A Weekend of Birthdays (& a b-ball game)

My roommate, Gal's birthday was on Thurs. Dec. 11 & after I brought home leftover pecan pie from Thanksgiving & found out that it was his favorite, decided to make him one for his birthday. He was super appreciative...as was my other roommate, Matan, who was the first to cut into it to give a piece to his friend. Oh, Israelis...
We went to a bar around the corner that night w/ a few of his friends & there's not much to say, but I thought I'd mention it, since there are pictures.
The next day, one of my friends in the program, Shari, had a birthday. She knew about a rooftop party in Florentin (a neighborhood known for their street parties on Independence Day) from a friend of a friend & invited a bunch of us to go. It was lots of fun...cheap beer & lemonadka (get it? ha). There were also these guys making tacos. And they were amazing. Why? Oh, because they're from Austin. At least one was & he and his friends were piloting their potentially future taco stand business. I vowed to personally keep them afloat as long as I was in Israel. Turns out that there's a whole group of them here, permanently living (for now) from Austin. They went to McCallum HS and know a lot of the same people I do from the temple. Oh, and I also met someone else who knows people from camp, even though he's not even from Texas. I'm very proud of myself for still thinking that meetings like this are cool. They happen so often in this country, that some people don't care anymore. Seriously, think of the last time you randomly ran into someone you hadn't seen in a year, or at least several months or of the last time you found out (not through facebook) that you had a mutual friend with someone you were previously unaware of. Remember that "What-a-coincidence-it's-such-a-small-world" feeling you had & how you told the next person you talked to, "Guess who I just ran into?!" Yeah, that happens to me about once a week. This is such a small country/city.
Moving on to Saturday. My friend Mike (also in the program, lived in the living room of my old apt for the first 6 weeks) has been playing basketball with a local Maccabi league. Maccabi is one of the big sports organizations in the country. They have several lower leagues that people who are good, but not good enough to play on a national or international level, can play in. Mike played in college & was really glad to find a good place to play here that wasn't just at the park during pick-up games. We got him to give us his schedule and a bunch of us secretly planned to go to the game. I think he found out about it, but didn't know how many people were coming & that we'd be armed w/ signs! It was a great, close game & they won, even though the coach didn't play Mike as much that day. We really regretted not making a sign that said "Put Cohen in, Coach!" in Hebrew. We thought about it, but apparently it didn't sound right in Hebrew, so...
Monday was my birthday & I started my day at work, like any other Monday, but with an unusual stomachache. I made it through (Luckily, my last class & my private lessons were cancelled.) & by the time I was on the bus home, I had a full on fever. I don't own a thermometer here, but I'm guessing like 100/101 ish. So, my big splurge on my birthday was a 3-hour nap! I didn't feel so much better when I woke up, but ate a little something and got ready for my party anyway. I drank, deciding it would be a really good idea, or a really bad idea. It actually turned out to be not so bad. We were at a neighborhood bar, with my friend, Keith, as the DJ and being around all my friends really helped. My fever broke in the middle of the party, so there are a few pictures of me w/ a really rosy face. I thought the bar had the heat on at first, but nobody else felt it! Since my program friends all had to teach the next day, most of them got there around 9. A few Israeli friends were there then, too. But, by 11, all my American friends had left and it was just me and a bunch of Israelis! Oh, and the flash on my camera broke somehow. Literally, the bulb was in pieces. So, I ran home (less than a 5 min. walk) & grabbed some of the leftover disposable cameras from last December when my camera broke. I haven't finished them all, but will post the pictures as the cameras get developed.
In case you're wondering, my stomach continued to hurt for the next few days and I ended up essentially taking the week off.

Pictures are at: Various December Events