http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtUnd.jhtml?itemNo=%20603983&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

back

I am in the coffee shop right now, checking email. I will update soon with pics, but until then, here is a brief recap of the past few days:

Lauren arrives Sunday night.
Lauren's baggage arrives Tuesday night.
Tues in Jerusalem, Wednesday and Thursdayin Sinai (Dahab) with our new friend, Friday in Eilat, Saturday (today) climbing Masada (at 4 30 am) and hanging out at the Dead Sea. NOw back in Tel Aviv.

More to come, including:

- My Egyptian experience with (prescription) drugs.
- A really bad sunburn on my stomach.
- A bomb scare (with a blown up suitcase)
- A forgotten passport.
- An Egyptian cab driver who likes to fill his old bus with gas while its running.
- An Egyptian pharmacist who measures drugs with his pinky nail.
- A disgraceful banishment from the Dahab Hilton.

and much more...

a little late

So, a couple of weeks ago Nicole (another intern) and I ended up renting a car and driving up to the Sea of Galilee, about a 2.5 hr drive.

Here is the car we rented, a cute little something. Maybe a hundai? Nicole's brother is a race car driver, one level below Formula One, and she had done this race car driving school, so I was thinking her driving would be excellent.

But she was a slow driver in the fast lane!!! I was shocked! Israelis were honking and giving dirty looks left and right. (It is against the law to not treat the left lane as a passing lane in israel)

As soon as we arrived in Tiberious, we get out of the car and start walking around. Right away, Nicole randomly runs into a friend from school, a kid named Ben, who we end up hanging out with for the whole weekend.

We dropped our stuff off at the hostel, for under 10 bucks a night, and hit the town. 'Town' is really just a boardwalk with a row of similar restaurants. The place was dead, unfortunate for a town that depends so much on tourism. I think the restaurant we ate was trying to cut costs by getting rid of some staff - the place was pretty dirty.

That night we drove out to a reggae party at a kibbutz that we had read about in lonely planet.
The place was full of kibbutzniks from all over the world.

I met someone from South Korea who did not know a word of English. It is so rare to meet someone with whom I share not even a single word of a common language. Actually he did no a couple words; he made the motion like he was at bat and then said "LA Dodgers" and nodded and smiled.

Here is a picture of Ben and some Colombian who was working at a kibbutz. I dont know why I am posing like that. I guess it's better than the Colombian's pose, though:



That next day we woke up early to go for a hike in the Golan. Here we are at the entrance to the hike. I really should have been wearing a hat:

By this time, I think it was already around 11 am and really, really hot.


There are about 3 natural pools during the hike, two places where you are required to swim if you want to go any further. At the first pool, Nicole decided to jump off one of the cliffs, but she forgot to keep her legs straight. Check out the bruise:



We had to descend this ladder on the side of the cliff, and then swim across this pool with all of our stuff. Strong people were able to hold there backpack across their heads as they swam across to prevent stuff from getting wet. As you can see, I couldn't do that:



After the hike, the three of us snuck into some hot springs back in Tiberius. Well-deserved relaxation. Here is a pic of the view of the Sea of Galilee:



That evening we ate at a good restaurant called Decks, right on the water. (Remember Mom, we went there?) Since it was Saturday and the place is kosher, we had to wait until sundown for the place to open. We amused ourselves by taking pictures. Here is a nice one that Nicole took:



And here we are petting the dead fish:



THe next morning Nicole wakes up with Pink Eye, from the hot springs we think, (that's what you get for sneaking in!). We went to the pharmacy to try to get some eyedrops, while Ben waited at the hostel. We felt bad for making him wait, so here I am picking him up some treats:



After a quick stop at a nearby kibbutz to see a boring tank, we drove home and back to work!

no $$ no internet

I am at work right now.

I haven't posted for awhile, mainly because I don't have internet access at home. And now that I have no money (since I lost my wallet), I am not spending so much time at the cafe with wireless access. I think I am going to get my security deposit back from the girl I am renting from, so I can have some cash. Right now I only have 20 agarot to my name - 5 cents, that is.

Lauren S. is coming on Sunday, for two weeks. I am going to take a week off from work and we will We are go to Sinai for a few days, Jerusalem for a couple days, and lots of day trips. I am very excited!

OK, I have to update the sports page. Bye for now!

amber alert

remember when I lost my wallet w. my $$, credit card, and atm card?

Pulitzer?

check it out, im a correspondent:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=600304&contrassID=15

It is going to be in the print edition, too. Go see for yourself!

im famous in israel

Check it out, my picture is on the newspaper site (along w/ an article nicole wrote about the hike):

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtUnd.jhtml?itemNo=599655&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Tonight I am going to cover the field hockey game for the maccabiah games.

Thank God!

I finished my papers that were due in February and May! The summer can finally begin!

hi gramma!

Hi Gramma, I see that you just IMd me, but I was away from the computer, and then you were signed off.

Anyway, I am going to tell about my night last night. Anat had tickets to a Latin Festival in northern Tel Aviv. I had to work late, so I met her there. Here she is waiting with her two roommates, Eyal and Ma'ayan.

Don't they look thrilled to see me?


The fiesta was pretty fun. There were a few stages with bands from all over.



Nicole came to the festival, too (she is from colombia).

owen wilson was also there. Just kidding, it is nicolas!

I thought crocs were only popular in highlands ranch...

but Israelis love them!

And that's it for now!

hello

I worked the night shift at work tonight. When I left at around 8:30, I walked over to the coffee bean (about an hour walk). I took pictures of my walk and I was going to post them, but I left my USB cord at work, oh well.

When I work the night shift, I spend much of the time monitoring the Talkback section. This is a feature of the online paper where people (ANYONE, no registration required), can respond to articles. Its basically the same 5 idiots posting over and over. They never have anything insightful to say; its a lot of misinformation and personal attacks on the other posters.

One of these regular posters, a frenchie named Claude, gets into verbal spats with another regular, Yitzach from NY. Claude always accuses Yitchak of acting morally superior than everyone else. He has a nickname for Yitzach - "Monsieur le high priest." Lately these person attacks have spiralled out of control, so we have been a little more strict in the monitoring. This evening, I started censoring out the "M. le high priest" nickname. Claude apparantly didn't like this, so he sent message with like 15 "M. le high priest" references in it, to make it more annoying for me to censor.

HIs final comment on this message was "Monsieur le HIgh Priest, why don't you retreat back into your ivory tower in New York and have a great summer!" So, just for laughs, I edited this message to read "Monsieur, have a great summer!"

Claude didn't like this either; look what he submitted in return:

Why you protect so much the " High Priest"?? Why youalways change my text? The last one finihs like:" Enjoy the Summer!"I do not want this bastard to enjoy the Summer. This bastard is sohipocritical and so biased... I want him to burn his asshole and todrop dead...."

Needless to say, I did not let this one go through.

no internet

Someone in my building has unsecured wireless network, and I have a wireless card, therefore I have been poaching off of their network since I moved in a few weeks ago. THen, a couple of nights ago, their network didn't show up on my computer. And I haven't seen it since. I think they moved away!

So, my internet access has been limited to work, and to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe, where I am now. And some customer at this cafe just fooled with the AC, you can't do that! He just came in from outside, so I am sure he adjusted the temperature to make it an icebox in here. That is so Israeli, to do whatever you want without consideration of others.

I am still waiting to get my photos from Nicole, here is a photo to hold you over. This is a picture of my friend's little cousin. It was her birthday:



Just kidding, it's a creepy mannequin!

batteries and fire

I finally bought some batteries...

About halfway through my walk to work, I saw saw this:


I took my headphones off to see if I could hear people around me talking about what was going on. At the crosswalk, I asked someone what was going on (in Hebrew), and he replied (in Hebrew) but I didn't know what he said...

So I just hoped that it wasn't a chemical attack and took a couple more photos:




Finally, I got to work (luckily it wasnt burned down), and asked someone what was going on. The first two people didn't know (and I work at a newspaper!), but then some informed person told me it was an apt. building. Here is where I work:

soon

I went to Tiberius this weekend, on the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus liked go fishing. I'll post later because I want to do a posting with a bunch of photos that I still need to upload. Until then, I will post a really boring photo of my office. The reporters don't arrive until later afternoon, so during the day my side is pretty dead. Especially on a Friday, when this was taken.

There is a lot of really cool modern art throughout the building. I asked the web editor about it, he said that the owner of the paper has one of the largest modern art collections in the country.