Today was our final day of ulpan for the next two weeks. For some reason, we had another two days scheduled for October 13th and 14th. It’s odd but I’ve enjoyed the class, so I won’t mind another couple of days.
Today, however, one of my nine classmates didn’t show up, and another three had to leave early to go home and pack their clothing in plastic bags in preparation for fumigation–Levinsky had a bed bug infestation.
Thus, for our trip today, there were only six of us. We went back to Yafo, this time exploring an older part of the city which has a very colorful and complicated history. (Though I suppose that describes most of Israel, doesn’t it?) The area was initially settled by Americans, but after the first clusterfuck of an attempt at settlement–most of the settlers died of cholera, and the rest were swindled by a greedy rabbi–the area was abandoned. Later, Spanish Templars took up residence there. I don’t recall the details of settlement following that, but just know that the area has some very pleasant architecture.
Anyway, we had our first activity under a tremendous tree that currently occupies a place in the courtyard of a hostel, though it was planted as part of some rich guy’s private zoo. (Did I say this place has a complicated history?) We practiced asking each other about our families, as we had just learned words like grandma and uncle in the classroom that day.
Next, we walked to our teacher’s favorite building in Tel Aviv: a four or five-story stucco apartment building with long, curving balconies and a contoured corner that hugs a bend in the road. I agreed that it was a beautiful building; definitely one of my favorite non-high-rises. We were about to proceed with our second activity of the day when we were interrupted by a loud street sweeper, thoroughly disrupting the quiet atmosphere. I didn’t care much, though. I was more surprised to see a street sweeper at all! The lack of rain in Tel Aviv during the summer allows the sidewalks here to become very dirty. I figured the streets would be the same way. Without walking on them regularly, I didn’t realize until now that they were actually slightly cleaner than the sidewalk, thanks in part to these street sweepers.
Anyway, once the street sweeper passed, we were given our assignment: accost another few Israelis with questions and record their answers. This time, there were so few of us that our groups were determined by where we wanted to go: There was a coffee shop across the street that our teacher said was excellent. Yasmin and Ingrid–one of two women on this trip from France–went there. The second destination was a place that sold a dish called k’nah-fay. Only Sarah Stewart had heard of it, and her gasp and smile at hearing that it was offered nearby sold the rest of us on going to it. It was just around the corner from the coffee shop.
Another ulpan group was already in the restaurant interrogating one of the employees when we entered. While we waited our turn, we decided to order the “classic” version of the dish, and split it among the four of us.
Our dish was served to us by the same person who answered the other group’s questions. He was kind enough to volunteer to answer ours, as well! So while eating, we asked him the quirky questions on our sheet (which used words we had learned that day). “Are there a lot of cats in Yafo?” “Is Yafo big or small?” “Is your grandmother an immigrant to Israel?” All of us, including the server, were amused by how random the questions were.
K’nah-fay is delicious, by the way. It’s a small, doughy cake about the size of a small dish plate, with something on top of it with the consistently of dry grass, but far tastier. It was very sweet! It’s an Arabic dish, and the server told us that they actually made it less sweet than the Arabs do. I found it hard to imagine the dish being any sweeter!
After answering our questions, we thanked the man and proceeded to our final activity of the day. Our teacher gave us some questions on slips of paper, and we asked them to one another and answered in Hebrew. Our day ended around 5:30PM.
I took a bus back to my apartment. Oliver and I went to the gym in Dizengoff shortly thereafter. Despite being around 6:30PM, it was actually less busy than I’ve seen it before–something I found odd, but pleasant. I finished the day working on this blog, while others went to a little shindig at Motskin.
I went to bed early, as tomorrow was the first day of my internship!
Aaron In Israel 