Benjamin Disraeli in a dress

One of my two roommates just came back from her three-week vacation back in the U.S. She is studying to be a Jewish educator at HUC. My second roommate arrives tomorrow. Hope the excellent dynamic keeps up!

The excitement continues in Tel Aviv. One recent evening Dafna purchased a guitar, so now she can sing AND play "Poker face", "Halo", "Hey Mama" and all things Tegan and Sara. Her roommate loves it. In Tel Aviv once again, we took a walk on the Yarkon and visited the little zoo. All different species of animals were in the same large cage. It looked like the end of days or heaven on earth or something. The ibex was lying beside the roosters. The deer kneeled beside the chickens. Dafna fed them all banana chips, which turned out to be not such a great idea because they started competing for the treat and chasing after us.





We ate at an organic falafel/sabich/hummus place called Hippo. It's a small chain in TA. Organic pita is darker brown and more flavorful.



The Tel Aviv Art Museum has some incredible exhibits right now. One of iron sculptures by Zadok Ben David which is literally breathtaking. Really, Dafna couldn't breathe (allergy attack). He created this huge, incredibly detailed iron forest. There was a great room for kids with works by Alexander Caulder. There were games, films of him, lots of interactive art to be done. We participated in the fun, of course. In another room of paintings, we saw a portrait of Benjamin Disraeli as a young boy wearing a dress.





Today we went to the Tel Aviv residence of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister. Luckily we arrived 10 minutes before it closed. He had a very sweet and modest apartment. Even when he moved to the Negev he still maintained this apartment. On display are gifts Ben-Gurion received from Jewish communities all over the world. We also looked around the small room where he lay during the Sinai Campaign. He was so sick at that time he couldn't get out of bed, yet he still managed to conduct a war.



I have Orientation at Pardes all day tomorrow, so I'll get to learn more about my classes and schedule, and get to meet my school chums. Classes start in four days.

I have to mention that it has been raining with thunder and lightning quite a bit, and apparently some people died in the Negev due to flooding.