The day we landed in Tel Aviv, we hopped directly onto a bus to Jerusalem, the holy city, for THREE of the worlds most important religions (the most important Mosque for the Muslims, Al-Aqsa, is also there, along with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher). I visited the Western Wall, a surreal experience. It blew my mind that it has been around for 5000 years, and millions of people have worshipped at it. I will go back, so as to get the full experience when I'm not so jetlagged. After a few days living in a hotel in Jerusalem, we were on a bus to Ramla, where I moved into the apartment with the aforementioned roommates (minus Sam). We took the first day to clean the entire house, and now it is a gem. We kept only a few of the things from before, such as a sign over the sink that read "Do your $@%^ing dishes your mom doesn't live here!", as well as full clip of AK-47 rounds. It's good luck. Me and my roommates have an excellent rapport. We are all so close already, it's uncanny. We are completely different, yet from the day we went to the supermarket for groceries, and had pretty much exactly the same preferences we realized how how well we would get along.
Our next day was our first day volunteering. We completely cleaned up and repainted a preschool/day care place (ages 0-4). The proprietors were slightly strange, but they were extremely grateful for our help. Soon afterwards, I went to the shuk (an open-air shopping center crossed between a farmers market and a flea market for household necessities), before settling down to eat dinner, then subsequently heading to one of the other apartments to hang out with the rest of the group. Then trouble struck.
Apparently, earlier in the day, two of the young ladies in our group became acquainted with a few (slightly) older and hormonal young guys from a near apartment. I won't go into too many details, but it ended up with a few of the other boys in our group getting in an altercation with the building guys. Me and my roommates were slightly out of the loop (we live farther apart than the rest of the group). It ended with the girls switching apartments and the boys pressing charges. It was pretty stressful, and the four of us roommates went on a cathartic run together around mid-day, ate lunch, and met with the rest of the group. Sam, another kid, is now living with us, because of the switcharoo, and he is already part of the family. We are headed to Tel Aviv this afternoon to go to the beach together and get some food. We'll go there again thursday to partake in the nightlife (thursday here is like friday there). Well, to all you family peeps and other peeps, until later, Shalom!
Awesome, Andreas!!! Mazel Tov!! We are so proud of you.
ReplyDeleteAll that's missing is a photo album!
ReplyDeleteWonderful Andreas! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteUp in the corner this page says my name is "CANDEL" for some reason, but it's really me--and I just wanted to add my congratulations. This is perfect! (Well, except for "me and my roommates...") I love reading about what is happening there. Please, keep it going.
ReplyDeleteWow, bro, its Moreno, you can write really well man. props.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you are documenting every detail! No better souvenir than your memories in words.
ReplyDelete