I woke up early for ulpan classes. I ate a banana with chocolate spread. The first half of the banana was rotten. The ends of bananas in israel have little fiber tassles on it. They are fatter than U.S. bananas.
The walk to ulpan is 20 minutes straight up Dizengof St. The woman working at the front desk gave me back my placement test that I had taken several days before and it had a class number on it--Aleph 2. That means I am in the beginning level, but slightly higher. I'm somewhere in the middle (chetzi means middle). The ulpan center looks like a ramshackle YMCA. I find my classroom. There to greet me is Shmuleck, a short, incredibly furry israeli with the kind of lisp that makes "salmon" sound like "thamon". He's adorable in a completely unattractive way.
Everyone else in the class is from Masa's Career program, which consists of college graduates interning in tel aviv to broaden their resumes. I was the youngest, though the boys didn't seem to notice (jk, dad).
We started lessons with printing the aleph bet. My brain shattered like a liquid-nitrogen-submerged onion dropped on cement. I was that pathetically bored. If we don't pick up the pace tomorrow, I think i'm going to switch classes. Thank hashem for doodling.
We do, however, get frequent breaks. On one I went to one of those five-sheckel fresh juice stands (mitz means juice) and ordered orange-carrot-ginger. That gave me some energy and the ginger soothed my digestive system from yesterday's shwarma with extra harif. On lunch break I bought an egg omlette pastry from another stand. I think I'm going to start to pack my lunch...otherwise i'll become morbidly obese. On the way home from ulpan (which triumphantly ended at 2:30) I bought a watch. It is gold. It custom fits me. It is a casio with a gold face. I think I overpaid because the girl hesitated on the price...I was too meek to haggle with her in hebrew (that is what ulpan is for).
I left ulpan and my roomate Anna, my friend Noa, and I went to the Dizengof Center...the most magnificent 4-leveled mall in Tel Aviv. I bought a pair of schmancy, khaki, high-waisted pants with a belt at Zara. One could say I splurged today. This is truly the only time I have bought any material objects. I don't have such a bad case of buyer's remorse. They are some shmexy trousers.
We went back to the apartment to change and to get money for grocery shopping. It was olivia's idea to make eggplant parm for dinner. We walked a little further...to Ben Yehuda...to a bigger super store to buy cheaper groceries than at the AM/PM next door. I felt very independent and confused pushing a cart down aisles of foreign goods. Later as I was sautéing onions and garlic for the sauce, I realized I had bought sour salt instead of regular (I just searched the jar for the word melach, salt, and ignored the rest of the print). I guess that's when the AM/PM becomes convenient... for last minute stops.
The sauce I made would make my imaginary italian grandmother kvell (not sour). Olivia salted and breaded and baked the eggplant. I baked Garlic bread. Sliced cukes. Spaghetti. We set the table with red wine and put on some Billie Holiday. We were classy-ass ladies.
After, we had a couple of our friends came to visit for fresh mint tea, hookah, and Bananagrams. Olivia had a bottle of bubbles and blew them up with smoke. They looked like giant Wizard of Oz crystal balls.
Ulpan tomorrow then hopefully a craft market and I'll hit the beach afterwards. i have pictures that i would love to post eventually. I just have to figure out how to do it on this blog.
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