Vancouver June 17, 2006

So my Israel trip was cut short 2 weeks by the death of my grandpa back home. I found out hours after it happened, and within hours i was already on a flight back home. it was so crazy and hectic how fast everything just happened. i'm happy i chose to come home though. i start painting with Studentworks on Monday. More photos have been added to previous albums, mostly Birthright trip.

Tel Aviv June 9th

Yesterday was huge! i found a volunteer position at Latet, an Israeli humanitarian aid organization, so spent most of the day at their office walking distance from Freeman's place. The office was a riot! Great young crew of people that work there, some were doing some arts and crafts for a volunteer appreciation event coming up, then at one point everyone broke out into Happy Birthday for someones 30th birthday and we all got cake.

After that in the evening i went to my first hebrew class at Ulpan Gordon. It's going to be quite useful.

Last night we had a big night as Freeman's roommate Seth got back from the the army, hit up some bars and clubs in the Lilem Bloom area.

2 things i've learnt in the past few days: Firstly, apparently a lot of girls in the army spend more than a month's salary (they don't get paid much for the mandatory service) to get their army issued pants and shirt custom tailored so they look better in uniform. i'm not complaining. Secondly, Freeman's place at night is only 2 blocks away from transvestite central of Tel Aviv!

Pictures

Tel Aviv June 7th

So i am starting hebrew classes twice a week starting this Thursday evening and am now looking for one more little thing like a volunteer placement to take up just a bit more time. I haven't been getting bored yet though as there's been tons of random Canadians that were on birthright trips i've been hanging out with as well as Freeman's various friends.

The past few days have been fun, nothing really worth noting except for Sunday night which ended up being one of the most random and debaucherous nights ever, which is crazy consistering all the action took place in one location and only involved 5 people, yet the ramifications reached much further. it was like straight out of a movie, i can't go into it here, but you may ask, and i might tell.

What i miss about Vancouver is that smoking isn't allowed pretty much anywhere. What i'll miss about here is that you can drink on the streets in public, and even leave the bar, walk across the street to a corner store, buy a shot of something for cheap, then head back into the bar.

Tel Aviv June 4th

I woke up at 6:30 this morning hoping to start hebrew classes today, but turns out i gotta take a test first to see what level i'm at and the earliest i can do that is at 5 tomorrow. ah well, i've got some free time today to relax. Went for a run this morning at 8:30 and it was already way too hot!

Yesterday was eventful. did a run on the beach with Freeman and his friend Gil from the army. Met some ladies, gave out my number twice, one will call, the other won't lol got some expert workout advice from an old muscular man with deffinately not enough fat on his body, and another guy Elan that was sitting under the same wooden hut as us with his wife and kid gave us advice the whole day on how to pick up women. he thought exactly like freeman it was scary! Last night one of Freeman's friends Oren, myself, and 2 Canadian girls we just met at the bar at dinner went for drinks and chilled. i love how easy its been to meet other travellers, like as soon as you hear english or french, you're like hey! we have so much in common! even if it only ends up being the shared language. but i can see how easy it'd be to get stuck in the ex-pat bubble.

In other news, fortunately one half of Borhan's watermelon he's storing at Freeman's without approval has mysteriously dissapeared, although we're waiting for it to dissapear entirely as neither Freeman nor i like watermelon's or their devious plans to conquer the world.

Pictures!

Tel Aviv June 3rd

The past 2 days i've been living the life. Partying hard at night, waking up at 12 and spending the rest of the day at the beach! This lifestyle will end tomorrow though when i get up early to check out hebrew classes. i'll probably be learning hebrew intensively 5 days a week for the next month. i need to be productive so this will be good.

Last night was awesome! after a dinner of terds on rice Freeman and I crammed 15 people into Freeman's tiny apartment in Tel Aviv. The place is so small my bed doubles as a couch, the computer seat and the table as we're eating breakfast on it right now. Its a really nice place though. afterwards we went bar hopping, had a great night, talking to various people in english and hebrew, although my hebrew doesn't get me very far at all lol once we got kicked out of Lima Lima's at the end of the night for playing with the DJ equipment we retired to the pad in sketchy South Tel Aviv. There's hardly any hebrew speaking Israeli's in Freeman's building, its mostly philipino's and russian's, makes for an interesting dynamic.

i've been getting a great taste of both the hebrew speaking community here mostly through Freeman's army friends, as well as the anglo community (thats what they call themselves). theres like quite the niche of english speakers here, there's even a tel aviv anglo yahoo group. anyway we're off to the beach. lehitraot. oh! btw, look up hadag nachash , great Israeli hip hop.