Mondayyyy = Mind Change

Wiser heads have prevailed and I have decided to wait to go to Tsfat (city of Jewish mysticism) until next week when my congregation is here. Why? Well, as excellent as I have been feeling here lately (and I still do), I'm not sure how I feel about traveling 3 hours by car with people I just met about 4 days ago. Just a thought. I did, however, go on a DATE since I last wrote. More about later. First I have to tell you about the YMCA or as I like to call it THE DREAMY PLAYLAND OF AMERICAN FINERY.

So, I am sure that there are fancier hotels in Israel. Infact, I am sure there are hotels that offer more luxury on the same street as The Dreamy Playland of American Finery (henceforth called DPAF). THAT BEING SAID- compared to the apartment where I have been staying, and don't get me wrong... I liked it there, the DPAF is a breathtaking palace of airconditioning and cleanliness. It has a swimming pool. Not that I'll be using it... but it DOES. It gives you breakfast everyday. It has American TV. This means you could watch MTV 24 hours a day, if you so chose. I won't be because I only a few days left in Jerusalem by myself, but if I had time to kill... it would be watching MTV. It is also just a five minute walk to the Waffle Lady of Jerusalem.

Dreamy Playland of American Finery + Waffle Lady of Jerusalem= OMG!OMG!OMG!

I am feeling just great. The congregation comes on Thursday morning. I'm thinking about traveling to Tel Aviv on Wednesday so that I won't have to make the trip on Thursday very early. They get in at 9:45am. But leaving on Wednesday would mean one less night at the DPAF. Decisions, decisions.

Yesterday, I found a Bedouin jeweler on Ben Jehudah Street. Ben Jehudah is like the Mass Street of Jerusalem. Lots of jewelry, lots of clothing stores, some music stores, many restaurants (remind me later to go into detail about fancy burger king)... things like that. Anyway, the guy who makes all the stuff in there is named Edan. Ee-don. He was very, very nice and gave me 40% off because I got two things, a necklace and earrings. Two things that are going to be my birthday present to myself for the next 10 years because I spent about 9 billion shekls on them. And it would take me two days to earn that much money at home. That means, according to my calculations, that I'll only have to wear them 8 thousands times to get my money out of them. There are worse things, I suppose.

Oh yeah, on the way to the internet place this morning, I saw a little girl wearing a shirt that said "HOMO DOG!!". It had two exclamation points. All I could think was... people speak English here. Surely one of her parents would recognize that something was not quite write about that. Who knows, though. People say nigger and negro here a lot. My friend Ben (who is American, but moved here 13 years ago) says they say it to mean the same thing as idiot or stupid, that they don't understand the connotations it has for Americans. I guess I can see that, but I still don't like it and it makes my tounge sweat everytime I hear it. No one likes a sweating tounge.

Pretty much, that's what I know. I feel like my trip is almost over, even thought I have about a month to go.

Seeee yaaaaa.
Alexis