Savoy Tel Aviv Seaside

... popped out of the syringe, leading to some amusing squirting seemingly from my heel and some unamusing discomfort from the needle genuinely in my heel - using ultrasound again this time to guide the needle to the inflamed spot. The solution did the trick and my heel felt good as new within 72 hours.<br><br>Still, there was lasting damage in another respect. I'd lost 4 months of training, including a workshop and batizado ...

... but yea. had breakfast after that, then went to the beach. later today we will be going to explore tel aviv more...the city...i will take pictures but i dont expect it to be that exciting...when we get to jerusalem and some other cities it will be alot more interesting to take pics. 

... ck&#305;ng &#305;n the nearby lush orchards, although our t&#305;m&#305;ng meant that there were few cherr&#305;es on the trees. The v&#305;ews on th&#305;s day's dr&#305;ve were so scen&#305;cally beaut&#305;ful, and couldn't res&#305;st the many overlooks. <br><br>We drove through seemongly peaceful Arab v&#305;llages, although we couldn't help but not&#305;ce some stares we rece&#305;ved wh&#305;ch m&#305;ght have been negat&#305;vely &#305;nterpreted, but ...

... he said he would yesterday when he said it would take 20 minutes to prepare the apartment for us, but we hadn't heard anything for an hour? We popped in on him, and of course, the apartment was ready, but why no call? We didn't ask.) Anyway, this time I asked when that might be, he said he'd call them soon. Right, OK... <br><br>We weren't about to wait for him, as it was lunchtime already. And we needed stamps ...

... morning, they took us to see a tunnel, which could have been blown up by the Israeli army at any moment. We also went on a fishing boat and rode out about 2 miles, toward Israeli navy boats who fire at Gazan fisherman daily and nightly. It was hard to take their caution seriously. Our taxi driver dropped us at the souk and was nice enough to walk around with us (most people spoke good Arabic so we could manage). In the middle of nowhere we ...

... and drove to Tel Aviv. It was a lot of fun. One of our team members, Mike, has a sister who... long story short, got us a great deal on our rooms. You could see the sea from our 19th story rooms and we were literally a block from the beach! We spent most of our time at a restaurant/bar called Mike's Place. (www.mikesplacebars.com/) Friday, the weather was overcast with a little bit chilly wind. So, Becky and I just shopped. We went to the little boutiques on the streets up from the ...

... how the government system works (or doesn't work). Without getting into the actual results too deeply, the governing coalition is shaping up to slant pretty right-wing, and after the war with Hamas, it seems to me as if Israel is perhaps moving in that right-wing direction. Brett says I'm being politically correct in these entries, and he's definitely right. Because I'll stop right there and go to sleep so I can rest for my immunohistochemistry protocol tomorrow.

... how cosmopolitan Tel Aviv is, there's a place for everyone even at the beaches - there's a bodybuilders section, a gay beach, and even an enclosed "Separated Beach" for the religious. The sign at the front: "Bathing days for women: Sun, Tue, Thu. Bathing days for men: Mon, Wed, Fri" hahaha.<br><br>I ended up walking from one side of Tel Aviv to the other for a bit of fitness. Joel and I went to the Port in the north for ...

... get to Tel Aviv. The good news starts here: once we arrived there, we were blown away with what we found. I experienced more culture shock that day going from Amman to Tel Aviv than I did going from Amman back to the USA. Considering it is so close to Syria, Jordan, Iraq, etc, Tel Aviv seems a whole world away- the only thing that hints you're not in Europe are the IDF troops and private security you see all over the city. After all my initial shock went away, a ...

... apartment.  Found it.  We went out to dinner at a place called the M&R Brasserie.  The menu was only in Hebrew and French.  Luckily I can read French, but the waiter spoke English and was very willing to translate.  They had steak and seafood dishes and American style martini's.  I had a seafood casserole which was delicious--shrimp, clams, mussles, lobster claws in a wine butter sauce sprinkled with bread crumbs.  Then we ...