Adventures Galore!

And as the adventures continue, so does my blog. Ok, not so exciting, but here are a few interesting things that have happened/observations that have been observed :) Cats...for those of you who are cat lovers, this is the wrong place to be. I say that only because there are a bajillion (yes that is the official Talia count) stray, fuzzy, fluffy, cute, kitties running around the city! Israel doesn't really seem to have squirrels here, instead, they have Fluffy. And all of his friends. The interesting thing is that the cats here don't look like scruffy scrangy messes of a cat, they actually look fluffy and cute and all you want to do is feed them and take care of them. But alas, as I'm sure they're carrying more diseases than you'd ever want to know, petting them is probably not a good idea. But just so you know...I believe there are 6-8 living right outside my building, and the willpower to resist playing with them has been far greater than that of willpower resisting Magnum bars (incredible Israeli ice cream bars). Buses...so I have only begun to conquer Jerusalem buses, but like I said, it's only the beginning. I had a summer job interview in an obscure part of Jerusalem (I say obscure because no one could show me on a map where it was) and I had to get back on my own, on buses. Contrary to what you all see in the media, not all buses blow up, they're safe, I'm alive, yippee skippee. However, the funniest thing on my travels stemmed from people watching and observing the stereotypical aggressiveness of Israelis: not youngsters, but old ladies! I was sitting near the front of the bus for fear of missing my stop when I was literally SHOVED over by a little Israeli woman, probably around 75 years old, and probably less than 1/2 my size. I was amazed at her aggression in getting on the bus and moving my butt over, without giving me the chance to get up and offer her a seat. And the lesson learned (well, in reality, dealing with all Israelis) is that you have to get aggressive back, but how do you get mean with grandma?? Movie theater...I saw my first Israeli movie in an Israeli movie theater 2 nights ago! I went with a few friends to see the Academy-nominated movie called Waltz With Bashir. It was pretty good, and it gave me a good Hebrew practice. The movie theater was very cute. You walked into a cafe type thing and then through the back, and voila! There's the movie theater! Prices were comparable to most movie theaters there (about $9)...expensive compared to Vero, but what can you do? The movie didn't shed the greatest light on Israel (towards the end) but it was still pretty powerful. Paintball...yes, I said Paintball. I went and played paintball for the first time ever, in a city called Herzliya, 1.5 hrs away from Jerusalem. There were about 30+ kids who got to go (you had to register) and approximately <10 girls there. We played at night which made the adrenaline rush even more intense because you couldn't see at all. I got hit three times, once in the leg and twice in the head. My team lost, but it was still really fun to play. Anyways, I've made this one long enough too. I don't have any pictures of the activities mentioned in this email, but I will include a picture of my closest friends here. From left to right, they are Carly, Julia, Me, and Alyza. I haven't figured out how to caption photos like Amit and Dena, so you'll have to deal with this. Love, Talia