Saturday night! Saturday night!

I have ventured out from my apartment at night. Night beyond 7:30 which is when I usually like to be safe within the confines of my neighborhood. Tonight, I am downtown ON MY OWN and it is almost 10:00pm. I know, right?

So, I have almost nothing to report. Shabbat was great. I went back to the Wall, to a new synagogue and out with a friend. That sounds almost like what I would at home on Shabbat, except there's no wall in my usual version. I am starting to feel more and more at home here which is great consider (and as I have told many of you) I would've sold all my internal organs to come home about a week ago. boy, am i glad i didn't!

Israeli trick of the day:

Let's say, for the sake of this story, that you are me. and that you read hebrew but understand almost nothing. You walk into a 24 grocery and go back to the bottled water. you have to get new bottled water everyday because 1) if you don't drink water here full time, you'll sweat yourself to death and die. 2) because of that stupid article I read in an Oprah magazine about the germs that collect in the caps of water bottles that go on to eat parts of your brain and render you barren. ok, well, that's not true, but it can make you really sick. And I have OCD, I think. so anyway, new water bottle everyday.

You walk into the 24 hour grocery, see the bottles and go to pick one. But it's all in hebrew. this shouldn't be that hard but all the bottles have different colored caps. what does that mean? You think hard for a moment and think, that can't just be decorative. Surely the color serves a purpose. You avoid the pinks and reds, assuming that that will mean strawberry and instead you choose light blue, thinking... light blue means just plain water, right? WRONGO BONGO. Light blue means melon. IN WHAT UNIVERSE DOES LIGHT BLUE EQUAL MELON? That's what I'm saying. I didn't have the cap off for 10 seconds before I could smell that something wasn't right. I took one drink, spit it back in the bottle and kissed all 11 shekls that it cost goodbye. I don't know about you, but I hate flavored water.

Spending this much time talking about flavored water should be an indicator to you that I am doing much better. I love the people I'm meeting. I might go on an overnight trip with some of them this week to the city of Jewish mysticism!!! (Don't worry, Mama).

In other news, I have been trying to assimilate myself as much as I can. What this means is plucking my eyebrows a little more than I would normally (Israeli women keep about 5 hairs on other side), walking with smaller steps and yelling all the Hebrew words into my cell phone. This would be more effective if I knew how to say anything other than BANANAS! WHERE'S THE BATHROOM! I NEED A TELEPHONE!

Well, that's what I know. I still miss you. I will see you in 5 weeks. Unless you are one that I don't usually see. In which case, see ya when I see ya.

Love, Alexis