next week in jerusalem

wooooooow the last 24 hours were interesting. alli and i woke up yesterday in our new house and decided to bus it to jerusalem to meet one of the israeli soldiers that we met on our trip, flitzy. with some helpful directions ("ffffpt, way, 30 meters, way"), we walked to the bus station and caught the bus to jerusalem, which only takes about 40 minutes so we'll probably do this trip pretty frequently. ANYWAY, on the walk from the bus we stumbled upon one of the hotels that i stayed in during my birthright trip that has a sweet pool, so luckily since we were wearing our bathing suits for some strange reason we crashed it. after we swam for a while in PERFECT water (it is sweltering in israel right now, maybe worse than dallas--- no joke) we took the elevator down to the lobby and ran smack dab into none other than inon, the israeli tour guide from our birthright trip in february (when alli and i met). i seriously yelled, "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" and died laughing on the floor with alli's mouth totally agape next to me. we all freaked out and hugged. it was insane that we ran into him. sooooo insane. can't even talk about it. we were starved so we grabbed a couple of falafels (i had a 'laffa', a GIGANTIC pita thing--- so good). then, we decided to go with inon and his group to the market and then ben yehuda street to hang out and explore before we met flitzy later that night after he got off work. after a conversation with a creepy staring russian dude, we escaped to mcdonald's so we could meet flitzy there. after a while, a couple of sketch guys and a dog sat down near us and offered us some vodka and energy drink. we ended up hanging with them as they seemed pretty harmless, but eventually their intentions proved to be less than pure so we booked it outta there really fast and ran to a safer place to meet flitz. he FINALLY came and brought his girlfriend (Gal) and friend (Avi) with. we all walked to a surprise birthday party at this pub near ben yehuda, met up with yotam (another israeli soldier from our trip) and then to another club, before finally retiring for the night. there's a few more juicy details from the night, but you gotta ask me about it. you know who you are...

the next morning we all met up again for food and walked to this sick little street music festival. i wish we could have stayed, but alli and i had to get on the bus back to ramla before shabbat (buses stop running at 5 in jerusalem friday evening). so, we left our friends at the festival and dropped by our favorite free pool before running to the bus station and barely getting on the 3rd to last bus out of jerusalem so that we could have time to chill before going to tel aviv tonight. we sat at the back of the bus with this HUGE family of ethiopians with the most beautiful children ever. really cute, there were about 10 of them, trying to speak to us in hebrew, telling us their ages (which i now understand because i JUST learned numbers. holler). ANYWAY, we just got back to our house and met the other girls in our group. they all seem really cool, so we've just been hanging out and talking so we can all get to know each other. apparently, also, there's a little furry friend in our neighborhood that knows how to open doors, turn on lights, hump pillows, and eat toilet paper. the girls have named him mitah (hebrew for bed, it was the first word they learned). he has huge balls. i hope he gets along with norman, the cat alli and i found in the backyard.

so, the plan is to get to tel aviv tonight to meet idan, ricky, and inbal (israeli soldiers from the trip i staffed). talk soon. lots more pictures.

love,

sally