Hangin' with Mr. Yuval & Cricket Education - still in progress...i'm going to work and finishing

I've put this post off a little bit, but now i will write up a brief synopsis of my adventures. Yuval's place is awesome. Its not an apartment per se, its a little house, with a yard with outdoor furniture and stuff. The outdoor furniture is key in israel because the places usually arent huge, and there is zero risk of it raining 7 months out of the year. People rejoice when they see cloud in the summer time.


Every morning we started the day off with a nice finjan of arabic coffee, along with your israeli chocolate of choice; sometimes had one in the afternoon too. Each night we usually had tea, which was made from the various spices that were growing in the immediate vicinity such as nana (mint) or lemon grass. I have informed A-ron that we will be growing those at our house this fall and doing the same.

Te first day was a true cultural experience. We went to the Rosh Ha'ayin shuk. Yuval said the first thing that happened to us when we got there sums up the whole place. We were standing in a line of cars to park, and the parking attendent flags us over. "Go ahead!" "I was waiting in line, i thought i'd let this guy pass." "What is a line? This is Rosh Ha'ayin!"

Its a small Yemenite town. The shuk was crazy, with your fair share of bad techno and amazing malawach, which we endulged in of course. Possibly the best i've ever had. Next we hiked over to an old fort built in the Herodian era. We just snuck in to have a refreshing beverage on top. From there you could see all of the coast, from Bat Yam, to Yaffo, Tel Aviv, Herzliyah, Ramat Hasharon, etc.

On the way back down we saw a guy with thick gloves and a contraption with a long rod with a rusted sawed open can on the end. This he used along with a machete to capture and de-thorn sabra fruit (cactus), which just grow in the wild. He offered to liberate us a few, which we enjoyed gladly. Thank you crazy sabra man, as he himself was a true sabra.
Now it was a hot day. Yuval suggested we stop at a nearby natural spring to wash our faces off. Eventually that evolved into stripping down and jumping in. Funny how that happens when the sun is having its way with you.

After that we went to a an Arab village called Jaljulyah where we ate some solid hummos ful, and bought some fresh coffee, which my colleagues over at Finjan Club in East Lansing will taste soon enough b'ezras hashem.

The next day we Tel Aviv'd it up, enjoying the new northern boardwalk and some great shakshukah, a walk along the Yarkon river, and a small survey of Tel Avivian graffiti.

So goes a great weekend.

As far as cricket goes, i went to Ashdod to cover the match. Some guys gave me some Goldstar and bisli, and coaches me a bit on the finer parts of the game. It was enjoyable. I'm glad to have gotten the first game under my belt.