Purim Weekend!

Last Wednesday was the start of my Purim weekend, my roommate Sarah(CA) went out with a bunch of people to this bar where a few kids from Rothberg were DJing. It was a fantastic night, a ton of people from school and great music. Thursday was a lazy day, Aviva, Jon and I walked up to campus to buy tickets for the Purim part on Sunday night. Aviva bought a few things for her costume (she was going as Scar from the Lion King). We came home and watched that Zohan movie. It was hilarious, very stereotypical of what people in Israel are like. I was able to catch onto all the little jokes after been here for a month and a half. That Thursday night I packed for Tel Aviv and did a little homework so I wouldn't have to worry about it all weekend. On Friday morning we left for Tel Aviv. Aviva, Maggie, Morey, Jon, Mike and I took a sheruit (large cab) to Tel Aviv and met Effe at the apartment. We rented out an apartment for two nights and it was two blocks from the beach. It was a great location. We fit seven people in an apartment for four, we were a tenement family for the weekend, ha! The weather was not so great, but there were breaks in the rain and we were able to walk along the beach and such. I really enjoyed Tel Aviv as it reminded me of New York, it was more modern, things were shut down on Shabbot, there were dogs instead of cats, (!!!) and it had much more of a young city vibe. On Friday night Morey went with some family to have Shabbos dinner while the rest of us walked to the Port and had dinner at Moses'. The best dinner ever. I had a cheeseburger....with bacon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I was, I called Mom and Dad right away and told them that I had one. I would go back to Tel Aviv right now just for the burger. After dinner we went back and got ready to go out. We went to a few clubs and walked around different parts of the city. It was a fun night and it was my first trip to a gay bar. Interesting.

Saturday morning we got up and walked along the beach to the old city of Jaffa. It was a stretch, but it was nice to be able to walk in the water, the sun was coming in and out all day. We had a nice lunch at a small restaurant and then headed back. A few people took naps but I was all over watching the Olympics. I was really excited to have a TV as we watched a lot of different events, skiing, bobsledding, ice skating! It was very relaxing. Effe and I walked around to find a place to eat and see what was beginning to open as Shabbot was ending. We ended up going to this Italian restaurant right across the street from our apartment. I had lasagna with meat!!!! I swear Tel Aviv had been waiting for me for a month. I inhaled the lasagna. When we got back and were getting ready we were watching the news as the earthquake in Chile had just hit and they had the warning about the tsunami hitting Hawaii. We all went back to the Port to find a club to go to. Now Purim is a holiday where everyone dresses up as it is Halloween back in the States. We didn't dress up in Tel Aviv, but wow, the amount of people that were out and their costumes. It was madness. There were so many different clubs, but we ended up at one called Old something. We chilled there for a bit and then headed back.

On Sunday we had to check out and we headed back to Jerusalem. Taking the bus is really easy to do and it isn't a long ride at all. When we got back I unpacked and my clothes wreaked of cigarettes. I'm really getting tired of how everyone smokes everywhere. I took a quick nap and then started getting ready for the Purim Party in Jerusalem. My costume was a toga, it turned out really well to my surprise as I didn't know what I was doing that morning. We had a few people over before we headed out, it was fun to get ready with everyone and see all the different costumes. One of Sarah's friends was a cat in a trashbag. Ha! It was great, the costume wasn't the best, buttttt the idea was great. (Little cat story, so I was taking the trash out and I started to throw the bags in the dumpster and I heard rumbling so I knew it was a cat so I stopped for a second and out of no where this cat flies out of the dumpster right next to me, I started screaming and whipping around the trashbags. Traumatizing. :) ) Once we arrived at the Jerusalem theater, it was a stampede to get in. People in Israel have never heard of a line or wait your turn! I'm really starting to get annoyed with this. There were thousands of people there waiting to get in. I have never in my life been to a party this big, nor even see pictures. There were multiple dance floors and you just kept walking around and around just seeing all the people and their costumes. The music was great and the played YMCA! I was with a group of kids from school and so we knew the song and got really excited and this guy next to us looked at us with five heads as he thought we were crazy because we were so excited! Haha. Aviva and I headed back kinda early, around 2 I think. I was so tired, I'm not used to three nights in a row of partying. I was pooped. (We had Sunday and Monday off from school, so I had a five day weekend.) On Monday I got up and immediately did some laundry. I couldn't take the smell, I had a ton to do, about four loads. The rest of the day was lounging, did a little reading. Overall, Purim in Israel was outstanding.