A Day in the Life

I have written a lot about travels, but not much in Tel Aviv where I actually live. This is not because it lacks fun or interest for me, but it is just regular for the time being so I don't think of writing of it. I think I better start off by doing a typical day in the life.. Though there is really no truly archetypal day, here is an array of common happenings.
Morning
7:30 wake up
Pack some food for lunch, likely a salad of cucumber, tomato, cheese, olives or something with quinoa and nuts
Descend from 4th floor dark stairwell and emerge on to Herzl Street with squinty eyes in morning brightness
Happy, sometimes dazed, sometimes alert, walk down toward Salame Street.
Walk faster and faster, get increasingly nervous that bus 25 will arrive just before I get to bus stop and I will see it pass just out of reach and the next one won't come for 20 minutes and as a result, be super crowded and I'll not get to sit for half an hour (seldom happens but the thought of it gives me slight anxiety).
Bad scenario doesn't happen and I wait seven minutes for 25 bus.
Crowded, push through the aisle to the back so I will get a seat soon. Annoyed that people do not move to back of bus, mainly because every so often, the bus doesn't stop because it is too full, but it actually is not at all, people just don't squish well. They need to visit Japan.
Sit down after 12 minutes and then read. Get tired and nap. Wake up and set alarm so as not to miss bus stop at univeristy
Alarm rings, look for loose belongings. Don't leave phone on bus.

This did happen once when I was caught off guard and the stop came too soon. Fortunately the next stop is the end of the line and the bus driver takes a break here. I found him sitting at a table drinking coffee waiting for the anonymous phone-loser (so lucky!) It reminded me of the time I left my phone on the bus in Seattle when I was working at a law office on 3nd and Columbia. The opportunistic homeless man called Dad from the wayward phone and demanded a $20 ransom for it's safe return! What a wonderful Dad (working nearby at Union Station) went and met the man to strike the deal. If I remember correctly, Dad tried to bargain but the man wouldn't haggle.

Back to the story at hand--get off bus and walk through hilltop park (favorite part of journey).

The Workday
Say "boker tov" (good morning) to security guard and lament that I have to leave daylight and enter fluorescent-lit building.
Say "hi" to Yaron (40-something jovial Indian-Jewish researcher in the lab)
Turn on computer, set bag down, get hot water and make Arabic coffee with cardamom ground in it and be very content
Eat yogurt with nuts and dried fruits (always excited for this even though it is the same every day. Love the yogurt every time, very sour and creamy… but the fruits change: apricots, golden raisins, cherries, dates, etc., almonds, walnuts, pistachios)

Read email. Respond maybe.
Open word document of article I'm working on. See where I left off and read/edit. Look for sources. Find journal articles online, books. Search books in Amazon.com and hope they have "look inside" so I can read it without going to the library (20 minute walk), or worse, forgetting it altogether if library doesn't have it.

Draw some of the images for the article when my mind needs a break. Listen to music during drawing time (today was mostly Mumford & Sons).

Lunch time. Sit on the picnic table in the yard and eat quinoa salad with nuts, raisins, vegetables which I made last night. Maybe talk to Ezra, the Ethiopian Jew who illegally escaped in the 70's in a death-defying land-journey who doesn't speak much English, or perhaps Hagit, the PhD student who likes to giggle about the cute professor. Every now and then I go with Yaron to the cafeteria to eat there, but I think the food is mediocre and overpriced. I do it for the social aspect.

If tired after lunch, take a nap in the park; if not, chat or read or draw. If rainy (rare), read news on internet.Back to work. Same as before. Stumble upon something that I like and want to think more about. For example this quote:

"Besides, the art of living is neither taught nor encouraged in this country. We look at is as a form of debauch, little aware that its tenets are frugality, cleanliness, and a general respect for creation, not to mention Creation." from Bernard Rudofsky in Architecture without Architects, 1964, referring to our general way of ascribing exceptional insight into problems of living to specialists such as architects and engineers rather than valuing the generations of acquired knowledge by anonymous folks.

Then
Mind wanders.
Cannot focus.
Make tea, maybe black tea with mint and honey.
Look at Facebook.
Get annoyed that I'm wasting time.
Make another tea, maybe Jasmine green this time.
Try again to focus.

Perhaps go to the bank today for a break. Walk through neighborhood to main university campus and have the security guard at the gate look in my bag. Walk past main library, lawn, shady path to Israeli Discount Bank branch where I opened an account. Chat with tellers. Use ATM, forget PIN, try again, remember correctly. Obligation to choose a popsicle from the freezer. Offer me to have one of the special ice cream sandwiches. I do not refuse.

Walk back to geography building, why not go through the park again? Enjoy the warmth of the sun on the walk. Smile cordially at students at picnic tables in front of building and then enter. Back to the desk. Work some more. Pack up around 5:30 and walk to bus terminal past the soccer field where kids are just getting out of practice.

The Ride Home
Wait on curb while bus drivers have coffee break in the shack. One enters #25 bus and beckons me to enter. I swipe my card and choose a seat in the back of the bus which is for a brief moment all my own. Crowds enter 4 stops later at main entrance of university. More crowds enter downtown. Listen to the familiar rhythm of the automated announcer voice telling of the next stop. Read, write blog, sleep, watch the evening stroll on Ibn Gabirol and Allenby streets. Admire the shops, restaurants, architecture. Try to read Hebrew words on signs as they pass by too quickly like a subliminal message in a filmstrip. Look at my Hebrew phrasebook. Practice some phrases in my head. Maybe get off the bus early today and walk through Levinsky Market. Buy some almonds, raisins, dates from one of the dozens selling them. Turn left down Herzl and feel relaxed that I am almost home. Watch for puddles and poop, enter through the old black gate into the dark hallway. Try not to cut my hand on the sharp shredded part of the door. Switch on the corridor light and up the three flights to my apartment.
Evening
Someone is cooking, someone is reading, someone is on their computer, someone is holed up in their room. Greetings and chats to the roommates: Mushek from Poland, Lisa from Germany, Michelle the Israeli Canadian, and Ori the recently Israeli American from Massachusetts. Go directly to my room and change into workout clothes, take jumprope and key and head to playground with the nice rubber surface to do some skipping rope. Turn on hot water heater for before I leave so I can have a hot shower when I come back. Jog the three blocks to the park and do the routine. At 7 pm, the bar next to the park opens. Ofel puts the chairs and tables outside, Hila writes the menu on the blackboard. I smile at them and wave. Do some pushups and some extra minutes of skipping for good measure. See Rafi the neighbor heading over to the bar with his dog Sonny. Say hi and he invites me for a beer.

Go home and shower, come back after 15 minutes and join Rafi for a beer. Eat some of Ofel's homemade pickled cabbage & carrots. Sit there and chat with the folks for a while. Rafi gets a call from his woodsman son in Vancouver, BC. Ofel rolls another hash joint. Idan complains about the music. I ask him about his wedding planning. Hila pours us some shots of figling on the house. Rafi teaches me some Hebrew words to practice. The Sudani kid dishwasher peeks through the serving window and observes us intently but never comes out. Debbie the actress comes in with her dog and the two dogs play. Rafi's dog Sunny hears a noise and runs outside barking and chases a person on a bike. Rafi yells at him. I decide to leave. "Lila tov" (goodnight) to the people. "Why are you going home already?" I just feel like it.
Walk home and if it's early, maybe cook something. If the roommates are in the living room, hang out for a while. They fill the ashtray and drink Goldstar, the national beer. Feel my eyes are too smoky and go in my room and fiddle around on my computer. A neighbor comes over and tells us there are folks on the roof (I hear through my anything-but-soundproof room). I come out and go up to the rooftop. There are the French from Apt 5, the German, Swiss, and Danish from Apt 10, someone's friend in town, a couple roommates. Chat for a while and then feel bored of "when I was drunk" stories. Go down the unlit top flight of stairs to our apartment, gingerly step and try not to trip. Feel fortunate that I took the down blanket from the British girl who moved out (the landlord said I could) and go to bed.