The work week starts WHEN?!

The work week starts at seven in the morning on a Sunday when the construction workers outside of Udi and Alon's window start making noise on their jackhammer.

Thoroughly tired of moping like a jet lagged, culture shocked idiot, I went to the post office today in order to buy what I thought would be the answer to my cell phone issues.  I THOUGHT I needed "Big Talk" card from the Orange Company - a cell phone company in Israel.  Both Udi and I were under the impression that the SIM card I had was from that company.  It turns out you need a NUMBER first before you can put "Big Talk" minutes on the phone.  I thought I had no number yet and that the SIM card needed to be re-validated or something weird.  I asked for Big Talk (in Hebrew, although I do admit that "Big Talk" and "Orange Company" were in English).  The guy behind the counter smirked at me.  Could he tell I was American?  I have a pretty damn good Israeli accent when I speak Hebrew!  I was annoyed.

After I found out that I did not have what I needed to purchase Big Talk, I walked back to Udi's apartment.  Together we sat and called CELLCOM - the ACTUAL company that I use in Israel - and added minutes on the phone.  WALLAH!  I have minutes AND A NUMBER.  I memorized it in Hebrew (Efes chamesh shteim, shteim arbah ehad, shalosh tesha shalosh ehad, or for all you non-Hebrew speakers out there, 052-241-3931).

It turns out that 200 shekels get you about 200 minutes.  That's about what Israelis normally pay to their cell phone companies, but it's still a lot of money.  I made the decision that I wouldn't ever use my phone when there was another phone available to use.  That way I can conserve minutes.  I hate money.

With that taken care of, I headed down to the beach.  I took my first Israeli bus (minus the buses I took when I was FIVE, those don't count) down to the beach.  From Ramat Gan to Tel Aviv is about forty minutes.  I took the number 63, which takes me through most of the major streets in Tel Aviv, past Shenkin, Dizengof, Bogreshov, and Ben Yahuda.  I got off at Ben Yahuda, ate my first falafel in Israel, and then...I could see...THE BEACH.

There is something so theraputic about the beach.  Something so infinitely calming.  Even as I was walking down there, I was thinking to myself, "I am happy to be here.  I miss my family, I miss my friends, but it is a comfort to know that they are thinking of me while I am thinking of them."

I sat my bag down in the sun, took off my boots and tights (I needed to feel the sand in my toes), took out my Kindle (plug in ad here) and started to read Darkly Dreaming Dexter.  LITERALLY two seconds after that, a guy, mid-forties, sat down and started talking to me.  First he asked in Hebrew if I was cold.  I told him that I wasn't because I'm from the States and this weather is like summer to me.  Then he started speaking to me in English.  In all honesty, it seemed like he was just really innocently interested in the states for a while, but it took him so freaking long to leave.  After about ten minutes, he left, and I read for a while again.

Cue in sixteen year olds twenty minutes later.  Two dark, dark, dark sixteen year old boys posing for something older came over and said "Welcome to Israel!"  How the CRAP DID THEY KNOW I WASN'T ISRAELI?  Maybe it was the Kindle, because they started looking at it and asking how it works.  One of them asked if it was a telephone.  They were speaking all in Hebrew and it was hard to understand them at times.  They left after seeing my Hebrew was limited, but came BACK two seconds later, one of them asking for his friend if I wanted to be his friend's girlfriend.  I told them I was leaving Israel in two days.  The guy shrugged and said "Eyn ba'aya," which means "There's no problem with that."  Then I told them that I was nineteen.  The kid said he was almost eighteen (lie).  Then I told them I had a boyfriend.  Then they left.  Obnoxious and stubborn, but respectful or something.

About ten minutes after THAT, another guy came over, asked if I was reading an interesting book, and then saw that it was a Kindle in English and spoke to me in English.  This guy was also in his mid-forties.  He sat down and started patting my leg as he spoke to me.  I said very little, but he is now under the impression that my name is Sara (those two boys think that too) and that I live in New York, go to NYU, work at the bookstore, and have a boyfriend named Charlie who is British.  I told him SOME truthful things, like I have been to Israel a couple times, like I love traveling.  He also thinks I've been here for like, a month and am leaving soon.  He told me I was beautiful inside and out and to never forget that.  This guy drove me off the beach.  I was so annoyed with the inability to read my freaking book and so done trying to get these guys to leave me alone that I finally said "David, I think I have to go" (oh, don't worry, he told me his name), and then he hugged me for a little longer than necessary, and finally I scampered off the beach to catch the bus back to Ramat Gan.

I spent only an hour by the water, but I wish I could have spent more time.  I had a fantastic plan that I would go for a walk by the waves, maybe just sit in the sun and think, but NO.  It was either the Kindle or my brilliantly pale legs sparkling like freaking diamonds in the sun that drew these guys towards me and screamed TOURISTTOURISTTOURIST.  So obnoxious.

Tomorrow I am going to La Escuelita and meeting with one of my mentors.  She and I will talk about what I'm going to be doing for them.  Matan, the mentor with whom I was in contact with, will not be there.  I met him yesterday.  He's my mother's cousin's son, and I saw that entire side of the family yesterday afternoon.  He's a very nice guy and very into what he does.  On Tuesday, my friend Avi Kagan is picking me up and I'm spending a couple days with him and his family.  Friday I am starting my internship.  I will be teaching Spanish to Spanish kids who have grown up in Israel and pretty much forgotten all their Spanish.  I hope they are not older than me/the same age.  While it was comfortable (not easy, but comfortable) directing my peers who were my age, I think that had something to do with them knowing me really well.  These kids won't know me at all, and I am unsure what they'll think of me.  I just need to be able to capture their attention.  Anyway, I'm not the only teacher there.  I'll simply be an aid.