weekend warriors

We went into Tel Aviv right after Channah got out of school. We were spending Shabbat at Meir and Ahuva's place in Ramat Gan and wanted to get in early enough to spend some time at the shuk haCarmelim and nachlat Binyamin in the afternoon. We actually had such a nice time we are planning to go back into Tel Aviv on Tuesday (Channah gets out early on Tuesdays) to run some errands I need to do as well as spend the later part of the afternoon at the beach.

We got off the bus at the Coca Cola factory stop as that is the one closest to where we were going for Shabbat. Wow was there are alot of warm coke sitting there. Seriously, there were pallettes stacked at least 50 cans wide at the base and about 10 feet high sitting in the sun. The plays offers tours that are supposedly really kitchy and fun (including such things as a ride in a bumpe up and down pod-elevator tihng with 3d glasses so you can "be a bubble" in a can of coke.) Sounds like something fun to do, but I think we will wait for someone touristy who we can drag along.

The shul and nachlat binyamin were fun. We got a bunch of Channah's favourite movies... In Hebrew. If she likes these and picks up words from them we will get more. We got Cinderella, Pocohantus, Dora and Lion King. We did not get anything else (other than drinks) but we did spend about 2 hours just wandering. Nachalat Binyamin is an artisan market that is there twice a week and some of the stuff was really stunning. Ok, some of it was the same old crap you see everywhere, but some was truly spectacular!

Shabbat was wonderful. It was like, well, like being with Meir and Ahuva again! Channah had a great time playing with Shoshanah (4 months younger and 4 inches taller!). It is really something to watch how Channah gets on so well with our friend's kids. There is something fun about knowing they are friends also.

We took the bus home this evening from Tel Aviv. Boy was that an adventure. First of all, the bus that was supposed to come at 8:30 did not show up until 9:55 and thus obviously it was PACKED. We got on at the last stop in Tel Aviv, so we do not know how it took so long, but we did learn very quickly that this was not a "normal" driver for that route, so he kept needing directions from people on the bus and got lost. Aside from that he was doing at least 60km/h over the limit (he took speed bumped at 85!). you need to understand that Bet shemesh has not traffic light and the whole traffic situations throughout the city are controlled by traffic circles. When you take them really fast, the whole city becomes a giant horror go cart track that you are stuck on for at least 40 minutes!

Oh, just for interest sake I should probably mention that as it is technically a B'nei Brak bus, it is one of the "mehadrin" busses where men sit in the front and women get Rosa Park-ed to the back of the bus. Yes Channah and I even used the back entrance.

I honestly thought I was going to be sick. Needless to say we were all quite thankful to finally get off the bus.

Jason just got home from selichot and as soon as I finish making channah's lunch for tomorrow (pasta with ketchup- EW) we are going to go to bed. It is almost 2am here and last night we were up with Meir and Ahuva until after 3!