Israel/Tel Aviv/Dead Sea adventures

Ra
Well, we've been to Israel for almost 2 weeks now, and it's all about to change. a few hours ago (6 hours to be exact), Tom and Penguin landed in Israel, and will be joining us for the next (almost 3 weeks) in Jordan, Egypt and Goa in India.

we went to the airport to pick them up (hella early! 4:30 am!), and they are asleep - tom in my Parents' living room, and penguin is happily snoring away in the spare room.

About a week or so we took all the "Americans" that came to Noam's wedding (Jennif, Jrat, Andi, Mel, Emily, Frances and Barney in no particular order) to the Dead Sea. Now, we took them to an awesome wild beach we've gone to before, with a topography that changes every year - this simple fact makes sure that every time we go out there it's an adventure. I think we didn't quite convey that fact to all those guys, and they didn't know what they were getting into. I hope that at least some of it was a positive experience for them - i know that we had a great time.... we found a fresh spring hole that had fresh cold water come in on top and a hot spring from the bottom. we rolled around in mud and had a great time. it was the getting to and from this hole that was problamatic, with lots of mud to wade through...

On the way back from the Dead Sea we stopped at an Arab village called Abu (in arabic, Abu means "father of") Gosh. those of you following the different types of Hummus that Sabre offers in the states might have seen that name as a type of Hummus. Obviously this type of Hummus originated from this village. i've been there a few times, but every time i go, there are all these signs and places claiming to be "the original Hummus place"... and i never know where to go. This time, we ended up stopping at a place called "Mifgash Abu Gosh" (which translates to the "Abu Gosh Meeting place"), and had a great meal, helping everyone to calm down from the (mis)adventures of the day. I was quite happy that the meal was great - we felt a bit guilty about the unintended adventure we put our friends through....

A couple of days later, we met up with our friends Shelly and Shay - which stayed with us about a year ago while they were visiting the states. I have to give a little bit of a background about shelly - she was my next door neighbor - literally - since i was 1 years old to the day I left Israel at 20 years old. She was my first girlfriend at sixth grade, and is generally an awesome person :)
Anyway, we met up with them, and they generously offered up her dad's unused apartment (he's in Uganda until the 22nd) which is placed in a very nice neighborhood in Tel Aviv. we gladly accepted, and spent two days there and had a lovely time, from a great dinner at a nice Italian Restaurant, to walking all over Tel Aviv and Rock Climbing in an outdoor rock climbing wall. we had a great time, but learned a valuable lesson - if you're gonna rock climb outside the U.S. - specifically in Israel - import your own chalk, as the chalk - which costs $1 where we usually climb - costs $8 here. as ironic as it sounds, we've gotten so little alone time so far that every time we are alone (with each other, that is), we enjoy it immensely.

Right now i'm sitting in my mother's workroom, waiting for everyone else to wake up so we can start our day here. but, i know the next few weeks are going to be quite different because of the new company that just arrived. we can't wait! :)