A Short June Vacation

So since I wrote my last post, the summer semester has officially started -- but not really. I've basically been on a lengthened vacation for the past three (soon to be four) weeks. One of my best friends came to Israel to visit me, I rented a car, I have watched too many movies, and I'm going on a non-Oranim program next week.

A very close friend from home, Mike, came to Israel for me -- okay not just for me, but for a family wedding, too. He's traveling all around Europe as a graduation present to himself. Mike, congratulations on graduating college! You have a very bright future ahead of you. Mike and I went ALL OVER Israel. On June 7th, he got to Tel Aviv and we walked all around the city: Neve Tzedek, Florentin, and Ibn Gabirol Street. We checked out the buildings, grabbed a bite to eat, and marveled at the busyness of Ibn Gabirol (and wondered, why in Israel, do cars not care to let ambulances in a hurry go by). The next day, I met him in Binyamina, a city about 15 minutes south of Haifa. We took a bus to the Tishbi Winery ("יקב" or "Yekev" means "winery"), one of the best-known wineries in Israel. We did a tasting and had lunch there. Tishbi has absolutely delicious food. Then we walked around Zichron Yaakov for a bit and took in the beautiful scenery. I took a bus back to Tel Aviv and then stopped by the Gay Pride parade, the signature event of Gay Pride Week here in Tel Aviv. They had already gotten to Gordon Beach and the party was ON! There were bands, acts, and people dancing, partying, and getting drunk. I walked around, took pictures, and met a few different people.

On Saturday, the Partners Program ran an unofficial event -- a beer pong tournament on the beach. I partnered with my friend, Hila, and unfortunately we lost our only match. I subsequently lost two other matches with Israeli friends, but it was still fun. Another team of Israelis (Amir and Gali) won the tournament, having never played beer pong before. On Sunday, I went to Rishon LeZion to hang with my ITF friends who live(d) there (and are moving out today). I got some falafel with Jenn then watched Space Jam with her and Ariel. I then had to rush back home because I needed to get onto my computer in time for 11pm Israel time/4pm EST to see my very good friends, Stacie and Ilan, get married. I got home 1 minute before it was scheduled to start. Then I waited 25 minutes for it to actually start, meanwhile having technological difficulties with my WiFi and picture on the live web feed. I eventually got it working on my iPod with decent picture. I saw the whole ceremony, and had a big smile on my face as I saw them happily walking down the aisle together, waving hi to the camera (in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture to your right).

On Monday, Mike came to stay with me for his last three days in Israel. We didn't have too much time to hang out before I had my own plans. I went to go volunteer at NVCC and then he came with me to stop by Beit Leni (an apartment building with Career Israel participants) to see some of my friends from Netanya, Rishon, and Career Israel. Then we went to a Partners meeting. It was unfortunately the last meeting, so we went out with a bang. Pregame at Amir's apartment and then go to a club for a few hours to dance our hearts out. So fun.

Best buds Josh and Mike

On Tuesday, Mike and I rented a car, a Hyundai Getz to be exact. We took the car down to Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem on June 12th. At Ein Gedi, we hiked the same trail I did with Oranim in January, seeing the David waterfalls and swimming in a couple springs. Unfortunately, Mike forgot he had his phone in his pocket and went in with it. It'll be a miracle if he can recover all the photos he took on the first two legs of his trip to France and Spain. Despite the technological disaster, we thought we may as well make good out of the day and continue with the trip since we were kind of far from main civilization. We swam in the Dead Sea, both having forgotten our flip flops, so it took a while to walk around the beach.

In the evening, we stopped by in Jerusalem to check out the Old City, the Western Wall, and to meet up with a couple friends of mine for a late dinner at Aroma. My friend Jenn stopped by to hang out, and an old friend from middle school ate with us, too. I hadn't seen Emily in ten years -- 10 YEARS! -- since we graduated and she looked great, exactly the same as the last time I saw her. Her family moved from Connecticut to Vermont, then she went to Israel to study and subsequently made Aliyah. She is now happily engaged to an Israeli and works for a cool nonprofit organization. The four of us enjoyed a great dinner with great conversation (Emily and I caught up and reminisced about our middle school days), and I look forward to seeing Emily a few more times before I go back to the States. On the way back, we picked up my friend, Arielle, in Ramla and we headed back to Tel Aviv to Dizzyfrishdon, a fun bar that seems to specialize in wine. However, we didn't get back before getting lost in Ramat Gan and Bene Brak. There are A LOT of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Bene Brak! We finally got into Tel Aviv and hung with a new friend Robby for a couple hours (and then going to Benedict's, with its delicious breakfast menu).

Left to right: Mike, Emily, and Michael

On Wednesday, Mike and I were having a little trouble leaving Tel Aviv for the Golan Heights to go to a couple wineries. My phone wasn't working properly and we would have gotten lost and not have made it in time to get a proper tour and tasting (and we had to get a GPS). So we abandoned the idea and picked up my friend Michael in Petach Tikvah and another friend Emily in Netanya. We drove up to Caesarea (which both Mike and I have been to multiple times, but Michael and Emily hadn't) and walked the beach, went to a nice restaurant for dinner, and hung around some of the ruins for a couple hours. It was very fun. Once we got back to Tel Aviv, we Skyped with our friend, Sarah, from our Hillel/City Year trip to L.A. last year. Shortly afterwards, I drove Mike to the airport in which we said goodbye -- for him to go on the next leg of his trip to Ireland and for me to go back to life in Tel Aviv. On Thursday, I had the car for an extra day so Adam and I spent the afternoon chilling at the beach and driving the sand dunes in Ashdod. It was a new and very interesting experience.

Since then, I haven't done too much. I've downloaded and watched too many movies (most of them good), done some Zao work, gone to the Neve Tzedek Community Center end of the school year party, gone out to a club with some new friends from a couple new internship programs, and applied and got accepted to a non-Oranim program. Next week, I'm going on Livnot's one week Northern Exposure program. Jenn from Rishon LeZion wanted me to sign up with her, so I did. She has heard great things about it, and other friends like Michael from Petach Tikvah and Adam concur. I am looking forward to this new experience. I'll be based in Tzfat for the week while meeting new people, hiking, volunteering, and taking part in spiritual discussions.

Mike aggressively attacking his falafel

You can check out all of my pictures from Mike's visit to Israel in my Facebook album entitled, "Geveeeeerrr!!! ;)" ("גבר" or "Gever" in Hebrew means "guy" -- he and I had a running joke of it for the week) or click here. I will write next weekend about Livnot! Bye.