There has been a recently upheaval in my sociability as of yesterday.

First, Tal is a wonderful friend. I tried to tell him I didn't like the book he had brought for me, but he refused to take it back and said I needed to keep trying; it would get better. I'm sorry, but I'm powerless against a guy trying to encourage me to read a book. Especially when he's telling me stupid slapstick jokes in very bad English for about an hour with me rolling around laughing. I can't believe I actually have a good male friend that I feel comfortable around. There's always something that makes me wary. Good Tal.

Second, I went to Tel Aviv for the afternoon yesterday. Our normal afternoon class was moved to 8, and changed to an arts and crafts class. Rachel had the idea to go to spend the afternoon in Tel Aviv, so we took the train together. I met up with a random guy from couchsurfing; my e-mail (to about 5-6 people) was along the lines of "i'm in tel aviv for the afternoon, i'm going to wander, want to join?", and the one who responded soonest was also the one who I'd chosen because of his political beliefs. Although don't tell anyone. I'm in the group that discusses Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process or some bullshit group like that, and I thought he was very articulate and in Tel Aviv, so I emailed him and a few more.

He was really awesome, just like I assumed, and he is also the only person who I've ever met who votes for the Communist/Arab party. I don't remember what it's called exactly. He told me this amazing anecdotal story about how he was in the crowd in 1995 when Yitzhak Rabin [that's what i meant...] was shot, and the atmosphere back then is comparable to pre-election in the states... Everyone was either pro-arab-dialogue or fuck-the-arabs right wingers, not really much in between. Not explaining it well, but we drew some interesting parallels in between the two time periods. His abuela is from Argentina, so we played with a few words. He was also practically drooling over Dante's Inferno in Hebrew; it's only recently been translated.

Third, back to when we were getting on the train; Rachel had went to get a coffee, and when I saw it I wanted one as well, so I went over to the counter, started talking with the guy, and ended up getting half his life story and his number. We were supposed to have a drink after I got back from Tel Aviv, but I was so tired after the art class that I couldn't manage it, sadly enough. He's bringing over a few beers and we're going to chat tonight. BUT cool part being he's basically fluenter (I know it's not a real word) in English than I am. He went to school at Johnson & Wales someplace on the east coast majoring in hospitality and spent a week in Colorado as an Israeli liason for some food festival. He's working at the train station coffee shop because when people's money starts to run out in a crappy economy, the first thing to go is hospitality, hotels, and other frilly stuff. He's also moving to Tel Aviv this weekend, which is why it seems like rushed drinks. [As an after the fact message, he was nice and all, but his political opinions and "differentness" falls in line with the stereotypical Israeli-thing, and as snobby as it sounds, it bores me. I want something new!]

Fifth, on the way back to Barkai (on the train) I sat down at a 4-seater (2 seats facing each other... just like in Europe...) and at the next stop this kid tossed a backpack onto the rack overhead, and when I thought he wasn't going to join me because there were plenty of other places, he did. I kept sneaking looks at him, he kept sneaking looks at me, and eventually i gave up reading my book and asked him if he would wake me up when we got to Binyamina (my station). He said "sure" and we went back to our respective musics. Until he went to look to see if the bathroom was open, and some stupid israeli girl with fluff for brains said "it's okay if you're drawing me" (giggle giggle) and he said he wasnt. ..I asked him what he said. And then we started talking, I found out he was at Camp Ramah in Canada this summer (jew camp), and he asked me where I was staying--when I said Kibbutz Barkai, I was surprised he knew the place.

You should know that I only have 250 people living on my Kibbutz. BUT Givat Haviva is down the street from the kibbutz, and they're actually the people who coordinate everything that we do here. They send the instructors to Barkai, they hash out our learning curriculum, etc.... The other thing they do is pick exceptionally bright guys (mainly) who are quick at learning languages and put them in a five month intensive arabic program, plus an additional intensive program after someplace else. They start at Givat Haviva, though. Anyway, it was ironic because yesterday morning we were at Givat Haviva meeting these kids for the first time. They're so ridiculously intelligent, too. And have pretty awesome backstories.

Point being, he left the army two months ago, but since he had spent the pre-army year at Givat Haviva, he had been in intelligence. He worked in Haifa at a movie theatre with foreign films (=not American) for a while, but then he went back to working for the army as a civilian intelligence worker-person, and commutes back and forth to Haifa every day-- about an hour on the train-ish. We exchanged information and have been writing back and forth on facebook. I left my camera on the train, and someone DID ask him if he left a camera right before he got off, but he didn't even think it could have been mine. BIG bummer, but I'm going to try calling the train station tomorrow.

On a sixth point, my dad's at a hospital in Boston (I think) right now, waiting to go in for surgery and get some fluid drained that's been in his brain and might account for the recent additional malfunctions. It's probably going to happen in the next few hours. We'll see, but there's a chance he might have some improvement after this is all over.

At some point, once there are pictures from Josh's camera, I'm going to try putting some pictures/descriptions of Ein Hud up here. The Arabic village that relocated in '48 and only received recognition 4 years ago, not the artist centre. Btw.