Avatar, Free Meds, Cesarea, Superbowl Sunday, & Kibbutzim

Eek! So much to catch up on! I'm going to try to zip through a lot of the stories and let the pictures speak for themselves. The highlights:

*I met an Avatar!!! I was with Andy and Jeremiah (the Alaskans) at Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffo again for one of their last meals. A tall, lanky guy comes out of the bathroom. Heyyyyyyy! That's the dude from "Bones" and "Avatar," Joel Moore! He was there with his GORGEOUS Israeli wife, and also Greg Germann (Richard Fish on "Ally McBeal") and Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm").  On top of that, we got to meet Dr. Shakshuka himself!! :)

*Another cold. I had tonsillitis again. (surprise. surprise) One of these days a doctor will actually take them out. I dream about the day!!! What ended up being really neat was how my medical insurance card here works. I called the main hotline to get a doctor's appointment. I told them where I wanted the appointment, and they offered me a time for that day. I wanted an earlier appointment, so they gave me a different location. I get there, courtesy of my boss, Yael, and there is no secretary. I just wait in the hall until the doctor is ready. I walk in and she swipes my card, checks me, and writes me a prescription. I walk over to the pharmacy and they fill my prescription within minutes (Hello!!! This is what I would LOVE to see at CVS and Walgreens, etc), while I'm standing at the counter. Then she swipes my card again..... and it's all FREE! Yes, that's right... free antibiotics, and free anti-mucus/cough stuff. How cool is that?! No co-pay. No fees. Awesome.

*The Alaskans have officially left the Holy Land. I was really sad to see them go and the very rainy weather seemed to fit my mood. But then came a happy, wonderful meeting with Ruth Kleinman and Dovev Barak, two people who I had worked with at Kent Hillel. Ruth is on a different Israel program in Jerusalem. She goes back to the States at the end of February. Dovev lives near Tel Aviv. It was a nice dinner with some old friends.

*There is crazy weather all over the world right now. In Israel, it has been really rainy and cold (or at least for two weeks, it was!). During this time is when Oranim took us on our day trip to Cesarea, Zichron Yaakov, Haifa, and a small hike from Stella Maris to Elijah's cave. This was an absolutely cold (thankfully, rain-free) trip. Most of us were pretty miserable and almost none of us had coats. Cesarea was neat, even though I had seen it when I came through on Birthright. Zichron Yaakov was a nice little town, where a lot of "firsts" happened. Haifa is a big city here, but the stop on this trip was absolutely pointless. We were supposed to get lunch here, and they dropped us off where there were very few restaurants. In Haifa, there are supposed to be these famous gardens, which is the main tourist attraction and we did NOT go to them! Again, it was a pointless stop along the way. Stella Maris to Elijah's cave was beautiful and cold, of course. Elijah's cave is a holy site, where I finally got to say a little something for Phyllis (Alana's mom), and for a friend from high school, Dorian, who had committed suicide the week before. I mention this because at the end of the day, no matter if I enjoyed the trip or not (I did enjoy it for the most part), or saw anything new, I found what I was looking for by being able to light a candle for them.  

*Superbowl Sunday!!! We decided to go all out and be truly American for the biggest football game of the season. We, being a lot of the Oranim crowd, went to the "American" bar next to the US Embassy called "Mike's Place." We ordered a LOT of hot wings, fries covered in cheese, and pitcher after pitcher of beer. (I did not partake in the beer. I still don't like the taste. But I definitely ate all of that food!!). We were loud and obnoxious Americans. The bar was packed by 11pm, standing room only at that point. The game was live, so it started at 1:30am. I made it to around 5am, then it was bedtime for me. I had to go to work the next day! I found out when I woke up that the Steelers lost. Oh, happy day!!! What a great night! The only problem... the commercials! They did not show the typical Superbowl commercials. They aired these late night infomercial type of commercials for an Asian pastor and another one that also had to do with Christianity. It was incredibly strange and funny. During one break in the game, they actually did show that neat Darth Vader/Volkswagen commercial, and one of the Pepsi Max commercials. The rest of the commercials, I watched online at work the next day.

*Today was a really beautiful Kibbutz-filled day! Ilan and Efrat picked me up in the morning. We traveled south to visit with Efrat's relatives. Then we went to Kibbutz Roochama and had a picnic among the lush green scenery. But we were on a mission! We were in search of the fields of red flowers called "Colonizym." (I think that's phonetically correct?!) I'm not sure what they're called in English, but they look like poppys. (Looking them up online, the technical name for them is Anemone coronaria). We drove around for quite awhile and then in the distance, Ilan saw them! We went to Kibbutz Ornaher (Light of the Candle), which is a kibbutz that was started by South Americans. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Then we had a typical South American "hot dog," with chimchurri sauce. So good. Our journey ended with one last stop, at the Gaza and Israel border. This is also a great viewing point.