A Tour of My Year

Who would have thought that I'd be back here.
About a year since my last post here, the world has changed for me in every imaginable way. When last here, I was still living at home, trying to recover from my dissapointment in not moving out of my parents house, to Natanya. Well I guess I have a bit of filling in to do.

A few months after my last post I did actually move to Natanya and there I had possably my most enjoyable 4 months of my life. As you may recall, I was planning to move in with 2 good friends of mine, Aner and Koby. Well they ended up moving into an appartment without me and at the time I thought that was that. Only 3 months after they moved into the appartment, I got a call from Aner with quite a praposal. He got a pramotion to a manager of a disc store about an hour and a half from Natanya and was now stuck in a contract to his appartment. The offer was simple, Come replace me in the appartment and take my old job in the disc store in Natanya. I nearly leaped when he gave me the offer and 3 days later I unpacked my belonging into the new appartment.

From day one, Koby, my new room-mate, invited all his friend from Natanya over every day, all day. It took less than a week for me to meet the lot and become friends with them. From then on, I had 4 moths of, get up to work, come home, 3 people at least come over, we smoke, we go out for drinks in the evning, go to bed and start over. It was intence, I never had so much fun. There were always friends over, always someone to go to the beach with, always someone to take a walk with, always someoene to talk to. Funny thing is, I don't think I'd of lasted if it had been longer but after 4 months, the lease on the appartemnet was over and Koby wanted out. I looked for an affordable single bedroom appartment but failed. Sadly I was forced to quit my job and move back with my parents. My last week in the appartemnet I arranged a huge home cooked dinner that I had made, I invited all my new friends, a bunch of my older friends and we feasted. I left with a great feeling that I had touched the lives of the people I had met in Natanya the same as they had touched mine.

Why the sad face?

About a week back from Natanya, I started working as a waiter in nice western ranche style resturaunt. I worked there for nearly 6 months and saved up quite a bit of cash. The job wasn't great compared to working in a disc store but the money was MUCH better and the people I worked with were great. After 6 months of working there and not having much of a private life, I was forced to stay home for a week due to severe teeth pain. I went to the dentist and he said I needed to get my wisdome teeth pulled.

Two months later, about $700 down the drain and endless hours playing computer games, my mouth was finally fully healed and I could get back to work. Problem was, I didn't feel like going back to work. I was feeling lazyer than I ever had in my life. I spent days on end in my room, on my computer, playing computer games. I'm not saying I regret that time, I had lots of fun and made a ton of internet friend, good ones. There is something though, about sitting in your room in front of a computer screen all day that makes you feel like your missing out on life. The trick is, to combine the two, something I hadn't done.

Well I decided to do something with myself. The problem was, I'd grown so acustome to doing nothing, I felt lost, I didn't know where to start. It hit my like a rock in the stomach, a person my age, whos family was good friends with my family from Long Island, moved to Israel and came to visit. We spent a long night talking, I told her of my plans to eventually move to the states, go to the army, then to collage then live out my life. She gave her opinions, gave me a clearer picture of what would be waiting for me there and critisized some of the choices I had made int he matter of my moving. It was the push I needed, for days after, I couldn't think of anything els and I knew I had made my choice. I was finally ready!

That leaves me pretty much up to date, I made all the arangments. I'm finishing up my drivers licence that I have put of for three and a half years, waiting for plane ticket prices to drop a bit and I'm off to the other side of the world. Just thinking about it makes my body tingle with anticipation. My guess and my hope, is that in two months time, I'll be on a plane to America, the country with no cats (sorry childhood influence)!

Writers Block?

I just read this article about writers block, it said the first step to cure writers block is reading about writers block (I guess I did that). The second step is trying to write about writers block, that's what I'm doing now so I suppose I'm on the right track.
I can't seem to write, I want to write, I try to write but nothing comes out, Writers Block, what an annoying symptom, it's like being brain dead. I seriously feel handicap, it's annoying to feel so disabled, so helpless, I'm criticizing my writing as I write but yet I force myself to keep writing. I don't know if writers block is the right term for this sort of thing, I think they should call it imagination/creativity/self expression block or simply a brain fart, yes it effects writing but it can also effect any other artistic quality I have at the moment.
I don't get it, some days I can simply wake up, have a great idea in my head and just write and write... But then I start getting somewhere, what I wrote starts to form a picture, a plot, a story and then I break, I try to keep writing but all that comes out is crap. I have about six unfinished stories I've started and just gave up on, it's not that I don't want to continue them, it's just that every time I try, I find myself staring at the screen until I just give up.
Basically Writers block sucks!
It's strange too because I think after reading a bit about the problem and now writing about it, I feel strangely better. I think my problem was that I was imagining the wrong audience, they said to try and change the audience you picture yourself writing to so I did and suddenly the writing is flowing more easily. Funny, I was picturing a few critics reading whatever I write with a magnifying glass and to add to that, I was comparing my writing to others peoples writing and expectations; I thing that was a big no no. I think that now that I'm just writing to the average anonymous browser who happens to come along my writing, it's easier to write.
Thank you for listening, I think I may be cured!

The Search Goes On

Ok here's a summary of all that occured since my last post...

The trip there:

I packed my bags and said my final good byes (which Aner interupted with a phonecall), this was it, I was leaving home for the first time and hopefully the last. I'm pretty sure my mom was close to tears but she didn't wanna make a scene, so a kiss at the door and I was on my way. A bag on my back and a smaller one on my front, an all together wheight of 30kg, heavy stuff. It seemed like the world knew I was leaving, 15 minutes after leaving my house I arrived at the buss stop and about 5 minutes later a friend of mine from school whom I hadn't seen in almost a year drove by and stoped to talk for a few minutes. He was gone for barely 5 minutes when another good friend of mine drove by, Dror, he was my best friend from 6th grade till 10th grade and lately I hadn't seen him very often, he's in the army. I sat down in the buss stop after he left and my cellphone rang, it was no other than one of my best friends from 9th-10th grade, I hadn't talked to him in a few years.

Ok I finnished my bizzar reunion and finaly the buss came. Ok now the first sign that this was going to be quite a different buss ride than what I'm used to was the fact that the buss driver asked me to get on the buss, with all my things, through the back entrance. I got in, the buss was stuffed, I payed (I hate paying for busses) and sat down next to some sleeping guy. A few minutes pass and the sleeping guy stirs, eventualy he wakes up and then he askes me something. Now I've learned to be polite and all that crap but this was a test of my patiance, a drunk russian guy who smelled strongly of alcohol and only spoke Russian and a tiny bit of Hebrew was trying to start a conversation with me. It was funny, sad and annoying all at once, he was trying to tell me something but all he was managing to do was draw atention to himself and make himself look absolutely stupid. After a half hour of gruesom hand laguage and sound effects, I finaly managed to understand him, "I want my children to go to the army and fight", that's what he tried to tell me. Ok I got the point, it's important for him that his kids not only go to the army but also go to a fighting unit, a minute after I finally understood him, the person in front of us turns around and tells him something in Russian, then turnes to me and sais, "he was trying to tell you that he wanted his kids to fight in the army", Oh yea thatnks a lot, couldn't you have told me that 45 minutes ago when I was trying desperately to understand the rantings of a drunk Russian man; I didn't tell him that but that's what I was thinking.

The ride goes on and the buss is now totally full, a lot of people were standing but they all seemed capable of standing on their own two feet. Mid way an old lady gets on the buss, I watched her slow progress towards me and the whole time I was thinking, "Please let someone get up to let her sit...", but she kept getting closer and still no one was geting up for her so I did the inevitable, I got up and let her sit in my place. Another 45 minutes to the buss ride and I stood the whole way, well at least I wasn't next to the drunk Russian anymore.

What Happend There:

I got off the buss and called Aner, as usual he was late, I went to Tslil, the store he and Kobi work in, Kobi was there with Miriam, they kept me company for the next few hours while Aner was finishing buisness (why is it Aner's always late?).

Over the course of the next few days the three of us went over a million different appartments and did a million other things that were nessaccery for renting an appartment, it's not an easy proccess, at least not as easy as it seems at first.

Time was passing but still no appartment could be found that suited our needs and was affordable as well, we wern't about to give up but we were getting desparate. Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks and eventualy two weeks had passed, still no appartment, I was both getting home sick (or at least I missed the food at home) and sick of not having a space of my own; I needed a vacation.

My Vacation:

I invited the whole gang (Aner, Kobi, Faduh, Omrry, Daled, Krupnik and Catcher) over to my house for a huge dinner Friday night. Not all of them came (Krup and Catcher didn't come) but Aner brought his girlfriend (Shani) and Omrry brought a friend of his (Sinay) so all in all we were quite a few people. Dinner was three types of chinees food with rice and spaghetie on the side and a ton of other yummy food, then came dessert, two apple pies and brownies; it was a dinner that I'll remember for quite a while.

We gave the food some time to settle in our stoumachs and three hours later we were out. Now there are some things that I can't write here so I'll just put this remark to remind me of that night, "This car is a grasshopper and not a motercycle" (I don't expect anyone to understand that unless they were there that night, 1 car, 9 people, you do the math). Let me just hope that I have more nights like that one. The night was brought to a wellcomed end to to everyone being dead tired, it wasn't a sad ending, on the contrary, it was a perfect ending for a most enjoyable evning. Sleep was good and welcomed, it was the first night in two weeks that I was sleeping in a bed alone and it was even my own bed.

The next day is was only Omrry, Sinay and me, everyone els left. We took our time waking up and at some point Krupnik came over, we decided to go up to Mount Tavor (a mountain near my house with ainchent ruins on its peak and a big old church from midevil days. It could just be me but I find the air up there much more enjoyable, up there I feel strangly alive. Anyway, we explored the mountan top for a few hours and sometime early morning we headed back towards home. On the way I decided to give my friend Aviad a call, I hadn't seen him in ages and it's a shame because I concider him one of my best friends. Aviad was home and bored so we dropped of Krupnik at home so he could get up the next day for the army and unloaded ourselves at Aviad's doorstep... I don't think I've ever been lectured like I was that day, Omrry, Sinay and Aviad spent about 2 hours picking my brain about the appartment in Natanya. At the end of their lecture I had to admit that I hadn't thought it all out as well as I had thought and it suddenly seemed like a stupid idea. The hardest part was admiting defeat, I was so convinced that I was doing the right thing, that it was hard to undo the procces that I had begun.

Omrry and Sinay left that night so I was left with my thoughts. I decided that I would cancel the moving proccess the next day. Sure enough tomorow came and I made the neccassery phoncalls and cancled the move. Aner and Koby took it surprisingly well and then everyone els told me that it was better I stayed home (why couldn't they have said so 2 weeks earlier?).

That about summs up the events of January, more updates comming soon!

Leaving Home

The week started out like any other, I roamed around the house for the first few days but then it got better, Thursday I went to Natanya to my friends house to start actual looking for an apartment.

The Trip There:

Daled (the one I helped throw up at my party) came over to bring back a book, take a few CD's with some things for her new computer and say hi in the process. I tried to catch Aner on the phone all morning to ask when I could come over, I finally woke him up at around 2:00pm and he said I could come at around 3pm. Daled and I left my house at 2:30 and hitchhiked to Afula (I need a drivers license), the guy who picked us up was smoking a joint the whole way and listening to Pink Floyd, it was the Stoners Mobile. We got to Afula just in time for my buss so no long goodbyes, I ran to the buss just in time, I paied my money and sat down. The buss drive went by fairly quick, so quick in fact that I nearly missed by stop. I was reading a book which also happens to be one of the strangest books I've ever read but that's not our subject for today. Anyway, I was so consumed by trying to understand the book that I didn't notice we had arrived at my buss stop till the buss closed the doors and was about to continue driving. After a semi embarrassing escape from the buss I called Aner and found that he hadn't even made a start at leaving his girlfriends house, to start the search with me for an apartment.

What We Did There:

I was at the other side of the country and my host wasn't home so I called out third room mate, Koby, he just got back from school ("hashlamat bagruyot" he just needs to complete a few tests to actually have his highschool diploma, he finished school 3-4 years ago.). I walked the not so short walk over to his house and there we started our search for an apartment. We must have searched 15 different Israeli websites that advertise apartments, we only found about 4 apartments though that seemed in our price range and the size we wanted. Finally at 6pm Aner with his girlfriend got back to Natanya, we met them at a pizza place right next to the place they were dropped off and ate a pizza pie. Then we called the first apartment we planned on going to see. In the add the apartment was said to have 3 bedrooms but when we got there we found that the supposable 3 bedrooms were the kitchen, living room and one bedroom, we left that place in a hurry and started calling the rest of the list to find out if by 3 bedrooms they meant 1, 2 or actually 3. We found out that none of them actually had 3 bedrooms, we weren't about to give up yet, we had only started!

We decided to roam the streets and look for "For Sale/For Rent" signs, after a bit over an hour we had found a few signs and looked at a couple more apartments but nothing really good for us. Aner decided we should take a detour around some building and see if maybe it had any apartments for rent, we walked around it and sure enough it did. We called and after a few minutes they arranged for one of the nabours to open it up for us to take a look at the apartment, not only was in about 30 feet from where they work but it was a great apartment! The electric was shut off so we looked around the apartment with the light from our lighters, it had 3 big bedrooms, a huge living room/patio, a nice and big kitchen, 2 bathrooms and it was in great condition, as an added bonus it also was partly furnished including a washing machine, a refrigerator, 2 stoves and 2 ovens. We loved the apartment but were readying ourselves for a disappointment as soon as we thought about the cost of living in such a place. We called the owners once again to assure them that we were 100% interested and then we asked the price...*deep breath*...*exhale*...$580 a month!!! That was only $30 more expensive that most the other apartments we had looked at and this one was 100 times bigger and better!

The Final Results:

We arranged for a meeting with the owners brother for the next morning, his sister who owns the place lives about 2 hours away so she couldn't meet up in person. Her brother met us 8:15am and took us to have another look at the place in the daylight so we could actually see the apartment and go over some things with him. I'll spare you the details, till this moment I'm still thinking how this is too good to be true. We left the apartment and I stayed around a few more hours after we left the apartment so that Aner and Koby could open up the disc store they work in. We hung around and talked about our near future in our soon to be apartment, we called the owner and arranged a meeting for Saturday night to go over the contract and a few other things concerning the apartment. That means that tonight we're gonna be doing the finishing touches before our move and within the next few days we're going to be in our new apartment!

Wish us luck, we may need it!


I'll be back to update on the apartment situation sometime this week!

How Dumb Is This

World's Dumbest Town Vows To Raise IQ

Tuesday February 24, 2004
The people of Cooley, Australia, have had it with their image as the world's dumbest town. So they've embarked on an ambitious program of study to raise their average IQ by at least 20 points...

For the full article Click Here

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You should take a few moments to read that article, it sounds like a made up story, some kind of comedy or something but it's true!