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| Last Tel Aviv Sunset |
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| View from Jerusalem Promenade |
The rest of January flew by, and before we knew it, we were packing and saying goodbye. On the last day of Career Israel, we went to the beach to watch the sun set, got our rooms checked, and headed to a bar on Nachalat Binyamin for one last night out. The morning came too quickly, and we were kicked out of our rooms at 9am! This left us with an entire day to kill and a lot of luggage to haul around. So, we dropped our bags off in the common room of our building and spent the day saying goodbye as everyon left at different times. Eventually, it was time to head to my first post-trip destination: Anat's! I got to relax/unwind from the whirlwind of events that made up the conclusion of Career Israel.
Wednesday, I spent the day in Jerusalem while Anat went to work. I explored the Old City and surrounding areas, pondered the meaning of life at the Kotel, ate rugelah from Marzipan, and bought more souvenirs that I didn't need. Wednesday evening, I watched Anat play basketball in her work league- she's so good! Good game, Anat!
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| Yalla Maccabi Haifa! |
On Thursday, I headed up to Haifa to spend some time with Guy, Ariel, Dani, and crew. We started the weekend with a night out at the Loft, a really fun dance bar in Haifa. It was nice to be there for more than 5 minutes... we danced til 3 am! Saturday afternoon, I played in my last Israeli soccer game. I'm gonna miss the tiny fields that are actually concrete courts! It will be weird to play on a large, grassy field when I go home.
Since I hadn't been to a Maccabi Haifa basketball game yet, on Sunday, I went with my friend Taly from work to check out the team! We picked a great game to go to- very exciting- fans screaming and cheering, lots of scoring, and HAIFA WON! This is a big deal because they're not very good this year.
On Tuesday, I traveled down to Beer Sheva University to visit my friend Nati, from camp. It was really cool to be on an Israeli University campus- most of the students at other universities live at home, but because Beer Sheva is so far from everywhere, the university has a real campus feel. We went to a student bar and hung out for a while- felt like any campus bar at a small school.
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| Singing in the Kitchen |
Wednesday for dinner, I went to Caesarea for a work dinner party event called Singing in the Kitchen! It was a great night- everyone arrives around 5 and starts cooking and the people that aren't cooking play the keyboard, guitar, or sing! We played a version of spin the bottle where, if it's pointing to you, you pick a card and have to do whatever it says! I had to wear a pair of silly Harry Potter-ish glasses (perfect, right?) After the cooking, singing, and games were done, we sat down to a delicious Russian themed dinner. After dinner, I went back to Haifa, since I can't stay away for too long.
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| Philly Pride! |
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| Superbowl at Mike's Place! |
I couldn't believe it was my last weekend in Haifa already. We hung out, went to some bars, and relaxed a lot. Sunday night, we drove to Mike's Place in Tel Aviv to watch the Superbowl. When we got there, around midnight, it was already packed! We walked around, collecting chairs anywhere we could find them, and waited for the game to start. Luckily, a table emptied just before the game started (1:30am!). As is tradition for Guy, Ariel, Dani, and Ran, we ordered burritos and watched the game! The bar was full of American and Israeli, packers and steelers fans and lots of cheering and shouting for both teams made the game really fun to watch. The game ended at 5:30am, and as we drove back to Haifa, we saw the sun rise. It was a great night!
The next day, Guy informed us that there was a picture taken at Mike's Place of Dani, Ariel, and Ran's backs in a popular Israeli newspaper! My shoulder's in the picture, too!
My last few days in Israel were a blur of last minute trips to all my favorite places, including The Wok, Tel Aviv (and the beach), and Jerusalem. On my last night in Haifa, the boys had pizza night at Ariel and Dani's. It was a great way to hang out and say l'heitraot to everyone! I also got to say l'heitraot to Anat before I left for the airport. Which brings me to where I am now: writing my last Israel Blog entry and trying to accept that I'm going home.
Signing out from Israel,
Stef
