July Fourth

Day 2

Happy July 4^th!

I woke up today and walked over to a trendy neighborhood called Neve Tzedek. On my way there I got accosted by these 2 American teenage girls from NFTY Summer Israel program who were interviewing Israelis on the street and asking them questions about Israel. I told them I was from NYC but they interviewed me anyway. I stumped them on the last question. They said "Do you think Tel Aviv is a Jewish city or a city of Jews?" Of course as a Jewish studies teacher I responded: 'The question really offers a false proposition wouldn't you say? Like Jewish American/American Jew. ' Looking confused. I went on: 'If I asked you to pick your favorite color of the rainbow-blue or green- what would you say?'

To that the 16 year olds though I had made a good point. I agree. :)

Afterwards I walked through a small part of Neve Tzedek but got super lost as there are all these narrow streets with weird twists and turns. I ended up walking along Herzl Street- which only had furniture stores on it. No other shops or restaurants just a long stretch of furniture showrooms for about half a mile. wtf?

Afterwards I headed to Florentin which is another trendy neighborhood and had a nice lunch at a restaurant called Bugsy (a la Bugsy Siegel). I had the pasta with pesto sauce (picture coming soon). Then took the Sherut to Jerusalem to pick up my keys to the apartment (still can't move in til the 6th). On my walk back to the Sherut back to Tel Aviv I decided to pop into the grocery store to see what it was like. since that's where I'll be doing most of my shopping. On my way. I bump into my buddy Zach who I worked with at sleep away camp four years ago and who now made aliyah and is serving in the army. How random. He was buying stuff for a bbq at his place. He offered me an invitation but I politely declined since I had already told Anat and Cam that I would be at their bbq and do my best to represent America.

Back in Tel Aviv the bbq on their roof deck was fun and it's so pretty watching the sunset over the Mediterranean. There were lots of Israelis there and a lot of Hebrew but also a nice couple from Toronto who are professors and on Sabbatical so I got to speak with them for a bit in English. We had wings and shish kebab. It was nice but it did make me yearn for America a bit. Baseball and Sam Adams and Hamburgers with buns (the buns are the tough part- everyone uses pita here or no bun! weird.)

When everyone went home b/c they had to work the next day I decided to scope out the American bars to see what was doing. I walked down to Mike's Place by the beach which is owned by an American guy and is a touristy hangout. But it has live music and Gov't Mule played there a few weeks ago.
It was pretty hopping when I got there-however since the drinking age in Israel is 18 every college freshman and study abroad kid was out getting hammered. When I saw the two dudes at the table wearing their "Wilkinson High School 2009" T Shirts - I knew it was time to go.

That left Joey's on Allenby Street. It was a dive but had license plates all on the outside and inside from all different states. The bartender was a nice girl from China and there were these three German dudes who had mullets and were drinking themselves silly and fist pumping to German techno house music which I never ever hope to hear again. I ordered a Heineken (I didn't want to make them angry) enjoyed it. and left. Tomorrow: Haifa