30 Sderot Yerushalayim

is the address of my new apartment. i live above a fancy french restaurant named alhambra (yes, I also thought that it was in spain) and a newly opened macolet (convenience store), which does not stock ginger ale or oatmeal, the two things i was interested in yesterday. sderot yerushalayim (jerusalem boulevard) is the main street in yafo, which means it is a bit noisy as buses, trucks and cars make their way at all hours, but my apartment is on the third floor and my bedroom window opens to a side street so it isnt so bad. and in exchange for the noise, i get the convenience factor of being close to innumerous macolets and other stores that should serve almost all of my needs, ranging from a refrigerator to soy milk.

i am also a 5 minute walk from shuk hapishpushim (the flea market), 10 minutes from the yafo beach, 15 minutes from work and 20 minutes from some cool areas in south tel aviv. even more exciting (for me at least) is that it is part of one of the truly mixed neighborhoods in the city (or the country) and in the span of one block it is unusual not to hear both hebrew and arabic (and maybe even some russian, but almost never english). and to top it all off, our large living room opens up to an even larger roof which overlooks the tops of the trees (mostly palm) that line the center island of our boulevard.

amir and his dog, numa, will be my roommates. thanks to my father's influence, i dont normally like dogs, but this one is very nice. i met amir through the people i work with at sadaka reut, he works for a computer company in tel aviv, has already set up our internet and in general seems great. right after i came back from a wonderful, relaxing rosh hashana on my cousins kibbutz in the north (complete with explorations of the golan led by my knowledgeable cousin eitan, onion gathering in the fields, lunch in a druze town and eating fresh figs and pomegranates straight from the trees) we signed a year-long lease on october 6 and dropped off some of our stuff. then he went back to jerusalem where he has been living and i went to hertzeliya, a northern suburb of tel aviv, for a beach ultimate frisbee tournament.

this tournament made up for missing wildwood this summer, but definitely had a different flavor. for one, ultimate is a very new sport in israel so it was much smaller with only 9 teams. another significant difference was that there was a dj who played techno music at an obnoxiously loud volume throughout all games and breaks. mike buff was also there and tried to organize a boat race, but without success. still, it was a fun weekend.

now, i am in jerusalem for yom kippor. the streets this evening were filled with people in white clothes, children on bikes and after sunset, not a car in sight. the whole environment felt a little unreal, but beautiful and peaceful at the same time. since it is still ramadan, tomorrow a large majority of both sides of this city will be fasting (but not me because i am recovering from strep throat and taking antibiotics). and if i remember correctly, the words for fast in hebrew and arabic are quite similar.

on friday amir is planning on moving into the apartment so i will go back to yafo to help him unload, move couches, clean the floors and buy a fridge. and then hopefully i will really be able to begin my life in yafo.