seeing and being et cetera

Went to Netanya yesterday with Leah, David, Carol and Alan; (that makes four Americans plus one Argentinian) to an illegally built golf course on a kibbutz. There are only two golf courses in the entire country and this is one of them...an illegal one that is probably going to get shut down in September. Leah was writing an article about this golf course for the Jerusalem Post. The owners of the course gave us a free game of golf- I just caddied about because I don't know the first thing about golf. (I'm pretty good at mini-golf though.) It is such a Posh sport with a capital P that I don't think I could ever become any sort of player.
Then it was on to Tel Aviv University to see a...professional handball game, which David needed to write an article about. Yes, I am serious: professional handball. What a bizarre sport. It's like if bowling, football, soccer and dodgeball mated together and had a child. A very strange child.
It was off to the tayelet to join up with a bunch of Tel Aviv hippies on the beach having a drum circle, where we rocked out and watched fire jugglers and people living it up with djembes. I definitely got my hippie groove on. The night was ended with shakshooka and gelato and the sketchiness of sherut (shared taxis) and the nightmarish concrete acid trip that is the Tel Aviv central bus station.
Internship has definitely been improving my Hebrew but is challenging and draining. We studied the effects of religion on environmentalism this week as well as the effects of Zionism on the environment. Hooray for learning about fascinating concepts. On Monday, our architecture class is taking its first field trip: Hezekiah's Tunnel. I am pretty psyched to wade through cold water in a dimly lit underground tunnel. Sweet. And guess what is this week? Purim. You gotta love Jewish holidays. Purim? "Let's dress up as crazy characters, drink lots of wine, make noise, eat triangle-shaped cookies and read from a scroll!" The question is, what will I dress up as for Purim? It's still unclear.
Today I had Indian food and appreciated the sunshine.
An alphabet of Israel:
A is for Attempting to speak Hebrew in an American Accent
B is for Bargaining with street vendors and taxi drivers
C is for Churches that are really awesome
D is for the Dollar of America which does badly in Israel these days much to my Detriment
E is for Egged, the bus company
F is for Fresh fruits and vegetables
G is for Galgalatz, the terrible radio station that absolutely everyone listens to
H is for Hasidic Jews that are everywhere and also H is definitely for Hummus
I is for Ibexes, the little goat-type animals that frolic in the desert
J is for Jerusalem stone that blinds you
K is for Karaites because I didn't know what to write for K and Karaites are Kool
L is for Laid-back
M is for the Muezzins in the Mosques that call you to prayer 5 times a day
N is for Nargila in a hookah
O is for Olive trees that make Olive Oil
P is for Pita which is best when fresh and Piping hot
Q is for Questions of which I often have many
R is for Riding on camels which people do here especially the Bedouins
S is for Shabbat where in Jerusalem everything Shuts down and you can walk in the Street without fear of getting run over by a car which is usually the way life is
T is for Tramping which means hitchhiking
U is for Umm Kulthum
V is for Very awful Israeli pop music
W is for Water, always a controversial issue in the Middle East
X is for X marks the spot where maybe some ancient Israeli pirates potentially buried their treasure...
Y is for Yeshiva boys who are so cute with their glasses
Z is for Zed which is the way French and Canadian and British people and basically everyone but Americans say the letter "Z" and there are a lot of French and Canadian and British people here