Sunday, February 14, 2010

Breakfast, Beaches, and Back Hair!

While the East coast was snowed in, or at least covered in that gross post blizzard gray snow (woof), I was at the beach in Tel Aviv in 75° weather this weekend. Before the beach however my two lovely roommates and I had some delicious breakfast at the fine Benedicts establishment. This is what I had:


Jealous? What makes you feel worse, not having that for breakfast or the weather? Tough question, I'll let you think about it for a little...




...




Done? Have your answer? Good let's move on. So at the beach (did I mention it was 75 plus?) we tried our hand at this Kadima beach game. If you don't know it, it's quite simple: two people, each with a paddle hit a little ball (usually black although I think other colors can be used) back and forth. The tricky thing is I'm not sure if you are supposed to just volley or try to get the other person out, and I don't think you actually keep score. I'm also not entirely sure if some prerequisites for the game are to above the age of 50, have at least one glove on, have a back full of hair, and the leatheriest skin you could imagine encompassing your entire body.

Nonetheless, I suck at this game, hard. However, there is hope, my back hair hasn't fully grown in yet, so maybe when I'm 50 I can whoop my sons as at this game!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Live Blogging From The Library!

Today I volunteered at library (again), and I figured I'd let ya'll in on what I did!

3:20 - Arrive at the library. Supposed to arrive at 3, I prefer to be fashionably late.

3:22 - Take a piss. First move to waste time, even 2 minutes is something.

3:24 - Show my face that I have arrived, chit chat about about some useless stuff, 6 minutes wasted.

3:30 - Put English books back on the shelves in their appropriate places.

3:40 - Put French books back on the shelves in their appropriate places.

3:50 - Read 30 pages of Cat's Cradle, there is literally nothing else to do.

4:20 - English help needed! Help Ethiopian student with English. Unfortunately the help he needs is on learning computer terms. Domain Name Systems (DNS) and Internet Protocol Suites (TCP/IP) aren't really my thing. I think I understand reading Hebrew more than computer talk in English.

6:00 - More English help needed! This time I'm useful and I talk with an Israeli who is just looking for someone to talk to in English.

6:30 - Although talking to Danny was enjoyable, one can only take so much time at the library, I leave 30 minutes early.

So there you have it, an average day volunteerin' at the library in Rehovot.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Joke Time (Warning: Not Funny)

Once a week in Rehovot I volunteer at a library. It's quite an amazing experience. Not only do they give me the pleasure to put away the English books, but they let me put away the French ones too! I'm apparently still unqualified to put the Hebrew and Russian books away but I'm crossing my fingers that in the next 3 months I'll gain that responsibility. Finally, once I'm done with that rewarding work, I get to put up fliers all over the library!

Now, I know what you are thinking, how could this volunteer placement get any better? Well, I don't want to brag or anything, but the absolute best part of working at the library is the lame Jewish joke book (emphasis on the lame) that I get the opportunity to browse on my down time, and trust me I get to browse a lot. For your enjoyment I'll leave you with some highlights, or lowlights actually. Please excuse me if the jokes are paraphrased and not exact representations, although I can promise you that no cheesyness has been lost:

Q: What type of cigarettes do Jews smoke?
A: Gefiltered!

Q: Why do Jewish women love Chinese food?
A: Because Wonton spelled backwards is Not Now!

Q: What cheese do Jews prefer on their pizza?
A: Matza-rella!

Pretty awesome eh? Almost like you couldn't make them up yourself right? Mmm debatable, here are some of my own:

Q: What did the Moyel bring to dinner?
A: Bris-kit!

Q: Where do Jews store their expensive belongings?
A: In an Oy Gevalt!

Any noticeable difference?

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

And We're Back

Last you heard of me I was on my way to an Idan Raichel concert. A lot has happened since then, especially concerning the bus ride to said concert (see picture below), but the important thing is that I'm still in Israel, Holy Shit!

Sorry for the lack of posts here, but I am now in Rehovot starting part II of the OTZMA program, and I fully intend to now keep up this blog, I hope some of you will intend on reading.