Cinco de Skyo, Lag B'Omer, and My Birthday!

Left to right: Tami, me, and Jenn

I know what you're thinking about the title. No, I did NOT write that wrong. I went to a party called "Cinco de Skyo" at SkyBar. This bar is not a regular bar, nor is it a "real" bar. It is the rooftop of the apartment at my friends' place in the Israel Teaching Fellows program in Netanya. They had a Cinco de Mayo party and I was fortunate enough to go. All of us made drinks, ate food, talked, and played a few crazy games. Oh yeah, and there was a piñata (no, I'm not kidding). My friends from Netanya, Sam and Alon, made it out of (I think) a blown up balloon and paper mache. Then Alon drew the Mexican flag on it. Then Sam stuffed a bunch of trinkets and candy in it, and tied the top up with some string. It was the most creative thing I'd ever seen for Cinco de Mayo. The party was awesome, I slept on a couch under the stars (and thanks to a couple blankets from my friend, Emily, I was not cold), and we went to the beach the next day. I joined Jenn, Emily, Tami, Alex, Alana, Rachel, Kira, and a few others. Emily and I later went out on a kayak ride with Tami and Alex; so fun! Afterwards, I went home to relax from a busy day and a half.

Sam ripped apart the pinata

On May 6th, I went to class, had a meeting for Zao, then at night went to another Partners meeting. We met at the Sportech, which is the rock climbing wall in Hayarkon Park. We played a number of games (Oranimers and Israelis mixed on teams) where we had to answer questions, do minor physical activities, and even had to get strangers to make a pyramid. My team, "Fredy's Angels" included me, Tali (Oranim), Adi (Israeli), Fredy (Israeli), Raz (Israeli), Carmel (Israeli), and Sami (Oranim). We placed second out of four teams, but we totally dominated. We then went to a nearby bar and enjoyed some refreshments while getting to know each other better. Tuesday was spent watching "Boy Meets World" episodes on YouTube all day; not a productive use of my time, but at least I saw two episodes which I had never seen before. Wednesday wasn't too eventful; I had class then Adam and I biked over to Hayarkon Park late at night to enjoy a bonfire with some Oranimers who live in our building. We ended making a couple new friends, Jordan and Johnny. Johnny's a Scottish Jew, apparently there's only about 5,000 of them.

The birthday boys at our party at Seret

Thursday began the one of the biggest, eventful, and awesome weekends of my program so far. I had Ulpan that afternoon, then the Master's program went to the Eretz Israel Museum for enrichment. I had already been to part of the museum, so I checked out exhibits I hadn't seen. I learned about man-made objects, the Rothschild family (a very wealthy family from Europe that oversaw and financed parts of the growth of the Land of Israel), and sports. Finally it was my 24th birthday; I went to Club Seret (one of the hottest winter clubs in Tel Aviv) where I got the table I had reserved a couple days ago. Shortly afterwards walked in Mike from ITF Petach Tikvah, with whom I planned the joint birthday party (he turned 26). We just chilled on the couch until some of our friends from ITF Ramla joined us. Then, out of nowhere, the club started playing the music as a club scene like we had hoped. Later in the night ushered in friends from ITF Netanya, ITF Petach Tikvah, some interns, and a few people from my program (Adam, Jess, Sam, and David). The party was crazy, everyone was dancing and celebrating all night, the music was loud, and we had a ton of fun. We finally left the club at 3am and I walked all the way home.

May 11th was my birthday. I didn't wake up until 1pm, then I went with Simon and Sam to a coffee shop to hang out. I met up with Tami from Netanya and we then went to Nachalat Binyamin St. to look at the knick knacks and art that is sold there every Tuesday and Friday. I didn't buy anything, but I found a really beautiful family name sign. It says the Tribe that my family belongs to (from the Twelve Sons of Jacob), which is Levi, and I want to buy it for my family to hang in our house. It's reasonably priced, too, at about 250 or so shekels (about $65). Later that night, I went to friend's friend's birthday party in Jaffa (I biked there) and met some really cool people from MASA's Tikkun Olam ("Repairing the World") program.

Left to right: me, Mike, Carla (not sure where to put her
hands), Emily, and Tami

On May 12th, a small group of us went to Luna Park in Tel Aviv to enjoy the day at a family-themed amusement park for the second half of my and Mike's birthday. The group included: me, Mike, Emily S. (Netanya), Carla (Petach Tikvah), and Tami. Luna Park is nothing like Six Flags as it is for families, but it's more for younger kids, a lot like Lake Compounce in Connecticut. We got there and went on about 10 rides  during the afternoon. We rode Anaconda (the most intense rollercoaster there, not very intense), tea cups which Carla and I got nauseous on, elephants in which the one Carla and I were in, named "Dumpy", didn't rise when the button was pressed, and Mike and I had a race to see who could pull the rope to the top sitting down (we tied, but I think I won once or twice). Later, we walked around Hayarkon Park for a bit, then Emily, Carla, and I met up with Jevon from Petach Tikvah and we went to a few bars with my friend, Saul. Saul and I beat a couple Peruvians in a game of pool, then we met up with Cory and his girlfriend at Otto. After that, we got a small bite at Moses Burger and then went home. It was such a fun weekend, it goes near (probably at) the top of my list for best weekends in Israel. EVER.

The rope climb game Mike and I
competed against each other in
(I'm on the right)

On Sunday, I went to Ulpan and my Israel Diplomacy course. Monday was class and volunteering, and I did homework all day yesterday. Shortly, I'm about to go meet up with a friend who just finished Birthright. I have four friends either already in Israel or coming soon; three on Birthright, including my old roommate and good friend, Andrew, from college, and one of my closest friends, Mike, who is taking a two month trip around Europe and Israel as a college graduation present to himself.

L'hitraot! Happy belated Mother's Day to anyone still celebrating it.