Wandering

I texted Matat that I was bummed, and she called me, and in a very thick fake Israeli accent (she doesn't normally have much of an accent when she speaks English, but she puts one on when she's making particular points), she said,

"SHALOM! Listen, I just woke up, I looked out the window, I see the sun, the birds, the trees, it's a beautiful day. You need to get up and go out and go all around.  Take a long walk, rent a bike, go to a museum, meet all the people on the streets. You're in Tel Aviv, and you're alive, you're a person who is living. Go do this and then at the end of the day send me pictures. I wish I were there with you but you are going to do this. You took a risk and that's very brave and I'm very proud of you but now we don't care anymore, right? Life goes on because we're living people. Now go take a super hot shower, dress cute and put your makeup on and GO!"

So I WENT!

And here's what I saw...

I was walking along in the water and these guys asked me to take a picture of them flexing their muscles.  I said okay, if I could take one with my camera, too.

The seaaaaaaaaa!  Lots of sailboats out.

This guy was walking ahead of me for most of the afternoon.  It was pleasant.

Seems a bit wishful thinking in these parts, but I'll take it :)

Okay the reason for this photo is there is this guy you can kind of see between the umbrellas.  I watched him doing running-stretches for a little while on the cement, and then he got up, put in his earbuds, and said to himself, "Yalla ballagan!" ("Let's make a mess!") before dashing off to start his run.  I liked it.  Maybe I'll start my runs with that from now on.

Tel Aviv has these free outdoor gym things.  And people use them. 

You really call this winter, Aroma??? I actually missed Boston winter for a heartbeat.  Half a heartbeat.

Some strange little park behind a bunch of apartment buildings.

And then I went to Shabbat and it was lovely and delicious! There was a great new prayer I'm going to try to track down, it was very apt. I couldn't stay too long after because I am still fighting some sickness and I need to rest.

Tomorrow I'm having brunch with Sam and then I'm going to a museum I've been meaning to go to for ages, and then I'm going to a dance show with Kiyomi :).