Slikha, At Medaberet Anglit? (Excuse me, Do you speak english?)

Today’s Scoreboard:

Total Kilometers walked wayyy too many

Total times “Do you Speak English” was asked to random strangers on the street: probably about 65 (but who’s counting?)

Total cell phone plans organized: 0

Total busses taken to get pretty much nowhere throughout the day: 6

Total Schwarmas/ Falafels eaten so far: 0

Totally wiped out….

So today brought on one adventure after another. I didn’t really go out this morning with a plan, other than to find where I have to go for work tomorrow morning bright and early, at 8 am (which I did!) and to get a cell phone for the next three months. One out of two ain’t bad. The building where my office is is right across the street from the ocean, not a bad place to take a lunch break. You can tell that the area is where all the fashion headquarters are that are in Tel Aviv just by the number of people smoking outside of the office buildings, probably thinking they are the coolest thing to hit Israel since sliced Matzah. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what else is around there and what the area is like. Other than that, I did a substantial amount of walking/wandering/not knowing where I was this afternoon which was really nice, just to see what’s up in Tel Aviv. I have never really had time to explore this area because I have always been on such a tight schedule. I did have to find out where I was occasionally so I didn’t wander into some unknown territory and just to make sure I was somewhat wandering correctly so when it came to asking people on the street, for the most part, everyone was really nice and helpful, including one girl who pulled out her cell phone and looked up a map of the buses online from her phone, and basically walked with me to the bus stop. Speaking of buses, the last bus I took was playing The Beatles and a little old man next to me was singing along, half in Hebrew and half in English- it was definitely a culture clash! I’m making in an early night tonight so that I am not a zombie for my early wake-up call of 6:30.

Oh! And as for the Hebrew word of the day, it comes with a story, of course. On my first bus ride this morning, I pulled out my handy dandy Hebrew-english dictionary to read about bus and transportation terminology, knowing I would probably need it soon enough. The first page I opened up to offered this:

ISRAELI SOLDIERS:

Israeli Soldiers’ main means of transport throughout the country is Egged, the national bus line. When traveling by bus in Israel, you’ll encounter many olive-green uniformed men and women, all carrying one type of machine gun or another. If a rifle blocks your path, don’t be afraid to say:

“Slikha, ata yakhol (at yekhola) lahaziz et harove, bevakasha?”

In english, “Pardon me, could you move that gun?”

Oyyy Vey, only in Israel.