18.

The last two days, I explored Israeli culture. On Wednesday night, I went to the Israel v. Romania soccer match. Though it did not count for anything except pride in the soccer world, the two countries put on a pretty good show. Israel won 1-0, which was nice. The crowd wasn't too big, but there were some rather dedicated fans. In front of me were two orthodox Jews, behind me were, I think, Colombians who were going crazy, behind me to the right was a huge group of young Israeli chanting traditional religious songs. At soccer games, everyone gets a big bag of sunflower seeds--it's the equivalent of popcorn or peanuts at a baseball game. The etiquette, however, is much different. Wherever the shells land is fair game. People spit seeds onto other people's back, the chairs, and anywhere else that is in range. I did my best to join the fun.

Last night I went to the enormous Bob Marley festival in honor of his 63rd birthday. Israel really likes reggae music. There was some serious red, green, and yellow everywhere one looked. There must have been 10 different singers that would sing one song and then hand the microphone off to the next performer. At no time were there any fewer than 13 people on stage playing instruments. It was quite the experience.

Being in Tel Aviv for Shabbat feels a little weird. I have an false expectation that the entire city should shut down in an hour as a result of my weekend in Jerusalem. It's nice that Tel Aviv is still relatively open on Shabbat as last weekend I felt a pretty confined by the general atmosphere/environment of Shabbat.

This week is the last week of Ulpan (Hebrew Classes). It's amazing that Ulpan is almost over though I am definitely ready to start real classes. There are a bunch of kids who will be continuing Hebrew with me into the semester so I'm glad that I won't be the only one of my friends waking up everyday at 8:30.