tel aviv again

I've been in Tel Aviv with Micah for almost two days now, and we've been getting in to all sorts of adventures. After I met her at the airport the other day, we went to a youth hostel she used to stay at when she lived here. But once we got there, we decided it was too expensive for us and she called a friend who said we could stay at his music studio. After running around the city with our heavy backpacks, we finally found his studio and we think it used to be a bomb shelter because it's in the basement of an apartment building and the door is really thick. But it's decorated all musically, and during the day bands come here to practice and it has a really good vibe, despite the fact that it doesn't have a shower.

Today we walked around an artist market they have here every Tuesday and Friday. All these local artists set up stalls displaying their art, like jewelry or photos or whatever, and sell it there. We didn't buy anything, but I talked to one photographer who told me that he has been working with his father on a photo project about the Western Wall since 1987. They have been just going back and taking awesome pictures, and soon they are going to publish them into a book, and it's going to have a foreword by Elie Wiesel. I asked him for his business card so I could follow along his project, and he gave me one of his photos on a postcard for free :)

Then we took a bus over to Yafo because that is the Arab part of Tel Aviv and I wanted to practice. I looked around for a wooden camel for my brother, and I found one in this flea market that was made of leather and bargained the price down from 100 shekels to 30, but I didn't end up buying it because it was kind of weird. And the shopkeeper was really forceful and was blocking the doorway so I couldn't get out when I said I didn't want to buy it. But at another place Micah and I got crazy matching sunglasses, and we bought a pair as a thank-you gift for her friend for letting us stay at his studio.

After that we wanted to go find some Arabs, and we wandered into this produce shop and started talking to the owner. We ended up finding out that he lived in New York and that he speaks Hebrew and Spanish (like Micah) and Arabic (like me, sort of) and English too. He was very friendly and invited us over to his house so we can practice speaking our languages with his kids, but we had to come back to Tel Aviv because we are going to another friend's house to stay tonight. But he gave us his phone number and said that he is going to call us to see that we are doing ok, being away from home and all that, and he said if we needed anything at all we should call him and he would love to help us out. He even asked if we were doing ok with money! Micah has been in Turkey for the last five weeks and she said that there, if you talk to any shopkeeper they will invite you inside for tea and are very hospitable, so it was nice to find a similar experience here.

I also decided that I wanted to buy a soccer jersey here, and when we were walking around we found this street with all these really cheap shops with big piles of clothes outside. One had a bunch of sporting clothes and Micah and I found matching red jerseys that we think are from some high school team, but we both put them on and got a lot of attention on the street because people want to know what team we're supporting, but we have no idea. We just look cool, and it was only 30 shekels for both of them, which is around $7.50.

Right now we are packing up our stuff and saying goodbye to this alternative music studio because the next friend we are going to stay with is coming to pick us up soon. Hopefully we'll have wi fi at this next place so I can borrow Micah's laptop to post again :)