my boyfriend's dad is a cabbie?

Not gonna lie- this update was probably going to be reallllllly boring- beach, daddy arrives, and sister cooks (again)..thankfully, i took a cab home from the central bus station and spiced things up - more on that later.

Soooo on Thursday we finally had the MOST beautiful day since i've been here. temp was in the 70s..maybe even low 80s for a little bit. Now, many of my programmates (stole that term from jaclyn) have been to the beach numerous times since our arrival. but siiiiiiiiiince it really hasnt been beach weather i've been less than thrilled by the idea of sitting in sand in sweats just for the sake of being on the beach in january so i have withheld. BUT on thursday there was only one thing on the brain...BEACH!!!!!!!! after ulpan, i rushed home and was in a bathing suit before emma even got home. we "took the bus" (loose term as we potentially did it wrong but thats ok) and met up with a small group at frischmens beach...technically the beach goes from one end of tel aviv to the other but there are different names...to be confusing/idk. so we sat/tanned and played some amazing 90s pop songs - people kept asking us if we thought it was summer or winter..aka why are you a crazy american who sits on the beach in february...but there were israelis on the beach too so i still felt local. heres my beach...in feb:

ok that was a mean thing to blog about considering i know all of you back home are knee deep in snow and even my friends in italia experienced some flakage this past week. but i do know one connecticut resident that is not buried in snow and that is MY DADDY!!!!!! daddy traub arrived yesterday (friday) just before shabbat (as he planned it..) and we all went to arielle's apartment in jerusalem. arielle had made another amazing meal of salmon and yummy salads and CHALLAH and i ate tooo much. we played a game of trivial pursuit and to the shock of everyone Team ETHAN/DANA beat Team Daddy/Arielle!!!!!!!!!! success!

This morning we went to services at Ethan's school where Ethan gave his d'var torah (the sermon that a rabbi gives about the torah portion that was read that week). Ethan discussed the place of politics in the synagogue and a rabbi's role in discussing politics from the pulpit which was very well received. After services, arielle and ethan hosted 9 members of Ethans class for shabbat lunch- arielle made two quiches and tons of other stuff (CHALLAH) and there was bagels and lox! yum!!!! i even had my almost first legal drink of mimosa's (just practicing!) here's arielle/ethan's shabbat lunch table:

like i said this boring - beach, daddy arrives, arielle cooks. BUT WAIT THERES MORE!! i took a sheiruit (shared taxi) from jerusalem to tel aviv (just mere moments ago) and then i got in a cab from the bus station to the dorms. Once in the cab the taxi driver and i discussed what i was doing in israel in half hebrew half english (just to make clear taxi drivers are veryyy friendly here and its not creepy at all for them to talk to you). he then asked me if i had a boyfriend and when i said no he said well i have a 27 year old son and a 23 year old son. he explained what they did in army/life and then essentially asked which one i wanted. i said 27 was too old for me and then he CALLED HIS SON and explained to him he was with an american girl studying at tel aviv (whos really pretty) and then we spoke on the phone about me/studies/army. then my mom called and kinda ruined the whole set up (just kidding mom I KNOW I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME...bad timing). but then when i hung out with mom he said that his son wanted (or he wanted) my number to give to his son (so we could get married)..and guess what, i gave it to him! i knooooooooo you are all shrieking and calling my mom to smuggle me out of the country now that a cabbie has my number but fear not, ONLY IN ISRAEL. the father was SOOO pleased with himself although clearly upset that i hadnt gone for the 27 year old..i guess they are sick of him. i'll let you all know where this promising arrange marriage leads.

xoxoxo