and it's not going to stop till you wise up

woke up this morning, got ready, and one of the host moms (alon and jade's, not ours) picked al, alon, and me up to have lunch at our host family's house. i know all their names now (elan is the dad, eran is the 12 year old brother, and yarden is the 15 year old sister, oh and orna is the mom). orna made an amazing meal of tomato creme soup for starters, broccoli quiche, chicken legs, sweet/regular potatos, and a bomb salad with hearts of palm and pine nuts, not to mention a frozen chocolate mousse cake. wow it was great.

after lunch, the kids showed us their rooms. yarden is remarkably organized and had a really funny picture frame that said, "we love you BEACH". when we asked her what it meant, she simply replied that her friends don't know very good english. we died laughing. next was eran's room. we didn't meet eran before today, but he is being bar mitzvah'd in 2 months... he says we're invited. he is a huge skateboarder/WWE enthusiast. he even has all the action figures.

we got ready for the beach and headed over to the other host family's house to meet with alon. this place was sooooo cooooool. since the mom's family is from morroccan, the decor of the house was very morroccan, with bedouin mats covering the grass in the backyard, a huge, walk-in cage full of birds. they even have chinchillas. not to mention, a full wood workshop downstairs. we drank rose tea and finally headed off to tel aviv and the beach.

orna's office is literally a 2 minute walk from the beach that we usually go to, so it was perfect to park there. i told her that we would definitely stop by and kidnap her one day for lunch because she said she never actually went even though she is so close. we brought the volleyball, so al, alon, me, and all the kids played for a while in the water. then we broke out the matcot paddles and a ball. now, matcot (for all you laymen) is a pretty intense beach game involving wide paddles, a small, black rubber ball, and very serious looking israelis. the skilled matcot players can hit this ball going 50 thousand miles per hour back and forth to each other. it's very ridiculous. i am not one of said skilled players, but i took some photos. posted soon.

after a good day on the beach and a beautiful sunset, we grabbed some delicious pastries at the bureka stand (turkish cheese pastries). fucking yum. then i passed out in the car on the way home.

back at home, i showered and decided to watch some TV, which i haven't done since i got here. magnolia happened to be on and i told al we had to watch it since she'd never seen it and i hadn't in a while. it made me think of josh and how we haven't seen each other in a while. and my dad. and ernie. and jeremy. and marissa and my mom and brother. i hope they are doing well. anyway, that movie always makes me cry. i think it's the aimee mann lyrics. but i'm ok. actually, i have some ulpan homework to do. then i'm going to bed since we have ulpan, then work. but i'm excited about work, so it's cool.

love,

sally