Following yesterdays blog post and ice cold shower which was [dare I say] worse than a Jordanian shower, I had some what of a sleep-deprivation induced conniption which included a new apartment search, chatting with the parents about how to prevent flea bites [because we concluded they are, in fact, flea bites...shout out to Godzilla], and me researching where to buy cat poisoning in Israel. Just kidding about that last one, but I think its a much more discreet attempt at cat murder than the previous option of throwing Godzilla out of the window. Once I finally defeated jet lag and fell asleep, I awoke to a beautiful 2 pm "morning" in Jaffa, and all my previous worries from the night before vanished. I started off exploring my neighborhood, which turns out to be in an incredible location, half a block away from the famous Jaffa flea market, with tons of cute cafes and restaurants. I sat outside in the sunny 75 degree weather, people watching, drinking coffee and eating rugelach. From there I walked down to the beach path which was a lot closer than I expected, about a 2 minute walk through the flea market. Walking through Jaffa was great, being a mixed city there are Israeli Jews wearing nothing except a bathing suit and coverup, to Israeli Arabs, wearing a hijab and conservatively dressed. I walked along the beach path which is about a 2.8 km walk into the heart of Tel Aviv. Stopping in my favorite Israeli cafe, Aroma, I bought a salad and coffee [round 2] and decided to man up and practice my hebrew, which involved me saying "shalom" instead of "hello", and than shortly after, "ani lo medabarat evret"[I don't speak hebrew], following her Hebrew response. It's the thought that counts, right. I ran some errands in Tel Aviv, and visited a couple of familiar places, including the hostel which I love and have stayed at in the past. Yes, I was that desperate person who sat in the kitchen conversing with hostel-stayers attempting to make friends. However, it was fairly successful except that the people I ended up meeting were leaving tonight. Regardless I used their internet and shiroteem [bathroom, hey, there's another Hebrew word I know], and then headed back to Jaffa. As soon as I started hearing Arabic again I felt comfortable, like I could actually communicate with people if I needed to. Funny, being Jewish I never thought I'd be more comfortable speaking Arabic in Israel than I do Hebrew. I walked back through the Jaffa market and decided pick up some stuff for the apartment which my room was lacking. I'm not sure if I was more excited because I made friends with the Arab store worker, or because he gave me 20 shekels off, and my total ended up being the equivalent of $13 for about $40 worth of stuff in the states. I went to a small market across from my apartment to get the necessities [coffee and cereal] until I can make it to a bigger market tomorrow. As I was writing this, Ofir called me in to say he made me a burrito [I thought I was dreaming those words], which ended up being one of the best non-Californian burritos i've had. My burrito high was killed when I came back in my room to find damn Godzilla curled in a ball inside my suitcase. Buying cat poisoning tomorrow.

I tried to think of a witty, metaphorical way to open this blog post, but it failed so now i'm just going to tell you it's my first night in my perfectly-located yet comfortably shitty apartment in Jaffa, Israel. I'm really liking the shitty apartment thus far; My room is breezy and opens up to an outside patio which looks out at a cute Jaffian [that's now a word] street with most of the neighbors being young Israelis, Arabs, students, and foreigners. I have two roommates, Ofir and his psychotic cat. Not much to note about Ofir yet, he's a polite pot-head who works at an NGO part time and as a bartender the rest of the time. But his cat on the other hand, is fucking insane. I'm not a cat person, however usually they have redeeming qualities such as cuteness, or fluffiness, which distracts you from their pointless being on the planet earth. This cat has neither of those redeeming qualities, and instead enjoys pouncing on to your head, clawing your hair whenever it pleases. Ofir described it as, "he likes new haircuts". I've thought about throwing the cat out of the window multiple times, but I feel like it might start Ofir and I's relationship off on a shitty note. After I locked Godzilla out [from here on out we will be referring to the cat by his new name], I decided to take a nap considering I slept two hours on the flight due being used as a personal pillow and/or purse holder for the woman next to me. When I awoke I found my right hand completely swollen, unable to move two fingers. For time being i'm going to tell myself it was a giant ass Israeli mosquito who treated himself to a 5-star American meal, instead of a tick from Godzilla, because I may actually "accidentally" drop off Godzilla at the Jordanian border, or better yet Syrian border, if that was the case. Now i'm laying in a bed of Godzillas' lovely white hair he left behind as i'm pecking at the keyboard with my left hand, holding a donut with my 3 functioning fingers in the other. Godzilla aside, Jaffa is great so far and i'm beyond happy to be back in Israel. There's something about this place that always feels like home.