I'm cheating a little bit by editing the time on this post, but I was thinking about sending this in at the stated time, so its almost like it actually happened the way I'm about to claim it did. Anyway, last night I took a long walk down the Tel Aviv boardwalk (despite the fact that we got up early today, I for some reason felt the need to stay up) and really enjoyed it and wanted to talk about it. So now, for the rest of the post, its actually last night. Shh....
Anyway, so I was walking south down the boardwalk towards Old Jaffa, listening to music on the MP3 player (thanks again, bro) , enjoying the sound of the waves hitting the breakwaters and reveling in the cool night air, when I noticed an extremely bright star glowing over the water (this would have been to my right, which is also the West. I know that for some of my readers, one or both of those directional cues will be meaningless, but well, I do what I can). I couldn't figure out what it was for a long time; the light glowed brighter and brighter, so much so that I could see its reflection off the water. Finally, it got close enough that I could see that it was in fact several lights - an airplane, flying very low over the water, inbound towards Tel Aviv airport. This wouldn't be worthy of mention in this post except for the fact that it was so different from any other plane I've ever seen come in for a landing. It had no blinking lights and was so bright it briefly outshone the full moon. Anyway, it ended up being one of several planes coming in, so I got to watch a series of 'shooting stars' materialize offshore, grow and then majestically streak overhead towards the airport. I thought it was really neat, anyway.
The other thing worthy of mention (and that I'm particularly proud of), is that within about 18 hours of arriving in Tel Aviv, I managed to learn and understand most of the Hebrew alphabet, without any assistance other than that provided by road signs and other standard street information. I'm still a little shaky on one or two characters (and I'm sure I've absolutely mutilated the pronunciation - there's no way to work out the vowelling system without a textbook), but its already come in handy several times. For example, when I went to buy shampoo (having foolishly left mine back in Cairo), I was able to determine which of the myriads of products was the one I wanted by reading "Shampa" and "Konditioner" on the Hebrew label. Likewise, at the sandwich shop today, I was able to read various food items (like "Kebab" and "Shwarmeh") which meant I didn't have to ask the proprietor directly. I think its really cool and have really enjoyed 'decoding' the Hebrew I see around me. Of course, I can only read it if it is in what I like to call "runic" form: blocky letters with no stylistic flourishes. Once the text starts looking like "script," I might as well be reading cuneiform. Likewise, some of what I call "symbolic" Hebrew, like that used in brand names, is totally illegible. Oh well, some knowledge is better than none, right?
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2 comments:
What struck me about this post is that you were both "listening to music" on your mp3 player and "enjoying the sound of the waves crashing." What's up with this misinformation campaign, Brandon? Just kidding; good to hear how you're doing. I love reading your posts.
Amelia, I blame a combination of alcohol and also having the mp3 player on low. I could still hear the waves over the music. I did ultimately switch it off though and just enjoy the sounds of the sea at night.
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