shelter's layout. If one was not to know it was a shelter, it would only be perceived as an underground jazz club. Drums, Saxophones, a bar with drinks neatly yet messily arranged. It was easily a very hip place to stay at (shortly me, Texas and P joked how when shit was to go down, we would just be chilling listening to good music getting drunk and having the wife's cookies). Belgium M began to talk to the man about making a band because she is a singer (as well as an actress) before Ricky said it was time to move on a tour around Tel Aviv.

We walked for two hours around Tel Aviv and getting to know the place while New York and I were keeping an eye out for a coffee shop. More like, she was searching for a place for ice coffee, and I just wanted to find a place to chill out that's out door and cool. The views were amazing, but I didn't want to stand out like a tourist when taking a picture so I took my iTouch instead and started to do quick snapshots of all the views that caught my attention, one of them being this old man playing amazing music on the accordion. 

As we strolled around some more, I decided to try and get to know more of the people on the trip. It wasn't until I saw these views that made me stop talking for a bit to take pictures. Screw being all touristy, these were amazing views NOT worth to miss out taking pictures of! I was told that when in Tel Aviv to not "look down, keep looking up", and let me just say. It was worth looking up.

Looking up is definitely worth the amount of times I bumped into people, strollers, and dogs.

I could have sworn that my phone began to ring, and of course being unfamiliar with the ring tone being my own. I did a double check to find out that I wasn't hallucinating and that my phone was, in fact, buzzing. It was my uncle asking me how I was doing and when I should meet up with him, because he was holding on to my proper bed sheets that will fit on the bed as well as a better blanket that was much cozier than the one that the program gave me. I told him I wasn't sure but I should be able to find out within the hour, we agreed that he will call back and we would meet up after his second call.

I got to talk to P more while we were walking around, having found out we have common tastes in music (one of them being a musician for a video game I love) and discussed both of our favorite professions; his being music and mine video games. We were both very invested to what we had to say to each other. We were talking for a long time before Ricky announced that we were at Shuk HaCarmel and that we can spend as much time there because after that we were off to go home when we want to. P and I went our separate way with his to his friends and mine to New York and Belgium M. I met their new roommate that came that day, France. Very quiet and very friendly. We went to an ATM machine for Belgium M to withdraw money she owed New York while France took out some money to get a SIM card for her phone. After telling us that she was going to get a phone, Belgium M, New York, and myself went on the search for the Ice Coffee as well as abuse some photo taking of the scenery.

 Once they got their money, we walked into the Artists Alley (the actual name escapes. Always.) and strolled around, admiring all the knick knacks being sold while making a mental note at the same time that I had to come back to buy some of said knick knacks. New York saw a mirror at a store and wanted to go in, to see if there were smaller ones inside. Belgium M went in first and I was about to follow when a woman dressed in black walked up next to me and gestured at my purse, clearly indicating for money because she was holding a small coupon size pamphlet. Remembering my cousin's stay in Japan, and how the Japanese don't say "no" but rather cross their arms to form an X to show a decline of a request or a politer (is that a word?) to say they don't have an item, I went ahead and did that while shaking my head no as oppose to flat out saying no. The woman, clearly upset and assuming that I was mocking her, glared at me menacingly before going for New York, who simply told her no. The woman in black stormed away at a failed attempt to snag our money.

When we went inside the store, New York went for the mirror while Belgium M and I strolled around in the store, eventually catching up to New York. While the place wasn't exactly massive, it was still filled to the brim with pictures, canopies, and silly statues to hang around the house. Again, made a mental note that I would have to come back here when time permits and I had more energy to actually shop for things. After coming to the same conclusion, New York followed suit with me and Belgium M to the coffee shop right across the store and decided to just relax there.

We sat down when the cafe owner's wife walked up to us to greet us, ready to take our order. New York asked for ice coffee, but the lady didn't have, as she told her. I pieced the two together and figured that the lady was thinking of the very smoothie-esque kind of ice coffee and not coffee with ice, so I quickly asked the lady if there was coffee with ice, not the smoothie. She smiled brightly and nodded that she gladly has it, so we ordered two for ourselves with Belgium M ordering for herself a cappachino. We didn't have to wait for long and got our drinks, delicious and didn't need any sugar in it at all, and began to people watch while getting to know each other a bit more. Two old ladies came by and glanced at our drinks before smiling to tell us that the drinks here are amazing, but that wasn't why they caught my attention. Rather, it was the bouquet of flowers they were holding: purple, pink, yellow, vivid greens, these were just the best colors I've seen on flowers and was tempted to take a picture of it, but figured it was for the best to not bother the two ladies for a picture of it.

Shortly after, my uncle called asking me when we should meet up, Belgium M and New York told me 45 minutes because the walk was about 15 and we were going to finish up in 10. Taking our time, we finished our drinks and Belgium M with her smoke, and we headed out while some of the stands were calling it a night. The walk back was chilly but pretty to look at all the people wondering the streets at night, as I was trying to keep up my pace while looking at all the buildings around me. It was also becoming quickly dark, so taking pictures of things now would be a waste of time, knowing the flash would kill it.

When we finally made it back to our apartment, I quickly called my uncle to let him know I was back in my apartment. He was quick, because I met him no sooner than 5 minutes later. We chatted for a bit as he handed me the bag with sheets as well as a wall scroll to hang on my wall. Apparently, my mom really insisted that I have some picture decorating my wall and relied on my uncle due to the same taste they had when it came to room decorations, so he gave me one of them that he didn't have hanging when he told me he honestly doesn't think he should be giving me one and would much rather I venture out to find one that suited my taste. I did look at the poster and hilariously enough, it fell somewhat on my taste. After some talking, he gave me a good night hug and went to drive back home.

I fixed up my room from how it looked previous and it stood out a thousand times better then before.

Figuring I still had some time on my hand, I finally called my grandma. I should mention, that I love my grandmas dearly. I honestly wish to be as eager to learn and still be a kid at heart when I grow old (actually, I really wish to be like Betty White when I grow old, but that's a whole different story) but anyways, grandma on my mom side, as I stated in a previous journal is... well... eccentric. I mean, I heard stories that she doesn't like to go out of her city, hates holidays, and tends to act way more of an old fart than she actually is, but she's the only old lady I know that will say "fuck you" and "I kill you!" in that order while my grandma on my dad's side talks about breast feeding and babies anytime the opportunity presents it self. Or whenever she feels 

So so far killing and boobs run in my family. Could be worse.

Anyways, back to my trip: So I call my grandma and tell her to call my cell seeing as I predicted that she would go on endlessly if I didn't yell to call my phone as soon as possible. Luckily, she did as I instructed and that meant I didn't have to pay. And for the record, people who call me, it's free. Not so sure on the texting. Back on the topic! So My grandma starts laughing like the witch she is (compliment, I assure you readers) and starts asking me where I live. Like a scene from "Beginners", I heard her mumbling as she was clearly writing down the address on her notepad. I honestly didn't see the point of her writing considering she refuses to use the bus outside of Rishon knowing all too well she was going to ride with my aunt and uncle, and she asks-- let me rephrase that, she demands when she can come over. I had to convince her she couldn't today.

"Why can't I come? Ha ha ha."

"Because I'm busy for the next... month?"

"Okay, I'll surprise you!"

"Not going to happen."

"Why?"

"Because you don't have the keys to get passed the gate.

I did feel like a bitch, but at the same time, I prevented my grandma from looking silly if I wasn't home. So once I was done talking with her, she informed that my other aunt (the one living with her) was sick. The smart thing to do, when sick, is to let people rest and make sure they get plenty of liquid. Not my grandma. She made my aunt talk with me, and having a silent understanding, instead of gossiping, I told my aunt to go and get plenty of rest to which she thanked me greatly for for understanding that she wasn't in a position to talk. Couldn't blame her. We bid good night before my grandma took the phone again. I told her that I have my phone on me but for the next two weeks I'm going to be packed busy so I might not answer. Understanding completely, we said good night to each other as she quickly began to call my mom.

I decided then to be social again and went to the roof top where everyone else was. It was chilly that one needed a sweater, but not as cold that you just needed to put on sneakers. There I met London, Belgium M and D, New York, Curly, P, Texas, L.A, Puerto Rico and another girl who's location I forgot, I think she said also New York so I'm just going to go with Apple. Deal with it. We all were relaxing and talking a lot when two more people came, Hungary and another guy (I'm crap with names) which I'll just call L. L was new and he didn't know us too well, so we did a mini reintroduction of ourselves listening the night away to Michael Jackson. It was fun to get to know more people to just relax without the hectic of rushing around. We eventually bid good night to each other as we had to head back into get some shut eye. We had a big lesson worth nine hours ahead of us.

March 12, 2012 - The Official Beginning

First off: the last couple of days have been hectic. And trying to find a reasonable hour to type all of this and still sleep at a decent time is hard. But I succeeded. Next journal update should be soon. And not a week late.

Enough talk, let's get down to it.

I wake up yet again early in the morning, only this time at a reasonable six and not an ungodly eight. Decided to unplug the computer from the charger after an overnight charging so that I had enough battery to last me for the rest of the day to finish up typing the last journal entry. At around 7:30-8ish, I got dressed and went to the living room to let my aunt know I was already awake and she didn't need to wake me up.

We did a quick go over to see what else I needed, which resulted in a ton of towels coming at me (both body and face towels, so those of you IN Israel can be rest assured I'm covered in the towel department). My grandma called shorty before we started to move all the luggages (and while my aunt was feeding the baby) and asked that both she and my other aunt can come as well. My aunt (the one feeding the baby), quickly took the phone and declined the request stating that the car is small enough as it is, and with the baby, luggages, and food we were going to get, there was simply no way that she could come. Asking the uncle to drive the two was also out of the question if only because he was currently occupied with work and for the most part, he was mainly going to be the GPS for the day.

After shoving all the towels into the back pack my uncle allowed me to borrow while I'm here, we then went to place all the luggages in the car. The first heavy luggage, I stupidly decided to carry down the stairs, instead of putting it in the elevator, which my aunt did. The elevator door kept on smacking me while I was tugging the TV pillow out of it's spot from between my carry on and back pack, but I managed to preserver and get all the bags from the elevator with only one bruise on my thigh. 

The car is fairly small to begin with, and with the baby and the baby seat to keep in mind, placing all the luggages in the car became a game of Professor Layton mixed with Tetris, a few good shoves was all it took, but the placement before shoving was what was important. We succeeded to place all the luggages and a comfortable spot for the baby (we arranged the placement based on the baby) and started to drive to the super market when my aunt realized she forgot the cloth she uses to carry the baby without the needs of hands. We opted that we get the stuff first, put her part groceries in the apartment really quick, and the drive off. I won't go into the detail of how we shopped, but we had to get two carts and I was watching the baby in the cart. The baby doesn't like really loud noises, but a very cheerful smile, a good distance, and quietly remarking how smart and strong he is was the ticket to win the baby over. Giggling and flailing around the room while giving me a huge smile.

We started to drive when we got a call from the oldest daughter's school, stating that she had a stomach ache and wished to be taken home. Aunt, while taking in the groceries and me watching the baby in the car, was talking on the phone and when she came back we drove straight to Tel Aviv, understanding that the kid was just asking to be with me. Made me wish I could give a proper bye but we both knew that it wasn't worth it cause I was bound to see them, hopefully, later on in the week. Traffic was clear, we chatted about how an amazing time I was about to go into, and listened to the directions from my uncle over the phone.

Once we made it to the street, we looked at the area. To be blunt, it looked like the slums. With only two people sitting outside drinking coffee, I asked in hebrew if this was the place to be for Wujs (the program I'm typing about), turns out it was and I was talking to the madrich (a.k.a the RA). We shook hands and I stepped in dog crap. "Don't worry! It means good luck!" He cheerfully tells me. Great first start. With my aunt unable to leave the car considering she was with the baby, me and the RA carried the luggages up to my room, which was on the third floor. I opened the door to this room 

Spacious, nice, and it has all the basic kitchen equipments I need. While there, I was welcomed by two girls who are going to be my roommate for the next five months. I was relieved that I already (somewhat) met them online, making the actual in person meet up less awkward. 

Instead of writing their names (and most of the other residents in the complex), I'm going to go with the state and/or city name. 

So my two roommates were from London and Maryland, and were very happy to meet their third roommate (at least, I hope). The RA came and showed us that one floor above of us is the door to the rooftop.

I was more ecstatic at the sight of BBQ more than anything on the rooftop, knowing all too well that the first few weeks (and possibly month) was going to be cold and rainy, making rooftop shenanigans almost rare. I went downstairs and gave my aunt a grand hug as well as my thanks (to which she insists was a pleasure more so than anything) and drove off while I went back upstairs and commenced the unpacking.

Maryland asked which music we liked and we ended up listening to various genres: Techno, Coldplay, and Maroon 5. While unpacking and cleaning at the same time, we met our neighbors (females) who lived across our apartment; New York and Belgium. We talked for a bit and asked who was doing what internship when two more girls came upstairs, L.A and another girl from Belgium (this is going to get tricky… um. Okay. The Belgium girl who lives across from me will be Belgium M and the other one Belgium D. …Until I can think of a better nicknames for them). We talked for a bit before deciding that around two we would all go out to grab some lunch.

Some guys came up the stairs to discover more of the complex as well as get to their room, Texas, Hungry, and Indiana. Texas was very nice and home-y, Hungry was quiet, and Indiana didn't really speak much. Two hit, any attempts to try putting the bed sheet on my bed was shot and me, London, Maryland, New York, L.A, and Belgium D went downstairs. We met with Belgium D's roommate, a fellow Floridian who lived in the same city as me. Except that get's complicated, so I'm going to call her by the land she was born in which was Puerto Rico. We asked the RA for a good location and we just ended up walking around, meeting up with another girl living in the complex, Australia. 

Yes, this sounds like a lot of women.

After walking one block away from a restaurant, we called it quits and went in to a cafe. Most of us got lemonana (lemonade with mint) and some meat related meal. We had to be back to the apartment at four so we can go as a group for the official meeting. When we came back, the group multiplied (meaning yes, more guys did show up) and we left for a youth building of contemporary art. After a good 15-20 min walk, we climbed four flights of stairs to a room with chairs in a circle. I sat down next to New York and a guy next to me from Spain. We played some ice breaker games such as things we would do for one day without getting into trouble or damage to our health, write questions on each others' backs (on paper, of course) and so on.

A man walked in a bit later and handed us our phones while Ricky handed us our packets the consisted of our keys, bus pass, phone card, directions to our workplace, and the itinerary for the next two weeks. Belgium M and I started giggling over our bus photos, grabbed any remaining boxes of pizza (there were plenty) and brought it back to the apartment. I stupidly brought the one with corn on it. 

While walking home, a weird man came running at me yelling something at me, I quickly muttered "help me" and jogged to the group of boys that were with us and saw the guy running at me leave for anyone else. When we got back home, I left the box of pizza outside, and the three of us wished each other a good nights sleep. Cause we had to wake up at 9 tomorrow morning for a trip to the super market.