Day 6 - Prayer is the Answer

First, so you don't think you're being cheated: pictures will still be included as much as possible, but will now come at the end of posts so as not to ruin the stories. So have no fear! They're coming. Also I changed the other posts retroactively because, of course, I'm a bit anal.

So here we go!

Today I woke up much later than normal. I get to work around 9, but today we (me, Joel, Mike, Stephen and Jonathan) were supposed to meet in the kitchen at 10:45 (which of course has jewish standard time built in, so really means 11:00) am to catch a train to Tel Aviv. We walked to the station and got on the 11:30 train, and got off at the Merkaz stop, which put us sort of in a weird part of town. We found a bakery, where the nice people directed us to a hummus place. When I say that, I mean it; the only thing they served there was hummus! So that was delicious.

We walked a bit more and decided to find a bus to take us to the beach (Mike headed back to Rehovot at this point), which was only mildly successful at first, in that we found the bus stops but had no idea which bus to take. We asked one bus driver who gave us a non-existent bus number. Stephen then went over to the Hassids at a nearby stand (they set up these things to try to get passersby to put on tefillin) and asked them for help. They said they didn't know, but that prayer was better than the beach anyway and if he put on the tefillin they would find out. So Stephen, being ever prepared, pulled his own from his backpack and put them on. As he began saying the shema fast, the bus we needed arrived, so he had to run to catch us, still wearing them! See below for a photograph; it was a good thing he had his own! So we're on the bus, getting very odd looks, and he's removing them, and this 15-year-old kid comes up and asks him in Hebrew if these are tefillin and if he can wear them. So Stephen teaches him how.

After a few stops, we reach the end of the line - the beach! See below for photographs of this awesome event. We wandered, I dipped my feet (I had brought flip flops), and then Jonathan and Joel walked to the end of this huge rock jetty. I made my way along it more slowly, and we just took it all in. After a bit, Jonathan had to go to meet some friends, so Joel and I made our way back to the beach to find Stephen.

Stephen had of course disappeared, at about the same time we both realized neither of us had his number. This was disastrous, as the last train before they stopped running for shabbat had left an hour previously and he was supposed to be taking us someplace for shabbat dinner. So I called Greta, our program coordinator, and asked her if she had his number. She said no but that she was good friends with his aunt (!!) so she said she'd call back. Four minutes later she did! We reached Stephen, who said he had run into some long-lost friends (one of whom, Jackie, goes to Trinity and says she knows you, Allison!) and would meet us near the green umbrellas in 10 minutes. So we sat and chilled, then Stephen took us to meet his peeps. When they had to go, we headed for land.

Stephen's friend David, who he knew from MIT, picked us up in his car, then the rushing began. We drove to the grocery store, only to find that it had closed 2 minutes before for shabbat. So we went to the pharmacy and found some of the same things, then David dropped us off at his place and headed to the airport to pick up his girlfriend Irene. During this car ride I talked to Mom and Dad, which was wonderful and which the other people in the car greatly enjoyed. Fyi, guys, the plane was on time and David got there only 5 minutes late, so it was all good; thanks for looking up the El Al info!

Back at David's place, we helped his roommate, Itzamar, and friend (also from MIT, who had extended her birthright trip) Dina to prepare the dinner and meals for the next day), then went to services at Bar Ilan (a nearby university). Itzamar, Joel, and I got sort of a late start so we had a brief tour of campus before arriving at the services.

Afterwards we went back to David and Itamar's place, with a few new people from services in tow. There were 9 of us overall at dinner (David, Irene, Dina, Itamar, Stephen, me, Joel, Etay, and Omry). It was a great time! Everyone was really nice, the food was delicious, and it was just fun overall. Itamar is a composer in his spare time, and he plays the clarinet and bass clarinet!!!!! He has a bunch of trios and quartets for clarinet(s), bass clarinet and piano, and he wrote one clarinet/bass clarinet duo which we would have tried had he had a printed copy. This reason alone would be enough to motivate me seeing everyone again. He also said he would arrange his stuff for me or a small group any time! It was really great. Highlights of the dinner conversation included discussion of the supposed rule that stacking plates on the table while clearing them is rude, and is grounds for breaking off an engagement (according to Itamar's mother), Britney Spears singing jewish songs, and other ground-breaking ideas.

Anyways, after dinner I did a bunch of dishes in an attempt to be helpful and erase my feelings of being in the way in the car earlier. We chipped in a bit for dinner, and as everyone was setting up mattresses to stay the night, planned our exit. We had intended to call a cab to take back to Rehovot, but Etay offered to drive us! We had a lovely chat in the car, thanked him profusely when we got out, and then I wrote this before bed.

Enjoy the pictures: Stephen and his tefillin on the bus, a picture the bus driver requested with Jonathan, the Tel Aviv beach, and Jonathan and Joel running along the rocks.