Uncommon incident

Ulpan was cancelled today because my teacher had a wedding to attend, so I decided-- hey, let's do something cool today after school. Consulting my TimeOut Tel Aviv, I settled on the Tel Aviv Museum of Art because they are currently running a "Femme Fatale" exhibition that looked intriguing. I did a little map research, charted my route and was on my way.

Now, my talents may be limited, but I've always prided myself on having a keen sense of direction. Sure, I occasionally miss an exit on the highway. But I'm often trusted as vehicle navigator, and as a child, one of my hobbies was riding my bicycle into obscure areas and intentionally getting myself confused, in order to construct the challenge of finding my way home.

Tonight, I walked in a 30-minute circle. The museum is only about 800 meters from the bus station, so after 20 minutes I knew things had gone awry. The strange thing is-- I swear I walked straight down the same street for 25 full minutes until I sat down on some steps with my map and some poor stranger came and took pity on me. After being redirected, I turned left and walked maybe 5 minutes, only to find myself at McDonalds on Ibn Gvirol that I had passed 30 minutes ago when I foolishly thought: "Oh good, I'm almost there." 5 minutes past the McDonalds I found myself at the door of the museum, which means that 30 minutes earlier I had passed my destination (was I on the phone? did I momentarily black out??) and walked down some anomaly of a street that curved so slightly that I managed to make almost a complete circle while under the impression that I was walking straight.

After that whole debaucle, however, the rest of the evening was great. The museum was great-- impressive collection. Post-museum hang-out with a friend was great-- was introduced to Druze pita with sheep labane. And the journey home was great-- got home on a sherut without getting lost and without having communication problems with the driver. He even gave me a big smile.