Shabbat in Givat Zeev

I got to spend shabbat at Rabbi and Margalit Friedman's in Givat Zeev.  There were a number of people over for dinner from Bridges for Peace.  It was a nice quiet shabbat, and Rabbi Friedman did a short study on the parashah.

Tourist day

My Hebrew teacher recommended that I go to the original Tel Aviv city hall, and Rubin's house.  They are very close together, and close to my apartment.  The heat has passed, so today was a good day to be outside.  The city hall building (בית העיר) is very pretty, and has lots of photos and memorabilia from Tel Aviv's early days.

I went to the Rubin museum which has a number of his paintings and wood cuts, photos of his life and career, and his studio.  He was the first ambassador to Romania from Israel, as well as capturing life in modern Israel's early days.

And on a culinary note, I needed to buy my second bottle of olive oil today (first one was small, but still!).

It's hot in Israel

Temperatures on 5/27/2015 in Fahrenheit

I didn't expect to be blogging about the weather, but when the American Consulate sends out an alert because it's so hot, I guess I can comment, too.  They forecast a high of 113F in Tel Aviv, but it only got up to a humid 102.  I planned my day accordingly.

I reluctantly made a trip to the infamous Supersal grocery store to buy a few things I couldn't find at the shuk.  Walked all the way up there because it was still temperate at 0800.  Much to my surprise, the store wasn't crowded and was very calm.  They didn't even have a security guard at the door.  It was like going to HyVee.  I worked my list, heard no yelling, saw no line-cutting, paid for my bag of goods, and walked back.  Why was each trip to the store in Beer Sheva a candidate for counseling?  I sure don't know.

I met my Hebrew teacher's sister, Gal, by the shuk to give her something.  We picked up her daughter from preschool, and walked around a little.  I bought some sunscreen, pulled my big drapes on the west window, stayed in for the hot afternoon.  I didn't want to get dehydrated or sick from the heat.  Today was the bad day, it is forecast to be back to normal by Friday.  And there's a chance of showers:

Visit to Ariel

I headed up to the big Tel Aviv bus station this morning.  It's big.  Red architectural tile on the outside.  Adequate signage, but not so many people at 0830, and lots of escalators.

Don't worry, it's not that hopeless, but this is the image that came to mind.  Anyway, the Afikim bus to Ariel was on the 7th floor.  Wow.  7 floors of bus gates.  And the fare to Ariel (one-way) was only NIS 11.10 ($3).  I knew it was a low fare from the times I went last year, so I was prepared with small money.  It was a lot easier catching the bus from the bus station than the odd street stations from which I caught it last year.

I missed the obvious university stop in Ariel, and got off at the next one, and walked back (worked on my tan), and then I had my bearings.  Walked up the hill, but at the top it was closed for construction (couldn't see that because of trees until I got there), back down the hill, over to the new staircase, up, up, up.  Found Building 2, found Dr. Rivka Gilat's office, found Dr. Rivka.  We have been working on a faculty announcement for her department (it's my service work in Israel), but I needed more subtle background on the department and its culture.  So we talked, I took notes, I asked questions.  I asked to speak with one of the junior faculty, Dr. Elia, about his opinions, too.  We had a chance to talk to Dean Yosef Pinchas, so we rushed over and spoke with him about the dean's level perspective on hiring faculty.  I got more good notes.

Then Rivka and I went out to an early supper in Petach Tikvah at Bleeker Bakery. We had three appetizers, salad, main course, coffee and dessert.  Needless to say, I came home with two (!) bags of leftovers.  The good news is that we only needed two tables to hold all that food. ;)

She dropped me off at a bus station for #82 (local Tel Aviv bus), which brought me very close to my apartment.  I'd say it was a very successful day.

Restocking

I put together a good shopping list, which included eggs.  I hadn't seen any in the shuk on Friday, but I wasn't at the top of my game, and I wasn't interrogating the shuk offerings. That was my first order of business this morning.  Main row - nothing.  Nothing?  Normal people shop there, not just tourists (what would a tourist do with an eggplant or leeks??), so where are the eggs?  The shuk wraps around by the Carmelit bus station, so I kept walking, and there are little aisles off the main way.  Hmm.  Finally, way in the back of a side aisle, I saw eggs!  I didn't look any further, of course, but it still seems odd.  There were four or five egg vendors at the Beer Sheva shuk.  Eggs at the shuk don't come in tidy cartons like the figure above (see last year's post), so I'll only have needed to buy them once.  Other things were procured, like the great Israeli roasted peanuts, but not noteworthy.

It took two trips to bring everything, up and down four flights of stairs.  Buns of steel.

Promised photos

Ok, here are photos of my apartment (it's pretty little):

My rooftop gazing spot

Now for the views from the roof:

King George St, running to the north in front of the apartment entrance

Looking west to the sea.  The tower is part of Ja'ama'a-el-Bahr Sea Mosque, but I don't think it's active.  I haven't heard a call to prayer.

One of the tony hotels on the beach

Looking south: the tower in old Yafo

The east entrance to the Carmel shuk (it's still early in this photo so there are no crowds).  The sheet metal is a sun shade.

Deeper in the Carmel shuk - note the sheet metal (funky) sunshade.

And finally, looking SE, there is an ongoing restoration of one of the Bauhaus buildings:

Shabbat & Shavuot in Tel Aviv (שבת וחג שבועות בתל-אביב)

I had to run (actually walk) back the shuk at 3:00 on Friday because I had no salt!  You can't make Israeli food without salt!  Luckily the פרג (poppy=name) store in the shuk was still open and I procured some Red Sea salt.  Lots of stalls were locking up for the weekend, so I was happy to make my transaction and get back to preparing for Shabbat.  I made Israeli salad and cauliflower salad, and cleaned up dishes and myself (finally).  Lit candles, ate dinner alone, and crashed.

So, Shabbat and Shavuot were much quieter in Tel Aviv than I expected.  Yes, there were some taxis and private cars, and some open restaurants, but it was pretty quiet.  I read and snoozed and ate and gazed off my roof.  Not a surprise that I'm under an approach path for the airport.  The planes came in about each 30 minutes.  Without the trains or buses running, the taxis must do a great business on Shabbat.  And, of course, tour buses for Christian visitors.  No El Al flights, of course.

I think I could hear a celebration on the beach at about 5:00 on Sunday, but I didn't want to walk back in the dark alone.  A band set up in Magen David Square (כיכר מגן דוד) which is at the east entrance to the Shuk HaCarmel.  It sounded good, but I wanted to do a little laundry and make a phone call before I went downstairs, but now it's quietish so I missed it.

I read two books and rather feel like myself again.