Half of us ended up going back home, but as for the other half that stayed… well… most of us ended up trying to go to a Tel Aviv disco. We had hopped from one bar/club to another and no one seemed to want to stay put at any of them. After about an hour of hopping around we finally made it to some fancy club that seemed to close shortly after we got there. Even though it was only a brief time, it was fun times. Some of the Israpals ended up sneaking into the hostel and sleeping on the floor of the other guys’s room only to get chased out by the management in the early morning.. I wish I was around to see that.

I met up with my cousin Tom around noon and he took me to a really nice, tiny, Yemen resturaunt where we had some sort of beefy soup with pita and hummous. It was soo very delicious and new to me. Then we strolled down the market and to a coffee shop where we enjoyed our beverages while we talked for a while. From there he took me to Moshav Ein Vered where I met up with the rest of the familiy and had a massive BBQ dinner. It was soo good, but theres only so much I can eat in one sitting. *drool*

The next day I joined Tom and his friends on a hike up Mt. Karmel. It was one of the more challenging of the hikes that I’ve done since I got here. We ate some Melowa (a VERY GOOD yemenite dish) and enjoyed some funky coffee on the peak of the mountain. On our way down we came across a cave. Armed with only cell phones , lighters and a single headlamp we ventured into the darkness that was before us. It was a really eerie feeling crawling our way through a cave when you cant even see your own hand in front of your face. After about 5 minutes in the darkness with only a single candle burning I was able to make out the shape of the cavern. I’ll just say it was bigger than I had thought… pictures to come. After the cave we went wine tasting and got very drunk. Also, the wine diddn’t taste that bad at all. From there we went to his friends where we ate some couscous with other homemade things from morocco (i have no idea what they were but it was damn tasty!).

The following day I went to the mall with Metzada. It was a MADHOSE. The kids had the day off school so EVERYONE was at the mall. I shopped a bit, ate some high quality Burger Kings (its actually good here!) I also bought a syringe full of fountain chocolate which I injected into my face throughout the day…mmmm…. Later that night we went to a Yemen Henna party, some sort of pre wedding ceramony with Henna and more great food, funky clothes and borderline irritating music. In all though, it was really neat and I would surly love to go see more.

Yesterday was laundry day.

And now that brings us to today… I’m getting ready to go to Eilat to meet some more of us Canadians where we will attempt to spend our new years in style on the beach. Hopefully it wont be too cold there and I hope that finding my hotel wont pose any problems. The person at the front desk said that he will hide a key for my room for me to find since they will be closed once I arrive.

Its going to be tough leaving behind my sweet digs that I got here, thanks to my cousin Dor who is in Thailand right now. Eventually I shall return and maybe sleep on his couch.

shalom (goodbye)