I slept in since I would be just going to the beach for the day. I stopped at the Haifa mall on the way in to pick up some grape juice and mini challah for my Shabbat blessings, some burekas, and a copy of the Jerusalem Post for Shabbat reading. Then I wondered how the bus system worked in Haifa in relation to Shabbat. So I went over to the station and asked about it. Apparently the last direct bus (46) stops at 2 PM (it was already 11 AM) and the transfer bus (133) stops around 5 PM. I sighed. I was also beginning to wonder about how buses worked on Shabbat since Haifa is the only Israeli city that has limited public transportation on Shabbat (yes, considering how liberal Tel Aviv is, it's still shut down on Shabbat).
I walked along the Ha-Carmel promenade to explore more beaches. There wasn't actually much after 1 1/2 miles and I realized that Dado/Zamir was actually better. Along the route, I found a bunch of old men playing dominos at tables. I thought that it was cute. After that, I found the children's pool with a status of a dolphin in the middle. As it looked tempted to be sitting there instead of on the jelly-infested beaches, it was restricted to children ages 2 to 8. Yes, 8 was the oldest allowed but I doubt it that Israelis even follow that. I was thinking more to age 12!
I came back to Zamir/Dado (but actually labed "Seasons Beach") and settled down with a beach chair and a table to put my stuff under to keep cool. Unlike Tel Aviv, these chairs were actually free! The beach wasn't terribly crowded but the showers were- of children. Although the temperatures reached about 88 or so degrees, it wasn't that completely hot because of all the wind. Haifa was much windier than Tel Aviv given that it's further up north. The advantages of the wind here (besides being cooler) were that it created real waves and that meant that Haifa had the only surfing beach of all Israel. I spent the rest of the day finishing up David Copperfield and relaxing in the sun. I also grabbed a slice of pizza and an apple (Either the guys were being flirtarious and said that I didn't need to pay or they actually gave out fruit for free). I stayed out until about 4:15 and went back to the station to catch the 133 bus.
Coming back wasn't too much of a problem- just took longer as buses became more infrequent. I took a shower, did the Shabbat blessings, and worked on my Hebrew homework a bit. Mor came to pick me up after 7 to take me back to her house for dinner.
Her mom, Hadar, fed us dinner. This time, she didn't attempt to put together my plate. Thank goodness! I was fretting all day about how to handle her again but she was much more lax than when I visited them a year ago. She made the usual Iraqi food so that was delicious. Or, Mor, and I talked a lot to catch up and they were curious about my program. Mor and Hadar asked if I liked Haifa better than Jerusalem. I said that each city had pros and cons so it's not fair to ask now. Hadar gave me a little gift of a necklace. Okay, that works. Better than hideous red shirt that she gave me last year. Or took a little time to explain how to use the conjugation of the preposition ב which is "in/at" in Hebrew. She hated the passage that we looked at because it was a fill-in-the-blank one. It'll be tough!
After dinner, Mor, Or, and I drove out Central/French Carmel to play pool at a cafe bar with some of Mor's friends from the Army. One of them brought his girlfriend with him and all of them were very nice and pleasant. The guys were definitely great and humorous. It was Or's first time so they spent a bit of time teaching her how to place her hand- she couldn't get over the weird feeling of the cue stick sitting on top of her hand. We played several games before calling it quits after 11. Mor and I dropped Or off and then we drove back to the university.
I saw that there had been a (free) Shabbat dinner. Naomi, a girl from my class, said it went well and there were still some leftovers. I grabbed a bag of sliced challah to use for lunch for next week.
For tomorrow, I made the decision to join the Bahai Gardens tour instead of taking the one un Sunday. According to Or, it sounded like I would be isolated as buses would be limited to Central Carmel. I figured that the school probably hired a private bus to take 50 of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment