Just after this, we both realized we should probably head to work, so we went up to the counter to get our check. I had had a muffin, which was interesting due to its shape, and which turned out to be much more expensive than I had intended. I actually thought the waiter was joking; he seems to find me really amusing, and of course knows me well due to my being a regular, so it would have made sense. Anyways, we paid and headed out.
At work, I sat down and really devoted myself to image processing. I need to move on to my final presentation, but still have data to gather, so it's beginning to become crunch time. My morning was rather productive; not only did I finish a chunk of images, but I also managed to make a reservation for a Bahai Gardens tour. Around lunch time I called Dan. He suggested heading off campus and called Ari, and when we met outside Perlman I found out our destination was supposedly Hummus Weizmann. This was completely unacceptable, as their hummus is awful, so I lobbied for us to go to a smaller place that is actually closer to the main gate of campus (which was hard for Ari and Dan to believe at first because Hummus Weizmann is literally one block from the main gate), where Noa had taken me once in the past.
This turned out to be an amazing decision. The employees spoke only Hebrew, so Ari and Dan got to practice a bit. We debated about how much food to order, but eventually decided upon two skewers of hen, one of lamb, and some hummus with beans. They brought pickles, pita, and falafel to go with it, so we were mostly full before all the food was gone. It was so good. I don't know what it is, but I am so hungry lately, all the time, and all the food here tastes so delicious, so this is why I write about it in such detail.
After lunch I was able to maintain productivity at work until around 4:30 pm, but from there couldn't bring myself to continue. I was supposed to go climbing relatively early, so I left just after 5 pm and grabbed a snack before changing and grabbing my stuff. This was to be a historic climbing evening; not only was it possibly going to be my last time climbing with Nitzan and Yaron, but it was also my fist time climbing with all my own stuff: shoes, a harness, and my newly arrived chalk bag!
The two of them called me about 5 minutes before 6, when we were supposed to meet, to ask where I was. I rushed the rest of my readying, filled a water bottle, and dashed out of Clore. Yaron was driving this time, and had his fiance Rotem's car. As soon as I got in, I told Yaron how cute it was, which is apparently not really the best thing to tell a dude about his ride. Whatever, though: look how cute! (Click all three; this was the color his was!) Of course this kicked off the discussion as to how American and ridiculous I am, as always. It was a fun ride.
When we got to Kiryat Ono, the gym was relatively empty. Since I wasn't borrowing any equipment, my admission was cheaper than it's ever been, which was nice. We all started off by leading a warm-up route which happens to be my favorite (the orange one). Then we branched out into some stuff that was completely new for all of us (different ones for them and for me, of course). Nitzan warned me, and was right, that now I am going to have to get strong, because the routes which require technique only are too easy for me, and I've finished everything I'm strong enough to do, so the routes at the next level are negative and technique can only go so far. I started a blue route which I got pretty far on, but wasn't able to do the last move of, and got three clips into another orange route, near the yellow one which is my nemesis. It's ok that there's not much more I can do, because I don't want to get too attached to working on stuff this close to leaving, but it was a good workout. We bouldered a bit before leaving at 9, because Yaron and Rotem had a place to be at 10.
Yaron dropped Nitzan and I off by campus, and I headed back to Clore for the evening. Onur and Maciej were chilling in the lobby, so I stashed my stuff, grabbed hummus and pita and my Israel tour book, and came back. Soon Lisa joined us, and I snacked as the two of us planned the next day. We went through various stops we wanted to make and tried to plan a route, which was complicated by the fact that the city of Haifa is located on a large mountain. After we came up with a rough itinerary and looked up train and bus routes and stuff, I was so tired I could barely move. I managed to transport myself downstairs and set an alarm for tomorrow before crashing completely.
Mutant muffin!
Yaron climbing
Belaying responsibly
Action shot courtesy of Yaron
A very negative route
Nitzan climbing
1 comment:
I go through those phases, too! Right now, I'm actually in the opposite--I just have no appetite whatsoever. Either extreme is not a good thing! I do like reading about your food there, though. Everything sounds so much more interesting than the stuff I eat here. :-P
<3
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