Adventures in Israel - Summer 2010 Part Shalosh

Here's more! Netta - especially for you if you're THAT bored at work.

Day 7 (August 8 - Sunday)
Today I met up with Ya'ara for lunch at Avichail (the link's in Hebrew, sorry) in Malcha (by the mall) which was a lot of fun. She goes to school in Haifa at the Technion so she just got to Jerusalem yesterday and I haven't seen her since I got here. It was a lot of fun catching up one-on-one :)

Later in the evening I went out with Asaf to the city and we met Yosi, Zloto, and Gal, and Ya'ara met us there later. We hung out at this bar/restaurant called Zabotinsky which was really good. And, as always, the random-est run-ins happen to me when I'm in Israel. First, one of the guys sitting at the table behind us was Michael, who was a year ahead of me in youth group (Hashomer Hatza'ir) (click English) and the first boy I ever asked out myself haha! Not only that, at a different table, another guy, Lotem, who was the same year as Michael, was there with a friend of his which turns out is contestant on "Kochav Nolad" which is the Israeli "American Idol".

Day 8 (August 9 - Monday)
Woke up early in the morning. I mean 8:45 is early when you're on vacation. Picked up Asaf and we headed to Tel Aviv. He had something for an internship meeting there and I had a date with Dvora for the day! I returned the car, which was super convenient to have, and Dvora picked me up and we went to have lunch and have a day at the beach. Believe it or not, I am darker! Woooo!!! I can prove I've been on vacation when I get back. We had a very busy day of lying on the sand, going in the water, rinse, and repeat. Later that evening I went out to dinner with her and 2 of her friends Shani and Maya and they are probably some of the funniest people ever. We went to eat at Goocha (Hebrew link) which is a sea-food place. ANYONE I EVER TOLD I DON'T LIKE SHRIMP: Turns out that I do like it, I'm just apparently SUPER particular. We ate like pigs it was kind of terrible, but mostly awesome. Our waiter was fabulous but not in *that* way. Turns out he was their waiter a few months ago when they went and he "spoiled" them with chasers and desserts and stuff. Same thing happened. By the way, "spoiling" is very common in Israel if the server likes you or the party you're with. He even said "tnu li lefanek otchen" a.k.a. "let me spoil you ladies" haha so we were laughing and having a good time. We were easily there for over 4 hours. Good times.

Day 9 (August 10 - Tuesday)
Woke up slightly later than yesterday - meaning at 11:30. That was awesome. Had to sleep away the calamari, shrimp, and crab, not to mention the wine (2 bottles shared by the 4 of us). Got ready and met up with my Saba (that's Hebrew for grandpa). He took me to lunch and of course got "upset" with how small my meal was. He was convinced I was still hungry although I wasn't so he tricked me to a cafe where all I had was iced coffee and he ordered the "capuccino + baked good" deal and shoved the chocolate croissant on me... I am a starving child, yes? I mean, I know I was all good at home and lost some weight or whatever but I came here knowing ahead of time, some of it will come back because no matter how much I claim that I'm full and not hungry, people don't believe me hahah!

Anyways, after that I met up with Dvora again because she wanted us to get mani-pedis. It was fun and girly. I then met up with Saba again for dinner, this time with Frida also so we ate and talked a while. I love my Saba to no ends but I have to remember to mentally prepare when hanging out with him because he's the philosophizing type and my brain's been on vacation haha. It's all good. I pulled myself together and got out of vacay mode just fine!

No real big plans yet but Thursday I leave la casa de Niva and move to la casa de Omer. This trip is going by TOO FAST!