Eshel Hotel Herzliya Herzlia

... people
Shwarma
Sunsets over the Mediterranean
Non-stop honking of car horns
Felafel
Sloppy pizza
Malawach
Sunflower seeds
Bamba
Black beer
Beautiful Haifa
Freshly squeezed fruit juice
Amazing memories
Crusader period buildings in Acco
Cheese
My old homes
Pastries

... of him speaking Hebrew to Yoel while I thought to myself how you couldn't buy a meal like this at a restaurant with all the money in the world. After lunch we drank fresh mint tea, called nana. The rest of the day involved me using a tool
never thought I would hold; a pitchfork. I shoveled hay into piles for the remainder of the day under the warm Israeli sun and realized what it feels like to put in a hard days work on the farm. It ...

... of Gaza. We had to stop at a hotel in Al Arish to switch buses to help evade the Egyptian authorities. The hotel even doctored false reservation papers for us, which turned out to be useless since the secret police discovered our plans anyway.

We left Cairo at 3:00 a.m. Having gotten about 8 hours of sleep over the past 36 hours, I was feeling totally detached from and aggravated by everything, the bus ride, the young students in my group, the heat ...

... fundada ara fa 100 anys. Entre edificis tipus Bauhaus (la majoria d'ells amb necessitat d'un urgent lifting facial) s'hi amaga una ciutat que em recorda una mica a California o a certs barris de Nova York. No es respira estres enlloc. Les terrasses son totes plenes en un dia laboral, la gent es passeja amunt i avall. De tant en tant es veu algun que altre jueu ortodox, pero la majoria de la gent va vestida de manera forca moderna, una mica fashion ...

My uncle Yitzchak

My grandmother's brother Yitzchak lives the happiest life of anyone I know. He has four children and nine grandchildren who visit him constantly, while he's always laughing, telling stories, and forgetting that I can't keep up with his rapid-speed Hebrew. He humorously attempts to speak English but can't pronounce letters that don't exist in Hebrew (window = "vind-oh"), and tries convincing people his name is George.

Although he's not ...

... friends with, but the guy kept demanding stuff from the waitress, so we barred him after dinner. Talia came from Netanya to visit us, so we had some nagila at a bar on the beach. An Israeli guy that caught the bus with her joined us later, except that his English was as **** as her Hebrew, so I ended up helping them pick up. My flight to Cairo via Amman was at 7am, so I booked no hostel and got no sleep, and stayed online from the time the others left until 4am.

We just got back from fishing with Mohamed, his 2 oldest sons and two friends. A nice evening outside by the marina, I could do this forever. I'm going to sleep at Mohamed's place tonight and we will go to an Arabic night club in Tel Aviv now. If you think, I did not even plan on hitchhiking, now I have a complete evening with a local family, dinner and a place to sleep! (Did I mention Mohamed is the only one around speaking a little English, and by "little", I mean just a view words?)

... for my mom. also turned down numerous offers to put on teffilin on the street, "because in israel, you can". sorry buddy. might go see waltz and beshir, an animated movie about the lebanon war, tonight. it's 22C, sunny, and in shorts and sandals and hopefully catching up on some vitamin D. i know i have worldwide sympathy for my weather, and i appreciate it.

... cooled me off after I got out.  I lounged, people watched for an hour and a half and then headed back to meet Ellie for dinner.  We met another friend of hers and went to a restaurant called Monna Tomei.  It is located at 30 Ibn Gvirol.  They serve Asian food - Chinese, Japanese, Thai.  I had shrimp dumplings and shrimp tempura.  The streets were closed down for the Tel Aviv midnight run.  9/1/08 - Up at 630am for my ...

... businessmen - is involved in a project to bring electric cars to the world. Israel is a world leader in what they call 'cleantech' - green technologies such as solar power etc., and something that interests me. He asked me for my resume so my fingers are crossed I can get involved with it. There is a Jewish saying 'He who is rich is he who satisfied with what he has'. I had to continually remind myself of it because I unwittingly suggesting a ...