Sunday May 23---- Tel Aviv Weekend!!

Lauren and I decided to go to Tel Aviv this weekend for one last beach weekend. 12 more days to go, I actuallly cant believe it. Its sooooo crazyyy, time is FLOWNNNNNN- cant believe I only have one more weekend left. Wow.

So we got up early friday morning, took a sheirut to tel aviv with our friend Rachel, whose one of laurens roomates. Very sweet girl, I loveeeee her. She was going to stay at a family friends house for the weekend, but she came and spent the day with us friday. So got to tel aviv, of course went to Nachalat Ben Yamin- the artists market I literally go to everyyyy single time I go to tel aviv. I have 2 jewelery guys there that know me and loveee me because I buy a lot of gifts there whenever I go, so I took lauren and rachel- the artists hugged and kkissed me and gave us very good deals on everything we bought. Rachel had never been there and lauren had only been there quickly once- so we had a lot to do. We literlaly nspent alllllll afternoon there. I Knew I wouldnt get to go back before I left, So I had a lot of gifts to buy too. I dont want to give away on here what I got people, but we got a lot of reallly coool and differentttt things for people. We had a really good afrernoon. My jewlery guys were really sad that I wouldnt be back again :( it was a sad goodbye :( For lunch we went to this reaaaaallly goood vegan restuarant where they had a lunch buffet of all this vegetarian food. Tons of salads---soooooo gooood!!! Then We parted ways with rachel, she went to this really her family friends, and lauren and I did one last walk through the nachalt ben yamin and walked through the tel aviv shuk for a little. Friday night we stayed with a cousin, yes I have family here who knew. I have very very very distant cousins in Israel, probabaly like my 4th or 5th cousins. Theres a lot of them here, they live in tel aviv and on this kibbutz all the way up north on the lebanon border. My family has really kept in touch with one cousin, Tamar, who lives in tel aviv. So ebfore I came to Israel my grandma and mom spoke to her and told her I was coming. She's called me a few times since we got here wanting to meet, but it never worked out. I was always never in tel aviv long enough so it never worked. But I decided to call her this weekend and she invited me and lauren to stay at her house. She lives in Ramat Gan which is a small nieghborhood right outside tel aviv. We got there around 6. She was really reallly reallly sweeet- older, but hip lady in her 60's. Very very israeli like. She had her "male friend there" his name is Rafi and hes this adorable old man that pretty much doesnt speak english. They arent married but we assume they are boyfriend/girlfriend. We dont know if he lives there permentantly but he did sleep over. So thy cooked this really big dinner together and had her nephew, Yair, come to dinner also. Hes also a cousin, he lives in tel aviv and is 28 years old. He was reallly reallly reallly nice, lauren and I talked to him the whole entire meak, very friendly and smart. Him, his entire family, tamar, everyoneee-- grew up on their kibbutz up north, Kibbutz Dan. Its literally on the Lebanon border, practically lebanon. So we pretty much talked about the kibbutz during all of dinner. It was so interesting to hear about it. Yair and Tamar have suchhh different opinions about it. Yair thinks its messed up and tamar thinks its the greatest thing ever. Its been changed throughout the last few years, like all kibbutzes, its now become more privatized. But the way they all grew up it was not. As soon as a child was born they lived in the childrens house which is where all the kids slept. They didnt sleep in their house with their parents because they werent raised by their parents. All children slept in the childrens house so they could be raised exactly the same with the same exact amount of nurture and material items. The whole idea of the kibbutz at this time was that everyone was the same. No one had more then anyone else. All the jobs were on the kkibbutz, so no one got paid and there was no need for money. So no one had anything materialistic and everyone was raised exactly the same, in this childrens house. At age 10 you move into your parents house, then you go away to boarding school at age 12 or 13. Its very very strangeee. Yair thinks its messed up and he didnt agree with it at all, but tamar really liked it. Theres a lot more we learneda about tooo... Now the kibbutz isnt like that. Now its just pretty much small neighborhoods- childrne live with their parents and parents work either on the kibbutz or off the kibbutz. That was a lot of the dinner talk but we also talked about the army, how yair traveled africa for half a year, etc... It was really nice. They were very interested in us, we were very interested in them. Nice night, glad we went.

Saturday morning we said goodbye to tamar and rafi. They were really nice and drove us to the Port in tel aviv where we wanted to go. Rafi just bought a car last week so he was very excited! So on the port on saturdays they also have an artist market, so we strolled through that, didnt buy anything suprisingly. Then we went to the Original Max Brenners for brunch. They have Max Brenners in NY and other cities. In america i think its just ice cream/dessert quicke places. Max Brenner is this jewish guy who opened this giant choclate bar in tel aviv. Now its a giant restuarant with cholcate fountains and things and theres a bunch of little max brenners ice cream places all over israel and america. But the one in tel aviv is original and has a restaurant so we've been dieig to go there. Theres cholcate fountains everywhere and all these chocalte decroations, really cool. So lauren and I ordered giant israeli breakfasts, which is my favroiteeeeeeeeeeee---- eggs, yougrut with fruit, bread basket with all these diffrent spreads, coffeee, organge juice, israel salad--- its my favrotieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! They kept bringing us over all these chocalte samples, sooo goood. Then of course you have to have dessert. Theres a giant giant menu with desserts- sooo many choices. Shakes, smoothies, cakes, fondues, sundaes, everythingggg. So lauren and I split the chocalte mess- which is ice cream, bannanas, chocalte cake, choclate sauce, sooooo gooooooooooooood!!! Yummmmmmmmm....

After lunch we walked to the beach where we met Laurens friend thats been here a few weeks. She studied in Florence for the semester and came to tel aviv to stay with her cousins for afew weeks. So she met us at the beach. We went to the same beach area that I went to on the Meor trip, so I had such dejavo. At around 630, we had Jodi meet us at Mikes Place- which is this famous bar that ALLLLL amaericans and toursits go to when they are in tel aviv. Im not sure why, its just a bar on the beach like every other bar in tel aviv. But its like famous to americans and tourists. I went over the summer on the meor trip so I had been there before, but lauren alwayssss wanted to go. So we had Jodi meet us and we got drinks for happy hourrr...

Saturday night we stayed at Jodis at Tel Aviv University. We went out with all her friends to this club on the port, i forgot the name. It was reallly realllyl niceeeee... We had a lot of fun. 2 of her friends had their siblings visiting which was nice and there was a big group of us. It was reallly reallly fun. We left the club at around 3. Everyone was hungry so we started to walk to Benedicts, which is this famousssss restauarant in tel aviv. Its a breakkfast restauarnt that serves breakfast 24 hours a day. The twins and rosie have been there and theyve been telling me to go for soooo long, so I was sooo excitedddddd... Then on the way we passed this place called Moses Burger. Its this famous burger chain in Tel Aviv, kinda like burgers bar but waitress service. So all jodis friends wanted to go there instead so we wen there instead. They have all these late night drunk specials- giant burgers with hugeee plates of fries for soooo cheap. So jodi and I split one. It was sooooooooo gooood. Its a giant burger with lettuce, toamte, onion, etc... but they put their signature special sauce on it, its very spicy sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooodddddd!! I'll always be true to my burgers bar, but this was delicious... then we got back to jodis sometime after 4 and passed outttttt

Lauren and I woke up very early this morning. Michal Negrin, this famous Israeli Jewlery designer, is known for her jewelery in israel. She has jewleery stores allll over israel, and some in Ameria. Ive never been to one in ameria but she does have them. ANyway she makes jewlery, clothes, home decor, her stuff is famous. Her style is victorian, with lots of flowers and jeweles and beads and colors. Everything is very bright and crystaly and flashy but everyoneeeeeeeeeeee loves her stuff. Everyone knows her. Her stores in Israel are decorated unbeliavably sooo victorain and goregous--- all these chandeliers, couches, i cant even explain. Anyway- she has a factory in Bat Yam, which is a few towns over from Tel Aviv. Not many people know she has a factory, Jodi actually found out and told me about it. So if you go to her factory you get a guided tour of the factory and you get to see her show room. Jodi went and told me how amazing it was so lauren and I booked a tour for this morning. So we walk through this really shitty area and then you see this giant sign, in her logo, that says "Michals world" and its amazing. The hallways, bathrooms, everythinggggg is decorated in her style sooo beauitfully. So we booked a tour. First they show you this video about michal, her life, her jewlery. So they show her, and actually we didnt realize it becaue we never saw a puciture of her before, but she walked passed us and said hi to us this morning as we were entering the building, but had noooo idea until he movie came on so we were dieing. So she lived on a kibbutz and made her own jewelery growing up. Then she started selling at Nachalat Ben Yamin, the artist market we go to, and everyone loveeeeeeeed her stufff so she opened up a store which turned into like 30 stores in israel, which turned into stores in america, and stores in Japan!! Japan LOVEEEEEEEES her stuff, they have 18 stores. So after her movie we got to tour her factory. We went to all the floors- 1 floor where the jewelery is made, one floor where the clothes are made, and the floor where her home decor is made. We didnt realize it- but ALLL her stuff is literally hand made. We thought it was machine made because it was sooooooooooooooooo detailed that it would be impossible to make sooo many items by hand- but nooo... EVERY SINGLE ITEM IS HAND MADE. All the little crystals and beads and colors--- everything are glued in by hand. It was incredivble, we couldnt believe it. The beads and crystals are soooooooooooooo smallllll. Most of he rworkers are russian immigrants, they had no prior experience, she gives them a very extensive training program. She designs everythingggggggggggggg, creates a sample, and then the workers copy it. But she designs everything on her own. All the home stuff, the clothes, everything- made by hand. Couldnt believe it. I always thought her stuff was very reaonsbaly prices, especially in Israel its sooooooooooooooo much cheaper, in America its very expensive, but after seeing how much work goes into it all, wowowowow is it cheap!!! Theres sooo much work and detail in every single item its incredible. So after the tour you go to her show room which literally has every single item she makes and its set up like a house. Theres a giant bed with all the bedding and pillows she makes, theres a dining room table, doll houses everythwere, chandeliers, its just decorated with ALLLLLLLLLLLL her items-- jewlery, clothes, house stuff- its beauitufl. Its set up with a housem and decorated with all the items she sells. sooo coool!! Then theres a giant coffeee bar where you get coffeee and reallly goood cheesecake after the tour. You sit on her couches and eat it,and shop, its coool. We looked aroun for a really long time. Neither of us bought anything. Her stufff is gorgeous, its just not toatlly my style. I like some things- the less bright and showy things I like. I have 1 necklace and a ring by her. I think her style is more for adults, not so much for people my age. But my friends alll loveee it. I loveeeeeeeeeeeee to look at it, but I dont love to buy toooo much. but we shoppped for a while. Then on the way out, we saw Michal eating lunch in the court yard so lauren and I ran up to her and talk to her, got her autograph and took a picture with her. She was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sweeeetttttt!! She was so curious who we were, why we were here, when we were going backk--- soooooooooooooo niceeee and friendly!!

We had such a goood weekend together!!! sooo much fun, so many laughs!! Now its time to do work grrrrrrrrrrrrr.... Lauren and I have this big psych paper due wed, we have 0 clue what to dooooooooooo... we all forgot how to do work hereee!! ahhhh