Pre-Passover

Friday rolled around and I was more ready than ever to leave the Kibbutz. While I love the escape and the forced tranquility it has provided, I needed an escape, a release, a rush- something to do. I woke up to my phone ringing on Friday morning. It was my taxi driver, waiting to take me to Tel Aviv. I completely forgot the time change and my phone (which is a piece.) did not automatically change. Running out the door, I had packed and gotten ready in 10 minutes. I wanted a gold star for how well I did! Unfortunately for the rest of the world, I now consistently work on Middle Eastern Time. This translates into me always being at least 20 minutes if not 2 hours late. I went to a Bikram Yoga class in North Tel Aviv, a beautiful, wealthy suburbia north of the bustle of the city. Surrounded by cafés selling fresh breads infused with cinnamon, nuts and other spices, coffee, and organic food markets, the area is at the same time like a neighborhood and an industrial area with uncountable office buildings.
Doing yoga in another language was again, interesting. I didn’t realize how much I understood and how much language acquisition I actually absorbed- but it was definitely a lot of body words. 4 days in a row of Bikram Yoga when you haven’t been going definitely impacts your body. Now, I can not move. In a good way though. Full of Israeli’s, Russians, Ethiopians and Brits, the studio really represented the fusion that makes Israel so special. I made Shabbat dinner and lit the candles to usher in the Sabbath. We relaxed, played scrabble, walked along the boardwalk, and chilled. I met with Sierra again and we found the most interesting stores- stores full of antique dolls, stores full of plastic roses, gigantic explosions of designer goodwills in a nameless hole in the wall, and stores selling tea pots. I love it!