Belated Weekend Update

Thursday night, a huge group of us from the school headed down to Jaffa (just south of Tel Aviv) to see Mayumana. Mayumana is essentially the Israeli version of Stomp, although it is currently running a joint performance with David Broza-- a popular Israeli musician whose son attends our school.

Outside the theatre.

At the show.

Jen and Wendy.

Friday night, we attended the customary Friday afternoon happy hour on the beach, headed down to Tel Aviv for a BBQ/party, then went out. Tel Aviv is so much fun-- we were out 'til 4.30, and everywhere was still packed.

Out in Tel Aviv.
(For those of you that noticed, I've only worn this shirt twice in Israel, but it's occurred on the two days that I took a lot of pictures. Unfortunate.)

Sanford, Zahor, me, Hellen.

Saturday, Hellen and I took a day trip up to Zichron, which is about 45 minutes north of Tel Aviv. It's a cute little town with lots of great shops and a couple wineries.

Shopping district of Zichron.

More Zichron.

Cute place where we ate lunch.

Hellen and I hang out a lot, if you haven't noticed.
She's great.

On our way home we stopped by the home of one of the other math teachers at school. She lives on a kibbutz near Caesarea, and it's gorgeous. Can you imagine having this as your backyard?

Saturday night, a bunch of us went salsa dancing-- an area in which I have absolutely no skill. It was humbling but entertaining.

Sunday I started ulpan-- intensive Hebrew classes-- in Tel Aviv that meet twice a week. So far, after two sessions, I know how to introduce myself (name, where I'm from, where I live, where I work) and ask others for the same information, basic greetings, the numbers 0-20, how to give my phone number, and how to read and write about 8 letters of the alphabet. Let me just say, Hebrew is really damn hard. There are essentially two alphabets-- the printed alphabet and the script alphabet. And while we're learning how to write and read vowels in class, Israelis tell me that these vowels are never used in real life. You just figure out what words are from the order of consonants and context.

Monday, had a flute lesson in Tel Aviv (I'm studying with the principal flutist of the Israeli Philharmonic, although it's expensive and I may not be able to continue), went to the opening of an art gallery in Tel Aviv owned by the husband of one of the teachers I work with closely (her husband is a Harvard Law grad, retired international business lawyer, and now a gallery owner), explored the Tel Aviv port with the daughter of one of the teachers I work with who is an '06 Brandeis grad-- she's Israeli, graduated from AIS, and now works at an art museum in Tel Aviv, and then the two of us went out with one of her college friends. It was great to go out with people my age. They were lots of fun. They explained a lot of things to me about living in Israel, talked Israeli politics (very interesting to hear), and I was invited over for Rosh Hashanah. And now the week is almost over! Yay.