Tel Aviv Animal Shelter

Much of my second week in Israel was spent staving off boredom as most of the people I was spending time with were consumed with their first week of internships. Invariably, there were several people whose internships had not started yet with whom I spent the majority of my time. One such unemployed person came to me one day with the suggestion that we go "volunteer" at the Tel Aviv Animal Shelter. By volunteer, what I mean is play with an adorable puppy for a while.

Here we are!

The Tel Aviv Animal Shelter (more formally The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel), is exactly what it sounds like. It's a home for abused, or unwanted animals of a seemingly wide variety (mostly dogs). We found the perfect dog to volunteer with. Here he is:

I love dogs though I'm not sure I would make a very good dog owner. Our dog, who we named Rufio was having me rethink that. He was so affectionate!

awwwww.

So what you do is basically take a dog out on a leash in their little courtyard thing that has enough room to walk/run around. There are doggy treats, and some toys to play with - pretty standard dog shelter stuff.

At this point I'd say I've used enough pictures of one thing for one blog post - but he was just so damned cute! I'll have to make an exception. After about a half an hour, another volunteer with another dog came close to us and Rufio barked at them like they were trying to attack us. He was protecting us! At this point we were anticipating some separation anxiety.

I hope Rufio found a good home.

Purim in Tel Aviv

Purim is a Jewish Holiday celebrating the events described in the Book of Esther. Basically, evil guy named Haman tried to convince the Persian King Ahasuerus (who in fact historically syncs up with King Xerxes who most people will know from the movie 300 as an impossibly large guy with an impossibly deep voice - anyway...) to kill the Jews. Esther, who had become queen by being the most beautiful in the Kings eyes then reveals herself to be Jewish and exposes Haman's evil plan. The holiday subscribes to the adage that follows most Jewish holidays and that is this: "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat."

Purim is all about hiding ones identity - Esther hiding the fact that she is Jewish, Haman hiding the fact that he is evil, Ahasuerus hiding his secret obsession with gold jewelry, Mordecai (Esther's righteous cousin and adopted father)'s behind the scenes helping people like he's Batman... and so a central pillar in celebrating Purim is dressing up in masks. Jewish Halloween, essentially. Exhibit A - Chareidi guy talking to a crazy dressed person:

Picture worthy.

Theodor Herzl is largely considered the founding father of the idea of a modern Jewish state. He looked like this:

Those far-seeing eyes see a new state on the horizon.

Anyway, he's a very recognizable figure here. I happen to have been blessed with a natural talent for looking like him upon my arrival, so all it took was a couple of wardrobe changes to bring Herzl back to life.

"If you will it - it is no dream" - Thejoshdor, Herzl

A couple of Israelis commenting on my beard before Purim even began brought up Herzl's name so this was a no-brainer for the first "day" of Purim (Purim was actually Wednesday night-Thursday, but here it was celebrated Tuesday-Saturday!).

There was a massive zombie walk that started near King George Street, and there you could see just how much Purim is related to Halloween and how much Israel is connected culture-wise to the rest of the world, what with the zombie craze and all that going on. There were lots of zombie versions of pop-culture figures. I thought of going as Zombie Herzl, but in the end chose not to.

Your brains are in another castle.

Oh... I'm sorry. In my last post, did I make it seem as though I shaved off my entire beard in one day?? No no no nooooo. My bad. I made as much use out of the facial hair as possible throughout the week.

Jolly good! Eh, what?

Exactly like Halloween back home.

The spirit of Purim is evident everywhere. In malls, on the streets, on the beach.

Here Adrian brings the magic of costumery to the beach.

I should also note here that Purim is also a holiday known for merry making. It is, after all, a commandment to be so "merry" as to not know the difference between haman the evil and mordecai the righteous. Just food for thought while enjoying the following pictures.

Just a couple of circus freaks.

Risky Business.

Risky indeed.

I come from the distant past to investigate how humanity evolves in the futah!

 

To industry!

When I wear two hats I become doubly fancy.

Friday during the day there was a large street fair near the Tel Aviv museum of art. When I say large I mean it was completely packed. There was live music, and plenty of creative costumes. By this time I had devolved into the Pringles guy.

Once you pop... you know the rest.

Some guy dressed as a GIANT Smirnoff bottle.

I believe that Beast and the rest of these princesses converged on this spot independent of one another.

That a pretty excellent rendition of a pretty crappy Willy Wonka.

That Beast and Belle seriously went all out.

Stewardesses.

This Captain America was pretty miserable - probably because he misses his country..

Hello? Yes, this is King.

Once again, several individual geishas converged at the same spot.

If she doesn't scare ya, no evil thing will.

Lots of Purim observers.

Extreme Sleep Deprivation Part II

So I may not have been tired on my way through Manas this time around, but I started off on the wrong foot to continue my journey in the same manner when I got to the Bishkek commercial airport at 5 AM having gotten no sleep whatsoever.

The whole day was a textbook description of experiencing reverse-culture shock. I was constantly barraged by the extreme cleanliness of the Istanbul airport and the restaurant attached to the hotel I stayed in in Germany. Did you know the Istanbul airport is full of nothing but women? It's true! Because I was used to there being practically no women downrange it really seemed like they were everywhere I looked (and this continues to be the case as I write this while I am currently visiting Israel). Anyway with a relatively long layover in Istanbul, and a shuttle from Frankfurt to Sandhofen, just north of Mannheim, I was very ready to pass out and did.

Being back in Sanhofen was also very strange, but in a way unrelated to the reverse-culture shock. Firstly, CTC is no longer storing people in the Weber, it's all about the Adler hotel, now. There are good things and bad related to the change, anyway it was only for one night. Also, being in the same place first in summer, and then again seven months later was interesting to see. 

After my out-processing in Coleman Barracks, which consisted basically of my filling out some forms and giving my opinions on how the program can be improved, I was on my way again back to the Frankfurt airport. Hearing Israeli's speaking Hebrew on their way back from a trip to Italy in the Rome airport (which coincidentally was also full of women) was like music to my ears.

Alitalia is very concerned over the people nearing their 40s who still play their original gameboys.

By the time I got to the little hotel near the beach in Tel Aviv that I was staying in it was 5 am again, and I had a hard time sleeping. By Saturday night, I had gone since Wednesday morning with nothing more than 10 hours of sleep total...

It's good to be back, civilization.