Welcome to the weekend...

I'm not quite following through with what I said I would post about yesterday, but here are a few interesting things I don't think I've mentioned so far.



The work week here is from Sunday-Thursday. Pretty much everything but restaurants are closed from Friday evening through to Saturday evening (Shabbat). That's a little strange to get used to, but it was actually very exciting when I realized yesterday that the weekend was already upon us over here.



Tonight Mary and I are going to rent a movie, which brings me to another interesting fact. There aren't actual movie rental stores here - you rent movies from this self-service vending type machines that are along the roads. Very interesting.



I'm feeling very blah right now, which is unpleasant, but I think it is mostly due to the lack of things occupying my time right now. Our orientation meetings go from about 10:00 AM to perhaps 2:00 PM, with a half-hour to forty-five minute break in the middle. And it's a wonderful thing, because even just that little amount of time spent introducing us to what we'll be doing can be overwhelming, considering the vast amounts of information presented and the complete new-ness of it all. But there's not a whole lot to do. Marion and Zvi (the directors of the program) have been encouraging us to get out, get familiar with the city, really experience life here. But so far as I've been able to tell, "experiencing life" here means visiting one of the many coffeehouses, pubs, or the beach. Seeing as how I'm not so big on drinking, and I've visited the beach (they call it the sea here though) and don't like coffee (but have visited cafes nonetheless) I'm left a little mystified. Make no mistake of it, I'm enjoying myself quite thoroughly, actually. I generally get to spend some time with Daive every day, to try and keep her somewhat on a semi-normal type of schedule, and sleep a decent amount each night, but I'm a little bored. I know though, that in a month, and definitely in two months, I'll be wailing about how I don't have a spare second and wish that I had time to be bored. So in that respect, I'm rather soaking up the lack of activity. But still...



I'm not even sure if I mentioned what my schedule will be like once everything gets up and running or not. First of all, the Tel Aviv public schools start on September 1. I believe that we'll be in the schools then, or shortly after then, observing and just getting an idea of how it all works. University doesn't start until the middle of October. One interesting thing is that our classes at TAU will be closed - there will only be the 15 of us there. I haven't really decided what I think about that though. Anyway, and Ulpan (Hebrew classes) start the first week in September. So here's what my week will look like, once everything gets started up:



Sunday - Classes at TAU and weekly TASP seminar

Monday - School (Tel Aviv school, not university) and Ulpan

Tuesday - School

Wednesday - Classes at TAU

Thursday - School and Ulpan



I think it's a wonderful thing that we won't ever have to worry about rushing to University after a day at school, that's definitely good planning. And it may seem very relaxed and perfect and maybe not even enough to do (I had the thought briefly at first) but I seriously doubt that will be a problem.



I've been completely lazy so far today. After the drama with the dogs and making them puke last night, I stayed home, posted here, read some, and slept. I slept in pretty late, ate two pitas (with this great cheese in it) for breakfast/lunch, read some more, and am posting again. It's much more enjoyable to be lazy here at Mary's house than to be lazy in the dorm. Anyway...I'm just sort of rambling now, so I'll go. I'm nearly at the end of the book I'm reading, and am anxious to see how it all ends up. Love you all!