well, i didn't do my laundry yesterday. i figured al and i would just fill the bathtub and then wash all our clothes in a big laundry party, and have a grand ole time hanging them on our VERY OWN CLOTHESLINE!
not quite, while i was typing blogs and calling people, al was slaving away in the hot bathroom scrubbing the shit out of her clothes since we don't have a washboard (to do list). and i have a lot of laundry so hopefully i can just do it in the bathtub tonight. shit. oh well.
i just want to take a minute and wish my gammy a very happy 90th BIRTHDAY!!!!
(photo by andrew shepherd)
she's such a funny, silly, intelligent, spunky lady and i am proud that she is my gammy. and that i get to hang out with her all the time. and i love and miss her very much. so someone read this to her please. and my mom's birthday i tomorrow!! so many birthdays!
so after i last wrote, al and i decided to make a delicious dinner. we went to the market down the street and became friendly with the owner there, Rami and he gave us fruit and veggies for pretty cheap. so hopefully he'll give us more deals in the future. we came home and made pasta with parmesean and garlic with olive oil, parmesean garlic toast, and fruit salad with peaches, grapes, and mango. it was fucking phenomenal and healthy and just what i needed. i need to cook more. i think i will. our oven is at least fixed now so we can figure something out until the stove is back to normal.
after dinner, al and i walked to the apartment to meet jade and alon before they went over to some of the hebrew Kadima volunteers' apartment to eat some sweet free grub and hang out with them. on the way downstairs, alon slipped and busted his tailbone on the concrete stairs. he wasn't going to turn down free food, so we walked there anyway. it was a lovely little place, and from what i gather, it's sort of a similar situation to what we have here: they get placed at a volunteer location, meet, and all live together. it was really cute though. i have photos that i'll post this week. unfortunately, most of them are leaving Kadima because it is time for them to join the army. i know the kids will miss them as they have been at the center for almost a year. i have photos that i'll post this week. naama ended up retrieving alon from the apartment and taking him to the hospital for an x-ray to be sure he didn't break anything so al and i walked back to the house. luckily, alli made me do crazy sit-ups that i will do every other night. because NO PAIN, NO GAIN. this is my new mantra and i'm already starting to enjoy pushing myself past my point of comfort to get the results i want. i'm gonna do it. then we went to bed.
the next day, we woke up and i went to cheech beach in tel aviv with jade, alon, naama, and al. it is a really sweet beach and i've been there a few times already since it is near mike's place. we ended up playing volleyball near the water with this group of guys for about 3 hours. it was so nice to hit the ball around. i remember how into volleyball i was, and its been so long since i've played. everything seems to come back though, as i practice. jodi and shlomi (naama's friend) met us there because they were in tel aviv getting PAUL FUCKING MCCARTNEY TICKETS, which i didn't get and i don't want to talk about it. fuck. (what? they're 500 sheckles) SO, when it was time to go, alon and jade wanted to go back to shower, etc. before coming back to tel aviv to chill, but shlomi only had 4 seats in his car. al and i decided to stay on the beach until jade and alon came back. we walked along the boardwalk as the sun started to set and started talking about how nice it would be to have a cold beer and a slice of pizza on the beach at sunset. then, we realized that we could absolutely do that. so we did. and that is exactly the moment that we knew and agreed that this is our life. beautiful, and real. and there's nothing better at this moment than beer, pizza, friends, and a beach sunset. and that we can have these things whenever we want. we finished our beer and pizza and settled on mike's place since it is a safe bet for a good time. p.s. they have burritos and fajitas and i've never missed mexican food in my LIFE until i discovered that there is NONE here. shit. so we had a couple beers and a lovely conversation with barry, an english guy that plays rock n roll for a living here. he had some amazing stories. al got into it with him about david beckham, he told us that the events in the movie, 'kingdom of heaven' (about the crusades) took place about a kilometer from where we live, and told us stories about his times recording music in LA. then as barry was leaving, a random russian guy sat down with us, detailing his recent and brief exploits as a card counter trying to con money from moscow casinoes. he turned out to be a bit of a sleaze though, asking al after we'd ditched him for alon and jade whether he thought he could, 'make it with me' since he'd never been with an american girl before. ech. we all hung out at mike's place for a while, watching barry play in his band, finally retiring to the sheruits at around 2AM. after some confusion and a really drunk dude in our cab home, we finally got back. long night, but fun.
THIS morning, our host families picked us up in a van and drove us to this little wooded forest area about 15 minutes away from our house. i think it was a camp ground. IT IS MY MOM'S 61st BIRTHDAY TODAY! so i got to talk to her on the phone for a while. it was really amazing because she got to tell me all the cool shit she's doing right now, like the spectacular senior follies, where she does the betty boop impression that is infamous for making me die inside every time she does it. but since it's her birthday, i'll just get the fuck over it and post this:
my mommy, everyone. damn proud of her.
so al and i met our host mom and dad and sister (brother was at a friend's house). they fed us amazing food and the kids in all the families are just the sweetest, most energetic, playful, friendly kids ever. we spent most of the day shooting a slingshot at a can with rocks (way more fun that i ever knew), playing this hide and seek game that i can't pronounce (but i was only 'IT' once, so i think i did alright), and climbing to the top of this abandoned watchtower to peep this incredible view of the country-city-landscape. really incredible. i got photos of the whole day. i even brought my guitar, and alon played it mostly. the day was really incredible. i felt like a kid again, just playing outside with other kids and didn't give two shits about talking to the adults. they were perfectly nice people, but i was so happy just to run around and play games and shoot rocks at cans. it was amazing. also, on the way home i heard buffy telling the story about how she ended up here and about the timing, etc. and i was so grateful to my parents for being so supportive of me always, al for pushing me to get all my paperwork in and not giving up, and above all to myself for not just settling for what was comfortable. because this experience just keeps getting better and better and i will grow so much. i want to say i might even change, but i KNOW that i will change. i just have to let it happen. and i will. i already am.
we left the campsite and came home. had a talk with al about how i'm familiar in my surroundings at home which is why i feel comfortable just taking pictures of whatever there, but not here yet. maybe that's my dilemma. we'll see. i don't want to be afraid anymore. i finally did half of my laundry. washer and dryer style. (fuck it, it would have taken way too long by hand, let's get real.) OH, i also shaved one of my roomates' heads. what? he asked me to. i even get to give him a mohawk. photos of that too, duh. i was looking on al's computer trying to figure out how to make a video blog, and i ran across this website that runs safari's through africa. after piddling around on their site, i found that the are looking for an amateur photographer to send around africa capturing images for their website. if you know me at all, you would know that i immediately emailed the person in charge with my informatioin and expressed my interest in this position. so we'll see about that. also about the video blogs. because that's fun.
ok, then basically just hung out at the house until about 8, eating leftovers from the picnic, and al and i power walked over to the apartment to shill with alon, jade, and jennifer. i really need to come up with nicknames for them. i'll just call them, "the apartment". much easier. i get carpal tunnel from naming them all the time. really. SOOOOO, we hung out and did sit ups there. more reps this time because, all together now, NO PAIN, NO GAIN! al is my trainer and she's pushing me. thank you al. i'll have abs in no time. then, the girls and i proceeded to watch animal mating videos for the next hour. the giant turtle one makes me die laughing. i almost peed my pants. no joke. the noise. i can't handle it.
al and i walked home past this really sweet wedding reception or block party or something, but we were exhausted. it looked fun though. i'm going next time. i'll stick out like a sore thumb as i dance like an idiot and eat free barbeque. hey, at least it's kosher. i'm classy. once we got home, we video chatted with our dear friend harper from our birthright trip, trying to get her to come back. we'll get her yet :)
going to sleep now. goodness it's late. we're going on a walking tour of ramla tomorrow. whoopie. no, really it's going to be cool. but it's also going to be fucking hot. and i got my volunteer schedule for the forseeable future, although i think it may be temporary. so far, i'll be attending ulpan three days a week, working at the oranim office two days a week, kadima one day a week, and working at the ramla TV station one day a week. and i have a day off!
and that's all she wrote. er, i wrote. whatever, i'm going to bed.
love,
sally
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