Shalom!!!

i hope that everyone is having a beautiful summer! i'm almost through week one of my trip and so far it is going really well! last night was very interesting, i went to my cousin yuyi's house to listen to a spiritual speaker. the focus of the night was Kabbalah and its origin. there were about 15 of us sitting on whatever we could find and pretty soon we were all enthralled with the way this man spoke. he spoke of the beliefs of the jewish people and how it all related to life. we also discussed death and the afterlife. in the Kabbalah there is a strong believe that we all have a mission in life, and that in order to complete it we have to strive to be good with God, or Hashem and be truthful and honest...we may take many times to reach our goal so we are reincarnated, our almas passing through to each new body and teaching us along the way. i think that it is a beautiful way of looking at life. we are given chances by Hashem to redeem ourselves, and what we do in the past affects us in the future. it is a karmic perception of life, after all, what goes around comes around and we learn and take those lessons to form and mold a better us. it was an amazing discussion, i had never participated in anything like it before! after that we finished with a prayer and went on to have some wine. today one of my cousins, an australian named david, hebrew name daio met me at an outdoor market on the coast of tel aviv. we walked about a half a mile through the market, covered with colorful blankets (it reminded me of aladdin!). there were so many kinds of fruits and spices that i had never seen before! piles of candy lined the street and little kids were running around everywhere. also, since yesterday was the sad day that michael jackson died you could hear his music booming through the entire market place. it was a strange sensation of mixing old and new worlds but it made perfect sense! i couldn't stop smiling as i walked through the bustling street, it was so alive and colorful! the smell of meats cooking and spices boiling added so much authenticity to the experience. when we finally made it to the beach (after a couple of tries asking which direction it was!) i felt this wave of calmness. the Mediterranean is another animal, so blue and fierce and surprisingly warm but refreshing at the same time! i felt relaxed as we walked over the sand, which is as fine and white as baby powder and we made our way to the "lounge beds" which ran 12 shekels a pop. i sat down and leaned my head back, let the warmth of the sun wash over me and opened my eyes with a pleased sigh only to be greeted by a hairy fat man in the tiniest swatch of fabric i have ever seen. to call it a speedo is a terrible understatement. let us say it was a banana hammock minus 100. to make matters worse, he was positioned on his tummy and receiving what i think was an incredibly and inappropriately intimate massage from a beach masseuse. i almost laughed out loud at this spectacle in front of me until the man decided that his hammock was not showing enough skin and moved it in a way that he'd tan where the sun don't shine and then i was not smiling anymore. the masseuse must have caught me staring because he took it as an invitation to come over and offer me one. i politely declined. anyways, the water was lovely but the waves were strong and of course me being the graceful swan that i am ended up on my back numerous times with my feet in the air and my hair in my face (which was looking pretty hot until i was catapulted about 4 feet face first into the sand, then it was not so nice). i tried to man up and take it for another five minutes and then finally gave up and trudged my happy ass back onto the beach. after the beach we made our way back to the shore and i dug into my very first shwarma! basically shwarma is shaved lamb with spices that is cooked on a rotating stick (think rotisserie) and peeled then placed in a warm pita and covered with hummus and tanid (sp?) and eggplant, cucumber and anything else your little heart desires. it was amazing but very filling so i couldn't finish it all which i think insulted the guy at the counter. sorry. after that it was back home and now here i am writing to all you lovely people! i am burnt to a crisp, filled to the brim and happy as a clam! lesson of the day: ask for half a shwarma, don't poke random things at the market cause you'll get yelled at, if someone comes at you with random objects you run and bring some freaking spf next time.